Animated Magic Lantern Slide: Turn Crank, Work Lever: Snoring Man Swallows Mice For Sale

Wood-Mount Magic Lantern Glass “Rackwork” and “Lever” Slide, 19th CenturyItem description is keyed to the numbered images above.The word WATERMARK does not appear on the actual slide or slides.
Images 1, 2, & 3:The slide measures .75” x 4.5” x 7” (8.75” including crank). The wood and the glass are without cracks. The crank turns very smoothly, the rotating glass turns freely, and the levered pane of glass rises and lowers exactly the way it should.Rackwork magic lantern slides were one of the more ingenious ways the nineteenth-century came up with to project a moving image before the invention of motion pictures. The slides were comprised of two circular panes of glass, one stationary, one free-moving with gear teeth along the circumference that engaged with a pinion turned by a crank in the slide’s wooden frame.Rackwork slides were frequently chromotropes - AKA artificial fireworks - but any image inviting repetitive circular motion - bees swarming around a hive, planets circling a sun, a windmill’s turning vanes, or a succession of suicidal mice diving into a sleeping man’s mouth - might appear as a subject.In addition to being a rackwork slide, this is also a lever slide - an additional pane of glass on a hinge lowers and raises the sleeping gentleman’s jaw.Images 4 - 12:This is, arguably, the most infamous slide of the magic-lantern era. Known as the “Ratcatcher,” no high-class entertainment would be complete without it. A sleeping man is oblivious to the never-ending stream of mice popping into his mouth as he snores. During the 27 years when I performed Christmas magic lantern shows at the museum where I worked, a version of this slide ended every show. It had to be last - the kids in the audience got too worked up over it. It was a tough act to follow. For those of you who are curious, here’s the patter that went with it -“Ah, here he is again! My Uncle Nicodemus! My Uncle Nicodemus has a big problem! Uncle Nicodemus sleeps very soundly, and he snores very loudly. He snores so loudly, the sound attracts curious little mice, who live in the walls of his house. There’s one now, near the bottom of the bed! The little mouse climbs up the comforter - he’s trying to find out what the source of the racket is. He gets close; he hesitates; he backs up, but my uncle inhales, the mouse loses his grip, and - he goes right in! Eww! That was revolting! That was disgusting! I’m sure we all want to see it again. Another mouse comes along, he climbs up the bedding, he says, “Where’s my friend? He was just here! Where did he go-o-o-o-o-o-” Oh! Another one down the hatch! Oh, do swallow the tail! I hate it when you don’t swallow the tail! Thip! There! Much better! Uncle Nicodemus is never hungry for breakfast in the morning! We’ve never had the heart to tell him why!”Yup.This is one of 25 magic-lantern slide sales ending within 25 minutes of each other. We combine shipping on multiple lots.