Preface
I
have been fascinated with the idea of cameras obscura for many years.
The first one I saw was a dark room with black curtains with a three
inch hole cut in them when I was in college. I spent hours in that
room watching the people going about their daily lives upside down,
totally unaware they were being watched from a pitch black window. A
few months ago, I was bemoaning that there was no true place for
photography as an A&S entry in the Society for Creative
Anachronism, when one of my friends reminded of the camera obscura
and how much joy that simple device had given me years ago. It was
in that moment I knew I had to build one of my own.
History
The
earliest and simplest forms of the camera obscura can be found in
ancient China and Greece. The philosopher Mozi, around 470 BC, is
the first individual in recorded history to talk about the most
primitive form of camera obscura (a hole in a box or room) as a tool
for observing the sun. Both Aristotle and Euclid described the
camera obscura as a means of observing the sun and solar eclipses.
Euclid's Optics
became
the foundation for much of the Western research into optical
phenomenon.1
It
is quite probable that the camera obscura was being utilized as an
astronomical device during the early Middle Ages by the highly
educated. All one would need is access to Euclid's Optics
and
a little curiosity to create a simple camera obscura for
experimentation. In the Western world during the 11th
century, Abu
Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) from Cairo is the
first person to be credited with using a camera obscura as an image
projection device and to recommend its uses as a drafting aid. His
research on the use of mirrors, lenses, and the eye in Book
of Optics
is considered the foundation of Western optical science. He also is
the author of the modern scientific method.2
In China, both Duan Cheng Shi (863) and Shen Kuo (1086) describe
inverted images being projected with a camera obscura.3
During
the Renaissance, mirrors and lens start being used to enhance the
image produced by camera obscura. It is also during this time that
we see portable models being developed as tools for aiding artists in
drawing from real life.4
Leonardo da Vinci was fascinated by both the camera obscura and the
eye. It is speculated that he was the first person to add a lens to
a camera obscura to obtain sharper images, but it was mathematician
Girolamo Cardano who first wrote about doing so in 1550. However, it
was Giambattista della Porta who made the use of a lens type camera
obscura popular with his writings in Natural
Magick.5
Porta
was famous for his outrageous parties where he would entertain his
guests with live projections onto sheets in a dark room using his
camera obscura.6
7
The actual term camera obscura was coined in 1604 by Johannes Kepler.
He documented using a portable camera obscura in 1600, though the
exact model of camera obscura he used at that time is unknown, it was
known to be something far more complicated than he had previously
used.8
9
Design
While
sketches, drawings, and detailed descriptions of larger room type
cameras obscura are available from the 16th
century, aside from mention of their existence and usage, very little
actual documentation of what a portable camera obscura looks like
still exists from that century. They are described as being in
either tents or boxes, but what actual mechanics was used simply is
not available. The earliest actual description of how one was
designed is from 1620 when Lord Woten was visiting Johannes Kepler to
give him one of Francis Bacon's books. He wrote a letter to Bacon
describing the device as such: “He
hath a little black tent which he can suddenly set up where he will
in a field, and it is convertible (like Wind-mill) to all quarters at
pleasure capable of not much more than one man, as I conceive, and
perhaps at no great ease; exactly close and dark, save at one hole,
about an inch and a half in Diameter, to which he applies a long
perspective-trunke, with the convex glass fitted to the said hole,
and the concave taken out at the other end, which extendeth to about
the middle of this erected Tent, through which the visible radiations
all the objects without are intromitted, falling upon a paper, which
is accommodated to receive them; and so he traceth them with his pen
in their natural appearance, turning his little Tent round by
degrees, till he hath designed the whole aspect of the field: this I
have described to your Lordship, because I think there might be good
use made of it for Chorography [the making of maps and topographical
views]: For otherwise, to make landskips by it were illiberal, though
surely no Painter can do them so precisely. (Reliquiae Wottoniae,
London 1651, pp. 413-414.)” 10
While
this is about 20 years out of period, it is the first detailed
description of a portable camera obscura. More importantly, Kepler
writes about using a portable camera obscura as early as 1600 to view
an eclipse.
I
propose that some form of what was described in 1620 could have been
built before then with knowledge available at the time. The
information on the use of lenses to sharpen the cameras image and the
use of mirrors to reflect and flip an image was readily available as
early as 1558 with the publication of Natural
Magick
11
and more concisely discussed by Giovanni Battista Benedetti in 1585.12
I have built my camera using many of the principles of that 1620
description.
Materials
While
there is little description of the actual materials used to build a
tent camera obscura, the physical structure was likely built from
wood and black dyed canvas. Though the type of wood in period was
likely pine or some other type of light wood, I was on an extreme
budget. I built my entire camera for under $40. With the exception
of the tent legs, I built the entire camera out of found (free) wood.
The legs would have been found wood as well, however the 1x1 found
wood poles I had were insufficient to hold up the main camera body in
a robust manner. I purchased a 2”x6”x14' board to replace those
poles. These poles secured into the main camera using half inch
metal posts which started out as ½” thick steel metal bolts. In
period, a wood glue made from cheese and lime would have been used.
I opted to use modern wood glue instead. Modern wood glue at its
base is almost the same thing as period wood glues, however it
contains a few extra ingredients which speed up drying and help
strengthen the bond. Additionally, I also used wood screws to help
secure load bearing areas. For many years I believed the common
misconception that wood screws were not period. However, while
researching nails for this project, I discovered documentation of the
use of wood screws in the construction of a bellows from 1556.13
While the tube was likely made using brass in period, a brass tube
was way out of my budget, so I built mine using thin wood, wood glue,
water and a mold. My lens and mirror are modern. I currently lack
the skill set to make my own mirror and lenses. Also, the lead that
backed many period mirrors is toxic. I also used modern black paint
instead of a period recipe. Because some of my found wood was
already painted, period paint would have been insufficient to cover
its modern off white analog.
Construction
As
I describe the construction process, please keep in mind this is only
the third woodworking project I have done in my life. The prior two
were during college were significantly less complex than this
project. As I stated before, the majority of my materials I already
had or I scrounged from a friend's wood pile or from the scrap box at
the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub where I did most of the
building. I spent about a week scrounging free wood, and once I had
a decent supply, I designed my camera three separate ways in the 3d
software Houdini. This helped me plan out what I was going to build
before I got started. In the Middle Ages, this would have been done
with pen, paper, and drafting tools; however, since I have not done
old school drafting since 2002, I opted for the tool I know best.
My
first step was to cut four 12”x12” squares from ¾” plywood. I
did this using both a table saw and a chop saw. I then took a band
saw and cut two 9” circles from two of the 12”x12” squares.
Then I cut out eight 1.5”x3”x3” blocks using both chop and band
saws. I also cut two 10”x12”, one 12”x12”, and one 12”x14”
section out of ¼” thick wood composite board as well as nine 12”
long pieces of 1”x2” cedar using the chop saw. With all my major
pieces cut, I called it a day.
The
next step was to create the tube and tent leg blocks. I created my
wooden lens tube by soaking a 1/16” thick sheet of wood in a
mixture of one part wood glue to three parts water for a half hour.
I then wrapped a three inch pipe with foil. Once the pipe was
wrapped, I rolled the soft wood around the pipe, adding wood glue
between the wood after the first full wrap of the wood, and taped the
whole thing together tight. After the tube was securely wrapped, I
glued the eight 1.5”x3”x3” blocks into four 3”x3” cubes and
let it all dry for a day.
Once
the glue was dry, I removed the 6” long tube from its mold and
created an end cap cut from ¼” scrap board using a drill and skill
saw. I had to do this twice because the first one came out too
small. I also used the drill and skill saw to cut a hole big enough
for the tube to fit though in the two 12”x12” and two 9”
diameter boards. The final act for the main body of the camera was
to cut 30 degrees off the bottom of the four 3”x3” cube.
After
all the cuts were completed, it was time to assemble the camera. The
camera is design to come apart into two separate sections. I
assembled the bottom section by attaching the four angled cut 3”x3”
blocks to the bottom corners of the 12”x12” board using wood glue
and screws. I then glued the two 9” diameter boards together and
let them dry for a few hours. Once they were fairly secure, I
attached them to the top of the bottom 12”x12” board with wood
glue and screws. Finally, I attached the top 12”x12” board to
the top of the top 9” diameter board using wood glue and screws.
Once the bottom housing was built, I placed the lens tube through the
center hole and attached it to the housing using wood glue and (where
needed) a conglomerate of wood glue and sawdust. After the bottom
section of the camera obscura was completed, I painted both the
bottom section and the ¼” thick box walls black and let everything
dry overnight.
The
next day, I assembled the top section of the camera obscura by
attaching three 1”x2” cedar boards each to the 10”x12” and
12”x12” to create the tops and sides of the upper section using
wood glue and screws. The top and side section support boards were
then attached to each other also using wood screws. Finally, I
attached the 12”x14” back rear support boards of the front and
top. This completed the top section which rests on top of the bottom
section using an overlap. When assembled The top and bottom sections
are secured using simple hook and eye latches. This allows for
different lenses to be interchanged within the lens tube housing.
My
first set of tent legs used 78” long 1”x1” poles with 3/8”
wide bolts screwed several inches into the end and secured with wood
glue. I has 1” deep hole drilled into the base of the camera
obscura to go in. However, this proved to be insufficiently robust,
so I purchased a long 2”x6” board and cut into four
1.75”x2.75”x78” boards using both table and chop saws. I then
converted four 5”x½” diameter bolts into chamfered headless
bolts using a metal chop saw and a chamfer grinder. These were
screwed into the tent poles and secured with wood glue. These proved
to be sufficient to hold up the weight of the camera body.
The
final part of the camera to make was the skirt. This was created by
sewing five 12” and 58” wide by 80” high trapezoids side by
side, with loops to secure to the camera using a rope. Tents from
the time period were traditionally sewn together using a sail stitch;
however, I opted for a French seam instead to help with light
tightness at the joint. The skirt was machine sewn due to time
constraints.
1 Cucchiaro, Roberta History of Pinhole Photography - Days of Camera Obscura -https://robertacucchiaro.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/abelardo-morells-camera-obscura-series/
2 Biello, David . The Forgotten History of Muslim Scientists. Scientific American. March 2, 2011. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/forgotten-history-muslim-scientists/
3 Takeda, Tatsuoki. History of Pinhole Photography - Days of Camera Obscura. http://bonryu.com/atelier_bonryu_e/PH_Salon_1.3.html
4Wencze, Norma. “The Optical Camera Obscura II Images and Texts.” Inside the Camera Obscura – Optics and Art under the Spell of the Projected Image. Wolfgang Lefèvre (ed.) 2007 Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Page 14
5 Tavira, Torre. “Short Story about the Camera Obscura.” http://www.torretavira.com/en/pdf/cameras_obscuras.pdf
7 Horstmanshoff, Manfred. King, Helen. Zittel, Claus. Blood, Sweat and Tears - The Changing Concepts of Physiology from Antiquity into Early Modern Europe. Leiden, Netherlands. IDN Publishing. 2012. Pages 569-570
8Piccolino, Marco. Wade, Nicholas J. Galileo's Visions: Piercing the Spheres of the Heavens by Eye and Mind. Oxford. Oxford University Press. 2014. Page 262
9 Lienhard, John H. “No. 124: CAMERA OBSCURA.” http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi124.htm
10 Wencze, Norma. “The Optical Camera Obscura II Images and Texts.” Inside the Camera Obscura – Optics and Art under the Spell of the Projected Image. Wolfgang Lefèvre (ed.) 2007 Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Page 22
11 Wencze, Norma. “The Optical Camera Obscura II Images and Texts.” Inside the Camera Obscura – Optics and Art under the Spell of the Projected Image. Wolfgang Lefèvre (ed.) 2007 Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Page 15
12Steadman, Philip. Vermeer's Camera: Uncovering the Truth Behind the Masterpieces. Oxford University Press. 2001
Bibliography
Cucchiaro, Roberta. “History of Pinhole Photography - Days of Camera Obscura.” https://robertacucchiaro.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/abelardo-morells-camera-obscura-series/
Biello,
David. “The Forgotten History of Muslim Scientists. Scientific
American. March 2, 2011.”
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/forgotten-history-muslim-scientists/
Takeda,
Tatsuoki.
“History of Pinhole
Photography - Days of Camera Obscura.”
http://bonryu.com/atelier_bonryu_e/PH_Salon_1.3.html
Wencze, Norma.
“The Optical Camera Obscura II Images and Texts.” Inside
the Camera Obscura – Optics and Art under the Spell of the
Projected Image. Wolfgang Lefèvre (ed.) 2007 Max
Planck Institute for the History of Science
Porta,
Giambattista della. Magia
Naturalis. 1558
Horstmanshoff,
Manfred. King, Helen. Zittel, Claus. Blood,
Sweat and Tears - The Changing Concepts of Physiology from Antiquity
into Early Modern Europe. Leiden,
Netherlands. IDN Publishing. 2012
Steadman,
Philip. Vermeer's
Camera: Uncovering the Truth Behind the Masterpieces. Oxford.
Oxford
University Press. 2001
Piccolino,
Marco. Wade,
Nicholas
J. Galileo's
Visions: Piercing the Spheres of the Heavens by Eye and Mind.
Oxford.
Oxford
University Press. 2014
Lienhard,
John H. “No. 124: CAMERA OBSCURA.”
http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi124.htm
Agricola,
Georgius.
De
Re Metallica.
1556
Visual Documentation
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| 3d Mockup |
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Late night tent sewing math. #tent #sewing #cameraobscura #sca #trigonometry |
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Measure thrice, cut once. Working on the camera obscura. #sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura |
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Cutting up boards to build my camera obscura... in a kilt. Yeah, I'm that guy. #sca #scalife #cameraobscura #511tactical #kilt |
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Cutting round pieces of camera obscura with circular saw. #sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura |
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Most of the cuts for the business end of the camera obscura are done. #sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura |
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The tube for the camera obscura will be made from this. #sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura #arinnovationhub |
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The wood is soaked in a 3:1 ratio of water to modern cheese glue. #sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura |
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Wood is left wrapped around the mold to dry over night. #sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura |
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3x3x1.5 blocks glued and clamped to dry over night. #sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura |
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Completed lens tube with end cap and and intended lens for camera obscura.#sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura |
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Making holes for the camera obscura. #sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura |
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30 degree housing for tent legs attached to the bottom of the business end of the camera obscura. #sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura |
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Now that I have documentation of wood screws going back to 1554, using both wood glue and screws. #sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura |
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The business end of the camera obscura is coming together. #sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura |
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Oh no, Mr Bill. The hole is too big!#sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura |
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Mix sawdust and wood glue to make an aggregate. #sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura |
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Fill extra space in hole with sawdust/glue aggregate. Problem solved.#sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura |
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Don't forget to fix the bottom hole with the homemade wood goo. #sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura |
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Bottom section of the business end of the camera obscura is done. #sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura #arinnovationhub #millertime |
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Tent poles cut to length for camera obscura. #sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura #arinnovationhub |
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Top housing is complete for the camera obscura. #sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura #arinnovationhub |
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Cutting bolts for the camera obscura. A chop saw Fir metal... seriously epic. #sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura #arinnovationhub |
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Newly cut thicker tent poles for camera obscura. #sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura #arinnovationhub |
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Burrs removed and slight rough chamfer added to the end of metal inserts for tent poles. #sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura #arinnovationhub |
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The camera obscura lives! #sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura #arinnovationhub |
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Camera obscura fully assembled.#sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura #arinnovationhub |
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The camera obscura works... the projected image just did not photograph well with the phone. #sca #scalife #woodworking #cameraobscura #arinnovationhub |
