A perspective machine is an
optical instrument
An optical instrument (or "optic" for short) is a device that processes light waves (or photons), either to enhance an image for viewing or to analyze and determine their characteristic properties. Common examples include periscopes, microscopes, ...
designed to help artists create
perspective drawings. The earliest machines were built centuries ago when the theory of perspective was being worked out, and modern versions are still in use.
Timeline
* 1510:
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
's ''Draftsman drawing an armillary sphere'' shows an early perspective machine in use.
* 1525:
Albrecht Dürer, in his illustration ''Man drawing a lute'', shows an artist using a perspective machine to create a drawing. The machine consists of a wooden frame with a taut string passing through it to represent the viewer's line of sight. Dürer built his second model of such a machine in the same year.
* c.1765: Scottish engineer
James Watt designs a machine based on an
easel
An easel is an upright support used for displaying and/or fixing something resting upon it, at an angle of about 20° to the vertical. In particular, easels are traditionally used by painters to support a painting while they work on it, normally ...
, with a
pantograph
A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a second pen. If a line dr ...
mechanism allowing the artist to trace an object using a sight arm and transfer the movement of the sight to a pen drawing on paper. Watt stated that his machine was based on an invention by a Mr Hurst, who lived in India.
* 1763: Philosopher
Thomas Reid
Thomas Reid (; 7 May ( O.S. 26 April) 1710 – 7 October 1796) was a religiously trained Scottish philosopher. He was the founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense and played an integral role in the Scottish Enlightenment. In 1783 he wa ...
uses a machine to investigate his theory of perception.
* 1825: English inventor
Francis Ronalds
Sir Francis Ronalds FRS (21 February 17888 August 1873) was an English scientist and inventor, and arguably the first electrical engineer. He was knighted for creating the first working electric telegraph over a substantial distance. In 1816 ...
patents two perspective tracing machines. One generated an accurate drawing of an object or scene in nature and the other created a perspective view of an object from drawings of the plan and elevations. Ronalds manufactured the machines and sold several hundreds of them.
References
{{reflist
External links
DrawingMachines.org- pictorial archive of mechanical drawing aids
Optical instruments