Scioptric Ball

The scioptric ball is a kind of wooden ball or sphere with two holes in its centre, in which one or two lenses are placed. This ball is mounted on a wooden frame, which allows it to rotate in all directions. This gadget could be used in several ways. It could be used as the lens of a camera obscura to project images from the outside onto the walls of a darkened room, to follow the track of a solar eclipse, or to draw panoramic views. Or it could simply be used to direct beams of light, usually the sun's rays, inside a room during optical demonstrations. We could say that it was a precursor to today's wide-angle lenses.