Disc magic lantern

This rare device was designed and patented by Edouard Virgile Lapierre as a film toy for projecting cartoons. It used discs 24 cm in diameter, which were placed inside a wooden box located on the front of the lantern, which contained an intermittent rotation system of the disk. Each disc had on its perimeter images drawn from the sequence of a movement. The disc was rotated with a crank, and the lantern on the back illuminated the projected image. The Cinématographe E.V.L. could also be used as a simple magic lantern by removing the wooden box containing the discs with the images. Edouard Virgile Lapierre was the son of August Lapierre, founder of a major French magic lantern manufacturing company in 1848, and which he continued to run.