Cosmo-Panorama Genus (ca. - )

A Cosmo-Panorama was device in which an image, in cylindrical curvilinear projection, was exhibited on a curved surface and viewed through one or more convex lenses meant to enhance the spatial effect. It is an example of an “optical machine ” and is included in the Optical Machine Taxonomy as one of five genuses of the cosmorama family.

 

It is an inter-media hybrid between a panorama and a cosmorama. Neil Arnott, in 1831, discusses the idea of viewing large-scale panoramas through a biconvex lens: with “the effect of converting the divergence of the rays of light into the parallelism which belongs to the supposed remoteness of the objects.” He made himself a set of spectacle for this purpose which he felt enhanced the panorama experience. However, since the full-sized panoramas of the 19^th century placed the spectator some 7 metres from the image, their eyes would already have been close to parallel. He feels the lens would allow for miniaturization while preserving the distance effect: “A common panorama occupying a circular wall of 150 feet circumference and twenty feet high, might be reduced, still retaining the same truth of proportions, to appear on a sheet of paper five feet long and eight inches high.”

 

This was probably Carl Geog Enslen’s idea. His artistic interest seems to have been in the wide-angle view. He drafted them on paper in sections, probably using a camera obscura or, more likely, a perspective frame. The use of these devices and paper limits the possible scale. His were ca. 3 meters long, too small to make a 360° panorama that people could stand within, but large enough for a partial circle (180° or less). The close proximity of viewers to the image surface called for a lens to make it appear more distant. I faced the same problem, and followed the same logic with drawings from my own panoramic camera obscura.

List of Species

Each row in the following table represents a different species:

 

Species Name:
	Example Name

Text relevant to first species

 

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