magic lantern

a device having an enclosed lamp and a lenslike opening, formerly used for projecting and magnifying images mounted on slides or films.

Origin of magic lantern

First recorded in 1690–1700

Then at last the scene sprang out as on the screen of a magic-lantern.

Stingaree |E. W. (Ernest William) Hornung
"Living pictures" are the most recent improvement in magic-lantern entertainments.

How it Works |Archibald Williams
All over the kingdom, he and his magic-lantern, year after year, goes Mr. Wood.

Experiments on Animals |Stephen Paget
Name them not: new quick-changing Phantasms, which shift like magic-lantern figures; more spectral than ever!

The French Revolution |Thomas Carlyle

The man and the philosopher are but the clumsy machinery of the magic-lantern, the more kept out of view the better.

Emily Bront |A. Mary F. (Agnes Mary Frances) Robinson

magic lantern

an early type of slide projector Sometimes shortened to: lantern