Observation by Alex Pratt: Turner and Lee three-colour projector

Uploaded by

Alex Pratt

Observer

Alex Pratt

Observed

2017 May 03 - 10:00

Uploaded

2017 Jun 26 - 22:54

Objects

Historical

Equipment

Canon EOS 500D
24mm f/2.8

Location

Science and Media Museum, Bradford

Target name

Turner and Lee three-colour projector

Title

Turner and Lee three-colour projector

About this image

Three-colour composites are not the exclusive preserve of 21st century astrophotographers.

As a practical application of James Clerk Maxwell's work on R, G, B primary colours, in 1899 Edward Turner (financed by F Marshall Lee) constructed a cine camera that recorded a sequence of frames onto monochrome film taken through red, green and blue filters. After the film had been developed it was loaded into the accompanying projector which used an ingenious mechanical system to project each triplet of frames through the corresponding red, green and blue filters, resulting in a 'true colour' cine film being shown on the screen at a rate of 16 fps.

The three-colour projector can be seen at the National Science and Media Museum, Bradford

Files associated with this observation

Lee and Turner three colour projector-25PC.jpg (793.7 kB)

Like this image

Jeremy Shears, David Basey, Nick Hewitt, Mr Michael Alan Frost, Dawson, Peter Carson, Carolyn Kennett

Copyright of all images and other observations submitted to the BAA remains with the owner of the work. Reproduction of work by third parties is expressly forbidden without the consent of the copyright holder. By submitting images to this online gallery, you grant the BAA permission to reproduce them in any of our publications.

Registered charity no. 210769
Registered company no. 117572

For more information including contact details, click here.

Our Terms of Use are here.

Our Privacy Policy is here.