Full text: International cooperation and technology transfer

121 
Figure 2. The Graphie Telescope with a drawing table 
There is some documentation about other "camere 
lucide", designed and realized by physiques and opticians 
in Europe. In particular, in Italy, between 1817 and 1825, 
Giovanni Battista Amici, a very famous optician of 
Modena (Italy), realized 273 "camere lucide". One of 
them, was better than Wollaston's one and had a larger 
field of view and a good resolution (Figure 3). 
Figure 3. Some optical scheme of the camera lucida 
Other optical instruments were realized in Milan by Luigi 
Consonni and Giuseppe Mozzoni, and in Venice by 
Giuseppe Selva. 
In the XIX century, Giovanni Battista Amici collaborated 
with Francesco Carlini, the astronomer and director of the 
Brera Observatory for a long period who took part in many 
important geodetic and surveying experiences. They 
developed the model of a "camera lucida" applied to a 
telescope (Figure 4) and used it to draw some panoramas 
in North Italy. 
Another example is the Teleiconograph of Revoil (French, 
1869), which was nothing more than a Wollaston's 
"camera lucida" applied to a terrestrial telescope and 
mounted on a stand in the style of a theodolite. 
Figure 4. Amici's camera lucida realized for Carlini 
3. THE PANORAMAS 
Francesco Carlini was a very poliedrich man and gave a 
big contribute at the geodesy and cartography. He tested 
the technique of "camera lucida" to survey hilly 
landscapes. In 1817, Carlini had the opportunity to study 
Keller's panorama of the mountains surrounding the 
Duomo of Milan; this panorama was obtained only by 
means of a telescope. Carlini validated the accuracy of 
this drawing, comparing the position in the panorama of 
some points with the position obtained from azimuth and 
zenith measurements. He found a standard deviation of 
one degree between the two sets of measurements, 
confirming that Keller had drawn his panorama, using 
angles approximately measured on a Topographic Map. 
Being an astronomer, Carlini studied the real possibility to 
realize panoramas and some years later did experiments 
with the telescopic "camera lucida", thanks to the 
progress in this field. In one of his documents, Carlini 
showed the possibility of obtaining more perfect 
panoramas with the system of Daguerre, using its 
capability to acquire objects of dim light, like mountains, 
observed from a long distance. 
Therefore the "camera lucida" can be considered the 
precursor of the photographic system. 
For sure, during the geodetic campaigns in 1821 -1822, 
Carlini drew the panorama of Mont. Rosa from the 
Observatory of Turin (Italy), using Amici’s "camera lucida" 
applied to a small telescope. A copy of this panorama 
(Figure 5) was found in the Archive of Brera; it was 
collected in "Der Mont. - Rosa Eine topographische and 
naturhistorische Skizze" book, edited in 1824 by Ludwig 
Freihern von Welde in Vienna.
	        
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