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Aztec Camera
Camera using only technology available to the Aztecs | |
As you can probably imagine, this has been bubbling
under in my mind and possibly yours too since 1982.
Well, now it finally sees the light of day.
The device has a parabolic mirror carved out of a block
of obsidian. This focuses the light from the scene
before it onto a second flat obsidian
mirror at some
distance from the first one, at an angle of forty-five
degrees. This reflects the image into a darkened stone
chamber onto a flat wall which is periodically covered
in amatl - Mesoamerican paper made from fig bark used
for codices. The image is then inked in by someone
sitting in the darkness using a combination of Maya blue
(which was used by Aztecs), nocheztli (cochineal),
xochipalli (yellow pigment) and nacazcolotl (black ink).
The entire assemblage consists of a paved flat surface
west of the rest of the apparatus while avoiding any
shadows cast, the parabolic mirror facing the scene,
the smaller mirror on a pedestal at the focal point of
the larger mirror and a darkened camera in which the
artist sits. In order to take a picture, the painter goes
into the chamber shortly before dawn with the
necessary pigments and places a sheet of amate in the
requisite position on the back wall. This allows the
eyes to adapt to the dark. Shortly after sunrise, the
object to be depicted is placed at the correct distance
from the parabolic mirror, leading to an image forming
on the amate. The occupant of the camera then fills in
the image, leaving it to dry and the result is something
vaguely resembling a photo.
For my next trick I shall describe the merits and
techniques required for building and living in a Prefab
Sprout.
[link]
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Arguably an easier idea to write than Crispy Ambulance |
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Presuming they use a "Knife" to make the mirrors? |
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We could make one in the UK, at Aztec West. |
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How reflective is obsidian? I mean, it's basically black glass,
but it's not silvered. |
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Also, it's good that the Western world managed to find a
language to which to sell all those surplus Zs and Xs. |
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The Aztecs could work gold with considerable skill, so there would be nothing to prevent them coating a hemispherical or paraboloid mirror with a very thin layer of gold. Since this idea is for a camera obscura, there's no articular requirement to render colour accurately as the artist can carry out any necessary compensation. |
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A pinhole would be simpler, but wouldn't give such a bright image. |
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Various "Crystal Skulls" are WKTE. If mesoamerican cultures could work rock crystal (quartz) to produce such complex artefacts, making a convex lens should be a relatively simple task. |
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Or maybe the crystal skulls have some special refractive qualities so that when placed on a particular spot, they focus incident light - or an image - in a specific way ... <cue Harrison Ford, stage left> |
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Will you also be bringing forward a design proposal for a dirigible airship constructed from a dense, malleable Group XIV metal ? |
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Oddly enough, yes! But I'm still working on my prefab
sprout for now. |
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Your amendments make more technical sense than
mine but I'm not sure they're more aztechnical. |
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Presumably once complete, the "photograph" is mounted in a
frame made of small rods - or as the Aztecs called it, a
"Roddy Frame" |
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If the subject of the photo needed better lighting
perhaps you could design an Incan-descendant
flashbulb? |
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That sounds a bit too Toltechnical ... |
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You could put a big flat mirror on top of one of their temples to reflect sunlight, but you might not want to get involved in a pyramid scheme ... |
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Oh Mayan other pun. Atlatl do nicely. If they really could have taken photos would they have writually sacrificed them? Makes me shutter to think of it. |
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I'll get my Quetzalcoatl... |
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Oh yeah, and a (+) for //Incan-descendant flashbulb//. noice |
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