Depth Perception and the History of Three-Dimensional Art: Who Produced the First Stereoscopic Images?

The history of the expression of three-dimensional structure in art can be traced from the use of occlusion in Palaeolithic cave paintings, through the use of shadow in classical art, to the development of perspective during the Renaissance. However, the history of the use of stereoscopic techniques is controversial. Although the first undisputed stereoscopic images were presented by Wheatstone in 1838, it has been claimed that two sketches by Jacopo Chimenti da Empoli (c. 1600) can be to be fused to yield an impression of stereoscopic depth, while others suggest that Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is the world’s first stereogram. Here, we report the first quantitative study of perceived depth in these works, in addition to more recent works by Salvador Dalí. To control for the contribution of monocular depth cues, ratings of the magnitude and coherence of depth were recorded for both stereoscopic and pseudoscopic presentations, with a genuine contribution of stereoscopic cues revealed by a difference between these scores. Although effects were clear for Wheatstone and Dalí’s images, no such effects could be found for works produced earlier. As such, we have no evidence to reject the conventional view that the first producer of stereoscopic imagery was Sir Charles Wheatstone.

Dust Plate, Retina, Photograph: Imaging on Experimental Surfaces in Early Nineteenth-Century Physics

ArgumentThis article explores the entangled histories of three imaging techniques in early nineteenth-century British physical science, techniques in which a dynamic event (such as a sound vibration or an electric spark) was made to leave behind a fixed trace on a sensitive surface. Three categories of “sensitive surface” are examined in turn: first, a metal plate covered in fine dust; second, the retina of the human eye; and finally, a surface covered with a light-sensitive chemical emulsion (a photographic plate). For physicists Michael Faraday and Charles Wheatstone, and photographic pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot, transient phenomena could be studied through careful observation and manipulation of the patterns wrought on these different surfaces, and through an understanding of how the imaging process unfolded through time. This exposes the often-ignored materiality and temporality of epistemic practices around nineteenth-century scientific images said to be “drawn by nature.”

Hearing the Field

The entwined stories of Charles Wheatstone and Michael Faraday interwove sound and electromagnetism, as had Hans Christian Ørsted’s original discoveries in that field. Though Faraday lacked mathematical education, his feeling for music complemented his visual and experimental turn of mind. Wheatstone also lacked scientific education but came from a family of instrument builders and invented a number of musical devices, including the concertina. Wheatstone extended Ernst Chladni’s work to investigate dynamic, transient vibrations of bodies, especially the transmission of sound along rods. In his lectures at the Royal Institution, Faraday demonstrated Wheatstone’s ongoing work, including some experiments involving Javanese instruments and guimbardes (“Jew’s harp”). This chapter discusses how their unusual collaboration led Wheatstone to discover telegraphy and Faraday to the intensive investigations of sound immediately preceding and preparing his discovery of electromagnetic induction, as indicated by his notebooks and letters. Throughout the book where various sound examples are referenced, please see http://mitpress.mit.edu/musicandmodernscience (please note that the sound examples should be viewed in Chrome or Safari Web browsers).