Opaque Projector

If we’re talking about a much older model projector, we’d have to go back to the beginning and the overhead projector, right? Wrong! In fact there is something which predates that rickety, rolling monstrosity which seemed like it was the same unit which your parents had used all those years before you. Consisting of merely the boom arm, a blank placement, a white hot light bulb, and the teachers blue or black or red marker and their ages old hanky, you’d think that not only were the teachers probably the same, but that they used also the same bulb!

Well actually, to all our surprise, there is an even older model to predate the overhead projector called the Opaque projector (or epidioscope or epidiascope or episcope) The opaque projector works by displaying opaque materials shining a bright lamp on the object from above. There is a system of mirrors, prisms, or lenses which is used to focus an image of the material onto your view screen. Due to the fact that opaque projectors are projecting reflected light, they have brighter bulbs with larger lenses than overheads.

If we’re talking about what is typically projected on an opaque projector, we’d be talking about things like leaves, minerals, or images of drawings or book pages. Opaque projectors were produced and sold as toys for children in the early to mid 1900’s. Opaque projectors are known primarily as artist’s tools for transference images for lectures and discussions.

While opaque projectors are no longer made as new anymore, there are a number of online resources where you can get gently used or refurbished opaque projectors for next to nothing. You are at the whim of availability; however one of the most well known producers of the opaque projector was Beseler. For simple projection of artwork or pictures onto a wall, the Beseler opaque projector is your choice. If you are looking for a used opaque projector, Beseler would have to be my primary recommendation to you. As this next model just blew me away in terms of expense!

While the ones I saw were considerably more expensive, American Optical opaque projectors are another choice for your opaque projector needs. Actually designed from the 1960’s to mid 1970’s the American optical company then changed hands and was sold by Neumade. Neumade actually continues to manufacturer identical units using believe it or not the same parts as the American Optical units.