PANORAMA (Gr. pan, all, arama, a view), a pictorial representation of the whole sur rounding landscape as seen from one point. The invention of the panorama is claimed by the Germans for prof. Breisig of Dantzic, but it does not appear that he ever con one. The real inventor was Mr. Barker, an ingenious artist of Edinburgh, to whom the idea occurred while takine. a sketch of the city from the top of Arthur seat. After surmounting numerous difficulties—one of which was the invention of a new kind of perspective for the horizontal lines—lie succeeded in an effective panoramic view of Edinburgh, which wag exhibited in that city in 1788, and in London in the fol lowing year. The next panorama executed by Barker was a view of London from the top of the Albion mills, A large building was now erected in Leicester square for the exhibition of such views. On Mr. Barker's death in 1806, he was succeeded by his son, in partnership with a pupil, Mr. Burford, the painter of the chief modern panoramas. The first step in the construction of a panorama is to obtain sketches of the entire region to be represented; each sketch is a representation of a portion of the landscape in the form of a sector of a circle, with the sketcher's position as a center, and the horizon for cir cumference. The canvas to which the sketches are to be transferred is hung round the sides of a circular room, and forms the surface of a cylinder, on the inside of which the panorama is painted. The canvas, brushes, etc., are of the finest description manufac tured, and the painting and are elaborated in the most careful manner, in order to render the optical illusion—which every one who has seen a good panorama must 'have experienced—as as possible. The stage from which the picture is viewed
is placed in the center of the room, about 30 ft. on every side from the picture; the picture itself is fastened above to a strong circular hoop, and, hanging down, has its lower edge fastened to a similar hoop, which is heavily weighted to keep the picture steady. The light is admitted by an aperture in the roof,which is concealed by an awn ing from the spectators on the stage. Notwithstanding important defects in the pano rama, one of which is that the light more strongly illumines the upper than the lower parts of the picture—thus throwing the foreground comparatively into shade—many cases are on record of spectators being for the time completely under the influenee of mental illusion. One of the best instances of this occurred during the exhibition of the third panorama in London. Part of the view consisted of a representation of the wreck of a ship's boat, with sailors struggling in the waves; and at sight of this, a dog belong ing to one of the spectators at once leaped over the handrail to the rescue of the sup posed drowning men. Panoramas, though frequently exhibited in France, Germany, and other European countries, have met with little success out of Great Britain. The most popular panorama ever executed was that of the battle of Waterloo, the exhibition of which brought in £10,000. There are many modifications of the panorama, but that above described is the most important.