Projecting soldiers’ repair: the ‘Great War’ lantern and the Royal Society of Medicine

Bate, Jason

Projecting soldiers’ repair: the ‘Great War’ lantern and the Royal Society of Medicine

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Journal article

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Bate, Jason

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May 22, 2020

Abstract

This article addresses how and why the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM), as a hub of research and education and with its multidisciplinary membership, became active in lantern projection, circulation and popularisation as a scientific teaching practice in First World War Britain. From the interactions it fostered during dialogue to its mobilising of surgeons’ visual experiences and related photographic practices in the facial wards, the article considers how and why the projection services that were made available at the RSM between 1914 and 1919 facilitated collaborative and contested debates in immediate exchanges of information and thus early intervention. Despite the lantern and the camera being referred to in conjunction with each other during this historical moment, the role of photography via magic lantern technology has not been the subject of an in-depth study. During the war, the lantern was received as an extension of photography and toward successful simulation of the spatial and temporal contingency of human vision. This article charts aspects of the nature and body-machine characteristics of these technical innovations in a period of change and transition for both surgical practice and visual technologies in medicine. Overall, the article will argue that the RSM was a major institutional catalyst for First World War uses of the lantern in surgery, producing modern medical thinking that wished to use the camera apparatus in new ways.