Gents Mag 1749 p.534

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	Gentleman's Magazine 1749 p.534
perspective views
	Viewer for Perspective Views Mr URBAN, I Am confined by old age to a country solitude, where your magazines are one of my principal amusements. As you are pleased often to embellish them with perspective views, and it is said, thay are seen to great advantage with a diagonal mirrour, or concave glass: if you please to give us a description of the machine, proper for viewing such prints, with the dimensions of the mirror, and diameter, and radius, of the glass, either concave or convex, with the manner of placing the glasses and prints, and such plain directions for construction of the whole, as may enable a country mecanick to make it, you will much oblige many of your country readers; none more than Yours, ROB. RUSTICUS. P.S. If you please to mention the name, and place of abode, of an artist in London, from whom the glasses may be had, with the usual price, it will be an addition to your favour. ANSWER. THERE are several methods of constructing the optical machine, for viewing landscapes and perspectives, but that, represented by the figures annexed, seems to be most convenient, as it keeps the pictures, with all the apparatus, together, and is portable without danger. Fig. I. A is a box, 4, 5, or 6 inches deep, 2 feet long, and about 18 inches wide, b b are two brackets of thin wainscot, turning on hinges at c, and fastened in the position, in which they are represented, by a small hasp at 2, so as to keep the lid, or cover, of the box d d, in a perpendicular direction. a is a plain speculum, or common looking glass, fstened, by an hinge, to the box lid, near the edge at 3, and kept in a diagonal position, or so as to make an angle of 45 degrees with the horizon, by the sloped tops of the brackets; 4 is a print which is to be viewed in the
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