Sir William Hamilton's Vesuvian apparatus

In 1767 the great collector and vulcanologist Sir William Hamilton designed an 'apparatus' to depict an eruption of Vesuvius, This remarkable combination of moving pictures with light and sound effects was perhaps the closest the eighteenth century came to the cinema. A document explaining how it operated has recently been discovered, as Bent Sorensen explains.

Even in the second half of the eighteenth century, when a vast array of instructive entertainment was used to disseminate scientific knowledge to a popular audience, Sir William Hamilton's Vesuvian apparatus, as revealed by a recently found document, (1) was quite exceptional. It was nor only far more spectacular then any of these, but was also the first example of an animated picture with sound.

Contemporary instructive entertainments, such as those seen for example in Joseph Wright of Derby's paintings The orrery (1766, Derby Art Gallery, Derby), and The air pump (1768, National Gallery, London), were merely instruments designed to demonstrate the wonders of nature. By contrast, Hamilton's Vesuvian apparatus was a work of art, reinforced with machinery, purposely designed to convey the tremendous force, the rapidly changing aspect, and the terrific noise of a volcanic eruption in a manner far more realistic then would have been possible with a conventional painting. It was composed of a large colourful painted transparency showing the eruption of Vesuvius, lit up from behind by a complex mechanical device activated by clockwork. Replete with special effects, it produced the striking impression of a continuous stream of lava and sporadic outbursts from the cratel, accompanied by thunderous blasts of eruptions.

Sir William Hamilton's observations of Vesuvius and the other volcanoes in the south of Italy began shortly after his arrival in Naples in 1764, as British envoy to the court of Ferdinand IV, King of the Two Sicilies, following Vesuvius's gradual resumption of activity in 1765. Although nothing in his previous career had prepared him for the study of volcanism, it was to become one of his must important interests, alongside his activities as diplomat, collector and scholar; which have recently been studied in the exhibition 'Vases & Volcanoes: Sir William Hamilton and his collection' held at the British Museum in 1996. (2) This is no place for a detailed examination of Hamilton's contribution to the study of volcanism, which have been fully discussed elsewhere, (3) but mention must be made of its presentation.

Hamilton's observations--the fruit of many days and nights spent on the volcano, often under perilous conditions--were composed in the form of letters to the President of the Royal Society, and first published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Some years afterwards they were republished in the most lavishly illustrated treatise ever published about volcanoes, Hamilton's monumental Campi Phlegraei, Observations on the Volcanos of the Two Sicilies, As They have been communicated to the Royal Society of London, Naples, 1776, illustrated with fifty four hand-coloured etchings 'from drawings taken and colour'd after nature, under the inspection of the author; by the editor Mr. Peter Fabris'. (4) The plates range from general views, eruptions in progress, to detailed depictions of rocks and lava specimens. Three years later a supplement with five plates was published, showing the eruption of August 1779.

To support his observations Hamilton always made a widespread use of images. In addition to his personal notes and diagrams showing the changing shape and size of the cone of Vesuvius, he employed several artists to make drawings and paintings of the volcano. Foremost among them was Pietro Fabris, but Hamilton's collection also included many pictures of various eruptions by Pietro Antoniani, Saverin Della Gatta, Antoine Ignace Vernet and Pierre Jacques Volaire. In his introductory text to the Campi Phlegraei, Hamilton emphasises the didactic value of the intages:

   'But being still sensible of the great
   difficulty of conveying a true idea
   of the curious country I have
   described, by words alone,
   particularly to those, who have not
   has an opportunity of visiting this
   part of Italy; [...] I employed Mr.
   Peter Fabris, a most ingenious
   and able artist, a native of Great
   Britain, to take Drawings of every
   spot, described in my letters, in
   which each stratum is represented
   in its proper colours; the exteriour,
   and interiour forms of mount
   Vesuvius, the Solfaterra, and of
   every other ancient volcano in
   the neighbourhood of Naples'. (5)

Already at the time Hamilton was drafting his letter to the Royal Society in 1767, he attempted to solve the conundrum of how to represent a volcanic eruption in a realistic manner, given that even the most detailed and exact painted representation cannot convey the rapidly changing aspect of an eruption. His choice of an apparatus may, although it is difficult to pin down any antecedents, have been influenced by a prevailing enthusiasm for scientific instruments, shared, for example, by his childhood friend George III. (6) However, his choice of an apparatus with paintings in transparent colours seems unprecedented, and appears to have been the first time a transparency was used in a scientific display. Transparencies were a favourite form of eighteenth-century public art, ranch seen on occasions of national rejoicing, and in the many popular pleasure gardens in London, where one of the attractions was painted transparencies with some kind of mechanism imitating cascades or fire. However the source of his inspiration must remain a matter for speculation.