This criterion will find hardware items of a particular type or function.

Choose an item from the drop-down list. If you don’t want to apply this criterion, leave the box showing ‘any type’.

Unless you are familiar with the details of lantern hardware construction and use, this criterion may not be very useful for identifying or finding particular items.

There were many different hardware functions, and a wide range of different designs within each function, with subtle variations that are sometimes due to different practices adopted by individual makers. Some can be described and identified easily, others are more complex and harder to classify.

Notes

• The list of hardware types here is based on general research in lantern history, rather than the specific items so far recorded in Lucerna. It is very likely at this stage that some of the hardware types listed here do not find individual representative items. 
• The list is very much a work in progress, and we aim to refine it and add descriptions and examples to make this criterion clearer and easier to use. If you can help us to expand the list of hardware covered in Lucerna, please Contact us.

This criterion will find all hardware items whose name contains a given word or phrase.

Type the text you want to find into the box. If you don’t want to apply this criterion, leave the box empty.

This search is most useful when you already know the name of the item you are looking for.

Relatively few hardware items have so far been recorded in Lucerna, so if you are looking for a specific named item this criterion may not find it, simply because it has not yet been added to the database. Until more items are added it may be better to use a more general criterion like Type of hardware to find a list of items to browse through.

Notes:

• The search will find exactly the group of characters you enter, including any spaces or punctuation marks.
• The names recorded include contemporary trade names and names of specific models or designs (for example ‘Docwra’ triple lantern), but also generic descriptive titles (for example Scientific demonstration lantern) applied by modern researchers to describe items not otherwise identified.
• Keep your search text as short as you can – as you enter more, your search becomes more specific and you are less likely to find results.

This criterion will find all hardware items recorded as being associated with a specific organisation.

Choose an item from the drop-down list. If you don’t want to apply this criterion, leave the box showing ‘any organisation’.

The most common recorded connection between an organisation and a hardware item is manufacturer, but there may be other connections, for example in stock of to indicate that an item was offered for sale or hire by the organisation, or owner to indicate that the organisation had an example of the item for its own business use.

Organisations are listed alphabetically by name, but see the notes below for details of the sorting order.

Notes:

• The drop-down list only shows those organisations already known to be connected to hardware items with Lucerna records.
• If the organisation’s name is based on a person’s name, the alphabetical sorting is on the basis of the surname – for example, ‘W. Watson & Sons’ is listed as ‘Watson & Sons, W.’.
• Organisation names starting with an article are sorted alphabetically without the article – so for example ‘The Pettibone Manufacturing Company’ is listed as ‘Pettibone Manufacturing Company, The’.
• In some cases the names of organisations with connections to a given item are unknown and will never be identified.

This criterion will find all hardware items recorded as being associated with a specific person.

Choose an item from the drop-down list. If you don’t want to apply this criterion, leave the box showing ‘any person’.

Some typical connections between a person and a hardware item include designer, inventor and owner (the latter meaning that the identified person definitely possessed exactly the item of hardware in question).

Notes:

• The drop-down list only shows those people already known to be connected to hardware items with Lucerna records.
• In most cases the names of people with connections to a given item are simply unknown and will never be identified.

This criterion will find all hardware items recorded as having been produced in a specific nation.

Choose an item from the drop-down list. If you don’t want to apply this criterion, leave the box showing ‘any nation’.

In many cases, this information is not known for certain or has not been recorded, so this search will not necessarily find a complete record of everything from that nation.

Notes:

• The drop-down list only shows those nations already known to have produced lantern hardware.
• In most cases, nations are listed with their modern names and territories, which may or may not have applied at the time of slide set manufacture – for example ‘Germany’ rather than ‘Prussia’ or ‘Bavaria’.
• The nations of the British Isles are recorded individually (England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales) not as ‘U.K.’, and other semi-independent parts of the United Kingdom (e.g. Channel Islands) are treated as separate nations.

This criterion will find hardware items known to have been first made in a specific year (or range of years).

Choose one or more years from the drop-down lists as appropriate. If you don’t want to apply this criterion, leave both boxes showing ‘any date’.

In many cases, this information is not known for certain or has not been recorded.

This search can be useful for getting a sample of items from a given period, but relatively few hardware items have so far been recorded and the results should not be taken as a complete record of everything from the year(s) you enter.

Notes:

• The years in the drop-down lists are just those for which items have been recorded, not a complete list of all possible years.
• To find items first made in a specific year, choose the same year from both lists.
• To find items first made in or after a specific year, choose a year from the first list but leave the second box showing ‘any date’.
• To find items first made in or before a specific year, leave the first box showing ‘any date’ but choose a year from the second list.
• To find items first made at any time in a range of years, choose different years from both lists.

This criterion will find all hardware items recorded as part of an identified series.

Choose an item from the drop-down list. If you don’t want to apply this criterion, leave the box showing ‘any series’.

Some manufacturers and dealers marketed hardware items in series of related items, brought together under a wider title – for example Lapierre Lanterne Carrée, a series of lanterns of the same design made in different sizes.

Series titles may be related to the trademarks or trade names of the organisations concerned, but may also have been applied by later researchers as a way of gathering items that are clearly related to each other.

Notes:

• The drop-down list only shows those series for which hardware items are already listed in Lucerna, not a complete list of all series that were ever produced.
• Hardware items can appear as members of more than one series – for example a manufacturer might use one series name, while a dealer could have grouped the same items with others under a different name.