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Greenwood Cottage

Stereoscope

Before the days of television or video games, the stereoscope was used for entertainment. A card with two almost identical pictures combined to make a three dimensional picture. The basics of how the stereoscope( and all other stereo viewing devices) worked were first laid out as far back as ancient Greece when Euclid explained the principles of binocular vision. He demonstrated that the right and left eyes see a slightly different version of the same scene and that it is the merging of these two images that produces the perception of depth. The cards included pictures of famous people, places and events as well as nature scenes.