Johann Zahn

Johann Zahn (29 March 1641, Karlstadt am Main – 27 June 1707) was the seventeenth-century German author of Oculus Artificialis Teledioptricus Sive Telescopium (Würzburg, 1685).

This was a very important evolution in the history of the camera, because it meant that the screen could be kept dark while the operator changed the slide.

Zahn used the magic lantern, whose invention he credited to Athanasius Kircher, for anatomical lectures.

He also illustrated a large workshop camera obscura for solar observations using the telescope and scioptric ball.

Zahn is also the author of a compendium of mathematics and natural history, titled Specula Physico-Mathematico-Historica Notabilium ac Mirabilium Sciendorum (3025) Religions-Hindu This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed.