LANTERN, or LANTHORN, a device to carry a candle in; being a kind of cover usually made of white iron, with sashes of some transparent matter, as glass, horn, &c. to transmit the light.
Sir George Staunton informs us that some of the Chinese lanterns were entirely made of horn, so very thin and transparent that they were at first taken for glass, to which they prefer it as being cheaper, less liable to accident, and more easily repaired. Those which Sir George had the opportunity of examining, consisted of one uniform piece of horn, the seams being made invisible by an art found out by the Chinese. The horns commonly used are those of sheep or goats, which being bent by immersing them in boiling water, are cut open and flattened, after which they are easily separated into two or three thin plates. To make these laminae or plates join readily, they are exposed to the penetrating heat of steam till they are perfectly soft, and the edges that are to lap over each other are scraped and flatted off, so that the joinings may be no thicker than any other part of the plate.
Such lanterns would be extremely proper for military store-houses; and Rochou of the National Institute was desired to attempt to make them for the marine store-houses of France. While he was thus engaged, it occurred to him that he might supply the urgent necessities of the navy without horn, by filling up the interstices of wire cloth with fine transparent glue. He first tinned the iron wires of the sieve-cloth he made use of; but afterwards found it more convenient to give it a coating of oil paint to preserve it from rust. The glue he made use of was procured by boiling the clippings of parchment with the air-bladders and membranes of sea-fish, not from any conviction of their superiority to other articles, but as being the cheapest he could procure. To this he added the juice of garlic and cyder, in such proportions as he found to communicate great tenacity. Into this transparent pure glue he plunged his wire-cloth, which came out with its interstices filled with the compound. The case with which lanterns made of this substance are repaired in case of accident, by a slight coating of glue, is given by the inventor as a great advantage; and, according to him, they were
employed as signal lanterns in the expedition to Ireland.