or LANTHORN, a device to carry a candle in, being a kind of cover usually made of tinned iron, with sashes of some transparent matter, as glass, horn, or the like, to transmit the light.

Dark Lantern, one with only one opening, which may also be closed up when the light is to be entirely hid, or opened when there is occasion for the assistance of the light to discover some object.

Magic Lantern, an optical machine, by which little painted images are represented so much magnified, as to be accounted the effect of magic by the ignorant.

Architecture, a little dome raised over the roof of a building, to give light, and serve as a crowning to the fabric.

The term lantern is also used to signify a square cage of carpentry placed over the ridge of a corridor or gallery, between two rows of shops, to illuminate them.

Lantern, on board of ship, a well-known machine, of which there are many in a ship, particularly for the purpose of directing the course of other ships in a fleet or convoy; as the poop and top lanterns, &c.

Feast of Lanterns, in China, is a celebrated feast held on the fifteenth day of the first month, and so called from the infinite number of lanterns which are hung out of the houses and streets. On this day are exposed lanterns of all prices, some of them very costly.