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| Thomas Malton lived in England in the 1770's and like many men of his day was curious about the natural world. He was particularly intrigued with architecture and perspective although he felt there were not many good books for students to learn about these fields.
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In order to share his passion for perspective, Thomas began the process of publishing his massive book (weighing in at 7.5 lbs.) in 1774. It included many of his etchings showing how perspective worked from world famous buildings to simple household items, like chairs.
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Thomas brought perspective out of the classroom (which was often theoritical only) and made it a living, breathing thing. He wrote about perspective and motion, perspective and reflection, even perspective in water!
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| To make it easier for students of perspective to understand how the principles worked in real life, Thomas made up 3-dimensional shapes and objects out of paper that layed flat on the page. Coming out of one side of the paper was a thin, piece of string.
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By pulling on the string, the paper begins to stand up and reveals a network of more string on the inside of the pop-up.
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When fully expanded, the pop-up shows varying string lines of perspective all coming to meet one point. Students could now study the paper pop-up from a full 360 degree angle to help them understand the 2-dimensional pictures in the book.
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| Thomas had a tremendous amount of difficulty in getting his book published. The first print run of 500 copies went up in smoke when the printer's shop caught on fire!
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The printer's shop did not have fire insurance and came to Thomas to get payment for the paper that had been used to print the pages of the book. Since Thomas had planned on sales of the book paying for the paper he was unable to pay the (rascally) printer.
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One evening Thomas was at home with his family when the police came to arrest him and take him to debtor's jail. His wife howled and his children wailed but to no avail. Thomas spent one night in prison until his family could raise the bail. It is not known if he ever published another book.
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