provided, which adjust themselves to the size of the smaller views, such as portraits, etc. and ...the size of the diapbragms used should also be proportionate to that of the photographs to be viewed.Ponti and others produced specially prepared photographs for use in the Megalethoscope, and the entire unit could be rotated for either horizontal or vertical format images. The albumen photographs may be either backlit by an internal light source—usually an oil or kerosene lantern—or lit by daylight admitted via a system of opening doors. The plates for some versions of the megalethoscope are curved with slotted wooden braces for optical correction of lens aberrations, and pinprick perforations and mechanically thinned areas on the albumen prints have been made for viewing the photographic images under reflected and transmitted light to suggest day or night lighting, fantastic effects (diavoletti) and to add colours. A degree of animation of megalethoscope views was applied to scenes of events, and as a way to re-enact history, such as a daylight view of an empty St Mark's Square that could be transformed with back lighting into a night scene showing illuminations and lively crowds celebrating of the annexation of the Veneto by the rest of Italy. Another of the transparencies shows the burning of the Hôtel de Ville, Paris during the Paris Commune. Sets of images take the viewer on a simulated trip along the Grand Canal at night, a popular Venetian tourist experience. Ponti's success benefitted from his familiarity with, and repetition of, traditional painted views, and his distribution network through commercial studios beyond Venice, including that of Francis Frith in the United Kingdom and Pompeo Pozzi in Milan. Rights Ponti's rights to these devices lapsed after 1866, due to administrative confusion after the after the Third Italian War of Independence, when Venice, along with the rest of the Veneto, became part of the newly created Kingdom of Italy. Despite Ponte's legal battles between 1868 and 1876 to prevent it, Carlo Naya began to manufacture and sell the Aletoscopio, which Ponti tried to counter by issuing variations of the instrument under other names including Amfoteroscopio, Dioramoscopio, Pontioscopio, Cosmorama Fotografico. Well aware of their market value, Naya counter-sued Ponti for the many views that he had taken and were sold with Ponti's megalethoscope, though many were actually taken by Naya's assistants. Developments Megalethoscope prints continued to be produced into the 1890s, and in the