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Kaleidoscope - This popular optical toy was developed by Sir David Brewster in 1816 from an earlier novelty called the Debusscope or Polyscope.

Kilburn - Kilburn was the inventor of one of the types of stereoscope. His version was invented in 1853.

Kircher - Athanasius Kircher, a German Jesuit Father, first described projection in 1646, and later illustrated a form of Magic Lantern in 1671. For many years he was held to be the inventor of the Magic Lantern, but modern scholars question both the practicality of his lantern and that he was the first to describe it.

Kinora - The Kinora was a domestic version of the mutoscope. It was a sophisticated form of flicker book, which showed picture reels with about 600 pictures in each. At a speed of about 10 pictures per second, the reels lasted about a minute.

Kineopticon - The name used by Birt Acres for his projector. This was patented in May 1895, and the first demonstration was on 14 January 1896.

Kinetograph - Edison's patented camera that was used for producing films for the Kinetoscope.

Kinetoscope - The viewing apparatus that Edison created and patented in 1891. This was successful and a number of Kinetoscope parlors were set up around the world where individual customers could view a film of up to 600 frames. Edison worked on a projection version, but did not complete it before other inventors.

Lanterna Magica - The Latin name for the Magic Lantern, used widely in continental Europe.

Lever Slide - A type of slide similar to a Slipper but where one sheet of glass is fixed and the other is mounted on a brass frame which can be rotated by a brass lever. Typically of subjects where a partial rotation produces the effect, such as a boy riding a pig.

Life Model Slides - were produced by photographing models against a background to produce a story. Bamforth's were the biggest manufacturer of life model slides. Their subjects were frequently concerned with temperance.

Limelight - The form of illuminant used mainly in professional lantern slides where an intense white light was produced by a flame of an Oxy-hydrogen blowlamp playing on a block of lime.

Lithograph Slide - were slides manufactured by printing a transfer of the subject and then placing it on the slide. Most of the sets of slides were produced in this way, including the Butcher and Sons "Primus" slides.

Long Slides - The earliest lantern slides seem to have been long slides, where a series of pictures painted on glass were projected one by one. Later long slides included panoramic slides, where the movement of the slide enabled more of the panorama to been seen, and subjects such as military processions, where the procession would pass through the viewer's sight.