CHARLES WHEASTSTONE DISCOVERS SCRATCH-HOLOGRAMS, 1830s

"On some remarkable, and hitherto unobserved, Phenomena of 
Binocular Vision" C. Wheatstone, Philosophical Transactions of the 
Royal Society, 128 (June 1838) p379

8.   An effect of binocular perspective may be remarked in a plate of 
metal, the surface of which has been made smooth by turning it in a lathe.  
When a single candle is brought near such a plate, a line of light appears 
standing out from it, one half being above, and the other half below the 
surface; the position and inclination of this line changes with the 
situation of the light and of the observer, but it always passes through 
the center of the plate.  On closing the left eye the relief disappears, 
and the luminous line coincides with one of the diameters of the plate; on 
closing the right eye the line appears equally in the plane of the 
surface, but coincides with another diameter; on opening both eyes it 
instantly starts into relief[1].  The case here is exactly analogous to 
the vision of two inclined lines (fig. 10.) when each is presented to a 
different eye in the stereoscope.  

It is curious, that an effect like this, which must have been seen 
thousands of times, should never have attracted sufficient attention to 
have been made the subject of [scientific] observation.  It was one of the 
earliest facts which drew my attention to the subject I am now treating.

[1] The luminous line seen by a single eye arises from the reflection of 
    the light from each of the concentric circles produced in the 
    operation of turning' when the plate is not large the arrangement of 
    these successive reflections does not differ from a straight line.


Thanks to D. Teirne et. al. for their discovery of this Wheatstone quote!
See their paper "Holograms made from Scratch"

https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/8842/88420W/Holograms-made-from-scratch/10.1117/12.2023321.full?SSO=1