The Optical Magic Lantern Journal (December 1894)

The Optical Magic Lantern Journal and Photographic Enlarger. 225 Correspondence. EKASTMAN'S FILM. To the Editor. Srr,—There is a firm in London advertising Eustman’s Transparent Film at a quarter original prices. A few months ago we had a quantity of films and bromide paper damaged by sea water; these were abandoned to a marine insurance company. Some of the material may be good, but, for the benefit of the users of our products, we think it right to state the above facts. Yours faithfully, The Kastman Photographic Materials Company, Ltd. George Dickman, November 22nd, 1894. Managing Director. THE GRIDIRON SATURATOR VERSUS LAWSON'S SATURATOR. To the Editor. Str,—With respect to tho letter which appeared in the Oprican Macic Lantern JourNaAL, of December last, from Messrs. Morgan & Morgan, re the alleged infringement of Lawson’s Saturator, I beg to inform your readers that Mr. Lawson thought fit to lodge an opposition to the sealing of my patent for the Gridiron Saturator, and that the case was heard before the Comptroller of Patents a few days ago, and he decided that the Gridron Saturator does not contain any infringement of the above, and that all those lanternists who were afraid to purchase or use it on account of above threats, may now do so without the least fear or hesitation. Thanking you in anticipation, I beg to remain, Yours respectfully, J.G. PARVIN. 47, Whittingstall Road, Fulham, S.W. INCANDESCENT LIGHT FOR LANTERN. A SUGGESTION. To the Editor. Srr,—Now that a substance has been discovered which gives a very fine light for ordinary purposes with a mixture of air and gas, it would seem to me that there is a good field for further experiments by the inventors to adapt it for the lantern, so that a really good light of 200 or 300 candle-power might be obtained without the use of oxygen, which in out of the way places adds very considerably to the cost of lantern exhibitions. If the mantles could be made, say in sets of three, and fit one inside the other with a suitable burner and aided with a good reflector to collect all the back light, there would appear to be no reason why a very powerful light could not be obtained—or if the material of which the mantles are composed could be rolled up into a ball or cylinder and rendered incandescent by a blow pipe somewhat similar to the ordinary blow-through jet, but using air instead of oxygen, a body of light equal to that given by lime might perhaps be obtained. At all events experiments in that direction are worth trying, as : Sig harvest would accrue to the discoverers of such a ight. Many amateurs have no doubt a number of spoiled films which they are unable to utilise; these could be very easily converted into excellent lantern slides, made by the carbon process, by simply squegeeing the tissue on to them instead of to glass. Yours, &c., 16th November, 1894. PROGRESO. THE DECADENCE OF LANTERN LECTURES AND ITS CAUSE. To the Editor. S1zr,—I am glad to see the notes by Mr. Chadwick and others on this and kindred subjects, and asa lecturer who has run considerably over a thousand exhibitions, may I add a few remarks. There are, no doubt, more exhibitions of lantern slides than in days gone past, but owing to several causes they are not looked up to as they used to be—and itis natural that this should be so, when the rubbish in the form of slides is taken into consideration. Since the advent of dry plates everything in connection with photography has grown cheaper, slides included ; and the very facilities which these plates allow, has brought a lot of cheap (and nasty) productions in this way into the market. Then comes the colouring (?) of these same slides ; it might be poured on them from a jug for all the artistic skill which is used—cheap, cheap, being the order of the day, and nothing really good or artistic wanted. More than half the slides used by us during a series of lectures by several professors this past year, I should have put under my foot, as they were in every way utterly bad. Most of them dry plates, perbaps the work of amateurs, so thick that in some cages it was nearly impossible to force any light through them, the subjects not fitting the centres of the slides, some up, some down, and all sorts of sizes and shapes; it is little wonder that the audiences grew tired before the finish of the lectures and plainly showed it by leaving the room. Nor was this the only failing. Slides shown without any rehearsal, not even looked over in some cases by the lecturer at all; his lecture therefore only imperfectly fitting them, and now and then quite at sea, added to poor / reading and a dry subject. The niring of slides is perhaps one of the causes of this, and at the cheap rate at which they are lent it is quite impossible to supply good slides. Readers dependent on the readings sent, which they have not seen before, on a subject perhaps of which they have no personal knowledge, no break in the monotony of the lecture except to call back some wrongly placed slide, and so excite the ridicule of the audience ; everything of a level dulness depressing in the extreme. A hired lantern, worked by a volunteer who has never used one before, operator and lecturer never having seen each other until three minutes before the lecture begun, and then to expect that everything should work all right and smooth, is to expect more than is reasonable. Any of these, or a combination of them, is enough to spoil the best audience, and make them decline, even out of charity, to face a lantern lecture in the future. This class of entertainer goes to a small town, introduced by some influential inhabitant, a fashionable and numerous throng is gathered to meet him, and then they go Lome entirely unsatisfied, if not thoroughly disgusted, with the whole affair. There is no reason why this should not be entirely obviated. A quick, bright lecture, with good, varied, well-coloured slides, a joke (not a chestnut) now and then, some fitting music or song, an interlude of fun, but not the vulgarity which is sometimes mistaken for it; these are the qualities which a lantern lecture requires and which will make it a success. But, above all, the slides must be good and well shown, changing as the lecturer proceeds without the slightest open sign from him to his assistant.