The Optical Magic Lantern Journal (January 1899)

2 The Optical Magic Lantern Journal and Photographic Enlarger. Lantern Operators.—Mr. H. L. Toms, of 78, Queen Victoria Street, London, K.C., has a : large staff of efficient lantern operators, and is always prepared at short notice to exhibit for | lecturers, societies, institutions, etc. : oad toad ~ Madagascar.—One of the finest lectures on Madagascar was given lately at Sbrewsbury by the Rev. A. Chiswell. The rev. gentleman having spent many years there in connection with missionary work was thus enabled to give an insight into life and character at Madagascar, to which an ordinary visitor would be unable to obt in access, the lecture in question being, to a lage extent, written from diary notes. ood & All Subjects Taught with the Lantern.— It is a difficult matter to find any subject nowadays which cannot be well placed before a general audience by means of lantern slides. The treatment of one’s finger nails, although a subject of importance, is not often met with in the form of a lecture, yet at a recent lecture given at Haywards Heath, a lantern lecture on the structure of the nails, with hints as to their treatment, was generally voted by the audience as being one which created a great deal of instructive information. 7 * History of the Prayer Book.—One would hardly think that the foregoing could possibly form the subject of a lantern lecture, yet we learn that a few days ago a successful lantern lecture on this subject was given by M. E. F. & Jeffries, at Husbands, Bosworth. Our corres| pondent does not enlighten us as to the nature of the lantern illustrations, although he states that they were excellent. a te * Half a Mile of “ Bull Fight” Film.—lIt is sometimes very amusing to read how certain people word their advertisements; for instance, we read in the advertisement columns of a paper published in the Midlands, dioramic lecturer gives as his subject for an entertainment ‘‘ Sunny Spain, with glimpses of that a : various methods of bandaging different parts of take to pass the condenser, what size of room such a film would carpet, and the number of acres of pictures projected on the 30 feet screen mentioned in the advertisement spoken of. baad em hood Acetylene Explosion.—We have from time to time warned users of acetylene gas against opening an exhausted generator in the presence ' of a flame, but such advice unfortunately is not always acted upon, possibly because familiarity with a subject breeds contempt. We have unfortunately to chronicle the death of Mr. Burlingham, of Kings Lynn, a young man of 32, who, in the course of some experiments with this gas, was instantly killed by an explosion, and a boy who was standing near was rendered unconscious. Such accidents although very sad, in no way prove that acetylene is any more dangerous than ordinary house gas, and it is to be expected that anyone using acetylene will at least take the same precautions as they would with ordinary house gas. Experience has taught that one must not walk about a house with a candle looking for aleak when they smell gas strongly. We will once again emphasise the fact that it is dangerous to open the generating chamber of an acetylene apparatus in close proximity to a naked light. Bod ~ ~ Mr. H. G. Madan.—Our readers will be sorry to hear that Mr. Madan, the writer of the useful article in our last Annual on the subject of ‘‘ Lecture demonstrations of the laws of polarised light,” has recently met with a serious accident whilst walking in Gloucester Docks, by which his right leg and arm were fractured. Although the injuries are of a serious nature, we hope that Mr. Madan will have a speedy recovery, a hope in which we feel confident our readers will join. ad ~ bead “First Aid” by means of the Lantern.— A series of lantern lectures on health are being : given at the West-End by Dr. Hodson, at which Africa,’ and that during the lecture a cinemato. graphic film of half a mile in length, illustrating . .a bull fight, is to be exhibited. A bull fight film of half a mile long (i.e., 2,640 feet) is evidently no mean affair, especially when in looking over the lists of the recognised makers of such we can only find 11 bull fight films | each of 50 feet in length—half a mile would represent about 53 such films. It might be interesting to determine how long this would the body are graphically described by means of lantern slides. x ~~ ~ Welsh Societies.—Several Welsh mutual improvement societies have lately taken up the lantern ag a means of imparting useful information to their members. Two such lectures— ‘Moths and butterflies,’ and ‘‘ Wonders and romance of insect life’’—have lately been making their influence felt, and many of the societies are availing themselves of subjects of a similar scientific interest.