The Optical Magic Lantern Journal (April 1899)

52 ascertaining the quantity of gas in cylinders. This saves disappointment, which generally occurs at the most inopportune moment. Bear in mind that a big disc is often a big mistake, and it is found better to use discretion in regulating its size according to the intensity of the light being used, A small or medium sized circle, well lighted and giving a clear picture, is found in practice to be best. Also be particular that the screen is quite taut, and free from folds and creases, a8 such give to the picture distortions which it is best without. And remember that the larger the screen the more difficult it is to avoid them. In thinking out subjects it is pleasant to know that the geography of a city, the altitude of a mountain, the beauties of lake, river, and ocean, can, by means of photography, be reduced to the size of a lantern plate, and then by the aid of the lantern conveyed to thousands of people. Thus, much knowledge is spread. (To be continued.) MSO About Animated Photography. Continued from page 38, <.7N the latter case he will do well to 14 so take up his position—if it be possible—that there is no chance that extraneous objects will move right across the camera in a way to obliterate the view during the time that the picture is being taken. It is difficult to imagine anything more annoying to a photographer when he is photographing, say, the progress of a boat race, than for a steam tug crowded with people to drift just in front of his animated camera a8 soon as he commences the exposure and remain there all through the race. It is not only the loss of a valuable opportunity which may not occur again that is to be regretted, but every failure in work of this class means a ecuniary loss that is by no means to be Seepieed by the majority of its practitioners. What may be called ‘‘ made-up” scenes form what is probably the most interesting branch of animated photography for the photographer himself, and where good arrangement and good acting are combined, these little comedies and tragedies in dumb show may be made wonderfully amusing. They must of necessity be somewhat difficult to produce, and from their nature it is probable that no amount of instraction would convey the power to make them successfully. It is sural a case of inherited The Optical Magic Lantern Journal and Photographic Enlarger. — aptitude. But we should like to enter a mild protest against the vulgarisation of animated photography which some misguided individuals have thought fit to perpetrate. Any art which seeks to picture nature in an exceptionally naturalistic manner is exceptionally capable of being debased to low uses. Stereoscopic photography, whicha short time ago was as popular as is Its animated relative of the present time, was peculiarly adapted, by the wonderful appearance of solidity which it gives to the photographs, for perversion to the uses of the unprincipled. It was so perveried and to-day it is dead, | Practically, though its beautiful and artistic capabilities are as great as, or greater than ever. There is the same possibility in animated photography and there is, unfortunately, the same tendency to make use of it. We trust that it will not be encouraged. IIJ.—Tue DEVELOPMENT, Printina, AND PERFORATION OF Fius. In all cameras for animated photography the | unexposed pellicle upon which the series of little pictures is to be produced is tightly wound upon a spool in the upper portion of the instrument. Beneath the apparatus a similar spool is placed, and these two spools are in such communication with the mechanical movement of the apparatus that the turning of the handle which constitutes the exposure actuates hoth, and the film is wound from one to the other without any trouble to the photographer whatever—always provided that nothing goes wrong with the winding mechanism. Up to this point the film has no terrors for him—except, perhaps, its initial expense. Indeed, he is in the enviable position of the man who has never had any trouble with his liver; he is hardly aware of the mere existence of such a thing. But, unlike the man with the liver, which after all may never go wrong, his enlightenment is bound to come when the “‘ organ grinding” part of the business is over and the stern reality of the dark-room has to be faced. For while it is one thing to develop a single snapshot upon a small glass plate or cut film, or even to tackle a dozen or more exposures from a roll holder, it is quite another to wrestle with a narrow strip of celluloid of 80 feet or upwards in length, bearing upon its surface a matter of twelve hundred separate latent images. For there is no such thing as cutting up the piece and developing the pictures one at a time —not that that sounds a very desirable consummation—and while all that length of sensitive surface must be developed and otherwise treated at the same time, each little picture of the