The Optical Magic Lantern Journal (November 1900)

The Optical Magic Lantern Journal and Photographic Enlarger. 139 New Optical and Lantern Firm. — Extensive premises are being fitted up at 71, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, as the headquarters of a new firm to be known as Sanders & Crowhurst. Both are energetic gentlemen, well-known in optical circles, and ‘ deserve the success which capital, experience, and ‘industry will bring them. We have known both gentlemen for some years, and we feel assured that their patrons will find them particularly painstaking. Mr. H. Armytage Sanders has just severed his connection with Messrs. Watson & Sons, in whose employ he has been for nineteen years. He is very enthusiastic in all matters pertaining to the ‘lantern and its adjuncts, and will preside over that department chiefly, whilst Mr. H. A. Crowhurst, who has also been in the employ of the same firm for a number of years, and who holds the diploma of the Spectacle Makers’ Company, will take in hand the optical department. A very fine sighttesting apparatus is being fitted in a special room on the premises. This new firm has acquired the special West-End agency for Watson's celebrated cameras and _ other instruments, also agencies for Messrs. Graystone Bird, C. Reid, York, and other well-known slide makers. oe a bead The International Oxygen Generator Syndicate.—A new firm of the above name, with headquarters at 17, Southampton Row, Holborn, W.C., has purchased the British and foreign patents of the Stedman-Brown oxygen generator, and will in future manufacture that apparatus themselves. > > > Ashton-under-Lyne Photo Exhibition.— The triennial exhibition of this society will be opened on Monday, the 12th inst., and will continue open during the rest of the week. Illustrated lectures are to be given each evening after the opening night, and a musical programme rendered by an efficient band. Full particulars may be obtained from the Hon. Secretary, Mr. Robert T, Marslans, 24, Park Avenue, Ashton-underLyne. ~~ = ~~ The Southsea Amateur Photographic Society.—The Southsea Amateur Photographic Society hold their 13th Annual Exhibition on the 29th, 30th, and 31st January, 1901, at their headquarters, 5, Pembroke Road, Portsmouth. There are to be six open classes with silver and bronze medals, also certificates in each class. Full particulars-may be obtained-from the Hon. Secretary, Gilbert Wood, 10, Pelham Road, Southsea.: Preaching with a Lantern in Japan. * travelled nearly all over Japan from Sapporo in the North, to Kagoshima in the South, preaching with alantern. On one tour alone oe I passed through thirteen towns ee and reached 22,360 people out of a total si population of 188,000. In my early tours it was difficult to collect an audience of adults. The common school lanterns are mostly toys, which afford an evening’s amusement for the children, and the people did not realise that my lanterns were anything different. But one night only was sufficient to show them their mistake, for the men and women always came in large numbers the second night. There is a lack of large and suitable assembly halls in this country. The largest and most conspicuous buildings are theatres and temples. A few eating houses provide large rooms for dinner parties, but the ceilings are low, and otherwise the places are unsuitable for lecture purposes, although I have spoken in many of them. If one wishes to reach the largest number of people he is shut up to the theatre. But these places are not the magnificent buildings which one sees in [dave the past seven years I have 2) wy Western lands, whose acoustic proportions are perfect, and whose galleries curve so artistically and slope so evenly that the back seat is as good as the front, furnished also with folding plush chairs. The only thing which the foreign and Japanese theatre has in common is the spacious stage. Outside of a few of the largest cities, the buildings are unfit to rank even with a well constructed American barn. The roof timbers are undressed, the paper windows are lacking or broken; instead of seats or even mats, woven straw is spread over the rough board or upon the solid earth. A photograph may give the shape, but it cannot reveal the wretched construction of these buildings. But they are spacious, holding from 500 to 5,000 people, and therefore for my purposes more suitable than any other. The better class of people in Japan, especially the women, do not attend theatrical per | formances; but they come in large numbers {* The Rev. George Allchin, of Osaka, who wrote the following for the Missionary Herald, U.S.A., expresses the hope that it will be of interest to the readers of the Optical Magic LANTERN JoUBNAL, of which Journal he is a constant reader.—Eb. } ae +. .