The Optical Magic Lantern Journal (November 1900)

144 The Optical Magic Lantern Journal and Photographic Enlarger. towards the lantern, did very well. unsteady at first, but a couple of heavy weights inside, cured that effectually. Plain white paper pasted on the bottom and marked with various sizes completed the affair, to which the bromide paper was attached with ordinary pins. Drawing pins in this connection are a delusion and a snare, causing much annoyance and breaking of nails. A trial strip was used, of course, and the exposures for the 4-plate size ranged from 4 tol minute on rapid paper. A word should be said about the lenses used. At first I cut a piece of thick cardboard to fit | on China would similarly have its title slide It was | the front of the lantern (which has bellows | extension), and cut a hole in the centre to hold a f-plate lens. Afterwards, however, I used the lens sold with the lantern, which is of the portrait type, 5 inch focus. The brass flasher was used to make the exposure. he definition was good enough for anything. The paper was pinned up by the light of the dark-room lamp, the lantern being turned down before develop_ need to make them prominent. ment. To hold the films I got two clean +-plate glasses, put the negative and mask between them, and then put a rubber band round the ends. When pushed into the frame the bands held the glasses in place, and strained the film quite flat. The experiments were so successful that I am about to try some larger sizes. $4 Rie <n © memes 2S Title Slides. By WILHELM LEIFELD., PRELIMINARY slide is a necessity to a lantern lecture. It makes the occasion for the few words of intro before the audience has settled down to listening or the lecturer ‘ / has warmed to his subject. An ~s interesting and novel title slide arouses interest and creates a favourable impression at the start, and for that reason, the usual blue Watkins, of exposure meter fame, who, as is well known, unites to his business of a miller the two recreations (?) of photographic actinometrics and bee keeping. The title slides ‘in question were part of a set on bee culture, the operations in the foregrounds of the slides being titled in the upper part of the picture. The letters of tine title were composed of the bodies of dead bees. The idea is very readily applied to all kinds of title slides. Thus, a preliminary picture for a lecture on our Army will have the letters composed of tin soldiers or war buttons (bearing a portrait of Lord Roberts). A lecture built up out of miniature flags of the Yellow Dragon. Now, these slides are made as follows:—A good sized print is firstobtained, say 12 by 10 or 15 by 12, printed and toned toa bluish black. The print should be distinctly pale, so as to throw the title forward. So long as the main outlines of the subject are visible there is no Its subject ' must, of course, typify or bear on the lecture. ' plate horizontal ; but there is really none. duction, which must always be : curtain and red tassels must be eschewed by the lanternist who wishes to be up-to-date. Now, title slides can take many forms; they can be dramatic, humorous, or decorative. They may be a brief prediction of the lecture, or they may do no more than name the subject. In the few notes that follow some hints and Suggestions are offered on this generally unheeded item in lantern technique. Some of the most ingenious title slides I can recollect seeing were made by Mr. Alfred ° Thus, our Army will be a print of a huge Aldershot review, or any military subject fairly open in extent. To photograph this as a title slide it must be placed horizontally and the lettering arranged upon it. The camera must ZA LA Wile UZ _ then be placed vertically above it, and a nega tive about 24 inches square made of the whole. A difficulty will perhaps be anticipated in placing the camera vertically, 7.e., with the It can be done by screwing two boards together at right angles, and strengthening them in the angle by a triangular block or a wrought iron bracket. The device thus made is screwed to the tripod head, and the camera screwed to the vertical portion. An even simpler though more cumbrous arrangement is to screw a couple of stout wood blocks to each side of each end of a } inch board (see Fig.) about 5 feet in length and 4 inches in width. The board can be laid across two chairs, and the camera screwed to the centre. The sketch shows the appearance of this really primitive piece of apparatus when looking on it from above. At any rate, some kind of arrangement, let it be what it may, is necessary whereby the ground glass of the camera and the print may be arranged parallel and horizontal. It is . hopeless work with the print vertical and using an adhesive for the lettering. The lighting