The Optical Magic Lantern Journal (January 1903)

389 THE OPTICAL macic LANTERN JOURNAL a meeting of the Manchester Amateur Photographic Society, held in the Atheneum, Princess street, on Tuesday evening, December 9th. The lecture was illustrated by a wide range of lanternpictures, which comprised some wonderful examples of results now attainable by means of the camera. Groups of flowers in their natural tints were shown, and one remarkable slide depicted a glowing sunset at Leeds, with dim suggestions of city roofs and a church spire below. Other pictures showed ‘rich coloured stainedglass from Beverley and York Minsters, and especially striking was the reproduction of a Rembrandt from the Rijks Museum, Amsterdam. Mr. F. W. Parrott, secretary of the Manchester society, was the lanternist. ‘*An Ornithological Expedition to St. Kilda.” —This was the subject of an interesting and instructive lecture delivered to an appreciative auditory, on December 12th, by Dr. J. Wiglesworth in University College, under the auspices of the Liverpool Biological Society. By the combined arts of photography and the lantern ' aiding the lecturer's description, many interesting aspects of life in the ocean solitude under review —that most remote of the Scottish Isles—were brought vividly before the auditory. Cambridge Photographic Society.—The concluding lecture of the course on photography in natural colours according to the SangerShepherd process was given by Mr. Fred J. Stoakley at the Club rooms, 1, Prince of Wales’ Passage, on Tuesday, December 9th. A series of slides illustrative of the formation of the finished picture was shown and described, and also a number of photographs in colour of flowers, insects, and copies of rare old pictures, the work of the lecturer and Mr. W. H. Hall. Cardiff Technical School Art Exhibition. —On Wednesday, December 3rd, Mr. T. H. Thomas, Cardiff, delivered the second of the series of popular lantern lectures which have been organised at the Cardiff Technical School in connection with the art exhibition. The title of the lecture, which was illustrated by 40 slides, was “ Celtic Decorative Art.” _Aceteylene Accident.—The case we mentioned in our last issue we regret to state resulted in the death of Herbert Thackray on the 15th of December, and we offer our sincere condolence to the parents. The case is fully reported in another column, with press opinions and comments by Mr. Wm. Tylar. .the biggest show comes off best. An Ideal Lantern for Exhibitors. By Derrrua. WW. UCH has lately appeared in the catalogues 4 . i of dealers, relating to the compactness of the lantern, the small size in which it can be compressed, and the ease with which it can be carried about. Individual tastes vary ; and to the man who is going about from village to village acting as his own porter, relying upon himself to do everything as some of the missioning colporteurs are doing, I have nothing to say. But when he comes in to the éity or large town engages a hall, capable of holding 2,000 people,, and with this small concern expects to elevate an audience, I say to him, “stay at home!” or get some capable local lanternist to operate,and don’t bring discredit on the profession, by exhibiting with such paltry tools. An incident like this actually occurred under the writer’s notice, and I scarcely knew whether to pity the missioner or the audience. However, after some some 20 minutes trying ineflectually to get some sort of a picture, the missioner asked for lights up, and spoke without slides, but to listen afterwards to the remarks about magic lanterns in general made my ears tingle. For the entertaining of the children at home, these small affairs are alright, and no amateur photographer should be without one. Combined with an acetylene generator it will add zest to the pleasures of the past summer’s excursions when snapsnots and stand exposures exhibited as lantern slides will beguile the long winter evenings. But let the serious worker, the man who is desirous of public fame leave such toys alone, and invest in a good Biunial; appearances go for everything now-a-days, the man who makes The choice of a light is varied, good results can be got with acetylene, and provided with a first class generator of fair capacity, and jets with 4 burners, pretty effects have been obtained with dissolving. My favourite is the lime-light, using the Brown or Gwyer jets, which in my practice give equal results, and used with the pendant ether saturator, no one need desire better. The electric light cnly is allowed to be used in some halls, and all others are prohibited. This is the case at the Birmingham City Tall, and operators coming ” here must be prepared to fix up for electricity or not to exhibit at all. Cables are already run round the hall and it only needs the wires of the Rheostat attaching to the switch to be ready for exhibition. Will it require three or four lanterns to cope with all these conditions? No! The lantern I