The Optical Magic Lantern Journal (June 1903)

n AND PHOTOGRAPHIC ENLARGER. on Wednesday, May 6th, at the Paddington Town Hall to hear an interesting illustrative account of the Nile Works. The association of Sir John, with the gigantic Nile irrigation works has gained world-wide fame for the member for North Paddington. Recognising the interest that his many friends have taken in this enormous and successtul undertaking, Sir John Aird decided .to afford them opportunities of seeing some limelight pictures illustrative of the Egyptian enterprise, the results of which must take their place among thé monuments of the land of the Pharohs. Some 100 pictureswere exhibited, shewing the gigantic undertaking from commencement to finish. Lambeth Field Club.—At a recent meeting of the club a very interesting lantern lecture was given by Mr. E. W. Harvey Piper, his subject being ‘‘ Birds of the Riverside and Seashore.’”’ A very large number of birds were dealt with, ranging from the swallows and martins to the gulls and other sea-loving birds, with which the lecture concluded. A great deal of practical information as to their ready identification, &c., was conveyed, and the numerous bird pictures were interspersed with views of river and ocean scenery, the masterly work of the well-known photographer, Mr. Bedding. Not a few of the bird views were photographic also, many: being of a first-class quality. Mr. Lionel Gowing: at the Camera Club on Monday evening, May 18th, gave a lecture illustrated with over a hundred lantern pictures of places visited by Mr. Pickwick. Most of them were from modern photographs of inns, private houses, public buildings, streets, &c., in London, Rochester, Cobham, Maidstone, Bury, Ipswich, Chelmsford, Bath, Berkeley, Tewkesbury, Towcester, and other Towns and villages mentioned in the ‘Pickwick Papers;’’ there were also a number of reproductions from prints and engravings of places all traces of which have long since disappeared. The lecturer had evidently taken considerable pains to obtain as complete a collection as possible of views of all the places described by Dickens in the most famous of his works. The Royal Society’s Conversazione.—The annual conversazione of the Royal Society was held at Burlington House on the 15th May, and was very largely attended. The collection of ‘exhibits was as great as usual, but possibly not quite so interesting to engineers as it has been on other occasions. The attraction of the evening 93 was unquestionably Sir Wm. Crooke’s collection exhibiting the properties of the ernanations of radium. The photographs were divisible into two broad classes :—(1) Photographs of explosion flames, taken on very rapidly moving films, showing the genesis of the explosion wave as the flame travels from the point of ignition, and the influence of reflexions from the ends of the tube; (2) photographs of sound waves moving through the explosion flame, by which the approximate temperature of the flame may be calculated. The Ilford Amalgamation Scheme.—A circular has been issued to the shareholders of Ilford, Limited, by Mr. G. F, Blake (chairman of the company), and Mr. C. J. Cox (vice-chairman), with reference to the proposed absorption into the Eastman Kodak Company. Their “earnest advice’ is to hold firm to the shares in Ilford, Limited, and ‘not allow its splendid, and now thoroughly established, business to be swamped by a very heavily capitalized American undertaking, whose prospects are still uncertain.” ‘‘A Thousand Miles up the Nile.”—This was the title of a lecture given by the Rev. J. G. James at the Victoria Hall in connection with the Yeovil and District Band of Hope Union. Mr. J. Luffman presided over a moderate attendance. The lecture was illustrated by a large number of beautifully coloured views shown by a lantern manipulated by My. E. M. Seddon. At the close a hearty vote of thanks to both lecturer and lanternist was passed. Ladies to the Front.—A lantern lecture was held at St. Helens Cottage, Isle of Wight, on Monday, May llth, by Miss H. J. Harvey, her subject being “How we got the Bible.” Miss Harvey kept the well-filled house spell-bound for nearly two hours, while Miss Daniells manipulated the lantern with great skill. The lecture was much appreciated by the audience, and should Miss Harvey venture another lecture she will need a much larger house to hold her audience. The Universities’ Mission to Central Africa, inaugurated in Hopton by the great African explorer Livingstone, when he was driven out of South Africa by the Boers, was the subject of an interesting address, illustrated by lantern views, from the Rev. V. R. Leeding, Rector of Burgh St. Peter, on Thursday, April 28rd. Most of the slides dealt with the terrible cruelties inflicted on the native by the slave trade, which in former days assumed appalling proportions in