The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

The Phonoscope (Copyrighted, 1896) A Monthly Journal Devoted to Scientific and Amusement Inventions Appertaining to Sound and Sight Vol. I NEW YORK, AUGUST-SEPTEMBER, IS97 No. 9 Machine to take flMc* tures from a Iktte Will Reproduce Scenes at a Distance of ten miles I think we all like to look at things from aloft. All our high buildings, mountains and hills are frequented in the course of the year by a vast throng. Thousands of people visit the Pulitzer Building every month to enjoy the vast prospect from the dome. In the extensive prairie region lying adjacent to Chicago — the great wheat and corn regions of Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana — there is no view from aloft to be obtained for hundreds of miles. In fact, the city of Bayonne, N. J., where I first sent the vistascope into the air, is almost devoid of high points from which to enjoy an extended prospect or vista; hence the name vistascope, which looks like a sample name, but it cost me about a week of thought before I had coined it for my aerial camera obscura, which enables me to see pictures of the distant horizon line while standing on the ground. It is a wellknown fact that a camera obscura picture requires a darkened chamber in which the excess of light will not efface the picture. Therefore, when I thought about the possibility of seeing a camera obscura picture at a considerable height in the air, suspended from the line leading up to my kites, it at first seemed impossible to see such a picture because of the excessive light from the sky. I soon found by experiment that if I looked through a small aperture in a black disk held at a proportioned distance from an opera-glass to exclude the sky glare, the picture was discernible at a considerable distance. It was largely a problem of preventing the glare of the sky from dazzling the eye. The day-light between the eye and the picture does not interfere with one's power to discern the picture aloft unless the direct light from the sky enters the eye in too large an amount. In a recent experiment the vistascope, or aerial camera obscura, made its first ascension about sunset, or when the sun was partly veiled by a bank of clouds in the southwest. When the vistascope had ascended to a height of about 150 feet, at 6 P. M., Aug. 21, supported by three Eddy kites and one Hargrave box kite, the sky was overclouded and the light was weak. Yet this condition was somewhat favorable to the perception of the picture aloft with the naked eye, because the earth was shaded directly beneath the darkened rectangular cavity which protects the picture from the effacing effect of too much light. During the past month I have been thinking over the many difficulties pertaining to this achievement. I have believed, and still believe, that the view will be better and clearer late in the day during a clear sunset, when long shadows cover the ground directly beneath the vistascope and lessen the uprush of light into it. While the apparatus is simple, the art of excluding too much light and of lifting the vistascope with its rather heavy mirror, frame and lens is extremely complicated and gives rise to many difficulties, not the least of which are the management and guidance of the kites. If too little pull is exerted by the kites, the vistascope — which is eight feet high by four feet square and weighs about twelve pounds — will not be lifted. If the strain becomes too heavy the line will break and the vistascope will be dragged through tree-tops and torn to pieces by a rendering pull of seventyfive or eighty pounds. During the first ascension of the vistascope I repeatedly tested the' pull with a spring balance, and had the pull exceeded sixty pounds I would have immediately detached the vistascope from the kite line and hauled in the line of four kites and removed one of them. This would have reduced the strain below the danger point. The spring balance, by recording the kite strain, is like a safety valve that gives warning of coming disaster. Several times when the strain approached fifty-six pounds during the ascension of the vistascope, I watched the motion of the kites with anxiety. The system of hoisting the vistascope by means of the tandem kites was as follows; Four guylines extended from the four corners of the vistascope up to a central point or ring, which was fastened into the main kite cable, supported at a steep angle by the four kites. Other guylines to prevent the vistascope from twisting extended in a horizontal direction to the kite cable, to which it was fastened. The result was that when the powerful reel, with a steel shaft, paid out the kite line upward the vistascope went up with it, being part of the kite cable. When the vistascope ascended, Dr. William H. Mitchell, of Bayonne, paid out the line by means of the reel, while C. E. Cozzens, of South Framington, Mass., who is an expert kiteflier, Commodore Vermilye, of Bayonne, and myself all walked to the centre of the lot and looked up at the darkened cavity for the picture to appear. Very slight glimpses were obtained until the vistascope began to rise above the rather dark foliage of the tree-tops, when the foliage began to appear against the white paper, suggesting the shadow of trees cast by the moonlight. The want of color in the picture was due to the absence of sunlight, which gave a dull effect, the sun being for the time overclouded. Glimpses were obtained of the cupola of a neighboring house and the distant horizon. But within less than a minute the wind tore away the black paper from the lightprotecting cavity, causing a rush of light that effaced the picture, but not before the first successful vistascope picture in the world had been seen. Dike all first experiments, an unexpected accident had happened. As usual, in this case, some easily remedied defeat had temporarily suspended operations. Probably the most important improvement to be made in the construction of the vistascope is to attach four mirrors instead of one to the square block into which the lens at the top of the vistascope is inserted. Then by pulling two strings leading down to the ground one mirror is thrown out of position and another into position, thus in turn throwing four different views into the vistascope instead of one. In this way the vista scope will cast upon the parafnne screen, through which the picure is seen, views covering a large part of the horizon line in four directions. It will be like the dissolving views of a stereopticon, in which one picture fades out and is replaced by another. I think the vistascope will be useful to amuse crowds on public occasions, to see distant objects at sea without going to the masthead, and to discern the white tents of an enemy's encapment in time of war. With the use of large kites, such as hoisted Lieut. Wise into the air on Jan. 21, 1897, on Governor's Island, a vistascope could be sent aloft that would paint in the colors of nature, and with all its beauty, a picture of a landscape as large as the ceiling of a room fifteen feet in diameter, because such an apparatus can be made very light. It is possible to build a skylight room, with a ground-glass ceiling upon which could be thrown the beautiful frescoing of nature in a camera obscura, and by shifting four mirrors with a curtain cord four different views could be thrown upon the ceiling from above, showing through the glass to the occupant of the room below. The lights from the camera obscura picture would sufficiently illumine the room for occupancy. Sliding panels could be dropped over the windows, temporarily cutting off the outer daylight, while the guest could admire the scenery. WILLIAM A. EDDY. A Slot Machine 2,000 Years Old There is very good evidence that a coin-actuated machine was invented, if not actually in use, more than two thousand years ago. Herewith is a correct picture of the machine itself, which is copied from that which appears in the book on "pneumatics,'' of Alexandria, 150 B. C. Now this writer, according to his own showing, treats of many inventions and discoveries which had been handed down by others, so that it is quite possible that this particular penny-in-the-slot machine may be considerably more than two thousand years old. But even if we assign this remote date to it, it must come as a surprise to many that a thing of which they believed to be so modern was actually contrived before the time of Christ.