# Popular Mechanics/Volume 49/Issue 1/Loading Box Aids Field Work with Camera

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Loading Box Aids Field Work with Camera
By JOHN EDWIN HOAG
Since cut film has supplemented glass plates for photographic work, photography has taken one of the greatest forward strides after dry plates displaced wet ones. Every photographer, however, if he does much field work, is confronted with the problem of carrying a sufficient number of holders, or reloading them on locations where he does not have access to a photographic dark room. Roll film is at present the only material that can be satisfactorily loaded or unloaded by daylight, but its use is out of the question for anything but amateur work. The thousands of commercial photographers, and others who do photographic work upon a serious basis, must use either plates or cut film, and with them, loading or unloading holders in the field is always a problem.
With This Easily Made Portable "Dark Room," the Field Photographer Has No Difficulty in Loading and Unloading Plate and Film Holders
The writer was recently called upon to do certain photographic work in a region where he was to make some 300 negatives, and where not once during a period of six ​weeks did he have access to a photographic dark room. Obviously, carrying 150 loaded holders would have been out of the question (two negatives in each holder). Moreover, the use of roll film would have been impractical. Glass plates would have been impossible because of the weight and bulk, and vulnerability; therefore, the use of cut film was the only practical solution. There, again, the problem of loading and unloading the holders in the field, had to be solved.
I therefore went to work in my home workshop to develop some sort of a device that would permit the loading and unloading of cut film in the field, independent of dark rooms, or without being compelled to wait for night to do the job. After much experimenting and various trials and errors, the loading box shown in the accompanying illustrations was made up. It weighs but 8 lb., is easily portable, and turns the trick to perfection. Its use enabled me to produce 300 perfect negatives, with only six holders. I was able to load and unload these holders by daylight anywhere in the field, and to mail the exposed negatives home for development, as fast as they were put through the camera. This obviated the necessity for developing negatives under the unsatisfactory conditions one faces in the field, or taking a chance with some doubtful local laboratory technicians.
Above. Details of the Loading Box; Below, the Box Serves as a "Carryall," When Not in Use as a Dark Room
The box is made of basswood, carefully mortised, finished in cherry on the outside, and painted black inside. It is 22 in. long, 7 in. deep. and 18 in. wide. This gives ample space for handling the 5 by 7-in. cut films with which I was working. For handling larger negatives it would be easy to increase the size of the box. The box has a carrying handle like a suitcase, so it can be transported with no more difficulty. It is also provided with means for handling for handling panchromatic negatives, which must be loaded or unloaded in total darkness. I used more than 100 panchromatic negatives, loading and unloading them within the box, and did not have a failure with one.
Two square holes are cut in one side of the box, and fitted with hinged covers. To the inside of the holes are tacked and glued cloth armlets, made of heavy, light-tight black sateen and fitted with elastic wrist bands. A rectangular opening is cut in the top of the box and rabbeted to hold a red glass, and a lid is hinged to fit over the glass. When in use, a package of unexposed cut film is placed inside the box, on one side, and an empty cardboard box on the other. The film holder is placed in the center between the armlets, the lid closed, and the hands thrust through the armlets. The exposed film is taken from the holder and transferred to the empty box, then the holder is reloaded from the fresh package. The operator can easily see what he is doing through the ruby glass in the top.
Top for Aquarium
In order to prevent my goldfish from leaping out of the aquarium, which they tried occasionally, I made a cover for the top of the glass bowl. The cover is nothng more than a piece of ordinary mosquito wire screening stretched over a pair of wooden embroidery hoops in the same way that the ladies adjust a piece of cloth when they do embroidery work. After the screening was placed upon the smaller hoop I forced the larger hoop over it until it was only halfway in place. Then the wire screening is trimmed off neatly about $^1$⁄$_8$ in. from the edge of the hoop. When the larger hoop is forced all the way down into proper position, the entire cover is as tight as a drum without a single sharp end of screening protruding beyond the edge of the hoop.—W. C. Michel, Jersey City, N. J.
Use for Old Valve Springs
Old Auto Valve Springs Can Be Put to Various Uses around the Home
The illustration shows a number of different ways in which old valve springs can be made to give additional service after they have been discarded from the car. The ends of the spring can easily be bent into the required shape by heating them with a blowtorch or bunsen burner and bending them while hot. After being bent, the ends should be heated to a dull red heat and plunged into cold water or oil to restore the temper.
Wire Loops Prevent Snowslides
Small Wire Loops Attached to Roof Prevent Dangerous Snowslides
Where a steep roof overhangs a sidewalk or other passageway, there is danger in winter from snowslides. To obviate this trouble one home owner utilized some wire devices, as shown in the drawing. A number of 18-in. lengths of No. 10 wire are pointed at each end by cold hammering on an anvil and afterward bent in the manner described. The nail points of each device are driven into the roof with a blow or two of the hammer, and, with the loops thus attached to the surface, about 10 ft. apart, the snow or ice will remain stationary until it melts.
Spraying Lath Speeds Work
A Wisconsin contracting carpenter claims to have greatly increased the efficiency of his men while engaged in lathing, by merely spraying the bundles of lath with water as they are opened for use. Bundles of pine or hemlock, as they come from the mills or yards, are full of fine, loose splinters that often penetrate the workmen's hands, causing considerable annoyance. Spraying them with water not only softens the splinters but prevents loose particles of wood and dust from flying about when the laths are nailed on.
Auto Steering Wheel on Bicycle
Old Automobile Steering Wheel Substituted for the Customary Handlebars on Bicycle
The usual type of bicycle handlebars were not satisfactory to Paul Webber of Bedford, Mass., so he removed them and substituted a steering wheel taken from an old Ford. This, he says, is much better than the customary handlebars.—Arthur F. Egan, Boston.
Steam Removes Wall Paper
I have just accomplished a difficult feat in the removal of paper from the wall of a room in which the first paper had been varnished after it was put on, about 40 years ago, and then papered over that thickness one to three times. The last thicknesses resisted strongly because the paperhanger apparently had used a little glue in his paste when he hung the paper. Warm water was used, but that was a slow process except where there was but one thickness over the varnished paper. I tried a commercial preparation to soften the outer layers, as well as the varnished layer, but it was even then a very slow process. I finally conceived a plan to soften the paper with steam and this worked to perfection. I took a small tea-kettle and boiled the water on the stove. I filled the kettle about one-quarter full so that the steam would come out of the spout freely. Then I wired the kettle to a one-burner electric stove and switched the current on full. The kettle continued to boil and emit a full stream of steam. I then placed the nose of the spout within $^1$⁄$_2$ in. of the paper and the steam penetrated very readily, permitting the removal of the paper with a putty knife or scraper. The outer layers came off readily, and the varnished paper was softened so that I could work continuously. The electric cord was plugged in the baseboard socket and the wall sockets so that I could reach every part of the wall. As the kettle handle prevented steaming the paper near the ceiling. I added a short piece of rubber tubing at this point, and finished the work in a short time.—Harry E. Gifford, Medford, Mass.
How to Level a Clock
Round-Head Screws in Base of Clock. When Properly Adjusted, Make It Stand Level
Most clocks do not run well unless they are set exactly level and this is sometimes a difficult thing to do, especially if one has no level. Most people raise one side of the clock up by means of a piece of cardboard or bits of paper stuck under the feet, but these often shift. A better method is shown in the drawing. Drive four small round-head screws in the bottom of the block and adjust them so that the clock stands perfectly level. Set the clock on a piece of cloth or felt to prevent the screwheads from marring the mantel top.
¶ Split an inner tube and cut crossways in two pieces. Tack or glue the pieces together, one on top of the other. This mat saves foot ache when ironing.