Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-12-29


There has been considerable said during
the past year or two regard to the value of
the camera In jgdzing horse racing. par
tieulsrly concerning the snish Of a race
vhere the horses are very close. When The
great ,reati,e on The Horse in Motion,
rhich Senator Leland stanford . generoasity
gave to the world was published, the public
vas Surprised a. the singular and wonderful
revelations Of the camera In its ins,ansaDeou,
photographs Of not only the trotting and
running horse, bat Of many other ANIMAL
While in motion. The real horse takes posi-
sions and goes through motious that seemed
i icredible to those who had obtained their
IDEAS Of The horses when trottinz or running.
from the conventional and thoroughly inecr-
rect picture. Of horses with their fore and
hind legs .Iiended like pair Of disiders,
position never taken By horse in motion.
But the camera makes no mistakes; II can
not tell lie the figures which it prints upon
its eIira-sensitise plate are true for the in
slant, even If We don't like the looks OF
them.
Great Improvements have been made in
this country in the instantsi eous photograph
ing Of the trottiDg and running horse, which
Improvements are more largely due to the
kill and ingenuity OF Mr.. 4 nest Marx of
Plainfeld. n. j than to any other gentle
man. Mr.. Marx has done a great deal OF
turf photography, and for this business he
has Two cameras, one Of which is placed di-
recily over the other, both upon a tripod
Mr.. Mar takes his observations Of the horses
in a race. This ia not done until the horses
have entered the last 10Th of a mile. Then
the leader Of the race is found and followed
his nose being kept even with a perpendicu-
lar line in the field of the camera. As he
passes under the wire, (Mr. Marx always
taking his observations from the judges
staLd) the gash bolt of the shutter to the
lower or stationary camera is touched. and
the plate receives the instantaneous impress
SION It i, then removed TO dark room and
in three minutes developed picture is I'm
ished and 10 the judges hands. Next season
Mr.. Marx proposes to employ an electrical
arrangement by means of which ne can have a
still more accurate exposure and by the use of
other Improvements, it is expected that next
season Mr.. Marx will be able to place mega
tiyes in the hands of the judges within eighty
ia aft Tor he huf ha DO
have weighed in.
In prosecuting his work and testing his
theories. Mr.. Marx has made large number
of negatives and plates upon several of the
great race tracks of the country. From the
most accurate calculations which he has been
able to make, Mr.. NJ. says that his camera
requires the exposure of but the four-thous-
and part of a second to make a negative.
When it is RENE INBRED that the human eye
through the medium of the evelids, the most
perfect of shutters, is capable of receiving
second, it will understood that these views
which are called instantaneous are not inap-
propriateiy named. Mr.. Marx maintains
that there is no such thing as dead heat
in race, that the camera will show that
there is variation of several inches in the
positions of the horses at the finish in many
closely contested heats, and also in many
heats which the Judges declare to be "dy ad. -
SO positive is MIR. Marx in regard to the
value of the camera as an aid to fair impair
tial judging that he believes within two ears
all the large race tracks of the country will
officially adopt its use as a means of placing
the position horses in a race,