Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-04-05
WHAT RAYS PAINT.
Little Known Curiosities of the
Photographic Art.
C0L0RS NO MAN EVER SAW.
Photographs on a Newspaper---compos
of Skulls--Takin- Pictures by Tel
escops and Microscope---PhO-
toSraphs of Mushrooms
Special to the Gazette.

Special to the Gazette.
WASHINGTON, April 4-Whatever may be
accomplished eventually in the way OF re-
producing colors of permanence by photog-
raphy, the process for doing this newly dis
covered by NJ. Lippmann Is scarcely TO be
considered yet as more than one OF the
many curiosities of marvellous art.
Some day before very long, doubt
less, this or other methods will be
so far perfected that the taking of peoples
portraits with the colorings of the originals
will be practicable; great paintings Will
be copied Observation-Disclosures time must
destroy the paintings themsclveS-witht the
camera, and the same apparatus will be
utilized for making the sun himself do
landscapes in the twinkling of an eye with
all the tintS of nature.
With relation to the ultra-red and mira
violet, invisible to the human eye, which
the French academician finds exhibited as
black bands in his reproduction of the
secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
here, has made some astonishing discov
cries recently. The ultra-red is to the left
of the red end of the rainbow, while the
ultraviolet is to the right of the violet end,
the length of the rainbow being in this
manner added to in both directions. What
scould be more interesting than these
HUES UNKNOWN TO Us.
TO which, SO Professor Langley says, roses
and other flowers owe much of the exquis-
lite beauty OF their cOloring. BY an in
Strument of his own invention, inexpressi-
bly, delicate, which he calls ''bolometer,"
this famous scientist has traced the
rainbow to more than twice its Wis
ihtes length. The contrivance-a thin
SLIM Of iron through which a cur
re@ of electricity is passed-is moved
aHhg over rainbow, cast by tine sun
S16fough prism, registering the heat of the
hiuden rays by the interruption of the cur
rent. In this way it is made known that we
are actually able to see but small fraction Of
q rainbow. Who can tell what gorgeous col
orS, different from any ever beheld by man,
lie concealed TO his imperfect vision along
the path beyond the violet and the redi
1t is amazing how simple and evident
some inventions are, when once they are
hit upon. 1t was the Emperor Nero who
used the first eyeglaSS-a morocle, by the
way He was near-sighted, and he found
that a certain big coucave emerald in his
Jewel collection enabled him to see with 4
much improved vision what went on in the
circus at the gladiator shows. His notion
was that the gem was magical, but there
was the original prcsbyopic lens, if only
any one had had the wit to look through it
with the gaze of scientific speculation. But
no one did, and so it was not for fifteen
centuries that Spectacles were invented.
To make photograph, the most impor-
tant requirement is surface that is SEN
sitive to light. You imagine that chemis-
try is required to make such 4 surface but
that is not true. The newspaper on which
these words are printed has q sensitiZed
surface. Tear off this page
when you are through read
ing it and it will make you very
fair Photographic print, II you will lay u
rio IL and IL tn tho
sun for a while.
But the negative requires skill and appa
ratus to make, you say. Then do without
it. Imagine yourself cast away upon an
uninhabited island. You are an enthusiast
tic amateur in photography and you must
MAKE PICTURES OR DESPAIR.
Happily, you have preserved your hat,
your spcctacles and j note book. That is
reasonable sunrOsition comrarnd with
some OF those in the Swiss Family Robin
son. where, Il one oi The family desires
lemonade. he is sure to discover Oppor-
tunely lemon tree, with field
of sugar cane on the other side Of
bubbling brook. Rejoicing in the album
dant supply OF materials at your command,
you fit one of your spectacle lenses into the
crown of your hat and cut strip of bark
to close up the opening intended for your
head. That is Il camera. Next, you tear .
page from your notebook, previously dried,
and rub it over with some juice squeezed
from flowers. Flower juice is an admlra-
bic sensitizing medium; few years ago it
was utilized TO some extent IN photography.
The page thus sensitized you attach inside
to the bareback of the hat, and your pho
toe1'aph is soon made upOn tho naper, with
out the intervention of negative
But alter all, this is not fair SUPPOSE
ton. You might not have hat, nor spec
tacles, nor vet notebook, when You were
cast upon the island. This, however would
not prevent you from taking photographs.
You could surely make some sort of box
with very small hole in one side and big
leaf attached to the back. In the absence
of q lens, the small hole does very well to
concentrate the rays of light upon
the leaf, which has, like all leaves,
a sensitive surface. Thus you obtain
your photograph. A smooth plank of wood
has sensitive surface, too, upon which a
sun-print can be made. 1t is the rasin in
the wood which makes the surface sensi-
tive to light, and the same remark applies
to leaves and to the newspaper tissue made
froIp.a1ed pulp. 1t is worth mentioning,
- - way, that traveller in the Arctic
regions could make very respectable lens
out Of
A PIECE OF ICE.
The curiosities of photography are only
beginning TO be discovered. Some photo
graphs were made the other day by tele-
scope of the statue of America-vulgarly
supposed to represent the Goddess of
Liberty on the dome of the capitol.
Lenses were arranged in big camera ac-
cording to telescope principles, and the
picture, taken at a distance of 4 quarter of
a mile, though only four inches high, were
so clear in detail as to enable the people at
the national museum to restore with accu-
racy the mutilated original cast for the
statue. actual size. which is now being set
up in the center OF that great institution.
Some very interesting photographs have
been made at the National museum here of
mushrooms in progressive stages of growth.
One series represents the development and
OF the ''fairy-ring'' mushroom,
which SO many pretty supersti-
tious fancies are current. For centuries
past it has been imagined by country folk
that the rings formed by these fungi in the
meadows and on the hiIlsides were used by
fairy dancing parties. The circles enclosed,
bare of vegetation, suggested trampling
by merry little feet, while it was supposed |
that the ring of mushrooms round about af- |
forded seats to the sprightiy jewellers. But |
science has shown that this picturesque no. |
ton is al delusion, and that the fairy |
rings are formed in a very commonplace |
manner. Each ring is begun with single |
mushroom, which, when it decays, is re- |
placed by number OF little ones. The |