Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-10-04
DONE BY THE CAMERA.
Vast Advance in the Science of Pho
Biography in Recent Years.
| From the St Louis Republic

Vast Advance in the Science of Pho
Biography in Recent Years.
From the st. Louis Republic.
Photography Is the standing wonder of
modern science and art. True, the mechan-
ism of the camera has recently been SO
simplified that child can touch the but
tom and perform the miracle of taking a
photograph; yet it may be truly said that
late as well as former discoveries in he
scientific bypaths of this very important
branch of knowledge furnish material for
much thought and reflection.
A generation has scarcely passed away
since photography was introduced into the
United States, and there are many men and
women still living VINO can remember the
day when the sum total Of the Photographic
apparatus in America consisted of a cigar
box fitted with a spectacle lens.
In the science of photography, however,
as In all other branches of human knowl-
edge, the last half century has wrought
wonders, and the result has been magical
progress all along the line. In no branch of
human thought or action has the progress
I've, scientific spirit been more pervasive.
Self-sacrificing investigators have labored
SO industriously for more light" and have
been so unselfish in imparting the informa-
ton thus gained that the reading public
mas come into the possession of q pretty
lair knowledge of the inestimable services
that are being rendered to modern science
by the photographers art.
When the present generation was chewing
ruDDer rings and wearing kits, sitting for
photograph was a more tiresome task
IMAM posing for a hair cut or a shave. In
those days instantaneous photography was
unknown; today the cameras sensitive eye
catches and retains images of the light
nlng nash, the forked fury of the Clouds.
the instant 1t leaves the muzzle of the gun
until II comes i'll contact with the target
IN order to take such photographs, the
artlst must be equipped with special ap-
paratus. Among other Things it is noted
that the method of illumina ton is Infinitely
more rapid than that given off by the cleo
trio spark, the feat being accompl:s shed by
o throwing light from mirror revolving co.
oo times per minute and with an exposure
or only one-millonth of a second
In the estimation of many, celestial pho
geography Is more Of genuine wonder than
snat branch OF the art alluded to in the
ioresCrns sentences During the last two
decades--the twenty years which have pro-
uuced more miracles of invention than did
the whole OF twenty preceding centuries-a
Sohpineu camera and telescope apparatus
mas been perfected. The remarkable char
acter of this instrument can best be ex-
planned by comparison: The naked eve
never sees more than COCO stars in the
whole Of the azure vault of heaven" the
10
5O,OOoOOO, while the combined photos graphic
ana telescope eye catches at a single "look''
the images of 160OOO,O0O twinkling silver
points of light.
Sir Robert Ball, the great British astron-
omer. says that some of the distant worlds,
the images of which have thus been caught
on sensitive plates, are removed from us by
such an lmmeasurable abyss of space that
1t would take beam of light 5000 years to
flash between the two points, and light
travels with speed of 10000 miles per
second. Certainly this is sounding the
depths of mystery.
, Besides the wonderful apparatus in the
list of Photographic curios mentioned above
Inventors have recently perfected scores of
curious instruments, and with them they
have obtained remarkable results. One of
these is Photographic gun," which takes
pictures a the rate of a dozen a second of
any object which the picture taking sports
man" chooses to aim at. Another is espe-
cfally designed for the purpose of auto
matically taking photographs of rapidly
growing plants. Photographs of hop and
bean vines thus taken at Intervals of sixty
seconds show movements in plant growths
which the old-time botanists never dreamed
Of. An English inventor has patented a
Photographic transmitter and receiver"
which literally sends portraits by telegraph
and another subject Of the queen has per-
fected an apparatus which actually photo
graphs rain drops at the moment of their
formation.
There are thousands of other interesting
and curious uses to which the camera has
has been accomplished by 1t in the past, we
can only walt with feeling of anxiety for
what will doubtless be Its more wonderful
development in the future