Los Angeles herald., 1908-05-17
Science and Invention

The latest advance in the science of
color photography is the Lumiere auto
chrome plate. Briefly stated the gen.
eral procedure is as follows: A glass
plate receives a coating of potato
starch grains-about 100000 to the
square inch.
These grains are impregnated with
a dye. In certain sense the method
is a variation of three-color process,
only the colors used are not those
which are ordinarily considered pri-
maries-red, yellow and blue-but light
green, red orange and blue violet,
which are distributed throughout the
particles In equal proportions.
After isolation with waterproof var
nis,l the granulated surface is coated
with a panchromatic collodion emul-
sion. The exposure may roughly be
said to be twenty times as long as
one on a fast plate and is made in an
ordinary camera without any extra
apparatus. the plate having its glass
side turned toward the lens.
The light passes through the colored
grains and then strikes the light, sem
sitive film A special yellow screen is
placed before or behind the lens to
retard the action of blue rays.
After developing, the plate, without
fixing. is treated with acidified per-
reducer. This and the further process
is undertaken in daylight.
After reduction the plate is rinsed
and redeveloped, the result being a
positive transparency in natural colors
which, to be seen, must be held up to
white light At present no duplicates
are possible, nor is it possible to REM
edy any faults by retouching.
a.
hand loom for use With power weaver
near Chemnitz has opened the way for
a considerable return to textile manu-
facture in the home, not only in Sax
ony, but in other localities where cleo
tricity provides cheap power on a small
scale. The new loom is built almost
entirely of wood. 1t requires a space
of 101a feet in length. 7 feet in width
and ~ feet in height, weighs $500
pounds and one-half horsepower is suf-
ficient to run it. The jacquard appa-
ratus has been ingeniously applied so
as to make unnecessary the ordinary
heavy lifting box. This household ma
chine is very quiet in operation, sells
at $50, or about one-fourth the price
of an iron mechanical loom, and the
cost of weaving in the early expert
ments has been less than half of that
with the factory loom. 1t is to be
adapted soon for weaving manifold
thread instead of the single thread of
the first model.
The usual method of using solar heat
has been to concentrate the suns rays
by mirrors. but in the simpler appa-
ratus with which Frank Shuman has
been experimenting at Tacoma, Pa, the
direct rays have been made to heat a
boiler of blackened pipe. coils inclosed
in a shallow box with double glass
top. An air space of one inch between
the two layers of glass forms a jacket
preventing escape of heat by radiation.
Water in the pipes generated steam
with a pressure of fifteen pounds.
which was made to drive an engine,
and by employing ether a pressure of
ninety pounds was reached. In warm
climates a good working pressure is
expected from water, thus solving the
perplexing power problem Of tropical
lands.
The singular phenomena of hard steel
being cut by a rapidly revolving disc of
soft steel has been somewhat puzzling.