Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1909-05-07
FRIDAY, MAY I. 1909.
CAMERA CONNECTS AN AUTO
SPEEDER.
New Machines Record Introduce
ed in Court, Works Like a Charm.

New Machines Record introduce
ed in Court, Works Like a Charm.
The first conviction of an overspeeding
autoist by means of camera Testimony"
involving no measured road trap" or
the use of stop watch, was secured yes
terday in the Roxbury District Court,
when the "photo speed recorder" had its
initial test before Judge and won a sig
nal victory.
On the strength of what this interest
ing continuance demonstrated, William
S. Buxton of 1900 Commonwealth ave-
nue. was fined $40 for driving his ma
chine twenty-seven miles an hour. He
appealed and furnished 5000 bonds.
In the light of this one case, autoists
with.the speed mania now have to reck
on with detector which is sure to get
them dead to rights" once it is focused
on them and their cars. The police are
already predicting that it will bring about
a complete revolution in the methods of
chauffeurs everywhere.
With the photo speed recorder"
which is the joint invention of DIR. Her
bert T. Kalmus and Dr. Daniel F. Cum
stock, professors at the Institute of
Technology, all an officer has to do
is to step out behind car which he
thinks is going too fast, aim his camera
at it and press a button on the side of
a small box that resembles a camera.
He then holds the instrument in the
He already has one picture, but he needs
a second, and without any further
movement on his part the recorder takes
this second impression for him. Only a
second or so elapses between the two
pictures.
Naturally, the first picture is consid-
erably larger than the second, as the
automobile is moving all the while. In
side the camera is small dial around
which hand works, clocklike. This
hand starts when the button is first
pressed and travels until the second
picture is snapped, when it stops alb
ruptly. When the picture has been de-
veloped, the process of mathematical cal
culation begins.
By means of "A small steel scale, meas
urements are taken Of the distance be-
tween the treads of the autos real
wheels as shown in the first picture and
then in the second. These separate
measurements are arithmetically adj
iusted and the result is worked out in
comparison with the number of notches
travelled over by the hand on the dial
This process reveals just how many
miles an hour the autoist was speeding
Policeman Harrington of the Back Bay
station operated the photo speed recorder
on Mr.. Buxton on Commonwealth ave
nue.. To clinch the evidence, he testi
fled that he held stop watch on the
car at the same time. Camera anC
watch tailed exactly. The other wit
nesses were DR.. Kalmus and DIR. Com
stock, who took the camera apart anC
showed its workings to the court.
The photo speed recorder was showr
to Commissioner O'Meara recently. anC
he was anxious to have it tried out in
court case on its merits. II was invented
four months ago. If the status of the
instrument is sustained by the courts, i
will no longer be necessary to produce 1
crowd of witnesses and have a length,
hearing every time an overspeeder i
hailed into court.
With this new camera, man can con
ceal himself behind thicket, with bare
ly enough room for the lens to appea
through and secure convincing evi
dence. Then all that remains is to SHOW
the developed pictures in court, with tn
arithmetical calculations accompanyin,
them.