Los Angeles herald., 1909-11-12


and the telephone. The steam
engine applied to steamships and rail
way locomotives, brought the people
of different parts of the world into
one community. The telegraph and the
telephone made 1t possible for the
whole world to know in one moment
the local event of the moment before,
Photography has visualized the cur
rent history of the hour and has
brought before every eye the wonders
of the universe.
Photography has taken an import
ant position in journalism, and il is
becoming more and more to be used as
vehicle for transmitting ordinary in
telligence. First the illustrated mag
azines and newspapers, by the use OF
half-tone photographs on metal plates,
were able TO give their readers a
truthful reproduction of the features
of great men and women concerned
with important events. So common is
this use of photography that the av-
erage American child is able to rec
ognize at a glance the portrait Of
any notable person or the picture of
the scene of any great event.
Supplementing this journalistic feat
of spreading visual information broad
cast, has come the moving picture
machine Now the ordinary man in
the streets not only recognizes the
portrait of the English king or the
German emperor at a glance, but he
also knows just how Edward VII lifts
his hat to a lady and just how Will
liam II acknowledges the salute OF an
officer. The people of Vinton, Iowa,
the court ladies of Peking, the ba-
zaar hangers-on OF Calcutta, and the
residents of Melbourne all have seen
Wilbur Wright flying through the air
in his aeroplane. Within a few weeks
after the news came that the north
pole had at last been found the world
saw the Stars and Stripes at the top
of the world. Photography plays its
part in every event of the time.
No other habit has grown so rapidly
in America as that of amateur photog-
raphy. Commercial photography has
kept pace, and the business of man
ufacturing and distributing photo
graphic supplies has come to be one
of the most important in the country.
The people of the United States in
1900 spent $3O,OOO,OOO for photographs
and Photographic apparatus and ma
terlals. Conservative men in the trade
estimate that the expenditure for 1909
will be at least S75, 600 900. One firm
has made over 1900, 900 lenses since
1882 and in the few years that the high
priced, anastigmatic lenses have been
on the market, this same concern has
turned out over a million of them.
These lenses sell for more money than
the best cameras fitted with ordinary
lenses, and it is evident that many
amateurs, as well as professionals, de-
mand them. One corporation devoted
to the Photographic supply business in
its last annual statement reported
worth $22, 900, 900. The profits
for the year, after allowing a heavy
PERCENTAGE for depreciation, were
more than s7,00O,000. A million dollars
was devoted to improvements, the
were paid a handsome
dividend and two million dollars was
retained as surplus.
Every city now has a Photographic
supply business which ranks high in
the list of retail money earners. In |
quiry at any one of these retail stores
will discover the fact that the amateur
is a Veritable slave to his |
machine. While there are a gerat many |
persons who purchase cameras. only to |
throw them away after the new is |
worn off, the average kodak fiend, once |
n the clutches of the habit, never re-
covers. He snap shoots on to his grave. |
Perhaps no other single invention |
mas served as many widely differing
purposes as has the Photographic CAM
era. 1t has been of incalculable aid to
science. The astronomer has captured |
)n Photographic plates thousands of |
he secrets of the stars which would
nave been forever hidden from the HUI
nan eye. The bacteriologist has used
he photograph in the study and identi-
ication of germs and thereby has
Helped onward the progress of modern
medical science The nature student
las used the camera to interpret and
Explain his discoveries and observa-
ions to the world. The soldier has APP
,lled the Photographic camera to the
cience of war, and by using the tele-
,koto lense camera in connection with
.irships it will be practically impossible
or an enemy to mask daylight move