The sun., 1910-06-12
COPIED WITR THE CAMERA.
Unele sans way OS Making Duplicaeea
% Deeds IN the General Land once.

Unele sans way Of Making Duplicated
% Deeds IN the General Land once.
wAsHM0roN. June ii.--Up n q year ago
the charge Of rs cents a hundred words and
o. for the certificate Of correctness barely
paid the coat Of furnishing the copies of
land patents which the General Land O&cs
Of the United States Government supplies
10 all who apply for them. and there are
hundreds Of such requests each day. NoW,
thanks 10 a new process. Uncle Sam q
making a very neat profit from this Is
cents a hundred words. the prics utipti-
lated by act Of Congress, because instead
Of employing clerks 20 copy the titles
laboriously word for word the copying
II all done in lees than a minute and thare
IA no necessity for a minute scrutiny Of
figures and phrassology IN order 10 guard
against errors. The work 10 dnns By
photography.
In the basement Of the big granite build-
ing that occupies the block between z
and y and Eighth and Ninth streets.
n. W.. is a small room in which ons man,
a photographer. does the work which
formerly required ten CLERKS. and The
work Ia done infinitely better.
Stacked high against he walls Of ths
roOms are volumes of records Of land
patents, possibly 90 patents 10 BE- copisd;
something Iess than half a dAy's Work.
BY the old method Of typswrittsn copies
a clerk considered that a good days WoFk
had been accomplished II forty Of thea
patents we're copied. n the handwriting
were illegible. and some Of theas clsril
back IA the 'SOs and tho 'eoa did write
illegible hands. twenty such copies were
a fair days work.
While the photographer explains the
process Of copying he does not pause q
moment in his work. One book after
another is placed on a board upon which
beat the rays from two mercury tlbs
lights. The book is opened 90 . page
indicated by paper marker. placed there
by the clerk who has charge OF the re-
quests for copies. The page is placed
In position, the camera bulb is Bduessad
the sensitiEed paper-nO glass plates OF
films are used In this process. the paper
itself being treated as q negatiTe.-ia
exposed for ten OF fifteen seconds. the
bulb IL squeezed again and the book e
taken down.
While q new page " being placed IN
position an electric motor unwinds from
the big Ave hundred foot roll Of sensltinad
paper that portion which has just been
exposed to the light, carries Il beuea1h
the camera into q developing BolutiOa,
and by the time the new sheet which has
been brought into position u exposed
the sheet just preceding Il has been de-
veloped and Ia automatically delivered
into q tray at tho end % the camera.
These prints are taken cut nf the hypo
and strung on racks 20 dry and arc than
ready 20 be sent out.
The photographer finds no dinlculty IN
copying the oldest records In the Land
Ofice; in fact he declares that ths paper
and ink used a hundred years aRo fro
uuently give better results than materials
used IN more recent times. It Ia only
when he strikes q hook of reCorin a.
twenty or twenty-five years aEo that hs
aomstinaa has % ssnd u bach 70 q clerk
20 have the patent copied by hand. Tor
Il was az that period that 0overnment
clerks AdOpted the habit Of using purpl1
and viOlet inkn for their books Of record.
Ths photographic prOCeas has bpEB
20 satisfactory that tho General Land
Ofioa utilizas Il for making copies of
almost al sorts Of Documents. ANY long
"a daMired h aant 20 tns haaensnt. whsPa'
the two hours work % typsWriaor b ao-
c0uaplishad in less than a minute, and
there IL no danger OF misplaced commas.
daahes, &C.