, 1915-07-14
MOVING PICTURES AND SUBMARINE
PHOTOGRAPHY.
BY ARTHUR j. LANG.

Toward the end of March there arrived st
Nassau the rest of the members of the ex-
petition, namely, George Williamson, Keville
Gleman, who later came to be the historian
Of the party, and Charles Gregory, an ex-
pert mOving-picture camera operator, accom-
panied by every necessity such as extra sec
tions of tubing for use in cases whore it
might be necessary to reach greater depths,
two immense glass discs five feet in diameter
and one-half inch thick for the window of
the observatory" and a battery of nine
Cooper-Hewitt lamps Of 2,400 candle power
each, to be submerged in the water in cases
whore it might prove necessary to have arti-
fetal illumination which, on account OF the
wonderful transparency of the waters of the
Antillian seas, did not occur even at con-
siderable depth. The expedition remained
in Nassau during April and May, working
daily with excellent results. So radiant are
the tropical light rays and so crystalline the
waters Of these regions that at depths of
eight or ten fathoms were taken wonderful
photographs of the strange and silent under
sea regions where millions of vari-colonred
fishes glide through forests Of live coral or
traverse the undulating aquatic gardens
tinted with scarlet, purple and gold.
According to Ernest Williamson, on daya
when the weather was favourable it was posi-
bic to see clearly and distinctly for a dis
lance of $50 to 200 feet after which objects
seemed to fade in q watery haze. Seen from
the depths, the spectacle of the waves dane
ing OH the surface smoothly and maiestically
is something really marvellous. And in pass
ing through them, the suns rays are broken
up into a rain of silver which falls on the
explorer Of the deep like snowy artificial
fires.
While the explorers worked below at a
depth of fifty feet. q person, located on the
ships deck, received instructions that came
up the tube and transmitted them to the
helmsman if it were necessary to proceed to
another point, or to those who manned the
windlass when it was necessary to raise or
lower the observation chamber. Much of
the time the ship was allowed to drift with
the currents and whatever the cylinder pass
ed was photographed. Under favourable
conditions, it was possible to take photo.
graphs up to $50 feet depth. The expedi-
ton obtained some 20, 600 feet of film show
ing native boys diving for coins and fighting
for them at the bottom; q diver in his diving
dress looking for treasure about a sunken
ship or seated on the sea bottom holding a
purple aquatic fan; wonder pictures of sharks,
all surrounded with the peculiar enchant-
ment and mystery of the sub-oceanic half
hight. At greater depth and during the
night, artificial light was used and by means
of it we're taken some of the most wonderful
moving picture views imaginable. In one
of them a swimmer, illuminated by the
Cooper-Hewitt lamps, undulates among the
myriads of fishes which surrounded him, at
tracted to the light like butterflies.
But the eliminating achievement of the
expedition was photographing sharks in in
t~eresting situations such as fighting with q
man or, in violation of Christian ethics, with
each other. This was the final accomplish
ment needed to attract popular attention
and insure the definite triumph of the under
taking.
To he c0uti1ue61