has been exposed twice. In other words you can never waste a plate any more by forgetting to draw the slide or exposing the same negative twice. The various automatic devices remind you if you forget to wind the shutter or if you leave the slide cover outside when taking the plateholder out of the camera. You can never do a thing before you have done the preceding manipulation, and all this saves you many worries and expenses.

The shutter works up to one fourthousandth second and allows also time exposures. The width of the slot can be seen outside. While with other apparatus the shutter begins to develop its speed when passing over the plate, in our case it has already traveled the distance of a plate width, consequently is at its maximum speed. For near objects you focus by sliding out the bottom. The plateholders are somewhat lighter and thinner than the usual metal ones of other makes. There is no strap attached to the camera but instead three holes with threads are screwed into it, to fix a leather handle

which serves as carrier as well as facilitates focusing. A tripod can also be employed for use with this apparatus. We see that this unique, ingenious

model combines the advantages of a folding, tripod, quick focus, and mirror reflex camera and besides possesses several of its own. When not in use the negative is kept in the upper portion in the holder and to make the exposure you press a button and the plate drops down behind the lens. From this it follows that the inner dimensions of the apparatus must at least be twice the size of a plate and with a 4 x 5 camera they must be 8 x 5. The whole is built as a camera or as an attachment to be fixed to any ordinary apparatus. It is protected by numerous native and foreign patents.

The same firm manufacturers a high grade lens which was put upon the market only a few months ago. Three kinds are made: f6.5, f6, f4.5, all three allowing an angle of view of 90 degrees and consisting of six cemented single lenses. As a special feature it should be mentioned that one-half of the system produces at full stop the same work as the whole double objective. It allows of a wide use, such as for portraits, landscapes, snapshots, reproductions, and architectural photographs.

Editorial Notes

E HAVE received from J. A. Younger, a subscriber from Washington, D. C., two very attractive camera prints of nude subjects. We reproduce one as an initial letter illustration to this note, and the other one is equal to it in composition and treatment, except that the light is a little too strong, making the flesh appear rather chalky where the sun falls upon it.

We call the attention of our readers to the important series of papers, by Sadakichi Hartmann (Sidney Allan), on "Old and New Masters,' and what photographers may learn from them, which begins in this number of THE PHOTOGRAPHIC TIMES. This series of articles will be found very valuable, particularly by art students and photographers who are desirous of obtaining instruction in the artistic side of their profession. They naturally follow the series of practical papers on "Landscape and Figure Composition," by thesame author, which ran in this magazine last year, and which have now been reprinted in book form.

TH

HE August number of THE PHOTOGRAPHIC TIMES contained forty-four (44) pages of reading matter, an increase of four pages over the preceding issues. When the present management took over the magazine, about a year ago, it was printing only thirty-two (32) pages of reading matter in each number. We expect to increase not only the amount of reading matter and pictures from time to time, but shall also endeavor to improve their quality so far as it is possible for us to do so.

A

NEW photographic apparatus has just been installed in the School of Mines, in Paris, which was designed by Henri Ragot, of the Geological Laboratory of the Sorbonne, for the convenient reproduction, on any desired scale, of both transparent and opaque objects. The camera is attached to two vertical rods, which slide on two fixed posts, and is balanced by a counterpoise attached to a cord passing over a pulley. Rapid motion of the camera is effected by loosening the two screws which are seen at the level of the operator's head and moving the camera frame up or down by hand. Slow motion is produced by means of a horizontal wheel connected with a sleeve, which carries a screw thread and engages with a screw on a central fixed rod. By loosening the screw seen on the central rod between the object-holder and the lens, the object-holder can be moved rapidly by hand. Slow motion of the object-holder is effected by tightening the screw and turning the crank shown in the photograph, which, by means of bevel gear, turns the central rod, and thus causes a second sleeve, provided with a screw thread and attached to the plateholder, to rise or descend.

A

NOTHER apparatus, by the same inventor, has also been installed in the Paris School of Mines, for use with microscopic objects; but instead of moving the microscope by means of a rack and pinion, as is usually done in work of this character, focusing is effected by moving the object. The entire apparatus is attached to a rigid beam and may be used in a horizontal or a vertical position. The object-holder rests on a carriage which is movable upon a second and larger carriage. The large carriage is moved rapidly by turning one of the wheels and long rods shown in the photograph, and the smaller carriage is moved slowly, with respect to the large one, by turning the other wheel and rod. A Zeiss planar lens of short focus is used for moderate enlargements and a microscope objective for enlargements on a greater scale. As the pitch of the screw threads which are cut on the long rods is only one-fifth inch, the focusing can be accomplished as easily and accurately as with a rack and pinion. The object is illuminated by a Nernst lamp of 120 candle power, provided with condensing lenses. The part of the object which it is desired to photograph is brought into the field by means of a total reflection prism and a microscope eye-piece attached to the camera, as the great length of the apparatus makes it impossible to move the object by hand while observing its image on the ground glass screen.

IN

N ADDITION to these two forms of apparatus, the photographic laboratory of the School of Mines contains an excellent equipment, including two dark rooms provided with all necessary apparatus, and a third and larger darkroom containing an enlarging camera and a paperholder for the pro

duction of enlarged positives, 30 by 40 centimeters (12 by 16 inches) in size. The camera and the paperholder are mounted on a single frame, which is supported by springs on four light masonry columns. In consequence of this arrangement the tremors produced by the passage of railway trains and trolley cars cannot affect the negative, the lens and the paper moving simultaneously and to the same degree, and therefore do not diminish the sharpness of the reproduction. Another enlarging camera, sliding on rails, and provided with a lens of 12 inches focus, is used for the reproductionl of drawings, measuring 12 by 16 inches. The same apparatus, with the addition of two arc lamps and a series of screens, is employed for instructing the future engineers in the methods of photo-engraving.

T

HE formation of an "Academy of Photography" is again in the air. Readers will doubtless remember that the ball was set rolling some years ago, and various meetings, resolutions, and the like have resulted from time to time. The question now put forward is whether the time is not ripe for some co-ordinated movement of this kind, which shall bring Great Britain, France, and other nationalities into something like general unison. A large movement of this kind means, not only money, but men free from the ever-present danger of incipient dry-rot which threatens every such scheme consequent on narrowness of outlook and log-rolling.