July 20, 1896.

THE AUSTRALIAN PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNAL.

157

CARRYING A CAMERA.

After discussing the various methods by which it is possible to carry a camera during an outing, and showing the objectionable features of some of them, Captain Abney says: “How, then, should the camera be carried ? The first desideratum is that the camera shall be easily accessible, that is a sine qua non, and for that reason we think that it is a mistake to put the case inside another case. If the camera be (say) the tourist size by 5), the case may be made so that it takes the camera and slides butting on one another, and thus have a rectangular shape and not deep. It is then very easy to sew straps knapsack fashion on to it, and if properly done the case will then be just on a line with the bottom of the neck and the other end rest on the loins. A couple of small straps at the upper end of the case will allow the legs to be carried so as to project but little beyond the leather case. It may be remarked that in Alpine photography it is one of the first essentials that the legs, however carried, should not project too much. A fatal accident on the Matterhorn within the last three years was attributed by some to the camera legs projecting and catching in a rock during the descent. For reasons such as this the legs should be capable of folding into three, and be not more than two feet at the most in length. This length almost obviates any dangers arising from them, except in very narrow chimney-like gullys in rocks, where anything carried increases the difficulties and correspondingly the dangers.

“The utmost that should be carried for any distance is about fourteen pounds weight, but this may be carried for hours together in the manner indicated above. The great point is to have as much weight as possible thrown just above the hips. The back should merely be a support, and it is on this principle that various kinds of military knapsacks have been strongly recommended for adoption.”

RONTGEN RAY PHOTOGRAPHY If! SYDNEY.

DISCOVERY OF A NEEDLE IN A WOMAN’S HAND.

The surgical value of Rontgen’s recent discovery was most conclusively proved in Sydney last week, when a Shadowgraph of the hand of a woman was taken, who had had a needle in her hand for over a year. She had undergone operations at Prince Alfred Hospital and privately, with the object of having the needle removed, without success; but the negative on

development distinctly showed the position in which the needle was located, and enabled an operation to be performed, successfully removing the needle from the woman’s hand.

The Shadowgraphs were taken with a complete apparatus recently imported by Mr. F. Schmidlin, electro-medical instrument maker, 44 Elizabeth Street, Sydney, and some excellent negatives have been secured by Mr. Schmidlin in conjunction with the Editor of this Journal.

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PLATES FOR X-IJAY PHOTOGRAPHY.

QNE of three papers read at a recent meeting of the R.P.S. was by Mr. H. Snowden Ward, who gave some notes upon plates for X ray work, which, although not exhaustive, established the fact that there was no definite relation between sensitiveness to ordinary light and to the X rays, and that many of the wonderful formulae for increasing the sensitiveness of plates to the X rays were utterly useless. Although the results obtained by Mr. Snowden Ward were the means of at least six experiments in every case, the difficulty of determining a question such as this must be very great, for there are three variables—the coil, the battery power, and the tube, all of which may, too, vary enormously.

pROBABLY it is well known that the spiritualists and Western occultists have claimed that in the discovery of the X rays the uninitiated have merely discovered the “ odic ” force known to them for so many years ; and, as some proof of their statement, a medium has drawn, or caused to be drawn, on canvas, a portrait through an inch of solid wood, in the shape of a box. So that in the future we shall want neither X rays nor plates, but merely a medium and a canvas. Further developments are promised, and the next subject is to be the skeleton of a man. How much truth there is in this we canno say; but, after having seen this wonderful portrait, we can only say that there is not the slightest doubt that a brush and paint were used, yet an affidavit by three observers states that there was no brush and no paint in the box.

X-RAYS Ap GOLD-ipiJ*C.

C70ME very interesting and successful experiments ^ have recently been made in Oregon City by a well-known physician and the superintendent of an electric company. So says an American contemporary. Experiments were made with gold-bearing rock, in which the rays defined free gold as plainly as if it lay on the surface of the quartz. So far as is known this is the first successful experiment of this kind with quartz, and the results obtained justify the assertion that the new ray may prove of immense value in mining operations.

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La langue de reconnaissance de l'OCR est l'Anglais.

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