Camera Coughs Out Finished Prints
YOUR present camera performs only one of many steps—developing, fixing, printing, and so on—involved in making a photograph. Edwin H. Land, 38-year-old president of the Polaroid Corporation, has invented a one-step process in which the camera does everything. With his camera, you snap the shutter and turn a knob; 60 seconds later you have a finished, dry print. The Land camera takes its pictures in the conventional way, but inside it, in addition to the film roll, there is a roll of positive paper with a pod of developing chemicals at the top of each frame. Turning the knob forces the exposed negative and the paper together through rollers, breaking the pod and spreading the reagents evenly between the two layers as they emerge from the rear of the camera. Clipped off, they can be peeled apart a minute later.
Read the rest of this entry »
Very interesting article about how film and photographic paper is made:
“The story behind the actual film-making begins in a huge vault where five tons of bar silver —a week’s supply of the precious metal— may be stored for almost immediate consumption.”
That’s a lot of silver, and this was only 1936!
TWILIGHT CITY — Where Snapshots are Born
“It’s easy to take a snapshot,” as 500,000,000 pictures a year will testify. But behind the click of the lens there lies a story of high speed chemistry fascinating in its scope.
The early amateur photographer carried a bulky apparatus in a portable, tent-shaped darkroom into which he plunged for a freshly-sensitized glass plate every time he wished to take a picture. Today’s amateur, exposing some 500,000,000 snapshots yearly, has at his command a vast array of lightning-speed emulsions in convenient sizes and shapes, which are ready for instant use.
Read the rest of this entry »
Of course in cartoonland people would just assume you’re having one brilliant insight after another.
Synchronizing Photo Flash Lamp With a Camera Shutter
THE difficulty of synchronizing the flare of a photo flash lamp with the click of the shutter is frequently encountered by enthusiasts of the camera art. There’s a way to overcome this difficulty, however, and that is by constructing the little gadget shown in the accompanying photo.
The contrivance consists of a flat type pocket flashlight battery mounted between two pieces of wood, on the top of which is affixed a common porcelain socket to hold the photo flash lamp.
On the base of this baseboard is mounted a pair of contacts in such a position that the loading lever will push them together when the shutter clicks. The wiring is illustrated in the insert.
Synchronization is achieved by the simultaneous clicking of the shutter and the closing of the photo flashlamp circuit through the silver contacts. The duration of the flash is 1/50 of a second, which occurs when the shutter is wide open.
For convenience, the flash lamp unit is secured to the head by an elastic band, thus leaving the hands free to operate the camera. The lamp should be backed by an aluminum reflector.
Largest Camera Weighs 14 Tons
THE world’s largest camera has just been completed for the Coast and Geodetic Survey. It weighs 14 tons and is 31 feet long.
Two years’ time was needed to build the camera which can take photographs with microscopic exactness. It is equipped to make nautical and airway charts with a precision of less than l/1000th of an inch. The camera can hold plates as large as 50 inches square.
Read the rest of this entry »
This just seems really sadistic to me. Why would you want this picture?
Trapped Rat Shoots Self and Photographs the Fatal Event
TRAPPED in an ingenious contrivance built by George W. Fenner, Syracuse photographer, a hungry rat shot himself and left a picture of the event in a camera trained upon the device.
A piece of bait was suspended from a wire at one end of the trap. Nibbling eagerly at the bait, the rat released a catch which dropped a spring-operated hammer, tripping the trigger of a revolver mounted at the opposite end of the trap.
The shot not only killed the rat but also cut a piece of string connected with still another spring. The latter set off a flashlight, supplying the illumination necessary to take the picture. In addition to the camera and lethal apparatus, a watch hung near the gun recorded the time of shooting.
Print Photographs in COLOR on METAL Gifts
YOU can inject a personal note into your Christmas gifts this year by placing on them photographs of yourself, of friends or of scenes you have snapped with your camera. Any smooth surface can be treated in this way, including metal, wood, glass or composition. The pictures are permanent, can be made in any color, and have the shiny, glass-like appearance of glazed enamel.
Read the rest of this entry »
Apparently, this is one of those ideas that takes 30-40 years to catch on.
Mailbox Camera
HOW often have you arrived at a scenic beauty spot without your camera? A. D. Weir got caught on this pictorial limb so many times that he decided to do something about it.
The simplest remedy was a pre-loaded camera which could be rented at a near-by store for a small fee. That wasn’t a new idea—but in the past, devices to handle film inside such a camera had cost too much. Weir, a mechanical engineer, worked out a plan for feeding the 35-mm film without using a metal spool or winding device.
So, now you can drop into your drugstore, ask for a Photo-Pac and for $1.29 you get the loaded camera. After you take your eight exposures, you drop the entire unit in the mailbox. A few days later the mailman brings your prints and negatives. For helping to convert Uncle Sam’s mailboxes into darkrooms, we’re sending Mr. Weir Mi’s $50 Prize Gadget Award.
