APPENDIX C 



METHODS IN SUBMARINE PHOTOGRAPHY 



By John Tee-Van, General Assistant, Department of 



Tropical Research 



Ever since diving helmets were introduced as regular 

 equipment of the Department of Tropical Research by 

 Mr. William Beebe, practically every emergence from the 

 water has been accompanied by a spoken or silent wish 

 that the experiences and sights witnessed under the sea, 

 might be recorded in some tangible way, and brought back 

 to the many who have not been fortunate enough to go 

 below the surface and witness the life that goes on there. 

 These wishes were answered to a slight extent by the return 

 last year of the Haitian Expedition, bearing twelve hundred 

 feet of film taken below the surface by Mr. Floyd Crosby, 

 portraying the life of the coral reefs. 



Submarine photography is such a recent matter, — the first 

 attempts having been made but thirty -five years ago, and 

 of such unusual occurrence, that the apparatus employed 

 in procuring the pictures is of more than passing interest. 



As the work of the Haitian Expedition related almost 

 entirely to the study of fishes and their habits, very little 

 time could be devoted to photography alone. Under 

 such conditions it was imperative that the under-water 

 motion picture camera be simply made, easy to operate, 

 not too large or heavy, and yet capable of doing the most 

 exacting work under the surface, using sunlight only as an 

 illuminant. 



Such a camera was made before we left New York for 

 Haiti as the result of plans worked out by Mr. William 



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