100 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [FEB. 10, 



upon the plate. As tlie lens was open throughout the engage- 

 ment, all the projectiles are acqumulated in the picture and the 

 terrors of the combat thereby greatly enhanced. 



Such pictures as this are taken by the extremely simple 

 method that is resorted to for photographing a flash of lightning 

 at night. The camera is simply aimed where the discharge is 

 to appear, and left open until it has occurred. When suflBciently 

 sensitive plates are made, the astronomer by this method may 

 register every meteor in a meteoric shower. 



All fire-works, however, cannot be so easily photographed. If 

 the camera be left open before a piece discharging a shower of 

 fine sparks, each is separately photographed, but the numerous 

 superposed images obliterate each other. This was illustrated 

 by a view of a large wheel taken at Manhattan Beach on August 

 22d, 1889 ; while a second view taken on September 17th, 1887, 

 by an exposure continued only during one revolution of a simi- 

 lar wheel, afforded the outer fringe in exquisite detail. 



Since the summer of 1888, Mr. George S. Wheeler partici- 

 pated with me in several experiments ; and as a result of but 

 three visits with him to Messrs. Pain & Son's exhibitions, a 

 number of charming views were obtained which, together with 

 those mentioned, afford a fair abstract of an evening with the 

 fire-works at Manhattan Beach. The series includes an exhibi- 

 tion piece taken August 21st, 1889, views of the large fountain 

 and mines and the eruption of Vesuvius and the burning of 

 Pompeii, taken August 22d, 1889, and the final flight or bouquet 

 of rockets taken in August, 1888. 



M. Albert Londe, of Paris, has made a number of large 

 negatives of display fire-works, at various times. He has very 

 kindly made and sent me a number of lantern slides from these 

 negatives. They include views of bombs and gerbs, parachute 

 gerbs, a revolving wheel, a bouquet of flowers, and a display 

 from the second story of the Eiffel Tower, taken on July 14th, 

 1888. Mr. F. L. Lathrop, of Brooklyn, N. Y., has also made a 

 few indifferent negatives of fire-works which were part of the 

 Inaugural Centennial display on Fort Greene, Brooklyn, N. Y., 

 about May 1st, 1889. The views presented comprise perhaps 

 most of the more important at present in existence.' 



From such subjects, we passed, at the suggestion of Mr. 

 Wheeler, to photographing small pieces, chiefly Catharine and 

 triangle wheel?, hoping to accumulate on one plate the trajec- 

 tories of all the sparks emitted by such a wheel, and thereby 

 to produce a picture resembling that of a large jjiece. The 



' I have since seen an example given by M. Abel Buguet ; — Journal 

 desSocietes Photographiques, January, 1890. 



