XII 

 A TRAVELING CAMERA 



MY first traveling camera was made some ten years 

 ago. Its uses were limited on account of the scarcity 

 of subjects that were improved in taking a picture 

 by that method. It required a cable stretched very 

 tightly between two trees, perhaps a hundred yards 

 apart; the camera suspended from a carriage ran 

 down or was pulled along, exposing as it moved. The 

 effect was a stereoptic picture on the screen. It was 

 fine in a forest where it was possible to get the cable 

 supporting trees in the right place but there were 

 many difficulties to overcome, vibration of the cable 

 making it sway, extra work involved, etc. 



Now I am using with very wonderful results a rail 

 9" wide and 10' long, made of duraluminium. It is 

 l/" thick, has adjustable legs at each end and one in 

 the middle. The rail can be bent in a quarter circle 

 either to allow the camera which is mounted on a 

 motor-driven carriage on the rail to travel around 

 the flowers, viewing them with a constantly chang- 

 ing background, or it can start ten feet away, ap- 

 proach the flower on a straight or curved line, show- 

 ing a panoramic background if I wish and finishing 



177 



