54 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



-V 



BOUTAX'S SECOND APPARATUS (1896). 



This apparatus (fig. 4) consisted of a metal camera, not inclosed in a box, 

 but intended to be immersed directly in sea water. The sea water could enter 

 and fill the interior of the camera so that it bathed both the front and back faces of 

 the lens as well as the plates. The latter were contained in a holder which could 

 be attached to the camera after it was submerged. Thus the plates could be 

 changed under water without any risk of fogging them. Sea water was found to 

 have little effect on the plates unless its action was prolonged, and this effect could 

 be wholly prevented by using plates that had been varnished. 



The lens used with this apparatus 

 was one intended for use in air, and it 

 was found that good results could not 

 be obtained with it when immersed in 

 water. The success of such an appa- 

 ratus as this must depend on having a 

 lens especially ground for use under 

 water. No lens of this sort existed and 

 to have one calculated and made would 

 have been expensive. For this reason 

 and for others which he mentions 

 Boutan abandoned this apparatus after 

 trying it for a single season. He says, 

 "The principle is certainly good, and, 

 in spite of the failure that I have made 

 in the application of it, the future of 

 submarine photographic apparatus may 

 lie there." 



BOUTAN'S THIRD APPARATUS (1898). 



As a result of the failure of his 

 second, Boutan adopted a third appa- 

 ratus, which was in principle a return 

 to the first. This third apparatus, 

 designed for instantaneous work, consisted of a heavy metal box, shown at the center 

 in figure 5. To it are attached four adjustable legs. The box, which is watertight, 

 contains the objective and the plates. It is itself the camera and does not therefore 

 contain within it a camera, to be lifted out and put back. The lens is a Darlot 

 symmetrical-anastigmatic of excellent quality. At the front is an opening (O) 

 closed by a plate of glass, through which the light enters the lens. There are no 

 finders and consequently no openings closed by glass plates, with the exception 

 of that for the lens. At the top, in front, is a handle by means of which the shutter 

 may be operated. About the center of the box is clamped a band-iron frame with 

 a ring at the top by means of which the box may be attached to a rope for lifting 

 it in and out of the boat. At the back is a cover which may be fastened by means 



FIG. 4. Boutan's second apparatus. B, camera box into 

 which the water could penetrate freely; m, handle control- 

 ling the plate holder; m', handle controlling the shutter; 

 O, objective; V, sight. (Copy of fig. 2 in Boutan, 1898.) 



