Popular Science Monthly 



Vol. 89 



No. 4 



239 Fourth Ave., New York 



October, 1016 



$1..50 

 -Annually 



Wild Animals That Photograph 



Themselves 



PHOTOGRAPHING by flashlight is 

 one of the more recent advance- 

 ments in the field of picture-taking 

 which has helped to secure for photog- 

 raphy a permanent place among the 

 arts. Paul J. Rainey, the explorer and 

 hunter of wild animals, proved several 

 years ago at the first exhibition of his wild 

 animal flashlight pictures taken in Africa, 

 that this class of photography offered a 

 virgin field to the manufacturer of 

 apparatus and to the man behind the 

 camera. Soon after this there was an 

 awakened interest in animal film shoot- 

 ing in preference to gun or trapshooting. 



At the present time photographic 

 flashlight apparatus has been developed 

 to a point where guesswork is eliminated 

 and where it is possible to photograph 

 any object in motion. To do this it is 

 necessary for the camera to catch the 

 object in motion just at the instant 

 when the flash powder is giving forth 

 its brightest light. This requirement 

 calls for a high-speed shutter to stop 

 the motion on the plate of the object 

 being photographed. With a flashlamp 

 recently perfected by William Nesbit 

 the shutter is automatically snapped at 

 exactly the moment when the light from 

 the flash powder is most intense. His 

 apparatus has been widely used to take 

 flashlights of wild animals in their 

 nati\'e haunts and has given uniformly 

 good results. 



When flash powder is ignited it does 

 not burn up or explode instantly, as 

 might be supposed. It burns more and 

 more brightly until it reaches its point 

 of greatest brightness, from which point 

 on it dies down until it goes out. This 



whole operation takes at the most 

 one fifth of a second. However, good 

 pictures will be obtained only if the 

 camera is snapped during this fifth of a 

 second, when the flash powder burns the 

 brightest. 



On the other hand, this point can 

 never be definitely determined before 

 taking the picture. It changes for differ- 

 ent powders and also varies for the same 

 powder, since the powder may become 

 slightly damp and will not burn in the 

 same way. It is evident, then, that to 

 snap the camera at precisely the right 

 moment is not so eas\' as it might appear. 



The flashlamp devised by Mr. Ne.sbit 

 consists of an aluminum container to 

 hold the flash powder, a cover for this 

 container, a mechanism to fire the 

 powder, and an attachment which will 

 automatically snap the shutter of the 

 camera at the moment when the flash 

 powder is burning brightest. The unit 

 is waterproof, and so compact that it can 

 be readily attached to a tree or other 

 convenient support. 



The flash powder is placed in a box 

 made waterproof by a coat of parafiin 

 and is then placed in the space provided 

 for it in the flashlamp. The powder is 

 fired either by a blank cartridge or by 

 an electric spark furnished by a dr>' 

 battery. A firing-pin, controlled by a 

 spring and a trigger, similar to those 

 used in a rifle or revolver, sets off the 

 cartridge. 



When taking a flashlight of an animal, 

 a wire is attached to the trigger and then 

 tied to bait of some sort. The animal 

 is attracted by the bait, and if it touches 

 it, the wire is pulled, which, in turn. 



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