Popular Science MontJily 



The Forest Skyscrapers 

 of Australia 



555 



T 



^HE tallest of California's 

 "big trees" is 325 feet in 

 height, but among the great 

 gum trees of Australia many 

 specimens are more than 400 

 feet in height, and one, which 

 was felled in southeast Australia, 

 measured 471 feet — the tallest 

 tree on record. Gum trees grow 

 very rapidly. 



A Motorcycle as a Vibra- 

 tionless Tripod 



BREATHES there the pho- 

 tographer who has not at 

 some time or other "lost his re- 

 ligion" because the wind has 

 shaken his tripod and spoiled a 

 plate? John Edwin Hodd, a 

 Los Angeles press photographer who uses 

 a motorcycle for getting about, has over- 

 come this difficulty so far as exterior 

 views are concerned, by the use of a uni- 

 versal jointed kodak fastening attached to 

 the handle bar of his 

 machine. 



The motorcycle is 

 placed on its stand 

 at a convenient dis- 

 tance from the ob- 

 ject to be photo- 

 graphed, and by the 

 use of the universal 

 joint the camera is 

 pointed in any direc- 

 tion or at any angle. 

 Attaching or detach- 

 ing the instrument is 

 but the work of an 

 instant. 



Because of the 

 great weight of the 

 motorcycle the 

 camera is held per- 

 fectly rigid even in a 

 strong wind. Clear- 

 cut, perfect pictures 

 are the result, and 

 the necessity of car- 

 rying a tripod is 

 avoided. The attach- 

 ment is not in the way. 



French Official Photo 



Sirens on top of the Equitable Life building in Paris 

 give warning when German raiders are approaching 



Sirens Give Warning of the Ap- 

 proach of Raiders 



IN the French cities warning of German 

 air raiders is given by sirens of different 



construction, some 



electric, others work- 

 ed by compressed air 

 or steam. The sound 

 of these sirens is so 

 powerful and pene- 

 trating that it can 

 be heard for miles 

 even under unfavor- 

 able conditions. 

 Lookouts are main- 

 tained at elevated 

 points and day and 

 night close watch is 

 kept upon the hori- 

 zon line in the di- 

 rection toward the 

 enemy. 



Paris itself, how- 

 ever, has been almost 

 immune from aerial 

 attack. To cross the 

 anti-aircraft guns and 

 to elude the patrol- 

 ling airplanes is prac- 

 tically an impossibil- 

 ity since the retire- 

 ment of the enemy. 



This press photographer uses his motor- 

 cycle as a firm, portable camera tripod 



