:86 



Popular Science Monthly 



out landing is often a problem. For this 

 purpose a very ingenious method of 

 using a parachute has been developed. 

 Cylindrical pasteboard containers are pro- 

 vided with an umbrella-like para- 

 chute folded inside. By pulling 

 a wire with a hook on the end 

 to which the folded para- 

 chute is attached, the par- 

 achute can be pulled out, 

 and then, due to the 

 tension of the wire 

 framework, automatic- 

 ally spread out. Ob- 

 servers stationed below 

 pick up the film and 

 send it at once to head- 

 quarters for develop- 

 ment. 



Aim and Pull the Trigger to Photo- 

 graph an Enemy from the Air 



THE scout in an airplane must have 

 something better than his eyes. 

 Anti-aircraft guns compel him 

 to fly at not less than six 

 thousand feet. The ground 

 below is so far away that A 

 it is impossible to dis- 

 tinguish make-believe 

 guns from real guns, or 

 to identify the thou- 

 sand and one conceal- 

 ments practiced by the 

 enemy. 



As a result the camera 

 has taken the place of the 

 airman's eyes — an especial 

 stereoscopic camera built 

 directly in the machine 

 itself. Dozens of pictures 

 reveal the enemy's secrets 

 with astonishing frank- 

 ness. During one of the 

 engagements at Arras, no 

 less than seventeen hun- 

 dred stereoscopic photo- 

 graphs were made in a 

 single day. William F. 

 Folmer believes that bet- 

 ter results can be obtain- 

 ed if the camera is oper- 

 ated by hand. And so he has adapted 

 the well-known focal-plane shutter, with 

 which his name is identified, to a camera 

 which, as shown in the accompanying illus- 

 tration, is handled like a rifle. The opera- 

 tive mechanism of the camera is exactly 

 like that of the focal-plane 

 shutter cameras well-known 

 to most amateur photog- 

 raphers. Mr. Folmer's cam- 

 era is provided with a regu- 

 lation pistol-grip and trigger. 

 When the trigger is pulled, 

 not only is the exposure 

 made, but a fresh section of 

 the film is advanced for a 

 new exposure. 



The material of the cam- 

 era is waterproof. So that if 

 the aviator and his instru- 

 ment should fall into water, 

 his valuable films would not 

 be damaged. 



After a roll of film has 

 been exposed, how to get it George L. Covert wants to travel to California from New York. 



back to headquarters with- This is how he is doing it, with a caravan of his own invention 



Simply pull the trigger and 

 take a picture 



The camera is of the fixed-focus 

 type, adapted for long-distance 

 photography. A special telestig- 

 matic /. 6.8 lens, as it is called, is 

 employed, which is 14 inches from 

 the plate and which gives results 

 that would be obtained with ordi- 

 nary lenses 24 inches from the plate. 

 The box itself is 22 inches long, 6 

 inches square at one end, and 5 

 inches square at the other end. It 

 weighs 10 pounds and is waterproof 



Making a Mule Push 



and Pull at the Same 



Time 



GEORGE L. COVERT, 

 crippled so that he 

 must always use a wheel- 

 chair, is traveling from 

 New York to the Pacific 

 coast in a queer way. 



He sits in his wheel-chair 

 and is pushed ahead by 

 means of a shaft of his own 

 invention. The shaft is fastened to the 

 back of the wheel-chair and also to a mule's 

 collar. Behind the mule is a small two- 

 wheeled wagon in which part of the Covert 

 family rides. Hence the mule pushes the 

 chair and hauls the wagon at the same time. 



