Popular Science Monthly 



665 



Spraying Concrete 



THE important work of re-enforcing 

 the levees along the Mississippi 

 River was recently aided by the addition 

 to the usual equipment of an apparatus 

 which sprayed concrete into the crevices 

 of the pavement and levee facing. A 

 large tank containing a mixture of sand 

 and cement was filled with compressed 

 air and the mixture forced at high pres- 

 sure from the mouth of a large funnel 

 with such force that a permanent adhe- 

 sion was made. 



Motion-Picture Silhouettes 



THE moving-silhouettes of C. Allan 

 Gilbert's films are produced in a con- 

 verted stable near Washington Square, 

 New York city. 



The coach-house has been fitted up 

 like an ordinary motion-picture studio, 

 Avith its inner walls done over in v.hite. 

 The lighting arrangements are such that 

 the players are photographed in bold 

 relief without any shadows. 



The actors work on a stage which is as 

 narrow as it is long. They pose in pro- 



esy of I'l 



Concrete sprayed from a hose filled 

 pavement crevices quickly and efficiently 



file. Figures can be made to throw long 

 shadows under a light, and this has been 

 advantageously done when an actor is to 

 appear double the size of his neighbor. 

 The camera is placed in a pit, so that the 

 lens is on a level with the player's feet. 

 But should it not be possible to get 

 o\'er a situation unaided by the players, 

 J. R. Bray, the animated cartoonist, 

 comes to the rescue with drawings which 

 match the genuine acting perfectly. 



Moving-silhouettes are innovations in motion-picture photography. Novel effects are 

 produced by so adjusting the lights that long, superhuman shadows are cast when a gigantic 



figure is to stalk on the screen 



