i6irli*lore 



A BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE 

 DEVOTED TO THE STUDY AND PROTECTION OF BIRDS 



Official Organ of the Audubon S 



OC I CTI E ! 



Vol. II 



April, 1900 



No. 2 



A New Camera for Bird Photographers 



BY JOHN ROWLEY 



Chief Taxulennisl of the American Museum of Natural History 



EELING keenly in my work the need of a camera 

 which would enable me to make studies of birds and 

 animals, I have for several years been experimenting 

 with devices which would be more suitable for my 

 purposes than any of the ordinary tripod or snap-shot 

 cameras of the trade. 



In 1895 I ordered from Messrs. Scovill & Adams 35x7 -double 

 decker,' built after plans of my own. This camera had twin lenses, 

 one above the other and both of the same focal length. The upper 

 lens threw the image upon the mirror, whence it was reflected to a 

 horizontal ground glass protected by a hood and situated upon the 

 top of the box : and the other lens communicated directly with the 

 plate below, upon which the exposure was to be made. 



This camera worked very well, but was entirely too bulky, and 

 its large size led me to thinking of means by which one lens could 

 be made to do the work that in the twin-lens two were doing, thus 

 reducing the size of the box one-half. My first idea was to build a 

 box on the plan of the ordinary hand camera and place a ground 

 glass on the top. A mirror was then hung in the box at an angle 

 of 45 degrees to the plate and adjusted as in the 'double decker,' but 

 hinged at the back, so that it could be swung up out of the way 

 and the exposure made on the plate at the rear. The lens shutter 

 (a Prosch) was changed so that when open, one pressure of the bulb 

 closed the shutter and released the mirror, which, by means of a 

 spring, flew up and remained clamped to the inside of the top of the 

 box, and shutting out any light that might come in through the ground 

 glass there. A second pressure of the bulb made the exposure on 

 the plate by opening and closing the shutter instantaneously. 



