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RECREATION 



making portraits or landscapes, in his eager 

 endeavor to get "sharpness all over," and thus 

 unconsciously invalidates one of the chief qualities 

 of his lens as compared to the ordinary rapid recti- 

 linear. Stop for stop, all lenses work at the same 

 speed. An f. 5 anastigmat stopped down to f. 12 

 works no faster than a rapid rectilinear, stopped 

 down to f . 12. This must not be forgotten. Many 

 amateurs think that an anastigmat is always faster 

 than a cheap lens, no matter what the stop. 

 Within certain limits an anastigmat lens is a little 

 faster, perhaps, because it gives more even illu- 

 mination, but the real speed quality is only present 

 when the lens is used at its larger apertures, and it 

 is the nature of its construction which enables it to 

 be worked at large apertures, and which causes its 

 greater cost. 



The following diagram shows the relations of 

 speeds, and as the ordinary rapid rectilinear, fitted 

 to the ready-made camera, usually works at about 

 f. n (though marked as f. 8), it can be seen at a 

 glance how much faster is the anastigmat working 

 at f. 6.8 or f. 5.6. 



OPENING. 



F 5-6 — 



F 6.8 — 



F 7-7 — 



F 11. — 



F 16. — 



SPEED REPRESENTED BY LINE. 



I will take up the question of anastigmat lenses, 

 and also the shutter question next month. Mean- 

 while, I hope more of my readers will fire questions 

 at me. 



Advantages of the Focal Plane 



In answer to a question regarding the focal plane 

 shutter, I may say right here that the full value of 

 this efficient instrument is very poorly understood. 

 Plain as the reasoning is, it seems that few can 

 figure it out, that if a focal plane shutter can make 

 pictures in such tiny fractions of a second, and 

 still get an exposure, it should be able to fully time 

 a negative when used at what is, compared to its 

 best, a slow speed, say two -hundredths of a second, 

 but which is a fast speed compared to that at- 

 tained by the between-the-lens shutters. The un- 

 questionable utility of the focal plane shutter at 

 this time of the year when the light is poor is, 

 therefore, very great. Another thing which is mis- 

 understood — while it is essential to have a big 

 aperture to make photographs in such fast time, 

 it is not necessary for the slower exposures; the 

 ordinary lens and the focal plane shutter go well 

 together if the latter is not pushed to too high a 

 speed. 



And it will, in a way, increase the speed 

 of the lens, for the great peculiarity and advantage 

 of the focal plane shutter is that, in practical work, 

 it admits about three times as much light, speed 

 for speed, as any other kind of shutter. Conse- 

 quently, if with the fastest behind the lens curtain 

 shutter, full exposure is obtained with say one- 

 fiftieth of a second, with the focal plane shutter, 

 same opening and same lens, the plate will get an 

 equal amount of exposure in one hundred and 

 fiftieth of a second. 



Facts About Bees 



Editor Recreation: 



I notice in the January issue of Recreation, 

 under the heading of "Editorial," an item in 

 reference to honey and the honey bee. Having 

 had a wide experience in handling personally some 

 three to four thousand colonies of bees, and making 

 a special study of floral conditions and nectar- 

 gathering by this marvelous little insect, would 

 state that the article in question is very misleading. 



I refer especially to that part which states, first, 

 that the bee deposits honey in artificial comb. 

 There has never yet been any artificial comb made 

 that would duplicate that made by the bee, in fact, 

 there are two offers of $1,000 each for one pound 

 of comb honey artificially made that would re- 

 semble the original — one by N. E. France, of 

 Platteville, Wis., secretary of the National Bee- 

 Keepers' Association, and the other by the A. I. 

 Root Company, Medina, O. — and while this offer 

 has been standing for a decade, it has yet failed to 

 produce a single sample. 



In about the year 1892 a patent was taken out 

 for preparing beeswax in flat rolls stamped the 

 same as the base that the bees prepare in making 

 comb honey. This was called starters, and was 

 pure beeswax made by the bees, but was simply 

 placed in very thin strips in the little boxes made 

 in order to have the bees build their comb honey 

 straight, and out of this possibly the writer may 

 have been confused, like a number of others, in 

 thinking that this was original comb. To the mind 

 of the casual reader this could easily happen, and 

 while excusable, yet if widespread would be very 

 damaging to the honey producers. This pattern 

 was found to be very beneficial to the bee-man 

 as it has been a foundation for aiding the bees to 

 build comb honey that gives it such a delicate and 

 universally uniform appearance. It simply takes 

 the place of melting a few drops of beeswax and 

 placing in the centre of the boxes, which was the 

 usual conception of the bee-keeper before this 

 patent was put on the market. 



The second statement to which I take exception 

 is that bees would gather honey from chemically- 

 prepared syrup. The writer has carried out a very 

 extensive amount of experiments in connection 

 with laboratory work, and in a number of articles 

 which I could refer to showing by actual experi- 

 ment, bees will not take up this chemically- 

 prepared syrup, and while some preparations may 

 be forced upon the bee that were largely made up 

 of cane sugar, the article so produced has been 

 branded by the department at Washington as an 

 adulteration, and therefore is not practised. 



Wm. A. Selser. 



State Game Warden J. W. Baker, of Cottage 

 Grove, Ore., has filed his annual report with the 

 Governor. This is the first report since the law 

 was passed requiring all hunters to procure a 

 license. The receipt from license fees was $1 7,000, 

 and after meeting all legitimate expenses there is a 

 balance of $13,000. More arrests were made and 

 fines collected for violating the game laws, accord- 

 ing to the report, during the year just closed than 

 during any previous year. 



