54 
THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
Making a Picture Without Being Able 
to Draw. 
BY BENJAMIN HARTLEY. 
THEKE are many young persons who 
have not had the advantage of instruc- 
tions in drawing, who yet have a taste for 
artistic pursuits, and would enjoy making 
pictures if only they could find some way 
to assist their uncultured eyes and hands. 
For the benefit of such we write this in 
the hope that some will be encouraged 
to try, and with the assurance, that if the 
advice giveri in this article is followed, 
will meet with considerable success. 
Various means have been devised to 
overcome difficulties in the way of the 
youthful artist. The best assistant we 
think is a camera obscura, or sketching 
camera, as it is called. With such an in- 
strument, used as we propose, almost any 
person might succeed in reaping very 
much of the pleasure to be derived from 
collodio etching without knowing the 
principles of drawing. 
Like nearly everything else, the camera 
obscura may be a very plain, simple, inex- 
pensive affair, or a very handsome and 
costly instrument. A boy scarcely twelve 
years old made one out of a thick paste- 
board box and a common magnifying glass 
set in a pasteboard tube, which answered 
the puri^ose very well. We constructed one, 
some years ago, out of a starch box. This 
box was six by nine inches deep. Making 
a round hole in one end, a common single 
landscape lens, with tube from a small 
photographic camera, was inserted. The 
lid was taken out and a piece of a looking- 
glass, cut to fit, was placed inside, slant- 
ing downwards from back to front, so that 
the rays from the lens are reflected up- 
wards. Now, in order to see the picture, 
we fitted a piece of ground glass in place 
of the lid. A light frame was next made 
and hinged to the top of the front, so as 
to fall backwards and cover the ground 
glass, and to this was tacked a large piece 
of black velvet, which was thrown over 
the head to exclude the light. This frame 
is supported on the left side by a stick 
screwed to the side of the box. A square 
box is better than an oblong one. All 
this can be easily understood by looking 
at the accompanying sketch. The dotted 
lines represent the mirror inside the box. 
Suppose you have such an instrument, 
all you need to do is to put a prepared 
plate, thinly varnished, on the top of 
the ground glass — varnished side up, of 
course— and trace the picture with a 
needle. If you wish to substitute the 
prepared plate for the ground glass, so as 
to get the image sharper and closer to 
your point; you must employ a varnish 
called "ground glass substitute," used 
by photographers. To this you must add 
about one-third more alcohol. 
The picture thus made is reversed and 
ready for printing, and, besides, is a draw- 
ing direct from nature. 
One thing more to be considered, and 
that is how to support the camera while 
working. For this purpose you will find 
a tripod the most convenient article. The 
camera must, in some way be fastened ta 
the top, so as to remain perfectly still. 
Photographers use a bolt with screw and 
nut, but there are other ways of accom- 
plishing the same object. 
Messrs. Queen & Co. make and sell a 
little camera obscura with a tent, which 
is highly recommended for use by those 
unacquainted with drawing. By this in- 
strument the picture is thrown down on a 
table inside the tent, and is sketched very 
easily, the principal trouble being the 
shadows cast by hand and pencil. It is 
not adapted to our purpose, however, as 
