been stuck in the sand all inorning vith the car, so they had done no 
collecting^ a cable Imd ^ust eorae fro® -the film processor saying ttot 
ity wide-angle camera had been losing the loop and putting deep scratches 
on the film, and I should stop using it at once. Unfortunately there 
are at least twelve or fourteen rolls of film run tlirough that camera 
that the processor has not yet seen. 
I examir^d the ca^ra very carefully several days atd fo\md 
nothing amiss. I shall look again. I have three cameras, two of ttoi 
were sent in for overhaul before we left Texas, and the third bjutd-new. 
The new one urderexposea , loses loops, and tears out sprocket-holes | 
another gets dassaged in the camera casei the third loses loops and scratches 
the film. I guess this is my year for gremlins. 
August 23 . Sunday, There have been so many frustrations and routine 
crises during the past couple of weeks that I have let sy notes go by the 
board. It is %im to pick up some of the threads. 
After the cable came from Kar-sas City telling rtxt to stop using #2 
caiaera unless I could do soin&thing about it, I took out all the parts 
of the film transport that might be scratching or causing other troubles, 
examined them under a glass — and could find nothing. But I went over 
them anyway with a crocus cloth in epote that could conceivably carry a 
rough edge, and ended with a thin application of sillcom? to laake all as 
slick as possible. At the end of the first reel after this treateent, 
I found the loop gone, and the fils lined with deep scratches. Par 
for the course. 
