Page:Climatic Cycles and Tree-Growth - 1919.djvu/115

Rh bevel attached to a vertical axis with a worm gear at the top, which the electric motor drives with a belt connection. In order to aid the motion of the camera, a cord passes from its back to the outer end of the track and by a system of pulleys and weights exerts a slight constant force. The motor is so connected that the camera travels away from the curve. The details here described may be seen in plate 10.

The differential pattern mechanism. — The camera is divided into three separate compartments, to each of which access is obtained by a sliding door moving in grooves on the side. The front compartment produces the differential pattern. It is about 7 inches long by 5 inches wide in the clear and 4 inches high. It is nearly divided into two parts by a partition which comes down from the top at about 2 inches from the front end. This partition does not go down to the floor of the compartment, but leaves a space of about an inch. A hole 1.5 inches in diameter is cut through the front of this compartment a little above its center, and another hole of the same size to match is cut through this partition, while at the back of this compartment a large opening is made a little over 2.5 inches wide and about 2 inches high. The lens is carried on a special carriage consisting of a horizontal and a vertical part. The vertical piece has a hole 1.5 inches in diameter cut in it, and the lens is mounted over the hole. The lens now in use consists of a spherical lens concavo-convex 2 inches in diameter and 12 inches in focus placed on the inside, and a positive cylindrical lens of the same size and focus placed on the outside with axis vertical. The convex side of each lens is placed outward. The lens carriage is placed partly under the partial partition and the lens in its holder comes directly between the two holes mentioned. When the sliding door of the compartment is down, the compartment is sufficiently light-tight to fulfill all the requirements of a camera. The movable carriage of the lens is mounted on two small glass tubes and runs between guides. A spring at its back end pulls it toward the position of focus for distant objects, where its motion is stopped by a pin. A long screw is passed through a, hole in the bottom of the camera box and enters the bottom of this lens carriage, so that an automatic arrangement outside and underneath the camera can regulate the focus. This consists of a vertical axis with two lever arms. The upper lever arm is a short one connected to the screw which comes from the lens board. The lower lever arm is some 4 inches below the upper and goes off in a direction nearly at right angles; it carries on its end a wheel in a horizontal position. This wheel is so placed that it runs on an especially arranged track attached to the side of the center rail of the main track. By varying the elevation of this special focussing track in different parts of the main track, the focus of the lens can be automatically controlled.

At the back of this first compartment is the analyzing plate, the same plate used in previous work. The spacing of its lines is 0.5 mm. from