Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/693

 Popular Science Monthly

��665

��Spraying Concrete

THE important work of re-enforcing the levees along the Mississippi River was recently aided by the addition to the usual equipment of an apparatus which sprayed concrete into the crevices of the pavement and levee facing. A large tank containing a mixture of sand and cement was filled with compressed air and the mixture forced at high pres- sure from the mouth of a large funnel with such force that a permanent adhe- sion was made.

Motion-Picture Silhouettes

THE moving-silhouettes of C. Allan Gilbert's films are produced in a con- verted stable near Washington Square, New York city.

The coach-house has been fitted up like an ordinary motion-picture studio, Avith its inner walls done over in v.hite. The lighting arrangements are such that the players are photographed in bold relief without any shadows.

The actors work on a stage which is as narrow as it is long. They pose in pro-

���esy of I'l

Concrete sprayed from a hose filled pavement crevices quickly and efficiently

file. Figures can be made to throw long shadows under a light, and this has been advantageously done when an actor is to appear double the size of his neighbor. The camera is placed in a pit, so that the lens is on a level with the player's feet. But should it not be possible to get o\'er a situation unaided by the players, J. R. Bray, the animated cartoonist, comes to the rescue with drawings which match the genuine acting perfectly.

���Moving-silhouettes are innovations in motion-picture photography. Novel effects are produced by so adjusting the lights that long, superhuman shadows are cast when a gigantic

figure is to stalk on the screen

�� �