Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/296

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Taking Snap Shot Action Pictures at Night with a Flashlight Pistol

O take flashlight photographs the usual

procedure for the photographer is first to set up his camera and tripod, open the lens with one hand, and then fire the flash powder with the other. Because of all this prepara- tion, it has been im- possible for the photographer to take instantaneous or snap shot photo- graphs by flashlight. Now, with the aid of a novel flashlight pistol invented by a California man, the tripod is dispensed with.

The operation of the pistol is purely mechanical. The fact that the force of

the powder explosion operates a lever which in turn manipulates the camera shutter, relieves the photographer of all responsi- bility. From the diagram it will be seen that the force of the explosion raises a steel lid which operates the control wire to the shutter. Hence the shutter is opened and closed at exactly the instant the flash is at its brightest. There is no possibility of an over or under-exposure. However the device permits the use of the various grada- tions of shutter timing. A spring-operated spark-wheel sets off the powder charge.

��Popular Science Monthly

���shops and offices of the railroad to facilitate the collection, and a baling machine has been installed by the company, which bales 1,500 tons of old papers annually. This waste paper is sold for fifteen dollars per ton, so that about $22,500 is realized by the company in this way. In New York city, a social workers club is pay- ing one cent to the children of the poor, for every pound of old paper they bring to the club head- quarters.

��By holding the camera in the right hand and the flash pistol in the left an instantaneous flashlight photo- graph is made.

��COVER FORCED UP BY, POWDER CHARGE

��The Collection of Old Newspapers Has Become a Thriving Business

��An Elastic Cord

for the Sash

Curtain

AN extremely » simple and in- expensive device for \stener holding sash cur- tains employs an elastic cord which is drawn through the curtain in the usual way, the ends being clamped down at the sides of the window as shown in the illustration. The elasticity of the cord makes it adjustable to any window. When it is necessary to remove the curtain for laundering or to wash the window, one end is undamped and the curtain is slipped off the cord ; then the cord is looped up out of the way on the other clamp. The cord is always taut and there is no possibility of sagging.

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��account of the shortage of paper, old newspapers and other waste paper have risen to an im- portant place in the commercial world. Today the man who throws down his paper in the cars after he has finished reading it is regarded as somewhat of a spendthrift. On the Pennsylvania Railroad, for instance, waste papers are now carefully collected. Ten thousand bags have been distributed to stations, work-

���An elastic cord holds the curtain taut and is adjustable to any window

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