Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/884

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���Using his derby hat in lieu of a tripod in order to get a coveted photograph

A Derby Hat Used in Place of Camera Tripod

A PHOTOGRAPHER desiring to make photographic copies of certain paintings in the Corcoran Art Gallery, wrote to the superintendent of the insti- tution and received the necessary per- mission, but upon ar- riving at the gallery he found that they did not permit tripods to be erected upon the marble floors.

Not to be outdone, he used his derby hat, which, inverted and crushed in a little, bal- anced very nicely on the large mahogany rails in front of the pictures. Upon this he balanced his camera and, with a little care, in focusing, using the rising front to give the proper per- spective, managed to get the long-time exposures required by the soft lighting. The scheme I'l-'-fy)"" """^ worked perfectly and the copies de- sired were obtained. This method may be used for exteriors as well ; but the photographer should be close at hand to look out for his camera in case it should overbalance.

��ropidar Science Monthly

^ Handless — And Yet He Is a Cham- pion Billiard-Player

GEORGE H. SUTTON, the veteran billiard-rplayer, has demonstrated to the world that a man may become an excellent billiard-player without hands. Sutton lost both hands when a boy by coming in contact with a circular saw. This did not prevent him, however, from taking up billiards, first as an amusement and later, when he had acquired remark- able skill in the manipulation of the balls, to enter the class of professional "short- stops." In a match game during the past season he made a high run of 113 in 18.2 balkline billiards.

Sutton uses no attachment to hold his cue. By patient practice he has acquired such marvelous skill in the use of the flexible muscles on the stumps of his arms, that, they supply him with a good substitute of the "wrist-movement" so essential to good playing.

Many armless men and women have

learned by painstaking practice to make

use of their feet for writing, piano-playing,

etc., but there are probably no parallel

instances on record where a man deprived

of both arms has become

an expert billard-player

by the use of his arm

stumps.

���A seemingly impossible feat — making a masse shot, holding the cue between his arm stumps

Handless billiard-player George H. Sutton making a carom shot with bridge

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