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Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 417, 12 May 1871, Page 2

Mr. Noone, the eminent photographer, in charge .of the photographio branch of the public Lands Department in Melbourne, some live or six years ago, took a reduced copy of the Argus containing Mr. J. M. Grant's Amending Land Act of 1865. This was voted one of the " curiosities of literature " at the time, but beyond a passing curiosity nothing was thought of the exploit, and Mr. -Noone, with his habitual modesty, said very little about it. Withiu the last month, however, the experiment has been repeated in London, and quite a sensation created thereby. For several days recently the "agony column of the Times has been crowded out by columns of notices of a strangely pathetic character. These were messages from people who had escaped from France to friends in besieged Paris. Of course, to send the Times into Paris was as impossible as to send a trainful of provisions, but the process adopted by Mr. JNoone was utilised in a most valuable manner. Those pages of the paper which contained communications to relatives in Pans were photographed with great care on pieces of thin and almost transparent paper, about an inch and a half in length by an inch in width. On these impressions there could be seen by the naked eye only two legible words, " The Times," and six narrow brown bands representing the six columns of printed matter forming a page of the newspaper. Under the microscope, however, the browu spaces became legible, and every line of the newspaper was found to have been distinctly copied, and with tho greatest clearness. The photographs were sent to Bordeaux, for transmission thence by carrier-pigeon to Paris. When received there they were magnified, by the aid of the magiclantern, to a large size, and thrown upon a screen. A staff of clerks immediately transcribed the messages and sent them off to the places indicated by the advertisers.