A DIFFICULT UNDERTAKING.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 542, 15 February 1913, Page 7

A DIFFICULT UNDERTAKING.

FLASHLIGHTING A NEW YEAR'S GATHERING. "The biggest flash I ever used in outdoor night photography," says a writer in the "Strand," '''was in 1901, when I flashlighted on the stroke- of midnight the annual New Year's Eve gathering of Scotsmen outside St. Paul's Cathedral in London. "I think I may vastly claim that this is the largest flash that has over been used, and it created an altogether unlooked for sensation. The ;• b'ect was a difficult one and had never to my knowledge been attempted before, for even at this date flashiight photographs in the open air •crc something of a novelty. "Taking with me a special illuminating powder of my own invention I perched myself up on a window sill overlooking the church yard, the vast area of which it would be necessary to light up if my photograph was to be of any value. I therefore used an extra amount of powder, and on the stroke of the hour pressed the button. "There was a loud report, and what appeared to be a vast sheet of lightning shot up into the air, the effect of which was remarkable on the waiting crowds below, busily engaged in singing 'Auld Lang Syne' and grasping one another's hands with good wishes for the New Year. Instantly there was a dead silence which lasted for quite an appreciable time, and then the people began asking each other what had happened. "I am afraid that innocently nough I alarmed some of them lather badly, for I was quite unnoticed up aloft and there were many among the crowd, which instantly began to disperse in all directions, whet ■ cnt home with the uncomfortable conviction that they had witnessed an omen of evil import for the coming year. Others again were inclined to think that it was a satellite that had mysteriously dropped from the heavens. "'The intense brilliancy of my illumination was such that, as I afterwards learned, the flash was seen at Elstree in Hertfordshire, twelve miles away.. It also attracted considerable attention in the newspapers,, several of which contained references to it during the week and in fact it was not until my photograph was published in one of the weekly illustrated papers that the mystery was solved.'