THE WONDERFUL CAMERA.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8915, 7 September 1907, Page 4

THE WONDERFUL CAMERA.

The eye is a wonderful organ, but a famous scientist said if a mechanic sent him such an imperfect piece of mechanism lie would return it for repairs. The camera conies to the resuce, sometimes with astonishing results. What is invisible to the eye is photographed, on the 'plate, and the skill of the developer can intensify it and make it visible. Ink on old documents will blond with the yellow paper till, the outlines of a signature cannot be detected. The photographer enlarges the apparently vacant space ten times, and intensifies his negative, and the signature appears. An expert, writing on the subject in an American paper, mentions a long-drawn-out case in the I Ohio courts which the camera eveuj tually cleared up. There were four signatures on an old deed, and it was thought there was a fifth, but oven the microscope failed to detect a line of it. A photogratph enlarged ten times showed the signature, established the validity of the deed and reversed all previous decisions. An investigation of the camera’s interpretation of the various colors led to the use of colours in bank notes iu such a way as to make it impossible for the criminal to make an exact copy. “In one series of bank notes a word was first printed iu orange colour on the paper, and then upon it were superimposed various colours, designs and tints, which completely obscured the first word printed; one of those prints was placed before the camera, and when I developed the plate, reaching almost across the bill, appeared iu large distinct characters • the word ‘ Counterfeit. ’ ” Probably j no thieves were ever more surprised than the Michigan boys who, on denying that they had robbed a till, wore confronted with photographs of themselves iu the very act. The camera had been placed iu a position covering the till iu the office, and a burglar alarm so fitted that when the till was opened the shutter worked, and a flashlight was sct off. The writer would have every policeman armed with a “pistolograph, ” a photographic apparatus, including a flashlight contrivance, no larger than an ordinary revolver. Armed with tliis, a policeman could photograph auy number of suspicious people.