Wonders of the Camera.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3250, 8 July 1889, Page 2

Wonders of the Camera.

The peculiar rhythmical effects which accompany discharges of powder and of nitro-glycorine compounds have been elaborately investigated by the aid of photography. It has also been tit suggested, says a writer in tho May ™ number of Scribner's Magazine, that careful photographs, tnkeil of steel and timber just at tlie point of rupture undor a breaking load, would conduco to our knowledge of tho complicated subject of elasticity. The lightning flash can be investigated. Dr Koenig, in a recent communication to tho Physical Society of Berlin, states ho photographed a cannon-boll which was moving at a rato of 1200 feet per second. The ball was projected in front of a white screen, and occupiod ono-fortbietli of a second in its passage, Jlarey has photographed the motions of limping people, and has thus given surgeons tho materials for a study of lameness, It is said, moreover, that photography ofton reveals incipient eruptive diseases which are not visible to the eye, Photographs taken by flash-powers of tho human eye, showing it dilated in the dark, give tho oculist a now method of studying the enlarged pupil. ..

Too Much of a (rood Thing, ¥ Signs, as tho oratorically aro won l ® to say," are not wanting" that the\ 1 nuisance of official handshaking in, the United States is destined to to perish, like other abuses boforo it, of its own excesses. It is said to be quite the usual thing for occupants of the White House to find their right hands swollon and their arms partialis paralysed after a struggle with tluf' hand shakors nt a public reception. Mr and Mrs Harrison are believed to have suffered already enough to make the prospect for the Presidential term really serious unless there can bo some abatement of a custom which condemns the President and his wife to grasp the hand of every citizon and citizeness as often as they pay a visit to the Presidential residence, It lias been suggested that only shako shall be allowed to each person during the four years. The new rule, it is admitted, would require a considerable amount of bookkeeping. It is thought, however, that if tho uslior registered the clasp of tho Presidential hand, and tho olasper put upon his honour not to doti!^ 1 ' again, tlie regulation might work fairly well, particularly if a violation of this honourable understanding entailed the penalty of exclusion from tlie Exeeutivo mansion. Tho optimist suggester of this reform - predicts that gradually the vicoMd handshaking would become un^ fashionable, just as the practice of taking a drink wlien the eoremony of introduction occurs has become, and so eventually one might get back to the custom of Washington and Jefferson, with whom a bow from the gentlemen and a curtsy from tho ladies was tho customary form of greeting,