TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9862, 11 March 1896, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Among recent discoveries Another in photography is one Photographic which does not appear to Discovery. have received much attention outside the journals devoted to the craft. The discovery was made by accident by a Mr W. Ingles Rogers, who, according to his own account of the occurrence, was one day sitting in his dark room waiting for a very tardy plate to develope. While thus engaged, his gaza fell upon an undeveloped plate, and falling in a '* brown study," he stared at it for about half-anhour. On coming out of his reverie he found the plate in the developer was ruined, and not being quite certain whether the other plate had not been j exposed he placed it in the developer. ! Nothing appeared upon it but a patch of fog, and ruminating upon this he concluded that it might have been caused by the action of his gaze. He, therefore, determined upon a test. He held a shilling up against the window, and, concentrating his thoughts upon it, gazjd at it for a miuute, to impress the object upon the retina of the eye. Then closing his eyes, ao as to preserve the image,- he darkened his room, and placing an undeveloped plate in position Bat down .in front of it and stared at it as hard as he could, allowing nothing but the picture • of the shilling to occupy his mind. " I sustained this attitude," says Mr Rogers, "for fortythree minutes) The strain, both, physical and meutal, was intense; several times I felt myself passing from the state of concentration into coma, but by sheer force of will I compelled myself to a persistent contemplation of that shilling. I firmly believe that had I continued another five minutes I should never have been able to rid myself of the idea that my head was a big blazing, burning shilling, and my neck the pivot on which it everlastingly turned !" It was, he says, the most arduous task, both for body and mind, in which he had ever eugaged. Two days afterwards he developed the plate, of which the Photogram gives an illustration. This certainly shows, though indistinctly, in the centre of the plate a round, flat object, and Mr Rogers claims that 'this is sufficient to show that the obJQcb impressed upon the eye could be recorded by the sensitive plate. Ma Rogers followed up Further this experiment with Experiments others, among which was and one in which a stamp Their Lessons, figured instead of a coin. . He had in the meantime arrived at certain theories, and by following out those ho considerably improved upon his first test. He arranged things so that both , the object gazed at and the plate on which 'it was to be reproduced were on the same ! level and at the same distance from his eyes, and he used a larger plate of the most rapid kind, believing that if he did j so two impressions would be obtained, one from each eye. The illustration of the stamp photograph, or as Mr Richards calls it, paychograph, certainly showß a marked advance upon that of the shilling. One can to a certain extent trace the design of tho stamp, which also, curiously enough, appears in duplicate, seeming to prove that the image on the retina of each eye bad been reproduced upon the plate. The last experiment, it must be mentioned, was made under the supervision and in the presence of , a number of soientifio men) who are prepared to testify on oath to the absence of any trickery or chance error. The editor of the paper we referred to now suggests that Mr Rogers should repeat his experiments with considerably decreased time of gaze, say a minute, or even a few seconds, and that ho should illuminate bis object as intensely as possible, and develope his plate in absolute darkness. Very few people, it is pointed out, could concentrate their mental and physical vision as long as Mr Rogers did, and there would also be considerable danger to parsons of delicate nerves in attempting to do so. The matter is one of great interesb to the vast army ,of amstenr photographers, or even to the outside world who know not the joy 3 of the camera and dark room, for it is just possible that Mr Rogers's discovery may be one which will have a very wide, effect upon the gentle art of photography. u» The third Congress of Congress of Chambers of Commerce of ' Chambers o£ the Empire, which is proCommerce, posed to be held in London in June next, promises to be a big affair. The Secretary of the London Chamber, which body is convening the Congress, notified on January 15th that thirty Chambers of Commerce or Boards of Trade had signified their approval of the proposal to hold such a gathering. The list of these bodies is in itself a striking proof of the extent of the Empire. Every colony or British possession is \ represented by the name of some town or city in its limits, from Aden to Auckland, from Balawayo to Port of Spain. Mr Chamberlain, Secretary of State for the Colonies, has accepted the position of Honorary President. The Connoil of the London Chamber of Commerce are fairly satisfied with the fruit Some by the second Congress, which took place ia 1892. England and her colonies and dependencies have certainly come into closer commercial relationship, the codification of the commercial law of the United Kingdom has been pushed forward, as a step towards that of :the. commercial law of the Empire, the

Merchandise Marks Aofc has been extended to nearly all British Colonies and possessions, and in other ways there il evidence that the recommendations of the 1892 Congress prepared the way for further steps in the directions aimed at. At the coming Congress the Council think that some , if not all, of the following ques tions might be profitably discusaeti, in addition to those to which reference is made above:—Boards of labour conciliation and arbitration ; bills of lading reform ; commercial education ; the decimal system of weights, measures, and currency ; Imperial penny postage ; light dues ; railways—light railways—railway communication with India • and the Ease ; intercolonial trade relations; arbitration for international disputes; Imperial trade marks registration and patent law; cable communication, construction rates, codes ; steamship communication rateß, subsidies, war risks, insurance • closer connexion between Governments and j Chambers of Commerce, by establishment of commercial advisory or consultative councils, home and colonial; bills of exchange, uniform procedure; supply 0 f Government publications to Chambers of Commerce, and mutual interchange of documents; Parliamentary commercial parties, home and colonial; representa* tiou of United Kingdom in colouies, and of colonies in the United Kingdom, to make up for want of Consular officers, who are only appointed in foreign countries; appointment of an Imperial Council to consider questions of Imderi&l interest; copyright. Some of these ques. tions are of direct and great importance to New Zealand, aud it is satisfactory that tht Canterbury Chamber of Commerce will bi represented ab this Congress by gentlemen who possess such a close acquaintance with the commercial world of this colony as do Messrs John Beaumont aud Georg* Jameson.