CURIOSITIES OF PHOTOGRAPHY.

Otago Witness, Issue 1950, 4 April 1889, Page 31

CURIOSITIES OF PHOTOGRAPHY.

Amongst the many curiosities of photography those provided by the English law courts form some oE the most prominent. In any important case photographs of the various documents are placed in the hands of the counsel for both sides, and the work entailed is very considerable. Immediately the courts are closed away go the letters and what not to be placed in front of the camera, and everything is ready for the opening of the inquiry in the morning. The work is done outside the law courts, the photographers being bound not to reveal the secrets which their cameras have chronicled, and when wills are in question they are brought to the studios by an officer of the court, who keeps his eye upon the parchment until it is ready to go back. One of the most remarkable instances in which photography played a prominent part was the Tichborne case. The London Stereoscopic Company, who were entrusted with the work, received over £2000 for photos alone, and during the hearing of the case their staff were kept at work, day and night. Every page of the claimant's pocketbook, every slip and letter were " taken," the fao-similes thus produced being of immense use in facilitating the comparison of handwriting, to which the Lord Chief Justice attached much importance, as one of the great tests of identity, The original claimant had a deformed I thumb on the left hand, and the counsel had in their possession an old photo taken on glass, with a brass rim round it, which hid the thumb from view, the effect of the brass having partially obliterated the thumb from the surface. Mr Barraud, the well-known photographer^ was subpoenaed, placed in the box, and asked to prove if a representation of a deformed thumb had once been there. " Yes," said Mr Barraud, " but everything is reversed in these photos. The left hand becomes the right, the parting of the hair is on the wrong side, the whole body is turned round." And so the silent witness, which it was hoped would sum up the whole question of identity at once, was, literally speaking, smashed. In cases of forgery the revelations of the camera are startling. Instead of the. little signature half an inch long, it is magnified to the extent of some 12 or 13 inches. The totally. different aspect this signature has from the diminutive one on the forged cheque is surprising. Should the, forger want to write Brown; he does hot rattle It

off as Brown does his own signature, but draws carefully every line and carve of each letter, and although it looks all right on the" cheque, all these discrepancies are shown in the enlargement, and the various letters have the appearance of having been built up. Only recently a verdict was given on the production of a photograph. There was a difference between several persons on the question of the right to certain bills of exChange. The man who had possession of them refused bo let them go even to be presented at court, so photographs of them back and front were obtained and judgment given accordingly. The curiosities of criminal photography are many, and are well-known ; but it may be new. to hear that a photographic pamphlet Is sent out '.f rom Scotland Yard every month to the various police stations throughout the country. It is considered a precious document, only those connected with the police being allowed to see the paper. It consists of* a few pages descriptive of the 30 or 50 dangerous individuals whose faces are chronicled in spaces fin square, the diminutive photographs forming the front page of the paper, every one bearing a number corresponding with the description furnished inside. Cartes ,de visite are photographed down to the required size. It is seldom, save in very exceptional instances, that ,a criminal " sits " to anybody but the prison photographer. Bringing one's camera into operation during the raging of a battle is surely a curiosity, yefc this was done by Captain Peters,, who was engaged in the expedition three years ago against the rebels in North-west Canada. He used his camera from his saddle, and succeeded in obtaining over 60 excellent pictures of several of the actions in which he took part, even when the shots from the rebel rifles * ere flying over his head. It is needless to say that the ingenuity of our cousins across the herring pond has been directed in this channel. Professor Holman proved what the " instantaneous " process meant, when he took a picture of a building with its surroundings with no light afforded save from a few flashes of lightning, the duration of the flash which secured the plates being the one-three-himdrtdth part of a second, Mr G. M. Dretz, of Pottsville, succeeded in photographing a coal mine, at the Kohinoor Colliery of one of the railways in Pennsylvania. The shaft was illuminated by the electric light, and several exposures were made, some of them lasting half an hour, the results showing the men at work, both in cutting the coal and loading the trollies. Then photography is adopted in the United States in order to test the quality and durability of any wood which is to form part of the erection of a building in which much timber is used. Small pieces are selected and micro-photographs taken of them. These are enlarged, and as other consignments of wood come in, comparisons are made by this means, and so the original quality of the wood is maintained. A Canadian doctor has successfully produced two photographs of the interior of the living eye, the most wonderful picture being that of a reproduction of the very objects upon which the eye was directed at the time, whilst an enterprising gentleman in New York has persuaded the young ladies of that city that to be in the fashion they must needs have their delicate hands photographed and passed round as souvenirs to their friends. _ Coming nearer home we learn that it is customary on the Continent for many railway companies to have the photographs of their season ticket holders on the face of the ticket, owing to the number who attempt to make their neighbours' passes transferable. We recently had a chat with Mr J. L. Mitchell, the managerof the London Stereoscopic Company, who provided us with several cusiosities. "At the time of the Queen's Jubilee," said Mr Mitchell, "our men practically lived at Buckingham Palace and Marlborough House, We photographed nearly 160 guests, catching them at odd times, including eight Kings and Queens, and everybody from the Princess of Wales to the Princes of India. Then we took many views of the procession on its way to Westminster Abbey, and the men with their cameras got on the roofs of houses. As an instance of how quickly these things are done, we had a commission from the Pall Mall Gazette to supply them with photos for their engravings. The procession passed at 2 o'clock, the pictures were- taken, and in spite of the crush, an assistant preserved the dark slides under his coat, the whole thing was transferred and in the hands of the Pall Mall before 5 o'clock. " A sharper case than this, even. When the City Companies went to St. Paul's Cathedral last year, we took a negative as they passed down Cheapside, and on their return it was on a card in the shop window. The same thing happened when the Lord Mayor laid the foundation stone of the City of London Court. Amongst big orders for photographs Messrs Pears have had 250,000 cabinet done of Madame Marie Roze, Mrs Langtry, Madame Adelina Patti, and Miss Mary Anderson ; and at the time of the big fire in Wood street at Messrs Foster's, 200,000 photos of the building in ruins were ordered. " When- the golden dragon on the top of Bow Church was photographed, a steeplejack was sent up, the dragon taken down and brought into our studio. To take St. Paul's Cathedral it is necessary to mount the highest building in the vicinity or even from across the other side of the river, whilst often cameras have to be fixed on chimney stacks and tottering wails, when architects' disputes arise concerning ancient lights. " This is my album of curiosities. The first one is Chang, the giant. He reached to the top of the studio, and used to have a special high cab to ride in when he came to be photographed. He could reach to the rafters and wrote his "chop" on them. Winkelmeier, the German giant, who is now dead, came in an ordinary cab, his head and body hanging out of the window, and when he came in at the door he had to lower his head to get in. This is Tom Thumb, a capital one to be photographed, and there you have Commodore Nutt" and his wife Minnie Warren. Here is an interesting faot about Commodore Nutt, When Mrs Tom Thumb, now jfche. Countess Magrf, came to be

photographed for the second time, the Commodore accompanied her as her manager. He had grown to a fall-sized man, After posing as a dwarf for some 20 years, it suddenly occurred to him to make a little more headway in the world, and now he mast be somewhere near sft Bin. " tye generally put dwarfs on a little table. There is General Mite, and that little woman," pointing to another dwarf, " would run about the studio like a little doll. There you have the Siamese Twins, over leaf the Two-headed Nightingale, and here the Hairy Family from Burmah, with the Snell family, who you will notice are decidedly stout, the boy who is only nine years old weighing 17 stone, and the lady nearly 28 stone. Those photographs of the people in India during the terrible famine were taken by a local artist, and sent to us. An amateur took that of the Princess of Wales reading the Bible with the Bishop of St. Albans," and then Mr Mitchell showed us a picture of the original Raven, Grip, which Charles Dickens immortalised in "Barnaby Budge." It was bought at the sale of his effects, and the price paid for it stuffed was 2CO guineas.