SUBMARINE PHOTOGRAPHY, a proc ess of taking photographs under water dis covered by Dr. L. Boutan, professor of zoology at the University of Paris. He has made suc cessful experiments, to the depth of several hundred feet, on the coast of France and in the waters of the Mediterranean. Dr. Boutan in taking these photographs wears the regular diver's suit and extra heavy leaden shoes, so as to get a good foothold on the bottom of the sea. He uses the ordinary outfit of a photog rapher, with the exception that he has it all protected by water-proof coverings. He places his Leyden jars in a barrel which is surmounted by a bell glass provided with the necessary lamp. The latter is a spirit lamp to which is attached a receptacle for the magnesium powder con nected with the usual pneumatic ball and tube. The photographs are taken by the instantaneous flash which follows the scattering of powdered magnesium into the flame. He has a branch
tube connected with the pneumatic ball which forces a puff of air into the powder and carries it into the flame, exposing the lens at the mo ment of maximum light. The pictures taken at the bottom of the sea by this process show no material difference from those produced in the ordinary way by the instantaneous method, with one exception, that the negatives have a pe culiarly soft tone. Since Dr. Boutan's accom plishment many others have succeeded in tak ing under-water pictures of great interest, which from time to time have ornamented pages of the magazines. One enterprising moving picture concern established a submarine outfit in a locality where sharks were common, and actu ally reproduced excellent views of a combat be tween a naked pearl diver and a shark, in which the intrepid diver neatly disposed of the great fish with a long dagger.