Barnyard Gate is Operated with the Foot
This Gate is Unlatched by Operating the Foot Lever as indicated. It Is a Special Convenience When One has Both Hands Occupied Carrying Pails or Bundles
A gate which can be unlatched with the foot has proven a great convenience across a path on a farm where laborers frequently pass with both hands occupied carrying pails. Pivoted to the side of the gate, near its center, a beam, or foot lever, is hung in a vertical position, extending almost to the ground and having a shelf bracket fastened to its upper end. The horizontal arm of the bracket passes beneath a porcelain knob projecting from a pivoted bar that engages the elbow catch. By pushing the vertical beam to one side with the foot the bar is raised above the catch, allowing the gate to swing open. If the gate is properly hung it will close of itself, the elbow catch serving to prevent its being opened again, except when the bar is raised.—T. C. McDowell, Adrian, Michigan.
Improvised Post-Card Projector and Enlarging Camera
By HARRY MARCELLE
An outfit which may be used for either projecting picture post cards or enlarging photographic negatives was assembled as delineated in the [illustration]. An ordinary camera, which provides the lens and bellows, is required, in combination with a dark box which can be built in the home workshop. The method of construction is this:
Make a box about 8 in. square out of ¹⁄₂-in. planed soft-wood stock. Nail the sides, but omit, for the present, the top and the bottom. The two openings thus left will be called the front and the back. Mount an 8 by 8 by ¹⁄₂-in. board, D, which constitutes a door, on the back with hinges and provide a hook to hold it shut. Cut a square hole, of the same size as that of the opening in the back of the camera which is to be used, in another 8 by 8-in. piece, E. This will constitute the front board. This front board is so cut that it fits in between the sides of the box instead of on the ends, as does the back. In the top, cut a square hole for ventilation. A hood is provided over this hole to prevent light being thrown forward.
When using the arrangement as a projector or magic lantern two 40-watt tungsten lamps, A, are required. Each lamp is mounted in a porcelain receptacle held on the floor with screws. A lamp cord, one end connecting the two lamps in multiple and the other fitted with an attachment plug, passes through a hole in the floor of the box. Form the two reflectors, B, of 8 by 7-in. bright tinned sheet-iron pieces, each having holes along one of its edges to admit of attachment. The reflectors are bent to a semicircular contour before mounting. The card holder is detailed at C. It is a piece of tinned sheet iron bent to the form shown so that it will hold a post card. A hole is drilled in its center for a screw pivot. It can then be fastened to the center of the back door and can be turned into position for either horizontal or vertical pictures. A washer is inserted on the screw between the holder and the door. The thickness of the camera body having been determined, a slide is fastened to the front board, as diagrammed, to support this body.
An Ordinary Small Camera, Fitted with This Attachment, Becomes an Enlarging and Post-Card Projecting Camera
Before it can be used as a projector it must be adjusted to operate with the camera of the type and size available. The adjustment, which must be made in a darkened room, having on one of its walls a white screen on which the image will be projected, is effected thus: Remove the back from the camera and place the camera in the slide without extending the bellows. Open the shutter. Insert a card in the holder C. Light the tungsten lamps. Now move the front board, with the camera carried on it, back and forth within the box until the components are in focus, that is, until the most distinct image obtainable is reproduced on the screen. Then, illuminate the previously darkened room and nail the front board in the position thus determined. These adjustments having been made, paint the box, inside and out, a coat of dead black. Everything should be painted black except the reflecting surfaces of the tin reflectors and the incandescent-lamp bulbs. The front board having been fastened, subsequent focusing can be effected by shifting longitudinally the lens board of the camera. The image of any sort of a picture that will fit in the holder can be reproduced. Colored post cards will project in their natural tints.
To make enlargements with the same box, a few minor changes are necessary. When employed for enlargements the tungsten lamps, which are required for projection, are not used. They may, however, remain in the box and can be disconnected from circuit by unscrewing them a few turns. The negative, or film, which is to be enlarged, is held in the opening E. Where a film is to be reproduced, it is held between two pieces of glass which are fastened to the inside of the front board with small clips. If a glass negative is used, the two additional glass plates are unnecessary. If the negative does not fill the opening in the camera, a mask cut from heavy black paper will be required to cut off the light.
The light for the enlargement is furnished by another tungsten lamp mounted in a porcelain receptacle which is screwed to a board which constitutes a base. This light source is moved about in the house until it is directly back of the opening E in the front of the box and until the light is distributed equally over the entire negative. To focus, move the camera backward or forward. While focusing, use a yellow glass, or ray screen, to cover the lens. When focusing has been completed, the shutter is closed and the ray screen removed. Then stop down the lens to bring out detail, and expose.