Los Angeles Herald, Volume 25, Number 108, 16 January 1898 — MAGIC LANTERN FOR EVERY BOY. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MAGIC LANTERN FOR EVERY BOY.

This Teffs Just How to Me One That Wiff Be Exactly As Good As the One for Which a Big Price is Asked.

The boy who Is handy with tools and careful in the way he uses them, can make a very substantial lantern that is really no toy, and one that will be equal to any twenty-five or fifty dollar lantern. The lenses are what will cost the most money. When building this i stereoptieon, strlot attention must be paid to the instructions and sizes, as otherwise failure Instead of success may follow, and the boy who spends the time and money necessary to the completion of the lantern, will be rewarded by the perfeot result If he follows closely these diagrams and the explanation. To begin with, obtain some well dried pine or cedar that is free from knots and sappy places, and have It planed on both sides to a thickness of threeeighths of an Inch. At a hardware store purchase five or six dozen round headed brass screws No. 5, one Inch long, a small pair of brass hinges.and screws, two dozen flat headed brass screws No. 5, three-quar-ters of an Inch long, and a small can of liquid glue. Make a ba.e or bottom board six inches wide and eighteen Inches long, and to one end of it build a box ten Inches high, nine Inches long, and a top with a hole in the middle of It measuring four inches In diameter. The hole can be cut with a compass saw after first drawing a perfect circle with a lead pencil compass. With an awl, make small holes for the screws to pass through so as not to split the wood, and between each Joint lay some of the glue to assist the screws in hold-

Around the hole cut hi the top of the box a collar two inches high is to be made of thin sheet iron, tacked fast to the inner edge of the hole, and over this the chimney will fit and can be held in place.

Having completed the wood work so fair, cut three pieces of wood six Inches wide and six Inches and a half high.

In one of those cut a round hole large enough for the condenser lenses to slip through, and ln another, cut a hole three inches square. Mount these boards in an upright position threequarters of an Inch apart on a block of wood half an inch high, two Inches wide and long enough to fit in between the tracks. The ends are to be bevelled as shown In Fig. 4, F, and the entire frame should move freely bftween tracks on the deck. Little blocks of wood can be screwed

ing the wood firmly. Fig. 1 -shows the base board with sides and top of box. Next build a deck three inches high over the base board and in front of the box, as shown In Fig. 2, and on top of It, half an inch ln from each edge, fasten two runners or strips about half an inch ln width With the inner edges bevelled, as shown in Fig. 3.

Between these runners or tracks, the slide carrier and lense board F and G, shown In Fig. 4, will be held in position and can be moved forward or backward.

To the front of the box and resting on the deck a facing board is to be attached, and in it a hole should be cut Just large enough to receive the case of the condenser lenses, which are the large lenses between the light and the front or objective lenses.

In Fig. 5, which Is a plan of the complete lantern, the condenser lenses may be seen at CC, and the objective lenses at DD.

To the rear of the box. Fig. 2, a hinged door can be arranged in place and provided with a catch to keep it shut.

Through the bottom of the box a number of holes should be bored, with a bit and brae?, as draught holes to the lamp, and under the base board two strips of wood, half an inch square and six inches long, can b* fastened to raise the lantern up so that air may pass under it and up through the holes.

at top and bottom betwcon the upright boards, and when completed this will act as the carrier holder and should fit closely to the front of tho condenser lenses, where its position can be seen in Fig. 5, F.

The third board, G, is to be mounted on a similar block of wood with bevelled ends, and in the center of It a hole is to be cut the same size as the diameter of the objective lenses. Between the boards F and G, a bellows arrangment Is to be made of gossamer cloth, heavy flannel or black velvet, and Its position can be seen in Fig. 5, E, and also in the illustration of tho finished stereoptlcon. The object of this bellows is to allow the lense board,

C, to be moved forward or backward according to l'..e distance of lantern from screen or sheet, and at the same time to prevent any escape of light outside its direct line through the lenses. The chimney will be the next and last part to be made. Several materials can be employed of which to make it, but perhaps the best will be some heavy asbestos paper, If it can be had; but if not, it may be constructed of stove pipe iron, and should be fifteen inches high, two Inches in diameter at the top, and large enough at the bottom to fit snugly over the collar attached to the box.

At the top a hood will prevent the light from showing above the chimney and making a round bright spot in th» ceiling. The entire inside of the box, also, should be lined with asbestos paper, tacked fast with fine curtain tacks. This will prevent the heat of the lamp from splitting the wood and at the same time overheating the woodwork. From a maker of optical goods or a dealer in camera and lantern supplies, purchase a short focus patr of condenser lenses four inches and a half in diameter, and a quarter size four-Inch focus double lens without any diaphragm, and if possible, with a rack and pinion, for the objective. At a lamp store obtain a glass mercury reflector about six Inches ln diameter, and a lamp fount with a central draught or duplex burner. Mount the condenser lenses in the wood frame, so that the back edge of the case rests on the wood front of the box, and the front edge on the board

F; screw the objective lens flange to the front of the board G, and the reflector to the inside of the door, as shown in Fig. 5. If the burner is a central draught It should so be placed that the middle of the wick Is about four inches back of the condenser lens, but if it is a duplex, so arrange it that tho wicks will stand at an angle, as shown in the plan, Fig. 5.

When mounting this stereoptlcon, bear in mind that the exact center of both lenses and the reflector must be in a straight line, bath from the side end the top view, else the result will be a half or partly shaded picture on the screen. The lamp should be placed so that the brightest part of the flame will be in the direct line through the center of lenses and reflector.

When the lenses, lamp, and reflector are properly adjusted, the reflector Should throw the center of the light to the edges of the condenser and then through the slide or pecure, which Is the dark line in front of the condenser In Fig. 5, and so on through the objective lenses and to the Sheet or screen, where the size is dependent upon the distance of the lantern from the screen.

An objective lens with a four-inch focus should make a picture seven feet and six inches square when 'the lamp is ten feet away from the screen, and eleven feet square when It is fifteen feet away, and when twenty feet away, the picture should be fifteen feet square. For home use, however, a distance of ten to fifteen feet will make as large a picture as necessary, and the brilliancy and detail of any good slide can be brought out at that distance in a clear and well defined manner.

This lantern, if properly and carefully constructed, should prove very successful, and the boy who can make a good negative on glass plates or films, cam also produce good lantern slides by contact printing. Wood and tin slide carriers can be purchased to take the standard size of slides and that in turn can be slipped inside the holder F, Fig. 4, where a spring arranged at top and bottom will hold it in place against the condenser. Copyright, 1898, by Bacheller Syndicate. Intelligence of Eafth^Worms. Darwin says, in "The Formation of Vegetable Mould:" "If a man had to plug up a small cylindrical hole with such objects as leaves or twigs he would drag or push them in by their pointed ends; but if these objects were very thin relatively to the size of the hole, he would probably insert some of their thicker or broader ends. The guide In his case would be intelligence." He then goes on to show by reports of actual experiments that this Is the method pursued by earth-worms. Not only do they adapt the leaves of the trees of their own country to their needs, but the leaves of foreign trees are dealt with iln a similar way. Continuing, Mr. Darwin says:

"If worms are able to Judge, either before drawing or after having drawn an object close to the mouths of their burrows, how best to drag it in, they must acquire some notion of Its general shape. This they probably do by touching it in many places with the anterior extremity of their bodies, which serves as a tactile organ." Mendelssohn's MSS, Mendelssohn began to compose in his twelfth year, and so methodical were his habits even then that the manuscript volumes containing his own scores of his works are in an unbroken series until his death. There are fortyfour of these great volumes, all written by his own hand and now preserved in the Imperial Library at Berlin.