Brooklyn Technical High School - Blueprint Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

Page 19 text:

showing the ocean, the beach, and the people bathing. Whenever I show it to any people, they ask me if it was taken in the air from an airplane. When I tell them that it was taken with my kite camera, they don't believe me at first be- cause the picture is such a good one. I have used my kite camera at Roosevelt Airport quite often, and the pictures I have obtained seem to have been taken from an airplane. They have very fine detail in them, in that they show the hangars and the airplanes grouped around them. Different pictures may be taken in hori- zontal and vertical positions, according to the way I put my camera on the kite. I have found horizontal pictures better be- cause they have more range in the width of the picture than in height. When a picture is taken vertically, you may get a After the Rain l With ibe Help of the Wind picture of the sky when you don't want to. I have had much enjoyment from this type of photography because of the unique way the picture is taken. You can't realize the suspense I went through when I developed my first roll of nega- tives from my kite camera. I didn't know whether they had turned out or not, and when I saw that they had, you can't ima- gine how happy I was. by ROBERT GERAGHTY, 79 Illustrated by Richard Rauschkolb, 7G5 His legs were as heavy as the humid air that pressed down on him, threatening to constrict his chest with its serpentine pressure. His lungs were raw and his breath came in soul-racking gasps that pulled and strained at his muscles. He looked up, and through the film of sweat that clouded his bloodshot eyes, he saw the gray, ominous sheet that hung low over his head. It was like a tremendous weight pressing down on him. He wanted to give in, to fall beneath its heavy pall, and be pressed into the brown earth till it covered his face and body, till it shut out that awful greyness that was trying to en- gulf him in its hungry maw. How easy, how nice it would be, just to let his legs fold under him and slip into the soft, warm mud, but no! He mustn't stop- there was so much to do-and only he to do it. So on and on he plodded through the mists, through the mud that sucked at his feet-it was as though some living, pal- pable thing were reaching out to swallow him. The blood pounded and thundered in his ears, a white hot band of iron was crushing his chest. Rest! Why couldn't he stop just a moment-and rest? No! He mustn't stop-he couldn't stop-for if he did he would never gather enough strength or courage to start again. Rest was not for him-he must go on, eternally it seemed, until his dreadful mission was completed. 15

Page 18 text:

:an't abdicate. The very next day, March 15th, they shot down King joe with a Thomson model machine gun. The peo- ple, being very thrifty, took the bullet Kite Camera holes out of ex-King Joe II and put them into doughnuts. And that is how doughnuts got their holes. by RICHARD SCHRICK, 82 F rom experimenting with a Uni- vex Box Camera fastened to a kite, Omar Gonzales of San Antonio, Texas, has found that he can make aerial shots with- out using an airplane. This discovery makes aerial photography possible for everyone. The finished picture is very clear even though it is taken from about two or three hundred feet in the air. I myself have made a kite camera and have found it full of fun and enjoyment. The materials that I needed for my kite camera included a lightweight camera, such as a small Univex Box Camera which can be had for only one dollarg about ten feet of one-half inch by one inch balsa woodg and a large sheet of wrapping pa- per about five feet square. After I had procured these materials I was ready for the construction of my kite. The kite is the same as the regular kites you see except for the fact that it is much larger. The piece of wood that runs from the top to the bottom of the kite is three feet long. The two side Shore Road from lhe Kile Camera I4 pieces at the top of the kite are one and one-half feet long, while the two side pieces at the bottom are two feet long. The balsa wood is glued together and tied with string to prevent the joints from coming apart. The brown wrapping paper is then glued to this frame on one side only. The kite is now finished except for a tail which is made of strips of cloth, and which is fastened to the bottom point of the kite. This is done to prevent the kite from tail-spinning and looping while it is in the air. The next thing which has to be built is the camera platform. This is a slab of wood about Eve inches long, four inches wide, and one-half inch thick. The camera is fastened to this with strings wrapped around it and then around the platform. The platform, with the camera fastened to it, is then tied to the kite by means of stout pieces of cord. The shutter release on the camera is a trip shutter, one that is pressed down on the face of the camera in an arc. It is held by a rubber band and a string. Then the string is released by lighting one end of it while the kite is on the ground. The string continues burning while the kite is in the air, and when it is all burned it releases the pressure on the rubber band. The snap of the rubber band pulls the shutter release and thus is the picture snapped. I have a picture of a seashore scene,

Page 20 text:

The greyness above him grew blacker, the air heavier. Even the heavens were convening to conspire against him, to stop him from committing the crime. Commit- ting a crime? Ah yes! Tbey would call it IllIlI'd6l'! Harsh word, thatf--murder. He shuddered. He hastened his dragging steps. If only the rains would come down to relieve him of that terrible weight that was slowly bowing him down. Oh to feel the soothing droplets on his face, to feel it washing the sweat from his eyes and trickling into his 16 mouth, moistening his patched throat. Hark! What was that? A rumble in the distance. Listen! It came closer! Louder! Louder! It boomed and thundered about his head. He staggered! Broad sheets of lightning flashed in his eyes, stunned him! He was weakening. But listen! A new sound, low, sibilant, like the voice of a thousand serpents. What was that running down his face? Water? The rain! It had come at last. But too late! He was weak- ening fast. His legs were folding under him. Darkness entered his eyes, smothered his heart. He lost consciousness. The rain came harder now. In solid sheets it beat down on man and mud, washing them togetherfAmaking them one. Dimmer and dimmer the lightening flashed. Softer grew the thunder. For a while the rain beat ong but at last it de- parted into the distancefwhence it had come. Overhead the blackness of the sky slowly, reluctantly surrendered to the deep gentle blue of the heavens. The moon, still veiled with long wisps of clouds, shone out with its soft, silvery radiancefu endowing each rock, each blade of grass with its own shimmering. Pin points of light, that were the stars, appeared in the blue velvet blanket of the sky. One by one they came out, their twinkling light vying with the moon to dispel the shadows that lingered furtively behind the larger rocks and trees. The wind subsided to a gentle breeze that gently rippled the surface of the puddles of rain water, distorting the reflections of the moon and stars. The soft sighing of the breeze seemed to magnify the silence. Something stirred in the stillness. A head rose from the mud. How still! How quiet it was. He looked about himff-up at the sky. A wisp of wind played with a stray lock of his hair, fanned his face, soothed himf-fas a mother's hand soothes flfmzlizzued rm page 201