Chapter X

Reduced-Scale Photographic and Photolithographic Copying on Paper for Reading through Magnifying Glasses

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∣📄 p.115 The predominance of area costs in the techniques employing the principle of photography furnishes a constant temptation to reproduce as large a number of words as possible on a given area. The ease with which an original copy can be reduced in size in the course of photographic reproduction increases the temptation, and the mathematical law that utilization of area increases by squares while reduction of linear dimension of the writing proceeds arithmetically clinches the economy argument in favor of reducing all texts to the smallest legible size.

Thresholds of Legibility

There are, however, three thresholds of legibility. The first and most important is the minimum that can be read easily with the naked eye. This minimum was placed, in an earlier chapter of the book, at seven-point (newsprint) type, or pica typescript reduced to 80% of full size. Below this minimum there is a range down to five-point type, or pica typescript reduced to 70%, within which writing is decipherable with the naked eye, though not easily legible. Within this range a reading glass will facilitate the reading. When still further reduced, writing is indecipherable with the naked eye, but legible with the reading glass or magnifying glass. However, as the size of the letters is diminished, a lens system with higher magnifying power than the ordinary reading glass is required, and the higher magnifying power brings with it a diminution in the field of vision. This hampers speed of reading and sets a limit to reductions that are to be read by direct magnification. Another limiting factor is the requirement that sufficient light must be reflected from the small area of paper that constitutes the field of the lens system. Ordinary light intensities that would suffice for comfortable reading with the naked eye do not ade∥ quately illuminate the greatly reduced area that is to be read with a magnifying glass.

If seven-point newsprint type is taken as the smallest type that can be read easily with the naked eye, then a 50% reduction of this type, can be read conveniently with the reading glass but not with the naked eye.¹ Below this level, it is possible that more elaborate reading glass systems may permit the reading of texts that have been copied with higher reduction ratios, perhaps as much as eight or ten diameters from pica typescript.

Beyond the limit set to reduction by these optical devices lies the zone in which a projector will yield a legible image. Applications of the projection system will be discussed in the next chapter.

The different zones in which these three methods—naked eye reading, reading glass reading, and projection reading—are operative can be charted as shown in Table XXXVII on the following page.

Reduced Size Newspapers

There have been several practical efforts to utilize these reductions in the reading glass zone. The Joint Committee coöperated with the New York Times in an inquiry addressed to librarians as to whether they would prefer, for permanent preservation, the full-size rag paper copy of the Times or a rag paper copy reduced one diameter by the photo-offset process. A majority of the subscribers to the rag paper edition expressed a preference for the small size copy because the advantages in storing and handling were deemed sufficient to compensate for the disadvantage in reading. A copy of a page of the Times reduced to this scale is shown. But the response was not sufficient to warrant the company in shifting from the present rag paper edition to the reduced size edition. It appeared that, because of the additional expense, the company could find it possible ∣📄 p.116

to make this shift only if a number of subscribers substantially greater than those now taking the rag paper edition would desire the reduced size edition.

Another plan for publishing newspapers in reduced size has been the subject of an experiment by the Millar Publishing Company, and has been tied in with the development of an interesting reading device manufactured by the Bausch and Lomb Company. This direct reading device consists of a lens, set in a frame, with a curved segment of a cylinder of optical glass mounted about two inches above it, and the whole system set on a swinging arm, made ∥ adjustable by means of a screw, to over the page at the proper distance for magnifying purposes. The magnification in this system amounts to about three diameters. The newsprint is reduced to approximately 33% of normal size. Experiments in the office of the Joint Committee indicate that this device is convenient and practical.

Miniature Abstracts and Theses

Another plan for utilizing these low reductions has been put into effect by Professor Charles C. Peters of the Pennsylvania State College in reproducing abstracts of theses of the Department of ∣📄 p.[116a]

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∣📄p.[116l] (blank) ∣📄 p.117 Education. A sample page of his work is shown. On one side of a page, an abstract of the thesis appears in pica typescript reduced to about 60% of full size; on the other side of the page a longer abstract of the thesis is reproduced in a reduction of 90%-95% of normal size. The cost of publishing theses in this format has proven to be very low. Three volumes of abstract theses, filling 854 typescript pages, and containing 300,000 words were published at a cost of $300.00. The cost of reproducing in reduced size 600 copies of an eighty-page set of abstracts was $107.00 in 1933. Two hundred and fifty copies were bound by the Spiral Binding Company for $.05 per copy, making a total cost of $120.00. In 1934, the cost of 700 copies was $127.00.

For reading the miniature print, Dr. Peters found after experimentation that a stereoscope, with the lenses reversed and with an adapted slide, was most convenient for prolonged reading. Dr. Peters sells this adapted stereoscope for approximately $3.00. He also recommends an electric illuminated reading glass device, magnifying from two to four diameters and selling for about $7.50. A third reading apparatus which he suggests is the Clerevu Table Magnifier, with a 6” lens on an adjustable stand. This device, magnifying two to four diameters, sells for $12.00.

Besides the abstracts, some of the doctoral dissertations of the department have been published in substantially the Same manner. But in the case of doctoral dissertations, a nine- or ten-page abstract at the 40% reduction is given first, and then the whole dissertation follows in miniatured pages at the 90% reduction. These dissertations include about 100 pages of typewritten material each and average about 65,000 words per thesis. The cost of dissertations published in this manner is $50.00 for 500 copies, including assembling and binding, but not including cost of preparing the manuscript.

Fiske Method

Reference has already been made to the publication of the Covarrubias Tesoro de la Lengua Castellana o Espanola in reduced size for reading with a magnifying lens. This publication was related to the development sponsored by Admiral Bradley A. Fiske, who has developed a hand reading ∥ lens equipment that develops higher magnifications than those available with an ordinary reading glass. In its most recent form, the Fiskoscope is a small binocular lens equipment set in a frame which can be held to the eye like a lorgnette. The frame holds a long strip of paper which can be moved up or down by rotating a ratchet. The text is typewritten with short lines so that about 150 words of typescript are laid on a page, double spaced. This page is then reduced seven diameters. The field of vision of the Fiskoscope covers this small page; there is, therefore, no difficulty about skimming. But the difficulties of skimming might be expected to appear if book pages containing 450 words should be copied; and a number of persons who have tried reading with the device complain that it fatigues their eyes. This may be the result of habit, for microscope workers train themselves to use without fatigue lenses of higher magnifying power. A reproduction of a strip of Fiskoscope reading matter (Figure LVII) and a picture of a Fiskoscope (Figure LVI) are printed herewith.

The price of reproductions suited to this apparatus is certainly attractive. In the American Printer of January, 1932, there is an article stating that Fiske books of 100,000 words can be printed on two strips of paper at a cost of $.05. Each strip of paper is 2 ⅝” wide and 23½” long, including margins. The typescript is reduced to ½5 of original size, and is printed on both sides of the strip of paper. Admiral Fiske secured a quotation of $557.00 for an edition of 10,000 books of 100,000 words, printed on a good quality paper.

Filmstat Reproduction

The New York Times, Peters, and Fiskoscope enterprises have all involved a use of the reduced copy methods as an alternative to publication. A different class of use is suggested by the experiments of Mr. Atherton Seidell of the U. S. Public Health Service, by Dr. L. Bendikson of the Huntington Library at San Marino, and by the developments under way in the Folmer Graflex Corporation of Rochester, New York.

Mr. Atherton Seidell, who has been active in promoting what he calls “filmstat” ∣📄 p.118 reproduction, counts on reducing book pages about ten diameters and reading them by several methods. A special magnifier, to be manufactured by the Spencer Lens Company, will be sold for $5.00 including the handle and an eye shade for the eye not used. A picture of it is shown. The stand that can

be used with the device will sell for about $3.00. This system will give about eight diameters of magnification. An alternative projector device, to cost about $50.00, suitable for reading filmstats, will be described in a later chapter on projection apparatus.

Bendikson Procedure

Dr. Bendikson uses a Leica camera to take photographs of pages on the ordinary moving picture film, with exposures about 1” x 1 ¼”. Then he lays down a few rows of these film copies side by side in a printing frame and makes from them a positive copy on paper, exactly as if he were making a print from any negative. A reproduction of one of Dr. Bendikson’s prints is included herewith.

For reading these prints, he uses a low-power binocular microscope. This micro∥ scope is manufactured by E. Leitz, Inc. (code word, BSM-B). The image produced by this apparatus is a true one, not inverted or reversed. Dr. Bendikson uses three different pairs of oculars with this microscope: a-5, with an enlargement power of 3.5, a-10, with magnification of 73 and a-15, which can enlarge 10.5. The a-10 oculars, which Dr. Bendikson generally uses, with a magnifying power of seven diameters, will bring back to normal size a page of an ordinary octavo book that has been reduced to the width of the moving picture film.

The writer has no experience with the optical system used by Dr. Bendikson, and cannot estimate how it compares from the standpoint of eyestrain with the Fiskoscope. It must be noted that any and all pages reproduced by this method are reduced to the same width, namely, one inch, the width of the available surface of the moving picture strip.

Van Iterson Device

Professor G. van Iterson, of the Technical Univiersity at Delft, Holland, has invented a reading device for microprints. A picture of it is shown herewith (Figure LXI). ∣📄 p.[118a]

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The apparatus was designed primarily for use with 5” x 7” micro-prints, each print containing eighteen pages of letterpress material. Dr. Bendikson, who went into the question of film copying with Professor van Iterson when the latter was in California several years ago, has very kindly given the writer an explanatory description of the device. Attached to a desklike structure is a bracket, which holds a ring illuminator with five small lamps that surround a plano-convex lens. On top of this drum-shaped illuminator is a second magnifier. The micro-print is slipped in a pressure frame, which slides under the illuminator-magnifier.

Folmer Graflex Recording Camera

The Folmer Graflex Corporation has developed a recording camera that is used to take photographs of meter readings on a strip of paper. It is now adapting this camera to the general work of record copying. The width of the photographic strip in this camera is 2 ¼”, That is to say, it would reduce an 8” sheet of typescript a little less than four diameters, and copy a column of newsprint full size. Obviously, the miniature copies made with this camera will fall in that zone where naked eye reading is beginning to be difficult and reading glass reading is still easy. If the camera is developed, as it will probably be, to take a long roll of paper, the cost of photographic materials per page copied will be somewhere in the neighborhood of one-third to one-half cent a page. This Graflex copying camera, taking pictures directly on paper, will prob∥ ably offer the individual scholar one of the most convenient devices for note taking. Since paper costs less than film, the scholar can have a much larger copy of his pages for a slightly larger material cost, and this increase in size may be just sufficient to render the copy legible with the naked eye, or with an ordinary cheap reading glass. It is to be hoped that equipment of this kind may become available to American scholars at a price not greatly in excess of the price of typewriting equipment.

Another principle that could be used in copying for reading through magnifying glass systems is the principle of the multiple exposure machine. If the Folmer Graflex multiple exposure camera were adapted for document copying, it would permit the division of a 5” x 7” sheet of paper of film into any number of subdivisions, giving the user the chance to find that degree of reduction that best suits him from the standpoint of economy of materials on the one hand and prevention of eyestrain on the other.

If a new positive photocopying paper appears, as was suggested in the preceding chapters, it would be useful in the preparation of these reduced-size copies on paper. Reduced-size copying on photostat paper is always a possible alternative to reduced-size copying on film. To the extent that the use of a film copy negative introduces labor-saving features in the making of paper copies, the effect is to bring the costs of paper copies nearer to the bare cost of materials, and hence to emphasize and increase the economies that will result for high reduction ratios on paper. For the more the factor of material costs predominates, the greater is the cost advantage in carrying reductions to the furthest practical extreme.

Tru-Vue Apparatus

Reduced scale photography can handle pictures as well as texts. The fact that a picture must be seen as a whole makes it necessary that the field of view of any optical system used for viewing reduced-size pictures should be large, and this is the sticking point in the development of viewing apparatus that enlarges more than two or three diameters.

∣📄 p.120 A special apparatus, related to the old-style stereopticon, has been placed on the market under the trade name Tru-Vue.² It is a small binocular viewing apparatus, which receives a 35 mm. roll of film. The Tru-Vue shows “pictures with depth.” The ∥ pictures viewed are printed double on the film, thus yielding the regular stereoptican illusion of depth. The Tru-Vue pictures are, perhaps, suitable substitutes for picture post cards. The magnifier sells for $1.00.