D65 Electrophotography with a gaseous lens

UMMOAELEWEE

 

Language SPANISH

No. of Copies: 1

 

TO DIONISIO GARRIDO BUENDÍA

Madrid.

 

 

Sir: We have ventured to address you after Mr. Sesma Manzano, with whom for some months now we have maintained cor­dial contacts, informed us that in a recent photo­graphic test carried out by you, you had managed to fix on a film two presumed spaceships of the kind vulgarly called by terrestrial journalists "FLYING SAUCERS".

 

Before going further, we point out to you regarding this report (which only you have received) and probable notes we may send you, that we authorize you to read it in its entirety or any fraction of it before your friends, or on the contrary to keep any kind of reserve about it. We beg you to refrain from handing it to third parties without prior consultation with us, unless it is for the sole purpose of its photostatic reproduction.

 

In a last consultation held with the said Mr. Sesma, concerning that curious photograph, we believe we understood that the images obtained were two, and that their profiles could recall a kind of fun­nels, cones or triangles, perhaps surrounded by a halo.

 

You will understand that we are extremely interested in that kind of reproductions. We ask you to answer briefly the simple ques­tionnaire we include. You need only copy the number of each question followed by the adverbs YES or NO or else the specific data we re­quest. At the end of this same paragraph we add an example.

 

We beg you to deliver it to Mr. Sesma Manzano Calle Fernando el Católico 6 MADRID 15 Telephone 2572452. If you con­sider it opportune, it is not necessary to reveal to this gentleman the genuine na­ture of our questions.

 

1st HOUR / DAY / MONTH / YEAR of the capture.

2nd APPROXIMATE ORIENTATION

3rd EXPOSURE TIME

4th SENSITIVITY OF THE FILM (If panchromatic B and W Neg) or colour (ASA, Sch.

5th MAKE and TYPE if in COLOUR

6th WAS ANY STREET LAMP LIT NEAR THE LENS?

7th DID YOU DEVELOP THE NEGATIVE YOURSELF, RULING OUT ANY POSSIBILITY OF DOUBLE EXPOSURE?

 

(EXAMPLE) (1) 22.15 / 6 / 4 / 1966 - (2) E - (3) 14 s - (4) 12 ASA (5) KODACROME - (6) YES - (7) NO

 

We would be most grateful if you would provide us with these data, telling us whether it is feasible for you (in case we should need it) to obtain a copy, even if from the positive, we bearing the expenses that the process of obtaining it might cause you.

 

Nevertheless we ask you to pay the utmost attention to questions 6 and 7.

 

We have put the first of the two to you guided by the shape of the images which we believe we have made out throughout Mr. Sesma's description.

 

The structure of terrestrial cameras is different from that of our UULAYA NAI (ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY) apparatus, mainly because you use rigid glass lenses in your objectives, whereas in our system (as we explain to you in a short report which we attach by way of elementary description) our optical systems are based on the principle known to you; that gases present different refractive indices according to their density, which makes it possible to heat certain zones suitably and cool others within a cylinder filled with Nitrogen, in order to deflect the light rays according to the universal principles of geometrical optics.

 

Among other drawbacks presented by the OBJECTIVES of the cameras of Planet Earth, we note certain REFLECTION effects observed by us when a light source is placed in a lateral zone of the visual field, such as for example an electric incandescent lamp of those you use on Earth.

 

The deformed image of its filament may be fixed on the sensitive film, superimposed on the normal image captured by the Objective. We draw you a sketch of the form such a distorted image could adopt.

 

 

Sometimes two and even three or four secondary images are produced, of a shape similar to the Main one, although with a different index of distortion.

 

Not even the surface treatment of the lenses with Fluor­ides deposited by evaporation manages to attenuate this defect appreciably.

 

It is therefore these and other deficiencies that obliged our specialists of UMMO to discard rigid Optical systems.

 

These secondary optical effects are not easily produced in UULAYA NAI equipment (UMMO ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY).

 

Our systems, indeed, differ from those of EARTH in their essential characteristics.

 

We wish to set out for you, at a popular level not exces­sively technical (which would need many thousands of pages for its theoretical and technological development), the structural comparison between two UULODOO (CAMERA or APPARATUS), one of the EARTH type and another commonly used on UMMO.

 

We refrain from pointing out distinctions between other specialized models, for special Photographic uses (microphotography, astronomical photography, clinical uses, etc.).

 

The similarity between the Earth and UMMO systems is evident in their intimate Essence (CAMERA OBSCURA: OPTICS of the objective and impressionable film) but the technical procedures used are radically different, as we are going to see:

 

As you know, when a ray of light passes from one transparent medium to another (of different nature or density) it undergoes a change of direction, a phenomenon you call REFRACTION.

 

The whole of GEOMETRICAL OPTICS Theory tends to the analysis of these changes in the case of DIOPTRES and lenses or different types of reflecting surfaces or mirrors.

 

In a word: you manage for example

 

 

To integrate the visual image of any luminous object, refracting the rays of light by means of an object of carefully studied profile and defined chemical composition, which you call a LENS, although of RIGID Structure, note well: RIGID.

 

But remember that the phenomenon of refraction is also produced in an ELASTIC medium such as a GAS.

 

 

IMAGE 2

 

Any photography technician can describe an EARTH camera, starting with the study of the objective (DRAWING 1)

 

(1)

 

You met from the very first moment the apparently insoluble problem of the different kinds of aberra­tions (chromatic aberration, spherical aberration, astigmatism, curvature of field, distortion, etc.) which distorted the image when you tried to use simple lenses or menisci.

 

Thus there arises among you a whole new technique of objective con­struction, for the creation of triplets, quadruplets and extensive series of combined lenses, with the appearance of the two kinds of glass, "crown" with a siliceous base and sodium and calcium carbonates, and the "Flints" in which potassium and Lead carbonates predominate.

 

With which a very acceptable purity of image is achieved after the almost total neutralization of those aberrations.

 

The second important element of the camera (let us leave aside the different techniques for obtaining iris diaphragms controlled by photoelectric cell, and the whole complex range of fast shutters) is the sensitized plate, for which you use an enormous variety of emulsions with different percentages of Silver bromide and iodide, Silver ni­trate and other salts.

 

Let us now see the structure of the essential factors in the UMMO UULODOO. But first let us make a succinct review of some known Physical principles.

 

All of you know the phenomena of mirage caused by the different density (DRAWING 2) of the layers of air heated by the torrid ground of deserts.

 

The objectives used on UMMO therefore start from this essential principle, which somewhat recalls the physiological mechanism of the eye, in which the true lens, THE CRYSTALLINE LENS, is not rigid but ELASTIC; made up of a fibrous gelatine.

 

Let us see more precisely the Technique we use (RE­PLACING the rigid medium, GLASS, or the semi-elastic one (gelatine) by a GASEOUS MEDIUM of VARIABLE REFRINGENCE.

 

Imagine a container full of air which we have provided with a heater in its lower zone and a cooling system above (see drawing 3).

 

The lower layers will be less dense (THERMAL EXPANSION OF THE GAS) than the upper ones.

 

 

A ray of light will undergo successive refractions, curving upwards.

 

And if we now exchange the cooler and the heat-gene­rating element? The order of the gaseous layers according to their den­sity will be inverted. The densest will be at the top (Drawing 4) and the ray of light will undergo a continuous curvature, of the descending type.

 

You have seen: how it is possible to use a new technique of GEOMETRICAL OPTICS without resorting to REFRINGENT solid bodies.

 

Your experts in Electronics also know the Technology of high-frequency heating:

 

 

Terrestrial High Frequency Generator

 

IMAGE 5

 

If a current of high intensity and frequency flows through a coil (SOLENOID), the molecular friction within an object placed inside the coil (Drawing 5) causes the heating of the latter. Even metals can thus be melted, and the Temperatures reached will of course be a function of the Frequency and electrical intensity flowing through the winding of the coil.

 

We have achieved a very exact control of temperatures at the various points of a solid, liquid, gaseous or transitional mass: By emitting two beams of ultrashort waves, we manage to vary the temperature gradient at a point P of a mass of GAS (M) (Drawing 6), that is, to heat a small neighbourhood of gas in that zone.

 

 

Using a suitable range of wave beams, we can therefore, within a gas container, create an artificial environment in which certain zones are at a high temperature and others at reduced temperatures.

 

We can heat, for example, in the container of (drawing 7) the whole volume drawn in blue, leaving in the interior a mass of cold gas which adopts a lenticular shape for example, and we can then slightly modify the gradients, achieving (DRAWING 8) that this gaseous lens has a different thickness or adopts an optically useful shape (figure 9).

 

The rays of light, on passing through those shaped masses of air, will follow, by virtue of the known optical laws, de­fined directions.

 

We therefore manage to replace the glass lens systems of EARTH by an infinite variety of extremely complex optical forms, some of which are equivalent to those known to you as "TELEPHOTO LENSES" "WIDE-ANGLE LENSES" "CLOSE-UP LENSES" "CHROMATIC FILTERS" of various characteristics and dimen­sions.

 

This may give you an idea that the technical structure of an "objective" of ours is very different from that of the cameras known to you, in which to obtain different effects you must resort to exchanging glass optical objectives, (different for each commercial firm that builds photographic apparatus)

 

 

We now go on to describe in broad outline one of our UULAYA NAI devices.

 

See the diagram on sheet 8

 

There appears in the foreground the element () UULAXAA (GASEOUS OBJECTIVE) A TRANSPARENT CYLINDER WITH VERY THIN WALLS filled with NITROGEN gas.

 

The XANIBOOA elements (Could be translated as ULTRAFREQUENCY radiators) are distributed peripherally (), some 1200 in number. They are the ones which, receiving energy from a generator () and with their operation programmed by means of a tiny computer or XANMOUULAYA provided with TITANIUM MEMORY (l ), allow the operator at will to create infinite optical conditions inside the UULAXAA (gaseous objective) by heating the various points of the gaseous mass to different temperatures.

 

One can thus obtain anything from a simple lenticular meniscus whose weak luminosity is equivalent for example to an EARTH F: 32 up to a com­plex SYSTEM equivalent to a Telephoto lens or a 180-degree wide angle.

 

Note that there is no diaphragm (since the luminosity of the optics varies at will) nor shutter, for the reason we shall point out later.

 

The rays of light, duly deflected in the UULAXAA, now pass to a second chamber identical to the previous one but filled with XENON gas () where, by thermal means analogous to those descri­bed, a kind of TOTAL REFLECTION prism can be created instantaneously ().

 

If such a prism is generated in an instant, the image ob­tained is deflected 90 degrees, in a way similar to that used by you in the so-called "REFLEX CAMERAS", falling on a small photoelectric camera () which, following a process more complex than that of your TELEVISION, is sent by means of the cable () to a flat screen (of various sizes according to the type of apparatus) where the operator can observe the IMAGE EXACTLY as HE IS GOING TO OBTAIN IT in the UULAYA NAI EQUIPMENT. ()

 

It is now that the "shot" of the UULO DOO (CAMERA) can take place. The prism () disappears through ultra-rapid cooling of the XENON gas. The rays of light now fall on the SELENIUM film () ELECTROSTATICALLY CHARGED, fixing on it an electrical image which replaces the chemical image produced by incipient blackening of the silver salts.

 

This last description corresponds to the system of image impres­sion in the old UULODOO (ELECTROPHO­TOGRAPHIC CAMERAS) of UMMO, provided with a "shutter" and impression without stereoscopic relief.

 

At present the system is much more complicated.

 

1st.- The sensitive film is formed by five superim­posed transparent sheets, whose sensitometry is calculated to fix as many images of different wavelengths (5 colours whose combination forms the chromatic image).

 

2nd.- The fivefold image is transferred by electrical means to a last chamber () in a time calibrated according to the exposure period calculated by the computer ().

 

3rd. - This chamber receives the image on a screen by an identical procedure to that transferred to the XAN ELOOWA screen () used by the operator. It is there that the positive is automatically fixed with no need for a developing LABORATORY (The process distantly recalls the cameras of the North American firm "POLAROID").

 

4th.- Note that since the image is transmitted by cable () and is automatically interrupted after an exposure time fixed either by the operator or by the computer, the mechanical shutter you know (Types "PRONTOR", WINDOW, etc.) has been replaced by an electrical switch system. ()

 

5th.- The modern UULAXAA gaseous objectives and the electrostatic films are designed for the reception of se­veral out-of-phase images, which allow stereoscopic vision. As you know, our system of three-dimensional photography is not based on capturing only two images from two different angles in order to observe them afterwards with the help of a stereoscope or the aid of POLARIZED LIGHT or COHERENT LIGHT produced by the EARTH LASER SYSTEM.

 

6th.- Observe also that we use five wavelengths instead of the three corresponding, in your photo­graphic and COLOUR TELEVISION systems, to the tones RED, BLUE and GREEN. We thus achieve, not greater chromatic richness, which is not to be expected by anyone possessing elementary knowledge of the physiology of vision, but more accentuated contrasts in our system of electrophotography in relief.

 

7th.- The greatest problems that arose in our labora­tories when the "GASEOUS OPTICS" system was created were to achieve Thermal stability in the refringent Zones of the gas. The drawbacks deriving from gaseous convection currents and thermal irradiation within the gas were so enormous that our technicians were on the point of abandoning their endeavour.

 

8th.- High-precision photographic cameras for technical purposes have for a long time not used these types of gaseous objectives, but liquids in ANTIGRA­VITATIONAL suspension within an inert gas (generally HELIUM) at very high pressure. The liquid masses adopt elastic optical forms very similar to the behaviour of the crystalline lens in the human eye.

 

ELEMENTARY DIAGRAM OF A UULODOO (PHOTOGRAPHIC APPARATUS)

 

 

() UULAXAA Gaseous Objective within which the optical elements are integrated by means of T gradients.

 

() XANIBOOA ULTRAFREQUENCY radiators which, heating the various zones of the gas, shape the optical elements.

 

() AAXOOIBOOA Ultrafrequency GENERATORS, programmed by the Computer () They feed respective­ly the XANIBOOA of () and ().

 

() UULAXAA UOXA Xenon gas chamber for the second optical treat­ment of the image. Among other functions: a total Reflection prism can be generated within the gas () which deflects the image towards ().

 

() Camera which can capture and transmit through the cable () the image obtained; towards the XAN ELOOWA screen () which allows the, operator to observe it before fixing it.

 

() Selenium mosaic which receives the image, transforming it into an electrostatic one, in order to transmit it next by means of the emitting equipment ( ) to the impression chamber.

 

() XANMOUULAYA Small nuclear computer; the true brain of the apparatus. It governs the operation of all its parts. It programs the various types of optical systems in the UULAXAA, taking into account all the physical factors in­volved, (Intensity and brightness of the image, focal dis­tances, Distance of the object for its corresponding focusing, Depth of Field desired by the operator, Chromatic filtering, Angle of visual Field accepted by the operator, chromatic range desired for the positive, aperture and speed or exposure time.

 

It is provided with Titanium memory. You will get an idea of its complexity from the fact that it has to take into account at every instant even the turbulence movements at all points of the gaseous chamber, in order to correct them and achieve perfect optical stability.

 

() ELECTRICAL SWITCH Disconnects or connects the Selenium mosaic ( ) from the image-fixing chamber ( ) in a time calculated by the XANMOUULAYA Computer (It performs the same function as the me­chanical Release Shutters in the photographic cameras of Planet Earth). Because it lacks inertia, since the interruption is produced with a mercury-vapour element, the Expo­sure times can be calculated with a precision of millionths of a UIW (One UIW = 3.092 minutes).

 

() In this CHAMBER the image-fixing Process takes place by an electrostatic procedure. A kind of polychrome and "stereoscopic" Positive is obtained) which constitutes the final Image. Without need of a negative, as many copies as desired can afterwards be obtained.

 

As it does not fall within the purpose of this report, we refrain from describing the Process.

 

() XAN ELOWAA On this Screen the image is displayed (Exactly the same in dimensions, relief, contrast, chromatic range, and focus) before OANAUAA (RELEASING; FIXING THE IMAGE) So that the operator can give instructions to the XANMOULAYA (NUCLEAR COMPUTER) for the appropriate correction of it.

 

This Screen is joined by cable to the UULODOO () in the simple models, or works independently through connection by means of a modulated magnetic Field.

 

The drawing; as you can appreciate, is a very simplified diagram of the real equipment. The outline of its components is in all cases almost symbolic. For example: The XANIBOAA () bear no more than a distant resemblance to the figure, and are in practice located along a helical envelope of the gaseous cylinder that represents the UULAXAA (OBJECTIVE) ().