P3D Cave Stereo

["David W. Kesner" <drdave@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I just received my December issue of the NSS News. It is the 
publication of the National Speleological Society (caving) and like 
most organization publications it contains a feature with snipets 
from past issues.

An 1866 letter from Charles Waldack to the Philadelphia 
Photographer was reprinted in the December 1968 NSS News. In 
part it said:

"Ever since the introduction of the magnesium light as a 
photographic agent, it has been one of my pet projects to test its 
capabilities as such in the celebrated Mammoth Cave. ... the object 
was not so much to make pictures ... as to test the capabilities of 
the magnesium light and the quantity of the metal to be used ... The 
lenses used were a pair of T. Ross's No. 2 carte-de-viste lenses ... 
mounted on a French stereoscopic camera ... The American 
Magnesium Company had furnished half a pound of tapers ... 
composed of two ribbons and one wire around which had been 
twisted a double iron wire ... The first picture I attempted was of a 
stalactite about six feet in diameter at its widest part. I used eight 
tapers, which were found to be insufficient, and another trial was 
made with fifteen ... A third trial being made with about twenty-five 
tapers ... I obtained a negative with which I was quite satisfied ... 
The difficulty of burning a large quantity of magnesium without being 
inconvenienced by the smoke, ... compelled me to use always large 
diaphragms."

Not being a stereo card collector, my questions are:

1) Is Charles Waldack a well known stereo photographer?
2) If so, is his work primarily cave stereo?
3) Do the test shots he took exist, and if so are they perhaps some 
of the rarest cave stereo cards?

That's all for now,

David W. Kesner
Boise, Idaho, USA
drdave@xxxxxxxxxx


------------------------------