A CAMERA DETECTIVE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 5, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 18.

A CAMERA DETECTIVE.

THE novel feat of catching a chicken thief by means of a camera was recently performed by Ralph B. Hyam, an electrical engineer, who resides in West Philadelphia. Finding that his hen-roost was persistently raided, Hyam set up a snap-shot camera in such a way that it was focused directly on the entrance of the chicken-house. Near by on a saucer was placed a charge of flash-light powder. An ingenious arrangement of wires was then run from a battery to the camera and flash powder and thence to the door, which when opened would work the camera and ignite the powder simultaneously. It took Hyam two days to finish the job. One morning last week Hyam found that the coop had been broken open, altho the thief had evidently been scared off by the flash of powder. Anxious to see how the scheme had worked, he at once developed the plate and nearly fainted when the face of a church sexton appeared. That individual has confessed to all the robberies, and has promised to make restitution to avoid arrest.—New York World.