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CAMERA EMPLOYED TO DECIDE FINISHES. "Le Sport Universcl Illustre" of Paris has recently published an entertaining article on the value of the camera as an aid to racing judges hi deciding close finishes. It says: "At this time of the year, when there are many straightaway races with large fields aud close finishes, upon which even the judges do not agree, it frequently happens that spectators find fault with the decisions cither because of optical illusions or because they are not so placed as to pronorlv judge which horse reached the line lirst The rule that the judges arc infallible is vain in such cases, so that not only do occupants of field stands complain, but persons in the grandstands, who consider themselves better placed than the others, also find fault. "A few lines drawn on a piece of paper should be sullieient to convince the most skeptical that it is impossible for any one to say with a certainty that the judges :re wrong. The eye must be fixed exactly on the finish line to enable any one to contradict the judges ruling, and on our tracks the judge is the only person in such a position. "To that answer has been made that if he is placed in his position as a judge the position has been illy chosen. "In short, in straightaway races, where the finish is always close, the horses are often scattered over the whole widtli of the course. To fix their respective positions the judges stand is too far back. It is impossible, with one glance, to determine how a horse six yards away lines up with one thirty or even fifty yards further off. There can, of course, be no disagreement on this point, the general truth of which is proved by the fact that attempts have been made to find remedies at several tracks within the last few years. "Admitting that for ordinary purposes the infallibility of the judges is assumed, and is to all intents correctly assumed, is that any reason why a further confirmation of the official ruling should "not be sought "The confirmation may be obtained more certainly and best by the art of photography. A first attempt, rudimentary, it is true, has been made recently in Belgium with a camera. On October G official photographs were taken of the six finishes at the Zellick races. "The apparatus was placed in the judges stand and focused on the finish line. A green thread was stretched across the track, at a height previously determined by experiment. The thread controlled the cameras shutter. "In practice it was found that the thread should be between five feet and five feet six Inches from the ground. "This thread is broken by the leading horse and instantaneously snaps the winner. When there is not the slightest doubt about the order of the finish the judges immediately hoist the numbers. If the distance separating any two horses Is too short for the eye to catch, he hoists a sign, Photographed. The horses have scarcely gone to the scales when the plate is developed and before the weighing in is ended the photographic result is known. "Since its institution this method of controlling judges rulings has already proven useful. On Tuesday, October 17, at Zelliek, in the Prix des Chem-ins, it seemed to many in the stands that the horsa Astucieux had beaten out the fayorlte. Light Heart. This seemed so certain to a few that bets were being paid when the judges announced Photographed, and the plate clearly showed a dead heat. "The innovation as used at Zellick is not sufficiently comprehensive for our straightaway tracks such as Saint Cloud, Maisons Lalittee, Le Tremblay. etc., but it- should be easy to install cameras which would take both sides of the finish and moving pictures might even be taken showing how all the horses in the race crossed the line."
