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ARLINGTONS "EYE IN THE SKY" Harry I. Days Camera Used at Santa Anita and Narragansett Secured for Big Chicago Track. The greatest improvement in modern day horse racing will be inaugurated June 29 at the Arlington Park, race track when the "Eye in the Sky," most perfect of all "electric eye" cameras, will be used to assist the placing judges in deciding close finish. The first important race in which this all-seeing device may be called into operation " will be the Inaugural Handicap on opening day. A field of fast stepping horses will participate, with a strong likelihood of a driving finish occurring. More than 00,000 has been spent by the inventor of the "eye," Harry I. Day, to perfect the equipment that will take its place as sciences contribution to perfect racing at the big Arlington Park plant. This "eye" consists of two costly cameras and electrical equipment, geared to successful operation in detecting the horses apart to the hundredth of a second. It already has proved its value to the judges at Santa Anita and Narragansett Park. "Its adoption by the Arlington officials heralds its introduction to the most important track in the entire midwest. The apparatus actually is located in the sky, 110 feet above the ground in a specially constructed tower. While one camera takes the picture of the horses pounding toward the finish line, another camera, an exact duplicate, will be grinding away as an absolute guarantee that there cant be a miss in spotting every horse to cross the wire. Days "Eye in the Sky" actually is a specially built high speed motion picture camera focused on the track from a distance of 280 feet and at an angle of thirty degrees. While 235 feet distance has been found to eliminate any possibility of distortion of obliquity in picturing the horses, the 280 feet was decided on as the ultimate perfection in presenting the device at Arlington. Placing judges who "have been following finishes and "deciding winners over a long period of years have unanimously agreed at Arlington that, should there be a close finish with a possibility of deception by the human eye, to call for a picture made at the wire by the "Eye in the Sky." The device is so equipped that the film can be developed and printed, and a finished picture presented to the judges within two minutes after the actual finish of a race. Thus, even before the jockeys have weighed in at the judges stand, the judges can have a picture of the finish as infallible proof of the fairness of their decision.
