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THE

PIOTOGRAPHIC AND ME ART JOURNAL

VOLUME XI.]

JANUARY

18 5 7^.

[NUMBER I.

THOMAS CRAWFORD.

The following brief biography of this great sculptor, we. appropriate from that esMlIent
family paper " Life Illustrated,"

in
carving,

RAWFOED was born in
this city, March 22d,
1814, and from an early
age manifested a re-
markable fondness for
art, which his father
lost no opportunity of
encouraging, lie caused
liim to be first tho-
roughly instructed
drawing and
and then placed him
with Mr. Frazee and
Mr. Launitz, from whom
. „. he acquired the art of

modeling in clay. His tendency being manifestly toward the
plastic arts, in 18.34, at 20 years of age, he was sent to Italy,
and established himself in Rome, where he was so fortunate as
to gain _ admittance into the studio of Thorwaldsen, to whose
instruction and friendship he became indebted for much of his
subsequent success. The purity of form and severe classicism
of this eminent master are reflected in many of his
works.

pupil's

_ 'After a few years of study, Crawford established his studio
in Rome, and soon received abundant employment. He exe-
cuted busts of the late Commodore Hull, Mr. Kenyon, the En-
glish poet, Sir Charles Yaughan, formerly Minister at Wash-
ington, and many others. One of the most felicitous and cha-
racteristic is that of the venerable Josiah Quincy, executed at
the request of the students of Harvard University upon his re-
tirement from the presidency of that institution, and now placed
in the College Library. In 1839 he designed his famous group
of _" Orpheus," one of the finest productions of his chisel, and
which IS said to have elicited fromThorwaldsen the remark that
It was " the most classic statue in the studio of Rome." It was
extensively exhibited in this country, and subsequently pur-
chased by the Boston AthenKum, in whose sculpture gallery it
now stands, and where may be seen "Cupid and Psyche," an
exquisite group in marble by the same sculptor. His ideal
busts of which " Sappo" and " Yesta" are good examples, are
models of purity and grace. Some of his other most celebrated
works are the "Genius of Mirth," "Adam and Eve," " David
f.^rJu^ Conqueror of 6oUah," "David before Saul" (a bas-relief),'

ihe bhepherds and Wise Men presenting their offerings to
the Saviour" (a bas-relief containing twenty-four figures),
Christ Disputing with the Doctors" (a bas-relief containin"-
twelve figures), "Christ and the Woman of Samaria" (a
bas-relief), " Christ Blessing Little Children," " Christ As-
cending from the Tomb," "Christ Raising Jairus's Daughter"
&c., &c. The execution of his bas-reliefs is delicate and
spirited, and the religious subjects, especially those in which
the person of the Saviour is introduced, are marked
singular propriety and dignity of treatment.

" His genius, however, was eminentlv progressive, and his
crowning works were destined to come last. In 1 855 his noble
statue in bronze of Beethoven, confessedly the only one yet de-

VOL XI. NO. I. 2

by

signed which is worthy of the subject, or which gives an ade-
quate idea of the original, was received in Boston, and deposit-
ed in the Music Hall of that city with appropriate solemnities.
With his last great work, the Washington Monument, ordered
by the State of Yirginia, comprising a bronze equestrian statue
of Washington on a lofty pedestal, with statues of Henry, Jef-
ferson, ond other illustrious Yirginians, surrounding its base,
the public have long been familiar from numerous published de-
scriptions. The statue of Washington has elicited flattering
enconiums from all who have seen it, including some of the
most distinguished art critics of Europe, and is doubtless one
of the most successful works of its kind of modern times. It is
of colossal size, and was cast in the celebrated foundry in Mu-
nich, under the personal superintendence of the artist. The
accompanying statues have been designed, but not all executed.
Among other designs which Mr. Crawford has made latterly,
we may mention statues of Channing, Washington Allston, and
Henry Clay.

" Mr. Crawford was married some years ago to Miss Ward,
of this city, a sister of Mrs. Samuel G. Howe, of Boston, the
author of " Passion Flowers" and "The World's Own." He
has left several children. For the last year or two he has been
the victim of a dreadful disease, which has deprived him al-
most entirely of sight, and caused him to renounce his art alto-
gether. Last spring he was induced to leave Rome, and place
himself under the care of Dr. Fell, of London, a young Ameri-
can physician who had acquired some reputation for his treat-
ment of cancers. For a while the sufferer seemed to obtain re-
lief, but the eflbrts to remove the cancer, at the sacrifice of the
eye itself, proved entirely unavailing; the disease penetrated to
the brain, and after months of anguish, which he bore with sin-
gular patience, he was relieved of his sufferings by death. Mr.
Crawford was of a frank and generous disposition, and his
death will be mourned not less by the large circle who enjoyed
his friendship, than by those who admired his genius.

" The loss of such a man in the maturity of his powers, al-
though not yet in the maturity of his fame, to a nation still
young in art, can scarcely be over-estimated, and it would be
difficult at this moment to point to a successor who is worthy
either by what he has done, or by what he promises to do, to
occupy his place, AYhatever our painters may have accom-
plished, it is through our sculptors that we have asserted our
first substantial claim to be recognized as a nation capable of
producing great works of art, and the names of Crawford and
Powers are household words where other names in Americaa
art are unknown or ignored.

" The funeral of this celebrated American sculptor, took
place on Saturday. His remains were brought from England
m the ship Southampton, and reached this port on Tuesday
last. On the following day they were conveyed to the resi-
dence of his brother-in-law, Mr. Campbell, iS'o. 158 Grand st.,
whence they were removed on Thursday to St. John's Church.
There they were visited by numerous friends of the deceased,
who undertook to adorn the coffin with tasteful memorials. The
cofi&n itself was rather a novelty.. It was made in London, and
presented a striking difference to the coffins usually made in
this country, being covered with the finest black iDroadcloth,
and richly studded with bosses and ornaments, painted deeply
black and highly varnished. The effect was rich, but intensely
sombre. On Saturday the lid was covered by the friends afore-

said with the choicest flowers — immortelles, forget-me-nots,
caraelias, laurel, myrtle and lavender — woven into wreaths, or
scattered promiscuously, just as the friendly hand had dropped
them. Over the silver plate bearing the inscription was laid a
cross composed of the choicest of these flowers. The inscrip-
tion was: " Thomas Crawford. Born in New York, March
22, 1813. Died in London, October 10, 1851."

" The cbuichwas filled on Saturday with the personal friends
of Crawford, and with hundreds of citizens who, not personally
acquainted with him, honored his genius and his memory. We
noticed Dr. Cogswell, Dr. Francis, Wm. H. Appleton, John
Van Buren, David Dudley Field, Caleb Lyon, John Jay, Louis
Gaylord Clark, Charles Elliot, Professor Botta and a host of
the artists now resident in the city. The pall-bearers were
Hon. Charles Sumner, H. T. Tuckerman, G. W. Curtis, Pro-
fessors Greene and Lieber, and Messrs. Hicks, Kensett and
Rossiter, the artists. Mrs. Crawford, widow of the deceased,
was present, with his sisters, Mrs. Campbell, and her husband.
The funeral service was conducted by Rev. Dr. Berrian, as-
sisted by Rev. Drs. Dix, Weston and Young. Portions of the
service was chaunted by the choir, which included Mesdames
Bouchelle and Stoepel. The entire ceremony was that of the
Episcopal Church for the Burial of the Dead. Rev. Dr. Wes-
ton, with the relatives and pall-bearers, accompanied the body
to Greenwood Cemetery, where it was placed in a private
tomb. A monument will be erected over the spot in the course
of the ensuing Spring.

" Previous to the removal of the body from London, a funer-
al service was performed over it, by the rector of the Church
of St. Gabriel's, Pimlico.

"At a meeting of the Artists and Amateurs of the city of
Baltimore held at Carroll Hall on Thursday evening, Nov. 12,
1857, Col. J. R. Johnston was called to the Chair, and J. K.
Harley, appointed Secretary.

Tlie Chair appointed a Committee of five, consisting of Gen.
Ward B. Burnett, Elisha Lee, James K. Harley, D. R. Wood-
ward and William Rinehart, to draft a preamble and resolu-
tions expressive of the sense of the meeting in reference to the
death of the distinguished sculptor, Thomas Crawford, of the
city of New York.

After retiring for a short time, the committee submitted the
following preamble and resolutions, which were unanimously
adopted:

Whereas, we have heard with deep regret of the death of the
American Sculptor, Thomas Crawford, of New York, and for
the last twenty-three years a resident of Italy, who, by his in-
dustry, originality, and brilliant genius, with the advice of the
immortal Thorwaldsen, inscribed his name upon the Temple of
Fame with those of the most distinguished artists of modern
time, and who was alike distinguished for his frank and manly
character and eminent degree of social virtue, therefore

Resolved, That we express an unfeigned sorrow at his early
demise in the midst of a professional career, in which he was
daily adding fresh laurels to the wreath that fame had already
placed upon his brow.

Resolved, That we especially regret his death at this time, as
after more than twenty yeai's of industry and assiduous study
of the art in a foreign clime, he has been denied the high satis-
faction of witnessing the results of his labor in connection with
the extension of the Capitol at Washington, and of being wel-
comed to the shores of the home of his youth by the cheering
voice of his admiring countrymen,

Resolved, That in calling the attention of our youth to the
career of one, whose unflagging spirit and classic genius has
made his name as durable as marble, we would remind them
that his moral character was as pure as the Parian which will
carry to the future his fame.

Resolved, That we deeply sympathise with the family, rela-
tions, and friends of the late gifted Crawford at his early death
in a foreign land, and that the Chairman be requested to for-
ward to them copies of the above proceedings.

Resolved, That all the city papers publish the proceedings of
the meeting.

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal,

ON THE FADING OF POSITIVES.

BY THOMAS A. MALONE,

We promised to remark upon Mr. Sutton's paper on the
fading of postives. If the reader will now take our last num-
ber in hand,* or No. 36 of the present volume of Photographic
Notes, he will the better follow our remarks. The subject is
an important one, and we are glad to have an opportunity of
discussing it. It is a matter which certainly ought not to be
left in so unsatisfactory a conditions. In France it has been
proposed by some timid indivuals to aviod all allusion to the
question, for fear of prejudicing the public! We in England
like to know the worst of a bad business, and would not tolerate
a journal that would make things pleasant outside when all
was supposed to be rotten within.

We are about to review Mr. Sutton's paper chiefly because
we take more interest in this question of fading than in any
other relating to our art. Something must be done. Another
year must not pass without an earnest public discussion of the
whole question. Already the retailers of photographs admit
that people admire, but do not buy extensively, of photographs,
solely because they have no guarantee that a print for which
fifty shillings is asked may not become waste paper in a few
months. Is not this the literal truth? We avow that we our-
selves abstain from the purchase of a tempting subject because
we do not know the history of its manipulation. We have
seen one of the large continental photographic workshops, and
we declare that we have no faith in pictures prepared for the
market in the off-hand way we have witnessed. We believe
that more pains are now being taken, but this, like many other
questions, is one of degree, and who is to say where the line is
to be drawn.

Mr, Sutton's first paragraph is imperfect. We have photo-
graphs which fade without forming a colored substance. We
shall have to classify faded pictures according to their minute
physical appearances.

Certainly a pale yellow image is no longer a true photo-
graph.

We have no proof of the exact nature of this yellow sub-
stance, and we do not believe that it is permanent against all
time and natural agencies. Dr. Percy spoke of a sulphide of
silver dense enough to form a good picture: he could not mean
that a scarcely visible film suited any subject pictorially. Why
must we say that it is only the assumed yellow sulphide of sil-
ver that is permanent? We know nothing precisely about the
comparative merits of black and yellow sulphide of silver.
There is some confusion here.

Not the pi'ocess of fading, but a process of fading, can be
shown by the sulphide of ammonium. This toning and fading
process is of our discovery, and if it be M'orth having it is right-
ly ours. The action of " hydrosulphate of ammonia" was un-
known to photographers till we made our experiments. Mr.
Shaw is the only early photographer besides ourselves who
tested the action of a sulphuretted compound, and communica-
ted to others the result. The manner in which sulphide of am-
monium acts is yet unexplained. Saying it is due to an excess
of sulphuration tells us nothing; it may be the oxidation of a
sulphuretted compound which generates the destructive sub-
stance: even a hyposulphite may be formed, and be partly the
cause, but no one would call this an excess of sulphuration.
The best way is to say that we do not know the steps taken
by the respective elements which exist in and about the pic-
ture. The " hideous" color of a newly fixed photograph may
be removed by heating strongly a damp photograph which has
a trace of hyposulphite left in it. Is this sulphuration? It
may be so; but if so, sulphuration need not cause a photograph
to fade, for we have toned pictures of the date of 1844, which
have not faded, though kept in an ordinary book. Hydrosul-
phate of ammonia, as sold, is a very uncertain substance. We

* See p. 3(J8, no. xii. vol. x. Photographic and Fine Art Journal.

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

liave in this journal explained the mode of preparing it: it will
be seen that it is not likely to be uiform in strength. Besides
it is acted upon by the air if kept in an imperfectly stoppered
bottle. Hyposulphite of ammonia is said to be formed by the
action of the air, so that unless care be taken the experiments
will be vague.

This sulphurating to a maximum is an assumption, and Mr.
Sutton is doubtless too good a logician not to know that " what
is gratuitously assumed, may be as gratuitously denied." That
sulphur toning takes the picture on the road to destruction we
admit, but it does not follow that a man will go the whole
course because he sets out dangerously. Keep the toned pic-
ture from a smoky, toning dtviospAcre, and it may stop on the
road unharmed. We admit that the sulphur toning is an ob-
scure matter. We have old toned prints which are still good,
and that constitutes our stumbling-block. If gold tones wilhout
sulphur, let us use gold, but do not let us therefore say that a
sulphur picture must fade and a gold toned picture is perma-
nent. We simply know but little about it.

With regard to the influence of organic matter on the fad-
ing, we are also tolerably ignorant. We are glad that Mr.
Sutton has discovered that even the developed pictures may
not resist sulphur. We, long ago, faded one of his "perma-
nent prints," with sulphide of ammonium, in the presence of
several chemists. We know of no permanent prints. Perma-
nent prints are like the indelible marking ink, which the quick-
witted French chemical student converted into "delible ink," by
a touch of cyanide of potassium and iodine, or some such
agency.

Without pretending to know the nature of the hideous brick-
red image, we may say that we think the organic matter about
it does render it less stable, but we must not build on a mere
hypothesis, let us say we do not know all the facts of the case.

Now for more suppositions. We once, in conversation with
Mr. Talbot, asked, " may we not suppose, &c.;" to which he
good-naturedly replied, with a smile, " You may suppose any-
thing you please." We felt the rebuke. There was no need to
add-^supposing proves nothing. But seriously, this matter is
too grave to allow of any loose chemistry being brought near
ns. It is a rule in chemistry to ignore the existence of any ox-
ide or sulphide which cannot be shown by analysis to exist,
and this is a safe rule. We know that we have much to dis-
cover, but we cannot therefore allow the justness of any mere
assumption. The onus of proving the existence of a bisulphide
of silver rests with Dr. Taylor and Mr. Sutton. Any one may
utter guesses, and give a chemist a twelvemonth's work to de-
monstrate their futility. This is not said to discourage specu-
lation, but to point out the weakness of reasoning from mere
surmises. What is it then? Why, it may be one of five hun-
dred things not yet dreamed of in our poor philosophy I Has it
been shown that the yellow compound is or is not an allotropic
substance? Here is more mere guessing.

We would ask Dr. Taylor to produce, chemically, this yellow
double salt. The equivalents of sulphur and silver are known,
and hydrogen can easily be oxidized. Can water be obtained
from this yellow salt by the oxidation of its hydrogen? These
are questions that we ought not to be asked to solve.

The explanation of a theorist is often satisfactory enough, if
we will only "adopt" his " notion;" but here lies the difficulty.
We may adopt a thing that is false. Again, we say, the onus
of proof lies with the theorist. Form this yellow sulphide, and
we will gladly analyze it.

In our time, we have had the notion that a sulphate might
be formed, but we have long left off guessing, and determined
to wait for more light. We have proved, by experience, that
a positive, faded by iodine, can be very fairly restored by boil-
ing it in potash; but a positive, faded by time, is not so restored.
From this we do infer that the ordinary fading is accompanied
by the formation of a soluble salt, for what little restoration
takes place is of a blurred character in the one instance, and of
a well-defined character in the other. This is reasoning from
experiment.

The mode of analysis suggested would not prove that a sul-

phate had been formed. A hyposulphite might be formed; so
much for hypothesis. Moreover, testing is not so easy as one
might imagine; tracts oi sulphur salts are difficult to analyze
qualitatively.

Tbe remarks about light and darkness are vague; we do
not understand the fact well. Theory about fires is very
loose. Sulphur exposed to damp air forms sulphuric acid; tiiis
would dissolve the silver, not sulphurate it. See how loose
this is. We talk about sulphur and sulphnration in a very
vague way. Mr. Sutton is not alone in this respect.

Sulphur, as sulphate of lime, is wilder guessing still. Show
us that sulphate of lime can blacken, or in any v»-ay sulphurate
silver. As to sulphide of sodium, ultramarine is never put into
cream colored papers, which yet yield f.iding pictures.

We believe the sulphur compounds, in an impure atmosphere,
have much to do with certain cases of fading, and we believe
and know that a red picture will tone itself in the atmosphere,
but not with gold certainly: with what then, but sulphur? —
and if a print can tone by atmospheric sulphur, why cannot
oxidation and more sulphur destroy this self-toned print? Let
not this point be evaded. It is with us a strong position, and
we wish we could be fairly dislodged from it. As to the re-
moval of all traces of sulphur, we used potash with a view to
aid in this matter, and we have still something to say about
the use of potash; but we shall follow our own prescription
and not talk about matters which only may or may not be
founded in realities. The difficulties of analysis are very great
where such minute quantities are concerned, and one had need
give themselves up entirely to the subject or thing, not always
practicable in this world of mixed duties.

The chance of prints, made by the ordinary method, lasting, is
this: certain prints made in a wholesale Way in 1844 have, as
regards some of them, remained without the slightest deterio-
ration to the present day; indeed, one might affirm that some
of them have been temporarily improved. This, again, is a
strong position, and we can never retire from it as long as
these said prints remain in their present satisfactory condition.
We say that any theory that fails to explain fully this fact
still leaves us in the dark. Do we then confide in the old
method? By no means: but we point to it to warn those who
think they prove everything by saying, " here is a picture four-
teen years old iy my process, &n([ it is unfaded." We reply,
" here is one as old as yours, by the original process; and if
one escapes why may we not learn how to enable all to escape?"
You reply; the mnjority of yours fade, and the majority of ours
stand good. Granted for a moment, and only for a moment;
but your process is inferior in its results, and may yet require
to be kept from the atmosphere; and so we may as well begin
by protecting the superior results obtained by the old and un-
explained method.

The honorable course is to admit that we are very ignorant
in this matter, and to tell the public that they must share with
us in it. We will do our best, according to our knowledge,
and having before us the fiict, that pictures of old date are
still sound, we are not justified in asserting that any given pic-
ture will fade because it was not made by our process.

The difficulty is to furnish the guarantee. Self-asserted au-
thority is valueless in the long run. The matter must be set-
tled with the public, and not simply by them or against them.

We believe we have now as fairly as possible arrived at Mr.
Sutton's last paragraph; and as his remarks have been some-
what desultory, so is our comment. He ends by deprecating
the use of hot water in fixing. Now, the chemist knows, that
when he can use hot water to wash a precipitate, it is to be pre-
ferred, and on this ground we advocate hot water for washing,
say water at 100° Fahr. We believe that the washing is ac-
celerated by using a hot liquid, apart from any question of solu-
bility; at all events, if probabilities are to guide us, cold water
must be considered inferior to hot: the question is important,
though to many it may seem to be only secondary.

If, in our remarks, we have said anything that may appear
to mar the general character of our criticism, we beg that it
may be overlooked. We desire to obtain credit for being in

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND PINE ART JOURNAL.

January,

earnest in this matter, and we are very glad that Mr. Sutton's
fearlessness has given us this opportunity of assisting to keep
alive tlie discussion of this fundamental questioji. In justice to
ourselves, we ought to add that the whole of our remarks have
been noted down with a " running reed," and without time for
minute revision; but we do not by this, wish to. imply that we
doubt the truth of the jiositions we have taken up, but simply
beg of the reac^er to excuse the manner in which, we have pro-
ceeded,

From the Liverpool rho-toc/rapJdc Journal.

PAPER FOR PHOTOGRAPHY.*

To return to. our sizing operation: the paper is put into an,
oblong vat containing the warm size, a few sheets atatime, until
a considerable mass has been immersed. A flat board,, placed
perpendicularly in the vat is then forced up against the mass of
sheets, which are also on their edges, to squeeze the whole into
close contact; the excess of sizje is then run off and the mass of
sheets removed ready to. be pressed, the adhering gelatine, now
beginning to solidify, being first scraped away. Aiter under-
going a nxoderate pressure the sheets are pa.rted, and again
hung across the horse-hair lines to dry. As before from three
to five sheets are suspeuded together, and the previous remarks
respecting the conditions under which the sheets dry a^^ply here
also. This dryingstage of themanufacture'is averyimportant one.
If tlic moisture is removed too rapidly, as by fire heat, or
in very hot weather, the sizing fails, as may be discovered by
dipping a sheet so dried into water. This test wilj. show that
the paper is still absorbent over the greater part of its surface,
and consequently useless for either writing or photographic pur--
poses. In frosty weather the sizing is also likely to fail, but
from what cause does not clearly appear. In very damp
weather, long continued, failures occur probably from the gela-
tine undergoing a species of decomposition. Again, during
thunder-storms the paper sometimes suifers injury, as shown by
the water test.

From these statements it will be perceived that the sizing is
a very delicate and uncertain operation, and yet probably our
ultimate success depends chief y upon this stage of the process
being well got over. One can now see why machine-made pa-
pers, escape many of the difficulties which attend those of hand
make, and one would be inclined to recommend the use of the
machine for photographic purposes, did we not know that as a
rule machine-made papers are liable to be more spongy in their
texture, through the difQculty of imitating by a machine the
felting " shake" of a hand-workman. liesides in machine-made
papers a different sizing mixture is generally adopted, which
interferes with the keeping quahties of. the sensitive paper.
Plour and resin, or a resin soap with flour, and with or without
alum, is said to be used, each ipaker having a formula of his
own. These materials appear to aid sensibility, for it should
be observed that the "Turkey Mill" paper already spoken of
was less rapid than the Frence papers which appear all to be
machine-made. If we could once get well made sheets from a
uniform pulp, we might soon learn the influence of the sizing
materials, and devise a method of combining all the known,
good qualities, unless indeed sensibility and long-keeping are
incompatible qualities. On this point we have not enough,
evidence. All analogies drawn from the case of the Daguer-
reotype are likely to be fallacious.

The paper, after being suspended for a week or ten days,
may be removed and pressed, and then hot-pressed or glazed
by being placed between polished copper or zinc plates, or be-
tween glazed mill-boards, several of which are passed at once,
and repeatedly, between rollers, which exert a powerful press-
ure upon the surface of the mass which is drawn through them.
The amount of glaze depends chiefly upon the number of times
the moss is sent through the rollers. If the pressure exerted be
extreme, the paper appears full of pin holes, occasioned, I

* Continued from p. 368, vol. x. no. xii.

think, l)y the crushing of the lumps, which we have seen must
be formed in the couching operation; and this was the evil I
alluded to as being made evident at a later stage of the pro-
cess. I believe these crushed parts will absorb and be acted
upon differently at every stage of the photographic operations;
and I doubt very much the policy of very high glazing. I
think hot-pressing should be chiefly relied upon;, but we want
exact experiments upon these points.

We have now gone through the operations necessary to the
production of a sheet of paper fit fo? photographic purposes;
and do not let it be forgotten that paper has been made, of
good quality, by the process I have described. We want first
of all simply to study well the present method, endeavoring to
reform it at those points I have indicated as being doubtful.
Let us once obtain, wUh certainty, a paper equal to the old
" Turkey Mill" specimens, and much will have been accom-
plished. Further improvements wou-ld then soon follow.

I have only to state that our linen paper passed through all
the stages satisfactorily until it came to the sizing, here it
totally failed. It resisted the size, although repeatedly dipped
and dried between each dipping. The strength of the size was
varied, and the dippings continued until the paper became size-
siained, and yet, on finally testing it by immersion in water, it
v/as found to be bibulous over the greater part of its surface.
I now saw how unwise I was in permitting myself to be over-
ruled with regard to the hoiling in alkali at the first stage. I
have no doubt that such boiling would remove theresin or gum-
resin, or /"a^^ or glutinous substance, whichever it may be,
that belongs to the woody fibre, but which is quite distinct from
the cellulose , 0^ vfhich the flax fibre chiefly consists. I may
add, that a small portion of a sheet which seemed to take the
size better than the ?est, was iodized, prepa?ed, and exposed in
the camera; it gave a very characteristic result, and showed
clearly that flax might be made to yield a paper having every
good quality that v;e could desire. So far the experiment was
not an entire loss, although it failed for immediate practical
purposes.

We shall , for the present, bring this subject to a close, hav-
ing pointed out all that is known with certainty respecting the
best materials for ensuring a good sheet of paper. Besides the
negative paper made of linen, we had some paper made for posi-
tives, by the advice of the manufacturer, and for this a material
called government canvas was used. It was a fine kind of sail-
cloth, and made a very strong paper. Some positives printed
on it at the time are good to this day, although they have been
kept in a portfolio with others which have faded. I am inclined
to think that tlie riature of the paper has something to do
with the fading of positives. The fact stated by Mr. Ross re-
specting hard-sized paper is, in accordance with our experience,
gained from the printing of Mr. Talbot's pencil of natui-e; but
then all pictures on this hard-sized paper have not stood the
test of time. We are in this subject met by such conflicting
evidence that a sound observer mast hesitate in assigning any
one cause as t/ie cause of fading. The removal of the size from
the finished prints has been recommended; but against this we
have the fact, that pictures with the size in them, in a very in-
soluble condition, remain good, when others, on a paper feebly
sized, fade altogether. So far am I from fearing the presence
of good size that I have recommended sizing the picture anew,
after a solution of potash has been used to tone the picture.
Time alone can tell us who is right in this matter: If size is in-
jurious, what shall we say of albumcnized prints? The size may
effect us this way:- it may either aid or check, as the case may
be, the action of certain atmospheric impurities, but we have
already said the paper question requires a searcliing investiga-
tion. There are a few miscellaneous points which remain to be
noticed respecting the paper majiufacture. First, as to the
presence of spots which appear in the finished picture. These,
of course, arise from the presence of foreign substanoes. Par-
ticles of iron or brass may be present from the rag-sorters
overlooking covered wire, buttons, &c., even pins are sometimes
overlooked and go into the engine to be beaten up with the
stuff; bone buttons, hooks and eyes, and such-like fastenings

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

often pass into the pulp; and if tbcy are not torn to pieces
completely, they abrade the brass bed of the engine suflicieutly
to introduce particles of metals into the pulp; these particles
decompose the silver solution and furnish wide-spreading spots.
Our linen paper became foul from a peculiar cause: the water
of the spring which supplied the engine contained a certain
quantity of carbonate of iirae held in solution by free carbonic
acid. This lime became deposited upon the wood-work of the
vat fand indeed upon every part of the wood-work e.xposed to the
water) in consequence of the expulsion, by constant agitation,
of the loosely combined part of the carbonic acid. This deposit,
after reaching a certain thickness, sometimes scales off during
the beating operation, and becomes broken into a thousand
pieces, and is interspersed throughout the pulp, and this hap-
pened to us. At the outset I objected to the presence of this
deposit, but I was told that it could not be removed ; and, in-
deed, to remove it would be no easy task: it adlieres so closely
to the wood that the scales bring away an impression of the
grain of the wood. The deposit is, moreover, very hardi
Again, the paper may become foul from the felts having been
carelessly left exposed to dust and dirt, and washing is here not
a sufficient remedy. The felts used for our linen paper were
unfortunately, as it turned out, in a dirty condition: being finer
than those usually employed, they had lain by and contracted
dirt which no washing could remove. These felts were actually
cleansed at the expense of our linen paper! — a most provoking
piece of experience, for which the maker was in some degree to
blame. Another source of Impurity may be found in the bleach-
ing house. I have seen, at a very large establishment, metal
pipes and taps projecting over j;he wooden vats which contain
the pulp and chloride of lime; and I have seen these taps green
and corroded from the chlorine vapor condensing in the water
which was leaking out at bad joints and running into the pulp,
carrying with it chlorides of the metals used in tlie pipes and
taps. I think I have now stated quite enough to justify the asser-
tion that the process of manufacture must be remodelled if we
are ever to get paper pure and uniform in its character. I
may also mention that I suggested that distilled water might
be necessary for washing the pulp and for sizing, but I was, at
the time, assured that the suggestion was impracticable. Now,
however, there is an admission made that distilled water may
be had at an economical rate. Indeed at present all the water
used at the Feversham powder-mills in refining saltpetre for
gunpowder is distilled expressly from large iron stills, and all
the water used in the actual manufacture is carefully distilled,
as I was informed on visiting the works, yet gunpowder is
cheap enough, this nicety notwithstanding.

I propose next to give the method employed in printing the
plates used to illustrate the pencil of nature.

From the Jour, of the Fhot. Soci

REMOVAL OF SPOTS FROM COLLOBIOX.
To the Editor of the Photographic Journal.

Sir, — In the practical applications of photography I haVe
frequently been tempted to exclaim, with Lady Macbeth,
'' Out! damn'd spot-" but no, 'twas there; removal was de-
struction. In collodion, specks of dust ivill gain a habitat, and
there they lurk, ready, when poured upon the plate, to fix them-
selves, and lend distortion to the fairest face.

The same evil will sometimes result from spots of dust in the
spirit varnish, and thus many good negatives are ruined for
printing; the spot being certain to locate itself somewhere
about the human face, to the total destruction of \i^. divinity.

Now, Sir, if we wish to avoid a hulh for a nose, or a blot for
a mouth (except where these really represent originals) , we
must exclude with the utmost care all those insane atoms from
our chemicals: to effect this I have devised a very simple filter-
ing apparatus, viz, & gas jar inverted over a dish of water, and
within it a bottle containing a funnel, and the funnel a filter.
Now we may unstop the jar, and pour into the filter whatever

1*

we wish to cleanse from the " bottoms" or dirt it may contain.
Collodion will filter through in a very short time, and with but
little loss, even with a surrounding atmosphere of 60" or 10'^ F;

C. Weay, M.R.C.S.

Wroin La Lumiere.
ON THE SOLUBILITY OF PYROXYLINE.

BY M. H. DE LA BLANCHERE.

There are rcany things to be said on the most simple manipu-
lations of every-day photography. M. Van Monckoven, after
describing how to rectify ether and alcohol, and to make good
pyroxyline, states that a solution of this in the mixture of alco-
hol and ether ought to be of a light yellow tint, owing to the
pyroxyline itself being similarly colored.

Being desirous of studying the properties of a quantity of
colorless pyroxyline which had been sent to me, I dissolved equal
weights, in the proportion of 3 per cent, in two liquids, one con-
sisting of commercial alcohol and ether, and the other of the
same solvents, as perfectly rectified as possible; they were then
well agitated and allowed to stand. Some days afterwards I
noticed that one of the solutions was perfectly colorless, with
only a very slight nebulosity, whilst the other Was of a percep-
tible yellow tint; the colorless solution was the one -which had
been made with the rectified alcohol and ether.

V/hence arises this reaction? Mr. Hardwhich, in the Journal
of the Photographic Society of London, vol. iii. p. 182, remarks,
when speaking of freshly iodized collodion, that the first colora-
tion which is perceived is probably due to the ether, which may
develope an oxidizing principle and become acid even when the
liquid was originally alkaline. He does not however consider
that the brown coloration of old collodion is entirely due to this
cause; the pyroxyline has some part in it; for if the iodide only
is dissolved in the alcohol and ether, the liberation of iodine is
much slower: neither is it owing to the presence of free acid in
the pyroxyline, for the same thing frequently takes place after
it has been soaked in weak solution of ammonia. These facts
led the above clever experimenter to imagine that the pyroxyline
itself decomposes when in contact with an alkaline iodide, and
he founded this opinion on some experiments which confirm this
hypothesis, but which do not bear upon the present subject.

But cannot the ijyroxyline itself decompose under certain
conditions When ill contact with the alcohol and ether 1 The
aboVe-mentioned commercial samples had not the least acid re-
action, any more than the others which had been perfectly rec-
tified: they merely differed in the presence of a little water.

Is it an action of the elements of this water, decomposed by
the pyroxyline; or is it a reaction of the pyroxyline on the li-
quids which contain it 1 In the first pl9,ce, pyroxyline is in-
soluble in water; but I remarked that the solvent power of the
unrectified liquids was the greatef of the two, for after standing
for a month, the clear part of the colorless liquid measured 13
cubic centimetres, whilst that of the yelloto solution measured
40 cubic centimetres. Here then is a singular action: the pre-
sence of a liquid facilitates the solution of a body in two other
liquids, when this body is insoluble in the liquid in question.

The two solutions were decanted and diluted with their own
volume of rectified ether; the yellow color of the one still re-
mained. I then resolved to study the effect of this coloration
on the sensitiveness *of the idolized collodion which could be
made therefrom. The two samples of collodion were therefore
idolized with equal portions of the same kind of iodide, and af-
ter allowing them to settle for twenty-four hours, I proceeded
to take consecutive and alternate pictures with them, under as
near as possible the same conditions.

I could not find the least difference in the adherence of the
two films to the glass, nor in their resistance to the shock of a
stream of watei'. The yellow collodion was as sensitive as the
colorless one, only the pictures taken with the latter seemed to
have more half tone; the same exposure giving a little more de-

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

January,

tail. Tlie pictures from the yellow collodion seemed as if they
were tdcen on a rather less .strongly iodized film, althoujrh in
this respect the two samples were identical. The contrary
ought to have been the case if the yellow color had been caused
by a liberation of iodine, as then the pictures would have been
more vigorous and the liigh lights more opaque.

I should state that these points of difference were so minute,
that it required the greatest attention in examining the results
of the experiments to detect them; and in ordinary operations
they would have been overlooked. The two collodions have re-
mained several weeks without any change of properties, and
have not got beyond a deep orange tint. They have beea tried
in this state, but have shown nothing of importance.

The conclusions which I draw from these facts are — that the
color of the collodion is (as is well known) no criterion for its
goodness; that this color depends upon modifications, perhaps
only isomeric, of which we are yet ignorant; so that notwithstand-
ing the respect to which bulky volumes are entitled, I think
they attach too great importance in recommending the ether
and alcohol to be highly rectified, when satisfactory results may
be obtained with articles of a good average quality. The first
are more costly and difficult to obtain, more liable to adultera-
tion, and in fact of less uniform composition than that which is
met with in commmcrce in hirge quantities, provided of course
that this is of good average quality, as I consider ordinary sul-
phuric ether to be, if carefully selected and without too acid re-
action, and alcohol of 36'^, if free from any foreign odor.

I conclude by stating, for the satisfaction^of my conscience,
that a photographer of the present time requires no little men-
tal discrimination in experimenting with the thousand-and-one
uevv drugs and inventions which constantly assail him: far from
being of any assistance, they are injurious in complicating his
material, and he should be very particular in opening the door of
his workshop to them, under however high-sounding and pomp-
ous a name they announce themselves.

From the Liverpool Photographic Jxnirnal^

THE REFLECTING STEREOSCOPE.

The following note by Professor Wheatstone, although read
before the London Society some four years since, has not yet
found its way into our pages. A recently published Essay
having described the reflecting stereoscope to be an obsolete
and unmanageable iustruineut, we are the more anxious to di-
rect attention to the various modifications of the original in-
vention. We can assure our readers that the reflecting stereo-
scope will never become obsolete, or be " merely confined to the
experimental p2orposes of tin philosopher." Such a fate is much
more likely to attend the rash assertions of the writer of the essay
alluded to above.

" The most perfect and generally useful form of the stereo-
scope is that with reflecting mirrors, described in my earliest
memoir ' On Binocular Vision,' published in the Philosophical
Transactions for 1838. Pictures of any size may be placed in
it, at the proper point of sight, with the proper convergence of
the optic axes, and it admits of every requisite adjustment to
make the pair of binocular pictures, coincide correctly.

'• I have described, in my second memoir, a portable stereo-
scope which folds into a small compass, and which is well
suited for pictures not exceeding six inches by four. I have
since constructed an instrument, very convenient for carrying
about, which is adapted to exhibit pictures of the largest di-
mensions usually taken, as well as smaller ones, and which may
be made use of either for mounted or unmounted pictures.
When closed it occupies a space of nine inches in length, five
in breadtli, and four and a half in height: when expanded the
instrument is two feet in length, one foot in height, and nine
inches in depth. The base and sides consist of jointed bars on
the principle of the lazy-tongs: the two mirrors fold together
back to back, and, by means of a hinge on their support, fall
into a groove on the base fitted to receive them. On the top

of each of the expanding sides a clip nine inches in length re-
ceives the picture (which there is no need to mount on card-
board) and holds it by the pressure of a suitably disposed
spring; and a similar but detached spring clip is applied to the
lower end of the picture in order to keep it flat aiid in a verti-
cal position.

"The picture beiag fixed in the clips, so that their reflected
images shall appear single and coincide in all their parts, the
accurate adjustment to the sight of different persons is effected
by sliding to and fro the pillar which supports the mirrors; the
optic axes being caused to converge more as the mirrors are
moved towards the eyes, and vice versa. As the height of the
sides is variable through every degree, the pictures are easily
adjasted to the same level by pressing on the side which is
highest. The length of the base being also variable, the pic-
tures if it be required, may be placed at different equal dis-
tances from the mirrors. If the pictures are not straight with
respect to the sheets of paper on which they are placed, one
end may be brought lower than the other merely by drawing
down that end so that it shall not enter the clip so far as the
other.

"The instrument is furnished with a pair of ordinary specta-
cle lenses. No. 24. If the pictures were so placed that their
reflected images coincided when the optic axes made an ano-le
of 15", corresponding to the distance of twelve inches, no
lenses would be requisite, as the distance of the binocular
image, the convergence of the optic axes, and the adaptation
of the eyes to distinct vision would have their customary cor-
respondence. But, for reasons I have elsewhere stated, a much
better effect is produced, and the objects appear larger and
more distant, when the pictures are so placed that, to cause
their most distant corresponding points to coincide, the optic
axes are parallel, or nearly so; in this case, however, in order
to see the objects distinctly, the rays proceeding from them
must be rendered less convergent, and for this purpose lenses
are necessary.

"The lenses arc moveable in a vertical direction, in order
that they may be fixed at the proper point of sight; the effect
of a stereoscopic picture greatly depends on its lieiug thus
viewed, though it is a circumstance which is very generally dis-
regarded."

Frtm the Jour, of the Phot. Soc.

MR. LONG'S DRY COLLODION PROCESS.

16 De Beauvoir Terrace, Culford Road, London, Aug. 12, 1857.
To the Editor of the Fhotographic Jmt,rnaL

Sir, — I feel so pleased with the success of a photographic
tour whieh I have recently made through Belgium, that I can-
not resist the temptation to make known, for the benefit of my
brother photographers, the means by which such success has
been achieved.

In common with every photographer, I have longed for the
day when collodion in the dry form, easy of preparation, could
be employed in the field. The complicated nature of the pre-
parations hitherto employed for out-door work has deterred me,
and, I believe, very many others, from trying them to any ex-
tent; and, therefore, I found with much satisfaction th.it Mr.
Long, of Fleet Street, had discovered a process, at once simple
of preparation, and certain in working.

Having been assured that plates prepared by this new pro-
cess had preserved their sensitiveness for at least a fortnight, I
resolved to try it in my Belgian tour, and at once prepared a
number of plates, 15 inches by 11, for the purpose.

I had no time for testnig the keeping power of the plates be-
fore my departure, and, as the development could not be made
until my return to England, it will easily be imagined with what
anxiety I worked this, to me, unknown process.

My tour for a fortnight's duration having ended, I returned
to London, and begau developing. To my great delight, I
found all that Mr. Long had said, in favor of his process, fully
realized. Picture after picture (I took twenty-eight) came out

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND PINE ART JOURNAL.

■with great beauty, and, so far as the process is concerued, I
have not had a single faiUire.

As the season for photography is now passing away, I am
anxious to see others try this beautiful and easy method. The
plates were prepared according to the formula given in Mr.
Long's book of instructions; i. e., first coated with collodion,
and sensitized in the usual way, then covered with a preservative
film of refined gelatine and citric acid, which is allowed to dry;
and this is all. — they are then ready for the camera. The de-
veloper is common gallic acid, to which is added a little alcohol
and nitrate of silver.

I have found that the development may be deferred for at
least three weeks after exposure, and my candid belief is, that
the plates may be kept for months without deterioration.

If you should be disposed to find a place for this communica-
tion in your valuable Journal, and thus make known to the pho-
tographic world how, with but little trouble, and scarcely the
shadow of a doubt as to success, they may pursue their delight-
ful art on their travels, I shall be very glad.

I send my card, and beg to state that it will give me pleasure
to afford any further information which may be sought on the
subject. G.R.Smith.

From the Jour, of the Phot. Soc.

m THE SEPARATION

Of lodiae, Bromine, and Chlorine, and the comparative degree of Affinity
of these Elements for Silver.

BY FREDERICK FIELD. KSQ.

Extracted roni a paper read before the Royal Society, June 18, 1857.

Although both bromide and iodide of silver are decomposed
by the action of chlorine at an elevated temperature, yet chlo-
ride of silver is completely decomposed by bromide of potas-
sium, and both the bromide and chloride of silver by iodide of
potassium. Even the action of hot strong hydrochloric acid
has but little influence upon the iodide of silver; many days of
continuous boiling are necessary for its entire decomposition. I
believe that it has been the opinion of chemists that chlorine
possesses an affinity for silver superior to all other elementary
bodies, and we are told in Gmeiin's Handbook that all salts or
silver, even the insoluble ones, are converted into chloride by
solutions of metallic chlorides. From the following experiments
it appears to me that bromine has a greater affinity for silver
than chlorine, and iodine a still greater affinity than bromine.

When a mixed solution of bromide of potassium and chloride
of sodium is added gradually to a solution of nitrate of silver,
not in excess, no trace of chloride of silver is precipitated, as
long as any bromide remains in solution.

If to a similar solution, iodide and bromide of potassium and
chloride of sodium be added, iodide of silver and nitrate of po-
tassa are formed, the bromide of potassium and chloride of
sodium remaining undecomposed.

When bromide of potassium is poured upon chloride of sil-
ver, an entire decomposition ensues, bromide of silver and chlo-
ride of potassium being produced.

When iodide of potassium is added to chloride of silver,
iodide of silver and chloride of potassium are formed; and when
iodide of potassium is added to bromide of silver, there is a
similar decomposition, the iodine replacing the bromine.

When chloride of silver in excess is agitated with a solution
of iodide of potassium and warmed for some hours, no trace of
iodine can be detected in the solution; when however chloride
of sodium is poured upon iodide of silver, no decomposition oc-
curs, neither is there any action upon bromide of silver with the
same salt: and when bromide of potassium it added to iodide
of silver, there is no alteration in the union of the elements.

From a number of experiments made in illustration of the
preceding statements, I deemed it possible that the separation
of chlorine, bromine, and iodine could be accomplished by this
reaction .

The method which I have devised is simply this: — After
weighing three equal portions of the salts to be analysed, they
are placed in three flasks with ground-glass stoppers, and about
an ounce of water is added to each ; nitrate of silver being
then added, slightly in excess, to the three, the stoppers are re-
placed, and each flask agitated violently. The precipitates
subside in a few minutes, leaving the supernatant liquid perfect-
ly clear, They are then filtered through separate funnels, and
washed with hot water. No. 1 is dried and weighed. No. 2
is digested in bromide of potassium, dried and weighed; and
No. 3 ia iodide of potassium, dried and weighed.

To test the method, a mixture was made of 5 grains of iodide
of potarssium, 5 grains of bromide of potassium, and 5 grains
of chloride of sodium. The following is a comparison of the
theoretical and experimental results: —

Iodine

Experiment.
3-69

Theory.
3 81

Bromine

3 51

.... 334

Chlorine

2- 02

.q n2

From the London Art Journal.

THE FAMILY OF FIVE.

How much character there is in the hand! How individual
it is! It has its physiognomy and phrenology as well as the
head. It is peculiar to man, and is the direct agent of his
mind: no wonder then it should be impressed with his character.
Our greatest portrait-painters have been the most careful with
their hands. Sir Joshua with their ^oi-e, and Vandyke and Sir
Thom.as Lawrence with their fose and drawing. We instinct-
ively recognise the appearance of the hand as a part of individ-
ual character. We see the hand of Cromwell broad, somewhat
coarse, with swollen veins: somewhat flat too, but instinct with
vigor, grasp, and decision: that of Newton definite and precise,
but more delicate; motive, but attenuated by study. As there
is great individual character shown in the handwriting, so I see
it also in the hand.

Actions and positions of the hand become habituated to in-
dividuals. From its structure it is capable of a great variety
of these. It is also affected by employment, and when ground
and hardened by physical labor, is less delicate, sensitive, and
expressive of thought; as indeed is the mind itself. Both are
apt to get, as it were, deadened and ease-hardened by physical
daily labor. So, doubtless, one sees in a man's hand a token of
his condition. Without palmistry, it in some degree tells his
fortune.

The hand is a family of fingers, with an united interest and
common object: a family of five, with each characteristic and
individual in itself. Children in their nursery legend associate
them in one litter, and run them over from the thumb to the
little finger, singing, " This pig went to market — this pig stayed
at home; this pig had some roast beef — and this pig had none;
and this pig cried, ' wee, wee,' for a bit." In this is seen a
common object — the obtaining of the family beef, and also a
diversity in the parties concerned; for as with a family, so with
the fingers — a strong likeness runs throughout, but the Individ'
uals are different in character, tendency, height, width, size,
and office.

Thus the first, or forefinger, is the most active and intellec-
tual. The index finger, as it is called, as being used, to point
with and indicate, and from its assisting more in gesture than
any other. It well has its name, too, of "first" and " fore'" for
it is first and foremost in almost everything that the hand does,
especially in its finer and more delicate offices. Thus, in con-
junction with the thumb, it chiefly holds the pen and pencil,
while it is the whole hand that grasps the sword, the hammer,
or the plough. In nothing, that 1 recollect, that the hand does
is the forefinger left out, but with its close assistant, the thumb,
is always a-doing when anything is to be done. These two aie
quite d'accord. and it is fortunate they are so, as one without
the other would be comparatively useless. As it is, they trans-

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

January,

act the principal business of the family; the others following
their lead, and doing all they can to assist them. Thus, in
holding the pen or the pencil, they are the chief agents, yet
the middle finger is a very substantial assistant, and follows all
their movements, while the fourth finger also gives her support,
and even the wee wee little finger comes iu now and then to
steady the whole hand on the paper.

The hand, indeed, is an example to family circles, all its
members so thoroughly pulling together. Without weakening
this, however, there are little predilections and pet friendsliips
among them, such as exists between the middle and fourth fin-
ger. It is common to see these with their tips whispering as it
were, close together like two sisters in a family who are near-
est the same age. The two are especially affected to each
other's society, and in almost every action they are found of
the same mind. Such sociability is not so much the character
of the little finger, which, perhaps, being the small one of the
family, fancies he has none of his own standing to play with,
and so amuses himself after his own fashion. The young gen-
tleman is apt to have a strong will of his own, and is indeed
somewhat eccentric and independent; and this the more in-
asmuch as he really has a muscle all to himself, the extensor
minimi digili, which occasionally sticks him out all by himself.
He is a good little boy in the main, however, and is generally
very happy to help his brother and sisters, as we have seen, in
the affair of the pen and pencil.

But to return to the elder branches: I always fancy the
thumb to be the sturdy boy of the family, somewhat short of
his age, perhaps, but making up for this in strength, and re-
garding with great deference and affection his elder sister, the
first finger, and always prompt to assist her. This eldest sister
appears the most spiritudle of the family; also much the most a
woman of business and of the world, although in stature, to be
sure, her next kin and nearest sister has somewhat outgrown
her. The middle and fourth fingers are, as I have said before,
the two who keep closet together, very seldom separated at any
time. Yet, for all this, they are ever ready to assist in what
has to be done, setting thus an excellent example to all younger
sisters.

These diversities of character are more strongly developed in
the right hand than in the left, although in both a greater
readiness in action distinguishes the first finger and thumb from
the rest. The powers of the members of either hand, however,
are capable of being assimilated to a greater degree than might
be at first thought, as may be seen in instrumental playing,
where all arc brought into constant action on pretty neaiiy an
equality.

But to quit this fanciful personification of the fingers, I would
add two or three purely artistic remarks on their form, and on
that of the hand. In cases where grace and beauty are the
principal objects, it is desirable, I think, to make the middle
finger markedly predominate over the first and fourth, and that
the little finger and thumb should be rather small; presenting
thus a pleasing toper form, and combining sufficient length with
delicacy. In this case, however, it might be said that beauty
would err from the scholastic, but not very tenable rule, that
utility and beauty are identical; for a hand is perhaps more use-
ful and strong when it is in some respects like that of a monkey,
with its thumb and fingers all more of a length, and is more
suitable for playing on musical instruments. Such a hand could
not, however, in my idea, be as beautiful as one possessing the
former pfoportions.

In a man's hand I would, however, keep utility and strength
more in view, and not venture to vary the lengths to the degree
I would in a woman's hand; but in this respect character is the
guide. In a Hercules or a Samson the fingers might be of a
slightly more even length than in an Apollo. In the left hand
of the Belvidere Apollo the little finger is small.

Of all the fingers only one is truly straight, having its two
sides alike, viz., the middle finger; the other fingers incline at
their points towards the middle finger, forming, either with or
without the thumb, a tapering group. This is to be noticed not
only when the hand is open and straight, but in all degrees of

bending and being closed. The thumb also can hardly be said
to be straight, as its two sides, where it joins the hand, are not
alike.

Beauty in the hand is also connected with the gradual lessen-
ing of the lengths of the parts from the wrist towards the end
of the fingers, which gradation is best observed in a bent hand,
beginning with the space from the wrist to the knuckles as the
first and largest measurement; from the knuckles to the first
joint of the fingers as second, and as less than this in the pro-
portion of about two-thirds, which proportion holds also in the
decrease of the next spaces, viz., from the second to the first
joint, and from the second joint to tho end. Thus the length
from the tip to the second joint is two-thirds of that from the
second joint to the first, which is two-thirds of that from the
first joint to the knuckle, which in turn bears the same propor-
tion to the first bend of the wrist. There are small diversities
in this respect in the different fingers, but a gradation closely
approximating to tliis holds with all. A false idea of grace
has led to making the tips, or end joints, of the fingers too long,
as if by an afterthought; but faithful delicacy and l^eauty does
not admit of a true balance being destroyed, but requires the
parts to be duly and naturally tapered in length, as well as
width.

The Greeks, in their statues, frequently cut the nails rather
straight across; that is to say, they did not make them follow
the hue of the tips of the fingers, nor that of their own growth
from out the finger. I venture not to be convinced of this being
either most reasonable or most graceful. The nail is Nature's
protection to the end of the finger; in some handwork it wears
away conformably with the shape of the tip. I confess I like
the nails as close, or closer, at the angles as in the centre, by
which means an even curve is obtained, repeating very nearly
that of the tip of the finger, and beautiful as well as convenient,
affording a double line — a kind of little rainbow arch — as the
fiuial to the finger.

There is a due medium in length of nails, in which beauty
and utility coincide. The nail is wanted just a little protrud-
ing, so that it may pick up things, but not too long, for fear it
should tear. I have seen some fingers in statues look as if they
had been bitten to the quick: whereas, on the other side, the
only defect in Vandyke's hands is that the nails are often too
long, projecting beyond the ends of the fingers: but this may
have been the fault of the fashion of the day and the sitter, and
not of the painter. I like best the line of the tops of the nails
to be round, and close at the corners; the whole nail thus hav-
ing a filbert, oval shape, with the little white moon at the base
peeping up from below into an ellipse of a pink-tinted sky.

There is something to me very uncomfortable, as Avell as un-
beautiful, in a projecting edge of nail; it becomes a danger in-
stead of a protection. The Chinese — that strange people who
do everything that other folks do not — cultivate them into long
talons, that is, many of the so-called upper classes do, to show
they do not work ; a practice resulting in a very bird or wild-
beast-like appearance- — fierce but useless, and on a par with
the hideous faces they paint on their war-junks to frighten the
barbarians. The infatuated devotees of India, who dedicate
a limb to their Creator by rendering it useless, and with this
object keep a joint in one position till itbecomesstiff and grown
together, have a favorite position for an arm, which they will
hold and tie in an upright position till nature fixes it there,
with the hand and fingers clenched, which become equally fixed
and inmiovable. In this position the nails continue to grow,
which they do quite through the hand, and issue forth at the
back, hanging in long strips. Fortunately we do not do such
things here, the strongest manifestation in the way of nail
growing being the schoolboy trick, that cherishes some pet
nail till it grows so long as to be made into a pen, and written
with.

Each joint of the hand has a different character: the knuckle
has a sort of petella shape, with a tendon running over it, as
at the knee; the next has a somewhat heart-shape, with the
point downwards; and the last is like a double bean. These
are most seen when they are bent: when straight they are not

1S''58.

THE PHO'TOGRllPHIC AND FINE ART JOIT&NAL.

so apparent, and in women and children they sink into dimples,
either simple or complex.

Among the many points to be observed in hands, it may be
noticed that in those that are most gracefnl the sweep of sur-
face across the back of the hand is not one round, but sinks in
somewhat along the metacarpel bone of the fourth linger. In
perfectly beautiful female form, the hand is also so proportioned
to the wrist, and so pliable and capable of being compressed
'into a long hollow, like a rolled leaf or a pholas shell, as to be
easily drawn through thfe bracelet. Everybody, mothers es-
pecially, acknowledge the great beauty of little babies' hands,
although they do "call theth " puds," — being an abreviation, I
suppose, for puddings, — alluding to their fatness. But there is
nothing merely puddingy in a beautiful infant's hand, although
the roundness of the form is carried to the extreme consistent
witli beauty, which, however, is again harmonized by the small-
ness of the scale. On the contrary, there are a vast variety of
little sweeps and deviations of line in it not coinciding with seg-
ftients of circles, but of various characters that in their aggre-
gate produce the most agreeable flourishes of form all over it
imaginable, and result in a, most varied, beautiful, and graceful
image. A dear little child's hand, in all simplicity and abamdon
ef repose lying on the white coverlet, is a perfect little nest of
love to a mother's heart: and, with a true sense of the bathos
of the addition, I may say also a perfect study to the artist, both
in form and color, pink as a shell, and soft and graceful as a
flower.

I hope I shall not, however, lose with mothers by saying,
that, artistically, a beautiful woman's hand is still a more per-
fect object. The curves that draw this are of a character more
truly productive of beauty than those which describe the former.
They are less of circles and more of ellipses, and the more
lengthened comic sections are more gracefnl in the outline of
objects than the shorter ones. I may be perhaps allowed, en
•passant, to make the observation that the varieties "of theiper-
fect sweeps of the conic sections might well, in artistic views of
form, accompany, if they did not supersede, Hogarth's line 'of
beauty. For my part, I invariably see elliptic or parabolic
curves in every beautiful form of nature I meat vvith,'&nd in none
more than in a beautiful female hand.

There is "in the trade," as the plastisrmen Call it, — that is to
say, sold generally in the plaster castTshops, and more or less
good according to the mould in which it has been made, — a
beautiful female hand, well known by IJhe name of the "Italian
lady's" hand. It also has been said to 'be the hand of the Mar-
chioness Brinvilliers,-^a celebrated criminal mentioned in the
" Causes Gdehres," who committed so many dreadful murders
by poison that she seems to have been possessed by the fiend
indeed. One would have been sorry to think that so exquisite
a hand could have done such evil deeds, and mixed the potion
for so many deaths, and one is glad to know that there is no
real foundation for this pedigree. The true origin of the cast
seems, indeed, to be lost, further than that it came at first from
Italy. It bears on it intrinsic evidence to the artist's eye, in
the individuality of its parts, that it is not wholly a work of
Art, but moulded from life: yet the texture and minor marks
of common nature are not on it. What seems most probable
is, that the original cast was moulded from an exquisite exam-
ple in nature, which was afterwards somewhat touched on by an
experienced artist. It is in the highest degree delicate and re-
fined, though pulpy, and reposed, though vital and motive; and
we are at liberty, I hope, to believe, in spite of dreadful stories,
that it originally belonged to a good, amiable, and refined wo-
man, in all respects an ornament to her sex.

OUR PHOTOGRAPniC ILLUSTRATIONS.

Add a drop of distilled water to an ounce of collodion; that
will most likely remedy pin-holes.

If a positive collodion portrait be placed in a good light, it
may be easily copied by a camera and a negative produced.

VOL XI. NO. I. 2

Out photographic illustrations this month, we consider decided
improvements on our former efforts. In comparing these with
the, so-called, plain photographs of the practical photographer,
it must be borne in mind that ours do not receive the slightest
tothch from the brush or pencil. They are what they purport to
be, true photographs. When this comparison is made, we have
no doubt all will consider ours of the present month, -quiteequ^l
to any printed. The first is

A GROUP;

Negative by J. B. Heywood, of Boston.

Containing pci traits of four of Boston's Celebrities. This nega-
tive and several positives we have received ft-om Mr. Heywood,
place him in the front rank 'of Americiin Photographic artists!
The second is the

RESIDENCE OF THE LATE G!ENERAL WI'NOHESTEE.

(Near Cambridge, Massachusetts);

Negative by Messrs. Whipple '& Black, of Boston;

And is a fine view of a charming piece of American scetiery.
We wish we could induce our photographers who send ns nega-
tives, to accompany them with descriptions, biographies, &e.
It would greatly enhance the interest of the picture given.
Both thesepictures were printed by the following formulas:

SALTING SOLUTION.

i^'iltered Crdton water 1 "<al

'Gelatine 1 80 gi-s.

Chloride of ammonium 180 "

The gelatine is first dissolved in hot water— just sufficient to
effect the solution— and then the balance of the water added,
and the chloride ammonium put in. The whole well shaken.

NITRATE SOLUTION*

iNitrate of silver i ounce.

Filtered CrotOn water 1 fluid It).

Four ounces of the solution poured off and aqua ammonia added
till the precipitation is re-dissolved, then pour back the four
ounces, and add seven drops C. P. nitric acid, and filter. Float
the paper.

Zoning bath.

Filtered Croton water ■, . . . 1 gal.

Hypo. soda. 1 lb.

Chlo. gold (Burgess') 180 grs.

Chlo. silver 2 oz.

Chlo. lead solution 2 "

The usual manipulations observed; the soluti6h being, how-
ever, filtered every other day. In toning, the pi^mts wei'e not
permitted to pass beyond a lilac tint, which was 6btained in from
fifteen to thirty minutes, according to the strength of printing
and the temperature of the atmosphere. A cold bath tones
much slower than a warm one.

After toning, the prints were well washeid off with a sponge
on both sides, and put into running water, where they remained
twenty-four hours — were then taken out again, well sponged,
and hung up to dry.

The title being printed, they "were passed through a plate
press.

The paper used was CansOn, and like all he now sendsto this
country, a decidedly miserable article. Out of one ream we
lost one hundred and eighty sheets, caused fto appearances) by
some greasy substance in the tissue of the paper. It will also
be perceived that it is very coarse grained.

A PARCHMENTizED photograph will require to be submitted
to pressure between rollers before it will be perfectly smooth.
The spots are owing to some imperfection in the paper — proba-
bly imperfect sizing.

From the Liverpool Fhotoijrajjhic Journal.

CHORITOX PliOTOGRlPJllC SOCIETY.

The fifth monthly raeetinjjwns lielcl in the Cborlton Town
Ilall, oil Thursday, the 8th of October, the Yicc-Presidcut in
the chair. Alter the usual preliminary proceedings, the fol-
lowing paper was read by Mr. Hooper, on —

" TUB KESULTS OK UIS EXPERIENCE IN THE TKACTICE OF SEVERAL rilESER-
VATITE PROCESSES.''

Having recently been Qccnpied with a series of experiments-
to test the value of certain processes for out-door photography,
that have been brought before the public with considerable re-
tensions to excellency, I think it may not be unacceptable or
unprofitable to place the results before the present meeting.
Those that have chiefly occupied my attention are the dry col-
lodion processes of Mr. Barnes, the gelatine process of Mr.
Long, baked dry collodion plates, and a few others.

I have carefully tried the process as published by Mr. Barnes,
and the result iu my- hands has not been satisfactory, only
being able by it to obtain a good negative occasioualJy: The
great amount of care required iu every stage of the manipula-
tion, will, I think, prevent its being generally adopted. Find-
ing these plates Avere not always to be depended upon, I com-
menced experimenting on the process of Mr. Long. The suc-
cess I have met with from the first has convinced me that that
process will, ere long, be generally adopted; the plates being
easily and quickly prepared^ and keeping well, is a great ad-,
vantage.

I will briefly enter into the details of the process, and then
develop the four plates before you, three of which were, ex-
posed yesterday. The remaining plate I purpose printing on
in your presence, iu order that you may see how a transparent
picture is produced by gaslight.

I have tried various sorts of collodion for this process, and
find none answer so v.-ell as a very old and thin collodion uot.
over iodized. The film on the plates I am to develop is so:
very transparent that it v/ould seem almost impossible to ob-
tain intensity on such. We shall see, however, that such is not
the case, for any amount of intensity. can be obtained with that
transparent film. If a thick collodion be used instead, of the
kind I have just named, a blistering film is likely to be pro-
duced, and which will probably disconnect itself entirely from
the glass before the devc!o]-)inent can be completed. In carry-
ing out my experiments resjjecting the collodion necessary to
ensure freedom from blisters, I have found that ahnost any
negative collodion will do if treated in the following manner: —
To one ounce of negative collodion (made from gun coUo7i, that
made from gun ]iaper not answering so well) add half an ounce
of ffither and half an ounce of alcohol, and of iodine dissolved in
alcohol sufficient to make the collodion a very dark color; a
small bar of zinc immersed in this for some hours will make it
colorless, and admirably adapted as a substitute for old collo-
dion. Almost all the different collodions I have treated in this
manner have passed from the contractile to the powdery or
porous kind. With respect to the manipulatory part of the
process, it being the same as for wet collodion negatives up to
coating the plate with the gelatine solution, it will be unneces-
sary to describe it. The gelatine solution T prepare and apply
as directed by Mr. Long in his treatised on the subject.

If ajiplied warm ujion a tliick film, there is not that tendency
to blister as when used- cold; but with the thin collodion made
as I have before stated, there is no tendency to blister, even
when used cold. This solution should not be jircpared many
days before wanted, the results not being so good if kept above
a week. Before removing the plate from the sensitizing bath,
it should be raised and lowered several times, to get rid of all
appearance of groasiuess of surface; when taken out it should
be slightly drained, and the preservative solution poured over
it, beginning at the extreme edge of the plate, and made to
flow to the opposite edge, carrying all the superfluous silver so-
lution before it; let this run off the plate into the waste pan or
sink; a fresh supply of preservative solntion is then poured on
and off several times, taking the precaution to run it oil' at a

different corner of the plate each time, so as to bring every
part of the sensitive surface under its influence.

I should have stated it is necessary to wipe the back of the
plate with blotting-paper when removed from the nitrate bath,
to prevent any solution running down and mixing with the
gelatine solution afterwards applied, I find the exposure re-
quired for plates preserved in this manner is nearly one-third
longer than for those prepared by the collodio-albumen process.
The development of the picture may be deferred for several
days after being exposed; in many other dry processes I have
found the plates required to be developed the same day as ex-
posed. I cannot state how long this part of the process may
be deferred, having only kept them, five days, the results then
were as good as those ia which the whole of the manipulations
had been completed the same day..

Before developing, the plate must be soaked in water, to re-
move the gelatine cm its surface; this takes from two to five
minutes; when the gelatine is got rid of, place the plate iu a
saturated solution of gallic acid, to which has been added from
three to six drops of a thirty-gvain nitrate of silver solution —
the development takes from tvrenty minutes to an hour or two,
depending on the amount of exposure the plate has received.
The advantage of employing gallic acid without the addition of
pyrogallie, is, should the exposure in the camera have been too
short, the solution, does not decompose, however long the de-
velopment may be continued; another advantage it possesses
is, that slioaki a.thick collodion have been used and blisters
formed thereby, I find when the plate is finished and dry,
there is no appearance of blisters having been on it; had pyro-
gallie acid been mixed with the gallic, and decomposition taken
place, every blister would have been visible on the plate after
drying.

, Those of you who have read the work of this process, pub-
lished by Messrs. Bland and Long, will perceive that I do not
differ materially from the formulas therein named; the only dif-
ference I have made is to use a very thin collodion, and to de-
velop with a saturated solution of gallic acid, instead of gallic
and pyrogallie mixed, and with a less quantity of silver solution
added to it than is there recommended. Having described
this process, I would state — any person who can work the neg-
ative process with v.-et collodion, will be certain to succeed with
this.

Before concluding this paper, I would say a few words on
another process, which was published about two years since,
and wiiich I have employed during that time with much suc-
cess; I allude to the collodio-albumen, which, for rapidity, ex-
cels every other; the exposure in the can^era takes from two to
three times that required for wet collodion plates — one opera-
tor gets a more sensitive surface than another, caused by the
different manner in which the plates are dried, a plate dried
spontaneously, or at a low heat, being more sensitive than one
dried at a high temperature. The cause of the great sensitive-
ness of collodio-albumen plates, as compared with others, is, I
think, to .be attributed to the formation of the double iodide
produced in the film when the albumen (containing an iodide
of any kind) is poured over the iodide of silver on the plate; it
is uot nectssary to employ collodion as a base; I have fouud a
layer of iodizcd-albumen answer the purpose, and to be equally
as sensitive;* what is required is, some body to retain the
iodide of silver on the plate, for the iodide in the albumen to
act upon. I have floated iodized paper on albumen prepared
for the collodio-albumen process, dried it, sensitized, washed,
and again dried it; it answered the purpose and required less
exposure in the camera. In all my experiments v,-ith paper,
(substituted for the collodion), I found the picture visible when
the paper was removed from tiie dark slide. The extra sensi-
tiveness may be the result of the roughness of the paper surface;
in order to satisfy myself on this jioint, I albuminized some
paper for positives ('the albumen containing eight grains chloride
of barium to each ounce); I also coated a plate with the same
albumen, when printed on; the chloride of silver on the paper

* Mr. Talbot di.scovciTcl this fact, and availed himself of it in his vnpid
process. — Ed. L. & M. P J .-

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AXD FINE ART JOIJRXAL.

11

was acted on more rapidly by tlie light than that on the glass.
As in the eollodio-albuuieu process, the plates having to go
throngh so many operations, are very prone to blister, and
during- hot weatlier, if kept a few days, generally turn brown,
it is not surprising that so many try to tiud a substitute; of
all, that have yet been brought before the public, none can be
compared to that of Mr. Long, the plates are so easily prepared,
and certain of proilucing good results.

During the reading of the paper some excellent specimens
were shown, and several negatives most successfully developed.

A vote of thanks having been accorded to Mr. Hooper for
for his essay, the proceedings terminated.

From ilie Jour, of the Phot. Soc.

PII0T0G2AFFJC SOCIETY OF SCOTLAM).

EdinLurg, 23rd August, 1807.
To the Editor of the Phciogra'pldc Journal:

Sir, — In the notice of the proceedings of the last meeting
for the season of the above Society in tlsis month's number of
the Journal, it is stated that " Mr. Tunny exhibited pictures
printed on glass, parian and porcelain by his newly, discovered
process" and that I " also showed specimens of a process giving
very similar results to those of Mr. Tunny." As this would
lead any one to infer (what is. the very reverse of the truth)
that Mr. Tunny had made a great discovery, and that I had
been attempting to imitate it, I beg to state that I examined
his pictures minutely, and looked in vain for any specimen either
" on parian or porcelain,"' and that those exhibited by me were
what they were represented-to be, and the only photographs on
porcelain produced at the meeting. _

Injustice to .myself I have to request the publication of the
following letter, which gives the history of Mr. Tunpy's so-called
discovery: it refers to the fact of his being consulted as a friend
upon the value of my invention, and then shortly after setting
up himself as the inventor of an anonymous paragraph in the
Edinburgh newspapers.

" 90 Princos Street, Edinburgh, IG July, 1357.
''Mr.MCrax'J.

" Dear Sir, — Having been the unintentional cause of the
dispute between Mr. Tunny and you, I am perfectly willing at
your request to give in writing a thorough explanation of the
matter so far as I am concerned.

" TVhen (contraiT to your wishes) I mentioned your disco-
very to Mr. Tunny, he never hinted that he had been engaged
with anything of the same kind, but joined me in congratula-
tions of sympathy for your prospects, and with such, seeming
sincerity that I was completely throv.'u off my guard, and gave
him all the information necessary to put any photographers
upon the track. I advised him at the same time to procure a
licence from you, as porcelain was the very thing to substitute
for paper; he acknowledged it was; I then left him, flattering
myself I had vSecared another customer for )^o'j.

" Some three or four days after at my request you showed
Mr. Tunny a specimen in my presence, when, for the first time,
he gave some indefinite hints about having been engaged in ex-
periments of the same kind. On the following evening, he
brought me tv/o pictures something similar to what yon had
shown him, at the same time pathetically bewailing his fate that
you should have had the start so complelely.

" These are the simple but unanswerable fads^ of the case.
What mv feelings were, when I read Mr. Tunny's paragraph in
the Express of next n:orniug, I would rather decliae stating,
and now remain,

"Sincerely vours,.
(Signed; "James Ross."

" P.S. — Regarding the paragraph now going the round of
the papers, it seems to me merely a mistake of the name, as
Mr. Tunny had no pictures upon porcelain attlie meeting of the
Photographic Society; the specimens he showed were ail trans-
parencies on white glass, with the exception of one, v.'hich was

upon Dutch tile. All the porcelain pictures exhibited were
your own doing.

" You are at perfect liberty to make what use of this you
please ,

(Signed) " J. R."

But Mr. Tunny has a frailty for making discoveries where
others have been before him. In No. 22 of the " Photographic
Notes" he actually claims to be the inventor of the collodion
process, gives a slice of the credit to Le Gray, and says, " But
I for one liave never doubted that Ivlr. S. Archer was an inde-
pendent discoverer of a similar process."' Now this comes with
a very bad grace from Mr. Tunny, as he was profoundly ignorant
of the mode of manipulating, with collodion until I taught him
Mr. Archer's mode with Mr. Archer's materials, as unsought and
gratuitously as it was given to me in the summer of 1851, and
it was not until long after that, he succeeded in showing any-
thing presentable in the way of a collodion negative. As to
lix. Tunny's last discovery in the paragraph alluded to, he
catches at my' idea, and in imagination applies it to a long list
of materials possible and impossible; but all that he has to show
is a few nondescript pictures on glass, such as any photographer
could get up on a day's notice, but which w«uld puzzle a philo-
sopher to put to any use; the accomii ludvely says, " These pic-
tures may be looked at as transijarencies or in tiie ordinary way;"
but it must be confessed it is dihicult to see them.

William M'Craw, ,
Patentee and inventor of the New Porcelain Process.

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal

APPAMTUS FOR WASHISG POSITIVES.

At the meeting of the Norwich Photographic Society, on the
'2nd ult., an ingenious apparatus, for the purpose of washing
positives, was exhibited and explained by Mr, Thompson. It
consists of a gutta-percha tray, about thirty inches in diameter,
into which the prints are placed: this tray, which is large
enough to wash fifty- stereoscopic prints in, is supplied with
water from a horizontal pipe, having a siphon-shaped bend at
the end to. allow of the water flowing into the tray in a perpen-
dicular direction, and provided with a stop-cock worked by a
long rod instead of the ordinary thumb-piece for turning the
l.)lag. The tray is provided with a siphon which empties itself
into a. small tin bucket, three inches in diameter, open at the
top, and ha.ving a small hole .at the bottom; this bucket is at-
tached by a jointed piece to one end of the long rod before
alluded to, while .^t the other end is fixed a. balance weight.
Upon turning the supply taj) the water flows through the hori-
zontal pipe and stop-cock into the tray; and when nea-rly filled
the siphon begins to act, the water running through into the
bucket,, which, as it fills, becomes heavier and sinks down, turn-
ing! the stop-cock- and shutting off- the supply of , water. The
siphon acts until the tray is emptYj after which, as the bucket
becomes empty, the water running throngh the small hole at
the bottom, tlie balance weight on the other end of !hc rod
falls down, and opening the stop-cock again allows the water to
flow into the tray, which is thus kept alternately filling and
emptying as long as the supply of -water from the main tap
lasts, without any attention being required. We should ob-
serve that a piece of perforated gutta-percha is fixed across the
end o( the tray in front. of the siphon, to prevent the printsfrom
stopping it np% The inventor conceives that considerable ad-
vanta-ge is to be derived from this invention; its action is far
superior to a coatinuous.stream,.as there is the certainty of get-
ting a perfect chan.a'e of the water each time the trsy is emptied,

stream is used, being by this invention kept constantly in a ro-
tary motion, except during the few seconds each time the tray
is emptied. . .

From the Jour, of the Phot. Soc.

LATERAL BIOVEMENT FOR THE STEREOSCOnC CAMERA.
To the Editor of the Photographic Journal:

Sir, — In taking views for the stereoscope, with a single lens
camera, I employ a very simple arrangement for shifting the
camera laterally, which appears to me in some respects greatly
preferable to Mr. Latimer Clarke's sliding table, or any modifi-
cation of it.

In the ordinary camera it is cnstomary to have a plate, 'Or
socket, in the bottom, to receive the screw by which the camera
is fixed to the stand; in my stereoscopic camera I have tivo such
sockets, placed laterally, and 2| inches apart. This is the whole
apparatus. In operating, I have only to transfer the screw from
the one socket to the other between the exposure for the two
pictures (re-focusing, of course, and providing for the requisite
convergence), to secure the same result contemplated by the
sliding table.

This arrangement requires a little more time tlian the com-
mon one, and is hardly suitable, therefore, for portraiture; but
in taking views with a dry process, a minute or two's interval be-
tween the first and second picture is of no consequence. The
recommendations of ray arrangements are — 1. Economy in
price, and in trouble of carriage. 2. A great increase of steadi-
ness. 3. Ease and certainty in adjustment. W. -L.

PHOTOGRAPHY AT fHB MARYLAND INSTITUTE FAIR.

Baltijiobe, Xov. 5, 1857.

Priend Snelling: — The Maryland Institute Fair is over,
and I send you the result of the premiums awarded to photog-
raphers and ambrotypists.

Mr. P. L. Perkins received a silver medal for ambrotypes.
Mr. P. had a fine display of pictures on exhibition, both plain
and colored photographs. His life-size pictures in oil were
effective, both in color and position. Mr. P. does the largest
business in painted pictures in Baltimore, and from the many
pictures he turns out, I should judge he pleases. As a practi-
cal man, Mr. P. has no superior; he is eminently successful as
an ambrotypist. And with his operator, Mr. Shaw, who is a
student of the best galleries in Loudon, Mr. P. must succeed.
He has just finished one order for plain photographs of the
Ravel Family of 400 pictures; many of them in character. One
a large group of the Martinetti Family about 20 in number, is
the most perfect group I ever saw of so many. Mr. Shaw is
a valuable acquisition to our city, and I hope he will not leave
us; for when we have a good operator others try to compete,
and thereby we have more good pictures than we should other-
wise have.

Mr. J. H. WnrrEHUEST received a silver medal for painted
and plain photographs.

His collection, take it as a whole or separate if you please,
was fine; some of the life-size heads in oil were better than
we have ever seen. Mr. W. made a better display this year
than he ever did at any preceding exhibition. He has removed
to his new gallery en Baltimore street below Charles; and
although he has the finest gallery and the most complete ope-
rating rooms in the city, there is no business done. But that
is easily accounted for, as people can live without pictures
these hard times, but they cannot do without bread. Mr.
Bushnell is the operator for Mr. W. ; he does not work himself.
Mr. B. is well known as an operator of much merit.

Mr. Israel got a diploma for photographs and ambrotypes.
Much injustice was done Mr. I., for his display v/as equally
fine with Mr. Whitchurst and Mr. Perkins; and his cabinet
pictures of the Durand Opera Troup, with many others I could
name, are entitled to much praise and credit. His display of
painted work was small. Mr. I. is his own operator, and his
works show that he stands high in the art.

Mr. Perkins, brother to Mr. P. L. Perkins, made a fair
show in ambrotypes, but received nothing.
Mr. Pollock still keeps pace with the times.

Mr. B. F. Hawkes Las the rooms formerly occupied by
Whitehurst on Baltimore street; no business of note is done.
Mr. Ban. Bendham is his operator; he is lately from Richmond,
Virginia, where he formerly had a gallery.

Mr. Davis, on Baltimore street below Calvert, has a neat
little gallery; he takes nothing but ambrotypes.

Mr. Walzl, the daguerreotype and ambrotype stock dealer,
has a gallery in connection with his sales room; some of his
pictures I have seen, and are vel'y good.

Mr. TuTTLE has opened a new gallery on Baltimore street
below Charles. Mr. T. is not only a clever gentlemanly man,
but a good operator.

Mr. Dan. Stiltz, v/ho lately had ia gallery corner of North
and Baltimore streets, has closed it for want of patronage.
Never were times so dull in the picture trade as at present.

Mr. Elisha Lee, as an amateur painter of photographs, suc-
ceeds well: if industry and perseverance is any recommenda-
tion, he has it. Mr. Clark is painting photographs for Mr.
Israel. Mr. Wilson is coloring pictures for Mr. P. L. Perkins.

The artists and amateurs of I3altimore held a meeting at
Carroll Hall, {Col. John R. Johnston^ s studio), on Thursday
evening. The proceedings'^ I take great ipleasure in sending
you, were for the purpose Of expressing sympathy for the
death of Crawford, the great American sculptor, who lately
died in London. The number of artists are few in Baltimore.
And as the late riots of the city has degraded the city to such
a fearful extent there is likely to be less. I hope by the next
letter you get from me, I can send you the joyful news of busi-

ness being better.

Respectfully yours,

J. R. J.

From the Jour, of thr, Phot. Soc.

THE OXIIEL PROCESS.

London, 7tli September, 1857.
To ihe Editor of the Photographic Journal :

Sir, — At the commencement of this summer I began to prac-
tise the oxyrael process, but I could never obtain a negative
sufficiently dense without giving the plates an exposure of from
six to eight minutes; and I therefore commenced a series of ex-
periments with a view of increasing the sensitiveness of this
process. I have reduced the time of exposure to twenty to
thirty seconds, and 'by minutely following the details of my ma-
nipulation, I feel confident that any one will be able to produce
similarly rapid results; as the same time I claim for this process
nothing new, as I am only an humble follower of Messrs. Shad-
bolt, Maxwell Lyte, and Llewelyn.

I will describe the process as I use it for plates 5 inches by
4, only remarking that I have taken large pictures by it with
perfect success. I clean my plates on a board with a mixture
of tripoli and whiting, washing off under a tap; as, in all pre-
servative processes, absolute cleanness of the glasses is essential.
•I use Hardwich's collodion, with a 30-grain nitrate bath con-
taining an almost infinitesimal amount of free acid. I immerse
the plate as soon as possible after coating with collodion, and
allow it to remain for not more than two minutes at 60° Fah-
renheit; it is then well drained, and about half an ounce of
oxymel poured on at the corner adjacent to that by which it is
held, allowing it te flow quickly over the plate, and pouring it
■off at the opposite corner.

The same oxymel is then poured on again and allowed to re-
main on the plate half a minute and then drained off. After
the plate is raised for the oxymel to drain off, it must not be
allowed to resume a horizontal position till the picture is taken.
This is most important, as the plate is sure to blacken if the
oxymel be again allowed to run over the surface of the plate.
The plate must not be exposed before it is q\ i^e dry: with my
lens of 1| inch diameter and } inch stop, twenty-live seconds
has frequently been sufficient to cause solarization. If the
plate beibre it is oxymeled is washed in a 10-grain silver bath,
it may be kept several days, and the exposure will not exceed
one minute under the same conditions.

* See article Thomas Crawfokd, p. 1.

■1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

13

To devclope, take i drachms of tlic following solution and 1
■drop of the nitrate of silver bath.

■ Pyrogallic acid 1 grain.

Acetic acid 10 drops.

Alcohol 5 drops.

Water 1 c'unce.

This is to be poured over the plate as quickly as possible,
■when the picture will almost imnicdiately appear as a beautiful
positive. The developer is then to be poured off, and 3 or 4
drops more silver to be added to it. Meanwhile the picture
will continue develoj^ing, and on the developer being again
poured on it, will attain perfect opacity in the high lights, while
the shadows ought to remain quite transparent. The picture
should then be washed under a tap, and fixed with hyposulphite
of soda, 4 ounces to the pint, T/hen by reflected light it should
appear like a good positive just beginning to fog, and by trans-
mitted light the sky should be of a yellowish black, wfrich prints
beautifully, and the middle tints very well defined.

Tlie oxymel I always use is prepared by Mr. Barber, Chem-
ist, Lower Road Islington, and is very pure and go'cd. I can
confidently recommend it to any one who will try this process.

In conclusion I -would say, that so much certainty can be ob-
tained by this method of manipulation, that I can generally
guarantee that five plates oat of six will turn out well.

A. R. M.

From the Philosophical Magazine for Sept 1857.

ON THE fflEASUREIENT OP TUB CHEMICAL ACTION OF LIGBT.

BY JOHN W. DRAPER, M.D.,
Professor of Chemistry and Fliisiology in the University of New York.

The recent experiments of Professor Bunsen and Dr. Rosc'oe
encourage the hope that the attention of chemists will before
long be particularly directed to photo-chemistry, which undoubt-
edly offers at this moment one of the most promising fields of
research.

To be satisfied what a boundless opportunity for investigtion
is here presented, it is enough to recollect that in the decompo-
sition of carbonic acidby the solar rays lies the starting-point
of all oi'ganization, both vegetable and animal; and that if it
were not for that effect, the whole surface of our globe would
be a mere desolate waste, presenting no appearance of life. Be-
sides this relation to the world of organization, the influences
of light are now recognized as occasioning combinations and de-
compositions net inferior in number or importance to those pro-
duced by heat and electricity.

Impressed by such considerations, I devoted a great deal of
time some years ago to the study of the chemical action of light,
as the readers of this Journal know. But at that period the
attention of chemists was so completely absorbed in the depart-
ment of organic analysis, and in the application of the discover-
ies so made to vegetable and animal physiology, that it seemed
impossible to divert it even to the fundamental fact which in
reality is at the bottom of all those investigations. Organiza-
tion implies the prior action of light. The time has now proba-
bly come when the wants both of chemistry and physiology will
require the conditions of that action to be determined. ' The
field of organic analysis has been pretty completely reaped;
there is not now much to be done except by gleaners.

Even among those who have devoted themselves to experi-
ments in optical chemistry, the tendency has been to the iinprove-
ment of the art of photography, rather than to the examination
of facts which are at its scientific basis. A great amount of
information, destined ere long to be advantageously used, has,
however, in that way been indirectly obtained.

It is quite evident that in the contemplated inquiry the first
thing to be done is to invent some means for measuring with
exactness the chemical force of light. More than twenty years
ago I commenced making attempts with that view. These were
first by the comparison of stains made on paper covered with

2*

chloride or bromide of silver. Subsequently I described in this
Journal (Phi!. oNIag., Dec. 1843), under the name of Tithono-
raeter, an instrument which is well adapted te such inquiries.
It consists of an arrangement by which there may be obtained
from hydrochloric acid decomposed by a voltaic battery, a mix-
ture of e'qual volumes of chlorine and hydrogen. This mixture
will remain without any change in the dark; but on exposure to
the rays of a lamp, the two gazes unite in proportion to the
qautity of the incident light. So great is its sen.sitiveness, that
an electric spark, w^liich lasts, it is said, less than the millionth
of a second, affects it powerfully even at a distance, and some-
times occasions an explosion which destroys the tithonometer.

By the aid of this instrument may be illustrated the change
which I discovered that the sun's rays occasion in the properties
of chlorine, and likewise the preliminary absorption of light
which is necessary before chemical actions ensue. It is this
period of preliminary absorption, iu the case of the iodide of
silver, which is of snch interest in the art ol photography — the
period during which invisible impressions are made on the da-
gfierreotypc plate' and collodion film; capable of development
in the one case byvapor of mercury, and in the other by pyro-
gallic acid or protosulphate of iron.

The tithonometer is the instrument of which Professor Buu-
seu and Dr. Roscoe, in an improved form, have made such ex-
cellent use. In its original construction I can still recommend
it to those W'ho are disposed to engage in these enquiries, as
possessing extraordinary sensitiveness: and if suitable correc-
tions for variations of temperature and pressure be applied, of
sufficient exactness.

To such I would in addition suggest another means for meas-
the chemical action of light. It will be found well adapted where
extreme sensitiveness is not desired. It is an aqueous solution
of peroxalate of iron. This substance, which is of a golden-yel-
low color, may be kept, as I found, for more than three years
(probably for any length of time) without exhibiting any change,
if in total darkness; but on exposure to a lamp or the daylight,
it undergoes decomposition, carbonic acid gas escaping, and the
lemon-yellow protoxalate of iron precipitating. If set in the
sunshine, it actually hisses through the escape of gas. The ray
which chiefly affects it is the indigo, the same which affects the
tithonometer, a-nd the silver compouncis used in photography.
This ray, to produce its effect, undergoes absorption, as m ay
easily be proved by causing a sunbeam to pass through two paral-
lel strata of peroxalate, when it will be found that the light
which has gone through the first portion is inoperative on'the
second.

Other properties which the solution of peroxalate of iron
presents, strongly recommend it as a photometric agent Vo the
chemist. XJidike solution of chlorine, it may be very conveni-
ently confined in glass tubes by mercury. In its use there are
two points which must be attended to: — 1st, the lemon-yellow
protoxalate must not be permitted to'incfustthe side of the glass
exposed to the light, and thereby injure its transparency; 2nd,
the solution of peroxalate must be kept nearly at a constant
temperature, for its color changes with the heat. At (he freez-
ing of water it is of an emerald green; at the boiling, of a brown-
ish-yellow. With these variations of tint its absorptive actioti
on light varies, and therefore its liability to be changed.

It may be remarked that the peroxalate of iron is an excellent
photograj)hic agent. A piece of tissue-paper made yellow by
being dipped in a neutral solution of it, when dried in the dark
is very sen'sitive. Its invisible impressions may be developed by
a weak solution of nitrate of silver, two grains dissolved in an
ounce of water answering very well.

In the application of peroxalate of iron to photometry, several
different methods may be followed. The course I have most
commonly taken has been to determine the quantity of carbonic
acid produced — sometimes by volume, sometimes by weight. It
is of course understood, that before any carbonic asid can be
disengaged, the solution must become saturated therewith; and
that beibre we can correctly measure the quantity of light by
the quantity of acid produced, this dissolved "portion must be
ascertained. In one of my photometers the expulsion of the

14

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND TINE ART JOURNAL.

January,

dissolved gas is accomplished by exposure to a small bath of
boiling water, in another by a stream of hydrogen. Both pro-
cesses yield satisfactory results.

But this metiiod, by tiie determination of. the produced car-
bonic acid, is only one of the numerous plans which the employ-
ment of peroxalate of iron suggests; for instance, we migli/t use
in the determination the vveight of certain metals which the so-
lution after ex])0sure will precipitate. Tlius a portion which
has been made and kept in the dark, may be mixed .with chloride
of gold without any action ensuing; but if it has been illumina-
ted, the amount of metallic gold precipitated is in proportion
to the incidcut light. On this principle I commenced an attempt
to determine the hourly- and diurnal illumination of a given lo-
cality. At the bottom of a hollow metal tube, arranged as a
polar axis, was placed a bulb containing a standard solution of
the iron salt, and at the close of tlie proposed periods the weight
of gold it could reduce Avas ascertained. There is something
fascinating in determining the quantity of light which the sun
yields ns by ihe quantity of gold it can produce. Upon the
vdiole, however, I would recommend to those who are disposed
to renew these attempts, to select a method depending on the
volume of carbonic acid, for it is alwavs easier to make an ob-
servation than an experiment.

Among the important results which may be expected from
thc-c new modes of photometry, and which will doubtless be
furnished at an early period, are the hourly, diurnal, and annual
quantities of the sunlight. These are not only important in a
meteorological point of vievi', but also as respects physical gso-
graph}'-, and the great interests of agriculture. The sura of
vegetable organization is in all climates and localities a function
of the light distributed thereto. Even so far as heat is con-
cerned, the indications of the thermometer are of little use. It
is not theiutensiij', but absolute quantity which should be meas-
ured^ To each plant, from thcmoment of its germinatioato the mo
mentof its maximum development, and the completion of its physi-
ological functions, a definite quantity of heat and also of light
must be measured out. As respects the heat in such inquiries,
it is not the thermometer but the calorimeter which should be
used; and as to the light, the phototers here recommended de-
termine its quantity, but not its brilliancy, and therefore answer
the indicatioiis required. And since it is the light of the sun,
and not the temperature of a locality, which is the effective con-
dition of vegetable growth, we see how important, even in agri-
culture itself, these proposed determinations really are.

I hope that these remarks may draw attention to theploblem
of the chemical action of light. To those who are disposed to
devote themselves to such inquiries, I recommend as a photo-
metric means a mixture of chlorine and hydrogen were great
sensitiveness is- required, and in other. cases the peroxalate, of
iron. - , •

From ihe Liverpool P/iotajrcipMc Joiitnal.

LIYERPOOIi PIlOTiJGRAriilC SOCIETY.

The second meeting of the session was held on Tuesday.evc-
ning, the 21st ult., at the Royal Institution, Colquitt Street,
Liverpool. Mr. Corey, Vice-President, in the chair.

Among some beautiful specimens of the art, circulated among
the members for their inspection, were several excellent minia-
ture portraits by Mr. Keith, the Honorary Secretary. Tiie
back-ground was a delicate light color of great softness, and the
portraits, wliich were finished in the style of enamel paintkig,
stood out with great effect. Mr. Lqith said lie had brought
them for the purpo.se of showing the .idvantages possesedby
his now operating room in Castle Street, over the old one, the
former Ix'ing constructed of tinted glass. The portraits were
much admired.

The CM.\iuM.\>r having referred to the exquisite photographs
^•T J^'^. Grray, exhibited at the previous meeting, for the purpose
of eliciting a discus,sion on the probable means adopted by that

artist'in taking such.instaneous views, as enabled him to depict
the effect of the curl of the wave, upou the sea-shore, —

Mr. KErrii suggested that instead of the usual cap to cover
tlie lens, a perforated sliding disc was used, by means of which
the lens could be uncovered and covered in the fraction of a
second.

Mr. Corey was inclined to think, as far as the mechanical
tontrivance was concerned, that that would answer the purpose-
but they would agree with him that no negative hitherto pro-
duced by the agency of pyrogallic acid could be obtained with
so short an exposure as that involved by the passage of the
disc in the front of the lens. It was clear therefore, that some
other agent as a developer must have been employed, exceed-
ingly expeditious in its action. He was confirmed in his belief
because the development was just as sharp in the fore-ground as
in the distance; but this could not be obtained by pyrogallic
acid. He was convinced, therefore, that these pictures"w.ere
taken in the first instance as positives, by the influence of iron
and then converted into negatives.*' They knew that by.a very
moderate light pictures migh.t be obtained by iron, almost with
instantaneous exposure. Mr! Ivnott, one.of our most experienced
operators, had said that he could never produce a negative with
fore-ground and. distant perspective clearly rendered with any-
thing else than iron.

The Rev. Mr. Banxer said he had taken views almost in-
stantaneously with pyrogallic acid. He thought he would have
been entirely successful, but he could not get his camera sufiQ-
ciently quickly covered.

The Chairman . read a letter from Mr. Archibald Robinson,
Honorary .Secretary of the Bombay Society, enclosing the names
of four members who are to represent that Society as honorary
members of the Liverpool Photographic Society. They were
ordered to be entered on the list.

Mr. J. B. PoRREST announced that a member of the Society
would bring forward, at a future meeting, a paper on "The
Bath," and what another member would read a paper on "Win-
ter Pjiotography." The same gentleman having mentioned iu-
cidently that the collodion film adhered so tenaciously to ground
glass that was almost impossible to scratch it off.

Mr. Keith stated that Mr. Frarn formerly made some experi-
ments on polished ivory, finding the action very slow, he scraped
the ivory with a piece of glass, and ,he then obtained a very
rapid impression.

The Rev. Mr. Baijxer exhibited„,and explained his portable
stereoscopic camera, which, with the chemicals in a bos, weighed
about six pounds. He had two light tripods, on one of which
he rigged up a small dark room, placing a sort of bag over the
upperportion, the floor of this unique " dark room" beingformed
by a board which had also the effect of imparting additional ri-
gidity to the tripod. On this board his materials, including
bath, developing dish, bottles, &c., were placed, and he had free
and ample accfss to them by means of a wide sleeve on each
side of the bag. At the top of the bag was an aperture, inge-
niously shaded^ through which he could see into the room to
guide the operations, and ascertain when the pictures were fully
developed. The whole '" room" was not more than a few inches
square, and yet he found it as comfortable to work in as if he
was in his own house. He always washed the pyrogallic off
inside the " room." Some photographers said it didnot matter,
but he thought they were in error, as the acid turned black im-
mediately it was exposed to light. Tlie camera might be either
placed at the top of the dark room or upon a separate tripod.
He preferred the latter j)lan. Instead of screwing the camera
on the tripod, he secured it by a stout clastic band.

The Cairmax called attention to a series of prints published
by the Architectural Photographic Society. They comprised
prints from negatives by the most eminent English and French
pliotogrnphcrs, including Robinson and Bcale, Bisson Frores,
Fenton, Bedford, &c. Subscribers of JCI Is. and upwards would
be entitled to select about eight for every guinea, and he stated
that subscriptions would be receieved by Mr. Ellison, of 3G
Bold-Strcot, the local agent. He proceeded to expatiate on the

* By the agency of bicLiIorido ol' mercury, aud artcrwards ammonia.

1S58.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

15

striking- and sinG:n]ar beauty of the pictures, which certainly
were fully entitled to the adniiratiou which they elicited.

Mr. J. A. Forrest made the following interesting and impor"
tant observations on

EXPERIMENTS IN BURNING TUOTOGRAPHS INTO THE GLASS.

lu the course of the summer, on the publication of M. Sella's
process, I was induced to try some e.xperiments with a view to
arrive at some process that would enable me to fix the photo-
graph by burning in the impression in the furnace with a coat-
ing of glass over it. From the specimens I exhibit to-night it
will be for you to say how far they are encouraging. I regret
exceedingly that my brother photos cannot try the experiments
themselves, as very few have the opportunity of a furnace in
which to try them. I may, in passing,, however, give them
some encouragement, for out of these trials I find if you grind
a piece of opal glass very finely, afterwards collodionize, sensi-
tize in the usual manner, and lay a negative upon it by superpo-
sition you will receive a very beautiful impression by trans-
mitted light, and alter, being fixed, washed, and dried in the
usual manner, you will discover that the film adheres most rigid-
ly to the glass, and scarcely any amount of rubbing will take
it off. This is a plan that any one may follow out ou a winter's
evening by gas light, and no doubt would look remarkably
well iu a hall lamp, or you might have your staircase window
filled with landscapes taken by yourselves or friends. Any
silver stains by this process can only be removed by regrinding
the surface with fine emery. I will now proceed with the
more immediate object of. the evening. In or about the year
1280 it was discovered that the salts of silver, when laid upon
glass and exposed to a temperature of about 150 degrees of
heat, gave a beautifully transparent yellow, and during the
time known as the Decorated and Perpendicular Periods, from
the quaint and formal, description of the figures, it was this
metal produced the brilliant glories around the heads of the
saints in church windows, and is handed down to us in its pris-
tine beauty, and with the prospect of remaining the same for
ages to come; but in that day the discoverer did not think of
the part the salts of silver should play in the nineteenth centu-
ry, nor of the difficulty we should experience in making our
work as permanent as his. My object this evening is to elabo-
rate a few experiments on glass positives that have been per-
.maneutly burned into the body of the glass, and to lay open a
new.field to the intelligent photographer. I do not consider
the matter by any means perfect, but I think the, specimens I
now exhibit are highly encouraging, and leave little ground to
doubt that it will soon lead to this very desirable end. It has
been patent to all the members of this society, that-in conjunc-
tion with Mr. Berry, we laid before you in the early part of
this year a specimen, which if not entirely fixed into the glass,
was nearly so. Since that time I' have been occupying my
spare moments in following it up. The great difficulty we al-
ways met with was the destruction of the image in the furnace,
and the residue became a pale yellow, with complete oblitera-
tion of the fine lines. I. found, however, that, the yellow was
only developed by a continued heat, and in this position I left
it, and resolved to try the chromic salts with a flux or glass
film over them.„ The process I fouud best in this direction to
produce the photograph was the following: — Float a solution
of starch over a piece of glass; then pourupon it, when partially
dry (in the dark) a solution of chromate of iron: allow it to
dry, and print in.the usual way by a, negative laid on the coat-
ing. When taken from the pressure frame wash and strengthen
with sulphate of iron. When .this is done on opal.glass, say a
stereoscopic print, it has a very beautiful effect, and the de-
lineation is quite equal to the salts of silver; but the greater
barrier to its success is the contractile nature of the starch,
which breaks up whenever exposed to heat. Having tried
every vehicle I could think of, I then threw overboard the
chemistry of the subject altogether, as I thought, and resolved
to. treat it in a mechanical point of view. Having succeeded
in this direction to a certain extent, I now lay before you ray
plan and results thereof. Take an ordinary glass positive, var-

nished or plain, (I prefer tho latter,) and make the following
mixture in oil of tar: —

Flint glass (ground very fine) 16 parts.

Pearl ash G "

Borax 1 "

Red lead (or minium) 3 "

Chloride of sodium 1 "

This must be thoroughly ground and laid evenly over the plate.
When dry, lay it upon a piece of iron, lute over with whiting,
and expose it in a furnace to, say about 750 degrees heat, until
you perceive it becoming bright on the surface. For the first
minute it will gradually become black, and afterwards the
black discoloration like carbon passes away, and the photo-
graph comes out with a covering of glass before the oxide of
silver has passed into its natural yellow color, and without the
slightest change upon the half-tones. All this is the work of
two or three minutes, and in this state may remain or become
the basis of ftirther operations in burning in the natural colors.
Photographs ou porcelain look beautiful when treated in this
way ; in fact it would be difficult to point out all the uses
to which it may be applied. Thus far I had proceeded,
but desirous to pursue the subject as much towards maturity as
possible, I have enlarged the experiments. An intelligent
friend had su<2:2;ested that the whole of the chemical and organic
agents were not yet exhausted, that having with infinite pains
tried the effect of starch, gums, albumen, honey, gelatine, and
other analogous materials, caseine had not been employed. I
therefore determined upon trying organic matter in this form.
Once more resuming the chemical experiments, and acting upon
the previous suggestion, I boiled milk until thick, applied it to
the surface of the glass like collodion, and allowed it to dry.
A solution of sulphate of copper and bichromate of potash was
then poured over it, and allowed to dry in the dark; exposed
under a negative until a good distinct impression was obtained;
then washed v/ell until all the yellow was erased from the lights.
I then used a solution of ferro-cyanide of potassium until a
change took place from brown to green, washed carefull}^, and
poured over a solution of sulphate of iron to intensify. This
process is one of grea.t promise, and does not seem to break up
in the furnace like the starch.. I hope by the next meeting to
exhibit some specimens.

Mr. Forrest produced several specimens, showing the results of
his experiments, some to be used as transparencies for hall lamps,
staircase windows, &c., and others to be seen by a reflected light,
with adarkgroundunder them. Some of the transparencies, taken
on opal glass were very beautiful. They were taken, he said,
with wet collodion, and he was satisfied that he could print
200 or 300 a day. Referring, in connection with the same
subject, to the oxidization of the silver in the furnace, he stated
that there were many, combinations of silver, of which in the
present day, we were completely ignorant, aiKl he instanced a
case in which one of his men, in preparing a furnrce for the
production of yellow glass, neglected to withdraw the lime.
The glass on being taken out instead of yellow was a brilliant
purple. It was spoiled for the purpose it was wanted, but the
mistake had produced a great novelty. He had since attempted
to obtain the same results, but had not been successful.

A vote of thanks to the treasurer fdr his paper and observa^-
tioas terminated the-proceediugs.

In' taking portraits itis very- desirable that the whole body
be brought to the same focus, or as nearly to it as may be, which
will avoid the unseemly distortion which is sometimes perceived
when this particular is not attended to; for instance, the knees
of a sitter are nearer to the camera than the head, and unless
some contrivance be adopted to obviate this, the consequence is
that the remainder of the body .will be out of proportion. This
obstacle may be readily overcome by means of a contrivance
where the sensitive surface is placed in an inclined position by
using a moveable back with rackwork adjustment, and thus.
i ictures in excellent proportions are obtained.

16

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND PINE ART JOURNAL.

January,

THE

From Tlie Jour

AYAXED-PAPER PROCESS.

of the riw. Soc,

BY MR. G. DAWSON.

Kead before the North-Loudon Photographic Association.

As probably many ot the members present have given but lit-
' tie attention to tlie waxed-paper process, I shall, in the follow-
ing observations, be as explicit as time will permit, and descend
to particulars of manipulation, which will render I trust to
every one, the path to success easy in this branch of photo-
graphy. The rage has been lately all for collodion; neverthe-
less in points which will be obvious to all, waxed-paper presents
many advantages, and will not, I think, be easily displaced by
the collodion or any other known process. After an experience
of upwards of five years, I can speak pretty confidently as to
its merits, and I may safely say, that as respects certainity of
results, neither collodion, albumen, nor Talbotype approach it;
but to proceed.

(1.) Selecling the paper. — The best paper I have tried is the
thin Canson; its quality, however, varies very much. The old
make, of a creamy color and uniform texture, is very superior to
the usual samples now sold. The latter are generally of a
bluish tinge, and less uniform in texture. Having cnt up some
quires into sheets rather larger than the pictures to be taken,
proceed to the selection in this manner; hold up each sheet se-
parately between the eye and a strong light: should consider-
able inequalities of texture, innumerable pin-point holes, black
greenish spots be visible, reject the sheet. So variable is the
quality of the quires, even out of the same ream, that it will be
found necessary sometimes to reject almost every sheet, while
at other times almost every sheet may be retained. The sheets
rejected for waxing will answer very well for salting or albu-
minizing as positive paper.

Having thus got some sheets which, as far as the paper is
concerned, are likely to produce negatives without spot or blem-
ish, the next step is to ascertain the right side of the paper, that
is, the smooth side on which the picture is to be impressed. To
do this, hold up each sheet horizontally between the eye and a
strong light, so as that the light rakes along the surface. One
side will thus be found quite smooth, the other traversed in all
directions by minute iron-marks. A little practice will make
these easy to be detected. The smooth side should be marked
in pencil with initials in the corner,

(2.j Waxing the paper. — Unless systematically conducted,
this is a very tedious operation. I have tried several plans -re-
commended by others, but all have entailed a great waste of
wax, blotting-paper, and time. That which I now adopt is, I
think, very superior to any other, at least to any I have used or
seen.

Take a shallow porcelain dish, rather larger than the papers
to be waxed; fit this (not very closely, to allow the steam to
escapej into tiie mouth of a tin vessel of the same shape, about
3 in. deep; filter the latter to the depth of 1| inch with
water, and place over a charcoal-fire, spirit-lamps, or gas-
burners. Put 2 lbs. or so of the best white wax into the
upper or porcelain; the steain from the water below is
quite sufficient to melt the wax thoroughly. When this takes
place, lay one of the selected sheets gently on the surface; in
about halt a minute or less ^longer with English paper) it will
have become thoroughly saturated, when it is to be raised gent-
ly by the corner and allowed to drip. If 100 sheets are to be
ultimately waxed, prepare tweuty-tive in this manner, for each
one tnkes up sufficient wax to finish at least four others. Hav-
ing completed the first stage of waxing, proceed then as fol-
lows : — In a folio place four sheets of thick blotting-paper,
put two unwaxed on the top of these, and then one of the pre-
viously sattu'atcd sheets; over this again two more unwaxed,
close the folio, and with rather a hot iron on a flat-board, and
with considerable pressure move rapidly over the sheet for a
minute or two. When the wax is thoroughly driven through
all the five sheets, open the folio while still hot, and add occa-
sionally a clean sheet or two where there appears an excess of

wax, and one of the saturated until there are about as many as
twenty in the mass. Change the position of the sheets occa-
sionally, and iron until the whole twenty are completely saturat-
ed. Separate them while still warm. Remove the excess of
wax in the following manner: in a clean folio of blotting paper,
similar to the last, place say ten of these waxed sheets alter-
nate with as many clean ones, and again iron rapidly on both
sides of the folio for five or six minutes; by that time most of
the excess will have been absorbed by the clean sheets, but if
there are still shining patches, complete the process in blotting-
paper.

Care should always be taken to have four thicknesses of blot-
ting-paper at least between the iron and the wax, and to move
rapidly, otherwise the latter will be decomposed. The sheets
which have been used in removing the excess from the others
can be saturated in the fii'st folio as before.

After a little practice the above plan, which any one can
modify to suit his peculiar manipulation, will be found very effi-
cacious and economical. Very little wax and blotting-paper
are wasted, and the finished appearance of the paper is at least
equal to that of any other process.

(3.) Iodizing Hit paper. — This is an important operation, and
one upon which a greater variety of opinion has been delivered
(I believe) than on any other process of the Photogrophic art.
I am inclined to think that almost any one of the published
formulas will, under certain circumstances, produce satisfactory
results. With English paper, iodide of potassium alone is suf-
ficient to produce all the gradations of tone; inasmuch as it
has more body, so to speak, than any of the foreign negative
papers, and is sized differently. Presuming, however, that
Canson's paper has been waxed, rice-water, whey, or solution
of gum-tragacanth, are the best iodizing mediums. I shall de-
tail the method of preparing each.

For rice-water. AVash 4 ozs. fine rice, first in ordinary
spring, then indistilled Avater. When the impurities adhering
to or mixed with the rice have been thus removed, put it in a
glazed earthenware pipkin along with 2 quarts distilled water.
Place on a clear fire. The moment ebullition begins, remove,
and stir with a glass rod for a few minutes. Pour off the li-
quid portion into a decanter or glass beaker, where it should
stand for for two days, covered over from dust, to allow the
sediment of rough particles of starch to settle to the bottom.
At the end of this time decant off rather more than a quart of
the clearer liquid, which filter through 3 or 4 folds of fine mus-
lin, and add the chemicals —

■Rice-water 1 quart.

Iodide of potassium 400 grs.

Bromide of potassium 80 grs.

Cyanide of potassium 30 grs.

Fluoride of potassium 15 grs.

Chloride of Sodium 8 grs.

Sugar of milk 2 ozs. avoirdupois.

Gum-arabic 1^ oz. "

At first the solution is of a dirty milkish color, in which state
it should not be used, as the half-tones of the picture will have
a rough granular appearance ; but, after two or three weeks, it
will have become beautifully clear; and when used once or twice,
of a pale sherry color. Gum-arabic, from many exjieriments I
have tried, undoubtedly adds to the clearness of the picture.
Why it does so, I cannot venture a conjecture. Honey, which
some recommend, is decidedly objectionable. Bromide of potas-
sium is useful in shortening the time of exposure, and may be
used in large proportions with advantage. Cyanide of potas-
sium does not seem to affect the beauty of the negative in any
way. It is only useful in assisting to remove the greasy appear-
ance of the paper, and thereby lessens the chance of air-bub-
bles in the exciting solution. Fluoride of potassium may be
dispensed with altogether as unnecessary. Chloride of sodium
adds considerably to the rapidity. Chloride of potassium , how-
ever, even in large proportions, seems to answer tliis purpose
still better. Albumen should not be employed if the exciting
solution is to be used more than once; nor should free iodine.

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1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

17

I f

i !

when rice-water is the raeclium of solution. The consequence
would be an immediate combination with the starch, and copi-
ous precipitate of iodide of starch.

A similar iodizing solution, in wiiich whey is the solvent, ans-
wers remarkably well. It may be made as follows : — Take
calf's stomach, quite fresh; wash thoroughly; cut up into small
pieces, and preserve in a bottle of alcohol for any length of
time. When wanted, pick out three or four pieces, and put
into about 3 quarts of good skimmed miik slightly warmed.
Stir with a glass rod, and place the vessel in a warm place.
After a short time, the whey will have separated from the ca-
seine. When this is completed, press out the liquid, which
should then be boiled in an earthenware pipkin and skimmed.
Strain through three or four folds of fine muslin. Allow to
stand for a few days. Decant 1 quart of the upper portion,
and add the chemicals, according to the following formula: —

Whey 1 quart, or 40 fluid oz's

Iodide of potassium .500 grs.

Bromide of potassium 100 grs.

Cyauide of potassium 30 grs.

Fluoride of potassium 15 grs.

Chloride of potassium or sodiurj 8 grs.

When this solution has stood for two or three weeks, it will
have become exceedingly clear, and will have deposited some
casiene, which the previous processes had not entirely separated.
It is then fit for use, and will keep any length of time. It is
important to observe, that the rennet of the shops and dairies
contains a great quantity of salt, and that not of the purest
kind. Wlien definite proportions of salt are necessary such an
article should not be used, as it may vitiate the whole results.

Some of the later writers on the wa.xed-paper process recom-
mend a larger proportion of iodide and bromide of potassium,
omitting the other chemicals, and using distilled water as the
solvent. They speak of an amount of rapidity absolutely
startling to any one who has had patience to try the different
methods. I can assert positively, as the result of many hun-
dred experiments, that no such differences of rapidity exist.
At most, the difference is small; and it may betaken, I think,
as an established fact connected with this process, that papers
which will keep good equally well for the same number of days,
and under the same tamperature, are equally sensitive.

Another formula: —

Distilled water 1 quart=40 ozs.

Iodide of potassium 500 grs.

Bromide of potassium 125 grs.

Gum-arabic li oz. avoirdupois.

Gum-tragacantli 30 grs.

Free iodine 2 grs.

The gum tragacanth being very insoluble, should be first dis-
solved in about a pint bottle of distilled water, placed on the
hob or other vvarui place for four or five days, and occasionally
shaken. Let this be added to another pint of distilled water,
and add the chemicals. The color of this solution should be
about the same as sherry,' and when it becomes clear by use,
add more free iodine. This formula I have laterally exclusively
used. It does not give a clearer negative, perhap-: not so clear
as the rice-water or whey, nor is it more sensitive. It pos-
sesses, however, an important advantage, viz. the power of ren-
dering the negative capable of being developed for a very long
time without injury. I have some good specimens which were
upwards of two days in the development.

Either of the above three formulce will give excellent re-
sults.

When the iodizing solution is wanted, pour into a porcelain
tray a sufficient quantity to cover completely ten or twelve
papers. Immerse them one by one, removing the air-bubbles
carefully with a brush kept for the purpose. Not more than
twelve should be in the solution at once, for there is danger,
even with this small quantity, of those in the centre being un-
evenly iodized. To avoid this risk, move them about occasion-
ally with the brush during the progress of soaking. After
soaking for at least three hours, hang up to dry, using a clip

VOL XI. NO. I. 3

for this purpose. Many of the papers, especially if the solution
is an old one, will assume a dirty marbled appearance; this does
not in the least spoil them, and will entirely disappear in the
exciting solution.

Many of the papers I use are iodized in the air-pump, but I
do not see that it has any marked advantage over the method
of carefully soaking. Indeed, unless the pump is a very good
one and the whole operation conducted with the utmost care,
there is a great deal more risk of failure and imperfect iodizing
than by the former method.

Pour the solution into a shallow porcelain tray. Immerse
the papers one by one as before; but in this case as many as
twenty or thirty may be used at one time. After two or three
minutes roll them up (taking care that the bands are perfectly
clean) and drop into a tall cylindrical glass jar. Pour into this
the iodizing solution till it reaches the top of the roll, not far-
ther. Wedge-in a piece of strong card or wood to keep the
papers from rising above the surface of the liquid. Be careful
to have at least 1 inch clear space between the surface of the
solution and the top of the jar, because when the air is removed,
the small bubbles adhering to the paper and in its interstices
expand so much as to raise the liquid almost to the overflowing
point. The jar should now be placed under the receiver of the
pump, and the air exhausted as much as possible. As the ex-
haustion goes on, innumerable bubbles rise to the surface and
burst; when nearly complete, the solution will have risen to
the top, and is covered with a thick cream of exceedingly mi-
nute bubbles. In about five minutes after the air has been ex-
tracted, the iodizing will be finished; but if there is any leak-
age about th*) valves or receiver, which may be known by the
solution gradually falling in the jar, the pumping must be con-
tinued for that time. The air may be now adniitted and the
papers unrolled in the tray in which they were first immersed,
and hung up one by one over a very clean tape to dry. A pin
cannot be used, nor even a clip, if the air has been very much
exhausted; for the penetration has been so complete as to ren-
der them as tender as so many pieces of soaked blotting-paper.
When dry their texture will be as firm as ever.

Paper iodized by any of these methods will keep well for at
least tnree or four months, possibly much longer. But I have
on two or three occassions observed a falling off of intensity
when using papers iodized seven or eight months previously.
I do not know that this was the cause, but I was unable at the
time to trace the failure to any other source.
(To ba coatinucd.)

Frotn Art the London Journal.

MR. JOHN BIRCH.

Mr. John Birch died at South Hackney, near London, on
the 29th of May. Although but little known in the " Great
Metropolis," the chief portion of his life having been spent in
Sheffield, he achieved an enduring reputation in thnt town as a
portrait and landscape-painter. He was born at Norton, Der-
byshire (the birthplace of Cliantrey) , on the 18th of April,
180T, and, as a boy, gave early indicatio:i of his love of art, his
leisure hours being absorbed in sketching the beautiful scenery
of the neighborhood, notwithstanding he had never seen a print
nor drawing of any description. For some liine he assisted his
father as a file-cutter, a business he relinguishcd for a situation
at Mr. George Eadon's carver and gilder, Sheffield, with whom
he remained seven years, and then determined to commence the
arduous profession of a portrait-painter. To perfect himself in
the art he went to London, and studied under II. P. Briggs, RA.
Here he received many commissions to paint the portrait of the
late Mr. Cocker, of Shefiield, from the original by Briggs, and
was so successful, that it was difficult to distinguish the copies
from the original. Mr. Birch lost no opportunity that presented
itself of studying the great masters of his loved art, and accord-
ingly became a devoted student of the works of Reynolds, Gains-
borough, Cciyp, Murillo, Wilkie, Constable, and many others.
In cousiJeratiou of his ability, he was elected a life student of

the British Institution. Several of his landscapes consist of
the ma!:^nificent scenery in Derbyshire: " Dovedaie," " Miller's
Dale," " Matlock High Tor," and the "Entrance to the Peak
Cavern," were favorite subjects of the artist's pencil, lie was
an intimate friend of the late Ebenezer Elliott, the corn-law
rhymer, of whom he painted many portraits — in fact, Mr. Birch
was the only artist to whom the poet sat. The half-length por-
trait of Elliott among the rocks of Rivilin attracted very great
attention at the exhibition in aid of the funds of the Sheflield Me-
chanic's Institution, which took place at the Music Hall in 1839.
The origin of the jiicture was as follows: — The poet and painter
walked from Sheffield one summer's morning to the valley of
the Rivilin, and lighting upon a most romantic spot, Elliott
suggested that the rocks and gushing stream would make a
glorious back-ground for a portrait. The artist soon " rubbed
in" a portrait of Ebenezer Elliott, with the rocks, as suggested,
for a background; and while the artist was busy with pencil,
the poet took out his pen, and the lines called " Ribbledin, or
the Christening," were composed on the spot.

John Birch was a man of enlarged and liberal views, and of
great conversational powers. For some years past he resided
in London, making occasional visits to Sheflield; during his last
visit he painted about forty portraits in nine months. He then
returned home, and iu little more than two months died from
disease of the chest, after protracted and severe sufferings.
Within a few days of his disease he talked of his friend Ebene-
zer Elliott, and be was so unconscious of the near approach of
death, that he determined upon going te Manchester to see the
Art-Treasures Exhibition. He has left a widow and son to
mourn the loss of an upright and honest relative.

From ike Liverpool Pliotograpldc Journal.

LONDON PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETL

The first raonthiy meeting of this Society, for the session
1857-58, was held on Thursday, the 5t!i instant, at the Society's
Rooms, No. 1, Coventry Street, Leicester Square; the Presi-
dent, Sir Frederick Pollock, in the chair.

The President congratulated the members and their friends
upon the success which had attended their efforts to obtain
premises suited to the wants of the Society. He thought it was
a just cause of pride that, unaided by state resources, it had
achieved so much. The progress of the Society, as a scien-
tific body, had been unexampled; and there could be no
doubt of their continued success, for all classes of the com-
munity were interested in their proceedings and produc-
tions. The present rooms could be relinquished in three, seven,
fourteen, or twenty-one year's time should it be found necessary
to provide more spacious accommodation; but those from whom
they held the rooms had no such discretionary power. They
could, therefore, at once proceed with confidence to carry out
all the objects of the Society.

Mr. Gl . SiiADBOLT, President of the Microscoiiic Society, read
a paper

" ox TUE MODE OF PRODUCrXG EXTREM15I,T MTTUTE PHOTOORAFnS FOR MICBO-
SCOPIC liXAMINATION."

He said: — During the winters of 1853-54, I was engaged in
prosecuting experiments relative to the peculiarities of various
samples of collodion, and amonst other tests 1 subjected the
films to inspection under the microscope. I then observed that
some kinds were not only entirely free from reticulations, but
that the particles of iodide of silver were so nn'nute as to require
considerable optical power to resolve them, At this point the
idea occurred to me of ascertaining the relative capabilities
of each sample of collodion in regard to its power of recording,
pictorially, minntiffi of detail.

It was accordingly resolved that pliotograjdis should be pro-
duced of as small a size as possible, so as to bear inspection under
the lower powers of a good conqionnd achromatic microscope;
and as all things were arranged by the comnieneement of March,
1854, the first pictures were then produced and exhibited 1o
some friends at the house of Mr. Rosling. These pictures were

also exhibited to the Society in the April ensuing, as was re-
corded in the Society's journal at that period.

The following diagram illustrates the general disposition of
the various pieces of apparatus.

a is the source of light; i is a thick short-focus less to collect
the liglit of the lamp and throw it towards the picture, where,
from the convergence of the rays, the light would form rather
too small a spot ; the lens, c, is therefore interposed
so as to spread the light out to cover completely the negative
d. The negative, for convenience sake, being pressed against
a plate of glass by a spring; all in the plane at d. Now the
end of all this arrangement is simply to give us a clearly illu-
minated picture of about three inches in size, which we proceed
to reduce to microscopic dimensions by the microscopic camera
lens, which is lixed in a tube at e; e being about the place of
the " substage" of the microscope. Our camera lens is, of course,
of exceedingly short focus, for its ground glass or collodion film
substitute is to be placed at g, which is the usual place for the
principal stage of the ordinary microscope. Wood is here sub-
stituted for metal, because it is here that the sensitive film has
to be placed to receive the image vt'hich the ground glass has
aided us to find. Now let us look at the use of/, the only part
remaining unexplained: f is the ordinary part of the microscope
used to magnify anything placed at^^-, our collodionized film or
ground glass substitute for example. Begin by focussing the
microscope till the film at «■ is distinct, then turn the "fine ad-
justment" screw at/ a little, to make correction for the chemi-
cal focus, the amount being ascertained by experiment. Now
leave the microscope with its final correction as it is, and look
through it while, by the camera lens screw at e, you throw the
image of the negative so that it shall be distinct to'the eye, as
seen on looking in the previously corrected microscope. All is
now ready; remove the ground glass or its substitute, and put
a slip of glass, collodionized on the spot, excited in a little
beaker gla«s full of nitrate of silver (cxteniporanenusly shel-
tered by placing it in a small plate box) in the place of the
ground glass or film iyi g, having beforehand covered the lens
by a cap at the tube of e, placed between it and the negative.
Remove the cap for a few seconds, and develop on the spot;
wash and fix and dry as usual.

Since then a demand for these minute pictures has arisen,
and they are now a regular article of manufacture for microsco-
pic examination.

The principle acted upon was well known; it is this: — that a
ray of light refracted by any medium traverses the same -path
whichever end of the said |iath be made the starting ])oiMt. Take
as an illustration the case of ordinary photographic portraiture.
Tiie siller being placed in the anterior focus of the lens, the
jilale is arranged so as to coincide with the posterior focus of

1S58.

TUE niOTOGRArillC AXD FIXE ART JOURXAL.

39

!l

thff same Icii?, wliicli latter focns is sitnaterl witliin a mncli
shorter distance from the lens tliau is the anterior focus. These
two foci are termed the r.onjugale. foci; and if the sitter were
phiced in tlie short focus, an enlari;,-ed picture would be produced
upon a plate located in the place previously occupied by the
sitter.

Such an avran;i:ement is adopted wlicnever an object is placed
under the microscope for c.xaininatioa, a picture on an enlarfjed
scale beina; formed at a comparatively loui^ distance from the
object ji'iass, ^m\ ■w/iic/i pi.clurc is sliil furtiier mn^zMiiGed by the
eye-])iece. It is froui these considerations manifest that if an
illuminated nejrative photoji-raph be made to occupy the ordi-
nary position of the microscopic 7?it/tt?'f in /ke eye-piece, a greatly
reduced imace of the same ouii'ht to be formed in the anterior
focus of the object ixlass; aud this is found to occur when the
trial is properly made.

There are, however, some difficulties to encounter. — Firstly,
it is difficult to ascertain the focus in the case wliere the five-
hundreth part of an inch nelirer to or further from the lens is a
matter of moment in placing the sensitive plate. Secondly, the
lenses of microscopic object glasses, thoufili as visually correct
as possible, have not tiie visual and chemical foci coincident, a
corresponding: allowance having to bennule when they are used
photographically. — Thirdly, it is necessary to make several trials
to ascertain the correct exposure for any given negative — a point
of some difficulty, simple as it appears, until the correct allow-
ance for the actinic focus has been determined. A good micro-
scopic object-glass is always over-corrected as regards color, that
is to say, the blue rays are projected beyond the red. And let
it not be forgotten that the most perfectly constructed lens is
a thing in which o;iposite errors are so opposed as to leave only a
niinimnm of aberration; we cannot have perfection — Lastly, if
artificial light be employed for the purpose of illumination, it is
necessary that tiie rays shall fall upon the negative, either paral-
lel or slightly converging, in order that the source of light may
be at least as large as the oiefi;ative iu appearance. Thus an
equality of photogenic action is secured.

Tlie apparatus was arranged as follows, viz. : Ilaving re-
moved the upper stage-plate of a large compound microscope,
I replace it with one of wood, supplied with guide-pins of silver
wire, in order to admit to its supporting a slip of glass coated
with collodion and excited in the nitrate of silver bnth in the
usual way. If the ordinary brass stage-plate were left undis-
turbed, it is obvious that it, and the excited slip of glass, would
be mutually destructive.

The microscope is now to be placed in a horizontal position,
the objective, intended to produce the picture, made to occupy
the place usually hlied by the achromatic condenser on the siib-
stoge of the microscope, while another objective is screwed into
the lower end of the body of the instrument, which is used, not
only to focus with but also to make the requisite allowance for
actinic variation.

The negative intended to be reduced is then arranged verti-
cally, with its centre in the a::is of the microscopic body, at a
distance of from two to fcur feet from the lower object-glass, and
with a convenient screen of card, wood, or thick paper, to cut
off any extraneous light that would otherwise puss beyond the
limits of the picture.

A small camphiue lamp is employed for the purpose of illu-
minating the negative, having a a-ood l)ull's-eye lens as a con-
denser, so arranged with its flat side iie.xt the lamp, that the
r 'I'racted rays shall fill the whole of a doule convex lens of about
six inches in diameter, the latter being placed so as to refract the
rays of light in a pnrallel direction upon the negative.

By this arrangement the bulPs-eye lens of about 2^ inches in
diameter appears as the source of light, instead of the small
flame of the lamp.

When first I made the attempt to produce these pictures, I
focussed itpon the erciled collodion itself, in order that no error
might arise from any variation in the planes of the focussing
screen and sensitive medium; and to effect this, a piece of deep
yellow-colored glass was interposed between the lamp and the
bull's-eye, lens, which was removed for the requisite interval

after focussing, to allow the action of the liglit to take cITect;
but subsequently I found that it wns possible (o locus U|ion a
slip of collodionized glass that had been excited, washed and
dried, without removing the iodide of silver, and then replacing
it by the slip intended to receive the impression.

The manipulation is thus perfornifnl, viz., the focussing c:lass
being placed on the wooden stage with the collodion fro7)i the
observer, the body of the microscope is accurately adjusted so
as to focns distinctly the film of collodion as seen through the
slip of glass. When the exact point is turned, so as to focns
the objective beyond the film, just so fa.r as the aclinic focus of
the lens to he employed for prod wring the picture, differs from its
visual one.; the last-named lens is then to be carefully adjusted,
so that the image of the negative becomes distinctly and sharply
dt fined wdieu viewed through the microscope; and v\dien so seen,
the actinic image will fall in the exact plane iu wdiich the film
of collodion is located. The light is then to be shut off, a sensi-
tive film placed instead of the dried one, an exposure of from
ten to si.\ty seconds allowed, and when removed from the stage,
the picture is to be developed iu the usual way by means of a
few drofis of the ordinary pyrogallic acid solution. The pic-
ture quickly appears as a small dark on the glass. It is to bo
h.xed and washed as is usual with larger pictures, and set aside
to dry in a place protected from dust, which last-named sub-
stance is perhaps the greatest enemy one has to contend with.

With regard to the allowance necessary to be made between
the visual and actinic foci, there are various methods by which
this may be accomplished; but iu my opinion by far the best is
that afforded by the fine adjustment of the microscope itself. If
an over corrected objective, the actinic focns being more distant
from the lens than the visual one, it is evident tliat a greater
separation between it and the plate is required than for accurate
definition by sight; but as the amount of variation probably
differs for every individual lens, though nominally of the same
power, the exact allowance can oidy be determined by trial;
for a two-thirds of an inch that I generally use with the nega-
tive about four feet from the lens, the correction required is an
elongation of the focus by o-^jth of an inch; wdiilc 1^ inch ob-
jective of similar make requires an allowance of ^V^^^ ^'" "'i inch.

The proper correction may also be made by withdrawing the
negative further from the lens after focussing. I may also ob-
seivethatl have noticed a curious fact w'ith reference to the
allowance for vai'iation in an over corrected lens, viz., that the
amount of it is not the same for day-light, as for artificial light.
This merits further investigation.

It may also be desirable to describe the developing solution:
- — Two grains of pyro-galiic acid to one of citric acid, aud one
ounce of water, is l)etter for this purpose than an acetic acid
mixture, the resulting picture being of a more agreeable tone.
The micro-photographs, when finished, may be mounted by ce-
menting over the collodiou a disc of very thin glass, by means
of Canada balsam.

"A SUPPLEMENT TO MR. SUADBOLT'S P.1PER," &C.

He stated that his first attempt attaking minute photosraphs
was made more than a year alter Mr. Shadbolt had described,
privately, his mode of operating; aud it being his wi.^h to work
by day-light, he commenced with a small camera, made for the
purpose, and lent him by Mr. Thomas Ross. Mr. Jackson's
description proceeds as follows: —

This camera wasfurnisiied v,-ith the usual glass for focussinc,
which, though ground tolerably fine, was far too coarse for any-
thing like the precision necessary in a ])icture to be submitted
to the microscope. I was therefore induced to construct a
camera which would allow the use of a method of focussing
that 1 had foimd advantageous in taking portraits of the ordi-
nary size. The body of this little instrument is a piece of
drawn brass tube, about an inch iu diameter, into the end of
which another tube is screwed. The tube to which the object-
glass is attached slides into this inner tube, aud is fasteneel by
a pushing-screw; the sliding motion giving a rough focal ad-
justment, and the screw on the intermediate tulie a fine one.

The plate-holder has a short tube attached to it, which
slips with moderate tightnessoverlhat which constitutes the body.

20

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

January,

AVhen the platc-Iiolder is removed, a hrass plate is laid across
the end of tlie body, havinji; a tube screwed into it so as to ad-
mit of adjiistinetit. In this tube is placed a small positive eye-
piece, equal to a lens of h:ilf an inch focal length, which, for
these minute pictures, miglit be nnich more powerful.

It is evident that this eye-piece constitutes, with the olijcct-
p:lass, a small telescope, in which the image is seen without the
intervention of a ground-glass or other medium; and, when
once accurately adjusted, the operation of focussing is a very
simple one

The original adjustment is made in this way. The distance
at which au object is clearly seen when tiie oiiject-glass is ap-
plied to the microscope, is carefully measured, and it is placed
in the camera at tiie same distance from the sensitive surface.
A picture is tiieii taken, and most probably found to be very
indistinct; but, by a few trials, making use of the screw adjust-
ment, the true focal distance is at last found; and the eye piece
being adjusted by means of its screw-tube, the camera can be
focussed by it again at any time, even if the negative be jilaccd
at a different distance. This method has the further advantage,
that no allowance is required for the difference between the
visual and actinic foci; or ratlier, the allowance is necessirily
included in the adjustment. I use a board four feet long, which
can be hung in a |)erpendicular direction. At tlie upi)er end
of it is a simiile apparatus for holding the negative, and the
camera is fi.xed at the lower end. The light is thus taken di-
rect from ihesky; and the time of exposure varies with the
weather, the density of the negative, the aperture of the lens,
and the collodion.

Most of my pictures were taken with an inch-and-a-lialf mi-
croscojjic object-glass, made by Smith and Beck; but 1 have
lately tried one of Ross's old inch object-glasses, a single triplet
of moderate aperture, and find it to answer very well. The
time of exposure with this iens ranges from fifteen to sixty
seconds.

A great proportion of my clearest and best toned pictures
have been spoiled by the film cracking into irregular hexagons,
apparently the effect of contraction, giving the appearance of a
net thrown over the figure. This is a difhcnlty that I have not
yet discovered the means of overcoming; but the tendency to
it may be lessened by diminishing the proportion of alcohol,
and by allowing the plate to get nearly dry before plunging it
into the silver bath. These remedies, however, produce another
defect almost as bad as the original; for they appear to prevent
the even penetration of the film by the bath, and the result is a
, greyish picture covered with white spots. Any suggestion on
this subject will be thankfully received.

The developer that I employ is that recommended by Mr.
Shadbolt; but I have latterly used it in a peculiar maimer.

On one occasion I forgot to draw out the slider of the plate-
holder, and only discovered it by the fact of being unable to de-
velop anything on the glass. As an experiment 1 replaced it in
tlie camera and exposed it the usual time, when I was agreea-
bly surprised to find a clear and well-toned picture.

Since that time I have generally poured the developer on the
plate immediately after taking it from the silver bath; and after
moving it to and fro two or three times, having poured it off,
and placed the plate iu the camera as quickly as possible. On
exposing it the proper time the picture is found to be fully de-
veloped, and must be immediately washed and fixed in the
usual maimer. Should it, however, be too faint, the washing
may be delayed until it is sufficiently darkened; but it is not
generally so clear as when the exact time of exposure has been
hit. I have often tried comparative experiments, and I have
constantly found that this method not only saves time, butgives
the clearest pictures.

Mr. Shaduolt and Mr. G, Jackson demonstrated personally
the peculiarities of their respective arrangements and modes of
manipulation.

Mr. W. Jackson, of Lancaster, sent a paper

" 0\ THE PRODUCTION OK DIRECT TKANSPAnEXT COLLODION POSmVES."

Mr. Jackson stated that his atteutiou having been called to

the fact that no process with the above object in view had been
published, sent an account of some experiments made by him,
two or three years ago, with the ordinary negative collodion
process, which, by slight modifications, yielded pictures which
were positive by transmitted light. One method was to follow
the ordinary process with the pyrogallic developer, but as soon
as a slight development took jilace, the plate was well Avashed
with water, and then re-immersed for three or four minutes in
the silver bath. This plate, on being again treated with the
developer, gave positive shades, while the lights, which seemed
unaltered, became transparent. Another and more ready me-
thod was to allow diffused daylight to fall on the plates as soon
as the image began to appear, and after pouring on the devel-
oper. The effect is not produced if the picture be too much devel-
oped. An amber-colored collodion is best, and used with ordi-
nary nitrate of silver. Fused nitrate and colorless collodion
give exaggerated high lights. Thin collodion is more sensitive
than a thicker one, but does not gjve such deep shades. The
strength of the nitrate bath vv'as varied from ten to fifty
grains per ounce; the weak solutions being most manageable,
but not giving such deep shades as the stronger ones. Twenty
grains per ounce, with four drops of glacial acetic acid, gave
good results. The pictures may be improved by washing off the
developer, dipping the plate in a three-grain solution of silver,
and then applying the developer again. This must be done be-
fore the ))icture is fixed. Some practice is necessary to hit the
right point of development previous to the reversing operation;
and skies come oi>t too strongly, unless shaded off during part
of the exposure; moreover, the ]/arts of the picture bordering
on the skies often become negative.

He regarded these pictures as being cnrious, rather than use-
ful. The definition was good, and the plates were more sensi-
tive than ordinary. In a postscript he further stated, that the
amount of free iodine in the collodion modified the color of the
shades. He also added that the pictures could be produced in
one-fourth of the time required for ordinary eoUodiou positives.
The most effective pictures were obtained when the exposure
was such that the Si'st faint development occurred socn after
the application of ilie pyrogallic acid solution, which was not
stronger than from one-half to three-quarters of a grain per
ounce. The method, by exposurs to light, is to be preferred;,
, but, if the other plans are tried, the acetic acid must be omitted
from the bath, and a stronger image be developed upon the fir&t
exposure. To deepen the shade, it will be best to repeat the
development before fixing — a solution of nitrate of silver of
twenty grains per ounce may, in this casejie used. The cj'-
anide,. for fixing, should be of the strength of from six to seven
grains per ounce of water.

Mr. JIalone, upon c-omment ])cing invited, oJjserved that,
some four years ago, he had, by following the ordinary collodion
process, obtained, to his surprise, a very good transparent posi-
tive picture, when he expected to have produced a negative.
The result luippened thus: — he exposed a plate in the camera
to the image of a strongly-illuminated white pUister bust, for a
much longer time than usuaL He then developed, with pyro-
gallic acid, in the usual way, and fixed with hyposulphite of
soda. The image, although a good one, did not seem to him,
at that time, to be of practical interest. He, therefore, allowed
the fact to remain without further investigation. It seemed
extraordinary that light should, in excess, take away from the
impressed plate the power of precipitating silver from the liquid
upon its surface; and, at present, no thorough explanation is
offered to the rationale of the pi ocess. The formation of a deposit
iu the shades of the picture, he thought, might be accounted
for by the length of the exposure being such, that the shadows
which ordinarily do not affect the plate, at length, throw light
for a sufficient length of time to impress parts which by a shorter
exposure, would remain in a normal condition. But, by what
strange action does the light destroy iti original work?

Mr. Fenton had met with similar results, but could not com-
mand the phenomenon with certainty. He thought the matter
of greater importance than was generally supposed; he trusted
Mr. Jackson would continue his experiments^

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

21

Mmwr

Mr. Crookrs had repeated Mr. Jackson's experiments, and
from the one which gives the result without the subsequent ex-
posure to Hglit, he concluded that the action was not to be ac-
counted for by a reference to the destructive action of light
alone.

Mr. Maloxe endeavored to reconcile the two cases by refer-
ence to what he had observed in the process of " sunning" iodized
paper. He had prepared in the usual way, and in the dark, a
sheet of Mr. Talbot's iodized paper; upon this he placed a strip
of black paper, and so managed as to cover up half of the iodi-
zed paper and strip, the other half with strips interposed was
exposed to sunshine for twenty minutes; then the other half was
momentarily exposed to the light; next, the whole was treated
with gallo-nitrate of silver. A black positire image of the strip
appeared on the half that had been sunned, while a light nega-
tive image or the other half of the strip was developed on the
half of the sheet momentarily exposed: the result was very in-
structive and at .Irst sight perjilexing. It would seem that the
paper not sunned is capable of throwing down the silver sponta-
neously from the developer by ordinary chemical action, while
the same paper sunned loses this power, unless the action of light
be limited, in which case it appears to exact the ordinary chemi-
afBuity of the paper for the silver of the developer. The sub-
ject is a very curious one and still obscure.

A Member, whose name we were not fortunate enough to
obtain, stated that he had obtained a direct positive by first
exposing the plate entirely to light, and then exposing it to an
image in the camera, developing as usual. This is in accordance
■with Mr. Malone's experience; the exposure to light at first
might be carried just to the verge of the destructive action,
then the increase of light, from the luminous parts of the came-
ra image, would bring on the destruction of the afSuity for the
silver in the developer, and a positive must result.

Mr. Shadbolt also took part in the discussion, and thought
the destructive action of light was further evinced by these ex-
periments.

The thanks of the Society were given to the authors of these
communications.

Some good specimens of collodion positives were sent to the
Society from a professional photographer in Australia, with a
view of showing the present condition of the art in that distant
colony. The process by which they were obtained was not
communicated. The donor requested that some notice might
be taken of them in the Society's Journal. The matter was
referred to the council to deal with as they might think best.
There was a slight disclination on the part of some members to
give special prominence to these specimens, since they were not
superior to some of those produced in London and Liverpool.
The donor would enhance his gift if he would give the exact
details of his process.

At the conclusion of the ordinary business of the evening, the
meeting was rendered a special one to consider the proposal of
voting £50 from the Society's funds for the purposes of the
Archer Testimonial. On the motion of Sir. Wm. Newton,
seconded by Mr. Vernon Heath, the proposition was carried
without a dissentient voice.

Some interesting photographs by Mr. Howlett were exhibited
during the evening.

At the conclusion the President announced that the Secre-
tary had kiudly provide tea and coffee for their refreshment,
and especially for those who had taken part in Ike discussions.

The most probable cause for the " wavy hues of a milky color
beginning about a third from the bottom and becoming more
curved and wavy as they reach the top," which appear on albu-
men plates after they are taken from the silver bath, is the em-
ployment of a horizontal bath on which the plates are lowered
face downwards, the effect is exactly that which would occur
were there to be any slight hesitation or irregularity in the im-
mersion. More solution in the bath would perhaps remedy it;
but we strongly advise the employment of a bath such as Mr.
Ackland recommends.

3*

From the London Art Journal.

MR. WILLIAM BRADLEY.

The career of this distinguished artist has been so much con*
nected with Manchester, and the features of so many of our
" notabilities" iiave been portrayed by his pencil, that a short
notice of his life and works may not be unacceptable. Mr.
Bradley was born in ]\Ianchester on the iGth of January, 1801.
He had the misfortune to lose his father (an ingenious and in-
ventive man, who resided at Garratt Hall) when only three
years of age, and commenced life as an errand-boy in a ware-
house, at the small wages of three shilling weekly. Art draws
her votaries rather from the field and the workshop than the
mansion and the palace, and so she took William Bradley from
the packing-room of Messrs. Weight, Armitage, and Co., and
at the early age of sixteen we find him practising entire as an
artist. His beginning was humble enough; he took black pro-
files at one shilling each, and advertised himself as " portrait,
miniature, and animal painter, and teacher of drawing." He
had a limited number of lessons from Mather Brown, then in a
high favor with the Mancunians, in whose mind, it is said, Brad-
ley excited strong feelings of jealousy. At the age of twenty-
one he went to London where his friend Mr. Leveson treated
him with great kindness. He first took lodgings in Hatton
Gardou, but subsequently removed to Gerrard Street: he ob-
tained an introduction to Sir Thomas Lawrence, who took great
interest in his works, and allowed him to bring them at all
times fol" inspection, Mr. Bradley now became established in
the metropolis, but occasionally paid a flying visit to his native
town. In 1833 he paid a longer visit than usual to Manchester,
accompanied by his friend, Mr. R. B. Faulkner; they worked
together in the studio of Mr. Charles Calvert, the landscape-
painter, in Princes Street; and in the same year Mr. Bradley
married Mr. Calvert's eldest daughter, and, after the lapse of a
few months, again returned to town. In the year 1847 Mr.
Bradley removed entirely to his native town, where he continued
to labor at his profession with devoted ardor; it was, however,
obvious to all that his health was shattered, and his brain more
or less affected. He lived a sort of misanthropic life, frequentiy
never stirring from his studio for months together. He died at
his rooms, at Newall's Buildings, on the 4tli of July, of typhoid
fever. In his illness he received the devoted attentions of his
wife and daughter up to the lust hours of his existance. As an
artist, Mr. Bradley undoubtedly possessed high talent; and
though showing but little of the creative faculty, and chiefly
confining his attention to portraits and fancy heads, what he
professed to do he certainly did admirably, ever giving the most
elevated and exalted character to the subject that came under
treatment of his pencil. His heads are remarkable for skilful
drawing, and he was not second to any man of the day in pro-
ducing a striking and intellectual likeness. He excelled in col-
oriug, and wrought on purely philosophical principles, reduced
from earne£t study of the words of the great masters. His
knowledge of light and shade was profound; and his proficiency
in this most difficult branch of artistic study contributed in a large
degree to the success of his works. His fancy pictures are nu-
merous, consisting mostly of beautiful female heads. Bradley's
practice was chiefly based on the works of Rubens, Yandyke,
Pvembrandt, and Ruphael, and on the principles reduced and
exemplitied by their followers in our early english school — viz.,
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Gainsborough, Romney, and Sir Thomas
Lawrence; " trying," as he said on his only visit paid to the
Art-Treasures Exhibition, "to do something which should have
resemblance to their work, putting touches which would puzzle
the many to tell the meaning of, and which, when the work waa
done, would please people in spite of themselves." His percep-
tive powers were very extraordinary, enabling him at once to
detect that which constituted the success or failure of a picture.
Although in the receipt of a large income for many years of Ms
life, such were, we regret to learn, his improvident and heedless
Habits, that his widow and four surviving children are left in
very unfavorable circumstances, The following are the names
of some of Mr. Bradley's sitters: — Lords Beresford, Saudon,

22

THE PEOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

January,

Denbigh, Bagot,and Ellesmere, Sirs E. Kerrison, John Glad-''
stone, Beiijamia Ileywoocl, Robert Jeppiiigs, and Thomas Pot-
ter; Colonel Cureton, C B.; Colonel Anderton; \V. E. Gladstone,
Esq., M. P.; Sir James Emerson Tennant; Sheridan Knowles,
W. C. Macready, Dr. Dalton, Charles Swain, Liverseege, Jolm
Isherwood, John Brookes; Joseph Brotherton, Esq., M.P. ;
Padsey Dawson, Esq., Hornby Castle; Rev. Canon Stowelli
Rev. H. Y\^. M'Grath, &c. We have only to add that the
youngest son of Mr. Bradley displays a remarkable talent for
drawing, and, with due cultivation and training, promises to add
another name to our list of local artists. This training it is un-
derstood, the necessitous circumstances of his widowed mother
preclude and it has been suggested that an appeal should be
made to the public, and especially to these whose portraits have
been painted by the late Mr. Bradley, to assist Mrs. Bradley
in maintaining and educating her family, and especially the.son re-
ferred to (now about fifteen years of age), in placing him to
pursue the study of Art under proper circumstances and disci-
pline.

From the Jour, of the Phot. Soe.

FORMULA FOR COLLODION POSITIVES.
To the Editor of the Photographic Journal.

SiR_ — Having often seen queries in the columns of your Jour-
nal, as to the best mode of making positive collodion, and hav-
ing had some little experience in that way, I have found the
following (after many experimentsj to give results superior to
any I have yet seen. Put 12 ounces by measure of good sul-
phuric ether in a stoppered bottle, and add to it 42 grains of
gun cotton, shake frequently to facilitate the solution; let it
Btand for a few days, when any particles of undissolved cotton
will sink to the bottom, and the upper portion may be poured
off perfectly clear. The iodizing solution is made as follows: —

1. Iodide of cadmium 14 grs.

Alcohol 1 oz.

Dissolve and fdter.

2. Iodine 6 grs.

Alcohol 1 oz.

Dissolve and filter.

3. Bromide of cadmium 80 grs.

Alcohol 1 oz.

Dissolve and filter.

4. Make a saturated solution of common salt in water.

To iodize the collodion, pour off an ounce and a half of the
collodion into a perfectly clean bottle, add to it half an ounce
of solution No. 1, shake well together, and then add 10 drops
of solution No. 2, and 20 drops of solution No. 3, shake well
together, and stand by for a few hours, and add 12 drops of so-
lution No. 4, let stand for a few days, and it is fit for use. Col-
lodion made as above, gives beautiful pictures, is very sensitive,
and keeps good for a great length of time. The nitrate bath
is made by nitrate of silver, 30 grains to 1 ounce of distilled
water; the bath should be slightly .acid. Having coated the
plate with collodion prepared as above, immerse in the bath for
one minute only in moderately warm weather, — a little longer
may be allowed in winter. The plate should be moved up and
down two or three times in the bath before it is taken out. To
develope the picture take —

Protosulpbate of iron } onnce.

Water 5 ounces.

Glacial acetic acid 8 drops.

Nitric acid 2 drops.

Spirits of wine 1 drm.

Dissolve and filter.

Fix with cyanide of potassium, tea grains to the ounce of
water.

A. S. K. H.

From the Jour, of the Pliot. Soe.

COLLODM POSITIVES ON BLACK LEATHER.

Crowle, October 1st, 1857.
To the Editor of the Fhoiographic Journal,

Sir, — The collodion positive I sent you on leather is done
exactly in the same way as on glass or the enamelled iron
tablets: the ouly difficulty in the process is getting the leather
to sink in the nitrate bath; this I accomplish with a gutta
percha dipper turned np the lower end, and at the proper dis-
tance from the end I have inserted a piece of slightly curved
silver wire through the dipperr this, when turned down, holds
the leather tight in its place, and to remove it the wire only re-
quires to be turned upwards; then, to keep the spring in the
dark slide from making the prepared side convex, place a piece
of glass of the same size upon the back of the leather. I think
it advisable to coat the leather v/ith two or three dressings of
any of the ordinary black varnishes, on the back and edges, to
prevent any organic matter the leather might contain from
spoiling the bath: it also helps to stiffen it. The, kind of
leather I have used is such as saddlers employ, but I consider,
if we could devise a plan to sink the leather (better than mine),
the patent French calf would be preferable, on account of its
smooth and finely polished surface; but, on account of the
thin texture, it is objectionable. The only cleaning required is
rubbing with wash-leather.

J. S. Overton.

From the Liderpool Photographic Journal..

MR. SUTTON'S CHALLENGE.

The following letter, which has been addressed to the editor
of the London Fhoiographic Joiunal, needs, at preseitt,. no
comment: —

Royal Square, Jersey, Aug. 11, 1857.

Sir, — By this post you will receive three photographs, pur-
chased by me of Mr. Sutton, and, no doubt printed and mounted
at the establishment of Blanqnart, Evrard.

In the last number of Photographic Notes, edited by Mr. Sut-
ton, is a paragraph as follows: —

" All Blanquart Evrard's prints have been mounted with
starch. As I have repeatedly challenged the world to produce
a faded print from that gentleman's establishment, without re-
ceiving any reply, we may conclude, without theorizing on the
subject, that starch is a perfectly safe cement to employ for
mounting positives. — [Ed. P. N."]

Now, Sir, that the three photographs above named, and sent
herewith, ^arg faded, and that very much, there cannot be a
doubt; but, when I tell you that they have been shown by me
to Mr. Sutton some months ago, and that he of course could
not but acknowledge the fact of their having faded, you will, I
am sure, equally with myself, be astonished at the mendacity of
the assertion — that the world has hei:urtpeatedly challenged to
produce a faded print from Blanquart Evrard's establishment,
and without reply. Will Mr. Sutton have the kindness to say
when and where the challenge has ever before been given ?

If Mr. Sutton desires another proof of the want of perma-
nence in what he calls "the permanent process," he can be sup-
plied with the article in the shape of a photograph of rocks
(a fellow-print to one of those sent hcrewithj, to be had of his
printer of the Azotes, where such view is exposed to-day (Aug.
llthj for sale on Mr. Sutton's behalf; and, as it is the only
photograph in the shop-window, the fact of its having faded
seems to establish a somewhat singular contradiction of his as-
sertion regarding the permanence of the prints in question.

I think Mr. Sutton cannot reasonably complain of the chal-
lenge so jiulMicIv given, and so repeatedly (?), being at last as
publicly responded to; and I would beg to remark that, as I
have the honor to be a photographer myself, I have therefore
a kind of compunction in acknowledging that photographs in
any cas-e may or do fade. This, however, is tempered,
with the satisfaction of knowing, that, although the prints

1858. THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

23

may not come from the establishment of Messrs. Sutton & Blan-
quartEvrard, it is quite possible that they may stand the test
of time as well as those that do; and really think Mr. Sutton a
little too arrogant when he asserts, that the future of fhotogra-
pki) depends upon Ike success of the printing establishment in St.
Brdade's Bay, Jersey Henry Mullins.

Havinj^ inserted itflr. Mullin's letter, we insert Mr. Sutton's
reply, and a rejoinder by Mr. Mullins: —

S[R_ — I beg leave to offer a few words of reply to a letter
which appeared in your last number, headed '• Mr. Sutton's
Challenge," and signed " Henry Mullins."

If Mr. Mullins will have the goodness to turn to No. 23,
pane 104, of my " Photographic Notes," (to which he is a sub-
scriber,) be will find in the second paragraph the following re-
marks:—

" I have only seen two faded prints by Blanquart-Evrard's
process, and these have rather been destroyed than faded. They
Belong to a Daguerreotypist in this Island. The image has
evidently been coverted into iodide of silver by the destructive
fumes of the iodine which escapes from his dark room; some
prints of Mr. Fenton's have been destroyed in the same way,
bv the same cause. One print, however, by Blanquart-Evrard,
which was protected by some means, has escaped, and is as fresh
as ever: it is si.K years old."

I need scarcely inform him that he is the Dagguerreotypist
alluded to. I have worked for a week at his rooms, with his
bromine and iodine boxes, and I remarked that they allowed a
"•ood deal of gas to escape. His room, which is large and in
an airy situation, ought not to smell so strongly as it always
does of these gases; in fact he is obliged, all the year round, to
keep one of his three windows wide open. I need not inform
your readers that the bromide of iodine is recommended in Blan-
quart-Evrard's treatise, as a means of removing silver stains;
and that the fumes of bromine and iodine are destructive to
paper photographs. I may mention that Mr. Mullins selected
the prints he sent you from a dozen or more which I showed
him, and that the remainder arc in my possession and as good
as ever.

I have now disposed of what he has politely called my " men-
dacious assertion."

With respect to M. Le Fenvre's print, — I have not seen it,
nor do I think it likely that he would exhibit a faded print in
his window ;but I will make enquiry about it and let you know
the result.

With respect to my repeated challenges to photogrnphers to
produce a faded print from Blanquart-Evrard's establishment,
I beg to say that during the year 1856. I sent from Jersey up-
wards of 9000 mounted prints, each bearing the stamp of" per-
manent photograph" at the corner of the mount, and that not
one has been returned to me as faded. Each of these prints
may be considered in the light of an unanswered challenge.

During the whole course of my experience, I have seen
no faded prints from Blanquart Evrard's establishment,
except those which Mr. Mullins sent you, (and fur which,
you observe, I informed the readers of my " Notes," the
months ago,) and very lately another among my own collection,
the existence of which I do not wish to conceal. It is possible
that among the subscribers to my Album there may be good-
natured persons who may possess faded prints, but who have
been unwilling to make me acquainted with the fact. But in
the absence of such evidence, I must still hope that photographs
which have been developed on iodide of silver, and properly
treated, are permanent; for a very rare and occasional IwWnvQ
may fairly be attributed to an accident of some sort. If they
are not, then the whole system of photography , with the salts
of silver, must fall to the ground, for this is the process by which
ntn-atives are obtained, I repeat, that the fate of the present
system of photography depengs on the permanence (not of my
printing astablishment in St. Brelade's B^y, as Mr. Mullins
would facetiously make out), but of Blanquart Evrard's
positive print*

September 29tk, 1857^ Thomas Spttox.

* (?) Mr. Talbot's original " calolype" positive print.— Ed. L. & M. P. J.

Postscript.— I went to M. Le Feuvre's yesterday, in com-
pany with the Rev. T. M. Raven, (a member of the Photographic
Society of Scotland,) to examine the print alluded to by Mr.
Mullins. We agreed that it had not faded in the least degree.*
M. Le Feuvre received it, with a number of others, from Blan-
quart-Evrard, sound, about three years ago, and he allowed us
to look over the remaining prints which came in the same par-
cel. All are as fresh and perfect as they were on the day when
he received them; and he says he has never seen a faded print
from B-Evrard's establishment, although he has unfortunately
in his possession many faded prints by other artists.

I beg, therefore, to contradict the statement made by Mr.
Mullins in the fifth paragraph of his letter.

I ought to mention that, when Mr. Mullins first showed me
the damaged prints which he has sent to you, we had some con-
versation about them, in which I attributed their having per-
ished to the action of the destructive gases which are always
present in the atmosphere of his room, but particularly at nigiit,
when the doors and windows are closed. Why did he not, iu
common fairness, mention the circumstance of my having given
him this explanation?

" As you have permitted his letter to appear in your Journal,
I trust you will, as an act of justice to me, insert my reply in
your next number. It is the only communication with which
I shall trouble on this subject, for Mr. Mullins has so far for-
gotten himself that I decline entering into any further contro-
versy with him.

MR. IIULLIN'S REJOINDER.

Sir, — In the current number of " Notes," No. 3T, Mr. Sut-
ton, in referring to my letter in the last Journal observes that
he has publicly acknowledged having seen the three faded
prints I mentioned in my letter, and then, with the confidence
natural to him, says, "the first part of Mr. Mullins' letter is
disposed of" — how he jumps to this conclusion I am at a loss to
imagine. The paragraph I alluded to, appearing in the
" Notes," said that Mr. Sutton had repeatedly challenged the
world to produce a faded print from Blanquart-Evrard's estab-
lissment, and that, as he had never had any reply, we may con-
clude, &c.: thus in as plain langauge as possible ignoring the
fact of my having shown him the tliree which have faded, and
were sent you at the time I wrote; and I think that his me-
thod of disposing of the first part of my letter is
merely a confirmation of what I said, viz., that Mr. Sutton had
seen the prints: his having mentioned that fact in a former
number of the " Notes" is nothing to the point. He said de-
liberately that he had never seen a faded print from Blanquart-
Evrard's establishment, and I reminded him that he had: but
perhaps he thought that as he had mentioned them iu No. 23,
page 104, they were disposed of.

Now, as regards the print at Le, Feuvre's, which I said was
hanging in the window, palpably faded at the time I wrote, and
which Mr. Sutton now asserts (in capitals), was not: I must
say that that assertion is "intemperate," for that print was not
amongst those examined by him and his friend, the Rev. Mr.
Raven, at Le Feuvre's, on the occasion he mentions, because
before the appearance of ray letter in your Journal, I missed
the photograph from the window, and on enquiring about it was
told that it had beensold, to whom they did not know; however,
I am glad to be able to say that I was not the only one who
thought it likely to be a bad investment.

Then, with respect to the charge of arrogantly claiming for
the printing establishment at St. Brelade's Bay, the future of
photography, which Mr. Sutton disposes of by saying that he
has always frankly brought forward in the " Notes," the differ-
ent processes of printing, such as those of Sella, Pretsch, Pui-
tevin, <kc.: I for one have no wish to deny: it was matter for
his "Notes:" but as a set-off, can any of his readers say that
advantage has not been taken of every opportunity to bring iu
Blanquart-Evrard and "Hollingsworth's thin paper ?"

In conclusion, I only remark, that unless Mr. Sutton employs
some better argument in the letter he requests you to publish

24

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

January,

than we have been favored with in the " Notes," the facts, with
all due deference to hiu), remain as they were.

Henry Mullixs.
Royal Square, Jersey, Oct. 13, 1851.

From the Journal of the Pho. Sac.

PREP.\RATinN OF IIYDRIODIC ACID.

To the Editor of the Photographic Journal.

Sir, — Seein<r in your last Number that one of your corres-
pondents, Mr. Tichbone, has experienced some difficulty in mak-
ing hydriodic acid in quantity by the action of hydrosulphuric
acid, I beg to forward the plan I adopt, and by which it can
be made in any quantity and of great strength. Take 1 ounce
or any quantity of iodine, reduce it to powder in a large mortar,
diffuse about 1 drachm in 1 ounce of distilled water, pass the
hydrosulphuric acid gas through it until the iodine is decom-
posed, pour the liquid into the mortar on the remaining iodine
and stir well with the pestle; a considerable quantity of the
iodine will be dissolved: return the liquid to the decomposing
vessel, ngain pass the gas until decolorization has taken place,
and repeat the operation until all the iodine has been taken up.
By this process there are no solid particles of iodine to be en-
veloped in the precipitated sulphur, and the operation proceeds
in the most satisfactory manner. J. Foster.

NEW YORK PnOTOGRAPIIIC GALLERIES.

Prtend Spelling, — A short sketch of the New York Galler-
ies will no doubt interest many of your Western and Southern
readers I am sure, and I have taken the liberty of dropping a
hasty line by the way. The first visit I made to the dilferent
galleries of Art, was my old friend, T. Paris, Esq , late Cin-
cinnati, Ohio. Mr. P. occupies the rooms formerly kept by
Root, on Broadway. Mr. P. is an old operator and I could
speak of him at great length, and of the many great and beauti-
ful pictures he has produced. Mr. T. has no superior in his
profession. The Diaphaneotypes that he gets up, are the most
beautiful and artistic pictures that are made. The richness of
color, the most exquisite and delicate touches cannot be
equalled. In looking through Mr. P.'s gallery, I saw many
old farciliar faces. His arrangement of groups are done in an
artistic manner, which shows that no person of limited know-
ledge could accomplish such things. I wish I had but time to
speak of Mr. Paris' different pictures, but there are so many
I cannot find space for them; and if any of my artist friends
visit New York, I recommend them to pay Mr. P. a visit, and
they will be richly repay ed.

1 ne.xt strolled into Brady's, 205 Broadway, a small gallery,
once occupied by the bearer of the above name. I saw several
good pictures. Mr. Johnston is the operator, and a very ])0-
lite gentleman I found him. I was much pleased with his pic-
tures.

Farther up Broadway, I found the real Brady, up to bis ears
in business. He has 26 pei'sons in his employ, artists, opera-
tors, and salesmen. The imperial photographs are a most
beautiful style of pictures. They are simply fine large cabinet
pictures beautifully worked in India ink, to a high degree of
perfection. There you can see specimens of nearly all the dif-
ferent distinguished personages that visit New York: those of
Chas. Elliott, Esq., the artist, N. P. Willis, the poet, Ex-Secrc-
tary Marcy, Bayard Taylor, are most perfect gems of art: I
could name hundreds equal to those. I saw several full-length
photograi)hs taken by Woodward's Solar Camera, lil'e-sizc,
most wonderful pictures.

A few doors below is Gurxey's gallery. Mr. G. has taken
the premium for his beautiful pictures on many occasions, and
deservedly so too, for he has had the best operators, and the
very best artists, and has paid the highest prices for every-
thing. Mr. G. is liberal, and he should be well patronized.

Mr. G. has a large table, on it a shade in which is placed the
many prizes he has got at the different institutions: he also has
got a massive silver pitcher, awarded to him by the Committee
appointed to present the Anthony prize for the best daguer-
reotype, lie has various silver and gold medals too nnmerous
to mention, for premiums taken in Europe and this country.
Mr. Harry Moulton, the great photographist, does not work
for Mr. Gurxey at present. Mr. G. has 25 persons in his em-
ploy— artists, operators, salesmen, and messengers. He does
not take ambrotypes; nothing but photographs plain, in oil,
water, India ink, and pastelle, and also daguerreotypes. It is
really a treat to visit Mr. Gurney's establishment. He is one
of the best of men, and his son, the affable and gentlemanly
salesman, is the very man of all others to have in a gallery. The
many large oil pictures that adorn the walls, show plainly that
Mr. G. is not only a man of taste, but keeps the best of artists
in his employ.

C. D. Fredericks, Esq., opposite the Metropolitan Hotel,
has the largest and most spacious rooms in New York; be
keeps eight artists in oil color; in water three, in pastele one, in
India ink four — operators, artists and all, number thirty-two.
Tlie Hallotypcs are not good: I have never seen one that I
could call good yet, made either at Gurxey's or Fredericks'.
But Mr. P. has certainly the most .spacious and best regulated
rooms in the whole Union. His monthly receipts are $7000.
I saw in one packet, 5000 negatives for photographs. A large
portrait of Gen. Sam. Houston, is not only agreat likeness, but
a spirited and well executed half-length portrait. There are so
many portraits in oil, pastele, and water, that it would consume
too much time to name half; but to speak at a glance, the
visitor to New York must never leave without going to see Mr.
Fredericks' Gallery. The greatest business that is done here,
is in painted and plain photographs. The sum of §1500 is paid
regularly to artists monthly — that is only one item. Mr.
Fredericks, by his courteous and manly deportment, liberality
of heart, has won for himself, not only a great name, but wealth
and fame.

Meade Bro. take daguerreotypes and photographs. Some
of their pictures are superior in tone and beauty of position;
bnt they appear to have lost their pride to a great extent.
Some years ago, I remember Meade Bro, had the most spa-
cious rooms in New York on the second floor, above the Astor
House a short distance. They do a large business in furnish-
ing goods to operators througliout the country. They take but
few pictures compared with what they used to do. Their ope-
rator's name is Mr. Lunson from Paris.

A. PowELSON (307 J, takes photographs and ambrotypes;
some of his specimens are very good, and business appears to be
very brisk with him.

C. P. Rockwell ^315), takes daguerreotypes and ambro-
types very good.

Mr. Lawrence takes very good photographs and ambrotypes;
his place is in Broadway.

Mr. QuiMBY takes good ambrotypes for 20 cents on Broad-
way. You can get a good ambrotype done up in a plain case
for 12^ cents. There numbers eighty galleries in New York,
and I should be most happy to speak of them all but have not
the time. I merely drop a line in haste, and I hope the balance
that are not mentioned will not feel slighted. The business is
woefully dull in New York as well as in other cities. These
galleries that I have spoken of are the principal ones.

I visited Anthony's depot for the sale of all kinds of chemi-
cal and daguerreotype stock, and from the simplest thing used
to the camera, can be h.ad; and the gentlemanly salesmen who
are engaged by Mr. A., I could not fail to admire. Mr. An-
thony is the agent for the sale of Woodward's great Solar
Camera, one of the greatest inventions in photographic art.
For the sake of being well posted up, I would recommend all
operators in the country to visit the difi'erent galleries, when
in the city, and note the great improvements that are being
made in the manufacture of all kinds of pictures.

And from my short visit to the establishment of the Photo-
graphic and Fine Art Journal, I can promise myself that the

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

25

Journal will be greatly improyed for the year 1858, and I ad-
yke all to sabscribe early. lu haste, yours, J. R. J.

From the Neio York Daily Times.

WASHIXGTON ART ASSOCIATION.

Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 16.

The address before the Washingtoil Art Association, last
evening', by Hon. J. R. Tysox, was an eloquent and beautiful
production, and was heard by the dile of the city in Corcoran
Hall, in which building- the Exhibition of Art was thrown open
to the public at the couclusiou of the address.

Mr. Tysox commenced by alluding to the discouraging cir-
cumstances under which the Washington Art A.ssociatiou had
entered upon their present enterprise. A fortitude deserving
success, or indeed the ardor which commands, was requisite.
The minds of men are attuned to an appreciation of the beau-
tiful in art in the seasons of repose, which prosperity secures;
but the blossoms of elegance are chilled by the frost of advers-
ity. The etfort to impress the purposes of this Association
upou the attention of the country at this period of financial
gloom, is worthy the heroic spirit of the masters of the pencil
and the chisel, as well as of song, who have lived and died for
the glory of their professions.

The speaker extolled the patriotic purpose of making a fe-
pository of Art for the genius of the country, in its national
metropolis, amidst the memorials of our greatness, whither the
home student and the foreign tourist repair for glimpses of the
taste and intellect of the nation. Here all the peculiarities of
our people are exhibited, here Art is diversified by the variety
of climate, and the varying conditions of society, and here an
impartial and cultivated judgment should express iu candid criti-
cism its chastening and improving verdict.

Mr. Tyson assumed that every citizen desired that the Na-
tional Capital should, reveal the evidences of a high civilization,
and would feel a just pride in realizing that the grace and
beauty surrounding him were the achievements of his own
countrymen. In all ages, the artist has been cherislied by his
own Grovernment, or by its Sovereign, princes, and nobles.
"Without such aids the fine arts have ever languished. But we
have no imperial or patrician rank, no law of primogeniture,
no permanent class to whom the artist may look for patronage.
The fostering aid of a legislature, and the appreciation of a
schooled and reading public are his only resources, and he must
turn to these iii competition with the demands for the develop-
ment of vast and unexplored physical resources.

Practical knowledge, the colossal machinery of Government,
and the ordinary industrial pursuits, absorb so much of the de-
votion challenged for the beauties of Art, that we may even
wonder at the efforts of taste we behold in decoration, archi-
tecture, landscape-gardeniug, statuary, and painting, for it re-
quires the cooperation of artificial convenience and mental cul-
ture with wealth, luxury, and leisure to excite the poetic senti-
ment essential to the general appreciation of artistic genius iu
its higher manifestations.

These truths were eloquently sustained by parallels derived
from the history of ancient Greece and Rome, and the pros-
perity of Art in modern Rome. The deficiencies of practical
England with respect to the fine arts were dwelt upon, and a
beautiful tribute was rendered to the brief catalogue of artists
who have adorned the annals of this land of high achievement
and practical wisdom — whose genius has illumed science and li-
terature, and from whom we have received better lessons and
qualities than Italy could have afforded us.

In America the native taste has been quickened by cultiva-
tion, and private wealth has been liberal to Art. But the num-
ber of persons of elegant taste and leisure is small; few models
of excellence exist; no standard of taste prevails, and the me-
rits of a candidate are often decided by caprice, whim, partial-
ity or ill-nature. This the artist sustains in his unaided strug-
gles, and with a mind ill fortified by discipline to endure it. A
mind dwelling upon beauty in its varied forms hence contracts

VOL XI. NO. I. 4

a disgust for every-day existence, and acquires a taste for ficti-
tious elegance incompatible with the struggle for bread, and
prosperity is rarely attained until the lengthened shadows of
life announce its decline.

The speaker maintained that they err who suppose the artist
has but few subjects of study in this country. Of superior
specimens of Art we have enough to restrain the license and
rectify the errors of genius, without repressing its originality'
The eventful history and the majestic scenery of our country
should afibrd ample inspiration. With themes so novel and
suggestive, painting and sculpture may here form a school free
from subjection to foreign ideas. The independent spirit of
Benjamin West, an American artist, led him to the practical
adoption of a conception that inaugurated a new era of Art iu
England.

After the recital of numerous historic instances, and some of
them of a ludicrous character, illustrative of the unequal con-
flict of merit and rank in Europe, Mr. Tyson said that it is me-
rit which here commands the avenues to distinction, rank, and
fame. Where nature has done her part, diligence and honor
will do the rest. He also descanted upon the practice of visit-
ing Italy to acquire the arts, and with them the frivolties and
vices of that artificial land— an experience v/hich he did not
regard as necessary for those whom nature had favored, quoting
the couplet: —

'• How much a fool T\ho has been sent to Rome
Exceeds a fool who has beeu kept at home."

But diligence as well as genius must combine with a be-
nignant nature to produce a great artist. "No day without a
line" was the maxim by which Appelles rose.

The imitation of nature, transferring not merely the linea-
ments but the expressive life and soul, is no mean achievement;
but the pencil may combine objects in action and so dispose the
parts as to evolve the complications of an intricate uarrative;
or it may create scenes beyond the effect of language. Thus
the sculptor or painter is essentially a poet, and capable of ut-
tering the most pungent satire, the. most delicate irony, the se-
verest libel, or the highest praise. It is also within his com-
pass to depict the grandest conceptions of the human mind in
corresponding proportions of beauty and majesty, and to reveal
them in fearful aspects of terror and sublimity.

The speaker, after paying a merited tribute to Copley and
Allston, entered upou a vindication of Benjamin West, and
pointed out , the political influences which led to hisdisparao-e-
mentin England. He dwelt with emphasis upon the merits of
this painter, whose simple monument he had seen in Saint Paul's
Cathedral in London, with its meagre inscription. West had
sat for many years on the throne of British Art, but while the
marble which covers his ashes has no soothing word of regret
or commendation, the monuments of artists around him are loud
in eulogy. But marvelous changes had taken place iu the sen-
timent of England, between the period when West was re-
ceived with honor, before our Revolution, and that of his death,
after our Independence; yet, it is still more marvellous that
American writers and American opinion were even under the
slavish influence of the British press. The mists of prejudices,
however, have passed away iu both countries, and both coun-
tries rejoice in his fame.

A brief account of the character and excellence of some of
the paintings of West was given, but the speaker dwelt chiefly
upon his transcendent composition of "Death on the Pale
Horse." The difficulties over which this great artist triumphed;
his life of moral and religious purity; his manners as a polished
gentlemen; his cordiality of feeling and generosity, were elo-
quently presented for approval and emulation. The audience,
and especially the artists among them, were pointedly informed
that he was a stranger to professional jealousy; that he assisted
the meritorious; that the state of Art in his own country lay
near his heart, and that the formation of an Academy of Art
iu Philadelphia engaged his countenance and sympathy.

Mr. Tyson, in conclusion, earnestly commendecl the example
of this distinguished man in all these characteristics to the

26

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FIjS"E ART JOURXAL.

January,

study and imitation of American artists; and said that it was
to be hoped that the inllnence of an institntion like this might
concentrate tlie scattered rays of the talents of his country-
men, and that whether called upon in the beautiful province of
statuary, or the lofty fields of pictorial art, its judgments might
be impartially pronounced, and its rewards faithfully distri-
buted.

« From the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

JlMUAt REPORT
Of t Ii 6 Manchester T li o t o g r a p li i c Society..

The annual meeting of the above Society was held on Tues-
day evening November 3rd, 1851, at the Rooms of the Lite-
rary and Philosophical Society, George Street; Professor Wil-
liamson in the chair. There was a numerous attendance.

The Honorary Secretary (Mr. J. Cottam) announced several
contributions of pictures, and thanks were awarded to the
donors. Amongst them were some of Macpherson's, from Mr.
Higgins; five calotype pictures, from Mr. Davies, of Warring-
ton; and two prints from collodion negatives, by the Secretary.

The statement of accounts, v.'hich extended over a period of
two years (the accounts not having been made up in time for
the last annual meeting), showed a balance in hand of £QS 16s.
6d. at the end of the year 1855-56, and a balance of £& 16s.
6d. due to the treasurer at the close of the last financial year.
The accounts having been passed, the Secretary read the

ANNUAL REPORT.

The members of the Manchester Photographic Society will
have the satisfaction of knowing, on perusal of this second an-
nual report of the Committee, that the position of the Society
is one on which the Committee have cause to congratulate them,
although its financial situation is not perhaps so satisfactory, as,
but for a cause herein explained, it might have been.

The Society has first to acknowledge gratefully the liberality
of the council of the Literary and Philosophical Society, ivhich
has enabled them to receive the more than usually large attend-
ance of members, with much more comfort than heretofore.

They have here to record their satisfaction with the manner
in which the editor of the Liverpool and Manchester Photo-
graphic Journal has placed his columns at their disposal ; the
change which took place in the proprietorship and management
of that Journal appeared to afford a favorable ojiportuuity for
securing a prompt and efficient record of the Society's transac-
tions, and the Committee are glad to find that the change has
worked so much in accordance with their anticipations.

The following papers have been read at the Society's meet-
ings: " On the Albumen Process," by Mr. Cash; "Visits to
the Society's Exhibilious," by the Rev W. J. Read; " Oa the
Collodion Process," by Mr. M'Lachlan; " On the Collodio-Al-
bumen Process," by Mr. Sidebotham, who has also communi-
cated some facts as to Photography, naturally colored, and a
paper on ". A New Dry Collodion Process." Several individu-
als have achieved much success in this last, but from some yet
unexplained cause, the results they have obtained have not been
reached by other operators. The whole of these papers have
excited great interest, and as the Society now consists princi-
pally of practical photographers, much benefit may be expected
from the operation of tlie hints therein contained.

Number two of the Society's Illnstrations has also been pub-
lished during the past year. The Committee have to thank the
member who undertook the printing, for his voluntary services.
The Committee tor the ensuing year will have to take the sub-
ject into their early consideration, as the matter of printing is
one which occupies much time and attention.

During the past year, the Society, instead of holding what
might reasonably have been expected to have proved a profit-
able exhibition of their own, acceded to the wishes of the Di-
rectors of the ]\Iechanic's Institution, and arranged, to combine

their exhihitiou with that of the Institution. Their principal
reason for so doing was to benefit the Institution, by giving
them a novel and attractive addition, and also to obtain a more
public and general exposure of the works admitted, than a spe-
cial exhibition might have obtained; in these respects, success
was obtained, but at a cost to the Society of £55 13s. 4d., as
the Directors of the Mechanic's Institution only partially con-
tributed to the expenses; and in the matter of catalogue, which
had also nearly proved a loss in the Society, the Institution
left it entirely to your Committee, who are admitted to have
produced the best photographic catalogue that has yet ap-
peared. With these exceptions, it was in itself, eminently suc-
cessful; as even in point of numbers, had many of the pictures
in frames been accounted for individually, instead of collective-
ly, it would far have outnumbered any exhibition that has as
yet taken place. Your Committee would hope that something
may yet be done towards reimbursing some portion of the loss
to the Society.

As regards the general progress of the art to which the So-
ciety is devoted, that is pretty well known to members general-
ly. Photo-lithography and Photo-galvanography have per-
haps the claims to attention — numerous new applications have
been made — numerous new formulae have been propounded —
among these, dry processes stand pre-eminent, and it is to be
hoped that whatever processes members may have in hand,
that they Avill frankly and freely contribute, according to the
means and measure of their success, to the common fund of in-
formation. It may be suggested to the Committee for the ensu-
ing year, as an eligible field for employment, to adopt some me-
thod of ascertaining the comparative merits of the different
modes of manipulation in use, vvith a view to the obtaining cer-
tainty in their results.

It might have been expected that photography would have
received a great stimulus from the Great Exhibition of the year,
that of Art Treasures at old Trafford, it is but too painfully
evident that such is not the result of the sanguine hopes enter-
tained; the offers of assistance by this Society were not regard-
ed— the contributions of members were neglected, pictures
have been admitted vrhich would not have passed the scrutiny
of your Committee; and it would appear from the various
critiques which have appeared in the journals specially devoted
to the heliographic art, that a tolerably universal opinion ob-
tains that this part of the scheme hus been almost a failure.
The Committee, upon mature consideration, find that concur-
rence in the views as generally entertained is the only course
open to them.

Your Committee, in conclusion, hope that each member will
not fail to evince a lively interest in the Society, either by sug-
gestions to their successors, or by contributions of pictures to
the Society's portfolio, or the communication of facts, either of
novelty or usefulness, which may come under their notice.

The CHAimrAN said that it must strike those present as a
most satisfactory thing, and au evidence of the extraordinary
vigor and healthiness of the Society, that, notwithstanding the^
heavy and unexpected drain U])OU their funds, resulting from
their exhibition in connection with the Mechanics' Institntion,
they were enabled to close the year's operations with so small a
deficit. The item of expense to which he referrred was altoge-
ther an exceptional one, and they might fairly consider that they
were in a most gratifying positioii.

In answer to Mr. W. Fairbairn, who wished to know how
their loss at the Mechanics' Institution Exhibition was occa-
sioned, it was explained by the Secretary and others, that there
had been an understanding that the Mechanics' Institution
should bear the whole expense of the photographic exhibition,
whereas the Insinuation only defrayed part thereof.

Mr. JosKPH SiDEBOTnAJi added that the Society had cause to
think that they had not been very well used in the matter, and
a similar opinion was expressed by Mr. Fairbairn.

The Chairman said that the Mechanics' Institution, like the
Art Treasures Exhibition, did not appear to have been suffi-
ciently alive to the importance of photography as a process of
art. The Society were in the position of men inaugurating a

1858.

THE THOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

2t

new order of thiiiQ;s. and bad to encounter an immense amount
of prejudice in artistic circles. He was glad to see, however,
that tliis prejudice was gradually wearing away.

Mr. Fairbairn said be supposed he must conclude, from what
had been stated by the chairman, that the Society's contribu-
tions to the Art Treasures Exhibition had not been properly
appreciated.

The Secretary replied that the whole of the pictures for-
warded to London by himself were returned, apparently un-
opened, by Mr. Delamotte, the authorized head of the photo-
graphic department iu the Old Trafford Exhibition.

Ou the motion of Mr. Dorrington, seconded by Mr. Faie-
BAiRN, the report was unanimously received.

The following were appointed as officers for the ensuing
year: —

President: — The Lord Bishop of Manchester.

Vice Fresidents: — W. Fairbairn, Esq., F.R.S., J. P. Joule,
L.L.D., F.R.S., H. E. Roscoe, Esq., B.A., W. C. Williamson,
F.R.S., Joseph Sidebotham, Esq., Rev. W.J. Read, F.R.A.S.

council:

The President. The Yice-Presidenfs: — Messrs. Alfred Bar-
ton, J. Compton, Jun., J. Dale, J. B. Dancer, F.R.A.S., J.
Dorrington, Gr. Higgins, J. W.Long, F.R.A.S., G. T. Lund,
Rev. T. W. Morris, E. Mann, W. T. Mabley, James Mudd,
Arthur Neild, T. H. Nevill, John Parry, J. J. Pyne.

Treasurer: — Mr. Edwyn Offer.

Honorary Secretary: — Mr. Samuel Cottam.

The thanks of the meeting were then voted to the officers for
the past year for their services.

Mr. SiDEBOTHAii exhibited four very beautiful prints from ne-
gatives, taken from etchings by Mr. Nasmyth, which they very
closely resembled iu every respect. He also exhibited some
specimens of his backed collodion process.

Mr. Higgins, asked if any one knew an antidote to the ef-
fects of cyanide, some of which got into a cut in his hand a few
weeks ago, and he had been suffering from it ever since.

The Chaikman said that a concentrated solution of iodide of
potassium would remove the stains of nitrate of silver.

A conversation then ensued upon the adaptation of photo-
graphy to micx'oscopic illustrations.

Mr. Parry said he had paid some attention to this branch
of the art, and he found that the gas supplied by the town was
not so good this year as last, for everything else being equal,
his pictures were not so good now as they used to be.

The Chairman asked why solar light could not be used.

Mr. Parry said he had now waited for a fortnight in the
hope of being able to take a microscopic picture by solar light,
at noon, and he had not been able to take one.

A discussion of a conversational character ensued as to the re-
lative value of various photographic processes, &c., and, on the
motion of Mr. Sidebotham, small committees were appointed
to experiment on the baked collodion, collodio-albumen, oxy-
mel, and gelatine processes, and to make reports, accompanied
by specimens, to the Society, in order, by a comparison of re-
sults, to arrive at some definite information of a useful nature.

By the kindness of Messrs. Agnew, a number of Egyptian
photographs, by Mr. Firth, were handed round. They com-
prise scenes of the highest historic and topographic interest.
The views were admirably chosen, both as to locality and ef-
fect, and the stay-at-home traveller will derive much assistance
from them. There is a large set, nineteen inches by fifteen
inches; and a small set, consisting of one hundred, price three
shillings each, size, nine inches by seven inches. The photo-
graphs are particularly sharp and clear, figures are well intro-
duced, and the tone is very agreeable. It is difficult to specify
where all are so good, but we were highly pleased with the
large pictures of the temple known as the "Memnoninm,"
" Thebes," " The Ruins of Karnac," " The Temple of Philoj"
(Pharaoh's Bed), and the Statues of Memnon.

A vote of thanks to the Chairman terminated the proceed-

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal,

DIRECT POSITIVES ON COLLODION.

BY T. hardwich, Esq.

As we intend shortly to treat on the positive process on
glass, we wish our readers to peruse beforehand, the fundamen-
tal papers on this subject, by Mr. Hardwich. The following
was read before the London Photographic Society, in 1854, at
which time we gave a brief notice of it; but, the circumstance
above-named, induces us now to publish it i?i extenso.

I. — Condition of the film most favorable for the production of
pictures to he viewed hy reflected light.

" My own attention was first directed to the positive process,
quite, as I may say, accidentally; it was at a time when I was
comparatively ignorant of the effects which would be produced
by varying the proportions of the ingredients in the sensitive
collodion, and having adopted Archer's method of iodizing,
viz.: by adding a certain quantity of a saturated alcoholic so-
lution of double iodides of potassium and silver, I failed, from
the alcohol I employed being in too concentrated a state. I
had previously rectified it from carbonate of potash, and its sol-
vent power being thus diminished, the amount of iodides taken
up was not sufScient for the purpose; when I say ' I failed,' I
mean it in the sense that I was not able to obtain good negative
pictures, which was the object I had then in view; they were
all sadly wanting in ' intensity,' and I found it impossible to
'print' from them with anything like success. However, I soon
began to notice that these pale, unsatisfactory negative pictures
looked exceeedingly well when viewed as positives by reflected
light; there was a nice gradation of tone about them which
pleased me, and I adopted the plan of backing up with black
varnish, and preserving them in that form.

" Now at this time, as I said before, I was not aware that I
was employing a collodion with an unusually small proportion
of iodide; but if I had been, I should not have referred my
success in producing positives to that cause. I had never seen
it stated iu any work with which I was acquainted, that a dif-
ference ought to be made in the two cases. The directions I
had received were these: ' If you wish to obtain a positive, ex-
pose in the camera for half the usual time, and develop with
sulphate of iron, to get a bright deposit of metallic silver.'
Now the object I have in view, in layiLg my paper before the
Society this evening, is to prove that such directions as these
are altogether insufficient, and that, if we wish to obtain the
best results, we must use, not only a different developing fluid,
but also a different collodion and a different nitrate bath, in the
case of negative and positive pictures respectively. It may be
asked, ' What is the inferiority of which you complain in the
positives produced by collodion, as it is ordinarily sold?' I an-
swer, it is this: 'That the vvhole of the picture is not to be seen
at once upon the surface of the glass.' Suppose you are taking
a portrait, which I think will readily be allowed to be one of
the most severe tests of a collodion that can easily be applied,
it will be found that the high lights, such as the forehead, the
hand, and especially the shirt of the sitter, come out with ex-
ceeding rapidity, and in a degree out of all proportion to the
time taken by the shadows and half tints to impress themselves:
the consequence of this is, that stop the action of the light when
you will, you do not obtain a perfect picture; after backing up
with the black varnish it will be seen either that these high
lights above alluded to, are good, and the rest of the figure
almost invisible; or, on the other hand, that the coat, dress,
&c., are very clear, whilst the face and hands present an un-
varied white and flat surface without any detail or distiuction of
parts. These peculiarities, as I said before, do not depend
upon the time of exposure, nor, I may add, in any way ou the
developing fluid, but simply on the fact that the collodion em-
ployed, is not capable of giving such a film of iodide of silver
as is adapted to produce impressions visible by reflected

°" Having thus stated the principal difficulties which we have,

- (

28

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

Jannafy,

ordinnrily speaking, to encounter, I proceed to sbow how they
may be overcome, and wliat is tlie best sensitive uiixturc for
that purpose. lu making my experiments, I first prepared
simple collodion by dissolving soluble coitou, four grains, in five
drachms of icther and three of highly rectified alcohol; tlicse
are the proportions reconuuended by Mr. Hadow, and I be-
lieve tliera to be the best that can be used; they do not, how-
ever, of coarse apply to commercial a;ther, which already con-
tains H considerable quantity of alcohol. In order to iodize
my collodion, I employed iodide of ammonium (purified with
carej in four different proportions, viz., four grains to the ounce,
two grains, one and a half grain, and one grain.

"The films produced by these four mixtures, after dipping
the plate in the nitrate bath, were very different in appearance;
the lowest of all was pale, of a bluish opalescent tint, so trans-
rent that the letters of a newspaper could be read through it
with facility; the second somewhat similar; the third of a grey-
ish hue, but still comparatively transparent; the highestof all,
viz. the four-grain, creamy and opaque,

" The photographic properties of the films differed considera-
bly; after comparing numerous results, I was satisfied that the
two-graiu solution v/as superior to the four-grain for the pur-
pose I intended it; more of the details of the picture were visi-
ble at once on the surface of the glass, and there was less ten-
dency to the overdone, flat appciirance before complained
of. Between the ' two-grain' collodion, the ' grain and a-half,'
and ' the grain,' there was likewise a ditference, but not to the
same extent; on the whole, I was disposed to give the prefer-
ence to the ' grain and a-half,' the last of all requiring too long
an immersion in the bath to be used with advantage.

" It was not my intention at the time I began these experi-
ments to make any variation in the amount of soluble cotton
generally used; 1 found that four grains to the ounce gave a
strong and eveu film upon the glass, and such being the case,
there appeared nothing more to be desired; however, a fact
that came under my notice soon afterwards altered by deter-
mination; I began to suspect that the weak solutions of nitrate
of silver I was employing did not penetrate the film properly,
and consequently I wished, if possible, to remove this objection
by diminishing its thickness. The result of the change proved
eveu better than I had anticipated, although the solutions
■were rather more troublesome to manipulate with; I obtained
invariably more perfect pictures; the gradation of tints was
now decidedly superior to anything I had met with before, and,
although I could not immediately explain the reason, I was sat-
isfied that I had gained an advantage.

" The composition, then, of the collodion, which I found after
many trials to work the best, is as follows : — .^ther, five
drachms; alcohol, three drachms; soluble cotton, one and a-half
grain; iodide of ammonium, one and a-half grain; instead of
this, two grains of each may be used, or even so little as one
grain, without very materially affecting the result; but in the
latter case the mixture is so fluid that it is apt to run down the
neck of the bottle whilst we are attempting to pour it on the
plate. These proportions become very simple when it is con-
sidered that they are at once produced by diluting down an or-
dinary negative collodion rather more than oue half, with the
proper mixture of alcohol and ffither.

" There is one point relating to this subject which I ought
not to omit to mention; it is this, that by diminishing the pro-
portion of iodide in the film, and also by diminishing the solu-
ble cotton, you increase the sensitiveness. Why is it that these
weak films give better half tones than the opaque ones ? Be-
cause they are more sensitive to /ce6/e ray/s of light! I made
many experiments to determine this, and I have no hesitation
instating that such is the fact. Neither is it difficult to con-
ceive why it should be so, because, as it has been remarked, the
more dilute the solutions from which iodide or chloride of silver
13 precipitated the more gradual the precipitation, and the
mqreliuely divided will the particlesof the precipitate be; hence
we can well understand that such being the case, they ought to
be more sensitive to light: however, we must not confound ' sen
sitivcucss' with ' iuteusity.' I would use this latter term to sig

nify that the deposit of metallic silver producing the imnge ia
thick, and obstructs the luminous rays of light strongly, so fiiS
to show well as a negative; 'intensity,' I imagine, relates in
some degree to the nwmher of the particles of iodide of silver;
in other words, to the thickness of the film; but ' sensitiveness'
is independent of this. Now ' intensity' is required for negative
pictures, but it is not required for positives, and therefore in
such a case I would have as little iodide as possible.

"vVt the risk of repetition, I will give a short recapitulation
of the conclusions which I wish to establish. They are these: —
That no proportion of alkaline iodide in collodion beyond that
which gives the transparent opalescent film, is adapted to pro-
duce a perfect image, visible in every part by reflected light.
Allowing that a photographic picture is produced by chemical
rays of light acting in various degrees on the several parts of a
sensitive surface, it becomes necessary that the particles of io-
dide composing that surface should be in a peculiar state both
as to number and as to fineness of division .^ in order that the
more intense and the feebler rays should work uniformly to-
gether, the tendency being in the former, so to speak, to get
ahead and outrun the latter. The author of the paper supposes
further, that a diminution in the proportion of iodide assists the
action of the feeble rays by producing a more finely divided de-
posit, and curbs the violence of the more energetic rays by less-
ening the number of the particles,

II. — Nitrate Bath and Developing Fluid.

"I have spoken of the condition of the film of iodide of silver
which appeared most favorable to the production of collodion
positives; I now proceed, with a view to the completion of the
subject, to consider the proper strength of the nitrate bath and
the developing fluid.

" With regard to the former, that is the nitrate bath, there
were two points of interest to be ascertained, — 1st, whether the
salt of silver could be used in an accurately neutral condition,
and if so, what v,rere the best proportions: 2nd, the effects of
adding nitric acid in graduated quantities.

"Three solutions of nitrate of silver ^Yere prepared, of differ-
ent strengths: A, forty grains to one ounce of distilled water;
B, thirty grains; C, twenty grains; all were carefully neutral-
ized, and saturated with iodide of silver.

"On immersing a plate coated with a fo^ir grain iodide col-
lodion in each of these, it was found that with bath No. C, the
decomposition of the alkaline salt was imperfect. However,
with the proportion of iodide reduced from four grains to two
grains, or one and a-half grain, the appearance af the film was
the same in each bath, showing that even the lowest propor-
tion of nitrate of silver was sufficient for the conversion of tho
whole of the iodide of ammonium into iodide of silver."

To be continued.

From the Jov/r. of the Phot. So*.

RETICULATED COLLODION.

To ike Editor of Ike Pkotograpkic Journal :

Sir, — I have purchased at various times this season, and from
several of the well-kuown makers, who have a<rents in Edin-
burgh, many bottles of collodion, a number of which produced
reticulated pictures; and as reticulation has been so common
this summer, I would remind your readers, that an antidote can
be found for it in any village. I say, remind your readers, be-
cause Mr. Shadbolt remarks, that chloroform is a capital in-
gredient for rendering the collodion film " perfectly structure-
less" fsce vol. i. p. 149) ; so, bearing this in mind, I have invari-
ably found, that by introducing 20 or 30 minims of chloroform
to each ounce of the reticulating collodion all the twil disap-
pears; and further, after using the collodion several days, the
rcticulatian returns, owing to the evaporation of the chloroform,
for on adding a few more drops of it all will be right.

In your July Nnmbei', Mr. Haviland proposes, with success,
a modification of the developer; citric acid, however, cannot
be had at every druggist's shop, but chloroform can.

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

29

From the Jour, of the Phot. Soc.

PRESERVED COLLODION PLATES.

Oct. iO, 1857.
To the Editor of the Liverpool Photographic Journal:

Sir, — I believe it Is a general idea among photographers
that the sensitiveness of a washed collodion plate to receive an
invisible impression, is in direct propoi tion to the strength of
free nitrate of silver on the surface, and with this idea a very
ingenious formula is given in the ' Journal,' vol. iii. page 13.
In my own practice with preserved collodion plates, 1 have not
found the sensitiveness in this proportion, and as it is an im-
portant point in all keeping processes. I will state certain re-
sults of my own experiences.

Prepare a collodion plate and sensitize it in a 30-grain nitrate
bath; wash it with plenty of distilled water, as much as you
please: expose it, while wet, in the camera for about four times
as long as it is necessary for an ordinary -unwashed plate; dip it
in the 30-grain nitrate bath and develope as usual: the picture
will probably be perfect. Now in this case, the quantity of
nitrate on the plate during exposure was infinitesimally small,
and yet only four times the ordinary exposure turns out to be
sufficient.

Again: — Li a keeping process I followed in hot weather
and in a warm climate, my preservative liquid contained 5
grs. per oz. of nitrate of silver: the plates thus prepared kept
for a week at least, and the requisite exposure was about one-
third more than for the same collodion used in the ordinary wet
way. I endeavored to increase the quantity of nitrate in the
preservative liquid, and tried it with 10 grs. of silver per oz;
with this the plates did not keep long enough for my purpose,
and I gave it up, but it appeared (with this 10-graiu strength)
quite as sensitive as ordinary wet collodion.

My plates were in all cases dipped in the 30-grain silver bath
before developing: the collodion was but a few days old, and
comparatively slow, for a highly sensitive collodion did not suc-
ceed well there with intense sunshine, dazzling white walls,
and black shadows.

The general tendency of preservative methods aS d,t present
practised is to wash off the nitrate of silver as much as possible,
but as regards sensitveness, I think this is working in a wrong
direction: it is <?enerally admitted that wet collodion gives the
most artistic effect, and my object has always been to come as
near it as possible by keeping as much nitrate as I could on the
plates con.sistently with safe preservation. Messrs, Spiller and
Crookes, good authorities, state that 1 gr. per oz. was as sensi-
tive as the ordinary wet process (Photographic Journal, vol. ii.
papes 5 and Tj, but I did not find this the case with my own
plates.

My opinion as at present formed is, that in a washed plate
the sensitiveness increases according io the strength of the free
nitrate on it, up to a certain point, and that when this point is
reached, it is as sensitive to receive the dormant impression as
the ordinary unwashed plate; from ray present imperfect data,
I fancy this certain strength lies between 5 and 10 grs, per oz.,
the first or sensitizing bath being 30 grs. per oz.

If some of your readers who have opportunity would deter-
mine the practical exi)osure required for various strengths, say
1, 2J, b, 7|, 10 and 15 grs. per oz. of nitrate compared with
the ordinary 30 grs. per oz on the plate, it would form a really
useful starting-point for all concerned in the use of preserved
plates whether wet or dry, and would probably go far to clear
up the discrepancies in the statements of different operators.
My idea of proceeding would be thus: — sensitize a plate in the
30- gr. bath, wash it well with distilled water, drain, and dip it
in the weaker nitrate bath for a minute, expose it immediately
in the camera to get a perfect picture, dip it in the 80-grain
bath for a minute, drain and develope. This should be done
with the various weaker baths, and the requisite exposure
noted and compared with the exposure required for the unwashed
plate. In this way no preservative process would be required.

Of all preservative methods I prefer those which will allow
of the plates being dipped in the nitrate bath (without injuring

4*

itj after exposure, and developing in the usual way with ])yro-
gallic; when this is not allowable, the development must be by
pyrogallic and silver mixed before pouring on the plate: in all
such cases I have found much difficulty in getting intensity, and
the plates thus treated were never, with me, equal to the others
in cleanliness and transparency.

One plate I remember thus ti'cated required six minutes to
bring it well out, and the prolonged development produced a
grey veil all over, which ought not to be the case, although the
picture prints fairly, but slow; besides this, if the collodion is at
all tender from age, the slow development is very liable to pull
it to pieces.

THE COLOROCILOTYPE.

FriExd Sxelling: — My attention has been i-ecently directed
to a new improvement in the mode ol treating photographs, by
Mr. Hall, the patentee of the Hallotype; and I find it vastly
superior to his former process, both in the preservation of thd
whites, and in the illusory effect, which was considered a feature
in the Hallotypes, particularly worthy of mention.

You Vi'ill no doubt remember that I first introduced a similar
style of back colored picture to the public, at 505 Broadway,
some three or four years ago, which you were kind enough to
notice in the June No. of the 'I th volume of your Journal.

Now, I have, since there has been so much said, and written,
and quarrelled about, in regard to this mode of treating pic-
tures, concluded to give the subject some attention: and have
by numerous trials, in connection with my former experience in
this direction, very much simplified the manipulations, and suc-
cessfully produced a style of picture, which is pronounced by all
who have seen them, to be the best yet out.

The pictures are made on a single glass, and the photograph
rendered transparent in anew way — at once simple and effective.
The air is all expelled, and the pores of the paper completely
■filled with a medium, that gives perfect transmission to the
light; which is necessary to the process. There is no tendency
to crystallize, or to be become opaque, or to turn hroimi. The
coloring which requires no previous practice, is quickly done,
and is the nearest approach to nature of anything that has been
before the public, in the way of colored photographs, since their
introduction to this country.

I would here state that I abandoned my former process, for
the reason that I was not sure of the photographic impressions
standing the test of time; as I found that some of them were
fading out and leaving the colors alone on the plate.

I have since, with many others, been striving to obtain
"fadeless proofs," and have found that all those toned with
lead, as recommended in your Journal, bid fair to be lasting.
I have kept from my first experiments until now, samples of all
the different modes of treatment given in the books, besides
variations of my own, and find none so satisfactory as those
done in the manner you name in your formulas.

I think that we may safely predict, that in future (with of
course, strict attention to the condition of our fixing and toning
baths), our minds will rest relieved from that horrid want of
confidence, in the behavior of the photographs we send out.

This belief induces me to give the preference to that style of
coloring that does not interfere with the lines of the camera im-
pressions, as all pictures touched on the front with color are
more or less changed, not to say injured in the likeness; but
that depends on the minds appreciation. I prefer, however,
and I presume as much for you, that the photographic impres-
sion be left intact, and the pictures I send, you will acknow-
ledf2;e, do this in the highest degree.

With many thanks for your kind appreciation of my former
efforts,

I remain yours, &c.,

J. De Witt Bbinckerhoff,

N,B. — I shall be happy to exhibit to any member of the
fraternity, specimens of the above-mentioned style of pictures,

(wbicli I have named the Colorcalottpe, in honor to Mr.
Fox Talbot, who first gave the name Calotype to pictures on
paper), at the gallery of M. M. Lawrence, 381 Broadway, and
also any communication in relation to them, will be promptly
answered.

From the Jour, of thr. Phot. Soc.

APPARATUS FOB WASHING POSITIVES.

Leeds 10, September, 1857.
To the Editor of the Photographic Journal :

Sir, — I beg to send you a stereoscopic view and diagrams of
a bath which I employ for washing paper proofs. It consists
of a narrow box of white deal, 13 inches long by 3| wide, and
12 inches in depth (all inside measurements;, divided vertically
by two transverse partitions, a, o,j), q, into three compartments
or chambers A, B, C. The first chamber A occupies 2 inches
of the length of the box, B 9| inches, and Ci inch. The par-
tition a 0 extends from the top to the bottom of the box, but
at the distance of 1 inch from the top there are small openings
in it to allow the water to flow from A into B. The partition
p q extends from the top to within i an inch of the bottom.

■I-

FIG.

c fl/

^/^

11

A

\ X

\

^

\>

?

sustaining any injury; and at half that rate, the whole of the
water in the bath would be changed once in every ten minutes.

FIG. 2

0»

W

-7W\

Transverse section of clipper to which the proofs are pinned. This is
lowered into the chamber B, and prevented from floating; up by a cross-
bar of gutta percha, not shown in the Diagrams, hhhh. Flanges to which
the proofs are fastened, ik Im Two proofs in position.

•> My bath will wash at one time two proofs 10X8, or four
proofs GiX4|, or six stereoscopic proofs; and by increasing the
height and length, or doubling the width, its capabilities might
be sufficiently extended to meet the requirements of most ama-
teurs. A wooden cover protects the top from dust and dirt^
that it may be safely placed under the kitchen tap without risk
to the proofs. I have placed gutta-percha hatches at a and e
to regulate the supply and discharge, but these may well be
dispensed with. If the opening at a is made 2 inches wide and
and I or /^ high, and placed | of an inch from the top of the
bath, there will be no danger of the proofs being exposed to
too strong a stream; if the water is turned on too strong the
superfluous portion will flow over the other sides of the chamber
A, which should be made |th lower than the partition a o. The
spout e should be placed an inch below the top. If the hatches
are dispensed with, any carpenter can make the bath at a trifling
cost.

W. Best.

From the Boston Transcript.

THE LATE MRS. DASSEL.

Longitudinal s?ctian of bath. — A. First chamber, into which the water
flows from the tap. a b. Gutta percha hatches to regulate its flow into
the second chamber B, in which the proofs are placed, c. Division to
break the force of the stream. C. Third chamber through which the
water rises to the dscharge- spout e. /".Handles, ajr. Feet. The arrows
show the course of the water.

The water is admitted from the tap into A, from which it
flows into B, entering at the top, and as the only outlet from
B into C is at the bottom at the opposite end, the water neces-
sarily descends through B in the direction shown by the arrows.
It then passes into C at q, ascends, and is discharged through
a spout e I an inch below the top of the box.

The proofs are pinned to a dipper, 12 inches high by 9| long,
the construction of which will be best understood from the trans-
verse section Fig. 2. It will be seen that the ends are connected
together by a thin board, and that when the proofs are pinned
to the flanges there is a clear space behind them as well as in
front. The bath having been filled with water, the dipper iR
gently lowered into the chamber B, and secured from floating
up by a transverse bar of gutta percha. The middle portion of
each end of the dipper is cut away at both extremities, in order
that the flow of the water at a and q may not be impeded; so
that the stream entering at a flows immediately over the
upper edges of the proofs, and is divided into four currents,
one at the back, and the other at the front, of each of the pic-
tures— they are, in short, placed in an inverted siphon.

The great advantage of this bath is, that the proofs cannot
get huddled together, and the water is constantly changed on
both sides of them. There is no danger of their being torn
from the pins, if they are carefully fastened to the dipper and
not put into the bath before it is filled. Causon's thin negative
paper may be washed for many hours, when the water is running
through the bath at the rate of half a gallon a minute, without

About ten years ago. Hermine Boechard, a Prussian artist,
arrived in this country. Happening to visit the Bavarian
Consul in Philadelphia, to see a statue by Steinhausen, we were
struck by the portrait of an Italian peasant woman on the wall
of the Consul's salon. Observing the interest excited by a pic-
ture which awakened some of the most delightful association of
foreign travel, the Consul informed us that the work came from
the pencil of a young lady of Koningsberg, who, from a natural
love of art, left home to study at Dusseldovf and Rome, and
after several years passed in the ateliers of the best masters in
those cities, had recently come to the United States to set up
her easel in New- York. The Consul expatiated upon the tal-
ents, worth, and isolated position of h\s protege, whom we found,
on returning to Gotham, occupying two rooms in the third story
of a private house, surrounded with Italian sketches, heads of
famous models, studies from the old masters, porfolios and pa-
lettes. She was of German mould, — short and thick-set, —
but her olive complexion, expressive dark eyes and sweet smile,
breathed of the sunny South.

At this time she spoke but little English, and that with a
naive pronunciation singularly pleasing. Her simple manner,
kindly disposition, modesty and ardent love of Art, combined
with her solitary position, instantly excited an interest in her
behalf. Accordingly she gained friends rapidly, and had as
many orders as she could fulfil. The Art Union bought some
of her pictures; the National Academy elected her an honorary
member; some of our best families sent their daughter to her
as pupils; she was often seen at the soirees of Mrs. Botta and
Dr. Rosinson's accomplished lady. She executed many por-
traits in pastel, and numerous fancy heads and groups in oil.
years ago she married a countrymen, Mr. D.isssel; and her
brother, an able Lutheran divine, is settled over a large Ger-
man congregation at Dayton, Ohio. Mrs. Dassel's charities,
domestic virtues and devotion to art, had thus gradually ac-
quired for her the esteem and sympathy of many of our most res-
pected citizens. She was early and late at hei easel, walking

1858.

THE rHOTOGRAPHIC A'SB FINE ART JOURNAL.

21

oat daily with her children, and usually passed the Summers at
Newport, R. I., where she had many friends and plenty of
portraits to execute. Great, therefore, was the sorrow of a
large circle of Germans and of our own citizens, at the unex-
pectected announcement of the Death of Hermine Dassel, last
week, after a brief illuess. She made but one dying request,
and that was to be buried in Greenwood. Her last works were
two celebrated aud admirable copies of the •' Othello" and the
" Fairees" of the Dusseldorf Gallery. She leaves a husband
and three children. Agreeable in conversation, an enthusiast
in art, frugal, industrious and affectionate, she was worthy of
the love she inspired and the grief with which she is lamented.

JJcraonal ^ ^xt Intelligence.

— With the New Year we begin a new volume (the XI) of
the Photographic and Fixe Art Journal, and we may say a
new existence. For the fifteen or sixteen years last past, we
have labored assiduously in the cause of photography; and
more or less in every department. It is not our intention to go
back and enumerate the variety and nature of our past experience ;
but we wish to foreshadow the benefits which are likely to arise
from the change we have lately made. A slight inkling of
what may be expected, is presented in the improvements in our
present num.ber. The photographs with which we illustrate it,
are decidedly the best we have given since we commenced the
publication. As specimens of plain photography, they will vie
with nine-tenths of those produced at the present day: but
they are not equal to those we shall produce, when we complete
the printing rooms we have in contemplation, and which, with the
assistance of our landlord, we shall finish as soon as possible after
the first of May. This we shall endeavor to make a model
photographic printery, where pictures from the smallest to the
very largest, may be printed with the greatest facility and in
the most perfect manner. We intend this not only for the bene-
fit of the Journal, but for photographers throughout the coun-
try, who may desire a large number of photographs printed, or
their small ones enlarged. We have very great assurance that
the method we have pursued at the present time, and shall pursue
in printing our pictures, will ensure permanence. In a future
number — probably the February — we shall give our views on
this most important subject, of the fading of positives. We
contend that there is no more reason for the fading of positive
photographs than for water colors, or oil paintings. Time will
destroy ail things; even oil paintings decay and photographs
can be made to last as long as they — till the material upon
which they are made crumbles into dust by the action of time.
In our present number we have a portion of a controversy be-
tween Mr. Sutton and Mr. Mullins of Jersey, upon the perma-
nence of Mr. Blanquart-Evrard's photographs. It also ap-
pears that the English mind is thoroughly inabued with the idea
of the perishability of these beautiful pictures, and the nonsense
many of them write on the subject has produced an effect upon
the public mind, that will require a large amount of common
sense and fact to eradicate. We have had hanging upon the
walls of our parlor for nine years, sixteen photographs by Mr.
Blanquart-Evrard, which are as fresh, strong in color, and as
beautiful as they were the first day they were put up, notwith-
standing they have been exposed to variable temperature, all
kinds of weather, and different degrees of intensity of light.
The tone is deep black, perfectly transparent in both light and
shade, and they are as beautiful in every respeet as anything
now produced. They show conclusively that in this respect,
photography has not actually advanced a single step forward:
but on the contrary — if we are to believe the English writers —
retrograded. We have four other photographs, taken by M.
Renard, and hung at the same time, which are fading. These
are in the color so much desired by the French and English
Photographers — a light brown, or sienna tint; and we assert
that all photographs toned to that color must speedily fade.
Bat we anticipate — we have much to say on this subject which

will require more time than we have at present at command,
and therefore cannot do it sufficient justice. It must therefore
be deferred to a separate article.

— Many of our subscribers have written complaining that
we give them nothing on the Ambrotype TpTOcess. This proves
that they either do not examine the pages of our Journal with
proper care, or that they are ignorant of the fact that the
terms Ambrotype and Collodion Foailive Pictures] Positive Col-
lodion Pictures, and Positives on Glass are identical. Of these
there have been numerous articles published in our pages.

— It was our intention to have something to say about
American Photographic Patents in the present number; but it
is a subject that requires more time and attention, than we have
had at our disposal since we made the promise. Matters are,
however, becoming more settled, and we are in hopes that
one or two months more will enable us to attend to this and
other kindred matters, which are of importance to the art.
Each issue of our Journal shall improve in originality as well
as in photographic and typographical beauty. We have the
pleasure of stating, that we have secured the services of a gen-
tleman to furnish the Journal with sketches of American
scenery, which will be illustrated in the best style of wood en-
graving. These articles will add largely to the interest of the
work, and place it still higher in the rank of American periodi-
cal literature. Our patrons may depend upon it, that we shall
stretch every nerve to carry out the design we have constantly
entertained since we commenced the Journal; namely, making
it the most beautiful monthly publication in the United States.
It will be seen, that in order to accomplish this end, we relin-
quished a position in one of the first establishments in New
York, and that, consequently, we shall not be prevented by a
sense of duty to another, to neglect the columns of the Journal.
What we have produced, with a very small fraction of time
from each month at our disposal, must be our guarantee of
what we may accomplisn now that our time is wholly our own.
By this change on our part, and the future regular appearance
of our Journal, we trust the unfounded and false assertions of
those who have for the last seven or eight years, endeavored, by
such means to destroy us — but who have signally failed — will
be entirely dissipated. As further evidence of the falsehoods
of all such infantile attempts at our destruction, we invite the
members of our beautiful art to call upon us when they visit
New York. They will not " find the door shut and the latch-
string pulled in," no matter what may be the object of their
visit.

— J. C. Gray, Jamestown, N. Y. — This gentleman has sent
us a specimen of his skill in photography. Considering that
it is the first production of a student without a master, it is
praise-worthy. He is right in regard to the negative being too
weak. The modulation of shade, however, are very fine; but
he should bring up the high lights, and deeper shadows stronger
in order to give still greater character and more marked con-
trast to the features. It is also toned too long, having passed
the purple stage — in the bath — a sure indication of future fading.
The foreshortening is remarkably good, and the proportions
well preserved. A re-development would have impiov d the
negative materially, and made it almost perfect. We sliould
also say, that notwithstanding the over toning, it is very clear
and transparent. Mr. Gray has also sent us another speci-
men— a keg of Jamestown butter, thereby feeding both mind
and body. The picture, as a photograph, is good, but the but-
ter, as butter, is better. But we have not the slightest doubt
that the quality of the butter foreshadows that of his future
photograjjhs. In reply to our acknowledgements of the gift,
Mr. Gray writes a letter so much on a par with the butter that
we take the liberty of transcribing it to our columns. Every
line is worth thought: —

" You give me too much credit for generosity, in ascribing my
gift to be entirely gratuitous. Y'ou have certainly done me
more than one favor, and by your kind replies I am encouraged
to ask more, providing I can do so without putting you to in-
convenience or trespassing too much upon your time and know-
ledge; and here permit me to say that it is my desire that you

-^

32

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

January^

make a suitable charge for your time and trouble, or for any
knowledge you may impart to me. (a)

"In one other way I feel indebted to you; indeed you are con-
tinually laying me and, in (act, all your subscribers, under obli-
gations, and that too in your capacity as Journalist; each
month you give us a rich treat, and to say nothing of the illus-
trations (of which many of them are valuable), it very fre-
quently comes laden with that that imparts to us a knowledge
which is worth a whole year's cost. You give us for our Five
Dollars not only all you promised, but you give us more, much
more than we were led to expect. Therefore, are we not under
obligations to you ? Ought we not to manifest in some manner
our appreciation of your services? are not our interests identi-
cal ? and what encouragement do you meet with for renewed
exertion in our behalf? Surely the payment of your demands
is not all-sufficient, if paid in that cold, unfeeling manner which
apparently governs the commercial world. Sir, there is too
much distance between us, the Editor and subscriber. What
communion have we ? we may know your sentiments, but what
knowledge have you of ours ? but little, if any; who is the
most benefitted ? Your subscribers are. You gain a few dol-
lars, but they gain a knowledge that money cannot purchase
from them. What know you of the estimation in which we
hold you, of the satisfaction your labors give us. The promptly
payingone's dues may be sufficient testimony that they appreciate
your efforts, and that tlmy are pleased therewith, but should our
relations end here? Certainly not; there is yet too wide a
gulph. Suppose, sir, your subscribers should not only pay
promptly, but should convey to you their thanks and an ac-
laiow.ledgement of the good you were doing, would not this be
an incentive to further effort on your part ? Should we not be
mutually benefitted ? undoubtedly neither of us would have
cause for regret. That a more friendly and intimate relation
may exist is my sincere wish. You have the welfare of many
to care for; do care for them, and provide them a food that is
beyond a price. What should we do in return, we being the
most benefitted, and oftentimes receiving an amount of know-
ledge that is of great pecuniary benefit — what if we were oc-
casionally to make you a present, a present however trifling,
pecuniarily considered, would it not show you that your labors
were duly appreciated, and your readers were grateful and had
a lively interest in your welfare; and in return you would do all
in your power to further their interests in reciprocation of such
friendly relations. But, friend Snelling, I am moralizing too
much; however, you have my sentiments, and I hope all your
subscribers entertained as liberal ones; undoubtedly a majority
do. But I must return to the suliject I commenced writing
upon, that is: I have commenced the making of Photographs,
and I need the aid of a friend in procuring me chemicals that
are ptre. I could fill several sheets with my disappointments
and failures in procuring good articles, both of dealers and
manufacturers, even when I mark my orders: "best quality or
none," and " price no object," &c. Now, I believe that if a
genuine and pure article can be obtained, you, Mr. Snelling,
can get it; and also of Pyroxyliue. I do want an article that
is perfect, and has all the good qualities that a Photographer
could desire, and if you will purchase me the list of articles
enumerated below, you will greatly oblige me, (6) and would
also be pleased to have you reply to the following questions:

1st. In washing Pyroxyliue is it objectionable to pour boiling
water on the cotton ?

2d. Is it detrimental to the Photograph to tone in the open
room, moderately lighted 1

3d. Do you consider the chloride of lead of any benefit in
the toning bath ?

4th. Would you recommend as being good and performing
what it promises, " Prof. Smith's Collodion Preservative ?"

5th. It requires from 3 to 5 seconds to make a positive;
same light for a negative requires 30 to 40 seconds. I think it
is too long. Can you tell me what to do to shorten it. I am
working Afoulton's proccess (as published). I think there are
some errors in it, and that it is too iudefinite to be called an in-
structor. Yours, John C. Gray."

{a) Our reward in all such cases, is to see the photographic!
art prosper and improve in its practitioners; to see high-toned
and well executed pictures made by every one. For whatever
good we have done, or ever shall do in this way, we ask (nor
would we receive any) no specialr emuneration. With the pros-
perity of the art, we desire that of our Journal. This is our
pride — we think a worthy one — and with this we will be sat-
isfied.

(6) The chemicals we sent are of the same kind we use our-
selves, and we consider them the purest in market. Their
quality is uniformly the same ; which cannot be said of the
French. Our advice to all is, never to make a change in their
chemicals, after obtaining a make that proves acceptable to
them, as this alone has a tendency to disturb their success.

(?lst.) Warm water is not objectionable. It is in fact re-
commended, to suffer the j>yroxyline to soak in it for several
hours, if time is no object.

2nd. It is not. All our photographs are toned in the full
light of day. We have toned them by lamp-light and all things
being identical, we could perceive no difference.

3d. We do. Of more benefit than is generally conceded
to it. It softens the tone materially; but its most important
property, we consider to be its permanence. A photograph
toned to the purple tint (no matter how deep; but it must not
pass the deep purple), we think will last and retain its full
strength, as long as the paper will hold together. The Evrard
pictures, of which we speak in our first paragraph of this edito-
rial,-are made with the lead bath. The destructive action com-
mences in the photograph the instant it passes from this purple
tint. This we have found out to our cost, in endeavoring to
obtain variations of color in our illustrations. We shall here-
after enlarge on this subject.

4th. We cannot reply to this question from personal expe-
rience. We have seen one or two very good negatives that
were taken on plates said to have been kept three weeks. We are
having a camera box made specially for dry collodion plates, and
if we are favored with a bottle, shall give this "Preservative"
a trial, and our opinion afterwards. In the meantime, try Mr,
Sidebotham's process (P. & F. A. Jour., page 314.)

5th. ]\[r. Monckhoven professes to take negatives in from five
to ten seconds with his collodion. (Formulas P. & F. A. Jour.,
page 149, vol.ix.) The most sensitive collodion we have used
is Anthony's. We have not used Moulton's process; but have,
read it, aud think we should have no difficulty in practising it.

As soon after the first of May next as an addition can be put
to the building in which our office is located, we shall open a
photographic printing room and studio, not only for the pur-
poses of our business, but for the benefit of our patrons. It
will always be open to their inspection, and they will be in-
structed in any of the processes they may desire to learn with-
out charge.

— Mr. Frank: Ford, Ravenna, Ohio — Has sent us an excel-
lent positive view on albumen paper. The tone is decidedly the
most pleasing we have seen taken upon this kind of paper, being
a very clear delicate purple-black. Every portion of the pic-
ture, to the minutest detail, is brought out perfectly sharp and
clear — even the little dog sitting by the fence, looks as if he
wanted to bark at you — the very grain of the wood is, in some
parts of the fence, perceptible. Mr. Ford should try his skill
upon larger plates.

— C. A. Johnson, Madison, Wis. — We regret to see by the
Madison papers that this gentleman has been again burned out,
losing his entire stock of pictures, apparatus, and fixtures.
His loss was $1600. Insurance, $1000.

— We have seen the Colorocalotypes mentioned in Mr.
BrinckerhofFs communication, and deem them very creditable
attempts at coloring photographs by transparency. We might
describe them as a medium between the Hallotype and Dia-
phaneotype, and do not require so nmch skill in coloring to give
them a pleasing effect. More practice will undoubtedly im-
prove these first attempts.

— Wexderotii's Instantaneous Printing Process. — We
have published this process in book form. {See advertisement.)

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1858,

THE PHOTOGRAPniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

33

LIVERPOOL

From the Liverpool rhotojraphic Journal.

PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.

HE montlily meetinnj of
this Society was held
at the Royal Institu-
tioD, Cokiuitt-Strcct,
oil Tuesday eveuinsij,
November, Itth, C.
CoRLEY, Esq., presid-
ing.

Mr. Keith, the Hon.
Secretary, reported
that at the last meet-
ing of the Literary and
Philosophical Society,
the privilege of admis-
sion to the meetings of
that society, to the
President, Yice-Presidents, Council, and Secretary of the Pho-
tographic Society, was extended for another year.

It was resolved that the compliment should be acknowledged
with thanks and reciprocated.

The Chairman acknowledged the receipt of the " Proceedings
of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire," which were
also ordered to be acknowledged.

The Teeasurek, Mr. J. A. Forrest, exhibited a number of
stereoscopic views, taken on ground glass, by Dr. Hill Norris's
gelatine process, which seems admirably adapted for stereosco-
pic pictures — the quality of hardness so objectionable in a land-
scape picture forming in a stereosco])ic view one of its greatest
beauties. Mr. Forrest stated that all the plates exhibited were
printed at once on gronnd glass, by gas-light in the evening,
and a piece of plain glass was placed over them, which secured
them from accident.

A number of stereoscopic views taken on ground glass, by
Mr. Forrest, were also circulated amongst the members, v/hich
the Chikman stated would bear comparison with those produced
by Dr. Hill Norris.

Mr. Forrest observed that the collodion film adhered so te-
naciously to the ground glass that it could not be rubbed off.

Among other photographic illustrations produced for the in-
spection of the members, was a specimen of printing on opal
glass, with a vignette, by Mr. Forrest It was the portrait of
a lady, printed by superposition with wet collodion, the exposure
being about an instant, and developed with pyrogallic acid. It
had a very delicate and beautiful effect, the rich half-tones form-
ing an exquisite contrast against the pure white of the opal
surface.

Mr. Cook presented, for insertion iu the Society's album , a
number of well-executed prints from wax paper negatives. The
prints which were passed round for examination, and generally
admired, included views of Furness Abbey, Couway Castle, aud
old Bidstone Church.

In reply to the Chairman Mr. Cook stated that the prints were
taken on albuminized paper, the salting solution being prepared
with ten or twelve grains of salt to the ounce, with albumen
diluted one-half. The wax negatives were obtained with Mr.
Fitt's formula, the toning bath being prepared as follows, from
a formula faruished by Mr. P, Frith j —

Chloride of gold 12 grains.

Chloride of platinum 6 "

Carbonate of soda 25 "

Water 20 ounces.

One drachm of this was quite sufiBcient for a picture eleven
inches by nine inches. The solution should never be used twice.
The picture ought to remain in, face downwards, and be kept
in motion by a glass rod until a perfect tone was oljtained, when
it should be fixed with hypo, in the dark, although he had toned
some of them with the window-blind partly drawn. It was de-
cidedly the most satisfactory mode of printing they had ever
tried. The silver should be washed out very carefully before

VOL XI. NO. II. 5

putting the print into the toning bath. The hypo was not very
weak.

In reply to Mr. Foi'rest, Mr. Cook stated that the English
paper made infinitely better pictures than the French paper,
the tone being so much superior.

THE DRY COLLODION PROCESS.

Mr. Cook produced a dry collodion plate, prepared with Mr.
Long's Formula, and asked if ]\Ir. Forrest could explain the
cause of the ridgy or streaky appearance it presented.

Mr. roRUELT said the bath was to weak.

The CnAiR.AiAN said the balance of silver in proportion to the
strength of the chemicals was not duly preserved: the bath
wanted strengthening.

Mr. Keith thouglit there liad been too much iodide in the
collodion, and suggested that Mr. Cook should cither let it
down with plain collodion or increase the strength of his nitrato
bath.

_ Mr. Forrest said he had found that Mr. Keith's collodion,
diluted one-third, using half ether and half spirits of wine, worked
admirably, giving the powdery character to the dry collodion,
which was so much coveted.

novel jiethod of obtaining stereoscopic views.

Mr. Forrest had great pleasure in drawing attention to a
very novel and simple idea just originated by Mr. S. Gill, 90,
Islington, Liverpool, and patented by him, in conjunction with
Mr. Newton of .Jubilee Buildings, by means of which stereoscopic
photographs could be taken with a single lens, by an
ordinary camera, at a single sitting, and with one opera-
tion. Two mirrors were so placed together, at a slight
angle, that each received an image of the object proposed
to be taken. The camera was then directed towards the
mirrors, the images reflected iu which were taken on a
single plate. In addition to the advantage of enabling
the operator thus to use an ordinary camera, there was the ad-
ditional advantage of having the picture correct in position,
for as the mirrors would give what might be termed a left-
handed view of the object, the plate in the camera would receive
the impression naturally, so that in a portrait the hair would be
shown parted on the proper side, and if there were any distinct-
ive mark on the features, it would be represented in its right
place. He (Mr. Forrestj, had seen some pictures taken by
Mr. Gill in this manner, aud they were perfectly stereoscopic.

Mr. Keith stated that he had tried experiments with photo-
graphing from a single mirror, and he had always found that
there was a double reflection, one from the surface of the glass
itself, and the other from the surface of the silver at the back
of the glass.

The Chairman observed that that arose from the peculiar
quality of the glass which Mr. Keith must have used. If he
had a glass, the two surfaces of which were perfectly parallel,,
the evil to which he had referred would not occur.

PHOTOGRAPHY IN PALESTINE,

The Secretary remarked that Mr. Francis Frith, whose
Egyptian views were exhibited before the Society two month's
ago, when they excited such general interest, was preparing to
proceed to Alexandria, with the view ofjnaking his way to Pales-
tine and the Nile, where he intended to take a series of views.
It was his intention to have embarked on Saturday, in the Al-
exandria Steamer, which unfortunately had sailed without him,
in consequence of the captain having unintentionally misled Mh
Frith as to the hour of her departure. The whole of his appa-
ratus was on board, and would consequently arrive out before
he could reach Alexandria.

A strong sympathy was expressed for Mr. Frith in the an-
noying and vexatious dilemma in which he was placed, Mr. For-
rest observing that all lovers of photography could not but wish
him every success in his important undertaking, as his views of
Karnac, Thebes, &c., were the most sublime things of the kind
he had ever seen,

proposed PHOTOGRAPHIC SOIREE.

Mr. Forrest had great pleasure in announcing that the Conn-

34

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

February,

cil of tlie Society had determined to hold a Photograahic Soiree
in connection with tiie association, and he was encouraged to
hope that the proprietors of the Royal Institution, where it was
intended to hold the ooiret, would throw open their museum,
and that the excellent gallery of art would also be accessible on
the occasion. It was intended that the soiree should be held a
week before Christmas, but more definite announcements would
be made at as early a day as their arrangements would enable
them to issue a programme. lie proposed that the Secretary be
requested to wait upon the Committee of the Institution for the
purpose of making the necessary application.

Mr. Cook seconded the proposition, which was carried nem.
dis. ,.

Mr. Keith, the Hon. Sec, then read his paper on
" OrERATIXG KOOMS."'

In looking over the various photographic publications, the
London and LiverpoolJournals, unA Fhotografliic Notes, I have
observed constant enquiries as to the best plan of constructing
a room for pliotographic purposes So far as I have seen there
is as yet very little definite information on the subject, and both
amateurs and professionals are left very much to their own
fancies. One consequence of this is that a great number of
rooms are totally unfitted for the purpose for which they were
built; another is that a great deal of money and time is wasted
in alterations and experiments.

Since I commenced the practice of photography I have built
three operating rooms, all of which have, to a certain extent,
answered their purpose. In the hope that a description of them
may be both interesting and instructive, I have brought here
this evening plans and descriptions of them all.

The great defect of nearly all the operating rooms I have
seen, is that there is too much light. It appears to me that the
great advantage of working within doors is that you are enabled
to shut out the light. My early experiments in the collodion
process were carried on in a back yard, surrounded on three
sides with high walls, and on the fourth side a wall about ten
feet high.

I am inclined to attribute the measure of success which at-
tended my efforts at that time to the fact that I had so little
light.

Pictures taken in the open air are usually flat and unsatisfac-
tory, on account of the absence of definite shadow. If taken in
the sun the general effect is to much improved, but they must
then be considered rather as pictures than portraits, as the face
is so much shaded as in many instances not to be recognizable.

When I commenced the practice of photography in earnest,
I could of course no longer work in the back yard. I therefore
built my operating room No 1. The house 1 then occupied had
a balcony about 5 feet wide, and 18 feet long; this I covered in
with glass. The front was made in four frames, each 4 feet C
inches wide, and 1 feet high, screwed together at the sides. The
roof was also made in four pieces, the two centre pieces of which
turned up against the wall. This mode of construction added
a little to the expense, but enabled me afterwards to take it
down with very little trouble. About this time Mr. Barker built
a glass house in his garden, very much on the same principle,
which answered very well. I was at that time of opinion that
the more light I could get the better; and as I had light only
at the top, front, and one side, I whitewashed the wall to pre-
vent too deep a shadow. The pictures I then obtained were
very unsatisfactory, and quite inferior to those taken in the back
yard I therefore commenced to shut out the light with blue
calico, but without any improvement in the result. I then ob-
tained some thick brown paper, quite impervious to light, and
went on gradually shutting out, — lirst the front, then the side,
then the top, until theouly light admitted was from the two middle
frames of the roof. I also found that the whitewashed wall
was not only unnecessary, but predjudicial, and there also I
nailed up a large sheet of brown i)aper. I then obtained pic-
tures, which, as far as light and shade went, were everything
that could be desired , and what may at first appear strange,
without any increase in the time of exposure. I may here men-
tion that this brown paper is a very useful article in experi-

menting with the light. It is inexpensive, and very readily
tacked up and taken down.

My next essay at photographic architecture was at the rooms
I now occupy in Castle-street. At that time they consisted of
two rooms, with a dark attic. My ideas of light were by this
time considerably modified, and I contented myself with cutting
out the ceiling of the front room, removing the slates and joists
up to the ridge, allowing the purlins to remain, and putting in
a skylight about 13 feet by 10 feet. The front room occupies
five-eights of the entire space; the piece of ceiling between the
ridge and first purlin was allowed to remain.

Yan will obrerve that I was a long way from the light. In
summer I found this no disadvantage, but in winter the light was
very poor. I therefore put up a platform at the back of the
room, about 5 feet wide, and 0 feet from the floor, but as the
pictures obtained there was not at all satisfactory after trying
it about a month, I had It removed (this experiment cost me
about £10, in addition to the trouble and annoyance. I then
had two platforms made, 2 feet G inclies high, 6 feet long, and
4 feet 6 inches wide, one for the sitter and one for the camera,
and in this room I worked for about three years with great
success, and the plan is one that I can with confidence recommend
for general use. The cost is not excessive, and where a very
large room is not required, it leaves little to be desired. The
only disadvantage is that the top light is rather strong, and
consequently the shadows are sometimes rather heavy.*

I now come to the room No. 3, the one I now occupy, which
fully answers my expectations. It is sufficiently large for all
ordinary purposes. It is beautifully lighted, and I am enabled
to obtain any effect of light and shade I require. It has been
formed by raising tiie back and side walls, and roofing it entirely
with pale blue glass. The advantages of this are so numerous,
that I do not think the additional expense should be a bar to
its employment.

The first impression on entering an operating room is generally
one of discomfort and irritation on account of the immense of
quantity of light. This is entirely obviated in my present room,,
for there you have no idea that the light is stronger than ordi-
nary. The pupil of the eye under the action of a strong light
contracts, and the result of this is the stupid, half-drunken ap-
pearance of many photographic portraits. My former room was
glazed with ordinary sheet glass. During the first summer I
obtained pictures in three or four seconds; the second summer
it took six or eight seconds, and this year the sitting were pro-
longed to ten or fifteen seconds. I was at a loss to account for
this, until ray attention was called to the fact that ordinary
window glass exposed to the action of long continued sunlight
rapidly changes color. At a recent meeting Mr. Forrest ex-
hibited some pieces of glass from a skylight, which had changed
to a reddish purple, while the portion sheltered by the putty
retained its original color. In my case the glass had acquired
a decided yellow tinge, which malerilly impeded the action. Un-
der the blue glass I have, during this month, obtained pictures
in five seconds, and in fine summer weather the action was almost
instantaueons. How the blue glass will retain its color cau
only be decided by time, but from the nature of the material
employed, cobalt, I have every reason to believe that it will be
permauent.

My new room may be considered as divided by the purlins
into five portions. The first or lower portion is devoted to the
dark room. The next three are glazed, and the fifth portion,
sloping down to the back wall, is slated and plastered. The
whole of the glazed portion is supplied with black blinds, and
many persons have been surprised at the small portion of light
which I use. If I have a full flat face I shut ofl" all the light
except from the upper portion; for ordinary working I use the
second portion, shutting off the light from the top of the head.
If the features of the sitter are thin, and the eyes deep set, I
shut the two upper portions and oi^en the third, by which
means I get a broad light upon the sitter. As the sitter, I

* MM. Gcrolwobl and Tanner work, in PiU'is, in an orthodox artist'a
stiulio. Tbc sitter is placed on a stage. The light is high, and of small
extent, lu Loudon more light is required to work in all seasons.

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

35

may say, faces the light, I can obtain any amount of shadow
upon either side of the face by partially drawing the curtains
on that side. Operating rooms are generally colored or papered
of a light color. This I consider objectionable, as trying to
the eyes. My walls are colored a dark grey, almost black, so
that it answers for a background at any part of the room, and
as the sitter is placed he is generally looking into a dark cor-
ner. The result is that the expression is easy and natural, and
that unpleasant reflection in the eyes is entirely avoided. I
have also a background made like a large cheval glass, with a
different color on each side, so that I have the choice of three
backgrounds. The ventilation is amply provided for by a large
door opening at the bottom, window on each side, and ventilat-
ing bricks in each side wall at the top.

You are probably aware that my practice is almost confined
to positives; how far the room may answer for negatives I am
not at present able to state, but my present opinion is that
they require more light, and that a lengthened exposure in a
weak light will not produce the same etfect.

Mr. Forrest said the paper they had just heard was most
important and instructive. He felt this especially, as he was
receiving letters almost every morning from amateur photo-
graphers, requesting information on the subject. It was espe-
cially gratifying thus to see a professional gentleman freely giv-
ing them the benefit of his well-studied and successful expe-
rience. He had very great pleasure in proposing a vote of
thanks to Mr. Keith for his valuable paper, which, being duly
seconded by Mr. Cook, was passed unanimously.

Mr. Keith, having stated that the adaptation of the dark
blinds arose from a suggestion made to him by Mr. Corey, ac-
knowledged the compliment paid by the meeting.

THE NEGATIVE BATH.

Mr. Glover then read the following paper on

" THE NEGATIVE BATH."

The state of the negative bath is a matter of the greatest im-
portance to the photographer. Whatever degree of perfection
he may have attained as a manipulator, however pure his chemi-
cals, and whatever formula he may adopt in the preparation of
his secondary solutions, unless the nitrate of silver bath be in
proper working condition, his efforts are fruitless, as far as re-
gards perfection in this beautiful art is concerned. True, it is
possible, with an inefficient bath, &c., to obtain images by the
agency of light, the novelty of which, even with the uninitiated
public, is not a sufficient guarantee for anything short of a fault-
less photograph. We shall therefore enquire, without
entering into the best established mode of preparing a new bath,
what constitutes an imperfect bath, with the various causes and
the remedies.

Alkalinity is fatal to all attempts at photography. The
cause may be generally traced to the presence of carbonates in
the iodides or bromides used in the collodion: a small portion
is thus introduced into the bath with each plate, until it has an
alkaline reaction. Another cause may be the presence of free
ammonia in the collodion. To counteract this, it is usual to
add acetic acid, but we prefer the use of nitric acid, for obvious
reasons, to which we shall hereafter call attention.

Another, and we may say the most general cause of failure
is, the presence of nitric acid in quantity. The cause may be
attributed to the use of collodion containing free iodine, which
no operator would wish to be without. It is evident to those
who understand only sufficient chemistry to carry them through
the process, that if the collodion contained only pure iodide of
potassium, the decomposition would be as follows: —

Kali-AgO N05=AgI + KaO NO^
So that, consequently, no free nitric acid could exist: but the
case is far different when free iodine is present. Having a
greater affinity for the silver than nitric acid has, the iodine
take its place, liberating free nitric acid. There is no substance
present with which it can combine, consequently, it must accu-
mulate in the bath.
The usual remedy for this has been the addition of ammonia

till neutrality, or rather a slight alkalinity was obtained, caus-
ing a small quantity of oxide of silver to be precipitated, nitrate
of ammonia being formed in the solution, acetic acid was then
added, which, uniting with the oxide of silver, formed acetate of
silver. This fact requires special attention, as reference will be
made to it in a subsequent part of this paper. Instead of the
above, some recommend the addition of other alkalies, such as
carbonate of potash or soda, both of which precipitate, car-
bonate and oxide of silver, which have to be separated by fil-
tration, thus abstracting the silver from the bath, at the same
time a new substance is left in solution, nitrate of soda or
potash.

Others recommend the use of a piece of marble in the bath
(carbonate of lime), which certainly is attended with the least
trouble and inconvenience, no precipitate being formed of any
consequence; but, there is one great objection, the formation
of nitrate of lime which is held in solution. We shall with-
hold further comment on this subject for a distinct and most
important head of this paper.

Among the rest of the causes of failure we may enumerate
the presence of foreign substances in the bath, produced by the
decomposition of the re-agents that have been fromtimeto time
added to correct the acidity or alkalinity, and to which we call
special attention in the foregoing part of our paper, viz. : —
acetate of silver. This salt is decidedly prejudicial, the plates
being more liable to stain when it is present. The least care-
lessness in the cleaning of the glass is made doubly visible in
the finished negative, and one of our greatest photographic
chemists (Hardwich) asserts, not only the above, but that the
presence of acetate of silver tends to solarization from over ex-
posure, causing the peculiarity which most of us have observed,
a light transparent red color in the high lights of the negative.
For this reason we object to rectify an alkaline bath with acetic
acid. When once alkalinity occurs, some oxide is thrown down,
this is re-dissolved by the acetic acid, consequently, acetate of
silver must be present. It is also very probable that other sub-
stances, such as nitrate of lime, nitrate of ammonia, &c., before
alluded to, are best dispensed with, if we can attain our object
without them.

Other minor causes of failure might be enumerated, though
not strictly chemical. Some photographers are so sparing of
their nitrate of silver as to mix only sufficient solution to fill
their bath-holder; by this method, unless the solution be con-
tinually filtered, which entails considerable loss, spots will be
produced in the film, by the floating particles, and those in sus-
pension subsiding on the surface of the plate. We would re-
commend every individual to make twice the quantity of solu-
tion he requires, so that he can pour sufficient off for his use
without disturbing the sediment, by which he will be a gainer,
no loss by filtration being required.

The tendency to this practice may perhaps have increased
since the introduction of those useful portable bath-holders,
with water-tight tops. It was never intended that these should
be the only receptacles for the solution, but were constructed
for the convenience of the tourist only.

Another minor cause of failure may be from weakness of the
bath, caused by the abstraction of the silver, without sufficient
being added to make up for the loss. We do not recollect to
have seen any rule laid down, but the calculation is very sim-
ple. For every ounce of collodion used, containing four grains
of iodide of potassium, nearly 4yVth grains of nitrate of silver
are removed. Of course, the quantities vary with the use of
bromides, or of other combinations of iodine, the atomic weights
of which are easily calculated. I may just remark here, that
although the silver is removed from the bath by continued
working, the specific gravity is very triflingly altered, as ia
the use of the metallic alkalies as iodizers, one metal only takes
the place of the other in the bath. Iodide of silver forming ia
the collodion film, and nitrate of the oxide oi ■potassium remain-
ing in solution.

It is an error to suppose that the " specific gravity" and
" yellow tinge" are owing to the redundancy of iodide in the
bath, as after it has once been saturated at the time of prepa-

36

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

February,

ration no more iodide can possibly be absorbed, whatever vol-
ume it comes in contact with. The yellow color is most proba'
bly owing to the organic matter in contact with the nitrate of
silver or nitric acid. Water has the power of separating the
iodide, consequently when it is added to the bath a portion of
iodide is precipitated, but if the water be again evaporated the
iodide is re-dissolved.

The foregoing arc the chief causes of failure in the negative
bath, and in entering on the most important part of our paper,
the point at which vve want to arrive is, the means of neutral-
izing the nitric acid without the introduction of a foreign or
deleterious substance, which will always occur, as we have
shown, when a substance is added which effects a mutual de-
composition. We will, therefore, give the results of a few ex-
periments with a view to this object.

Metallic silver was introduced, but it is very slow in its ac-
tion, the nitric acid being so dilute. A difficulty presents itself
in procuring (commercially we mean) pure silver for the purpose,
our standard metal being alloyed with copper, therefore forming
nitrate of that metal as well as silver.

Pare oxide of silver v/as then introduced into an acid solu-
tion of nitrate of silver. We obtained the oxide by precipita-
tion from nitrate of silver by ammonia. The precipitate well
washed with boiling water, to free it from the alkali, presents
a finely divided surface to the attack of the nitric acid, and an-
swers tolerably well. We allowed twenty or tlnrty grains to re-
main in the acid solution for a day or two, shaking up occasion-
ally. The uncombined oxide subsides to the bottom, and the
clear and nearly neutral solution can be decanted for use.

The last and highly satisfactory experiment we performed
was founded on the chemical theory, that carlonic acid has a
greater affmity for the base silver than that of sodium, sm^,
secondly, that carbonic acid is displaced by oiitric acid without
the presence of a second base. We selected as a good subject
for our experimeut an old positive bath, prepared by the French
formula, and we think resembling that used by our worthy
Secretary. The problem to solve was to convert this exces-
sively nitric acid bath into a negative bath. The quantity to
M'ork upon was about twelve ounces, containing say twenty-five
grains to the ounce, having been some time in use. We took
three ounces of the above solution, added a solution of bicar-
bonate of soda till the whole of the silver was thrown down in
the state of carbonate, taking with it a small nuantitv of oxide
of silver. This precipitate we thoroughly washed with boiling
water to remove every alkaline trace. Carbonate of silver, as
most are aware, is, when newly prepared, a white powder,
insoluble in water. This, when added to the other nine ounces
of acid solution, almost immediately neutralized the nitric acid
with considerable effervescence, owing to the escape of carbonic
acid gas, described thus: —

AgO C03+N0,=Ag0 NOji-COa

Thus we not only neutralized the nitric acid, but concentrated
into nine ounces all the silver contained in the oricriual twelve
of acid solution. We submit the first negatives taken with the
altered bath.

In conclusion, we beg to propose, by the same plan somewhat
modified, to collect the silver from our washings of prints, old
baths, &c. The plan is to precipitate the silver as carbonate,
which will shortly subside, so that the then valueless liquid can
be siphoned off aud thrown away. Water poured on, and the
same washing repeated several times. The carbonate must
then be collected on a filter, boiling water poured over it till all
the soda is removed, then dried, and pure nitric acid added to
saturation. By this means we get a strong solution of nitrate
of silver, which can be tested by the hydrometer; or^evaporatcd
and crystalized. This is attended with remarkably little trou-
ble and cost compared with the old process of precii)itatiiig as
chloride, and reducing to the metallic state, and re-dissolving
in nitric acid, which requires some skill and apparatus not al-
ways at hand. Thus every photographer can reclaim all his
waste silver in the most valuable form for his purpose.

Since writing the above wo performed the following experi-

ment;— 120 grain.s of nitrate of silver were dissolved in about
one aud a half gallons of water. The silver was precipitated
as carbonate, the liquid syphoned off, and the washing repeated
several tiraes. In running off the last water we syphoned
rather too close, and lost about ten grains of silver, making
110 to work upon. Without filtering or drying we added
pure nitric acid, drop by drop, till the whole of the carbonate
was changed to nitrate. We then added about a quarter of a
grain of iodide of ammoninm, and made the whole up to three
and a halt ounces with distilled water. After filtration, we
prepared a collodion plate and made sensitive in the above so-
lution, and now lay before you the result.

Mr. Glover received unanimous and hearty thank* for Lis
interesting paper, which he illustrated by several practical ex-
periments.

The meeting soon afterwards adjourned.

From the Jour, of the Fhot Soc.

OX mPSOVlXG THE TINT OP TRANSPAEEXT STEREOSCOPIC SLIDES,

Many persons who have been perfectly successful in printing
these slides by the process which I described in vol. iii. p. 303,
object to the slight green tinge which, under some circumstances,
the pictures present. To such it may be of interest to know
that an excessively weak solution of sulphide of ammonium (ten
or a dozen drops to an ounce), poured on and off the plate for
a few times, will quickly change the color to a rich brown, vary-
ing in tint according to the time v/hich the sulphide of ammo-
nium has been allowed to act. It should be poured on after the
plate has been washed free from hyposulphite of soda, but before
the surface has become dry, aud as the different shades of brown
follow each other with tolerable rapidity, the operation should
be performed in a good light, and with a plentiful supply of
water close at hand, so as to wash off the sulphide as soon as
the desired tint is reached. After wash off, tlie plate may be
allowed to dry as usual. W. C.

SUBSTITUTE FOR CYANIDE OF POTASSIUM.

To the Editor of thf Photograjihic Journal.

Sir, — Observing in the last Number of the ' Photographic
Journal' your notice of the warning given by Messrs. Harvey
and Reynolds as to the indiscriminate use of the poisonous sub-
stance known as cyanogen soap, and sold for the purpose of
cleaning the fingers of photographers from stains of the nitrate
bath, &c., allow me to propose a substitute of a most innocent
character, by the application of which I have found, from expe-
rience, that these annoying staius may be readily got rid of,
without the possibility of any injurious effects ensuing.

Beginners in this fascinating art do not often, I expect, es-
cape the penalty of blackened fingers; at all events I have fonnd
myself sulficiently clumsy at manipulation to incur it to the full,
and confess I have, on a few occasions of my tyroship, felt con-
siderably annoyed at the circumstance. Even Mr. Thomas's
cyanogen soap did not always perfectly answer the cleansing
expectation; whilst that ugly, portentous word "POISON,"
printed in large caps on the pot, did not seem to me very strongly
recommendatory of its continual absorption by the skin. Per-
haps, however, this has been more particularly the case in my
own individual instance, since, fond of horticultural recreation,
I am often using the budding or pruning knife, aud my hands
are frequently made to feel, with somewhat more pungency than
is by any means agreeable, that "roses have thorns."

A picturesque mountain-stream happens to ruu bustling over
a rocky channel through my garden, and it is to this brook
that I generally repair to perform all such ablutions. Finding
on one of these occasions, whea my fingers had become black-
ened to an unusual extent, that the stains obstinately resisted
even the poisonous application longer than I either liked or
could patiently eudure, it occurred to me, almost in anger, to
try the effect of friction with a small stone, rounded from its

angular asperities by attrition in the waters of the stream. Gretlt
was the satisfction I experienced at fiudiug that this exceedingly
simple remedy perfectly succeeded.

My scratched and thoru^Wounded digits now cause me no dis-
may, for I have quite discarded the poison-soap, and no longer
stand awe-stricken under the fear of inoculation.

Perhaps I should add, that the stones I find thus eifectual
are of that kind which occiir iu combination with an infinite num-
ber of small glistening particles, most likely quartz; this gives a
roughness to the surface, by which friction with the cuticle is
greatly assisted. Of course, smooth pebbles would not answer
the purpose; but any sandstone would probably do so, provided
neither too coarse nor to fine in the grain.

I shall be glad if this suggestion should prove serviceable to
any of your readers.

Thos. Lindsay.

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal,

ON THE METHOD OF PRODUCING MINUTE PHOTOGRAPHS.

BY W. HISLOP, F.R.4.S

Read before the North London Photographic Association, October 28th, 1857.

The particular department of photography which I have the
pleasure of bringing to your notice this evening, is worthy of
attention, on account of the remarkable manner in which it ex-
hibits the extraordinary capabilities of the art.

I propose to explain the method of producing exceedingly
minute pictures, either reduced from others, or taken direct.
The term " microphotograph," has been improperly applied to
enlarged pictures of microscopic preparation. This process
being one of enlargement, is exactly the reverse of that which
we have to consider to-night, and I conceive that the word mi-
cro, signifying small or minute, can only be correctly applied to
reduced and not to enlarged figures. The exceeding minute-
ness of the pictures which can be produced can hardly be con-
ceived by those whose attention has not been directed to their
productions. As some indication of what may be done, I may
refer you to the specimens which have been arranged beneath
the microscopes before you, some of which contain elaborate
groups within the space of the sixteenth of an inch, in which
every detail is preserved, and even inscriptions may be read
with ease. The material employed, too, admits, by skillfnl ma-
nipulation, of all the effect of tone and contrasts of light and
shade, which go to make up a perfect picture, being produced
at will, and repeated to any extent. Although there are some
who doubt the utility of pictures so small as to require a micro-
scope to see them, yet I believe that any one who has seen a
good micro-photograph, properly exhibited, will admit that
this class of photographs may certainly be reckoned among the
wonders, if not among the utilities of the art.

It will easily be seen that the manipulation of this process
must be extremely delicate, the materials should be of the finest
quality; the instruments used most perfect in their adjustment;
the subjects selected with judgment; and last, but not least,
patience and perseverence on the part of the operator are es-
sential to success.

Two or three photographers and microscopists, besides my-
self, have worked in this department, but, so far as I know,
have not given the details of their manipulation to the public.
Having worked it out independently, I have thought myself at
perfect liberty to reveal what I have done, the more so, as I
hold as a principle in science, that he who wishes to accumulate
information, ought also be willing to impart the information to
others.

Having myself been led into photography by its connection
with the microscope, and knowing that those who have succeed-
ed with these small pictures are also microscopists, I am in-
duced to believe that a knowledge of the management of a mi-
croscope is of great importance in the process. The requisite
delicacy of manipulation is difficult of attainment, and even a
mieroscopist will not always succeed.

5*

I will now, after these preliminary remarks, proceed to tell
you my own method of procedure: —

First, as to the materials. All the various sensitive surfaces
may be used, but I prefer collodion on glass. The pictures are
best as transparent positives. The glass used should be the
best thin plate, in the form of microscopic slides, three inches
by one, and as neatness of appearance is important in every-
thing relating to such minute productions, I prefer that the
edges should be ground smooth and polished. Such slips of
glass are supplied by Messrs. Claudet and Houghton, at 10s.
per gross. Each slide should be careftilly examined by a mag-
nifier, and those which have scratches or specks of any kind
should be rejected. When the picture is finished and dried, it
is covered with Camera balsam, and a piece of thin microscopic
gla.ss placed upon it. Discs may be obtained cut to any size,
also, of Messrs. Claudet and Houghton.

The collodion I use is positive, rather thin, and producing an
opalescent film. It is obvious that it must be perfectly struc-
tureless, and here is one of the most serious difQculties which
we encounter. For, I may safely say, nine cases out of ten, the
pictures will be found to look as though covered with a piece of
net. This appearance is not seen in ordinary photographs, sim-
ply because we do not use the microscope to look at them with;
but I have observed it in first-class photographs. I know of
no certain remedy for this defect. I have tried chloroform,
wood spirit dilution with ether, and other chemicals, but with
no certainty of results, and I can find no one who can give any
certain cure. You will, of course, ask how I get rid of this
structural appearance, as my pictures do not show it. Simply
by throwing aside the collodion as soon as it appears, and when
I get a good sample, endeavering to use it before it is spoiled
for my purpose. The exciting bath is the ordinary thirty grains
solution, with a slightly acid reaction.

All the various developments employed for wet collodion may
be made use of. Pyrogullie, with acetic acid, often gives a
brown tone to the picture; the salts of iron bring it out rapid-
ly and with considerable bi'illiancy; but, under a tolerable mag-
nifying power, the result appears granulated like a coarse mez-
zo-tint. The development which I prefer for blackness of tone,
sharpness and uniformity, is composed of two to four grains
pyrogallic acid, and one to two grains citric acid to the ounce
of water ; with sufficient spirits of wine to ensure even flowing
over the plate. The picture comes out slowly, but any amount
of blackness may be attained with safety. 1 fix with a single
drop of a strong solution of hyposulphite of soda, and wash
well afterwards with filtered water.

We now come to the apparatus employed. The great es-
sential is, of course, the object glass. This is a microscopic
object glass, and must be of the very best quality. We shall
find it a mere waste of time to endeavor to succeed even toler-
ably with any glass that is not first-rate as regards its correc-
tions. The focus I prefer is one inch. The angular aperture
will be of small importance, except as affecting the quantity of
light and consequent time of exposure.

I produced a great number of pictures by using the ordinary
microscope, removing the eye-piece and placing the prepared
plate upon the stage. This method requires some particular
precaution,, which I will detail. We must first decide whether
we intend to operate by natural or artificial light. If by the
latter, we may either place the body of the microscope upright
and throw the light down the tube by some kind of reflection,
or we may place it horizontally, in which case M'e must use a
clip to hold the glass plate against the stage. The negative to
be copied was supported in the first case on the ring of a retort
stand, at a certain height above the body, dependant upon the
size to which I wished to reduce the picture. In the horizon-
tal position I place the negative in the dark frame of a camera
with the lenses removed. In all cases of the use of artificial
light care must be taken that the negative is illuminated by
parallel rays. I prefer to effect this by using a large condens-
ing lens between the light and the negative. For the natural
light we have simply to place the instrument upright upon a
table in the open air, in an inclined position, near a window, or

38

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND PIKE ART JOURNAL.

FebiBary,

in an horizontal position, directing tlie liglit by a plain reflec-
tor.

Having gauged the glasses to a uniform thickness, I then
take one, coat it with a thick collodion, and sensitize it in the
bath in order to obtain a surface for focussing on. After
draining the plate, and drying it, I place it on the stage, all
things being in position; and by the aid of a hand magnifier,
applied sideways, I accurately focus the picture. We must now
allow for the difference between the chemical and visual focus
of the object glass. Microscopic object glasses are generally
over corrected, the violent chemical rays being beyond the vis-
ual focus. The glass must therefore be moved a little away
from the sensitive surface to get the utmost degree of sliarpness.
Rules have been laid down ibr microscopists, in taking enlarged
pictures of minute objects, as to the amount of difference be-
tween the visual and chemical foci for object glasses of different
powers; but the corrections are so variable, and are so much
modified by circumstances, that I Ijelieve the readiest and surest
plan is to ascertain the point by trial till we succeed to our sa-
tisfaction. When properly focussed, the instrument must be
removed into the dark room, and the prepared plate placed on
the stage, the whole wrapped round with a piece of black vel-
vet, and then replaced upon the table iu the i>osition before oc-
cupied. The velvet being now removed from the top of the
tube, the plate is exposed, and must remain so for a space of
from five to thirty seconds, according to the density of the ne-
gative. If artificial light is used, we need merely turn it down
or shade it vv'hile we place and remove the plat&. It must now
be developed and fixed, as usual, the process being examined
by a hand magnifier. After drying, it must be mounted in
Canada balsam, of which I shall speak presently.

This method of using the microscope is attended with incon-
veniences innumerable, as the stage becomes stained by the
chemicals employed; and if it be a valuable instrument, this
method of producing micro-photographs becomes rather costly.
I therefore made, in the first instance, a dark frame of brass to
hold the slide, and theu contrived a special apparatus which
could be used for either natural or artificial light. I have
thought it best to exhibit the original apparatus, which I still
use, as well as one made from the same model by Messrs.
Home and Thornthwaite, who have made arrangements to sup-
ply the apparatus. It simply consists of a mahogany board,
about tliree or four feet long, six inches wide, and one inch
thick, having two uprights at one end. Between these two
uprights a small box slides up and down for adjustment to the
centres of different sized negatives. This box is opened at back
and closed in front, having affixed thereto a ruder brass fitting,
with rack and pinion adjustment; on the axis of the pinion is a
graduated micrometer head, with an index, by means of which
the exact positioa of the object glass may be read off for any
distance of the negative. The object glass is screwed to the
inner end of the brass fitting, and stops of different sizes fit in
to the front of the tube. At the back of the box is a fork-
shaped piece of brass, in which the dark frame is made to slide
into position, or it may drop into- a groove as in the ordinary
camera. This dark frame is made of bvass, the back fastening
in with a simple catch, and having openings back and front,
which are closed by slops turning on centres. The front one is
moved aside in exposing for a picture, and the back one is opened
for focussing, which is now performed through the glass. The
negative is placed in an ordinary frame, such as is used in dark
slides, and this frame is held by means of eccentric buttons,
upon a carriage which slides backwards and forwards, according
as a larger or smaller picture is required. If natural light is to
be used, the apparatus is inclined near a window, so that the
■whole points towards the sky, as it may be maintained in a
horizontal position, and a reiiector be used to take the light
tlirough the system. A piece of black velvet must be thrown
over the box before the i)kte is exjxised, so as to exclude all
light but what passes through the object-glass.

For artificial light, I use an argand gas-burner, and make the
rays parallel by placing a large lens against the negative. The
position of the burner being carefully arranged so as to throw

the rays into the aperture of the object-glass, I then focus hj
means of apiece of fiuely-groand glass or dried collodion film,
placed in the dark frame, and viewed, both apertures being
open, by means of lens. The distance of the chemical focus I
ascertain by experiment. Wheu this focus i& obtained, I read
off the micrometer head, and laark the reading against another
mark, showing the exact position of the carriage carrying the
negative. I then know the precise position of the object-glass
for that particular distance of negative.

I prefer a negative of small Intensity, but of course having
all the details. Witli such a negative and a good gas-burner,
the time will be from ten to sixty seconds. Our picture being
obtained and dried, the next point is how to preserve the film
from injury. For this end we must use a little microscopic in-
vention. A mounting plate is prepared, consisting of a plate
of raetal, v/hich may either be supported upon the ring of a re-
tort stand or upon three legs fitted into it. This is placed over
the flame of a lamp, and heated til! it is warm, but not too hot.
The slides arc laid on the plate, a minute drop of Canada bal-
sam placed on each, and a carefully cleaned disc of thin laicro-
scopic glass, previously warmed, and dropped upon it. The
slide is left for a quarter of an hour or longer on the plate to
harden the balsam; it is then cooled and cleaned off with a soft
cloth.

This is the whole of the modus operandi. The apparatus de-
scribed above, is capable of being used for other purposes. It
may be employed for obtaining enlarged pictures of minute ob-
jects; the illuminating medium being removed to the opposite
end of the system, the object to be copied being placed in the
small dark frame, and the prepared plate on the sliding carriage.
There are also other a.pplications to which I may allude ou some
future ocaasiou.

From the Jour, of the Phot. Sac.

mn ON COLLODION PLATES.

47 Ludgate Hill, Sept. 2S, 1857.
To ike Editor of the Photographic Journal:

Sir, — The various suggestions that appear iB what you call
your "Minor Correspondence" are exceedingly valuable to the
professional photographer. To the amateur, or those who pro-
duce what is not intended for public criticism or for sale, a
speck or spot is of no great consequence, but when a man's suc-
cess and position in life dei>ends upon the perfect finish of his
productions, those "insane atoms" assume a fearful' import, and
lo get rid of them a matter of stern necessity. Did they
choose to take their place in some quiet and unseen part of a
lady's dress, there they might remain , and meet with the con-
tempt they deserve. One woald not think it worth one's while
to quote Shakespeare concerning them. But no— they must
intrude in high places, lips or eyes, and of course, as you have
been told, removal is destruction. These spots are occasioned
by undissolved particles in the collodion that will not subside
into what are called " bottoms," and therefore they must be fil-
tered out.

The suggestions made by your correspondents and others
would generally ansv/er very well, but they are much too scien-
tific and complicated (siphon, gas-jars, &c.), and of course
troublesome, and besides add unnecessarily to one's stock of
seldom-used apparatus, iu itself no small matter: all that the
operator requires is to filter his collodion as he would filter any
other solution through a glass funnel with ordinary filtering-pa-
per, but taking the precaution to place a glass plate on the top
large enough to cover the funnel.

For the idea I am indebted to Mr. McMillaa of Fleet Street.
It is much too simple a plan to be the offspring of my own
brain. It is what I practice, and I believe it to be all that is
required. There is a little waste, but scarcely worth mention-
ing. Let therefore any one of my brethren, who has been an-
noyed in the way described, purchase a small glass funnel and
a few sheets of ordinary filtering-paper, and if he uses them
properly he will have one trouble the less in photography.

Edward Burke.

1

1858.

THE THOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

39

OX THE PRODUCTION OF PHOTOGRAPHS ON GLASS.

According to this process, a thin film of iodide of sulphur is
formed upon plate f^lass, by covering the glass, which must be
perfectly clean, with a very thin coating of sulphur, and then
impregnating this for a few seconds with the vapor of iodine.
The glass plate is then placed in the camera, where at the same
time the vapor of some quicksilver in an iron cup in the bottom
of the camera acts upon the iodide of sulphur with which it is
coated, and it receives the photographic image within a minute.
The glass plate, when taken out of the camera, only exhibits a
a trace of the picture, but this immediately comes out on expo-
sure to the action of the vapor of bromine. If the picture be
uow held over alcohol, and some of the same liquid be poured
upon it, it will be fixed. Not more than from five to eight
minutes are required for the v.'hole operation.

The glass plates must be breathed upon and well rubbed with
soft linen rag several times before use. They are coated with
sulphur by burning sulphur sticks, made on purpose, in a
proper tube, and holding the plates over it at a distance of
about 3 inches. These sulphur sticks are prepared by dipping
pieces of rush-pith into a melted mixture of sulphur and mastic,
with which they become incrusted. For use, these sulphur
sticks, which are about the size of a lucifer match, are stuck on
a brass needle, introduced into the middle of a glass tube and
kindled, so that the vapor of the sulphur may come in contact
M'ith the glass plate held over it.

These glass plates are so sensitive, that the coating of iodide
of sulphur becomes instantly changed on exposure to direct
sunlight, and give a Moser's image within five minutes when
laid in a book. The figures thus obtained are most easily read
by candlelight. In daylight, the blue betters can be recognized
on the yellow ground only by looking through the plate to-
wards the middle of the window, or towards a sheet of paper
fastened in that place, the sulphur not having been removed
either by vapor or bromine or by alcohol.

If a glass plate, covered with a solution of gum aud exposed
to the vapor of iodized sulphur, be placed in the camera, a pos-
itive picture, with all its details, is obtained, the outlines of
which can be laid bare by an etching-point capable of scratch-
ing the glass. If a glass plate, so marked, be rubbed in with
printing ink, the outlines will be filled, and the ink will remain
in them when the glass is freed from the coating of gum by
means of water. The picture is then easily transferred to
paper, which is to be laid on the plate and rubbed over with a
paper-knife. — Chemical Gazette, voi. x. p. 291.

From the Jour, of (he Phot. Soc.

POISONOUS EFFECTS OF CYANIDE OF POTASSIUM.
To thi Editor of the Photograjphic .Journal:

Sir, — I see in your last Number you have noticed the twad-
dle which has been going the round of photographic and other
Journals, respecting the supposed danger of using so deadly an
internal poison as an external detergent.

I will confidently affirm that the fear of its use externally is
perfectly groundless; not only am I in the habit of using it in
the form of ointment in neuralgia, but for the last three years I
have used it as carelessly as a piece of soap when my fingers
have been begrimed with nitrate of silver, and this whether I
have abrasions on my hands or not. Beyond a smart, which is
at once allayed by dipping the hand in water, I have never ex-
perienced the smallest inconvenience, though I have often con-
sumed on my hands a piece of cyanide as large as a shilling at
a single ablution. Moreover, I have never heard of any authen-
tic case of dangerous effects when thus used. Photographers
may then, I think, be perfectly at ease on the point.

W. H. Raxxkin, M.D.

From the London Art Journal.

THE MARINE AQUARIUM.

BY MRS S. 0. HALL.

'■ 'Tis said that Xerxes oflfered a reward
To those who could invent him a new pleasure.''

Byron.

Letters of inquiry of interest to the writer only must be ac-
companied by a postage stamp to prepay answer. Ed.

Happy are they who to the admiration of the beauties of na-
ture— inseparable from a feeling and reflective mind — add a
knowledge of the causes and effects of what the Giver of all
Good has so abundantly scattered not only over the face of
earth, but underneath the waters. Yet so universal arc the
wonders of creation that those who go "abroad in ships" do
not encounter greater marvels than are to be met with in stand-
ing pools, or mingling with the murmurs of tiny rivulets " at
home." To the lover and observer of Nature nothing is barren,
nothing "common or unclean:" the blade of grass, the drop of
water, the sparkling pebble, the stiff clay, the teeming mould,
the rocky fragment, the glittering sand, the whispering shell,
the bursting bud of the wayside flower, the penetrating sun-
beam, the pale ray of the queenly moon, the crystal salt in the
chasm to which the wave seldom returns — all are suggestive of
thought, and all may be sources of enjoyment — while all, insig-
nificant as they seem, are essential parts of a mighty whole.

In the bright summer or cooler months of autumn, we who
reside in London think it as much a duty as a pleasure to inhale
the freshness of the country, and return from our rair.bles to
our city homes laden with "specimens" of the material world,
or flowers and ferns that will keep "green memories" amid the
snows of winter; we enrich our "fern-houses" with tributes
from our Glens or Highlands, and few things cheer us n:ore
than the remembrance of how the little plant was obtained, and
ivho assisted in the gathering. Dried leaves have too much of
death about them to convey unalloyed pleasure to the living,
and we consider " Ward's cases" to be acquisitions for which
all town dwellers are bound to hold the inventor in high esteem
— the living memory of many a mountain ramble is enshrined
in a " Ward's case," or even beneath a simple bell-glass. But
we Islanders are too fond of the element to which we owe our
safety as well as our restraint, not to seek its shores, if we can-
not cross its waves; and until lately the only mementoes we
could bring away of the storm or quiet of the deep were dried
" flowers of the sea," or beautiful shells, the least perishable of
all the forms that enclose life: our own, alas, soon mingle with
the dust to which they are doomed to return, while the dwell-
ing of the periwinkle and the limpet seem to endure " for
ever."

The "new pleasure" to which we invite our readers, has to
do, not so much with the homes of the limpet and the periwin-
kle, as with the manners and customs of their inhabitants. We
have become in some degree familiarized with the snail family,
and understand their value in keeping the plants tiat flourish
in our glass bowl from being coated with " fur" or slime. We
have advanced a good many steps in our treatment of gold fish;
we no longer doom the little animal to an eternal swimming
mill, without the relief of shade; we permit him to meander
through the groves of the delicate Vallisnena, and in the cen-
tre of his crystal palace we build him a miniature Stonehenge,
wherein he can play at hide-and-seek, and enjoy a cozy nap
without disturbance, or even observation ; v/e introduce to his
habitation a tiny shoal of minnows — most frolic-loving things —
which, when we tap the glass, flock to the surface and greedily
devour the fragments of "pastry-cook wafer" which, though
they never did banquet thereupon in their natural state, they
much enjoy in their captivity. We have learned from Mr.
Warington to treat the tiny stickleback with as much respect
as we were taught in childhood to bestow upon the beaver, and
recommend our young friends to purchase a miniature aquarium
especially for them, and so have the pleasure of observing the
care bestowed by father stickleback in the formation of his
family mansion, and the parental attention he pays to the pro--
tection and education of his young masters and misses, whom

40

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

Febraary,

he keeps from the jaws of devouring minnows. We understand
all such creatures better than we did, and it may be they return
the compliment.

Our own especial " new pleasure," however, is the Marine
Aquarium. Concerning this drawing-room " romance of nature,"
we borrow a pen better qualified tiian ours to deal with the ob-
ject to be attained, i. e. the arrangement of a collection of ani-
mals and plants in salt water, in such a manner that, by the
working out of natural laws, the whole may be permanently
self-sustaining and self-purifying, without frequent change of
the water being necessary.

"The circumstances which brought about the growing taste
for such an agreeable adjunct to our homes as the Aquarium,
were mainly some experiments on the domestication of marine
life, commenced — almost simultaneously — about five or six
years ago, by Mr. R. Warington and Mr. P. H. Gosse. Then
came some popular, accurately written, and beautifully illustra-
ted books on the subject, by Mr. Gosse, followed by the open-
ing to the public, in the spring of 1853, of the large and mag-
nificently appointed aquatic collection of the Zoological Society,
in Regent's Park, London, which produced as important effects
on the branches of natural history to which it relates, as did
the previous great event of 1851, in Hyde Park, on the sciences
at large.

" No sooner was it found possible thus to make daily ac-
quaintance with the ' manners and customs' of a great variety
of curious organizations previously hidden from all except pro-
fessed naturalists, than many old notions on their natural his-
tory became exploded, and indeed it would be easy to name
more than one accepted text-book, dozen of pages of which
must be cancelled by the aquarium-experiences of the last four
years. Of course the desire to have Aquaria at home became
obvious. In fresh-water, it was an ea.sy matter to plant aquatic
vegetation among gravel at the bottom of a vase, and to put
in fish and other animals: but the attempt to set up a marine
collection and to maintain it in a healthy state, involved many
difficulties. The supply of sea-water was uncertain and costly,
and even when obtained, its purity, and that of the vessel in
which it was brought from the coast, could not always be de-
pended upon. In cases of accident, too, the whole of the live
stock might perish before a fresh importation of water could be
made. At length Mr. Gosse stepped in with a formula for the
manufacture of an artificial sea water from its constituent salts,
which, after adequate trials, has been found nearly to answer
every purpose of actual seawater.

f "It then became necessary to obtain the animals and sea-weeds
from the coast. This, to residents inland, was a matter of dif-
ficulty. Amateurs could not always find the time and means to
visit the sea-side and collect for themselves. Nor was it al-
ways practicable to employ an agency for the purpose; to hire
a man to procure and transmit so small a quantity of specimens
as would merely sufiSce for a vase or tank, would obviously be
working at a disadvantage both to collector and purchaser.
In short, it became essential that some one in the metropolis
should be found willing to '* set-up shop" in this kind of " ma-
rine stores;" to establish a regular communication with the
coast; to receive consignments at stated intervals; and to be
willing to retail them in any quantities according to the varia-
tion of the tastes and means of the purchasers."

* * * * * :):

We commenced our salt-water " Aquarium" under the most
favorable auspices. The accomplished secretary of the Zoolo
gical Society was so good as to order for us a tank of " suit-
able" dimensions, and permit one of his intelligent keepers of
"marine stores" to arrange the interior of our mimic ocean;
he also gave us the necessary quantity of sea water, •' dipped
up" from the Atlantic, and some excellent advice; but we fur-
nished our tank as young housekeepers are apt to furnish a
bouse — with ranch more than was necessary. Every specimen
we could collect was floated into " the tank." We should not,
during the days of our young experience, have hesitated to
have introduced a juvenile shark or cod-fish into our marine mena-
gerie. It was in vain the Hermit crabs gathered in their claws, that

swimming crabs and other crabs crowded from the bottom, and
endeavored to reach the summit of the rocks to escape with
life from the noxious gases generated by dying and sickly fish-
without a sufficient counteracting influence of marine plants; it
was in vain that the pied Crassicornis bloomed and died within
a day, that the Actinia belli; (the hardy daisy), refused to im-
plant itself among our pebbles — that the Sabellas crept out of
their cases, and the delicate Actinia diantkus, and even the
hardy Messevihryanthevium let their tentacles droop in unhealthy
inertness; still we continued adding instead of withdrawing,
pouring in half-pints of innocent periwinkles, and half-dozens of
springing shrimps, until in a few days the water became offen-
sive, and the whole contents of " the tank'' was obliged to be
thrown away I We were " all in the wrong," — and in addition
to the information derived from the secretary of the Zoological
Gardens, from the kind counsel of Mr. Gosse, as well as from'
hif books, varied and beautiful as they are; from that also of
Doctor Farre, who wrote concerning the interest of those sea-
creatures some twenty years ago; in addition to our sea-side ex-
perience during the autumn, and our daily access to Mr. Heale's
picturesque cottage at Ilfracombe, where ^ beneath a bower of
roses and woodbine, his bright and pretty daughter has become
as familiar with "ili«rf;-«pores" and " Sabellas'' and " Acdnice"
of all kinds, as the generality of village maidens are with prim-
roses and buttercups; in addition to the inspirations of " Glau-
cus" and the concentrated wisdom of the pretty square books
published by Mr. Reeve ; though we waded ankle-deep at least
in Waterraouth Bay, and explored "tide-pools" and wide-
s))readiHg sands in the bewitching localities of Ilfracombe and
Torquay; in addition to the advice of friends, the information
of books, the frequent inspection of the Vivarium at the Zoolo-
gical Gardens, the " peeps" graciously afforded into the "tanks"
of Mr. Gosse, Mr. Warrington, and others learned in Zoo-
phytes— and, moreover, acquaintance with the varied creatures
to be seen in Mr. Lloyd's sale-room, in the bowers of Capstone
Cottage, Ilfracombe, or in the pretty " Shellery'^ of Mr. Pike,
at Brighton — we had to learn the lessons that are taught only

by EXPERIENCE.

Atmosphere and light, and the least difference in position
have such an effect both upon weeds and waters, that nothing
but observation in fact — will enable you to maintain a marine
Aquarium in health and respectability. If you give too much
light the water resists the intrusion, and becomes opaque; if
too little, the animals pine away. You must have practice and
patience: in truth there is as much pleasure in both these vir-
tues as in the peace and prosperity of your " Aquarium." We
tried the sea-water three several times, and with the same re-
sult; we ceased to over-stock our sea farm, yet still the crea-
tures died I The water was thrown away and the shingle
washed over and over again ; and an Irishwoman, a ' ' help,"
who assists all our experiments, declared, " No wonder people
got say-sick crossing the say, if the water was all like that 1"
At last, by Mr. Gosse's advice, we put our Aquarium under
Mr. Lloyd's care; he nearly filled it with the composed water,
replaced our weeds and shingle, and arranged the flagging Ac-
tiiiicc in what he considered the best situations. The next day
the water looked nearly clear, a delicate JDianthns had adhered
to the glass, several Bellis had fixed themselves in the shingle,
and those hardy fearless MwCT?ii;-?/a?z<Ac?;m»z5 were in their full
bloom of activity. We felt singularly elated — we should have
been so glad to have shown our minimic caverns, over which
floated banners of the green Ulva, to Mr. Mitchell or Mr. Gosse,
or even to the triumphant Mr. Warrington, who has kept
his sea-water unchanged for upwards of five years, and whose
venerable prawns prowl about perpetually, seeking what they
may devour.

But soon after, another kind friend sent os a bountiful supply
of animals and most beautiful sea-weed from Falmouth; we did
uot — however tempted by the swelling beauty of the Gernmacta,
or the graceful bend of the Dianthus — overstock our tank with
animal life; but we had a weakness for the picturesque, and we
loaded it with sea-weed; child-like, "because it looked so pret-
ty 1" Though we knew that the Ulva latisdma is all sufficient

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE AUT JOURNAL.

41

or the purpose of keeping the water pure — still we were tempt-
ed, and tiie water soon became discolored and turbid. Mr.
Gosse says the water under these circumstances can be brought
back to purity by being placed in a dark closet, but we had uot
a " dark closet," and so were obliged to get another supply of
Mr. Lloyd's prepared salt, and replenish our ocean; since then,
we have been greatly successful, the water is " clear as crystal"
now, and it has continued so for mure than ten weeks.

The desire to know something about, and to possess some
specimens, of those " living flowers," is becoming so general, that
" agents" can be met with at most of our sea-side resorts, who
will procure a sufficient number of "zoophytes" to effect a com-
mencement; but, we repeat, without patience you cannot pros-
per. Your tank may be on the plan of those at the Zoological
Gardens, oblong, formed of plate-glass and slate, and bound
with iron (mine contains about 18 gallons, the cost il. 10s. j;
you can have smaller vessels, from a finger-glass upwards; but
all require patient observation, care, and cleanliness: whatever
you put in must be first cleansed — of course, in salt-water.

Very recently, however, improvements have been made in
tanks; and such improvements should be made extensively
known; for in many ways they greatly augment the " new plea-
sure ;" first, as avoiding all danger to the inmates; and next,
as supplying articles of furniture so elegant as to be accesso-
ries to the drawing-room. I allude chiefly to the tanks manufac-
tured by Messrs. Lloyd & Summerfield, of Birmingham. By a
patented process, these gentlemen have substituted glass for
wood and iron, in many cases where, heretofore, wood and iron
were indispensable. In several of the large shopwindows of
Loudon, the whole is of glass — pillars, supports, and sashes.
Thus, in the tank, the plates of glass are brought together by
glass pipes, neither wood nor metal being used anywhere. The
advantages are so obvious, that hereafter, we imagine, this
principle will be adopted universally, as at once more elegant,
and more healthful to the inhabitants of tanks, either of fresh
or salt-water, but especially the latter.

But Messrs. Lloyd & Summerfield, we believe, designed these
articles not so much to serve as tanks as for Pern-houses; al-
tliough it is apparent that they are quite as well suited for the
one as for the other. They are produced in very great varieties:
some being larger and more shallow; others being without legs,
to stand on tables; others are made to serve as fountains,
standing on a graceful glass pillar, through which runs a metal
pipe connected with a supply of water. These gentlemen also
manufacture a variety of globes, large cups, vases, and basins:
so that all the wants and wishes of those who cultivate Aqua-
ria may be hence supplied — taste as well as convenience having
been studied.

A fresh water Aquarium is much more easily managed than
a salt one, and the active movements of the fish increase its in-
terest; but fish are by no means as varied and curious as the
zoophytes. Wherever Nature is, there is interest and beauty,
S) you can choose one or the other — or you may have both. In
addition to your tank 3'ou will require a syphon, a syringe (of
either glass or zinc), and a long-handled wooden spoon, with a
sponge tied on the handle end; you must also have a little
glass " test," to regulate the density of the water.* If a town-
dweller, we suppose you will obtain the prepared salt from Mr.
Lloyd; although Mr. Gosse and Mr. Warington prefer the
sea-water, and it continues pure and healthy in their tanks: I
have no doubt that when it can be procured pure, and not near
the sea-beach — where it is necessarily injured by extraneous
matter — it is far better than the artificial water. But whether
you use the sea or the composed water, you must, first having
washed and seasoned your tank for a few days (and all vessels,
large or small, require a little salt water to stand in them for a
day or twoj, put in a thin layer of sand, then a layer of shingle,
then arrange a few carefully-washed rocky stones according to
your own fancy, let them be rugged, because the Adiniic can

* The syphou is necessary to draw off the water without confusing
your arrangements; the syringe to throw in (if used for five minutes
once a day), a supply of fresh air; the " spoon" to remove the dead ani-
mals; and the sponge to clean the glass.

VOL XI. NO. II. 6

the better grasp them, and you can place your sea-weed to
greater advantage: an arch, which joa can easily build o? have
cut at a stone-mason's is always pretty, and the sea-weeds hang
well from the top; then put in yoa sea-weed, taking care that
it is growinjr, and has its roots fixed to bits of rock or stone;
the Ulvalatissima (the delicate sea lettuce), and the corallines,
are quite enough as a commencement; the "copper beech" of
the ocean adds much to the beauty of your marine garden, the
only difficulty being in the arrangement of light; it loves deep,
waters, and will fade beneath the rays of a strong sm>. Hav-
ing arranged your plants, leave them alone for two or three
days, and then introduce the hardiest of your Adinia.

Mr. Warington told us of a worm that conceals itself in the
sand, beneath the shingle, and, in gratitude for its shelter de-
vours all impure and dead substances; the prawns do this also,
but we would not put pravrns into new water, nor until the
lower organizations of animal life had been fully established in
their several localities: the Bellis (daisy) hanging from some
rough stone; the Dianthus wandering imperceptibly along the
glass, now looking like a knob of jelly, then extending like a
telescope with a number of the most delicately cut fibres at the
end — a living white carnation: the Ge-Mmacea — so worthy of
its name; and every class and color of the Mesembryanikemums
from the scarlet strawberry to the delicate olive green, are all
safe tenants, and may be introduced at the same time. The
Craissicornis we have not been able to keep alive more than a
week- — with one exception; a very small one fixed itself upon a
fragment of rock, and we placed it near "high-water niiirk;"
there it lived and bloomed seven weeks, at last dropped off and
died. A very intelligent correspondent at Falmouth tells us
that he takes his Crassicornes out o'i the water every day for a
couple of hours, shakes a little gravel over them and returns
them to the water, and that "they live months;" he does this
"because," he says, "they are in their natural state frequently
left exposed by the receding tide." 1 regret that I have not
time to air them, as ladies air their lap-dogs — but the practice
has reason in it.

It may be that the daisies (bellis) will not fix, but "bloat"
themselves out and roll about in the water; this is a bad sign,
yet they may change their minds, and root well for all that; if,
after three or four days, they are not fixed, they will lose their
firmness andcolor, become spongy, and not withdraw their ten-
tacles when touched; then lift them to the surface of the
water in your fishing-spoon, and you will soon psrceive by the
aroma that they are dead. Nothing dead must on any account
be suffered to remain in the water, so throw them away, and
put in others. Ascertain that your " test" globules floats up-
right, and when you force it down, if it rises slowly, very slowly
to the surface, tne water is fit; there is always, even when you
cover your tank (which I strongly recommend you to do), an
evaporation which renders your water too salt; you must pre-
vent this by occasionally pouring in from a teacupfull to half a
pint of fresh-filtered water, watching the movement of your
"test;" you may also introduce the active and beiiutiful Anl/iea
cereus, but I find it wiser to introduce the small not the large
specimens. My large Anthea cereus all died after two or three
weeks, but I have two small ones which are growing; one fixed
itself at what may be called " high-water mark'' on the glass,
the other floats on a leaf of Ulva, and never changes its quar-
ters, while its sister moves an inch or so every day, but alwa3's
near the surface; half-a-dozen periwinkles must be thrown into
the water (taking care they do not remain on their bucks), they
will prevent the accumulation of decayed vegetation, and mow
from off the glass the mossy growth which would soon obstruct
your view of your favorites, if permitted to accumulate.
Avoiding disturbing the bottom of your tank; and note down
the number you put in: a certain quantity of water can only
afford nourishment to a certain quantity of animal or vegetable
life, so I would entreat you not to overstock. You will require
some ('say for a tank of 18 gallons three or four,) prawns (not
shrimps, who must burrow in sand, and do not float about like
the beautiful prawns); they are the most gentlemanly scaven-
gers you can imagine. All Aclinice throw off a sort of a cob-

42

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL-

February,

web, which in the absence of prawns I frequently sweep off with
my sponge or a feather. I can see to a hair's breath if my
Adiniiz move during the night, or during my absence; they
suffer from cold, and I lost several that 1 had just received
from Mr Dunstan, of Falmouth, simply because the water
which warms the corridor where the tank stands, grew cold in
the night, and the thermometer fell below freezing point;
several diantlnts, hellis, and gevimacca were flat and dead in the
morning. Crabs of all kinds are very active and interesting,
but they are so restless and revolutionary in their movements,
that I would not recommend them as inmates of an Aquarium;
they scratch, and doge, and tear everything; the hermit crabs
— in fact, the whole crab family are the same: in mischief they
are the very monkeys of the sea. I have still some beautiful
madrepores which 1 brought from Ilfracombe in September; I
know nothing more beautiful than the madrepores, when they
bloom from out their caves; but do not let the large Adinice
creep too near them; if once their tentacles embrace a madre-
pore, a prawn, a crab, a periwinkle, the next day they will dis-
gorge the shell, but the substance will have been extracted.
Sometimes, if my Adinice do not bloom freely in deep water, I
remove them to the more shallow, and vice versa, which a young
friends calls "giving them change of air;" though sometimes
when I have removed a green, or a grey, or a scarlet Adinia,
for the purpose of getting a nice bit of color at a particular
point, so as to add to the beauty of my tank, the obstinate
thing has either slid away or died, as if in sheer perversity. I
have, therefore, learned, if they seem healthy and happy in one
situation, not to attempt to remove them to another.

I pray it may be understood that my notes upon this " new
pleasure" are simply intended for the instruction of tyros, who
will be saved much disappointment by going to the A, B, C of
the "Aquarium," and then learning, from learned books and
experience, what I — myself a learner — could not presume to
teach. During the past winter, those "blossoms of the sea"
have afforded me a great deal deal of enjoyment. Every bit
of weed and rock — every zoophyte — has its little history. I
have beguiled some lonely midnight moments by placing my
candle, .so as to produce different effects of light and shade on
my mimic ocean; and those dim links between vegetable and
animal life have carried me back, without an effort, to the de-
licious scenes from whence they came.

How patiently have we watched the receding tide, to enable
us to explore the mysteries of some tide-pool, difficult of access
but richly repaying our exertions by the abundance and variety
of its inhabitants! How have we deplored the loss of a "speci-
men," and, like all bad workmen, quarrelled with our tools^-
" the hammer was too heavy," the " chisel too light!" — and,
when we made sure of " such a magnificent Bdlis ," how fool-
ish we have felt when it disappeared from our grasp, sinking-
into its rocky crevice, scarcely leaving a trace of its retreatl
We triumph to this day in a dianUius, remembering how nearly
our boat was upset beside a group of rocks off Torquay, while
endeavoring to obtain the prize. What a delicious day that
was! The overpowering heat of the southern sun, tempered by
a breeze cool only by contrast, yet still refreshing! The sky,
bright as in Italy! The distant splash of oars, as boat after
boat passed to and from the delicious bays which indent the
Devonshire coast with their mysterious beauty: there, a bold
headland, purple and green amid its dark-browned rocks and
golden veins, stands sentinel of sea and shore, shading without
obscuring the low-roofed cottages, whose trellised roses and
verdant lawns, hanging midway on yonder hills, realize an En-
glish Arcadia!

We frequently sought amongst the weeds which the lavish
waves had heaped upon the strand for Adinia; and if we
moved a stone, it seemed as if the bay produced nothing but
crabs, such scrambling multitudes rushed forth and disappeared.
We found one or two marvellously large "strawberries" there, one,
who still hangs at the cornar of our tank, like a pendant of
" Love lies bleeding" always in active bloom, seeking what he
may devour— a fragment of beef, a bit of chicken, a dead
" bdlis" or a minnow — a most gluttonous creature! and this re-

minds me that he is the only Adinia I have ever fed. though
Mr. Warington indulges his captives, at long intervals, with
little scraps of mutton: and the blue old lobster, at the Zoolo-
gical Gardens, has his food as regularly as the lions and tigers.
But if you feed the zoophytes with palpable food, I doubt the
possibility of keeping the water pure, and the water produces
sufficient for their existence; though I dare say their growth
would be increased by a more liberal supply.

It is quite amusing to observe how the little children, both
at Torquay and Ilfracombe, have caught the taste of the times,
and come to the sea-side visitor with a bunch of "zoophytes,'"'
as they used to do with a young bird or a bouquet of wild
flowers. They patter along the shore with their bare feet,
turning up the sea-shag, and astonishing the crabs and sand-
hoppers; or plash boldly into the pools. One little fellovy
brought we a worm in great triumph, calling it a sea-serpent;
while his sister — brown, though blue-eyed — produced a green
Adinia, which survived until Christmas: it is pleasant to re-
member the children toiling up Capstone Hill, attracted as
much by the music of the brass baud as by the hope of selling
" zoophytes."

\¥e need only recal our own hours of wearisome do-nothing-
ness at watering-places, in days lang syne, to properly estimate
what this " new pleasure" was to ns during our rambles along
the coasts of North and South Devon — the lane-walks affording
us such specimens of ferns and wild bowers as we never gathered
before, and the shore rambles sending us to our lodgings with
our living sea-flowers, to be turned into every available glass
and basin, with the cheering and inexpensive speculation of how
they would look "at home."

It is impossible to admire these beautiful creatures, and the
simple labors by which they exist, without thinking of Him
who, insignificant as they appear, works for thera and in them.
Surely, if He cares for them — which cannot except by the con-
tentment they exhibit, acknowledge His bountry — how much
more will He care for us!

The amiable and enlightened Doctor Landsborough claims a
remote antiquity for these wonders of the shore. In one of his
charming books,* he says, "the Serlularue that wave their
plumes in the sea in the present day, are not in the least more
skilful than those that lived immediately after the Deluge.
But they can boast of kindred who were great before the flood
— which have for ever passed away — though their existence is
proved by their wonderful remains, buried in the rocks in every
place of our land, and they can more proudly boast of kindred
yet alive in foreign chmes — numerous almost as the sand of the
sea-shore, which have achieved what human power could never
have accomplished, and with unwearied assiduity, and still car-
rying on works which the united efforts of myriads of millions of
mankind would in vain attempt to effect. We speak of the
coral-forming zoophytes of foreign seas."

Surely there is both simplicity and dignity in a pursuit which
leads us to a more intimate knowledge of these dwellers in the
sea, and when I perceive the birth of an Adivin and observe
the little creature — hardly bigger than a pin's head— working
its oars and seeking its own food, I cannot but feel that by
" studying the nature and habits of these little denizens of the
deep we see the kind hand of God, where our forefathers never
thought of looking for it, and where we should not, in all pro-
bability, have seen it, but for the invention of the microscope.
In the very lowest department of Zoology we deal with things
that have /j/e. Who, of earthly mould, can give life and vol-
untary motion to the smallest creature ? This is God's doing;
and it is not only marvellous, but pleasant to our eyes I

I have thus endeavored to add my mite to a treasury, the
wealth of which is open to all, earnestly desiring that many
may share with me the enjoyment to be derived from this new
PLEASURE. The longer we live the more we are impressed with
the conviction that there can be no happiness that is not par-
ticipated: it is a solemn yet a pleasant truth that we become
happy by making others happy.

' Popular History of British Zoophytes." Reeve & Co.

The " season" is now approaching when thousand will quit
for a time the " busy hum'' of cities for the breezy melody of
the sea-shore: under such circumstances it becomes almost a
duty to be idle; but surely "idle time" will not be " idly spent"
by those whose daily strolls are ministers to a " new pleasure!"

From the Jour, of the Fhot. Soc.

MR. LONG'S DRY COLLODION PROCESS.

40 Sloaue Square, Oct. 8th, 1857.
To the Editor of the Photographic Journal:

Sir, — In last month's Number of the Society's Journal,
page 41, Mr. Q. R. Smith in eulogizing the dry collodion pro-
cess, as published by Messrs. Bland and Long, gives to Mr.
Long the merit of its discovery ; now if Mr. Gr. R. Smith will
refer to the very ingenious preface to Mr. Long's pamphlet, he
will find that Mr. Long does not claim any part of the pro-
cess.

The metagelatine* made with citric acid, by which means
neutralization and filtration are avoided, was first suggested
and successfully carried into practice by me.

Some time before Mr. Long's pamphlet appeared, I showed
him the results of my experiments; he considered them so satis-
factory that he asked me for my formula, which I freely gave
him and which he has since published, and I feel assured that
he will corroborate this statement; moreover, I mentioned the
subject at the Ordinary Meeting of the Society on June 4th,
1857, and also on a former occasion.

I wish it clearly to be understood that I do not claim the
discovery of preserving sensitive collodion plates with gel.itine,
as we are indebted for that to Dr. Hill Korris; but in justice
to myself and brother amateurs, I do hope that, in future,
should any of our little improvements be coosidered worthy of
publication, the credit will not be so appropriated by others as
to mislead such well-intentioned photographers as Mr. Gr. R.
Smith.

W. Adrian DelferIeb.

J^rom the Juur. of the Phot. Soc,

"RAISED" PORTRAITS.
To the Editor of the Photographic Journal:

Sir, — Under the appellation "Photo," in the answers to cor"
respondents in the Journal for September 21, you gave me the
following information relative to what I called " raised por-
traits," that is, the portrait appeared to stand out from the
background : —

" Photo. 1. — The collodion side of the glass positive is
placed in front, and then a background, &c. painted on the
other, plain, side of the glass."

I am sorry to say I do not understand what you mean. 1
always frame my positives when colored with the collodion side
in front, and if there was painted a background on the other,
which is the plain side of the glass, it would not have the de-
sired effect I allude to. I use a white sheet for a background,
and what I wish is to have the portraits with white background,
but still the figure to appear to stand out. I know an ama-
teur at photography who cannot color a photograph, and yet
he can bring out his portraits ' ' raised" in a beautiful style.

As I very much desire to know how to bring my portraits
out in this style, I shall be extremely obliged to you if you will
notice the subject more plainly in next Journal ; and if you
know any work that alludes- to the subject, I shall be glad of
the information.

Photo.

*** We are tinable to give the precise information desired.
Can any of our correspondents enlighten us ? — fEd. P. J.)

* Maxwell Lyte's— Ed. P. J.

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

CnORLTOX PHOTOGRAPHIC ASSOCIATION.

The sixth annual meeting of this Society was held In the
Chorlton Town Hall, on the 12th inqtaut, Mr. Hepwortii, V.P.,
in the chair.

After the usual preliminary proceedings,

Mr. L. E. VVhaite read the following paper

ON COLORING THE BACKGROUNDS OF COLLODION POSITIVES.

In a recent number of the Liverpool and Manchester Photo-
graphic Journal^ there appeared an article on coloring back-
grounds of collodion portraits, in which the writer expressed a
wish that some additional information would be given by any
one conversant with this interesting subject. Having in my
practice, as an amateur, adopted a method which, after re-
peated trials, I have found completely to answer my expecta-
tions, I take this opportunity of communicating the informa-
tion.

What photographer, whether professional or amateur, is
there that has not met with a spotty or stained background ?
and perhaps, on the same plate, has obtained an exceedingly
good and faithful portrait, but, in consequence of spots and
stains, has destroyed the picture, and then labored again and
again to obtain the former happy expression, but alas! in vain
It may be that the background is clear, while there is too
much of the same tone throughout the picture, and a ghastly
look is thereby given to the sitter. Again, every operator is
aware of the great difiSculty in taking portraits of childen who
will not remain quiet, unless held by their parents or nurses;
these, being behind the child, would of course be visible in the
photograph, and disappear only when the background is put in.
Unquestionably, pure photography is at all times to be pre-
ferred, yet it frequently happens that circumstances such as
those described above, will so deteriorate the impression, that
some additional aid is required, otherwise, very many attempts
might be requisite to produce a picture which would be satis-
factory even in a moderate degree.

The first thing to be done is, to free the surface of the plate
from all grease, or any impurities of gum contained in the var-
nish. This is done by washing it over with a few drops of
liquid ox gall, and wiping it dry with a soft handkerchief or
dossil of lint.

I may say that, without this precaution, the color will
shrink from its original place, and leave a sort of halo around
the figure.

Having decided on the tint of the background, say for in-
stance a grey, or any other neutral tint, I take a small quan-
tity of black and blue of the ordinary photographic powder
colors, and a little of the liquid ox gall, grinding them, or
rather mixing them, with a small palette knife on a piece of
ground glass, adding a small quantity of moist Chinese white,
which gives a body to the color and renders it opaque. I also
add a small particle of red to give warmth to the grey.

The color having been well mixed, Itlien proceed to lay it on
the plate with a sable brush, which is done as quickly as possi-
ble, taking care not to color over the outline of the figure. Af-
ter having worked round it, I take a larger brush and fill up
the remainder of the background: then I stipple with a swan-
qaill or large camel-hair brush, which destroys all traces of
previous brush-marks which may have been left by the sable
brush, and not only gives an even granular texture to the back-
ground, but serves also like so many cells for the reception of
dry powder colors, which fill up the cavities and attach them-
selves readily and firmly to the groundwork — in the course of
a few minutes the groundwork is dry. I then proceed to lay
on the dry powder colors with a small short camel-hair brush,
thus gaining a more even surface, and producing with the
powder colors all the graduated tones of a beautiful painting.
Lastly, the excess of powder colors is to be dusted off; then,
with a moist brush, clean over the figure, taking care not to
touch the background.

These observations will be more fully understood by a refer-

44

THE PHOTO GRArHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

February,

ence to the specimens on the table, and I have only to add,
that this process is not dilficult; it requires, like the rest of
photographic operations, a little care and practice to enable
the operator to produce a beautiful picture, varying not only
the color, but the respective shades at pleasure, so that a true
artistic eifect can be given.

A vote of thaulis was unanimously given to Mr. Whaite for
his very interesting paper.

Mr. Alfred Deane then read a paper

" ON THE PREPARATION AND PROPERTIES OF GUN COTTON."

Of all the photographic processes, none for simplicity, quick-
ness, general application, and artistic effects has equalled the
use of collodion, the foundation of vviiich is gun cotton; a pre-
paration tliat was once anticipated to be the grand agent of
destructive warfare, and which is now a great promoter of
friendship, peace, and the fine arts, and helps to work such mir
acles of quick and accurate drawing, as to be, in its application,
a wonder of this wonderful age — second to none.

When first commencing with photography the importance of
gun cotton was such, in rny estimation, that a month's experi-
ments were not thought too long to devote to the subject. I
learned that it can be made from any materials containing
woody fibre — whether leaves, grass, wood, rags, potatoes, ropes,
&c., but that cotton as presenting the fibre in its purest form
and finest state of shreds, was the most eligible material with
which nature has furnished us. I have tried animal wool and
other substances, but, with the exception of wash leather, with-
out any desirable result.

First, procure the cotton as clean as possible, and then boil
it in a strong solution of potash or soda, if somewhat caustic
the better, or stir it well in some hot alkaline liquid, so that it
may be freed from a natural oil it contains, which causes au un-
equal action in the after process.

Now procure an ordinary pickling jar of any size, and if the
top is flat, or rubbed flat on a stone, so as to allow a piece of
ground glass to lie evenly on its surface, to prevent the too
easy escape of the fumes, so much the better.

Mix by degrees iu a stoppered bottle an equal quantity, by
measure, of commercial sulphuric and nitric acid, sold at about
ten pence per pound; thougli not quite pure, it answers as well,
and often better, being generally stronger, than the purer and
more expensive kinds. When this cools, pour into the jar
filled with cotton sufficient of the nitro-sulphuric acid to give it
equal dampness to prevent an unequal action in the after
process.

The sulphuric acid of commerce can be generally bought
strong enough for our purpose, but nitric acid varies so much in
strength, and is mostly so weak, that I have found it best to
make it from nitrate of potash, by adding by degrees the pound-
ed salt to sulphuric acid. The mixture should be made in a
stoppered bottle, and shaken leisurely, so as to prevent it heat-
ing too much. No weighing or measuring is required, as it will
be right if it is all fluid, at about 200 degrees temperature, or
fluid enough to flow out of the bottle at half that heat. It
will be quite solid when cool. No action worth considering
takes place with the cotton in this strong acid when cool, or
even warm; and here comes my grand secret — commence with
the materials as cool as possible, then you may so apply heat
that you command the progress at pleasure.

AVarm the solid sulphate of ])otash just enough to allow it
to flow out of the bottle into the jar of cotton, which, on well
stirring with the mixed acids, becomes more fluid. Now place
the jar covered with a piece of glass on a hob, sufficiently large
to command different degrees of temj erature, or place the jar
in a pan half full of warm water or sand, over the fire, and in
th-i course of several minutes, just before the heat is at the
boiling point, or at the boiling point if no solution is taking
place, take it off. Quickly draw it out with a hooked wire or
glass into a large pan of water, immediately stirring to pre-
vent solution taking place in the inner part of the clotted cot-
ton, by the weakening of the acids.

With weak acids it is well to allow the heat to be high,

though in them the cotton is most liable to dissolve, and once
properly commenced the internal heat becomes so great that
all the cotton disappears before you have time to draw it out
into the water.

The great advantage of using the heat of a fire, is in being
able to regulate it, while the fumes go up the chimney. In a
glass vessel you can watch the behavior of the cotton, and may
consider it satisfactory if none of it dissolves. The redness of
the fumes inside the bottle will soon become a good guide to
the change the cotton is undergoing.

A little experience will soon indicate to the novice the
strength or weakness of his acids, for, if weak, the cotton is
disposed to dissolve at a proportionately low temperature, while
if strong, the heat may reach safely 212". Or the stronger
the acids, the less heat required, and the greater the heat the
cotton will bear the quicker the action.

The beginner, should he suspect the weakness of his sulphuric
acid, would do well to stop the action before it advances too
far, and hook out a tuft of cotton into some water; and if it is
unaltered in strength, it may be considered underdone; if it
feels of a much greater specific gravity when washed, and is
much more tender, it may be considered right; and if it falls
away in the water, in rotten short threads, the cotton may be
good, but it is dissolving from being over done. When first
learning, I would take a piece of cotton out of the wide-mouthed
bottle; roughly wash and quickly dry, first by squeezing in
blotting paper, and then open it out and place it near the fire,
and treat iu the following manner: — Place a tuft, quite dry, on
a clean bit of glass or white porcelain; apply a flame, and if it
burn slowly with much flame, and little or no explosion, leaving
a black tinder, make sure, if the acids are strong enough, that
more heat or more time is required. If the tuft slightly flames
and suddenly explodes without much noise, leaving behind a
little black ash, and especially a little damp, gummy residue, it
may be considered satisfactory. If it suddenly and somewhat
loudly explodes, leaving behind a dry white powder, it must
be considered over-done, not probably because the acids were
too strong, for of that there is little fear, but because the heat
was too long, or high, or both.

For the most certain test it may be as well to keep at hand
one or two ounces of known quality of «ther, and alcohol mixed
in equal proportions. In this the cotton should readily dii-,-
solve, an inferior quality requiring a larger proportion of a3ther.

Put about a grain of cotton to a dram of the fluid, and if it
does not dissolve or only partially, and remains little altered in
strength of fibre, it is underdone, but if it appears to be dusty
it is overdone. If the cotton is diposed to make the whole fluid
into a jelly whilst dissolving, a few drops of ether alone added,
may cause it to liquify perfectly, but still this cottou will not dis-
solve at the rate of more than three or four grains to the ounce;
but, if made at a higher temperature, it would theu become per-
fectly liquid in the test mixture.

A good cotton will, in dissolving, instantly become transpa-
rent, appearing for a moment like dissolving gum arabic, and
soon becomes perfectly lost in the solvent, at a rate of eight
grains to the ounce, and will even bear from four to six grains
to the ounce, if three parts alcohol to one of ojther is used.

This is the only cotton on which you can expect to get rich
and brilliant-toned positives, as it has less of tiie cotton in its
nature; for my notion of the cotton is, that in solution it is
merely a neutral medium for the formation of the iodide of sil-
ver, and receiving the reduced salt, while the underdone cotton
has a tendency to unite with a more unreduced or oxide of
silver.

This very soluble cotton may be for color of deposit no better
for negatives, but as it is most fres from network on drying,
will bear the most alcohol, therefore less liable to tear off the
glass, and is more porous, and therefore rougher and more sen-
sitive. It must be the rule to get a cottou that will bear the
most alcohol. A^iews or portraits on a rough porous alcoholic
collodion, are bolder, softer, and more artistic. Should yonr
cotton only partially dissolve, it shows that you have been too
quick in your manipulation, not using the glass rod enough in

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

45

stirring. I am not prepared to give any clear theory of the
chemical chaoge the cotton undergoes, but will certainly deny
that there are any definite kinds of gun cotton, for the cotton
is capable of all degrees of change, from it being little altered
to a more or less soluble cottou, until it goes on to the insolu-
ble explosive gun-cotton, just as you may more or less alter
cotton by heat until, from being a little burned, it becomes per-
fectly carbon.

With respect to the use of linen or paper, I have found no
advantage over unrepelliug or washed cotton, especially if that
cotton is cut with the scissors in short lengths, as paper merely
undergoes a process that makes its fibres shorter, and thus pre-
sents more open ends to allow the acid to get inside the cotton
or fibre, but it has this disadvantage, that the outside of the
fibre is more pressed over-lapped, or intertwined, and less ex-
posed to action. The cotton, after being roughly washed in
water, requires nothing more than being well squeezed in many
changes of warm water, dried and bottled.

In making collodion, I seldom use less than seven grains of
cotton to the ounce, and reject, for good reasons, methylated
aethers. A good collodion, can be made from two to sixteen
grains of cotton to the ounce, and containing from three to
eight grains of an iodine salt, while a developer may be used
successfully from two to twenty grains of protosulphateof iron,
according to circumstances, and the other materials used.

Having tried all kinds of additions to collodion, such as io-
dide of silver, essential oils, chloroform, &c. , I can only say
that they are best let alone, with the exception of iodine,
which sometimes tends to unite with and throw down invisible
impurities in a new collodion, and therefore doing more good
than harm, if not used in excess. One-fifth of a bromide is
good for the better taking of certain colors.

The opacity of the film after it comes out of the bath, is no
certain guide of the strength of the collodion in iodides, for a
porous collodion, with the same quantity of an iodine salt, will
give a more creamy film than a close textured one, simply be-
cause the particles of iodide of silver were formed slower,
and, if I may be allowed to say, in a finer state of divis-
ion, at least so arranged as to appear more transparent. A
little water added to a very anhydrous collodion will often make
a somewhat transparent film look more opaque, as the collodion
has become of a more porous quality.

Again, ma*ke an iodide of silver in a strong or weak solution
of nitrate of silver, and the result is, a strong solution precipi-
tates snowy flakes, a weak one a fine milky deposit, so that by
a weak or strong bath, a porous or impenetrable film, the action
is slower or quicker, and will give different opacities with the
same quantity of an iodine salt in the collodion, independent of
the different thicknesses of the film.

From the JoU. of the Phot. 8oc.

SPOTS ON COILODIOX CAUSED BY VOLTAIC ELECTRICITY.

50 Blessington Street, Dublin, Sept. 5th, 1857.
To the Editor of the Photographic Journal:

Sir,— -Since the publication of my letters in vol. iii. of the
Journal, pages 55 and 91, I have endeavored to ascertain the
cause of othef pecuUar marks of a flame-like appearance radia-
ting from the corners of the plates towards the centre. In con-
sequence of having recently been experimenting with dry collo-
dion, in which these marks never occurred, I naturally imagined
that the silver corners of the slides might play an important
part in the pheenomena; accordingly I covered the corners with
a fine sUpofguttapercha, and found the remedy effectual. What,
then, was the nature of the chemical change thus produced? I
at once attributed it to a current of voltaic electricity generated
in a manner requiring investigation, and accordingly constructed
a small galvanic apparatus with a scrap of iron and a piece of
silver immersed in dilute acid in a teacup. Having sensitized a
stereoscopic plate in the usual way, I placed it horizontally on
a stand, and gave it an inclination of 8 or 10 degrees, so as to
allow the solutioa of nitrate to accumulate at the lower edge.

e*

Having shielded the ends of the connecting wires With silver
foil, I applied them to the lower edge of the plate, one near the
one and the other near the other corner, and after the lapse of
twenty or thirty seconds, I stopped the action, and exposed and
developed the plate, when I found the result to be exactly what
I had anticipated, I then prepared another plate, subjected it
to the galvanic action, and developed it without exposure, and
the result was most interesting. I enclose prints taken from
these plates.

The result of my experiment proves that electricity is capable
of producing effects similar to those caused by the action of light;
and when we consider that the photographic image is produced
principally by the violet and extra spectral rays (supposed by
some to be magnetic), investigation may be directed into a chan-
nel hitherto overlooked.

I may add, that no visible effect was produced until after the
developer was applied.

It may be objected that galvanic action could not be produced
when only one metal fsilver) is to be found in the slide of the
camera. In answer to this I would observe, that we have in
collodion, iodine, potassium, silver, and niiric acid, either sepa-
rately or in combination, on the surface of a wet collodion plate, —
bodies amply sufficient to cause the production of slight voltaic
currents. W. C. Macartney.

PflOTOGRAPHEES.

Through a variety of causes, over whicli, it seems to me, I
have had no control, 1 have been rather unfortunate in life.
I was expelled from Warton Grammar-school immediately after
the great Rebellion (I mean, of course, the barring out there,
and not the more generally known affair of sixteen hundred and
forty-two), although I protest I was led into it my senior. I
was plucked in honors at Cambridge through the maglignancy of
the examiners, who, because I did not graduate the Steel-yard,
refused to graduate me; partly through a pecuniary embarrass-
ment, partly through a misunderstanding of a mere legal sub-
tlety, I was unable to obtain my attorney's certificate. Then,
naturally turning my attention to bill-discounting, was unfortu-
nate there; and, finally, upon the turf-— last scene of all, wl.er(in
the Unsuccessful plays — my private Tart gave me false intelli-
gence, and I laid the whole of my remaining store against the
winning favorite, which I had most conscientiously believed to
have been safely poisoned the night before, " When," as the
bard has observed, " a man is like me, sans six sous, sans souci;
bankrupt in purse, and in character worse, with a shocking bad
hat and his credit at zero," what on earth can he now-a-days
hope to become save a photographer? This profession, which,
requires little capital, but gteat assurance; no book learn-
ing, but considerable knowledge of character, was the very thing
to suit me, and I may say that I have sticceeded in it! when
generations yet unborn shall speak with fervor of the leafy wood-
lands of Creswick, the breezy moorlands of Landseer, the peace-
ful kine of Cooper, and a great number of other things of a great
number of other people, they will not, perhaps, be altogether
silent concerning Jones the photographer; his judicious group-
ings will not, I venture to affirm, be then forgotten, whether
they be his domestic---grandmother in centre with a baby on
each arm, Paterfamilias, L. c, mother of the family, e.g., eldest
son, left of male parent; eldest daughter, left of female parent;
and miscellaneous offspring promiscuously disposed: or his classi-
cal— tallest girl in sheet and wreath, with bread-knife and salad-
bowl, as Melpomene the Tragic Muse. Second ditto, in ditto,
ditto, with backgammon-board under the left arm, as Clio, Muse
of history Small fat brother, upon one leg, in act of flaying, with
wreath and-bow-and-arrow, complete, as God of Love; and Ma-
terfamilias in arm-chair with hired peacock, as Juno, Queen of
Heaven. Or his romantic — only son with exposed throat. Ready
Reckoner for small edition of by Byron upon adjacent pillar, quill
pen in the left, with back -ground of wood and water, with water,
with turret— in any case, I say, grouping will challenge criticism,
and their combined effects set competition at definance, All
ameteur artists and many professionals forget that the situations

46

THE PnOTOGRArniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

February,

are reversed in the photographic process, and tlie family ensign
is but too often represented with his drawn sword in the
wrong hand, and the domestic poet composing from right to
left, after the manner of the literati of Japan.

Before a man can become a first-rate photographer I hold it
necessary that he should have had some experience as a photo-
graphee. I made my living in the latter capacity for the first
two years after my little Turf transaction, and laid by enough
to purchase the instruments of my present profession as well. 1
was that hussar whom, you know so well in the stereos-
copic pictures, who is making love to the young lady in ball
costume in the conservatory; I was perpetually doing it for up-
wards of a fortnight, and tiien (as you also remember) I married
her with considerable pomp, and that venerable divine who per-
formed tiie ceremony is the very man whom I now employ su-
perintending my apparatus.

Many and many a time have 1 formed one of those delicious
pic-nic parties, which look to you, my public, so ])leasant, and
so real, with pasteboard tongue and fowls, artificial smiles, and
a painted screen ior New Forrest scenery up two pair of stairs
in the New Road.

I was the bishop who is baptising the child in presence of that
magnificently apparelled company at two shillings an hour, and
to provide their own costumes; and I was the groom who is
biting the puppy's tail off with an expression of enjoyment (price
si.x sliillings and sixpence, and cheap at the price, besides the
hire of the puppy) who is marked at the back of the stereoscopic
slide— "A Study."

I learnt thereby how persons in every rank of life are to be
characteristically composed for pictorial representation, besides
qualifying myself, better perhaps than most place-holders, to fill
almost any position which the state has to offer. Is it a govern-
ment office? Here is our newspaper and our official expression
with the " I really don't know, sir," pleasantly balancing in it
the " I really dont care," tape and pamphlets to any amount in
the back-ground, and the government coals seen blazing between
our departmental legs as we stand with our back to the fire,
M'ith our coat-tails under our arms. Or is it the colonies them-
selves? Here is the table of the house fdresser) sideboard, or
other convenience, as occasion offersj, upon which the fingers of
our right hand are impressively doubled up; those of our left
upon the despatch-box — missionary or other — with slit, the
second finger just touching it, and the " I hold in my hand, sir,
the relutation" order of countenance after original on view every
night at the exhibition just closed at St. Stephens', or is it a
mere Queen's counselship?

Here is our handlverchief, and our hand upon our heart, and
the "upon my word and honor, gentlemen of the jury, I do be-
lieve my unhappy client innocent," written in every lineament
of an expressive visage, so that you can almost hear our broken
tones.

If, however, as is but too probable, none of these appoint-
ments should be conferred upon me, photography is still to me
its own reward. There are but lew professions which combine,
as this does, pleasure and profit, enjoyment and a stroke of busi-
ness. While I wander amongst the fairest scenes of nature,
and, transfer them without robbery to my cabinet, by aid of
her clever little handmaid, Art, making for me a sort of illus-
trated autobiography which reanimates, whenever I set eyes
upon any leaf of it, some by-gone scene with its associations, I
do not feel much less joyous, because I am, at the same time,
earning my bread. When I mirrored, indestructibly, that
nook's green coolness by the river's side, or arrested in its de-
decny, for years and years, yon blood-red ruin crumbling away
in the deep stillness of its woods, my admiration, though per-
liajjs weakened, was not annihilated by the reflection that trees
were in demand and abbeys rising in the photographic market.
I am, by nature, I believe, a man of sentiment, and though my
past lifu has been of a sort to give the main chance a too prom-
inent position, my present certainly tends to mitigate that e.x-
perience. I have room, I hope, for tenderness and disinterested
pity, yet. I felt for that kind lady and her family, yonder, in
deepest mourning, whom I took but a month ago.

" I must have two pictures of each of these," she said, point-
ing to her children, " all that are left to me, so that in case
of "

She saw the poor, wandering artist had a heart, I think, for
she made no effort to restrain her tears, and presently told him
her sad story. Her son had lately fallen — been butchered — at
an Indian station, and all she had of him now was a small por-
trait— lifelike, real, of a soldierly, fine lad, whom any mother
well might have been proud of; and this she must needs part
with to his widowed bride, left more forlorn even than she her-
self. When 1 assured her that I could give her a copy of this
in a few moments, and presently succeeded in producing a most
accurate one, I learnt, for the first tin)e, how great a benefac-
tress is this simple art of mine, and how gracious a giver, in-
deed, is the glorious sun.

Once, when I had been engaged one morning at a country
house, taking likenesses of all its in-dvvellers, I was ridden after,
upon my road home, by one of the young gentlemen, who
asked me if I would be so kind as to take him once again;
when I said " Yes, certainly" — since I travel in a shnt-uj) fly
with yellow blinds (smelling, by-the-bye, very horribly of collo-
dion), and so am always ready for a subject. He produced,
from round the corner of the road, his pretty cousin Caroline,
and, getting off their horses, they were there and then grouped
together very prettily, with his arm turned round her " dainty
dainty waist," and his eyes looking at her with an expression
with a good deal more of "kind" than "kin" in it. Poor young
fellow! He little knows that I have an excellent copy of this
which has been much admired, and a very singular contrast it
presents to that which I took of him at his uncle's house a few
hours before, where he has a manuscript sermon (roll of music)
in that left hand instead of Carry's fingers, and is supposed to
be preaching his first discourse to his first congregation.

Again, shall I ever forget the young lady of thirty -five or so,
who wished to know whether I would mind taking her by
moonshine instead of vulgar daylight! Or that whole family
of females who, being informed by their little nephew who had
pressed under my black curtain, they appeared upside down,
refused to be taken at all! Another feminine circle once
jumped up from*thcir chairs and insisted upon seeing how they
grouped in the camera before they were printed off, and very
much surprised they were to find that wheu they M'ere in my
place there was no group to look at.

Gentlemen, I must confess however, have given me quite as
much trouble as ladies; their portraits are quite as often pro-
nounced by them to be " unnatural, inexpressive, unlike," as
those of the other sex are held to have given them "too old an
expression," or to have " very much exaggerated the feet."
One Paterfamilias who won't be taken with a lot of babies, "to
look like a scene in a pantomime," and the Paterfamilias who
will, are both inexorable sitters, and very hard to please.
" Why, you have actually made my hair grey!" cried one indig-
nant parent of five-and-fifty; and " You have positively given
dearest Edward John no nose at all!" complained another, as
querulous about his little two-year-old as any grandmother.

Handsome old gentlemen, with one expression, are my best
photographees; then, old ladies; and worst of all, I am obliged
to say (save babies) are young ladies. Their features are gen-
erally too rounded, and they have rarely any medium between
trying to look intellectual and giggling This is my usual
monologue with the majority of them: "Not so much up at
the sky, Miss Smith; look at me, if you please, and be so good
as to part your lips; don't frown; your ankle is too exposed,
it will be of a frightful size; thank j-ou: don't purse your mouth
up as though you were going to whistle, and oblige me like-
wise by not laughing, or you'll have such a mouth; now, steady
— there you are you see, my dear Miss Smith, squinting abom-
inably; I told you how it would be, if you would wink your
eyes."

Spoilt children are perhaps a trifle worse: some of them
taking advantage of my absence under the curtain to throw
stones at the camera, and others screaming with terror because
they consider it to be a deadly weapon provided for their

1S58.

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

41

special destruction, which I have sometimes devoutly wished it
was. But the most unwilling sitters whom I ever took were a
couple of dozen gentlemen who were accepting, for various
terms of years, the hospitalities of the governor of a certain
north country gaol. More than one of them had recently
shown a disposition to leave the place, and not to be burthen-
some to him any longer; but their host was determined not to
hear of such a thing; he was even prepared, in case of their de-
parture, to go the length of fetching them back again, and ap-
plied to me to assist him in such a case by enabling his servants
to recognise them. The photographees did not like my inter-
ference one bit. The machine seemed to remind them exceed-
ingly of a bull's eye lantern, to which they had a very natural
repugnance; their positions were far from graceful, their expres-
sions such as had no parallel in all my photographic experience.
I never saw folks so disinclined to look the sun in the face be-
fore. There was, however, one among them, a mere lad, expia-
ting his first offence in the prison, who had one of the most
honest countenances I ever beheld: he was the only one who
did not tell me he was innocent, and the only one who appeared
to me as being possibly not guilty; he took occasion to entreat
of me not to put him amongst a portrait-gallery of felons for
the remainder of his days, because, if his mother should come to
bear of it, it would surely break her heart — it was almost
broken now, he said. I thought of the poor lady in mourning
then, and how much worse than to lose a son it must be to have
a sun in such a plight as this; and, whether there was something
wrong about the collodion, or whether I handled this particu-
lar photograph rather clumsily, it is very certain that the
young lad's face is smudged, and by no means to be recognised.

From the Jour, of tlw, Phot. Soc.

riRECT POSITIVES ON COLLODION.*

BY F. HARDWICH, ESQ.

" A comparison was next made of photographic properties,
the one-and-a-half grain collodion being used in every case.

" 1st. Sensitiveness. — Here the difference was not very
marked, perhaps the twenty-grain solution had a little the ad-
vantage; at all events it was plain that nothing had been lost
in this respect by diminishing the proportion of nitrate.

"2nd. Cleaness of Image. — In every case the iuiage was
perfectly clear, in the sense that there was no fogging or reduc-
tion of metallic silver on the transparent parts, but there was a
difference in the appearance of the ' lights;' when baths A and
B were employed, they were always slightly obscured, espe-
cially the shirt and forehead of the sitter, by a yellowish deposit
of silver, which seemed as if it had been precipitated after the
proper development was complete. I conclude that this deposit
was derived from the free nitrate of silver on the surface of the film,
which being in a more concentrated state in the two former cases,
was the more readily acted upon by the developing fluid; how-
ever, it may not be that the effect here alluded to will invaria-
bly follow when a neutral bath so strong as forty grains to the
ounce is used; much depends no doubt upon the nature of the
developing agent; indeed the two must be associated together,
the strength of one varying inversely with that of the other.

" The conclusions arrived at are these, that with the dilute
iodized collodion, nitrate of silver in the proportion of twenty
grains to the ounce, gives equal sensibility, and in every respect
the same perfection of image, as when used of greater strength;
besides this, it has the merit of economy, and superior cleanliness
of manipulation; if the proper precautions are observed, such a
bath will remain constant in its action for a length of time.

" Before proceeding to the developing fluid, there yet remains
to be considered, as originally proposed, the effect of adding
nitric acid in graduated quantities to the neutral nitrate bath;
my experiments in this direction are, I am sorry to say, as yet
incomplete; however, two or three facts o( importance are mani-
fest, viz: that it is impossible to lay down any general rule as
to what the effect of adding the acid will be unless we take into

* Continued from p. 28 vol xi., no. i.

account all the other circumstances of the case; no doubt there
will invariably be a loss of sensitiveness, but wiiether or no ad-
vantages will be gained in other respects, seems to depend upon
further considerations. When collodion positives are tiiken by
solutions modified as I have proposed, it will be found that the
smallest amount of free acid, even such as cannot at once be de-
tected by test paper, will sadly injure the ' half-tones' of the
picture.

" On the other hand, many photographers advocate the use
of nitric acid, and state that they obtain a better result by
means of it.

" In explanation of this seeming discrepancy I would suggest
(and the view I entertain are borne out by my experiments as
far as they have gone), that the amount of free nitric acid which
may be added to the bath with impunity depends mainly upon
the strength of the solution of nitrate of silver; strength of bath
is favorable to reduction, nitric acid is opposed to it, conse-
quently the two, to a certain extent, balance each other. But
besides this, I am inclined to think that something depends upon
the thickness of the film of iodide of silver; perhaps it may be that
the particles of iodide being less in number are more easily at-
tacked; but, at all events, it seems necessary to regulate the
acid, both in the bath and in the developing fluid, with greater
care when weak films are employed thau under contrary con-
ditions.

" It is important then, and indeed essential that the dilute
nitrate bath should be preserved accurately neutral; this may
easily be effected by adding a little carbonate of soda and so
setting free carbonate of silver, which can be allowed to remain
continually at the bottom of iodide of ammonium is used in the
collodion, this plan does not succeed, because nitrate of ammonia,
which will then be formed in the bath, has the property of dis-
solving carbonate of silver, and forming with it an alkaline so-
lution; in that case it is better to keej) a piece of blue litmus
paper always in the solution of nitrate and when the color is
perceived to be changed by the small amount of acid liberated
by the free iodine in the collodion, to add ammonia graduated
to fortieths of a minim until the evil is removed.

" Having now finished what I have to say on the subject of
the nitrate bath, it only remains that I should speak of the De-
velopment of collodion positives in order to complete my paper.
The deposits which constitute the light portion of these pictures
consist in all cases, excepting where the bichloride of mercury
is used, of metallic silver; but it may be useful to class them
under two heads, according as they do or do not jjossess metallic
lustre.

" The first is a surface bright and sparkling like frosted silver,
very white when produced in perfection, but with occasionally
a greyish tinfoil hue.

" The second is dull and without lustre, of a whitish tint,
slightly inclined to yellow or grey; there is no appearance of
metal about it, the color being like that of a piece of chalk.

" These two varieties require exactly opposite conditions of
developing fluid to produce them; from what I can gather from
the observations of others, it would seem that the first is ob-
tained by means of a reducing agent checked, as it were, in, its
action by the presence of a strong acid, consequently the deve-
lopment proceeds slowly and gradually, and the particles of
silver are large and crystalline; on the other hand, the second
variety results when the action of the developer is sudden and
violent, no impediment being offered by the presence of acid,
except in minute quantity. The particles of metallic silver are
here smaller than before, and being comparatively amorphous,
they reflect light in a different manner. The distinction in the .
two cases, then, if the views here given are correct lies in the
amount and strength of the acid used; in the one it is simply
sufGcient to whiten the picture slightly by preventing the pre-
cipitation of oxide; in the other, being increased in quantity
it tends to retard the development as well. In couductiig
these experiments the action of several different develoi-
ing agents was compared, viz : pyrogallic acid, the same
with subsequent whitening by bichloride of mercury, protonitrate
of iron, and protosulphate of iron.

48

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

February,

" 1st PyrogallicAcid. — 'Iliis skives, under certain circumstances,
a beautifully white deposit of silver, free from lustre ; it should be
used in the proportion of three grains to the ounce, with a small
quantity of nitric acid ; if too much of this substance be added ,
the deposit is more metallic, but the half tones are not properly
brought out, so that the pyrogallic acid is not adapted to pro-
duce what I have termed the first variety; so also it does not
succeed when the proportion of nitrate of silver in the bath is
reduced to twenty grains to the ounce; in that case the deve-
lopment becomes imperfect in parts of the plate, and large
patches of a blue or greenish color are seen.

" 2nd. Pyrogallic acid and acetic, with subsequent whitening
ly bichloride of mercury, — I was unsuccessful in my attempts to
produce good pictures by this plan; the color of the image was
not sufficiently white, but had invariably a bluish tint, which
was particularly unpleasant: other photographers, I am aware,
have produced excellent results with bichloride of mercury, and
it may be that the extreme tenuity of the film I employed was
one cause of theblueness and transparency. Another objection ap-
peared to be ihat the details of the picture were slightly injured
by the action of the bichloride, and the whole image reduced to
a certain extent in intensity; this was more apparent after black-
ening by means of ammonia, and then again whitening a second
time.

"3rd. Protonitrate of iron. — This substance is peculiar in
producing an image of brilliant metallic lustre, without the ad-
dition of any free acid, hence it may at first sight seem to be an
exception to the observations that have just been made on this
subject; it is remarkable, however, that protonitrate of iron
should be so feeble a reducing agent when compared with the
corresponding sulphate; probably the reason may be, that in
passing into the state oi persalt, a portion of the oxygen required
is furnished by the decomposition of the nitric acid itself, and
hence less would be extracted from other sources. In experi-
menting with protonitrate of iron, I found a difficulty sometimes
in bringing out the half-tones of the picture properly; to obviate
this, it is advisable to use the solution of the salt in as concen-
trated a state as it can be procured, and to increase the pro-
portion of nitrate of silver in the bath, if required, from thirty-
five to forty grains to the ounce.

*' With the dilute nitrate bath of twenty grains to the ounce,
protonitrate of iron failed entirely to develop the images, thus
affording most conclusive proof of the close relation which the
strength of the bath bears to the energy of the development.

" 4th. Protosulphate of iron. — This salt appears better adap-
ted for the purpose than either of the others when the twenty
grain bath is employed. In order to obtain the tint which has
been characterized as a dead white with absence of lustre; it
must be used of such a strength that the picture comes out al-
most instantaneously in all its details; it occurred to me at first
that the gradation of tone would be injured somewhat by this
violent method of proceeding, but neither is there any indication
of fogging or over development if the solution be poured off from
the plate tolerably quick.

" The proportions I have been in the habit of using are
these:

Protosulphate of iron pure, gr. 15 to 18 or 20.

Acetic acid (glacial) minims viij.

Distilled water one ounce.

" In the place of the acetic acid, strong sulphuric acid minim
half, or nitric acid minim quarter, with fifteen drops of alcohol
may be used; the alcohol certainly has the effect, as has been
stated, of causing the solution to flow more evenly, but it ap-
peared to me, that if present in two large quantity, the liability
to ' specks' and ' dirty marks' was increased.

" If the solution of protasulphate is in too concentrated a
state, it will be difficult to pour it on the plate sufficiently quick
to cover the whole surface before the action begins; in such a
case, after fi,\ing with the cyanide, curved lines will be seen, such
as would be produced by a wave of fluid flowing forwards and
resting for an instant at a particular spot.

" On the other hand, If the solution is too dilute the image
becomes slightly grey and metallic on drying.

" For fixing the picture by removal of the unaltered iodide of
silver, cyanide of potassium* appears preferable to the hyposul-
phite of soda, it may be used of such a strength as will clear
the plate gradually in about half a minute or so, and is easily
washed away by pouring a stream over the plate for a short
time.

•' For, ' Backing up,' I employ two varnishes, both of which
dry speedily; the solvent is different in the two cases, and that
of the black japan does not appear to act upon the transparent
layer beneath. A complaint is sometimes made that collodion
positives do not show to advantage through the glass,- but I have
not myself been able to distinguished at all between the two
sides, excepting in cases where the picture was slightly over-
exposed.

" With regard to the time required for taking' a portrait on
a tolerably bright day, as giving some indication of what the
degree of sensitiveness of the plates might be, I would say that
with a Ross' portrait lens of two-and-a-qoarter inches, having a
diaphragm of an inch and three quarters aperture, an exposure
in the camera of two to three seconds is the average; when dis-
tant objects are taken with the full aperture of the lens, it is
hardly possible to remove and replace the cap sufficiently quick."

From the Jour, of the Phot. Soc.

HINTS ON Tim COILODIO-AIBUMEN PROCESS.
To tht Editor of the Photographic Journal:

Sir, — Since the publication of my small work, ' How to take
Stereoscopic Pictures,' in which I slightly modified the collo-
dio-albumen process, as given in your Journal, Nos. 45 and 46,
I have been successfully following out the plan therein laid
down, with only occasional failures; but the tracing of these
to their primary cause has involved a large amount of trouble,
and for the benefit of your readers I now propose to give my
experience on this subject.

On preparing a dozen plates by this process, I sometimes
found that whilst the majority would be all that could be de-
sired, one or two would turn of a reddish-brown tint when kept
a few days after being excited; and, on being developed,
stains and markings would occur which completely spoiled the
result; indeed a plate in this condition must be exposed and de-
veloped within a few hours after being excited to ensure a pas-
sable negative. The cause of such failures was evidently the
imperfect washing of the collodion film before pouring on the
iodized albumen; for should any free nitrate be left on the
plate, a part may be decomposed by the iodide in the albumen,
but the greater portion evidently unites with the liquid albu-
men, forming albuminate of silver. This being an easily de-
composable body, soon acts so as to cause such a change as to
spoil the negative, more especially in the presence of a trace of
free nitrate left on the plate after exciting.

In order to free the collodion film from every trace of free
nitrate, I coat, excite, and well wash the plate as usual, and
then immerse it in a tray or basin containing a solution made
by dissolving ten grains of iodide of potassium in ten ounces of
distilled water. After allowing it to soak for two minutes, the
plate is lifted, only slightly rinsed with water, then stood up to
drain for one minute; lastly, coated with iodized albumen in the
usual manner.

Since adopting this plan I have found that the sensibility of
my plates is slightly increased; that no stains ever occur during
development; the resulting negative has been uniformly clear
and vigorous, and no change has taken place in plates kept sen-
sitive for five weeks.

Instead of using ordinary negative collodion with the addi-
tion of tincture of iodine and glycerine, I have succeeded in
forming a special iodized collodion for this process, which re-
quires no such addition, and is supplied ready for use by Messrs.
Home and Thornthwaite.

This collodion improves by keeping, yields a perfectly struc-

• Cyanide as jjure as can be obtamcd ecoQomically. — Ed. L. & M. P. J,

i

♦■'

r...

J. B. HiiwooB. Neg^

ivn It g

H. H. S!«EI,1.IN9, Print.

JVE , 1^ O Z J^ Tl T .

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

49

tureless film, which adheres so firmlj to the plate that blisters
never occur, and the plates may be artilicialiy dried, both be-
fore and after excitini^, and are even improved by beinp; so
treated, provided the heat employed does uot exceed 170° or
180*'.

Those who use e^^s for photographic purposes, must have
noticed that the viscidity of the albumen sometimes varies to a
considerable extent in different eggs, and at different seasons;
but this viscidity is sometimes so great, that it is useless to at-
tempt its tiltration when prepared in the usual manner. I
therefore, for this reason, now prepare my iodized albumen as
follows: —

To the whites of three eggs add 15 drops of glacial acetic
acid, and having stirred the whole together for two minutes
with a glass rod, leave it to rest, for about an hour, and then
strain through coarse muslin. Next, dissolve 1 scruple of io-
dide of ammonium in 1 drachm of distilled water, and add it,
together with 1 drachm, by measure, or ordinary treacle, to
the filtered liquid. Stir well together, and pour it into a clean
glass funnel, the neck of which has been slightly plugged with
a fragment of sponge, and filter, so as to obtain a perfectly
clear fluid free from sediment or floating particles.

Plates excited in a bath solution which has been allowed to
become discolored, never develope without stains or fogging,
if kept any time after exciting; for this reason, it is advisable
to allow kaolin to remain in the bottle containing the solution,
and to return into the bottle that portion which remains from
use when done with, so that it may be rendered colorless by
the kaolin and ready for using again when next wanted.

When the collodion employed has a tendency to blister, the
use of cyanide of potassium for fixing frequently raises the
film, so that creases are formed in drying: in such cases, a sat-
urated solution of hyposulphite of soda may be used; but when
the collodion is of the proper kind, the cyanide is preferable.

The perfect removal of the nitrate of silver solution after ex-
citing is very essential, and is best performed as follows: —

Provide three gutta-percha trays, made as hereafter de-
scribed, and having filled each with distilled or filtered rain-
water, proceed to excite the plate by immersing it in the ni-
trate of silver bath for one minute, then take it out, drain
slightly, and pour distilled water over the back and front, so
as to remove as much as possible of the nitrate solution; after-
wards lay it, face downwards, in the first tray, and give it a
rocking motion occasionally. When two minutes have elapsed,
remove the plate, pour distilled water over the back and front,
and place it iu the second tray; allow it to remain there for
another two minutes, shaking the tray occasionally, and then
place it for the same time in the third tray. Now wash the
face again with distilled water, and rear up on filtering-paper
to drain and dry, or dry by artificial heat. Of course in doing
this the operator will understand that whilst one plate is being
washed another may be exciting, so as to save time by dovetail-
ing the operations into one another. The water in the trays
will require to be renewed after the immersion of three
plates.

In developing collodio-albumen plates, gallic acid will be
found preferable to pyrogallic, except where a plate has been
under-exposed; and in that case pyrogallic solution, as given in
your Journal, produces the best result.

In using pyrogallic acid, the plate must not be laid on the
levelling-stand, but the solution kept in motion by being poured
on and off repeatedly, and changed, should it become muddy,
until the full development takes place.

The washing-trays* above referred to are a nest of three,
the smallest of which is a trifle larger than the plate, and
about 2 inches deep. A thin strip of gutta-percha is bent
and when in use, is placed so as to overhang the two longest
sides of each tray near one end, thus forming a bridge on which
a sensitive plate may be laid face downwards in the tray

the

slightest

risk of damaging the coated sur-

without
face.

A vertical bath is preferable to all other shapes for exciting;
but as the quantity of solution required is large, the horizontaHs
mostly used in travelling. In this, sufficient of the recently-filtered
bath solution is poured to cover the bottom for about half an inch
depth; the bath is then tilted so that all the liquid shall run
into the "well," and whilst in this position, a plate is laid, face
upwards, in the upper portion. The bath is now made to re-
sume its horizontal position, when the liquid flows over and
covers every part of the plate. It is allowed to remain thus
until the plate is considered to be fully acted on, when the
liquid is again made to enter the "well," and the plate, after
draining, removed by the use of a silver wire-hook.

William Ackland.

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

LONDON PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.

An ordinary meeting of this Society was held on the Sd of
December, Dr. Percy in the chair. After some routine busi-
ness, Mr. Paul Pretsch read a paper

" ON PROF PETZVAL'S RESEARCHES IN OPTICS."
Mr. Prktsch said, I have the honor to address you concern-
ing some researches in optics of Prof. Petzval, in Vienna, who
is known as the originator of the combination of lenses, execu-
ted by Voigtlander, Dietzer, and others. The principles of
these researches are not contained in any compendious theory.
They are the result of careful labor, continued for more than
six years, and carried on by several able mathematicians, under
the superintendence of Prof. Petzval. The expenses of the
work having been paid by His Imperial Highness the Arch-
duke Lewis; the Ministry for Public Instruction and the Im-
perial Academy of Sciences co-operating. These researches
will be published in Prof. Petzval's work, " The Integration of
the Linear Differential Equations;" " Die Integration der
Linearen Differential Gleichungen."

He begins with investigations for the purpose of finding out
the direction of a ray of light, which arrives on a separating
surface of two different optic substances supposed to be a sur-
face of rotation. The natural consequince of this is the defini-
tion of the path of such a ray through several o£_^uch surfaces
round the same axis of rotation, and therefore through a cer-
tain number of lenses, or mirrors, or mirrors and lenses.

This is a problem partly executed long ago by Euler, Do la
Call; and in later times by Gauss, Biot, Schleierraacher, Lit-
trow, Stampfer, Grunert. These researches would in all pro-
bability not have been continued, if Daguerre's wonderful in-
vention had not given rise to a demand for a camera obscura
more perfect than a mere plaything for the purposes of amuse-
ment; requirements in optical instruments having been hitherto
limited to telescopes and microscopes, the only instruments used
for scientific purposes. But there is now felt the want of a
more perfect instrument for the purpose of fixing on a given
surface the transient and immaterial image in the camera.

Hence, therefore, arises the want of large and brilliant im-
ages as free as possible from distortion, and correct in peispec-
tive, and this want has compelled the mathematician to investi-
gate more intimately the properties of the image formed by
lenses of different curvatures. It was necessary to abandon the
mode usually adopted in these calculations; it was necessary to
develope by a suitable mode in series the co-ordinates of the
point in which such a ray passes a surface put on any chosen
place; — this series was continued far enough, and the terms of
the same were analysed; by this mode he arrived at the imper-
fections existing in the images, classifying the sameinasiua-
able manner, he originated in this way a peculiar pathology
of these optical images.

But these enormous labors have not been undertaken only to
benefit the photographic camera. It very seldom, perhaps

* These trays were first suggested to me by Dr. Mansell, who, in __ ^ i,v^.i„ ,i,i, aiu^>.u, ^u .v.. ..^. .^

tour in Brittany last summer, took out with him forty-three prepared I "'"'"^""i ""^ puui^v/oiupiiii. ^atu^^u.. ^u .^.j ^v.. ^.^,^^.....,^..
collodio-albumea plates, and returned with forty good negatives. 1 never, happens that an important extension of our theoretical

7

VOL XI. NO. II.

knowledge docs not furnish ns with a more or less fundnmcntnl
reform of what we already know, and with the improvement in
the practical art which is the base of such a theory. Thus an
increase of knowled;i:e in optics leads us also to iitproveuients
of tiie telescope and microscope. But these latter improve-
ments mi^lit not be approved of immediately by the scientific
world. Tlie astronomer migiit not tliink it worth while to re-
ceive a telescope whose tube is reduced to half its usual length.
[Nevertheless the new telescopes will gradually replace the old
ones, like the achromatic telescopes have now completely re-
placed the first unwieldy tubes. The same will ultimately hap-
))en to the microscope, and Prof. Petzval is convinced that his
new photographic lens applied to the solar microscope will, by
degrees, perfectly change the views of those who use such an
instrument.

The above-mentioned calculations have been continued till
the terms of the seventh order inclusive, and we are therefore
enabled by the given theory to construct combinations of lenses
and mirrors, wliose imperfections only belong to the ninth order
of quantity. Thus we have arrived iu optics and mathematics
at the same point as in astronomy, where Burkhardt has con-
tinued the development of the functions (of interruptions) till
the terms of the seventh order.

This exact definition of the path of a ray of light through a
system of surfaces forms the body of Prof. Petzval's researches,
and all the other additions make it more practical and furnish
the philosopher with new means of research.

With the first approximation of the optic problem. Prof
Petzval was obliged, to his own regret, to represent the four
fundamental co-efficients of the first approximation, not iu the
same compact form like Euler and Gauss, but in two other
difierent forms, viz.: for the higher approximation as a sereis
of factors, and for the theory of achromatism as extended
algebraic polyno.nes.

This first approximation with its consequence concerning the
properties of light, magnifying power, field of view, and size of
picture, with the practical applications on the theory of achro-
matism of the false light, and of the eye-glasses, &c., will form
the first part of his work ou optics, to be published by the
Academy of Sciences.

Although a great deal has been done in the construction of
eye-pieces — see, for instance, the interesting work of Biot in
the 19th vol®ne of the "Memoirs of the French Academy," —
and although we possess astronomical and terrestrial eye-pieces,
and many others, composed of two, three, or four lenses, we arc,
nevertheless, not furnished for every case. Prof. Petzval gives
several instances to prove this view. He considers all the pho-
tographic pictures obtained through the eye-pieces of micro-
scopes inferior to the picture received by the human eye itself
by looking through the instrument; because the humau eye ac-
commodates itself with a certain elasticity to the eye-piece
which possess neither a chemical nor optical focus. For the
purpose of obtaining good photographic pictures it is necessary
not to change the object-glasses of the microscope, but to use
another eye-piece with a different focus, giving a flatter picture.

A second instance occurs in obtaining photographs of the
moon. He considers it necessary for this purpose, to obtain at
first improved refracting watches; secondly, a new eye-piece;
because the image obtained in the focus of the object-glass
would be too small, and the picture obtained with the eye-
pieces now in use, would not show as much as we see through
a good telescope.

A third instance is furnished by the dialylic telescopes; they
are imperfectly achromatic, possess a limited field of view', and
represent a star, only sharp in the centre, showing many aber-
rations on the edges. This could be obviated by having
another eye-piece more fit for the purpose, by means of which
we could obtain a large field of view and an even sharp picture,
like tho.se obtained with perfect achromatic instruments.

As a fourth instance, Prof. Petzval himself possesses a short
telescope for searching for comets, five inches aperture, with a
magnifying power about twenty times, and having a terrestrial
eye-piece, not Galilais', neither is it the knowa one with four

lenses, it being only composed of two lenses, so as not to lose
light.

It follows from these remarks, that eye-pieces may be looked
upon as small tools ol science, like files, chisels, screws for the
mechanic, and each physicist ought to be able to construct and
to choose the one most fit for his special purpose, j

The second part of Professor Petzval's researches treats of
the theory of illumination. Fresuel only has partially treated
of this subject, and our practice is such that the mode at pres-
ent adopted for the illumination of our streets and public build-
ings, at night, serves more to illuminate our atmosphere than
to enable us to see our terrestrial paths. The instruments for
illuminating purposes require to be very varied in form to act
with economy in all given cases; rays of light possessing every
variety of angle from 0 to 180° have to be properly refracted
and conducted to their appointed destination.

Several important facts have been discovered by Professor
Petzval iu the branch of optics relating to mirrors. He Snds,
for instance, that every curved mirror receiving light from any
source divides the same into two parts; the one he calls the
optical part, because it is able to give an image of the source
of light, and the other the non-optical part, because it is unable
to form an image. The second quality is most especially to be
used for illuminating purposes.

Professor Petzval has had much experience in the con-
struction of apparatus for the distrihUion of light. About
twelve years ago he was led to devise a plan for illuminating
apparatus for the production of dissolving views; and he soon
discovered that, by the usual mode, one-thirtieth part of the
light is really used; but he became able to employ sixty per
cent, of the total quantity of light, and he could have rendered
seventy-five per cent, effective, if all the small details of his
plan had been executed. About the same time he made apian
of an apparatus for the use of river steamers. It was so con-
structed that the points of equal illumination were situated in
the periphery of a long ellipse, the ship forming the centre. It
was calculated that all objects in a straight distance of 2000
yards, and sideways of 200 yards, were equally illuminated.
i\ine years later he was requested to construct an apparatus for
illuminating ])laces at a distance of 2800 yards, the longest
range of the largest shell mortars. There was required lor this
purpose a large reflector of four feet aperture, ground with
great accuracy, and as light as possible, so as to be easily
moved; furthermore, there were required lenses of particular
combination and of very large dimensions, and it was necessary to
construct a peculiar furnace or oven for melting and cooling
these lenses. Nevertheless, it is expected that this important
work will be finished by the end of this year.

From his researches, Professor Petzval is led to doubt the
well-known tale of Archimedes having set on fire the Roman
ships of Marcellus in the harbor of Syracuse. Such a fact
could only have been obtained at a short distance, and with an
apparatus of immense size, and with perfect steadiness ou the
part of the ships.

It sounds, perhaps, like a paradox, but it is nevertheless
true, that, for seeing objects at great distances, we must try to
do with as little light as possible. This is one of the few cases
where force can do but little, and prudent economy all.

Professor Petzval considers the theory of illiminnthig suffi-
ciently developed and based on principles, but this is not the
case with regard to the art of prod udng light There is a cer-
tain relation between heat and light which is not yet suflicient-
ly explained. To prove how much the power of light depends
upon heat, Professor Petzval made a fundamental experiment
with a lamp which had three concentric wicks. After having
well regulated the throe flames, placed one in the other, the
lights appears thin and transparent, and of a wonderfully
white-blue color, each flame being visible through the other
one. But, if the flame in the centre is put out, we observe
directly that the other two flames lose brightness — that they
become poorer in light, less transparent, and longer or higher.
If, in the same way, we put out the middle one, keeping only
the exterior flame alight, then we observe that this last flame

1858.

THE THOTOGRAPniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

51

has lost all its lustre; it appears yellow, and not at all transpa-
rent. The great heat and supply of oxygen causing less car-
bon to be separated in the flame, the light is given of a trans-
parent character, but then tiiose particles which are separated
are more intensely heated, and thus glow with increased bril-
liancy: thus the light is brighter, though less solid. Experi-
ments of this class should be continued with gas lights. To il-
luminate economically a street it would be better to use one
large light with twenty-tive distributors, instead of using
twenty-live lights. It is not at all improbable that the time
will come when, in every capital of Europe, and even, perhaps,
in smaller towns, there will be erected a building of a dome
shape, and an immense height, crowned witli a transparent pa-
vilion, containing a gigantic flame, which would send to all the
neigliborhood a much richer and more equal light than our
present system of illuminating by an immense number of small
points of light.

It is very probable that Drummond's light and the electric
light surpasses the intensity of the sun-light — that is to say,
tiiat a square inch of the white-hot chalk surface sends out
more light than a square iuch of the surface of the sun
himself.

The researches of Professor Petzval, of which the above
statements furnish but a slight idea, will be published after the
second volume of the " lutegration of the Linear Differential
Equations."

In conclusion, Mr. Pretsch said: —

Having mentioned so many interesting facts, I feel it is al-
most too much demanded from your patience to wait till this
work is published. It will be easily imagined that the practi-
cal execution of all these proposed improvements would require
an immense deal of labor, time, and capital, and the co-opera-
tion of many scientific and practical men. However, I can
show you at least a few specimens, executed by an instrument
which originated from a part of these investigations and re-
searches I have the honor to place before this Society some
photographic pictures taken with the lens and camera obscura,
calculated and invented by Prof Petzval, and executed by Mr.
Charles Dietzler, optician in Vienna. Tliese pictures are not
very remarkable as photographs; you have seen far better
ones, but they show the peculiarity and quality of the instru-
ment.

Here is a picture of the apparatus itself. The camera con-
sists of two parts, or two bellows, a larger one, and a smaller
one; on the last is the lens, consisting of six glasses, three of
flint and three of crown. The ground glass is twenty inches
square, and arranged that it can be moved out of the perpen-
dicular, if required. The camera is movable on a prism, by
means of a coarse screw. Having obtained the required length
of the camera, the exact focal adjustment is obtained by means
of a fine screw near the ground glass. The lens is three inches
aperture, and gives sharp pictures of sixteen and more inches.
The focal length is twenty-six inches; time of exposure, viz., for
a landscape, in good light, three seconds; a group of figures,
in the open air, fourteen seconds; in a room forty seconds.
These are the particulars given to me, and I do not doubt they
are true.

Here is the copy of a map taken by this lens with a stop or
diaphragm. You will find it sliarp in all its parts, and I think
this picture proves the applicability of the instrument for maps
in general, as well as for coi)ying drawings, prints, and paint-
ings. Especially I should like to have this in.strument tried in
copying paintings, because I consider this branch of photogra-
phy a very important one, and I do not consider this problem at all
satisfactorily solved at present. If my expectations of this in-
strument are proved to be correct, I think the productions of
it would give a new impulse to the applications of my method,
"Photogalvanography."

There is a view of the "Burgplatz," in Vienna, an oblong
square of about 300 feet in length. The colossal monument
stands in the centre of it, and the point from which it was
taken, is the same distance from the monument as that is from
the background. You see by the dial of the clock that the I

time of exposure has been very short. Every part of the picture
is equally si)arp, and tiie lines and perspective correct. I con-
sider that this picture as it is, could not have been taken by
any other instrument.

Here are two pictures of architecture; they are no doubt
very good, but they could have been taken by another lens; if
we have light enough, time enough for exposure, and a suitable
distance, then almost any instrument will serve for the purpose,
perhaps even a little hole in the camera with no lens. But
practical photographers know very well that these require-
ments are very seldom to be had, and there are some cases
where a picture can only be obtained during a few weeks of the
best season of the year.

The last picture which I have the honor to show you, is in-
ferior as a photograph, because it is taken by the optician him-
self, representing him amongst his apparatus. But it shows
most of the peculiarities of the lens. You know perfectly
well that each picture in a camera, especially when formed by
a combined portrait lens, exists only in a curve, therefore the
corners and edges cannot be as sharp as the centre, and the
light is mostly concentrated in the middle, and so the photog-
rapher is obliged to place the most important part of the pic-
ture in the centre (generally the head of the person to be
taken), and his skill and experience teaches him just to catch
the picture when the lights are not too much overdone, and
when the shadows just begin to appear. Tliese difficulties
seems in this picture to be perfectly obviated; the light is dis-
tributed over the whole surface, and the picture is equally
sharp at the edges and corners as in the centre. I have here
two copies, one mounted and another unmounted. I recom-
mend them to your special examination.

And now perhaps you will ask me where this instrument is
to be had. I am nnable to give you a suSicient answer. I
have already written to the manufacturer, with whom I am per-
sonally acquainted, for some of these apparatus, but he hesi-
tates to make them public before he has taken steps to secure
himself the advaatage of at least the first sale. However, I
hope in a short time to receive the terms and particulars under
which they can be obtained, and then I shall be very glad to
make them known to any person desiring the same.

Before discussing M. Pretsch's paper, it was agreed that the
following paper, by Mr. Grubb, M.R.I. A,, should be read; —

"ON SOME OF THE OPTICAL PRINCIPLES INVOLVED IN THE
CONSTRUCTION OF PHOTOGkAPHIC LEiNSLS."

Understanding there is a feeling that the optical and phy.si-
cal sections of the art (or science) of photography are not as
adequately represented in communications to your Society, or
its Jimrna/, as are the other sections of the art, I purpose to (at
least in some measure) restore the balance by an occasional
contribution of a paper coming under the head of the optics of
photography.

That the present is not my first essay in the same direction,
will be recollected by some of your members; and, having re-
cently glanced over the discussion, as published in you Journal,
on huge versus small view-lenses, it ayipears desirable for me to
make a few final observations on the same previous to entering
upon a new subject.

It is nuw just two-and-a-half years since " C. J. F." (follow-
ing in Mr. Sutton's wake) informed the Society that he had
practically ascertained the fitness of the smaller lens, by get-
ting one made of one-and-a-half ii;ch diameter and fifteen inches
focus, which gave very perfect definition up to the edges of a
field of nine by seven inches. " C. J. P.," however, has given
no information as to the aperture of the stop used in producing
such result; and as the indistinctness arising from aberration is
as the third power (or cube) of the aperture used, so almost
any desirable distinctness of outline can be obtained with the
worst len.s, provided only that the aperture be sufficiently re-
duced; for example, I have seen a very fair photograph which
had been taken with an ordinary single lens co ting half-a-
crown. "C. J. F.," however, appears to have mistaken the
question which I, at least, was discussing, viz., the size which a

52

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

February,

view-lens should be for a p:iven focus and field, in order to af-
ford the best resxblt, and which I consider to include the condi-
tions of the utmost distinctness throughout the (ield, when using
a diaphragm or " stop," of the largest possible aperture, which
other circumstances admit of.

In respect of the specious argument advanced first by Mr.
Sutton, and reiterated by " C. J. F.," viz., that that construc-
tion wliicii ia best suited to the case of a view-lens of the larger
aperture is not necessarily the best in the case of the smaller;
and, therefore, that the experiment winch I originally proposed
for ascertaining the least best aperture was not applicable (or
conclusive), I would here observe that, if anyone competent to
the matter will only make a diagram of an ordinary view-
lens, and examine the passage of a pencil (central or lateral)
as it occurs in practice, through the lens, he will find, that of
the four surfaces of the compound, the difference (for either the
large or small construction) is nothing for the first, second, and
third surfaces, and for the fourth surface so little as not mate-
rially to affect the general result; and, consequently, I assert
that the experiment, as originally proposed by me, is coiidusive.
" C. J. F.'s" assertion that all it (the experiment) proves is,
that the outside of the picture is produced by the outside of the
leus, is simply absurd.

Lastly, I would observe, that two-and-a-half years having
now elapsed (" C. J. F.'s" paper is dated May 5, 1855), and
view-lenses being still, with few exceptions, made and used of
the larger aperture, we can scarce help coming to the conclu-
sion, independently of my arguments, either that " C J. F.'s"
partially to the smaller lens has been misplaced, or that opti-
cians are a sadly incorrigible class, or photographers a very
soft one, to purchase and carry lenses of twice the diameter,
four times the price, and eight times the weight necessary.

As a postscript (and lest silence should be construed into
assent), I desire to state that I have not found the radius of
curvature of a field, g\vm by a plano-convex lens (plane side
next parallel rays) to be equal to focus i" radius of convex
side, as Mr. Sutton said I would.

The subject which I propose to discuss on the present occa-
sion has been selected more for reason of its importance, than
probable interest. If (as I apprehend) error is being disserai-
nated and acted upon by photographers, the sooner that more
correct views are arrived at, the better.

It will be necessary, as I proceed, to speak occasionally of
'^angular aperfaref and, to avoid digressions, I would beg
here to remind those who pay little, or only occasional atten-
tion to such matters, that while "aperture" (of a lens) means,
simply its effective or exposed diameter — " angular aperture" is
the diameter, taken in connexion with its focal length. Thus
■we may have lenses single or compounded of various sizes, and
all of the same angular aperture; and, conversely, we may have
several lenses of the one actual aperture or diameter, but of
various angular apertures (provided their foci differ). It is
important to photographers to have a clear conception of an-
gular aperture, as with it varies the intensity of the chemical,
as well as visual images, this intensity being as the square ot
the angular aperture.

[On account of the length of Mr. Pretsch's and Mr. Grubb's
papers, we are compelled to omit a large portion of the latter,
and also the discussion which took place npon both of them,
till the publication of our next number, when we intend giv-
ing a diagram in illustration of the remarks of the latter gen-
tleman.]

OUR PHOTOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS.

I.— GARDEN SCENE,

In Cambridge College Botanical Gardens.

Negative by Messrs. Whipple & Black.

This is a very good view of a part of one of the finest botani-
cal gardens in the United States. It contains a very large col-
lection of rare and useful medical plants, and is principally dc
voted to the use of the students.

11.— PORTRAIT OF MRS. J. M. MOZART.

Negative by Mr. J. B. Heywood.

This is a very excellent portrait; but we regret to say thai;
the negative was somewhat marred in printing, and that some
of the positives are not quite as good as they otherwise wouid
have been.

Both these pictures are printed on our American papers —
which prove to be a much better article than Canson's, and
only inferior to Saxe in the coarseness of texture. It would be
better for life-size painted portraits. We shall, however, here-
after use it in different ways to test it further. The formulas
for printing were the same as for January. The March picture
will be printed different.

REMARKS

From the Liverpool FJiot'ographic JonvnaL

ON PHOTOGRAPHY.

BY C. BURNETT, ESQ.

Experience has proved that self-taught photographers are
the most successful operators we have among us. In every re-
spect they excell. A man who is obliged to seek the assistance
of another on every occasion of a failure, and must depend
upon that assistance for correction of the evil, can never be-
come a first-rate photographer. Self-reliance is the only sure
road to excellence in any study or business.

Mr. Burnett has favored us with the following report for
insertion in this Journal: —

At the July, 1851, ordinary meeting of the Scottish Photo-
graphic Society, W. Walker, Esq., in the chair, some specimens
of unburnt photography on glass, parian, and porcelain having
been exhibited, the Hon. Secretary mentioned that Mr. Burnett
had some ccmmunications to make to the Society on the subject
of photography on such materials.

Mr. Burnett then remarked that he had been long trying*
to stir up our photographers to immortalize their works on por-
celain, glass, and allied imperishable materials, and was much
pleased to see the interesting specimens then exhibited, but
must, at the same time, fairly tell them that, — although by prepa-
ring the surface for the reception of an ordinary silverpictureand
subsequent varnishing, we might, as these specimens exemplified,
produce tolerable, or very good, photographs, and find porcelain
and allied fabrics — in some respects convenient supports for an
ordinary picture (\i might be for one with other materials) — to
give photographs, on such fabrics, their only real and charac-
teristic value, the photograph must be burnt in. It was only
thus that the photograph could be made to partake of the im-
perishability of the fabric on which it was placed. The great
obstacle and cause of failure, cr poor success in the attempts at
burnt-in photography which had been hiterto made, arose from
the change of color which the silver photographs underwent,
generally turning yellow in the process of burning — nothing
standing more in the way of progress here, as well as else-
where, than the notion, which photographers in general seemed
to be possessed with, that everything must be done by silver. In
photography which was to be subjected to the action of thefurnace,
he must lay it down as a law, and it was only by directing all
our efforts in subservience to this law, that we could hope to get
results worth having. We must direct our attention exclusively
to the color which the substance, or mixture of substances, of
which the photograph was composed, would assume after the
operation of burning, not to that which it would present before
burning. These two colors, it would be found, were by no means
necessarily, and were seldom the same — frequently altogether
unlike. These changes of color had been long known and care-
fully studied by the painters, stainers and decorators of pottery
and glass, having to be allowed for in all their operations; and

* Both privately and publicly, see report on February paper, in Photo-
graphic Notes of May 1, page 162.

1S58.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE AUT JOURNAL.

53

their recorded experiences as to colors obtainable from varions
oxides, and their mixtures, as well as their respective fixities in
the furnace, and the methods of buruing-iu, should be carefully
studied by photographers.

Next, as to the praclkcihility of procuring photographs with
more suitable substances than silver, he had been engaged at
intervals, during the last two or three years, in an extensive
series of experiments with a great variety of chemicals, partly
to try whether he could not find some material at once less costly
and less subject to change than silver for our ordinary paper
photographs; but also, in a great measure, he might almost say
principally, with a view to bumt-in photographs ou pottery and
glass, to the production of photographs containing such sub-
stances as would give black, brown, or other generally useful
tints, alter their passing through the fire. He had already
published, in a little fragmentary pamphlet,* the remarks in
which as to the desirableness of producing from nature decora-
tions lor our pottery, tiles, (fee, as well as otner of our remarks
about photography on curved surfaces, &c., were intended to
apply equally to true photography on porcelain, the means by
which black, one-colored, or many^colored impressions from pho-
tographically-prepared stones or plates might be produced on
porcelain or glass, and the principle, as far as the study of change
of color, was the same as he now described and insisted on. As
to the mode of application of the photograph to the surface, in
the case of the true photography with which they were now
concerned, he named, amongst other varieties, the burning-in a
print made with suitable materials, as preparations of chrome,
iron, copper, gold, uranium, &c., or their combinations, or suita-
ble preparations of them applied to a film of collodion, albumen,
gelatine, dextrine, silica, alumina, or other suitable substance,
or mixture of substances, with which the porcelain or other fire-
proof material has been coated. The organic matter would
turn away in the furnace, and the fixed oxides, or other sub-
stances or compounds contained in the photograph, would sink
down and amalgamate with the substance or the outer coating
of the vitreous or ceramic material. Photographs on paper
and other materials (and films of albumen and collodion, &c,
with the photographic impression on them), might also be, he
would suggest, after they were printed, attached to porcelain, &c.,
by an organic or inorganic cement, and all organic matter burnt
away in the furnace as before. In this case, and M-e might also
apply it to the film in the former case, he then would recommend
for trial the application for some inorganic flax or vitrifiable
substance, as borax, boracic acid, borate, silicate, or other sub-
stance, or mixture of substances, to the paper or other film, either
after its cementation to the porcelain or glass, or before its ce-
mentation, or this application might be made to act also as the
cement. Such an application might promote the amalgamation
of the oxide contained in the photograph with the fire-proofs
materials on which it is placed, as well as promote the fusion of
the paper ash, and might, in the cases of pottery or other tablet,
serve as its glaze, or might assist the vitrification of the surface.
Nitrates, or chlorates, either alkaline, metallic, or earthy, and
many other substances might be useful.

* Photography in Colors; a Fragment. Published by Edmouston and
Douglas. Edinburgh: Hamilton, Adams and Co., London. June, 1827;
and republished in Notes for August. Is it not rather amusing to find
M-r. Thomas Sutton, after publishing in his reprint of my pamplet months
ago, in his Notes this plan of mine for burning into porcelain impressions
or prints from photographically-prepared stones or plates, now trying to
bring out the very same thing as a novelty of his own. This very remarka-
ble re-suggestion was first made in Notes of 1st October, page 365 — " It
has occurred to us that photographs might easily be printed on paper, in
colored inks, from photogalvanographic or photo-lithographic plates, and
sent to the potteries to be burned into crockery of all sorts." On the
receipt of the Notes containing this, I wrote Mr. Sutton, quietly calling
his attention to the fact that he was bringing out as his own what he had
already published as mine, and calling attention to Mr. Poitevin's new
farm of photo-lithography, as especially suited for the carrying out of this
plan. Well, what sort of acknowledgment does Mr. Sutton make of this?
what step does he adopt to clear himself from any possible suspicion of
the intention to appropriate the property of another. In the last number
of the Notes (Nov. 15), adding to it this new hint, he again brings the plan
before the public, still as his own! Mr. Sutton writes me that my papers
ar« " very suggestive," — so are the pockets of one class of her Majesty's
subject to the fingers of another.

1*

As to the photographic chemicals which might be available
for this photogriiphy, iron, copper, chrome, uranium, cobalt,
gold, tin, manganese, nickel, bishmnth, antimony, lead, titanium,
tungsten, molybdenum, and probably other metals were likely
to be more or less available, many of them much more usefully
so than silver, which, instead of being exclusively looked to,
must be looked to as only an occasional variety for certain col-
ors, or along with other metals.

As to the means of their obtaing photographs with the desi-
rable metals or their oxides, they might be many. His experi-
ments pointed out that chromic acid, and the chromates applied
in various ways, would enable us to fix photographically, or ob-
tain photographs containing a considerable variety of metals
likely to be useful. The ferrocyauides and ferridcyanides, and
other allied salts, also came into play here, along with chromates,
as also separately in other ways (e. g. by themselves or with
uranium or other metals). Copper, iron, and chrome, separately,
or in combination, any two or all three of them, from their iu-
expensiveness and their fixity in the fire, were particularly de-
serving attention. Copper and iron oxides, in combination,
were already in use by porcelain printers, and furnished, after
burning a good dark color, such as would be suitable for land-
scapes, portraits, &c., &c. These dark colors and blacks ob-
tained from the burning-in of photographs containing the already-
mentioned oxides, or such other mixture of oxides (as cobalt and
iron, cobalt and copper, cobalt, iron and copper, cobalt and iron
or copper and manganese, &c.) as were in use in glass or porcelain
staining, as might be found to answer, or blacks of uranium, were of
course, the great desiderata, but at the same time it was well to
know that we had, at our command, a variety of other and bright
colors, as from cobalt, chrome, silver, lead, antimony, uranic oxide,
&c., which might be brought into play for the colored decoration of
pottery, glass, or allied materials with true photographs.f either
simple photographs or kaleidoscopical ly combined. For com-
pound colors and neutral tints, we might be considered as well
prepared, as there was no difficulty infixing any reasonable num-
ber of oxides at once in one photograph, through the instrumen-
tality of the chromates, with or without the assistance of other
metallic salts, and ferrocyauides or ferridcyanides, and other
metal-cyanic salts.

Various circumstances, as well as his time, having been much
taken up with a variety of experiments in other directions as
well as that of photography, had interfered to prevent his hav-
ing here any burnt in specimens on porcelain or glass to show
them, but he would show them a few practical results on paper,
the results of his experiments with some of the metals which he
had recommended, and he bad no hesitation in saying that, by
calling attention to the cause of previous want of success, and
by pointing out the direction in which we must look for
a remedy : and the practicability, which he came pre-
pared to prove to them, of producing photographs containing
the suitable substances, he had removed at once the great diffi-
culty which had been allowed hitherto to stand so formida-
ble in the way, and placed it at once in the power of any person
of ordinary intelligence and capability,! having the proper ma-

t For all decorative purposes (kaleidoscopic and non-kaleidoscopic),
photographic and other, we would direct particular attention to the Dia-
tomoceae, Foraminifera, and other microscopic forms.

i E. g. Mr. Forrest, who, at the last meeting of the Liverpool Society,
not only brought out, as something entirely new and out of his own heiid,
my already published plan (^see Journal for August) for getting rid of the
obstacle which had hitherto obstructed all progress towards anything like
a good burnt in photography on porcelain, enamel, glass, and similar fa-
brics by substituting other materials, on the principle of attention to their
burnt colors for silver, but actually brought out, on the same occasion,
describing it step by step as his own, my copper-printing process (ciipro-
type), as published, boih In the same August Journal and in the Fhoio-
grapMc Notes, particularly in one number, in a letter of mine, in connec-
tion with the contents of which Mr. Forrest had actually written to me
for information ! and had a reply from me giving it. I am of opinion that
the public is often most unreasonable bored about questions of priority
and originality in mere trifles; but, where a man has freely made a gilt to
the public of an invention by which he might had he chosen to make a
patent monopoly of it, have coined thousands of pounds, he has some
little right to ask that the acknowledgment due to him should not be
given to another, I need hardly put the question, is it at all likely that
a practical dealer and manufacturer, such as Mr. Forrest, would have

54

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

February,

terials and appliances at command, to produce a i-eally good
dark colored barnt-in photograph on percelain, glass, and allied
materials.

These remarks, giving the only means of attaining a really
useful or valuable true burnt-in photography on porcelain, gloss,
tiles, enamelled surfaces of metal, stone, brick, &c., had been
excluded from the little fragmentary pamphlet before alluded
to from want of space in its single sheet; but he had much plea-
sure in now communicating them freely to the public, and to put
any attempts at monopoly out Oi the question; — lest anyone
should think of taking out a patent for for them, he would now
place in the hands of the Honorary Secretary the notes from
which he had read. After shewing some specimens of ink pho-
graphs, with remarks, aud some green photographs of leaves,
(the coloring matter being Prussian blue, along with yellow
iiitro-prusside of iron, J the latter interesting to contrast with
with the brown autumnal-looking specimens he would next show
them, aud remarking that all these processes, as well as the
cyanotype prints, &c., might be applicable to burnt-in photo-
graphy, frum the iron they contained. Mr. Burnett then pro-
ceeded to show a variety of specimens illustrative of pho-
tography, with materials suitable forning-in aud to give ex-
planations and answer questions as to the processes by
which they were obtained or might be obtained. The red-
brown autumnal-looking photographs consisted of ferrocy-
auide of copper. They are obtained by — 1st, preparing paper
with a mixture of bichromate of potash and sulphate of copper;
2nd, exposing in pressure frame under negative; 3rd, washing
it to get rid of unacted-oti chemicals, (a little citric acid being
added to the water) ; 4th, developing it more fully by a bath
of ferrocyanide of potassium; and, 6th, washing again, and dry-
ing. Tliere were other ways of obtaining the same result, some
of which no doubt would be preferable, as by substituting an
alkaline bichromate less soluble, and giving rise to less soluble
products as well as less stable, we both quicken the printing
and prevent crystallization, which was sometimes apt to be
troublesome. With the latter view also nitrate of copper might
be substituted for sulphate. He expected also to find the sub-
stitution of a pure bichromate of copper for the mixture of salts
an improvement. It was only as applicable to burnt-in photo-
graphy that he then brought these prints before them. Their
red color would interfere with their being generally valuble for
our ordinary printing, but there was a method of toning them
(by iron) Ijy which he expected to get rid of the red tone and
to produce photograj)hs suitable for all purposes. He hoped by
such toning to bring copper printing into general use as a for-
midable rival to silver, and the toniug would probably also add
to the value of the photograph for burning-in by adding more
metal to it. He answered enquiries as to the probable perma-
nence of such photographs in the uuburnt state, &c. The very
distinct and dense olive-brown photograph was obtained on paper
prepared with bichromate of potash and sulphate of manganese.
Some other photographs shown, contained mixtures of copper
or cobalt, with manganese and chrojue, <Stc., mixtures of several
metals being obtainable either by mixture in the paper prepa-
ration or by their after addition. Among the cobalt photographs
shewn, the very dark brown ones, which might deserve consider-
ation for unburnt photography as well as for burning-in, had been

been willing to forego such an oppoi-timity of making a lortune, or would
have made a free gift to the public, had it been iu his gift or refusal of a
secret of such value? Mr, Forrest would have shared with his brother
niunufacturers tiie profits of the opening up a. new branch of art, and he
might havcbi e'l content with this. At the Liverpool meeting, and elsewhere,
Mr. Forrest has recorded nothing, as far as I can see, but substantial fail-
ures, from the employment of silver, till after the date of my suggestions
for the substitution of other metals, on the principle of attention to then-
burnt colors. Has Mr. Forrest .shown that, up to the date of my sugges-
tion, he liad done anything more than hammer away, painfully and help-
lessly, as others had done before him, at the useless silver, or that sinre he
has done anything more than carry my plan into practice, with the ad-
vantage of the furnace, the want of which " he so much regrets must pre-
vent his brother Z'ro.tos from carrying on any sucli e.xpoVimentsV The
only thing like original idea which 1 have found iu his papar, and for that
he conscientiously acknowledges himself ol)liged to the suggestiojis of a
friend, is the having found out that milk produces a liln; better adapted
for carrying out such processes than starch.

prepared by toning chromate of cobalt prints with sulphuretted hy-
drogen and sulphohydride of ammonium. The uranium andiron
photographs were their old friends of last Exhibition, and
which he had explained in his yaper of February, when he had
alsa called attention to them and others in connexion with bnrn-
ing-in. In his allusion to burning-in in that paper, as printed
in the Phologrxiphic Notes, the word silver was somehow substi-
tuted for copper. The gold photographs were developments
of iron-prepared paper (Sir J. Herschel's chrysotypej, aud of
uranic papers, and highly gold-toned ordinary silver prints. The
most desirable gold-print would be one containing it in union with
tin, and he hojjcd to succeed, but had not yet, in getting any
good photograph of this description.* Hant's silver chromotype
should be tried with or without addition for color-printing. As
to his own chromic printing processes, the specimens shewn were
all on paper, but his experiments pointed out that they were
likely to be equally available on animal and vegetable films,
as albumen, gelatiae, dextrine, &c., so as to be applicable in
this way for burning into porcelain, glass, and allied fabrics.
There would be no use iu then entering into any further
particulars of his chromate processes. For further informa-
tion he referred them to. the accounts which, would be pub-
lished.f His intention was to communicate the whole freely
to the public, so that any one might be able to give them a trial,
either as far as any of them were adapted for positive printing
on paper, &c. (porcelaiu and glass being here also, though much
less importantly, Included^, or for the system of burning-in on
porcelain, glass, tiles, enamel, metal, stone, slate, &c., as regu-
lated by the burnt colors in connection with which they had
been then brought forward, and which he had no doubt would
give results of the very highest value in a vast variety of ways.

From the Liverpool photographic Journal.

THE " PENCIL OF NATURE" PROCESS OF MR. FOX TALBOT.

Mr. Talbot's work, "The Pencil of Nature," published, ia
1844, by Longman and Co., will always be of historical inter-
est to photographers, since it was the first work of any magni-
tude that was illustrated by actual photographs. We propose
to give an outline of th.e method by which its illustrations were
prepared. The negatives, obtained by the calotype ov Talbo-
type process, having been selected, some being waxed aud
others uuwaxed, were copied upon chloride-of silver paper in
the following manner: — Hollingworth's "■ Whatman's Turkey
Mill" paper was taken, by preference, and dipped into salt and
water, and left there for about two minutes; the salt being in
the proportion of from one to two ounces to a gallon of water,
varying with the quality or properties of the sample of paper
used; and this variation was carefully attended to. The paper
thus prepared was called salted paper. The excess of solution
of salt was removed by laying the wet sheet upon a square
of glass or a clean deal board, and dabbing its surface with a
smooth cloth folded up into a sort of pad. As soon as ono
surface was freed, from the solution the other side was turned
up and treated iu the same way. The sheets were then dried
by leaving them spread out on clean paper iu a warm: room.
It was subsequently found that pressure in an ordinary press,
after immersion in the salt and water, was sufficieot to re-
move the excess of liquid; the paper being afterwards dried in
any convenient manner. To render this paper sensitive, a solu-
tion was prepared called amtiwnw-nitrate of silver, a prepara-
tion long known iu pharmacy, but, we believe, first applied in
photography by Dr. Alfred Taylor, the well known toxicolo-
gist. This was at first made by adding gradually caustic am-
monia to a solution of nitrate of silver until the precipitate of
oxide of silver which was, at first thrown down was re-dissolved.
Such a solution, spread upon salted paper and left to dry, gave
a more sensitive surface than could be readily obtained by the

* We \yould suggest the burning-in of a gold photograph on a surface
of porcelain or glass already containing the oxide of tin, which, by itself,
is white.

t tiee /oucna/ of the Photographic Society for August, page 21, and
Pholographic Notes of Sep. 1 and 15, <$».

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

55

nse of salt and nitrate of silver only; but it was soon found
that some uncertainty attended the use of this preparation, the
pictures frequently turning out to be " smoky" in appearance,
and of a cold, slate-colored hue. To remedy these defects, Mr.
Talbot advised the use of nitric acid, an agent which has lately
been recommended by Mr. Hardwich, doubtless without know-
ing that Mr. Talbot had long ago relied upon it to improve the
ordinary ammonio-nitrate solution. One formula was this: —
Take of solution of nitrate of silver, of sixty grains to the
ounce, any convenient quantity; add to this, solution of ammo-
nia, until the mixture became almost free from the precipitated
oxide of silver, the brown color of which served as a test of its
presence. Then render the mixture as clear as possible by the
addition of diluted nitric acid. No exact proportions could be
relied upon. If the resulting prints were too red, a portion of
the acid was neutralized, or the salt varied. If the color ob-
tained was too cold, more acid w^as added, and sometimes the
nitrate of silver had to be increased to obtain, with certain
samples of paper, a good rich velvety " mulberry tint." The
action of the nitric acid seemed to be an obscure one. It did
not act merely by forming nitiate of ammonia in which oxide of
silver is soluble, for a solution of oxide of silver in neutral ni-
trate of ammonia did not give the same result. And we do
not know that it can be said that the process was fully under
control; much depended on the sample of paper used.' A pa-
per called Nash's paper required no salting, and lately we have
seen that Towgood's paper gives a peculiar tone to prints made
with the ammonio-nitrate preparation. This subject still needs
investigation. The solution was applied by a brush and left
to dry spontaneously, using only at last slight warmth to insure
the absence of all moisture. The paper so prepared was gen-
erally used the same day, or, if kept, submitted to pressure and
partial exclusion from the air by means of a copying frame or
press. The prints were chiefly made in sunshine, and printed
only a little stronger than the depth required in the finished
print. Those over-printed were left longest in fresh hyposul-
phite of soda, or lowered by immersion in iodide of potassium
and subsequent exposure to light. Some fine results were ob-
tained in this latter way. Of course, hyposulphite was used to
remove the iodide of silver from the paper. The fixing liquid
for these was used hot, aud contained one part of hyposulphite
of soda to about ten of water. This overdoing and lowering
gave a new contrast to the lights and shades. The prints, when
removed from the copying frame, were washed in warm water
to remove the excess of nitrate and some superficial deposit.
The fixing took place in a fresh solution of hyposulphite of

of
soda, consisting of about one part of a saturated solution of the
salt in ten parts of water; this quantity served for about
twenty-five prints of seven inches by nine inches; it was then
put aside or thrown away. The prints remained about ten
minutes in the fixing bath, after which they were washed in
only three or four changes of water. The absence of the well-
known ?weet taste of hyposulphite of silver being taken, wiM
the consent of high scientific authority, as indicating a fractical
removal of the fixing liquid. About two or three gallons of
water were taken for each batch of twenty-five prints, and the
washing pans were arranged in series, so that the prints
passed from pan to pan; being finally placed in thick blotting-
paper to remove the excess of moisture. The drying took place
nearly spontaneously, upon paper placed on shelves in a cup-
board in a warm room, Latterly the prints were toned by
heat near a fire, or by using a hot iron applied to the paper.
Although it was observed that heat alone appeared to modify
the color of the fixed print, it was found that a trace of the fix-
ing liquid was required to give a purple or deep tinge to the
finished picture. Pictures repeatedly ivashed would not take a
deep tone by the action of heat; and, what is important to ob-
serve, pictures bo toned have remained good from that time,
1844, till now. We at present believe that they must have
contained a trace of the fixing liquid. Experiments, requiring
time, are in progress, with a view of ascertaining how long hy-
posulphite of soda can remain exposed to the air without oxida-
tioa and consequent destruction.

From the Jour, of the Phot. Soc.

FILTERING GELATINOUS LIQUIDS.

Marsten Rectory, Rugby, Nov. 10, 1857.
To the Editor of the Photographic Journal.

Dear Sir, — The filtration of a strong solution of gelatine
sometimes required for photographic purposes, is a very difficult
matter, from the necessity of the operation being performed
whilst the solution continues at a high temperature. An
ounce of " Swinburne's Patent Isinglass," dissolved in about a
pint of water, begins to thicken, sufficiently to interupt the pro-
gress of filtration, at a temperature a little below ISO" Fahr.
The following is the method which I have adopted, as the most
simple, for the removal of this difficulty, in cases where the
quantity required is limited to 10 or 12 ounces: —

A cylindrical vessel, of common block tin, is made of sufficient
capacity to hold 5 or 6 ounces of water, and to admit of a ves-
sel_ being suspended above the surface of this in the interior: the
height altogether must be sufficient for admitting the funnel.
The water is brought to the boiling-point, and the steam, whicli
fills the interior of the vessel, and of coarse, surrounds the gela-
tinous solution, keeps it in a state perfectly mangeable liquidity
as long as is reguired.

I always use a piece of sponge, or tuft of cotton lightly pres-.
sed into the neck of the funnel. "William Law.

From the Jour, of the Phot. Soe,

ACCOUNT OF A NEW PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESS BY M. DUPUIS,

Officer of Health to the French Army of Occupation at Rome.

BY SIR DAVID BREWSTER.

[Read before the Photographic Society of Scotland, Not. 5, 1857.]

When I was in Rome last winter I became acquainted with
M. M. Dupuis, a celebrated amateur photographer, who had
produced the finest binocular pictures of the public buildings in
that city. He mentioned to me that he had discovered and
used with success a new process of dry collodion, which pos-
sessed all the advantages of that of Taupenot, without its in-
conveniences. This process was first published in some of the
French Journals in 1855, and afterwards, in an improved form,
in 1856, both in Cosmos and La Lumiere,

The following process, which he sent to me, is considerably
different from those previously published: — ■

The collodion is formed of —

Ether, spec, gr, 60 80 cubic centilitres.

Alcohol, •' 36 40 " '<

Gun-cotton 1 gramme.

Iodide of zinc 1 "

Iodide of ammonium is more rapid, but not give so good
blacks.

The sensitizing bath is formed of-^^^

Fused nitrate of silver 10 grammes.

Distilled water ...150 "

Acetic acidfcommercial) 15 "

Wash afterwards in distilled water, and coat with a solution
of dextrine, of the consistency of So of the syrup-measurey of
chemists.

Developing solution: —

Pyrogallic acid. 1 gramme.

Distilled water 300 "

Citric acid (crystallized) 1 "

The picture can be strengthened by adding some drops of
nitrate of silver. Half the above quantity of citric acid might
be enough, and would allow the exposure to be shorter.

The mode of developing the picture is the same as that which
is published in Cosmos, 28th November, 1856; or in La Lu-
miere, of the 8th of November.

In order to test the value of the process, M. Dupuis prepared

5G

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

Febraary,

six plates: one exposed and developed in Rome; two prepared
and exposed in Rome; and three prepared in Rome, but not
exposed. Tliese plates were prepared on the 6lh of May, and
the box which contained them was not opened till I arrived in
London on the 27tli of June, having been preserved from the
inspection of the Custom-house officers through the kindness of
Lord Normanby, who had the box placed in a Foreign-office
bag as despatches of which I was the bearer.

On my arrival in London, I had two of the plates which had
been exposed in Rome, developed by Mr. Davis, the photogra-
pher to the Stereoscopic Company; and one, both exposed and
developed in London. An accident, however happened to
this plate, and to another of the same kind, so that there is now
only one remaining of the prepared plates. (The negatives
were exhibited and much admired.)

The following is M. Depuis' memorandum respecting the
time during which the plates should be exposed.

The two plates that are marked have been exposed; that on
which will be found the picture of Trajan's Forum, was exposed
two and a half minutes in bright sunshine at noon. The Pano-
ramic View was exposed five minutes, without sunshine, at
5 P.M. Tlie three other plates have not been exposed. When
they are exposed, it will be necessary to regulate the time of
exposure according to the following direction: — exposure in
sunshine from two and a-half to three minutes with a small sin-
gle lens, of ^th plate size; diaphragm 8 millimetres, focus 15
centimetres.

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal

MANCHESTER PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.

lenses, when the Chairman enquired if any one had perceived
the effect of stereoscopic pictures taken with lenses less apart
than the usual two and a-half inches, which produced an enlarg-
ing instead of a solidifying result.

Mr. NiELD tliouglit it might be caused by the size of aperture
used, large lenses at the usual distance not producing the same
effect as smaller ones.

The next meeting will be held on January 6th, when Mr.
Mann, who is a very successful operator, will give the Society
the benefit of the details of the oxymel process as he practises
it. Mr. Neild promised to show some pictures with the oxy-
calcium light at a future meeting.

The monthly meeting of this Society was held on the 2nd
instant, at the house of the Literary and Philosophical Society,
36 George street, the Rev. W. J. Read presiding.

The Secretary (^Mr.S. Cottamj stated that Mr. Mann had
presented three photographic pictures to the Society's portfolio,
(very beautiful prints from negatives by the oxymel process);
and that Mr. Joseph Sidebotham had sent two colored photo-
graphs, which he had done, to try the eifect in using them for
the magic lantern. In his letter accompanying the photographs,
Mr. Sidebotham stated: — "I think, with care, and avoiding too
much color, some beautiful effects may be got in this way; the
photographs should be lightly printed and not developed too
deeply, otherwise the foliage, which is the great beauty of many
pictures, would be lost. 'Phe colors I have used are the ordi-
nary colors prepared for oil painting, selecting only the trans-
parent ones. Crimson and yellow lake, gold ochre, burnt
sienna, brown pink, Prussian blue, and ivory black will be
found to be sufficient. The plan is to put a little of the colors
from the tubes on a piece of blotting-paper, which soon absorbs
the oil; then work them with a medium composed of turpen-
tine six parts, and Canada balsam one part, using camel's hair
pencils; and for the sky, on any part where shading is required,
nothing appears to answer better than the end of the finger."

A conversation took place respecting the recently announced
experiments of Niepce St. Victor, referring to which subject
Mr. Mabley stated that having occasion to cover some sensi-
tive paper, it became impressed with the photogenic image of
a label on a portfolio which he placed upon it.

Professor Roscoe said that the subject was one which had
been long uuder consideration, and was related to the theory of
latent light, as it had been investigated by Moser; it might be
enquired whether to other causes than light the effect may be
referred.

Mr. Wardley said that gummed labels placed upon prepared
plates, had had the effect of preventing development on the side
opposite to that on which they were placed.

Mr. Pyxe stated that some plates prepared under the super-
intendence of Dr. Hill Norris, had given good results, say in
three minutes, with a quarter-inch aperture, six inches focus.

Some remarks ensued respecting the use of rock crystal for

ART IN BALTIMORE,

Dear Snelling, — There has been since last I Wrote yoO,
little or nothing done in the artistic world. I have visited
nearly all of the galleries within the past week, and I find the
proprietors and operators all on their oars. J. H. Whitehurst
has a benutiful gallery, splendid tnpestry, carpets, curtains of
the richest damask; instruments of the best pos>ible kind, ope-
rating-rooms fitted up with great neatness, and yet he does not be-
gin to pay rent clear of stock. Dr. Bushnell is the operator;
a clever gentleman and does his best to please: but Mr. W. has
almost lost his ambition, his spacious walls look blank, but fine
specimens. All looks deserted. What is the reason ? Some
will ask, why has Mr. W. lost his popularity? The question
may easily be answered — by not strictly attending to his busi-
ness. Mr. W had at one time more real genuine taste and
energy, than all the daguerreotype men in the whole country.
But " alas poor Yoric;" his ambition is gone, his popularity
died out, and he is left solitary and alone, with no one to mourn
over his loss or follies. But Mr. W. is young, and he may
spur up and yet be able to come out winner in the race. I
hope he may.

Mr. J. W. Perkins has retired from the artistic world, as I
have been told, and took a partner for life who was blessed with
plenty of money.

Mr. TuTTLE occupies Mr. Perkins' old gallery. Mr. T. is
not only a good operator, but a gentleman of the first water.
By his manly bearing, he has won for himself a host of
friends.

Mr. B. F. Hawks late of Whitehurst's old gallery, has the
old stand of Mr. W. fitted up in good style. He takes photo-
graphs and anibrotypes — some of the specimens I was shown
were very good. I have not learned his operators name. Mr.
Dan. Bendam was formerly engaged by him.

Mr. Pollock, I learn, does a very good business. He is
probably the most particular man in the business in Baltimore,
and if you step on his toes he'll tell you very quick, maybe.
He and Mr. Whitehurst have long been rivals, and now their
glory seems to have departed. Mr. Pollock and Mr. W. both
have Woodward's Solar Caviera, but don't make much use
of it.

Mr. P. L, Perkins. — Of this gentleman I could say much,
for he is a prime good fellow. Mr. P. takes good ambrotypes
and fine photographs. Mr. Shaw is the operator. Mr. P.
takes a great mauy life-size photographs and has them painted.
They fail in comparison to their other work. Ambrotypists
think that an oil painting must necessarily be as smooth as
glass, and they endeavor to get it done so. But the idea will
soon explode, for any picture, no difference how rough, can be
made as smooth as glass; so the roughness is no fault, so the
picture is well colored and well drawn. The best painting I
ever saw, was the roughest. The colors were literally put into
the canvas in some places, with a palette knife. In time, the
painting will soften itself, and if painted properly will improve
much. There is not a great deal of taste displayed in the ar-
rangement of pictures in Mr. P.'s rooms — I would specially call
his attention to the fact.

Mr. Israel, who is a great rival of Mr. P. L. Perkins, has
his gallery but a few doors below: he displays more taste than

any operator iu Baltimore, and makes tlie best show. Mr. I.
is a plain Ijluiit man, and often offends when he does not intend
to: his manners are not in tiie least prepossessing. But those
who know him love him much; I have watched his course closely
and long; and I believe he intends to do the right thing.
But there is such a spirit of rivalry here, that when a man says
anything, 'tis misconstrued so that great misciiief is often made,
without even intending to make it. As regards the little gos-
siping between different operators, and different proprietors of
different galleries, it should be stopped, there is nothing gained
from this backbiting. One proprietor of a gallery, for instance,
in Baltimore, exhibited some pictures said not to be made by
himself, in his establishment. This was said publicly, and a protest
was entered to the directors of the Fair, at which the exhibitor
of the pictures feeling himself agrieved, have entered suit
against the parties for libel. What the result will be can be
well told: a lawyer will get his fee, and tlie case will be quashed.

Mr. Davis has a weat little gallery on Market street near
South, and his specimeus iu photography are equal if not supe-
rior to any in the street. Pie has a liberal share of the public
patronage, and deservedly so, for Mr. D. is an old operator.

Mr. idoRROW has a neat little gallery below the Sun iron
building. His photographs are not so good as many, but expe-
rience will teach him.

Mr. Walzl has opened a gallery for cheap ambrotypes; some
of his pictures equal the best.

Mr. McCax uses Woodward's Solar Camera for all of his
pictures. He drives a big trade copying small engravings, and
making them large and coloring them iu oil.

The Sular Camera is the greatest invention in photography
of the day; no one in Baltimore has yet discovered the greatest
powers of this instrument. But the inventor deserves to have
himself well lectured for not making his instruments more
known; but time will prove its valuable qualities. Mr. Wood-
ward has placed his instruments at such a low figure, that
every body can get one. In fact, I think Mr. W. has
placed too low a value on the Solar Camera.

I was shown some late improvements in the workings of this
i nstrument, which places it beyond comparison with all other in-
struments of a similar kind. In my letter :froni Cincinnati, I
said Mr. Hall's instrument, used by J. P. Ball, was a similar
invention; I think after a careful investigation I am mistaken.
Mr. W.'s instrument must take precedence over all other in-
ventions of similar kinds.

The developing process is used in producing pictures by the
Solar Camera in five seconds. This instrument is used at all
times, even in cloudy days.

Mr. Jas. K. Harley, the artist, was married last week; I
wish most cheerfully a merry Christmas and a happy new year
to the artist and his fair bride; may he now be inspired by
his loving wife, to add great laurels to his name and fame.

Mr. Elisha Lee has had large orders for his photographic
canvas from the South.

Col. JoHX R. JoHxsTON has his new studio in Carroll Hall,
Xo. 5, where a room full of visitors may be seen at all times.
His studio is full of work, mostly full-length pictures of
children.

A large sale of old paintings took place last week at the
Baltimore Museum. Some of them were sold very cheap. Mr.
Carvalorigh sold them.

Mr. A. J. Way, the portrait-painter, is still here.

Mr. T. Wood, the artist, has just returned from an Eastern
tour, and is busily engaged upon numerous orders.

We have many amateur photographic artists here, whom it
is not best to slight in my notice. Capt. J. P. Dl-kehardt,
conductor on the Baltimore and Ohio Bailroad, is oue eif the
best operators in photography in Baltimore: strange to say,
this gentleman is an old practical chemist, and for his pleasure
made photography a study.

There is nothing much in the artistic world, or I should be
most happy to write you.

Respectfully yours, J. R. J.

Baltimore, Dec. 21, I85T.

VOL XI. NO. II. 8

From the Jimr. of the Phol. Soc.

THE EXPERDIENHL CMDIHTEE.
To the Editor of the Pholograjihic Journal:

Sir, — Your remarks in the last Number of the Photographic
Journal (on the diQiculties which an Experimental Committee
would meet with in testing the various preservative processes)
will be read witli regret by many who have become confounded
amongst the numerous conflicting discoveries, modifications and
remodifications which have been brought before the public, and
who have tried iu vain to hit upon one which possessed the ad-
vantages state by its author. To such (and I have no doubt
but they are legion) the formation of such Committee would be
the greatest boon.

Obstacles such as you state might present themselves, but
are they insurmountable? The photographer is constantly con-
tending with and overcoming difficulties, and these would be
more than counterbalanced by the resulting advantages.

What is the character of the opposition with which tlie Com-
mittee would have to contend? Probably some bigoted di-scoverer
or modifier, or prejudiced operator, each clinging to his own
peculiar crotchet, might attempt to ignore the proceedings of
such a committee; but the opposition would be of a very harm-
less nature, and would not prevent the decision having its due
weight with every unbiassed photographer.

But it may be said that there is no prescribed path to success
in the art, that the same results can be produced by nearly every
preservative process published; but this has not been satisfacto-
rily proved, ior if we are to accept the statements of the various
authors, each one is better than all the rest. It maybe urged that
perfection has not been attained by any of the known dry pro-
cesses, and that the labors of the Committee might be rendered
useless by a discovery that the preserved plate could be made
as sensitive as moist collodion; but without wishing to discour-
age any one experimenting in that direction, it would be of the
greatest importance to the amateur to know what are the com-
parative merits of each known process, and only a Committee,
such as suggested, can decide.

If the author of a process or modification could not take part
himself iu the experiments, he could delegate some successful
operator who would do it equal justice.

If the experiments were conducted impartially, and the re-
sults submitted to a General Meeting of the Members of the
Society, the decision would be looked for with the greatest in-
terest by all who are anxious for the progress of the art. It
would be the means of checking those prolific sources of annoj^
ance to the amateur, termed improvements (?), unless it could
be proved that they possessed some great advantage over pro-
cesses already tested.

Take collodio-albumen as a standard, which is perhaps the
process most generally acknowledged that pictures can be pro-
duced by it which have never been excelled by any other; but
the tedious manipulation, liabihty to blisters, &e., are urged
as objections to the process.

We have honey, oxymel, gelatine, metagelatine, glycerine,
dextrine, gum-arabic, treacle, sugar, &c., the addition or suli-
stitution of a single ingredient constituting a uew process and
rival claimants contending for the laurels.

Can we wondar that an amateur, pursuing his path in the
dark among such rocks and shoals, should so often founder. Can
it be shown that any of the above wmU produce a more vigorous
negative, with greater certainty, with less exposure, and with
finer delineations in detail than collodio-albumen?

It can only be decided satisfactorily by an Experimental Com-
mittee.

Every photographer is indebted to those gentlemen who, apart
from all mercenary motives, have given the results of their
scientific experiments to the public; but suspicion will always
be attached to the statements of those who, iu publishing a
discovery (?), make it a medium for advertising some special
compound, which can only be obtained of certain dealers; but if
amateurs would make themselves better acquainted with the
theory cf their interesting pursuit, the field for such photographic
quackery would be greatly circumscribed.

58

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND PINE ART JOURNAL.

Pebrnary,

I would commend the subject to the consideration of all who
feel an interest in the future of the art, especially to those emi-
nent professors who would take a pleasure iu conducting the ex-
periments as suggested, and which, if carried out will act as a
stimulus to many a wavering amateur in overcoming difficulties
of manipulation in a known good process, instead of changing
with every new (?) idea, and iu the end abandoning the art in
despair. J. Hart.

For the Photographic & Fine Art Journal.

WHITE SPECKS UPON MELAINOTH'E PICTURES.

Hundreds of applications have been made to Mr. Neff about
white specks all over the Meiainotype pictures. Different me-
thods for their prevention have been given, but never the right
ones.

Take 10 or 20 grains of bi-carbonate of soda dissolved in little
water ; add it to your silver bath, and it will put a stop,
if not add a little more: should it make your bath milky, too
much has been added; filter and add 2 or 3 drops of nitric
acid. If Mr. Neff or agents would make use of this, they will
hear of less complaint. We use Meiainotype Plates altogether,
it is so easy to work them. We never clean a plate unless we
wish to be troubled ; if the impression ia not good, and it is washed
off, rinsed and dried, and the plate cleaned with alcohol and ether,
it will not work like a new one. They recommend all ambro-
typists (not daguerreotypists) to take Melainotypes, whether
they have a patent or not. They will have only half the work.
The patent is, like most others, all humbug.*

Dayton, Ohio. Louis Seebohm.

From Tfie Jour, of the Pho. Soc.

ARTIFICIAL LIGHT FOR PHOTOGRAPHY.

46 Camden Street, Camden Town, Nov. 11, 1857.
jTo the Editor of the Photographic Journal :

Sir, I beg, through the medium of our Journal, to bring be-
fore the photographic public a very ingenious application of the
signal-fire (prepared by pyrotechnists) to the purposes of photog-
raphy.

Those who practise photography in such places as London,
Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, &c., have no doubt
experienced considerable interruption, perhaps loss, from the
prevalence of fog for nearly a fortnight lately, and as the year
declines, more of sach anti-photographic weather must be ex-
pected.

Those photographers, therefore, who may wish to pursue their
practice without interruption from foggy weather, will find this
application of the light by which theatrical fairies are beautified
in the eyes of mere mortals to be a very useful and respectable
substitute for the sun's rays. The employment of this fire, and
the mode of burning the photogenic compound, are secured by
patent to Mr. Moule of the Hackney Road, who is himself a
good photographer, and the inventor of a large lantern especially
adapted for displaying the light.

The lantern is closely glazed, is formed of galvanized iron, and
has at its top a wide tube to convey away the sulphurous acid
fumes caused by burning the fiery compound.

Themode of proceeding is this. If the weather be foggy, or if
the light be required in the evening, the lantern and stand just de-
scribed (both being of very light weight) are placed in the ope-
rating-room, and the sitter stationed about four feet from the
lantern. The picture, by means of a lamp or candle, is focussed
on the ground glass, the ready sensitized and collodionized plate
placed in the camera, and the shutter raised; the lamp is then
placed aside: about 2 ounces of the composition previously
weighed out are then introduced, by means of a small door, into
the lantern. The compo.sition is then fixed and the door shut;
a brilliant blueish-white flame immediately ensues lasting for
about 15 seconds; when the flame is over, the plate is removed
from the camera and developed either as a positive or a negative,

* Men differ on this subject and as in all patent matters, tbe dispute
can be decided by the United States Court only. — Ed. P, & F. A. Jour.

according to the intention of the operator; it will be found that
the light has had sufficient actinic power to give a well-defined
image.

The preparation of the plate, and the development o^ the pic-
ture, differ in no respect from the oi-dinary collodion process.

I have no interest in, nor knowledge of, the patent, nor of
the patentee, beyond having witnes.sed witli much pleasure the
very ingenious and simple method employed by hiui to produce
photographic pictures at night.

The composition to be burnt in the lantern is supplied in tin
canisters, each containing 12 lbs. weight, and it costs ^d. per
lb., which will show the inexpensive nature ot the light.

No electrical machine is required, no galvanic battery, no gas
bags, nor any other troublesome apparatus; nothing is wanted
beyond the lantern, so constructed by the inventor that the light
shall be given out with the greatest effect, a supply of atmos-
pheric air provided, and the stifling fumes of the light completely
carried off.

With a few modifications, I consider this light might be ren-
dered available not only for portraiture, but for printing from
negatives, an operation sadly interfered with by foggy weather.

I hope at the next meeting of our Society to be' enabled to
place the entire apparatus before the members, as I consider
the invention well deserving of their notice. The patent has
only just been obtained, and at present bat very little publicity
has been given to it. R. W. Bdss

From the Juur. of the Phot. Soc.

BLACSHEATH PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.

ORDINARY MEETING.

At a meeting held October, 19, 1851, at Yverdon House,
the President in the Chair, the minutes of the last meeting were
read and confirmed. The President (James Glaisher, Esq.,
P.R.S.) read a paper describing the progress of the Photo-
graphic Art since the Great Exhibition of 1851, and referring
to the respective advantages of the several processes. He ex-
emplified his remarks by a number of pictures taken at different
periods, and by various methods during the last six years. The
thanks of the meeting were unamimously voted to the President
for his able address. Mr. Heisch, F.C.S., Vice-President, ex-
hibited several interesting photographs, displaying the effects of
disease upon the human body.

After a few introductory remarks, a brief review of the history
of photography and its advance since the Great Exhibition of
1851, Mr. Glaisher proceeded to observe,--

" As a local society we are in a favorable position. Some
among us are members of the Photographic Society, and are
thus iu a position to bring into metropolitan notice any experi-
ences which may appear worthy of being brought forward.

" In relation to our common pursuit, I can fancy nothing
more agreeable than the collecting together onr different suc-
cesses and experiments. At the present time there is open to
every one who practises, a variety of process, each one tolerably
assured in its action, and each one easily distinguishable in its
results, forming as it were different styles in photography, analo-
gous to different styles in painting, some more applicable under
certain circumstances than others.

Collodion, which in 1851 was but little known, and still less
practised, is now generally received as the most important pro-
cess of any in use, and many, I doubt not, consider it to be the
only process worthy to be worked, whether for portraits or
general application; and this has had a somewhat depressing in-
fluence on some, who, unwilling or unable to cope with its in-
conveniences, have given up the pursuit entirely. For, myself,
I have worked but little with collodion, and had no other pro-
cess been open to me, must have given up the practice of pho-
.ography. Three years ago I worked almost entirely with io-
dized paper. By this process I have obtained, with rare failure,
a large number of excellent negatives, some of which are not
greatly behind collodion: the subjects have been in all cases build-

1858.

THE rnOTOGRAPniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

59

iut^s or landscapes; in the latter the foliaj^ehas been superior in
general effect at times to that given by collodion."

Mr. Giaisiier here exhibited some negatives of the Royal
Observatory, taken recently by the iodized process, and illus-
trating the progress of a building erecting for the reception of a
new iustrunjent.

" The improvement of the lenses used in photography is a
Very serious sulijcct of consideration. It is is my opinion, that
in ten years not one of the lenses now in use will be employed.
One of the most decided improvements in this direction is that
communicated to me during the last month by Herr Pretsch.
The improvement consists of a combined lens for photography,
possessed of a comparatively short focus, and producing an even
flat picture as sharp at the edges as in the centre, and reprodu-
cing the different distances sharp without disturbing the cor-
rectness of proportion. This evening is exhibited the first pic-
ture taken with such a lens of 3 inches aperture. The picture
is 16 in. by 13. in., and is remarkable for the equally clear and
sharp definition of the multitudinous subjects it comprises. The
curvature of the lens was calculated by Professor Petzval of Vi-
enna, and the lens was executed by Mr. Diezler, optician, who
likewise executed the photograph — an indifferent copy but sent
only as an illustration of the power of the lens. Very shortly
we shall have better lenses in the field than we now possess;
their effect will be very perceptible upon all photographic re-
sults."

In conclusion, Mr. Glaisher observed, — " But photography,
difficult as it is to bend to the rules of composition and those of
art in general, possessed too as it is of a mannerism, which beats
that of Turner even in his later days, must be pressed into the
service of art, and fill a utilitarian place for years to come, sup-
plying us continually, and at a moderate cost of time and money,
with copies of objects both in art and nature, either educational
to the youDg, or of peculiar and rare interest to the cultivated
and well informed. In my opinion no tolerable photographs of
ordinary interest should be lost or destroyed; and as the pub-
lished productions of authors of all grades find certain recogni-
zed depositories by a wise regulation of the State, so should
copies of all photographs find recognized depositories, and no-
where could such be so well originated as with private societies,
of which our own is one only of many springing up iu various
quarters for the furtherance of photography."

From the Jour, qf the Fhot. Sod

IE GRAY A^D THE DISCOVERY OF CfiLLODlO.^.

Alma Cottage, Bishops Stortford, Herts, Oet. 29th, 1857,
To the Editor of the Photographic Journal:

Sir, — I have taken the liberty of forwarding to you a copy of
a small Manual published by Mr. Archer, my late husband, in
1852, in consequence of a paragraph in a letter from Mr. Tun-
ny, which appeared la the last Number of the Photographic
Journal.

That gentleman does not seem to be aware that Mr. Archer
always acknowledged M. Le Gray to be the first to published
the possibility of the use of collodion in photography, as men-
tioned in the Introduction of the accompanying work; but
whoever will refer to the Practical Treatise,' will find that no
process whatever was given. Collodion was merely suggested as
one amongst several available media for photography.

No one couid appreciate the value of M. Le Gray's labors
raoi'e highly tlian Mr. Archer did, nor could any one be more
anxious to give him, and evei'y one else, his full share of merit.
It was quite contrary, to Mr. Archer's character, even to wish
to appropriate to himself the merit due to another.

Amongst the numerous letters of condolence I received, was
one from a dignitary of our Church, who had known Mr. Archer
for many years; as it contains a most just delineation of his
character, I hope you will pardon me for quoting a passage.

" In my humble judgment Mr. Archer was a man of extraor-
dinary merit in many ways, not simply as an Artist, but in his
whole tone of thought and feeling." ..." He was sometimes

pleased to say ho owed much to me; I must injustice to his
worth mention, that I was myself benefited by him, in the ex-
ample he gave of meekness, gentleness, and goodness, which is
uot often seen, and which indeed I have never known exceeded."
Pardon me for endeavoring to rescue the name of such a man,
even from the slur of concealing the merits of another.

Fanny G. Archer.

RECOVERY OF SILVER.

Dayton, Ohio, Dec. 1851.

Dear Sir, — The following plan for the recovery of silver, is
well worth being tried by all operators^— Keep a large bucket
or tub to receive the water from the washing of plates after de-
veloping the picture; whenever this vessel is filled, dip out one-
half without stirring the sediment; do this all through the year:
finally pour all the clear solution off, put the sediment in an
earthern or glass vessel, add some nitric acid, and put in a
warm place. When the solution is almost clear, filter all; then
add common salt or muriatic acid, and you will probably have
two or three ounces of chloride of silver, according to the
amount v/asted. Chloride of silver can easily be reduced to
metallic silver according to Hardwich; or it may be used for
the galvanic battery or toning bath.

N.B. — No cyanide or hyposulphite must be washed in the
tub, as it would dissolve the precipitate.

Louis Seebohm,

From the Jour, of the Phot, Soe.

ON im OPTICS OF PHOTOGRAPHY;

Bnt Particularly on the Clinracter of the Images formed npoa Opaque

and Transparent Surfaces.

BY SIR DAVID BREWSTER, K.H., D.C.L., F.R S.,

President ol the Photographic Society of Scotland,

[Read before the Photographic Society of Scotland, Nov. 10, 1857.'

Having for some time given up the practice of photography,
it is not in my power to make any commnnication to you of a
purely photographic nature; but there are so many accomplished
amateurs and professional gentlemen engaged in the study and
practice of the art, that particular branches of it shotild be
taken up and pursued, nor merely by individuals, but by Socie-
ties, who may have sufficient funds to give honorary or other
rewards for valuable discoveries or improvement in the art. The
photographer who works in Daguerreotype and Talbotype, — in
taking negatives on glass, paper and porcelain, — in copying oil
and other paintings (a very important and difficult art), and ia
stereoscopic, microscopic and telescopic photography, is not likely
to make much progress in any of them.

Having turned my own attention principally to what may be
called the optics of photography, 1 trust that a few observations
on the subject will not be regarded as an inappropriate intro-
duction to the business of the Session. In doing this, you must
allow me to take for granted, what may not be true, that you
are tolerably ignorant of the subject; and you will probably not
take much offence at this assumption, when you have found from
the sequal of this paper, that the authors of communications
printed by the Royal Society of London, and graduates from
the University of Cambridge, are assuredly more ignorant, than
I have presumed you to be. In making so grave a charge before
you, it is but fair that I should make an apology, for its truth,
in so far as it is trne. The formation, upon a plane surface, of
thz images of solid objects, or objects in relief, by means of lenses
of various forms and sizes (the very foundation of photographic
optics) , has not been treated of in any work, from the treatise
of Euclid downwards to the present day, and I beheve has never
been taught iu any of our schools or universities.

It will, I presume, be universally admitted, that a photographic
portrait is uot a favorable representation of the sitter. It will

60

THE PnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

February,

be generally admitted that raany of these are hideous portraits;
and there are somewho maintain tiiat the photographic patient,
male or female, often ceases to be human. Without noticing
the error of transferring to the sitter the blame which belongs
to the art, we may accept as true the character of Sun-portraits,
as involved in an expression used by the editor of the ' Times,'
who speaks of the terrible fai/Ji fulness of pholograp/iy*

It is not difficult to ascertain the nature and amount of the
defect in the portrait, if any, arising either from the motion of
the sitter or from the expression which he assumes. If any sharp
or well-defined liue lying at right angles to the direction of the
motion is not doubled, we have a sufficient proof that the sitter
has not moved to an injurious extent; and if a bystander is satis-
fied that the expression of the sitter is good, we must seek for
another cause of the painful expression in the photograph; or,
what is the best test of all, we may ascertain from the portrait
of a person asleep whether the terrible reality attaches to the
art, or to the motion and unnatural expression of the sitter.

Before proceeding to consider the reasons which make photo-
graphic likenesses terrible, we must first explain what really is
a true representation of the human face and figure, upon a plane
surface. In every treatise on Perspective we are taught, that
if from a single point in space we draw a number of lines pass-
ing through every point of an object in relief, the figure deline-
ated upon a plane, placed either before or behind the object, is
a correct representation of it as seen by an eye looking through
the smallest possible aperture placed at that point. In snch a
picture every point of the object supposed to be stippled on the
plane with the same color, would be equally distinct. If, instead
of viewing the object through the small pinhole, we look at it
with one eye through the pupil, when yVt'li of an inch in diame-
ter, the picture will be less perfect: every minute point which
was formerly single will be expanded into a very minute circular
disc, and it is demonstrable that the visible picture will be a
combination of an infinite number of pictures, as drawn by the
rules of perspective, from every point in the pupil. The imper-
fection thus produced is too small to be recognized by the human
eye; and therefore we may assume that, when viewed with one
eye, the pictures of objects in relief are perfect representations
of them.

When we are thus looking at an object in relief, with one
eye, let us open the other C3'e, and, while the head is fixed, di-
rect it to the object. The point of sight being now 2^ inches
from the first point of sight, the lines drawn from it will deline-
ate a very different picture, leaving out of it certain parts of
one side of the figure, and introducing into it certain parts of
the other side of the figure. Hence the dissimilarity of the pic-
tures of solid l)odies, as seen by each eye, is the mathematical re-
sult of the ordinary rules of perspective.

I need hardly say, that a picture, as seen by the eye, is the
same as the image formed on the retina; so that a picture or
image formed by a lens on paper or grey glass, is the very same
picture that an eye would see if the pupil were of the same size
as the lens.

Let us now suppose that we take the photograph of an object
with a lens one inch in dimeter, i. e. ten times as broad as the
pupil of the eye; then it is evident that the separation of the
individual points in the picture, as drawn by the rules of per-
spective, from every point of the lens, or of the one-inch pupil,
will be ten times greater, and the incoincidence of the numerous
imao'cs ten times greater. In order to make this more intelli-
gible, let us suppose that the image is formed by lines drawn
from two points in the margin of the pupils or lenses j\ih of
an inch, and 1 inch in diameter; then it is obvious that the dis-
tance of similar points, which is a measure of the incoincidence
of the images, is leii times greater in the large than in the small
puj)il or lens. These results, derived from tlie rules of perspec-
tive, have been proved by direct experiment, and entitle us to
conclude that the imperfections of photographic portraits arise

* " Most Portraits rather surprise the original at fir.st sight, and the ter-
rible t'aithl'ulness of photograpby has disgusted many a ^vould-be Narcis-
BMS."— Times, Oct. 10, 1857.

principally from the size of the lens with which they are taken,
and increase with the diameter of the lens.

I have not alluded to another defect in large lenses, in conse-
quence of which they introduce into the photograph objects
actually behind, and eclipsed by, opaque objects whose breadth
is less than the diameter of tlio lens, having already treated the
subject fully iu my book on the stereoscope.

The property of large lenses to give a combination of incoin-
ciden images, and to introduce into the photograph, parts of the
head and figure of tlie sittei', which cannot be seen from any one
point of sight, has been admitted by every competent judge. The
truth is indeed so obvious, that it may be demonstrated to the
youngest pupil, male or female, who has mastered the first les-
son in perspective; and yet Mr. Thomas Sutton, B.A., the edi-
tor of "Photographic Notes," has pledged himself to demon-
strate that it is contrary to theory and experiment, to the teach-
ing of our Universities, and the practice of our best opticians!
I caimot condescend to discuss a question in optics with a per-
son ignorant of its most elementary truths. It will be sufficient
to state the opinion of the most scientific of our professional
photographers, Mr. Claudel, who has so far adopted my views
as to affirm, iu the printed Proceedings of the Royal Society,
that there are formed on the ground glass of the camera obsca-
ra an infinite number of dissimilar and iucoiucident imagesf.

The portraits taken by large lenses are subject to a second
imperfectioji, which increases, like the former, with the diameter
of the lens. When the photographer has adjusted his camera,
so as to give distinct vision of the middle distance in the object,
the parts of it nearer the camera, and more distant from it, are
less distinctly painted on the grey glass, and the degree of in-
distinctness increases with the diameter of the lens, because it
is measured by the section of a coue of rays whose base is the
lens itself.

A third optical imperfection in photographic portraits arises
from the great focal length of the lens, which makes the image
a magnified representation of the object. The consequence of
this is, that the pores in the skin, the wrinkles, and other super-
ficial imperfections, are magnified to such a degree as to produce
very disagreeable portraits of persons advanced iu life. The
method of removing this imperfection in using the present came-
ras I shall presently have occasicHi to notice.

If the photographer acknowledges the existance of these d'e-
fects in his art, or rather in his instruments, he will of coarse
desire to correct them, which may be done in three different
ways: —

1st. By using small lenses in the cameras which are now in
use.

2nd. By a new method of taking portraits with the present
cameras with large lenses.

3rd. By taking very smell portraits in cameras an inch or
two long, furnished with small lenses like the object-glasses of
achromatic microscopes,, and then enlarging them.

I. AYhen small lenses are used, the time of sitting must ne-
cessarily be prolonged; and a new imperfection might arise in
the portrait, from the raotiou and change of expression in the
sitter. The risk of such an imperfection, however, is not so great
as might be supposed, for I have found that in an ordinary state
of the atmosphere, a portrait may be taken in sixty seconds with
a lens less than half an inch in diameter, and in a strong light
the same result might be obtained in half the time. These ex-
periments were made by Mr. Szabo and myself with a single
lens of rock crystal, intended for the lens of a pair of spectacles,
and with its curves not suited to give the minimum of sperical
abcrratiou. The portrait, thus produced, was regarded by every
peron as greatly superior to the best portraits of the same per-
son produced by Mr Szabo's finest lenses, wlien'considered only
as a likeness; for, as might have been expected,, the other de-
tails of the picture were much more distinct when it was taken
by the large achromatic lens. This defect, however, would not
have existed had the small lens been corrected for spherical
aud chromatic abberratiou. When the photographic process

t Tol. viii. No. 27, Juae IS, 1857.

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPSIO AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

61

becomes more sensitive, so as to shorten the time of sitting, and
when the public learn that small lenses will give better portraits
of them, our present cameras will be used for landscape scenery
alone.

The second imperfection of large lenses, even when otherwise
perfect, which consitsiu their making the near and distant parts
of an object indistinct when those in the middle distance are
exactly in focus, will likewise be diminished by the use of small
lenses; but the tldrd imperfection which I mentioned, of magni-
fyining roughuessses in the skin, will not be diminished by em-
ploying small lenses, as it depends on the focal length, and not
on the diameter of the lens.

II. I come now to deacl'ibe the second method of taking cor'
rect portraits with our present cameras and large lenses.

All the imperfections of large lenses, acting photographically,
are increased as we increase the size of the portrait, by bringing
the camera nearer the sitter. The dissimilarity of the combined
images becomes enormous when a large lens approaches an ob-
ject in relief, and it increases with the depth of relief. The ef-
fect thus produced may be seen in its most exaggerated form
by looking at a bust with both eyes, at the distance of a few
inches from its nose, and by opening and shutting each eye, al-
ternately. The second imperfection, or the indistinctness of the
image of the near and remote parts of the objects, is increased
in a very great degree, both from the proximity of the object
and the depth of its relief. ■ The third imperfection, or the en-
largement of all pores, wrinkles, and irregularities in the face,
is likewise increased in the magnified image.

In order, therefore, to have a photographic portrait approxi-
mately perfect, it should be taken at a great distance, and the
negative subsequently enlarged to the desired size in a magni-
fying camera; or what is perhaps better, a positive of the re-
quired size may be obtained from the small negative by a single
process. A positive of the same size as the negative might in
many cases might in many cases be preferred, and looked at
occasionally by a magnifying glass, either held in the hand, or
permanently connected with the photograph,

III. The third method of obtaining approximately correct
portraits is, to employ small cameras an inch or two long (or
even less than an inch), furnished with small achromatic lenses
like the object-glasses of the compound microscope.

la applying this method, we may use lenses whose diameter
is equal to the pupil of the eye, so as to obtain portraits exactly
the same as those which we see with one eye. A lens, like
Ross's quarter of an inch object-glass, would answer this pur-
pose,^while one like his eighth or twelfth of an inch would give a
portrait almost identical with the true perspective representa-
tion of the original, as formed by lines drawn from a single point
of sight. These small negatives may be either enlarged, or
employed to give positives directly, of the size we require. The
beautiful microscopic photographs executed by Mr. Dancer of
Manchester, prove that the grain of the collodion is not visible
even when highly magnified so that it will not afi'ect injuriously
the large positives obtained from the diminutive negative.

Portraits taken by the two last method, but especially by the
latter, will have an important application in steresoscopic pho-
tography, when [the public are better instructed, and employ
those photographers who work only according to the rules of
science. To combine portraits which no eye ever saw or can
see, and to combine them when taken at angles under which no
two eyes ever could see them, is a practice which cannot be too
severely condemned. If binocular pictures were taken at the
proper angles corresponding to 2| inches, the average distance
of the eyes, they might be made available to the sculptor who
desired to execute a bust of the sitter, or to a surveyor who
wished for information respecting certain distanpes in a building
a'city, or a landscape. The distances between every pair of
similar points in the two dissimilar pictures, mark the position
of each point in space, and the difference between the distances
of any two pair ol points is a measure of the relief, or the dis-
tance in space of these two points. Hence it is possible, by nice
raicrometrical measurements, to obtain useful information from'
correct binocular pictures; and though the idea may appear es-

8*

fi'avagantj it is nevertheless true, that if a Witness should state
that he saw from a certain point of space a criminal act perpe-
trated at another point of space, his evidence might be confirmed
or disproved by binocular pictures truly taken; and on the other
hand, the testimony of a false witness might be sustained by
the same pictures taken from points at a great distance*.

Having directed yonr attention to those optical topics which
relate to the images of objects in relief, as formed by large and
Kuiall lenses, I come now to consider what has been called " The
Phenomenon of Relief of the Image formed on the ground glass
of the Camera Obscura." An ingenious paper beafing this title
was read on the I7th of June at the Royal Society of London,
by Mr. Claudet, F.R.S., and has just been published in their
Proceedingsf . The apparently important discotery which it
contains is thus described by Mr. Claudet :-=-

" Having observed that the image formed on the ground glass
of the camera obscura appears as much in relief as the natural ob-
ject when seen with the two eyes. Mr. Claudet has endeavored to
discover the cause of that phenomenon, and his experiments and
researches have disclosed the singulal' and unexpected fact, that
although only one image seems depicted on the ground glass,
still each eye perceives a different image; that in reality there
exist on the ground glass two images, the one visible only to the
right eye, and the other visible only to the left eye. That the
image seen by the right eye is the repfesentation of the object re-
fracted by the left side of the lens, and the image seen by the
left eye is the representation of the object refracted by the right
side of the lens. Conseqtjently these two images presenting two
different perspectives the result is a stereoscopic perception, as
when we look through the stereoscope at two images of
different perspectives. It appears that all the different
images refracted separately by every part of the lens, are
each only visible on the line of their refraction when it corres-
ponds with the optic axis, so that while we examine the image
on the ground glass, if we move the head we lose the pefception
of all the rays which are not corresponding with the optic axes,
and have only the perception of those which, according to the
position of the eyes, gradually happen to coincide withlthe optic ax-
es. Consequently when we look on the ground glass perfectly
in the middle, the two eyes being equally distant from thecentre,
the right eye sees only the rays refracted from the left of the
lens, and the left eye only t'hose refracted from the right of the
lens."

After endeavoring to establish these points, by various inge-
nious experiments, Mr. Claudet concludes bis paper with the
following description of a new stereoscope which is to throw into
relief a single plain picture composed of two right and left eye
pictures saperimposed.

" The consideration,^^ he observes, " of these singular facts
has led the author to think that it would be possible to construct
a new stereoscope in which the two eyes looking at a single im-
age, could see it in perfect relief. Such a single image being
composed of two images of different perspectives superposed, oue
visible only to the right eye, and the other to the left. This
would be easily done by refracting a stereoscopic slide on a ground
glass through two semi-lenses separated enough to make the right
picture of the slide coincide with the left picture at the focus of
the semi-lense9. The whole arrangement may be easily under-
stood; we have only to suppose that we look through a ground
glass placed before an ordinary stereoscope at the distance of
the focus of its semi-lenses, the slide being strongly lighted, and
the eye seeing no other light than that of the picture on the
gronnd glass. The whole being nothing more than a camera hav-
ing had its lens cut in two parts, and the two halves sufficiently
separated to produce at the focus the coincideiwje of the two op-
posite sides of the stereoscopic slide placed before the camera."

The elaborate analysis of the ground glass image by Mr.

* An experimental confirmation of these views will be found in an ex-
cellent anonymous ayticle in she National Magazine, part vi. p. 365, by a
writer of whom I have no knowledge. He will do a service to the Art if
he discusses more tuHy the subject of th« proper angle for stereoscopic
photographs.

t Vol. viii. p. 569.- It has been translated into FFench and published in
Cosmos, Oct. 9, 1857.

63

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND PINE ART JOURNAL.

February,

Claudet, and its application to a new and remarkable stereos-
cope, though it evinces much ingenuity and careful research, is
yet incorrect, and it is not possible to con-truct the stereoscope
which he describes, I should not, under ordinary circumstances,
have felt it necessary to discuss Mv. Claudet's opinions on tiiis
subject, but having been attracted by their novelty, and having
found that they were not compatible with my own published
opinions, I am obliged to defend truths which I hold to be rigo-
I'ously demonstrable by the refutation of opiuions which are
diametrically opposed to them.

The primary assumption of Mr. Claudet, that the image on
the ground glass is in true stereoscopic relief, is not correct.
The relief which does exist in the image of a landscape, is simi-
lar to that which appears in fine photographs seen with one
eye, or in photographs of bas-reliefs, (such as those on the table)
seen by both eyes; and it arises in tiie ease of the landscape,
from the perfection of the picture which like the original, seen
with one eye, possesses all the distance-giving criteria, such as
indistinctness in remote parts, — diminution of known objects, —
gradations of color, and aerial perspective.

In order to prove that the relief is not stereoscopic, let us
throw upon the ground glass the picture of thiee discs of
white paper strongly illuminated, placed at different distances
from the camera, so as to produce a high stereoscopic relief when
the semi-lens images of these are combined. When is done, they
display no stereoscopic relief, because the picture affords none
of the criteria of distance seen in the landscape. There is, how-
ever, a slight relief when the two eyes view the picture perpen-
dicularly, and this relief may be explained by the fact that the
rays which form the picture of the distant parts of the object di-
verge from foci a little in front of the ground-glass surface, while the
rays which form the picture of the nearest parts of the object
diverge from foci a little behind the ground-glass surface.
But if we view the luminous discs obliquely with both eyes, no
stereoscopic effect whatever is produced: and it is of importance
to observe that the small degree of relief under consideration is
diminished in coarser ground glass.

Mr. Claudet's statement that there are combined on the glass
two right and left eye pictures is not correct. There are not,
and cannot be, any such pictures. The image on the ground
glass is a combination of incoincideut images formed by every
point of the glass, and the two eyes cannot select from the com-
binations, and unite the pairs of right and left eye pictures
which it contains, because different pairs required different de-
grees of displacement.

Admitting, however, the existance of aright and left eye
picture on the glass, and the possibility of uniting them, the
stereoscopic picture would be seen above the two pictures from
which its component images have been displaced.

"Whenever a stereoscopic picture is obtained from a binocular
slide, either by the two eyes alone or by serai-lenses, the two
original pictures are doubled : the nearest two of the four namely
the two displaced images, coalesce, as it were, into the solid,
leaving the others behind; but when the original pictures are
already combined as on the ground glass, the stereoscopic figure,
if it could be produced, would be obliterated by the two pictures,
which, though doubled, are but slightly distant from the two
which are displaced. Hence it follows that the new stereoscope,
described by Mr. Claudet, cannot possibly produce the effects
which he expects from it.

It would be a waste of your time to pursue this subject any
farther, and to explain how Mr. Claudet has misinterpreted the
the experimental results which he obtained, and especially the
partial evanescence of the images, by shutting each eye, and
phenomena presented by the blue and yellow glasses. If he re-
peats his experiments with objects which have no mutual con-
nexion, and are either strongly illuminated or very bright, such
as candles or iumiuous discs, he will not fail to discover the
causes which have misled him.

SuLPHURET OF SiLVER is prepared by passing sulphuretted hy-
drogen through a solution of nitrate of silver.

IJcrsonal ^ '^n JntcUi^ence.

— This number is teeming with interesting and valuable mat-
ter— too valuable for any to be crowded out by our own scrib-
bling— our editorial must therefore be brief. Vie mnst, how-
ever, explain the reasons why matters of interest, and which
we have promised our readers, are necessarily deferred. We
have found — on entering upon the entire direction of our Jour-
nal and office matters — so many things to attend to, overhaul,
and correct, that it has thus far been more of a tax upon our
time than the establishment of an entirely new business could
have been. A number of our subscribers, also, have pui ns to
extra labor, and taken up our time unnecessarily in the collec-
tion of our dues — time that should have been devoted to the
editorial department of the Journal. We are sufficiently
posted up in the Photographic Art, to give considerably more
original matter in each number, and the only cause of our neg-
lect in this department, is the backwardness of subscribers in
remitting. They should understand that it requires cash to
carry on such a Journal as ours, and that it is to our subscri-
bers alone we have to look for the means. While clamoring,
therefore, with us for more origii>al matter, they should remem-
ber that we can only be enabled to devote the required time
necessary to produce it by being as free as possible from the
necessity of asking repeatedly for our dues. They should re-
member that now more than ever, prompt remittances from
every one is of great consideration to us, and that a little more
interest taken in the advancement and circulation of the Jour-
nal by its friends, will tend greatly to increase its value and
usefulness to them. It is our desire — and it should be that of
every one of its subscribers, both for its prosperity and their
own — to make it the first Journal of the kind in the world.
We shall do our part to effect so important a result, and we
trust its friends — ^i:)articularly those who are so constantly
— like Oliver Twist, " asking for more" — will do the lit-
tle we ask of them in return. If every subscriber would add
but one to our subscription list, he would be the gainer by the
improvement we should be — as a consequence — enabled to
make. We wish to call the attention of our readers to every
article in this number, for, although they are "?i9# original,''
they are no less valuable, and we know they cannot be studied
without profit to every one practicing the Photographic Art.
Messrs. Pretsch, Brewster, and Grubb's articles otv optics and
lenses, will furnish ideas decidedly new to every reader, and add
much to their means of understanding many things that have hen-
tofore been obscured to them. Those who make stereoscopic pic-
ture sand Hallotypes, will be assisted by the articles " Novel Me-
thod of taking Stereoscopic Views," and "On Improving the Tint ©f
Transparent Slides." Mr. Burnett's article on Photography is
very interesting, as is also that " On the Method of Producing
Minute Photographs." In fact there is not an article in this
number which will not improve the operator if studied; but
we will call particular attention to Mr. Keith's article on the
"Operating Room." The old readers of this Journal will find
confirmation of many ideas we have, from time to time, ad-
vanced and insisted upon in our columns^ They may be de-
pended upon as correct, and that those who adopt them will
reap a rich reward. The improvements- therein suggested will
add facilities to photographic portraiture of priceless value.
They are uot mere tlieoretical speciilations: but are advanced
after carelul and lengthy experiments, and we hope our first
class operators, at least, will not pass them by thoughtlessly.
The Photographic Artists of our country — so far as regards
improvements — may be placed in the same lijie witli our old
Dutch farmers, who believe all beok learning to be rubbish.
W^e recently rqad an anecdote that applies as truthfully to the
former as the latter class. A farmer going to his labor one
morning, met an artist sketching in his field and making notes
of what he saw. As usual with his- class, he took occasion to
inveigh against those who devoted themselves to such idle em-
ployment, and to pouring over musty books and inventions
of new things — in his mind all nonsense, capable of no good re-
sults. The artist contented himself,, in reply, by asking whose

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND PINE ART JOURNAL.

63

plough he used. "Oh!" said the farmer, "Mr. and I

would not be without it at ten times its cost. It is the great-
est plow out." " That plow," said the artist, turning over the
leaves of his sketch book and exhibiting a drawing of the iden-
tical plow, " was invented by me." This proves, that a man,
although uiay not be a practical worker in a particular branch of
industry, may often work out for and teach those who have de-
voted all their lives in its employment. None but the most
arrant fool will scoff at written knowledge, and there are too
many of the class among photographers and ambrotypists — the
latter particularly. The only safe road to preferment and suc-
cess in photography — eminently a scientific art — is diligent
study. Every hour not devoted to its practice should be given
to its theory — the two are handmaids that cai.not be separated
with impunity.

— "We had occasion to yisit Mr. Bogardss' gallery in this
city, and were highly pleased, not only with his arrangements,
but with the majority of his pictures. Mr. Bogardus is one of
those who attends strictly to his business, pleases his customers,
and finds his advantage in the attention he bestows.

— The following article we copy from the Augusta (Ga.)
Dispatch. Messrs. Tucker & Perkins are two of the most en-
terprising and gentlemanly men engaged in the Photographic
Art, south of Mason and Dixon's line. We have never been
favored with specimens of their work; but if Mr. Perkins works
the photograph half as well as he did the daguerreptype, he
cannot do otherwise than excell. We have not the slightest
doubt of the corrtctness of all the editor of the Dispatch says
of them: —

" It is as great mistake to suppose that anylndy can become
a good photographist, as to conclude that any one can be a
Hiram Powers or a Shakspeare. There was a time within the
memory of all our readers, when the entire country was over-
run with a set of one horst daguerrean operators, whose claims
to the name of artist were about as well founded as those of the
Rev. Dauphin Willianr.s to the throne of France. This " noble
army ol martyrs" has been gradually decreasing for some years
past, and a very superior class of men arc taking their places.
Photography occupies now an acknowledged position among
the Fine Arts, and has been brought to a high degree of per-
fection, by the combined efforts of genius and labor. Mere
dabsters have been taught that two or three weeks' is not suffi-
cient to place them on a par with men who have spent years
of toil and study in developing and perfecting the art.

"No operators in this country have kept up with the times,
more thoroughly, than Messrs. Tucker & Perkins, of this city,
whose galleries are now attracting the attention of citizens and
strangers. Their photographs, both plain and colored, are al-
most unequalled and nowhere surpassed in the Union. Both
members of the firm are artists — men who understand their busi-
ness, in all its branches. They are old operators and have not
only kept up with other establishments, but far in advance of
many of much greater pretensions. Their facilities for doing
work in the best manner and at the shortest notice are une-
qualled in this region. With two sky-lights, a full and well
drilled force and a thorough knowledge of the art, we do not
wonder that they turn out an immense number of pictures, while
their disposition to please and accommodate, added to the at-
tractiveness of their galleries, render it not at all remarkable
that they are always crowded. In this connection, we desire
to call attention, particularly, to their plain photographs, which
are gems in their way, and afforded at so low a price as to be
within reach of all.

" They have lately introduced a new and beautiful style of
pictures, known as Hallotypes. To enable them to turn out
these pictures in proper shape, they have secured the services
of Mr. Foster, a talented and accomplished artist from Lon-
don. His Hallotypes and Photographs, colored in oil and
water, are among the most beautiful specimens of the art we
ever saw, and those who have seen specimens of his work will
bear us out in this opinion.

" Messrs. Tucker & Perkins are also extensive dealers in
such chemicals and other stock as are needed by the profession.

Their chemicals are of their own manufacture and such as they
use in their own business. They now supply most Oi the ope-
rators in Georgia, South Carolina, Alabauia, Tennessee and
Florida, and their business is daily increasing.

" Such of our readers as have not yet visited their gallery,
will, we feel sure, thank us for directing their attention to it.
A more pleasant place to spend a few hours iu we do not
know of."

— A PETERSBURcn (Va.) Paper gives us the following.
Our inability to speak of Mr. Minnis' skill personally, is caused
by our never having seen any of his pictures. The fact, how-
ever, that he has been able keep two galleries (one in Peters-
burgh and one in Richmond^ in successful operation until the
increase of business, prevents his attending properly to both,
and obliges him sell one, speaks well for his skill: — ■

Daguerrean Tour. — We have always had a passion for sight-
seeing, and from the happy days when molasses candy, hobby
horses, and things of that description were our delight, until
even now, you might as well have asked an urchin of five to
keep his hands out of his pockets, when first provided with
that luxury, as to keep us from a peep at any thing beautiful
or wonderful in nature or art. Moved by this spirit, wo
dropped in at the Daguerrean Galleries of this city on yester-
day, and commenced a tour of inspection. Both of the " Gal-
leries" were well attended by ladies and other.'^, whose evident
object was the securing of an agreeable surprise present for
some loved friend. We noticed one person whose intention
could not possibly be mistaken; it was a youth of some twenty
winters, on whose upper lip bristled au incipient moustache,
which compared favorably with the general expression of his
face. The youth was in love! — in his hand he held a locket
which was destined to contain a duplicate of himself, to be pre-
sented to some dear "Arabella" (Oh!)

"We first visited Minnis' Gallery, and immediately entered
upon the pleasures of our investigation. The room itself is one
of the largest we ever were in, and is fitted up with that regard
for beauty, as well as utility, which every where characterize
the galleries of this famous " operator." Friend M., who is,
let us say, suh rosa — an artist and a gentleman, aided us in our
explorations, giving us the names of the numerous handsome
faces which adorn his walls. The beauty, fashion and, we may
add, "humor" of Petersburgh, together with a splendid collec-
tion of the talent of our country, are here fixed on the sensitive
iodized plate and gives a " local habitation." Ho who desires,
at a small cost of time, to look at the greatest men and women
of the Union, can here be accommodated. Mr. M.'s collection
of "colored photographs" of large sizes cannot be surpassed.
He will soon have more of these mammoth pictures, the highest
triumphs of the art, which have won for him such an enviable
reputation.

" From this spacious gallery we directed our steps to that
" gem of a place," Hopkins' gallery. Here we found friend
"Compass," whose works have already been spoken favorably
of far and near, up to his eyes in business. Mr. H. has but
lately completely renovated these rooms, which, for compact
elegance, can scarcely be equalled. Call on him and take your

friends along, and if you have the slightest leaning for

somebody, or a desire to leave your " counterfeit presentment"
with a relative friend, call on "Compass," and be assured you
will have a picture of the first order in tone, coloring and
finish."

— W. NoTMAN, Montreal, C. E. — This gentleman has sent
us a very good positive portrait. He will excuse us, however,
for saying we think the negative was a little over-exposed. He
cannot regret more than we ourselves do, that we are obliged
to draw so largely upon our English brothers for photographic
matter. We do not suppose that they object to our giving the
wide publicity to their articles we are enabled to do, as their
object is, undoubtedly, to do the most good to the greatest
number; but our regret is that we cannot repay them in kinr\
and return some of the obligations we owe them. One can;e
of this is, that the only class of experimentalists we have among
us are so ambitious to see themselves first in English print •,

64

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

Pebrnary,

that they jump over hs and the entire Atlantic Ocean to find
a marliet for the products of their brains instead of fostering the
home market located at 95 Duane street, New York. We
hope for better things in the future. Among our practical
photographers, many valuable ideas and formulas are to be
found; but their greatest care is to prevent their publication in
the Journal, from the false notion that they would lose by the
operation. We have administered many a dose of physic in
hopes of purging them both of the notion and their experience;
but we have found no medicine ])0werful enough to cause even
a movement. We have ivK^ oil, soft-soaj), undi Spanish flies ,
equally without eliect. We have also tried the virtues of a
Photographic Society, on the mutual benefit principle, and
although all talk favorably, none put their shoulders to the
wheel of fortune offered them,

— C.J. QuiMBY. — The specimens sent us by this gentleman
are well printed and toned, and the negative in detail, intensity
and sharpness, is undoubtedly a good one; but we must advise
him to pay more attention to position. The figures in the group
all want ease and grace. This is a main point in perfect pic-
tures.

— F. A. Wenderoth. — This gentleman has discovered a
process for printing life-size photographs instantaneously, (which
we have published for him in book form) by the Solar Camera
or in the pressure frame. Mr. AVenderoth desired to place his
process betore the photographic public at as cheap a rate as
possible, and get paid for the expense of the series of experi-
ments by which he arrived at the process. While negotiating
with ourselves for its publication, a man by the name of Hol-
mau visited the galleries of New York, and professed to teach
Mr. Wenderoth's process — asking a consideration — and claim-
ing it as his own discovery. These facts we communicated
to Mr. Wenderoth, and the following is his reply, with the re-
quest to publish it. We do so in justice to Mr. Wenderoth,
and as a caution to our photographers: —

Philadelphia, December 31, 185*1.

Mr. H. H. Snelling — Dear Sir: The contents of your let-
ter of the 29th inst. took me by surprise. I had been expect-
ing a letter from you for some time, as the one you speak of
has never reached me.

I never thought that a man would sell his honor so cheap as
Mr. Holman has. The afternoon before he left for New York,
he came to my rooms and told me that he was going to Nor-
wich to take life-size photographs, and that it would be a great
service to him to have my " Quick-working Process," but that
he could not buy it. In answer to which I told him that 1 had
made arrangements with you for the publication of said process,
which prevent me from giving it to him. After which he
pledged his word not to communicate to anybody what I would
tell him. But having little faith in his pledged honor, I gave
him one part of the process, the formulas for iodizing, but not
those for the silver solution, which is the most important part,
and which produces the quickness of working and the depth of
the pictures. The formulas I gave him will work, but iu no
way like those I communicated to you.

My whole conversation with him did not last longer than 15
minutes, and after he had left me, reflecting on his charac-
ter, the thought struck me, that he would try and make
some money by selling the formulas I had just given to him, for
my "quick process;" which to prevent, I immediately wrote a
letter to him, directed to the care of Mr. Gurney of New York,
where he was to call, informing him of the fact.

His pretention that ray "quick process"' was hia discovery, is
just as shameless a lie as the selling of it by him against his
pledged word is an infamy. Last summer, Mr. Ilolman tried
the developing process for the Solar Camera; the formulas he
used were the same which have been used from the time the
wet process was discovered, and similar to the one which has
been recommended by Mr. Whipple for paper negatives, and
by which he got a picture in from three to six minutes, but very
faint, and which almost disappeared in the soda, by dissolving
out the iodide of silver.

Mr. Holman would like very much to get up a name and

make some money to boot; as he has not got talent himself, he
tries to filch it from others.

After some more experience in working the " quick process,"
I find that it is important to pnt the paper on the silver sola-
tion first with the back side (not with the front as first recom-
mended), and keep it so for 1 minute, tlien turn it on the front
side, which, now being somewhat moist, will readily take the
solution without producing marks, which often cannot be avoid-
ed by putting the frontside on the solution first. If possible, it
would be good to mention it in the book.

As I have left it entirely to you to arrange this afi'air, you
are at liberty to do as you think best.

Most respectfully yours,

F. A. Wenderoth.

This letter came too late to add the paragraph regarding the
silvering in the book; but it will have the desired effect in this
place.

— We do not often publish letters of the character of the
following, and we do so now only as an acknowledgment of im-
provement in our Journal. Had we room we might give many
more:

Brantford, C. W., Jan. 20, 18&8.

Mr. Snelling — Dear Sir: On Saturday last, I received
yours of the 13th inst., and also three numbers of the Fholo-
graphic and Fine Art Journal completing my set, and gratify-
ing me very much with the beauty of some of the plates, espe-
cially those of the January number and the Negress. I can
scarcely fancy any thing of its kind better than the " Heywood
Group;" they do everything but speak, and there is so much
animation and intellect iu their faces, that it is a cause of re-
gret they cannot do that; as any thing they would say must
be worth listening to. " The Negress" is a "chattel," with
more mind and more soul in her, than a vast many of the "free
and independent," whether on your side of the line or ours.
Altogether, " the lot" has caused us much pleasure, and as you
still promise improvement, I lire in hopes; especially of being
lucky enough to get choice impressions.

I thank you for your offer to duplicate any nnmbers that nafay
fail to reach me, and I will let you know if they do not arrire,
but not so early as the Gth or 8th of each month, because so
recently as Monday the 18th, the sett you mailed on the 2nd,
were received at the Post Ofiice here. AVhere they were de-
tained, or how they could be so long on the road, I do not
know.

I will return them if you wish it, or dispose of them in any
other way you may direct. I think you will not accuse me of
impatience in writing to you on the 8th, for numbei's which you
had told me would be mailed iu New York on the 1st.

I think your mails for this part of Canada, cross the frontier
at the Suspension Bridge over the Niagara river near the Falls.
Yours truly, Chas. H. Stokoe

Wo are glad to hear that both sets reached you, for more
reasons than one, particularly as it gives us additional evidence
to place before Congress on the mismanagement of oar Post
Office department. The extra set you may dispose of where
it will do most good. You need not return them.

— William Armstrong, Esq., Toronto, C. W. — Webave re-
ceived several fine photographic views from this gentleman, one
of which we have selected — by his favor — to illustrate the Jour-
nal. AVe have since received the negative, and are now print-
ing the positives for our March number. We shall in that
issue, speak of them more at length. Mr. Armstrong will
please accept our thanks for his favors.

Mk. J. Rogers will please accept our thanks for his Isind ap-
preciation of our efforts. We shall strive to be more deserving
iug hereafter.

— Gentlemen writing for specimen numbers of the Journal,
roust enclose 50 cents to pay for it. We find that many find it
a very cheap way of obtaining the Journal, to order specimen
numbers every month under various aliases. As we have lately
detected this dodge, we are compelled to adopt the rule to send
specimens to those only who inclose the price — 50 cents.

#t

jEi^Envci^^n c^r Tj :r JsT :ei ^^ ^ esg^

11. II. Snilliiii;. I'liiit.

1858.

THE PnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE AUT JOURNAL.

65

From the London Art Journal,

RAFFAEILE IN ROME.

BY F. TV. F^IRHOLT, F.S.A.

E consecrate the memory of great
raeu, and wheu the master-spirit
has flown to him who gave it, is
it not pardonable — aye, lauda-
ble— that we treat reverently
the relics of their sojourn here —
that we endeavor, as best we
may, to call np to the mind's eye
tlie very habit and manner of
the great souls long departed,
and let the mind linger over
their earthly haunts as if await-
ing their presence again to re-
vivify the scenes made sacred to

^ .^w; --_«.._.,<s_-- ,^4ja:«^>=g9a '^s by such connection? There
•^'^ ^ — 'iT'Sf^^^ jg^ perhaps, no spot of ''mother

earth" more abounding with associations of all kinds, to inter-
est men of every civilized country, and induce many hundred
pilgrims, than those few miles of ground upon which stands
Rome, that imperial ruin in a papal garb: —

" We cannot tread upon it but we set
Our foot upoQ some reverend history."

The mind is here overwhelmed by the crowding memories of the
great events of bygone time — " centuries look down upon us"
from the ruined Colosseum — from the ivy-clad masses of wall
where ouce stood the palace of the emperors of the world.
These arches record their victories and their triumphs. This
dirty, ill-enclosed space, now named from the cows who rest
upon it after dragging the rude carts of the peasantry into
Rome, was once the Forum — the very focus of all that was
great in the whole history of the old world: —

" Still the eloquent air breathes — burns with Cicero."
On this small patch of ground occurred events which form the
most cherished memorials of history. Around us on all sides
are the crumbling mementoes of the great of old, whose pres-
ence stirred the nations. The very fragments — the shadows of
a shade — of their past greatness have been sufficient to revivify
the human mind after many ages of mental darkness; and the
long-buried works of the old Romans, in the palmy days of
Michael Angelo and Raffaelle, quickened the genius of their
great minds, guided their thoughts aright, and ultimately led
to the purity and nobility of modern art.

The great revival of learning in the fifteenth century led the
student back from the legendary history of the middle ages to
the more ennobling study of the classic era: and this acquaint-
ance with the acts of the great led to the desire to possess more
tangible relics of their period. Here coins and medals were
sought after, not merely as works by ancient hands, but as au-
thentic records of their history, rendered the more valuable by
their autograph character. Inscriptions were sought for the
same reason, Statues were untombed, and gazed at in wonder,
for the truth and beauty of their proportions, as contrasted with
the gaunt conventionalities of their own schools of sculpture.
Men regarded these works as the productions of superior be-
ings; but such contemplation resulted in elevating the minds of
the students, and slowly, but surely, the long-lost Arts broke
in fall radiance from the clouds which had so long obscured
them.

It was in these great days of resuscitation that Raffaelle
lived. The popes and the nobles vied with each other in ob-
taining the best works of ancient Art, and liberally rewarded
the discoverers.* Lorenzo de Medici, well distinguished as

* Felice de Fredis, who discovered in 1508 the celebrated group the
Laocoon, in the Baths of Titus, had bestowed on him in consequence, by
the Pope Julius IT., the lucrative gift of the tolls and customs received at
the Gate of St. John Lateran — an ample fortune iu itself. Michael An-
gelo, who was in Rome at the time, describes the excitement the event

VOL 21. NO. in. 9

"the Magnificent," made his palace at Florence a museum of
Art, and liberally gave free access to all students who chose to
come there. Michael Angelo was of the number who studied
in the beautiful garden where the sculpture was located, and the
great duke often spoke encouragingly to the young lad who
labored there so thoughtfully and so well. Words led to deeds,
and it was not long afterwards that the duke adopted Michael
as his protege, gave him a room in his palace, and was the
friend of him and his family, death only severing the tie.
Many other artists had to thank the liberal duke for the use of
his Art-treasures, and Raffaelle was among the number. The
Cardinal Bembo, one of the most enlightened men of that day,
rivalled the hospitality of the Medici, and received Raffaelle
into his palace as a honored guest; — -and are not the names of
both noble men more nobly immortalised by such patronage ?

The early life of Raffaelle was happily circumstanced. His
father was himself an artist, who saw his son's great genius,
and fostered it from the birth. The child's early life was passed
in a lovely home, rendered cheerful by the practice of refined
pleasures, the ouly labor known there being the cheerful toil
that awaits the student of Art. Of pleasant manners and
agreeable looks, the boy-artist made friends everywhere, and
the record of his whole life is a narration of the accession of new
friends. In the Italian cities where he went for study he made
warm friendships with the best and greatest in Art and litera-
ture. It rarely falls to the lot of a biographer to narrate a
life of such unvarying happiness as that of Rafl'aelle. Pleasant
and profitable as this genial study and companionship would
naturally be to the young painter, whose devotion to Art never
relaxed, and whose patrons increased with his years, greater
triumphs awaited him in the imperial city itself; and hither, in
1508, he travelled at the request of Pope Julius II., to decorate
the halls of the Yatican, the invitation having come through his
uncle Bramante, the great architect, who enjoyed the patron-
age of that pontiff. The artist was now twenty-five years of
age, and had already given evidence of his powers; he had the
fullest scope for their exertion, and the remainder of his too
short life was devoted to the glory of the church and its head
in Rome.

In the labyrinth of short streets that lead to the heart of the
old city, opposite Hadrian's Bridge, is situated the house ia
which Raffaelle first resided. It is in a narrow street, known
as the Via Coronari; the tall houses close it in, so that the sun
never reaches the lower stories, — a valuable arrangement where
shade is to be most courted, but which gives a gloomy and
stifling look to Italian towns. The house is featureless, and
might not be recognised but for the nearly decayed chiaroscuro
portrait of its great tenant, which was painted by Carlo Maratti
in 1105, when it was renovated and partly rebuilt. The inter-
est of this house, in connection with Raffaelle, did not cease
with his life; it was ceded at his wish to the Church of St.
Maria della Rotonda, after his death, by his executor, Baldas-
sare Pescia, the Papal Secretary, that a chapel might be en-
dowed to the honor of the Yirgin in that venerable building,
where prayers should be said for the repose of his soul. At
that time the house produced a rent of seventy crowns per
annum. In the year 1581, at the desire of Siticella, arch-priest
of the Pantheon, Gregory XIII. united the property to the
revenue of his office; and in the year 1105, the arch-priest of that
time mortgaged the house to pay for the repairs noted above.
It now produces a very small surplus, and that is said not to
be applied to the purposes indicated in the will.

The chief memorials of Raffaelle's residence in Rome, are the
immortal works which still decorate the papal palace of the
Vatican. The hall called della

Segnafura was first decorated

caused. By a happy omen had his god-fathers named him Felice. The
gift was so large that the Church of St. John importuned the succeedmg
pope to compound with him for its restoration; but he only gave it up
for the noble place of Apostolic Secretary, which he enjoyed until hiB
death in 1529. He lies buried in the left transept of the Church of tie
AraCceli. The inscription on his grave-slab is nearly obliterated. _ Is
there no kind hand in Eome, the city of sculptors, to recut the few liaes
recording the name of one who did the world of Art much service T

66

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND PINE ART JOURXAL.

March,

by him with the great compositions known as " The Dispute of
the Sacrament," " The School of Athens," "The Parnassus,"
and "Jurisprudence." They occupied him nearly three years.
Toward the end of that period the si^ht of Michael Angelo's
grand conceptions in the Sistine Chapel are believed to have
influenced the young painter to a greater elevation in the treat-
ment of his works. The sybils and prophets in the Church of
Santa Maria della Pace, as well as the painting of the prophet
Isaiah in the Church of St. Augustin, executed about this time,
are cited as proofs of this influence. On the walls of the palace
of Agostino Chigi he had painted his famous "Galatea," and
had achieved for himself a fixed and honorable position in Rome,
surrounded by friends of the highest and most influential kind,
and some few scholars who aided his labors.

In 1512 the second hall of the Vatican was commenced, in
the February of the following year the pope died. Julius was
more of a soldier than a churchman; and is recorded to have
told Michael Angelo to place a sword rather than a book in
the hand of the bronze statue he destined to commemorate him.
Leo X. had more refined taste, and became celebrated as a
patron of the Arts. To narrate all of Raffaelle's labors for
this pontiff would be to swell this page with a list of world-re-
nowned works, familiar to the whole world for their lessons of
beauty, cultivated by the highest technicalities of Art. Suf-
fice to say that the Art-labors of the Vatican never ceased,
and when Bramante died Raffaelle was appointed his successor.
His first architectural work was the rows of galleries which
surround the court-yard of the Vatican, the foundations of
which had only been laid by his uncle Bramante. These triple
arcades rising above each other, and commanding magnificent
views over Rome, were richly decorated by Raffaelle with
designs which startled the world by their novelty, and cap-
captivated by their beauty. Founded on the antique mural
decorations then recently discovered in the Baths of Titus,
the genius of the painter adopted their leading ideas, infusing
the composition with his own fancy and grace; and thus gave
a new decorative art to the world. Raffaelle was ever alive to
the progress of Art, and its interests were consulted by him in
the largest way. He fostered the genius of Marc Antonio
Raimondi, the engraver, at a period when the graphic art was
looked on merely as a curiosity; in the midst of his laborious
occupations he found time to design for him subjects for his
hurin, and to superintend their execution. But more than all,
he defrayed the whole expenses of these engravings himself,
taking Marc under his protection, until the new art had estab-
lished itself in popular favor, and could be followed as a lucra-
tive profession. To Raffaelle, therefore, the art of engraving,
and the traders in prints, owe a deep debt.*

Tlie early artists were men of multifarious accomplishments:
they were not painters only. We have record of their power
in many branches, and examples of their versatility still remain
to us; hence we need feel no surprise that the painter Raffaelle
was installed to the post of papal architect. Michael Angelo
also practised architecture, as well as sculpture and painting;
but more than this, he fortified the city of Florence, and suc-
cessfully superintended its military defence during six months,
when it was attacked by the Prince of Orange in 1529. Ben-
venuto Cellini has also left record of his fighting powers, when
he served in the siege of the Castle of St. Angelo, in 1528.
Albert Durer introduced the Italian style of fortification to his
native city of Nuremberg, and wrote a treatise on the art; he
was also painter, sculjitor, designer, and engraver on wood,
copper and stone. Leonardo da Vinci excelled in the arts,

* It should bo noted, however, that Albert Durer was really the chief
popularizer of the art. His prints on copper and wood (the hitter par-
ticulai-ly) had circulated over Northern Europe, and were well-known in
Venice. Raft'aelle saw at once the latent power by means of which he
might propagate and perpetuate his own designs, and at once encouraged
tlie lubars of Kaimondi. This engraver had copied in Venice many of
Durer's engravings, to his detriment, and Durer had coniphiined to (he
magistracy for rcdres.s. It is to Durer we owe the discovery of etciiing
and corroding a plate by acid, one of the greatest boons to the engraven
and aa enormous saving of labor.

and added thereto such sound philosophical views as to have
been greatly in advance of his age; indeed, his research in op-
tical science has led to his being considered the father Oi the
modern daguerreotype, inasmuch as he propounded the possi-
bility of securing images by the action of light alone.

Of Raffaelle's architectural powers Rome has varied exam-
ples. The principal are at the Vatican and St. Peter's,
whose construction he superintended during the rest of his
brief life. On the authority of Vasari we may attribute to him
one of the most beautiful of the Roman palazzi, the Villa
Madama. The Caffarelli Palace is also knovvn to be his de-
sign,f as well as the very beautiful funeral chapel for his
friend and early patron Agostino Chigi, in the Church of Santa
Maria del Popolo. Among the quiet gardens of the Celian
Hill is one of his most picturesque works, the little Church of
Santa Maria in Navicella, an edifice abounding with the most
interesting artistic associations. It stands on the site of the
house of one of the earliest Christian saints, St. Cyiac, and
was built by Leo X. entirely from Raffaelle's design, with the
exception of the simple aim elegant little portico, which is by
Michael Angelo. The paintings within are by Raffaelle's fa-
vorite scholars, Julio Romano and Perino della Vaga. This
interesting church takes its distinguishing name from the mar-
ble galley placed on a pedestal in front of the portico, by that
famous patron of the Arts, Pope Leo X., in whose time it was
discovered. It is a very curious work of the Roman era.

Raffaelle had achieved so high a position in Rome, and was
so overwhelmed with commissions, that his scholars and assist-
ants increased greatly. But for their aid it would have been
impossible for him to have executed the large number of works
he did. It became his practice to design, superintend, and
finish only; but the labor of carrying out his works was left to
his scholars, who all became men of mark. The chief was
Julio Romano, who painted a large portion of the Vatican.
The Loggie was the work of many hands; the figures, the flow-
ers, the scrolls, and the ornament, were all apportioned to
the facile and ready powers of the army of artists the " divine
master" had at commavid. It is recorded that he had a
retinue of some fifty who were thus employed; these formed his
train in public, so that "he appeared like a prince rather than
an artist;" the fascination of his manners led to affection for
himself irrespective of his genius.

But death came to carry the artist away in the midst of his
triumph, ere he had entirely reaped the full harvest of his fame,
leaving the world greatly the loser, Raffaelle, now a wealthy
man and living like a noble, had purchased for himself a man-
sion worthy of a nobleman born. His aCBanced bride, the
niece of Cardinal Bibieua, died in 1518, and was buried in the
Pantheon; and iu April, 1520, the painter was laid in his tomb
in the same edifice. It was less than twelve years of thought
and action that had sufiBced him to found immortal renown in
Rome, and leave that city the bequest of the most glorious Art-
treasures in the world. His life had indeed been sacrificed to his
eagerness to serve the pope; harassed by a multiplicity of en-
gagements, Raffaelle had hurried from the Farnesina, the
palace of the wealthy banker Chigi, which he was engaged to
decorate, to consult with the pope about his works at the Vat-
ican. He had overheated himself with running this quarter of
a mile; and he felt a sudden chill as he stood in the cold un-
finished building; he went to his palace (a very short distance
only), and in the course of a few days died there at the early
age of thirty-seven, April 1th, 1520.

The last home of Raffaelle is still pointed out in Rome; it
stands in the district termed the Trastavere, in the small
square midway from the Castle of St. Angelo and St. Peter's.
It occupies one side of this square, and is an imposing structure.
The architects were Bramante and Baldassare Pernzzi; it is
now known as the Palnzzo dcgli Convertiti, and devoted to the
reception of converted heretics. Here his body lay in state in

f It is opposite the Church of St. Andrea della Valle, and is
now called the Palazzo Vidoni; the upper portion is not Katl'aelle's

work

1858.

THE THOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

Ct

his

grandeur in

front of bis unfinished picture of the " Transfiguration,"*
greatest, as it was his last, worli. There was a
such a death — a glory in such a death-chamber, " wiiich time
has not yet effaced from the memory of man. It was no doubt
one of tliese impromplus of the eloquence of things which owed
its effect to a cause so much the more active and fruitful, be-
cause it was natural and uot arranged."f

" And when all hcheld

Him, -n-hove he lay, how changed IVoni yesterday —

Him in that hour cnt off, and at his head

His last groat work ; when, entering in, they looked

Now on the dead, then on the master-piece;

Now on his face, lifeless and colorless,

Then on those forms divine that lived and breathed,

And would live on for ages — all were moved ;

And sighs burst forth, and londest lamentatioas."J

All Rome mourned the death of the great painter. The
pope wept bitter tears; his loss was indeed great, for the spirit
who could make his pontificate glorious had departed, and left
none to fill the void. " Rome seems no longer Rome since my
poor Raffaelle is gone," writes Castiglione to the marchioness
his mother. His funeral cortege included in its ranks the great-
est men in station, and the most talented in Art and literature.
These, with his friends and pupils, marched amid the lamenta-
tions of the wliole city to the Pantheon, and reverently laid the
painter beside the altar he had endowed.

Rome — perhaps the world — possesses no building of more
interest than this. The ancients described it with admiration
eighteen centuries ago, and it still remains the best preserved
monument of modern Rome.

" Relic of nobler days, and noblest arts !
Despoil'd, yet perfect, with thy circle spreads
A holiness appealing to all hearts —
To art a model ; and to him who treads
Rome for the sake of ages, Glorj' sheds
Her light through thy sole aperture ; to those
Who worship, here are altars for their heads;
And they who feel for genius may repose
Their eyes on honor'd forms, whose busts around them close."§

Let US enter this noble relic of the past, sacred with the associa-
tions of ages. Over the portico is an inscription, recording its
erection by Agrippa in his third consulate (b. c. 25); the pil-
lars of this "more than faultless" portico are Corinthian col-
umns of oriental granite. The bronze doors are antique; so is
the open grating above them: you pass them, and the interior
strikes you at once by its simple grandeur. It is a rotunda
supporting a dome, the only light being received through the
circular opening in its centre. The rain falls freely upon the
floor; and in the pavement may be noted the star-shaped aper-
tures by which it may descend to the drains beneath. No an-
tique building exists for modern uses so unaltered as this.|| In
the walls are seven large niches, and between them are eight
cedicula, or shrines which have been converted into altars of
the Christian saints. Opposite the entrance to the left of the
centre, the visitor will notice an altar, in front of which hangs
a triple light, supported by a silver monogram of the virgin;
the same monogram is above the altar. It is that founded by

* The picture was afterwards finished by his pupil Julio Romano. It
bad been ordered by the Cardinal Medicis for Narbonne, but was placed
over the high altar of the Church of St, Pietro in Mortorio, at Rome. It
was then removed to the Vatican ; from wlience it was carried by Napo-
leon to Paris, but was restored to Rome at his fall.

t Qnatremere de Qiiiucy, J Rogers' '• Italy.'"

§ Byron, '• Childe Harold's Pilgrimage." The busts are now all re-
moved.

II " Though plundered of all its brass, except the ring which was ne-
cessary to preserve the aperture above — though exposed to repeated firC' —
though sometimes flooded by the river, and always open to the rain, no
monument of equal antiquity is so well preserved as tliis rotunda. It
passed with little alteration from the pagan into the present worship: and
so convenient were its niches for the Cin'istian altars, that Jlichael An-
gelo, ever studious of ancient beauty, introddccd tlieir design as a model
in the Catholic Church,'' — Fokstths' Itah/. The bronzes here alluded to,
which once covered the interior of the dome, was stripped off by Pope
' Urban VIII,. and moulded into the great canopy now over the tomb of
St, Peter in Rome; the rest was used for cannon which were placed on
the Castle of St, Augelo. Venuti has computed its weight at 450,250
pounds.

Raffaelle, for the perpetual support of which he gave the house
for the saying of prayers for his soul. The figure of the Virgin
and Cliild, now known as " La Madonna del Sasso," was sculp-
tured by his pupil Lorenzo Lotti. Under this altar the body
of Raffaelle was laid, and upon a lower panel of marble to the
left of it is the epitaph to the painter written by Cardinal
Bembo. On the opposite side is the epitaph to Annibale Ca-
racci; and in other parts of the building are buried Raffaelle's
betrothed wife, and his scholars, Giouanni da Udine, andPerino
della Vaga. Baldassare Peruzzi, one of the architects of Raf-
faelle's palace, also lies here; as well as Taddeo Zuccari, and
other eminent painters. Its most modern artistic monument is
Thorwaldsen's bust to Cardinal Gonsalvi. Where can the Art-
pilgrim pay a more soul-inspiriting visit than to this

" sanctuary and home

Of Art and piety ?"

Carlo Maratti desired to place a more striking memorial of
Raffaelle's resting-place than the simple inscription, and ac-
cordingly, in the year 161-4, a marble bust of the painter, exe-
cuted by Paolo Nardini, was placed in one of the oval niclies on
each side of the chapel. The epitaph to Maria Bibiena (Raf-
faelle's betrothed) was removed to make way for Maratti's new
inscription; audit was currently believed that the skull of
Raffaelle was removed; at least such was the history given of a
skull shown as the painter's, religiously preserved by the iicad-
emy of St. Lake, and descanted on by phrenologists as indica-
tive of all the qualities which " the divine painter" possessed.
But scepticism played its part: doubts of the truth of this
story led to doubts of Yasari's statement respecting the exact
locality of Raffaelle's tomb. Matters were brought to a final
issue by the discovery of a document proving this skull to be
that of Don Desideriode Adjutorio, founder of the society called
the Virtuosi, in 1542, Thereupon, this society demanded the
head of its founder from the Academy of St, Luke; but they
would neither abandon that, nor the illusion that tiiey possessed
the veritable skull of the great artist. Arguments ran high,
and it was at length determined to settle the question by an
examination of the spot, which took place on the 13th of Sep-
tember, 1833, in the presence of the Academies of St. Luke
and of Archajology, the commission of the Fine Arts (including
Overbeck and others^, the members of the Virtuosi, the gov-
ernor of Rome (Monsignor Grimaldi), and the Cardinal Zurla,
the representative of the pope.

The result will be best given in the words of an eye-witness,
Signor Nibby (one of the commission of antiquities and Fine
Arts), who thus described tlie whole to M. Quatremere de
Quincy, the biographer of Raffaelle: — "The operations were
conducted on such a principle of exact method as to be almost
chargeable with over nicety. After various ineffectual attempts
in other directions, we at length began to dig under the altar
of the Virgin itself, and taking as a guide the indications fur-
nished by Vasari, we at length came to some masonry of the
length of a man's body. The laborers raised the stone with
the utmost care, and having dug within for about a foot and a
half, came to a void space. You can hardly conceive the en-
thusiasm of us all, when, by a final effort, the workmen exhibi-
ted to our view the remains of a coffin, with an entire skeleton
in it, laying thus as originally placed, and thinly covered with
damp dust. We saw at once quite clearly that the tomb had
never been opened, and it thus became manifest that the skull
possessed by the Academy of St, Luke was not that of Raf-
faelle. Our first care was by gentle degrees to remove from the
body the dust which covered it, and which we religiously col-
lected, with the purpo.sc of placing it in a new sarcophngus.
Amongst it we found, in tolerable preservation, pieces of the
coffin, which was made of deal, fragnients of a painting which
had ornamented the lid, several bits of Tiber clay, formations
from the water of the river,^ which had penetrated into the

If This will be understood when we remember that the Tiber has inun"
dated this lower part of Rome several times. On the external wall of
the adjoining Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, are the marks of
the height to which the waters rose, and which is five feet above the pave-
ment level.

68

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOTJRNAL.

Marcb,

coffin by infiltration, an iron stelktta, a sort of spur, wit
which llaffaelle had been decorated by Leo X., several fihuJa''
and a number of metal amlli, portions of his dress." These
small rings had fastened the shroud; several were retained by
the sculptor Fabris, who also took casts of the head and hand,
and Camuccini took views of the tomb and its precious con-
tents.

On the following day the body was further examined by pro-
fessional men: the skeleton was found to measure five feet seven
inches, the narrowness of the coffin indicated a slender and deli-
cate frame. This accords with the contemporary accounts,
which say he "was of a refined end delicate constitution; his
frame was all spirit; his physical strenj^th so limited that it was
a wonder he existed so long as he did." The investigation
completed, the body was exhibited to the public from the 20th
to the 24th, and then was again placed in a new coffin of lead,
and that in a marble sarcophagus presented by the pope, and
taken from the antiquities in the Museum of the Vatican. A
selemn mass was then announced for the evening of the 18th of
October. The Pantheon was illuminated, as for a funeral;
"the sarcophagus, with its contents, was placed in exactly the
same spot whence the remains bad been taken. The presi-
dents of the various academies were present, with the Cavalier
Fabris at their head. Each bore a brick, which he inserted in
the brickwork with which the sepulchre was walled in." And
so the painter awaits " the resurrection of the just," and the
fellowship of saints and angels, of which his inspired pencil has
given us the highest realisation on earth.

LIVERPOOL

From the Liverpool PUolograpMc Jmrnal.

PIIOTORRjlPIIlC SOCIETY.

At the monthly meeting on Tuesday night, December 22nd,
at the Royal Institution, Colquitt Street, there was an unusually
good attendance, owing probably to the rumour that a proposi-
tion was to be made to to merge the Society in the Historic
Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. In the absence of Mr.
Corey. Mr. Bell, one of the Yice-Presidents, was called to the
Chair.

• Mr. FoEP.EST, the Treasui'er, exhibited some beautiful speci-
mens of the collodio-albumen process, by Mr. Robinson, of
Leamington, and a vignette portrait, printed on glass, by Mr.
Keith, of Liverpool, burnt-ia by himself, in enamel colors fluxed
on the glass, and burnt-in over the photograph. Though hurri-
edly done that afternoon, and subjected only to one burning, the
result was highly satisfactory, as showing what may be done in
this phase of the art. The outlines were beautifully sharp and
distinct, the colors bright and natural, and the image perfectly
indelible.

THE POSITION OF THE SOCIETY.

The Chairman said he had received a note from Mr. Green-
wood, the Proprietor of the Liverpool and Manchester Pholo.
graphic Journal, copies of which would doubtless have been sent
to all the members, conveying the surprising intelligence that this
Society had amalgamated with the Historic Society. He sup-
posed they should hear something more about it, if they called
upon Mr. Keith, who had received some communication from
the Historic Society.

Mr. Keith, Hon, Secretary, read the following letter:

Liverpool, IWi Dec, 1857.
Dear Sir, — At the council meeting of this Society last eve-
ning your letter to Dr. Hume was discussed, and a deputation
of tliree members, viz., Messrs. Sanson and Caxton, and the
Rev. A. Hume, D.C.L., &c., hon sec. to the Society was ap-
pointed to confer with the delegates of the photographic Society
on the subject of your communication. — I am, dear sir, yours
obediently,

J. H. Lever, Asst. Sec.
J. A. Forrest, Esq., &c. &c. &.

Mr. Forrest, in reply to a member, said the coramunicatio n
from himself, to whith this was an answer, was merely opening
the question of amalgamation on the proposed basis of last year.
He suggested that a deputation should be appointed to meet
a deputation of the Historic Society, reporting the result of
the conference to a future meeting.

The Chairman supposed that the active members of the So-
ciety, after giving it another year's trial, had not met with the
support they had anticipated, very fevf members haiing come
forward to assist the council with papers and photographic in-
formation, although the usual meetings had been pretty well at-
tended. His own impression was that by amalgamating with
the Historic Society, which had a vast number of members, they
would be advancing the interests of photography in Liverpool,
and therefore in England, and therefore in Europe, by bringing
the science before a larger body of members. He opposed the
proposition last year because he did not consider the Society
would be joining hands with the Historic Society on fair terms;
their affairs were, however, now in a better position, and he
had not the same objection he had theit.

Mr. Forrest observed that with hard dunning and fighting
the Society had this year paid its way, and he had in his hands
a balance of £10 lis. Cd., against which there was an old un-
settled account, which had stood over for three years, in con-
nection with the Photographic Exhibition. When that was
discharged there would still be a balance of £3 lis. 6 in favor
of the Society. With respect to the amalgamation he stated
that for the past four years he had devoted a great deal of his
time to the Society but that now, owing to the ill-health of his
partner he should be compelled to direct his entire energies to
to his own business, and he should therefore be unable to take
any prominent part in the work of the Society.

In reply to Mr. Cook, Mr. Forrest stated that the grounds
of the proposed amalgamation were, that they should enter the
Historic Society as members — the payment of an annual fee of
one guinea without paying the entrance fee; that they were to
have the full privilege of attending all the meetings of the His-
toric Society; that the council would enter into and form part of
the council of the Historic Society, the officers of each acting
together. It would, in fact, just be a transfer, having all their
privileges and rights reserved.

Mr. CooE — What guarantee would there be that we should
have any photographic communications, and that we should con-
tinue to be a photographic society?

Mr. Bell. — There would, no doubt, be a photographic sec-
tion every month.

Mr. Forrest. — The Historic Society has a night set apart
for the scientific section, and for miscellaneous matter.

Mr. Corey, who aad just come in, on being appealed to for his
opinion on the matter, as one who had taken a very prominent
part, in the affairs of the Society, said: — Mr. Forrest has stated
so much that he has left very little for me to say. We are entirely
in the hands of the present meeting. I can bear witness that
it has been a great labor to some of us to provide entertainment
for members from time to time, and I for one say that I cannot
do so any longer, though lam afraid, if we do amalgamate,
that our individuality will be lost — that we shall no longer ex-
ist at a Photographic Society. But, I do not think that the
members of the Society should look to a certaia few of their
body to provide them entertainment, month after month.. When
we can do this no longer, we must give it up, as we are obliged
now to do. If other gentlemen will come forward to provide
papers and information for their ordinary meetings, I, for one,
shall be prepared, most gladly, to add my quota towards the
continuation of the Society as it is; and I came here to-night,
prepared to support the continuance of the Society for another
year, inasmuch as we should start on a much more advantageous
circumstances than ever before. I don't think, however, unless
there is some great change, some infusion of new effort and ener-
gy, that this can be done with success, and I shall therefore sup-
port the proposed amalgamation with an elder brother — the
uniting ourselves with men of great talent in literature. We
shall still have opportunities of discussing our own matters, on

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

69

as many occasious as wc shall be able to provide matter fox"
them.

Mr. Keith thought the proposed arrangement was highly
desirable.

A Member asked what arrangement would be made about
the riioldgraphic Jiiurnal being furnished to them, if they amal-
gamated with the Historic Society? Upon which the Chairman
referred his interrogator to Mr. Greenwood. Some conversa-
tion ensued, during which some remarks were made by those
members whose communicalions in the Journal had been com-
mented upon in " foot-notes," by the Editor, to which subject
it will be seen .we have referred in our address.

On the proposition of Mr. Forrest, seconded by Dr. Ayrton,
Messrs. Corey, Keith, and Foard, to whom the name of Mr.
Forrest was subsequently added, were appointed a deputation
to meet the deputation of the Historic Society.

Mr. Foard consented to act as auditor of the accounts for
the year just passed.

CASEINE AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR COLLODION.

Mr, Berry said he had been for some months past making
experiments with the view of finding a substitute for collodion,
and he had at length arrived at a tangible result, and hoped,
on another occasion, to be able to submit specimens to the meet-
ing. He had always, he said, considered collodion perfection,
as a surface to work upon. They knew that it was perfectly
fluid; that when poured on the plate it set with an equal thick-
ness all over by the evaporation of the ether; and at last, while
still moist, and the pores still beautifully open, when plunged
into the bath it imbibed the nitrate of silver, and the necessary
chemical decomposition took place. He had always kept these
qualities in mind in searching for a substitute for collodion.
Many organic bodies had been tried, as starch, for instance,
which yields a very porous film, but does not adhere with suffi-
cient tenacity to the glass. Starch pictures, too, were, nearly
as rapid as collodion. With albumen it was the converse; it
was perfectly fluid, and would imbibe the chemicals required;
but when poured on to the glass it gixes off only water, and the
result is a solid film almost perfectly impervious to the action
of the bath. Albumen requires a sixty grain bath, at least.
After casting about for some months, it struck him that casein —
the rejected substance of Mr. Sutton's process, he using the se-
rum only — if it could be made into a liquid which would be vola-
tile, would give a pure homogeneous surface. In experimenting
he found that it was soluble in strong acetic acid; and it struck
him that a solution of casein and acetic acid would be a proper
medium for receiving pictures. Unfortunately all the iodides
and bromides he tried precipitated the whole of the casein from
its solution in acetic acid. There he left it, believing that casein
was not the thing at all. Accidentally turning over a chemical
work one day, he found another peculiar property of caseins i. e.,
that it is very soluble also in alkalies, and especially in ammonia.
It then struck him that if the casein dissolved in ammonia — would
hold in solution the iodide and bromide required to make the
surface sensitive, it might answer. He proceeded immediately to
prepare some. He washed away the acetic acid from the pre-
cipitated casein — then some five months old — dissolved it in am-
monia, adding the iodide, and he obtained a perfectly homoge-
neous fluid. There was a separation of a portion of the cream.
In precipitating the casein from the skimmed milk, there would
necessarily be some cream carried down; and when that was
dissolved in the ammonia, it formed a kind of soap, and was
difficult of separation. If it had not been so, he should have
had some perfect negatives to have shewn them. They might
make the solution as thick as thick as treacle if they liked° it
would still be perfectly fluid. Casein, at a certain temperature,
combines with oxygen and becomes insoluble in water; therefore^
in preparing the plates, they should not be exposed to a heat of
more than 212°, but with that they would form a glossy surface,
which could not be distinguished from albumen. If plunged in
an ordinary thirty-grain nitrate bath, it coated almost asqTiiekly
as coUdion, and it might be used either in its wet or dry state
developing with ordinary pyrogallic acid. ^He preferred usiu(^

9*

the citric to the acetic acid, because the latter had a tendency
to dissolve the film: they must not use cyanide because it di.s-
solvcd cascine as well as albumen. When the picture was cleared,
all they had to do was to dry and heat it again, and then the
film was so hard that they could scarcely scratch it with the
finger nail. He had obtained very good negatives in a room
with it, in two minutes, and they would have to give a minute
at least to wet collodion.

In reply to Mr. Cook, Mr. Keith, and other members,

Mr. BERRYstated that applying heat about 212° the ammonia
was driven off; the bath was not extra acid; he preferred the
positive bath. It did not injure the bath in the slightest degree.
Hecleared with hypo; if the negative was weak, and they cleared
with gold, it would intensify the image very much. Unlike al-
bumen, which a short period would serve to destroy, this casein
substitute for collodion would keep twelve moths or longer. It
was a chemical compound, just as soap was; it was, in fact, a
solution of casein in ammonia. With a little care they could
get rid of the oily matter precipitated by the acdic acid.

The detail of the pictures obtained by this process was splen-
did.

A Vote of thanks was on the motion of Mr. Forrest accorded
to Mr. Berry, who, in responding begged every one would try
the process, the strength of the iodizing mixture to be used being
six grains of iodide of ammonia to one ounce of this solution.
They must not use the metallic iodides and bromides, because
they precipitated the casein. He was inclined to think that
potash or sodia was the best. The strength of the ammonia
was quite immaterial. When the ammonia was evapora-
ted the film was colorless, and they would not know there
was anything on the glass. He had seen very good posi-
tive pictures from it, as far as color went. He would not think
of trying it forportraits, because it was not so sensitive as collo-
dion; but for large surfaces it was muck more economical.

Mr. Bell said he had seen two of Mr. Berry's plates, and he
thought it was the greatest desideratum they had yet possessed.

After some further conversation, the subject dropped, and a
vote of thanks to the Chairman terminated the proceedings.

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

BUR NT -IN PHOTOGRAPHY.

To the Editor of the Liverpool Photographic Journal:

Sir, — With a proper care, there is no doubt but that, even
in this climate paper, or still more, parchment paper, (or silicaf
or alumina-prepared paper,) may endure for a very long period;
but the mischief is just this, that one week's, or perhaps one
day's carelessness, the entrance of a few drops of rain, or the
attacks of vermin, even some insignificant insect, might destroy
what had stood for ages. In the case of photography used for
book illustration, these risks are not perhaps so great, and must
of course, from the nature of the case, be submitted to as far as
they go, but in the cases of portraits, landscapes, copies of paint-
ings or engravings of the larger size, such as might be suitable
for the decoration of houses or public buildings, how very desi-
rable to secure for the support of the picture a tablet of some
material which shall both be itself iudestructable from time,
damp and the ravages of vermin; and of such a nature as
permit the penetration and amalgamation of the metallic oxides,
or other substances of which the picture consists, to such an ex-
tent as to secure the picture's partaking of the imperishableness
of the tablet. That this absolute amalgamation is an essential
requisite we see from the old daguerreotype which, though oq
an imperishable tablet, is itself one of the most easily injured of
photographs. Porcelain, glass and many other vitreous and
ceramic, vitrified or semi-vitrified compounds, such as may be
produced by the artificial combination of earths, alkalis, borates,
&c. &c., (and metal, stone, slate, &c., with a coating of glass or
allied compounds,) from the facility with whichthe metallic ox-
ides, metals, or their compounds contained in the pictures
may be made to adhere to, or amalgamate with them on the ap-

t See my February paper ia Fhotographic Nttei.

10

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND PIKE ART JOURNAL.

March,

plication of heat, hold outcxacllj what we arc looking for. The
same substances as supports for fihns of collodion, &c., may no
doubt give very valuble and beautiful results, even without burn-
ing in; but this still does not exactly give us what we arc so
much in want of — a photograph which, though not of course proof
against intentional injury or violence, shall yet have a durability
identical and co-entcnsive with that of the uudecaying fabric
on which it is fixed a work of art which, (whether the photo-
graph be the principal consideration or only decoratively cm-
])loyed,j shall give promise of such integrity after the lapse of
ages as we now witness in the products of the potteries of ancient
Etruria, of China, or of India. This I have long been wont to
consider, fand I suppose I have not been altogether singular in
my estimate of its desidcrableness, ) as the second great deside-
ratum in photography, to be placed alongside that already allu-
ded to, of a cheap and permanent, (as far as the paper will al-
low, ) process for purposes of book illustration, and natural history
delineation; and it has been also in a great measure — I may
perhaps say fully as much with a view to the attainment of this
second desideratum — that my experiments have been carried on,
and it will, I believe, be found that the processes which I have
already enumerated, along with the indicated variations, afford
the means of producing good dark neutral tints, such as may be
useful forall ordinary purposes of photography, (which silver
has never yet been made to yield,) as well as a minor but still
very interesting consideration — the means of decorating our
pottery of every description, tiles for architectural purposes, glass,
&c. &c., with an endless variety of photographic designs, sim-
ple orkaleidscopic, in a great variety of neutral tints or color, and
■we may even produce more than one color in one compound de-
sign, printed at one time, c, g., by printing iu the first instance
with the bichromate of avimonia, soda, or potash alone; and in
the after stagesmanaging so that different metals shall be precipi-
tated on the different parts of the design. We might even hope
in the same way to obtain something like an approach to the
representation of certain subjects in natural colors, though for
this it is probable that the system of photo-chromo-lithography,
which I have elsewhere described, might be found more workable.
In all burnt in photography, the principle of attention to the color
of the metallic compounds which form the residue of the picture
after its passing through the fire, particularly as affected by heat,
by these combinations with salica or silicates, and other substan-
ces which exist in the glass, porcelain, or other tablets, or itssu-
perGcial glaze or enamel, or with each other, as already well knov/n
to, and carefully studied by, the painters, stainers, and printers,
must be kept constantly in view. The cause of the imperfect
success, as far as any generally valuble result goes, of all attempts
at bui-nt-iu photography of which I have heard, has been the
yellow color which silver produces in combination with
silicates. My object at the meeting of July 14th, was to place
the j)ho(ograp/ier on glass, on porcelain, &c., in something like
the same position with regard to neutral tints and colors iu which
the u'li-pkotographic printer , painter, and stainer had long been.
This, I did by calling attention to the metals calculated to
give the requisite tints and colors, and showing at the same time
a variety ot photographs, with the metals recommended — cobalt,
copper, iron, manganese, &c , com.bincd in various ways, (with
explanations of processes,) as proofs of the perfect possibility of
producing photographs containing the materials which I recom-
mended, supplying tlius the hitherto wanting link in the chain.
AVant of proper aj)pliances and convenience for the purpose, &c.,
prevented my having the actually burut-in specimens to show,
but though there may be room for much further experiment as
to the miuutae of manipulation, composition of cements, fluxes,
enamels. Arc, the daily experience of bnrning-in the un-photo-
graphic pictures and prints, is quite sufficient to settle the possi-
bility of burning in the photographically prepared prints with
the same materials, and were it not by rough experiments which
I have been able to make, are quite enough to show the possi-
bility of burning iu photographs in a variety of ways, from paper
as well as other films with some variety of the metals reccom-
raended, as well as with silver. In burning-inthcse wcdonotem
ploy any fi^ri/jaWc mixture to form a glaze above the photograph.

The silver, or silver and gold photographs, do appear as would
be expected to burn iu much more readily, and at a lower tem-
jjcrature than most or any of the others. With most metals it
seems to be necessary, unless we have a vitrifiable glaze above
the photograph, that the surface which it is to be made to amal-
mate with should be exposed to sufBcieut heat to bring it into
a state of fusion, or something very near it, and this, of course,
necessitates that in burniug into glass, in this way, the glass
should have previously received a coating of some vitrified (or
vitrifiable) mixture, glass or enamel, which will melt or soften
sufBcicntly at a considerably lower temperature than the glass
itself. Iu burning in with various descriptions of pottery, porce-
lain, tiles, &c., further experiments can aloue decide whether
the photograph should be applied to the tablet iu its unglazed
or in its glazed condition; whether any vitrifiable mixture (and
of what exact composition) should be applied to the photogra-
phic film of collodion, albumen, &c., after it is printed on, or to
the film of paper, after it has been attached to the tablet. Gum
appears to answer pretty well for the cementation of the paper
photograph to the tablet, and it may be that the mixture of a
little nitre or borax, &c., with the gu-m solution, or the soaking
of the paper in some such salts, or both, may turn out to be an
improvement where we do not intend applying any vitrifiable
mixture to the paper after its attachment. In experimenting
in a common fire, the sudden combustion and draught is very
apt to carry away the paper entire!}' — the more gradual appli-
cation of heat in a furnace, &c., will avoid this. To prevent the
breaking-up a,ud detachment of the paper photograph, a very
good ))lan will probably be, to keep it flat by a heavy or loaded
slab of stone, glass, metal, or other material, till carbonization
is absolutely complete, and then, it may be, remove the weight,
and then cither apply a vitrifiable mixture, or trust to heat and
the softening of the surface enamelled and attraction to produce
amalgamation. The application of the vitrifiable mixture to
the photograph, after it has been once in heat, unless either the
plate has been cooled before the weight has been removed, so
as to retain the carbon of the paper or other film, or unless we
first again expose the plate to a heat suEcieiit to cause a sort
of superficial attachment before we apply the final glaze, is hardly
to be recommended, as, where practicable, it would be very gen-
erally without an object. In the case of each description of
tablet, experience of the ready trained workman, with all his
appliances at command, will very soon decide whether it is better
to trust entirely to the glaze below, or partially or entirely to
a vitrifiable application above the photograph; and there are
many other points of detail which his experience can alone, and
will very readily decide, e. g., as to the best cement, where our
photograph is attached to tiie tablet after printing, as I have re-
commended with paper, &c. I have considerable hopes from collo-
dion In many respects paper has advantages. I have tried various
organic cements. As to the production of any required shade
of color or neutral tint, we have to set to work on the same
principle as we have descril)ed for nnburnt photography, only
dcvotiiig our attention entirely to the color which the picture
will assume after, and not to that which it will exhibit before
burning, and regarding, of course, the cyanogen — radical salts
merely with reference to the heavy metal contained iu the radi-
cal, tiie fcrro, and ferrid-cyanides, being thus valued on account
of their iron, and the cobalt cyanides for their cobalt, &c. It
is likely that both iu neutral tints aud in colored photography,
the cobalt, cyanides, and other salts, which I have noticed, &c.,
of comparatively small value in unburnt photography, may bo
here among the most useful agents. Cobalt is not only valua-
ble for the blue color of its silicate combination, but for the
formation of many intermediate colors with other metals,
and of most valuable neutral tints and very near approxima-
tions to black with manganese, copper, iron, &c. Such mi.x-
tures of metals are easily produced cither by an original mixture,
of the metals in the sensitizing solution, by a judicious after-ap-
plication of metallic salts, or of the metal organic salts. Both
in copper, iron, cobalt, chrome, nickle, and manganese, which
are the metals I have principally directed my attention to, there
seems to be no difficulty in fixing any number of them, and in

1858.

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURXAL.

11

almost any required proportion in one photograph. To attempt
any detailed enumeration of all the ways in which this miglit be
done (besides being in some degree a repetition of what I have
given in my former letter, would be filling pages to little purpose,
as the general principle of acting oace laid down, and the most
desirable chemicals enumerated, the application become insuSB-
cieatly evident, but we may notice generally, some of the prin-
cipal ways of securing the presence of a plurality of metals (or
• oue metal) in the photograph.

1. — In the first stage, that is before the metal organic deve-
lopemeat, this may be accomplished. 1st.— By introducing one
or any number of the metals not including the chrome of the
chromic acidj at the very commencement of all, into the solution
used for film or paper sensitizing, this being managed either by
employing a bath, containing at once in alkaline-bichromate, and
a salt or mixture of solts of the metal or metals desired, or else
by dissolving the oxide or oxides, or neutral chromate or chro-
mates of the same in solution of chromic acid (or the chromates
in sulphuric or other acids), giving thus a bath containing me-
tallic bichromates alone. 2nd. — By sensitizing with the bichro-
mate of potash, soda, or ammonia (or some of the complex alka-
lis) alone, and not applying the rael al or metals till after printing,
as practised in the ink process of M. Sella, lately published. In
the case of some metals, as copper and cobalt, it appears pretty
indifferent in which of these ways we introduce them in this stage;
but this was not always so. With iron for instance, the dark
solutiou after precipitation from protosulphate and bichromate
of potash does not answer well.

II. — In the second stage we have the choice of a variety of
metal cyanides, &c., for the expulsion of the chromic acid. The
iron cyanides and cobalt cyanides act readily. It must be re-
collected, however, that for burnt-in photography we do not
gain in atomic quantity of metal by this developing unless we
mean to follow it up by the application of the final metal bath,
corresponding to the irou bath in the cuprotype as described,
and still farther, that unless we use for the development a salt
of a metal cyanide or other metal containing acid or radical,
that we actually lose metal by the expulsion of the chromic acid.
The object in going through this second stage for porcelain print-
ing is therefore generally to substitute some other metal for the
chrome and to supply by the proportion of the alkaline metal
cyanide retained by the image, a basis for the introduction of
additional metal in the third stage.

III. — As to the third stage, the last opportunity of introducing
metal by the final toning bath, we must depend here cither alto-
gether on the alkaline metal cyanide retained, or else trust wholly
or partially to the superior affinity of the metal in the toning
bath for the metal cyanogen radical in the picture. Cobalt
and copper, for instance, will, in many cases, replace iron with
ferro-cyanogea and cobalt cyanogen, and iron or uranium will
supplant other metals in other cases. We need hardly enlarge
upon the command which the power of introducing metals at
any one or in all of these stages gives us over the result. Where
we wish a photagraph containing one metal alone, we might
either accomplish this by the expulsion of the chromic acid, by
an alkali, alkaline carbonate, or by a salt of some organic acid,
e.g., the mellonide of potassium, or what may be generally found
much preferable in many respects, secure its isolation in some
such way way as the following. Develop a washed chromate
of cobalt print by cobalt cyanide of potassium; wash, and tone
by cobalt bath, with iron we may adopt the same system, sub-
stituting the ferro-cyanide of potassium; however I dont think
that iron alone in this way is likely to be so very useful. The
developing of an iron print with ferro-cyanide or cobalt-cyanide,
and toning with iron, copper, or cobalt, might give more
useful results, but there are serious objection.?, however,
to the introduction of iron in the first stage at all. I have al-
ready, I thiidc, mentioned that the mixture of the protosulphate
with bichromate of potash does not form a good bath
(possibly the sulphate or other salt of the higher oxide or solu-
tion of it in chromic acid might answer better), and even where
we print first with an alkaline, bichromate alone, there is some-
times a little difficulty to get perfectly clear lights owing to icon

remaining in them (probably from its peroxidation by air, or
precipitation by other impurities in the water. To prevent this
1 have used a mixture of very little acid wilh some amount
of success, still there is a risk of the acids attacking the
chromate of iron of the picture, and on this ground it appears
better to commence with another metal, as copper or cobalt, and
to leave the introduction of the iron till afterwards, either by
means of the ferro-cyanide bath or by the final toning bath, or
we may introduce it in both of these stages in one print,, as in
the cuprotype process. This ought to be a good process, and
the experiments which have I have been able to make, though
giving nothing like presentable results, gave very good promise,
and sufficiently indicated that even a paper cuprotype, with no
more metal in it than can be easily got, will give an effective
burnt-in print. I have burned it into glass with enamel or flux
below even without any vitrifiable mixture above the paper, the
best results being obtained when the heat for burning in was
pretty quickly got up. Among the processes on this model (or
formula) likely to give good results may be named a chromate
of copper prints developed in the same way, 'but toned by cobalt
instead of iron in the final bath, or perhaps a chromate of co-
balt print developed by iron, and toned by iron or by copper
(or uranium or manganese). When our final toning is done by
iron I have generally used, and believe there is advantage in
using, a little acid mixed with the water with which the print is
afterwards washed (as well as a little added to the bath).
There is not the same risk incurred here as by its use in washing
the print in its chromic stage, as the metallic ferro-cyanides and
their allies are not nearly so easily acted on in this way as the
chromates are.

Manganese is a metal likely to prove highly valuable in burnt-
in photography, particularly in union with cobalt, iron, and cop-
per. I have obtained photographs containing these differently
combined in various ways. On the whole the most successful
of my manganese experiments have been those in which I stop-
ped at the first stage, a very good dense photograph containing
manganese and chrome being obtainable on paper prepared with
bichromate of potash and sulphate of manganese. I have mana-
ged to introduce iron, copper, and I rather think also cobalt
into this by subsequent actions; but perhaps as good a plan with
manganese, where the presence of chrome is not objectionable,
is to mix a little sulphate of cobalt with the bichromate of pot-
ash, (or ammonia) and sulphate of manganese used in prepa-
ring the paper, (or film,) and the chromic acid might be at
least partially removed by the application afterwards of an alka-
li or carbonate, &c. It is probable, but my experiments do not
enable me to speak with any confidence on this point, that man-
ganese might also be employed in some cases as a final toning
bath.

As to photographs for burning in colors, chromate of nickel,
(Mr. Bingham's chromatype,) a very distinct print might be
likely to answer Vi'ell, and the addition to it of cobalt, easily made,
might be an advantage. Chromate of silver, (Mr. Ilunt^s chro-
matype,) with the addition of cobalt, might also give a good
green, as might a cobalt-cyanide of iron, or cobalt-cyanide of
silver. As to purples, tin and gold, with or withaut cobalt,
might come into play, and tin, chrome, and cobalt might possi-
bly answer; uranium also, along with cobalt, co])pel, nickel, and
other metals might not improbably give good results. Chromate
of cobalt, and I have alredy alluded to cobalt-cyanide of cobalt
for blue. Let the photographer on porcelain only study the
means I have pointed out of fixing the different metals, and then
take up such a volume as the " Porcelainier Fayencier et Potier
de Terre, Paris, Libraire Encyclopedique de Roret," or any
similar treatise, and find what fixture of oxides he wishes to
obtain, and he need not remain long in difficulty as to obtaining
photographs containing most of them.

It must be observed that, though I have now been directing
attention principally to processes of which the chromates are the
basis; there are many other processes which may enable us to
fix a variety of metals and their combinations for the same pur-' '
poses. The prints by solarization of papers containing ferrid-
cyanide of potassium or ammonium, (or f'erro-cyanic acid, wouldj

12

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

March,

but for their slowness of productions, be also a very convenient
basis, giving pretty clear prints, and the iron of the base, after
washing, being replaceable to a certain extent, more or less, by
another metal or metals — copper, cobalt, or nickel for instance.
It is likely also that by the cobalt cyanides, we might replace
the ferro-cyanogcn with cobalt-cyanogen. Chrome-cyanides
and cobalt-cyanides are little acted on by sunshine by themselves.
Prints produced by developments of ferric salts might be tried,
though I have got no very clear prints in my trials in that di-
rection, gold and silver excepted. To return to the chro-
mate prints; in point of facility of getting a print perfectly clear
in the lights, I am not sure but what the method of printing in
the first instance, with a bichromate of ammonia, soda, or pot-
ash alone, has often been in other metals, though not so very
materially as in iron, the advantage over other forms of the fir&t
stage. 1 have found it answer well among others, with copper
and with cobalt, and for one application of burnt-in photography,
it will be by far the most convenient process — I allude to where
we intend to produce on one piece of pottery, tile, or glass, a
design containing more than one color or tint. In this case hav-
ing sensitized the film with the alkaline bichromate, we might
even print the whole design at once from one negative, and re-
gulate the colors of different parts by the application of the so-
lutions containg, and consequent precipitation of different metals
in different parts of the design or picture. We have here obvi-
ously the same choice as elsewhere of the three different stages
for the introduction of each metal, the same choice of chemi-
cal agents, metal salts, metal cyanides, &c.; with these succes-
sive applications also given us, the power of depositing any re-
quired mixture of metals.

The separate actious on the different parts of the film might
be secured iu various ways — by forming cells on the surface, if
tolerably level for the reception of the different solutions, or in
any case by immersing the whole in the different baths, having
previously taken the precaution to protect against the action of
such bath, by a coating of gutta percha or other easily removed
impervious substance, the parts not wished to be acted on by
that particular bath; (might it be possible that in this or other
ways some approach to natural shading of colors could be ob-
tained?)

A few words as to the applications of burnt-in photography.
How desirable to have portraits of our friends, or of histori-
cally interesting characters enlarged from small pictures, and
fixed impcrishably on slabs of porcelain, tiles, or other vitrified
or semi-vitrified composition, or on enamelled plates of copper,
stone, or brick. What an interesting gallery such portraits
would form. They might, of course, be hung up like ordinary
portraits, but by far the better plan would be, either by fixing
them into panel frames in the wails, or building them perma-
nently into the stone-work of our public buildings and galleries.
How important thus to be able to decorate our public buildings
with absolutely permanent memorials of thegreat men of our and
all succeeding ages; and both public and private buildings with
similarly imperishable landscape photographs, as well as copies
of all that is most interesting in the way of sculpture, painting
and engraving, either of fair size, or of any size suitable for
their position.

As to copies of paintings, there are difficulties from color,
though these may no doubt be, in a great measure, got over,
either by making our second negative from a judiciously touched
positive, or by having the picture first translated into light and
shade in china ink or sepia, ))y the original or other competent
artist. The system of photochromo-lithography might enable
us to give an approach to permanent reproduction in colors, if
found practicable, and without colors. Photo-lithography in
pictures of oxides, giving good nentral tints, might to a consid-
erable extent, take the place of the true burnt-iu photograpliy
for many classes of subjects.

C. J. Burnett,

From the Liverpool Photographie Journal.

ACCOUNT OF A METHOD
Of Convertins Collodion Xesalives into Positives, by Deal.

BY JOH.V F. CAMPBELL, ESQ.

In youth study, iu maturity compose, in old age correct.

In the end of 1854, I observed that a broken glass negative
changed color on being thrown into the fire.

I then tried several experiments with small negatives. I *
held the glass by one corner with the tongs, and passed it
gradually into an ordinary coal fire, selecting a place between
the bars of the grate where there was a good red heat and no
flame or smoke. By carefully and slowly drawing the glass
out after it had got to a red heat, by avoiding contact with the
fuel, and by holding the collodion side of the plate downwards
to avoid dust, I succeeded in producing a number of positive
pictures, which I varnished and backed with black varnish in
the ordinary manner.

Many glasses were broken in my first attempts. Some pic-
tures were too pale, some were yellow, Rome were too white;
but the defects in those which escaped breakage appeared to
be due rather to the chemical than the burning process, aud I
persevered.

I have made a number of experiments since 1854, and the
result is the follovv'ing process, which I have found toleraby
successful.

PROCESS.

Take a picture by the ordinary collodion process on plate
glass, which stands heat better than the other kinds usually
sold for photographic purposes. Carefnlly remove all traces of
iodide of silver, which gives a yellow color in the shadows if
any is left; dry, and varnish with amber varnish.

The negative may now be used for printing in the pressure
frame. To convert it into a positive: lay the plate, varnished
side upward, on a layer of pounded chalk or white sand spread
evenly on an iron tray (a shovel or a frying-pan will doj. Heat
the whole to a dull red heat over a fire. It will be well to
protect the plate from dust during the process by covering it
with a bit of talc.

The layer of chalk or sand distributes the heat gradually
and evenly over the plate, and diminishes the risk of breakage.
The vj/iikncss of the layer permits the process to be more easily
watched. The varnish first smokes; the picture becomes clear-
er and darker, then darkens all over — turns from black to
grey.

It then assumes a variety of colors, which by reflected light
are very brilliant. It becomes orange in parts, then blue and
purple in jjarts, the slate-colored in parts, lastly green in
patches, and then a white positive picture.

When the high lights are blue the shadows are generally
orange, when the high lights first turn white some parts of the
picture remain blue. One picture was stopped at this point,
and retains some color iu the dresses. The faces and one cor-
ner were beginning to whiten when the operation was stopped,
but being backed with varnish, poured on the collodion side,
the colors are faint, and by lamp-light hardly visible.

When all parts of the picture first become white it is at the
best.* It is then time to remove the plate from the heat, and
allow it to cool gradually. Heat continued weakens the shad-
ows by whitening them. Still more heat weakens the whole
picture, probably by altering the condition of the silver.

Seen through a microscope of strong power, by reflected
light, the picture shines as frosted silver, in points of colored
light on a dark ground.

The points are nearest each other in the high lights. By
transmitted light the plate appears covered with a fine dust,
scattered thinly in the shadows, more thickly placed in the
half lights. In the high lights the silver appears as a contin-

* The rays of the .sun collected in a strong burning glass act on thecol-
lodion pictnrcs in the same way as artificial heat, aad change the silver
Irom black to white.

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

13

nous film, with small holes in it at regular interrals. Seen by
both reflected and transmitted lijrht, the silver appears like a

white sand distributed on the glass, in several layers iu the
white lights, but scattered in the shadows and lights.

The possibility of producing photographic pictures with the
natural colors by some modiilcation of this process, has fre-
quently occurred to me, anil though I have hitherto failed to
produce local color, I would suggest that those who have more
leisure to devote to such experiments should turn their atten-
tion to the subject. Many substances may be made to appear
of any color by dividing them into plates sufficiently thin.

The brilliant colors which succeed each other while the collo-
dion is burning away, probably depend on the thickness of the
film through which the silver dust is seen. The rate at which
the collodion burns must depend on the conducting power of
the substances in contract with it, and the thickness of the film
may depend oa the amount of silver deposited on various parts
of the plate. It may be that by some improvement of this
roastiug process, the film may be so affected by the silver de-
posited in it, as to vary in thickness to the amount which will
produce color in its proper position. I have
once succeeded in stopping the process when
the sky of a landscape was blue and
the trees green, but that result was acci-
dental.

The uses to which this burning process
can be turned are numerous. Pictures tak-
en oa metallic plates, glazed with a dark
glass, would be less liable to break in heat-^
ing. By fusing aa enamel over the siK'fc^
ver, photographic enamels couldbe produced.
A gentleman who superintends the glass
works of Messrs. Powell, undertook to
try some experiments for me several
months ago, bat I do not know if he has
produced enamels. The same gentleman
was kind enough to allow me to use one
of his furnaces, where, with his assistance, I succeeded in roast-
ing a number of good-sized plates, with very few breakages.

I have thought that the silver might be made by a great
heat to sink into the glass and produce depressions on its sur-
face, from which, the silver being removed by acids, prints
might be taken with ink.

I have tried to engrave a glass plate with fluoric acid, after
removing the collodion by heat, but hitherto I have failed in my
attempts at photographic engraving on glass; others may be
more successful.

It may be interesting to your readers to know that transpa-
rent pictures copied in the camera, from glass negatives, make
good ornaments for windows. Smaller transparencies make
good slides for magic lanterns. They may be backed with
white or with colored oil paints, when they appear like draw-
ings or oil pictures. These plates must be varnished before
they are painted. When the oil paint is dry, or while wet, the
pictures may, with care, be removed entirely from the glass,
and kept in books, while the collodion is wet, it may be trans'
ferred from the glass to paper. A process for coloring paper
photographs, in oil, was patented by a gentleman of the name
of Duppa, some years ago. The method of coloring transpa-
rent collodion pictures is preferable, but any one desirous of
carrying on this process for gain, would do well to consider the
terms of Mr. Duppa's patent.

The oil coloring of prints made transparent with varnish, has
long been practised, but the patent, referred to, for so coloring
paper photographs, may include the use of oil paints ia color-
ing photographic drawings of all kinds.

Colored pictures resembling oil paintings, six inches square,
have been made with a part of a microscope from a neo-ative
taken from nature, with a small lens, at a distance of °about
twelve yards. The arrangement for copying the negative was
as follows: —
The glasses were removed from an^ ordinary portrait lens,,

VOL XI. NO. III. 10

and the inch power of the microscope was screwed into the dia-
phragm (A). The brass of the portrait lens, with the inch
power and diaphragm inserted, was then replaced in a long-
bodied camera (B), constructed, at my request, for this pur-
pose, by Mr. Ross, last August. The negative was placed in
an upright stand (C), and a looking-glass (D) was so placed
behind it as to reflect light from the sky. The whole appara-
tus stood on a table near a window. The advantage of taking
negatives of small size, and magnifying them afterwards, is the
great reduction iu the size of the apparatus
necessary.

If any of the makers of optical instru-
ments would construct a camera to take
negatives sufiBciently small, a photographer
might carry his whole battery iuhis pocket,
instead of requiring a cart-load of materials
as at present; but, till a special apparatus
is constructed, photographers may use
small lenses in the field, and magnify their
pictures at home by the method described. /

From the Beport of the Royal Cornw. Polytech Soe,

PRETSCH'S PROCESS OF PHOTO-GALVAJiOGRAPIlY.

BY ROBERT HUNT, F.R.S.
Read before the Royal CornwaU Polytechnic Society, 1 856.

Mr. Hunt, F.R.S., said, ia front of the platform there hangs
a series of pictures which are now exhibited for the first time to
the public in this country, the production of Mr. Paul Pretscb,
the late director of the imperial Printing OfiBce at Vienna. They
were produced by a process which he designates by the compound
term of photo-galvanogniphy; that is, pictures which are drawn
by the light, and are engraved by electricity or galvanism. The
process is an exceedingly simple and beautiful one and I am indebt-
ed to Mr. Paul Pretsch for allowing me to communicate to the
society, in the present state of the invention, the whole of the
process, he having furnished me with the materials. You are
aware of the processes, nov/ so common, for taking photographic
pictures; but the ordinary process is not that employed by Mr.
Paul Pretsch. Mr. Mungo Ponton, fourteen years since, dis-
covered that a well known salt, the bichromate of potash, was
susceptible of change when exposed to the influence of sunshine
in connection with orecanic matter; and one of the most beautiful
and simple photographic processes I am acquainted with, is sim-
ply to wash a piece of letter paper with a solution of bichromate
of potash — a salt which may be obtained in any druggist's shop
— placing on that paper any object you wish to copy, such
as fern-leaves or engravings. In the course of a short time the
result is that you will obtain aa image; one part of the yellow
paper having changed its color, and the other remaining un-
changed. By soaking this paper, which has undergone this
photographic change, ia water, all those portions not changed
in color are readily dissolved out; whilst those which have chan-

u

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND PINE ART JOURNAL.

March,

ged color remain permanent and fixed; the rationale being, that
the bichromate ot potash parts with one portion of its chromic
acid, and tliis chromic acid combines with the size, and forms a
chemical combination of ciiromate gelatine or of fibrine, whicli-
ever, it may be. Mr. Paul Pretsoh, in pursuing his investi-
gation, does this; — he takes a plate of glass, and on that
spreads his material, the material being ordinary glue, to which
bichromate of potash is added, and to which a small quantity of
nitrate of silver has also been added. For instance, he takes two
or three solutions of glue, into one of which he puts a little nitrate
of silver, into another bichromate of potash, and into another io-
dide of potassium. He uses the silver and the potassium for the
purpose of producing a little iodide of silver on the sensitive film,
so as to produce on the picture that grain which is necessary for
holding the ink in the process of printing. He then takes the
photographic picture, obtained by any of the customary process-
es, and this being placed on the sensitive ])lat6, on the glass
thus prepared, is exposed to the action of light. In the course
of a short time, (all those parts which are dark in the pho-
tograph, protecting the plate from change, and all those which
are white, allowing the sunlight freely to pass through and the
change to take place), we have a combination of bichromate of
potash and gelatine in two different states, one soluble and the
other insoluble. Consequently, the plate is then put into water,
and all the parts which remain soluble are dissolved out, whilst
the other parts remain as they were; and we have the picture
produced not only in different lights and shades, but also in dif-
ferent depths, the solution being eaten into by the process (Mr.
Hunt here exhibited plates showing the stage of the process).
When the plate is prepared to this point, there is poured upon
it a preparation of gutta percha, which being kept under pres-
sure for a short time, receives the reverse image of the poto-
graphic picture. This is now prepared for the voltaic battery,
by being simply rubbed over with fine black lead; and it being
placed in connection with the trough, copper is precipitated on
the plate, which receives an image the reverse of the mould.
Then by the ordinary electrotype process another plate may be
obtained, from which prints like this (exhibiting one) have been
printed. The capabilities of the process are evident when we
examine the extreme beauties of detail, and the marvellous seriel
effect of those pictures, all the middle tints being preserved.
There have been several methods by which engravings have been
produced from photographs; one by Mr. Talbot, in which he
uses a steel plate and bichromate of potash, the plate being
afterwards etched by bichloride of platinum. There are othei
processes, amongst them that of Niepce; but in all these we have
only the high lights and deep shadows, the whole of the middle
tints being sacrificed; whereas, in this picture of York Minister,
(taken by the process lam describing,) I would direct your
attention to the beautiful ajrial effect of the middle tints; and
details of the tower are faithfully given, as of the building on
either side. We are also enabled by this process to take a pho-
tographic likeness of any person, from which copper-plate prints
can be obtained, in any number; and by the use of the camera
the pictures can be copied of any size. This process is now be-
ing brought before the public by Mr. Paul Pretsch, for the pur-
pose of illustrating works of natural history, books of travel,
and other works of that kind. He fMr. Hunt) hoped he had
rendered himself intelligible in bringing before them the details
of a process which promises to rival anything that had hitherto
been done ia the photographic art.

From the Liverpool rhotograpliic Journal.

m SAME OP THE OPTICAL PRINCIPLES
Involved in the Couslrudion of Pjjotugraphic Lenses.*

BY MR. GRUBB.

BiPHOSpHURKTTED Hydrogen. — This gas IS prepared by expos-
ing to the action of heat phosphorous acid and water, in a small
glass retort; in this process the oxygen of part of tlie acid and
part of the water convert the other part of the acid into phos-
phoric acid, the remaining part of the phosphorous unites with
the hydrogen of the decomposed water, and forms the biphos-
phuretted iiydrogen. It does not detonate spontaneously, but
when mixed with oxygea and inflamed a violent explosion takes
place.

[The following is the concluding portion of the paper read
by Mr. Grubb, at a meeting of the London Photographic So-
ciety, on the 3d of December. In our last publicaiion we
promised to give a report of the discussion upon this, and also
Mr. Pretsch's paper, bnt upon reconsideration, as no really
practical conclusion was arrived at, we have decided upon
omitting it.]

The acting angular aperture of a photographic lens (view or
portrait) is varied fro tern., not only by the addition or substi-
tution of a stop, but also by approaching the object to the leus,
and thereby causing its image to be formed at a greater dis-
tance on the other side; and in portrait photography the differ
ence caused by the latter change is often considerable. It will,
however, be sufficient for the present purpose if we consider the
angular aperture as that w-hieh the lens or compound has for
parallel rays; this is at once the maximum angular aperture,
and that which is to be generally understood as meant. It is
desirable also to premise that in speaking of the focus of a por-
trait combination, its equivalent focus is generally to be under-
stood.

The focus of an ordinary view lens is approximately that of
the distance of its first surface from the image (of a distant ob-
jectj. The equivalent focus of a portrait combination may be
readily found with sufficieut accuracy by dividing the measured
focus of a spectacle-lens (by preference one of nearly the focus
of the compound), by the fraction representing the respective
linear dimensions of the images of a large distant object formed
by the coaipound and the single lens; for example, say that the
focus of the spectacle-lens is found to be ten inches, and the
images formed by it and the combination are as 5 to 4 in linear
measurement — then 10-^f=8 inches, the equivalent focus re-
quired.

The portrait photographer, desirous of reducing the time of
action to a minimum, seeks by all possible means to effect so de-
sirable an object. Amongst others, he tries that of lenses of
increased angular aperture, but the diiBculties of keeping all
portions of the object in tolerable focus (previously sufficiently
harrassing) are now increased. Lately this difficulty is pro-
/essedly solved; lenses are advertised of a " long chemical
range," and, in swne cases,, at least, lenses have been selected
for use — less for their intrinsic merits in other respects, than for
the lesser indistinctness (supposed or real) o-f their ages, or ob-
jects out of focus.

Now the term *-' long chenrJcal range" must, from the manner
in which it has been used, be understood to mean a longer
chemical range than other or previous combinations of the same
aperture and focus possessed; while any party who selects a
lens out of several of the same nominal size, as having an appa-
rent longer vi-sual range than the rest, must be under the im-
pression, that not only the chemical, but also the visual
"ranges" are not constant for a given aperture and focus. Con-
ceiving that herein is error, at once directly opposed to optical
truth, and calculated to retard sound photographic progress, I
propose to consider whether the lohole affair is not siviply a de-
lusion, which, the sooner it is discarded the belter.

The first step herein is evidently to examine the origin and
nature of the confusion arising from the ground glass (or sensi-
tive surface) of a camera not being in the plane of the image,
or (in photographic language) in true focus.

Let L I; (see diagram on page 15J be a lens free from aber-
ration, and forming a distinct image of a small brilliant object
(a star for example) at/. This image (if bright enough) will
be seen as a luminous point on a suitable surface placed verti-
cally to the axis of the lens at /; bnt if this surface be moved
alternately within and without the focus, the brilliant point

• Coutiuued from p. 62, vol. xi., no. ii.

will swell out into a disc of light, incrensing in magnitude ns
the surface s s is made to recede from either side of the
focus.

And, as that which is true for any one point or star is also
true for any number, so the confusion or indistinctness whicli
we have under consideration is caused by the overlapping of an
infinite number of little discs, instead of as many distinct and
separate points being represented or projected on the surface
placed to receive them. In other words, let an image be con-
sidered as made up of an infinite number of distinct points, and
let each one of tliese be supposed as spread out into a disc of
greater or less magnitude, and we have a correct idea of tlie
nature of the indistinctness caused by an image (or rather the
converging pencils which would form suchj not been received
at the true focus on tlie surface intended to receive same.

So far for the nature of the indistinctness; next for the. laws
which govern its amount.

Chemical or antinic rays afford no exception to the general
laws of optics, that rays proceeding through a medium of equal
density, and not affected by any extraordinary force, do so in
straiiiht lines.

In the case before us, speaking strictly, and supposing the
lens L L to be perfect; or, speaking practically, and supposing
it to give as distinct an image as that given l)y a good plioto-
graphic portrait combination, then it is obvious — first, that the
diameter of any disc for traverse sectionj of the converging
beam, L /L (which is also a measure of the confusion of the
image) is directly proportioned to the distance of said section
from tlie true focus, and the diameter of the lens conjointly;
secondly, that traverse sections of the beams, taken at equal
distances, as ^, d',d", s,s',s" (before nnd after convergence),
from the point/, will liave equal measures and equal intensity;
or let A be the aperture of the lens, /its focal length, d dis-
tance from/ (if any section of the beam), and c the confusion
of the image; theu

d
C=(AX— )

/

Such is the case so far as a single con^bination is concerned,
which, as before stated, I have supposed to be aplanatic; and,
without grossly departing from this latter condition, no practi-
cal (or decided) amount of difference in that under considera-
tion-can be obtained. I am, of course, aware, that by adopting
a lens with a large amount of spherical aberration, tlie case
would be slightly altered; but what then ? There would be in-
deed a diminution of the circle of confusion on one side of the
focus but there would be at that same time an equivalent, increase
of the same on the other side; while the lens would, from its
great spherical aberration, be worthless as a portrait-lens.

I desire here to be clear, even at the risk of repetition. The
ordinary view-lens will answer for illustration. It has a large
and unbearable amount of spherical aberration for the whole
aperture; but a small amount only for the diameter of any one
pencil of rays, as admitted by the stop in front. Kow in this
lens, and using the ordinary sizes of stops, no appreciable
lengthening of the focal range on either side of the focus can be
obtained, while an attempt to use a much larger aperture of
the lens would at best produce as much shortening of the
focal range on one side of the focus, as lengthening of the same
on the other. Any one who has access to a camera, &c., can
test what has been advanced, practically, iu the absence of day-
light, as follows: —

Near to one end of a room place the camera, and at the
other a good Argand-larnp, without a muffled shade; screen the

direct light of the lamp from the camera, and place a mercurial
thermometer, having a spherical bulb, about one foot from the
source of light, and so that the rays falling on the bulb will be
reflected towards the camera. Thus will be provided an "arti-
ficial star," which, being focussed in the camera, will be found
useful for many experiments with lenses, both simple and com-
pound.

To prove the correctness of what has been insisted on, in
respect of a corrected pencil of converging rays, proceed as fol-
lows:—mark, or in any other way, register, the adjustment of
the focussing when the image of the lucid point of light is dis-
tinct on the greyed-glass (by using a portrait-combination with
its full aperture, the results will be the most decided); then
move the greyed-glass, by measured quantities, alternately within
and without the focal distance, and measure the diameters of
the respective discs at each position. If the lens be even mod-
erately good, the appearance inside and outside the focal dis-
tance will be singular, and agree, in all respects, with what has
been stated. By using an ordinary view-lens, (after all stops
and diaphragtus are removed, and its whole aperture exposed),
the effects due to positive spherical aberration will be very ap-
parent, and also be in accordance with what I have advanced
in respect of such, viz,, than any leugtheniug-out of the focal
range on one side is accompanied with, and neutralized by, a
reverse effect on the other side of its focus.

In the examination of any lens, simple or compound, for
spherical aberration— if, on pushing the greyed surface, or
screen, within the focal distance, so as to receive a section of the
beam converging to a focus, the appearance is that of a lumin-
ous ring filled up with a fainter light; then on drawing the
greyed surface beyond the focus, or into the beam diverging
from that focus, the appearance of the section will be that of
a brighter central spot surrounded by a fainter light or halo,
and the lens is under-corrected for spherical aberration. If, on
the contrary, these appearances are inverted, the aberration is
over-corrected. t

Postscript. — It may be desirable to anticipate a question
which will naturally occur to some persons, viz., how the differ-
ence (real or imaginary^, of chemical or visual " range" arises ?
Supposing it to be " real," I can account for it only by a
small difference existing iu the angular aperture of the objec-
tives under trial. This may arise from several causes, but
(when the lenses are of the same make,) most likely from a
difference of distance, mter se, of their respective lenses. An
"imaginary," or apparent, but specious difference, would arise
from the several objectives not affording equally distinct images
{when in focus) . A given and equal indistinctness of objects
out of focus will be comparatively, and therefore apparently,
less in the case of an indifferent lens, than in one giving a very
perfect image at its focus. In either case, i.e., whether the
"longer range" is real, or only apparent, a choice conducted in
reference to"this range, is likely to result in the selection of the
least valuable lens of the lot.

This communication has already exceeded its intended length;
I trust it adequately demonstrates that, so far as a single com-
bination at least is concerned, no range of focus can be commii-
nicated to it other than that which is determined by the condi-
tions of its focus and aperture. The modus operandi given for
practically testing the matter, it will be observed, is equally
applicable to all cases whether of single or compound oljec-
tives. The subject will, however, have been treated more com-
pletely, if, in a future paper, 1 shall show, on theoretic grounds,
that compound or portrait-lenses, are placed under precisely
similar limited conditions iu respect of their definitions of focus,
as are the more simple or single combinations.

Phosphate of Ammonia.— This salt is prepared by addmg
ammonia to concentrated phosphoric acid until a pr,ecipitate
appears. After which, by applying heat the precipitate
will be dissolved from the solution, and upon coolmg the crys-
tals will be formed.

16

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

March,

JProm La Lumiere.
PDOTOfiRAPUY AND ENGRAVING ON WOOD.

'The art of engraving on wood has been practiced for some
time, and is now very extensively employed, in the illustration
of various publications, which owe to it much of their success.

" The specimens produced by wood-engraving are in general
well-execuled, artistic, and cheap. Artists of taste and skill
have brought this art to a degree of perfection which it seemed,
at first unlikely to attain. MM. Gustave Dore and Jahyer,
among otliers, have proved, by their splendid illustration of the
' Wandering Jew,' that wood-engraving can produce remarkable
works, which, in point of size, composition, and excution, are
worthy to occupy, in the fine arts, an honorable place near that
of the works of the celebrated masters.

" It is precisely because wood-engraving is so highly appreciated
both by editors and the public, that it cannot meet all the de-
mands made npon it as promptly as one would desire. Many
editors have therefore thought that the photographic processes, so
quick and accurate in their results, might be made to assist it;
60 that a photograph might be obtained on the wood block,
which co^lld then be cut out in relief by the engraver.

"This result has now been accomplished.

"The inventor of the process which we are about to describe,
M. Lallemand, is a skilful engraver. In consequence of his fre-
quent transactions with the editors of works, in the ilinstration
of which wood-engraving is often employed, he endeavored to
solve the problem stated above. But at first two difSculties
presented themselves. In the first place it was necessary that
the wood should not be affected by the photographic chemicals;
and secondly, that it should not be so coated or varnished with
any substance as to interfere with the operations of the engraver.
After more than a year of fruitless experiment, M. Lallemand
discovered a process which is free from the above objections,
and he has published it in a communication made to the Acade-
my of Sciences, in the following terms:

"' The surface of the wood (and that only), is submitted to
the action of a solution of alum, and dried. The entire block
is then coated with a mixture of animal soap, gelatine, and alum.
When dry, the snrface which is to receive the image is placed
for some minutes on a solution of hydro-chlorate of ammonia,
and allowed to dry. It is next placed on a nitrate bath, con-
taining twenty per cent, of nitrate of silver, and dried in the
dark. A negative either on glass, or paper, is then applied to
the sensitive surface of the wood, in a pressure-frame, made for
the purpose, which allows the progress of the printing to be
watched. The image is fixed by a saturated solution of hypo-
sulphite of soda. A few minutes in this solution will suEQce.
It is then washed for five minutes only.'

" The sizing protects the wood from any moisture, and eight
months experience has proved to the inventor that the employ-
ment of alum and hypo-sluphite, instead of loosening the tex-
ture of the wood, gives it a great toughness, which is favorable
to engraving.

" We trust this process may prove successful, for if the pub-
lisher of illustrated works is compelled to have recourse largely
to wood engraving, there are many other branches of industry
equally important, which are also indebted to it. For instance,
printing on textile fabrics, paper staining, &c. ; and also in the
sciences, chemistry, archaalogy, geography, mathematics, medi-
cine, &c.

" The process of M. Lallemand is very simple, and before long
many hard woods may be converted into photographic blocks,
by means of which, proofs, very superior in some respects to those
which are now produced, may be multiplied.

" Photograpliy has been reproduced on steel and marble by
M. Niepce de St, Victor. MM. Baldus, Negre, Delessert, and
Riffaut, have obtained photographic reproductions on steel, and
various metals. MM Robert and Bayard have produced proofs
on i)orcelain. MM. Mayer Brothers, on linen; MM. Moulin
andLeblanc an ivory, &c., &c. Photography on Wood is a new
Step, which we have now to record.

" The intelligent manager of the Imperial Printing-OfGce of

Vienna has tried, in the interest of his art, most of the new
processes, and has successfully employed those above-mentioned.
We have been able to appreciate, in the Palais de I'Industrie,
by an examination of the photographs, as well as other works
exhibited from this magnificent establishment, how much is due
to the exertions of M. Auer, (the manager), for its present
position, and increasing prosperity."

RESTORING TOSITIVES.

Jamestown, January 24, 1858,

Mr, SnELlinr, — Dear Sir: Perhaps the following may be
useful, perhaps not. You will of course be the judge.

A few days since, I was looking over my collection of photo-
graphs, and found one that had darkened very much. I
soaked it thoroughly in water, when it was easily separated
from the heavy paper to which it was attached; I then im-
mersed it in a weak solution of hyposulphite of soda, letting it
remain there several hours, I took it out and washed it tho-
ronghly, when it appeared as good as new, with the exception
perhaps of being a little weaker in tone — I think it laid in the
hypo bath longer that necessary. The picture was Crystalo-
typed by Mr. Whipple, from a daguerreotype by Mr. Hesler;
title, "Driving a Bargain," and appeared in the September No.
of the F. 4- F. A. Journal for 1854.

Yours truly,

J. C. Gray.

MODE OF TRANSFERRING

A Collodion Negative from Glass to a Sheet of Gntta-Percfea, Em-

plojed at the Imperial Priiitiug-Office of Vienna,

BT M. LEON CASSAGNE.
[Read before a Meetins of the French Photographic Society, June t9, 1857.]

" It is generally known that at the Imperial Printing-Office
of Vienna, when a good collodion negative has been obtained on
glass, it is the custom to transfer it by means of a double filns
of gelatine, and gutta-percha dissolved in chloroform. The pro-
cess which I have adopted, and which has never been described
in the Bulletin of the Society, consists in first dissolving, —

Pure gutta-percha 192 grammes.

Chloroform, or Benzole 3r09 „

or;

Gutta-percha 256 grammes.

Chloroform, or Benzole 3riO „

" You perceive that the quantities are not invariable. There
are cases in which it is necessary to vary them. I shall not
enter into details; the operator, in each particular case, will be
able to decide for himself.

" When the negative on the glass is dry and in good condi-
tion, pour, on the collodion, side, a coating of the above solu-
tion. Let it run slowly and unilormly, that it may have time to
penetrate and unite with the collodion film. As soon as this
coating is completely dry, strengthen it with a second, formed
of the following substances: —

Gelatine of commerce (very white). . ..30 grms.

Filtered water, as much as the gelatine can absorb, until it
has swelled to the utmost.

Isinglass 5 grms.

Alcohol 15 "

"Melt the gelatine in the water which it has absorbed, by
placing the vessel containing it in hot water. Melt the isinglass
in the same way in the alcohol. Mix by degrees, and with care j
stirring with a wooden spatula this species of varnish. Warm
it with precaution, that it may not be injured by too much heat.
Hold the negative, the coating of gutta-percha upwards, before
a clear fire, or over a spirit lamp, until it is heated to 10 or 20°
centigrade; then pour over it, immediately (removing it from

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1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

17

the flame of the himp), a coatiils of gelatine, as thin as its densi-
ty will allow. It is unnecessary to say that the gelatine must
be warm and perfectly liquid at the time. Leave it for an in-
stant to cool and dry, sheltered from dust, and you will be able
to remove easily, by means of the steam from boiling water, the
tripple film of collodion, gutta-percha, and gelatine. This ope-
ration, which is very easy, is pcrrormed as soon as you see that
tire ifilm is sliglitly softened by the steam, and you should then
begin to remove it from the glass at tlie corner from which the
excess of collodion was poured off when the plate was collodioii-
iied. It often happens that the film diseny:ages itself at ihis
corner of the glass. It is a good )ilau to facilitate the entire
removal of the film, with a thin blade of fle.\ible polished horn,
on which, with the help of the fingers, you support the film, while
you detach it by degrees, either with, or without, the aid of
a thin thread of water, running drop by drop from a tap, and
which insinuates itself by degrees under the collodio:i, between
it and the glass. As soon as the entire film is raised, flatten it
between two pieces of glass, having good surfaces, and suffi-
ciently thick to act by their own weight. The collodoin used
must have suficient consistency, not so much however as to leave
striae or lines on the plate when dry.

" The chlo\\)form, or benzole solution, should be allowed to
stand several days before being used, in order that the coloring
matter, or any impurities in it, may be deposited. Filter through
paper, that the solution may be sufficiently thin, shutting the
top of the funnel to prevent too much evaporation, which would
have the effect of thickening the solution. Benzole, of speci6c
gravity much less than the chloroform, gives good results, but
inferior to those obtained by chloroform, which gives a solution
almost colorless, and adheres firndy when the evaporation is
completed; which also takes place more rapidly than with the
benzole.

" The density of the solution of gutta-percha, which is always
slightly colored, retards considerably its complete clarificatioa. It
is uecessary to avoid all impurities in this solution."

From the Photographic Notes.

COLLnDIfl^ ox PAPER.
To the Kditor of Pkofngrap/iic Ncles.

Marston Rectory. Nov. 9, 1857.
My Dear Sir, — Although agreeing, in the main, with the
sensible remarks of Mr. Moultrie's letter, contained in the last
number of the Notes, I cannot allow his opening observation to
pass, without one word of explanation He conceives the direc-
tion of my expeiiments to tend rather to the complication than
the improvement of out-of-door Pliotography. Now, let me as-
sure him, that whilst I entirely concur with his description of
the properties and advantages of the different processes which he
recommends, and aiu able, from successful practice of each, fully
to appreciated their various qnalties, I have longthouglit it possi-
ble that paper photograjihy might be improved ; that, in fact, the
fine definition and beautiful gradation of tone indiccted in a good
collodion negative, might find a rival even in these qualities, in
the collodionized surface of paper; and it has been with this view
simply, that my experiments, detailed in former numbers of the
Notts, have been performed. I have many dozens of glass nega-
tives, some of large size, and I have too often experienced and
lamented the risk of breakage to which they are exposed, and
it has often occurred to me to devise, or at least to attempt a
remedy for a danger so imminent, and an evil so palpable. My
first experiment was made in May last, upon waxed paper, and
so far as the production of a picture was concerned, was per-
fectly successful, but I found the adhesion of the collodion to
the waxed surface so slight, that it was only with the greatest
difficulty that I could fix and wash it; and even when dry, the
slightest touch was sufficient to remove the film. With paper
moistened on one side, and then applied to a plate of glass, as
described in your report of the Meeting of the Birmingham So-
ciety, the adhesion of the collodion was much greater, and the

10*

facility of manipulation vastly increased, but the repelling influ-
ence of the moisture upon the collodion still rendered the film
very liable to be removed under various operations which were
necessary to the production of the finished negative.

The account I sent you in my last experiment with iodized
albumen, as a sub-stratum for the collodion, certainly seems to
complicate the process, and to render it, as you rightly observe,
less ivorkable, but, in my hands it has proved very successful. The
introduction of a substance into the silver bath however, so de-
leterous as albumen, except, as in my case, the operator has at
hand an aceto-nitrate bath, used for Taupenot's process, is, if
possible, to be avoided. This desideratum, I am happy to report
to yon, I have accomplished thus: I dissolve about an ounce of
Swinbourne's patent Isinglass in a pint of distilled water; then
float upon this solution ^previously poured iutoa porcelain bath),
the papers, cot to their proper size. I take them up in ten
seconds, let them drain for twice that time, and then place them
carefully in position upon the glass plates, and carefully press
out all air bubbles, either with a piece of clean linen or blotting^
paper, and finally dry them before the fire. It is not absolutely
necessary to warm the plates, although I should recommend
their being brought to a temperature of 150' Parenheit. before
the gelatined paper is applied. Before pouring the collodion
on the paper, wipe it with a sik handkerchief, to get rid of
dusty particles; sensitize as usual; and in case of the exposure
not being immediate, after draining as much of the free nitrate
off as possible, dose the surface twice with metagelatine, pre-
pared with citric acid, as recommended by Mr. Long. After
exposure (which is about the same as is required by the Taupenot
plates), soak for a minute or two indistilled water, and develop
with gallic acid solution and aceto-nitrate, in the usual propor-
tions. With each of these processes, but especially the last, I
have obtained some first rate negatives, of which I will shortly
send you a specimen, on which yon can, if you please, report to
your readers. I feel convinced the process is valuable.

When the picture is developed and fixed, the gelatine will be
found so softened that the paper can be removed without any
difficulty whatever. The collodion seems to be thoroughly in-
cor-porated into the paper, and when dry will bear any reason-
able amount of rough handling.

Your's faithfully,

William Lait.

PS — I am continning my experiments with paper previously
iodized, in order to ascertain whether there is any advantage or
otherwise, in the thorough impregnation of the paper with the
iodide of silver. The paper I have principally used, is the thin
Hollingsworth's, recommended in your Notes.

From the Comptes Rendus de I' Academic de' ScienceSi

PllflTOGRAPIll.\G A URAWL\G
Upon the Wood on wiiicli it is to be Engraved in Relief.

PROCESS BY M. LALLEMAND.

The wood is first placed with its surface on a solution of alura,
and dried ; it then receives with a soft brush , a coating composed
of animal soap, gelatine, and alum, upon all its faces; when
the coating is dry, the surface which is to receive the picture is
placed for some minutes in a solution of muriate of ammonia
(sal-ammoniac), then dried; then on a bath of nitrate of silver
of 20 per cent., and then dried. A cliche upon glass or paper
is then applied on the wood by means of a peculiar frame per-
mitting the process of the reproduction to be watched. When
satisfactory, the picture is fixed by means of a saturated bath of
hyposulphite of soda. A few minutes is enough ; it is then washed
for only five minutes the first coating preserves the wood from
moisture; and eight months of experience, have proved to the
inventor that the employment of alum and a hyposulphite, in
place of destroying the wood, gives it a great strength favora-
ble to the engraving.

From Photographic Nota.

ON THE FADING OF POSITIVES.

BY THOMAS SUTTON, B.A,

There are three important branches of every scientific investi-
gation, viz., — Hypothesis, Experiment, and Demonstration; or,
to use plainer words, guessinjr, trying, and provinir. lieibre
trying comes guessing, or experiments would assume a very
random character; and before proving comes trying, or demon-
stration would be nothing more tiian guessing. Agiun, man is
a progressive being; it is not in his nature to rest satisfied with
any amount of knowledge gained; he has implanted within him
an insatiable thirst for more, which coutinuaily imijels iiim to
fresh enquiry; so that the life of an active, intelligent man, en-
gaged in scientific pursuits, is passed, either in forming suppo-
sitions, or in trying experiments which the suppositions sug-
gest, or in collecting and comparing facts and proving a posi-
tion. You may quite as reasonably expect to find a man of
science indulging in speculation, as in trying experiments, or
establishing a principle. In short, it is right and scientific to
speculate. A guess, which appears to explain a difficulty, is
the first legitimate step to.vards clearing it up. It was perfect-
ly right and scientific of Sir Isaac Kewton, when the falling
apple struck him on the head, to speculate on the cause of the
accident, and suppose that there might be some law by whicli
particles of matter were mutually attracted. It was also quite
rigiit of him, on another occasion, to suppose, arguing from
analogy, that the diamond might, at some future period, be
proved to be combustible. It was quite right of Columbus to
suppose that by sailing west from the shores of Spain he might
ultimately arrive at the eastern coast of Asia. It was quite
right of Adams and Leverrier to suppose that certain unex-
plained irregularities in the motion of the planet Uranus might
be occasioned by the disturbing influence of some undiscovered
exterior planet. It is quite right of geologists to speculate on
the previous history of the earth, from the present stratified
appearance of its surface; and it is also quite right of any pho-
tographic chemist to speculate ou the probable cause of the
fading of positive prints, and to advance a hypothesis which ap-
pears to explain satisfactorily all the facts of the case.

These remarks are called forth by an article of Mr. Malone's
in reply to ours ou the Fading of Positives, which appeared in
this Journal. In that article, which was professedly specu-
lative, we advanced the notion that there might be two dis-
tinct sulphides of silver, a black, and a yellow; and we en-
deavored to show how, on this supposition, all the facts con-
nected with the fading of positives by sulphur might be ex-
plained. Mr. Malone has discussed that article, paragraph by
piii'agraph; but in doing so he does not advance a single ar-
gument against our hypothesis, but merely objects to it on the
ground of its being, what it professes to be, a hypothesis. He
objects, in fact, to anyone's advancing any speculation or mak-
ing any supposition at all, and relates the following anecdote:

" We once, in conversation with Mr. Talbot, asked, — ' May
we not suppose, &c.?' to which he good-naturdly replied, with
a smile, ' You may suppose anything you please.' We felt the
rebnke. There was no uaed to add, — supposing proves
uothing."

Who ever said that it did ?

But would Mr Talbot's good-humored smile and rebuke,
" you may suppose whatever you please," be as applicable to the
suppositions of Newton, Columbus, Adams, and Leverrier, as
to those of Mr. Malone? We think not. They would have
been singularly out of place in the ca.ses we have ir.entioned.
Why not then in au. tho.se cases in which the supposition made,
no matter by how humble an individual, is consistent with the
facts which it is proposed to exjilain.

But since it is so wrong, according to Mr. Malone, to in-
dulge in suppositions, we become anxious to know whether he
advocates any ot/txir mode of proceeding in a scientific enquiry
than that which we have described; in fact we are doubly
anxious to ascertain his opinion on this subject, because he is

one of a body of gentlemen (the Printing Committee), in whose
liands a sum of money has been placed to enable them to prose-
cute a certain chemical investigation. Fortunately Mr. Ma-
lone does not leave us long in doubt on this point. His opinion
of the proper mode of conducting a chemical investigation is
given in another part of his article. He says " We have long
left off guessing, and determined to wait for more light."

To " WAIT FOR MORE LIGHT;" just as Mr. Macawber waited
for "something to turn up!" IMiis is Mr. Malone's notion of
how an enquiry should be conducted. But ought it to be the
notion of any man who has received a sum of money to prose-
cute an enquiry? \Vould such a notion have been publicly ad-
mitted by Professor Faraday, or hundreds of other talented men
in the country, had they occupied Mr. Malone's position? We
are sure it would not. In fuct there is not a man of genius in
the world who would not feel it a disgrace to have made the
admission that he was " waiting for more light." There is not
a wi.ser proverb tiian that which says "'Providence helps those
who help themselves" If there is any direct command re-
vealed to man by instinct and observation, it is the command
to USE his faculties; not to sit down patiently and wait for
" something to turn up." This wailing policy, whether in mat-
ters scientific, political, or domestic, is, — to use a mild expres-
sion,— sheer imbecility.

We are sadly disa|)|)ointed with Mr. Malone's article, which
he has written, he informs us, with a " running reed." He has
brought forward no new facts, nor arguments of any kind,
which induces us to modify a syllable of what we have ad-
vanced. Our hypothesis remains untouched. But he has, he
says, a strong position, from which he wishes he could be dis-
lodged. He says, —

" We believe the sulphur compounds in an impure atmos-
phere have much to do with certain cases of fading, and we be-
lieve and know that a red picture will tone itself in the atmos-
phere,— but not with gold certainly; with what then but sul-
phur ? and if a print can be toned by atmospheric sulphur,
why cannot oxidation and more sulpiiur destroy this self-toned
print ? Let not this point be evaded. It is with us a strong
position, and we wish we could be fairly dislodged from it."

Now we think this strong position of Mr. Malone's a very
weak one; for a red print which has been fixed, not with hypo-
sulphite, but cyanide of potassium, may be darkened immediately
by holding it before the fire; or, in the course of a few days, by ex-
posing it to solar light and heat. A red print, which has not be( n
fixed with hypo, and which need contain no trace of sulphur, can be
toned to a purple brown by a slioi't exposure to heat, or by a
long expo'-ure to light. We state this fact as one whicii we
have repeatedly proved. It may l)e simply tested, by holding
before the fire a red collodion negative, which contains organic
matter fgelatine for instance^, and which has been fixed with
cyanide. Tiie reds will then become browns. All silver jjrint^',
no matter by what process they may have been obtained, cr
fixed, look redder in the water than they do when dry, ai d
tliey darken still more by being held before the fire. The re-
mark however, is only strictly applicable to ?t«toncd prints. On
the occasion of our first visit to Bhuiquart-Evrard's Printing
Estaljlishment at Lille, we were surprised to see the up|icr
story of the building with a glazed roof, and a great number
of prints hanging there on lines, exposed to strong sunshine.
These prints, we were informed, had not been printed black
enough, and they were acquiring a darker color by e.vpo>sure
to light and heat for a few weeks. Tliis effect was not due to
any hy)io. which the paper might contain, because it would have
occurred in precisely the same way, had they been fixed with weak
cyanide. Here are facts by wholesale for Mr. Malone; and
we advise him, before he occupies "strong positions," to make
himself master of such facts by becoming a practical photogra-
pher. The prints done by Mr. Talbot in 1844, and darkened
by ironing with a hot iron, have not tiecessarily been toned by
sulphur; heat alone would have toned them had the paper con-
tained no sulphur, and the argument which Mr. Malone would
found on their permanence falls to the ground. The red print
which he supposes to have been toned by atmospheric sulphur

1858.

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND PINE ART JOURNAL.

19

was in all probability toned by light. He has adopted, as he
thinks, a strong position, in utter ignorance of certain impor-
tant facts in Positive i)riiiting.

But these discussions mny be terminated, before many months
have passed, by the introduction of another printing process,
superior in many respects to any method of silver printing.
We allude to the Ink process. May that time speedily ar-
rive, and may no quibbliug nor car|)ing interfere to delay it.

In the fir.st two paragrapiis of Mr. Maione's article we en-
tirely agree. The remainder contains much in which we differ
with Lim, and nothing from which we gather any information.

Fr(mi the Photographic Notes.

lARGE vs. SMALL LENSES.

The reader will find, on referring to p. 91 of the Photo-
graphic Journal fov December, 1854, an article by us on this
subject; and in t!ie number of that Journal for April, 1855,
another article, in which we stated a curious fact connected with
the plano-convex lens. Now it happens, that in investigating
the optical principles of the camera obscura, the lateral pencils
are found to have such great obliquity that the attempt to ap-
ply ordinary optical formula to this problem leads to an erro-
neous result. The problem of determining the maximum flat-
ness of field of the image formed in a camera obscura requires
to be treated in a peculiar way. We must in this instance make
a fresh start in optics, assuming nothing but the simple law of
refraction, and the geometrical properties of the circle.

Proceeding in this way in the mathematics of a subject which,
so far as we know, has never yet been discussed in any optical
treatise, we have commenced with the simplest case, viz: that
of the single piano convex lens, — and have thence conducted
our enquiries through the whole subject, so far as the achroma-
tic view-lens is concerned.

The results which we have obtained are very curious and im-
portant. But it is not possible, in a Journal of this kind, to
•give complete demonstrations of complicated questions in Op-
tics, involving large and costly diagrams. We must content
ourselves with simply stating the facts proved, and in one or
two instances only introducing a mathematical demonstration.

In discussing the case of the single plano-convex lens, we
discovered at once that the large lens, with a stop in front,
gives a flatter field than a small central portion of the leas with-
out a stop. From the demonstration by wl.ich this fact is estab-
lished, it appears, that when a large piano-convex lens is presented
with its plane side to extremely distant objects, t he image is formed
on a spherical surface, which is concentric vvith the convex sur-
face of the lens, the radius of tiie field being equal to the focus
of the lens, plus the radius of its convex surface.

As tiiisfact stands at the very threshold of the enquiry, and
as no one can conduct the enquiry in a scientiiic manner without
at once stumbling upon it, we are much amused at finding liiut
Mr. Grubb has taken particular pains to deny it. In liis last
communication, read at a Meeting of the Photographic Society
ou the 3rd ultimo, he says —

" As a postscript, and lest silence should be construed into
assent I desire to state that 1 have not found the radius of cur-
vature of a field given by a plano-convex lens, plane side next
parallel rays, to be equal to tiie focus plus radius ot the convex
side, as Mr. Sutton said I should."

A day or two since, we received a letter from the Astronomer
Royal, in which he makes the following remarks on this subject,
which mav be considered as conclusive; —

Tlie theorem of which you speak, relating to the images
formed by parallel rays falling on the plane side of a convex
lens- is perfectly correct, and (asyou remark) is not to be found in
any Treatise on Optics, at least any with which I am acquainted.
But I suppose tliat people have invented it, and re-invented
it, when they wanted it. You will find it in a Paper of
mine, printed about 30 years ago in the Cambridge Tranactions,
entitled 'On the Sperical Aberration of Eye-Pieces.' I have
there given it as an instance of the application of a general for

mula, remarking, at the same time, that the geometrical demon-
stration is simple."

The theorem is therefore admitted by Professor Airy, and has
been demonstrated by him in the Paper referred to. Mr. Grubb's
experimental and mechanical mode of dealing with optical prob-
lems has therefore failed in this instance.

Now this remarkable theorem is approximately true in the
case of the counnon achromatic view-lens, as we stated two years
and a half ago, at the bottom of p. l.'>3 of the Photographic
Journal for April, 1855. That is to say: the image formed by
an ordinary achromatic view-lens, with a stop in front when pre-
sented to extremely distant objects, lies (approximately) on a
spherical surface, which is concentric with tlie posterior convex
surface of the lens; while the image formed by the small central
part of the same lens, without a stop, lies approximately on a
spherical surface the centre of which is the point where the axis
of the lens meets its posterior convex surface.

Here then is complete solution of the question of the large-
view lens with a stop in front, versus the small view-lens without
a stop; for whatever the shape of the lens may be, it can be
proved, that in the former case, tiie radius of the field is longer
than in the latter, and the field consequently flatter.

But this fact could never have been established by square and
compasses, or by an appeal to experiment. Geometrical truths
can only be established by mathematical reasoning.

We shall return to this subject on a future occasion, when a
diagram will be introduced, and a demonstration given of the
fundamental proposition which we have stated with respect to
the plano-convex lens.

We cannot at present oflfer any opinion on the subject of M.
Petzval's new lens. Our impression is, tiiat it may very proba-
bly turn out to be an improvement on tiie present construction
of portrait lenses, but that its excellencies may have been some-
what exaggerated. The fact of the posterior lens having a plane
surface appears to us to be greatly iu favor of the theory
advanced.

ON THE ADVANTAGES
Of Ammoniacal Albumen iu Positive Printing.

BY M DAVANNE.

[From the Bulletin of the French Photographic Society for Dec, 1857]

At the last Meeting of the French Photographic Society, the
following communication was read by M. Davaune:--

" The idea of adding ammonia to the albumen used in photo-
graphy, is not new. M.M. Humbert de Molard, and Bayard,
alluded to it a long time ago, and if I now recall the attention
of tiie Society to this old fact, it is because I am not aware that
any one has m.ide use of the .suggi'stion in positive printing. It
should doubt less have been employed in this process ; and those pho-
tographers who have introduced ammonia into the iodized albu-
men for negatives, ought certainly to have introduced it iuto
their chlorizcd albumen for positives.

"The following simple process, appears to me to offer some
advantages: —

" I first prepare the albumen bath in the ordinary way,
thus: —

AVhites of eggs SOO cubic centimetres.

Water 200 „

Salt 25 grammes.

I then add about 25 centigrammes of pure ammonia. The
proportions of albumen and water must be varied according to
the amount of glaze which it is thought desirable to obtain. The
common formula is to put equal parts of albumen and water.
But in imparting fluidity to the mixture, the ammonia destroys
a little of tiie brilliancy of the proof, so that rather more albn-
men must U' added to make up this loss. The mixture is beaten
up in tlie usuiil way toa stiff froth and allowed 12 hours to set-
tle, but it must not be put into a varnished bowl, for ammonia
attacks certain varnishes very rjpidly.

" Albumen, prepared in this way, possesses the following ad-

80

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

March,

vantages: — Itdoes not form streaks, — gives fewer air buVjbles,— 1 an role qu'ils jouent, etnn maniement."§ Let os now see what the

can be filtered easily through paper, — and may be kept for seve
ral months without undergoing decomposition, so that it may
be used to the last drop, without any waste. The ammonia,
being very volatile, evaporates completely during the drying of
the papers, so tliat there is no fear of its introduction into the
nitrate bath. It may possibly affect the sizing of the paper,
but I have not yet perceived any bad effect arising from this
cause. My prints precisely resemble those which 1 obtain by
the ordinary process.

" I believe this bath may be be kept a very long time, for
after four months, I find it as good as on the first day oi its
preparation. It should be strained before use, and a few drops
of auiinoiiia added from time to time, until it smells strongly
of that substance. When the bath gets low, fresh albumen may
be added to it."

From the London Art Journal,

ON ENAMEl-PAL\TIAG.*

BY CHARLES TOMLINSON.

No. III.

Twenty years ago, Mr. Alfred Essex published a paper enti-
tled, " Some Account of the Art of Painting in Enamel, "f in
which he expresses his opinion that " writers on the subject of
enamelling confounded the art of painting in enamel with those
of painting 071 glass and porcelain; although these three arts
are almost as dissimilar as their products — a painted window,
a richly ornamented vase, and an enamel painting."

We have received from Mr. William Essex, " Enamel-painter
in ordinary to Her Majesty and H.Il.H. the Prince Consort,"
a letter in which he makes the same complaint with reference
to our treatment vi this subject. According to him, the differ-
ence between the art of painting on porcelain and enamel-paint-
ing is that " the latter can be fired as many times as required.
I never finish a picture," he say.i, " in less than ten fires, and I
have subjected one to thirty, but that is nnecessary, although it
proves the durability of the material. The second distinction
pointed out by Mr. Essex is that "on account of the great heat
to which the picture is exposed, many metals are perfectly use-
less to the artist in enamel, such as iron, copper and, lead."

In answer to these objections, we must remark, that the chief
reason why those branches of Art which depend so umch for
their success on chemical operations are beset with so many diffi-
culties, is that the artists are not chemists. Hence, too, it is
that the early writers on the snl>ject are so confused and un-
satisfactory; and it is not without justice that Mr. Alfred Essex,
in the paper above referred to, exposes the complicated clumsi-
ness of an enamel color which, in 1817, was crowned with the
prize of the Society of Arts. Such a recipe would not have
been concocted had the inventor been a chemist; and we think
that Mr. William Essex's first objection would not have been
made, had he taken a scientific, instead of a technical, view of
the subject. The best writers regard enamel-paincing, or the
manufacture of enamels, " only as one of the branches of the art
of vitrification.";]; Labarte also says (p. 101), The subject of
the present chapter will be enamel applied to jjainting on a me-"
tallicexcipient; and in treating of the ceramic art, we shall speak
of enamel-painting upon pottery." Laborde also says, "Toute.Ma-
tiere susceptible cle supporter, sans briiler, eclater ou fondre la
c'laleur necessarie pour faire entrer I'email en fusion, pent rece-
voir cet email, pui, pour reussir completement, doit etre en rap-
port de dilatation ct de contraction avec cette matiere. L'email
apjilique sur le metal, et les emaux qui, -sous le nom de couverte
verte et de vernis, recouvrent la porcelaine, la faience les briqnes,
lesgres, les schistes, la lave, et les vitraux soutles memes quant

chemists say on the subject. Thenard says, " Les emanx s'appli-
quent |)ar la fusion sur lesmetaux et lespotteries/'|| Dumas says,
" Tout le monde salt qu'on parvient a fixer sar Jes potefies,'le
verre, et les emanx des couleurs varieea, brillantes et capable de
resister a Taction de I'air, de I'ean, et inenie a celle de quelquea
agens plus energiques. C'est en se prorurant des melanges fnsi-
l)les colores par divers oxides nietalhqnes que Ton arriife a se
resultat."^ And again (p. 629), " It est bien evident qn'avec
des precautions convenables, toute matiere vitrifiable pourra
servir a emailler. Rebonlleaa also recognises Jhe same fact: —
" Les emaux destines a decorer les metanx doivent avoir toutes
les qualites requises pour cen,-? qn'on applique ssr le verre oa la
porcelaine."* =*= It may also be remarked that the French apply
the term enamel to the glaZe which covers earthenware, the or-
namentation of which Ave suppose Mr. Essex would scarcely ob-
ject to as enamel-painting. Thus Dumas says, Tons les potJers
savent fort bien preparer I'email qn'ils einploient comme cooter-
te I our la faience coimiinno;" arid Brongniart defines the enamel
so applied as "un endiiit vitrifiable, opaque, ordinairement s-Jan-
ni'eiu," a definition accepted 1 y all good c'lcmists. Thus I'ro-
fessor Miller, of King's College, in his "Elemnits of Chemistry,"
published in 1856 (Part ii. p. 767), says, " Enumd is the term
given to an opaque glass, which owes its opacity to the presence
of biuoxide of tin."

But notwithstanding the chemical identity of the processes, we
are quite willing to admit the technical differences insisted on by
Mr. Essex, and to divide the art of painting in vitrifiable colors
into — first, painting in enamel; secondly, painting on porcelain;
and thirdly, painting on glass. With re>pect to the assertion
that iron, lead, and copper are never used as sources of color
under the first head, we may remark that the French enamel-
p (inters employ all three metals: the copper, in the state of deu-
toxide, for a green enamel; lead, in the form of minium, in what
are called the emaux de Winn; and iron, in the form of Sne fil-
ings, in a brown enamel, and, in the state of red oxide, for an
orange-colored enamel. The calcined solphate of iron is also
Used. Ma.iiy other examples of the nse of these metaSs migl.t
also be given, although Mr. Es.sex may probably, in his o'^vn
practice, object to their use. But this is a matter of very small
importance^ our object in writing this article being to
insist ou the important truth, that the difficulties whidi beset
the art of painting in vitrifiable colors are chiefly dw to the
absence of chemical kno^^ledge. The distiugnshed chemists who
have written on this subject are not, and indeed do not reouire
to be, enamel-painters; but it is quite necessary that the enamel-
painters shoidii be cheuiisis, or at any rate be ready to receive
with respect the observations of such men as I have quoted. This
is not always the case. The practical man, as he deliglits to
call himself, often assumes an antagonistic position with respect
to the scientific man. He regards him as a mere theorist
and fancies that he himself must know his own aft better
than a man who has never been apprenticed to it. There is
however, this great distinction between the methods of Art and
those of science. Art (that is the technological, in eontvadis-
tinction of the asstbetical |>ortion) consists of certaiw processes
or facts, together with rules for their application; seience con-
sists of |)rinciples whose peculiar function it is to gat&er up and
generalise facts, to explain processes, and to .substitaHe laws for
rules. Art is human and snbjcct, to error; science belongs to
nature, and is precise and nneriing because divine. The light
of science cannot shine npon Art without improving- it; and the
practical man who refuses the aid of science or thej»y, as he is
pleased to call it, voluntarily accepts a disadvantageous j)Osition
l)y [ilacing himself behiiid'knowlcdge of his age. He may by his
own skill and natural abilities attain a large share ol success in
his art; but so long as he wraps himself up in his secrets, and
carries on investigations alone — i.e., unaded by science — he will
be subject to repf^ated and mortifying failures.

* Continued from page 263, vol. x. no. ix.

t London and Edinlmrgh PI)ilo>opliical Magazine, vol. x. 1837.

X Labarte Description des ohjcts d'Art &c. (t'aris, 1847) or as it is called
in the excellent English trauslatiou of the work, Uand-Book of the Arts
(London, 1855), p. 405.

§ Notice des Emaaz exposes dans lesyalerics da Museeda Louvre. Paris, 1852.
II Truite de Chitnie, &c.

II Tniite (le CInmie appUquee aux Arts. tome, ii- p. 702.
"Nouveau Manual coinplei depeinturesurDeffe, sur PorcelameM'iur Email
Paris 1844. ' '

1858.

THE Photographic and fine art journal.

81

In onlei', therefore, that the results of Art may be harmo-
nious and consistent, iind tiieir identity at ditfcrent linns re-
main undoubted, we nuist avail Dursfivus, so far as we are aide,
of the stability of nature as reVealed to us by science. In no
other branch of teciniolony is there more need of the aid which
is furnished by fixed ciieniical laws, tlian in the j)re[)aration
and application of yitrifiable colors. In this art we can only
be certain of our results by having- the materials in a stale ot
chemical purity, and compounding- them according to the laws
of definite proportions. For example, in order that the yellow
color fdfnished by chroma te of lead shall be identical at all
times, it is obviously a lirst condition that this compound con-
sist of nothing but equivalents of oxide of lead and cliron)ic
acid. If this condition be complied with, the pigment will be
the same at all times, and in all places; and if Ojierated on
under the same circnnistances, will produce precisely the sauie
results; and if either of the proximate elements of this salt be
impure, the compound is no longer to be relied on. Ditferent
specimens will produce different results, according as they difl'er
in the nature and amount of the impurity, although the identi-
ty of the circumstances under which they are applied may be
carefully observed at different times. But it is not always
enough that the chemiciil puOity of the pigment be assured. In
Certain cases the piiysical condition of one of the higredienis
may have considerable influence on the I'esnlting color; such is
the case with oxide of zinc, which enters into the composition
of some of the enamel greens^ yellows, yellow-browns, and
blues. If the oxide be lumpy, granular, dense, and friable, it
will produce by its admixture with the coloring oxides a dull
and unsatisfactory pigment, although it may be perfectly pui'ej
whereas a light, fioccnlent, impalpable oxide of zinc, identical
ia cheiilical composition with the former, will produce satisfac-
tory results. It is further necessary to identity at different
times that the solution of a particular metal, or its oxide, &c.,
be always made at the same temperature; that the acids, &c.,
which dissolve it be of the .-arae specific gravity; that the solu-
tion be always of the same stfeugth; that the precipitate be
neither more nor less rapid on one occasion than on another.
AH these, and many other conditions necessary to the produc-
tion of a definite color, requife the careful consideration of a
scientific chemist^ which conditions having been well under-
stood, committed to writing and published in some work of re-
pate, an important step is made in advancx;; the artist as well
as the chemist may proceed with ceriai.ityj the one to practice
certain processes which have been made intelligible, the other
to adopt such processes as a starting point for- new investiga-
tions. Thus may mortifying failures and the repetition of
scientific researches be avoided. During a long series of years
such a course has been adopted at the porcelain manufactory at
Sevres, and a large amount of valuable information respecting
the preparation and application of vitrifiable colors has been
digested and published, under the competent authority of M.
Brongniart.* Most of the prescriptions for the preparations
of the colors are the result of experience at Sevres, either made
under M. Brongniart's direction, or copied from the archives of
the factory, which contains minute descriptions of the proces.ses
adopted for compounding these colors. M. Brongniart re-
marks that the chemist, M . Salvetat, who for many yeafs has
been etitrusted with the preparation of the colors, has dignified
the art by imparting to it that .scientific perfection in which it
was formerly deficient, " that is to say, he has given to these
prescriptions the method, the exactitude, and all those precise
conditions which belong to science, and which have been in-
troduced with so mnch success and utility into industry."
(Tome ii. p. 506.) Such a service as this Was fairly to be ex-
pected of an institution which from the time of Louis XIV. has
been maintained at the public expense, and has numbered
among its directors such distinguished men as Macquer, Brong-
niart, Ebelmann, and Regnault.

Enamel colors are formed by the combination of certain me-
tallic oxides and salts with certain fluxes, which enable them to

* Traits des Arts C^ramiqUe&
VOL XI. *N0. III.

PariSj 1844.

11

fuse into colored glasses. The metallic oxides are usually those
of chroun'nm, of iron, of uranium, of manganese, of zinc, o'f co-
l)alt, of antimony, of cop|)e:-, of tin, and of iridium. The salts
and other bodies used to impart color are chroraates of iron, of
baryta, and of lead; the chloride of silver, the purple precipi-
tate of Cassius, burnt umber, and burnt sienna, red and yellovt
ocltre.s, &c. Some of these colors develop themselves at the
highest temperature of the porcelain furnace, and they form the
coulmrs degra-nd ftxi, as the French call them; others, and by
far the larger numbef, are called muffie colors, since they retjuire
only the more moderate heat of the muffle, in which the painted
articles are enclosed, to protect them from the prodncts of com-'
bustion of the filel.

The cott/fi/,/-*- f/e^;-a7;ri /«it are limited to the Hue produced
by oxide of cobalt, the green of oxide of chromium, the brown
produced by iron, the yellows from oxide of titanium, and the
uranium blacks These colors furnish the grounds of hard por-
celain; and as the temperature employed in baking this sub-
stance is capable of losing felspar, that substance is used as the
flux. For an indigo blue, the proportions are 4 parts oxide of
cobalt and t parts felspar; for a pale blue, 1 part oxide of co-
balt and 30 parts felspar. The materials in each case are to
be well pounded and mixed by sifting them together at least
four times, aftef which they are to be ffised in a crncible in the
porcelain furnace. The color thustorined is reduced to powder,
and is ground up with oil of turpentine, oil of lavender, orsome
other convenient vehicle, and is applied to the surface of tiie
biscuit in the usual manner, when being again raised to the high
temperature of the porcelain furnace, the color fuses and in-
corporates itself with the substance of the ware. The other
colors are afterwards applied in the usual manner, and these
are fused and incorporated with the ware at the more moderate
temperature of the muffle; but although the couleurs de grand
feu ["equire so high a temperature for their fusion, this tempera-
ture is accompanied with certain inconveniences in the case of
cobalt, — it is liable to volatilise, so as to affect the objects
near it; thus, if a white vase be placed near one that is being
colored blue, the cobalt of the latter will rise in vapor, and give
a decided blue tint to that part of the white vase which is near-
est to it. Moreover, cobalt is uncertain in its re.sults; it occa-
sionally leaves white uncolored patches, or it may present a
dull granular surface, or display metallic grains, Oxide of
chromium ia sometimes employed without a flux to impart a
green color to hard porcelain, bdt as this color does not jiene-
trate the ware, it is liable to scale off. A Uuish-green is pro-
duced from a mixture of 3 parts oxide of cobalt, 1 part oxide of
chromium, and one-tenth of felspar; this mixture is not pre-
viously fritted, but is applied in a minutely comminuted state to
the ware as usual. A tine black is produced from mixtures of
the oxides of iron, manganese, and cobalt; and by omitting the
cobalt various browns are formed.

With respect to the muffle colors, which afe too numerous to
be particularized here, it may be remarked that they are fli'ed
at a temperature equal to about the fusing point of silver. A
higher temperature would be of advantage to many of thcni,
in increasing their solidity and brilliancy; but it would be in-
jurious to those colors which are obtained from the purple pre-i
cipitate of Cassiu.s, on which the artist relies for some of his
finest effects. Muffle colors do not penetrate the glaze of por-
celain, as m-ay be proved by boiling in nitric acid a piece of
painted porcelain after it has been fired, when the colors will
disappears hence the glaze of hard porcelain has but little re-
action on the color, and if this be not acted on by the high tem^
perature, it ought to preserve its proper tint. The principle
of painting on hard porcelain is, according to Dumas, the art of
soldering by heat, to a layer of the glaze, a layer of fusilile
color, the dilation of which shall be the same as that of the
gla^e, and of the body of the ware. The function of the
flux is to envelop the color and attach it to the glaze. lu
most cases it has no action on the color, but is simply me-
chanically mixed with it: it is, however, necessary that the flux
should combine with the glaze Dumas gives a caution against
the common uotion with respect to vitrifiable colors, that the

color and its flux are capable of cliemically uniting by heat, and
forming a homogeneous compound. In the case of muffle colors
the contrary is usually the case, the flux being only a mechani-
cal vehicle for tlie color. Hence the flux must vary with the
color; but, ns all the colors ought to be capable of being mixed,
the range of fluxes is but limited. A common flux is the sili-
cate of lead, or a mixture of this with borax. The borax can-
not bt replaced either by soda or potash, on account of the
facility with which those alkalies become displaced in order to
form other compounds: moreover, it is found that the presence
of these alknlies causes the colors to scale off. Tlie mode of
cxploying the flux'es varies with the color; in certnin cases the
flax is ground up in proper proportions with the color, and is so
employed, in other cases, it is previously fritted with the color.
When the color is easily alterable by heat, the (irst mode is
adopted; but when the oxide recpiires a high temperature for
the development of its tint, the second mode is employed.

The application of enamel-colors to metal is beset with greater
difficulties than in the case of porcelain and glass, on account of
the facility with which the metal becomes oxidised, and it
would probably be found that in all cases the metal has acted
iiijariously on the colors. The peculiar merit which Mr. Essex
claims for his branch of the art — in being able to pass his work
through the fire as many times as required — must be considered
a doubtful advantage, for the oftener this is done the more likely
is the oxide formed on the surface of the metal to become dis-
solved by the enam.el, which thus displays defects which are be-
yond the control of the artist. Another inconvenience result-
ing from this frequent firing is, that if the enamel contain oxide
of lead, — which it nearly always does, except in the case of the
best Venetian variety, — the enamel reacts on the metal, metallic
lead is formed, and the color of the enamel is destroyed. The
oarly enamellers sought to get ri;l of this inconvenience by era-
ploying gold as the excipient; but as gold is usually alloyed
w'ith copper for the sake of imparting hardness, the difficulties
were thus only partially evaded. If the excipient be copper or
silver, the enamels are almost certain to be injured in color by
contact with these metals, and the artist may think himself for-
tunate if this change be confined to the layer which is in imme-
diate contact with the metal, although even this circumstance
would be fatal to the effect of transparent enamels. Hence
opaque enamels are preferred, but with them the edges of the
work often show the mischievous influence of contact with the
metal excipient.

In concluding these few remarks on the chemistry of enamel-
painting, we will give a very short account of the method
adopted at Sevres for preparing the purple precipitate of Cas-
eins The number of rich and varied tints produced by this
pigment have caused it to be highly esteemed by the enamel-
painter, especially by the flower-painter. This pigment is
formed by adding a solution of gold to one of chloride of tin,
for which purpose fine gold is dissolved in aqua rcgia; the so-
lution is diluted with water, filtered, and again largely diluteci,
when the color should be of a light citron yellow. During
these oper.itious a solution of tin is to be prepared with the
greatest care, for on this depends the success oi' the operation.
The tin is also to be dissolved in ^17?/,^ regiti, in small fragments
at a time, and these must be allowed To disappear before a
fresh q\iantity is added. Pure laminated Malacca tin is to be
preferred, and the operation mu*t be conducted in a cool place,
it being important to keep down the temperature of the solution.
In this way a proto-chloride, and a deutofldoride of tin are
formed, the mixture of the two chlorides being necessary to
nUimate success. A scanty black sediment will also be formed,
b'lt this may be separated by decantalion, after whieh the so-
lution of tin is to bo poured drop l)y drop into the solution of
gold, with constant stirring; but as soon as the precipitate is of
a purple color, the oj)eration is to be arrested. Wik'd the pur-
ple is deposited the liquor is to be decanted off", and the pre-
cipitate collected on a filter; it should assume a gelatinous
consistence. In this state it is fit fur use, but must be kept
«nder water. The quantities used at Sevres are as follows: —
15 grammes of tin are dissolved in aqua regia consisting of 4

parts nitric acid, 1 part hydrochloric acid, and 10 parts water;
the solution is then diluted with 5 litres of water. The quan-
tity of gold dissolved in the aqua reguo is 5 grammes; but ex-
cess of acid is to be avoided; this is diluted with 5 litres of
water, and the solution of tin is added as already described.
It is usual to wash the precipitate with boiling water, when it
should remain of the fine color ol old wine; and when mixed
with proper flukes, be capable of producing fine purple, violet,
and carmine tints.

THE niETIIODS OF EXLARUIN'G PIlOTdGR.lPIIS. OR OTHER PICTURES.

BY JOSEPH PIXOX, OF JERSEY CITY.

[Read before ttie Mechanics' Club of the American Institute, Feb. 10, 1858.]

Ever since the great di.-covery by M. Daguerre, the inven-
tive genius of the world has labored unremittingly, and with
varied success, in subduing the diffienlties, simplifying the pro-
cesses, of working and extending this wonderful art to the va-
rious useful purposes of life.

The mathematician and mechanic, have united their ef-
forts in the production of optical and mechanical apparatus;
while the magic hand of the chemist, has furnished the means
of rendering the light drawn pictures of nature, real and sub-
stantial things of life. " as tangible to feeling as to sight."

Do we read a description of cities of far distant countries;
of the ruins of Balbec; of Palmyra; of the Pyramids of Egypt,
of the ruins of Pompeii; almost instantaneously the wand of
the photographer waves over the scenes, and we behold, not a
mere picture, a sketch by the hand of the most skillful draughts-
man, but we have before ns the very impress of the Iking ilsc/f;
every rock, and stone, and grain of sand, each crumbling ruin
with all the markings of time; even the very individual leaves
of the creeping ivy, are placed on exhibition. The living in-
habitants of every clime and place, with all their peculiaritir s
and domestic habits, once suinmoned by this powerful talisnnn
must appear, not disguised, but in verity. Here, the Lap-
lander, drawn by his dogs in a rude sledge on tlie frozen snow,
takes his seat beside the dark-skinned African who is surround-
ed by the ever verdant and luxuriant foliage of the torrid zone;
each animal, from every part of the earth, sea, and sky, and
the products of every clime and country, may pass, at pleasure,
in review before tiie astonished admirer, as no artist can de-
lineate. History, geography, architecture, mineralogy, and
agriculture, are not alone benefitted by it; but the embellish-
ments of manufactures in the various arts, have received a new
impetus which carries them forward with an mcrensivg force;
each difl'erent branch is being enlarged and at the same time
lending its aid to the perfection of the whole. Painting, en-
graving, lithography, poetry, glass staining, calico printing,
and other branches, indicate the progress they have made in a
manner not to be mistaken.

One cannot pass along Broadway without being attracted by
the beautiful photographs, colored and plain; pastel, colored
and jiaiiited in oil, which are placed in the doors of artists to
proclaim the excellence of the woi'k within.

J might have mentioned before, that astronnmy has not been
passed i>y without benefit. Whipple, of Boston, has given to
the world a map of the moon, executed by herself, while others
have partially succeeded in taking impressions from the fixed
stars.

I do not intend to give the vwdvs operandi of the various
processes, nor to describe the pliotograi>hic ajijiaratus most in
use, but it seems only justice to call your attention to the as-
tonising snccc.^sful labors of our fellow citizen, C. C. Harrison,
in the manufacture of that most difficult of all work, the
Camera; these are not behind the best optical instruments made
in the world, although Mr. Harrison has not the mathemetical
assistance of a Petzval, nor the early training of a working op-
tician. His success will be best appreciated by the man of
science, who well knows the difficulty ©f working achromatic

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

83

lenses of such enormous diameter as 3, 4, and 6 inches, to less
than one foot focus; yet in tiiese he lias contrived to reduce the
spherical aberration to a mere fraction, and the chromatic al-
most to a perfect nonentity. Some of Mr. Harrison's instru-
ments are even mufh larger, being not less than 9 inches in
dear aperture — the largest ever made. The demand for such
very hirge lenses, has arisen from the desire for life-size photo-
graphs, several of which graced our Exhibition at the Crystal
Palace last autumn. The cost of sucii large instruments must
necessarily debar many artists of small means from their use;
and this having been felt, has awakened the enquiry, " how
shall we execute these larger pictures without the means to
purchase the larger apparatus ?" But even with the largest
apparatus, we cannot produce pictures the size of life; and the
special object of this paper is to explain the best means of
attaining that end.

The Magic Lantern^ once the playtliingof onr youthful days,
was brouglit out, but the light was found insufficient, and it
was returned to its resting-place. The Solar Microscope was
then taken up, it supplied the deficiency, and seemed the very
thing for the purpose A negative collodion picture was put
in the place of the common slider, and 'a picture at once was
impressed upon the sensitive medium: it required a longer time
of course, to make a picture of sucii magnihed dimensions, but
as the object could be kept still for any h-ngtli of time, that
was of little consequence. But the lenses of the common solar
microscope being too small, larger ones were substituted, and
thus full life-size pictures were produced from the common size
negative on glass; these were put into the hands of the painter,
who, now having something to work on besides a blank canvas,
was enabled to bring out a more correct likeness, and with
greater rapidity, than ever before: still the outline, even on
this was not perfect, although it answered the ends of the
painter better than nothing; and it is in this way the large
full length portraits are made. Having fitted up an apparatus
for exhibiting these large pictures to my friends, I was not a
little mortified to find that my friend Mr. A. B. Moore, a cele-
brated portrait-painter in this city, has had a much better ar-
rangement in use for a long time. We all know that the mag-
nified picture was never well defined. This arose from one of
those stubborn laws, well known to the optician, the inflection
of light, by which a pencil of rays, passing near an opaque body,
is deflected and dispersed.

As an illustration (for there are some here who, probably,
have not paid much attention to the science ^f oi)tics), I will
suppose that a room be dark, and a small opening in the shut-
ter through which a very fine pencil of light enters; at a dis-
tance from this is placed a white screen, which receives the
light and exhibits a bright spot, but upon close examination, it
will be observed than the spot is not like a piece of white p:iper
cut out and fixed upon a black ground, hut exhibits an indis-
tinct outline, with colored fringes on each side; and should a
wire or thread be now drawn through this beam of light close
to the opening, the shadow from it will be far from sharp, but
will exhibit a blurred image colored on each side by fringes in
the same manner, and these mixing with the fringes of the
circle, give rise to that indistinctness which may be seen on all
images thrown on a screen by the solar microscope, Every de-
vice that mathematics could suggest in the configuration of the
lenses, have ])roved ineffectual in correcting this species of im-
perfection;— but to return to the apparatus of Mr. Moore, in
which this dilficulty is not encountered , and which I will now
describe. The light is not passed through the negative, and
consequently near to innumerable opaque bodies, but is re-
flected from the surface, thereby avoiding any interference with
the rays in their passage to the tablet or canvas This appa-
ratus is so arranged that the sun-light falling on a mirror, is re-
flected, and condensed, upon a small daguerreotype or other pic-
ture, by which means it is strongly iilnminated: directly in front
of this is fixed a common small size camera tube, so situated
that its axis is at right angles to the plane of the picture, and
'being adjustable, a very sharp image is throwuupon the tablet,
free from colored fringes and overlappings.

The difference between the two methods will at once be seen
to consist in the fact tiiat Mr. Moore receives upon his canvas
a reflected image, retaining all the perfection and sharpness of
the original, while by the method now used, a transmitted im-
age is received, with all its attendant imperfections. Asa
familiar illustration, it is well known to the practical photogra-
phic printer, that should the glass negative be plated in (he
|)rinters frame with the collodion up, and the paper placed upon
the opposite side, that the rays of light passing by the opaque
lines are dispersed, and a blurred and indistinct impression
would be received, instead of the clear, sharp one he desired,
and that he always aims to press the paper as closely against
the collodion as possible in order to produce the proper effect.
I say, therefore, that it is vain to expect a sharp enlarged pic-
ture from si negative by transmitted light, however perfect the
lenses may be figured; while by reflection, an ordinaiy lens will,
with the exception of spherical aberration, produce a clear, well
defined picture. By the method Mr. Moore employs, positive
collodion pictures, daguerreotypes, engravings, and all pictures,
are alike eligible, whether opaque or transparent; while bv the
usual method a very dense negative on glass is the only kind" that
can be enlarged, and even then, much light will pass through
the silver film and assist in destroying the distinctness of the re-
sulting picture.

The form of apparatus which was invented by Mr. Moore
over eleven years ago, has been constantly used by him ever
since, and also by several of his personal friends in the same pro-
fession, to whom Mr. Moore, with a liberality worthy of imita-
tion, gave the plans; and by his permission the door is now tliown
open to the public, with the hope that he has contributed one
Moore stone to the building of this magnificent structure.

I am aware that the evening is devoted to the discussion of
another subject, and will not, therefore, longer consume time
nor tax your patience. I feel an interest in this art, for the de-
gree of perfection and usefulness it has already attained are
truly wonderful; but I assure you that the various developments
that have followed each other in such rapid succession, and that
have excited in the world so much astonishment and admiration,
are but as the tinted leaves that surro.und the opening bud, whose
higher colors and greater perfections the warm sunlight of man's
genius shall in time unfold.

At some future time I may present to you, in detail, the vari-
ous, methods, and processes, by which it is applied to the arts.

From Photographic Notes.

PHOTOGRAPHIC TRANSPARENCIES.

Sir. — I have frequently seen in the Journals enquiries as to
the best mode of pi'mting transparencies for the magic lantern
and stereoscope. Whilst searching for such a process, I saw in
one of the Journals a formula by Mr. Ross, for sun-jirinting on.
salted albumen on glass. This I tried, but found it so veri' in-
sensitive that in the present dull weather I could not, after many
day's exposure, obtain a print of sufficient strength.

It then occurred to me to spread the layer of albumen on a
film of )ilain collodion, in order to quicken it. This succeeds
quite well, and I can now get in a few hours the same result
which before it took as many days to obtain. I imagine the
collodion should be ot the character suited to dry processes.

The alonnien I have used contains 14 drops of saturated solu-
tion of chloride of sodiuni to each egir. Another advantage
is, that instead of requiring a bath of 10 grains of nitrate of
silver, ona of 40 grains will answer the purpose.

I may mention, that in the first exp'-riment, having no simple-
collodion at hand, I tried some old iodized collodion, not know-
ing what the result might be; it darkened gri.uiu.a,lly, like the
one on plain collodion, but I thought not quite so quickly.

The exp.^riin"nt was interesting to me, as shewing that the
outer layer of iilbunien only was sensitive. I mean to try il your
process for paper, of developing with gallic acid, will answer
with this process.

G.S.Penny.

?

84

TUE I'lIOTOGRAnnC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

March,

OIR PIIOTOGKAPlllC ILLL'STliATlONS.

I.- JEREMIAH GURNEY, ESQ.

This gentleman, whose portrait forms one of onr illustrations
this iiioiilh, h;is loii!^ been known in tlie photoirrapliic Art, and
lias always stood in liie frunt rank, liotii in sliill and snccess.
Mr. Giirney commenced daguerreotypin>r jn 1840, wiien the
appliances for manipnlatiny,- were in the rudest state. The
camera was poor in construction and in its operations; coatiM>jj
boxes Wire niikiiown, a snucer containinj;- tlie dry iodine (bro
mine then bein.L; unknown'), and placed in a cijijar box havinj^
to ansiver the pnrpo.se'; the plate being held over the vapor, in
the lingers. Medium daguerreotypes taken in this way sold
for live dullar.s. Since the lirst introduction of the daguerreo-
type in the Uniteil States, Mr. Gnrnty has been assiduous in
the pro.secution of the photo^r.iphic art — growing with its
growrli, and adopting ev^-ry improvement .suggested by his own
e.xperience, or that of others. At the present lime, his photo-
graphs are unexcelled.

" Coat the waxed block with collodion in the tisnai way.

" Excite in the nitrate bath by floatation; rt.sing a ftat dish.

"Print from a negative l)y iiiterposing between the iregative
and the wood, thin strips of paper or card, to prevent actual
contact; or take a negative on the wood in the camera.

■' Dcvelojie in the usual way.

" Wash olf the developer, but do not fix the picture with
hypo or cyanide, as it is not necessary to remove the iodide of
silver.

"The picture, whether positive Or negative, wi?} be produced
in black, ou a yellow ground, and is ready for the engraver.

From Photographit' Notes.

DRY vs. WET COLLBDION.

II.— HUMBEltFORD, C. W.

The property of H. J. Boulton, Esq.

This very excellent view was negatived by William Arm-
strong, Esq., of Toronto, C. W. Although our prints are as
good as the paper and the process we have adopted in printing
will permit, they are not as good as the jjositive sent us for ex-
amination, which was taken on ali)nmenized paper. The heavy
masses of foliage are much clearer in tlie all)Uinenized print
than in these. Our prints, however, are equal to it in other
respects, ami may lie considered very fair specimens of photn-
graphic printing. This ueg^itive, together with the positives from
others sent by Mr. Armstrong, evince taste and.vkill sufficient to
master all the difficulties of the photographic art, and enables
us to place him among the lirst landscape photographers ot
America.

The formulas for printing these pictnres are as follows:

S.4LTING SOLtlTIOX.

Chloride of Ammonium 180 grs.

ITiltered Water 1 gal.

NITRATE SOLUTION.

The ammonio-nitrate of silver made as before directed in our
Jauuary number.

TONING aKD fixing BATH.

Chloride of Silver 480 grs.

Acetate of Lead 5ttO "

Chloride of Sodium 600 "

Filtered Walter \ gal.

Hypo. Soda to saturation.

First dissolve the acetate and add the sodium: next the hy-
posul|)hite of soda until the precipitate, which forms on the ad-
dition of the sodium, is dissolved and the solution is clear; then
add the chloride of silver, and after its solution, put in hypo, as
long as taken up by the liquid, and filter. No precipitate should
be suffered to remain in the bath; Imt should be filtered out
daily, as it otherwise spots the picture in the washing'trough.
After filtering for the first time, if the immersion of the first
print turns the solution milky, it is because there is not suffi-
cient hypo, and more must be added. The picture must be
printed quite strong.

From Photographic Nott3i

PnOTOGRAPlIY ON WOOD

Mr. G. Robbin, of Huntingdon, has communicated the fol-
lowing process: —

" Hold the jiolished block of wood before a brisk fire till it
is quite hot; then rub over it a piece of bee's-wax till there is a
Rinoolh even coat. Hold it again before the fire till the wax
runs; then put it in a cool place to dry.

We insert the following extract from a letter from one of
our most vdued correspondents. This gentleman has at differ-
ent times during the last two year?; sent us magnificent specimens
of his work by nearly every process;— Albumen, Wax-p:iper,
and Colloiiion, and iiis- prints ou albumenizcd paper are (or
were) particularly fine. We tru.^tour readers will consider well
the remarks made by him on the suliject of printing aud tonittg
by the ordinary niethod: —

" I am disgusted with the prevailing mania, for 'Dry Collo-
dion.' Every month there is some new absurdity. The collo-
dion film is not adapted for Photograpliic purposes, after it has
once ,s;/d dry It loses completely all its beautiful elasticity and
tr.inslucency and becomes powdery and opaqne. Then I quite
agreevvith you aliont the free nit rate. There must be lafrge excels
on the film at the lime of exposure, or you cannot get a soft and
:irtistic picture. 1 have loiiii- given up trying the dry processes
that come out, and have made up my fWiiid to work nothing lout
wet collodion. If a dry process wei*'e absolutely necessary I
should go to fnfCr. Don't you feel every time you go out with
the wet collodion that there is nothing that can touch it — ntot
even albumen? I have never now any fear whatever aboat
taking negatives. If the lij»ht is only good I am quite sure of
pictures. I had hardly any failures oi< the contim'nt — worked
away as sweetly and good-lemperedly (which is something!) as
could be desired. A Friend of mine has a light basket, mounted
ou wheels, which pack inside when travelling by rail or carriage.
It iiolds tent, canier;i, ciiemicals, and everythimr, and is jiwt as
convenient as the portal)le apparatus which the calotypist or
wax-paper man carries, wifh the satisfaction of knowing what
you've got, and of working the best known process. I think
you are wrong about using pure ether and alcoiiol for your col-
lodion. My collodion costs about l^d. pet ounce, from methy-
lated ether and "finish" spirit, re-distilled, and I will gtvarantee
it as fine as can be got anjwhere. There is most in the cotton^
and the spirit mUst l)e strong. I think there ought to be some
bromide in it; 4 to 1 is what I use. I can't satisfy myself yet
with plain pajier printing. I don't see the matter in the same
light as you, but 1 agree with you that all prints toned it^ sul-
phur and gold baths, must fade. I have a portfolio full of what
were once exquisitely beautiful prints, rich, r.nd vigorous in tone,
and they are fast going to ruin, the filthy yelJow veil is jiather-
ing over them, and they will soon be consigned to the fire. For-
tunately I have the negatives, I have now aidopted a new style
of lu'inting which is scientifically correct (which the old plan is
not), and gives most brilliant p' oofs, with pure whites, on allm-
men paper; the color being nearly black Tiie picture is nearly
all metallic gold, and there can be no sulphur. It it much more
effective than yoursel d'or process, though founded on thesarue
principles, but you will I hope see some good specimens.

"Before I conclude I must have a fling at another prevailing
mania — that tor the small lenticular stereoscopes. 1 detei-l
the sight of them, and am sorry you advocate them. Little
fiddling affairs — they are only fit for toys I There is some-'
thing grand about the reflecting stereoscope, and if the dupli-
cates were about 12x10 to 16x12 they would be worth look-
ing at."

■''^*'""'^— '—■— ' j*~"»r-"i

1858.

tSe photographic and pine art journal.

85

With respect to methylated ethei*, if a nuiforraly good arti-
cle were made there is no ddubt it would do well enonirh, but
at present we do not either fecoraniend it or trust it in our own
work. We have great doubts about the use of bromide in col-
lodion, unless it be to remedy, to some extent, the effects of a
bad sample of ether. As for the reflecting stereoscope, we
haVe a great partiality for it, and nearly always take duplicate
pictures to be viewed by reflection. The instrument we use
cost only four shillings, and is suitable for pictures 12x10 and
tinder, possessing the necessary adjustments. We do not agree
with What Sir David Brewster says about the loss of light by
reflection constituting an objection to this form of stereoscope.
We find, as a rule^ that the effects are more agreeable when
the instrument is placed in a subdued light, in the middle or
back part of the room, than when taken near the Window.
And then again, when developed prints are waxed and viewed
by transparency, the effects are very beautiful. Besides, the
model picture is, with this instrument, entirely free from distor-
tion. Large poftraits on the whole plate are really superb
when viewed in this. It is surprising that the reflecting stereo-
scope should not long since have become as much a necessity
with the amateur photographer, as the camera itself. We have
serious thoughts of publishing a pamphlet on the use of it, and
of thereby endeavoring to call attention to this simple and ad-
mirable instrument. We have almost conceived a contempt
for single flat pictures.

With respect to Dry Collodion, we entirely differ with our
correspondent. Perhaps an extract from a letter received from
Mr. Long may be amusing, as affording an enthusiastic view of
the question:

" I'm half mad with Dry Collodion, it is such a perfect suc-
cess. Everyone who uses the process succeeds. Magnificent
results-^^^o failures! Every picture comes oat as a matter of
course, clean, bright and truthful. Half-tones superb; high
lights opaque; shadows clean and transparent. In fact the
process is all that could be desired."

From the London Art JownaL

TDE SUSSELBOIiF SCHOOL Of ART.

To tht Editor of the Art-Journal:

Sir, — At the present time the School of Diisseldorf consists
of about six hundred artists, and two hundred students. The
artists are divided into two schools; the academiciniis, and those
who are independent, who follow no conventionality, but paint
their own ideas. The two schools are separated by their differ-
ent ideas of finish; the academicians holding in principle and in
practice that minuteness of finish — an absolute and rigid imita-
tion of nature, even to the surface of things — constitutes the
great perfection of Art; the other party contending that this
servility, or rather perfection of execution, is not necessary:
that if a work has the effect intended on the mind at a proper
distance, it is a waste of time to add details that could please
only the ignorant. Among the academicians Carl Miiller and
Herman Becker .^tand conspicuous. These gentlemen, like the
majority of their adUerents, paint Scripture pieces. Why it is
that they have fallen on these used-up subjects is hard to guess,
except, perhaps, it is that the continual strain on their pa-
tience, caused by their mode of study, naturally throws the
mind into a religious mood. Another class of them paints ^ewre
and still-life. Their paintings of still-life, to which their mode
of execution is more peculiarly adapted, are really wonderful;
they are not paint and canvas, but a reality that requires the
touch to convince one it is only a shade.

Taken as a whole, the academicians seem not to comprehend
the object of Art; they paint blindly, without thought, without
feeling. It is their ambition to produce deception, to imitate
nature as it is; they never ask when this is done, what then? It
does not concern them. Hence, after years of study they ac-
complish in months what a photographic instrument would do
in a moment. Their pictures have^ however, one great merit,
that of mechanical execution; in this necessary branch of Art

11*

they can, possibly, instruct the world. Their drawing, color,
light, and shade, are perfect; but as pictures, as works of Art,
tiiey excite no feeling, appeal to no prejudice, are barren of all
traces of mind! they amuse only the eye of the curious, or as-
tonish the simple by their minuteness.

The other school comprehends nearly all the artists residing
here who have celebrity; among them we find the names of Les-
sing, Sohn, Hildebrant, Koeler, the Achenbachs, &c, Of such
men as these the " School of Diisseldorf" is properly composed;
but because they have no marked peculiarity of style Common
to them all, and no academy for the instruction of students, it
is currently believed that this school is one of academicians — of
men whose only artistic power is mechanical. This a mistake,
and should be corrected, for it not only wrongs the artists who
are the subjects of it, but also the artistic world. We have
seen in criticisms on pictures by these artists some minute trifle,
existing only in the critic's imagination, praised as an excellence,
because the supposed finish to the characteristic of the school.
These artists, ho wever,do not mistake the representation of threads
for the finish of a painting, nor the imitation of surface for the
highest perfection of Art; their pictures are not painted to as-
tonish the vulgar, but are addresses to the minds of enlightened
men.

There are at present three exhibitions of paintings open to
the public; two of these are annual, the other permanent. The
first two contain upwards of five hundred pictures, sent from all
parts of the continent; the permanent exhibition consists of
woi'ks by the Diisseldorf artists, and are for sale. The great ma-
jority of these pictures are genre, still-life, and landscape: in all
three of the exhibitions together there are only five paintings
that pertain to what is conventionally termed high Art. One of
these is the " Hiding of Moses," by RGeler. This picture has
the same beauties and defects as all the rest of Roeler's pictures.
It has been engraved. In the engraving the faces af the two
are much lighter than in the original; and several other parts
have been altered , which give it a finer general effect than its
original. A picture by Leutze, of " Columbus departing for
America," is also in the permanent exhibition; this painting-
seems to have been left imperfect; the tale is well enough told,
but a disagreeable red color, and a want of shade which pervades
the canvas, take much from its effect. However, the dignified fig-
ure of Columbus, standing out against the sky, and pointing
over the waters, as he receives the blessings of priests and friends,
is well worthy of Leutze. M. Leutze has painted another work
of the same subject, which is said to be much better both in de-
sign and execution, than the one here mentioned; A " Syren,"
by Sohn, appears to be perfect of its kind: it represents a beau-
tiful woman, with her harp hung on the top of a projecting crag;
she has finisiied playing, and, leaning on one arm, bends over
to witness the effect. An eagle is seen at the level of her feet
flying downwards; this gives the spectator an immense idea of
height. The figure is Iife-«ize, and fully draped, but in such a
manner as to show the form throughout: it is relieved by a
dark ground of clouds, through which a single star is shining.
A painting, by W. Sohn, of " Christ on the Water:" Christ
and the apostles are represented in a boat during a storm.
The face of our Saviour, who has fallen asleep, suggests the
idea that his mind is active and conscious of what is going on
around him. Several other faces are equally excellent, but the
imperfect light, coming apparently from several directions, and
oniitting to illuminate certain things, together with the difficulty
of conceiving how several of the figures could maintain their
balance, makes the picture, as a whole, very unsatisfactory.
The largest painting on exhibition is that of " Christ restoring
Jairus's daughter to life;" it is painted by Qustavus Richter,
of Berlin. This painting has called forth universal admiration,
despite several portions of it that might be called faults. The
attitude, foi- instance, of Christ has the appearance of bemg
studied ; and the whole figure of the apostle on the left ex-
presses mere vulgar astonishment. The head of the girl is
slightly raised off her pillow, with the intention of showing
that life is just reviving in her frame, but it seems difficult to
fix in one*s mind that this is the case. The figures are all clad

86

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

March,

ill thick stuff, and, owing to the handling, the steps, floor, and
background, have the appearance of so many bhuikets of their
several colors tightly stretched. It may be said of it, that, as
a wo'k of Art, it does not appeal to our sympathies, and, as a
painting, its execution is far from perfect. It would ap[)ear,
liowever, that its size, and the fact of it belonging to the king,
are redeeming qualities even in this country.

Among the other compositions on exhibition, those of domestic
ficenes, by Ileddermann and Tidemand, are remarkable, Ijotli for
tiie excellence of their designs and their masterly execution
Some of these pictures may be compared to Wilkie's. The paint-
ings of animals, on exhibition, are rather attempts than anything
else. Two by Lachenwitzare noticeable fur their intense fierce-
ness of expression andgreatbeantyof execution, The assemblage
of Virgin, Saints, and infant Saviours, are not easily enumerated;
for the most part, they appear to be attempts of students, nearly
every one of which is a failure. These paintings are respecteil
even by the collectors of auction pictures, and left alone in all
their glory of vermillion and blue. A picture of the " Annun-
ciation," by Carl Miiller, is considered as a successful attempt,
in the style of the academicians, to illustrate Scripture. In this
painting a book lies open before the Virgin at a page on which
her name is printed ; the book is neatly gilded, and of modern con-
struction. She kneels on a planed floor. The angel has on a
pink muslin dress, very finely decorated with pearls, &c. Such
is the painting by a man who is considered one of the heads of
a school. He being a master in his way, some estimate maybe
formed of his followers.

The great bulk of the landscapes, like the subject pictures,
exhibit a knowledge of Nature as it is, accompanied wirh me-
chanical power of execution, but unaided by reflection. 1 fence,
their landscapes look like studies from Nature— bard, barren
Nature, unelevated by ideality, destitute of beauty. One by
Lessing, and two by the brothers Achenback, are magniliceut,
both for their arrangement, their effect and execution.

Portraits are rare. One by Maria Weigman, of a boy, full-
length, and one of an officer, by Hildebrant, are really ai dstic
works; they are simple, expressive, and natural — nothing is over-
done, and nothing is left to be desired, P.

Vusseldoi-f JVovember 11, 1851.

From the Liverpool riiotograpldc Journal.

MANCHESTER PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.

The monthly meeting of this Society was held on the 6th
instant, as usual, J. Comptom, Jun , Esq., in the Chair.
Mr. E. Mann read the following paper

" ON THE OXYMEL PROCESS :"
In introducing the oxymel preservative process to your no-
tice this evening, I may remark that I have really no new or
original method to lay before you; and I almost fear that I
have some small amount of prejudice to contend with, as some
parties have objected to the process, because it is, as they
term it, a "sticky process," There is no doubt that a satis-
factory dry process is the one we all require, and that great
progress has been made in that direction latterly, various ex-
cellent ones having been discovered; but, I think, it is still
generally admitted that none of them have yet produced pic-
tures equal to those obtained by wet collodion.

The oxymel process may be termed a preserved wet collo-
dion process, so aS' to distinguish it from the dry methods.
The ai)}»lication of honey was the first means of all others dis-
covered, by which the sensitiveness of collodion could be re-
tained for a lengthened period, and there are three persons, I
believe, who claim to be its originators, namely, Mr. Shad-
bolt, Mr. Maxwell Lyte, and M. de Poilly, about June, 1S54;
but the credit seems principally due to Mr. Shadbolt, his plan
being the then best for retaining sensitiveness; and Mr, J. D.
Llewelyn has since modified and brought it to its present state,
by adding ac '.tic acid to the honey, and entirely washing away
the silver. The pictures which Mr. J. D. Llewelyn has ob-

tained are very beautiful, several were to be seen in the late
Art Treasurers' Exhibition, and perhaps are remembered by
most of you.

All the various recognized processes have some peculiar ad-
vantages and disadvantages, and I consider that the process
now under consideration is capable of producing such beauti-
ful results, that 1 feel I shall hardly be trespassing upon your
time this evening by calling your attention to it, particularly as
I have not heard that any one in this town has yet given it
much attention.

I commenced the oxymel process at the time collodio-albu-
men was coming into notice, and have practised the latter dur-
ing last winter and summer, and have also tried most of the
dry processes, but have again returned to the oxymel, having
been seldom able to obtain such satisfactory pictures by the
other methods. Before entering into the details of manipula-
tion, I will state what I consider to be the advantages and al-
so (I regret I should have to add) the disadvantages of the
process. There is more certainty in this than in any of the
other processes I have tried. The method of preparing the
plates is very simple, and easily and quickly managed. I have
not yet tried the limit of their keeping qualities, but have ex-
posed some more than six weeks after preparation, and not de-
veloping until a week afterwards, making a period of seven
weeks, without finding any signs of deterioration. The deve-
lopment is easy, occupying about five minutes, or more or less,
according to the quantity of silver used in the pyrogallic solu-
tion: but the greatest advantages of all; and the most import-
ant are, that the negatives are very intense, always free from
fogginess, brilliant in the shadows, [and posssess the peculiar
softness and half-tone of wet collodion. In fact I consider that
it possesses all the advantages of wet collodion (except sensi-
tiveness), without many of its difficulties; for instance, all pho-
tographers know the liability of wet collodion to fog or solar-
ise, and the difBculty of getting intensity. In taking still ob-
jects I always prefer to use an oxymel plate, however near my
operating room.

Perhaps you may think I have been a little too enthusiastic in
expatiating upon the merits of this process; but I must now state
its chief and only serious defect, namely, want of sensitiveness
— taking from ten to twenty minutes' exposure under favorable
circumstances, with a landscape lens of fifteen inches focal
length, two and a half inches diameter, and half an inch stop.
However, if the plate is not required to be kept much more
than a week, the sensitiveness ot collodio-albumen maybe ob-
tained by leaving a trace of silver on the film, as I will here-
after mention Mr. Llewelyn and some others estimate the ex-
posure required as only about five times longer than fresh
unwashed collodion. I have, however, found it rather more,
though no doubt much depends on the age of the collodion,
and I usually prefer^ old collodion, which may account for the
difference.

I will now describe my method of preparing the plates. For
convenience, I have four dipping baths, the first containino- the
nitrate of silver bath, the second and third rain water, and the
fourth the oxymel.

I cover a plate with negative collodion in the ordinary way,
and render it sensitive in the usual negative bath solution; af-
terwards I pass it through the two water baths, so as to remove
the nitrate of silver; I then dip it, after draining a little, in
the fourth bath containing the oxymel, draw it up once or
twice, so that the oxymel may mix evenly on the surface of the
film, then place the plate upright on blotting-paper against the
wall to drain for about half an hour; afterwards it is as well
to stand it on one of the lower corners only on the blotting-pa-
per, so as to remove any of the oxymel which may remain at
the lower i)art of the plate; it will then be ready for the slide
or dark-box, which must be well varnished to prevent staining
the plates.

After exposure, dip the plate in water, which will cause the
developing solution to flow evenly; or, if you like, pour on the
pyrogallic solution without first dipping in water, as there is no
difficulty in getting it to cover the film; pour on and ofl" two

or three limes, and then add about one or two drops of silver
(of the same strength as the bath,) to the drachui of developing
solution, or more if you wish to develope quickly, taking care,
of course, that no deposit of silver is thrown down in the solu-
tion, or it might injure the film; keep continually pouring on
and off carefully, so as to prevent any deposit which may form
in the developing solution from settling on the plate; after suf-
ficient intensity is obtained, wash with water by pouring from a
jug, and fix with cyanide of potassium or hyposulphite of soda.
I much prefer the cyanide, as the negative then requires less
washing afterwards than when the hyposulphite is used, and
consequently there is less danger of injuring the film. Prepare
the oxymel as follows: To one pound of honey add sufficient
water to reduce it to about the consistency of oil, hent in ajar
in the oven; or in a pan of hot water; then add two ounces of
glacial acetic acid, and carefully filter until quite clear and
bright.

Instead of using a dipping bath for the oxymel, it may be
poured on the surface; this I used to do for some tin.e, but
was then frequently troubled by bubbles of air. If, as I before
mentioned, the plates are not intended to be kept very long,
and greater sensitiveness is desired, the only difference in the
preparation is, that the plates instead of being washed in plain
water are dipped in a weak silver bath, containing about one
ounce of nitrate to twenty ounces of water, jn'evious to the im-
mersion in the oxymel.

The negatives some of which I will show, are generally of a
rich dark browu color, which I believe is attributable to the
honey supplying the organic element so necessary to an intense
development. I often add a little honey to the developer,
which always produces an orange brown tone to the negative,
and which color, of course, is the most effectual one for ob-
structing the light in the after process of printing.

I will now mention a circumstance which rather surprised
me when I first discovered it, namely that the same bath,
though producing excellent pictures with oxymel, would neither
give a good positive or negative with a fresh and unwashed collo-
dion plate. This shows that no very great nicety is required
in the bath.

I consider a little acetate of silver in the bath is very advan-
tageous, giving greater intensity and ensuring the absence of
free nitric acid, which is apt to accumulate by using old collo-
dion containing free iodine. I have sometimes produced nega-
tives in an old bath of a greenish color; but upon forming
acetate of silver in the bath, have obtained the usual dark
brown tone again. My plan is to add a few grains of carbo-
nate of soda to the bath, until faintly alkaline, and then render
the bath slightly acid with glacial acetic acid, and so forming
acetate of silver. The developing solution I prepare with a
larger portion of acid than is usual, namely, the same weight
of citric acid as pyrogallic. As it is necessary to add a consider-
able quantity of silver to the developing solution, a large
amount of acid is required to [irevent the silver being at once
deposited; and the solution becoming muddy. The developing
solution may be used until it becomes as dark as port wine, and
until it begins to deposit the silver.

In conclusion, I beg to refer you to the London Photographic
Journal^ (or 1856, where you will find several interesting com-
munications by J. D. Llewelyn, the discoverer of this much ne-
glected though valuable process.

After reading the above, Mr. Mann developed a negative
taken some days previously, and exhibited a number of nega-
tives and positives, which were much admired for a peculiar
softness and delicacy, and the absence of those violent contrasts
of white and black which characterize so many of our photo-
graphic productions.

There was a considerable discussion, after the paper, amongst
the members, as to the value of this process; the results were
considered very satisfactory, but the length of time required for
exposure appeared to be a great objection to it. Mr. Mann
stated that he generally used that process even when he had a
dark room at hand, being so certain of the results, and having
no difficulty in producing the requisite intensity.

Mr. SiDEBOTHAM exhibited a positive photograph on glass,
taken with the revolving lens cap exhibited at a former meeting.
The exposure might be said to be instantaneous; the entire time
of revolution of the cap only occupying one-twentieth part of
a second. He stated that by this means you might get more
natural expression in photographic portraits, such as is impos-
sible when a person has to sit even three or four seconds; this
was exemplified by the specimen produced.

Mr. Mabley exhibited some prints by Mr. Sutton's develop-
ment process; some had been exposed in the pressure frame till
the image was faintly visible, and others till almost dark enough
for sun prints, and yet the finished prints exhibited little dif-
ference; those exposed a long time required toning after the
development, the others did not. Mr. Mabley also stated that
he used paper dishes for development, but they were simply or-
dinary porcelain dishes with sheets of paper to line them, a
frjsh sheet being used every time.

A Member called attention to the fact, that albumen pre-
pared for the collodio-albumen process with ammonia, would not
deteriorate by keeping. Some prepared nearly two years
yielded as good results as ever, and does not throw down any
deposit, as that prepared with acetic acid or fermented does.

Attention was called to a curious appearance in certain spe-
cimens of photographs that were exhibited, in which the edges
of the trees or buildings were bordered by a narrow streak of
light whiter than the sky, and in some cases very brilliant. A
conversation took plact relative to the peculiar phenomenon,
but it was not satisfactorily explained.

The thanks of the Society having been presented to Mr.
Mann for his interesting paper, and aiso to the Chairman, the
meeting adjourned.

SPECIFICATION

Of Mr. McCraw's process for taking positives direct In the camera ,
on a white ground, by the reversed action of light.

No. 1843. — William McCraw of Edinburgh, Artist, for " /m-
provemenls in the Production of Photographic Pictures." 2nd
July, 1857. — Not completed.

This invention relates to certain improved processes for pro-
ducing positive photographic images, or pictures, on white, or
light-tinted substances, either vitreous, animal, or vegetable.
A slab of porcelain, by preference unglazed, is coated with col-
lodion or other suitable medium. It is excited in the nitrate of
silver bath, and exposed in the ordinary manner. It is taken
into the dark room, and the prepared surface is saturated with
weak proto-sulphate of iron, or pyrogallic acid, or other de-
veloper, which is immediately washed off before any apprecia-
ble effdct is produced. It is then momentarily exposed to sub-
dued daylight, or to an artificial light, and immediately treated
secondarily with a developing fluid, when the latent image ap-
pears as a positive, with the lights aLd shadows correct. It is
however left-handed. To obviate this deftct, a negative pho-
tograph on glass is taken and placed in front of the camera, at
a suitable distance off, with a mirror or reflector placed be-
liind the image at an angle of about 45", to act upon the pi'in-
ciple of the microscopic reflector. The effect of this is, that in
focussing in the camera, a clear and well-defined image of the
kind required is obtiuned. The porcelain, or other prepared
tablet, is placed in the camera, and the image developed as
usual, and fixed with cycnide, or hypo- and washed. Its effect
may be heightened by a solution of one grain of chloride of
gold to the ounce of water. Various colors and effects may be
produced by varying the strength of tlie solution of gold. The
plate is then dried at a fire, at a considerable but gradual heat.
When cool it is varnished, and colored if required.

The photo.;'ra]ihic portraits may thus be jiroduced on porce-
lain, china and earthen a are, and on white or opal glass, ivory,
bone, prepared wood, or white or colored enamels. Stereo-
scopic piijturos may thus be produced on opal, or white, or ordi-
nary glass.

The chief essential features of the invention are, the pl'oduc-
tion of direct positive pictures on white surfaces in the camera ;
the mode of employing the mirror; and the production of pos-
itives by both, or either modes, on hard surfaces, such as por-
celain, ivory, mother-of-pearl, &c., which are not adapted for
receiving impressions in the ordinary priuting-frame.

ON THE PERMANENCE OF niOTOGRAPHIC PRINTS.

I.

"We promised some time back to give our readers our expe-
rience and views on the subject of fixing and toning photo-
graphic prints. We shall now endeavor to do so in as plain a
way as possible.

The various theories on this subject advanced by numerous
writers on, and practisers in photography, do not seem to
have helped the matter along much. With the theory of the
process we shall have little to do. The principles laid down
are generally sound; but pliotographers are sometimes misled
by a few who delve more into theory than practice. We all
know that in order to fix a proof, it must be submitted to a
chemical solution which shall have the power to deprive the
paper of every particle of silver that remains unchanged after
its submission to light under the negative; and also that it is
equally necessary to afterwards remove every trace of the
chemical employed in the solution of this unchanged silver from
the picture; now asserted to have become sulphuret or sulphide
of silver.

For this removal of the unchanged silver, various methods
have been adopted; but it now seems to be conceded by all,
that hyposulphite of soda is the best and safest solvent; and of
this, in our opinion, there can be no doubt. The length of time
to which the print should be submitted to the bath of hyposul-
phite, is also a mooted point. Many photographers advise,
that the print be submitted to one or more baths of pure water,
before putting them into the Sxiug bath; others place them
first into a fixing bath and afterwards into the toning bath,
and lastly into plain water. A simpler way we think the better
way.

First soaking in pure water, it is claimed, gives the print a
clearer and more brilliant effect. This we doubt. The wasli-
ing out of the unchanged silver in plain water, is not sufficiently
expeditious to prevent a slight darkening in the lights, even in
a dark room — the water itself — in our opinion, derived from
our practice— inducing a change in this respect.

Submittinjr the proof first to a hypo, and then to a toning
bath is also objectionable, particularly when it is desired to pro-
duce fine blacks. By this method the print imbibes an excess
of hyposulphite of soda, that no amount of subsequent washins,-
will eradicate, without destroying also its delicacy and strength
of color. Mr. Evrard says in his Treatise on Photography,
that " water has no action on the salt of silver which the light
has reduced ," &c. In a manner this is correct, i.e. so far as
the salt itself is concerned; but long soaking in water — suffi-
ciently long to deprive the paper of all the hypo, imbibed by this
process — loosens the texture of the ])iiper to such a degree, that
portions of the changed silver are detached and washed away,
leaving the proof exceedingly weak In following this method,
it i.i usual to leave tlie print in the hypo, solution until it be-
comes of a reddish-brown color; it is then submitted to the ton-
ing bath until the desired color is obtained. Such pictures, so
treated, will most assuredly fade. In fact, the destructive prin-
ciple commences in the toning bath, and no aniunnt of washing
will prevent its progress towards the entire obliteration of the
picture. Both baths also soon become acid from hypo-sulphu-
rous acid, a most powerful destructive agent. This is hastened
in hot weather, and but a few seconds immersion will so effec-
tually impregnate the print with this acid, that notiiing can
save it. We arc speaking now of the use of two baths; the
first a fixing bath of hypo, only; the second, a toning bath
composed of hypo, chloride of silver, and chloride, or salt of

gold. The first bath is useless, Whefl the second only ?s used, it
should be of a strength sufficient to produce the deepest purple
tint — in from ten to twenty minutes — not over twenty. To as-
sure permanence by this bath, the deep purple tint never should
be passed. To stop a little short would be more advisable.
SnIphUration commences the moment the picture passes to the
black. Allow the picture to remain in the Ijath, after it has
passed the purple, a minute longer, and a slight fringe of yellow
will circle its edges; take it out, wash it tv^enty-four hours in
running water, and submit it to the light tinder any eircura-
stiinces you please, it will fade in a short time. The most suc-
cessful bath of this kind we have used was that, the formula
of which was given in our June (1857) number. In publish-
ing this formula, we should hate stated that we kept the
baths in a perfectly neutral state, by the occasional addition of
aqua-araraonia. We, however, lost a great number of prints
subsequently by our printer neglecting this precaution. All
our iroubles in printing — where tJ/e negatives have been good —
have been caused by our printer neglecting to conform strictly
to our instructions. There are so many more contingencies
against producing good proofs than in favor, that socr.eciraes the
sli^hLcsl deviation is disastrous. We shall pursue the subject

m our next.

H. H. Sneluns.

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

LONDON PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.

The usaal monthly meeting of this Society was held on the
eveninff of Tuesday, the 5tb instant. The only snbject of im-
portance brought before the members was the following paper
by T. F. HARDwicii, Esq.,
'^ON THE PRINTING OF STEREOSCOPIC TRANSPARENCIES."

Some apology is perhaps needed for my appearance before
the Society this evening, inasmuch as I have nothing very no-
vel to communicate. The subject of my paper is, however,
one which possesses a general interest, and it has occurred to me
that I might, by bringing forward a few notes of some experi-
ments I have lately made, open up a discmsicD, and elicit useful
information.

Very fine transparencies have been taken' by Dr. Norrie's
dry collodion process, but the i)lan v.'hidi I intend now to ad-
vocate is the collodio-albumen of Tanpenot. To work on dry
collodion with uniform success the eheraicals must all be in prime
order, and although plates prepared by Dr. Norris himself have,
as far as my experience has gone, turned out well, yet in the
hands of the amateur, not quite «nre as to the state of his so-
lutions, the collodio-albumen is, i think, the more certain pro-
cess of the two.

The remarks which I wish to make may be arranged uader
the following heads. 1. The collodion for tiie process. 2.
The albumen solution. 3. The aceto-nitrate exciting bath. 4.
The water for washing the plates. 5. Exposure and develop-
ment. 6. Fixing and toning.

1. The Collodion. — The evils which might be anticipated
from the employment of an unsuitable collodion are — blistering
and a want of proper density in the image. In Norris's pro-
cess it is particularly directed that the Clm should be in the
condition termed rotten oi powdery, in order to ensure a rapid
and intense development. In the collodio-albumen process,
however, I find that ample density is obtainable even upon a
collodion which is more or less of the contractile kind. No
difficulty will therefore probably be experienced in this respect;
but as regards the other source of annoyance alluded to, viz.,
blistering of the film, the era})loyment of a rather tenacious
collodion is likely to favor its occui'rence, and I was at first
quite unable to use it from this cause. Since I have adopted,
however, the plan presently to be noticed, of adding acetic acid
to the albumen, the diffii'ulty has in great measure ceased,
acetic acid having the property of liquefying albumen, and mo-
difying it chemically.

In the course of numerous trials, I think I have noticed that

PHOTOGRAPHER, /

^CUTTING &TURNER]
N? 10 TremonL "Row,. B ostou .

Cutiin^ & Bradford's Photolithography

I

1

i

i

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

89

collodion iodized with tlie alkaline iodides acquires, by keeping,
a property of stickiii,L? tiglitly to the glass, independent to some
extent of any change in physical structure. This idea may be
inoorfeot, but it is worth attention. A collodion can be jire-
jiared at cice in the powdery condition, but a film of this kind
will sometimes rise in blisters wlicn the albumen has been laid
on especially thick. Old and brown collodion which has be-
come rotten by keeping, however, farely or uevcf blisters if
common care be taken in cleaning and drying the glasses.

The sensitiveness of the collodion for ordinary cainera work
need not be taken into account in Taupenot's process. To
prove this T selected two sami)les, one of which had only a
straw-yellow tint, and gave a negative in five second, whilst the
other was red and insensitive, requiring two minutes in the cam-
era. When coated Vi'ith albumen they took a nearly equal
length of exposure.

2. The Albumen Sohiiion. — Take of

Albumen . . » 1 fluid onnt^e.

Water , i "

Beaufoy's acetic acid \ " drachnii

Iodide of potassium 3 grains.

Chloride of ammonium.. ..... 5 "

First mix the acetic acid-and the water; then add the other
inirredients and shake together in a bottle for two or three mi-
nutes. The solution may be made to run through paper, but
as it sometimes deposits a sediment en standing, it is better to
set it aside for twenty-four hour.', wheu the upper part may be
drawn off clear with a siphon.

In the formulas at first given by Dri. Taupenot, it was advised
to add yeast to the albumen and to encourage fermentation, but
this plan proved unsatisfactory. Ammonia was afterwards
used, which certainly has an eff.'ct in preserving the albumen
from decomposition. Acetic acid, however, is, I think, better
than ammonia when transparencies are to be made. It pre-
vents, in the first place, the formation of those raucous threads
which often increase in the liquid almost as fast as they are
filtered out, and it is also, as before mentioned, a partial remedy
for blistering, by its action in rendering the albumen limpid.
. But of more importance still is the facility which this mode
of preparing the albumen affords for the employment of a strong
and quickly acting developer in bringing out the image. Gallic
acid is usually recommended in the albumen process as being
the most certain, and when the layer of albumen is dense and
horny, this is undoubtedly true. In such a case I have seen
pyrogallic acid fail, and yet the very same plate, when washed
and immersed in a solution of gallo-nitrate, in the course of an
hour yielded a gtiod picture. Gallic acid does not react upon ni-
trate of silver so quickly as pyrogallic acid, and heiice more
time is allowed for a proper penetration of the albumen film.
When, however, albumen properly liquefied by acetic acid is
employed, pyrogallic acid niay be usad with certainty. IndieJ
it is superior in such a case to gallic acid, being a stronger re-
ducing agent, and more likely to bring out the half tones.

With regard to the exact quantity of acetic acid which is ad-
missible, I have tried various proportions, from twenty minims up
to one fluid drachm to each oiince of albumen. The maximum
quantity diminishes the sensitiveness, but good prints may be ob-
tained by allowing a longer exposure.

In addition to albumen water, and acetic acid the formula
includes iodide and chloride. Experiments have been tried to
ascertain the function of each of these salts, and I find that
neither of them can be dispensed with. In the case of one
sample of collodion which was quite powdery in structure and
had become brown from spontaneous decomposition after iodiz-
ing, omission of the iodides from the albumen appeared to make
no difference. Some of my best prints were taken on albumen
containing chloride only, and with unequally short exposure;
thus, showing that, in this particular instance, the iodide in the
collodion beneath receives the invisible impression, although the
development is in the albumen, and the image can be partly
rubbed off with cotton wool. A repetition of the experiment,
however, with other samples of collodion gave different re-

VOL XI. NO. III. 12

suits. The picture came out red and indistinct when the iodide
was left out, but developed with great intensity when it was
added. I think it probable, therefore, that the presence of
iodide of silver in the layer of albumen may compensate for a
defect in the collodion basis, and if so, it will give greater cer-
tainty to the process.

'J'lie chloride, which is used with the iodide, can scarcely be
supposed to take any part in the formation of the latent image,
but it has a colorific action in tile development, imparting a
brown tone, and lessening the tendency to that greenish-yellow
often seen when iodides only are employed. Bromide acts in a
similar way, but perhaps less decidedly.

3. The exdiiiig haik of acdn-nitrals.— An old negative bath
which has been laid aside as giving streaky collodion films, may
be used for the albuminized plates, thirty minims of glacial
acetic acid beino: added to each ounce. It soon becomes disco-
lored, but I do not find it necessary to u.se kaolin; all my pic-
tares have been taken with a solution as dark as port wine.
The plates may be immersed in the aceto-nitfate for two mi-
[lutes.

Opinions diffef as to the pfopfiety of using one bath for the
collodion and albumen. I have preferred to keep the two
baths separate, thinking that the pictures develop more clearly,
and that the chance of blisters is diminished by so doing.

4. Thtwaitr for washhif the p/a/cs.— Ordinary filtered watef
will often succeed, but it is best to test it with nitrate of silver
for chlorides and carbonates. In the course of the late sum-
mer, whilst spending a few days at the seaside, I found that
all the water contained lime-salts, the effect of \^'hich, in Tau-
penot's process used for negatives, was to produce over-action
of light in the most expdsed parts of the film. The skies de-
veloped crey and feebly, and were encircled by a dark hne.

I see in the last number of the Journal an interesting paper
bv the Secretary of the Scotch Photographic Society, in which
the same thing is noticed. Hard water will, no doubt, produce
such an effect both on waxed paper and on albumen. On my
return to town, I brouL'ht with me a bottle of the water and
examined it. There was a trace of sulphate and a small pro-
portion of chloride, but the principal impurity consisted of a
carbonate of lime. It required exactly one fluid drachm of a
thirty-ffrain solution of nitrate of silver to precipitate the
whole of the saline matter from a wine-pint of the water; and
in twentvfour hours the deposit settled down clear without any
filtering." This ready mode of purifying hard water might be
adopted in case of necessity, but if carbonate of lime only be
present, half-an-hour*s boiling, or the addition of a little acetic
acid, ought to be sufficient to remove it. The use of nitrate of
silver, however, has the advantage of precipitating the chloride
at the same time with the carbonate^

F>. Exposure and derdopment.—The plates are exposed in an
ordinary printing frame, either to a strong gaslight for five or
six minutes, or in the open air^or a few seconds. There will
be nodifficultv in hitting the right time, because if the plates
are under-exposed, it will be impossible to develope the_ dark
shades, and the pictures will appear black and white, without
any middle tint.

The solution of pyrogallic acid is prepared as follows:—

Pvrogallic acid 3 grains.

Citric acid Hg^i'S-

Water 1 «""'=^-

This formula was given to me by Mr. ghadbolt It aiay be
used also for Norris's prepared plates, but as these develop
more quickly than collodio-albumen, it will be advisable to di-
lute it with an equal bulk of water. • ^^ „.

Havino- soaked the sterescoi)ic plate in water for a minute or
two, take t.vo fluid drachms of the solution of pyrogallic acid
and add ten minims of a twenty-grain neutral solution of ni-
trate of silver. Then pour the liquid repeated y on and oft
from a measure. The image begins to appear in about one m n-
nte, and is fully brought out in from five to eight minutes, lo-
wards the latter end of the development the pyrogallic acid

90

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

March,

discolors, and may then be thrown away. I find it quite po-
Bible to complete the process with one portion of the developer,
but usually prefer to employ two, as a security against fogging,
of which there is theoretically a danger when the plate is treat-
ed with a discolored developer.

If any failure occurs in this part of the process, it will pro-
bably arise from spots or marbled stains, but I do not e:?peri-
ence any annoyance from this source when the surface of the al-
bumen-bath solution has been carefully cleansed from scum, and
the albumen itself cleared by subsidence.

6. Fixing and toning. — The pictures are fixed with plain hypo-
sulphite of soda, and afterwards toned in the ordinary bath of hy-
posulphite of soda and gold. Tlie fixing solution clears away the
iodide and prevents it from getting into the toning bath and
interfering with the deposition of the gold. If the toning bath
is newly made, one hour's immersion will be sufficient to produce
a dark color, but in an old buth the plates may be left for twen-
ty-four hours, or longer.

New hyposulphite, free from sulphuretting compounds, leaves
the image of a reddish brown, the tone, however, varying much
with the time of exposure and the length of development.
Ilydrosulphate of ammonia, which Mr. Crookes has lately used,
darkens the picture considerably, and may be employed with-
out fear of causing fading, since the imagecontains more real sil-
ver than any albumen sun-print.

In conclusion, I may observe that my object has been to find
a simple process, and one sufficiently certain to be recommend-
ed. In preferring Taupenot's process to that on dry collodion,
I have been guided principally by the difficulty of always ob-
taining a collodion exactly in the right state. I ought also to
mention that the negatives which I used in my experiments
were rather intense. The film, in consequence, was liable to
solarize in certain parts, and this I could not on Norris's plates
altogether avoid. "With a more feeble negative there would
have been no danger of solarization, and the results on dry col-
lodion might in that case, have borne comparison with those
yielded by coUodio-albumen.

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

ON THE FORMATION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC I.MGES.

From Photographic Note*.

RESTORATION
Of Prints thai have been Destroyed by Sea-Water.

Sir, — Can anything be done to intensify prints which have
suffered as follows: — In a voyage from Australia, the sea water
got to them, and has almost entirely washed out the sliadows,
thus nearly obliterating the picture. I do not know by what
process they were printed, or the negatives taken. If you could

suggest a cure you will much oblige.

G. H. C.

It is possible that the prints may have simply faded in the
ordinary way, but supposing them to have been destroyed by
sea water, the external part of the im.age M'ould probably
have become converted into chloride of silver. In this
case, the image might be darkened by immersing the jirint either
in ammonia, or a fresh hypo bath, because that would remove
the superficial white chloride of silver and expose tlie dark im-
age beneath. Another way would be, to expose the print for
some time to strong sunshine, and then treat it with gallo-nitrate
of silver. If G. H. C. would allow us to see, and experiment
with, one or two of the prints, we might perhaps hit upon some
plan of improving them. If, however, they have simply faded
to the yellow tint, in the ordinary way, and are totally insensi-
tive to light, we know at present of no plan of reviving them;
but it is probable that some jirocess 7nay be discovered for re-
storing faded prints. Sliould the yellow sul)stance prove to be,
as we suspect, a per-sulphide of silver, it might be possible, (a.«
Mr. ^Moultrie has suggested), by treating it with a salt of some
metal which would combine with the excess of sulphur and form
a stable black sulphide to reproduce a black print. Faded prints
should not be destroyed. The lime may come when some simple
mode of rendering them more presentable, may be discover-
ed.—[Ed. P. N.J

BY M. M03ER.

M. Regnanlt presented a paper by M. Moser, on the above
subject, to the Academy of Sciences of Paris, on the 29th of
August last, in which the author arrives at the following con-
clusions:—

1st. Light acts upon all bodies, and upon all in the same
manner; the effects hitherto observed, are only particular in-
stances of this general law.

2. The action of light consists in modifying bodies in such a
manner, that after this action they absorb certain vapors which
they could not otherwise; the process of M. Daguerre depends
on this, and offers a particular instance of this general action.

3. The vapors are condensed, more or less strongly, by the
bodies thus modified, according to their elasticity, and the in-
tensity of the action of the light.

4. Iodide of silver, as is known, becomes blackened under
the influence of light.

5. If the action of the light be continued, the iodide is trans-
formed and becomes colored.

6. The differently refrangible rays have one and the same ac-
tion, and differ only in the time they require to produce a
given effect.

I. The blue and violet rays, and the obscure rays discovered
by Ritter, commence the action very speedily on the iodide of
silver; the other rays require, to produce the same effect, as
much more time, as their refraugibility is less.

8. Yet the action (5) is more quickly commenced and ef-
fected by the red and yellow rays; the others requiring more
time, as they have a greater refrangibility.

9. All bodies radiate light, even in perfect darkness.

10. This light does not appear to belong to phosphorescence
for no difference can be discovered, whether the bodies be
placed for a long time in the dark, or whether they be exposed
to the light of day, or even to the direct rays of the sun.

II. The rays emanating from different bodies operate in the
same manner as sensible light, and produce the effects indicated
at (2) and (4).

12. These rays, insensible to the retina, have a greater re-
frangibility than those of the sun, whether direct or diffused.

13. Two bodies constantly imprint their images on each
other, even when placed in perfect darkness (I), (9), and

rii.)

14. Yet for these images to be appreciable, it is necessary,
in consequence of the divergence of the rays, that the bodies
shall no' be very distant.

15. To render the representation of a body visible, some va-
por should be used, such as the vapor of water, of mercury,
iodine, chlorine, bromide, or chloride of iodine, &c &c.

16. As the rays which bodies spontaneously emit have a
greater refrangibility than those which were previously known,
they generally commence the action on other bodies with the
greatest intensity. (X).

11. There exists latent light as well as latent heat.

18. When a liquid is vaporized, light, cor.-espouding to a
certain degree of oscillation, becomes latent, and is again set
at liberty, when the vapor condenses into liquid drops.

19. It is on this account that the condensation of vapor pro-
duces to a certain extent the same effects as light; thus is ex-
plained the action of vapor as noticed (2) and (15).

20. The condensation of vapors on the plates acts in the
same manner as light, whether the excess of vapor simply ad-
heres, as is the case with the vapor of water on most sub-
stances; whetiier it adheres permanently as in the case of mer-
cury; or lastly, whether it chemically combines with the sub-
stance, as does the vapor of iodine with silver.

21. The latent light of the vapor of mercury is yellow; all
the effects proiuced by the yellow rays may be obtained by the
condensation of the vapor of mercury.

1858.

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

91

22. The latent light of the vapor of iodine is blue or violet;
the action of the blue or violet rays may in like manner, as in
the former instance, be produced by the vapor of iodine.

23. The latent light of chlorine, bromine, chloride and bro-
mide of iodine, appear to difler but little in refraugibility from
that of iodine.

24. With regard to the color of the latent light of the
vapor of water, I can only say that it is neither green, or yel-
low, nor orange, nor red.

25. Iodide of silver owes its sensibility, in contact with the
visible rays, to the latent light of the vapor of iodine.

26. Iodide of silver is not more sensible to the invisible rays
than is the silver itself.

Remark — With the exception of the principles contained in
9, 17, 18, and 25, all the preceding are deduced from numer-
ous researches, which are described in the following papers in
the " Annaks de Physique de, Poggendorff," &c.

{a) De la marcht dt la vue, et de faction de la lumiere sur
tous les corps.

(J) Sur I'etat latent de la lumiere. ;;

(c) Sur la lumiere invisible. "^ '

All theoretical views will be discarded, if we reject the prin-
ciples contained in 9, It, 18, 25; but there will then be a de-
ficiency in the explanation of the phenomena.

M. Arago communicated to the Academy the following let-
ter from M. Brequet, relative to a phenomenon which tends to
confirm the experiments of M. Moser.

" The remarkable facts discovered by Professor Mo'^er, and
•which have been communicated to the Academy by M. Reg-
nault, have brought to my recollection something analogous,
which I have observed at different times in the interior of gold
watch-cases, and even in the interior of the works, which are
made altogether of yellow copper.

" Every one knows that on opening the case of a watch,
there is a second case below it on which is engraved the name
of the maker. This second case comes very close to the first,
and I have frequently seen on the outer case the image, revers-
ed and very distinct, of the name of the maker, which is en-
graved on the inner case.

" In the works of watches where the parts are placed very
near to each other, I have sometimes seen certain images, more
or less remarkable.

" I have observed these curious facts, and have even men-
tioned them to some individuals, but not having had the time
to observe all the peculiarities of the phenomenon, I have not
until now made them public."

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

miED GLASS FOR ROOFS.

Liverpool, 7tli Jan., 1858.
To the Editor oftht Liverpool Photographic Journal:

Sir, — I thank you for the opportunity your observations have
afforded me for bringing forward further particulars respecting
the important subject of the changes that take place in glass,
and their probable effect upon the efforts of the photographer.
As these changes are the results of time, it consequently fol-
lows, that the experience of many years' standing, is of some
value, and the following is a record of what has come under
my own notice.

Fifteen years ago I was consulted by a company established
in Liverpool for the purpose of taking Daguerreotype per. raits,
as to the best medium for their operating room. 1 recommend-
ed " white" glass. In the course of twelve months they com-
plained that the time of exposure in the camera had greatly
increased, and that they could not account for it. I discovered
that the glass had changed from a " white" to a purple, and
hence the obstruction to the chemical rays. I likewise disco-
vered by actual experiment, that of all the makes of plate
glass none were so stable in color as the Ravenhead, which
every one knows is of a blue tint.

On examination of the stained glass in York Minster, I in-
variably found, on turning np the lead, that the part exposed
to 200 summers was the same in tint as the part under the lead,
and of all the colors the b/ue\v;)s most completely unchanged.

Cobalt being the coloring medium, I came to the conclusion
it was the best material to tinge the glass with, especially as it
favored the transmission of tiie actinic rays only. 1 hold tiieso
statements to assume the position of undoubted facts, and they
clearly go to prove tliut " thoroughly practical men" hold er-
roneous views on this subject. I therefore court discussion
upon the matter, not because I am connected with the glass
trade, but because I am a photographer.

I cannot accept the doctrine that because color in glass is a
" tint," it must necessarily " deepen," so far from this being the
case, I can show by specimens I have just described, at least
200 years old, that this is an utter fallacy, especially with re-
spect to blue tinted glass. I have placed in the roofs of the
operating rooms of the London School of Photograph, as well
as Mr. Keith's, and they inform me that not only is it quicker
than " white' glass, but that the sitter is not constrained in his
features during the operation. I make no claim to originality
in this matter, for Mr. Hunt, as usual, is before me, and I re-
fer you to his excellent work, on photography, pages 148 and
302, for an account of his experiments.

I am, Sir,

Yours very truly,

Jas. Alex. Forrest.

From Photographic Notes.

PHOTGGRAPBIC SUMMARY OF NEW IKVENTIOi\S, FOR JANUARY 1858,

BY THOMAS SUTTOX.

We have some interesting novelties in photographic processes
to describe in the present number.

Mr. Quinet has exhibited the manipulation of a new dry
negative process on glass, in which the sensitive film is per-
fectly transparent, and the mode of development rather pe-
culiar.

M. Leborgne has discovered some advantages which appear
to result trom the addition of a salt of lead to the nitrate
bath.

M. Alexis Gaudin has described a process by means of which
collodion negatives may be taken instantaneously, and devel-
oped to a suflicient intensity, either by means of a proto-salt of
iron, or a solution of gallic acid. Like M. Laborgne, he ob-
tains his results by the addition of a salt of lead to the nitrate
bath.

Mr. Berry, of Liverpool, obtained some curious and promising
results by the use of casein as a medium for supporting the sen-
sitive iodide of silver on a glass plate.

M. Davanne has described some advantages which appear to
arise from the addition of ammonia to the albumen used in posi-
tive printing. (See page 19).

Mr. T. Bullock, of JMacclesfield, has favored us with an ac-
count of his process of taking collodion positives direct on card:
and Mr. Beattic, of Leicester, has kindly shewn ushowtoBolve
a difBculty, proposed for solution a few weeks back by Sir Den-
ham Norreys, which consists in transferring collodion positives
from glass to glazed leather.

Lastly; — Our correspondent, the Patent Agent, has sent us
a copy of the Specification ol u Process, by Mr. McCraw, of
Edinburgh, for taking positives direct in the Camera, on a white
ground, by mQ?in?. oi reversing Ihi action of light. (Seep. 87.)

A few words then on each ot these interesting topics, taken
in the order in which we have announced them.

The new dry negative process of M. Quinet is unfortunately
a secret, for that gentleman intends to try and turn hisproce.s8
to account by offering prepared plates and developing solutions
for sale. This he has of course a perfect right to do, if he
chooses. M. Quinet is the inventor and patentee of a modified

92

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

March,

form of stereoscope, or stereoscopic camera, to whicb he has
given the iiiime of "Quiiietoscope," (an instruiiieiit which Sir
David Brewster has funnily observed would seem tobeiutended
for offering- some i)ecnliar facilities for viewiuf^ M. Quinet). A
few days aj^o, id. Quinet, who appears very anxious to exhibit
the mauijiulation of his process, called on the editor of " La
Lu.niere," (M. Lacan), with his Quinetoscope and a box of dry
sensitive plates, some of which had been excited cijjht days, and
others two days previously. Tiie plates were exposed, in a
garden, at about two o'clock in the afternoon, the weather be-
ing very cold and foiruy. The time of exposure was from 30 to
35 seconds. The sensitive plates were transi>arent, there was
no opaque film of iodide of silver upon tliein. The plates were
first moistened, and the pictures developed by means of three
different fluids poured alternately on the plate. Tlie results
were successful, and the negatives very sharp and vigorous,
The process is stated by M. Lacan to possess two peculiarities.
One is, that the older the plate the more sensitive it becomes,
and the more rajtid the develojjment; — the other — that the de-
velopment may be stopped at any moment, and continued even
after an interval of many days.

It appears therefore, that the process of M. Quinet possesses
some marked ]K'Culiarities, and we confess we are curious to
understand the chemical mysteries of the transparent film, and
the peculiar mode of devi^lopment, which is said to be wonder-
fully simple, and under the complete control of the operator.
With respect to the capabilities of the process, they appear
to have been sufficiently demonstrated, both at the last Meet-
ing of the French Photographic Society, and in the presence of
M. Lacan: but we are amused at observing, that since a secret
was made of the chemistry of the process, the French Society
was not to be made a cat's-paw of by M. Quiuet, and no men-
tion is made of his experiment in the Report of the Meeting,
which appeared in the last No. of the Bulletin of the Society.
The liberal conduct of Dr. Hill Norris with respect to his pro-
cess, (with which we are becoming more delighted every day),
certainly contrasts favorably with the policy of M. Quinet.

The process of M. Leborgne consists in increasing the sensi-
tiveness of a collodionized plate by adding a salt of lead to the
nitrate bath. The particulars are as follows: —

Dissolve, in one vessel, 20 grannnes of acetate ot silver in
100 grammes of distilled water; and in another vessel, 16
grammes of nitrate of lead in 100 grammes of distilled water *

Mix the two solutions, and use the bath in the ordinary way.
Any of the salts of lead may be employed, but the nitrate gives
the best results.

The picture is to be developed by a solution compo.sed oi
gallic acid 1 part, water 1000 parts; and lixed in the ordinary
way.

The advantages of the process are stated to be, — 1st, in-
creased sensitiveness; — 2nd, the bath may be charged to satu-
ration without giving any precipitate; — 3rd, the bath never
becomes acid; — 4th, the sensitive plates may be preserved a
long time without losing their properties, and may be used in
tlie dry state ;-^5th, it is not necessary to develop the image
immediately on removal from the camera,

M. Laborgne states that this bath may be used with equal
success in positive printing.

We now come to the process of M. Gaudin for obtaining in-
stantaneous negatives, which may be developed to a sufficient
intensity by a proto-salt of iron, or a solution of gallic acid.
We may observe, en passant, that the finest stereoscopic sub-
jects we have seen are those by Mr. Wilson, of Aberdeen, who,
we are informed, generally employs an iron salt as a developer,
and has lately succeeded in obtaining instantaneous negatives
of large size, developed in this way. We should be very glad
to learn the particulars of his process, for certainly his works

* We are inclined to tliink that there are rnistakcsi in tliis formuls,'
acetate of silver is nearly insoluble in cold water. Perhaps "acetate
d'argent" is a misprint for " azotate d'argent," nitrate ot silver. And
again, 16 grammes of nitrate of lead could scarcely be dissolved in 100
grammes of cold distilled water; while hot water would be likely to de-
compose this salt. — Ed. P. N-

exhibit extraordinary beauty of half-tone. But to retu rn to M.
Gaudin.

His jirocess consists in first making a nitrate bath according
to the following formula: —

Add to a solution, containing 10 per cent, of nitrate of sil-
ver, a small quantity of reduced metallic lead, in a finely divided
state, and also a small quantity of nitrate of lead; the propor-
tions are not stated , being ))cr!iaps, at present, somewhat uncer-
tain. Boil the solution. Tlie heat will precipitate a portion of
the silver, and the liquid will become black. Subsalts of lead
and silver will be produced, and after a quarter of an hour's
boiling, the hath may be filtered, and is then ready for use.

When gallic acid is to be used as a developer, a few drops of
acetic acid must be added to the plombiferons silver bath; but
when the iron salts are to be used, a much larger quantity of
acetic acid must be added.

The solution of gallic acid must be saturated and carefnlly
filtered, and a few drops of nitrate of silver must be fidded to
it in the measure, immediately before use. The negatives come
out quickly, and are of a brownish tint, yielding very good
prints.

With the proto-sulphatc of iron, the bath is said to give very
intense and perfect negatives, after an extremely short expo-
sure. We imagine this to be the chief merit of the process. It
is a Well-known fact, that the addition of a saiall quantity of
acetate of lead to a solution of gallic acid increases the density
of the negative. The action of the salts of lead in assisting de-
velopment deserves to be carefnlly studied. AVe must not for-
get also that iodide of lead is sensitive to light.

Mr. Berry's process consists in employing casein instead of
collodion, or aliiumen, as a means of supporting the sensitive
film of iodide of silver on a glass plate. He has kindly sent us
the account of his experiments through the medium of the Sec-
retary of the Liverpool Pliotogra|)hic Society, who informs us
t!iat the Paper was read by Mr. Berry at the last meeting of
that Society.

Casein is a substance closely resembling all>nmen in its pro-
perties. It is held in solution by the alkali contained in milk,
and is coagulated by the addition of certain adds. Mr. Berry
has taken advantage of the solubility of casein in an alkali to
spread it on a glass plate; it is afterwards coagnlated by I)eat,
and the nitrate bath, and in this way a film is obtained which
adheres to the glass and contains the photogenic materials.
The process is at present one of those curiosities in photogra-
phy which we are always happy to hear of, and insert, for they
not only prove the ingenuity of experimenters, but affords hints
which may be successfully followed up in someway or other.

M. Davannc read a papo" at the last meeting of the French
Photographic Society, in which he stated that he had discov-
ered some advantages by adding ammonia to the albumen salt-
ing-bath, used for positive printing. Albamen, like casein, is
soluble in an alkali, and coagulated by the addition of certain
acids. It ajipcars therefore, that by adding ammonia to the
albumen bath, it is rendered more fluid, and the albumenized
paper less liable to dry in streaks; while the nniii'onia, being
volatile, esc:ipes from ihe ]iaper when drying. We are inclined
to think this suggestion of M. Da valine's a very good one; but
at the same time it seems quite possible that seme ammonia
might be retained by the albumen,, and that this might occasion
the discoloration of the pajier after being excited on the nitrate
bath. Should anything of this kind occnr, a good remedy
would probably be, to add some lemon juice or citric acid to
the nitrate bath, particularly as lemon juiee always appears to
increase the surface vigor of a print.

We mentioned in our last number that Mr. Bullock, of Mac-
clesfield, had kindly sent us a very prelJy po.sitivc collodion
portrait, taken on the back of his address card. He has since
furnished us with the particulars of his process. We are not at
lilierty, however, to publish them, as they may be learnt on the
terms stated in his advertisement, but he has left it to our dis-
cretion to say just so much as may whet the curiosity of oar
readers with respect to an ingenious and simple process, which
it is well worth auv one's while to know. The facts stated in

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

93

his advertisement are strictly correct. The picture is actually
taken in the camera on the card, which is from first to last the
vehicle for supporting the photogenic surface. No transferring
is required. Tiie card is actually coated with black varnish
and collodion, dipped in the nitrate bath, &c.; the face of it
being of course protected during the operations in a very inge-
nious way.

In No. 34 of this Journal we solicited information on the
subject of taking collodion positives on glazed leather. We are
now able to inform our readers how this may be done in two
different ways. For the first method we are indebted to the
kindness of Mr. Beattie, of Leicester. He describes it as
follows: —

" Take the portrait on glass as usual; then cut the collodion
film to the required shape. Clioose a piece of smooth leather.
Moisten with spirits ot wine both the leather and portrait.
Press the one on the other very carefully. Let dry. Then
the portrait will come off the glass beautifully. I send you one,
made for amusement only. You cannot scratch the film."

This specimen is quite satisfactory. No one could possibly
discover any edge to the collodion film. The portrait is oval,
and there is a margin of glazed leather all round it, giving the
transfer a mat-like appearance. Tiiis specimen exactly resem-
bles that forwarded to us by Sir Denham Norreys, and alluded to
in No. 34. Mr. Beattie's mode of transferring, is infinitely
better than that which we suggested.

The other method of taking positives on glazed leather,
cloth, &c., requires no transferring. The collodion is poured
at once on the glazed material, and the film may be either ex-
cited by floatation on a nitrate bath, or by immersion, the
glazed leather or cloth being in that case stuck to a piece of
glass in such a way that the nitrate bath cannot get to the
back of it. This is one part of Mr. Bullock's ingenious pro-
cess. Glazed canvas may be obtained from Messrs. Ellington
& Ridley, 89 Watling Street, London, at about three shillings
per square yard.

With respect to Mr. McCraw's process, (see p. 87): — The
patent, applied for in July last, has not been completed, so the
particulars mentioned in his Specification are now, we believe,
public property. But his process is not new, since attention
has been called to the fact of a positive having been produced
by the reversed action of light, both in this Journal some
months since, and also at a recent meeting of the Photographic
Society. Nevertheless, we had no idea that this process was
capable of yielding results sufficiently good to make it worth
any one's while to take out a patent for it. It seems likely
that Mr. McCraw's process may be turned to useful account
by professional portraitists. We advise our readers by all
means to experiment with them.

PHOTO-LlTIIOGRAPnY OP MESSRS. L. H. BRADFORD & CO.

We have the pleasure of furnishing our subscribers this
month with prints by the Photo-lithographic process, from the
establishment of Messrs. L. H. Bradford & Co., in Boston,
in addition to our usual photographic illustrations. The por-
traits are those of Messrs. J. A. Cutting and L. H. Bradford.
They are exceedingly interesting, as exhibiting another success-
ful advance in Photographic Art. This particular process for
transferring the photograph to stone is the joint invention of
Messrs. Cutting and Bradford. The impressions here given are
taken direct from the stone, without any retouching, the trans-
fer to the stone being made from a glass negative in the same
way as other positive prints. The impression so obtained is af-
terwards prepared so as to take the lithographic ink, and the
prints are taken off in the press in the same manner as any
other lithograph. The advantages, both to art and business, of
this method of executing pictures, are very numerous, and have
been long dwelt upon by many of the first photographers of
Europe, who have devoted much of their time in endeavoring
to overcome the difficulties that have stood ia the wav ofitsac-

12*

complishment. Specimens of photo-lithography have been oc-
casionally shown, which were very fair; but the processes were,
not sufficiently developed to produce the perfection required by
art. This process of Messrs. Cutting and Bradford may be
considered a decided step forward in this branch of art. These
gentlemen claim that they can reproduc» any picture by the
photographic with greater ease than by the ordinary lithogra-
phic process, and the specimens of their work before us certain-
ly will confirm this opinion, although, as Mr. Bradford himself
says, the process leaves room for improvement , of which it is
perfectly capable. H. H. S.

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

ON TUE VARIATION OF THE FOCI OF LE.^iSES.

BY. M. CLAUDET.

The question of the actinic focus is involved in another kind
of mystery, which requires some attention. I have found that
with the same lenses there exists a constant variation in the
distance between the two foci. They are never in the same
relation to each other; they are sometimes more or less sepa-
rate; in some lights they are very distant, and in some others
they are very near, and even coincide. For this reason I con-
stantly try their position before I operate. I have not been
able to discover the cause of that singular phenomenon, but I
can state positively that it exists. At first, I thought that
some variations in the density or dispersive power of the atmos-
phere might produce the alteration in the distance between the
two foci; or that when the yellow rays were more or less abun-
dant, the visual rays were refracted oa different points on the
axis of the foci, according to the mean refrangibility of the
rays composing white hght at the moment. But a new experi-
ment has proved to me that these could not be the real causes
of the variation. I generally employ two object-glasses; one
of shorter focus for small pictures, and the other of longer focus
for larger images. In both the actinic focus is longer than the
visual focus; but when they are much separated in one they are
less so in the other; sometimes, when they coincide in one, they
are verv far apart in the other, and sometimes they both coin-
cide. This 1 have tried every day during the last twelve
months, and I have always found the same variations. The
density of the atmosphere, or the color of light, seems to have
nothing to do with the phenomenon, otherwise the same cause
would produce the same effect in both lenses. I must observe,
that my daily experiments on my two object-glasses are made
at the same moment and at the same distance for each, other-
wise any alteration in the focal distance would disperse, more
or less, the actinic rays, which is the case, as it is easy to prove.
The lengthening or shortening the focus, according to the dis-
tance of the object to be represented, has for effect to modify the
achromatism of the lenses. An optician, according to M.
Lerebours' calculation, can at will, in the combination of the
two glasses composing an achromatic lens, adapt such curva-
tures or angles in both that the visual focus shall coincide with
the actinic focus; but he can obtain this result only for one
length of focus. The moment the distance is altered, the two
foci" separate, because the visual and actinic rays must be re-
fracted at different angles in coming out of the lens, in order to
meet at the focus given for one distance of the object. If the
distance is altered, the focus becomes longer or shorter; and as
the angle at which different rays are refracted remains nearly
the same, they cannot meet at the new focus, and they form two
images. If the visual and actinic rays were refracted parallel
to each other, in coming out of the lens they would always
coincide for every focus; but this is not the case. It seems,
therefore, impossible that lenses can be constructed m which
the two foci will agree for all the various distances, until we
have discovered two kinds of glasses in which the densities or
the refractive power will be in the same ratio as the dispersive
power.

94

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

March,

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

TEE "PENCIL OF NATURE" PROCESS OF MR. FOX TALBOT.*

We have seen how the prints for the "Pencil of Nature"
were obtained. It only remains tiiat I should make two or
three remarks for the purpose of pointing out distinctly that all
was done that our knowledge, at that time, could suggest. On
looking back, the only flaw that can be seen is, ia that part
which relates to the washing of the prints. To us it seems
doubtful if three changes of water for each batch of pictures
could suffice. Let it, however, be remembered, that the water
used was as hot as the hand could hear^ and that the hyposul-
phite of soda was from a freshly-made solution. The difliculty
was to obtain a proper test of the absence of hyposulphites.
The evil of over-washing, too, had to be avoided. I do not
think blame attaches to the process, and indeed, one can only
admire the comparative degree of perfection to which it was
brought under so many circumstances of doubt and difficulty.
With me, a very strong proof of the three changes of water
being justifiable, is the fact that some of the pictures of the
"Pencil of Nature" are, to this day, as good as ever. What
has become of the hyposulphites which we should now say must
have been left in the paper ? What other circumstances are
needed to render hyposulphite fatal? Mr. Hardwich will reply,
damp for one. True; but all the pictures are bound up in one
book, and kept in a good library. Let us not loose sight of
this fact when discussing the influence of hyposulphite on the
fading.

There is a point relating to the history of toning processes
that may very properly be related here. Originally, all ammo-
nio-nitrate prints were of a warm sepia color, more or less
modified. This color was by many disliked, although scarcely
two persons agreed as to what color would be most desirable.
Advocates for the warm colors were then, as now, to be found.
It happened, on one occasion, that some prints of a marble
bust, by Mr. Henneman {the first established photographic
printer), were executed for the late Mr. Walter, of The Times.
These, being wanted in a hurry, were, after pasting, rapidly
mounted and ironed with a hot iron to smooth and dry them.
It was at once observed that a remarkable change of color en-
sued, such as is never produced by ordinary drying or exposure
to sun and pure air. It was at once hastily concluded that the
paste was the cause of the phenomenon. Mr. Talbot commu-
nicated the facts to M. Claudet (then a licensee under the calo-
type patent), and to the writer of this, who, on being requested
to procure some paste for the experiment, took the liberty of
omitting the farina, and succeeded quite as well with water
only! A certain amount of moisture, and it is believed, a trace
of the hyposulphites being necessary, with the heat, to effect
the required darkening of the print. From that time it was a
common thing to iron prints, or heat them strongly by a fire
whilst still damp. So simple a matter was not in use till 1844.
Soon after this I discovered that nitric acid, added to hyposul-
phite of soda, enabled us to obtain black tones in ammouio-
uitrate prints. Sulphurous acid and free sulphur were liberated,
and the print too much lowered, unless over-printed. These
facts were not published at the time, but they were verbally
communicated to those who took an interest in the art. The
fashion of going into print on every occasion had not then set
in. Several early experimenters have had their labors over-
looked through being content with communicating their expe-
rience verbally. I am not disposed to find fault with this, lor,
undoubtedly, tlie publication of small matters aids materially
the progress of the art. Still, let it not be forgotten, that the
facts remain the same: realpriority will still belong to the first
proposers of any method, although they lose the credit which
rightly belongs to full publication. This is a point upon which
much misconception prevails. It is too much the custom to
suppose that non-publication arises from a selfish motive, whereas
it may spring simply from a reluctance to push forward, or from
want of skill in arranging such matters for the printer. More-

over, there was no journal specially devoted to the subject of
photography. Taking a great interest in tracing the history
of photography, I have sought some rule to guide us in fixing
the dates of discoveries, and enable us to apportion criticiiily,
the degree of merit due to each inventor. An impossible task!
some will say. It is a difficult one, and after much considera-
tion and enquiry, I have come to regard Sir John Herschel's
view of such matters as the best one. He says, treat the pub-
lic as a jury; lay all the facts before them, and let them judge
of the character and demeanor of the witnesses. Sir John
strongly opposed M. Arago's method of fixing the date of a
discovery by published documents only. The lustre of the dis-
coveries of some of our greatest men would be much dimmed,
were we to admit the validity of such a canon.

It remains further to add, that the plates of the " Pencil of
Nature" were printed at Reading, in Berkshire, where the first
photographic printing establishment was set up, under Mr.
Talbot's directions by Mr. Henneman, who had long assisted
Mr. Talbot in his experiments. Some of our early photogra-
phers will, doubtless, recal with pleasure the marvels of those
first days, and bear testimony with me to the liberal manner in
which Mr. Henneman communicated information to all earnest
lovers of the art. It was there that the writer had the gratifi-
cation of watching the steps of the process as detailed in these
pages, and from that time he dates his full knowledge of the
art, and also his first acquaintance with Mr. Talbot, M. Claudet,
and M. Fizeau, his first qualified preceptors in all its chief
branches. Now that the struggles respecting patent rights
have terminated, he may, perhaps be allowed to add, with some
chance of being heard, that no charge of want of liberality
could ever be honestly maintained against the early patentees
by those who were bent only upon a scientific and personal use
of the respective patents of that time. He would be ungrate-
ful if he attempted to conceal his experience in this respect; and
he regrets that in this matter, the full truth is not universally
■ ^ -"■ ' M.

recognized

Time and events will set all right.

• Continued from p. 55, vol. xi., no. ii.

STEREOSCOPIC VIEWS— CASE OF POISONING.

Buffalo, N. Y., February 15, 1858.
To the Editor of the Photographic a/nd Fine Art Journal:

Sir, — In the last very interesting number of your Journal, I
notice, in the reported proceedings of our Trans-Atlantic neigh-
bors, a claim for a " Novel Method of taking Stereoscopic
Views;" " just originated by Mr. J. Gill of Liverpool, and pat-
ented by him." In this method " two mirrors were so placed to-
gether, at a slight angle, that each receive an image of the ob-
ject proposed to be taken. The camera was then directed to-
wards the mirrors, the images reflected in which were taken on a
single plate."

Allow me to inform our friends over the water, that this pro-
cess is an old American invention — the discovery of Prof. F.
A. P. Barnard, of Alabama.

A full description of this process by Prof. Barnard, with
mathematical demonstration, and notice of accompanying pic-
tures may be found in Silliman's Journal of Science for 1853,
page 348. I myself made stereoscopic pictures from this de-
scription, as many as three years ago, and found the results
quite satisfactory.

But the objection raised by a member of the Liverpool So-
ciety, in reference to the formation of a double image by reflec-
tion , from the anterior surface of the glass as well as from the sil-
vered surface, is well founded when glass mirrors are used — at
least so my experience teaches. I believe mirrors of polished
metal only, can be successfully used.

Another article from the Journal of the Photographic So-
ciety, by W. II. Ptankin, M.D., on the poisonous effects of cy-
anide of potassium, is, I believe, erroneous and dangerous.
Mr. Rankin loftily pronounces recent articles on the supposed
danger from the use of this poison as an external detergent,
" twaddle," and declares that he " has never heai-d of any au-
thenticated case of dangerous elTects from such use."

1858.

THE rHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

95

Allow me to state one: — A yonng man in my employment,
after washing a slightly scratched hand with this article, found
the hand on the next day quite painful and swollen. The sec-
ond day it was so badly swollen that he could not use it, and a
physician was called on, who pronounced it a dangerous case of
poisoning from the use of the cyanide. Happily, the antidote
(from a photographic Journal) of 10 grains carbonate of po-
tassa in 1 ounce of water, followed in a few minutes by ^ a
drachm of tincture muriate of iron, with 5 grains sulph. iron,
prevented any serious consequences.

But a medical man should know that poison may be intro-
duced into the system both by inhalation and absorbtion, as
well as through the mouth. Though no immediate injurious
results may be observed from the application of this poison ex-
ternally, who can say that its continued use is not sapping the
vitality of the system ?

A saturated solution of hyposulphite of soda for removing
fresh nitrate of silver stains, is much safer and nearly as eflfec-
taal.

J. H. Tompkins.

Personal ^ !^rt Intelligence.

— Each succeeding month brings to the Photographic Art
gome new idea, some new process, and some decided advances
in its progress towards perfection. Photography is thus gra-
dually extending its usefulness into almost every branch of in-
dustry, and is reaching, with slow, but steady and sure steps,
into the bosom of the ''higher Arts." One of the most recent
published improvements, or rather inventions, is that oi "Burnt-
in Pholografhy," an article on which subject will be found in
the present number. This idea is not new to us. Its practica-
bility was presented to our mind two or three years ago by the
discovery of a portion of a collodion negative which had passed
through the seething fire that destroyed Mr. Harrison's manu-
factory. The image of this piece of negative was not only
completely vitrified, preserving all the characteristics of the pho-
tograph, but it was engraved into the glass, so perfectly, that,
had the surface remained flat — the action of the fire had ren-
dered it concave on the collodion side — an impression might
have been taken from it with printer's ink. The effect on those
portions remaining perfect, was very beautiful. We longed for
an opportunity to pursue the experiments which this incident
suggested; but with the multiplicity of our duties, the thingwas im-
possible; we therefore suggested these experiments to others;
but there are few in this country who seem willing to grapple
with and solve the mysteries of a new idea, and therefore the
experiments were never made, and foreign photographers have
in this, as in all other decidedly original photographic designs,
been permitted to carry off the prize credit of its invention.
Mr. Burnett's article on the subject will well repay perusal, and
should not be passed over lightly. The most important as well
as some of the most useful results are to be produced hereafter
by this process. Its application to every species of glass orna-
mentation will, in a few years, become highly popular, and we
shall see vases, lamp-shades, windows, and crockery of every
description beautified in this manner.

The new theories lately put forth in regard to photographic
lens, seems to be gaining ground rapidly, and Professor Petzval
is obtaining additional honors by his labors in this branch of op-
tics. But is not our own countryman, Mr. C. C. Harrison, en-
titled to a very large share of the honors bestowed upon Prof
Petzval. Did he not quietly solve this problem two years or
more ago, and introduce to our photographic public, lenses on
the same principles? Those who have used his cameras, made
during the last two years, must certainly know that they work
on the same principle. Mr. Harrison, in working for and pro-
ducing this result, may not have been aware of the theory w^on
which his labors were predicated, for he is eminently a practical
man, and in knowing the requirements of photography, in his
particular line of business, sought to effect it jpractically with-

out troubling bis head about the theory. His aversion to mak-
ing his rules of action public through our Journals will undoubt-
edly induce such a belief; but those who know him personally,
and know how laborious a student he is, and how wedded he is
to his art, will form no such opinion. Two years ago he pro^
duced lenses which practically effect what Professor Petzval
now asserts theoretically.

Caseiv, as a substitute for collodion, has been successfully
tried in England. The article on this subject, iu our present
number, is interesting so far as the suggestions it makes towards
future improvement. " Converting Positives into negatives by
heat" is another new idea, successfully tried, but which can be
of little use to the art as it complicates what is otherwise
simple, and complications are to be avoided as much as possi-
ble.

Some improvements have been made in photography on
wood in Europe. In this country we are considerably in ad-
vance of the Europeans, but the usual policy of all our photo-
graphers in matters of invention is such that they must neces-
sarily lose all prestige as originators.

The process for Collodion on Paper has some advantages;
but not sufficient, we apprehend, to bring it into general use.

Mr. Sutton lays down the law to Mr. Malone iu an ar-
ticle on the "Fading of Positives" quite effectually. He has
decidedly the advantage. Mr. Malone, it seems, is like the
boy who declared he never would go into the water until he learned
how to swim. We have quite a number like him on this side
of the Atlantic.

A process given for the use of ammoniacal albumen in posi-
tive printing. We shall endeavor to give it a trial te-'orelong.
We shall have something new of our own for the May number,
probably for June also, which we have strong hopes will add
great advantages to the printing process. What few experi-
mants we have made, satisfy us completely.

We have an iuteresting paper from Joseph Dixon, Esq.,
of Jersey City, on "The Methods of Enlarging Photographs,
or Other Pictures." Many of the ideas advanced are worth
preserving. Mr. Dixon is not, however, very well posted up
in the history of the subject, and is rather obscure in relating
the present methods of enlarging photographs. We do not
agree with him that perfect pictures cannot be enlarged by
transmitted light — our experience teaches us that they can.
We have tried the experiment of enlarging a "half size" collo-
dion negative portait to life-size — the measurements were in the
image as in the model. The practice of the enlarging process
is very little understood yet, and prejudice has found oj)inions
that cannot be sustained in practice. We shall enlarge on this
subject hereafter.

All concede the importance of a perfectly successful dry
collodion, and yet many are disposed, notwithstanding the re-
sults that have been obtained, to give up the attempt of pro-
ducing it. All the formulas, heretofore given, are more or less
condemned by the mjijority, although the originators profess to
sustain no failures in their particular cases. Several very ex-
cellent results have been accomplished in this city, and we may
have considerable to say in regard to them in a few weeks.

The oxymel process of Mr. Mann deserves consideration.

A method of producing positive pictures on white grounds
is given, which will interest experimental more than practical
photographers.

A valuable paper on " Printing Stereoscopic Transpa-
rencies," by Mr. Hardwich, will be found interesting to stereo-
scopic photographers. The stereoscope picture business is ra-
pidly increasing in importance, and will eventually be very lucra-
tive. During these dull times it would be well for those who
cannot find sufficient to do in portraiture, to devote their leisure
moments to taking stereoscopic pictures. If we could gather a
respectable assortment of good stereoscopic views of American
scenery, we could soon find a market for them.

Mr. Forrest in his article on "Tinted Glass," confirms
the assertions we have so often made in regard to the advan-
tages of using blue glass in sky-lights.
— We have the pleasure of presenting to our readers this

96

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

March,

month, a decidedly new and valuable improvement in photog-
rapliy, and it gives us the greater pleasure inasmuch as it is the
result of the labors of a friend with whom we have been obliged,
in times past, to be at variance, on another photographic sub-
ject. We allude to the new piioto-litographic process of Mr.
J. A. Cutting and his associate, L. H. Bradford. The an-
nouncement of these gentlemen of their intention to send us the
illustratiou that we issue witii this number, was too late to give
us an opportunity of saying all we can say about it; we shall,
therefore, again refer to it in our next. For the same reason we
are obliged to omit one of the portraits (^tliat of Mr. Bradford)
mentioned in our article ou this process, on page 93, until our
next issue.

— Frank Ford. — The positive prints you sent us are very
good. You have an artist's eye and appreciation. The tone
is precisely of the right kind for permanence. It is soft, clear,
and agreeable. The positives are excellent. We shall advise
you, however, to use a side-screen or reflector; and in toning,
do not tone quite so long as to destroy the middle tints. This
is the only fault we have to find with the specimens before us.
We hardly think you need this advice, as the qualities of the
pictures show that you understand all the points of a good pic-
ture.

— E. S. Wykes. — The characteristics of the specimens sent
by this gentleman, are the same as those by Mr. Ford, with
the exception of the faults we mention. The tone, clearness,
and middle-tints are exquisite, and the details are very tine.
You require no instructions Irom others to place you at the
head of your art. We would here repeat our request to gen-
tlemen sending us pictures, to do so unmounted, as we have a
fine album in which to preserve such as give us satisfaction.

— We cut the following from the Indianapo/is Journal:

" All admirers of the beautiful will find at the Metropolitan
Gallery, the finest photographs and Hallotypes made in the
West. Mr. Bailey showed us, the other day, several new Hallo-
types which he had made, which certainly cannot be excelled
by any artist anywhere. He has a number of pictures of this
kind at the Metropolitan, and a larger number of photographs
— likenesses of ladies and gentlemen of this city, and views of
several of our public buildings. For a good photograph or
superb Hallotype, go to Bailey at the Metropolitan, and if a
superior daguerreotype is wauted, Mr. Ohr, at the same gallery,
can supply it. Messrs. Ohr and Bailey are chief among the
picture-makers of the country."

— This comes to us all the way from California, in the Fire-
man's Journal. Mr. Selleck — we will premise— is perhaps the
oldiist devotee to the Art in San Francisco, although he may
be the 'youngest man. He has been identified with daguerreo-
typing and photographing, ever since he was a shaver in lead-
ing strings, and he can truly say that he has grown with its
growth, and strengthened with its strength. We are, there-
fore, happy to hear that he is so prosperous in the business:

" Photographs. — Mr. Silas W. Selleck, whose proficiency as
a daguerrean is so well known, is now engaged in taking pho-
tographs of the members of the Pioneer Association. The list
of members numbers about nine hundred, between five and six
hundred of which have signified their assent to the undertaking,
aud it is probable that tiie entire body will do so. It is de-
signed to make books of fifty each, handsomely bound with the
autograph of each individual represented. Such an under-
taking speaks well for the arts and sciences in California for
we doubt if in any other State, a work of such magnitude has
been carried out, and in its accomplishment it could not devolve
upon a more worthy man thau Mr. Selleck. His rooms are in
Rabe's building, 163 Clay street. South-side, near Mont-
gomery."

— Friend M. J. Gurnf.y, of Natchez, Miss., at last, comes
under our notice, and while remembering his pleasant counte-
nance and smile, and the peculiar eloquence with which he

dwelt upon the merits of the , we won't mention it friend

Guruey, for fear medcsty will make you , we shau't say

what — a jovial soul like yours can never look sad, whatever the
tongue may say; it therefore gives us great pleasure to hear such

things as the following said about you. We know it must be
true, for many others have said the very same thing:

" Natchf.z Gallery of Art. — We had the pleasure of visit-
ing the room of M. J. Gurney, in Main street, a few days
since by his polite invitation, and passed an iiour very pleas-
antly in the examination oi his superb collection of Daguerreo-
types, Photographs, Diaphaneotypes, Heliographs, Anjbro-
types, Melainotypes, etc., taken from the smallest conceivable
size, to the size of life. His cabinet pictures are perfect gems,
and eminently worthy the examination of those who are capable
of appreciating an elegant picture. As we have visited the
|irinci|)al galleries of art, in London, Paris, New York and
elsewhere, ample opportunity has been given us to notice the
gradual improvements which have taken place since the inven-
tion of Dagnerre was brought before the ))nblic, and we believe
few artists, either in Europe or this country possess a more
thorough knowledge of their profession than Mr. Gurney of
Natchez. He is indefatigable in the search of every new chemi-
cal improvement which may beautify and adorn his art; pos-
sesses all the requisite facilities for producing the most superb
pictures; understands thoroughly every branch of his profession,
and by his untiring energy has attained a position as an artist
which reflects honor upon the city in which he resides. Those
who wish a magniBcent picture will do well to call upon him
at their earliest leisure."

— An Antwerp paper mentions that Queen Victoria, who
has of late devoted much time and displayed great talent in
the art of photography, has lately sent the Empress Eugenie,
as a New Year's present, a charming album full of photographs
taken by herself. On the leaves of this very unique work are
to be found portraits of the royal children in the costumes of
various Shakespearean characters, the portrait of Prince Albert,
together with views of Windsor Castle, Balmoral, and Osborne
house.

— We have the promise of something verij interesting from
Baltimore for our April number. We shall continue our arti-
cle on toning prints, and shall also give the first of our series
on the American Photographic patents. •

— Mr. Burgess has published his fourth edition of the Ara-
brotype Maimal, and has made large and valuable additions,
on various subjects connected with Photography. The price is
still the snmc, $1, cloth 12mo.

— Mr. W. Notman. — W^e thank you for the offer, and gladly
accept it. We shall always be pleased to hear from you on any
subject that may strike you as original and good.

— We notice that mention is made of a process by Mr Bul-
lock of England, for taking photographic pictures, portraits, &c,
on the back of visiting and other cards This is spoken of as
new. Mr. Richards of Philadelphia, has possessed a process of
this kind, and practised it for more than a year. This is
another one of those ptiotographic cases, where the originator
of a process has deprived himself of the honor of its introduction.

— We regret to learn that Mr. Terhll, of Belvidere, 111.,
has been burned out, losing everything; but, judging from the
good spirits in which he writes, we do not think he means to
succumb to the disaster.

— J.R.Rose. The Caraeotype process is claimed by Mr,
J. Atkin, of Brooklyn, L. I., aud to him you should write for
the desired information.

— R. Shriver. There has not yet been a dry process pub-
lished that is not subjected to objectional remarks, and that has
given general satisfaction. The iuventors generally claim all
the photographic virtues for them, while others confess their in-
ability to work them. A trial of each process is the only means
of ascertaining which will give the most satisfaction.

— The contents of our present number indicates an increas-
ing interest in photogra])hy on the part of our subscribers.
We not only have more valuable matter from foreign writers,
but the increase in original conmmnications is decidedly more
satisfactory — of a higher order. We shall commence next
month with our articles on photographic patents, and should
feel much obliged to those possessing facts relating to the mat-
ter, if they will communicate them to us.

J. E. ITiTTrooii. Neg.

11. H. Snelling, Print.

2^^ ]R S

G- IL, J^ ID ST-^ZSTE^

Of the Boston Theatres.

k

1858.

THE PnOTOGRAPniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

91

LIVERPOOL

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal

PnOTOGRAPIIIC SOCIETY.

AK monthly, meetinp: of tlie mf^tnbers
of this Society was held at tiie Royal
Institution, Colquitt Street, on
Tuesday. evening, January 26th, for
the i)ur|)0se of receiving the Annual
Report of the Council, and the Re-
port of the Deputation appointed to
confer with a deputation of the His-
toric Society of Lancashire and
Cheshire, as to the terms under which
it was proposed to merge the exist-
ence of the Pliotographic in that of the Historic Society, and
of deciding tiiereupou.

C. Corky, E-;q., who iiresided, stated that it would be de-
sirable to leave the consideration of these reports to the last, in
order that every cliance should be afforded to absent members,
who might still be in attendance before the meeting closed, of
taking part in the discussion. In the a'jsence of more interest-
ing matter, he (the Ciiairniaii) laid before the meeting a beauti-
ful specimen of American photography, on the peculiar descrip-
tion of highly pcilished black cloth, or leather used by ladies in
crochet work. The ima^e was perfectly sharp, and apparently

as indelible as it was distinct aud clear.

******

Mr. Foard observed, with reference to the process of trans-
ferring descrilied by Mr. Ross, that about three or four months
ago he was awaited upon by a gentleman, who, from certain
indications, he tiiought must surely be a photographer; and so
it ap|)eared. The visitor said he had something very par-
ticular to discover to him, and after much beating about the
bush he said"he'had one mode of transver, vhich vos ver
beautiful and ver simple," and asked him (Mr. Foardj to pur-
chase it Now he had so many wonderful secrets, which were
no secrets broui;'ht to him every week, that he was inclined to
give the foreign gentleman something like hearty thanks, and
wish him good day, but, after some further conversation, the
secret was unfoMed. It described a mode of transferring by
using sulphuric acid a method which he (Mr. Foard) found to
be very simple and very succesotul. He gave the man a testi-
monial, promised to keep the secret, which he had done until
he found that it had been known and practised in France for
some months, and now it appeared that it had been known
some time before that in America; but he greatly preferred
washing both the oil cloth and the film while just damp from
partial draining, with spirits of wine, pressing the two very
closely toirether, and leaving them to dry spontaneously, when
the film will be found to have quitted the glass entirely, adher-
ing solely to the oil-cloth or leather.

Mr. J. A. Forrest then addressed some remarks upon cer-
tain animadversions which he said had been cast upon him in
the Liverpool a7id Manchester Photographic Journal, 2in& pro-
ceeded to say: — "I deem it a duty I owe to the Society, to put
the matter in question in a practical channel of settlement. As
it is useless to prolong a di.-^cussion where theory and specula-
tion only are opposed to kno.vn and tried results, I dechne
f irther controversy but am content to set the matter at rest
by a practical experiment of the most stringent kind; I there-
fore propose that a committee be appointed for the purpose of
investigating the subject; and to afford them the fullest facili-
i e^ for so doing, let them call upon sundry parties who mny be
most interested in the subject, to furnish s|iecimens of the differ-
ent varieties of white or tinted glass. Mr. Keith has kindly
otfered a portion of his operating-roof, for the purpose of glaz-
ing with different specimens of white and tinted glass. I pro-
pose that pieces of various tints and colors of glass, as well as
white, be inserted in this roof, exposed to the full effect of the
Buu's rays, and that corresponding portions of each specimen be
placed with the committee in sealed envelopes. At the end of
the summer the experiment will he complete. The pieces, from
the roof, can be compared witli the portions in the hands of the

VOL XI. KO. IV. 13

committee; the difference in the results will substantiate the
position taken by the Editor of the Journal^ or the statements
of mine, which have been called in question.

The Chairman thought Mr. Forrest's proposition was just
the one that was wanted.

Mr. Fo.\RD, in seconding the proposition, expressed some sur-
prise that the Editor of the Juxirnal had not entered into the
discussion in a more fair and liberal spirit. The remarks made
in the leading article in the last Journal, as to the failure of
blue glass, referred to the blue glass formerly in the Poly-
technic, the tinted glass in which certainly retarded rather than
assisted the process, and it was changed for white. But that
did not settle the question, because that gla,ss was of a differ-
ent tint to the glass advocated by Mr. Forrest. The glass in
the Polytechnic was a dark blue, that referred to by iMr. For-
rest being a light blue; the former did deeped in tint, and might
have afforded some ground for the Editor's statements.

Mr. Berry suggested that, in the event of the amalgamation
with the Historic Society, the specimens of glass to be experi-
mented npon should be put in a frame, and placed on the top of
St. George's-hall. This would remove all ground for any sup-
posed collusion which might be charged upon them, were a
private establishment selected for the experiments.

It was resolved that this suggested should be acted npon, and
Dr. Ayrton, Mr. Glover, and Mr. Berry were appointed a com-
mittee to conduct the experiments.

Mr. Forrest wished to observe with reference to the remark
in the Journal on his reference to glass in the York Cathedral
being 200 years old, that there was one striking feature in
ancient glass which was absent from modern glass. In olden
times the salt was not skiinmed from the surface of the glass
after it ^as melted, but it was allowed to float on the surface,
and the result was the formation, by lapse of time, of a number
of minute holes, caused by the separation of the salt.

After some further couvtrsatiou the subject was allowed to
drop.

THE ANNUAL EEPORT.

The Chairman read the following report and statement of
accounts: —

The Council of the Photographic Society, in presenting their
fourth Annual Report to the members of the Society, would re-
quest them to bear in mind that last year has been in some
measure probationary, for it was entered upon with the ap-
pointment of another Treasurer in lieu of the gentleman who
had so ably fiiled that office heretofore, and withan increased
subscription, chiefly to establish the fact, if possible, that the
Society could be able to preserve an independent existence, and
not need the fostering aiclof an elder brother by accepting the
Triendly advances made by certain members of a learned and
long established Society. The result of this exjieriment is not
such as would just.fv the mendiers of the Council in recommend-
ing to the main body of the Society to continue their present
pliase of existence. The science of photography was so rapidly
increasimr in its wondrous effects, that ere we had time fully to
consider and to comprehend each new discovery, another light
eclipsed the rays of the last new marvel, so that its admirers
were glad to meet and increase the store of knowledge by the
interchange of their several ideas; but either the science has
nearly reached its culminating point, or there is some otlnr
cause not within the province of your Council to divine, but the
meetings have been fewer, and the proceals, as will be shown
l)y the balance sheet, are insufficient for the further progress of
•he Society as at present constituted In this exigency the
question was again mooted at the last meeting of a coalition
with the Historic Society, and a committee <f this body was
selected to confer with the Council of the Historic Society;
they met on the 14th of this month, and certain conditions weie
then agreed upon subject to the approval of the resjjective bod.c s
These will be laid before you in the course of the evenmg. it
appears that there was an Act of Parliament passed, m 18o4,
that has reference to our present j)Ositiou; by this enactment
it is ordained that before a perfect fusion of two learned or lit-

ernry societies can take place, there shall be two sepo-
rate meetings of either or both of the several Societies, so tluit
the condition of such junction shall be well and duly considered
and deliberiited)ipon. The members will therefore have ampli'
time to mature their opinions upon these conditions, as another
meeting will be necessary before their fiat will be called for.

The statement of accounts was. then read, and, together with
the report, adopted, nem. dis.

PROPOSED AMALGAMATION WITH THE HISTORIC SOCIETY.

Tlie Chairman read the following minutes of the conference

between the depntatious of the Historic and Photographic So-

cipties: —

Commillte of Covfcrenxe on the subject of union.

Historic Society — Dr. Hume, and Messrs. Sansom and

Buxton.
Photographic Society — Messrs, Corey, Keith, Foard, and

Forrest.
Meeting in St. George's Hall, 14th January, 1858, at six
P.M.; present, Thoma.s Sansom, Esq., in the chair, also Messrs.
Keith, Foard, Forrest, and Corey. The following draft, was
unanimously agreed to:- —

1. That the Photographic Society, become part of the His-
toric Society, i.e., that it accept the name and laws of the latter.

2. That the number of sections, as fixed by the present laws,
be not increased, but that communications on photography be
admissable at all the ordinary meetings.

3. That a Photographic Committee be appointed annually,
at the commencement of the session, like the committees for
printing, finance, the library, &c.

4. That it be attowable to print papers on photography in
anticipation of the annual volume of "Transactions," at the
discretion of this committee.

5. That the property of the Photographic Society become
the property of the Historic Society, and that the members of
the Photographic Society be enrolled without entrance fee.

6. That the union date from the 3Lst March, 1858, if the
preliminary arrangements be complete by that time.

[The number of members of the Photographic Society is
forty-five; and it was suggested that the Historic Society
Council should resolve to fill up the first three vacancies in their
own body by members of the Photographic Society, or to re-
commend them for that purpose.]

In reply to members, the Chairman stated that every dispo-
sition was shown by the deputation from the Historic to meet
any reasonable desire on the part of the Photographic Society;
that it was intimated that photographic intelligence would be
acceptable on every occasion, and whenever sufficient matter
could be provided, so, as to exhaust an entire evening, the
council would have great pleasure in setting an evening apart
for that purpose.

On the proposition of Mr. Bell, seconded by Mr. Leithead,
it was then unanimously resolved, "That the terms which had
been agreed upon by the delegates be accepted by the society."

It being necessary that this resolution should be submitted
at another general meeting, for the purpose of a second time
receiving the sanction of three-fifths of the members then
present, it was resolved that another meeting should be held
on Tuesday, 8th February.

A vote of thanks to the Chairman terminated the proceed-
ings.

PHOTOGRAPHY I\ AMSHIMTiiN.

Ivory Black — Animal Charcoal. — Animal charcoal is
found abundantly in commerce, and is procured by calcining
bones. It is used in photography for bleaching the aceto-ni-
tratc of silver when discolored by use or otherwise. It is used
by pouring 10 parts of the aceto-nitrate upon 1 part ivory
black, in a porcelain cup, boiling them for about 16 minutes
and filtering. The liquid thus obtained is very clear, and con
Ktitutes a very complex salt of silver, which gives very fine ne-
gative results on iodized paper.

Dear Snelling: — I paid a short visit to the capitol of the
Nation — Washington. I found not only politics in full tide,
but tlie artistic world was alive. Another new gallery opened.
Mr. Brady, of New York, has opened the rooms formerly oc-
cupied by Piumbe, and known as that gallery. Hie makes a
fine display, but shows nothing but what he has exhiliited in
his specimen gallery in New York. He lias many beautiful re-
touclied pictures. I saw nothing plain that attracted, my at-
tention. Bpt his. retouched pictures are the mostexqnisite pro-
ductions exhibited fn Washington. But- all the credit is due
the artist for his skill in India ink touching. Mr. Brady has
many distinguished personages, and from hisuntiring industry
and energy, he is deserving of the highest' praise ft>r having
done so much in the photographic world. Many think that
the portrait painter wilibe thrownin the shade by the invention
and discovery of photography, and its application to life-size
portraits. 'Tis a great mistake; they improve the taste by
making good drawings^ The mechanical labor is taken off, for
certainly the drawing is.thp mechanical part; for any one who
can learn to write can. learn to. draw;, and to paint aphotograph
good, it is necessary, to, have a good artist.

Mr. Paiqe has the gallery familiarly known as Hoot's old place.
I found him not only, gentlemanly, but a very good operator.
He appears in do a good business without making much noise.
In this case modest merit does not go unrewarded.

Mr. MgClees' gallery has a fine start; and well it might,
for such a host of noted men in his employ are bound to suc-
ceed. Their pictares rank with the best in the country. Mr.
Samuel Croner is the operator Of him I have spoken be-
fore, but, his. pictures have improved so much of late, that I
may add a kind word for him again. Some pictures that he has
taken of a tribe of Indians would do credit tx) the fi.rst photo-
graphers in the country, and so exquisite are they in richness
of tone, that they would be spoiled to even touch them with In-
dia ink. Mr. Brainard is the solicitor for this gallery, and his
name alone will bring into_ any place a good share of business
in Washingtoii, as well as that of Mr. Vannerson.

T. J. NiMMO, the agent for the gallery, known as. the White-
hurst Gallery, has, probably, the largest share of business.
They had their large double whole plate lens stolen, for which
he offers twpnty-five dollars reward, and no questions asked.
The person who stole it is strangely suspected, and he had bet-
ter return it for the sake of the profession. There are many
bubbles on the glass, and it is easily told trom other instruments.
Mr. Nimmo, by his manly deportment, and by being a frst-
class operator in photography, has made many friends. Nearly
all the members of Congress and Senators know him, and all
familiarly address him as Sara. It is at this gallery where all
experiments are tried by the vaaious operators of the country,
who go to Washington to get patents on their inventions.

In photographic chemistry Mr. Henry O'Neil stands with-
out a rival in Washington, and all the operators concede him
to be the best in the South, and I most cheerfully say I think
him the best in the country. His pictures, as a general thing,
need no retouching. They have a very fine workman in. India
ink in their establishment, but every picture he touches he ruins
the likeness; so that a picture witliout a likeness is worth no-
thing. You may as well go and hiy a pretty picture.

Nothing is done to any extent in the way of oil photogaaphs
in Washington, except by Mr. Walker. He has a good share
of what is going on in that way. 1 think Mr. O'Neil does the
principal business here.

I saw him using a varnish which may be good to some of
your readers to varnish photographs. It makes them not only
smooth, but it gives a richness of tone to the photograph not
produced in any other way. Take white bee's-wax and turpen-
tine, and dissolve it by a slow heat. Have the largest portion
of the mixture wax; so when it is cold it will belike butter.
To destroy the smell put in a little oil of burgamot. To apj)ly
it, use a piece of canton flannel, and rub the picture hard, and a
richness will be produced surpassingly beautiful.

1858.

THE rnOTOGRAPniC A^'D FINE ART JOURNAL.

99

Mr. O'Xeii, uses Woodward's solar camera, but they do not
have any business of tliat kind to do wortliy of note.

Mr. Yannerson has invented something of a similar niitnre
to Woodward's instrument, which, he says, does tlie bus uess.
But I liave not seen, and cannot speak of it. iS'othiiip; cou d 1)'
better than Woodward's, I think myself at present; but this is
the age of improvement, and we shall see what we shall see
soon. Our ingenius natures do not like to be outdone. As
these new galleries progress I shall drop you a line, and keep
you thoroughly posted.

From the London Art Journal.

TraiORETTO AT VENICE, AND MR. RUSKI\.*

Most silvery of mornings ! and where could its light find a
more interresting mirror than this open Langune of Yenice,
whither an unusual stretch of activity has brought us fi'oni be-
neath those lazy mosquito curtains thus early, to see the market
boats flocking from Mestre and its neighboring shores towards
the island city? The lake-like expanse of water, now at its
utmost height and calmness, reflects little less than the full
brightness and void serenity of the heavens, where it lies around
us, with its own far-off ring of peaked mountains, the Jjilian
and Friuli Alps, and its inlaying gems of islets, shining here
and there with domes and campanili, between which the craft
we came especially to admire yet again, seem now racing with
each other, convergent towards the Cana'^reggio, as directly and
as fast as little ducks who. see the feeder's hand held out to
them. So pure and keen is the light that, notwithstanding a
considerable distance, we can see well their various landings —
heaped joints.of meat (copious veal and beef), the piles- of gar-
den produce, and the other "gifts divine" which they are bear-
ing to the markets about the Rialto; amongst them the scarlet
gourds, a.id some masses of flowers shining with pre-eminent
brilliancy. Further off, there lies a group of becalmed fishing-
boats, which almost look suspended in a vacancy of silyer air;
and in this woadrously clear atmosphere, we can discern the re-
ligious emblems with which their green and amber sails are
variegated. Nay, more remote than the.se by many a long-
league, we cansee, kindling witii fair golden touches, what is
but rarely beheld so brightly — the minutely jagged outlines, the
broken peaks or needles of Titian's Cadore mountains, near
which he was born, and whose forms fthe influence of which
may be traced in some of his backgrounds) seem rapidly chang-
ing from the pure aerial grey clouds to that of glowing rock
and turfy steep.

Where shall we go ? It were a glorious morning for some
of the remoter parts of the Lngune; but then, how perfectly
adapted is this light for displaying to the utmost those pictures
by Tintoretto in the dusky halls of San Rocco^ which we have
still to notice, in order to complete that investigation of the
painter's woi:ks, and of Mr. Ruskiu's remarks on thenr, which
we entered into on our former opportunity. Still, in that build-
ing, tlie two or three most striking instances of Tintoretto's
powers, and of Mr. Rnskin's errors, remain nntonched; and af-
terwards we must to the Ducal Palace, and there close our in-
quiries, appending to them, as we before said, a few brief, ob-
servations on certain other subjects, which naturally branch
out from them. Yes; the work half finished before freer plea-
sures! Therefore will we fall in with these market-boats, and
accompany them so far as our course mingles itself with theirs,
on the way to the Scuola di San Rocco.

And now let us mount the stairs, and, passing as we ascend
that exquisite Annunciation by Titian, in which the Madonna
is a lady of a refined sweetness and grace, unrivalled, perhaps,
in any picture in Yenice, let us enter the tipper Hall, also co-
vered, walls and ceiling, with large pictures by. Tintoretto. In
some of them the figures, conceived and painted in a large and
bold style, have a grand and imposing air; but the usual

• Continued from p. 355, vol. x., no.xii.

coarseness and a pompous coldness greatly prevail, and the co-
loring is for the most part weak and cold; nor are any of the
other characteristic attractions of the Yenetian pencil to be
met with in them. Incomparably the finest production in this
hall is the "Plague of Serpents" on the ceiling, assuredly a
striking and terrific conception, and in that respeft one of Tin-
toretto's masterpieces. Numbers of figures are lying scattered
on the ground, at different distances, in various attitudes of
agony, despair, and exhaustion, invaded and bitten by certain
mysterious winged reptiles, not serpents, by-thc-by, and of no
great size, yet full of liorror^namerous, inevitable, incessant,
pitiless — terribly they bite their tortured and writhing victims,
each of whom has been fastened on by one of the busy swarm,
from which there is no flight or defence. It is a fearful picture
of helpless agony.

On the ceiling of the third hall, a smaller apartment beyond, is
the painting referred toby Yasarias the subject of his well known
anecdote illustrative of Tintoretto's deplorably off-hand habits of
working. The brotherhood of the Scuola being delighted with
his Crucifixion, newly set up in this room, determined to deco-
rate their ceilings also with pictures, and accordingly invited
corr.petition for the purpose, when Paul Yeronese, Zucchero,
and Salviati, forthwith diligently set them.selves to work in pre-
paring designs and studies. But Tintoretto, meanwhile, having
secretly obtained the admeasurement of one of the spaces to
be filled, completed a picture at once, outright, and managed
so as to have it already set up in the alloted j)lace on the day
appointed for settling the business, to the no small surprise of
tlie meeting. He protested, however, that this was his way of
preparing designs; the only way, he most likely added, of se-
curely guarding against a picture unworthy of the sketch, or un-
suited to the light and position, and offered to present them with
the work, provided they objected to it on other terms; so, after
s ime opposition, it was suffered to remain in its place. Hither--
to the "San Rocco in Heaven" in the ceiling has been supposed
to be the work in question, but we cannot believe it.. Mr. Rus-
kin, .without disputing the usual tradition to that effect, ob-
serves that this picture is quite different from Tintoretto's com-
mon works. It is indeed so entirely in its hard, bright coloring
its dry flatness, and, above all, in its touch (in which especially
an artist's genuine work is so prompt to declare itself), that we
feel confident that it is not by Tintoretto, at all. Mr. Ruskin
adds that it resembles Correggio more than any Yenetian
painter, to which it may be replied that. nothing can be more
unlike the work of Correggio.

On the wall beneath it is the "Christ before Pilate," one of
Mr. Ruskin's prime favorites. The tall figure of Christ wrapped
in long white drapery, such as reminds you-something of a wind-
ing-sheet, is an impressive figure on a cursory view, but it has
nothing whatever of the moral beauty and interest one chiefly
looks for, and we fear resembles too much an ordinary man
doing penance in a white sheet. In allusion to this figure, Mr.
Ruskin says it is "pale like a pillar of moonlight, half bathed
in the glory of the Godhead, half wrapt in the whiteness of
the sliroud." But there are not,, according to the best of our
powers of perception, any traces of such glory or divineness in,
Tintoretto's figure; and surely very properly in that, hour of
trial and humiliation, when our Saviour having, if ever, "freely
put off," that glory, submitted himself to the most degraded
and dreadful lot of poor, simple, unaided humanity. To repre-
sent himiis "half bathed in the glor.y of the Godhead" at such
a moment is surely no proof of that insensity or truthfulness of
imagination which Mr. Ruskin claims for this piiinter in his
high-sounding, authoritative, theological style; and Tintoretto
has, assuredly, fallen into no error of that kind here. What
we should first look for, on Mr. Ruskin's own alleged principle
of essential and undeviating accuracy is, of course, some touch-
ing expression of that real, actual, substantial humanity — some
moving picture of as much resignation, loving patience, and
dignity as may truly become a man so tried. But of this we
get nothing in the present picture, and instead of it ('according
to the principles which Mr. Ruskin is never tired of enforcing
on other occasions, and especially when depreciating Raphael)

100

THE PUOTOGRAPHIC AIs'D FINE ART JOURNAL.

April,

we are not content to be put off with phantom similitudes, or
evasive effects of ''pillars ol" moonligiit," and of inini>-led
glories and fiTave-clotiies, not proper to the immediate matter
or moment, however nmch so tliey might he as accessories in a
representation of other events in our Savior's history. In tak-
ing leave of this picture, we cannot help borrowing its eulo-
gist's inappropriaie image, and applying it to his own descrip-
tion— it is altogether a pillar, a tall pillar of moonshine itself.

In the same room is Tintoretto's famous ''Crucifixion," in
pointof invention his master-piece: a picture of which xMr. Rus-
kin says that "it is beyond all analysis, and above £\ll praise.''
"I will not insult this marvellous picture," he says, "by an ef-
fort at a verbal account of it. I would not whitewash it with
jiraise." If to describe pictures is to insult them, alas ! how
grievously has Mr. Ruskin insulted those other pictures of Tin-
toretto's on which he expatiates with such fulness ! And if
praise be whitewash, how cruelly has he whitewashed Angelico,
Turner, Mii liael Augelo, and the arcades of the Ducal Palace
and St. Mark's Church, and a u:ultitude of other things, which
are qnite hidden and confused by the glare of his thickly ap-
plied eulogies. But after all, these expressions of his are per-
ha])S a mere thongiitless rhetorical flourish; at least, one thinks
so after carefully .studying the picture, and discovering that de-
cidedly moderate teruj of admiration suffice for its merits. It
is alai'ge work, in which the subject is not treated in the usual
way, but altogether originally, with novel incidents boldly con-
ceived, and expressed with so much life and energy that much
of the effect of an actual living scene is attained, especial-
ly on the first impressions, which are wonderfully striking.
The Saviour's cros.s, in the middle of this very wide picture,
rises from its foot, and those to whom he was dearest are as-
SiMubled beneath, some of them lying huddled together in an ex-
haustion or trance of grief — i-omewhat coarse figures, but vigo-
rously expressive. Elsewhere the evil powers of the world are
represented as in vehement action. On our left they are draw-
ing up the cross on which one of the thieves is already stretched;
it is half up, pulled by a long cord with all the muscular energy
of a powerful ruffian. On the other side, the third cross lies
on the ground witii the other thief seated on it; and one stands
over with a long auger, boring a hole for one of the nails, and
another is pulling hard and cruelly at a cord which binds his
limbs. Just before them, crouched low on the ground, are two
throwing dice for the seamless garment — hideous, reptile-like
figures, coarsely and darkly daubed in, as if by the artist's tho-
rough scorn for them. Tliere are numbers of other figures en-
circling all these — faithful men regarding Christ aloof w^th
tender sorrow, and one nearer, by himself, is leaning forward
and gazing on him with a calm but most intense earnestness,
which exjiresses, if we mistake not, the tranquil but full enjoy-
ment of triumphant malignity. Then there are pom, ous digni-
taries carelessly looking on, as in some arena, at that event,
which, as they may imagine, I'ids the world of a singular char-
acter, who was beginning to make himself a little loo trouble-
some. A w'aii, lurid liglit shines on the ground, and a very at-
mosphere of horror seems to prevail around thecross, and there
area fiendish animation and activity in some of the groups
which strike the imagination ])Owerfully. A sombre, brownish
to.ie prevails in the coloring, with heavy shades, and vehement,
but coarse painting. It is an admirabfe scenic general conce]!-
tiou of tiie event; buttlie event is almost every tiling, t\i& persons
are not much; they will scarcely pass for tiie persons ot Scrip-
ture. The St. John looking up at the Saviour, for insoance, is
a very ordinary Italian, and some of the other saintly mourners
are rude and almost grotesque figures. On looking further tor
pathetic and sublime traits of individual character and feeling
you are disappointed.

The figure of Christ himself strikes us as being one of the
feeblest parts of the jiicture, and Mr. Ruskin has strangely ex-
aggerated its effect. In ascribing to Tintoretto an unrivalled
depth of imaginative insight into this subject, he praises him
for despising vulgar expressions of bodily i)ain, and for "seek-
ing rather to express the fainting of the deserted Son of God
bef^oi'c his Eloi cry, by the repose of the figure aud by casting

the countenance altogether in shade " The passage is likely
to be warmly admired everywhere but in front of the iiictnre,
in which, unfortunately, all idea of fainting is excluded by the
appearance of life and animated composure iu the figure. It
seems as if speaking to the St. John wholooks up from beneath.
Mr. Ruskin goes on to say that '' the agony is told by this, that
though there yet remains a chasm of light on tlie mountain ho-
rizon where the earthquake darkness closes on the day, the
broad and sunlight glory about the head of the Redeemer has
become wan, and of the color of ashes!" Here, again, the
words fade lamentably before the picture, for the light is by no
means awfully concentrated anywhere, and the pale grey,
watery-looking halo round the Saviour'shead is so like the tone
of the sky around it, and that of many other objects which as-
sist in giving its general complexion to the work, that it becomes
exceedingly doubtful whether Tintoretto had any such imagina-
tion as that here attributed to him. "We think that if he had,
he would at least have expressed it with some little emphasis,
so as to render it in some slight degree effective; at any rate|
this may be said confidently, as an expression of agony it is
rendered valueles.s — quite nutralized by the perfect composure
and serenity of the figure itself.

But there is another " thought" in this picture which Mr.
Ruskin places at the very apex of his fanciful pile of eloquence,
his huge mountain of admiration reared in honor of Tintoretto!
In the shade behind the cross you can ju.-t make out the man
seated on an ass, who is pointing out to the multiiude the cru-
cified Saviour with malignant triumph, whilst, as Mr. Ruskin
has shown us, the ass on which he is seated is eating the verv
palm leaves which that giddy multitude but a few days before
strewed in his path with Hosannas and shouts of loving wel-
come. "A happy idea enough!" one exclaims; " an ingenious,
shrewd, satirical, Hogarthish touch, happily significant, cer-
tainly, of the fickleness of the nndtitude, though one can haidly
help wishing this fickleness had bten illustrated t)y some circniii-
stauce less bordering on the vulgar and grote.'^que, some inci-
dent more in accord.uice with the snblimest terror and sadness
of the event, than this one of the donkey feasting on tlie rem-
nants of the triumphal bran/hes." Kevertheless, we accept the
" thought" graciou.sly, with rnild approbation of its infienuity
and clevern(S^; but when we find it cited in Mr. Raskin's most
solemn, puii-sant, afid authoritative diction, as the uiaster-stroke
which must terminate at once all doubts as to the unequjilled
depth of Tintoretto's imagination, we cannot help seeing at
once, very clearly, that the powir-r of mind required to produce
this thought, and its value when produced, have lieeii sinmdarlv,
wonderfully exaggerated. Most of the woiks of Hogarth, 'it
may lie confiilently stated, abound in touches at least' as si"--
iiifiiant and ingenious; and if such conceptions, indeed, place
Tintoretto as a man of mind on the very summit of the painter's
Parnassus, as Mr. Ru>kin evidently thinks, surely our own
Fielding of the pencil ought to lie raised there too, very little
or not at all beneath him — an exultation very gratilying to our
feelings as Englishmen, certainly. And it sin uld be' added,
with regard to this vaunted incident of Tintoretto's that there
is absolutely nothing but the bare conception of it, lor the |iic-
torial embodying is altogether coarse, slovenly, and uninter-
esting.

But surely such fancies as these discovered in Tintoretto
(none of tlum, alter all, proofs of any rcmarkal le genius or
inventive powt-rj are not tne foremost thiniiS we ouiiht to ex-
|iect from great |;aiiitcrs. R;itlier wimt \\e fiist look lor from
them is the direct expression of ihdught, |)assion,and character,
beauty and dignity, us shown in the bodily form irud couv/enavre
of men and things. Tl is is the pre-eminent ami exclu.-ive ofhce
of Painting, to which History and Poetry, having said tlieir
best, and laying aside their exhaustid jiens, lovingly and rev-
erentially invite her, as the sole means of ruidering the record
livingly complete, or the poetical vision jierfectly liright and
clear, and enriched especially with tluse mute looks wln^se
ekupiince begins to move us when words 'ail, and of wiiieh
words yield no account. Were all these conceits ot Tintorfllo's
so much lauded by Mr. Ruskin, as ingenious as his favorite

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FIXE APvT JOURXAL.

lOi

asitiine fancy in the Crucifixion, — the only one amongst thera
which seems to us to liave some slight value, — we would de-
lightedly exchange thera all for one direct touch of the more
pathetic or sublime emotions of the persons portrayed, such as
a higher order of painters had proved to be within the fitting
aim of Art, and wanting which, Tintoretto's merely scenic no-
tion of the crucifixion (however powerful and striking of its
kind) must take rank with an altogether lower order of con-
ceptions.

But apart from the particular attempts in Lis chapter on
"Imagination Penetrative" to prove that Tintoretto's imagina-
tion and general power were of the very highest order, it is con-
tinually striking us that tlie very limited praise to which Mr.
Rnskin seems obliged to confine himself whilst describing the
picture in detail, corresponds but ill with the admiration he
ever bestows on the master when speaking of him generally.
He admits over and over again that the conception of the more
exalted subjects is often utterly unworthy, and the merits in
these and other pictures are acknowledged to be in the concep-
tion or execution of some suliordinate part or other: as one
seems painted entirely for the glorious downy wings of the
angel, another is chiefly to be admired for the painting of a
fiir, or olive-tree, or a cloud, or a stone, or " the sublime head
of an ass," or for the mystical significance of a color, or of some
other allusion at least as trivial as any we have been mentioning.
Sometimes detects in this painter are indulgently ascribed to
ill-health, or to a mecliauical manner occasioned by too little
reference to nature; but sometimes he is conceived to have
wilfully daubed vilely from an aristocratic feeling of contempt
for the humbler classes of his fellow creatures.

The passage in which this last peculiarity is noticed is re-
markable. In the Adoration of the Shepherds — " it seems as
if Tintoret determined to make the shepherds as uninteresting
as possible. I believe that this is one of the painter's fixed
principles ; he does not, with German sentimentality, make
shepherds and peasants graceful or sublime, but he purposely
vulgarises them, — not by making their actions or their faces
boorish or disagreeable, but rather by painting them ill, and
composing their draperies tamely. As far as I recollect at
present, the principle is universal with him: exactly in pro-
portion to the dignity of character is the beauty of the
painting. He will not put out his strength upon any man
bjlonging to the lower classes, and in order to know what
the painter is, one must see him at work upon a king, a senator,
or a saint. The curious connection of this with the aristocratic
tendencies of the Venetian nation, when we remember that Tin-
toretto was the greatest man whom that nation produced, may
become very interesting if followed out."

Without admiring "German sentimentality," we really must
be permitted to say that we prefer it to the aristocratic dead-
uess of feeling supposed to be manifested in this very foolish
and fantastical way, and which, though passed so lightly over,
is surely as fitting a subject for sarcasm. If these remarks are
just, the human sympathies of this painter (so paradoxically
but so quietly assumed to be the greatest man whom his nation
produced) must have been narrow, and ignorant, and dull in-
deed, and we can the more readily account for his manifest
want of power over the tender feelings of the heart, and his
treating the most pathetic events of Scripture with little else
than wild and dreamy fantasies.

We now see how wild and coarse a latitude Mr. Rnskin al-
lows him in them, from fish-shaped clouds and palm leaves re-
moved to Mount Cavalry on purpose to be eaten by the ass at
the crucifixion, up to the presence of the devil at Christ's bap-
tism at a moment when surely he would have been neither so
bold nor so foolish as to intrude himself. But when Raphael,
in one of the noblest and most beautiful pictures in the world,
the " Charge to Peter," takes an imaginative license in his way
— that is to say, reverently offers up to the sacred theme all
the tenderness and beauty of expression, and dignity, and ma-
jesty, he can bestow on it, and, treating his subject in a poetic
or ideal manner, which Mr. Rnskin would have applauded in
Tiutoretto, departs from the close matter-of-fact rendering of

13*

the Scripture narrative, in order to represent with due dignity
the establishment of the Petric supremacy, or of the Roman
Church, acrnrdivg to his own creed (actually placing the keys
in Peter's hands, to indicate that object unmistakeably), — this
impartial and exceedingly temperate critic stigmatises the work
as "infinite montrosity and hypocrisy," and Raphael's allusion
to that erroneous though (we may assume) sincere article of
his faith, as "a lie "*

However, we must not pursue this subject at present, but
confine ourselves to Tintoretto, and finally follow him to the
Ducal Palace, where from want of space, our sojourn must be
briefer than it otherwise would have been. There, in the Sala
del Maggior Consiglio, is his " Paradise," which Mr. Ruskin
inexplicably considers to be, on the whole, his chef-d'ceuvre, and
" the most precious thing that Venice Possesses." It is said
to be the largest picture ever painted on canvas, being a little
more than 84 feet in width. At the very top sits the Re-
deemer, bending with a most royal majesty towards the Ma-
donna, who kneels reverently before him: they are both highly
dignified and beautiful figures. All the vast space beneath
them is crowded — literally crowded — with numbers of the
blessed of different ranks and classes; it is estimated that there
are not less than 500 of them, supported on clouds and in
masses confused and intricate in themselves, yet divided into
several stages of concave groups, wreathing under the two su-
preme figures above, like horizontal vapors curling and travel-
ing along beneath the beams of the uprisen sun; the bright
spaces between them in the distance being also filled with
crowds of beatified spirits, half merged or lost in light. So
far all is nobly imagined; and the whole picture displays a com-
mand of artistic resources and an energy in labor, which are
certainly highly commendable; but the filling up is far less sat-
isfactory: and these crowds and crowds of figures, sitting and
bending and rolling together in the heavens, with but few ex-

* The Coronation of the Virgin, by Mr. Ruskin's saintly pet, Fra An-
gelico, are equally " lies" — lies of precisely the same class and character.
Mr. Ruskin falls cruelly foul of the " handsome curled hair," " fringes,"
and " long robes" of Raphael figures in this picture, which plain things
he stigmatised by the sufficiently inapplicable words, " vapid fineries;"
yet when Angelico and the other earlier men array the Redeemer and
the Virgin like a king and queen of the fourteenth century, in all the
really vapid finery of madiaeval times, covering them with gold sprig-
giugs and Gothic diapers till you are quite nauseated with the barbaric
glitter and frivolity, his complacency is extreme, and the censer of his
transcendental fancy swings apace till you can hardly help smiling at
the wreaths of fantastical vapor which keep issuing from it. For instance,
the gaudily gilt curtains of Angelico's Madonna, iu the Florentine UfBzii,
which are stitt' with the most definite Byzantine patterns, are said " to flow
with a visionary grace," and a few touches of gold leaf on angel's wings
are most preposterously assimilated " to the glittering of many suns upon
a sounding sea." To hide his palpable inconsistency in this matter, Mr.
Ruskin says that these earlier pictures" had been received as pleasant
visions, but the Cartoons of Raphael were received as representations of
historical fact." Now this is begging the question altogether. Who that
knows anything of Raphael will say that his works were intended to be
received as mere accurate representations of historical facts .' Why, is it
not perfectly clear that he was an idealist as much as any of his prede-
cessors ?— one whose poetic imagination was ever adorning his subjects
with beauty, majesty, and grace, according to his special and preemi-
nent gift. Mr. Ruskin's fundamental error is to delude himself with the
notion that Raphael worked from " pride," and without feeling, and in
obedience to cold " academical formula." Such an opinion only shows
a partial dulness in the writer's perception, or the heat of his prejudices
and temper, or both. And with regard, by the bye, to these obnoxious
curly heads and Athenian draperies, in what respect are they different
from those of the ever supremely lauded Leonardo, or from the draperies
and hair of Tintoretto's sacred figures, excepting that Raphael's drajierics
are beautiful, and Tintoretto's bad— Raphael's hair healthy and vigorous,
and Tintoretto's a good deal shabbier, and in less creditable order? But
Raphael was the prime corrupter of Art ! Did his grace and beauty cor-
rupt Art more than the magnificent ostentaiion and anatomical power of
Michael Angelo. the object of Mr. Ruskin's boundless veneration ? Was
not Art corrupted rather because those who followed could not compre-
hend the divine spirit of either of these great men, and contented themselves
with imitating their more superficial characteristics or mere effects. It
is lamentable that this ingenious man should thus throw discreditable
matter at the serene meridian sun of Art, inevitably to recoil on himself.
His charicatured d scription of Raphael's Madonna is altogether false,
ascribing to the painter motives and aims which every one acquainted
with his works knows to be quite uncharacteristic of him in every respect,
and all this spleen, and want of candor, and unjust, uncharitable attribu-
tions of baseness, are put forth on high grounds of religion and morality !

ceptioiip, are devoid of expression, character, grace, beauty, or
nay kind of interest. In Paradise one would naturally look for
Bometljing of repose, ordsr, and expansive serenity; bnt liere it
must be confessed that the blessed are a little in each other's
^ray — they have not even elbow room. Neither a.re blissful
coiitpnipliition, nor adoring rapture, nor any of the other infi-
nitely varied kinds of happiness which one tnny suppose to pre-
vail in Paradise, expressed in any interesting or towelling de-
gree amongst these complicated hosts of Tintoretto-creatures;
and you soon retire from the further contemplation of the pic-
ture disappointed, little interested, and indeed almosi bewild-
ered.

Why it should be considered " the most precious thing that
Yenice possesses," it is entirely out of our power even to guess.
In another passage Mr. Ruskiii calls it "the most wonderful
piece of pure, maidy, and masticrly oil-painting in the world."
We were unable, after several impartiai attempts, totally una-
ble, to discover the grounds of this last opinion either. The pic-
ture does not appear to us by any means a specimen of either first
or secDnd rate painting. The hlotcl e? of heavy black shadow,
the abrupt scatteiei lights, and ihe di^ajfrceable ashy paleness of
much of the flesh tints, all frequently to be found in Tintoretto's
pictures, may be partly attributable to the injuries of time, and
partly to the painter's known use of colors as fugitive as what
we are apt to mistake for friendship; bnt the touch, as is also
commonly the case witii Tintoretto, is coarse and heavy. As
a piece of painting, it cannot for one moment be compared with
tlie roundness and living freshness of Rubens,, or the exquisite
lightness and graceful precision of Paul Veronese, or the crys-
talline purity of Bellini, or, the tender and rich perfection of
Titian; not to mention many other ]iainters much inferior to
any of these. Mr. Ruskin is acquainted witli a vast number of
objects and effects in nature (especially landscape nature), and
no doubt can accurately decide whether the forms and hues
have been accurately copied or not, up to, a certain ]3pint;. but
his boundless admiration of such workmanship as this, and of
much thick, heavy, bad execution of the Pre-Raphaelites, and
we will add, his inveposterous rajitures at the hard, stiff, pain-
fully miimte laboring of Lewis's last year's drawing, producing
with such over lavish means, so thin and poor an effect, may
well awaken a doubt whether he yet really knows what good
pnivdng is. lie tells ns somewhere, that since he first dis-
coursed to us on Art, \te has devoted ten years of his life unre-
mittingly to the acquisition of a knowledge of the subject. Per-
liaps in another ten years a still further accumulation of know-
ladge may modify his views considerably, and induce him loudly
to condemn much that he how authoritatively admires — with
regard to such matters as we have now be;en discussing, as well
as many others.

Titian's magnificent pictures in the Ducal Palace, were, all
but one, destroyed by fire the year after his death; but his im-
petuous rival, Tintoretto, is abundantly represented there.
With regard to Mm, as usual our admiration for frequent man-
if>;statious of extraordinary power, is but too commonly
checked and chilled by coarse, heavy jjainting, and the unex-
pressive wholly uninteresting character cf many of. his allegori-
cal or celestial groups, which seem inti-oduced merely as exer-
cises or exhibitious of technical skill, rather than as appeals to
our imagination or finer feelings. His frescos, however, in the
Sala delle Qnattro Portu, 0!i that Sansovinian ceiling of bossy
gold and azure, and pale statuary, above Titian's great Grimani
])icture, and the four splendid marble portals of Palladio — his
frescos there still affords glim])ses of a magnificent s])irit, but,
alasl they are falling to pieces and spotted all over by the ap-
pearance of the plaster behind them. And of atouching love-
liness scarcely in its kind rivalled in Yenice, are those four
sweet and innocent children reclining amongst the rushes or on
t)ie grass, in the corners of the ceiling of the adjoining Antrio
(^ladrjito. They are, we believe, ascribed to Tintoretto, but
we have never seen anything else by him like them, or showing
so tender an appreciation of infantine beauty and gentleness.
Of his most daring productions, perhaps, the finest here is that
large oval, of Yenice personilicd by an enthusiastic lady in bro-

cade seated amid the clouds with many deities, in the ceiling of
the Senate Hall, whose massy garlands of gilded fruits and
flowers, and huge bands, entwine and grasp tlie picture like the
convolutions of some enormous sea-serpent. Some of Tinto-
retto's figures here exhibit limbs disproportionate and distorted
Jn their most difficult fore-shortened postures. But vigorous
conceptions full of genius aljound, and especially to be admired,
js that long group of. figures of genii rising from the sea, Kke
one huge wavy column, with the various treasures of the deep,
to present them to Yenus, enthroned aloft. This is full of ani-
mation and fine aerial movement. Something too much, liow-
cver, is there in other works by Tintoretto here, of old do'^es
kneeling before unintelligible aerial ]iersonagPs, who express
little or nothing but the artist's skill in difficult postures, action,
or foreshortenings. It is noticeable, by the way, that most of
these same doges (who appear, on the whole, very little moved
by all these displays of sacred patronage) are disagreeable,
and some of them even mean-looking old men, with shabbily-
wrinkled, huclistering, or even maudlin faces. You could easily
fancy that some of them had been worried out of all heart and
spirit by the ever dogging civilities of the Ten,, the Forty, and
the Avvogadori: nay, in more than one instance, they look
somewhat heavy-eyed and muddled, as if; hopeless of political
excitement and })leasures, and thoroughly teased and worn out
by all these various yet one-sided antagonistic councils, they had
pudeavored too much to console themselves with the wine of
Clary and Cyprus, with the deeper satisfactions of- the table —
turbot from Malamocco yonder, and more sanguiferous dainties
from the pastures of the Brenta or Isonzo. Or were they in
other instances, in which a hard, sordid eye seems still to glim-
mer under the ducal beretta, merchants, or bankers, taken from
their counting-houses in part repayment of loans made to thore
who influenced the election, and also became of a mean spirit
which was not likely to give much trouble to the all- prevalent
oligarchy? Tintoretto, no doubt, has here introduced their
portraits with a valuable and highly commendable fidelity; but
those aerial beings above them are most tautologically tiresome:
and with regard to more superficial matters, the shadows are of-
ten so black and blotchy, the flesh tints so yellow or ashy, and
the execution, we must say, sometiaies so coarse and scene-
painterly, that, on the whole, you are again tempted to beso-nc-
wliat out of conceit with Tintoretto, till you pause in the Ante
Collegio, or guard-room, before a picture of his so poetically
conceived and admirably wrought, indeed so pleasing in all re-
spects, that you wonder still more at the dull and uninterestin-g
character ot so many of the others. Yes, here, 1/ Furin.^o
TmtoreLlo, leaving ostentatious, barren displays of technical
power, has once again had the gentleness and patience to make
liimself thoroughly, agreeable. Adriadne, a,beautiful and noble
figure, is seated undraped on a rock, and Bacchus, prol'asei-y
crowned with ivy, advances from the sea and offers her the
nuptial ring; whilst above, Yenus, her back towards you, lying
horizontally in the pale blue air, as if the blue air were her na-
tural couch, spreads, or rather kindles, a chaplet or circlet of
stars round Adriadne's head. Here, those who luxuriate in
what is typical, may tell us, and probably not without truth,
that Tintoretto wished to co-^vey a graceful hint of Yenice
crowned by beauty- and blessed ' with joy and abundance.
Bacchus arising from the sea well signifies these latter gifts,
and the watery path by which they came to her; and the
lonely is'and nymph to whom he presents the wedding ring,
may. be intended to refer to the situation and original forlo n-
ness of Yenice herself, when she sat in solitude amidst the
sandy isles of the lagune, aloof from her parental shores,
ravaged by the Hun or the Lombard. The pale yellow sun-
shine on these nude figures, and their light transparent shadows,
and the mild temperate l)lue of the calm sea and air, almo,-^t
completing the most simple arrangement of the coloring of the
picture, are still beautiful, and no doubt were far more so before
its lamentable fading, occasioned, it seems, by too much exposure
to light; you feel quite out of doors, all on the airy cliffs, as you
look on it, and almost taste the very freshness of the sea-breeze.
With this picture of "Adriadne," paiuted with Tintoretto's

1855.

THE rnOTOGRArillC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

103

most dclicato, golden pencil, we wonld willingly have closed
these researches, had not our Ruskinian. notes ur.ged us, almost
perforce, after two works in the Ante Chiosetta — "St, George
aaid the Dragon," and "St. Andrew and St. Jerome," "paint-
ed," says the eulogist, "in Tintorel's mostqniet and noble man-
ner, and preeminently to be admired for their grave yet deli-
cious color." This we found out to be one more of those won-
derful stretches of admiration which, a week ago, would ha,ve
surprised us greatly, but by this time, of conrse, surprise on
sqch grounds was altogether over with us. Oh, what an un-
gainly, uninteresting picture is that of the ugly and ungraceful
princess seated on the dragon by St. George; and in the other
what ordinary saints are those! Kor is the grave color in
cither, in our opinion, worthy of the enthusiastic praise be-
stowed on it. Indeed, we should not have thought it worth
while to take the reader into this same A-nte Chiesetta at all,
but that these |iictures afford a somewhat amusing instance of
Mr. Ruskin's inconsistent and extravagant way of writing. It
will be remembered how copiously he inveighs against the color
brown, wjiicli is so much his capital aversion, as a prevalent
hue with the obnoxious later schools, that when he finds his fa-
vorite Dante applying it to twilight shades and dark water,
apparently so jileasad with it as even to. lay on a couple of
layers in, the words hruna bmnH', Mr. Riiskin very coolly and
quietly assumes that the poet (although the most intensely ac-
curate of bards in his expressions) did not know the meaning
of the word he was using, and meant dark grey instead! And
then, having jumped at this conclusion, and becoming puzzled
immediately that Dante should not have acknowledged the ex-
istence of brown at all — his browns being in fact all grey (oh,
admirably solid yet modest foundation for the inquiry!) Mr.
Ruskin proceeds to relate complacency how "one of our best
living colorists" accounted in some measure for the poet's com-
fortably assumed omission ,. by telling kirn tliat he "Iwd found
there was no Ijrown in nature, what we call brown being al-
ways a varietj' cither of orange or purple."* But here in the
Ducal Palace, in exquisite harmony witli all this most sensitive,
a,nd, indeed, almost anxious anti-brownishness, Mr. Ruskin tells
us that the productions of his favorite colorist — which he ad-
mires supremely for their color— "are nearly, all brown and
grey," and that "he would rather have these two small brown
pictures" fwe use his identical wordsj "than all the other small
pictures in Venice put together which Tintoret painted with
bright colors for altar-pieces."

Now, independently of much admirable and indeed very
superb brown in Titian, Rembrandt, Reynolds, and others, we
have, no doubt, had too much brown in Art — bad brown espe-
cially; and to guard us against a repetition of the excess might
have laeen well enough, but to endeavor, in pages of abundant-
ly self-sxtisfyiug, janty writing, to seduce us- into the notion
that t'lere is in reality no such thing as brown in nature, in the
face of numberless objects, in spite of the autumnal pomp of
solemn groves, and especially of those deep,..rich evening glow-
ings, which Dante has, after all, jastly denoted by his bruna,
and. which we ourselves will remember to have enjoyed "at
evening on the top of Fiesole," under the scarlet clouds of sun-
set dispersed above the Carrara peaks — this, all this, is simply
ridiculous, the mere humorsome partiality of one wlio- himself
is but too apt, to substitute his prejudices and the exaggera-
tions of his seldom resting fancy for the plainest and most ob-
vious facts, strict as he is against that fault in. others; — a la-
mentable habit in a critic, surely, who.se prima office it is to
make distinctions clear, sober-mindedly, instead of confusing,
and sometimes burlesquing, the objects under consideration,
with the aid of an indifferent style of humor, the mystification
and misleading especially of that weaker herd. of followers, un-
fortunately so numerous amongst us, who are utterly in the
thraldom of eloquence, and so much more easily convinced
through their ears by copious and confident words than through

* Is tliera no medium between this orangs and purple? What does the
orange become when it begins to deepen in the shadows of a warm toaed
atmosphere ? '

their own proper eyes. IIow whimsical is his assumed denial
of brown by his favorite poet, contrasted with his admiration
of his favorite colorist's use of it: how unjust and one-sided his
voluminous abhorrence of the gloom and "feelingless manner-
ism" of the later men, and his toleration or ignoring of so much
of similar qualities in his idol Tintoretto, whose frequent black-
ness, heaviness, and coarseness, are the less excusable, inas-
much as he was, so far as they are concerned, a recreant
Venetian, sinning in opposition to his original gift, and wivh
the very finest influence of color and brightness beaming about
him.

Candidly, we cannot help suspecting that Mr. Ruskin, iiot-
withstanding all his ingenuity and extraordinary activity of
thought, all Ins powers of description and analysis, has not
quite hit upon his proper vocation. His foremost and prevail-
ing gift we take to be a brilliant but excitable and eminently
fugacious fancy, such as is ever prone and precipitate to give
its own high colorings, from vehement likings or dislikings, and
to start away from the object professed to be contemplated,
into its own airy regions; a quality, when predominant, fatal
to just criticism, whose office is, of. course to present things as
they are in themselves, apart from these subjective or modify-
ing influences. Yes, "Memoirs of ray Fancy," we venture re-
spectfully to submit once more, would have been better, or per-
haps "Fra Giovanni's Pilgrimage," in which these free sallies
and soarings of the mind would, in their more successful in-
stances, have possessed a pure and unalloyed value, being mo-
destly, submitted as such, and not as descriptive criticism au-
thoritatively promulgated as from a judgment seat, to exalt one
man and condemn another. An awful act, this last, not to be
ventured on so lightly; and if done coarsely or wildly, as offen-
sive, no doubt, to the illustrious spirits of those bepraised as to
those censured, as Tintoretto's ghost may hereafter in the other
world prove to his eulogist, by asking him why he doomed his
unfortunate works to disappoint everybody. That chapter on
"Imagination Penetrative," in all that regards this painter, we
certainly take to be the master-piece, so far as we know, of
imagination predilective, fugacious, combustible, explosive. It
is indeed weightily valuable as a psychological lesson, showing-
how far an excitable, headstrong fancy has the power of ignor-
jng the actual, and substituting the airy offspring of its own
likings and wishes. On the whole, we believe that Mr. Ruskin
leaves Tintoretto precisely where he found him, having failed
utterly in the attempt to put him forward as an imaginative
genius of the highest order; since the thoughts he adduces as
entitling him to that eminence are, in fact, either not in exist-
ence in his works, or else poor, trivial, or erroneous without ex-
C3ption. Tintoretto will, wj suppose, continue to rank jnst r s
formerly, as a very energetic, but not delicately or sublimely
imaginative painter of the second clasg — one strong in scenic
conceptions, and in the more superficial and decorative resources
of his art, but poor, very poor, in- the higher requisites of ex-
pression and character: — a kind Venetian Rubens in short; not
so fleshily coarse as the Fleming, but far inferior to him in poetic
fire and exuberance of invention (such as rolls forth as from
the very cornucopia of Plenty herselfj, and also much beneath
him, as every other painter is, in rendering in a magnificent
manaer the very health, bloom, and active pulses of physical
life. Indeed, we cannot help wishing that Mr Ruskin had
chosen Rubens for his second stalking-horse instead of Tinto-
retto. Without being, so far as w^e are able to discover, in any
considerable degree "typical" in his modes of treatment, we
believe him to be far more legitimate subject for the purposes
of fine encomiastic writing; besides, he is as little generally un-
derstood and appreciated as Turner himself was formerly. A
far more fruitful tree than Tintoretto would have been shaken;
he would have filled out the splendid robes of eulogy with a
portlier grace. How much unapprehended grace, infantine
loveliness, and sweet naive human expression, how much mag-
nificence and true poetic fire have been unhappily concealed
from us by his too I3-lgian delight in lusty health, and bloom,
and animal vigor. But should we turn away for erer from all
those excellent former things we have just mentioned, and hosts

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THE PnOTOGRArniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

April,

of others, simply because they have become, iu a great number
of instances somewhat too lusty and fat?

A principal object in this essay has been to put the reader
on his guard against inordinate habits of praise on the part of
a writer whose confident eloquence gives him for the present a
far too absolute influence over large numbers of captivated
hearers. We will close our observations with a brief protest
against that equally ill-founded censure and depreciation of some
of our greatest literary men, in which he indulges in his recent
volumes, singling out, especially for opprobrium and contempt,
as we shall show, one whom most just and generous men, really
acquainted with iiis works, would be warmly desirous of defend-
ing. In these criticisms of Ruskin, cynicism has assumed its
most insidious and mischievous form, — the theological Hav-
ing, according to his own admission, passed most of his days in
the intense contemplations and abstractions of solitude, he has,
by an almost inevitable consequence, weakened in his breast
most of the ordinary social sympathies. In the tender passion
(to take one large instance) he seems to feel no interest, and
very little indeed in those domestic virtues and enjoyments
wliich spring from and surround it; and he has got himself far
too much into the way of estimating tilings in the sour and
austere spirit of some mortified anchorite; insomuch that he
is dissatisfied even with men whose gracious gift and first ob-
ject it was to afford pleasant relaxation, restorative amusement,
remission from mental care, to their fellow creatures, — such as
our great novelist and dramatist, — simply because they did not
utterly spoil their work with brain-fussing, intellect-oppressing,
monomauiacal considerations of theology and ascetic morality,
such as appear to have grievously narrowed and weakened his
owu mind. His morbid analysis of Scott, on this ascetic prin-
ciple, in which he says that he "knows no poetry so sorrowful
as his," and "that all his thoughts were in their outcome and
end less than nothing and vanity," is one of the most mistaken-
ly dismal and nauseating passages in literature, always except-
ing his half-patronising estimate of Shakspeare, in which our
bard of bards is looked down upon from the supremacy of that
"specular mount," Denmark Hill, as an imperfect mind, decid-
edly of a secondary order, also because not sufiBciently accom-
panied by theology in its flights, in Mr. Raskin's favorite
fashion. "It was necessary," we are told, "that he should de-
prive himself even of his conscience, iu order to be able to
sympathise so completely with all creatures." In this respect
we always thought Shakspeare the most conscientious of
writers, inasmuch as he reports of every one with the most per-
fect impartiality, fulness, and fairness, nothing extenuating, and
setting down nought in malice, and giving his worst of villains
their due. Had Shakspeare possessed a conscience, it would,
we are profoundly told, have made him unjust to these latter:
as if injustice were a natural consequence of conscientiousness!
Then we are informed that it was necessary for Shakspeare to
be "utterly without purpose; that he was forbidden of heaven
to have any plans. To do any good, or get any good iu the
common sense of good, was not to be within his permitted
range of work; not for him the founding of institutions, the
preaching of doctrines, or the repression of abuses. Neither
he nor the sun did on any morning that they rose together re-
ceive charge from their Maker concerning such things." To
which it may be answered, that to teach us the human heart
and character in their varieties, to show by what insidious so-
phisms our passions attain the mastery over us, to instruct us
so that we may know ourselves and others, and enlarge our
Bympathies to the world's width, and regard our fellow-crea-
tures with such palliations as justice and truth require, was pur-
pose and plan enough, and "good in the common sense of
good," such as no other man uninspired ever accomplished.
And as he effected this, we need not be disappointed tiiat he, a
literary man, did not likewise found institutions, preach doc-
trines, or practically attempt tiie repression of abuses. The
passage last quoted, in which Mr. Ruskin with quiet decision
alludes to the Creator as having views with regard to the poet
in harmony with his own purblind paradoxes, is for modesty,
i propriety, and what is commonly called good taste, exquisite.

and altogether richly characteristic. We think it may be pret-
ty safely assumed, and stated, without presumption, tliat on the
morning when he penned these paragraphs Mr. Ruskiii had not
"received charge" to criticise Sliokspeare.

So far, however, all this ambitious and restless plunging af-
ter profundity, which, diving past the pearls and golden sands
of the clear deep, does nothing but stir up and fetch alwft gra-
vel and mud from beneath, speaks sufficiently for itself; but per-
haps, not so his hars'ier and more unqualified attacks on others.
If there is anything in his writings to us more painful than the
rest, it is the ruthless, cold, and summary way iu which he will
drag forward and sacrifice the fame and character of certain
other departed great men, for the very small purpose of giving
point to some austere ascetic seiitiraeut, or of heightening the
vivacity of a paragraph. If there is a writer wiiom we should
iu former days have conceived to be respected by him it is Shel-
ley, since himself in some of his best passages resembles him
even remarkably. The most poetical of his descriptions, in
which the fine landscape imagery is heightened by the color-
ings of a brilliant fancy, are like faint echoes of the soaring
skylark amfnigst the poets, the wondrous laureate of the clouds.
And yet Shelley is the very poet now most frequently intro-
duced by Mr. Ruskin in his writings to perform the mean office
of foil to what he admires, to set off as a dark and impure
shadow his own exceeding radiancy, and to be morally and in-
tellectually misrei)resented in unfeeling and insulting language.
Thus we have, without explanation or further comment,
"passionate, unprincipled men like Shelley," though Shelley's
moral principles are certainly conspicuous enough throughout
his works, and at least as gentle, disinterested, loving, pure, and
near the true Christian morality in several of the most essential
points as those of any of the other poets of his day; whilst
amongst them none equalled him in the courage, and few in the
perfect sincerity, with which they were put forth. Secondly,
we read with no small access of illumination that "Keats has
no more real sympathy with Nature than he has with a bottle
of claret; and Shelley is nearly the same, but with even more
troublesome selfishness." The ardent philanthropist ^whether
or not mistaken in some points, does not affect the question of
selfishness), and cordial, helpful, generous friend, is not very sa-
gaciously or temperately denoted by these words, "troublesome
selfishness." And, by-and-bye, we have Shelley shown up on
Mr. Ruskin's oratorical platform again, to be as briefly stigma-
tised as impious, though lew men have ever felt a more habitual
love and tender reverence for most good and noble things, ex-
cept (as we take leave to lament no whit less than Mr. Ruskin)
the doctrinal part of that religion which his unhappy scepticism
— something palliated, surely, by the circumstances of his early
life — estranged hiin from. Surely it does not evince much de-
licacy of moral perception, much justice or charity, to apply to
so noble and gentle a sufferer the hard, unmitigated, untender
term "impious." Finally — but this is amusing — we find him
exhibited in the decretals sent rorlh from our temporary "Vati-
can of criticism, as an example of a morbid temperament,
looked down upon as from a serene superior height, as a mind
of the weaker class Truly, he was so, iu some sort, and very
pitiable. But the author of the "Ode to the Skylark," and
the "Prometheus Unbound," and the "Cenci," should have been
designated as such, not frigidly or haughtily, but with the gen-
tleness and tenderness of a deep fellow-feeling by one far more
so — by one of so morbid a teini)erament as to give forth all this
thoroughly unhealthy innammation about Tintoretto — by one
so weak tiiat he rarely has the power of describing anything-
without almost spoiling his description by some touch of exag-
geration proceeding from the excitability of his fancy, or nau-
seating his readers with some hard and austere assnmi)tion of a
religious lone, in which the elements indispensable to religious
writing of any value, such as modesty, truth, justice, and can-
dor, are habitually wanting. It is a religion this with which
the fancy seems to be incessantly on fire, but the heart the
while appears to remain cold and untouched; indeed, the main
tendency of his writings in this respect (like so much of the
ot^hcr religious writing with which our press teems now-a-days)

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1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAij.

105

seems to us to be rather to weakea religion in our human
hearts, its healthy, active, aud happy seat, and to make it rest-
lessly, painfully, and consummingly burn in the mere dreaming
faculty — the intellect and imagination. Mr. Ruskin is indig-
uaut with Blackwood for having recoiumended Keats to return
to his gallipots. But is it not better to depreciate even to that
extent the literary productions of living men, than thus to cast
rude and coarse opprobrium, as he has done, on the moral as
well as iutellectual character of the voiceless, unreplying dead?

nt S9LAR CAMERA— PRINTmC PROCESS— GLASS CLEANING.

Mr. Snelling, — I use the Solar Camera which some of your
contemporaries stigmatise as a " poor concern." I beg leave
to say that I differ from these august sentiments. After using
it six niontiis, I grow more astonished daily to see the results
which I produce. I have printed by the Calotype, the Albu-
men, the Ammonio-nitrate, and the Wenderoth Processes. The
ammonia-nitrate and albumen process please me the best, as I
have the time to print the limited number that I make. With
the right kind of negative, from two to three hours will print a
half-length portrait.

I use in salting —

Chloride of ammonium ^ ......2 grains.

Water 1 oz.

I have tried every amount from one grain to ten, and prefer
the two grain solution as giving the best results.

Nitrate of silver 30 grains.

Water 1 oz.

Made into common nitrate in the usual way, and one drop c.p.
nitric acid added to each four ounces of solution.

Toning bath as laid down in the Moulton process.

The Wenderoth process works rapidly, and produces fine re-
sults in my hands, bnt is more expensive and requires much
more care, when only a small number of prints are made. In
large establishments where hundreds are made a week, its value
is not to be told.

Por all our silver solutions, I melt clean snow in an earthen-
ware vessel, and use it in place of distilled water, as it pro-
duces better results than Croton, bottled (labelled distilled
water), and sold for fifty cents per gallon. Those who have
never tried it can easily save their fifty cents per gallon, and
have a better solution in the bargain.

The most pleasing pictures that I have printed in the print-
ing frame, were made by a process for calotypes, by Mr. Sut-
ton, but which I modified as follows:

Water 1 oz.

Pure white gelatine 6 grains.

Common salt 4 "

Put the ingredients into the water while cold, and warm it
gently until they are all dissolved (care being taken not to get
it boiling hot); filter it through a sponge while warm, and it is
ready for use. This should be kept in a warm place, and the
paper floated on it two or three minutes and then dried.
For silvering I use —

Water 1 oz.

Nitrate of silver 35 gj.g_

Lemott juice V.V. .".'i or two "drops.

Float the paper five or six minutes, as the thick body of the
gelatine will require that tice to soften, so as to absorb a suf-
ficient amount of silver.

Print a very little darker than you want, and tone in the
Moulton toning bath; or the bath used for toning your illus-
trations, which is nearly the same.

The superiority of this process lies in the fact, that the gela-
tine keeps the picture on the surface of the paper, and the
lemon juice gives the print a very warm violet tint when pro-
perly toned. Mr. Sutton says,—" No one that has not tried
it, can have any idea of the wonderful brilliancy imparted to a
print by the mucelage contained in lemon juice."

These remarks were made in reference to prints developed by

VOL. XI. NO. IV. 14

gallic acid: bnt I find they are equally applicable to those
printed without development. In the prints that I have made
by this method, the details are equal to the very best albumen
prints. The gelatine having a very fine grain, the surface of
the print has not a certain half-glassy, half-scaly appearance,
which all albumen prints have on close examination. More-
over, the lights, when properly printed and toned, are absolutely
pure; which, combined with the other superior quality, make
them the most deservable prints I have made. It is like all
good things, more work to print a given number of copies by
this process, than by the ammonia-nitrate, when the solution is
spread with cotton, but the better quality will repay the extra
trouble. In spreading the ammoaio-nitrate over the paper, I
use cotton flannel, after having washed it thoroughly in a weak
solution of sal-soda, rinsed and dried. Cut a patch to the de-
sired shape and place it on the paper, nap side down; then lay
a small ball of cotton wool on the middle of the patch, gather
up the corners so as to enclose the cotton, and proceed to
spread the solution, and you will seldom be troubled with
greasy streaks which often occur when using the prepared cot-
ton wool.

I have tried many ways to clean glass when negatives were
varnished with any of the spirit varnishes, and have never suc-
ceeded to my liking until of late. I now make a saturated so-
lution of sal-soda in water, lay the glass in this, and in a few
hours the varnish will contract so as to detach the film from
the glass. I then rub them over carefully with rotton stone or
Norton's cleaning powder; wash it off and the glass is ready
for another picture,

I use the soda for cleaning all my glass now, and succeed in
getting better results than ever before.

Respectfully yours,

F. B. Gage.

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal,

FRENCH PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.

1000 grammes.
32 grammes.

At the meeting of the 18th of December, M. Regnault,
member of the Institute and President of the Society, occupied
the chair. Amongst other matters then communicated and
presented was a large collection of prints from paper negatives,
which were obtained by M. Civiale, by the following process:

" PAPER NEGATIVES."

The paper employed being papier Saxe negatif, of the weight
of about fifteen pounds the ream.
The bath for iodizing contains

Cereoleine (10 grammes* of wax in a litre )

of alcohol of 40°) \

Iodide of potassium (dissolved in alcohol |

of 36°) f

The paper is left for two hours, at least in the bath, then it
is suspended by a corner to dry.
The sensitive bath contains —

Distilled water 1000 grammes.

Fused nitrate of silver 60 "

Nitrate of zinc (crystallized) 24 "

Acetic acid 30 "

After immersion the excess of nitrate of silver is removed by
three excessive washings in distilled water. The paper for the
day may be made sensitive in the morning or overnight.

In operatinsr in the Pyronees, where variations in altitude of
more than 2000 yards were encountered, the exposure in the
camera varied, in sunshine and shade, from six to twelve min-
utes.

The developing bath contained —

Distilled water 1000 grammes.

Gallic acid 3| "

To this a little of the washing water containing nitrate of silver
was added. After development the picture was four times

* The gramme about 15 grains, and the litre about 2 pints.

100

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

April,

I'insed ia common water, aud then fixed iii a solution contain-
ing—

Common water 1000 grammes.

Hj'posulphite soda 200 '•

Pinally the negatives were washed in common water daring
eight or ten hours, the water being often changed.

M. GiRARD read a note by M. Frank de Villecholes, upon
" THE USB OF DRY COLLODION."

Among the dry collodion processes which have been pub-
lished, several have given results generally satisfactory. Never-
less many operators succeed only with difficulty, and desire a
newer and simpler method than Taupenot's, the gelatine pro-
cess, &c.

The simplest method, " par excellence," is that of M. I'Abbe
Desprats, which consists simply in washing the plate on its re-
moval fro.n the bath. This method, wliich has long given me
very uncertain results, has been abandoned by the greater part
of those who have attempted it.

Nevertheless from some information I received I tried again
the method of M. I'Abbe Desprats, and convinced myself that
my former failure arose from insufficient washing. Sensitive
plates, washed for one or two minutes in a stream of water,
succeeded but imperfectly, while similar plates, washed in the
same way and left to drain for five minutes, and tlien rewashed
as at first, gave a perfect picture.

Certain collodions are not favorable in this case, especially
those containing iodide- of zinc or cadmium, which do not suc-
ceed, unless the bath is strongly acidulated by acetic acid.

I expect M. I'Abbe Desprats' method, properly carried out,
will supersede all others.

M. MoNTREuiL remarked that the process just alluded to was
the same as that indicated by him. He had learnt a year ago
that all collodions well washed succeeded dry on an exposure
three or four times the length of that used in the wet way.
This year he had taken, on a tour, sensitive plates for eight,
fifteen, and even thirty days, developing them only on his re-
turn, and all had succeeded, excepting some which had con-
tained iodide of cadmium, the cause being inexplicable. The
great point was to wash sufficiently; common water might be
used.

M. Vaillat confirmed the observations of M.M. de Ville-
choles and Montreuil; he saying that he had succeeded very
well, by following the same method.

M. Leborgnk stated that by mixing nitrate of lead with the
nitrate of silver in the bath for collodion, he obtained finer re-
sults. He used a weak solution of gallic acid, in developing,
instead of pyrogallic acid.

NEW NEGATIVE PROCESS.

Montreal, Feb. 25, 1858.

H. H. Snellixg, Esq., — D&ar Sir: In reply to your favor
of the 19th, I have much pleasure in sending for insertion in
your Journal, the following process for producing negatives;
the time of sitting originally being less than for a positive.

After exposure, develope with —

Protosulphate of iron 2 ounces.

Acetic acid (No. 8) 12 •'

Alcohol (95°) 4 "

Water 1 quart.

Cover the plate with the above, and allow it to remain until
all the details appear; then pour off and wash well with water,
and continue developing with —

ryrogallic acid 2 to 3 grains,

Glacial acetic acid 6 drops.

Alcohol 6 drops.

Water 1 ounce.

Previous to flowing the plate with the above, add to it two
or three drops of a 30-grain nitrate solution to each drachm,
and flow off and on the plate until the desired intensity is
attained. In hot weather, the proportion of glacial acetic acid
must be increased.

Previous to making the above discovery some three or four
weeks ago, to obtain a good negative 1 found it necessary to
have a setting of fort3'-five seconds on an average. Now I find
four or five seconds quite sufficient, having taken many good
negatives since with simply removing the cap. The process is
invaluable for children and groups, and the quality of the nega-
tives are all that could be desired, giving beautiful detail in the
shadows with instantaneous exposure.

I use but one nitrate bath in my practice for positives and
negatives, and but one collodion, viz. Anthony's, which I find
first rate.

It may seem strange to some, that the time of exposure is
less than for a positive, but the reason is that a positive re-
quires a more active developer, which cannot be prolonged to
give the detail without injuring the tone aud clearness, so de-
sirable in a positive.

Yours truly, J. Notman.

From tht Cosmos.
PnOSPHOEESCENCE
And Fluorcscenee Sliownby means of Pliotography.

BY M. NIEPCE DE SAINT- VICTOR.

Does a body, after being submitted to the action of light,
preserve in the dark any impression of this light? This is the
question which I have endeavored to solve by photography.

The phosphorescence and fluorescence of bodies are known •
but the experiments which I am about to describe, have never
been made, to my knowledge.

An engraving which has been kept in the dark for several
days, is exposed to the direct rays of the sun for at least a
quarter of an hour; one half of it being covered by an opaque
screen ; this engraving is then laid upon a very sensitive photo-
graphic paper; and after twenty-four hours of contact in the
dark, there is obtained in black, the reproduction of the whites,
of that part of the engraving which during the exposure was
not covered by the screen.

When the engraving has remained for several days in pro-
found darkness, and it is applied upon the sensitive paper with-
out first exposing is to the light, it does not reproduce itself.

Certain engravings after exposure to the light, reproduce
themselves better than others, according to the nature of the
paper; but all papers, even Berzelius' filtering paper, with or
without drawings, whether photographic or otherwise, repro-
duce themselves more or less after a preliminary exposure to the
light. Wood, ivory, gold beaters' skin, parchment, even living
skin, reproduce themselves perfectly under the same circum-
stances; but the metals, glass, and enamels do not.

By leaving an engraving exposed for a very long time to the
sun's rays, it will, if I may thus exj^ress myself, saturate itself
with light. In this case it will produce a maximum effect,
provided it be left for two or three days in contact with the
sensitive paper. I have thus attained an intensity of impres-
sion which leads me to hope that my operating upon very sen-
sitive papers, and developing the image by gallic or pyrogallic
acid, we may obtain proofs sufficiently strong to permit the for-
mation of a cliche; this would be a new means of reproducing
engravings.

If a strip of glass is interposed between the engraving and
the sensitive paper, the whites no longer impress the paper.
The same results are found, by interposing a plate of mica, or
rock-crystal, or a plate of glass colored yellow by oxide of
uranium.

It will be seen further on, that the interposition of these
same substances arrests also the impression of phosphorescent
lights placed directly in front pf the sensitive paper.

An engraving coated with collodion or gelatine is reproduced-
but one coated with picture-varnish, or gum, is not reproduced.

An engraving placed at a distance of 01 inch from the sen-
sitive paper, reproduces itself very well; if it is a drawing in

stroug lines, it will be reproduced even at a distance of 04
inches: the impression is therefore not the effect of lateral or
of a chemical action.

An engraving colored with several colors is reproduced very
unequally, that is, the colors reproduce themselves with different
intensities, varying with theii- chemical natures. Some leave a
very visible impression, while others scarcely if at all color the
sensitive paper.

The same is true of characters printed in different inks; the
fat ink, for printing in relief, or for mezzotint, and common ink
formed by a solution of nut-galls and sulphite of iron, give no
images, while certain English inks give very definite ones.

Yitrified characters, traced upon a plate of glazed porcelain,
such as biscuit ware, produces a slight impression.

If after exposing an engraving to the light for an hour, it is
laid upon a white card-board, which has been kept for some
days in the dark; and if after leaving the engraving in contact
with the card-board for at least twenty-four hours, the card-
board is, in its turn, brought into contact with a sheet of sen-
sitive-paper, we shall have, after twenty-four hours of this new
contact, a reproduction of the engraving less visible, yet still
distinct. AVhen a slab of black marble, sprinkled with white
spots, is exposed to the light, and then applied upon the sensi-
tive paper, the white spots alone are impressed upon the paper.
Under the same conditions, a tablet of white chalk leaves an
impression, while one of charcoal produces no sensible effect.

When a black and white feather is similarly treated, the
whites only impress their image.

A parrot feather, red, green, blue, and white, produced
scarcely any image, as if the feather had been black, certain
colors, however, produced a very feeble action.

I made some experiments with stuffs of different nature and
various colors, and I will give you briefly the results which I
obtained.

Cotton. — White impresses the sensitive paper.

" Brown (madder and alumina,) gives no effect,

" Yiolet (madder, alumina, and salt of iron,) scarce-

ly anything.

" Red (cochineal) nothing.

" Red Turkey (madder and alumina,) nothing.

Cotton. — Prussian blue on a white ground. The blue pro-
duced the deepest impression.

" Blue, by the indigo bath — nothing.

" Chamois (peroxide of iron,) made an impression.

Stuffs of linen, silk, and wool, also gave different impressions
according to the chemical nature of the colors.

I call attention particularly to the following experiment,
which seems to me curious and important: Take a metal tube
(tin for instance,) or any other opaque substance, closed at
one end, and covered inside with paper or white card-board;
expose it, the open end in front, to the direct solar rays for an
hour; after this exposure, apply the open end to a sensitive
paper, and it will be found after twenty-four hours, that the
circumference of the tube has formed its image. What is more,
an engraving on Chinese paper interposed between the tube and
the sensitive paper will be found also reproduced. If the tube
be hermetically closed as soon as the exposure to light has
ceased, it will preserve for an indefinite time the faculty of ra-
diation which the exposure has given it, and this faculty will
be demonstrated by the formation of the impression, whenever
the tube is applied to the sensitive paper, after removing the
cover.

I repeated, with the luminous images formed in the camera
obscura, the experiments which I at first made with direct
lio-ht. A card-board is taken from the dark, and exposed for
about three hours in the camera, into which a bright image of
the sun is thrown ; the card-board is then laid upon the sensi-
tive paper, and by twenty-four hours contact there is obtained
a quite visible reproduction of the primitive image. A long
exposure is necessary to obtain an appreciable result, and this
is probably the reason why I obtained nothing by receiving the
image of a solar spectrum upon a sheet of white card-board

for an hour and a half only. I am, nevertheless, convinced that
an exposure of several hours with a sheet of very absorbing-
paper or card-board would give an impression of the spectrum;
and this fact, which is not without its importance, may be con-
sidered as established. I have not yet had an opportunity to
experiment cither upon the light of the electric lamp, or the
discharge in vacuo, but I purpose to do it as soon as possible.

In some experiments, but as yet very few, I thought I re-
marked that the light absorbed and kept in a vessel, exercised
also an action upon plants, among other things upon flowers,
which open by day and close at night.

It remains for me to speak of the experiments which I have
made upon phosphorescent and fluorescent substances.

A drawing traced upon a sheet of white paper, with a solu-
tion of sulphate of quinine, one of the most fluorescent bodies
known, exposed to the sun and applied upon sensitive paper,
reproduces itself in a much more intense black, than the white
paper forming the ground. A plate of glass interposed be-
tween the drawing and the paper, prevents the impression. A
plate of glass, colored yellow by oxide of uranium, produces the
same effect. If the drawing in sulphate of quinine has not been
exposed to the light, it produces no effect on the paper.

A luminous drawing traced with phosphorus upon a sheet of
white paper, without exposure to the light, will impress the
sensitive paper very rapidly, but if a plate of glass is inter-
posed, there is no action.

The same effects are produced by fluoride of calcium ffluor-
spar,) rendered phosphorescent by heat.

These are the principal facts which I have observed. Space
is wanting to enumerate all the experiments that 1 iiave made;
there remain still many more to make, and I therefore publish
this note without waiting to make it more complete. 1 think,
that I may be permitted tohope that my new mode of exhibiting
properties of light heretofore scarcely suspected or imperfectly es-
tablished, will attract the attention of physicists, and lead to
important researches.

PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE WEST.

WooDviLLE, Miss., Feb. 12th, 1858,

Friend Snelling: — Thinking that a few lines from this sec-
tion might not be unacceptable, has emboldened me to write to
you. At the time of closing my business in your city, I supposed
I had bid "a long farewell" to the trials and perplexities as well
as the pleasures of photography, but as human calculations are not
infallible, I find myself once more, with renewed health, pur-
suing my old vocation of Picture Making in this section of the
"Sunny South." While journeying, without any definite object
in view beyond recruiting my exhausted energies, I strolled into
some of the leading galleries in the Western cities; a passing
glance at those visited may not be out of place. At Cincinna-
ti, the "Queen City" of the West (where a number of years of
my photographic experience were passed), there are several who
lay just claim to the front rank; among whom maybe men-
tioned Faris, Porter, Hawkins, etc., etc. The many fine spe-
cimens of the Photographic Art, exhibited at the rooms of
Mr. Farris, attest his proficiency and skill. The new style of
picture introduced by him and Mr. Hawkins are very fine, al-
though, in my humble judgment, not equal to those made by
Mr. Faris, at his New York gallery. Mr. Porter, whose motto
is "Excelsior," is fitting up one of the most beautiful as well
as convenient gallery in the country. His collection of life
and Cabinet size photographs are the finest it has ever been
my privilege to see. His artist, Mr. Quick, is a gentleman of
fine talents, and an ornament to his profession. His operator
in photography is a Mr. Wallace, a gentleman of superior
skill. With such ability in the different branches of the art
as it has been Mr. Porter's happy fortune to secure, his pro-
ductions must secure liberal patronage. Mr. Hawkins is con-
fining his attention entirely to his new style of picture — the
"Diaphaneotype," a style of coloring photographs which is
destined to become very popular. Of their merits I have

108

THE PHOTOGRArHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL,

April,

spoken above. From Cincinnati I passed to St. Louis; in that
city there appears to bj bat very little attention paid to photo-
graphinnj. The best unretouchcd I saw was at Mr. Long's gal-
lery. He took the premium at the late fair. Fitzgibbons, the
renowned "Fitz," has quite a number painted in water colors,
by Mr. Brown (who, 1 believe, was for some time with Mr.
Braoy, of your city), which are very creditable The other
galleries, of \vhicli there are quite a number, are engaged al-
most exclusively in Arabrotyping, of which style I saw many
fine specimens. There is one gallery in that city which has
passed by all tlie boasted improvements in the art, and has pur-
sued "the even tenor of its way" with success. Mr. T. M.
Easterly (to whom I refer) has continued to make the daguer-
reotype in a style which will equal anything in the country;
while his views of Niagara, and other scenery, are unsurpassed.
It has been my good fortune, since my advent at this place, to
meet with an amateur photographer (a rare circumstance, I
believe, in this country), who not only makes very creditable
pictures, but shows his love for, and appreciation of the art, by
being a subscriber to your valuable Journal, and through whose
kindness I have the privilege of meeting with my old friend.

I see from the late No. of your Journal that you have taken
upon yourself to supply tlie numerous wants (for cash) of dis-
tant artists. May your success not only bring you honors, but
"put money in thy purse." I shall, before returning North-
ward, visit New Orleans, and may take a glauce at the gal-
leries there.

With the highest consideration,

I am very respectfully yours,

C. H. E.

Trom. the London Art Journal.

TALK OF PICTURES AND THE PAINTERS.*

BY AN OLD TRAVKLLER.

CHAPTER VII.

First Visit of tlie Englishman in Venice — Paolo Veronese — Works at
home and abroatl — Public Galleries — Laton House — Mr. Harford's
Collection at Blaise Castle — Lord Darnley's at Cobh-im Hall — Boni-
fazio Veneziano — Petworth — Colonel Egremont Wyndham's Gallery-
Alton Towers— The R;'turn of the Prodigal Son — Works in Foreign
Galleries — The Bassani — Examples in Collections open to the Public —
Jacopo at Edinburgh — Francesco and Leandro at Hampton Court —
Francesco at Liverpool — Pordenone — Lord Brownlow's Collection —
Works at Chiswlck and Burleigh — Berlin — Udina and Piacenza — Man-
tua— Venice.

There is perhaps no Venetian master — Titian alone excepted
— whose works receive, and have received, so much attention
from the great body of English travellers, as do, and have done,
those of Paola Veronese: all rush to the Ducal Palace before
they are half a day old in Venice; and the certainty of this
fact helps to diminish my regret that I cannot, with due respect
to the brilliant qualities of an artist so much admired, here at
tempt to do more than allude to the whereabouts of some few
among the vast number of paintings produced by his hand.

The National and Dulwich Galleries, Hampton Court, the
Fizwiiliara Museum at Cambridge, the Royal Institution of
Edinburgh, and other public bodies, possess pictures by Paolo
Veronese always accessible to the student; there are besides
examples of his works in almost all the moi-e important collec-
tions in the country. The Marquis of Bute has four at Luton
House. Lord Darnley's collection at Coljham Hall boasts an
equal number. Mr. Munro has two, both of high artistic va-
lue, and considered to exhibit the most admired qualities of the
painter. In the collection of Mr. Harford, at Blaise Castle,
there is a "Pieta" by Paolo Veronese, very beautifully painted.
There are drawings by his hand at Chatsworth; and they have
one in the magnificent collection of those treasures possessed
by the University of Oxford; a banquet of cardinals is the
sul)ject of this drawing, which is one of great interest to the
admirer of the master. The portrait of Paolo, painted by his

* Continued from p. 2(J8, vol. x., no. ix.

son. Carlo Cagliari, will be found, amongst those of other great
painters, in the collection of the Duke of Bedford, at Woburu
Abbey; that in the Uffizii, at Florence, will be familiar to the
recollection of all acquainted with the Florentine galleries.

Works of varied character by Paolo Veronese enrich the
Louvre: of these the most important and justly renowned is
the "Marriage in Cana," a favorite subject with the gay and
genial painter. To this picture increased interest has been
given by the description which Zanetti cites, as preserved in the
Venetian convent of San Giorgio Maggiore, that document
proving nearly all the figures to be portraits of persons the
most distinguished of tlieir time — the Emperor Charles V.;
Francis L of France, v^ith his queen, Eleanor of Austria; our
own Mary; Soliman I., Grand Signor; Alfonso D'Avalos,
Marquis del Gnasto; and the justly celebrated Vittoria Colon-
na, Marchese di Pescaro, — are among them, as is Paolo Vero-
nese himself, with his brother Benedetto Cagliari, and his
brethren in Art, Tintoretto and Jacopo da Ponte.

Speaking of this work, Vasari calls it "Opera maravigliosa
per grandezza, per numero di figure, per varieia d'abiti, e per
invenzione."t When Vasari wrote, Paolo Veronese .was not
more than thirty, or perhaps thirty-two years old — a circum-
stance to which the biographer has previously alluded, | and one
which amply accounts for the fact that Vasari has not described
his works at greater length.

A picture representing Jesus in the honse of Simon the
Pharisee, and which, although scarcely so characteristic of the
master as that last named, is yet of great interest, as regards
many important qualities that cannot here be insisted on, vcill
also be found in the Louvre: Vasari describes it as "La cena
che fece Simone lebbroso al signore, quando le peccatrice se gli
getto a piedi." In this work, painted for the refectory of San
Nazzaro in Verona, a monastery of black friars, there are two
dogs, highly praised, among other parts, by Vasari. — and with
justice, as all who have remarked that animal when piinted by
Veronese will readily believe. "They seem to be alive," savs
the biographer; and to this adds the following — "More in the
distance are certain figures of lame and halt, which are also
excellently done." There is a sketch for this picture at Alton
Towers, where will also be found a portrait of a lady, declared
to be from the hand of the same master.

To say nothing of Venice, — because all seek Paolo Veronese
there, — the galleries of Vienna and Munich, the Brera at Milan,
with the collections at Dresden, Berlin, and other capitals, have
also works by this master, but those here named must suffice for
our present purpose.

Of Bonifazio Veneziano, of the Bassani, and of some few
beside, among the Venetian masters of the period before us, we
would fain cite pictures recurring pleasantly to remembrance,
as the churches and palaces of Venice rise before the willing
eyes of the gladdened memory; but we must restrain ourselves
for the most part to the mere mention cf some few works in
the possession of English collectors within reach of the Eng-
lish student. By the first named painter there is a picture, bat
not a good one, at Hampton Court — "Christ with the Woman
of Samaria" is the subject, and the work was long atti-iijuted
to Palma Vecchio; it has been much injured, but even when at
best can scarcely have presented a fair specimen of the mas-
ter.§ Of much higher value is the "Last Supper," in the
Royal Institution of Edinburgh — since tliis work, if my recol-
lections do not mislead me, gives full evidence of that elevation
of thought and dignity of manner so entirely distinctive of
Bonifazio, and which raise him to a level with the very first of
his contemporaries. Nor is the Edinburgh picture of less im-
portance as an example of that perfection in coloring wherein
Bonifazio, as is well known, was scarcely inferior. to Titian,
whom he did without doubt follow zealously, as regards that
great essential, but with no servility of imitation, nor in any
manner derogatory to his own high and true genius.

t See " Opere," vol. iv., p. 329.
\ ''Opere." as above, p. 327.

§ Many valuable details respecting this and other painters of the pe-
riod will be found in the "Notizie" of MorrL'lli {L'Anoii mo.)

]S58.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAu.

109

In tlic collectioa of Colonel Egremont Wyndham, at Pet-
worth, tliere is an Adoration of the Kings, from the hand of
Bonifazio Yeneziano, respecting which Dr. Waagen has the fol-
lowing remark: — "Besides his usual warmth and transparent
harmony of color, this picture exhibits a closer finish of detail
than is usual with Bonifazio."* Higher eulogies might have
been added, and with justice; nor is there reason to believe
they would have been withheld, had the German writer con-
gnlted his inclination only, and had he not been restricted by
the brevity imposed on his words by the exigencies of his sub-
ject. This may be inferred, not only from the general tenor
of Dr. Waagen's works, as they relate to masters of the high-
est class in general, but also from various remarks respecting
Bonifazio in particular, to be found in other passages. Thus,
describing a valuable picture by that most noble artist, in pos-
session of Sir Charles Eastlake, — Our Lady with the Divine
Child, and other figures, — Dr. Waagen speaks as follows: —
' 'This rich and beautiful composition, with the fine character
of the heads, especially that of the female saint, approaches
Titian in warmth and harmony of coloring." So far the Ger-
man critic, if he had added the declaration that Titian is not
unfrequently surpassed by the less familiarly known painter in
depth of thought, in purity of sentiment, and in elevation of
purpose, he would have done no injustice to either master.

But perhaps the most important and valuable work by Boni-
fazio in possession of any English collector, is that now at Al-
ton Towers, and which was long attributed to Titian. The
subject of the picture is the Return of the Prodigal Son ; the
figures, life-size, are in Venetian costume of the painter's day,
they have, therefore, not the pastoral character always sug-
gested to the mind by the words of the sacred text, but, apart
from this circumstance, — redeemed by many considerations, that
cannot here be entered on, from its seeming character of a
fault, — these figures are absolutely perfect, as is the whole scene
wherein they act, with all its details. The principal group is
standing before a building, which, if not of the most lofty pre-
tensions, is evidently the dwelling of an important and opulent
personage; the moment is that immediately subsequent to the
command, "Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him, and
put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet." The "shoes" are
already on — one servant is presenting the "ring," which he
holds daintily between his fingers, while another has approached
his master with the robe, and stands at his left hand, holding
the garment of honor with due respect across his outstretched
arms. In the face of the prodigal, whom the father — a venei'-
able and beautiful old man, and, as might be supposed, the chief
person of the drama — is raising from what has doubtless been a
second prostration, made in acknowledgment of his goodness,
there are ample evidences of that weakness ever to be found,
under some one of its many forms, in the company of vice ; nor
has this been done by the wise and thoughtful master without
due reference to our instruction; of tliat we may be sure, and
shall do well to profit by it. The elder brother, on the con-
trary, is a noble and dignified figure, as befits the man of pas-
sions duly restrained and life devoted to life's duties: thus, al-
though the lesson given us in this parable of our Lord does in
some sort involve a reproof to the elder brother, yet is it on
him — after the father — that the attention of the spectator is
mostpermauently fixed, and not ou the prodigal, whom one is will-
ing to leave to the cares of the servants, so dutifully ready to at-
tend him. This our favorite then, despite his fault of momen-
tary displeasure, which will not be lasting — we have but to look
on his fine face for- assurance of that fact — is seated on horse-
back at some distance from the principal group. He is return-
ing from the chase, and his dogs are at the feet of his horse;
servants also are round him, and from these he is receiving an
explanation of the event passing before his eyes. It is impos-
sible to imagine auythiug more life-like, and, at the same time,
more graceful than are all the figures composing this group, on
which the critic in Art might long expatiate before enumerat-
ing half its merits: the horse is not such, at all points, as the

* See "Treasures of Art in England," vol. ii.p. 265; see also vol. iii.
p. 42.

14*

connoisseur would select for his uses; but Venice does not
count among her glories the being an especial land of horses-
nay, a man may live long years in the midst of her beauties —
our benison upon them, one and all! — without ever seein"- a
hoof, save only those belonging to St. Mark's stud, of immor-
tal renown. But even the horse, noble as he is when truly por-
trayed, and well as we love one "of a worthie race," as Ger-
vase Markham hath it, can scarcely detain us in this instance
from the human interests around us, and of these we liave in
this one picture enough to minister food for thought that may
last you a life-time. And in this fact is the real triumph of the
master truly great, as is Bonifazio Veneziano. You will de-
light in him for the beauty wherewith he has blessed your eyes;
but that is a benefit you may derive from others: his distinction
is that he awakens and enriches the mind, and for this you re-
vere him and are grateful ; that he softens and amends the heart,
and for this it is that you give Lim the dear love of a life-
time.

Not to all great painters is that last best tribute due; nay,
you shall count the names that compel it from you on little
more than the ten fingers of your hands — but Bonifazio Vene-
ziano is pre-eminently among them; and with some two, or per-
haps, three, of his Venetian brethren, added to certain among
the older Florentines, will come first to your recollection when
this highest of all qualities is in question, A bright name or
two from the Roman schools, with yet more, and of better
claims, from those of Umbria, rise appealingly to the recollec-
tion, as one writes of this matter, and most lovingly has each
"its claim allowed; ' but to your memory and your good heart,
oh reader, must now be left to pay the debt for all, seeing that
the grand work of the revered Venetian now before us looks
for all our attention, and is not of the class that can be duly
treated with aught less. A rich mountainous landscape forms
the ultimate background and closes the whole, but within this
are various distances, all appropriately occcupied: over one of
them there is a hunting party galloping cheerily, and to them
it is we may suppose the servant, making signal from an ex-
terior gallery, is blowing a horn, bidding them return to their
part in the feast about to be prepared. Beneath a portico of
the lordly dwelling other servitors are preparing the board;
figures are in movement within and without, and in all direc-
tions, yet each maintained in due subordination, and none of all
interfering with the chief action of the piece, which maintains
its interest unimpaired through all. Women are looking forth
from their apartments in an upper story of the house; there are
two now issuing from a doorway; they approach the summit of
a flight of steps: but half-informed of what is causing the
movement below, they are about to summon a servant who will
give them better intelligence: we need not listen to him, since
we know all he can tell; but they have a pleasant "coign of
vantage," there, with their faces to the beloved mountains, and
it is not without reluctance that we leave it.

Of this Bonifazio, we have said that it is noio at Alton
Towers; but alas for the mutability of things human, how little
value is there in that "now!" To be precise then, it is there
at the now of the present — this bright and blessed morn of
June, being the seveu-and-twentieth day of the month, in the
year of our redemption one thousand eight hundred and fifty-
seven.

But when the month shall call itself August — where?

It is a question that would bring most sorrowful considera-
tions, were it not for our hope that the great lessons conveyed
by this immortal work may be thenceforth secured for the bene-
fit of larger numbers than have ever yet been permitted to pro-
fit by them. Nay, who knows that we may not all become
"part-owners" in this invaluable gift from one who stands high
among the best of the richly productive past to the needy and
desiring of our sterile present? Why should the nation itself
not then be proprietor of Bonifazio's bequest to all time? Let
us entertain so consoling a hope; there can be no good reason
to be given ogainst its realisation ; and l)e sure that no picture
in our present possession will assemble so large a crowd as will

daily be seen around "The Return of the Prodigal Son,"* if you
will but give it Qtting place in the gallery that must some day
be made worthy to be called the JS^ational Gallery of Eng-
land.

There are three pictures by Bonifazio in the Lonvre — a Re-
surrection of Lazarus, a Holy Family of great beauty, and a
Madonna with the Divine Child, St. Catherine, St. Agnes, and
St. John, also a child. This jiicture was long attributed to
Talina Yecchio.

Oar good and rarely failing friend, the Royal Gallery of
Berlin has one work, and I think but one, of this master: the
picture represents our Saviour pointing out the writing he has
traced, to ttie Pharisees, who have brought before him the wo-
man accused of adultery. The accused, surrounded by her
captors, awaits her judgment at his hands; a group of pitying
spectators is in the distance, and in the background there is a
landscape with buildings.

But for Bonifazio, as for all the masters now in question, the
cities of Italy, more especially Venice, must be visited, if the
student would make effectual acquaintance with their works.
lu the Libreria Yecchia is a painting, wherein Bonifazio has
represented the encampment of the Israelites: this is said to be
the first attempt made by any painter to give the real effect
produced by the sun. The Academy — Academia delle Belle
Arti — has a picture, among others, of " The Rich Man's Sup-
per," thus described by Kugler, M'ith whose words our brief
notice of the master must close: — " The time is the afternoon,
the place an open hall, with a table at which the rich man is
seated between two female figures; one, with her hand on her
breast, is assuring him of her fidelity, the other listens thought-
fully to a lute-player, and to a half-kneeliag violincellist, whose
music is held by a Moorish boy, while a bearded noble over-
looks the group. On the left are two pages drinking wine; on
the right, Lazarus, the beggar, is being turned away by a ser-
vant with a dog; in the background is a stately garden, with
falconers, pages, and grooms."!

Other Venetian masters are represented in the Shrewsbury
collection, and among them are Giovanni Bellino, Giorgione,
Sebastian© del Piombo, Pordenome, Bonviciuo, and Tintoretto:
no less than four pictures are attributed to the last-named of
those great masters, and three of them may be by his hand;
the fourth does not appear to be so, but it is a point we cannot
now discuss. There is one by Carlo Cri velli , but of this, as of some
by other masters, notice will be found in a subsequent column.
Palmo Vecchio is also hei"e, as is Morone, who has four pictures
under his name: of these, two are hung so high that the specta-
tor has no power of examination; the third is certainly not by
his hand, but the fourth has every appearance of being the
work of Morone, and is a fair example of the master.

The gardens of Alton Towers are said to be the finest in Eu-
rope, and in their manner — they ai'e Italian gardens — they do
certainly surpass all previously seen by the writer; even those
of the Villa Doria, outside the walls of Rome, were not, in all
respects, equal to them, although "beautiful exceedingly," be-

• Since tbe above was iii type, the writer has heard numerous remarks
from persons varying much iu condition, all proving this picture to be
one of those that fulfil tbe highest purpose of the master — whose aims
are truly great — by touching the large heart of the people ; a single in-
stance shall suffice. Bewailing the dispersion of the paintings generally,
a keeper in the Alton woods, declared to the writer, that for the loss of
one. among them he could find no consolation. " That one I did love,-'
said he, '• and when I used to be called to move any of 'em in John Tal-
bot's time, — for my lord would have 'em changed sometimes, — I was
more afraid of harm coming to that, than to all the rest put together.
Aye ! I loved that picture."
"" And that one," inquired the writer, "what was it?"

" They called it the Prodigal Son," replied the woodman, and he looked
down sadly on the bright green turf before him, evidently recalling the
features of his lost favorite with a deep regret. These were the words,
but how eloquent were the looks and tones! they were such as the noble
master himself might have seen and heard with a just pride.

" John Talbot " is the Straffordshire name of the earl. John, the pre-
decessor of the late Lord Shrewsbury — few titles have so grand a sound
as have those two names on the lips of the peasantry, still mourning him
who bore them ; nor is any title often pronounced with so respectful af-
fection as is that fine old name, " John Talbot."

t Schools of Painting in Italy, vol, ii. p. 451.

fore those grievious changes wrought among them, as in those
of the Borghese Villa, during the year '48.

The gardens of the Kinski Palace, outside the fortifications
of Prague, will recur to the remembrance of all who, knowing
them, shall ascend the private footway to the seat of the Talbot
family; but there is a care and finish in the English garden not
found in that of Prague. The gardens of Daserta, always a
favored residence, and now the constant abode of the royal
family of Naples, are extensive, and in parts richly decorated,
but they are not equal to those of Alton.

Unlike the German boast of Schwetzingen, also Tfidely re-
nowned, the Alton Gardens, which resemble them in the va-
riety of their fountains, waterfalls, temples, lawns, terraces, and
gleaming statues, have the inappreciable advantage of a' fine
site; and if in this respect the Boboli Gardens of Florence over-
match them, as regards grandeur of distant prospect and wealth
of association, yet is this fair Staffordshire " pleasance" richer
in its bright loveliness, and infinitely more attractive in its im-
mediate surroundings, or what may be called the home-views
which consist of emerald slopes and wooded heights, well worthy
to make part of paradise. They have, beside, the charming
quality of being well within the range of vision, although ex-
tending to great distances, and forming a truly magnificent do-
main.

To the beauty and rich odors of that series of living and
breathing pictures called " the Rock-walk of Alton," no grounds
known to the writer can offer a parallel. There is a delicious
solitude, of slightly similar character, at Chatsworth, but even
this — rarely seen perhaps, by any but such as linger most lov-
ingly where Nature is least restrained, and little known to the
mere passing visitor — will not presume to compare its paler
loveliness with the royal perfections of its sister at Alton. Or
you may here are and there find a priceless jewel hidden pre-
ciously among the far depths of the flowery Pyrenean valleys,
and to these the memory may recur, with a glad recognition'
when coming suddenly on some new beauty in this bright vision',
the legitimate "Pride of Staffordshire;" but in mere " grounds''
formed by man, look for no resemblance to it. Happy he who
may linger in the whole fair region more years than we are giv-
ing weeks to its enjoyment; yet even our weeks are growino- to
months, may Heaven make us thankful for the privilege! and I
would that you, who do but read thereof, were here to
share it.

That family of artists, of whom Jacopo Bassano, called Da
Ponte, has the most distinguished name, is represented in our
country by a picture in the National Gallery from the hand of
Leandro, the son of Jacopo; at the Royal Institution of Edin-
burgh, where there are two pictures by Jacopo himself- at
Hampton Court, where there are several by Francesco Bassano,
with one by Leandro; and at the Royal Institution of Liverpool'
where there is a work by Francesco, with one attributed to Jaco-
po but this last, unknown to the present writer,is not considered
to be a good specimen of the master. In private collections
works by the Bassani may also be found: that of Mr. Miles
at Leigh Court, has a "Presentation in the Temple" from the
hand of Jacopo, and there is an Adoration of the Shepherds
also by Jacopo, at Belvoir Castle; this last is a work of "-reat
beauty. At Chiswick there is a picture of high value by'^Bas-
sano — it represents Christ bearing his Cross; and the Marquis
of Exeter is in possession of a Return of the Prodigal Sou
and "The Israelites gathering the Mana;" these are at Bur-
leigh. The late Mr. Rogers had a picture by Giacomo Bassa-
no, which he greatly prized, and with reason, the subject is,
"Dives and Lazarus: in the same collection was a "Good Sa-
maritan," by Francesco Bassano. There are two important
pictures by Giacom at Devonshire House, and the "Maries," at
Chiswick, will at once recur to the memory of all who have
seen that work; there was one at Alton Towers, but the stu-
dent who desires to see it must now look elsewhere. The sub-
ject of the last-named work, also by Giacomo da Ponte, is the
Nativity of Christ; it bears the name of the master, and if not
iu all respects to be accounted among the best of his works is
allowed, and by severe critics, to exhibit very fine colorino-. '

\ —

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

Ill

The gallery of the Louvre is rich in works by the Bassani,
and among them are several by Jacopo; Berlin has examples
of all these masters. Dresden is equally fortunate, nor is
Florence unprovided. "St. Martin dividing his Cloak with the
Beggar," and the "Baptism of Santa Lucilla," are at Bassano.
The early manner of Jacopo Da Ponte is, in many respects,
preferable to that of his later day; a specimen from the hand
of Francesco will be found in the Church of San Lugi de'
Francesi, at Rome; and there is one by Leandro in that of
San Giovanni e Paolo, in Venice; this last is considered to be
a highly favorable example of the painter.

Of Giovanni Licinio, called Pordenone, the friend and
follower, perhaps the disciple, of him whose early death "the
noble Arts" fas they are truly called by the loving Vasari)
can never sufficiently deplore — the still and ever to be lamented
Giorgione, as of the other admirable masters above named, none
should presume to make a mere casual or hasty mention, nor
shall we do so without extreme reluctance. He, too, is repre-
sented at Hampton Court and in Edinburgh. A Holy Family,
two finely painted portraits, and a lady playing on a musical
instrument, form part of the first-named collection; the second
has but one example, nor is that one among the best produc-
tions of Pordenone — the subject of the work is our Saviour on
the Mount. There are three pictures by Pordenone in Lord
Brownlow's collection, — one, the figure of a man with an open
music book, bearing the name of the master and the date 1524.
There is an admirable work of the same earnest painter at Al-
ton Towers, the figures recalling that elevation of character
which all who have seen his works in Yenice, will remember,
with a pleasure much enhanced by that respect for the artist
which the best of his works inspire. "The "Adoration of the
Kings" is the subject of the work ; and if there were not a
thousand good reasons why the lover of beautiful Nature
should ever rejoice in some fair excuse for visiting the attractive
region surrounding Lord Shrewsbury's seat, the lover of Art
will find sufficient cause for doing so in this one picture. In the
best manner of the Venetian school, the "Adoration" here in
question, might also be transferred with advantage to the na-
tional collection. The head of the worshipper, who is bending
to kiss the foot of the divine Child, is remarkable for the ma-
jestic beauty which Pordenone so well knewhow to impart to the
features of one whom he delighted to honor: the reverential
expression impressed on the whole being of this noble person-
age, in no wise detracts from the dignity of his aspect, which
is entirely worthy of Pardeuone. The second of the Magi re-
gards the Babe with a mingled expression ; whether to wonder
most or most to adore seems undetermined in his mind; not so
in that of the attendant beside him, whose face is eloquentof the
deepest awe. There is not enough of the exterior world in this
picture, which one longs to see extended, by that masterly hand,
over a broader space of landscape. It is, beside, in so disad-
vantageous a position at the present moment, that minute ex-
amination is nearly impossible: let us hope that the coming
change will at least correct that fault.

The Marquis of Exeter is in possession of two pictures by
Pordenone, erroneously attributed to Titian and Jocopo da
Ponte. The first is the "Finding of Moses" — "noble in the
characters and expression," — as it should be, if it claim to bear
the name of Pordenone; — "grand in the forms, and of a warm,
full tone of coloring, I do not know any other gallery which
can boast two such works by this rare master." So says Dr.
Waagen, speaking of the first-named of these paintings, the
second he calls, and justly, "a rich and admirable picture."
This last is that hitherto attributed to Bassano (Jacopo da
Ponte), but declared by Dr. Waagen, as is the Finding of
Moses, before mentioaed, to be the work of Pordenone.

In the excellent collection at the Royal Museum at Berlin,
there are two pictures by Pordenone which the writer remem-
bers with pleasure, — these are "Christ washing the Feet of the
Apostles," and the "Woman accused of Adultery;" a third is
mentioned, but this we have not seen.

Of Pordenone's works in Udina and Piacenza, we can but say
here, that no student or lover of Art who may pass within reach of

either city should neglect to visit them. Vasari speaks in
highly eulogistic terms of a fresco at Mantua, exhibiting beau-
tiful children twined fancifully amidst the giant letters of an
inscription purporting that the dwelling of the owner is reared
for himself and his friends, — a familiar custom of the day: this
we have not had the good fortune to see, in the sole visit made
by the writer to Mantua; a city which has not too much in all
the riches of its varied associations to make up for the utter
dreariness of its water-logged aspect. In the Venetian Aca-
demy, in the Church of St. Rocco, and in other churches and
palaces of Venice, are all works of inestimable value, by Por-
denone; but we can do no more than intimate the fact. For-
tunate the eyes that shall verify it for themselves.

From the LiverpoolFhrAographk Journal.

CHORLTOX PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.

The ordinary monthly meeting of this Society was held in the
Chorlton Town Hall, on Thursday evening, January 14th, Mr.
Deane in the chair.

After the minutes of the previous meeting were read by the
Hon. Secretary, Mr, Hepworth read the following essay, con-
taining—

" AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PHOTOGRAPHIC ART-
ITS PRESENT INFLUENCES AND PROSPECTIVE
DEVELOPMENT, APPLICATIONS,
AND USES."

The rapid progress of photography during the last few years
is no less remarkable than that its existence as a scientific art
should be of such modern date, when we bear in mind that the
great source of light, heat, and actinism has shed its radianco
over the world for so many thousand years, and that silver, the
principal agent at present employed , was one of the first metals
of which man possessed any knowledge, and with several of the
compounds of which the alchymists were intimately acquainted.
Many of the effects of light upon 'color, too, must have been
observed for ages, bleaching some and deepening others, yet
the application of these to any practical purpose was reserved
for the philosophical minds of the present century. Mr. Wedg-
wood, in 1802, appears to have been the first to avail himself
of the property that light possesses of blackening the nitrate of
silver when in contact with organic matter, yet both he and
Sir Humphrey Davy failed to fix the impressions that were ob-
tained by this, the first imperfect printing process; and pho-
tography seems to have been abandoned till 1814, when M.
Niepce, of Chalons, directed his attention to the production of
pictures by light, but by a process that was for several years
kept secret. He appears to have experimented for about ten
years alone, when he became casually acquainted with M.
Daguerre, between whom a sort of partnership seems to have
subsisted. The sensitive surface used by Niepce was a thin
layer of bitumen, obtained by pouring upon stone tablets or
metallic plates a sort of varnish composed of asphaltum, oil of
lavender, and petroleum; when dry they were ready for use.
This bitumen has the property of hardening on exposure to
light, and of becoming imperfectly soluble in liquids that pre-
viously dissolved it most readily; he had only, therefore, to
submit his plates, after exposure in the camera, to the ac-
tion of these for a short time, to remove such portions as were
unaffected by light, and thus to obtain the first permanent pic-
tures of which we have any record, though they required an
exposure of several hours to produce them.

In January, 1839, Mr. Fox Talbot communicated to the
Royal Society his photographic discoveries, which consisted of
the preparation of a surface of chloride of silver upon paper;
on this he obtained a negative copy of an engraving, leaves,
lace, &c , by placing them in contact and submitting them to
the influence of light, and from the negative thus obtained, on
similar sheets of prepared paper, was enabled to procure any
number of positive prints, and these were fixed by the applica-
tion of a saturated solution of common salt, in which chloride of sil-

112

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

April,

Ter is soluble to some extent. The patent for what is called the
calotype or Talbotype was not obtained till 1841, a process so
well known that it will be unnecessary for me to describe.
This was even more sensitive thaa the beautiful process of Da-
guerre, which was given to the world by the French Govern-
ment about six month's after Mr. Talbot's first announcement
in 1839. I well recollect with what wonder I gazed upon the
first daguerreotype that I beheld about sixteen years ago; it
was at the meeting of the British Association for the advance-
ment of Science, held in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and many of
you who are listening to me will, I doubt not, have experienced
similar feelings, for, despite, the wonderful discoveries that have
since been made, I question if any process has produced such
marvellous accuracy of detail and delicacy of light and shade
as can be procured by the employment of the iodized silver
plate. The Daguerreotype process was, however, at first ex-
tremely slow, more especially before the employment of bromine
as an accelerator; besides, it required the face of a sitter for a
portrait to be smeared with whiting. I recollect an example of
this: an intimate friend of mine who took considerable interest
iu all scientific affairs, thought he would try his hand at pho-
tography; he procured the necessary apparatus (and these
were in those days very imperfect iu comparison with what we
are now enabled to obtain), prepared his plate according to the
most approved rules, chalked his face till he resembled a plaster
cast, seated himself in his garden on a hot summer's afternoon
with the sua beaming upon him, got a friend to focus and ad-
just the camera, and resigned himself to the influence of a July
sun. Now this gentleman was somewhat stout, and consequent-
ly the perspiration streamed down his face during the fifteen
minutes that he underwent the process of frying, and this in its
descent of course removed the chalk, till his face somewhat re-
sembled a modern map of this country intersected by railways;
he sat his time, however, then ran with impatience to see the
result of his fortitude, and after all did not obtain a trace of
his countenance on attempted development. Whether this
arose from imperfect manipulation I am not prepared to say,
but it will serve by contrast to show what a wonderful improve-
ment has since then been made in rapidity of action. The dis-
coveries of Talbot and Daguerre are epochs in the history of
photography, and from that time till now its progress has been
most extraordinary. They were succeeded by many discover-
ers of minor importance, who gave to the world a host of pro-
cesses of various degrees of merit. Sir John Herschell and
Mr. Hunt stand pre-eminent in this respect, and many and val-
uable are their contributions to the scientific art. To them
are we indebted for the chrysotype, cyanotype, energiatype,
chromatype, and others. Sir John Herschell, too, was the first
to employ glass plates for supporting a sensitive film ; this was
in 1840. He was led to try this from observing that the calo-
type failed to produce such delicate results as can be procured
on metallic plates, in consequence of the rough texture ot the
paper fibre. His method was to precipitate chloride of silver
from very weak solutions, and allow it to deposit in a state of
fine powder on a plate of glass placed at the bottom of the
vessel used for precipitation: then by very carefully removing
the surrounding liquid a layer of chloride in a fine state of di-
vision was obtained. This plan is ingenious but difficult, and
unadapted to the present requirements of the photographer.
For the albumen process, by which the beautiful transparent
stereoscopic slides are produced, we are indebted to M. Niepce
de Sainte Yictor, nephew of the original discoverer of the same
name; he published his mode of manipulation in 1848, but this
process is better adapted for positive prints than for use in the
camera, for, as well as being slow, it is deficient in that soft-
ness which constitutes the beauty of a good photograph. M.
Le Gray, of Paris, was the first to suggest the use of collodion
for supporting the iodide of silver upon glass, and Mr. Scott
Archer to carry this suggestion into practice. The process, as
described by the latter gentleman, in 1851, continues to be
practised with no material alteration, and certainly no disco-
very has tended more to popularize and advance the photo-
graphic art than this has done, for it has simplified the manipu-

lation, presented us with a more sensitive film, enabled us to
produce results hitherto unattainable, given an impetus that
seems to increase with accelerated power, and casts such a fas-
cination around the art as completely captivates the minds of
those who are engaged in it, and ever leads them to persever-
ance under the greatest discouragements. Still the mind of
man remains dissatisfied so long as there is a nearer approach
to perfection to be attained, and the further we progress the
more desirous are we to press forward to this goal; consequent-
ly imperfections, or rather, I should say, inconveniences, were
soon experienced, and the last few years have been prolific in
modifications to meet the requirements, more especially of those
who work out of doors, the great drawback of the collodion
process being want of portability in the apparatus and chemi-
cals required. Various plans for preserving the sensitiveness of
the plates were therefore devised to obviate this difiBculty. The
use of deliquescent salts, honey, glycerine, and oxymel were
tried and with considerable success; but as they always retain
a certain amount of moisture, and consequently are liable to
the adherence of dust, they are superseded by various dry pro-
cesses, in which the surface was protected by a coating of gela-
tine, metagelatine, dextrine, albumen, or other substances.
The collodio-albumen process of M. Taupenot is, however, I
think, the most worthy of attention, both for its keeping quali-
ties and admirable results. The utility and convenience of dry
processes is indisputable, but that they will ever be as sensitive
at moist plates is not to be expected, inasmuch as moisture is
essential to facilitate rapid chemical action. The waxed paper
process ofM, Le Gray has produced such beautiful results when
applied to landscape photography, as to leave but little to be
desired; it seems to stand in the same relation to the calotype
as the process of M. Taupenot does to collodion. Such is a
brief and imperfect sketch of the photographic art. For the
sake of brevity I have omitted a reference to several topics
that might interest you; the limits of one essay will not, how-
ever, admit of my doing full justice to so instructive a subject,
and I will now attempt to describe its present influences.
These, for the convenience of distinction, may be divided into
three classes, — social, intellectual, and relative.

The social influences of photography may be best exemplified-
I think, by glancing at the assembly that is now collected with,
in his room, and by calling your attention to the number of si-
milar societies established in most of the important British and
continental towns: men of difl'erent stations of society, and of
various degrees of mental culture, uniting with one common ob-
ject in view— the advancement of that art so universally ad-
mired and practised throughout the civilized world. Nor do
the advantages of such societies terminate with the mere at-
tainment of the purpose for which they were instituted, but tend
also to foster a more friendly feeling amongst their members,
to remove the baueful spirit of jealousy, and prompt those who
are professionally rivals generously to impart, for the benefit of
all, such knowledge as experience has enabled them to acquire,
and to depend alone for success upon their superior skill, appli
cation, and artistic taste. Neither must we forget the benefits
that photography has conferred on society, by casting a cheer-
ing ray of influence into almost every family in the land, for
now-a-days there are but few houses, from the cottage to the
palace, that do not contain specimens of our art, Perhaps I
may here be allowed a digression, to remark that I am not one
of those who would indiscriminately decry the cheap portrait
system, though it has its abuses; men must to some extent snit
their prices to the locality in which they reside, and if all were
to adhere to the charges that some think necessary to uphold
the respectability of the profession, the poor man would be
totally deprived of the gratification of seeing his humble dwell-
ing adorned with the portraits of those who are dear to him;
lie possesses the ordinary pride, instincts, and feelings of hu-
manity, sometimes even in a stronger degree than those who
claim to be his superiors; these have a right to be respected,
and price is to him a matter of vital importance. Therefore
the photographer who places this gratification within his reach,
confers a boon that meets his niucerest gratitude. From the

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOTJRNAxj.

113

p32r to the peasant the hearts of thousands have been glad-
dened and consoled by the possession of portraits of those who
are united to them by the ties of kindred, affection, or esteem.
None, I believe, but those who have experienced it, can appre-
ciate to the full the value of this blessing conferred upon so-
ciety. The widow could tell you with what emotion she gazes
day by day upon a semblance of the lost partner of her joys
and sorrows — the mother with what rapture upon the reflected
countenances of those loved ones who are scattered abroad en-
gaged in the ordinary pursuits of life, and between whom lands
and seas may intervene — the child at school upon the fond, in-
dulgent countenances of his parents — the lover upon the image
of the idol of his heart — the man of the world upon that of
those who have won his friendship or esteem — and people gene-
rally upon the faces of the eminently good and excellent of the
earth. All of you must have felt this influence in some degree;
it will, therefore, be superfluous for me to dwell more fully upon
it.

In an intellectual point of view the influence of photography
has been such as to excite in the mind a love for all that is
uoble, grand, and beautiful in nature and art, and by leading
us from effects to causes, to create a desire to become more in-
timately acquainted with those laws by which the governance
of the universe is maintained, and which are ever seen to act
with as undeviating perfection upon the smallest particles of
matter as in the motions of the planetary world.

Every man, to be a really intelligent and successful photo-
grapher, must possess a good knowledge of the properties of
the substances with which he works, and such an acquaintance
with chemistry as will enable him to understand the decomposi-
tions that ensue in the processes that he employs, otherwise he
will be continually groping in the dark, and dependent upon
others for that aid which a more perfect knowledge would have
enabled him to dispense with. Photography has excited a de-
sire for this knowledge; books and teachers have not been
wanting to communicate it, and many, I am happy to think,
have availed themselves of the opportunities afforded for its
acquisition. I would ask many who are present if they do not
now possess such an acquaintance with the rudiments of che-
mistry, optics, and the properties of light, as they would never
have attempted to acquire, had they not been stimulated by the
practice of this delightful art. Has the eye not been educated
to appreciate more fully the beautiful — the taste elevated and
refined; and do they not (apart from the mere practice of pho-
tographyj feel that they are wiser, and consequently happier
men. Nor does the development of the intellect end here; pho-
tography has become a teacher to those who know nothing of
it as a scientific art; aided by the stereoscope, it has made them
more intimately acquainted with the scenery and inhabitants of
distant lands than books or verbal description could ever have
done. The world has been ransacked, as it were, to bring' be-
fore us all that it contains that is worthy of admiration — the
photographer with his camera has mounted the snowy Alps and
trodden the torrid sands of Egypt, wandered through the peace-
ful vales of Switzerland and over the battle-field of Likermann,
sketched the crumbling palaces of the mighty Ceesars and the
splendid structures of modern times, the statuary of Greece
and Rome, the swarth Nubian and the fair inhabitant of West-
ern Earope, the barren mountain and the verdant plain; and
this, too, by the unerring pencil of nature, with a truthfulness
that the most accomplished draughtsmen can never hope to
rival. By this means may we now see more of the world in an
hour, and at our own fireside, than months of toilsome travel
would enable us to do.

The influence of photography as a teacher may be aptly ex-
emplified by the interesting exhibition that may be daily seen
at the Manchester Mechanics' Institution, where small photo-
graphs, illuminated by the o.xyhydrogen light, are magnified to
cover a screen thirty feet square. Description would fail to
convey an adequate idea of the beauty of most of these, I may
remark, however, that whilst some are inferior as photographs,
yet capable of imparting a vast amount of instruction, others
are of surpassing brilliancy, and show by the rapturous ap-

VOL. XI. NO. iv. 15

plause with which their appearance is greeted that they at once
impress the mind with wonder and admiration, and that their
merits are fully appreciated. Where so many are beautiful it
will be difficult to make a selection; yet few, I think, can gaze
without emotion upon that magnificent statue erected to the
memory of the gifted and much lamented Malibran, who died
so suddenly in this town some years ago; there is something
that is absolutely angelic and ethereal in the aspect of the pic-
ture as it gradually fades from sight, whilst the organ gives ut-
terance to the sweet plaintive melody that was sung by the ac-
complished vocalist but a few hours before her melancholy de-
cease. Other specimens of statuary are but little inferior to
this; the copy of a gigantic vase, and the interior of a cloister
are also especially worthy of attention, and are perhaps the
best photographs that are there exhibited. Firth's Egyptian
pictures require no comment of mine, for whoever beholds them
and listens to the clear and instructive description given by the
clever and energetic secretary of the Institution, cannot quit
the building without having received both gratification and a
large amount of information. The value of this Exhibition
would, I think, be much increased, however, by the addition of
pictures of local interest, and I would suggest, that if any of
our members are in possession of such, they cannot do better
than sand copies of them to the committee of the Institution,
by whom, I have no doubt, they will be thankfully accepted.

Did time permit, I could show that photography is not desti-
tute of a moral as well as a beneficial physical influence, by
weaning men from pursuits that degrade and enervate, whilst it
substitutes those which purify the mind and invigorate the sys-
tem; but to avoid trespassing too much upon your patience, I
will next treat of photography in relation to the industrial arts.
Its influence in this respect has been most remarkable and bene-
ficial; it has not only given new impulse to several old branches
of industry, but called many new ones into existence. To be
satisfied of this it will merely be necessary to direct your atten-
tion to the multitude of advertisements crowded on the covers
of our journals and contained in the columns of our daily pa-
pers. Paper makers vie with each other to produce an article
suitable for the uses of the photographer; chemists to supply
the constantly increasing demand for the products of their art;
grinders of lenses to furnish the most perfect instrument that
modern science enables them to produce; workers in brass to
give perfection to the movements of these; manufacturers of
porcelain to provide ua with baths, dippers, levelling stands,
dishes, and various useful implements; makers of cameras,
plate boxes, camera stands, stereoscopes, mats, preservers,
cases, passepartouts, India rubber and gutta percha articles,
colors, brushes varnishes, collodion, glass and metal plates, in
fact the multitude that is daily laboring to supply our require-
ments, bears testimony to the benefits that photography has
conferred upon the industrial arts. In the future of photo-
graphy there is such a scope for the imagination to revel in,
that unless it be restrained by the curb of reason, we shall Le
led into the most extravagant exaggeration. Beautiful as the
present productions are, and faithful representations as they are
of nature, still there is much to be acquired, and the mind will
not rest satisfied till greater things are accomplished, or length-
ened experience has shown that it is impossible to imitate her
more closely. The great end to be attained is a fac-siinile of
nature's magnificent colors, the finest copy will ever be inferior
to the original so long as we cannot imitate her in this. To say
it is impossible is an assertion as rash as it would be unreason-
able, for there is no more improbability of this than there was
twenty years ago of our being abljto obtain th3 results we daily
behold; besides, there are now and then faint glimpses flicker-
inn- as it were over the plate, sufficient to inspire us with hope
for the future. Several have obtained a decided color in
folia"'e, others the bright red reflections of brick buildings, and
the true coloring in light and shade of stone colored edifices.
On the Daguerreotype plate bright impressions of the solar
spectrum have been obtained, as well as very close copies of
highly colored drawings; but the latter have unfortunately
been as evanescent as they were beautiful. You will be aware.

114

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

April,

too, that a Mr. Hill, of New York, was said some years ago to
be in possession of fifty pictures obtained by him in all the
beauty of nature's coloration; the process employed by him
was to have been disclosed when more completely perfected, as
this has never been done, we may reasonably question the truth
of the statement; besides, without wishing to cast any asper-
sion on the character of individuals, the intelligence comes from
a very questionable quarter, as the lovg how is a weapon that
is apt to be drawn to the fullest extent by our brethren across
the Atlantic. The pictures were said to be obtained on iodized
silver plates by the application of a new chemical preparation.
Unsatisfactory as these results appear, I still most confidently
expect that the ardent wishes of the most enthusiastic photo-
grapher will ultimately be crowned with success. I do not,
however, believe that it will be accomplished by the deductions
of reason, but rather by some happy accident; men often stum-
ble on the most brilliant discoveries, and so, I believe, it will
be in this case. To assume also that we have attained the
highest degree of sensitiveness in our preparations is, I think,
equally unwarrantable, and if not, what may we not expect
from the future of photography. The difficulty experienced in
photographing the moon consists in the necessity of moving the
sensitized plate in a corresponding degree with the motion of
the earth, so as to keep the object constantly in the field of the
camera; but if a sufficiently increased sensitiveness be obtained,
this will be rendered unnecessary, and the planetary bodies be
photographed as perfectly as objects in a state of rest. What
interesting historical pictures, too, might be obtained of the
most important events that take place, and illustrative of the
manners and customs of a country, coronation, marriage, and
funeral processions, riots and revellings, in fact of assemblies
collected for any important object. Some of you may smile
with incredulity at this, and attribute the idea to the warmth
of enthusiasm; but have not similar effects been shown by Air.
Fox Talbot, in his celebrated experiment at the Royal Institu-
tion, when he caused a piece of printed paper to be attach-
ed to a rapidly revolving disc, and copied it with such
accuracy by the light of a strong electric spark, that the letters
were perfectly legible. The brilliancy of the light in this case
no doubt compensated for the want of sensitiveness of the film,
still I do not see any reason to question the possibility of copy-
ing bodies when in rapid motion by ordinary light, if we can
but sufficiently increase the sensitiveness of the surface employed.
Imagine, if you can, the interest attached to an accurate pic-
ture of a crowd of persons agitated by a variety of passions
and feelings, and this, too, probably rendered as endurable as
the substance upon which it is taken, for burnt in photography
promises much for the future, not only as contributing to the
ornamentation of various articles of taste and utility, but also
as enabling us to procure permanent records of interesting and
important historical events. The purposes to which this branch
of the art is applicable is legion; our fictile ware will, I doubt
not, be ornamented with faithful transcripts of nature, instead
of the montrosities that too often disfigure it. The time-hal-
lowed willow pattern will have to give place to more elegant
designs, and as noblemen have their crests engraved upon their
plate, so may they also have their dinner and tea services
adorned with views of their residences and the surrounding
landscapes, and hall-lamps, glass shades, staircase windows, and
other objects for which transparent media are used will, I doubt
not, ere long be ornamented by this art.

Photo-litiiography and photo-galvanography lead us to ex-
pect that the future will be prolific in illustrated literature; how
greatly then will the interest in our perusal of the books on
Travel, Natural History, and other subjects be increased , when
we feel assured that they contain true representations of the
oljjects described, instead of being, as they too often arc, de-
pendent upon the imagination of the artist. Suppose, for in-
stance, that in reading of some of the wonderful monuments of
antiquity, how much the interest will be enhanced when you feci
certain that you see it as it is; that the picture even shows you
the mosses and tufts of grass as they cling to the hoary ruin,
and that every crevice, leaf, and lichen, is depicted with the
greatest fidelity. I believe, too, that the long neglected Da-

guerreotype will be reinstated in general estimation; for, as I
before stated, I do not think that any of the more recently dis-
covered processes can compare with it for microscopical accu-
racy of detail and delicacy of shadowing: it has some defects,
but these, I think, will be overcome, and by it alone, I think,
we can ever hope to obtain nature's reflection of herself in all
her gorgeous beauty of coloring. Nor is it improbable that
the silver salts will, to a considerable extent, be superseded by
others that are cheaper and likely to give more permanent pic-
tures; for we fiad that those of iron, copper, nickel, and other
metals are already used with considerable success, especially the
chromates, these will, in all probability, completely revolution-
ize the photographic art. I might also allude to the further
application of photography to criminal detection, the recogni-
tion of dead bodies, and other practical purposes; but this es-
say has already extended to such an unusual length that I will
sot trespass lurther upon your indulgence.

It only remains for me now to give you a general summary of
this paper, which I trust will not prove unprofitable, but repay
you iu some degree for the patience with which you have lis-
tened to it, for which I most cordially thank you.

The historical part of my subject is necessarily brief and im-
perfect, but sufficient, I trust, to show the rapid progress of the
art, and to convince us that it has not yet attained the high
standard of excellence that it will eventually reach; for where
so many active minds are engaged in oue interesting pursuit, it
is not possible for itt© remain stationary, but must continue to
advance, and, ultimately, fulfil our most sanguine expectations.
I have endeavored to show you its influence in a social, intellec-
tual, and relative point of view; that it unites men into socie-
ties for mutual edification — tightens the bonds of love, friend-
ship, and esteem — elevates man morally and intellectuallj' —
awakens in him an admiration for all that is noble, grand, and
beautiful, in nature and art — prompts him to become acquaint-
ed with the laws established by his Creator for the governance
of the universe — weans him from pursuits that would degrade
and enervate, whilst it inclines him to those which improve his
mind and invigorate his physical constitution — it stimulates in-
dustry, inculcates patience and perseverance, and, I doubt not,
tends to make us better men, and more intelligent members of
society.

At the conclusion of the above an animated discussion en-
sued on several of the arguments advanced by the essayist, and
an unusually protracted meeting terminated by votes of thanks
being passed to Mr. Hepworth and the Chairman.

A conversational meeting will be held on the second Thurs-
day in February.

OUR PHOTOfiRAPUIC ILLUSTRATIONS.

I.— MRS. GLADSTANE ; of Boston. II.— J. B. HOWE; as Kicbard IH.

Negatives hy J. B. EeywooJ ot Boston.

These two pictures by Mr. Hey wood are characteristic, and
worthy specimens of the Photographic Art. They are printed
on plain American paper, and are, therefore, not so good as
they otherwise should have been. Our object in printing them
thus, was to test the texture and sizing of the paper, in order
to correct the imperfections in the next lot we are to have made.
Consequently we experienced a great deal of trouble from
spotting, inequalities in the sizing, &c.; besides thc'difficulty'of
toning clear. We have also had considerable trouble with our
nitrating solution, for want of pure nitrate of silver.

[Since this paragraph was put in type we have succeeded in
overcoming our greatest difficulty — spotting and want of cleanness
— and our American paper works now as well as any paper wo
ever used. The means will be given in our next.]

Most of our readers are, probably, better acquainted with
the personal histories of the lady and gentleman, whose por-
traits are here given, than we arc ourselves; our knowledge of
them extending no further than seeing their names on theatri-
cal bills; but as their reputations arc widely known, the pic-
tures will prove interesting.

These pictures were printed by the following formulas:

1858.

THE rnOTOGRAPniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

115

SALTING.

Filtered water 1 gal.

Chloride ammonium 180 grs.

The silver solution as heretofore,

TONING AND FIXING SOLUTION.

Water i gal.

Acetate of lead 900 grs.

Salt 720 "

Chlo. Silver 720 "

Acetic acid, No. 8 2 oza.

Hypo. Soda to saturation.

If a decided black is always desired from this bath, acetate
of lead and acetic acid must be occasionally added in small
quantities. This should be done when the bath fails to give a
purplish black color in fifteen or tvv-enty minutes. If the so-
lution becomes milky, clear it up by the addition of hypo. soda.

From the London Art Journal.

COLLODION AND PHOTOGRAPHY.

BY ROBERT HUNT.

Photography was, but a few years since, regarded as one of
the wonders of science — it is now numbered amongst the com-
mon things of the day. Herschel, Talbot, and one or two
other men, were the only persons engaged in examining the strik-
ing phenomena of chemical change under solar influence, and the
results of their studies were, handed about as examples of a strange
natural magic. Daguerre, the French dioramic painter, who
has given his name to the photographic process, which he dis-
covered, then required a period of twenty minutes to obtain a
picture on his metal plate, and he then wrote to the writer of
this article, stating his belief that he had discovered a process
by which portraits from the life could be taken in from two to
three minutes. Now, there are thousands at work, and their
productions are in every person's hands. At the corner of every
street we are beset by touters, proclaiming the merits of their
respective works, and they parody the human face "at any price
you please." From the twenty minutes of Daguerre, we have
advanced in the chemistry of this art so rapidly that as many
seconds are all that are now required, under ordinary circum-
stances, to produce a far better result than any which he ob-
tained. In skillful hands, and with careful manipulation, such
a degree of sensibility can be secured that less than a second of
time will fully impress the prepared tablet with any set of
images, full of the minutest detail. It is instructive to contem-
template what photography has done and is doing.

From all parts of the world we receive sun-pictures of cele-
brated scenes. The pyramids of Egypt, and tho tombs of her
kings and priests, with every hieroglyphic, so faithfully printed
that Mr. Birch can read their story with as much ease as a
schoolboy reads our ordinary letter-press, are now in every pho-
tographic portfolio. Assyria and Babylon, and the sites of old
civilisations, are brought home to us in strange fidelity. The
sands which have worn the porphyries of which the enduring
monuments of those ancient powers were constructed, can be
counted at the base of a statue, and the marks of the fine attri-
tion are preserved upon the stone in the sun-picture. The ve-
getation of any and every clime, in all its native beauty and
wildness, can now be copied, and the botanist can study in bis
closet the flora of far-off lands. The peculiar characteristics
of the human race, whenever one of the great family is found,
can now be secured and preserved for the benefit of the un-
travelled ethnologist. Beyond this, the proverbially restless
ocean, is now made to leave upon our photographic plates true
delineations of its passing waves, and impressions of its break-
ing billows. The fleeting cloud, whether in sunshine or in
storm, now leaves its ever-varying image on the sensitive tablet.
The moon — "pale mistress of the night" — is compelled by her
"mild light" to print her own image; and the "god of day" is
to be made to register, for our instruction, those strange dis-

turbances, manifested to us as black spots, which are ever, with
strange regularity, taking place in the atmosphere by which tho
great centre of our system is enveloped. In our observatories,
too, we press photography to our aid. The varying pressnro
of the air is registered by it; — the constant changes of tem-
perature are recorded by it; — and those mysterious alterations
which are ever occurring in the magnetism of the earth are
noted with rare accuracy by its means. Mau must have repose,
and there are limits within which the range of human — even
the most trained — observation are confined: consequently the
most skilled observer could only register results at certain fixed
periods, and many variations are too small to be noted by the
human eye, or marked by mortal hand: — the camera-obscura,
aided by the light of a common gas-burner, is placed for ever
before the instrument, and each movement for every second of
the twenty-four hours is marked for the study of the philoso-
pher!

All this arises from the careful study which, a few years
since, was made of the chemistry of the art, but which we fear
is too slightly thought of at present. In all our photographic
processes there has been much refinement in the manipulative
details, and whether we regard the calotype, the albumen pro-
cess, the wax paper, or the collodion, we cannot but be struck
with the degree of certainty with which, in skilled hands, a
high degree of perfection is secured. To nothing, however,
has the wide extension of photography been due, so thoroughly
as to that curious chemical preparation to which the name of
COLLODION has been given; and it is our purpose to devote a
short space to the consideration of the physical peculiarities of
this compound, and especially to direct attention to some im-
provements, by which it would appear that the prepared collo-
dion plates can be kept in a state of high sensibility for a con-
siderable time.

Gun-cotton dissolved in ether is called Collodion, because of
its adhesive properties. If cotton-fibre or pape-r, which, being
prepared from some vegetable fibre, is in fact chemically the
same material, be examined as to their properties, we shall find
that they will not dissolve in water, in alcohol, or ether, but we
shall discover that if placed in nitric acid {aqua fortis) they
change character, and are gradually dissolved. A careful in-
vestigation of what takes place instructs us in the fact that the
cotton or paper (chemically lignine) has received some oxygen
from the acid, and then it has become soluble in that fluid. If
sulphuric acid be added to the nitric acid in certain proportions,
the latter acid will no longer dissolve the lignine. If we ex-
amine the cotton or the paper treated with those mixed acids,
we shall perceive that there has been a contraction of volume,
but beyond this no visible change. Upon removing either of
those substances from the mixed acids, we shall discover that
they have respectively increased in weight by nearly one half,
and they are now soluble in ether and alcohol. Beyond
this, whereas the cotton or paper burnt but slowly in the first
place, it exploded with violence when brought in contact with
flame after it has been treated with the acids. "We have here
a very remarkable change in the properties of a body without
its having undergone any visible change of form. It was cot-
ton to the eye, but there are striking physical differences be-
tween the two substances.

Schonbein, of Balse, the discoverer of this preparation, an-
nounced the fact at the meeting of the British Association at
Southampton, and it was then thought that it possessed proper-
ties which rendered it in many respects superior to gunpowder
as a projectile. Trials were made with it as a destructive
agent, and great were the advantages to be derived, apparently,
from its use. Additional experience proved, however, that
there were many objections to the employment of gun-cotton
in war, and the great danger which attended its manufacture
in large quantities has in this country led to its abandonment
for this purpose. In Austria, however, experiments are still
being carried on in the hope of employing gun-cotton for artil-
lery.

Cotton thus changed in its character has been called pyrnxy-
line. An analogous substance has been called xyloidine. Gun-

116

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

April,

cotton, or fyroxyline, appears to be a direct combination of an-
hydrous lignine with nitric acid. Hydrogen and oxygen, which
exist in the equivalents necessary for the formation of water,
exist in the lignine, and, by the acid treatment which we have
described, two atoms of these elements are replaced by two
atoms of nitric acid. Lignine is composed of —

Carbon,

Hydrogen,

Oxygen.

This is treated with nitric acid j q^^/q"!'), | , and the re-
sult is fyroxyline, having the following composition —
Carbon,
Hydrogen,
Oxygen,
Peroxide of nitrogen.

There are three or more varieties of fyroxyline, dependent upon
small differences in the mode of manufacture which has been
adopted. Some of these are not so well fitted for photographic
purposes as others. The gun-cotton best fitted for the manu-
facture of collodion is not very explosive, but it dissolves freely
and entirely in a mixture of ether and alcohol. It is not our
purpose to describe the processes of making collodion further
than we have already indicated them. We will suppose the
amateur is either familiar with the best process for making it,
or that he depends upon some skillful chemist for his supply.

This collodion is to be impregnated with a salt of iodine
(usually the iodide of potassium); this is effected by dissolving
the salt in alcohol, and mixing the alcoholic solution with the
collodion. In this state it is known as iodized collodion. When
poured upon a plate of glass, and uniformly diffused over its
surface, the ether, evaporating, leaves a very delicate film, which
is the surface on which the future picture is to be formed.
When the film is set, the plate is placed in a bath of nitrate of
silver, and the iodine, combining with the silver, forms m the
film iodide of silver. This iodide of silver, in contact, probably
in combination, with the complex compound constituting the
film, is rendered exceedingly liable to change under the influence
of the chemical rays of the sun.

The collodion has been frequently stated to be used merely
"to support a delicate film of iodide of silver upon the surface
of a smooth glass plate. This is but taking a very narrow
view of the important part played by the collodion. In no
other body with which we are acquainted have we the same im
portant set of elements — carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitro-
gen, so combined as to be constantly in what Sir John Herschel
calls "a state of unstable equilibrium." By Heat, by Light, by
Electricity, the balance of affinities is readily disturbed, and de-
composition ensues. The sensibility of the collodion process
depends upon this "unstable equilibrium," which renders the
photographic compound one which is instantly overturned by
the actinic power of the sun-ray; and the decomposition of the
collodion is at once communicated to the metallic salt (iodide
of silver) in combination with it. Iodide of silver, spread in
the most delicate film on dry collodion, is no more sensitive than
other preparations. The collodion process, on account of this
■wondrous instability, which renders it so easy of manipulation
at home, is a source of constant trouble to the traveller. The
plates have been usually presented to the object while still moist,
consequently a tent, or cumbrous couvtrivance about the camera-
obscura in lieu of a tent, has to be employed out of doors.
The operator has to prepare his plates in the field, and to carry
from place to place his collodion and his silver bath, and indeed
all his stock of chemicals. This has greatly retarded the use
of collodion by the traveller; and it is quite certain that, al-
though very fine photographs may be obtained by some of the
paper processes, there is not one of them which ensures such
perfection of detail as the collodion process. The attention of
photographers has been turned to the preparation of collodion
plates which would keep; and many of the modes adopted, es-
pecially by Mr. Llewellyn, with his oxymel process, by Mr.
Shadbolt, with his glycerine, by Messrs. Crooks and Spiller,

with their deliquescent salts, and by some others, have been suc-
cessful. One process, however, appears to commend itself be-
yond others, and to that, a process devised and published by
Mr. Charles A. Long, we desire to direct attention. Mr.
Long has published all the details of his process in a little
book, to which we refer our readers, intending only to deal with
the preservative solution, which appears applicable to the collo-
dion film under a great variety of conditions. In the first
place we will give the mode of preparing this preservative solu-
tion:—

Some care is required in the preparation of this solution, in
order that it may be clear and bright when finished, and not
contain particles that would be deposited in its passage over tho
collodion film when being used. The chief precaution to be
observed, is not to allow it to beil too rapidly, and not to conduct
the operation over too fierce a fire; attention to this will prevent
many failures, and ensure a solution in every way suited for the
process. Take 200 grains of the best transparent gelatine, cut
it into small shreds, and throw it into a pipkin in which has
been previously placed 10 ounces of distilled water; set this on
a slow fire, or over a lamp, uutil the gelatine is completely
melted; then weigh out 100 grains of pure citric acid, aud dis-
solve it in 2 ounces of distilled water; adds this to the solution
of gelatine, stirring it during the addition with a glass rod.
The solution in the pipkin is now to be gently boiled until half
of it has evaporated; this should be in about 15 minutes: re-
move it from the fire, and add sufficient distilled water to make
up the bulk of liquid to 12 ounces. When quite cold, the
liquid in the pipkin is to be filtered through two thicknesses of
pure white blotting paper into a bottle perfectly dry and clean.
We now add to every 12 ounces of filtered preservative solu-
tion 1 ounce of alcohol, of the specific gravity of 'S-iO. The
solution thus prepared is ready for use, and should be of a pale
amber color, without any signs of insoluble particles floating in
it; should any appear after it has been prepared for some days,
a second filtration will remove them, and render the liquid again
bright and clear."

The collodion plate being prepared, the preservative solution
is applied in the following manner: —

"Taking the plate in the left hand by means of the pneuma-
tic holder, incline it slightly; then having poured into a perfect-
ly clean measure rather more of the preservative solution than
is necessary to cover the plate twice,* pour half of it along the
upper edge in such a manner that a wave of the solution may
flow uniformly from one end of the plate to the other; allow
this to flow off into the waste pan or sink, and then bring the
plate to the horizontal position, and pour on the remainder of
the preservative solution, four times at least, allowing it to flow
back into the measure from each corner in succession, in order
that the whole plate may be brought uniformly under its in-
fluence. The plate is to be then placed on a piece of clean blot-
ting-paper, and its back wiped with a fragment of blotting or
papier Joseph, in order to remove any of the preservative solu-
tion that may have run from the surface to the underside in the
previous operation. The plate thus preserved is to be reared on
a piece of blotting paper, with its face against the wall, until
dry, and is then to bestowed away in a plate-box, perfectly
light-tight, to await the exposure in the camera-obscura."

It will be evident that the great point which has been secured
is the preservation of the collodion film from the influences to
which the disturbance of its instability are liable. It is defend-
ed by an air-tight coat of gelatine; and we can state from our
own experience, that plates thus prepared have been kept a
fortnight without losing any of their sensibility. A set of plates
were prepared by Mr. Charles Long for a gentleman who took
them with him to Belgium. He, without any trouble, impressed
them with a set of views, replaced the plates in his dark pack-
age, and on his return to this country the pictures on them were
developed — and most perfect representations of nature they
were.

It will be understood, that the sensitive plate fully retains
that degree of sensibility which it has when first the preserva-
* A plate, 9 inches by 7, takes about 1 ouuce of solution.

P'tiotjlitli.of J.A.Cuttiiip- a- L.H. Bradford .

; ^/

^<^v ^Cf^^-:^^:?-^__

LITHOGRAPHER 221 , Vfashinp-ton ST. BOSTON

i

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAr..

117

live solution is applied. The sensibility is slightly lowered by
its application, but for a month the plate is said to suffer no
further loss of power; the surface is so hard that any number of
plates can be packed together iu one parcel. They can be ta-
ken out — in the dark of course — one by one as required, placed
in the camera-obscura, and impressed with the lenticular image,
again removed from the camera, and placed — in the dark — in
the package, until a favorable opportunity occurs for developing
the dormant picture. If the result of enlarged practice con-
firms the results of our owu experiments, this process of Mr.
Charles Long must prove a valuable addition to photography.

MANCHESTER PnOTOGRAPHiC SOCIETY.

The monthly meeting of this Society was held on the 3rd
instant, \\\ the rooms of the Philosophical Society, George-
street. Mr. Alfred Nield in the chair.

Mr. SiBEBOTHAU read the following paper contributed by Mr,
Jas. Mudd, ou

"THE ARTISTIC ARRANGEMENT OF PHOTOGRAPHIC
LANDSCAPES."

Landscape photography I How pleasantly the words fall
upon the ear of the enthusiastic photographei*. What agree-
able associations are connected with our excursions in the coun-
try. How often have we wandered along the rough sea-shore,
or climbed the breezy hill-side, or descended into the shady val-
ley, or toiled along the rocky bed of some mountain stream,
forgetting, in the excitement of our pursuit, the burdens we
carried, or the roughness of the path we trod. What delight-
ful hours have we passed in wandering through the quiet ruins
of some venerable abbey, impressing, with wondrous truth, upon
the delicate tablets we carried, the marvellous beauty of Gothic
window, of broken column, and ivy-wreathed arch. How plea-
sant our visits to moss-green old churches, and picturesque cot-
tages, and stately castles, and a thousand pretty nooks, in the
shady wood, by the river side, or in the hedge-rows, where the
twining wild convolvulus, the bramble, and luxuriant fern have
arrested us in our wanderings.

We may have had little mishaps; some disappointments.
Our ingenuity may have been exercised to find a substitute for
a broken ground-glass, or the ring of a lost tripod stand. The
rustic population in bye places may possibly have misunderstood
our vocation. Our mission not being clear to them, they have
probably taken us for railway surveyors, electric telegraph peo-
ple, sappers and miners, or, lower still, for ratcatchers, bird
fanciers, or itinerant showmen. The writer of this paper has
stood in the street of a small village in Yorkshire, at the side
of his camera, surrounded by a numerous circle of wondering
ruptics, while offers of a pecuuiary nature were freely made, by
the small capitalists of the party, to secure a "look" at the
peep-show. And, indeed, our conduct ou some occasions may
have very reasonably excited a suspicion, that we were even
worse characters than those already referred to. As, for in-
stance, when prowling about some farm-yard, we have seized
upon a stray wheelbarrow, hayfork, or milk can, to introduce
iuto the foreground of our picture; the bewildered owner of the
property, appearing suddenly at his threshold, and seeing his
goods and chattels walked off before his eyes, might very ra-
tionally doubt the safety of his hen-roost, and entertain the
thought of letting loose the dog upon us. We have often ap-
peased the worthy man's fears, however, and have entertained
him with a view, on the ground glass of his house, and yard,
and wheelbarrows, and wife — all wrong side up, the latter, to
his amazement, walking comfortably about the premises on her
head! After showing him the inside of the empty camera,
without wheels, or clockwork of any description, (of which he
was sure it was full,) and attempting a short description of the
process, with the hardest possible words, he has walked away
muddled and dead beaten; and, I have no doubt, while ponder-

15*

ing over a soothing pipe, has felt that there are more things in
heaven and earth, than are dreamt of in his philosophy.
After this, we could always do what we liked with the wheel-
barrows.

And thus, good humoredly bearing our breakages, or losses,
or misunderstandings with the agricultural mind, we have made
our way, and, on arriving at our resting-place for the night,
have spent pleasant evenings in laughing at our adventures, and
in the very interesting labor of developing the pictures we have
taken during the day. And over that same development, how
delightfully anxious — how timidly hopeful — how busy and flut-
tering and interested we have been!

You will perceive I have been assuming that the process em-
ployed is a dry one, for I can scarcely imagine the same amount
of pleasure in connection with the laborious duties of a tent.
The constant occupation of time in preparing, exposing, and
completing the plate on the spot, leaves but little leisure for
enjoying the beauties of the scene around, while the demand
upon the physical powers is something considerable. I have
known photographers who remember, with no very plea-
sant sensations, their voluntary incarceration in the portable
tent, or, what may not inappropriately be called (remember-
ing its Indian temperature sometimes), the photographic, black
hole."

Now, although our excursions, as I have said, are often very
pleasant, we do not always return with really good pictures. I
need not remind you of the many causes of failure. They are
indeed too numerous to mention. It is often the case, however,
that we get good photographs free from streak, or stain, fog,
or blister — perfect specimens of some photographic process, but
still they are not pictures. There are grave errors in the ar-
rangement of the subject, or in the subject itself. The object
of the present paper is to recommend attention to the selection
of subjects, and to mention a few rules which are of use to the
painter, and which may possibly be of some little benefit to
photographers also.

In the early days of photography the most commonplace ob-
jects satisfied us. The ardent experimenter of that period
looked with pride and wonder at the picture of a stack of grim
chimneys, taken, perhaps, from his little laboratory window, or
his surprising view of a dead brick wall and water tubs. He
could count every brick; that was the marvel. But the novelty
of this soon wore off, and something more was desired, namely,
beauty in the object itself. So the photographer went to nature,
and the hills and fields, and streams became fitting subjects for
his art.

Now, although nature may be said to be always beautiful,
yet are there certain groupings of objects in relation to each
other, certain agreeable outlines and combinations of forms,
which, however difficult to explain in words, are seen at once,
and recognised as picturesque, and it is to the selection of these
points of interest the artist photographer would do well to at-
tend. Great advances have been made in the artistic qualities
of photographs, yet by far too many show a lamentable de-
ficiency in this respect. Our delightful pursuit will have taken
up a new and improved position in relation to art when more
attention is given to the subject. Artists admire portions of
our pictures, as a foreground, a rock, or tree, but justly com-
plain of a want of completeness as a whole.

Of course, the photographer has not the same command of
arrangement as the painter. While the latter is but little de-
pendent on the arrangements of external nature, and is left to
himself to determine the order in which objects shall be asso-
ciated the former, after all, must take the view as it really
stands' before him. He has merely the power of selecting the
best combination of objects from the most favorable points of
view. It would be useless, therefore, where our power is so
limited, to mention all the rules laid down for painters, but
there are some which, I think, will enable us to determine which
is the best view, and why it is. At any rate, we shall be none
the worse for carrying this knowledge with us, and making use
of it when circumstances allow us to do so. I will now refer
to one or two rules for composition.

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THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

April,

Bat, first, let me recommend you, on arriving at the locality
you are about to photograph, to take a careful survey of the
spot. The photographer who plants his camera at the first
pleasing object he meets with, frequently finds a much finer view
of the same thing afterwards. Take, then, a liesurely walk
round before you decide, dropping a stick or a stone on the
grass to mark the points of view you like best. In making
your selection, perhaps the following rules may serve as a
guide: —

Avoid getting the principal or leading features of a picture
perpendicularly over, or horizontally level with each otlier.
This is an important rule. J. D. Harding, in his work on Com-
position, says, " The flat surface upon which a picture is paint-
ed, and on which the painter has to invest the ideas of space,
is not among the least of the difficulties with which he has to
contend. The four lines at right angles with each other, which
form the usual boundaries of a picture, present another obsta-
cle to the painter, in consequence of the artificial limits thus
assigned to his view; for it is as well known to all the world, as
to himself, that natural views have no such artificial boundaries.
These may appear at first self-evident and unimportant facts;
. but it will be seen that they lie at the root of many of the dif-
ficulties with which the painter has to contend in the composi-
tion of his subject. In the composition the painter makes his
first effort to convey the idea of the separation of the various
objects, and to overcome the difficulties I have pointed out as
connected with the flat surface on which he paints. To effect
this none of the leading features of the picture should be perpen-
dicularly over, or horizontally level with each other; because if
they be so placed, they either repeat actually, or by suggestion,
the horizontal or perpendicular lines which artificially limit his
picture, and which require to be concealed as much as possible
from observation."

These remarks apply equally well to photography as to paint-
ing, for the latter has the same difficulties to contend with as
the former, namely, the flat surface upon which his picture is
taken, and its artificial boundaries. In the case of stereosco-
pic pictures, where the efi'ect of space is produced in another
way, the difficulties are not so great or the defects of composi-
tion so glaring; for, however confused they appear when the
pictures are seen separately, the various objects become disen-
tangled, and fall into their relative positions when placed in the
stereoscope. Where, however, there is no assistance of this
kind, as in the case of larger single pictures, you must rely upon
the arrangement to prevent confusion of objects, and to give
effect of space. And it has been found, from investigation of
impressions made by art (not from a study or imitation of na-
ture, for all pictures are equally true imitations of nature), that
such result is gained, in some degree, by attention to the rule I
have just mentioned. That, by a certain arrangement and se-
paration of the parts of a picture, the efi'ect of space is pro-
duced; while by placing objects immediately under or over each
other, or on the same level, the contrary result of flatness is the
consequence.

It sometimes happens that the photographer finds it impos-
sible to select his view free from disagreeable lines parallel to the
bottom of the picture. In a case of this sort, a deal may be
done to conceal them from the eye, in various ways. Here is a
photograph of a very picturesque cottage, with the ground line
and the line of the roof nearly parallel with the bottom of the
picture. This defect has been considerably lessened, by rearing
against the low walls of the cottage, some rough planks and
logs of timber, which were lying about at the time the view
was taken, and which serve admirably to attract the eye away
from the horizontal lines, besides adding considerably to the in-
terest of the picture. There is, frequently, some stray timber
or branch of tree you may make very useful for this purpose,
or for objects in the foreground. You may, also, if such means
are not at hand, take the cap ofi' your lens, and rush into the
picture yourself, taking care, however, that you are not made a
ghost of by the still unbroken line showing through your body.

Endeavor to occupy every portion of your picture by some
object of interest or pictorial value. It often happens in pic-

tures, especially in photographs, that strips from the top to the
bottom, or across, may be cut away without removing one fea-
ture of interest in it. The plainness of the skies, one of the
greatest defects in a photographic landscape, must be as far as
possible concealed, by breaking up the space with trees or other
objects. Pity it is that we are driven to such a course, but we
have not yet arrived at the knowledge which will enable us to
combine the beauties of earth and sky. How beautiful would
fine landscapes be with the clouds and skies of Le Gray! Let
the fereground of your picture have mnch of your care and at-
tention, The exquisite detail of rock and bramble, tall reedy
grass and fern, or the gnarled roots or trunks of trees, which
serve for excellent foregrounds, are also amongst the most in-
teresting and beautiful objects in a photograph. By thus get-
ting near objects at the base of the picture, you give distance
to those beyond. We have all seen pictures very deficient in
this respect. Here is one of the kind, with an unbroken soli-
tude of field at the bottom; and above, a mass of white paper,
which represents the sky. By removing both portions you have
still all that is valuable left behind.

But, while making these remarks, I would just observe, that
it is impossible to crowd too much into a picture, so as to have,
indeed, three or four pictures in one. In such cases the eye
wanders from point to point, vainly endeavoring to decide which
is the principal subject. There is no repose or order where so
many objects are dividing the attention, and thrusting them-
selves forward as principals. Let there then be one leading ob-
ject, around which the rest are grouped as accessories.

Let the principal feature of interest, whether it be a castle,
or cottage, or group of rocks, whatever gives name to, or is to
claim the chief attention in the picture, be placed in the most
conspicuous position, which is near the centre of the picture.
I do not mean the point where lines drawn from the opposite
corners would intersect each other, but any point equally dis-
tant from the sides, though unequally from top to bottom.

But in thus placing it, take care that the objects on either
side are varied, and do not resemble each other in size, or form,
or weight of masses. For example: A building in the centre
of your picture, and a tree on either side, equal in size and ap-
pearance, would, you can easily imagine, produce a picture very
faulty indeed in arrangement. When the subject is a single ob-
ject, as a tree, it should be placed near the side.

With respect to the subject of light and shade, — I may say,
I think, with safety, — avoid broad unbroken masses of shade.
Every photographer knows that the shady side of nature is her
least attractive side. Amongst your collection of failures, I
fancy we can find a more formidable array of ghostly forms, and
half-developed images, arising out of the gloom of shady places,
than Mrs. Crowe ever dreamed of in that very sepulchral work
of hers — the "Night Side of Nature." But while avoiding
much shade, we must not fall into the other extreme. A pic-
ture with the light full in front is usually flat, and wanting in
the agreeable variety and relief which shadows thrown from
projecting objects give when the light comes in at the side of
the picture. A side light is therefore preferable.

Never let the horizon of a picture be half the height of the
drawing; but above, or below, as the subject requires.

In taking a view of au avenue of trees, a street scene, or
long perspective of arches, do not let the distant opening be
exactly in the centre of the picture, but more at one side, and
nearer the base of your picture than the top.

A word or two on the introduction of figures. How rarely
do we find in photographic landscapes a nice arrangement of
suitable figures. Why are they always looking full at yon?
Why do they always seem to have so little to do with the pic-
ture— to be in it but not of it — standing uncomfortably erect,
with their faces to the spectator? No doubt it arises from the
curious fact that people invariably look straight at the camera
when invited to stand in a picture, and photographers usually,
either for want of time or taste, allow them to arrange them-
selves in that manner. Let us take a lesson from the painter,
who generally finds his figures something to do in the scene he
paints. Remembering the rule I have mentioned, be careful

1858.

THE THOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

119

not to place them immediately under any leading object of the
picture. Let the "right man" be in the "right place," and all
figures be appropriate to the scene. An old man, or child in a
churchyard — a lishermau on tlie banks of a stream — a group of
rustic children in a village — a farm laborer among his stacks of
hay or corn — these are al! suitable to the character of the pic-
tures, and in harmony with them. To introduce into such
scenes, a fine dapper gentleman in glossy hat and kid gloves, or
a lady, whose small circle of parasol above sets off the mighty
circumference of crinoline beneath, would be absurdly out of
place. And yet we see such mistakes every day. It may be
difficult to meet with suitable figures, but that is no reason why
unsuitable ones should be introduced: the pictures would be bet-
ter without figures at all.

Besides the roles I have mentioned in this paper, there are
some others laid down for painters, but they are so very remote-
ly applicable to photography, that I have not thought it neces-
sary to refer to them, but have merely recommended those I
thought most available. If what has been said should induce
you to seek further on the subject, or to pay increased attention
to the arrangement of your pictures, the object of this paper,
and of my wishes, will have been gained.

There are two things that photography must do for us; it
must increase our love for nature, and our admiration for na-
ture's imitators, the painters.

We cauuot go forth into picturesque districts in search of
subjects for our pictures without improving our taste, and in-
creasing our love for nature. We cannot possess so many
charming copies of those beauties, as our portfolios contain,
without becoming more intimately familiar with all the beauti-
ful details and exquisite finish of nature's handiwork.

And while we admire these beauties, we are, I think, capable
of appreciating better the work of the landscape painter. We
see how earnestly and patiently he has studied, and with what
truth he has rendered on his canvas the very forms we have be-
come so familiar with : the ripple on the stream, the markings
in rock and stone, and trees, and crumbling wall, and (what is
beyond our art), the thousand hues and tints of earth and
sky.

There is one thing I should like to say before I conclude, I
hope, as there will be no Art Treasures Exhibition to claim our
time this season, we shall attempt something in landscapes of an
important size. I should strongly recommend you to emanci-
pate yourselves from the custom of only taking pictures for the
stereoscope. In my humble opinion a good nine by seven land-
scape is a more valuable work than twenty stereoscopic ones.
The latter have engaged our attention almost exclusively for a
season or two; and I fear there is a danger of our becoming a
society of very small operators indeed. I do think, gentlemen,
judging from my own sensations, that you would derive more
gratification in the production of larger pictures.

I have referred to the Art Treasures Exhibition. I refer to
it again, in conclusion, hoping that we all profited by our de-
lightful acquaintance with the great works of the painters ex-
hibited there; and I trust by studying the rules which have
been their guide, and by understanding the principles of art, we
shall become the greater admirers, and the more successful prac-
tisers of landscape photography.

The above paper was illustrated with a number of diagrams,
which made the subject very interesting.

The Secretary, Mr. Cottaii, then read a communication he
had received from Mr. Noton, relative to an experimental re-
volver he had made, furnished with different shaped stops, and
applied in front of a plano-convex lens tor views — diair.eter two
and a quarter inches, focus about eight and a half. The revol-
ver will carry a stop of any shape, (two inches from the lens, )
but so far only four shapes have been used, namely, a rectangu-
lar one, 1'2 inches long by '007 inches wide; a triangular one,
1-2 inches long, '2 inches at the base and '003 inches at the
point; also a round one, '5 inches by '5 concentric.

The object has been to ascertain whether or not the shape of
the stop had any effect upon the picture, (not the exterior of
the field). It is rather difficult to explain the various appear-

ances of disturbance, distortion, &c., produced by the various
shapes, but their character certainly alters, as one or the other
are used.

One experiment, with the rectangular stop, maybe men-
tioned for illustration. The camera was set up on its legs in a
room, and pointed to look through the window into the street,
and focussed for an intermediate wall there, a five-eighths round
stop being in front of the lens; this stop was then removed, and
the rectangular one substituted for it. Upon revolving this, all
the objects out of focus w^ere at once set in distorted motion —
the disturbance was most in the bars of the window, those
being the nearest; the wall in focus was apparently unaffected,
and a slight motion in objects at a considerable distance could
be perceived. When the slit was set at an angle of about
45°, all the window bars were out of focus, as they were with
the five-eighths round stop, (the light being of course less, as
the area of the rectangle was only about one-fourth of the
circle,) when the slit was vertical or horizontal, the vertical or
horizontal bars were corresponding in focus, as were the lines
in the objects at the greatest distance.

The conclusions drawn from the experiments made, are, that
a stop should be shaped to suit special cases; a scaffold pole,
or a tree, out of focus, which cannot be got rid of, may be very
much sharpened by a vertical stop of a proper shape.

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal

MR. SUTTON'S DEVELOPING PROCESS.

The problem of printing on plain paper has occupied much of
Mr, Sutton's attention for some years. As a matter of taste,
he extremely dislikes prints on albuminized paper, and no doubt
there are many who probably entertain the same feelings, and
it is for them the present article is especially intended. Those
who prefer that peculiar kind of vigor and brilliancy which is
exhibited by a piece of black sticking plaster , or a well-polished
Wellington boot, to the depth and vigor of the blacks of a fine
engraving on plate-paper, need not concern themselves with
this process; for the best results which it appears capable of
yielding do not surpass, in point of vigor, the best proofs from
the press of the copper-plate printer.

With respect to this process; — let the copper plate or litho-
graphic printer select, in the first place, a paper of the peculiar
tint which he thinks most suitable for his purpose, and in the
second place, an ink of the most appropriate and beautiful tint.
This done, let him exert his utmost skill iu producing a fine
proof. The result will be a proof on India paper, either in
common printing ink, which is of a cold greenish black tint
(very beautiful), or in a fancy ink of some tint lying between a
purple brown and either a green or purple black, Now,
Mr, Sutton affirms that this photographic printing process
is capable of yielding positive prints which will bear the
most critical comparison, as regards artistic effect, with the
best copper-plate or lithographic proof. You may lay the
photograph on the finest engraving or lithograph, and find it
impossible to say that one is superior to the other in effect;
both being equally vigorous and beautiful, and the effects being
of the same kind in both. But for the peculiar truthfulness and
inconventionality of the photograph it might be mistaken for an
engraving. The process has also the merits of economy, and
the prints are capable of withstanding the action of destructive
tests, such as milky hypo, far better than those which are ob-
tained by the common process, Mr. Sutton, however, admits
that t^Q finest results are only obtained under certain favorable
conditions, with respect to which there is at present some ob-
scurity. He has not yet completely made out the subject of
tints, as regards the production of effects with absolute uniform-
ity: but the difficulties which remain only ajapear to be such as
a little perseverance will surmount.

The operations are very simple, and the want of uniformity
in the results appears to depend mainly on the variable condi-

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THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AKD FINE ART JOURNAL.

April,

tion of the nitrate bath. Variations iu the amount of light,
and degree of temperature, affect the result of course to some
extent, but he has obtained some of his best prints in the
gloomy month of November, and apparently under the most ad-
verse circumstances of light. His dark room is always heated
to 60* Fahrenheit, at least. A temperature of 10" appears to
be about the best, and he believes it to be impossible to work
successfully at a lower temperature than 50". This process
requires no toning bath.

Any good photographic paper may be employed, but differ-
ent papers require different treatment. The operations on Hol-
lingsworth's thin paper are as follows: — First, for the salting
bath take —

Filtered rain water 1 ounce.

Common salt from 6 to 10 grains.

Lemon juice from 1 to 3 drops.

Use a fresh lemon , and do not ou any account cut it with a
steel knife. Stick a pounted piece of wood into it, or bite off
a piece of the peel. If you introduce any citrate of iron into
the paper, the nitrate bath willl turn black as ink.

Observe, there is no gelatine, nor serum, nor any troublesome
mess in the salting bath. The bath is nothing but salt and wa-
ter, with a lemon squeezed into it.

Filter the solution through a fine cambric handkerchief, laid
in a glass or gutta percha funnel (not block tin), and use it at
once. When done with, throw it away, and give the lemon to
the cook. You may either immerse the papers in the bath a
great many at a time, or float them on it one at a time. They
should remain on the bath for at least two minutes, and if im-
mersed, the time of immersion may vary from five minutes to
twenty-four hours. A rather long immersion seems to give the
most vigorous prints, and not to cause the print to sink in the
paper and become mealy. Still, as the fine grain of the paper
is somewhat injured by long immersion, it would no doubt be
a good plan to submit it to pressure, when dry, between glazed
mill-boards in an engraver's press.

The papers may be hung up by one corner to dry. Mr. S.
cannot say how long they will keep, for he has invariably used
them within a week or two of their preparation.

The next operation is to excite the paper on the nitrate bath,

which is made thus: —

Distilled water 1 ounce.

Nitrate of silver from 20 to 30 grains.

Lemon juice 10 minims.

Filter the bath, and float the papers on it, for two or three
minutes. Then hang up to dry by one corner. Never dip a
pin into the nitrate bath, or it will turn the bath black.

The paper may be excited over night, exposed the next
morning, and the picture developed in the evening (i.e. twenty-
four hours after it has been excited.)

Expose in the pressure-frame until a faint image of the pic-
ture is perceived.

Develop with a solution of gallic acid, freshly made; or to
speak more clearly, add four grains of gallic acid to an ounce
o'i distilUd ViSiiQV] shake up well, and use at once; filtered of
course.

The cleanest and best way of developing the picture is to
turn up the edges of the paper, and make the print into a tray.
Lay it on a sheet of glass truly horizontal, with a piece of clean
wiiite blotting paper under the print; then pour a little gallic
acid solution on the darkest part of the print, and spread it all
over as quickly as possible, with a bent glass rod.

Push the developmeut to the proper stage; then wash the
print in clean rain water, and place it ipimediately in the fol-
lowing hypo, bath: —

Clean rain water 20 ounceg.

Hyposulphite of soda 1 ounce.

Let it remain in this fixing bath for fifteen or twenty min-
utes; then throw the hypo, away, and wash the print u'ell in
several changes of water, under a tap, and leave it to soak for
several hours in a tub, with other prints, changing the water
several times. Lastly, hang it up to dry. The print is then
finished.

ON THE PERMANENCE OF rHOTOGRAPDIC PRINTS,

IL

In toning, there are no general rules that will apply to any
one bath. The same batli will work differently on different
days, and frequently at different hours of the same day. We
have found our baths — no matter how made — to give beautiful,
clear blacks in the morning, when in the afternoon no amount
of toning would produce the same effect. Every attempt to
change its operations only made bad matters worse. We
therefore came to the conclusion to let them alone, and be
guided entirely by the brilliancy or dullness of the print during
its immersion: so long as they were clear and brilliant both in
lights and shades we made no alterations. When dullness, or
a veilness appeared in the whites, we added hypo, soda in
small qnantities until the defect was corrected. If the shadows
presented the same appearance we added chloride of silver; or
chloride of gold gradually which often alone proved effectual;
and when both lights and shades were dull or clouded, both
hypo, and chloride were added; but when these were not effec-
tual, we concluded the bath to be too acid, and neutralized it
with aqua ammonia; or bi-carbonate of soda — the latter is the
best.

All the chloride of gold baths we have made, appear to
possess wonderful disposition and faciltiy to change ; more
particularly in warm weather — half an hour being sufficient,
on some days, to alter its action entirely. We have toned prints
at nine in the morning to the desired tint in fifteen minutes;
have left them in the same bath the same length of time at ten
o'clock, and had them so completely sulphurized as to be worth-
less; laid aside they faded out entirely in a few weeks. Again,
in the evening at six o'clock, twenty minutes would be required
to produce the same purple tint obtained in the morning at nine
o'clock. At first this state of things gave us great trouble, and
iu our endeavors to cori'ect what we considered an evil, we
spent an unnecessary amount of money. We threw away solu-
tion after solution and made fresh — dosed the baths with hypo.,
silver, bi-carbonate of soda, and many other things too numer-
ous to mention, as the auctioneers say, with no benefit to the
general result. The amount of gold or silver taken up by each
print, cannot be safely calculated for universal practice, as no
two samples of paper will work alike in this respect; as a rule
therefore, add more silver and gold when the picture appears
weak or thin, after obtaining the desired color in the proper
time — which should be in not more than twenty minutes. Of
course it is necessary that the print should be brought up to
the proper strength in the pressure-frame; which strength can
only be ascertained by due reference to the capabilities of the
negative, some requiring more intensity of coloring in the posi-
tive than others, to produce a given result. Much of the bril-
liancy of a print depends upon the quaUty of the paper. A
porous — badly-sized — coarse-grained paper will be deficient in
this respect; and it is in the fineness of grain more than any
other quality, in the albumeuized paper that renders the prints
made on it so charming to the artistic eye. It is, also, only
albumeuized paper that a permanent sepia tint — so much admired
by those of an artistic taste — can be obtained. When produced
ou plain paper by removing the print from the toning bath before
it has reached the purple tint, it must eventually fade — but more
rapidly — as sulphuration, and consequently destruction, has al-
ready commenced. In order to obtain this much desired color
with a surety of permanence, we must employ a salt that will give
it within the period of time necessary to fix the print. We have
not tried the chloride of copper yet; but we should suppose it
might be successfully employed. Two drops of chloro-chromic
acid in the ordinary gold bath of half a gallon, will produce a
very fine warm sepia, or brown, color; but we have some fears
of its eventually destroying the picture. We see that Mr.
Moulton gives, in his book , his formula for toning bath as con-
taining 10 drops hydrochloric acid. This, we arc convinced,
is a very dangerous addition, and will effect the destruction of
every photograph in which it exists. It undoubtedly gives
warmth to the tone; but if used p/c all, two drops, or even one,

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNA^.

121

would be sufficient. We should, however, advise operators not

to nse it. We have made two attempts to test the durability
of photographs toned with the chloro-chromic acid addition; but
have been foiled each time by the disappearance of the inipi'es-
sions from their hiding place. They may not have faded, al-
though they did not keep. However, the nature of this acid is
similar in its action to the hydrochloric, and it must be used
with caution.

The use of warm water in fixing we consider decidedly inju-
rious. The only quality, of all that are claimed for it by the
English writers, it possesses, is its speedy removal of the hypo.
Its objections are, weakening of the print, destruction of the
sizing, and consequently loosening of the fibre; and imparting
greater tendency to the sulphurization. Cold water is de
cidedly preferable, as it obviates all these difQculties with-
out creating new ones, besides giving greater brilliancy.
Prints treated in every way alike, except in the tempera-
ture of the washing bath, produced the difi'ereuces above
stated; and when exposed to the atmosphere, those submitted to
the warm solution faded in a few days, while the others have re-
mained unchanged. We are indebted for the hint that led to
this experiment, to C. Guillon, Esq., of Pliiladelphia, who, dur-
ing a photographic tour to Schooley's Mountaia, observed a
marked change for the better, in prints washed out in an icy
cold spring, over those treated at home in water at the
usual summer temperature. Where running water can be pro-
cured, no other should be used for the final washing.

H. H. S.

METHOD OF ILLUSTRATiNG LECTURES
Or Scientific Papers by means of Fliotograpliy.

BY MR. W. HISLOP, F.R A.S.

[Read before the North London Photographic Association, Dec. 30, 1857.]

I wish SO direct the attention of the meeting this evening to
an application of photography for the purpose of illustrating
scientific lectures or papers, and also for educational purposes.
Those who are called upon to perform these duties, either occa-
sionally or continuously, know that a large portion of the labour
and expense is expended in the preparation of diagrams. In
microscopy, in physiology, and in astronomy especially, the sub-
jects are often so elaborate as to require a great expenditure of
time and money to prepare the representations which are abso-
lutely necessary for the purpose of illustration.

Transparent positive pictures have already been used in the
magic lantern, and it occurred to me a short time since, that
we have a ready and perfect means of producing a representa-
tion of the object required on as large a scale as may be deemed
desirable. My plan is as follows: — I take a drawing or en-
graving of the subject to be depicted, and fastening it by pins,
tapes, or any other convenient means against a board, with a
small stereoscopic view lens of five or six inches focus, I take a
negative, including the title or description attached, if there be
any, and reducing the size if necessary. I then obtain a trans-
parent positive from this negative, either by superposition on a
dry plate, or on wet collodion by the camera, with the same
lens. The result is mounted in the ordinary style of slides, or
similarly to a stereoscopic transparency. The specimen which
I now hand round has been prepared in this manner. It may
be observed that we need not to confine ourselves to plain bliick
and white, bat transparent color may be added by the ordinary
methods.

The slides may be shown by the magic lantern; but a very
great improvement will be made if the common magnifier be
removed, and a quarter plate photographic portrait lens be
fitted in its place. This arrangement being achromatic will give
a more perfect definition.

In order to avoid the inconveniences of a perfectly dark room
to the lecturer and audience, I should recommend a modifica-
tion of the common plan. I use a ground-glass screen, about
twenty-four inches square, set in a wooden frame with a foot.

VOL. XI. NO. IV. 16

This ;'s placed at a sufficient distance from the lantern to ba
equally illuminated, and the space between the lens and the
screen is covered with black cloth, supported on a light frame.
The picture may thus be shown without the whole of the lights
being extinguished.

I take this opportunity of remarking, that by the aid of pho-
tography, the view shown by the phantasmagoria lantern aie
capable of an extraordinary amount of improvement, and I
think that this method of preparing pictures has not received
the attention which it deserves. At a far less comparative cost
of labor and money, productions superior in every respect may
be made to take the place of the coarse and incorrect represen-
tations which now go by the name of "dissolving views."

From, the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

PIIGTOGRAPIliC SOCIETY.

The Annual General Meeting of this Society was held on
Tuesday, the 2nd of February, Lord Chief Baron Pollock in
the chair.

The minutes of the last meeting having been read and con-
firmed, the Chairman, after a few congratalatory remarks on
the increase of the Society and the prosperity of the Society's
Journal, proceeded with the delivery of the annual address: —

Gentlemen, — I have to call your attention to a very few mat-
tei's; but there are some which I think I ought to mention on
the present occasion. Among the first is a communication that
I have received from the Royal Society of Arts, respecting the
co-operation of this body in an object which I think every honest
and well-directed mind would concur in for the protection of
what might be called intellectual or artistic property. A com-
mittee has been formed, composed of members of the Royal So-
ciety of Arts, and they have selected some members of the Pho-
tographic Society, and, I believe, of other societies, for the pur-
pose of endeavoring to protect by law, (where direct protection
is not afi"orded,) those i-esults of scientific labor, or the mere
efforts of genius in producing that which instructs and delights
mankind.

In my opinion the Photographic Society is, at least as much
— I had very nearly said more, and I am not sure that I should
not have been right if I had said so, — is more interested than,
perhaps, any other class of persons. It would be altogether
out of place if I were to express any personal opinion as to the
state of the law; it is quite sufficient to say that the most emi-
nent persons that belong to that profession entertain considera-
ble doubts as to what is the protection given to a photographer.

I will give a case in illustration: —

Some gentlemen, votaries of photography, arrange to go to
some interesting spot, many hundred miles from this country, at
great expense. They take with them an apparatus, calculat-
ing to bring back memorials of all the treasures of art, of an-
tiquity, and of whatever is curious that the spot they have se-
lected can afford. They go there — they accomplish their ob-
ject— they return, and communicate with some person whose
business it is to make such things public. They receive scarce-
ly more than a remuneration, — perhaps not so much as the ex-
pense they have incurred in providing this instruction and en-
tertainment for the public, — and, in a short time, the person
who has advanced his capital for their remnneration discovers
that an individual has purchased a single copy, has instantly
derived from it a negative, and proposes to publish at an under
price that which is an imitation of what he had purchased ; and
it is said, — and I am by no means prepared either here, gentle-
men, or anywhere else, to say otherwise, but it is said, — that
that can be done without any let or hindrance from the law. I
think that is a great grievance, and that such a proceeding is
very dishonest Now, it may be said that the person who did
this had a right to do it. He may say, " I violated no law,"
"I broke no commandment of either God or man " He may
be right, perhaps, in not having broken any commandment of
man; but if he recollected the precept, "Do unto others as you

122

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FIKB ART JOURNAL.

April,

would be done by," I do not think he ciin say he did not break
any commandment of his Maker; and, gentlemen, I cannot
help repeating what I have freqncutly said, both at the bar and
on the bench, that if a man coiiQncs himself simply to the law
of the laud, and merely does what the law compels him to do,
and abstains only from that which the law forbids and punishes,
he may be the most wicked, dishonest, and mischievous person
in the kingdom. There are morals and manners to be observed
which no gentleman can omit to notice, to respect and rever-
ence, without forfeiting the character which belongs to him.
Gentlemen, I have to request your cordial co-operation, and 1
am asked to make this request by the Society of Arts. They
liave communicated with us as they have with many other so-
cieties, who, like us, are connected with the instruction, and the
improvement, and the delight of mankind by the images that
we present of whatever is great and glorious, whatever is re-
splevideut in art, and whatever is digniSed and exalted in na-
ture; and they request that we will co-operate with them,
and render every assistance in procuring the passing of a law,
(ii a law be necessary, ) to make the same provisions and pro-
tection in respect to all works of art, or copies of art or nature,
which undoubtedly exist with respect to engravings.

Gentlemen, I have made this communication, that you may
then, in your several departments, endeavor to give facility to
the course that the Society of Arts, with the assistance of the
committee, have adopted, and that you will labor, each of you,
in the Societies in which you may be, to advance the object
which unquestionably has a tendency to make photography suc-
cessful, and to prevent the labors of one man being pilfered by
another.

Gentlemen, there is another matter which, I think, I should
mention; I allude to the very remarkable discovery of M. Niepce
de St. Victor. I mention it, I must say, with some personal
satisfaction. If there be any of you who have attended these
annual meetings for the last two years, you may have heard
me say that I expected that the study of photography, and the
pushing the enquiries that photographers were making, would
result in some new discoveries with reference to light and to the
intimate knowledge of the construction of bodies, which would
tend considerably to increase our scientific knowledge of those
objects which we are desirous to study and to learn. Probably
many of you have seen the particulars of this discovery, and,
therefore, it would be wrong in me to occupy any great length
of time in dwelling upon it; but there may be some who have
not heard anything about it. I think it may be worth while
just to express in a few words what I have to say. It has been
discovered that if an engraving, which has been for some time
kept in darkness, be taken into the light, and exposed to the
rays of the sun for a time, for some purposes a quarter of an
hour, for other purposes two or three hours; then apply it to
some sensitive paper, put it in darkness, shut it up for some
four-and-twenty hours, and, when you open the receptacle where
it has been concealed from light for that time, you will find on
the sensitive paper a copy of the picture. The engraving will
be repeated upon the sensitive paper that has been thus put in com-
munication (but all in darkness) with the engraving which has
been exposed to the sun. It is stated that the paper exposed
to the sun gets saturated with the sun's rays — so saturated that
you can avail yourselves of them, and they go on operating after
yon put them in a place of darkness; and "if, after having ex-
posed an engraving to the light for an hour, it is placed in con-
tact with a piece of pasteboard which has been kept in a dark
place for some time previously, and at the expiration of not
less than twenty-four hours, the paste-board be brought into
contact with tlie prepared paper, and allowed to remain there
for another twenty-four hours, the result will be the reproduc-
tion of the engraving." Now that is very astonishing, for here
it appears not only that you can accumulate the rays of the
sun, so that they shall produce, in the absence of the sun, an
effect as if you had concentrated them, and spread them over,
so that they were capable, on being put in darkness, of gra-
dually evolving themselves, and performing an office, of doing
something that nobody ever dreamt of before, but you have

this — the pasteboard takes from the engraving the faculty that
belonged to the engraving, with all its variations, and, ujjOU
being applied to the sensitive paper, you seem, as it were, to
have taken, one knows not what to call it — to have taken an
invisible copy of the engraving on the pasteboard, and then
transferred it to the sensitive paper from the pasteboard that
has nothing upon it; you get from that not so entirely perfect a
representation of the engraving, but fainter, though still very
perfect. Hardly anything can be more extraordinary than that,
lout it goes still further; if you take a tube that is not transpa-
rent, made of metal or porcelain, anything that is perfectly
opaque, line it with white, and expose it to the sun, that the
sun may shine into it, and then turn it down upon a piece of
sensitive paper, light somehow or other appears to issue from
the tube, and blacken the sensitive paper, and if there be an
engraving between, you get the image of the engraving upon
the sensitive paper, and, what is more, the tube continues to
have that property, if you hermetically seal it and shut up: it
seems to have that property for an indefinite period. And, fur-
ther, if you take a piece of paper — a new term is adopted — I
think insolation is meant to represent the exposure of an article
to the sun; if you take an engraving, expose it to the snn, fold
it up, put it into a tube such as I have described, hermetically
seal it up, and take it out at the end of a fortnight, it will do
just as well as it would have done the moment you took it from
the rays of the sun. Now this is a mode not only for condensing,
but of preserving the rays of the sun, and is one of the most
remarkable facts that has ever been discovered in the course of
what may be called practical science, and it is entirely the re-
salts of the efforts of photography to extend its views. I think
it would be premature to offer any theory, or to say anything
about it, but it certainly appears a new path of discovery, of
that character that I had anticipated at the first time that I
had the honor of addressing this assembly, and, it appears to
me, in acting upon different substances, to have a tendency to
prove many matters connected with their intimate structures and
intimate properties, not varying very much in principle, though
no doubt entirely different in detail, from that which is exercised
by polarized light, and perhaps something of that sort was to be
expected from the improvements in the study of light, such as
photographers have lately persevered in.

Gentlemen, in the course of the year, there is another matter
very interesting, but which, I think, does not admit of the same
distinct and clear statement; I allude to the discovery made by
Mr. Grove.

Gentlemen , you will hear an allusion in the Report of the
Council, to the death of Mr. Archer. • The Report contains
what the Society has done, and what may be expected from the
liberality of the members; and there can be no doubt that pho-
tography has lost a person who has conferred considerable bene-
fits upon it, and made great progress in the art, and though it
will not, perhaps, be justifiable in saying of him quite as much
as Newton said of Coates, "If Coates had lived, we should have
known something," but at least, I must say that the Society has
lost a very active, useful, and persevering member of photo-
graphy.

Gentlemen, I am not aware that I have anything else to pre-
sent to your particular notice, and I can only say, that I trust
the progress that we have made will merely be an incentive to go
on increasing as we have done, and I think if our room is not
so large as that in which we used to assemble, at least it is our
own, and I trust while I have the honor to preside on these oc-
casions, that I shall always have the opportunity of presenting
to your attention, nothing but what is favorable and prosper-
ous.

The Secretary then read the report, which was adopted iie-
mint conlradiccnk; and the report of the auditors was taken
to be read, and ordered to lie on the table for a w^eek for in-
spection.

Mr. Le Neve Foster asked that the council would state, in a
few words, the money which had been spent upon the house, the
terms upon which it was held, and the accommodation it was
likely to afford.

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AI^D FINE ART JOURNAL.

123

Mr. Roslyn: The cost of making the alterations in the rooms
is £411 9s. 5d. We have expended for furniture £149 9s. 6d.;
for misceUaneous articles £32 Gs. Od.; for gas-fittings £29 5s.
9d.; and a few small sums besides, the total cost being some-
where about £700.

After a short conversation respecting the tenure of the pre-
mises,

Mr. WiLKS said — Perhaps your lordship will allow me to
make one remark as to what has fallen from yourself. I am
not aware whether, from the formation of this Society to the
present hour, we have ever elected an honorary member; if not,
I think the time has come when we ought to elect Mons. Niepce
de St. Victor; and I beg to move that Mons. Niepce de St.
Victor be now elected an honorary member of this Society, and
that that election may be conveyed to him by the Secretary in
such complimentary terms as may be desirable.

Sir W. Newton seconded the motion.

Mr.HENRY Pollock: — I may be allowed to state that at pre-
sent we have honorary members, I remember moving that the
President of the Photographic Society of France, and the
Secretary of that Society, be elected members, and that was
carried.

The Chairman: I must say I entirely concur in the feeling
that Mons. Niepce de St. Victor should receive from the So-
ciety every acknowledgment that we can possibly make to him,
and by electing him, as it were, on the spot — that is, imme-
diately, without notice, without any question — would confer
upon him in the most ample way the honor that we propose to
pay to him.

Mons. Niepce de St. Victor was then elected an honorary
member by acclamation, without the ordinary routine of the
ballot.

The Chairman then put to the meeting the question whether
the election of officers, or the reading of a paper should be pro-
ceeded with, when it was resolved to proceed with the former.

During the proceedings of the election. Sir W. Newton ex-
pressed his regret at being compelled to retire from the council,
and that his engagements would prevent him from attending
their meetings in future so oftea as he could wish.

The scrutineers having announced that the President and
Treasurer had been re-elected, and that Mr. Fenton had been
elected in the place of Sir W. Newton. The Chairman briefly
returned thanks for the honor again conferred on him, and the
meeting adjourned.

REFRACTION OF LENSES.

To the Editor of the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

Sir, — In reference to the phenomenon alluded to by "Amicus,"
in your last number of the Journal, I fancy that the results of
a trial I made some months ago may throw some light on it
Sir D. Brewster says, in page 1T5 of his work on the stereo-
scope, that when objects Zes5 than the lens are taken, that be-
yond a certain point, other objects behind, and less than the
front ones, will be seen through the centre of them like ghosts.
Not being satisfied with this assertion, even from so learned a
person, I tried, and found the fact not in accordance with his
statement. My experiment was this: — I placed a circular
piece of black card, half an inch diameter, as my first object,
on a piece of wire, and at the proper distance behind this,
another circular piece of white card, three-tenths of an inch,
and on focussing the black object there was seen a white ring
round the black image, and not within it, as Sir D. Brewster
said would be the case. This, it appears to me, may at least
tend to account for the phenomenon in question, ami I shall be
glad to know if it should be thought to do so.

The variance between the statement of Sir D. Brewster and
the fact as observed by myself, remains a subject of inquiry for
some one better acquainted with optics than I am, for I admit
I have only common sense to guide me. Still, I must say. I
have hitherto supposed that the pictures resulting from the
lens were formed by converging rays, and not by diverging

light; for were it so, surely there would be but a thorough con-
glomerate of pictures on the glass, and not, as I know to be
the case, a properly defined position of objects before the camera.
And I cannot help thinking that the ring of white round the
black object was formed by the refraction of the rays from the
small white object, as they passed by the edge of the front one,
and that the diagonal rays had nothing to do with it; at all
events Sir D, Brewster's assertion and the facts do not agree.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

T. L. Merritt.

rORTER'S NEW PHOTOGRAPHIC GALLERY.

Cincinnati, Ohio, March 15, 1858.

Mr. H. H. Snelling, — Dear Sir : Among the many im-
provements that have taken place in this city during the past
year, there is none more worthy of notice than the splendid
building lately erected by that well-known and energetic artist,
W. S. Porter, Esq.; and I have no doubt, but that a descrip-
tion of this beautiful gallery would not only give a correct idea
of the progress of the Arts in the West, but also prove very
acceptable to the many readers of the Photographic and Fine
Art Joihrnal. For some years past, Mr. Porter has occupied
a fine suite of rooms on the south-east corner of Fourth and
Vine streets; as his business rapidly increased, he found it ne-
cessary to procure rooms more adapted to the wants of his
patrons, and in keeping with the many splendid improvements
all around him. Fully convinced of this, he leased an old build-
ing on the north side of Fourth street, a few doors west of
Vine; and then commenced the work of demolition previous to
the erection of the finest Photographic and Daguerrean Gal-
lery in the United States. After months of vexatious delay,
he was at last enabled to throw open his doors, and give
hearty welcomes to his friends. The front of the building is
one of the most artistical of our city's improvements: the front
is built of fine cut Buena Vista stone, 40 feet wide by 125
deep, and three stories high. The second and third stories are
occupied exclusively by Mr. Porter. The first story forms an
arcade, and the ornaments of the building are almost all con-
fined to a large three light window in the centre of the building.
In the centre of the pediment that surmounts it, is a piece of
sculpture, allegorical of the rising sun, Aurora attended by the
nine graces drawing forth her chariot. Rusticated piers in-
close the building, and it is crowned with a handsome cornice,
and panelled blocking, the dados supporting four vases. In
the centre of the building, over the cornice, a handsome niche
is introduced, in which a statue, representing the Spirit
of the Photographic Art, is placed. Having thus given
a description of the exterior, we will enter the wide doorway,
and ascend the fine stairs that leads to the interior of the build-
ing. Opening the door at the head of the stairs, we emerge
into the grand reception room. This room is forty feet long,
twenty-five wide, with a core ceiling twenty-three feet in height.
In the centre is a large skylight of ground glass, this is a new
feature, in a daguerreotype reception room, but an important
and beautiful one, as it throws a soft and even light over all
of his pictures. The walls and ceiling are beautifully decorated
in fresco; while the busts of Daguerre, Michael Angelo, Cor-
regio, and other old masters have appropriate niches in the
walls. From each side of the skylight, a splendid chandelier
is swung, which, when lit up at night, gives the room a splendid
appearance, and forming a great attraction to our fellow citi-
zens; and it is gradually becoming a fashionable and favorite
resort. Around his walls are hung life-size photographs fin-
ished in oil, of celebrated personages, amongst which Bishop
McUvaine, Hon. Thos. Ewing, Hon. Judge McLean, Edward
Everett, Governor Chase, and Nicholas Longworth, Esq., de-
serve especial mention. These and a thousand others, are
arranged in the most approved and tasteful style, presenting
to the beholder a sight well worthy of attention. Each side of
the large window is placed a mirror reaching from the ceiling
to the floor, reflecting in all its gorgeousness, the splendid

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THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

April,

velvet tapestry carpet, that adorns it. lu the centre of the
room, stands the steam generator tliat warms the bnilding;
this is covered by a marble slab, which acts the double part of
ornament and pier table. The furniture is of the most costly
character, being covered with a uew style of goods imported
expressly for tliis establishment, called silver damask Brocatelle.
Passing from tliis splendid room, which we do with reluctance,
we emerge into another, which, though smaller, is in keeping
with everything around it. This is the toilet rooai for ladies
and children onhi. In this room, every modern convenience is
introduced that will administer to their most immediate wants.
As a specimen of the costliness of the furniture in this room, I
would mention that the dressing table aud appendages, cost the
snug little sum of one hundred and sixty-five dollars. Adjoin-
ing the toilet room, and also connected with the reception by a
fine hall, is the daguerreotype and ambrotype operating room.
This is very large, being over fifty feet in length, having a
splendid side-light twenty-eight feet long, aud fifteen in height.
Passing from this room, we emerged into the photographic
sitting-room; this is forty feet iu length, having one of the
finest sky-liglits in this country; adjoining these operating rooms,
are its chemical departments. To the photographic depart-
ment three rooms arc assigned, furnished with every convenience
of water, &c. Ascending a pair of stairs at the side, is the
magnifying aud copying-rooms. In this part of the establish-
ment is made those splendid life-size pictures, that have
rendered the name of Mr. Porter so famous. This whole
arrangement of reception, sitting, and toilet rooms (all being on
the second floor), proves of great benefit to the persons who
dislike climbing two or three flights of stairs; thus earning their
picture by bodily exercise ere tliey sit for it. The third story
of the rear building is occupied by the painters and their
studios. To this branch five rooms is assigned, together with
a haudsome sitting for their subjects. Every room in the
building is heated by steam, thus avoiding annoyance of fire,
dust, aud soot. There is also a back entrance to the building,
thereby removing, by this method, all material nuisances from
the public rooms and entrances. There are sixteen rooms in
all, connected exclusively with tliis business. Mr. Porter in
erecting such a palace, deserves the hearty approval of every
Cincinuatian, in thus giving them in the midst of their many
advantages, the pride of having the finest, largest, and most
complete gallery in the United States. And as he has thus
proved the superiority of our city in this spirited and tasteful
manner, we are coulident it will be appreciated by the public,
and meet generally with the success he so well merits.

Yours, &c., F. H. S.

From the LivtrpoolFhotographic Journal.

ACTION OF LIGHT.

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

SMART'S NEW PHOTOGRAPHIC TENT.

This portable tent, though simple in construction, is very
firm, and affords ample room for the operator to manipulate with
perfect ease and convenience; it is rectangular in form, is six feet
high in the clear, and three feet square, affording tabic space
equal to thirty-six inches by eighteen inches. The chief feature
in its construction is the peculiarity of its frame-work which
constitutes, when erected, a sy.stem of triangles, so disposed as
to strengtbLMi and support each other: it thus combines the two
important qualities of lightness and rigidity. The table is so
made that when not in use it will fold up; attached to it is a
"sink," made of waterproof material, which obviates the ne-
cessity of carrying a dish for developing; a tube is also con-
nected to the sink, by which all waste liquid is conveyed out-
side the tent. A water bottle of a very convenient and porta-
ble form has also been contrived, for use with the tent; in fact,
all has been done that experience and care could suggest. Its
entire weight is 11 lbs., and it is easily erected or taken down
by one person. By the use of this tent we believe the operator
will insure the means of working the wet collodion process in
the open air with ease, comfort, aud couveuieuco.

The following letters, addressed to the Editor of the London
Photogra'phic Society's Journal, are of much interest, as extend-
inj; OH! knowledge of certain properties of light which have
hitherto been only superficially observed.

REVERSED ACTION OF LIGHT.

Sir, — The letter of Mr. Jackson, in the November number
of the Photographic Journal, aud the discussion upon it, has
recalled to my memory an experiment I made seven or eight
years ago, before there was either Photographic Society, Pho-
tographic Journal, or, indeed, much interest taken in photog-
raphy. While making experiments on the operation of light
on iodized paper, I exposed a piece of negative prepared paper
under a small engraving for two hours, in a bright summer sun.
On removing the engraving, I was surprised to see a positive-
looking copy, and on developing I produced the enclosed (Hil-
ton's " Cupid and the Graces," from the Literary Souvenir for
1829). I endeavored, without success, in various subsequent
experiments, to produce agreeable lights in lieu of the dull
brown ones which this copy exhibits. I threw the results aside
as of no vahie, but kept the enclosed, and recorded on the back
the manner of its production as a curious fact, and nothing
more. Your late discussion reminded me of my experiments.
The second enclosed copy is Harlow's picture of Mrs. Siddons,
from the Souvenir of 1830, produced, I think, at the same
time.

You will perceive from these specimens that it is really true
that light, after a certain time, proceeds to bleach the picture
it has blackened, till the positive assumes the exact light and
shadow of the negative. I have doubts, however, whether there
be any value in this, except as a fact.

The manipulation of the process is so easy that it requires no
explanation. Every one who is interested may at once con-
vince himself by exposing an engraving to a bright sun over
negatively excited iodized paper.

Thos. Craddock.

Mr. Malone is quite iu error in supposing that the sun de-
stroys by long action; it merely reverses; or, at any rate, it re-
verses before it destroys.

[We are quite content with the admission that destruction is
a result of long action. — Ed. L. & M. P J,]

NEW ACTION OF LIGHT.

Clarendon Square, January 7th, 1858.

Sir, — Some five years since, I commenced some experiments
on photographic printing. Determined that all the light
which passed through the white portions of my negative should
be utterly absorbed, I covered the area of my copying frame
with several folds of black woollen cloth. I was able to obtain
some powerful copies in my first attempts. I repeated them on
different days; but my subsequent attempts on each day were
utter failures: not the slightest trace of a picture could be ob-
tained. Struck by this remarkable effect, this problem arose:
Would the photographic superficies of a newly-prepared print
impart its photographic power to a sheet, also newly-prepared,
but preserved iu utter darkness? To ascertain this, I took a
sun-developed print, and immediately, without washing, fixing,
or any other preparation, laid it on an unexposed sheet, sub-
mitted the two in contact to a powerful screw pressure, and ob-
tained, in a few moments, two prints, both positives, but of
course with reversed sides. The fact was established; and the
phenomenon was remarkable for this — that photographs could
bo obtained in fitter darkness! I was much gratified with the
fact; but it was of no practical value to me at that time, and I
laid it by for use on some future occasion.

On glancing at the above record, we readily perceive that
the results of M. Niepce's experiments: that gentleman was
obtaining results from surfaces only mechanically sensitive —
myself from surfaces chemically sensitive. M. Niepce's greatest

-'^nnnj

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOTJRNAi

■•"-S.PATaTopp,c'f"

photographic power was obtained in his colorless portions, one
iustaucc excepted — that where he employed Prussian blue on
white cotton. His black marble and charcoal failed to record
any evidence of their action. My own whites were perfectly
unsullied; but these were natural results, as they had not been
submitted to direct solar action.

W. T. Pratt.

BLUE GLASS.

To the Editor of the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

Sir, — The report of my remarks at the last meeting of the
Liverpool Photogrophic Society conveys, I think, an impression
different from, if not opposed to, the one I intended. I was
made "to express surprise that you had not entered into the
discussion in a more fair and liberal spirit." I can bear the im-
putation of vulgarity (!) in having given way to an emotion
without adequate cause, though I am afraid that, like Sir
Charles Coldstream, I am past all surprises. I can even allow
it to be supposed that I could make so ill-natured, discourteous,
not to say presumptuous, a remark, but I could not permit it to
be understood. Sir, that I am so ignorant of my mother tongue
as to employ such an absurd conjunction of adjectives as "fair
and liberal," and not only import them where they were not
needed, but where their use, even if proper in themselves, would
be absurd. If I had wished to convey disapproval in the same
sense, my habits of thought would, I hope, have inclined me to
use the word "just" in preference to any other. But I really
had no surprise to manifest, and certainly none at the absence
of such a subtle spirit as is involved in the serai-contradiction of
the terms "fair and liberal."

What I did intend to express was, that, having worked for
several mouths in the room built for Mr. Constable on the Ma-
rine Parade, Brighton, and also at the Polytechnic Institution,
London, for some days, both of which rooms were glazed with
blue glass, my experience justified and corroboi'ated your state-
ment, that it had been tried, and found inferior for all practical
purposes to white glass. But — and this is the point which
must have led to the error — I did not think, even with this
proved, that the question was exhausted, or that you were
justified in pronouncing absolutely for or against white or blue
glass. As far as dark blue glass is concerned, I am satisfied
But, Mr. Forrest proposes a very light blue; and, although I
do not think any advantage will follow its use (of course, to
outweigh disadvantages), it is certain that what is true of dark
blue is not necessarily true of light blue, and that thus your
remarks did not conclusively settle the case.

Tlie dark blue glass I believe with you darkens materially by
exposure; and it has always appeared to me that a much more
simple and inexpensive mode of application would be to insert
a disc of blue glass ia front of the lens.* This would, I think,
determine the value of its asserted accelerative power at once;
while the glass, partially protected from strong light and the
influences of weather, would not be so liable to darken, and, if
changed in tint, could be replaced.

One word more. My remarks — and I must presume myself
more than ordinarily obscure — on the evening of the meeting,
tend to throw a shade of disrespect, which I did not intend, on
the person confiding to me the mode of transferring positives —
an itinerant photographer. Very few persons are likely to have
read v/hat I said, and the person alluded to, is still less likely

* We caa give our testimony to tlie value of tliis method of using
blue glass, having recommended it as early as 1847. When Mr. Cather-
wood first visited Yucatan in company with Mr. Stevens, he took a da-
guerreotype apparatus with him to copy the ruins of that country, but
found it quite impossible on account of the hot yellow atmosphere con-
stantly pervading. Before making his second visit he called upon us
and stated his difflculty, and we arranged his camera tube with the glass
precisely in the manner suggested by Mr. Foard. He called to see us
on his return, and stated that it worlced to a charm. About the same
time we arranged a camera in the .same way for 0. A. Johnson, Esq.;
another for Mr. Brady; besides several others since that time. — Ed. P. Sf
F. A. Journal.

16*

to recognise himself in your pages, even if he should see them,
which is hardly probable. But, to avoid even the possibility
of injury being done to a person whom I had no right to con-
sider other than deserving, I would wish to say, what I believe
I expressed, that the portrait I drew was a first impression, and
that I found it entirely incorrect. He showed me fully and ef-
ficiently his mode of transfer, which I have since practised. He
seemed, as far as I could judge, a well-informed person; and I
considered, at the time, my fee a most judicious investment.

Your obedient servant,

James T. Foard.

From the Jour, of the Phot. Soc.

m. HILL NORRIS'S DRY COLLODIOX PROCESS.

Birmingham, Nov. 12, 1857.
To the Editor of the Photographic Journal:

Sir, — At the present time, when the dry collodion process
seem to be occupying the attention of both amateur and pro-
fessional photographers, I think I may venture to claim a small
portion of your space for one of the many experiments I have
made in order to test the value of Dr. Hill Norris's Dry Collo-
dion Process, the superiority of which over all other methods,
in the matters of simplicity, certainty, and keeping qualities,
only requires to be known in order to ensure its universal adop-
tion. The experiment to which I allude more particularly was
detailed before our Society, and the plate therefrom was ex-
hibited. The negative in question was during its production
subjected purposely to a series of impediments, which would
in all probability never occur simultaneously in ordinary prac-
tice.

First, an imperfectly cleaned plate was selected, such as would
inevitably give a spotty or streaky picture in the wet process;
it was coated with contradih collodion, nearly new, excited in
the ordinary manner, washed copiously with common hard wa-
ter, coated with cold gelatine solution, kept a month, exposed
80 seconds, single-lens camera, 16-inch focus, J- inch stop; kept
another month, and then developed with old pyrogallic solution
and silver (the pyrogallic developer having become quite red
with age); in spite of all these drawbacks I succeeded in pro-
ducing a negative good in every respect, save that it required a
little more density; but this may arise from oyev-exposure.

I cannot help thinking that a process which will produce such
results, under such very unfavorable circumstances, must be in-
trinsically good, and worthy of adoption by the photographic
world. In connexion with this process, I could give you the re-
sults of several curious experiments, but will uot tresspass any
further ou your space at present.

W. B. OSBORN^,
Secretary of the Birmingham Photographic Society.

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

PORTABLE PHOTOGRAPHIC TENT.
To the Editor of the Liverpool Photographic Journal:

Sir,— The following description of ay portable photographic
tent may be of service to others who may wish to make one at
a trifling outlay, wherein may be worked the wet collodion pro-
cess witli as much ease as at home. A tripod stand will be re-
quired; the top about ten inches each way, and the legs five
feet three inches long, with the spring outside instead of in, " a
good plan for making a stand easily, and which I am surprised
is not in more general use." This stand is covered with three
thicknesses of yellow calico, sixteen yards in all. Each breadth
is divided from corner to corner, and then sewn up the cen-
tre, then all are joined together. These are covered by
a black envelope, requiring five yards, made up the same
way. The bottom of the tent is protected by having
about eight inches of painted canvas sewn round it ; this
will fall on the ground and keeps out the light, it also
preserves the tent from injury on damp ground, &c. The

interior of the tent is now a darkened triangle of twelve feet,
and will be found quite large enough for ordinary purposes.
To admit light to work by, an opening, eight inches square, is
made in the black envelope, and this will be found quite sufS-
cient. The covering of the tent is fastened to the stand by
means of tapes, the opening being near one of the legs and
three feet from the ground, made by one ot the seams being
left unsewn for that distance, and protected by a flap of black
calico one foot wide. The developing box has a bath at each
end, one for nitrate of silver, the other for water to wash the
plates in, and a developing tray in the middle; underneath the
tray are divisions for bottles containing collodion, developer,
&c. ; on the sides are grooves for plates. A deep cover fits
over the box, which serves for a seat when the operator is
inside. A strap from each end forms a handle to carry it by.
The tent will do for the camera stand, but frequently an addi-
tional stand will be required.

Yours truly, Thos. Gollivke.

From the Liverjyool Phoiograjjhic Journal.

LIVERPOOL SOCIETY OF FINE ARTS.

The late disputes in the Liverpool Academy have resulted in
the establishment of the Liverpool Society of Fine Arts. A
meeting to inaugurate the new Society took place at the Royal
Institution on Monday, the 8th inst., under the presidency of
Theodore Rathbone, Esq. The meeting was very fully attend-
ed, and the proceedings were harmonious throughout. With-
out entering into the matters of dispute with the Liverpool
Academy we can wish the new institute every success. While
there are some points in common between the new and the old
Societies, (such as having annual exhibitions, and the granting
of prizes to artists), the Liverpool Society of Fine Arts will
have the advantage in an educational point of view — as assist-
ance is to be rendered to students in art in pui'suing their
studies. There are to be several classes of annual subscribers,
who will have in return certain privileges according to the class
of subscription. We uote with satisfaction that professors are
to be attached to the institution, who are to deliver lectures ou
different branches of the fine arts during the exhibition season.
There is one deficiency in the scheme, as proposed at the meet-
ing, to which the proprietor of this Journal, in the interests of
the new and beautiful branch of art to which our labors are
directed, thought it right to direct the attention of the pro-
moters, namely, that while painting in oil and water colors,
sculpture, and architecture, are to find a home in the new insti-
tution, photography, as a branch of the fine arts, has been ig-
nored. The proprietor of this Journal suggested that the pho-
tographic art should be represented both on the executive and
iH the exhibitions of the Society. The suggestion was well re-
ceived by the chairman and the meeting, and Mr. W. G. Herd-
man explained that the subject had already occupied attention,
and though no result had yet been arrived at, the suggestion
would receive serious consideration. We trust this will not be
lost sight of by the council, as the photographic art will, year
by year, as proficiency in manipulation and the knowledge of
chemical and optical science advances, force itself more and
more upon the attention of all academic authorities. We trust
the example set by the managers of the Art Treasures Exhibi-
tion will not be lost upon the promoters of the Liverpool So-
ciety of Fine Arts. We may add that a large array of the
leading artists of the country have given in their adhesion to
the Society, and promise to send pictures; and from present ap-
pearances we may augur favorably of the future of this new art
institution. We believe the locale fixed upon for the exhibitions
is the Queen's Hall, Bold-street, which is to undergo the neces-
sary changes to adapt it to its new circumstances.

— We are again obliged to defer our article on Photo-
graphic Patents, in consequence of being unable to lay our
hands upou all the documents required to give the subject that
consideration it deserves.

lUersonal # ^vt Jutelligeucc.

— We cannot take a retrospective view of the history of the
Photographic Art, both in this country and Europe, without
feeling chagrin at the position in which our photographers are
placed, intellectually, in comparison with those of the Old
World. The boasts which are continually made by our pho-
tographers, as an offset to the apparent superiority of mind
among Europeans, that we have always excelled them prac-
tically in their own processes, is no apology for the selfish, lazy,
and ignoble practice of American photographers of " hiding
their talents under a bushel." It is no apology for the foolish
attempts to retain within our own bosoms, every little discovery
or modification in a process which has a tendency to improve
the art; and still less is it an excuse for the dishonorable prac-
tice of travelling about the country teaching what, — in many
cases stolen, — are alleged to be new processes or improvements.
Questions as to the value of this or that process which are
hawked about the country, have become so frequent, that it
becomes the duty of every editor of a Photographic Journal to
advise his readers to kick every peripatetic teacher of photog-
raphy out of doors, the moment he pokes his nose into the
room, unless he can give better evidence of his ability to teach
than his own assertions. Thousands of dollars are spent annu-
ally by the American photographers upon swindlers of one and
another kind; audit is almost invariably the case that nine-
tenths fall victims before the photographic editors know any
thing about the matter. It is not unreasonable to suppose that
an honest man who has made a valuable discovery in the art,
would seek the approval of those who could give weight to its
value, and thus, also, make sure that it was original with himself.
But so great is the desire for " sellbig" brother artists with the
majority of American " operators," that the rule is to strive to
the utmost, to keep a knowledge of their proceedings from the
editors. The fact that one editor has taken advantage of secrets
entrusted to him, and forced the parties by threats to give him
an interest in a patent, is no reason why the others should
be laid under the band. There is always one black sheep in
every flock, very seldom none. It is, or should be a faithful
editor's pleasiore to assist the deserving inventor, but it is
equally his duty to lay bare all impositions that may come under
his notice. The rapidity with which improvements in photo-
graphy are now made, opens the door very wide to imposters;
and a circumstance has recently occurred which has given us
great pain — inasmuch as it is the transaction of one whom we
have heretofore esteemed highly, and who we thought to be of the
most honorable mind. We shall refrain at this time from giving
the name, merely stating the circumstances, in hopes his present
career may be checked without further danger to himself or to
those whose confidence he has abused. We will therefore at
present content ourselves with cautioning our subscribers against
buying a process for coloring photographs in oil upon the back,
from a very gentlemanly looking man, who is now travelling in
the west selling what belongs to Messrs Hawkins & Paris of
Cincinnati and New York — but which he claims as his own.
That the process is that of the Diapkaneotype, we learn from
one whom he had induced by the most false representations —
and by ])Ositive assurance that it was not the Diaphaneotype —
to purchase — or rather to agree to pay him a per centage on
his receipts for the sale of the pictures — the use of the invention,
and who at once discovered the cheat, having already purchased
the patent for the Diaphaneotype. When such men stoop so
low, what can be expected of the rough-scuff of the Art ? It
is such transactions that are daily practised in tliis country,
that place us in no enviable light, and form a black record
against the American artists, and it cannot be wondered at,
that such allusions should be made respecting us, as those in-
dulged in by Mr. Hepworth in his address before the Chorlton
Photographic Society of England; although we may consider
that his insinuation, that we arc very much in the habit of "drmr-
ing the long bow," comes with very bad grace from that (juarter.
The English habit of prevarication, denunciation, and ungen-
erous denial in everything concerning American discovery, is

1858.

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

121

moretliau a match for our disposition to indulge in extended arch-
ery. Mr. Hepworth's remarks regarding Mr. Hill's {claimed)
invention, though partially just, are on a par with those of many
others wlio have preceded him on other American improvements,
both of unquestionable originality and of modified English
formulas. It is true, a Frenchman discovered the daguerreo-
type; but it devolved upon an American Morse to apply it to
portraiture, It is true paper photography was the invention
of English Talbot; but who excells the American photographer
in its application to portraiture. Can the celebrated Claudet,
or any other English photographer exhibit the perfection in
full-length , life-size figures ou canvas, six feet by ten, such as
hang in the galleries of our Brady, our Guruey, and our Porter ?
But this does not invalidate our remarks at the commencement
of this paragraph. The Englishman, the Frenchman and the
German, do excel American photographers iu that inesiimable
quality — generosity — so far as liberal interchange of their dis-
coveries is concerned, and for this we can forgive that little pecu-
liarity they have of decrying American inventors. There is no
gainsaying the fact, that, as a community, American photographers
are desperately wanting in that high tone of character which should
be the offspring of all art. In all our remarks on these topics,
heretofore, we have been met by the assertion, " men who labor
for an end and attain that end" — i.e. make a discovery, or in-
vent something — "expect, and justly, to reap the benefit of
their labor" — and this is always put in as a clinching argument.
"We grant that every man who does, truly invent after years
or mouths of laboi*, a thing or process, has a right to demand an
equivalent; but we claim that it is not always expedient, even
for that man's welfare, particularly in photography. And
again, we disprove of the usual method of obtaining that remu-
neration. In uinety-and-nine cases in a hundred, the alleged
years of labor is humhtg, and we again assert that there are
scarce any improvement in photography claimed as original
and sold as such, that we cannot produce its counterpart of
older date than the one claimed. They are mere modifications,
and are not entitled to the remuneration demanded for them.
What we have really to complain of is, that the truly original
ideas of our photographers do not see the light; or if they do,
it is only after some other body across the ocean has made the
discovery and published it — then our American steps out of his
cell to establish his rights; but it is too late, the prestage is
gone. Few, very few, of our artists emulate those of other
countries, in a generous development and publication of their
labors, and these few deserve the more honor — they are a noble
few and they find their advantange in it. Why should we go to
foreign climes for material to fill the pages of our Journal ?
Not because we have none here capable of doing so — two words
explain the cause — laziness — selfishness. The first prevents
many capable minds from writing at all — the latter hoards up
the knowledge in secret; or sends a Draper, a Morse, a R. .,
and others to Euglandfor a market. Where is the Whipple,
the Richard, the Hesler, the Masury, the Cutting, the Bar-
nard, and many others, that they should shut themselves up
within themselves. They owe it to the art that supports them,
to be more communicative in its behalf. Our friends must not
take offence if we use the strongest language we can command
ou this subject, for we write not in unkinduess, but as feeling
the bitterness of the disgrace put upon the art in America, by
those who can and should do better, and who can prevent our
becoming the laughingstock of all other nations. Oar pride at
present is to elevate the Photographic Art to its highest point;
for this we labor, and our labor gives us the right to speak
plainly whatever we consider will tend to its elevation. We
may say unpalatable things; but we are convinced that a day
will come when our intentions will be appreciated. We may
now receive blow for blow, but the hereafter alone can prove
who struck the hardest and most effectually.

The abuses in teaching of which we speak, have become a
crying evil, and it becomes absolutely necessary for us to speak
out on the subject without reference to any, or without regard
to those who may take our remarks to themselves, and we shall,
whenever facts call upon us, do so.

— In our present number, several very valuable and inter-
esting articles will be found. That which will interest our ama-
teur photographers the most, is a Dry Collodion, by M. Vil-
lecholes, which will do away with the troubles of preservative
mixtures, if upon trial it be found to give the results claimed
for it. Mr. Long's formula will be found given by Mr. Hunt
in his article " Collodion and Photography." It will be seen
that he warmly approves of the process.

M. NiEPCE DE St. Victor's paper on " Phosphorescence
and Fluorescence," is not only highly interesting but very re-
markable, and will certainly call forth the surprise of, every
philosopher, and lead to the conviction that photography may
have no limit to its ramifications.

Having had a great number of inquiries, lately, respecting
the "Solar Camera." The paper on that instrument by Mr!
Gage, will prove highly advantageous to those who use, or
contemplate using it. Whatever may be said as to the merits
or demerits of Mr. Woodward's patent, one thing is certain ;
there is no better instrument, for the purpose, made. It ac-
complishes all that is claimed for it, and it does its work well.
Thereis no necessity for purchasing the large size, as the small
one will answer the same purpose and is more portable, al-
though for large galleries the 4-4 size may be found more stable.
We have seen life-size pictures that were printed by a new pro-
cess, discovered by Mr. Woodward, in four and five minutes
without development. This is certainly quick enough, and if
Mr. Woodward consults his own interests as well as those of
his brother artists, he will give it to the public immediately.
In the formula for printing by Mr. Gage, on page 105, we are
desired by him to make a correction. The salting solution
should be as follows:

Water i ounce.

Pure gelatine 4 grains.

Common salt 8 grains.

The solution as previously given will not flow well when cold.

We would here take occasion to say that the spotting which
has troubled us of late, in printing the pictures for the Journal,
and which we mention in our printing formula on page 115, wo
have prevented by simply changing the chloride of ammonium
for common salt, and of increasing the quantity of both salt and
gelatine to 200 grains to the gallon. We did this at the sug-
gestion of Mr. Masury of Boston, who had previously corrected
the same evil in the same way.

— Mr. Hamilton, of Savannah, informs us that he has
adopted the following method of preparing canvas for receiving
photographic impressions with decided success. It recommends
itself as avoiding the acids now generally used.

The method is to "mix whiting with alcohol, until a pretty
thick mixture is formed — paint this over the canvas with a soft
flat brush. When dry, rub off with cotton, until all the whit-
ing is removed (which is easily done), and the canvas receives
the salt and silver solutions beautifully."

— Mr. Wenderoth has sent us two beautifully executed
positives, printed from drawings made direct upon glass. They
resemble the finest line engravings perfectly. The half-length
drawing of a California panther, is an exquisite piece of work-
manship in every respect, far surpassing in finish and softness
any engraving. Mr. Wenderoth writes as follows regarding
them, and his Solar Camera process: —

Philadelphia, February 18, 1858.

H. H. Snelling, Esq. — Dear Sir: Enclosed I send you two
specimens of the photographic engraving, recently discovered
by Messrs. Nahl Brothers, of San Francisco, Cal. The large
one, of which I make you a present, is the title page of a little
book on Gymnastics, which they have just published and en-
graved from their own designs. Both gentlemen are artist
painters; the writing as well as the drawing are done in the
new style on the glass, and they think that such a plate will
give a larger amount of positives than an engraved copper plate.
They have been very successful, and received already several
orders for large certificates for military and fire companies, of
rich design to be executed iu this new style.

I learn that some person practising the cjuick Solar Camera

128

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

April,

Process, experienced some difficulty ia developing the pictures:
I dou't know how that could be; I have not met with any fail-
ures, and I took, a few days ago, pictures during a snow storm
in eight minutes, which were very strong and fine, and better
thau any I have seen taken by the ammonia nitrate process.
The following day I took some pictures (ou paper iodized the
day before), with a strong sun fthe negative was very intense)
in five seconds, which Vv'ere not half as deep iu tone, as those
taken the day before witliout sun. I think perhaps that it in-
jures the paper when it is iodized some time before the picture
is taken. Generally I iodize in the evening and use the paper
the next morning. I will experiment ou this matter and let
you know the result.

Very respectfully yours,

F. A. Wenderoth.

— It seems that suits have been again commenced (this time
in the United States Court) against Mr. Bogardus, of this
city, for infringements on the balsam and flowing bath patents.
Without entering into the merits of the case here, we would
state that it is the desire of Mr. Bogardus, that all who have
any facts regarding either case worthy of being submitted to
the court, will communicate them to him at the earliest possible
moment. It is quite time these cases were settled satisfactory
to all parties.

— Mr. Marshall, of Claremont, 111., writes — "I have found
the carbonate of silver the most effectual article for neutralizing
the silver bath when iodide of ammonium is not used in exciting
the collodion. In answer to his two queries we will say that we
have a very poor opinion of the "German quick process," and
that Mr. Anthony's collodion is not (we think) iodized with
ammonium.

— Messrs. Luccock & Parker. — We cannot say which is the
best collodion preservative process. Mr. Long's seems to have
met the approbation of the greater number of English photo-
graphers; to our mind, however, any process that will do away
with every species of preservative mixture must be preferable.
We should, therefore, advise you to try the method of M. Ville-
choles, and adopt it if you can work it successfully. We will
again state, that a gentleman of this city has succeeded in
compounding a collodion with keeping properties, that works
admirably in the dry state; giving the finest definition in a very
few seconds in the ordinary view camera. Your other query we
have answered elsewhere.

— Manual of Photography, Adapted to Amateur Practice.
TV/uj)j)le^s Albumen Process. By George B. Coale. 81 pp., 12
mo. J. B. Lippincott & Co., Phila. The object of this little
Manual, as stated by its Author, "is to demonstrate practically
that the Art of Photography may be adopted as a most de-
lightful recreation by any one of moderate leisure, and that the
most beautiful results are attainable by the exercise of the most
ordinary skill, if backed by a reasonable amount of persever-
ance." It is also designed to assist photographers generally.
It is artistically and skillfully got up, and treats of each sub-
ject in a manner that must be readily understood and easily fol-
lowed.

— Mr. R. A. Carnden has sent us two gems of photo-
graphic portraiture; pictures that we have never yet seen sur-
pas.sed. They speak volumes in favor of the perseverance and
skill of the artist. In tone, sharpness, roundness, gradation of
light and shade, brilliancy and cleanliness, no one has ever done
better. Mr. Carnden has done wonders in the hot region of
New Orleans.

— Mr. Robert Benecke has sent us several very good small
' views and portraits. The negatives of the portraits must be of

the most refined detail, as, notwithstanding the positives are
very much over printed, they are in every other respect very
beautiful. The views are as good as could possibly be expected
from a camera with a decidedly spherical abbcration, and with
the snow at least six inches deep on every level spot. Mr. Be-
nerke is decidedly an artist in every acceptation of the term.
For sharpnc&s and minute detail we have seen nothing better.
They might be put iu evidence — if wc understand the theory — as
strongly against Pre-Raphaelism.

— Mr. M. B. Brady has opened a splendid Photographic
Gallery in Washington City, and has not only received the
highest praises from the papers of that city, but has received
we hear the honor of being elected to membership in the
American Society of Arts, lately organized there. Mr. Brady
seems determined to secure the largest collection of portraits
of American celebrities iu the country.

— Mr. S. Remixgtox has sent us two very good positive
prints of Mr. Murdoch, the tragedian. A little more intensity
in the negative would have improved them. The head is fine,
but the drapery wants strength. If the negative is not var-
nished we would advise a re-development as follows: wash the
plate well in running water, and then pour on and off, until suf-
ficiently developed, the following solution: — A saturated so-
lution of pyrogallic acid, with 30 drops of a 35 grain solu-
tion of nitrate of silver added and filtered. Wash after re-de-
velopment.

— Mr. J. C. Gray writes: — "A good substitute for the
ground glass in the camera can be made in a few minutes by
rolling a piece of glaziers putty over a clean piece of plate glass.
A few trials will show the degree of stiffness the putty should
be in order to produce the finest effect.

— The Baltimore Clipper says: — "We find that Mr. B. F.
Hawkes, photographer, 205 Baltimore street, has taken photo-
graphs of all the graduates of the School of Medicine, which
have been pronounced in every way unexcelled, and many of the
class have kept him busily engaged working off extra copies for
their friends. He has also taken likenesses of the graduates of
the Dental College, School of Pharmacy, ministers of the Bal-
timore Methodist Conference, and Odd Fellows, Red Men,
Burns Club, and many other associations, all of which are most
excellent pictures, and have given entire satisfaction.

— We have to close the labors of this month with the me-
lancholy duty of announcing the death of Mr. Charles
Richard Meade, of the firm of Meade Bros., of this city. He
died at St. Augustine, Florida, on Tuesday, March 2d, of con-
sumption; aged, 31 years 11 months and 9 days. His remains
were brought to New York for interment. Mr. Meade has
long been engaged in the photographic art, and few men in this
country have devoted so much time and money to its advance-
ment. As a practical photographer few excelled him, and cer-
tainly none could have done so had he not been bowed down by
the terrible disease which finally ended his career on earth, and
ended it prematurely. While he had health his progress in the
art was constantly upward — in many respects his pictures were
superior to other artists. He leaves a large circle of friends to
mourn his loss, and no photographer will hear of his death with-
out the profoundest regret.

At a meeting of the Photographic Operators of the city of
Albany, held March 15th, 1858, the following preamble and
resolutions were unanimously adopted. —

Whereas, Charles R. Meade, Esq., of the city of New
York, a Photographist of great enterprise and more than ordi-
nary artistic merit, has recently departed this life: and

Whereas, Mr. Meade has labored zealously for many years
past to elevate the Photographic Art, by disseminating among
us many improvements which he, by his perseverance, gathered
up in the old world; therefore.

Resolved, That we deeply regret to part with one of our num-
ber, whose experience dates back to the birth of the Photo-
graphic Art; especially Mr. Meade, whose wise and gratuitous
counsels and gentlemanly deportment, has endeared him to all
who knew him.

Resolved, That we deeply sympathise with HexryW. Meade,
in the loss of his brother, to whom he was bound by more than
ordinary fraternal ties; and all friends of deceased shall have
our deepest sympathy iu this sad bereavement.

Resolved, That a copy of this condolence be sent to Henry
W. Meade, Esq., and also to the Photographic ^-1^1716 Art
Journal, and Evening Journal for publication.

R. E. Churchill, Chairman.

S. E, Parsons, Secretary.

J. B. lUmocB. Xcg.

H H. Snellixo, Trint.

IR-^LI^H: Sliv^ITIi, ES<^

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

129

From the Liverpool rhotographic Journal.

m THE APPLICATION OP PHOTOGRAPHY
To Art and Art Purposes, but more Particularly to ArcWtecture.

BY MK. J. T. BROWK.

Read at the last Meeting of the Birmingham Photographic Society.

EFORE considering the application
of Photography I may not be out
of place in tracing generally but
concisely the principles of the Art,
and although so long ago as 1556
it was noticed by those strange
seekers after impossibilities, the
Alchemists, that horn-silver, ex-
posed to the sunbeam, was black-
ened by it, yet in their ardent
search for the philosopher's stone,
they overlooked in this phenome-
non the germ of those most inte-
resting discoveries which have dis-
tinguished the present age, nor un-
til the last few years, has the magnitudinous import of the prime
command, "Let there be light," issued by the great Architect
of the Universe, in the Conversion by his Omnipotent hand of
"the matter unformed and void — darkness profound — into a
new created world. Earth in her rich attire, the pleasant
dwelling-place of men, consummate lovely;" been contemplated,
and that great vital principle considered, which called into
being, when

Forthwith the light
Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure.

Sprung from the deep, and from bis native Easi
To jouruey through the airy gloom began.

Sphered in a radiant cloud, for yet the sua
Was hot ; She in a cloudy taberaacle

Sojouraed the while.

and when, by the manifest wisdom of the Creator, who pro-
nounced the light was good, was placed in the centre of our
system the celestial luminary, to impart life and energy to every
part of his incomprehensible universe; those universal forms of
beauty, which, described as God's handwriting — a Vi'ayside sa-
crament, should be by us welcomed as a charmed draught, a
cup of blessing.

Certain mysterious agents are perpetually offering astonish-
ing results to the observation of Man, some of which, from
their constant presence, become so familiar that they cease to
awaken interest in our minds, and of this nature is the exist-
ence of the influence called Light. While from day to day it
fills the sky and overflows the surface of the world, and from
night to night, with twinkling points, spangles the heavens, or
in its soft floods of phosphorescence half dissolves the veil of
darkness, yet how few seek to know whence the constant visi-
tant comes, or what its nature is. Important as is its interfer-
ence with terrestial affairs, it belongs not to the earth; it is
an inhabitant of the infinite, and, free from the fetters that con-
fine denser matter to isolated spheres, floats from the immense-
ly distant sun and yet remoter stars, through the yawning ca-
verns of space, bi'idging them over with beautiful relations and
sympathies. The pulsating stream connecting organized worlds
with organized sions, it makes the universe a living system ;
without it creation would be a dry skeleton, with it, it becomes
a growing, breathing, and palpitating frame.

But what is the wonderful agent which thus widely spreads
itself through space? Why does it travel with undiminished
speed from one boundary to the other of the vast universe, pass
unscathed through the rock of densest crystal, and yet stop at the
thinnest and palest film of black material? Why does it paint
the fields with gi'een, the rose with red, and the sky with blue?
Why docs it move in straight lines and change in the direction
of its progress when it enters a substance of altered density?
and why does it strike the sensitive membranes of the eye with
perfection? In the resolution of these difBculties the grandest

VOL. XI. NO. V. 17

generalisations of science are but approximations, and sugges-
tive rather than satisfying.

In arresting in its bright course from one great luminary, one
of these subtle, swift-flying beams, and separating its influences,
we shall discover three great powers, — the I\\n\m\iat'\ng-Lig/it;
the Calorific or Heating; and the Chemical or Aclinuc.

That the glorious orb of day pours upon this earth some
principle on which the whole animal and vegetable kingdoms
depend for health and life every one knows. Without tiie lu-
minous agent the surface of this planet would be no longer
beautiful, the brilliant hue of the flowers (supposing the plant
to have been produced by i\\%adimc power alone), and refreshing
tints of the trees would be wanting, all would be colorless.
Light is that part of the solar beam, which adorns our world
with all its beauties, paints the fair flowers, tints the azure dome
above us, and flings the glorious rainbow across it.

On Heat, or the Calorific portion of the sunbeam, depends
the life and motion of this our world. As it were with a magi-
cal energy, it produces the disturbance in our atmosphere,
known as wind, and causes the waters to flow, vivifies and ani-
mates all nature, and then bathes it in refreshing dew; and to
judge of the influence of heat on both the animal and vegetable
economy, we need only contrast loinler and summer, the one ra-
diant and vocal with life and beauty, the other dark, dreary,
and silent.

The third constituent of the sunbeam is actinism, its property
being to produce chemical effect, and it is to this portion we
would now more especially direct our attention. Although its
effects have been more studied as yet in the inanimate than the
organic creation, still its power is known to be of the utmost
importance in the vegetable kingdom. A seed exposed to the
entire sunbeam will not germinate, but if we bury it in the
earth, at a sufScient depth to prevent actinism fwhich, like heat,
penetrates to some distance), but to exclude light, a chemical
change will take place, which experiments clearly prove is to be
attributed to actinism and not to heat.

The influence of actinism oc the animal world is not so well-
known; but although probable that many of the effects hither-
to referred to light is in reality due to actinism; it is certain
that the animal kingdom are as much dependent upon solar in-
fluence as the vegetable, and doubtless more careful investiga-
tion will discover this principle to be equally important to the
life and health of animals as either of its closely allied powers
of light and heat.

Of the actinic influence on inanimate nature, our knowledge
is not so scanty, for it is a well established fact, that the sun-
beam cannot fall on any body, simple or compound, without
producing on its surface a chemical and molecular change; and
Niepce discovered that iodide of plalinnm, which readily re-
ceives a photographic image, by darkening over the exposed
surfaces, speedily loses it by bleaching in the dark, and hence
the singular and striking fact, "That bodies which have under-
gone a change of state under the influence of daylight have some
latent power by which they can renovate themselves.'" Possibly the
hours of night are as necessary to inanimate nature as they are
to men and animals, and during the day, an excitement (which
we do not heed, unless in a state of disease), is maintained by
the influence of light, and the hour, of repose, during which the
equilibrium is restored, are most essential to the continuance of
health.

The immoveable rocks which bound our shores, the mountain
which rears above the clouds its lofty head, the cathedral in all
its stately magnificence, the very triumph of Art: and the beau-
tiful statue in bronze or marble, are all acted on distinctively by
the sunbeam, and would soon perish beneath its irresistible
energy, but for the darkness of night, — the repose of darkness
being no less essential to inorganic than it is to animated nature.
During its silent hours, the chemical and molecular changes
are all undone, and the destruction of the day repaired we
know not how.

If, as indeed is probable, all elements are liable to change
under solar influence, how great must be the disturbance over
the face of our planet when the sun is above the horizon 1 and

130

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND PINE ART JOURNAL.

May,

how varied the developments of electrical, chemical, and calori-
fic phenomena under this excitation, which, if it is continued,
must eventually change the features of this planet and of its in-
habitants! And how beautiful that f]esig-ii by which, during
cxterual quiescence, matter is enabled to resume its former state,
and during apparent rest, to restore to the balance that which
it has lost!

Wiiere the sunbeam spreads its genial influence there life in
all its myriad forms is to be found; where the sun's rays cannot
penetrate "death holds his silent court." At the surface of the
ocean for instance, marine animals, varied iu form and beautiful
in color, are found abundantly; as we descend we find the ani-
mals gradually sinking iu the scale of organization, and below
a certain depth, varying probably in different latitudes, no crea-
ture stirs the ever-silent sea.

The influences of this power on inorganic matter, are now
only being discovered, and the importance and interest of the
enquiry will be strikingly evident when we reflect that in the
creation of light this planet, previously revolving a mighty
chaos, became an orb of beauty and animation; and without
it, the entire surface would, even now, be an eternal blank.

The various powers of the sun's rays differ with the seasons,
la Spring, the actinic is all potent, when dormant seeds are
roused to life. In summer, the illuminating, when soft vegetable
tissue is converted into wood by the fixing of carbon; and in
Autumn, the calorific, when green fruits are ripened and seeds
matured.

But having thus far glanced at the various effects of the so-
lar rays, let us now confine ourselves so the disturbing influence
of those several substances which chemistry has discovered to be
sensitively alive to actinism, aud from which the interesting art
of Photography sprung.

It has been shown that a sunbeam, passing over a plate of
iron, leaves indications of its path; and iu 1813, M. Niepce, on
his failure in lithographing on pewter — in his researches for a
metallic plate, sensible to the luminous rays, and capable of
being impressed thereby with the representation of external ob-
jects, solved one of the most complicated and perhaps the most
difficult problem of the century in which he lived. Belonging
to that class of indefatigable experimentalists who, without
much technical knowledge, and with a very slender stock of ap-
paratus, venture into the deepest and most intricate paths of
science unwillingly; and ignorant of the fact that when he pro-
posed to himself to create pictures by the chemical action of
light he was bringing himself face to face with the gravest dif-
ficulties of human science — difficulties that had already baffled
the most profound philosophers in the world, and which Sir H.
Davy and the patient Wedgewood, after a thousand failures,
had declared to be a problem insoluble — he did not frighten him-
self with any prescribed difficulties, nor conceive that this prob-
lem, in appearance so simple, would cost him 20 years of ex-
perimentalizing, aud that death would suspend his labors before
he had received the recompense aud the legitimate satisfaction to
be derived from his experiments.

In 1829 Niepce communicated all the facts relative to his
photographic researches to Daguerre, an able i)ainter, and a
man of singular ability, who had also embarked in a similar
pursuit, unknown to Niej^ce, and who, once initiated into the
secret of his discovery, applied himself without relaxation to
its improvement, and five years after the death of the author
of this most interesting discovery — who, without one ray of
fame, and neglected by his co-citizens, departed this life with
the sad thought that he had lost 20 years of a laborious career,
dissipated his patrimony, and compromised the prospects of his
family in the ])ursuit of a chimera, — fully conceived aud deve-
loped in tlie Photographic process, which entitled him to the
honor of attaching his name to a new science.

To the researches of other eminent laborers in the same
field, we arc much indebted, but to Mr. Fox Talbot more par-
ticularly so. Ill speaking of his own process in 1839, I find him
to have said — "The first kind of objects which I attempted to
copy were flowers and leaves, either fresh, or selected from my
hei'barium. These it renders with the utmost truth aud fidelity,

exhibiting even the venation of the leaves, the minute hairs
which clothed the plant, &c. &c." It is so natural to associate
the idea of lahnr with great complexity and elaborate detail of
execution, that one is more struck at seeing the thousand florets
of an agrostis, depicted with all its capillary branchlets (and
so accurately that not one of all this multitude shall want its
little bivalve calyx, requiring to be examined through a lensj
than one is by the picture of the large and simple leaf of the
oak or chesnut. But in truth the difficulty is in both cases the
same, the one of these takes no more time to execute than the
other, for the object that would take the most skilful artists
days or weeks of labor to trace or copy, is effected by the
boundless powers of natural chemistry in the space of a few se-
conds.

I have not time or space to follow further the many and va-
rious modifications of the first theory, but perhaps may pay a
tribute of respect to the discoverer of the Collodion Process,
the late Scott Archer.

I leave to other and more worthy hands the application of
Photography to science, but at the same time imagine that
Physiology, Geology, Botany, and Zoology, Surgery and As-
tronomy, cannot but be immensely benefitted by its agency.

Before proceeding to its application to Art purposes, I may
notice that to such perfection has Photography arrived, that
astronomers (aided of course by proper mechanical contriv-
ances), have been enabled to depicture the Moon, and what
great results may we not anticipate from general Photographic
views of the heavens; and through its medium may probably
elicit some information concerning the cause of the difference
m the light of some stars from others, and may also determine
why every Iright star does not impress its image on the same
sensitive surface with equal intensity.

But to the present object of my Paper.

Bulwer Lytton describes "Art as more godlike than Science,
insomuch as while Science discovers, Art creates."

Art affects national prosperity, intellectual culture, and ma-
terial and social happiness; Art shows us man as he can by no
other means be made known; gives us nobler loves and nobler
cares, and furnishes objects by the contemplation of which we
are taught and exalted; and every department of art, whether
practised by the painter or engraver, sculptor, architect, or en-
gineer, must from its association with Photography, gain rather
than lose by the connection.

Although painting and sculpture are the twin sisters of, and
depend in a great measure upon, the more ennobling art of
Architecture, yet photography opens a wide field, and each
may take from it what he requires, and by taking his own
course, not only will Photography be improved, but Art will be
considerably advanced.

Time will not permit me to take more than a cursory glance
at the use which the Artist and sculptor should make of the
science of Photography; but I am convinced that good must
result from the unreserved intercourse between scientific men
and artists. It seldom happens that the purely scientific man
has much time to bestow upon the subject of Art, nor has the
artist, with his ceaseless mental occupation in the composition
and execution of his pictures, time to follow out a series of ex-
periments in Photography; yet he can throw much light upon
Photography, in an artistic view, while he remains dependent
upon his scientific friends to correct lenses and promulgate the
shortest and most certain means of obtaining Photographic pic-
tures.

To the artist, the masses of light and shade, their forms, and
the proportions which the shade bears to the light, and the half
tints to both, is more the object of his study than correct defini-
tion, and pictures valuable in the eyes of the artist would by
the scientific photographer (although delighting him with their
broad masses of light and shade, and their truly suggestive
character), be pronounced entire failures, and while Photo-
graphy can reproduce facts to their most complete form, yet
there are evanescent effects of light and color, momentary de-
velopments of beauty in life and character, which will occupy
the whole attention that the artist can give them, and iu which

1S58.

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND

ART JOURNAL.

131

no powers of Photograpliy can render any assistance. The ma-
ture knowledge of the artist will select specimens, and the
camera in a few seconds will present a perfect transcript, the
accuracy of which will be so minute as to afford as complete a
means of study as if the object itself were continually before
the artist; but this correct definition, so important where mi-
nute forms and the varieties of texture are required, is not in a
general sense absolutely necessary to render Photography useful
to the artist, who with his camera may plunge into pre-Ra-
phajlisra, or Rerabrantism, or Reynoldism, and thus watch
closely the effects of Nature herself as she kindly sets them
down with the pencil of light for the benefit of the student in
art; while in the natural studies of breadth of effect to guide the
painter in the conduct of light and shade in his picture, correct
defiuition would be injurious.

But Photography can never reach the poetry of Nature, and
although every variety of subject, from the most solid and sub-
stantial to the most light and airy, are displayed with such ex-
actitude of delineation as to completely set at nought the exer-
tions of manual ingenuity; yet all attempts on the part of the
artist to sordidly copy such elaboration of detail, destroys the
poetry of fine art.

In portraits especially. Photography must render great assist-
ance to the artist, by furnishing him with those elaborate de-
tails, which, as in the case of a court-dress or uniform, require
making out, and necessarily involve considerable expenditure of
time.

Wonderful as are the powers of the camera, we have not
yet attained that perfection so as to faithfully represent the ef-
fect of colors, and consequently of light and shade; and valuable
as it may be in assisting the private studies of the artist in com-
position, yet it is by uo means calculated to teach the principles
of art. To aim at the attainment of every minute detail is not
necessary or desirable, but to endeavor to produce a broad and
general effect, in which the suggestions which nature offers, will
assist his services materially. Nor until the Art-Student has
made himself acquainted with the true principles of his art, and
has acquired sufficient power of hand to draw with ease and
correctness the outline of any object he may have to represent,
would I recommend him to take up the camera as a means of
advancement in his profession.

The taste for the higher works of art is only acquired by
great and continual cultivation, either by the artist or the pub-
lic; and those of the old masters more particularly, many of
which are but sparingly known out of the country in which they
were produced, have hitherto been placed before the student by
means of the art of engraving, which was for many years the only
ready means of multiplying the conceptions of genius for the
use and edification of the million. For want of engraving, the
works of the ancients, with the exception of a comparatively
few fragments in sculpture, are lost to us; by its aid the sub-
lime creations of the pencils of Angelo, Raphasl, and Correg-
gio may, in most of their essential characteristics, be spread
over the wide world and handed down to unborn ages long after
the originals have perished. To a discriminating eye, an en-
graved copy of a picture skilfully, conscientiously, and feelingly
executed, preserves all the excellent qualities of the painting
itself, as design, composition, expression, drawing, &c. Color
alone is wanting, yet though not there as color, speaking in the
same language, it is still there, "translated" into judicious gra-
duated tints. In this particular Photography is at fault for
although we may realize, as does the engraving, the design, com-
position, and expression, yet unless the picture is painted pur-
posely we cannot realize its beauties, solely in consequence of
certain colors, such as bright red, yellow, and green, which act
as lights in a picture, always appearing dark in a photograph,
and blue, on the contrary, presenting a light appearance.

But in the re-production of engravings, our late Exhibition
fully proved the competence of the process, and more particu-
larly in the case of valuable old engravings, the plates of which
have long ago been destroyed.

Only a few weeks ago, the Times, in one of its leading arti-
cles on the subject of the Manchester Exhibition, just then

closed, said, — "The body of the working people are as yet too
undeveloped in taste to come within the scope of the influence
of the collection of the best works of the old masters. They
must be acted upon by a more popular art, by better prints in
the shop windows, better cuts in illustrated periodicals, better
shnpcd jugs and cups, better built streets, better designed shop
fronts. When they have ceased to live in Paradise Row, to
eat of the willow-pattern plate, or to take in illustrated ro-
mances in penny numbers, we may introduce them to the great
painters, sculptors, and carvers, with some hope of success."
And Burke says, — Taste is improved exactly as we improve our
judgement, by extending our knowledge, by a steady attention
to our subject, and by frequent intercourse."

My space will not allow me to enlarge on the lives or works
of Ghirlandajo, Donatello, Leonardi-di- Vinci, M. Angelo, of
Correggio, Rembrandt, and Guido, of Rubens and Vandyke,
Claude, Titian, and Murillo, or of those men who have more
lately rendered inseparable their nam.es and the art of painting;
but I may be allowed a few words on Raphael, with a sincere
hope that the artists of the present day of all ranks, may be
induced to follow the glorious pattern set by him, who, born
not many years ago in Urbino, in early life gained for himself
such fame and glory as seldom fall to the lot of man. Courted
by the great and companied by princes, who that their names
might be preserved from the obscurity of time, sought to wreath
their own in the halo of his immortality. And when at length
he prematurely died, and the eyes of Italy were fixed in sorrow
on his tomb, his fame survived, and continually growing
brighter and larger, has steadily increased with the world's
growth; and now, though his body has long been at rest, and
his fair form has returned into the dust from whence it came,
who shall affirm that Raphael is dead? Is not his spirit even
now with us? Is not his fame greater and brighter now than
ever? And while the world lasts shall it ever die? Yet this
man, this wondrous man, whose name has been a watchword to
so many eager and alas! all too-devoted followers, did not fruit-
lessly and foolishly complaivt that to Am sufficient opportunity
was not accorded; for he knew that nothing was so small, but
there was in it ample room for mind; that greatness of the soul
was shown in finding nothing too trivial for its notice, and that
he who cannot rule with wisdom over small things, would as-
suredly fail yet more miserably if the sphere of his power were
enlarged and the weight of his influence increased.

To the sculptor also Photography is valuable, although not
to the same extent as to the artist; as the use of plaster of
Paris places within his reach, at a small cost, casts of all the
best and most perfect models, handed down from antiquity;
but where, as in some cases, this is by the present owner denied,
Photography steps in and places within his reach a more exact
representation, and by the aid of the stereoscope a nearer em-
bodiment of the original, than can be obtained by any amount
of manual labor.

As to the use of Photography to the engineer, I need only
instance the case of the Suspension Bridge over the Dnieper, at
Kioff, constructed by M. Yignoles, for the Emperor of Russia,
photographic views of which were taken weekly during the
whole period of its construction. In the case of interchange of
ideas with foreign employers, each party only partially and im-
perfectly understanding the other, details of complicated struc-
tui'es may be rendered intelligible, and in the superintendence of
distant works, which, by the principal, could only occasionally
be visited. Photographic views would be invaluable.

I now proceed to the application of Photography to Archi-
tecture,

" Tbat Art which lifts the mighty dome on high ;
Points the tall spire towards the kindred sky ;

Marshalls the colonnade in long array ;
Bends the proud arch across the victor's way ;

'Twines the rich tracery in the storied pane ;
Spreads the broad transept in the holy fame ;

Extends the nave, and vaults the length'ning aisle,
And crowns with mighty towers the noble pile."'

And if, in tracing the bearing of Photography on the student,
in the study of that art, I occupy more of the time of this So-

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ciety than would seem to be desirable, I must crave your for-
bearance, as the religion, manners, and cnstoms of the nations
through which we pass, arc so embodied, and must necessarily
be, in all true Architecture, that to deduce the true principles
involved, we shall have to touch upon each of these topics.

It was well said by Sir 0. Wren, that "the pursuit of Archi-
tecture was the study of antiquity rather than of fancy, and
following that course must lead you back to the past, where —

" Far in her realm ■witbdra-n-n.
Old Empires sat in suUenness and gloom ;

And gloi-ious ages gone,

Lie deep within tbe shadow of her womb."

All men of reading desire to possess faithful representations
of the monuments of antiquity — the pyramids of Gizeh, the
palace of Oarnac, or the Cyclopean walls of Greece. We feel
a pure and healthful pleasure in examining even the images of
scenes made sacred to our memory by the deeds of heroes or the
words of sages. The temples of Athens, the wonderful Acro-
polis, the mysterious rains of Pffibtnm, andthe fanes and arches of
Rome, misnamed the Eternal , speak oven from their pictures.
There is the still small voice of the past speaking to the present
of the mutability of all things. The lesson they thus give us —
even those who have never crossed the sea which washes our
island home, is but little inferior to that which the traveller re-
ceives who contemplates the moral of a broken column or a
crumbling arch on the very spots, where once, the glory of the
age, they stood. Even in our own land we have temples, which
in their consistent and beautifully elaborate architectural de-
tails, realise the poet's fancy of a "petrified religion." We have
monastic piles hastening to decay, but even in their dissolution
— beautiful; and baronial halls, whose battlemented walls are
tangled with ivy and clothed with the moss of centuries. These
are hallowed by holy recollections which cling to every British
heart, and cannot pass away until we have forgotten the history
of our land, or ceased to enjoy the privileges won for us by our
forefathers. Each and all of these we are now able to preserve
with the strictest fidelity, and impressed by the subtle linger of
metal and glass, or on sheets of paper, every stone will tell its
own tale, and as the mind of the poet shines for ever from his
productions, so the very genius, the very spirit of the place, will
speak to future ages as they now speak to us.

In tracing the history of architecture, we must in reality ex-
amine the progress of the various parts of the world towards
civilization, and in many cases their relapse into barbarism.
All that remains of many once powerful nations are a few ruins,
which although isolated and dismantled, yet enable us to form
correct ideas of the religion, recreation, manners, and ability of
the people by whom they were erected. Ideas expressed in
earth and stone by the contemporaries of the Pharaohs, and
who have exercised strong influence on society, remain to us al-
most uninjured. How powerful are the images which they
raise! A link in a great chain, they serve by association to re-
pcople the wastes whereon they stand, and call back to the
mind, remembrance of the whole course of past events.

The several styles of architecture have uniformly been the
o-esidl of the religion, habits, and modes of thought of the na-
tions which produced them, and may be said to be the material
expression of their wants, facuUies, and sentiments, under the in-
fluence of climate, and of materials at command, and have
each undergone a process of gradual decline in proportion to the
changes to which each nation, in course of ages, has been subject.

The si)lendid works of Egypt show us how wonderfully archi-
tecture is there the expression of a symbolic mythology. Re-
ligion was the teacher, the priest, the artist. Vast, stupendous,
mighty as the system on which he was founded, never has any
style of architecture appeared so fully capable of handing down
to posterity a complete chronicle of the manners, customs,
knowledge, and feeling of a people. Ou the most public por-
tions of these temples, we may still read the complete history
of their kings, and the most remarkable events of their most
flourishing times, whilst on their tombs are found delineated a
complete record of the arts, science, and commerce, known and
practised by this most remarkable people.

Layard, in his researches at Nineveh, has afforded the stu-
dents in architectural history fresh links in the chain of enquiry.
The discovery of the arch, the prevalence of the honeysuckle
ornamented (adopted by the Greeks, but nowhere seen in
Egypt), the germ of the Ionic order, by the extent of which,
Greek art is indebted to Assyria on all points of study.

In Mexico too, discoveries have within a few years been made
of ruins not inferior in importance to those of Egypt, and coin-
ciding in some measure with the pyramids and structure of that
country, and although no other record is left to us but these
ancient monuments of a once powerful people, may we not in a
great measure trace their history in the stones? No fewer
than forty-four cities have been discovered, and the effect on
the traveller when he first stumbles over these wonderful monu-
ments of the wilderness (tenantless ruins, overgrown with enor-
mous trees), long buried and unknown, which, like skeletons
wrapped in their burial shrouds, rise from their graves, must be
startling and intense; and the first appearance of a cluster of
columns in the midst of the rapid vegetation of that climate,
equal in magnitude and surpassing workmanship those of Egypt|
miles distant from any habited spot, and of which the natives'
have neither knowledge nor tradition, may be imagined rather
than described.

In Greece, with a new civilization, a new style arose, bor-
rowed in its characteristic features, (as was also its religion)
from Egypt; and the religion, which in Egyjjt was spiritual and
mystic, became in Greece purely material. The Egyptians in
the beginning worshipped all Nature, the air, the stars, the sun,
the moon, the Creator and His creations, and these they repre-
sented by certain forms of men and animals, but long ere their
religion had passed to the Greeks they had abandoned the
adoration of the thing signified for the grosser idolatry of the
objects themselves, so that losing sight of the original allc-ories
they were led to invest their divinities with the supposed attri-
butes of the Heavenly bodies, and hence the religion as derived
from Egypt being purely material, impressed a material charac-
ter on their architecture. The object of Greek art, addressed
more exclusively to the intellect and the senses, was the most
refined beauty — and feelingly alive to all the bounteous gifts of
Nature, they embodied them in tlieir art, without the symbolism
prevalent in Egypt, — and conceiving God in the image of maa
they made men like Gods.

But under the Romans, Greek art became still more mate-
rial, and lost the refinement with which the Greeks redeemed
it. Having attained an almost boundless power over the then
known earth, the Romans neglected the traditional deities of
their forefathers and set themselves up as Gods. — Glory, con-
quest, and luxury was their real religion or bond of union, the
monuments handed down to us as the true chronicles of their
times, — the Coliseum, the baths, theatres, and triumphal arclics,
and it is for these only they claim any originality of invention!
Greatness and richness, though two of the principal elements of
architectural efl'cct are not the only ones, and although many
of the Roman edifices add to those qualities appropriateness,
even that will not suffice. Concealed construction, the junction
of incongruous styles and ornaments, and the juxtaposition of
inappropriate parts, copying and borrowing blindfold instead of
inventing, in short, a want of artistic feeling and understanding
of the subject, characterise and spoil all the architectural ef-
forts of the Romans.

Close following the fall of paganism, and with the riso
of the christian religion, a new era in art arose, than which,
when science, religion, and love, under the influence of faith
ministered to it, no style has been more glorious or more beauti-
ful. If we carefully analyse christian "architecture, we shall
find it in the requirements of the age and country to which we
direct our attention. Whether we look at the Gothic of
Northern Italy, Lombardic, or Yenetian, with all its picturesque
effects of light and shade, of Spain or Germany, or our nearer
neighbor and now ally, France; or in our own much loved land
we shall find the tendency in all the same, the elevation of the
heart and mind, through the medium of pillar and arch, pin-
Inacle and spire, gradually and by degrees, leading our thou»bt3

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THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

13c

from earth and worldly matters to those more immediately con-
uectcd with the soul. Those beauteous structures vvlucii —

Children, that coins to seo those saints in stono,
As day by day out of the blocks thoy rose,

Grew old and died, and still the work went on,
And on, and on, and is not yet completed;

Tliu geaeratioii that succeeds our own
Perhaps may (iuish it. The architect

Built his great iicart into these sculptured stones,
And with him toiled his children, and their lives

Were buildcd with his own into the walls
As offerings unto God.

And among those I may justly call attention to the Cathe-
drals of Wells (with its wondrous west front and glorious dis-
play of sculpture); Winchester, a perfect history of architec-
ture; Lincoln, with an accumulation of beauties uovvhere ri-
valled; Lichfield, wiLli its three spires; Westminster, the rest-
ing place 01 Kings and of early arts the record; of Salisbury,
the most uniform of all, and a perfect whole — or those glorious
abbeys, many of which, liiic Tintern, in its delicious vale cun-
ningly placed, reft of their thousand beauties, stand as relics
of tiie mighty age in which they were erected; or the village
church, whose spire, the perfection of the elements of design,
shoots up into the sky. In this country, the culuminating point
of gothic was reached, and ail its crowning elegancies achieved
in the decorated period — when saints sanctified in stone, took
their place beneath sculptured canopies, and iloriated pinnacles,
and running foliage curiously cut, grew up into the hollows of
mouldiu^-s. The possession or these noble piles, the combined
results of the piety, liberality, genius, skill, and taste of ages
gone by, entails upon succeeding generations a serious responsi-
bility in scrupulously preserving them from injury, and handing
down intact and unimpaired their beauties to generations yet to
come.

The religion of Mahommed produced an art in unison with
its imaginative and poetic doctrines, an art as essentially the off-
spring of the Koran as gothic that of the Bibie, and the
palaces of Granada and mosques of India and Cairo, shew
everywhere the calm, voluptuous translation of that doctrine.
The Mahoramedans, forbidden by their creed to represent na-
ture in any of her multitudinous forms, and more particularly
the human form divine, were led to adorn their temples in a
style peculiar to themselves. Expressing faith while adding
beauty — iuscriptions from the Koran were interwoven with
geometrical ornaments and flowers, and the offspring of this
art, the Alhambra, or red castle, the celabrated palace of the
ancient Moorish kings of Granada — combines in its architec-
ture every element required in a true style of art.

With the exception of the Chinese (whose peculiar architec-
ture is little known and less appreciated) the Mahommedans
are the only race who still practice the art which grew up witli
their civilization, and although that art evidently suffers when
brought in contact with European influences, as in Turkey and
parts of India, they are still faithful to the art, as to the reli-
gion, habits, and modes of thought v/hich inspired it.

I need not refer to any of the other styles of art which have
existed, but all have, with more or less of faith, been inspired
by spiritual or political ties.

In the apnlication of Photography to architectural purposes,
correct definition, which to the artist is unnecessary, is to the
architect of first importance, and regardless of any other con-
sideration, every effort should be exerted to get the detail as
sharp and clear as possible — though, for producing picturesque
effect, a different treatment is required.

In the study of architecture, there are three great consti-
tuents of that divine Eurythmia, which awakens in the mind
the perception and joy of beauty. Fitness of parts, harmony
of ideas, and unity of purpose.

Beauty is the true aim of art, and not of high art alone, but
of everything that appeals to the taste; nor can we with im-
punity fall away from beauty, to offer up our ingenuity and skill
on the altars of the strange gods of our ancestors. Virtue,
order, happiness, depend iu a great measure upon taste. Tiie
hills, the glens, the woods, the waters, the birds, the flowers —

IT*

all things that God has clothed with beauty, possess a medica-
tive i)ower to heal the soul and invigorate the affections. But
the enjoyments of the works of nature will be of little use, if
their imin-ession is to be instantly eifaced by the arlifidnl oh-
jeds that surround us, and each one of these objects thercl'oro,
even the most minute and insignificant, ought to be coiistrucLcd
on the same principal of harmony which plans a temple or
glorifies the Heavens.

It will be found that there arc principles conveyed to us
through the natural kingdom, which man has endeavored to ap-
ply to all he undertakes, and Certain it is that in Architecture
and its concomitant arts, he has followed the working of nature
to a great extent. Our Shakespeare, in his " Winter's Tale,"
says —

That Art

Which you say adds to Nature, is an Art

That Nature makes.

And the same source, which is inexhaustible, is equally open to
us as it has been from time immemorial to the artists of every
clime, who from thence have derived forms of grace and ele-
gance.

A beautiful building resembles a great epic poem, in which
all the parts are so justly balanced, and so nicely harmonized,
that the effect produced on the mind is that of beauty and re-
pose.

If we examine the works of the middle age Architects, we
shall find they did not work without rules, or guiding principles,
and the more fully we study our ancient edifices the more clear-
ly does it become apparent that nothing was introduced unne-
cessarily or deceptively for mere appearance sake: that the ex-
cellence of effect, which is apparent, resulted from the use of
sound principles, laid down not with a view of producing that
effect, but with reference to stability, convenie?ice, and filoiess,
good taste and great skill being afterwards employed in adorn-
ing that which was necessary, and making the useful a producer
of the beautiful.

For the true test and foundation of all pure ornament —
Geometry — the Architect is indebted to Nature. Art com-
binations would, without the aid of that science, cease to be
graceful, and their symmetrical combinations would no longer
exist. So long as ornamentation is disposed as designed upon
natural laws, so long will it be beautiful and endurable, for " a
thing of beauty is a joy forever;" but if, on the contrary, un-
natural outlines and fantastic shapes be festered, the growth of
the spreading boughs, the budding of the clustered foliage,
will be arrested, and an unhealthy formality mistaken for beauty.
The principles to be followed iu imitating nature, are those
which she her.self adopts in the organization or arrangements
of her works; no abortions, imperfections, or peculiarities, ought
to be copied; but the Architect's object should be, not to make
things as Nature makes them, but asshewoziW makethem. Per-
fect foliage, flowers and vegei;able forms, must be distributed
and applied in strict accordance with Nature's rules. The idea
of perpetuating, in stone, the beauties of the vegetable king-
dom, emblematically expressed, was a happy one of the greatest
antiquity, and there is no style of architecture without its flora
more or less conventional'zed. So extensive is the range of art
decoration in every civilized country, each of which possess its
own characteristic development, that to collect, analyse, and
study comprehciisively the resources of so widely cultivated a
field, would occupy a lifetime. The Architect requires a greater
knowledge of living plants than of dead ones, leaves and
flowers are of little use after they have been flattened, as the
undulations and the beauty of the forms are lost. The form of
the leaf, the disposition of the veins, the position of the leaves
upon the stem, the form and character of the stem, the flowers
and the fruit, are all of moment, and require to be carefully
studied.

In this study of ornament it is that the architectural student
will discover the benefits arising from the use of the camera, in
assisting him in the consideration and adoption of all those va-
ried combinations required in ornament, which, as Ruskin, in
his "Lamp of Beauty," says, "must consist of such studious ar-

134

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

May,

rangements of form as are imitative or suggestive of those
wiiicli are commouest among natural existences, that being, of
course, the noblest ornament which represents the highest
orders of existence. Imitated flowers are nobler than imitated
stones, imitated animals than flowers, imitated human form of
all animals the noblest. But all are combined in the richest
ornamental work, and the rock, the fountain, the flowing river
with its pebbled bed, the sea, the clouds of Heaven, the bird,
the beast, the man, and the angel, mingie their fair forms on
the bronze of Ghiberli." Bat if the student, after a patient
contemplation af Nature and Art, should not be enabled to put
into execiUion the qualities necessary in the production of great
architectural works, by their study and observation, he would
at least enhance the happiness of his existence.

Let the architectural student look back to days long gone by,
to the Monk architect at work in his narrow cell, and study to
emulate him, — see his pale cheek glow with delight as he built
up in his mind the edifice which he was studying, his thoughts
are not merely to copy but to surpass all his predecessors, and
so he judged every separate stone, allowing none to keep their
place without rendering some worthy reason, and when he had
given to his shades their utmost intensity and his lights the
fullest grace which they could attain, feeling the correctness of
his main lines, and that therein nothing further could be
achieved, yet when he came to clothe his building with the last
robe of loveliness of which it was capable, then still more un-
restrainedly did he seek for inspiration from the teachings of
nature, and by entwining many a fair plant in the dark hol-
lows of his mouldings, or clustering around some spreading capi-
tal, showed how sincerely and dearly he loved her. His life
was in his work, he followed it because he loved it, and en-
gaging him by day, and at night mingling with his rest, this all-
pervading spirit ot love and zeal is to be observed not in him
alone, but in those who followed his directions and carried out
his projects. Nor can we disbelieve or doubt this, M'hen we
stand before some wondrous carving in which neither labor, nor
time, nor skill has been spared, where the leaves are bent and
waving, and full of life, and are arranged not in fantastic and
unmeaning scrolls, or issuing from the tails of impossible mons-
ters, but in everything obedient to the laws of Nature and
placed as she would have placed them. Nor has anything good
ever been accomplished in architecture but that which has been
done in love, and in this lies much of the difference between the
works of the present and of past ages. There is many a village
church of olden time plain and simple, which yet possesses more
power and vitality and can move our hearts to a far higher ad-
miration than many a more costly modern work. And why? In
the former case the men who built that church loved the forms
into which they moulded its stones, they chose and thought
about them, and the fruits of that love and zeal — who knows
not how many hearts have been aveed into silence, and how
many, by the works of these men, have been lifted up in praise?
But in the latter case love did not guide the choice so much as
fashion, and forms were chosen not because they were beautiful,
but because they had been used before, selected iu obedience to
precedent.

Let those answer to the fruits of that love and zeal who know
what it is to gaze in silent admiration at those fair vaulted
roofs, with their lines of beauty knit together by the flowers of
the field, or, as they tread the darkening cloister, indulge in
strange and deep thoughts, in which the deepness of its shade
mingles: or those who love those quiet rows of holy saints, their
bauds as in benediction raised, each in his appointed niche,
standing so peacefully on some glorious portal, whose height is
lifted up towards the clouds and fashioned with wondrous power.
Let all who have loved the works of these men answer, — all
that numerous and ardent crowd, which within its ranks contains
l)rinces and peasants, old men and cliildrcn, rich and poor philo-
sophers and poets, every rank and every degree.

If the students of architecture in the present day would turn
to their work with love and zeal, loving their art if not with
the devotion of M. Angelo, yet with a fervent and warm affec-
tion, feeling pride iu being permitted to follow it, and pursuing

it with all the zeal and energy of which they are capable, spar
ing no labor and remitting no endeavor to attain as high a pro-
ficiency in and as thorough a knowledge of it as possible; we
should see rise before us crowd after crowd of dwellings that
would still more enhance the value of home, such as men v.onld
delight to occupy, and from which would continually proceed
men better and wiser. Towering far above would be public
buildings, in whose walls the history of nations would be writ-
ten, but better still would there be many a glorious edifice, rich
in all that beauty, loveliness, and wealth can give, with vaulted
roofs, lifted far into the quiet air, and their thin fair spires
rising higiier and higher still, typical of that religion to the
service of which the building is dedicated.

Thus architecture is not the child of archeology, but the
offspring of it, and thus art, in so far as it expresses the spirit
of the time in which it is produced, and the architect that has
imbibed the true and living princip'es of his art feels himself
forced onward by the physical, moral, religious and social re-
quirements of his countrymen, the necessities of the body and
the needs of the spirit, which are served by the architect, and
served by perfect harmony.

From riwiograpMc Koiei.

PnOTOGRAPHS OF THE M00i\.

"We have alluded, on one or two occasions, to some photo-
graphs of the Moon, which were exhibited by Mr. Warren de
la Rue, at the last meeting of the Astronomical Society. The
following account of what took place at the meeting, appeared
in the AlhencEum, of the 12th of December: —

".At the close of the Meeting of the Astronomical Society,
on November 13th, Mr. Warren dela Rue exhibited a great va-
riety of beautiful photographs of the moon, several of which he
placed at the disposal of the Fellows of the Society. He also
made some remarks on the application of Photography to re-
cording the appearances of the heavens, and more particularly
of those presented by the moon and the larger planets. Mr.
Bond, of Cambridge, iu the United States, was the first, he be-
lieved, who obtained a photographic impression, by means of
the telescope, of the lunar surface. At a subsequent period,
in the year 1852, Mr. De la P^ue applied the collodion, as-
sisted by Mr. Thornthwaite, and obtained an excellent image
of the moon; and he had the honor of exhibiting it to the
Society, and of describing the apparatus by which he obtained
it. It is difficult to follow the moon's motion in any telescope,
without the aid of a clockwork driver; nevertheless, by means
of a sliding plate-holder in the place of the ordinary eye-piece,
he was able to do so, by viewing the image through the collo-
dion film. The particular form of apparatus employed he had
the pleasure of describing at that period to the Society. Mr.
De la Rue soon relinquished the pursuit of lunar photography,
because it required two enthusiasts; one to uncover the month
of the telescope, and one to follow the moon's apparent motion;
and it was not easy to find a friend always disposed to wait up
for hours, night after night, probably without obtaining any
result. He therefore resolved to discontinue his photographic
experiments till he had applied a clock-motion to his telescope.
This he has done during the present year, and he has taken the
earliest opportunity of resuming his experiments. The first re-
sults Mr. De la Rue obtained were similar to those described
in 1852, and were produced by employing collodion, and ob-
taining positive images of the moou. He was very successful
from the onset, and had been enabled to distribute a few en-
larged copies of a photograph obtained on the 1th of Septem-
ber. There were also copies of it on the table for the use of
the members then present. More recently Mr. De la Rue has
been induced to make experiments in the production of nega
tive collodion pictures, for two reasons: first, because they ad-
mitted of more easy multiplication, and secondly, because the
image is much finer in grain. In the positive picture? the pre-
cipitation of the silver is in larger particles than in the nega-

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THE niOTOGRAPniC AND FIXE ART JOURNAL.

13:

tives. The paper copies before the Society were derived from
a positive picture, which in tlie telescope, was obtained in five
seconds. When this was procured he was unable to obtain a
grood negative in less than 14 seconds. However, his friend
Mr. Howlctt lately put him in the way of making negative col-
lodion very sensitive, and he obtained negative impressions in
ten seconds. Since this, by paying particular attention
to the state of the bath, he had been very successful in still re-
ducing the time of exposure, and had produced pictures, not
only of the lunar surface, but also of Jupiter, in from three to
seven seconds. The photographs of Jupiter show bis belts re-
markably well. The beauty of the photographs exhibited of
the moon, he thought it would be admitted, gave great promise
that at a future period photography will be considered as the
only correct means of mapping down the lunar surface. When
we shall be able to obtain collodion finer in grain and still
more sensitive, it will supersede hand-drawing altogether; and
even now the results obtained are much more accurate than
anything hitherto done by mapping or hand-drawing. It is
nearly impossible, by micrometical measurement, to lay down
all the details of the moon, and much, after a sort of triangula-
tion, has to be filled up by eye. The work is too laborious;
and the famous map of Beer & Mudler, wonderfully accurate as
it is, does not fulfil the conditions of absolute accuracy in all
the minute points of details.

" The Astronomer Royal expressed his feeling that a step of
very great importance had been made, of which, either as re-
gards the self-delineation of clusters of stars, nebulEe, and
planets, or as regards the self-registration of observations, it is
impossible at present to estimate the value.

"The most cordial thanks of Astronomers are due to Mr.
Bond, and to the professional amateurs, Messrs. Whipple &
Black, by whose perseverance this object has been obtained."

THE DRY COLLODION PROCESS.

BT CHARLES A. LONG.

Before describing in detail the manipulations of the process
on Dry Collodion plates, it will be necessary to say a few words
on the materials and apparatus to be employed, and also to
give an account of the means of preparing the various solutions
used in the process. Pirst,

THE COLLODIOir.

This being the principal material we have to nse, we must
exercise great care in the selection of a sample that possesses
all the characteristics which fit it for a dry process. We must
reject all samples that possess great tenacity and contractile
power: the Collodion must not be too thick, and it must flow
evenly over the plate, and not set in ridges. The best condi-
tion for the Iodized Collodion is that known as 'powdery, that
is, being spread on the plate and partially dry, it cannot be
removed as a film, but crumbles up on being pressed by the
finger in its passage across the plate; in fact, such a condition
would arise from using gun cotton prepared with acids at a
high temperature.

The following formula will be found to answer most admira-
bly:—

Gun cotton 60 grains.

Absolute alfeohol 5 ounces.

Sulphuric .^ther, sp. gr. -730 15 ounces.

The cotton is to be shaken up with the mixture of alcohol
and ffither, and when dissolved, the bottle containing it must
be stood aside, in order that any undissolved particles of cotton
may subside. The clear liquid may then be decanted into a
clean bottle for use.

It will be as well to test the quality of the Collodion thus
prepared before coating any number of plates with it, for, al-
though the above proportions are very excellent, some little
,atitude mast be allowed for the different degrees of solubility

of the various samples of cotton used from time to time. The
film, when spread on the glass plate and partially dry, should
not be capable of being removed in the form of a skin, but
should give before the finger and crumble up on its being rubbed
across the plate.

Should any difficulty, however, occur, it would be belter to
obtain a sample of the Collodion made by an experienced hand,
in order that a fair trial may be given to the process. If the
Collodion be too contractile it will give rise to blisters in the
film, and will wash off the i)late during development.

The Iodizing Solution that I have found to give the best
results in this process is made in the manner following: —

Absolute alcohol 8 ounces.

Iodide of cadmium 64 graius.

Iodide of ammonium 64 grains.

The iodides are to be dissolved by agitation in the alcohol,
and the resulting solution is to be carefully filtered, and pre-
served in a well-stoppered bottle.

The Iodizing Collodion consists of —

Iodizing solution 2 drachms. ) ■,

Plain collodion 6 " [ 1 ounce.

The Collodion should always be iodized at least twelve hours
before it is required; this interval allows any insoluble matters
either from the iodizing solution or from the Collodion itself to
fall to the bottom, and enables the operator to pour off all the
clear solution into a perfectly clean bottle for use.

Next in importance to the Iodized Collodion comes

THE PRESERVATIVE SOLUTION.

Some care is required in the preparation of this solution , in
order that it may be clear and bright when finished, and not
contain particles that would be deposited in its passage over the
Collodion film when being used. The chief precaution to be
observed is not to alloio it to boil too rapidly, and not to conduct
the operation over too fierce a fire; attention to this will prevent
many failures, and ensure a solution in every way suited for the
process.

Take 200 grains of the best transparent gelatine, cut into
small shreds, and throw it into a pipkin in which has been
previously placed 10 ounces of distilled water; set this on a
slow fire, or over a lamp, until the gelatine is completely
melted; then v/eigh out 100 grains of pure citric acid and dis-
solve it in two ounces of distilled water; add this to the solu-
tion of gelatine, stirring it during the addition with a glass rod.
The solution in the pipkin is now to be gently boiled for about
15 minutes: remove it from the fire, and add sufficient distilled
water to make up the bulk of liquid to 12 ounces. When quite
cold, the liquid in the pipkin is to be filtered through two
thicknesses of pure white blotting-paper into a bottle perfectly
dry and clean. We now add to every 1 2 ounces of filtered
preservative solution, 1 ounce of alcohol, of the specific gravity
of -840.

The solution thus prepared is ready for use, and should be of
a pale amber color, without any signs of insoluble particles
floating in it; should any appear after it has been prepared for
some days, a second filtration will remove them, and render the
liquid again bright and clear.

It will be found better to prepare this solution only in the
quantity indicated above, unless the consumption be large, for
although it will keep good for a month or more, my experience
points to the fact, that the most successful results follow the
use of Preservative Solution freshly prepared.

THE NITRATE OF SILVER BATH.

The bath for rendering the plates sensitive doe? not differ
from that recommended for taking negatives with wet collo-
dion. The formula for its preparation may not be out of place,
however, and may assist those whose knowledge of the matter
is not perfect.

Nitrate of silver (fused) \\ onncea

Distilled water 10 "

Iodide of cadmium 3 grains.

136

THE PnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

May,

Dissolve the nitrate of silver in the water and then acid the
iodide of cadaiiiim; thoroughly agitate the mixture for Ave or
ten minutes, then add | ounce of alcohol, sp. gr. "840, and 10
ounces of distilled water; further agitation, and subsequent fil-
tration through two tliickncsses of wliite bibulous paper, will
put us in possession of a negative bath. The nitrate of silver
being fused, and consequently, pure and neutral^ and as it is
essential to obtain clean pictures that tlie bath should be
slightly acid in its reaction, we Qnd it necessary to add 5 or
6 minims or drops of pure glacial acetic acid to a bath of 20
ounces, in order that the above condition may obtain.

THE DEVELOPING SOLUTION

Is very simple in its nature, being merely a saturated solution
of gallic acid in distilled water, to which has beea added a
small proportion of alcohol of sp. gr. '84:0.
The exact formula is as follows: —

Distilled water , 20 ounces.

Alcohol, sp. gv. •8-10 1 ounce.

Gallic acid i ounce.

Tlie gallic acid will not be entirely dissolved, but that left at
the bottom of the bottle will ensure the solution being saturated;
it is better not to filter the developing solution until it is re-
quired for use, as it is preferable to allow it to stand over an
excess of gnllic acid, than for it to be withdrawn after a slight
agitation with the crystals; it is a great error to suppose that
we obtain a saturated solution of gallic acid by merely agita-
ting the crystals with water for a few moments.

The developing solution prepared as above directed, will keep
good and in working order for some weeks, but when it becomes
of a dark color, it would be safer to reject it and prepare a
fresh quantity than to run the risk of a failure from aa impure
and imperfect developing agent.

NITRATE OF SILVER SOLUTION,

For adding to the gallic acid during development, is composed

of

Fused nitrate of silver 30 grains.

Distilled water 1 ounce.

THE FIXING SOLUTION

Consists of a solution of hyposulphite of soda ia water, (fil-
tered), in the following proportion: —

Hyposulphite of soda in crystals 8 ounces.

Rain or liltcred water 20 ounces.

Tlie Apparatus, &e. required in the Dry Collodion process is
of the most simple kiud, and consist of the following items: —

Glass plates.

Pneumatic jilate holders.

Plate holder, for cleaning the plates.

Glass or porcelain dishes.

Glass or gutta percha dipping bath and dipper,

Silver hook, for lifting pluLes.

Levelling stand.

Measures, 1, 2, and 4 ounce.

Glass funnels.

Wash leather.

Some clean cloths and broad camel's hai;* brash.

Cotton wool.

Bil)ulous paper.

The chemicals are —

Nitrate of silver (fused).

Glacial acetic acid.

Iodized collodion ('dry).

Gelatine.

Citric acid.

Alcoliol.

Sulphuric aether.

Gallic acid.

Hyposuljiliite of soda.

Iodide of cadmium.

Benzoin varnish.

In the above list we presume that the operator is in posscs-
siou of a suitable camera and lens, and the usual adjuncts of

camera tripod, &c. &c. These should all be of the best
otherwise it will be impossible to obtain good results.

kind,

THE MANIPULATION.

The process of obtaining a picture on Dry Collodion plates is
in itself a most simple and easy matter, but there are one or
two precautions that appear necessary to ensure success, that
cannot be lightly neglected. In the first place, it is abso-
lutely certain, that if we want a clean and bright pictvirCj
we must have a plate perfectly free from all extraneous matters,
such as soap, grease, &c. Various plans for cleaning the glass
plate have been proposed, all more or less successful, but in
most of them there is one great fault, namely, that of using a
powder, as tripoli, rottenstone, &c , to rub off the dirt with.
Now we find that in practice this will not answer, from the al-
most impossibility of getting rid of the floating particles cf the
powder when the plate is rendered slightly electrical by rubbing,
and as each of these particles if it become enveloped in the Col-
lodion film, would produce a spot on the finished picture, we
find it necessary to search in another direction for a detergent
for the glass plate to which this objection would not apply.
One soon presents itself in the form of old waste Collodion —
this spread on the glass plate and rubbed off again with cotton
wool, makes the best and most perfect cleanser hitherto pro-
posed, without any of the objections usually appended to other
materials used for the same purpose.

The next precaution necessary to be observed, is, that all the
solutions should be perfectly bright and clear; they should be
absolutely free from floating particles of any kind. This is
essential, as it is impossible to obtain clean pictures without
attention to it, the floating bodies in the solution settle on the
plate, and form so many nuclei, around which, in the develop-
ment of the picture, the silver is deposited in an opaque mass,
forming spots and blemishes on the surface of the plate.

There is one precaution that cannot be dispensed v/ith, and
that Is, to be sure that the chemicals employed are of absolute
purity; without this, success is very problematical, and vexa-
tion and disgust the sure reward of its neglect.

The process may for convenience be divided into the follow-
ing stages: —

1 . — Cleaning the plate.

2. — Coating it with collodion.

3. — Rendering the plate sensitive.

4 — Applying the preservative solution.

5. — Exposure in the camera.

6. — Development of the picture,

1. — Fixing the developed image.

8. — Varnishing the finished negative.

CLEANING THE PLATE,

The glass plate is first to be thoroughly washed with an
abundance of water and dried on clean cloths; it is then to be
placed in the plate holder, and have poured over its upper side
a small quantity of old Collodion. Now take a tuft of cotton
wool and rub the Collodion all over the plate, giving the hand a
circular motion at the time: keep rubbing until the Collodion is
very nearly dry, then turn the plate in the holder and repeat
the same treatment with the opposite side; then lean the plate
thus treated against a wall, while another, or any number are
put through this stage. Whenasulacicnt number have been so far
cleaned, the plate holder is to be carefully wiped and the first
plate — the edges of which have also been carefully wiped with a
cIca7ic\oi\i — is to 1)0 replaced, and treated vrith a smart rubbing
with a wash leather, the operator at intervals gently breathing
on the plate. Both sides of the plate being cleaned in this way,
it may be removed, after again wiping the edges carefully, to
the plate box, to await the subsequent steps of the process.
Plates cleaned in this manner should look perfectly transparent,
and free from any marks of tlie cloth or leather, and when
breathed upon should condense the moisture of the breath in
one uniform degree over the whole surface. If patches of
uneven condensation appear, a repetition of the process must
be had recourse to.

1858.

TEE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

13Y

The plate being clean, we proceed to the next step,

COATING THE PLATE.

Lay a piece of clean blotting paper on the table, larger than
the plate we are about to use; place the clean plate on this,
and then bring the pneumatic plate holder to bear on the cen-
tre of the glass, making sure that it has laid hold firraly. We
then raise the plate with the left hand, and bring the surface
upwards which was previously on the blotting paper; it will no
doubt be (ound that small particles of dust have attached them-
selves to the plate, these must be removed by a broad and soft
camel's hair brush.

The collodion is then to be poured on, and the superfluous
quantity returned to tlie bottle from one of the corners of the
plate. It does not matter which of the corners is used for this
purpose, tliat which is most convenient to the operator assum-
ing the preference. If the collodion should have a tendency
to set in ridges across the plate, a rocking motion, while the
delivery corner is in the mouth of the bottle, may be given to
it, still keeping the plate in a vertical plane. This will restore
the film to perfect evenness and freedom from irregularity of
any sort. The plate should be held in the vertical position for
a few moments before being placed oa the dipper to undergo
the next operation of

RENDERING THE PLATE SENSITIVE.

The plate being placed, coated side outwards, on the dipper,
is to be plunged without hesitation into the nitrate of silver
bath. This must be done without stopping, otherwise a line
across the plate will indicate, on development, the position of
the plate in the bath at the time this stoppage took place; so
that if we were to immerse the plate by a series of jerks, we
should have as a result, so many bands of unequal development
in the finished picture; showing the importance of plunging the
plate into the bath without any stoppage during its descent.

When the plate has rested for half a minute in the bath, it
may be withdrawn, and quickly reiramersed. This washing
must be continued at intervals, until the greasy appearance
goes off, generally for the space of two minutes, when the plate
is to be taken out of the bath and placed with its lower edge on
a pad of blotting paper, in an inclined position. A fragment
of blotting paper is then to be used to absorb the moisture from
the back of the plate, and a pneumatic plate holder — which
should only be used for this purpose — is applied to it to form a
support while

APPLYING THE PRESERVATIVE SOLUTION.

Taking the plate in the left hand by means of the pneumatic
holder, incline it slightly; then having poured into a perfectly
clean measure rather more of the ])reservative solution than is
necessary to cover the plate twice,* pour half of it along the
upper edge in such a manner, that a wave of the solution may
flow uniformly from one end of the plate to the other, allow
this to flow off into the waste pan or sink, and then bring the
plate to the horizontal position, and pour on the remainder of
the preservative solution, four times at least, allowing it to flow
back into the measure from each corner in succession, in order
that the whole plate may be brought uniformly under its influ-
ence. The plate is to be again placed on a piece of clean blot-
ting paper, and its back once more wiped with a fragment of
blotting or papier Joseph, in order to remove any of the pre-
servative solution that may have run from the surface to the
underside in the previous operation. The plate thus preserved
is to be reared on a piece of blottingpaper with its face against
the wall until dry, and is then to be stowed away in a plate
box, perfectly light-tight to await the

EXPOSURE IN THE CAIIERA,

Collodion plates preserved as above directed, will keep per-
fectly good and sensitive for 6 months at least; and from the
appearance of the developed image on a plate that has been
kept that time, I see at present no reason why, if preserved

* A plate, 9 inches by 7, takes about 1 ounce of solution.
VOL. XI. NO. V. 18

from the damp, they would not keep indefinitely. In my ex-
periments, I have never found the least difference in sensitive-
ness, whether the plate be used within a few hours of the time
of its preparation, or has been kept for months; until, however,
we have had more experience in the matter, it would be safer
not to rely on plates more than six months old.

The time of exposure in the camera, of course varies in this
process, under the same circumstances as it does with the wet
Collodion; but I have found it as a general rule, that it is bet-
ter to give the plate a full exposure than to fall into the oppo-
site extreme: that is to say, it is preferable to expose the
plate sufficient time for the deepest shadows to make an im-
pression than to close the dark slide at an earlier period, the
mode of development allowing considerable latitude in this par-
ticular. With a 3-iuch single lens, 16-inch focus, with a J-inch
stop, the usual time for a bright landscape will be about 5
minutes; this of course is merely an approximation to the time
of exposure, the exact time can only be arrived at by expe-
rience. I do not think I can do better than follow the plan
adopted in my "Practical Photography," of giving instances of
under and over exposure, as a means of educating the tyro in
the appearances that result from these conditions of the jilate.

If the exposure has been of too short duration, the image
will come out under the developing solution with difQculty; and
after a continued immersion in it will only present the high-
lights, the deep shadows not being represented, or if so, in so
faint a manner as to be useless in the picture.

An over exposed plate, when treated with the developing so-
lution, will almost immediately give indications of the picture,
and in a few minutes, the whole of the picture, deep shadows
and all, vf\\\ come out in unnatural force; on looking through
the picture thus produced, we shall observe a great flatness in
it, there is a want of contrast between the various parts,
and although by continuing the development we might ob-
tain a tolerably intense negative, the resulting picture would
be flat, meagre, and unsatisfactory: on the contrary, a plate
that has been exposed for the correct time, will comport itself
very differently under develojjment from the foregoing.

The sky and high lights will first appear, then the half-tones,
and lastly, the parts of the picture that were in deep shadow
will show themselves; this effect should take place in about 5
minutes from the time of immersion in the developing bath:
a picture that comes out sooner than this, is, as a general rule,
over exposed; and one that is much after the 5 minutes before
it makes its appearance, may be considered as under exposed.
We trust that the above instances may be of service in indicat-
ing the average time required for an exposure of the plate, but
we must ask the reader not to take the figures given as actual
values, but merely as very close approximations to the truth.
We will imagine the plate to have been properly exposed, and
proceed to

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PICTURE.

It is not necessary that the picture should be developed im-
mediately after exposure in the camera; any time that is con-
venient to the operator may intervene between the processes,
provided the aggregate time before and after exposure does
not exceed the limits of keeping power of the plate.

The development of tho picture may be conducted in two
ways, either by immersing the plate in baths or dishes, or by
placing it on the levelling stand and treating it with the solu-
tions, in their proper order, as detailed below. Each plan
possesses certain advantages, but it is of little consequence
which one is followed. Perhaps there is less danger of the
film washing off if the plate be treated on the levelling stand,
and on the other side with large plates it is more difficult to
cover them evenly with the developing solution than it is sim-
ply to immerse them in a pan of solution. We say to the
render, try both ways, and make your own selection.

The plate on being removed from the camera is placed face
upwards in a porcelain or glass dish of a convenient size (not
too large), and sufficient distilled water is to be poured over it
to cover the surface thoroughly — this is for the purpose of

138

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

May,

softening the preservative solution, and must be allovi'ecl to re-
main on the plate for five minutes; the plate is then to be
lifted ill and out of the water by means of the silver hook.
This done, remove the plate to a perfectly clean dish, and pour
carefully over it the developing solution, composed of

Saturated sohition of gallic acid 8 ounces.

Solution of nitrate of silver 2 drams.

THOROUGHLY MIXED.

In a fevr minutes the picture will begin to make its appear-
ance, and will gradually unfold its details under the influence of
the developer, until the whole of them are apparent; on raising
the plate, however, when this stage of development is reached,
and viewing it by transmitted light, the picture will appear
weak and poor; we must now remove the plate from the bath,
and add 2 drachms more of the nitrate silver solution, and hav-
ing thoroughly mixed it with the gallic acid, we return the
partially developed plate, which in the course of a few minutes
will have acquired a great amount of intensity, — the exact de-
gree can be regulated by the time of immersion: when the pic-
ture appears sufficiently intense, it is to be removed from the
developing dish, and a gentle stream of water is poured over it,
in order to remove any adhering developing solution, and stop
all further reducing action on it.

During the whole time of the development, the gallic acid
should remain quite clear; it will become slightly discolored
before the end of the development, but it ought not at any time
to become muddy, or it will deposit a sort of sandy sediment on
the surface of the plate, which cannot be removed by subsequent
washing.

The usual time occupied in the developmentof a successful pic-
ture is from 20 to 30 minutes, it might be developed much quicker
by using pyrogallic acid, but at present I give the preference to
the developer I liave described, as I believe it to be more cer-
tain, and more nnder the control of the ojjerator than the pyro-
gallic acid; and further, as it is not necessary to watch the de-
velopment all the time it is going on, there can be very little
saving of time in the more rapid method of bringing out the
latent picture.

The picture being washed free from the adhering developing
solution, is to be placed on the levelling stand, and suljjected to
the seventh part of the process.

FIXING THE DEVELOPED IMAGE.

This is accomplished by pouring over the surface of the plate
sufficient solution of hyposulphite of soda to thoroughly
cover it, this will dissolve out the unaltered iodide of silver, and
give us a clear and bright picture, in which the deep shadows
should be as transparent as the glass itself, and the high lights
as dense as a piece of metal, the intermediate tones assuming
their proper positions according to the intensity of the light
that was concerned in their formation.

When the whole of the yellow iodide of silver is removed,
the fixing solution may be thrown off, and the plate must be
treated with an abundance of water; too much cannot well be
given at this stage, as the hyposulphite adheres with great te-
nacity to the plate, even after a good washing. The back of
the plate must be washed as well as the front, for I have found
that a neglect of this precaution has ruined many a fine nega-
tive; the hyposulphite remaining at the back finding its way by
capillary attraction to the surface, and once there, its destruc-
tive qualities are sure, sooner or later, to render themselves
evident.

The picture being thoroughly washed, and either dried spon-
taneously or by the fire, has only to be covered with a film of
varnish. Aud now comes the last operation, of

VARNISHING THE FINISHED NEGATIVE.

Benzoin varnish is the best coating that can be given to a
Collodion negative. It resists the action of pieces of grit; it
docs n(.t crack; and above all, it does not, like amber varnish,
split ott' the picture on the slightest friction.

The application of this varnish is a very simple matter. The

negative is to be again placed on a pneumatic plate holder, and
the varnish is to be poured on to the surface in precisely the
same manner as the Collodion was at the commencement of the
process, the superfluous quantity being returned to the bottle:
in a few moments the varnish will be quite dry aud hard, and
the plate may be handled with perfect safety.

I may mention, as a precaution, in varnishing the plate, that
it is better to perform that operation in a still atmosphere; as
the solvent of the gum being chloroform and very volatile, if it
were conducted in a current of air, there might be some difficul-
ty in obtaining an even coating to the picture.

In concluding this description of a process, which is at once
simple aud certain, I would ask the patient attention of those
who may do me the honor of repeating my experiments. I have
endeavored to render the details of the process as intelligible
as possible, and if I have succeeded in advancing the art of
Photography only one step by so doing, I consider that it is an
ample return for hours and days spent in anxious thought aud
laborious experiment.

ON TAKING CLOUDS WITH LANDSCAPES.

To thi Editor of Photographic Notes.

Sir, — Many photographic pictures have a very cold, sombre,
and unartistic appearance, because they lack those beautiful re-
presentations of clouds, winch add so much to good engravings'
and this is especially noticeable in those landscapes which have
a very distant or a level horizon. This defect, I am happy to
say. may be easily prevented by the very simple contrivance de-
scribed below, which I invented last spring, but have been un-
able to use much, because my photographic pursuits have been
in abeyance. To photograph clouds with the landscape, it is of
course only necessary to "screen'^ the sky, until the last second
of the "exposure" for the landscape, then lift up the screen, fo
as to catch the clouds instantaneously, and promptly close the
lens. Now this "screening" (or shading), may be done either
inside the camera, as the late Mr. Archer used to do with his
very ingenious apparatus, or it may be done outside, as follows:
Take a piece of zinc, about as wide as the diameter of the lens,
and twice as long, and clip one long side like a saw, so as to
render it sharply serrated; then blacken it, to avoid any reflec-
tion of light on the lens, make two small holes in it, for the
purpose of attaching strings or wires near each end. The next
thing is to erect a "gallows," or a sort of "ship's yard," over
the top of the lens, aud hang the zinc shade to it, in front, by
both strings or wires, with the "teeth" downwards, and adjust
these teeth so that their shadow slighlly overlaps the horizon
of the picture on the ground glass. During the exposure, this
screen is to be kept vibrating sideways, close to the opening of
the lens; until the last moment or so, and then lifted quickly
up, and the cap put on the lens. The result is, that the clouds
are beautifully represented, and the shading of the screen is so
softened off at the edge, that it is practically imperceptible, and
this is effected, not only by the serrated edge of the screen, but
also by the parallel rising and falling, caused by its swinging
from two supports. Other adaptions of this contrivance, I may
leave to the ingenuity of your readers.

John Rayner Hovell.

We think the following might be a better plan, than that
suggested by Mr. Hovell: — First, use the slide with a plain
glass in it, instead of the ground glass, and behind the plain
glass put a sheet of tissue paper. Let this be the focusing
screen, and trace the outline of the sky upon it, with a black
lead pencil. Cut it out with a pair of scissors, and cut a piece
of stout millboard to the same shape. Now place the mill-
board upright, at the bottom of the camera, close to the dark
slide, and let there be a peg working through a hole at the bot-
tom of the camera, with its end attached to the millboard.
This being arranged, proceed to take the view, and during the
exposure, displace the inilllioard up and down, and backwards
and forwards a very little, until the last few seconds of the ex-

1S58.

THE THOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

139

posure; then let it fall down at the bottom of the camera, and
allow the sky to produce its impression.

We have not tried tiie above plan, but thmk it likely, that
with a little clever management, it might be found to answer.
The lens should be a view-lens, with a small stop in front. —
[Ed. p. N.]

From the Photographic Notes.

BIRiraGHAM PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.

ORDINARY MEETING, JANUARY 26tH, 1858.

Mr. J. 0. C. Phillips in the Chair. The minutes of the
last Meeting having been read over and passed, some discus-
sion took place on some business of the Society, and the Chair-
man then called upon Mr. T. Morris to read his paper, and show
the manipulation of

BARNES'S DRY COLLODION PROCESS.

As I have nothing new of my own to lay before you this
evening, it is my intention, in common justice to our author, to
allow him to speak in his own language, whilst we endeavor to
illustrate his process experimentally. Indeed I feel more anx-
ious to do so as I hear from so many quarters that the process
is a failure and unworkable, but these assertions can only have
arisen from want of care in manipulation, or a want of honesty
in giving it a fair trial. Like all other Photographic processes,
it requires care and cleanliness. I may observe here that I
have no more interest in the process of Mr. Barnes than any
other process. On the publication of the first edition of his
work, and some of his pictures, I was pleased with them, and
satisfied, if they were produced by Dry Collodion, that the pro-
cess was well worth the learning. I immediately tried it, and
partially succeeded. I afterwards made Mr. Barnes' acquaint-
ance- I found him a very straightforward communicative man,
and an ardent lover of the art. Some of his pictures stand
alone I believe at the present time. Our object, however, this
evening is not to extol Mr. Barnes, or his pictures, or to inter-
fere with the angry feelings that have arisen in some quarters,
but to show you the modus operandi, as practised by him, and
as faithfully given in the second edition of his Dry Collodion
Process. VYe will, however, by your kind permission, read his
preface, and save ourselves any further argument on the ques-
tion, from which we shall turn to the more pleasing task of pre-
paring a plate and obtaining a picture according to the direc-
tions contained in his little but good shilling's-worth.

Mr. Morris then read the preface to the second edition of
Barnes' Dry Collodion Process, and then exhibited several pic-
tures obtained by the process. He then proceeded to prepare
several plates in the manner detailed in Mr. Barnes' pamphlet;
first, with plain collodion only, and afterwards with albumen, as
a support for the collodion. He then excited, washed, and
dried the plate in Mr. B.'s ingenious drying box, and exposed
and printed two stereoscopic pictures by gas-light. The simple
and rapid method of procuring a limpid solution of albumen
was very much admired. To make this, Mr. Morris took the
whites of two eggs, making two ounces of albumen, and four
ounces of distilled water, and after stirring these with a glass
rod, for half a minutes he added about 30 drops of glacial
acetic acid; upon stirring the mixture it becomes quite limpid;
it is then filtered several times through ordinary filtering paper
(the same piece should be used throughout, as the first filtra-
tion carries with it all the outside fibres of the filterj, conse-
quently by re-filtration, a clear solution is obtained; this is
poured upon the plate-like collodion, and dried in the stove.
The plate is then coated with collodion, excited, washed and
dried in the ordinary way.

Mr. Morris then proceeded: — It is absolutely necessary to
have the plates perfectly clean, the slightest particle of grease
destroying the adhesion betwixt the glass and the albumen. I
Bhall now expose these plates, one for twelve, the other for fif-
teen minutes, to the light of this argand gas burner. They are

placed, as yon see, in ordinary small pressure frames and a ne-
gative placed in front.

The exposure being now completed, I shall at once proceed
to develop the pictures. For tliis purpose I use a mixture of
pyro-gallic acid and gallic acid, made thus, —

Saturated Solution Gallic Acid 4 ozs.

Distilled Water 4 ozs.

Py ro-Gallic Acid 4 grs.

Acetic Acid 1 dim.

The plate is first dipped in the washing bath, then the above
mixture is poured on and off several times. I then mix a few
drops of a thirty-grain solution of nitrate of silver. The de-
velopment will sometimes occupy a long time, but in this caso
probably we shall not be long.

[The two pictures took about twenty minutes in development,
and were tolerably successful.]

I may here add that the chief use of the albumen appears to
be to hold the collodion firmly on the plate; for instance, if you
use a tough collodion, which will give an intense development
on plain glass only, it will not unfrequently slip off the glass.
Now the collodion seems so enter into combination with the al-
bumen, and it will then bear a considerable amount of hard
washing. The object of sometimes coating the surface of the
film with albumen, is to preserve it from injury — the plates may
then be carried in contact. After detailing other experiments,
for which we must refer our readers to the pamphlet in question,
Mr. Morris said, I have now endeavored, as briefly as possible,
to give you the manipulations of this interesting process, and I
can only add that it requires to be known to be admired and
practised. (Cheers).

Mr. OsBORN. — Although we must feel very grateful to Mr.
Morris for the trouble he has taken, and the skill he has dis-
played this evening in demonstrating the Dry Process, for our
special edification and amusement, I cannot allow the present
opportunity to pass without another endeavor to place matters
in their true light before you. Mr. Morris has read you the
preface to Mr. Barnes' work, and without feeling any ill-will
whatever to Mr. B. I must say that I consider his remarks and
reflections upon Dr. Hill Norris unwarranted and uncalled-for.
So far from Dr. Norris's process being a copy of Mr. Barnes',
I contend that they are unlike in every respect, except in being
dry. Let each take the honor due to him as an independent
discoverer, and the public will recognize their claims. I proved
on a former occasion, however, that Dr. Norris's process could
not be a copy of the other, inasmuch as the Doctor published
his first letter thirteen months prior to the issue of Mr. Barnes'
pamphlet, and the letter containing his last improvements is
dated May 6th, 1856, whereas Mr. Barnes' first edition bears
date May, 1856. How can one be a copy of the other? With
regard to the process we have seen manipulated to-night, I
must say it appears to be too complicated and tedious for the
amateur, and there are many things used of which I scarcely
see the utility, such as camphor, which inevitably spoils the bath
for the Wet Process; the acetic naptha, and others. I never
had the curiosity to try the process, as I am perfectly satisfied
with the one I have used (Dr. Norris's), the results from which
are all that could be desired; and moreover, its great beauty is
its extreme simplicity and the absence of all the paraphernalia
which is so annoying to an amateur, at the same time it is al-
most certain in its results.

Mr. Johnstone. — I quite agree with Mr. Osborn . The main
requisite to be sought for in any process, dry or wet, is simpli-
city. It appears to me that the process we have just seen is
somewhat empirical, and that Mr. Barnes has introduced a va-
riety of substances into his collodion, which, if not absolutely
injurious, are yet quite useless, and for which he cannot give
any sound reason. Now it appears that he has so far stretched
the process as to fall back upon albumen as a support for the
collodion. This is not new. Fox Talbot suggested it long
since; and besides, if you are to complicate the process why not
at once use the collodio-albnmen, which is undoubtedly the most
scientifically correct of any similar process now out. Albumen
doubtless amalgamates with the collodion, and prevents its

140

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

May,

splitting or washing off, but if you use a proper condition of
collodion, you may dispense with the albumen. Referring how-
ever to the collodio-albumcn again, there is rather aremarliable
phenomenon connected with it. While wet you may wipe off
the whole of the image from the surface of the albumen, thus
showing that the image is on the surface, and not in the body
of the "combined films. Many persons would ask, therefore,
what is the use'of the under stratum of collodion, &c.? In my
opinion its greatest use is during the development oi the image,
as it is a sort of reservoir of latent force, which keeps up local
action in all parts of the plate.

Tlie Chairman. How long will the plates keep?
Mr. Morris, I believe, if properly prepared, there is no
limit to their keeping qualities.

A Member. But after exposure, as many plates wdl not
keep long after exposure?

Mr. M0RR13. I am not prepared to say how long; but I
have kept tiiera a fortnight.

Mr. OsBORN. You will doubtless recollect the plate I ex-
hibited at a previous meeting, kept a month before and a mouth
after exposure, by Norris's process.

Mr. Hart. It was a very satisfactory proof of the capabili-
ties of the process.

Mr. Johnstone. Plates by almost any dry or syrup process
will keep well before exposure, but many fail afterwards, get-
ting feebler according to the length of time that elapses be-
tween exposure and development. Now in Norris's process,
owing to the total absence of free nitrate of silver, the plates
will keep an indefinite time.

Mr. OsBORN. I think the presence of acetic acid in the film
of some of the dry and moist processes has a great tendency to
weaken the image after exposure.

After some further conversation, the Meeting closed, with a
vote of thanks to Mr. Morris for his able and interesting paper
and experiments.

From Photographic Notes.

M. PETZVAL'S NEW LENS,

PAtJL

Frotn the London Art Journal.

VERONESE .

rht-

The following is a translation of a letter from M. Yoi
lander to M. Lacan, on the subject of M. Petzval's new lens: —

"I have seen an article in La, Lumiere, of November 14th,
1851, in which it is stated that M. Petzval, of Veinua, has in-
vented and constructed a new lens for photography.

" Having, by chance, obtained one of these instruments, I
perceived immediately that this so-called new lens is no other
than one which I constructed seventeen years ago, according to
the formula of Professor Petzval, at the same time that I
brouMit out my well-known double lens, the success of which
has been sufficiently established.

" I have therefore addressed to the Academy of Ticnna a
memorial, in which I have proved that the lens in question is
not based on any new principle, nor on any other curves than
those which I adopted seventeen years ago on M. Petzval's cal-
culations, and the formula; of which are still in my possession.

" My object in writing you this letter is simply to state that
this instrument is not new, aud that my appeal to the Academy
of Vienna is for the purpose of establishing my right to it. I
have sent, at the same time, to the Academy, four of these
lenses, corresponding to the dimensions of my double lenses.

" I have also sent four of these lenses to my Paris corres-
pondent, M. Dehihaye,* who will be happy to give you all par-
ticulars with respect to them.

" As for the camera alluded to in your Journal, the arrange-
ment is no doubt very ingenious, like everything else invented
by M. Petzval, but 1 do not understand wliy so complicated a
camera is necessary, since very fine results can be obtained with
the lens in question, mounted in an ordinary camera.

(Signed) " Voightlander,

" of Vienna and Brunswick."

In one's peregrinations at Venice few things afford a livelier
pleasure to the imagination than the suddenly lighting upon —
what has now become a somewhat rare object there — a magni-
ficent picture of Paul Veronese, deep in the recesses of some
solitary palace or silent church. Your wanderings throughout
the morning have, very likely, been along lonely quays, which
seem expecting the slow encroachments of the sandy shoals op-
posite, rather than any other visitors; or you have been wind-
ing and turning through a labyrinth of narrow canals, between
mouldering palaces, which, in their desertion or degradation, re-
mind you continually and mournfully of the great ones of the
past, — a race that seems gone for ever. You would fain sum-
mon up some lively image of them; but no, it seems as if the
worthies of ancient Greece and Rome had not passed away
more utterly. Nevertheless, your fancy still wanders in quest
of them, as with eyes bent steadfastly on the ground, you pro-
ceed up some whitewashed nave or trumpery-tarnished choir or
other, when, all at once, looking up, you see them vividly be-
fore you, in breathing light and sunshine, fixed — firmly fixed —
by the enchantments of Paul Veronese's pencil. There they
are, in lovely splendor, lighting up that obscure and dull interior
like the precious hues found deep in the cup of some exteriorly
unattractive humble flower, or like its golden stamina them-
selves— genuine Veniors and Morosinis, most evidently! and
the fair ladies of the langune with them, in the very bloom and
heyday of their life, and, moreover, richly adorned with the
courtly pomp and quaint finery of their age, such as reminds
one not a little here and there of similar things which their con-
temporary, our own Queen Elizabeth, was wont to look round
upon, over her starched lace ruff. Titian's comparatively tem-
perate gravity is here succeded by far lighter and more lavish
splendor. With Veronese the blooming and handsome blonde
young Dogaressa, who adores the Madonna, or per.sonates St.
Catherine, or Esther, wears more gorgeous brocade: she nets
and pagodas up her flaxen curls with gold thread or pearls; .she
bends lier charms with a more courtly and self-conscious dignity,
amidst the very handsome ecclesiastics, cavaliers, and smators,
who dispose themselves around her with an equally stately and
aristocratic port. Aud how brilliantly does this painter here
commemorate that love of show and pageantry which was so

* Tlic address ol
[Ed 1'. N.]

M.N. B. I)clrtliayc,is No. 15, Rue do Laucry, Parls.-

prominently characteristic of Venice during his days, and es-
pecially during that part of them when she enjoyed her thirty
years of rest after the peace of Cambray, and shortly after-
wards, her crowning period of triumph and prolonged festivity
after the great victory of Lcpanto! These were her evening
glories, illustriously attended by the radiant setting of her
highest Art; for Paul Veronese was the last of her great triad
of painters, and his school, notwithstanding its own intrinsic
cheerfulness and festive splendor, derives something even of a
deep and pathetic interest from its being the last true and real-
ly great one of Italy. Whilst all her other schools were sunk
low in mannerism, and unconsciously caricaturing those might-
iest painters who had recently passed away from her, the true,
noble nature, and splendor, and Insty life in Paul Veronese,
looked like a fresh new vernal dayspring of Art, rather than
the last full glories of its setting, soon to fade for ever.

Our theme is welccme to ns, for Paul Veronese, one of the
most magnificent of painters, is sometimes a truly delightful one.
He had not, it is true, so powerful an imagination or such depth
of insight and feeling as Titian, or such daring conceptions and
versatility as Tintoretto; but confined himself more than even
they did to painting the persons and the passing adornments
around him. He did not, for instance, as Titian somciiines
would, forget his own times to realise the most glowing visions
of Ovidian or Catullian poetry, but remained especially the
])ainter of that which was most handsome, stately, picturesque,
and magnificent of his own age; grouping such objects, indeed,
into .splendid tableaux of mythological and sacred subjects; but
chiefly urged to this, no doubt, by the expediency of ministering

1858.

THE PnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

HI

to that demand for immense allegorical and church pictures,
which had become a leading fashion of the day. Keenly de-
lighting in, and thoroughly satisfied with, the things about him,
Paulo Caliari troubled his head but little or not at all with the
peculiarities of any former age, or with the reviving classicality
of his own days. The substantial charms, and even the splen-
did brocaded farthingales of the ladies Moncenigo and Yendra-
raini, were far more fascinating in his eyes than any thinly ideal
notions, such as faintly glimmered through his brain touching
Europa, St. Catherine, or Pharaoh's daughter; and, therefore,
he very frankly and gallantly substituted the former for the lat-
ter in his pictures of mythological and saintly subjects. And
even with regard to the objects of his own time, he did not, it
must be admitted, look with so close and refined a discrimination
as Titian into the intellects of princes, senators, captains, and
scholars, or upon the pensive yet luxurious tenderness of ripe
sunset-tressed Venetian beauties. Yet had the cheerful Yero-
nese a truly dignified and noble conception of life; nor, though
his magnificent superficiality — that is to say, his fine apprecia-
tion of picturesque and imposing lines, and of every delicate
modulation of light and colors — tempts him too often to ne-
glect expression, and (his besetting fault) his stately grace fre-
quently degenerates into self-conscious affectation and pomposity,
are his noblest works by any means wanting in pathetic, exalt-
ed, spirit-stirring poetical conceptions; and in coloring and a
glorious power of the brush he can scarcely be said to be sur-
passed by any one. He excels pre-eminently in his own true
noontide brightness — his argentine delicacy — suffusing and har-
monising sometimes a whole garden-royal of beautiful variegated
hues; and he shines, also, in an aristocratic dignity and magni-
ficence which render him par excellence, the painter of the splen-
dor and living nobleness and handsomeness of Yeuice in the
times of Famagosta and Lepanto, when the noble blood yet
mantled high in her veins, and before she sank far down into
those depths ot effeminate vice and profligacy which made her,
in the words of the sympathetic poet, —

" The revel of the earth — the masque of Italy."
"With this painter the true greatness of Italian Art finally
set at Yeuice.* It threw a gleam, in its dying hour, of a rare
cheerfulness and delicacy of splendor on the terraces of the won-
derful City of the Sea, such as were built by Sansovino, and his
friend Samniichieli, where her stately nobles were assembled in
all their wealthy pomp and keen lusty enjoyment of life, yet as-
suredly condescending to no unseemly mirth or levity the while;
inhaling the Adriatic breeze in their hour of calm relaxation, —
or celebrating with festivity some great triumph of the Repub-
lic,— or bending in pious thankfulness before the Madonna.
What a flood of silvery radiance, bright as at noon-day, or anon
of fair golden warmth — like an April sunset, when the sky emu-
lates the primroses and the cowslips in hue, as the autumnal
heavens in the evening vie harmoniously with the roseate leaf-
age— lighted up that multitudinous bravery of brocaded robes
and broidered doublets, and turbans of barbarian guests — the
holiday array of Portia and all her suitors brought to sup for-
givingly together at Bassanio's wedding feast. f It suffused

* It is trae that Tintoretto survived him six years, and died at the age
of eighty-two ; but Paul Veronese, who was the younger man by sixteen
years, came after Tintoretto, and consequently may be called the last of
the great Venetians. After him there were many painters in Italy of
emin-.'nt talents, at the head of wliom may be placed Domenichino, Guido,
and the Garacci, but even these eclectics, admirable as their works some-
times are, cannot be called great painters in the high sense in which the
religioas idealists were, or those noble poetical ■' naturalists,'' the Vene-
tians, of whom P. Veronese was the last great representative.

t A captivating subject for a picture ! One would like very much to
see it painted, something on P. Veronese's principles, on a scale of about
14 feet wide by 8 high. AVhat a goodly assemblage of Venetian faces
there ought to be at the supper table !— Antouia standing up conspicuous-
ly to pledge Shylock, on whose fiuger Jessica is tenderly replacing his
" tourquoise," which Lorenzo has recovered for her. The Prince of Ara-
gon and his suite, though guests, retain something of their Spanish stiff-
ness and pride ; but the Prince of Morocco, howbeit also a disappointed
suitor, is generously bent on laying at Portia's feet all the wedding
presents he intended for her on the event of his success ; and, consequent^
ly, his swarthy attendants are bearing along the terrace in procession the

18*

statliest porticos and loggias, soaring and shining in tlie back-
ground aerially, like sunny ivory, adorned with flowery trees
from Nicosia and Alexandretta, from Ormuz and from Ind

and companies of handsome, noble, and yet brighter faces an

assembly and a pageant, indeed such as was soon afterwards to
vanish away from the earth, and leave no other record of itself
except these invaluable ones, which this magnificent painter has
bequeathed us.

Of course I have my eyes now chiefly on one of Paul's "Sup-
pers;" especially I have it on his "Marriage at Cana," at Dres-
den— a picture far finer, by the bye, in color and execution than
the vast composition on the same subject in the Paris Louvre.
You there encounter a numerous company of bright and hand-
some faces with keen, intelligent looks, sparkling with life and
health, and a cheerful consciousness of existence. But if haply
a stranger to such works, you are very much surprised, by and
bye, to discover all at once the Saviour seated in the midst of
them, scarcely distinguished from the rest, and to find out that
these pompous Gradenigos and Grimanis are ministering to no
less than Him, and being the personal observers of his first
miracles were too much a matter of daily occurrence to excite
any undignified degree of surprise. This discovery of sacred
circumstances involves an anachronism which used to disconcert
the more matter-of-fact observers exceedingly, and in former
days I have seen them turn away almost immediately with evi-
dent signs of slight esteem for productions so preposterously
inerudite. And, indeed, it might perhaps be wished that Ye-
ronese had confined himself entirely to the representation of his
own times, instead of thus just coasting and touching only, as
it were, at Scripture events. But then, as we have said, his
subjects were prescribed for him by the general fashion of the
age, and others too would have been at variance with its tastes
and purposes. And if we have not here religious works of the
most imaginative and ideal kind, we have at all events an in-
valuable thing — very noble and genuine authentic earth. And
however startling at first Veronese's anachronisms, who would
willingly spare these genuine illustrations of a bygone time, so
remarkable for historical interest, magnificence, picturesqueness
and, as it here seems, also for living beauty itself? Who would
part with these aristocratic sea-captains, who lost Cyprus, it is
true, but heroically, and revenged themselves on the Ottomite
at Lepanto, divinely? Who would dispense with these grave
and venerable senators, and these swarthy turbaned strollers of
the Piazzetta, freshly arrived from the ports of Mahomet or
Selim, and invited, as no doubt important business connections
of the noble merchant-host, to share his great marriage festi-
val. They must be genuine saints indeed for whom one would
readily exchange or barter them, nothing much short of Ra-
phael's— certainly not those cold reminiscences of statues of
Greek philosophers and Roman orators which were so long ac-
cepted as the orthodox kind of sanctities in the works of the
later Italians, and of the very great, but too often erroneously
antique Poussin. And how beautiful in this and other pictures
are Paul's wide range and tuneful variety of colors! Some-
times he gives you, as it wei'e, quite a dance of them, in which
they recur at intervals like the same notes in a melody; and
such is the noble manner and high consummate mastery of this
painter that in his hands the mere accessories and finery become
really quite grand and poetical objects, vehicles for exquisite
hues and lines, and for the freest, lightest, and most graceful
precision of touch that ever animated canvas,

stuffs, the gems, the tropical animals, the gazelles, the monkeys, and the
beauteous birds he had brought across the seas for the Princess-elect of
Morocco. Other men are landing more such treasures from the barque
on the Grand Canal below, beyond which rise several of the finest Vene-
tian palaces in a line, all tender in the softly luminous air. But who
have we amongst us to paint all this with the requisite nobleness of
beauty and temperate harmony of splendid coloring ? Surprisingly cle-
ver bits of accessories we might have ; picturesque costumes, not alto-
gether unworthy of Mabuse or Van Eyck in force and particularity, how-
ever inferior in purity of painting. Unimpeachable silks, and satins,
and parrots, and monkeys, we might revel in ; but where, for the present,
could we hope to find Bassanio, and Portia, and the Moroccose Prince, and
the warm transparent Venetian air that unites and blends the whole in
marriage ties (or rather tones, I ought to say) of genial harmony ?

142

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND PINE ART JOURNAL.

May,

And still finer than that "Marriage at Cana," — I think even
finer, — is the companion picture, at Dresden, of the "Adora-
tion by the Magi." The venerable Magus kneeling, in his long
gold brocade robe (on which Veronese's pencil has played with
such easy and graceful precision), supported by kneeling pages,
looks like some doge of Venice in his mantle of state. But
oh! the barbaric picturesqueness and grave dignity of those two
swarthy turbaned figures who, seen in profile, are solemnly ap-
proaching after them in this long processional picture, having
journeyed across their far deserts with offerings for the Infant
Saviour! Caliari, perhaps — at least I cannot help fancying so
— copied them from the emissaries, or agas, of Sultan Selim, or
of some Moorish bey who came in his time with precious offer-
ings from the east, or south for Venice, and, landing at the
Molo, proceeded along the Piazzetta amidst acclamations from
crowded quays and balconies, beauty-embellished. Their pre-
sence is even as a fine chapter in old Marco Polo, which tells
us of the far-off glories of Kublai Khan. Magnificent as
Venice herself, and every way worthy of adorning the Sala del
Maggoir Consiglio of the conquerors and explorers of so much
of the magnificent East — the devout pilgrims to the remotest
shrines of Mammon, far within the golden gates of Sunrise.
One imagines this picture as in its original place, in a hall of
sombrely superb ornate Cinque-cento, traversed by flitting
waves of golden-light, reflected from the sunshine on the G rand
Canal outside, admitted down a window-divan, or platform, be-
tween the richest old Byzantine capitals, or Arab-Gothic
traceries.

And beside this is yet another Veronese, in which my lady
the Dogaressa, taking her recreation on the shady banks of the
Brenta, or Tagliamento, with her pet dwarf and guard of hal-
berdiers, is being presented by the ladies of her suit with a lit-
tle foundling, which they have just picked up amongst the reeds
of the river. The only irrationality with regard to this picture
is the startling name — "The discovery of Moses!"

Such were our ante-Venice notions concerning Paul Vero-
nese, inspired first and most warmly by those two [)ictures at
Dresden (which I still think he very rarely equalled), and con-
firmed by one or two amongst his injured and faded works at
Paris, and still more strengthened by several very beauteous
argentine visions of courtly elegance and handsomeness, seen
but too hastily in that scarcely rivalled collection of Venetian
pictures in the Vienna Belvidere. But at Venice, until we
went to St. Sebastian's and the Ducal Palace, most of his
works which we met with there disappointed us, and tended
somewhat to chill our admiration for his genius. In many of
them, without making sufficient amends by any very remarkable
display of technical power, he is cold and ostentatious in ex-
pression to a degree that renders him altogether unattractive;
and in not a few other instances, even his color is strangely dull
and disagreeable — heavy greys and dull opaque reds unpleasant-
ly prevailing, especially in those works which he executed to-
wards the close of his career, when the splendor and delicacy
df his feeling seem to have become considerably impaired.
Pew amongst his numerous works in the Academy are highly
interesting; by far the finest being his grand ostentatious altar-
piece from San Zaccaria, — the vigorously animated and some-
what attitudinizing figures in which must have originally pre-
sented a very notable contrast to the Bellini there. The Ma-
donna standing on an altar is some beautiful and majestic high-
bred lady of Venice, and the handsome richly attired priest
(some prelatic saint or other) who bends forward at her feet,
and looks round in an effective posture, seems one well fitted for
the stateliest church business. The freedom and full broad
manner of the picture, and the brilliant though most tender co-
lor, are altogether superb. In these respects it is surely one of
the finest of pictures. Another work of Veronese, which es-
pecially should not be missed, is a "Marriage of St. Catherine,"
which, notwithstanding the coldness and insipidity of the ex-
pression, the exquisite lightness and tenderness of the handling
the chief altar-piece of the church of the same name, in
and delicate brilliancy of the hues, lend a peculiar interest.
But excepting these two pictures, and the cue at the Palace of

the Pisani a S. Polo, we did not find in our Venetian rambles
any pictures by Paul Veronese worth running much out of our
way to see, until we came to St. Sebastian's, and the halls of
the Ducal Palace, to the first of which places we will now with-
out further delay repair.

It is just by the south-west corner of the city, in a dull and
thinly populated quarter, where the general shabbiness of the
buildings, as well as ot the outside of the church itself, is strik-
ingly contrasted by the magnificence of that which follows. At
the same time the previous year I happened to be in our own
Lake District; and I well recollect a discovery of similarly se-
cluded splendor, then made in the midst of a somewhat rude and
humble landscape, which, even at the moment, reminded me of
the impression entertained on entering this very Church of Sail
'Bastiano on a former visit, when comparing the richness of the
gilded roofs, and sumptuous paintings by Paul Veronese with
the meanness of the exterior, and the neglect and dulness of
the neighborhood through which we had just threaded our way.
And now, on a second visit to Venice, and a renewed acquaint-
ance with the spot, the self-same comparison occurred again;
and the inside of the Venetian church reminded me with a re-
ciprocal and equal force of the splendid and luminous hues which
we saw that bright and happy day the year before, gleaming
and flitting along in the depths of the Westmoreland brook,
and appearing far more beauteous and more regal (if I may
use such a word), because contrasted with the barren, stony,
and somewhat impoverished character of that little branch of
the mountain valley through which it takes its course. How
well I remember it — how well! Immediately beneath us, where
the sun shone on the stream, its stony bed was alone displayed,
brightened, not hidden, by the invisible water, which heightened
its hue to a rich warm umbery splendor, travelled over by a
wavering network of light reflected from the viewless fitting
crystalline current above. A little aloof, and where the sha-
dows fell, there the blue of the sky, and the cool reflections of
the trembling boughs prevailed; and the snowy light of pass-
ing clouds glimmered away in a silvery aerial contrast, and
blending with the warm transparent richness nearer. Will it
be deemed strange that this should remind me of the great sil-
very colorist, Paul Veronese, and, especially (having regard to
the humble landscape) of the first rich shining of the interior
of San 'Bastiano, as contrasted with the shabbiness outside?
Indeed, such was the beauty of the colors and of the light in
the nameless little brook, that they might really, I think, have
set Veronese sighing for an hour on the feebleness of the re-
sources of Art, and have made him for the moment believe that
his own processions, and long-flowing streams of festal and tri-
umphant splendor were, after all, but flimsily magnificent, but
coarsely gay. And a little below, this same stream, after sud-
denly leaping down a few feet with a bright silver laugh, and
then soon becoming as quiet and placid as ever, displayed a
more luxuriant beauty in the vegetation which appeared within
her clear glassy seclusion. Long subaqueous grasses of vari-
ous greens (bright and olive) here lay prone under the swift
smooth-flowing current, waving with its wave, like fish who
hesitate in their course; and there was one rich train of them,
of tawny crimson, with yellow flowers on it, like a stealthy im-
perfect gleaming of a Naiad's tresses tiorally wreathed; just
such colors and ornaments as one of those great Venetian
painters would have liked to give to the hair of a Lombardy
water nymph introduced by him into some fine patriotic public-
spirited allegory. Indeed his magnificent powers might have
been well employed for a week at least in striving to give some
true notion of the multitudinous graceful wavy forms and har-
moniously splendid hues which appeared that brilliant morning
within the humble confines of the mountain rivulet.

And now, hoping to be pardoned this little excursion up the
Westmoreland vale, let us return to the Venetian church, only
stopping briefly at Verona on our way, in order that we may
there contemplate for a few moments the youthful Caliari at
the outset of his career, before accompanying him to the spot
where first victorious over neglect and poverty he obtained his
earliest considerable employment. He was but little encouraged

1858.

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC A^'D FINE ART JOURxVAL.

143

ia his native city ou the first manifestations of his j^cnius. A
school of numerous artists ah'cady existed around him deriving
much of their knowledge from the study of the Venetians, but
not without their separate and independent characteristics,
since they adopted livelier expressions, and a lighter manner of
painting, and evinced a still greater fondness for classical my-
thology and poetical pomp and pageantry, which they intro-
duced in rich and fanciful abundance in the decoration of villas
and palaces — tastes derived in considerable measure from the
influence of Andrea Mantegna, and, no doubt, in their turn
communicating themselves to Paul, and thus in no slight degree
accounting for some of his predilections. At the time of his
first appearance, Batista del More, II Brusasorci, and Paolo
Farinato, the three most distinguished of the Yeronese artists
were invited by the Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga to exhibit each
of them an altar-piece as competitors in the Cathedral at Man-
tua. But with them came an unknown young aspirant, and,
according to Ridolfi, his picture was the best. Fashion, how-
ever, thought otherwise. As ever, enamoured of fame, not ex-
cellence, she adhered exclusively to the three established ar-
tists, and young Caliari, notwithstanding his utmost endeavors,
found himself rapidly sinking to penury. So he packed up his
colors and went off to Yiceuza, and thence after a while pro-
ceeded to Venice. There, applying himself to the improvement
of his coloring by studying Titian and Tintoretto, and to the
development of some of his other powers by w^orkiug from the
en"'ravings of Parmigiano and of Durer, and from casts after
the antique, he made such progress as soon drew general atten-
tion, and procured him the commission to paint the Sacristy of
this church. Here, accordingly, on the ceiling, he executed
fine recumbent figures of the four Evangelists, with the Corona-
tion of the Virgin in the middle between them. They are not
like his subsequent works, and of course have not that consum-
mate freedom which he could only gain by practice; but they
are noble and beautiful figures; in their refined and more ideal
dio'nity and grace reminding one of the Parma lunettes, of Par-
mio-iano and Correggio, rather than of Veronese; and in this
showing the germs of a power which it was perhaps a pity not
to cultivate further. The ceiling of the church itselt, painted
some time after, though still early in his career, displays, on the
other hand, his own peculiar characteristics in almost their full
perfection. The arches of the nave, too, once glowed with his
frescoes; but, alas! they are now nearly obliterated. Amidst
dingy obscurity and white spots of naked plaster, only a few
vestiges of some very noble heads remain, as if time and decay
themselves respected them. But his several alter-pieces, and
paintings on the wings of the organ, and magnificent pictures
hanging on the walls, still retain much of their brightness; so
that what with their lively beauty, and the splendor of the
roof, the whole interior seems but his precious though much-de-
caying mausoleum; and his bust seems indeed to repeat the old
epitaph: — "My ashes are beneath; but my spirit yet breathes
and shines everywhere around you."

To whose declarations it might be also added, that his works
are often memorials of pious liberality, since in dealing with re-
lio-ious fraternities he was wont to adorn their altars and refec-
tories with pictures, for a price little more than the cost of ma-
tgi'ials — a fact which might well be remembered by an epithet
in his epitaph.

His most delicious production here is a small Madonna and
Child, exquisitely painted, in a tender silvery gray tone. In a
Crucifixion near it, Paul's naturalistic tendencies descend some-
what lower than is common with him. The Madonna, though
veritably fainting, is evidently some coarse low-born Italian
woman, and so also is the female who uncovers her head and
opens her drapery for air. The Magdalen standing above them
with upturned glistening eye, and profuse dishevelled golden
auburn hair, is a vivid remembrance of Titian's well-known
Magdalen. As commonly in Venetian " Crucifixions," the
Saviour is entirely weak in expression and character: neither
patience nor suffering, nor death being depicted, but mere ordi-
nary composure. One of the painter's most considerable works
is his large picture in the choir, of Saint Sebastian encouraging

his converts Marcus and Marcellianus, who, as they are Ijcing
led forth to martyrdom, hold back from fear and momeiitury
doubt. It is a crowded composition of many figures, full of
Rubens-inspiring splendor, vigor, and life. Saint Sebastian, a
manly cavalier in the armor of Veronese's times, with a some-
what stern and careworn expression, rebukes his two disciples
as he hurries forward, pointing to heaven, and exhorting thera
to follow him. Of those whom he thus addresses, one already
recovering himself, gazes at him with tenderness, and reviving
faith; but the other, with an irresolute troubled look (admira-
bly expressed) turns towards his dumb mother, who is implor-
ing him with gestures to remain. A blind and venerable father
seconds her entreaties, supported by other relatives of the dif-
ferent sexes and ages, who throng, for the purpose, an elevated
terrace on which the event is taking place; whilst numbers of
by-standers, clinging to pillars and crowding the balustrades
above, look on more calmly. Ladies, however, are not wanting
in the principal group, who kneeling around, do not forget in
that exciting moment, to assume a conspicuous elegance of pos-
ture, and to bear in mind that amongst the spectators, some
may have leisure enough to admire them, and the tasteful ad-
justments of their drapery; and even the little gaily doubleted
boj's they hold, seem to have quite a precocious turn for the
same courtly gracefulness. Thus we have here again something
of that affectation and self-consciousness display, a fondness for
which was the besetting bane of this great victor of the brush;
but in other respects the picture is very admirable. It has
more vehemence and action than is usual with the painter; and
the coloriug and painting are extremely vigorous and brilliant:
perhaps the former in parts is somewhat gaudy, too parrot-like
variegated, too much like a society of conversazione of macaws,
in its sudden and numerous contrasts; but the restorer has evi-
dently been here so hard at work, his thick coarse paint so
manifestly bestreaks the transparent purities of the original in
almost every part, that we should pause before attributing any
defect of this kind to Paul Veronese himself.

The companion picture opposite, " St. Sebastian on the Rack,"
is opposed in other respects, being one of the feeblest shadow-
ings forth of the painter's hand ; a collection of ugly inanimate
figures, tricked out in the most unsightly of those eccentricities
of costume in which he was but too prone to indulge; a poor
caricature of his manner by himself. Several of his other pic-
tures here, abounding in veiy high merit, we must for want of
space reluctantly pass over, but we may not leave the church
without pausing for a few moments to call the most marked
attention to the paintings on the ceiling of the nave, since they
are the most delightful things here — and to be numbered
amongst the most precious ornaments that the Adriatic Queen
still retains in her broken, half-unjewelled diadem. They are
small pictures illustrative of the story of Esther, in which Cali-
ari's own peculiar romantic magnificence and grace of fancy
are displayed with charming effect. In one, Ahasuerus is rep-
resented as crowning the chosen maiden, who kneels before him
with courtly grace — her green dress contrasting splendidly with
the shadowy glow of red color all about the king and his royal
state. He bends over her like a shadowy tiger-lily over a ver-
durous plat of lawn; and dusky knights are gleaming around
them. The simple and most picturesque composition, and light
and shade, are excellent; and the sotto in su, or ascending per-
spective, in this and the companion pictures, by means of which
the figures seem to stand vertically away from the spectator
who eyes them from beneath, is managed with consummate
skill. In the next gilded oval two horses, represented in this
way, are boldly pacing and trampling forth over you, one with
a serene king, and the other with a darkly-shining warrior on
his back; the royal barb being held with muscular stateliness
by a vigorous man who comes before on foot. Two tiers of
balconies, one over the other, overhang them, descending into
the soft blue sky, and crowded with ladies and other animated
spectators, who hail the procession below, and are seen quite
from beneath with the utmost boldness and truth of perspective.
In these fine inventions Paul has shown himself the very Ariosto
of the brush; and his pencil, like the enchanted lance of the

144

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

May,

Knight of the Silver Panoply (in a certain fiction of ray own,
which has not yet issued forth from my brain), opens for us
some delightful visions of the halls and castle-courts of old
Romance.

Precious vestiges! yet shining amidst damp and decay, like
the List flowers of some lonely spot which was formerly a king's
plaisaunce, but is now a neglected wilderness, choked with rank
grass and weeds! even as were those gardens of the Peruvian
Incas, when closed up and left to perpetual solitude after their
deaths. Beautiful as these pictures still are, very few of the
tourists seem to think them worth a steady glance. "Whilst we
were there, they just came and went again in frequent succes-
sion, as if it were a relief to have done with so much more of
the burdensome obligation of sight-seeing.

Our next object must be to repair to the Palace of the Pisani
a San Polo, to see that most celebrated picture by Paul Vero-
nese, which has acquired much additional interest since the time
of our visit, from the circumstance of our Government having
given something more than £14,000 for it. Our course through
the labyrinth or net-work of narrow courts took us, on the first
occasion, I well remember, across the Exchange by the Rialto,
where our attention was arrested for a moment by a pawn-
broker's auction going on in that old scene of the bargainings
of princely merchants and disposals ot wealth-laden argosies.
Old women, seated on chairs in a row, were handing from one
to another the articles under the hammer — linen-ii'ons, kettles,
blankets, and pipkins, utensils from the kitchen, and sometimes,
also, from the upper apartments, with countenances grave and
deliberate as those of judges — sic transit gloria VmelicB, truly!
The ratings which Shylock bore on this spot are well avenged.
The Pisani Palace, on which we at length issued forth, looked
almost like one of the deserted ones, as if left very much in the
hands of the sullen domestic who had to open the shutters, and
show us what was inside. We were admitted into two hand-
some saloons, in the Louis Quatorze style, with painted ceilings
and mirrors in flowery gilt panellihgs. The first of these
apartments has no less than nine glass chandeliers to illumine
it; the second, our picture — the " Alexander receiving the sup-
pliant family of Darius," one of the painter's most characteris-
tic and important works. On one side, a group of handsome
and noble cavaliers stands in profile on a terrace; and on the
other, several ladies are kneeling to them on the steps. But it
is not Sisygambisand Statira, Alexander and Hephasstiou — no,
not a bit of it. Some noble Venetian ladies and gentlemen
(the Signor Pisani, for whom the picture was painted, and his
family and personal friends) are here disposing themselves into
a grand and most picturesque tableau of a great event in an-
cient history, the greatness of which they look as if they could
themselves into a grand and most picturesque tableau of a great
event in ancient history, the greatness of which they look as if
they could themselves rival on occasion, they seem so noble and
so dignified. There is, as usual, very little indeed in the cos-
tume, and nothing in the faces to carry your fancy aw^ay from
Venice; but the result is not a whit the less interesting for that;
the conquerors not the less look like conquerors, indeed, be-
nign and stately; and the ladies, with their fair hair braided
with pearls, their brocaded farthingales and somewhat broad
boddice-disdaining Venetian charms (scarcely less stately
though suppliants), are pretty much, no doubt, like those whom
the Dalmatian pirates ran away with in Venice's romantic morn-
in"' hour, but very soon lost again, with all their own lives,
when the Doge Candiano and the fierce and fell bridegrooms
swiftly overtook them in the laguue of Caorlo, and made them,
every man, pay the fatal penalty of the astounding outrage.
In the picture, these members of the aristocracy, not merely of
Venice, but of human nature, have their dignity, as is usual
with the painter, enhanced by contrast with swarthy barbaric
fio-ures of inferior race, and lap-dogs, a dwarf, and a monkey:
indeed, no large work of his seems altogether complete without
some such specimens of his favorite foils. The arrangement of
the colors, and light and shade, is also according to his favorite
and highly characteristic plan, consisting of powerful and widely-
varied hues overspreading the large groups in the foreground,

suffused altogether with aerial tenderness and light. It is,
verily and indeed, a strikingly similar composition of chiar'os-
curo anl color to one which we admired in nature, the morning
before, whilst looking towards the Ducal Palace from the Canal
Orfano — with this chief difference, that instead of "Dieciotto,"
cur glowing gondolier, we have Alexander; instead of my some-
what gaily-colored wife, Statira; in lieu of the shadowy orange
and green of the lazy fishing fleet in the middle distance, some
obscurer figures of very similar tints; and, finally, in place of
the distant light-suffused arcades and piazzas of the Signory, we
have here some stately arches and colonades of ancient Roman
architecture, not much less tender and bright of hue and tone.
Thus, in gilding about in a gondola, it is not difficult to con-
ceive whence the Venetian painters must have derived some of
their favorite ideas; and certainly, on bearing in mind to what
perpetual picturesqueness, splendor, and beauty they were
habituated — in what a very atmosphere of them they lived, and
breathed, and had their being, one's wonder at their triumphs,
if not one's admiration, is a good deal lessened.

With regard to the expression of the figures in this picture,
it will not be overlooked that the suppliants exhibit nice va-
rieties and gradations of it, such as are highly suitable to their
different ages and characters. Sisygambis, despoiled of confi-
dence in fortune and in the generosity of man, seeks pity with
anxious, distrustful eyes; but Statira, less shaken by thought-
ful experiences, looks forward more gently and hopefully. To
ascend in this interesting scale of youthfulness, the eldest
daughter, a courtly young lady of fourteen, still holds in her
hand the crown which she may wear no longer. She kneels,
indeed, but with a stiff, proud air. She does not yet understand
why a daughter of Darius should pay homage to any one. Her
little brother, on the other hand, has, far less royally, sought
security in his grandam's arms, and seems to feel that he has
found it there; but his yet younger sister, the youngest of the
family here seen, still lives unmoved and all apart, in the sim-
plicity of childhood. She seems, instinctively, to have much of
the family pride too, but not enough experience to appreciate
her present position; and so she looks with animation towards
her pet spaniels, rather angrily, it would seem, for Ponto and
Dash, brought to add obsequiously their homage to that of the
rest, are refractory in the hands of the slaves, and she is evi-
dently not pleased with their management of them.

Goethe alludes with warm approbation to this truthful and
happy gradation of expression. Mr. Ruskin, I find, in a letter
to the Times, considers this the finest of all Veronese's works.*

* He says it is more highly tinished than the " Marriage at Cana" iu
the Louvre. From this reference, and from his saying, in another place,
that the painter is " gloriously represented by the two great pictures in
the Louvre," it is clear he has a very high opinion of the Louvre "Mar-
riage at Cana." Yet it certainly by no means gloriously represents Paul
Veronese's powers of execution, or, in its present state, his color. Highly
to be respected as are the artistic resources and energy exhibited in that
vast picture, it were a great injustice to the painter to accept it as a
specimen of his best worlj; and this undistinguishing allusion to it I can-
not help considering as another instance of Mr. Ruskin's careless, flyaway
manner of settling things, or else as a judgment furnishing an additional
reason for suspecting that he does not in reality know what good paint-
ing is; for, otherwise, would he not rather have been anxious to guard
his readers against forming an estimate of one of his most favorite
painters by such a comparatively stiff, feeble, and heavy specimen of his
handicraft as this? No doubt the picture has suffered deplorably from
the destructive damps of the Seine, and still more from the periodic re-
daubiugs to which the Louvre pictures have unhappily been subjected so
long. The faces, especially, abound with coarse touches of dirty grey
and bricky-red, as if the wine, by-the-by, were taking effect. These, of
course, are not of Veronese's laying on, and more than the chilliness and
heaviness of so much of the rest are his; but it must bo added, that a
general stiffness and constraint are observable both in the design and
execution, and that many of the heads are absolutely poor in cliaractor,
and wooden in look and posture. These remarks (luunl)ly ottered) may
be of some slight use in tending to prevent the disparagement of the
painter by those who end their knowledge of him in tlie Louvre. The
Veronoses there are, indeed, for the most part, uninteresting on general
grounds, and now, furthermore, faded and flat. But one most vigorous,
brilliant, and admirable work by him there is in that collection, at all
events— the little picture (,No. lOO) of the Madonna and Child with St.
Benedict, Ac. Look well at that, and compare it with the •• Marriage of
Cana,'" and then you will see that the latter, now, at any rate, •■ gloriously
represents" Veronese in nothing but composition and general arrangi.-
meut.

3S^ o PI 3sr I nsr a- .

Negative by WuirPLE & Black, from a Bas Eelicf liy Thorwaldsen.

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

145

It is unrloiibteclly, in general conception, an admirable speci-
nisn of iiis talents; bat to the best of my judgment, decidedly
inferior in brilliant beauty and delicacy of color and execution,
to many of his productions. Compared with many of them, the
color is somewhat rusty and coa^'se; and the execution, though
solid and forcible, is for the most part hard and heavy for
Veronese, if indeed the whole is by his hand, which may well
be doubted. The heads especially are not well painted. In
the works wrought in happier moments, what a beautiful —
what a peerless, lig'nt, crisp touch he has! — light as the fall of
a rose-leaf, or the momentary settling of a butterfly, but, withal,
of the most perfect precision, and showing consummate intelli-
gence with regard to the form and character of the thing por-
trayed.

A delightful tradition is there respecting this picture, to the
effect that Paul Veronese, having received much hospitality
and kindness during a long illness whilst on a visit to the Pi-
sani family, at their country seat, secretly painted it after his
recovery, in a space of eight and thirty days, and left it rolled
up under his bed, as a present to his host, — au act of the heart
(if the fact be so, which one would willingly believe) scarcely
less splendid than the picture itself is of his head.

ON TnE PERMANENCE OF PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTS.

ni.

It will be observed that prints, when immersed in the toning
bath pass through several tints of color — no matter what the
composition of the solution may be. First we have a light lemon
yellow, or a light yellow ochre, passing through several shades
to a deep brown, from which it changes to purple, which may
be deepened to an intense black, if the printing, and toning so-
lution, are sufBciently strong. If the print is continued in the
solution after it has attained the black, the process of change
in color is reversed, and it again goes through the same series
of colors, from black to yellow, and it maybe suffered to remain
until not a trace of the picture is left.

Now this fully proves that there is a certain point to be at-
tained in the toning of a print where perfect fixation is ob-
tained; to go beyond, or fall short of this point, destruction of
the picture is sure to follow. This point is a delicate one in
most instances, and it requires a good perception of color in the
manipulator to decide it in all cases. This point is the purple
stage. Some solutions work up to this stage very slowly and
give it with great intensity, as in the gold bath, after Moulton's
formula, while others give it quickly and of various tints and
strengths. Occasionally it is perceptible for a very brief period,
in which case it is necessary to be expeditious in removing the
prints from the bath, or they will enter the destructive stage
before their removal can be accomplished. This purple stage
is even perceptible in pictures toned to the brown, (or umberj
color, seeming simply to cover the surface of the print as a
perfectly transparent film. It remains but an instant, the print
quickly passing to a decided brown, and from that to the lighter
shades as before described. In fact, the change is so rapid in
some new baths, that it is dangerous to take the eye off the
print in its passage from the first brown to the purple tint.

As we remarked last month, the rapidity or slowness of ton-
ing depends greatly upon the temperature, being accelerated
by heat and retarded by cold, and it should be the object of the
photographer to keep the solution at as even a temperature —
say 60° — as possible. Sulphurous acid is evolved much slower,
and the print is more manageable, at this temperature.

For the last few months we have made our toning baths of
chloride of lead and silver only. The results are before our
readers in our illustrations. Each month we have modified
them, and we think we are safe in the opinion that prints toned
to the proper degree in any of those solutions are permanent.
The addition of the acetic acid is a decided improvement. The
prints are much clearer, and the details of the picture better

VOL. XI. NO. V. 19

and more easily preserved. In order to produce a black print
by the lead process, acetate of lead should be added to the bath
so as to make it predominate over the chloride of sodium used
in the formation of the chloride of lead; or a larger quantity of
chloride of silver may be used. Care should be taken in adding
the acetic acid not to get too much, as an excess will turn the
solution milky, and as a consequence give a milky, vapid appear-
ance to the print. This milkiuess may be distinguished from
that produced by a want of hyposulphite of soda in the solution,
by having an etherial bluish tinge, whereas that produced from
the other cause is of a chalky appearance. It may be filtered
off, but the picture will still want clearness; the better plan,
therefore, is to add chloride of lead solution until it disappears.
As the solution gradually becomes neutral by use — from which
it passes into an alkaline state — it becomes necessary to occa-
sionally add acetic acid to keep it up to the right toning quality.
The time for adding the acid can be determined by the appear-
ance of the prints; or by the use of the litmus paper. In the
first instance, the first change of the print is to a lemon color,
looking weak and dull, and a difficulty — and at times an im-
possibility— of passing a brickey brown color.

Our reasons for believing that the lead is superior to the
gold bath in permanency is, that the gold bath requires so much
longer time to produce the required result, that the print be-
comes so thoroughly saturated with hyposulphite of soda, it is
quite impossible to work it all out; or if submitted to washing
sufficiently long to get rid of it, the texture of the paper is de-
stroyed to such a degree that the beauty of the picture is gone.
A gold bath to be used successfully, both as to color and per-
manence, must be much stronger than is generally used; not
less than fifteen grains pure chloride of gold to the ounce of
hypo solution; and then assurance of perfect fixation can be
had by the addition of a few grains of acetate fnot chloride) of
lead — say two or three grains to the ounce. This solution will
tone, usually, in ten minutes, the unchanged silver being worked
out much sooner.

We have now arrived at a stage in the printing and toning
of positive photographs, when it is possible to produce any of
the desired colors, without resorting to those dangerous acids
and alkalies which have been so long, and are now, used by
English and French photographers. If we desire deep blacks,
acetate of lead and acetic acid are to be used iSL proportions to
suit the required taste; lighter shades of color being produced
by the addition of chloride of sodium to the toning bath and
lemon juice to the salting bath, or nitrate of silver solution.
Our present number will exhibit the difference of color produced
by these modifications, the portrait being the result of an acetate
of lead toning bath/jand a salting solution without lemon juice;
while the print of " Morning" was salted with the same solution
with lemon juice added, the proofs in the latter instance being
printed a very little lighter.

The theory that the strength of the salting solution should
be in proportion to that of the nitrate of silver, is not pro-
verbially correct. Were it possible always to obtain paper
perfectly uniform in weight, texture and size, it might hold
good; but as this cannot be, the best rule is, that the strength
of the salting should be in proportion to the thickness and close-
ness of the paper. With the paper we now use, we find 200
grains of salt to 1 gallon of water, to give the best results,
with the same amount of nitrate of silver we used with a salt-
ing solution of 180 grains for Saxe paper. When we used
Marion paper, we found 90 grains to work best.

From this it follows that the manipulator must be constantly
on the alert to modify his printing formulas to suit the nature
of the paper to be worked. The sizing of the paper also modi-
fies the color of the print.

Another point to be observed in order to obtain certain re-
sults. The color and tone of the positive is in a measure de-
pendant upon the negative. This may seem strange to some,
but it is nevertheless true. It is not possible to obtain black
prints from some negatives, while others permit of any color or [
shade of color.

From what we have said on this subject we arrive at these

U6

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

May,

facts, to establish the certainty ot permanence in photograph
positive proofs: —

Weak baths will not produce strong colors without endan-
gering the print.

The quicker the print can be toned to the required tint and
the unchanged silver washed out, the more certain the fixation,
and therefore a bath sufQciently strong to do this in from five
to twenty minutes (the latter being the utmost extent we can
go) should be used.

The point of certainty for the complete fixation of the print
is the purple stage — no matter what may be its modified ex-
tent; all the solutions we have used, give this point to a greater
or less degree — therefore prints should not be permitted to pass
or fall short of it.

Warm solutions should never be used, owing to the rapidity
with which they dissolve out the sizing and weaken the picture.
They also destroy its brilliancy.

We also consider alkaline solutions more liable to fade than
acid, unless the acidity is produced by any of those acids enumerated
above as destructive agents. This opinion is not only derived
from our own experience, but from examinations, at various
periods, of the English and French photographs imported into
this market. We find the English prints constantly fading,
and the majority of M. Le Gray's; while those of Blanquart
Evrard and Baldust do not change at all, at least so far as we
have been able to discover, and we have seen several hundreds
of the various styles. H. H. S.

From Photographic Notes.

ORTflOSCOnC LENS..

Since we last had the pleasure of addressing our readers, we
have paid a visit to the Exhibition of the Photographic Society,
and called on most of the principal London Photographic firms
to hear and see what was going on in Photogrophy. The sub-
ject which at this moment appears most to interest the trade is
M. Petzval's new lens; and we have obtained some very valua-
ble information with respect to this instrument from Mr. Ack-
land, who has just been to Vienna, and obtained full particulars
of it from M. Petzval himself. The instrument is the same as
that which Messrs. Knight advertise as the " Orthoscopic Lens"
of Voigtlander. AVe saw one of these lenses at Messrs.
Knight's, and obtained full particulars of the construction of it
from Mr. Ackland. These particulars we should immediately
lay before our readers, were it not that Mr. Ackland has
promised to send us a communication for \he next number, in
which he will himself state all that he has learnt about the
matter. In the meantime we hope to receive one of these lenses
from Messrs. Knight for trial, and as soon as it arrives we
shall take some negatives with it, and return them, with the
lens, for examination by any one who may be interested in the
matter. No patent has been taken out for the Orthoscopic
Lens in England, and therefore any optician may copy the con-
struction of it, and introduce it for sale, should it be found to
answer; but it must be remembered that two lenses may be, io
all appearance, identical, and yet one may be a good and the
other a bad one. To copy a lens which has been constructed
on an exact mathematical formula, without a knowledge of
that formula, is an empirical proceeding which may frequently
end in failure.

The Orthoscopic Lens is essentially a view lens. It would
be impossible to construct a portrait lens on that principle. Its
advantages are stated to be, — first, that it includes a wider
angular field of view than the common view-lens; and secondly,
that it gives a flatter field, with more equal illumination in every
part. Tiiese are great advantages, and we shall be delighted
to find that so much can be realized by this new arrangement
of lenses, but we must confess that at present the arrangement
doss not appear to us to be at all calculated to do what has
been stated of it. As a matter of theory, we cannot at present

understand it; but, at the same time, we have great faith in
such a man as M. Petzval; and Mr. Knight assures us that so
far as he can judge from the image on the ground glass, the
lens does all that has been said of it.

The following brief description of the " Orthoscopic Lens"
must suffice for the present: —

There are two compound lense?. The front lens is large, and
resembles that of Yoigtlander's present portrait combination;
but the focal length is shorter, and it is consequently thicker in
the middle. It is formed by cementing together a double con-
vex lens of crown glass, and a double concave lens of flint, and
is placed with the convex side towards the object. The outer
concave side of the flint is nearly plane. The posterior com-
pound lens is formed of two, not cemented together, but merely
touching at the edges. These lenses are much smaller than the
front lens. The inner one is of flint, and double concave, the
outer one (that is, the lens next the picturej, is of crown, and
meniscus, with its concave side next to the concave side of the
flint, so that a wide space intervenes between them on their
axis. The posterior compound lens is placed pretty close to
the front lens, and is concave, the total thickness of glass at the
edge being greater than that in the middle, so that it makes
the focal length of the entire combination greater than that of
the front lens; or, to speak mathematically, the focal length of
the front lens is negative, that of the back lens positive; (the
focal length ot a lens being called negative when it is measured
on the opposite side of the lens to the origin of light, and posi-
tive when measured on the sa7ne side).

The front lens do not allow whole pencils to reach their des-
tination on their focussing screen. The oblique pencils are
small, and pass excentrically through the front lens, and cen-
trically through the back lens, against v/hich a stop is placed.
This construction would lead one to imagine that the curvature
of the field would be approximately spherical, the centre of the
sphere being that of the outer face of the lens next the picture;
so that as regards flatness of field, the common view-ler.s would
have the advantage. But this prima facie view of the matter
may turn out to be incorrect. The common form of view-lens
would also appear to give quite as equal illumination as the ar-
rangement which we have described; but certainly, in point of
orthoscopicity, or freedom from distortion, the new arrange-
ment would have the advantage, for the same reason that a
picture, taken with the small central part of a view-lens is more
free from distortion than that taken with the same lens, and
the stop at a distance in front of it.

But more of all this in our next number. We shall take the
earliest opportunity of trying the Orthoscopic Lens, and if it
answers, shall do our best to call attention to its merits.

From Photographic Xotei.

PRINTING BY CARBON.

Some experiments in which we were engaged a few weeks
ago, lead us to believe in the possibility of printing in carbon,
by the following process: —

First, — Dip a sheet of blotting-paper in a mixture of bi-
chromate of potass, albumen, and finely-ground charcoal; or
blacken it (in the dark), with Indian ink ground up with a so-
lution of bi-chromate and gelatine, or albumen.

Next, — Dry the blackened paper, and expose it to light,
under a negative.

Lastly, — Immerse it in water, which will more or less per-
fectly remove the black material from those parts where light
has not acted, without disturbing those parts where light
has acted, and thereby rendered it insoluble. In this way
a print in black, and a sort of dirty while, may be produced.
After which it is probable that immersion in an alkaline solu-
tion may clear up the lights sufficiently. This was the direc-
tion in which we were experimenting a few weeks ago, when
some matters interfered to prevent our carrying the experi-
ments any further.

ILzzr:

1S5S.

THE rilOTOGRArniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

U1

Lancaster, Ohio, April 4tb, 1858.
THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY.

H. H. Snellixg: — The leading article in the editorial de-
partment of the April number of your Journal strikes some se-
vere and just blows at widely prevailing vices and follies among
the Photographic fraternity of the United States, which can-
not be too severely dealt with. I, however, think that you do
not perhaps fully appreciate the cause of the disgraceful state
of things which you have so plainly and ably set before us. In
this country photography has degenerated into a trade, and
every simpleton who has brains enough to carry him safely
through the manipulations of taking an ordinary picture, imme-
diately "sets vp shop" and cluls himself artist. This has had
the effect to disgust all who have really talent and ability, or
true artistic taste, with the profession, or has prevented them
from engaging in it. There is scarcely a town of a hundred in-
habitants in the whole West that has not one or more of these
artists, many of whom can scarcely spell "baker" correctly; and
it is not much to be wondered at, that those who could add
dio-nity to the art, and through it, additional fame to our coun-
try, stand aloof. In Europe it has been quite different. The
earliest discoveries there were made by scientific men, and to
this day they are foremost in the practice of the art. If there
existed' there the inclinations, it would be impossible for ordin-
ary minds to cope with such great men. They have had, and
will continue to have, from this cause, the almost exclusive field
to themselves.

This difference in tlie class of individuals engaged in Photo-
graphy will account fully for the mean-spirited niggardliness of
which you complain here. An intelligent, really gifted man is
almost necessarily a frank, liberal man, and a genius in what-
ever profession or pursuit, is constitutionally incapable of any
littleness or meaness. Ignorance and incapacity, on the other
hand, are often coupled with pompous and offensive pretention,
and it has often amused me to witness with what an air some
of these itinerant teachers you touch so severely , will enter a
room to peddle their secrets, or extraordinary processes. Now,
in proof of what I have written, have you or any one else ever
known a man who possessed real merit to be engaged in any
such business? And" do you not find that those of your patrons
who most freely impart what they do know, belong to the intel-
ligent, intellectual, or scientific portion?

No, no! Your design is right, and your efforts deserving of
all praise, but you do not aim your shafts in the right direction.
Purge the profession of the ignorant, dishonest quacks, who not
only disgrace it, but are the leeches that are sucking its life's
blood, and you will soon see plenty of the right sort of men
take hold of it. As it is, you will scarcely find men of superior
attainments who will enter the arena, and pit themselves against
your fifteen cent and twenty-five cent "artists." No man of
talent will waste it in an unremunerative pursuit, when he can
engage it upon one that, at the same time that it gives him a
field in which to distinguish himself, will at least give him an
income that will keep him above the necessity of loading him-
self with debt. With us, in all pursuits, nearly or remotely
connected with true art, there is no widely diffused true taste to
discriminate between the real genius and the ass, and the latter
not unfrequently, when he "sets up his shingle" against the for-
mer, forces him to the wall, disgusts him with the pursuit, or
drives him to something else.

The true artists — men of genius — are the proper practitioners
of the Photographic Art, and in the hands of these, and the
really scientific chemist, there is no limit to be put to the re-
sults which might be accomplished. In Europe it is now, and
has been, in the hands of this class, and is there considered by
the artist a most invaluable aid to his profession. Our artists,
on the contrary, "turn up their noses" at it, as do our scientific
men — I mean as a class — and for the reasons given above, and
in my opinion, none other.

It would be the height of folly to try to row an iron kettle
up Niagara Palls, with a mush stick for a paddle; and it will
be equally hard to engage the co-operation of the proper mate-

rial to advance the art of Photography in the United States
until it is tiioroughly purged of a class of men who disgrace
and degrade it, and who can by no possibih'ly ever develope
a new idea connected with it. How this is to be done is a
question difficult to answer, but if you bring about such a re-
sult, you will not only be a public benefactor, but will deserve,
and no doubt receive, a crown of laurels.

Truly yours,

Yeni Mgdo Gusto.

From Galignanis' Messenger.

FURTHER EXPERIMENTS
On the ContiiiBatiou of ike Action of Light in the Bark.

BY M. KIEPCE DE ST. VICTOR.

We gave an account in November last, of a series of curious
experiments communicated to the Academy of Sciences by M.
Neipce de St. Yictor, tending to shew that light can be stored
up, as it were, like any other substance. M. Niepce has now
sent in a second paper to the academy on this singular subject.
Having stated that if a print, for example, be exposed to the
sun for several hours, then taken into a dark room, and there
covered with a sheet of sensible paper, an impression will be
obtained through the sole action of the solar rays previously
absorbed by the print; he varies the experiment by taking a
sheet of paper which has been kept in the dark for several
days, this he covers with a negative photographic impression,
taken either on glass or paper, and then he exposes it to the
sun. After a certain time, the length of which depends on the
intensity of the light, the whole is taken back again into the
dark; the negative photograph is taken off, and the sheet
washed with a solution of nitrate of silver. In a very short
time an impression appears, which, on being well rinsed with
pure water, will become fixed. If, instead of operating on a
common sheet of paper, it has been previously steeped in an
aqueous solution of nitrate of uranium, and allowed to dry in
the dark, the experiment will be performed much sooner; a
quarter of an hour's insolation (exposure to the sun) will be
sufficient, and the bath of nitrate of silver will instantly render
the impi'ession visible ; to fix it, it need only be washed with
pure water, in order to dissolve the salt of uranium which had
been protected from the sun by the dark portions of the nega-
tive photograph. To give the impression a deeper tone, it may
be washed with an acid solution of chloride of gold; or else, as
soon as it has been exposed to the sun, steep it for a few
minutes in a solution of bi-chlorideof mercury, then rinse it with
pure water, and lastly treat it with the nitrate of silver, until
the lines have assumed an ebony tint; it must then be again
rinsed with pure water. If immediately after withdrawing the
paper from the action of the sun, a solution of the acid chlor-
ide of gold be substituted for the nitrate of silver, the image
will instantly appear of a deep blue color, and may be fixed by
washing it with pure water. Negative impressions may be ob-
tained by exposing paper impregnated with nitrate of uranium
to the action of light in the camera obscura; but the process
being extremely slow, can only be applied to monuments. The
impressions obtained with a salt of uranium subsequently treated
with a salt either of gold, of silver, or of mercury, v/ill resist a
boiling solution of cyanide of potassium, and they can only be
obliterated by aqua regia. If a solution of tartaric acid be sub-
stituted for the nitrate of uranium, the image will appear by
the aid of nitrate of silver, but much more slowly, unless the
temperature be raised to about 30 or 40 deg. cent. (86 to 104
Fahr.) If a figure be drawn on a sheet of pasteboard with a
solution of nitrate of uranium or tartaric acid, then expoesd to
the sun, and afterwards laid on a sheet of paper prepared with
chloride of silver, the latter will receive the impression; in this
experiment also the pasteboard acts solely by the light it has
absorbed; the operation is quite as conclusive as if it were

us

THE PHOTO an APHIC AND FINE ART JOTJRXAL.

May,

effected in a dark chamber, for the sensible sheet lies under the
pasteboard, which is impervious to light, only it takes two or
three hours to obtain the impression. But if a metal plate,
heated to 50 deg. centigrade (122P.,) be laid on the paste-
board, a few minutes will suffice. If the lines of tlie drawing be
very thick, the impression may be obtained at a distance of
three millimetres (one-eighth of an inch). If a sheet of paste-
board, strongly impregnated with a solution of tartaric acid or
nitrate of uranium", be exposed to the sun for a certain time,
■ and the interior of a tin tube be afterwards lined with this
pasteboard, the tube being afterwards hermetically closed and
laid by for several months, the latter will, on being opened, im-
press the image of its orifice ou a sheet of sensible paper. This

is

will require at least 24 hours to accomplish; but if a few drops
of water be let fall into the tube, in order slightly to moisten
the pasteboard, and the temperature be raised to about 50 deg.
cent, (122 Fahr.), the image of the orifice will be obtained in
the course of a few minutes. After the first impression the
pasteboard is exhausted, and the insolation must be repeated.
M. Niepce makes mention of several substances which are all
more or less impressionable, or, rather, more or less capable of
absorbing light and re-emitting it as we have seen; the best are
the citric and oxalic acids, the sulphate of alumina, the citrate
of iron, iodides and bromides generally, the neutral tartrate of
potash, lactic acid, and skins. Each of these substances has a
maximum of intensity; they will retain the light they have ab-
sorbed for several days, and, unless they have undergone a
chemical decomposition in the interval, as is the case with
iodides and bromides, they may re-absorb light by a fresh inso-
lation. Another curious feature is, that a substance that has
absorbed light may communicate it in the dark to another sub-
stance, tartaric acid for example. The bichromate of potash,
when exposed to the sun, loses its property of being soluble in
water; the same occurs when it has been brought into commu-
nication in the dark with an isolated substauce. The Academy
of Sciences has referred M. Niepce's papers on this new and
wonderful discovery to the committee appointed to award the
Tremont prize for discoveries in the physical sciences.

[We doubt whether the permanence of prints is likely to be
increased by fixing and toning them in strong hypo. Strong
hypo is much more easily rendered milky, and acts much more
energetically in sulphurating a print, than weak hypo. Ac-
cording to our experience a print may be completely fixed in
ten minutes in a fresh bath of one part of hypo to twenty parts
of water, and we consider it injudicious to leave a print too
long iu hypo, particularly when the solution is strong and has
been used before. The only legitimate use of hypo is to remove
the chloride of silver; and when a print is left too long in a
strong hypo bath it appears much more likely to fade than when
a weaker bath is employed. The only silver printing processes
which, according to our experience, can be depended on for
permanence, are the development processes on iodide or chlor-
ide of silver, and the sun-printing process in which the print is
first toned with sel d'or and afterwards fixed with weak and
fresh hypo. In the common printing process which you have
described permanence is the exception and fading the rule. Im-
mersion in an alkaline bath, or iu hot water, to remove the size,
appears to be worse thair useless, and so does excessive washing
to remove the hypo. We wish we could conscientiously record
any other opinion. — Ed. P. N.]

ALBUMEN PRINTING PROCESS.

To the Editor of the Fhologra^hic Notes:

Dear Sir, — Tour number of Notes for the 15th January,
just come to hand, has induced me to write you anent some
points or queries on printing positives on albumenized paper, to
which method I frankly confess I have a great liking.

I may mention that I have toned my albumenized prints in a
saturated solution of hyposulphate of soda and chloride of gold;
and for greater permanence immersed them in a fresh solution
of hyposulphate of soda, washing well, then immersing for half
an hour iu a solution of soda, ultimately allowing the print to
lie for some hours in Iresh water, while the tap keeps constantly
changing, and now and then, during this period, dabbing the
print on both sides well with clean water and sponge. Latterly,
after keeping prints for a year or two, they have begun to spot
here and there and show signs of decay.

Mr. Hardwich recommends to remove the size from positive
prints. I have done so, and find my pictures not more perma-
nent, if even so good, as when I allowed the size to remain. I
hope to learn in your next number your opinion as to the use of
soda or ammonia in removing size, also what time, with sponge
and water constantly changing, a print should lie in the water ?

In your last number, you give an extract from the letter of a
correspondent, who states " he has adopted a new style of print-
in"* which is scientifically correct, and gives most brilliant
proofs, with pure whites, on albumen paper, the color being
nearly black, the picture is nearly all metallic gold or there can
be no sulphur," &c.

May I, as one of many amateurs desirous of learning a really
good mode of printing and fixing positive prints permanently on
albumenized paper, solicit your correspondent to send his
meihod of printing positives to you foi' insertion in the next
number of the Notes. Delta.

NEW

From the Photographic Notes.

STEREOSCOPE.

Mr. Salmon, optician, of No. 100 Fenchurch street, has just
brought out a new form of stereoscope, which is an approxima-
tion to that described in No. 30 of this Journal. The lenses are
large whole lenses, placed 2f inches from centre to centre.
Bye and bye, opticians will perhaps bring out the right thing,
the mathematics of which we have given, and the theory of
which stands unrefuted, and a reproach to all who now make,
or sell the present form of stereoscope, in which everything is
dwarfed to the dimensions of a little model, situated a couple of
feet from the nose. We purchased one of Mr. Salmon's stereo-
scopes, and find it very good in some respects, but faulty in
others; the square diaphragms, for instance, are placed too near
together, so that a strip of black shadow overlaps or veils a
portion of the picture on each side. In many respects it is a
great improvement on the common form for viewing printed
positives. Making things look larger and more distant, besides
being very convenient in construction, and a, step in the right di-
rection. Bye and bye, we confidently predict, semi-lenses and
prisms will be entii'ely given up, and whole lenses used, placed
2| inches from centre to centre, the pictures being taken so as
to suit this arrangement, in the manner described in our Jour-
nal. The refracting stereoscope will then be no longer a toy,
but a scientific instrument, and the objects of the picture will
be seen with the natural and true axial convergency of the eyes,
which causes them to appear of their proper size, and at their
proper distance. It is scarcely necessary to observe, that when
whole lenses are used, placed at 2^ inches from centre to centre,
the rule for taking and mounting the pictures, described in No.
30, must be rigorously attended to. We have tried this form
of scereoscope, and it answers perfectly.

SPSTITUTE FOR GROUND GLASS.

To the Editor of Photographic Notes:

Dear Sir, — Being in want of a focusing-glass a few days
since to try a new camera, I hit upon the following expedient,
which answers so well that I send it to you if you think it
worth inserting: — It is simply to coat a plate of plain glass
with collodion, and allow it to dry, then fix it in the focusing-
frame, collodion-side next to lens,

Thomas GuLLrvER.

[An iodized plate has been frequently used as a substitute
for ground glass, but plain collodion, if good, is too trans-
parent. Spirit varnish applied to a cold plate, answers very
tolerably.— Ed. P. N.]

OUR ILLUSTRATIONS.

I.— RALPU SMITH, ESQ.

Negative by J. B. Hetwoob. — H. H. Saelling Print.

II.— MORNING.

Kegative by '^Thipple & Bxack; from a Bas-relief, by Thorwaldsen.

The characteristics of these pictures are marked and very
pfood. The decided improvement in their quality over those of
March and April, is entirely owing to the change from chloride
of ammonium to chloride of sodium fcommou salt) for the salt-
ing solution.

The portrait of Mr. Smith is very excellent, and we give it
as a fine specimen of an excellent artist.

The print of "Morning" is from one of a series of subjects in
Bas-relief, by the celebrated sculptor Thorwaldsen, whose name
has become a household word throughout the world. In our
next we shall give " Night," and describe both of them as is
most fitting they should be.

SALTING SOLUTION.

I The portrait paper was salted with

Chloride sodium , , 200 grs.

Gelatiae 200 "

Water 1 gal.

"Morning" was salted ia the same solution, with 20 drops
lemon juice added.

The seositizing solution, the ordinary ammonia, nitrate of
silver

TONING AND FIXING SOLUTION.

Water i gal.

Chloride of lead solution, made from 640 grains acetate

lead i gal.

Acetic acid. No. 8 2 fll. ozs.

Hypo, sufficient to keep the solution clear.

We have found this bath very uniform in its coloring proper-
ties the principal cause of different degrees of depth of color
and shade being from printing. A very few of the portraits
were printed by the April formulas. These are a little spotted.
All the others are clear, clean, and fine.

Of

RECOLLECTIONS AND JOTTINGS
Photographic Tour, Undertaken Daring the Tear 1856. ,

BY J. W. G. GUTCH, M.R.C.S.L.

" The glorious Sun
Stays in his course, and plays the Alchemist. "-

-Kdjo John,

To the Editor of Photographic Notes:

Dear Sir — I know not if the following homely kind of epis-
tle will be deemed of sufficient interest for you to make a note
of, and yet I fancy that oftimes such memoranda and jottings of
past experiences, prove of much more f radical benefit to our
brothers in the arc, than the more elaborate or theoretical in the
art; at all events they are very useful and acceptable to the begin-
ner. I wish to send you a tolerably detailed account of my
photographic proceedings during the last two years, and having
met (I will not say with invariable success, for who is the pho-
tographer that can with truth say that) , but having met with
certainly more than the average success, and which I entirely
attribute to the means employed, I am inclined to think that
others may be induced to follow in my steps, and as I make it a
rule to have no secrets, I do not at all see why they should uot
be equally, or perhaps even more successful, than I have been.
From ill-health and lameness, I was on the point of giving up
Photography, when, in the early part of 1856, I was shown,
tor the first time, an "Archer's Camera," which appeared to me
so thoroughly to combine all that could be desired, and to ob-
viate the very dilficulties that had previously beset my path, in
the form of tents, dark rooms, &c., that I at once purchased
one, and have never repented my bargain; nay, I will say more,

19*

that I have never done any good photographs with any other
camera that I am unable to do with the Archer; and I have
now had some fifteen or sixteen years experience iu the art, and
have tried very many of the multitudinous forms that are of-
fered to the public.

For out-of-door, or field-work, it appears to me to combine
every possible requirement that the photographer can possiblv
desire; it is portable; the tripod stand, which is quite peculiar
in construction is decidedly the firmest and steadiest of any
kind yet offered; it is readily adjusted, lengthened, or shortened,
at will; the camera is quickly unpacked, mounted, and as readily
undone; it is wonderfully steady, even in windy weather; it
contains ample chemicals for a fortnight's work; two water-
tight baths, viz., one nitrate bath and one water bath, one box
for twelve plates, focusing glass, &c., &c.; and when out, every
process is carried on within it, readily and without any incon-
venience; viz., the coating the plate with collodion, exciting the
plate in the nitrate bath, exposing and developing it, and, if
you please, clearing off the iodide of silver with the hypo, or
cyanide; thus, in fact, with the exception of varnishing, pro-
ducing a negative ready for the copying-frame. To do this
comfortably, I calculate takes, on an average, half an hour on
each picture; but then how great an advantage this mode has
over the old plan, or the other one hundred and fifty contriv-
ances for oxymel plates, sugar plates, dry plates, albumenized
plates, &c. You immediately, in the Archer camera see if you
have succeeded in taking a good negative, and if not, of course
proceed to go over again the same ground; not as I have many
and many a time done, come home, after many and many along
ride, and found all my day's work abortive, and after all my
trouble and expense failed to obtain one picture; with an
Archer's camera, it is only of course a matter of time, should
the first attempt fail, under any ordinary circumstances, and
with all in working order, the failures come very rarely indeed,
and fine pictures are the rule; another great advantage is, you
may, up to the size of the bath, use any size of glass, as no
chassis is employed, thus doing away with the necessity for the
glass being accurately aU to suit the exact size of the frame in
which it is to rest; and this is a very great advantage, as I have
often found, in my various journeyings.

In my camera I can do portraits or views from one inch up
to nine inches, with equal facility, and no change of frame or
any other adaptation, but of the most simple kind; and now,
after this laudatory preface, (perhaps too much so, you will ex-
claim, though in sober truth, I have not in any way exaggerat-
ed or over-praised it), I will go through the whole routine of
my operations, and that as briefly a? I can, though with every
good intention of not taking up more of your columns than I
can help, to describe on paper the operations; but to be under-
stood will necessarily entail a somewhat lengthy epistle.

Glass. — I use the St. Helen Company's flattened sheet glass,
and for pieces 9x8 I pay 12s, per gross, or a penny a piece. I
used to employ the more expensive kinds, and tried even the
plate, and not finding the increased beauty of the negative at all
equivalent to the increased expense, I abandoned it, and have
no cause to regret the course I have, for two years, steadily per-
severed in.

Cleaning the Glass. — Equal parts of liquid ammonia and
spirits of wine, thickened with common chalk to the consistency
of cream, rubbed over the glass, on both sides, and when dry
rubbed off with one leather, and polished, when about to use it,
with a second; this plan I have never found to fail.

I carry the plate with me, (generally a dozen), when cut, in
a small bag, made of American cloth, with a handle, and but-
toned cover.

Coating the Plate^ and just a word or two on the various
kinds of plate-holders. Having tried them nearly all, I have,
during the last year, contented myself with one, consisting of
two circles, the lower, or under one, of gutta-percha, and stiff,
the upper one being a little larger, and lying on it, of india-rub-
ber, and pliable. It is not pneumatic, or very adhesive, bat
with most ordinary care and a very little use quite sufficiently so
to answer every purpose; — the pneumatic ones are all very nice.

150

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

May,

so long as they keep in order; but I think all mnst have discov-
ered that the period of time that they are pneumatic is but
short, and then tliey become worse than useless. Messrs.
Home & Thornthwaitehave jnst brought out a new holder, but
I have not seen it. To proceed then; — In calm, still, fine wea-
ther, I frequently coat my plate iu the open air, and if any air
be stirring iu my camera, my two arms being passed througli
the two sleeves at the side, and my head being covered over,
with the focusing apron, aud a small window at the top of the
camera, covered with yellow oil silk to give me light, and the
back of the camera open, I readily perform that part of the
manipulation.

Exciting the Plate. — I make my bath according to the follow-
ing formula: —

. Into a 20-ounce stoppered bottle put nitrate of silver, 1 ounce;
distilled water, 2 ounces; dissolve. Iodide of potassium, 4 grs.;
distilled water, 1 drm.; dissolve. Mix these iwo solutions; the
drecipitate iodide of silver thus formed, is, by shaking, entirely
dissolved. Now add fourteen ounces of distilled water, when
the excess of iodide of silver is again thrown clown, but in such
a finely denuded state as to render the complete saturation of
the bath, with iodide of silver, perfect. This I generally leave
for the night; and in the morning filter it into my bath, where
it remtiins all the year, and very rarely wants any change being
made, except of course from time to time renewing it with a
30-grain solution of nitrate of silver as it evaporates or is wast-
ed; I have never yet, in a single instance, added either acid or
alkali, or ever tested for acidity or alkalinity. The bath is one
that you purchase with the camera, and is a very economical
one, it consists of a wooden case, lined on the inside with glass,
narrower (I mean the back and front closer together) at the
bottom than at the top, and just wide enough to admit the dip-
per and plate, keeping the former carefully sliding on the back
of the bath; it fits into a linen bag on the floor of the camera,
and is kept slightly inclined, to obviate the risk of rubbing the
plate in putting it in or drawing it out. I use the ordinary
crystallized nitrate of silver, whicU I obtain from Simpson and
Maule, at 3a'. 8d. the ounce; I tried the fused, which is rather
dearer, and I fancied the bath did not work so well. Before
exciting my plate I shut up the back part of my camera, which,
in place of the usual sliding groove for the chassis and focusing
glass, has only a door hinged at the bottom and folding or drop-
ping down; at the top of this door is an opening large enough
to see through, and having a slidding shutter inside, which is
most readily opened or shut by the arms from the inside, thus
easily rendering the camera, before withdrawing the face covered
by the focusing hood, perfectly light-tight, and having thus
done, I cover my head with the focusing apron, pass my arms
through the sleeves, open the lid of my nitrate bath, which is
made water-tight, with two brass screws and a double layer of
thick India-rubber cemented on the lid, and pass the plate
steadily down, shut the lid, and open the camera. I now pro-
ceed to

Focus. — This is done entirely from the inside, the lens being
fixed, aud thus saving much weight and also the expense of the
rack work. There is a light frame traversing the interior of the
camera and sliding in two grooves on either side with a bar of
wood at the bottom, and several small bits of gutta-percha let
into it and notched; on this rests the focusing glass; it is con-
fined aud kept in its upright position by a bar of wood, hinged on
one side, and moving in a slit on the other; the loose end de-
scending, rests on ihe one corner of the top of the glass, and
holds it firmly; the frame is drawn backwards and forwards un-
til the right focus is obtained, and then a peg of wood is with-
drawn and fixed so that the frame can be pushed forwards to
its original position, close to the lens, but cannot be drawn
back, or from the lens, further thau to the peg of wood, which
marks the exact jjlace where the best focus was obtained; all
this time the plate is of course in the bath; I generally leave it
four minutes; I invaiiably use some collodion which I find coii-
slant in its qualities, and good. I obtain it from Messrs. Tay-
lor aud Brothers, in Vere Street, Oxford Street, and can con-
scientiously recommend it iu the strongest terms, from two years

continued use of it. I now replace the frame of ground
glass in a small groove that carries it in the inside of the
caiLcra, replace my collodion bottle in the little tray which al-
ways remains under the camera, and on either side of the lens,
fill a small glass half-full, say half an ounce, with the develop-
ing mixture (the formula for which I will give later), withdraw
my arras from the sleeves, close the back of the camera, close
the little shutter, which can be done o?(<side as well as in, and
open the small shutter at the roof or top of the camera, thus
admitting yellow light; finally shut the sliding sliutter or lid of
the lens, (very preferable, in my opinion, to any form of cof)
It is more quickly closed, and no chance of falling off or getting
bruised and out of order: and all is now ready for exposing the
plate; to do this I again introduce my arms through the sleeves,
place the hood over my head and shoulders; from the inside
open the back window, and by the aid of yellow light withdraw
the excited plate carefully from the bath, drain for a few se-
conds, and then place it in the focusing frame; I then draw the
frame and glass towards me, the frame having been previously
pushed from m% into its place to give room for the hands, &c ,
in the camera, and having satisfied myself that it is well
"home," and resting against the peg, thereby insuring its being
in exactly the right focus, I, from the inside, shut the slide, ad-
mitting the yellow light, and thus test at once the light-tightness
of the camera, the smallest pencil of rays being then visible; shut
from the inside the small shutter at the back aud withdraw
my arms, and, opening the lens, expose the plate. The time
for this part of the operation, I need not say, must vary accord-
ing to circumstances. I have, during ihe summer of last year,
left my plate as long as twenty minutes, and with marked suc-
cess; a very beautiful negative of a window in Conway Castle,
was the result; I have also taken most excellent ones in about
thirty seconds; but I always prefer over than ■!<7i<Ze?--exposing.
I now shut the lens, re-introduce my arms through the sleeves,
from the inside open the slide at the top, for admitting the yel-
low light, also, from the inside, open the window at the back,
the hood of course being on my head and shoulders, and push-
ing the focusing frame back into its place, I take out the glass
turning it on its corner, and thus bringing the collodion surface
towards me, place it in the dipper, and redip it into the nitrate
bath, for an instant onlv, withdraw it, well drain it, place it on
the holder, (which I keep in my left hand, and the glass with
the developing fluid in my right), and proceed to pour it rapid-
ly and evenly over the plate, taking care to commence at the
/6i^ of the plate as it comes out of the nitrate bath; till I
adopted this plan I constantly had my pictures disfigured by
those unsightly stains, so much dreaded and so well known to
all new beginners. I now pour off and on until, by holding the
plate up and under the yellow window, I consider the develop-
ment has been pushed far enough; I then drain for the hist
time, and opening the lid of a bath which fits in front of the
nitrate bath, also in a linen bag, and is filled with plain water,
or water with a little common salt, I drop the plate in with a
wooden dipper, and shutting the lid I am able, with safety, to
admit the light by unclosing the back of the camera; I leave
it in this bath for two or three minutes, and then can bring it
out into broad daylight, and if satisfied with the result place it
in the plate box.

The developing mixture that I find answers very well, is com-
posed of —

ryrogalllc acid 4 grains.

Glacial acetic acid 1 drachm.

Spirits of wine 1 "

Water 3 ounces.

In summer rather more acetic acid.

I always carry a good supply of renAy-weighed Pyrogallic in
my pocket-book, and wrapped up in a small bit of oiled silk,
they will keep good for a long time — months; the spirits of
wine and glacial acetic acid are always in the tray inside my
camera, which contains bottles iu the following order:

Mixed collodiou 7 ounces.

Glacial acetic acid 2 "

Spirits of wine 2 "

Developing fluid G •'

1858.

THE niOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

151

and a division for the small glass, for holding it and pinning it
on. The plate-box, which is also part and parcel of this most
ingeniously constructed camera, is calculated to hold eight or
a dozen plates; it opens at the front and top, and the glasses
are placed and confined in a groove at the bottom, either side
being free, and the grooves cut as close as possible to each
other; they are prevented from touching each other, by the
groove at the bottom, and by a small piece of gutta-percha,
with a groove in its edge, being placed on the glass, at the top.
I generally lay loose a duster, or piece of rag, on the back of
the plate, thus securing it trom motion, shut the side and top
lid, and in this way, I have carried a dozen plates over the
roughest of roads, and for hundreds of miles uninjured; I gene-
rally clean them after I return home, though of course this can
be done readily enough on the spot, if you can obtain a suffi-
cient supply of water to give the plate the necessary washing;
I always use the cyanide, using the same over and over again,
only occasionally adding a lump or two, as it gets weak and in-
effective. It now only remains to dry the plate and varnish it.
1 accomplish the former thus: two small strips of wood, notched,
say a foot long, and placed at their extremities in two upright
end pieces; I rest the negatives, angle fashion, between the two
long slips, and leave them to dry spontaneously; when dry, I var-
nish with some French varnish, made and procurable at Is. 6d per
bottle, at Mr. Gaudin's, Snow Hill, London, with which I have
no fault to find. It is hard and very quickly dried; it requires
the plate to be heated before pouring it on, and dried by the fire
or ill the sun afterwards. Having now succeeded in getting a
satisfactory negative, the next duty is to carefully preserve it,
and to do this, I first place it on a sheet of writing paper, cut
to the length of the glass, and fold this over it, labelling the
outside with one of the adhesive druggist's labels, that you can
buy by the hundred, ready gummed, and of any size. I take
six negatives, and laying them one on the other, place them in
a small calico or brown-holland bag, and again label with the
contents; four of such bags, also labelled on the edge, fit into a
divided box, which is made to contain one hundred and fifty
plates, standing edgeways. They travel in this way perfectly
safe, as I can testify from my boxes having been thousands of
miles, by sea and land, railway and coach, waggon, and many
other conveyances, and no accident or breakage of any kind,
ever having occurred. I have now with me, in two boxes, three
hundred good negatives, the result of the last two years' work,
and all perfect and uninjured, although some have been copied
hundreds of times, and all have travelled hundreds of miles.

Having obtained the negative, the next operation, and con-
cluding one, is to prove its goodness, by copying it on paper,
and this I shall now proceed to describe; and here again I am
indebted to the ingenuity of Mr. Archer, in the copying frame,
which is of the simplest kind, and much lighter, much cheaper,
and equally efficacious, with all the complicated and expensive
ones, sold in the shops, possessing to any one travelling, a great
objection, from their weight as well as bulk. Archer's frame
may be made by any common carpenter for Is. 6d. It is a
light frame of wood, rabitted to carry the glass, with a hinged
back, thicker at the hinge part than the front. Over the glass
is placed the negative, then the paper, then three or four folds
of thick flannel or drugget, and the back is then shut and con-
fined with two wooden buttons, taking care that the padding is
sufficiently tight to cause the necessary and due pressure. With
four of these frames, and four hands, we last year copied 2,800
photographs 7|x8i.

The Paper. — I use Marion's paper, and prefer, of his various
kinds, the thin ammonium salted, (this is of course all ready
for the nitrate bath), or the plain thick, which I prepare thus:
salt first by brushing (the form of brush £ will shortly describe),
over with solution o? muriate of ammonia, five grains to the
ounce of water, and half a grain of iodide of potassium. Hang
up to dry, and excite by the ammonio-nitrate process, two drachms
of nitrate of silver, to the ounce of water; precipitate by the
liqaour ammonia, dropping it in till the precipitate is re-dis-
solved, and fill up to two ounces with water; brush this also
over the previously prepared salted paper, and hang up; and

moving about from place to place, as we have been now for two
years, I find my bag that holds my camera in travelling, a most
convenient dark room for drying my paper, without any chance
of spoiling furniture, and conveniently in every way answering
the purpose. The brush I use is thus made: six sioan's-qnid
camel's-hair pencils are placed as close to each other as they
will lie, on a piece of softened gutta-percha, which forms the
handle, and securely fastened by laying a soft piece of gutta-
percha over the quills; you thus have a broad and convenient
brush, and which can be readily renewed at will.

The ammonium salted paper is excited in a glass tray, fitted
into an outer wooden oue, for the purpose of travelling, and con-
taining ten ounces of a 60-grain solution of nitrate of silver,
and float each sheet for five minutes.

Fixing Solution — I have two hypo baths, the first, made
thus, is of course the toning bath:

Hypo-sulphite 2J ounces.

Chloride of gold ti grains.

Common salt 2 scruples.

Nitrate of silver 1 drachm.

Water 1 pint.

dissolve the nitrate in 2 ounces of water, add the common salt,
stir well together. I allow the precipitate which forms to sub-
side, pour away the upper clear fluid, and fill up again with
water; allow to subside, and again pour off three separate
times, then add, to the precipitate 18 ounces of water and the
hypo-sulphite of soda, and stir well together until dissolved;
lastly, add the chloride of gold, previously dissolved in the re-
Tiiiuing two ounces of distilled water.

FIXING SOLUTION.

Hypo-sulphite of soda 3 ounces.

Water 1 pint.

Into this I now immerse the print, leaving it until the whites
become pure, and the color of the picture is such as I desire.
I then withdraw it and wash it with many waters, leaving it for
48 hours, and during that time, treating it twice with boiling
water, poured on each print; I then dry between blotting pa-
per, and placing it under a screw press, it is ready for mounting.

One other memorandum, and I shall conclude this dry por-
tion of my epistle, but still I hope it will not be found an un-
profitable one, at least to the beginner, and possibly to the stu-
dent more advanced in his fascinating an. I attach my pic-
tures to the wastes, with gum, dissolved in vinegar, which keeps
good for any time, slightly touching the edges only, and I have
never, in a single instance, found this solution to stain or spot
the many thousands that I have had to prepare. I get my
wastes ('quarto ones), from Woolley, in Holborn, who charges
8s the hundred for them. In describing the above manipula-
tions, I very possibly may not have made myself as intelligible
as I could have wished; but if any difficulty should ^rise in the
mind of the reader, and he will address a line to me, directed
to No. 9, Upper Yictoria Place, Clifton, I will, with pleasure,
give him the fullest benefit of my experience, and any explana-
tion that he may desire.

Having thus finished the dry descriptive part of the story, I
will, if permitDed, add a few remarks and jottings, touching the
localities visited, and journeyings made, during a two years' pil-
grimage, performed mainly in search of health; and as an occu-
pation is, with ire, as much a necessity as any medicine for the
body, I made choice of photograpi^y, as one in every way ans-
wering my desires, nor have I been in any way disappointed in
my expectations.

( To be continued. )

Sir William Ross. — We lament to learn the very serious
illness of this estimable gentleman and accomplished artist:
there are few men living whose loss will be more severely felt
by a large circle of friends, who respect and regard him with
feelings more than commonly warm.

152

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

May,

From Photographic Notes.

ON PRINTING BY DEVELOPMENT.

In No. 42 of this Journal,* I gave the formola for a method
of printing by development, without a toning bath, promising
to resume the subject on an early occasion, and discuss more
minutely the various points indicated in the formula. This
promise I shall endeavor to fulfil in the present article.

In the First Operation the paper is immersed in a solution of
salt and water, to which some lemon juice is added.

The quantity of salt, by weight, to the ounce cf fluid, should
be about one-fourth that of the nitrate of silver to the ounce of
fluid in the nitrate bath. The relation between the strength of
the salt and silver baths is a very important point. The effect
of too much salt in proportion to the silver is this; — on floating
a piece of paper, strongly salted, on a comparatively weak ni-
trate bath, the chloride of silver formed does not adhere to the
paper, but lies like a powder on the surface, or comes oif in the
bath ; and when the paper is exposed to light it is either very
insensitive, and will not darken to a color deeper than a pale
grey, or it darkens very unequally, in patches, some parts being
brown and vigorous, and others pale and grey. When the sen-
sitive paper is in a proper condition, there is sufficient excess of
free nitrate of silver to fasten the chloride to the paper, and
also to produce an evenly rich brown or purple tint, \>j a short
exposure to sunshine. The nitrate bath gets weaker in silver
with every chlorided paper that is floated upon it, therefore,
after a time, the effects due to the disproportionate strength of
the salt bath are produced. By sufficiently strengthening the
nitrate bath these effects disappear.

On the other hand, if the silver bath is too strong for the
Bait bath, that is to say, if the silver bath remains at 30-grains
to the ounce of water, while the salt is diminished, say from 7 to
2 grains to the ounce of water, the sensitiveness of the paper is
diminished, and a longer exposure is necessary in order to pro-
duce a visible picture of the required strength. The color is
redder than when the proper quantity of salt is used, and the
development gives a comparatively poor thin picture, which is
deficient in material. If the paper is salted in the usual way,
in a seven or eight grain bath, and then excited on a very strong
silver bath, containing, say 120 grains to the ounce of water, the
sensitiveness of the paper is not increased, but rather diminished,
and the intensity of the visible picture, produced in a given
time, is rather less than when the usual proportions are ob-
served; but the development proceeds with great rapidity, and
produces very black, or green-black tones, of considerable vigor
and opacity.

When the salt and silver baths are both strengthened in the
same proportion, that is to say, to 30-grains of salt and 120
grains of silver to the ounce, the paper is rendered more sensi-
tive, the development proceeds more rapidly, the finished pic-
ture exhibits increased opacity, and the finer details of the
shadows are liable to be buried amidst a mass of densely pre-
cipitated material.

When a very dense negative is to be printed, the quantity of
salt should be diminished, and the time of exposure must be in-
creased. This will lessen the force of contrasts in the positive,
and bring out the details in the high lights.

When the negative is uniformly thin and deficient in density,
abounding with half-tone and fine details, with but little force
of contrasts, rather more salt should be used, and a shorter ex-
posure given. Say, instead of seven grains of salt and 30
grains of silver to the ounce of water, 12 grains of salt and 45
of silver.

The object of adding lemon-juice to the salt bath, and im-
mersing the papers in it, is to completely neutralize any free
alkali which the paper may contain, or to increase its acidity,
BO as to preserve the purity of the lights, and prevent the for-
mation either of an insoluble compound within the pores, or a
red deposit on the back, produced by the decomposition of the
developer, which often happens in those parts when a suEQcient

See Photographic and Fine Art Journal, p. 119.

excess of acid is not present to prevent it. The quantity of
lemon juice which should be added to the bath will depend
upon the kind of paper used. Some English papers are sized
with alum, and have a feeble acid reaction, while some foreign
papers contain caustic potass and sulphide of sodium, and have
an alkaline reaction. The latter kinds of paper require more
lemon juice and longer immersion than the former. It is a
better plan to acidify the paper by adding acid to the salt
bath, than to increase the acid in the nitrate bath.

The acidified salt bath will not keep for many days. The
lemon juice becomes decomposed by keeping. When done
with, the bath should be thrown away. It is better to use
lemon juice than citric acid, because the former contains a mu-
cilage which is capable of combining with oxide of silver, and
increasing the vigor of the proof.

With respect to the different chlorides which may be substi-
tuted for salt. The color of the print appears to be affected,
to some extent, by the particular chloride used; but I cannot
tabulate the results correctly at present, and shall therefore
defer offering any remarks on this part of the subject until I
have made an exact series of experiments. Chloride of sodium
appears to be, on the whole, a very good chloride to employ.
I am inclined to think chloride of ammonium not so good, be-
cause the nitrate of ammonia formed in the nitrate bath is an
unstable salt, which allows the ammonia to escape, and the
nitric acid to be set free, in the bath; and also because nitrate
of ammonia being a solvent of oxide of silver, its presence in the
nitrate bath may interfere with that peculiar action which
takes place between the nitrate of silver and the lemon juice,
and gives surface-vigor to the print. Papers salted with chlo-
ride of barium, or excited on a nitrate bath containing nitrate
of baryta, seem to give proofs of a peculiar plum-color, when
the nitrate of silver is not much in excess.

When lemon juice is added to the salt bath and nitrate bath,
there is no necessity for adding gelatine, or serum of milk, or
any similar organic substance to the salt bath. The print
is quite as sharp and vigorous without as with these sub-
stances. Serum of milk contains organic salts, which ap-
pear to add greatly to the density of the precipitate. For
this reason it should be used with caution in negative papers,
as its effect is to lessen the sensitiveness, and interfere with the
half-tones, at the same time that it renders the blacks very
opaque.

The sharpest prints are obtained on the finest foreign papers,
with the hardest texture and smoothest surface. The most ar-
tistic prints, as regards general effect and color, are obtained
on Hollingsworth's thin paper. The common Whatman's pa-
per is coarse, woolly, and nearly worthless for photographic
purposes.

Salted papers would no doubt keep without spoiling for a
long time in a dry place; but lemon juice is prone to decompo-
sition, and salt to attract moisture, which favors decomposition.

The reader must not suppose the use of lemon juice in this
process to be empirical, or of questionable utility. The diffi-
culty in every printing process on plain paper is to obtain sur-
face-vigor. Paper is a rough absorbent substance, and the me-
tallic precipitate which forms a picture on such a surface is
very liable, when dry, to exhibit a mealy appearance, just as
dry colors do before they are mixed with oil or some organic
cement. The silver which fo;ms the shadows of a print must
be combined with organic matter, or it has a dry powdery ap-
pearance, devoid of richness and vigor. I have tried a great
variety of different methods of increasing the surface-vigor of a
print without having recourse to albumen, and by far the best
plan I know Oi at present is to employ lemon juice (not citric
acid) , in the way recommended.

So far as surface-vigor and fineness are concerned, it is quite
immaterial whether a paper is immersed or floated on the salt
bath; but if immersed it becomes more thoroughly saturated
with acid, and therefore more likely to keep clean during de-
velopment. The effect of acid in preserving a mixture of gallo-
nitrate from decomposition is shown by first mixing gallic acid and
neutral nitrate of silver, in a test tube, and then adding citric

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

153

acid, and noting the difference. In the former case decompo-
sition begins at once; iu the latter the mixture keeps clean for
a considerable time.

The equivalent of chloride of sodium is 60, and of nitrate of
silver 170. If, therefore, a 10-oz. bath, containing 60 grains
of chloride of sodium, were added to a 10-ounce bath containing
no grains of nitrate of silver, the whole of the chlorine iu one
bath would unite with the whole of the silver iu the other, and
form chloride of silver, and no free nitrate ot silver would re-
main. In the same way, if a sheet of paper were first floated
on the salt both and dried, and then on the silver bath and
dried, it follows, if we suppose the paper to be equally absorb-
ent, and to imbibe an equal quantity of each solution fwhich
would not however be strictly correct), that the quantity of
salt in the paper would be exactly decomposed by the quantity
of nitrate of silver imbibed, and that chloride of silver, without
any excess of free nitrate, would be deposited on the paper.
It follows, therefore, that the nitrate bath should be much
stronger in silver than the quantity indicated by a comparison
of its equivalent with that of chloride of sodium. That is to
say, instead of taking the proportion of 11 grains of nitrate of
silver to 6 grains of salt, about 30 grains of nitrate to 8 of salt
would be better.

The Nitrate Bath. — The proportions are about 30 grains
of nitrate of silver and 8 minims of lemon juice to the ounce of
distilled water. Fused nitrate of silver answers extremely well,
and gives more vigorous prints than nitrate of silver which
smells strongly of nitric acid. But if nitrate of silver, adulter-
ated with nitrate of potassa, be fused, the latter salt parts with
oxygen and becomes converted into nitrite of potassa; this de-
composes nitrate of silver and forms nitrrt^e of potassa and nitride
of silver. Fused nitrate of silver should therefore be pure, for
there is nothing worse in a bath than mtrUe of silver, and
nothing more certain to produce fog and discoloration. The
only remedy for such an evil is to add nitric acid to the bath,
then to exactly neutralize it with carbonate of soda, and after-
wai'ds to add the lemon juice.

On first adding lemon juice to the nitrate bath a small
quantity of a pale yellowish substance, probably citrate of sil-
ver, is formed, but this is immediately dissolved by stirring with
a glass rod. A slight cloudiness is also produced, which is re-
moved by filtering through cotton wool. If a pin is dipped
into the bath, the bath is certain to become blackened in a few
hours, and this tinge cannot be removed by filtering.

The nitrate bath acts best when first made. It gradually
gets out of order by use, but adding more silver and lemon
juice, together with a little citrate of soda, restores it to a tol-
erably good condition. The best way to ensure absolute uni-
formity in the prints is to apply the nitrate with a Buckle's
brush, instead of floating the paper on a bath. The exciting
solution is then always in the same state. The want of uniform-
ity in printing, no doubt depends greatly on the variable state
of the nitrate bath. When the bath is out of order the print
does not begin to develop of a fiery tint, as it ought to do, but
of a brownish olive tint, which passes eventually to a disagreea-
ble olive black.

Filtering the nitrate bath through animal charcoal, or keep-
ing it in a bottle shaken up occasionally with kaolin, and de-
canted for use, keeps it always pure and clean, but it rather
injures that peculiar quality of the bath which produces fiery-
red pictures in the early stage of the development. This quality
appears to depend upon the presence of £:n organic compound
of silver held in solution by the nitrate, and when this peculiar
combination is disturbed, the bath gives but indifferent pictures
as regards tone and artistic qualities.

But whatever the defects of the nitrate bath may be, and
however difficult it may be perfectly to understand and remedy
them, they may be completely avoided by applying fresh solu-
tion to every print by means of a brush.

After the print has been excited it is hung up to dry . Chlo-
ride of silver is not dissolved, like iodide of silver, by a concen-
trated solution of nitrate, and therefore the full excess of ni-
trate iu the paper may be allowed to dry in it. The use of this

VOL. XI. NO. V. 20

is two-fold, as will be explained when I come to the theory of
the process. When reddish tints are preferred to black, the
excess of nitrate of silver should be removed by blotting paper-
but this plan appears to injure the definition, and tlie continuity
of the-shades. A better plan would be to float the print on a
second bath, say of 5 grains of nitrate to the ounce, and then
hang it up to dry. The print will then be of a beautiful red-
dish purple or plum color, instead of black; but certainly less
able to withstand destructive influences.

Citric is a much more powerful acid than acetic, for it con-
tains a much greater excess of oxygen; and for the same reason
tartaric is a much more powertul acid than citric. About
one grain of citric acid appears to be equivalents Phologra-
•phy, to a scruple of glacial acetic acid. Lemon juice contains
about one-twentieth part of citric acid; therefore equal quan-
tities, by measure, of lemon juice and glacial acetic acid, produce
about equal effects in photography.

Citric acid belongs to the same class of acids as gallic. It
is a feebly reducing agent, and a pyro-acid may be formed from
it. Citrate of silver is darkened by exposure to light, and a
red organic sub-salt of the metal formed. All these red or-
ganic compounds of silver are capable of being intensified more
easily, and to a greater degree, by decomposing gallo-nitrate,
than the grey metallic substance produced when organic matter
is not present, as in the case of a collodion positive. This red
portion of the image is less permanent than the black precipi-
tate which is thrown down upon it by the developer.

The Development. — The developer is made by adding four
grains of gallic acid to the ounce of distilled water, shaking up
well, and using iu the course of half an hour or so.

When the print is laid into a tray, and the gallic acid
poured in, the nitrate of silver in the paper is dissolved, and
mixes with the gallic acid, forming gallo-nitrate of silver. This
is the true developer, and not gallic acid. The way in which
it acts in intensifying (or developing) the already faintly visible
picture, will be exj^lained when I come to discuss the theory of
the process.

The gallo-nitrate gives a tint, exactly resembling that of In-
dia paper, to the lights of the proof, and the longer the paper
is iu contact with it the stronger this tint becomes. W"hen not
too strong it is extremely beautiful, and a great improvement
to the picture. I am not able to explain why it is produced or
what is its chemical composition; neither the silver bath, nor
gallic acid alone will produce it; but it is formed on a piece of
unsized paper, left for half an hour immersed in gallo-nitrate.
It appears to be either an organic compound of sub-oxide of
silver with lignine and oxydized gallic acid; or of sub-oxide of
silver with lignine alone.

The development should begin with a fiery red tint and pass
gradually to a black. The black deposit is but little affected
by the fixing bath, but the red part of the image is reduced in
intensity and toned if the print is left too long in it.

The development should not be stopped too soon, for it is
the black substance produced in the last stage of the process
which gives vigor and permanence to the print. This black
material appears to be more nearly metallic silver, and less
complex and easily decomposed than the red material at first
produced, in which organic matter evidently plays a more im-
portant part.

A long exposure and short development gives a red picture,
resembling in its properties a sun-print. A short exposure and
long development gives a black picture entirely different in its
composition and properties from a sun-print, and considerably
more permanent, and better able to resist destructive tests.

Fixing, &c. — As soon as the print is developed it is well
washed in water, and then placed iu a solution of fresh hypo-
sulphite of soda, containing 5 per cent of the salt.

The object of this hypo-bath is simply to dissolve the chloride
of silver, and prevent the light from acting any further upon
the print. If any other solvent could be substituted, it would
probably be an improvement. Cyanide of potassium acts too
energelically on the organic part of the image; and ammonia
darkens the picture all over by decomposing the trace of galio-

154

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

May

nitrate left in the paper; but if the gallo-nitrate could be first
removed by any substance, ammonia niij^ht afterwards be em-
ployed. I am engaged in some experiments in this direction,
•which will be descrilaed if they lead to anything valuable.

As soon as the chloride is dissolved by the hypo, the print
should be removed, and well washed, and the hypo thrown away.
The print is no sooner placed in hypo than a peculiar sulphur-
ous smell is emitted by the bath, which indicates the presence
of that destructive agent which has ruined so many thousands
of fine photographs. From that instant this destructive agent
commences his work by toning the red organic part of the
image, at the same time that tlie chloride is being dissolved out.
The print should not remain in this villanous bath an instant
longer than is necessary for the complete removal of the chloride
of silver. Tliis may take from teu to twenty minutes. At the
end of that time the bath is generally very slightly milky, and
is then in a highly active and wicked state, as far as toning
goes. The more thoroughly the print is washed before putting
it into hypo the better, but it is impossible altogether to avoid
bringing about this dangerous condition of the bath, and when
the hypo is stronger the evil is increased in proportion. Those
photographers who place an unwashed sun-print, having but
feeble powers of resistance, in a strong hypo bath, which has
been used in a similar way (no matter whether gold be present or
not), are taking the very means, of all others, most likely to
cause the fading of the proof.

If the print is left in the hypo bath for two or three days, or
hung up without being washed, it fades to a greenish yellow
tint. No argentine photograph will bear this treatment with-
out being destroyed. It is important then to wash the print
well, in order to remove every trace of hypo that may cling to
the paper. The best way of doing this is to lay the print
at the bottom of a dish, and pump upon it, first on one
side then on the other, several times. Then press it be-
tween dry cloths, and let it soak for a couple of hours in fresh
water. Lastly, press it again between cloths, and hang it up
to dry. I am now of opinion that long soaking and excessive
washing is a bad plan. Energetic treatment at first is what is
wanted, and not long soaking in water, which is more likely to
do harm by getting up, or confirming a tendency to fade in the
insoluble organic image, than to do good by removing any sup-
posed last traces of soluble hypo from the paper.

But although I have admitted that a developed print can
be destroyed, or may fade through injudicious treatment, I must
not be misunderstood. I have for years advocated the perma-
nence of developed prints, and every years' experience strength-
ens my conviction on this point. But the term " permanent"
is relative, and not absolute. Nothing in nature is aisolutely
permanent. Printers' ink and Indian ink may both be consid-
ered permanent, and yet both can at once be destroyed by
chlorine, and converted into chlorocarbonic acid, and other
compounds. By the permanence of developed prints, I mean
that the material of the image is more stable, in consequence of
being less organic and more metallic, than that of a sun-print,
as well as existing in much greater quantity; and that when
both are submitted together to the same destructive bath, the
fully developed print, or a ealotype negative, will withstand
with impunity, for several hours, an action capable of utterly
destroying a dozen sun-prints in succession. I once entirely
destroyed a sun-print by half an hour's immersion in a bath
which produced no appreciable effect in 12 hours upon a de-
velo)>ed print. The metallic character of the image produced
by development may be easily proved, by drying an unvarnished
collodion negative, and rubbing it lightly with a piece of leather.
The picture is then, to all appearance, burnished metallic sil-
ver. I do not assert that it is actually pure metallic silver, be-
cause carbon may be present in small quantity, just as steel is
a carbide of iron; but I do as.sert that all experience goes to
prove that this dense metallic image is less likely to fade into a
yellow transparent substance than the thin organic compound
produced by the direct action of light, and which mere contact
with a hot finger will change in a single day from brown to
yellow.

It now remains for me to discuss the theory of this printing
process, and to go thoroughly into the chemistry of it. But
this will occupy many pages, and I must defer it for the present.
I have great hopes of being able to put this matter in a clear
and satisfactory light, by arguments founded on experiment.

There is also a great deal to be said about the quality of de-
veloped prints, as compared with those by the direct process.

For the Photographic & Fine Art Journal.

THE PAINTER vs. THE PHOTOGRAPJIER.

Philadelphia, March 30th, 1858.

Mr. Editor: — In the "Personal and Art Intelligence" of
your April number you have uttered several "sharp-pointed" re-
marks upon the Heliographic Art and its practitioners in this
country, which must be conceded tobeonly tootrue,and "pity'tis
they are true." That in the Heliographic body at large there
is too little of "that high tone of character," as well as compre-
hensive and various culture and accomplishment which we nat-
urally associate with art, has been the burden of many a com-
plaint on my part, which have appeared in your pages. I can-
not take to myself the fault of having hitherto withheld my
views from your readers; and should conditions favor, I may oc-
casionally continue my contributions. My present communica-
tion will consist of a few miscellaneous remarks on general topics*
and

1st. A word upon a view quite common with recent writers
on Art, and, it may be presumed, with artists and connoisseurs.
They insist that in portrait at least the Heliographer can never
rival the portrait-painter of genius, and that the productions
of the former must ever be merely mechanical affairs in compari-
son with those of the latter; and the reason they allege is, that
while the sun-painter can but literally transcribe the aspect of
the face and figure at one indivisible point of time, the pencil-
painter can, at repeated sittings, penetrate beyond the subject's
exterior, and perhaps find within higher elements, than appear
at all times, if ever, externally, and thus put upon his canvass a
higher, nobler, better expression.

Now in this view there is much truth, if you suppose the
Heliographer to be (as too many arej a merely mechanical copy-
ist, and nothing else, without that penetrative genius which can
detect spiritual expression, and without that magnetism, the cir-
cumambiant atmosphere of genius, which can, through the me-
dium of conversation, looks and gestures, as also by simple pre-
sence, so enkindle the sitter, that in his face and form his highest
and most genial expression shall appear. I would fain psk
whether the face and form of a man or woman, when these are
completely permeated and overflowing with finest enthusiasm,
caused by some noblest thought or most heroic achievement, do
not constitute a canvass, luminous with a loftier, worthier, more
spiritual expression, than any artificial canvas inscribed with
the pencil marks of even the rarest of created geniuses? The
former expression is by "Nature's own sweet and cunning hand
laid on" a tablet which her own hand had constructed; the lat-
ter is a product of human agency upon a tablet of human work-
manship. Which, think you, is likely to be the superior?

The determining qaestion then is, whether the sitter, at the
moment of taking by the sun-peucil, can, by any means, jjut
himself, or be put, into that glow of thought and feeling which
shall make his outer man radiant with the light within?

Certainly there is nothing in the necessarily unstirring, and
therefore somewhat constrained position afront of the camera
to arouse, or aid in arousing, the genial excitement desired, but
much rather to repress it. Ordinarily, then, the sitter cannot
be relied on for self -magnetization up to the proper point. Tlie
result wished for must be initiated, if not wholly produced, by
the artist himself; that is, the artist, by the interest of his con-
versation, by the impress of his manner and genial aspect, and
finally, by that influence of his mere personal presence, wliieh,
for want of other terms, we style its magnetism, must awaken
in his subject that mood of spirit, which shall shine through
the fleshly enclosure, as his best of expression.

1S58.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

155

This, to be sure, is an ominous requirement for the operant,
and assigns bim a task not easy of execution.' So be it. Will
any one say how else the problem can be solved?

The portrait-painter can have generally as many sittings with
his subject as he pleases — can see and study the latter under
many various moods — has time to range over numerous di-
versities of topics, and thus find by experiment what best ans-
wers the purpose of exciting his subject; the latter, meanwhile,
not being constrained to a stirless atticude, but allowed to con-
sult his ease. If, then, he has veritable genius, he has ample
opportunity of detecting and representing the expression re-
quired.

The case with the Heliographer is almost wholly the reverse
of all this. He has but little time to confer with his subject
jprior to the operation, and the operation itself is nearly instan-
taneous. How, then, shall he (if at all) overcome these disad-
vantages, and awaken in his subject the best expression?

In future communications I may endeavor to give the ablest
solution in my power of this problem. There are many items
to be considered as regards this matter. The whole subject is
well nigh literally, new, and untried. For, in all the Helio-
graphic treatises I have examined, I cannot recall three pages
that deal diredly with it. Having made it a special study, I
would fain hope I may present something both useful and inte-
resting upon it.

For the present I will close with a single suggestion, which
is, that to accomplish the end in question requires of the oper
ant genius — genius both theoretic and pi'actical — and that no-
thing else will even begin to suffice.

And the time will come — sooner, too, than most persons sus-
pect— when every Heliographic establishment which hopes to
succeed, must have in its service an artist of genius and accom-
plishment, who shall confine himself to handling the camera;
having been thoroughly trained to a knowledge and an applica-
tion of all its capabilities, and to the production of its best and
amplest results. M. A. Root.

ACCOUNT OF A PHOTOGRAPHIC TOUR FROM JERSEY TO THE PYRENEES.

To the Editor of Photographic Notes;

Dear Sir, — You asked me before I left Jersey, to write and
give you an account of my journey to this place, and as all ac-
counts of photographic rambles in search of the picturesque
are full of interest to me, I take it for granted that the Editor
of the Photogra;phic Notes, and his subscribers, have the same
feeling, and I will now endeavor to give you such information
as I should be glad to receive, were I now meditating such a
tour as I have just accomplished.

Notwithstanding all your entreaties to the contrary, joined
together with your abuse of the waxed paper process, it is the
one I have determined to adopt while moving from place to
place as when stationary, and in a moderately cool climate, I
should give the preference to the Calotype process, which for
landscape portraiture, stands unrivalled. I lay stress upon the
d'fference of the two processes, as adapted to the photographer
while travelling and when stationary, as the one process obliges
you to engage a dark room, which the other does not, and in
most places this is a thing which cannot always be found; heat
too, that would efi"ect the Calotype process to a serious extent,
will have no such effect on the waxed paper. In some of the
large hotels in the principal towns which photographers are in
the habit of frequenting, the very sound of photography is
synonymous with that of dirt, so I go upon the principle that
" fortune favors the brave," (say nothing about it) take my
rooms and work in them as I like. In one hotel my camera
was seen, and when I went into my room at night, I found, by
the towels and toilet covers, unmistakeable traces of there hav-
ing been a worker of the same art before me, and as I had no
desire to receive the credit due to him, I suggested that as I
had all the necessary dying materials with me, I could apply
them myself, if I wished to do so, on fresh towels and covers —
they were immediately changed, but I was told "they were
quite clean until they had been used by a Monsieur Anglais."

I am quite convinced, by every days' experience, of one thing,
and that is, that glass is quite out of the question for this
country. Had I been working collodion I should not have had
one negative to show twenty miles from the place at which it
was taken. In the waxed-paper process, I sensitize my paper
in my own room just before going to bed; if the following day
should not be fine, I am still ready for the first fine hours that
should come, though I may have to wait for it for three or four
days. I develop at night, and when the negative is fully out,
wash it well and leave it in clean water till the following morn-
ing. I then clean the dishes thoroughly, put them by, and ex-
cite fresh paper for the next day, place it when finisiied in the
dark slides, clean the dishes and put them by, and then make
all ready for fixing the negatives just developed, by the first
dawn of daylight. As soon as this appears, I get up and im-
merse the negatives in the hypo bath, take to my bed again for
half an hour; when it is time to get up, I examine the pictures,
and if finished, wash them thoroughly. There is little satisfac-
tion in taking unfixed negatives about with one, as their delicacy
and fineness of detail are invariably lost by doing so, and if I
am unable to wash the picture thoroughly before leaviuo- the
place at which it was taken, I manage to do so at the next
place at which I stay.

It is very easy for photographers at home to give advice to
those about to travel, to do so with as small an amount of
chemicals, &c. as possible, and to trust to being able to meet
with fresh supplies abroad; but it is a widely different thing to
find oneself in a place where nothing appertaining to photography
can be obtained nearer than London or Paris Let me advise
no one to go abroad without a sufficient stock of all requisites to
last him till he is quite certain to arrive at some place where
he is sure to meet with what he requires, — to take with him one
extra focusing-glass, which can be easily packed in one of the
dishes, and to avoid papier-mache, as he would porcelain dishes,
they will bear no rough usage, are apt to crack at the corners,
and in this state it is quite impossible to clean them. I recom-
mended their use in the Notes, some months since, but I was
captivated with their appearance, and had not given them a
sufficient trial to test them fairly. I am in hopes that before
long we shall be able to dispense with glacial acetic acid. I
see Mr. Kinnear has mentioned the substitution of citric or
tartaric acid in its stead. Both of these I have used, but not
having hit upon the proper quantity, have consequently failed.
The citric acid I used in different quantities, from 8 to 16
grains, and came to the conclusion that paper prepared withit,
did not keep clean so long as that prepared with glacial acetic
acid, while it required a longer exposure in the camera.

I took with me a new camera, by Ottewill, with a Ross's
lens for pictures 10 by 12, along with a sufficient quantity of
waxed iodized paper to last me till I got to this place. Some
of the paper I took with me, I had prepared according to
Long's formula, using the iodide and bromide of cadmium with
milk. The paper, thus prepared, costs considerably more tlian
that prepared with the potassium; but I think the negative is
rather more delicate, and has much less appearance of granula-
tion in the skies, while the general texture of it is more solid
and vigorous. I am now busy preparing a stock of paper for
a tour through Spain and the Pyrenees, an account of which
you shall have, should 1 live to accomplish it. Almost every
photographer has his own formula for iodizing paper, which, in
his own hands, may give better results, than those of other
people. In each batch of fresh paper I prepare, I use less and
less of the bromide of potassium, and am inclined to think that
it would be better to discard it altogether. I have long since
followed Dr. Keith's example, and given up the use of the fluor-
ide and cyanide, with all organic matter, and as you have lately
seen many of the negatives taken on paper thus prepared, you
will judge for yourself whether I am correct in my supposition.
The paper is greatly improved by holding it before the fire,
after it has been iodized, the granular appearance of the paper
giving way to a fine clear close-looking texture,

I left Jersey on the 29 th of October, for St. Maolo, where
the Custom House officers made a great piece of work with
some of my chemicals, and the camera completely puzzled them.

156

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

May,

I had three or four pounds of hyposulphite of soda, very care-
fully wrapped tip in several folds of paper, in ray portmanteau,
which I had placed there to be out of the way of every thing
appertiiining: to photography, which they pounced upon, and
away two officers went with it, I following, protesting that it
was not tea, coffee, or even tobacco, each one of which it seems
they were certain it must be; at last I got the parcel into my
own hands, and opening it, otfered to each of them a crystal to
taste, which did not satisfy them in the least, and away I had
to march witli them, and it, to a superior officer, who pulled out
a long paper, then a large book, and having looked over them
most carefully for the words HyposuJfite de Sonde, under the
Lead Acidcs, he allowed me to take possession of the parcel once
more; the only conclusion I could come to was, that he was no
chemist, while' his opinion of me seemed much more undefined.
Then followed the examination of the chemical case, every bot-
tle of which was regarded with strong suspicion, and held up to
the light as though would tell some awful tale.

It was beginning to get dark, and I was the last in the room ;
the case in which my iodized papers were kept had still to be
examined, but they were sick of photography and allowel it to
pass unopened, much to my satisfaction. Had they examined
it they would have done it no good, for the contents of the
boxes were all turned out, and they had already broken for me
a glass dish, which has obliged me to send to England for some
Marine Glue, a thing unheard of wherever I have asked for it in
this country.

As there is nothing picturesque in St. Malo, T left the fol-
lowing afternoon, sailing up the river Ranee to Dinan; as soon
as we arrived in this place, I saw there was some good subjects
for pictures, and fixed upon the Hold de Brefagne, as the proper
resting place for a photographer, in consequence of its having
an imposing-looking pump before the door. If any brother pho-
t0"-rapher should ever be induced to visit this Hotel, he will
fiud it necessary to make a very strict bargain with " Made-
moiselle," for if he does not do so he will find, on leaving, that
if she is not " fair" she has the other attribute which is generally
said to be its accompaniment. The hotel is, however, one of
the best in that part of France, and has the advantage of being
just oat of the town, which is exceedingly dirty. The servants
were uever tired of carrying water and cleaning dishes, and the
only thing they expected in return, was a sight of les jolis ta-
bleaux, with which they were in raptures. The weather was
wretched, with the exception of a few hours on one or two days,
during the week I stayed here, which however I made the most
of, and took good negatives of all that was worth seeing. The
Cathedral of " St. Sauveur," which is an interesting specimen
of the romanesque style, is admirably situated for the photog-
rapher, having a fine open space before it, both on the Bast and
West side. Close to it are some exceedingly picturesque old
houses wliich no artist or photographer could pass by without
an attempt to take away with him some slight memorial of. I
was so pleased with them that I took three or four views of
them from different points. I then went to Lshon, a small vil-
lage about a mile from Dinan, where are the ruins of an old
Abbey, which makes a pretty picture. The Canal is close to
it, and there are some charming views on it. After finishing
these subjects, I went on to Rennes, where, as there is nothing
to induce one to pitch a camera, I passed on to Nantes. The
west door of the Cathedral is magnificent, and I greatly regret
that I could not stay to take it. There is little else in the
town which would induce one to stay in it. The Cathedral
itself, externally, with the exception of its noble entrance, is an
unsightly building. My next halting place was Angers. In
few continental tours will the photographer find a greater num-
ber of subjects for his camera than in this fine old city. The
Cathedral of St. Maurice, has that drawback to its beauty which
it holds in common with most churches of a similar kind,
whether in England or in this country — that of being so closely
hemmed in with houses as to render it imjjoss'.ble to take it in
the camera except in parts; the West door is remarkable for
the richness and good preservation of its sculptured figures. A
fine view of its beautiful aud elegant spires, (spoiled however,

in a great measure, by an unsightly pavilion which connects
them with each other) as seen towering far above a picturesque
old street, making a good foreground and middle distance for a
picture of faultless composition, is to be had from the river side.
The tower of St. Aubin is a stately and imposing-looking old
building, of which I got some excellent negatives; between it
aud the Cathedral are some exceedingly picturesque specimens of
ancient domestic architecture, with which the streets of Angers
abound. A Monsieur Lchon, a photographic artist, possesses
a window which has a good view of one of these houses. I had
been, on the previous evening, to a chemist's shop to purchase
some distilled water, for which an exorbitant price was demand-
ed; it happened that M. Lehon was in the shop at the time,
and determined to fiud me out, which he did the next day, to
offer me distilled water, the use of his dark room, aud anything
else I might require, with the assurance that the view from the
window vvas charmant, so I sent my camera there, and took the
view, as well as another view of the same subject from a better
point. He had never seen a folding camera before, or any good
paper negatives, with both of which he was in raptures. Pho-
tography is at a very low ebb throughout the whole of the
North of France, with of course one or two bright exceptions
here and there. I was in a photographic artist's room, late one
evening, when it was quite dark; a knock at the door was soon
followed by the entrance of half-a-dozen soldiers who came,
Mi _/?t// Jress, to have their portraits taken; the artist endeav-
ored to explain to them that such portraits as he took could
only be taken by daylight, and I doubt not that they went, as
sure, to the next portrait gallery to try their fortunes there, for
the general character of the portraits is such that might well
lead them to suppose they had been taken at midnight.

The view from the Castle walls of the town of Angers, with
the surrounding country, of which you have a fine expanded
view, is very charming. It is necessary to obtain an especial
order from the Colonel in command, before yon can enter the
walls of the Castle with the camera; but the view of the Cathe-
dral from there is fine, and well worth any trouble to take. The
Castle itself is as ugly and unsightly a pile of stones as could
well be put together, and were its historical interest ten-fold
greater than it is, we would be at a loss to conceive what any
photographer, with an artist's eye, could see in it worth depicting,
yet that such persons there are, I was gravely assured by a
soldier, who told me that only a few weeks before that time
" some English gentlemen had been photographing it."

Not far from the " Musee" is the ruined Church of the
" Toussaints," which would well repay the photographer had
he an hour or two to devote to it. The morning I saw it waa
the commencement of the fair-week, and the town was so
thronged with people tliat photography was out of the question.
I congratulated myself therefore on having taken half-a-dozen
good negatives while the town was, comparatively speaking,
quiet, and went on to Tours. The Cathedral is one of the
finest in the world, but the distance from which you can get
from it, with the camera, is too short to allow you to get much
more than its fine west door and window, the lamps which hang
suspended in the air, by means of chains fastened to poles on
each side of the street, spoil any picture when an artist's
license, (such as no photographer can take out) cannot be used.
I noticed a window in a house from which I thought a good and
entire view of the west front might be obtained. The house
had a garden before it, with a wall, at the top of which was a
lamp which might have interfered with the view. I called on
the gentleman who lived in it, and requested that he would al-
low mo to take a picture from one of his windows but was most
ungraciously denied, the reason alleged being that so many sim-
ilar requests had been made, and the view so good, tliat he was
obliged to say No, to every one who asked him. In return I
sent my compliments to him and said that should he ever turn
photographer I wished that he would never meet with such a
refusal, aud that it was very unlikely that he would do so. He
so far relented as to say " if I would call next day (Sunday)
with my camera, he would consider aud see what could be done,"
to which message I vouchsafed no answer.

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

151

This is the only instance of incivility I have as yet met with,
or indeed heard of, as occurring in France. The very sight of
the camera in many places calls forth kindly feelings and atten-
tions, and frequently I have been asked while taking pictures
whether I have been to such and such a part of the town, that
there was a beautiful view elsewhere, and that if I did not know
the way they would take me there and find me a window and a
dark room, for they all seem so far to understand our " black
art" as to know that the latter of these things is required; even
the beggar boys offer their services (and a merry cheerful set
they are j without any appearance of interested motives, and in
one or two places have proved most useful companions, taking
upon themselves the airs of a commander-in-chief and ordering
off any one, (no matter who), from approaching the front of
the camera, or even walking before it at a distance, and only
as a special mark of favor allowing them to pass behind it.
The camera excites more curiosity in this country than in ours,
but the French crowd are a better set than the same class in
England, and you can do anything with them but shake them
off. I next took negatives of the towers of St. Martin and
Charlemagne, which are the only remains of a vast cathedral,
dedicated to the Saint whose name the first of these towers still
retains. From Tours I went to Portiers with four pieces of
sensitized paper in the dark slides of my camera. It was mar-
ket day, and the streets very crowded ; the cathedral was under
repair, and the only part of it worth taking was one mass of
scaffolding. I was only able to get two views of the church of
Notre Dame, which presents a remarkable example of the florid
romanesque style in its west facade, which is nearly covered
with sculpture from top to bottom; having finished this I went
on to Angouleme, when I exposed the two remaining pieces of
paper, the following morning getting two good views of the
tower of the cathedral and the approach to it, and then on to
Bordeaux. Here the weather was so cloudy and the atmos-
phere so thick and hazy that I attempted nothing in the way
of photography, though the place is full of subjects and would
nearly repay a fortnight's hard work with the camera. In fact
had the weather been fine I doubt whether I should have been
able to take any good pictures of those subjects which are
most worth seeing, as the spirit of church restoration is so fast
progressing that these buildings present little else to the eye
than masses of scaffolding. From Bordeaux you pass through
a most wretched and uninteresting looking country to Bayonne,
where there is nothing to see. I went to Biaritz, with the idea
of staying there a week, but found a stay of two hours quite
sufficient. I had heard so much of this place and the fineness
of the coast scenery that 1 was greatly disappointed to find
there was nothing worth seeing with the exception of a grand
view of the distant Pyrenees (too far off however to make a
photographic picture); the coast is flat, the rocks being only a
few feet high, others of them that the sea has surrounded are
grotesque in shape and form, the coast of Jersey is infinitely su-
perior to any part near Biaritz, and were it not that an Em-
press has chosen it as her occasional residence, one may be quite
sure that its name would never have been so widely known as
it now is. The next evening I was glad to find myself in Pau,
where after taking rooms, &c., in some measure settled down
for a time, wandered forth once more with my camera. The
Pyrenees are too far off to give a good picture, and the only
objects worth taking can be finished in a few days. I have
taken them all, and for nothing better to do, am taking them
all again on paper differently prepared, so as to test the capa-
bilities of it more fairly. I am now longing for such weather
as will permit me to get among the mountains.

In no part of any country in which I have been, is there
such a fine light, with soft broad shadows, as in this part of
Prance. The stillness of the atmosphere is extraordinary, as
some negatives I have taken, in the room and elsewhere, of
Lombardy poplar trees very clearly indicate. You might, I
think, examine them with a microscope without detecting that
there had been any movement among the finest and most deli-
cate branches of these elegant trees. The sun is so bright and
warm, (aud this is the last week in December), that while

20*

basking in it on the river side, one is induced to envy the nu-
merous people you see up to their waists, in it collecting of
stones.

Great as is the trouble and annoyance of working collodion,
when you have the certain prospect before you of breaking the
negatives, still the charming subjects which collodion alone can
take, have induced me to send to Paris for a supply of it.
Shonld I be able to get some good negatives I shall print a

number from them before leaving this place. The costumes

the oxen in the carts, their picturesque drivers, &c., would draw
forth the pencil or the brush of any one who had an idea of
art, how much more does it induce the photographer to bring
his camera to bear on such objects, of which there have, as yet,
been so few taken.

I fear I have trespassed very sadly on the space usually al-
lowed to Correspondents in your valuable Journal. I have
said a great deal about the process I work, and other matter,
which I shall not have to repeat when I next write to you.
Whether my letter will be much shorter must depend upon
what I see and where I go. I trust to be able to take my
camera to places as yet untrodden by the photographer, and to
show you, on my return, that a paper process will give as much
finish, and more artistic effect for landscape portraiture, than
glass. T. Melville Raven.

Maison Belle-vue, Pau.

From Photographic Notes.

COPIING TRANSPARENT PHOTOGRAPHS.

We have some remarks to offer on the subject of copying
transparent photographs by transmitted light, which we con-
sider very important.

In copying an engraving or paper print, the light portions
are composed of an infinite number of bright points, each of
which is the origin of a pencil of light which diverges from it,
pa,sses through the lens, and is refracted to a focus which is
"conjugate" to the origin of the pencil. But if the lights of
a picture to be copied are pure transparent glass, and not formed
of an assemblage of bright origins of light, the case is vastly
different; and we cannot suppose that the dark parts of tho
picture radiate pencils of darkness.

This being understood, let the reader consider what would
happen if a transparent photograph were held between the
copying lens and the sun; — that is to say, placed in a cylinder
of luminous rays having parallel directions. It is evident that
parallel rays would in this case pass through all the transpa-
rent parts of the photograph, and cmne to a focus in the jprinci-
pal focus of the lens, from which rays would again diverge.

Now, if the office of the condenser is simply to transform a
cylindrical pencil of solar rays incident upon it, into a conical
pencil, converging to a focus, an image of the sun will still be
produced by rays passing through the transparent parts of the
photograph.

It would appear, therefore, that some difficulties are likely to
occur in copying a negative by solar light, transmitted through
it in the way proposed by Messrs. Anthony, when the lights of
the negative are perfectly transparent, and allow the light to
pass through without being diffused.

In the case of the magic lantern, the condenser can be shown
to have the property of scattering rays of light in all directions,
within a certain space, and in this way of forming diverging
pencils, whose origin is on the surface of the painted slide.

The best luminous background (so to speak) for a transpa-
rent photograph to be copied, is cither the sky, or a white sur-
face strongly illuminated. The consideration of how such a
background would act in producing pencils of light which di-
•verge from the picture, is very instructive and important. Let
us suppose that a piece of blackened glass, has a single minute
transparent hole in it; — the sky being on one side of the glass,
and a lens on the other. It is evident that every part of the
lens might receive a ray of light through the hole, from some
portion of the sky, and that in this way the hole might become

158

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

May

an origin of a diverging pencil of light covering the surface _ of
the lens. Now the light portions of a transparent negative
may be considered as made up of an infinite number of these
minute holes, every one of which could become an origin of a
divergent pencil; and therefore, when a transparent negative,
with the sky as a background, is placed before a lens, an image
of it would be formed in precisely the same way, as if it were
an opaque paper print, illuminated from a source of light in
front.

It would appear from these considerations, that the arrange-
ment proposed by Messrs. Anthony, would be extremely likely
to produce fog and a general darkening of the sensitive surface
on which the copy is to be made; while the way to avoid such
an evil would be, either to do away with the mirror and con-
denser, and use the sky as a background, or to introduce a semi-
transparent screen between the picture to be copied and the
source of light, in order that the light might be properly dif-
fused.

If, in the Solar Camera of Messrs. Anthony, the lights of
the picture to be copied are perfectly clear and transparent,
they will not prevent the condenser from forming the "bright
spark," or image of the sun on the front combination, and the
rays which would be scattered by such an image would, we
imagine, be nearly certain to fog and blacken a sensitive surface
placed opposite to it.

These considerations are well worthy the attention of those
who are about to employ copying cameras, or to practise Micro-
photography. — [Ed. p. N.]

Jlcrsonal $^ %xX JJutclUgencc.

CHEAP RECErTACLE FOR THE NITRATE OF SILVER BATH.

To the, Editor of the, Liverpool Photograf hie Journal:

San EKA.NCISC0, January 19th. 1858.

Sir — Having noticed several enquiries in the various Photo-
graphic Journals for information as to the best means of con-
structing an economical bath for the nitrate of silver solution
that is not too readily liable to breakage, percolation, or other
ills that baths are heirs to, I beg to offer to the photographic
fraternity, my own solution of the problem, after having made
numerous experiments to effect the desired object. I may state
that 1 have had iu constant use for six months, one that con-
tains two pounds of silver salt, and receives a plate eighteen
inches by twenty-one inches.

Take a board of Quebec yellow pine, three-quarters of an
inch iu thickness, and perfectly free from either large or small
knots; having planed it perfectly smooth on both sides, cut two
slips of the height of the required bath, and one of a length
equal to the intended breadth — all three being of one width,
which should be equal to the distance required between the front
and back of the bath: these are to form the bottom and two
end pieces; now cut the back and front pieces, and screw the
whole carefully together, fitting them as closely as possible.
Having dissolved shellac in alcohol to a consistence that will
How moderately well, pour some into the bath, and turn it about
in every direction, in order to give it a good internal coatmg,
pour out the superfluous solution, allow it to drain and dry per-
fectly; repeat tliis operation several times, until the coating is
about a sixteenth of an inch in thickness; then apply a single
external coat of the same varnish. Before using, insert a sheet
of glass on the side nearest to the operator, for the dipper to
slide against, and a sli|) at the inside of the bottom for it to
strike upon in descending: this is to prevent chipping the var-
nish. I have found this bath a perfect one in every respect, and
yet produced at a comparatively insignificant cost.

Yours very truly,

H. J. May.

The best portrait-tube to be used with the small sized Solar
Camera, is the half-size, and with the large one, the two-thirds
Harrison quick worker.

— Our leading remarks in the last number, have called forth
two excellent communications from two valuable correspondents.
That of Mr. Root meets some of the objections urged against
photographic portraiture, and we are assured that before he
concludes the subject, he will most effectually demolish the
old fogies who see nothing in the photographic art calculated
to advance the taste of the people. Mr. Root is not only an
eminent photographer but an excellent artist, and we venture
to say, that there is no man connected with photography, who
understands the principles of Fine Art and its requirements
more thoroughly than himself.

Veni Modo Gusto's communication is intended as a re-
ply to our strictures on the moral of photographic artists; but
he only begins where we left off and continues the subject.
The difference between us is in the method of effecting the same
object. It was our intention to continue the subject this month,
taking a portion of the same grounds he has gone over; but
his article renders it superfluous, except on a few points.

In photography, as well as in all other arts, there is a higher
Art which the class to which Veni Mono Gusto alludes ■ can
never reach; it can only be attained by the genius, and not by
him without dilligence and severe study. The total eradica-
tion of the class that wallows in the mire of the lower grades
of photography can never be accomplished, and we do not con-
sider the effect would be of any avail in the direction pointed
out by our correspondent. The man capable of the most lofty
aspirations in the photographic art should not think of, much less
attend to, the conduct of those beneath him in genius, repu-
tation, and skill. The most beautiful localities on earth are
more or less infested by fleas and mosquitoes, but whoever
thought of entirely destroying them — to allay the pain of their
sting, and by superior wisdom deprive them of their power to
annoy, is the most we can do. True, we occasionally " smash"
one who dares venture too far upon our rights, and it is only
then that we are obliged, or have any right to take up arms
against them. The photographic is not the only business in-
fested by annoying vermin. Quacks and humbugs swarm in
every profession, and in every manufacture as well as in every
art, and so it will be till the millenium. No, it is not our pur-
pose to destroy the miserable abortionists who swarm the pho-
tographic racks. They have their use in discovering to the
people the difference between good and bad pictures. Our
purpose is to elevate their minds — or as many of them as possi-
ble— above the grovelling nature they have brought into the
art — to caution them against every evil that may beset
their paths, to praise when they do well, to scold when they do
not behave themselves. That the host who now infest the
beautiful art will gradually grow less as more exalted minds
enter the precincts of photography, until they become a glorious
few, we believe, but that they ever will be totally extinct can-
not be. Cheap ambrotypes — the lowest grade to which photo-
graphy can fall — will always find customers, and these dabsters
must be the men to furnish them, just as there are portrait
painters who paint a life-size bust for^i-e dollars.

It does not necessarily follow, that because quacks adopt an
art or profession, that men of genius should abandon or become
disgusted with it. By this very fact, the reasons for their en-
tire devotion to it are multiplied; the incentives to action are in-
creased. Every true artist who abandons the photographic
art only makes room to be filled up by one of inferior grade.
This is the point which we desire to impress upon the mind of
the true photographer. The disaffection on the part of portrait
painters, towards photography, is nothing like so great as for-
merly. A large number have been obliged to acknowledge its
applicability in aid of Fine Art — the existing differences are
hinted at by Mr. Root, when he says that the time must come
when every first class photographer will employ an artist in his
gallery — not as a manipulator in the detail of the business, or a
mere colorist, but as a director of the camera. Here it is that
true art must be made to bear upon photography. To deprive

1858.

THE rilOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

159

the photograph of its coldness and rigidity, requires some-
thing more'thiui placing the sitter in a chair, fixing his head in
a rest, and giving the patent instruction — " sit perfectly still,
look into the camera, or at any object, wink as much as you
please, but do not remove your eyes from the object first
selected." Graceful positions, pleasant faces, bright eyes,
character, must be shown by the photograph, and it requires the
mind of a well educated, highly polished artist and gentleman
to accomplish this,

There was a time when we entertained views similar to those
advocated by Veni Mono Gusto, but we are now convinced
we were in e'rror. Instead of wishing to drive any one engaged
in any branch of photography from the position he has as-
sumed, we prefer to endeavor to educate him to the standard
of true artist. Those who have the natural ability and intelli-
gence to attain the elevation, and those who have the ambition
above mere dollars and cents— no matter if they were born and
brought up in a barn — will reach the goal of their desires, while
the majority of those who cannot accomplish it will retire, and
leave the field to those to whom it justly belongs.

To cast disrepute upon Photography simply because dabsters
and tricksters are engaged in it, is no less Utopian than the dis-
gust some men proclaim, against the religion of Christ, because
of the backsliding of his ministers; or the number of black
sheep in the fold.

— ^ At the meeting of the American Institute of April 14th,
the subject appointed for discussion was Photography. John
Johnson, Esq., read a paper on the priority of daguerreotype
portraiture; but he spoke so low we were unable to catch more
than a word or two here and there. We understood him to
claim the honor for Professor Wolcott and himself. He also
exhibited and explained an enlarging camera, invented by him-
self several years ago; as also several impressions of an en-
graved daguerreotype. Other gentlemen discussed the claims
of Professor Morse and Draper to the honor of having taken
the first daguerreotype portrait.

Mr. Seely explained M. Pretsch's process of photographic
engraving, at the request of one of the members. Several
other unimportant matters were discussed, after which a resolu-
tion was passed directing the appointment of a committee to in-
vestigate the facts in relation to the first application of photog-
raphy to portraiture.

The meeting was exceedingly interesting, and was intended
as a precussor to the formation of a Photographic Society.

This subject, which we have so often urged upon the atten-
tion of the practical photographers of this country with so little
effect, has been seriously entertained and discussed by the ama-
teurs of New York, who have now become quite a large body,
and we have every reason to believe that the organization of a
society under the auspices of the American Institute, will be
the immediate result.

— The contents of our present number is varied, entertain-
ing and useful. The first, by Mr. J. Brown, is a beautifully
written article on the " Application of Photography to Art and
Art Purposes, &c." It will well repay perusal, being calcula-
ted to raise the thoughts into the higher walks of Photographic

Art.

Several articles have recently appeared on the photography of
the Moon — attempts made by various European artists; but
we do not think sufficient credit has been given to Mr. Whip-
ple of Boston, for his part in the matter. There can be no
doubt of his having been the first to try this difficult task and
the first to accomplish it. All must remember the admiration
his dao'uei'reotypes of the Moon excited at the great World's
Fair in London. He also accomplished the feat immediately
upon the introduction of the collodion process, and his skill has
been since frequently called in requisition by Professor Bond
and others to the same end, and also to obtain photographs of
other heavenly bodies. A beautiful series of photographs of
the great eclipse of the sun in 1855 was taken at West Point.
These photographs exhibited the eclipse in every one of its
phases, and were most beautifully executed.

We' present our readers with the entire process of Mr.

Long for "Dry Collodion Plates." This process has obtained
precedence in England over all otiiers, and we should judge
that as a preservative mixture process, justly so. We believe
however, that ere long all preservative mixtures will be aban-
doned, and that a collodion will be presented which may be
worked wet or dry with perfect success — and under any circum-
stances. The preservative mixtures complicate the process too
much.

The method of taking clouds in landscapes is worth tryin"*.

Mr. Barnes Dry Collodion Process is also given, and great
success claimed for it; but all these preservative mixtures are
undoubtedly destined to fall before a more simple method.

AVe give the conclusion of our remarks " On the Permanence
of Photographic Prints." It will be seen by comparing them
with Mr. Sutton's directions in his article on " Printing by
Development," that our views are precisely similar, in fact, the
only difference between us is in the quantity of hyposulphite of
soda necessary to be used. We advocate a strong solution,
sufficient to deprive the paper of the unchanged silver, and fix
the print in the same space of time necessary to tone it,
whereas he recommends a weak solution. This difference of
opinion may belong to the different methods of washing, after
toning, our prints being submitted to a strong stream of run-
ning water for sixteen hours, while he submits to a soaking in
still water and to pressure between cloths. We now make'our
toning bath very strong and we find less difiicnlty in fixing, and
lose fewer prints from overtoning than formerly," when we' fol-
lowed the old plan, simply because our printer's attention has to
be placed upon the bath for a shorter period, and the prints
are not suffered to remain beyond the required time from for-
getfulness.

A review of the claims of the Orlhoscopic Lens, which is com-
manding so much attention at present in Europe, is also given
with a promise of further information. An experiment in print-
ing by carbon, may be worth a trial and an endeavor for im-
provement with some of our photographers.

The remarkable experiments of M.' Niepce de St. Victor are
continued, and must excite the astonishment of any one con-
nected with the art.

Mr. GuTScn's "Recollections and Jottings," are highly inter-
esting as well as exceedingly instructive; as is also the " J.c-
count of a Photographic Tour to the Pyrenees."

Mr. Seebohm says, — " If you were to strengthen your salting
solution to 250 grains, you will find it an improvement."

We have used various quantities in our printing, and adopt
those that give the best results with the paper we use. He
also says; —

"I use a new varnish iov glass pictures — especially for nega-
tives— it is superior to every other kind, ith^ingglass itself

soluble glass (silicate of soda). It cannot be scratched or de-
faced; it does not alter the tone in the least, and when well put
on, it is impossible to distinguish it from the glass plate itself."

Mr Seebohm further offers to send to all who will apply to
him (Dayton, 0.) the description of an enlarging camera, which
he thinks superior to all others.

— Mr. Woodward writes — "The formula which you noticed
in your last number I do not claim altogether as original, but I
have modified and applied it to the solar camera in such a way
as to make it capable of producing fine results, I think, with-
out any chance of failure when carried out according to my in-
structions. I would publish it to all, but as it is adapted par
ticularly to the solar camera, I have determined to send it to
all who make use of that instrument. I am also workino- a
process on canvas, which I have found to be useful when used
with the solar camera. This I also send to such persons. I
have never tried either of these processes, except with the solar
camera, and cannot say if they could be used without it."

Those of our subscribers who have written to us on this sub-
ject, will, therefore, please address Mr. F. A. Woodward, Balti-
more, Md. To those who use his solar camera he will give the
processes, which we have reason to believe, from specimens we
have seen, are very good.

— H. S. Brown writes — "Why do you not tell us how your

IGO

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

May,

•view negatives are made? Some are very good, and some not
BO good; but we cannot tell uiucli about them — not knowing
whether they are made with albumen, collodio-albumen, dry
collodion, or wet collodion. When you give us a view do say
how the negatives can be made. By the way, I cannot find
tilhtr process in full (I mean developing) in the Journal, so I
am experimenting. Surely the enthusi.ism of Mr. NoniANN has
misled him, for I cannot obtain the results he claims from his nm
negative process; but I can give yoa a process I use, which is, in my
hands, verysuceessful. After the negative is developed, washed,
and cleaned by soda, and washed again, if not deemed intense
enough, or, if on trial, found not to print well in the light, af-
ter wetting it well, pour over it a strong solution of sulphurei
of potassa, and keep it on till the negative is quite dark all
over it. The appearance of the negative is very peculiar, and
the result better, I think, than produced by most other methods
of re-dcvcloping, and there is no danger of injimng the_ nega-
tive; no staining — no coming off the plate. I presume this is an
old process to you and to most others, and I only mention it be-
cause I find it the best I have tried. Is the collodion you speak
of as being good — when used dry — for sale?"

We do not give the formulas by which the negatives of our
prints are made, because we do not know them ourself. All our
negatives, thus far, have been contributed by our subscribers,
and although we have repeatedly re-|uested the favor of full
descriptions in regard to them, we have failed to obtain any.
We shall soon be in a position to make our own negatives. Our
illustrations will then be made in every respect applicable to a
Journal like ours, and we shall give formulas in full, together
with every particular calculated to render them more interesting
and useful. We have not yet attained that perfection in Pho-
tographic Journalism which we marked out for ourselves at the
commencement; we never may be able to do so, but we shall
reach as near it as possible, and it shall not be tor want of try-
ing if we fail. We give in the present number Mr. Long's and
M°. Barnes' processes in full. The collodion we have before men-
tioned is now on sale by Mr. Anthony, of this city. It requires
uo preservative mixture to keep it, and it may be used either
wet or dry — one minute after exciting or one month— probably
longer. It possesses high qualities, and we think is destined to
do away with all preservative mixtures.

John T. Williams writes — "You will find the article

called Sponifier dissolved in water an excellent means of remov-
ing white and black varnish, and all other impurities from old
glasses. It is rapid and economical — the same solution answer-
ing for au indefinite number of plates. Twenty-five cents'
worth will last any gallery several years. I have fully tested
it for eighteen months. Make the solution strong. To clean
bottles encrusted with iron, use a small quantity of dilute sul-
phuric acid, and the hardest crust will disappear, as if by magic."

We copy the following notices of two of our California

friends from San Francisco papers. California is not far behind
the Atlantic States.

A California Photographic Painting. — A great deal of at-
tention has been lately drawn towards a beautiful work of art,
the joint production of Messrs. T. A. Ayres, S.. W. Shaw, and
Silas Sellick, of this city. We refer to the painting of a golden
haired child and a large white Newfoundland dog, (to be seen
in the store of Mr. Thomas Young, 163 Clay Street,) and
known as "The Two Friends." This picture is a sort of tripar-
tite production, and reflects equal credit upon each of the ar-
tists. Tiie idea of forming a combination of natural scenery
and portrait painting is new, and now it has been successfully
accomplished — the only wonder is that nobody has thought of
it before. It is just as easy to have a beautiful landscape for
the background of a picture as to gaze upon a vacant wall.
The child sits upon a flowery bank, resting from his sports, and
the huge dog, with the confidence of true friendship, lies by his
side. Old gnarled trees, woodlands, and distant mountains, a
placid river, and a quiet summer sky, with its tinted clouds,
make up the rest. Taken as a whole, it is a delightful scene,
and one finds new beauties iu the design at every examination
of it. The figures were first photographed by Mr. Sellick. Mr.

Shaw, portrait painter, executed the coloring of them, and Mr,
Ayres, the California landscape artist par excellence, completed
the work with the natural scenery. The picture is thus in every
respect a Californian production, and, if we mistake not, will
greatly enhance the reputation of each of the artists engaged
on it. It is well for us to cultivate the struggling cause of art
iu our young State, and show that we have aspirations and
tastes beyond the mere race for dollars. Indeed, the patronage
already flowing in upon our artists shows that we have those
among us who can appreciate and support this ennobling profes-
sion. The efforts now being made by several of our citizens to
establish a higher standard in the fine arts in California, de-
serves the encouragement of the wealthy and educated. The
productions of our painters are beginning to make their mark
here and to be mentioned abroad. The more of such men we
have among us the better and more cultivated we shall become
as a community. ' T have ever found," says Tuckerman in some
of his works, "in genuine artists a remarkable simplicity and
truthfulness of character. There is a repose about them as of
men v/ho commune with something superior, and for whom the
frivolous idols of the multitude have no attraction. They read
so constantly the book of nature, that written lore is not so- re-
quisite for them. The human face, the waving bough, the
flower and the cloud, the fantastic play of the smouldering em-
bers, moonlight on a cornice, and the vast imagery of dreams,
are full of teachings for them." We could place our hand upon
one or two enthusiastic delvers at the easel and palate in this
city, to whom these remarks so well apply that the lines might
have been penned with special reference to them. A judicious
criticism, or the praise of a true connoisseur, affords them as
much pleasure as the comments of ignorant pretenders amuse
them. They are wedded to their art, and pursue it with the
fervor of true genius aspiring to excellence.

A New Feature in Photography. — Progress is the watch-
word, and among all the works of art, and among all professors,
none are making greater progress than those who are now en-
gaged in the Daguerrian Art, and among those who are now
engaged in this art none are more enthusiastically at work to
advance it than Vance & Co., at the principal office of Yance
at San Francisco, and Yance & Co. at their new office at Sa-
cramento, recently opened at Andrews' buildings, on J. Street.
Yance & Co.'s new rooms now form one of the chief points of
attraction in Sacramento (being after the style of Yance's fine
rooms in this city). These artists have opened a splendid suit
of six rooms, and prepared and furnished them in an appropriate
and elegant style. These artists have discovered several new
features in the process, and they are now taking magnificent
lite-like sizes; and as they hang on the walls, they appear like
oil paintings of the highest finish.

We examined several photographs and ambrotypes of superior
finish, among them we notice Senators Johnson, Bell, and Soule;
Col. Whiting, Mr. Nooneu, and Mr. Stanford,^of Stanford Bro-
thers, Col. Andrews (the owner of the block) and lady. The
photograph of Mrs. A. is of superb style, being finished as an
oil painting, and one of the finest pictures yet got out on this
coast. The ladies' drawing-room and the show rooms are ele-
gant. Mr. Davis, the gentlemanly proprietor, has done every-
thing to make these rooms the first in the State. Mr. Weed,
the working artist, is a devotee to his business, and all who wish
to see true artistical work of the highest order, should improve
the time to visit this gallery, as one most worthy their notice
and patronage.

— We have received a little paper called the "Amhrotype,"
published at Parkersburg, Ya., by A, C. Partridge. It is filled
full of spicy jeu dcs prits on Ambrotype picture making.

— Messrs. Seely & Garbanati have just introduced two new
articles of apparatus for photographers' use. One a folding
camera stand, which can be done up into very small compass,
and weighing only 6i pounds; can be carried with ease. The
other is a self-adjusting chair head-rest; very convenient, and
of decided utility.

— We are particularly obliged to the few who recently so
prompLly responded to our call upon them.

\

-\^ I 3Sr T E IR .

Negative by WnirrLE & Clack, from a Das Etlicf liy TborwalJscn.

1858.

THE PnOTOGRAPIIIC AND FIXE ART JOURNAL.

ir.i

COLORING

From ilie London Art Journal.

STATUES.

BY JOHN BELL.

HIS question, as usually
discussed, is a double
one, of which the first
consideration is, " Did
the Greeks color their
stntues?" the second,
"If they did, should
we ?" These, however,
run so naturally into
each other, that I shall
make no effort to keep
them distinct. In con-
clusion I purpose to
subniit a few remarks
as to some modes in
which I conceive that
color may, a, at the present day, be advantageously associated
with statues.

In 1836, a committee was appointed to examine whether any
evidences of color remained on the Parthenaic marbls in the
British Museum. The committee consisted of Mr. Hamilton,
Sir Richard Westmacott, Sir Charles Eastlake, Dr. Faraday,
Mr. Cockerell, Mr. Angell, Mr, Donaldson, and Mr. Sales.
Before them the following evidence was adduced by Mr. Brace-
bridge, in a letter :— "In the winter of 1835-6, an excavation
was made to the depth of twenty-five feet at the south-east
angle of the Parthenon." There was discovered a great mass
of architectural and sulptural refuse, and "and many pieces of
marble," and among these, fragments of triglyphs, of fluted
columns, and of statues, particularly a female head. "These
last-mentioned fragment were painted with the brightest red,
blue, and yellow, or rather, vermillion , ultramarine, and straw-
color, which last may have faded in the earth. "These curious
specimens are carefully preserved in the Acropolis, but much
doubt is entertained of their retaining the brightness of their
highly contrasted colors for any length." "The colors are laid on
in thick coats " "The female face had the eyes and eyebrows
painted." No mention, however, is made of any color, or remains
of color, on the flesh.

As regards those sculptural remains from the same spot pos-
sessed by our Museum , the Report sums up in the following
words :— -"Upon consideration of all the facts in the preceding
minutes, it appears to the committee that there remain no indi-
cations of color artificially applied upon the surface of the
statues and bas-reliefs— that is, upon the historical sculpture :
that according to Dr. Faraday's opinion, those portions of the
morbles, which from the tone and surface might be supposed to
be the result of color applied thereon, are the original surface
of the marble, staiued by the atmosphere, the presence of iron,
iu the marble, or by some such natural cause."

It was stated, however, by Mr. Sarti, who was then engaged
in taking moulds of the whole series of the Parthenaic marbles,
"that the whole surface of the marbles had been twice washed
over with soap leys, subsequently to their having been moulded
on former occasions, as that or some other strong acil is neces-
sary for the purpose of removing the soap which is originally
put on the surface, in order to facilitate the removal of the plas-
ter mould from the original. Dr. Faraday was of opinion that
this circumstance was of itself sufficient to have removed every
vestige of color which might have existed originally on the sur-
face of the marble "

The Report thus had left the question of coloring statues —
as far as regards the Parthenaic remains in our possession — as
it was, were it no for this appended note of the committee, re-
lating to a fragment of the upper part of the head of Minerva,
of which in thus speaks : — "This fragment alone may perhaps
be considered as an exception to the previous statements, inas-
much as the hair appears to have a red tint, which becomes dis-

VOL. XI. NO. VI. 20*

tinctly apparent on the application of water." In speaking of
the Apollo in the Louvre, Quatremere do Quincey makes'^tho
same remark, only that in that case the tint extended almost all
over the surface of the flesh, instead of the hair.

Now it is well known to sculptors that in the application of
soap leys or soda to marble, which are efficacious in removing
grease or any foreign substance or tint from the surface, thai
they sometimes leave a coloring effect of their own, and that
after their use a faint ruddy tint is apt to arise on the suiface
of the marble, analogous to what would be produced by the use
of a coat of vermillion, and then not thoroughly cleaning 'it off
afterwards. As these preparations have been long used for
cleaning marble, it therefore appears probable that their effect
may occasionally have led to false conclusions. This effect of
these preparations is not, however, of constant occurrence.
The cause of this irregularity of action is a question for the
chemist.

The Report on the Parthenaic marbles goes on to say — "But
although the statues and bas-reliefs of the Parthenon — at least
those portions of them preserved in the Elgin collection — do
not afford any evidence of the use of color, yet there is a con-
stant repetition of small circular holes in the horses' heads and
manes, and in one hand of each reader, showing that there had
been originally bridles to the horses, 'probably of metal.'"
Similar holes for the purpose of affixing bracelets, buttons for the
draperies, &c., are also to be observed iu the fragments attributed
to representations of Proserpine and the Hours, and one of the
Fates. In the back of the Victory are holes for affixing her
wings (of bronze gilt), and also in the head of Minerva, for at-
taching the helmet ; and, what is still more obnoxious to our
ideas, the sockets of the eyes are hollow, for the reception of
enamel or gems, which have fallen out or been removed. The
Eegis of the goddess in this pediment had also apparently some
metal serpents attached to it by rivets. The above shows that
although there may exist now no remains of color on the sur-
face of these marbles, that their effect on their original condi-
tion was by no means monochrom.

It appears strange that we should have so little direct infor-
mation, nay, even so little collateral literary illustration in re-
gard to the practice of the Greeks in this respect, with whose
life Art — especially Art connected with the temples — was so
intimately entwined. That there were at the time explicit
treatises on a subject of so much interest as the modes in which
color was united to sculpture there can be no doubt; but unfor-
tunately they are not among those which have come down to
us. It the more behoves us to be careful of those remnants or
information which we still possess.

The subject of painting statues is thus incidentally intro-
duced (Plato de Repub. lib. iv.) in the following rejoinder of
Socrates: — "Just as if," he says, " when painting statues, a
person should blame us f^or not placing the most beautiful col-
ors on the most beautiful parts of the figure — inasmuch as the
eyes, the most beautiful parts, are not painted purple but black:
we should answer him by saying, clever fellow, do not suppose
we are to paint the eyes so beautifully that they should not ap-
pear to be eyes." Socrates was the son of a sculptor, and
practised the art as a profession until he withdrew himself
wholly to the subject of philosophy; and Plato lived in Athens,
probably in intimacy with its great sculptors; and the world in
the original, '^ andrias," without doubt signifies a statue, and
not a picture on a flat surface, as has been sugested by some to
whom the idea of painting statues was especially abhorrent.
The passage evidently alludes to statues and the painting of
them, and this about the time of Phidias, but it does not desig-
nate the class of statues, nor does it mention coloring the flesh.
It is, however, the more to be remarked as it adverts to the
imitation of nature in such works, in preference to mere deco-
rative treatment, which there is good reason to believe exten-
sively prevailed at that time, even, as we have seen, to the ex-
tent of putting gems and precious stones into the eyes. Taken
in connection with other data on the subject of Greek Art, it
would induce us to beware of the idea of Greek taste being
absolutely fixed at any time on this subject, and would rather

162

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

Juue,

lead to the belief that various styles were followed ia the asso-
ciation of color with sculptor.

It is evideut that at this period there was a great demand for
statues for various purposes and situations, and it is probable
that they were finished iu a great variety of ways: some, pro-
bably, fully painted, in imitation of nature, some half painted,
and some not painted at all. Resides these modes there was
one that evidently widely prevailed, iu which variety of mate-
rial, not hidden by paint, did the part of color. Such was in-
deed the activity of sculpture among the Greeks that all kinds
of possible materials were pressed into the service. Besides
marble, not only white but colored, they used all the metals
with winch they were acquainted; also the more durable woods;
also amber, and all the gems of a manageable nature. These
were sometimes used in combination and sometimes separately,
and it is but natural to suppose, in cases where valuable mate-
rial was used, that the true surfaces were not hidden by paint,
where paint could not make them more beautiful or more pre-
cious; while we may well fancy that coarse stone or wood
might be painted over even with a full opaque color, without
detriment, in as far as such materials would not lose by such
treatment: but it is difficult to conceive that a Greek, espe-
cially a Greek artist, thrillingly sensitive to everything beauti-
ful in creation, would ever wholly conceal the poety of Parian
marble by any artificial covering,

Pausanias, iu his time, speaks of statues made of gypsum as
being painted, or at any rate as being " ornamented with
paint;" and the JEinffitau statues, which are crude and archaic
in character, had evidences of strong color when discovered.
The habit also prevailed of dressing in highly decorated gar-
ments the figures of divinities, as is occasionally now with
images on the continent. Altogether the association of color
with statues among the ancient Greeks is certain; but there
appears to be no evidence whatever iu any of the passages
that have come down to us, of the flesh of any first-class statue,
in marble, of ancient Greek art having been colored, although
Pausanias expres;^ly describes a statue, of Bacchus, made of
wood, which had all those portions not hidden by drapery
painted vermillion.

Yirgil, in the seventh eclogue, speaking of the statue of
Diana, describes it as of marble with scarlet sandals; and, in
an epigram, offers Venus a marble statue of Amor, the wings
of which, he promises, shall be many-colored, and the quiver
painted: but there is no mention made of the flesh. This, how-
ever, alludes to works either made at Rome or for Romans, and
does not bear direct reference to the purest style of Greek art.

But the most remarkable of all the quotations brought to
bear on tiiis subject is a passage from Pliny (lib. xxxv. cap. 2),
in which he says, speaking of Nicias, that Praxileles, when
asked which of his marble works best satisfied him, replied,
"Those which Nicias has had under his bands;" " so much,"
adds Pliny, "did he prize the finishing of Nicias" — "Tantem
circumlitioni ejus tribuebat."

Nicias was an encaustic painter, and the finishing he gave
was probably therefore only in wax, and the word "circumlitio"
by no means necessarily implies the going all over the surface,
although it frequently signifies polishing. It might also, how-
ever, allude to decorations about the principal parts of the
statue, as the borders of the draperies, adjuncts, ornaments,
base, &c.; for let it be remarked that, in this case as well as
others, no reference is made directly to the flesh, which is the
chief charm of both sculpture and i^aintiug, and to the adjust-
ment of the various tints of which, had Nicias performed this
office, Praxiteles would probably have specially alluded.

It is well known that the Greeks delighted in oiling their
bodies at times of festivity; and it is possible that iu this case,
as well as in others, alluded to by Plutarch, the marble might
have had a similar shining surface given it by the means of
wax; but it would not require an accomplished painter to do
this. As regards, indeed, the whole of this celebrated passage,
on which so much stress is laid by the advocates of coloring
statues, it seems very possible that it is only the record of a
chance graceful expression from the lips of Praxiteles iu regard

to his friend Nicias, addressed to a third person, evidencing
the sculptor's kind heartedness and modesty of character in
praising his friend at expense of himself. When a phrase is
ad cajptandwm, down it often goes in the record of time, how-
ever lalse may be the general impression it may convey, espe-
cially after the lapse of years. Even in cases when truthful in
itself, it may be stretched far beyond the original intention, and
lead to eventual conclusions quite erroneous.

The most ardent advocate of coloring statues could not, one
would think, extend his faith to the fullest extent of the words
of Praxiteles, or conceive that ihe excellence of his work really
depended on the " circumlitio" of encaustic paint, however
much or however little it may have been applied. No doubt if
any adjuncts of color had been put on in bad taste, they would
have had a very evil effect; and harm might by this method
have been done much more easily than good could have been
effected, Doubtless, also, whatever it was that was done by
Nicias was well done, but that the intrinsic value of the work
much depended on such additions, is a very different matter.
The story thus appears to me to have arisen from a graceful
and amiable expression of the sculptor, and to be valuable not
so much in throwing any real light on the coloring of Gieek
statues, as in evidencing the friendly feeling existing between
the artists.

Difference of treatment in statues would naturally arise from
the difference of the situation in which they were to De placed
When they were to stand alone, the sculptor would be compara-
tively left to himself, but in other cases, where his productions
were but to form part of a whole, and especially where they
were closely connected with architecture, it was requisite that
the treatment of the statue should harmonize with the art with
which it was combined. This may be well conceived, and led,
doubtless, in connection with architecture, to the frequent in-
troduction of variety of materials iu one work, or of tinting
parts of the material itself if uniform, even when the sculptor,
as regarded his own art, would have preferred a simple surface.
It is especially recorded of Phidias, that, although eventually
overruled, he wished to have made his colossal Minerva, iu the
Parthenon, of marble, instead of in ivory and gold.

Temple Art, which formed the major portion of Art among
the Greeks, was of course subservient to their creed; in this
architecture and sculpture were usually reciprocal. Architec-
ture subserved the precious statue of the divinity within, and
sculpture in turn subserved the architecture iu exterior decora-
tions especially. Painting was applied to the surfaces of the
work of both arts, either iu spaces left free and flat on portions
of the architecture for the purpose, or uniting together in one
harmony the productions of the two sister muses. Architecture
and Sculpture.

We are, I think, bound to admit this, as it is indicated not
only by the evidences that remain, but by the principle of har-
monious unity existing iu Greek Art, viz., tliat, when color was
introduced on the columns, capitals, mouldings, cornices, and
other parts of the buikiugs, the same style was in degree car-
ried into the sculptural decorations. This, however, offers no
precedent for the introduction of color into the sculpture, when
the associated members of architecture are left untouched, as
has most strangely been done in some modern instances. In-
deed, as may be remarked, such treatment is wholly at variance
with the spirit of Greek Art, which aimed at unity.

Possessing in this country the inestimable relics of the sculp-
ture of the Parthenon, one naturally recurs to the evidence, so
near at hand, which they afford, that at any rate a monochrom
effect in such enhancement of a building was not always ad-
hered to; on which point the report of the committee on the
Parthenaic marbles iu the British Museum directly bears, inas-
much as it shows that metallic bridles and straps were affixed
to the horses iu the frieze, and that buttons, necklaces, and
wings, were also affixed in metal, and by rivets, as also the
helmet of Minerva; and even that the eyes of this figure had
some foreign, jjrobably brilliant, material introduced.

In accordance with this, that the architecture of the Parthe-
non was partly colored — as it were picked out with color in

1858.

THE rilOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

163

portions — there can be no doubt; but that it was more than
so enhanced, and that the whole surface was coated over —
which has been advanced by the most ultra of the polychroraists,
and which would point to a similar treatment in respect to the
statues associated — we have every reason to disbelieve ; indeed,
there is no evidence on which to tound such a supposition.

The subject, however, of the coloring of Greek sculoture —
so much of it having been closely associated with architecture —
is so closely connected with the coloring of the architecture,
as not to be comprehended without it. Mr. Penrose's disserta-
tions on the more delicate contours of Greek architecture, especi-
ally of the Parthenon, are well known ; and there is a passage
by this author, apropos of the discussion on the subject that
took place in the Crystal Palace, so clear on this point that I
cannot do better than quote it. " I have seen," he says, in
speaking of the Parthenon, " no reason to alter my opinion that
the surface of the marble played a considerable part in the
general effect, and that it was not concealed with paint." "An
extensive and careful examination of the Pentelic quarries by
the order of King Otho has shown that large blocks, such as
were used in Athens, were very rare indeed. The distance also
from the city is considerable; whereas there are quarries on
Mount Hymettus, at little more than one-third of the distance
Cand most convenient for carriage), which furnish immense
masses of dove-colored marble (much prized, it would seem, by
the Romans, Hor, ii. 18j, and inferior in no respect but that of
color to the Pantelic. It could therefore only have been the
intrinsic beauty of the latter material that led to its employ-
ment by so practical a people as the Athenians. With respect
to the use of outline traced with a sharp point as a provision for
re-paintings, its absence from the Doric echinus [at the summit
of the shaft] is at least conclusive that there was no ornament
painted on that member; for on no part of the architecture
would the difBculty of reproducing the pattern have been
greater. But since these outlines are found indiiferently both
on small and large mouldings, it seems a sound conclusion which
limits the painted ornaments to the parts so outlined." Mr.
Penrose further states that he thinks that the surfaces which
were unpainted and unornamented, were yet " tinged or stained
in some manner to the proper tone." He merely, however,
gives this as his opinion: he adds — " It is unreasonable to sup-
pose that the ancients entirely concealed, or even materially
altered in appearance, the general surface of the white marble,
which they made a great point of obtaining whenever possible;
but that no one whe has witnessed the painfully dazzling effect
of fresh Pentelic marble, under the Athenian sun, will deny
the artistic value of toning down the almost pure white of its
polished surface, and the more so when considerable portions of
the architecture were painted in the most positive colors."

This opinion of Mr. Penrose, from observations on the spot,
has much weight, and appears to point not only to certain en-
hancements of color throughout the building and its decora-
tions, but also to the whole surface of the marble itself, where
not colored, being yet in some degree toned. Still, in the lat-
ter respect, it suggests no more than that the Athenians pro-
bably anticipated, by some slight stain or wash, that -did not
lessen the transparency of the material, the effect of time on
the marble of their structures and of the sculpture — an idea in
no deo-ree abhorrent to modern views. Canova used to do the
same thing, and tea, coffee, and rust water, and various other
simple preparations, were tried by him and others for the same

purpose.

From all the above, however, it does not appear probable
that the Athenian could have done more than tone down in
some decree the over-glittering effect of the fresh-hewn marble
of his many temples, and more than pick out and enhance por-
tions with positive color. These temples were chiefly on the
height of the Acropolis, and, had they been covered with paint,
would have lost that shining, celestial appearance which they
must have had from the plain below, and to the returning
mariner. The glistening of the marble in the sun must have
made them look like true abodes of the gods, — an idea so in
accordance with the fancy of the Athenian, that we may be

sure the toning and painting of the exterior of the temples was
not carried out to a degree to destroy this effect, but only to
mellow it.

In the interior of the temples a larger portion of color was
probably used, although the clear portion of the marble might
not have been so tinged. Brighter contrasts were allowable
where the direct light of day was absent. That is, the more
the light was lessened by situation, and by other artificial
means, the more painting was admissible as an adjunct to the
architecture; and this is borne out by what scanty data on this
point we possess with respect to the Parthenon. Thus it ap-
pears that there is no sign, as stated above, of any enhance-
ment of paint on ihQ ecJdnus of the range of Doric columns that
went all round the outside of the building, but that there is on
the analogous caps and on the mouldings beneath the colon-
nade; and evidences remain of ornamental color to a still
greater degree on the compartments of the ceiling within the
building; where the light was still further modified.

In following this view as regards the sculpture connected
with these several portions, we are led to the impression that,
firstly, those sculptures which were on the outside, as those in
the tympana and the metopes, were very little treated with co-
lor (which was probably confined to tl.e polychronic effect ob-
tained in portions by the variety of materials, a little gilding
here and there, and the backgrounds being of a faint "blue) ;
that, secondly, that the frieze might be so somewhat more so,
although the smaller scale of the parts, compared to the outside
statues, would cause their appearing more decorated, even if
they were done in a similar manner; and that, thirdly, the
greatest degree of enhancement was reserved for the statues in
the interior. The cruseo-elephantiue statue of the Minerva, in
the penetralia, was, as its name informs us, and as accounts spe-
cify, covered with ivory, — a material not superior to marble in
imitation of flesh in itself, but far superior as a substance for re-
ceiving the enhancements of the most delicate color. We know
that both the Jupiter at Elis, and the Minerva of the Parthe-
non, and various other crnseo-elephantine representations of di-
vinities in temples, were elaborately decorated with painting on
the robes and accessories, and although there may be no distinct
evidence of the flesh being painted to imitate nature, even in
these cases, yet I am inclined to think that such a practice, car-
ried out at least in degree, affords the sole satisfactory explana-
tion of the use of ivory at all in such works; aad this, notwith-
standing my belief that that the masterpieces of ancient Greek
sculpture in marble were not in general colored at all, for which
I shall submit my reasons when considering the accounts we
have of the Venus of Cnidos by Praxiteles.

We may not like the idea, and nothing can be more unworthy
than to bow down to precedenc, but there is no absurdity or
presumption m believing the Greeks co have been wrong in this
point, as there is more than one way of accounting for such
treatment of the statues of their divinities, besides that of its
being the pure result of their artistic taste; but both the data
extant and the principle perceptible in the gradations of their
coloring reached in the building, from the exterior to the inte-
rior, lead to the idea that the divinity itself would be elaborated
to the highest acme.

Ivory is certhinly not a more beautiful material for the imita-
tion of flesh than marble, — less so, probably it will be admitted,
than Parian marble; and the mere idea of greater expense, as
showing more respect to the gods, cannot be received as a suffi-
cient reason for its adoption, especially as it was a most perish-
able substance in the way it was applied. But marble is not a
suitable material for tinting, and ivory is. Surely the latter
must have been adopted by the Greeks for some especial and
substantive reasou. All the relations of the question appear to
me to lead to the conclusion that these vast ivory idols, when
covered with ivory, were so covered for the purpose of beiu"
tinted at least very nearly up to the hues of nature.

But even supposing that the natural tint of ivory were con-
sidered superior to that of marble for the representation of
flesh, at any time it must have been to a very small degree pre-
ferred— not sufficient to counterbaIau';e its perishing natare, and

164

THE PHOTOGRAPniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

June,

tlie extreme trouble and intricacy of its employment. That
these were very great is shown by Miiller in Division 312 of his
well known work on Ancient Art. "In the studios of the an-
cients," he says, "with the tosentic art wm, also connected work-
ing in ivory, which it was a favorite practice throughout anti-
quity to combine with gold in statues, as well as in all sorts of
furniture. The ancient received from India, but especially from
Africa, elephants' teeth of considerable size, by the splitting and
bending of which — a lost art, but which certainly existed in an-
tiquity—they could obtain plates of from 12 to 20 inches in
breadth. In executing a statue, then, after the surface of the
model was distributed in such a way as it could best be repro-
duced in these plates, the individual portions were accurately
represented by sawing, planing, and filing the ivory (this mate-
rial is too elastie to be wrought with the chisel), and afterwards
joined together especially by the aid of isinglass over a kernel
of wood and metal rods. The holding together of the pieces of
ivory, however, required incessant care; moistening with oil
contributed most to their preservation. The gold which repre-
sented hair and drapery was embossed and fixed on iu thin
plates."

( To he conliiiued.)

the wet collodion process out of door^. From the description,
this tent appears to resemble so closely that which we empky
in our own photographic peregrinations, that we shall defer the
description of it until we can find space fur a separate illustrated
article

M. Paul Gaillard gave the recipe for a varnish for collodion
negatives, which he said fulfilled completely all the necessary
conditions of a good varnish. The formula is as follows: —

"Dissolve 10 parts of Benzoin in 100 parts of alcohol at 40°
Beaume (i. e. S. G. 811). Heat the glass before applying it."

M. Relaxdix exhibited a new form of dark slide for negatives.
It was constructed on the same principle as that of Messrs.
Marion, and contained two glasses separated by cardboards,
being exceedingly light and portable.

Frmn the Phoiograpldc Notes.

FRENCH PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.

ORDINARY MEETING, DECEMBER 18tH, 1851.

The President read a letter from M. Migurski, of Odessa,
■which stated, thjxt after having tried a great number of the
common photographic methods, he had found them all more or
less imperfect, but had succeeded to his satisfaction by a modi-
fied process of his own. He enclosed some specimens, which
were greatly admired, and it was proposed that application
should be made to him for the particulars of his process.

M. MiGURSKi's letter also stated that a number of photogra-
]ihers in Odessa, having obtained permission of the Emperor,
were about to form a Photographic Society in that town.

M. CiviALE, son of the celebrated Surgeon of that name, a
member of the Institute, presented to the Society a series of
views of the Pyrenees, from paper negatives. They were re-
markably fine, and artistic. Everybody admired one view in
particular of a Chalet, situated in a beaut'ful valley and over-
topped by fir trees.

Some photographic copies of rare manuscripts in the Convent
of Mount Athos, taken by M. Levastianoff, a Russian State
Councellor, were also exhibited and excited much interest

M. Frank de Villecholles stated that in his hands a dry
collodion process, in which the plates were simply washed after
being excited, gave very satisfactory results.

]VL Pesme said that he had received some dry collodion plates
from M. MoxTREUiL, of Tonnerre, which he had exposed and
developed several days after their preparation. The negatives
turned out extremely good. These plates had been simply
washed after removal from the nitrate bath, and dried. The
only condition of success in their preparation was stated by M.
Montreuil to be, that the collodion and bath should work well
in the ordinary wet process. The exposure was about double
of that required for wet collodion.

M. Edmond Becquerel read a Paper and exhibited experi-
mentally some processes for the production of photographs in
colors. It does not appear that there was anything new in this
communication, which was little more than a repetition of the
Paper read before the Academy of Sciences, in January 31st,
1848. We shall return to this subject on a future occasion;
althouo-b we wish it to be understood that we have no faith in
the probability of the problem of reproducing objects in the
natural colors ever receiving a satisfactory solution.

M. Leborgne described the negative Collodion Process, in
which he adds a salt of lead to the silver bath. The particulars
were given in our last Number.

M. ViELLE described a convenient form of tent for working

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal,

HINTS FOR THE PRODUCTION
Of Panoramic Negatives upon Collodion.

BY THE EDITOR.

In the number of Photographic Notes, published on the 15th
Feb., is a paper by the Editor upon the construction of a
camera intended for the special production of pictures embrac-
ing a very extended angle of vision. The idea as regards Da-
guerreotypes has been for many years practically applied by M.
Marten, a French Photographer of some eminence, who con-
structed an instrument with a double combination lens so ar-
ranged as to perform a semi-revolution on its optical centre, al-
most identical in arrangement with that now suggested by the
Editor of Photographic Notes, who in all probability borrowed
that part of his proposed apparatus from M. Marten, together
with the diaphragm for exposing a portion only of the plate at
a time. We remember having seen M. Marten's instrument in
the possession of a friend some half dozen years ago. The no-
velty, however, proposed by the present author is one of con-
siderable ingenuity, though we fear it is not suEBciently exact to
be successful; the difSculties in the in the way of impressing a
collodion film upon glass, being far greater than performing the
same operation upon a silvered metallic plate bent into a semi-
cylindrical curve. The contrivance suggested of exposing only
a small portion of the plate at a time, that portion being the
contact part of a tangent to a circle whose radius is equal to
the focal length of the lens, appears to be the most feasible plan
of operation upon a plane surface; but as the part exposed,
however, it may be limited in extent by the diaphragm employ-
ed iu front of the plate, must still be a portion of a plane sur-
face, it is manifest that the distance between the lens and the
lateral portions exposed, and the lens and that in its direct axis
must be slightly differing in extent, we fear that the necessary
variation as each point comes successively into the axis, and
subsequently towards the edge of the exposed part again, will
produce an amount of indistinctness that will entirely annihilate
the beauty of the hoped for results.

It would be no very easy task to print from a curved glass
surface, even if it were possible to coat such a one with a film
of collodion and excite it; but if these operations were accom-
plished, the development of such a plate would present still fur-
ther difficulties. We have thought much upon this subject, and
should only be too glad to find the notion thrown out work sa-
tisfactorily, as without any question the advantages gained by
the negative being produced direct upon a plane surface would
be sufficient to counterbalance almost any amount of trouble
previously incurred. Should, however, the test of experiment
prove unsatisfactory, we beg to offer the following hint to the
gentleman who has already taken up the subject, with a hope
that he may not too readily abandon this very praiseworthy at-
tempt to further the interests of photography.

There is no doubt that upon a cylindrical surface, as for in-
stance, npon the curved daguerreotype plate, the definition is
sufficiently distinct for all practical purposes, consequently, it is
to our means of presenting an excited collodion film iu this form

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND PINE ART JOURNAL.

165

that we would direct attention. There is a species of textile
fabric (a sort of leather cloth), which has a beautifully smooth
and polished surface, used by ladies as a support to muslin when
executing a kind of open fancy work for collars, trimmings, &c.,
and which has already been applied by some photographers as a
base for collodion positives, which are capable of transmission
by post. Similarly black leather has been employed.

We believe that the modus operandi is to attach the fabric
employed to a plate of glass at the edges or corners by some ad-
hesive varnish or other material, and then coat with the collo-
dion, as if the glass alone formed the substratum, subsequently
exciting and developing as usual. Now we propose that having
arranged the focussing, &c., of the camera, we should employ
a collodion film as above described, simply removing the pliable
material from the glass previously to exposure, and arranged it
for that purpose in a slide of the requisite form, which could be
readily constructed, nor do we imagine that there would be any
difficulty as to the transference or subsequent development and
fixation.

After completing the operations described, it would be neces-
sary to remove the film from the textile fabric or leather sup-
port, if we wish to have the advantage of printing from the
negative produced ; but if we content ourselves with a positive
impression, this operation may be dispensed with, — only that the
subjects of a landscape being reversed, as if seen by the aid of
a looking-glass, materially detract from its value in our opinion.

What means have we, then for removing the film so as to
use it for printing from? It appears to us that there are two
courses open: the first, to make use of paper saturated with
varnish, as suggested some years back, and described, and de-
monstrated at the London Photographic Society, by Sir Wil-
liam J. Newton, by which it would be necessary to print through
the paper support, and then produce a reversed positive image;
or better still, to adopt the plan patented by the late Mr. Fre-
derick Scott Archer, the original inventor of the collodion pro-
cess, and remove the collodion by means of a thin film of gutta-
percha, itself formed by a solution of thin gum in benzole, being
poured on to the finished collodion picture in the same manner
as the collodion itself was manipulated. In this latter case the
gutta-percha is sufficiently thin and transparent to print through
W'/h very slight reduction of the sharpness. In operating in
this manner it would be necessary, before attempting to produce
the film of gutta-percha, to attach the whole to a perfectly plane
surface as at first; but we see no difficulty in doing so, as the
picture must be completely finished and dried before it is fit for
this operation, which may be performed at any convenient sub-
sequent time.

We can speak practically as to the efficacy of the process for
removing the films from the glass plate, and we do not perceive
any serious obstacles to prevent our doing so with the fabrics
suggested.

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

ON SOME OF THE OPTICAL PRINCIPLES
Involved in the Construction of Photographic lenses.

BY T. GRUBB, II.R.I.A.

Frovi the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

PHOTOGRAPHS OP THE ECLIPSE.

View Wortley, Leeds, March 19, 1858.
To the Editor of the Liverpool Photographic Journal:

Sir, — Enclosed I send you six photographs of the sun, five
of them taken while that body was eclipsed on Monday the
15th, and one taken after the termination of the eclipse. They
were taken by the collodio-albumen process instantaneously, or
nearly so. The lens used was a meniscus, about 23 inches
focus, with a stop one-sixteenth of an inch.

We had arranged beforehand so that we could put a pre-
pared glass into the camera, and expose it at any time without
looking into the camera; this was done by fixing sights upon
the camera, so that when the sun was viewed through the
sights its image fell nearly upon the centre of the prepared
glass. By this arrangement we could expose it ai any moment.
It was fortunate as it happened that we had made this arrange-
ment, as we could only catch a look at the sun at intervals

Joseph Eusley.
20*

through the clouds.

PART II.

Before entering upon the second part of my paper on the
"Chemical Range," I may be permitted to make same observa-
tions having reference to the discussion which followed the read-
ing of the first part. It seems the more desirable to do so, as,
without a clear conception of what takes place in a single com-
bination, no definite idea can be formed of what occurs in a more
complex one.

I object to Mr. Ackland making me to say that "it is quite
impossible that there can exist a longer chemical than visual
range," not so much on account of of the expression being
neither strictly correct, nor to be found in any paper, but be-
cause it tends to draw attention from that which it was the main
object of my paper to prove, viz., that the "chemical range"
was definite (or invariable), for a given aperture and focus, and
that to assume the contrary involved an optical absurdity.

In reference to Mr. Ackland's statement that what I endea-
vor to prove "is particularly contradicted by the results of M.
Petzval's investigations," I beg to observe that this statement
subsequently repeated in a different form by another party), is
incapable of proof, and has been put forward in both instances
without even an attempt of the same.

That my paper is, as suggested by another party, "an epitome
of all our past ideas," is, I submit, abundantly disproved by the
different opinions expressed in the discussion which it elicited.
Most willingly I admit that my paper contains nothing not long
since known — the truths on which it is founded are as "old as
the hills'' we photograph; and to these gentlemen personally
unknown to me, but not unknown as efficient members of other
scientific socities, who have stood up in their defence, and in ex-
planation of my paper, I cannot but feel grateful.

To the photographer I have suggested a practical test, and
to the optician a mathematical one, of the soundness of what
has been advanced ; and anyone fsuch for instance, as Mr. Ack-
land), who has paid during some years considerable attention
to the mathematical investigation of the subject, should be able,
from a few minutes' consideration to the very simple formula I
have given, either to discover it to be in fault, or faihng so to
do, be constrained to admit that it contained very strong evi-
dence of my statement being correct.

I now propose to examine shortly the arguments advanced
against the definiteness of the "chemical range."

1st objection. Greater sharpness of the image on the collodion
film than on the ground glass. — This is only as should be expect-
ed. The ground glass is much rougher than the collodion film,
is, therefore, not capable of affording as distinct an image; add
to this, that a lens corrected for actinic rays is under-corrected
for the visual image, and, what doubtless plays a more import-
ant part, viz., that while the nebulous light of the indistinct
image is for the most part seen, that of the actinic image will,
in a great measure, remain undeveloped on the film (a circum-
stance which accounts for some instantaneous pictures being far
sharper than could otherwise be expected), and we have ample
reason shown for the collodion picture being sharper than the
visual.

2nd objection. A certain modification of the view-lens, which
appears to have caused much labor in its investigation — admitting
the use of a large aiigular field, and having no definite focus,
either visual or actinic. — A friend, who had previously examined
the series of pictures of the French Exposition, transmitted to
the Dublin Royal Society a statement that not any portion of
these was distinct.) Now the reasons given, in the former case,
for the actinic image being more distinct than the visual, will
also apply here, though not with equal force. By the way,
should it be desired to construct such a lens, it is only necessary
to assume a much greater depth of curvature for the first sur-
face, and calculate the remaining curves in accordance. The

166

TUE rUOTOGRArUIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

June,

same number of figures -will suffice, and there is no precise limit;
but, as we increase tlie depth of the first surface, we also in-
crease in a high ratio the ah'eady large spherical aberration of
the lens, until at length it (the leusj ceases to give a tolerably
distinct image, even with a small aperture.

3rd objection, viz.. The. rcsiiHs of Professor PetzvaVs investi-
gations in a new photographic lens, and photographs taken by same,
as exhibited and described at the last meeting. Now 1 trust that
nobody will suppose me guilty of an attempt to disparage the
powers of this doubtless excellent lens if 1 say that it cannot
do impossibilities. We have alread attained (thanks chiefly to
the labors of Prof. Petzval) to combinations of four lenses,
giving a nearly flat field, with large angular aperture and great
distinctness; and the addition of two more lenses, though in-
volving some objections, necessarily gives a power of further
flattening the field — ])0ssibly of making it quite flat.

Now, having carefully noted the data given of this lens, and
the description of its performances in the shape of photographs
laid before the Society, I find but one instance in which there
exists an apparent (not a real) cause for supposing the lens to
porsess any peculiar powers as to the "chemical ran,e." That
instance is the view of the Burgplatz, to which Herr Pretsch
calls particular attention, as not to be so produced by any
other lens; and the only reason 1 can see for this assump
tion, or that of Mr. Ackland, of this lens contradicting my
theory in respect of the definiteness of the chemical range,
is that there are two objects — one at 300 feet, the other at 150
feet — both rendered distinctly in the photograph.

Now "distinct" and "indistinct" must, in such cases, be con-
sidered as relative terms. Thus, that sharpness of outline which
is demanded for fulfilling distinctness in a photograph of two
and a half or three inches square (aud where a magnifying
power is almost invariably used for examining or viewing), can
neither be transmiteed to paper, nor, if so transmitted, could
it be generally appreciated iu a picture of sixteen inches square.
There is, therefore, a latitude, varying with circumstances,
which if kept within, we say that the picture is distinct; and a
simple calculation will show how far the view of the "Burg-
platz" presents a difficulty in this respect, supposing the entire
aperture ot the lens to have been employed.

The first step in the calculation is to find the conjugate foci
of the lens for the farther and nearer objects — say for 800 and
150 feet, or 3600 and 1800 inches — the focus of the lens being
twenty-six inches.

Let <i' represent the greater distance, fZ" the lesser,/ the
sidereal focus, /' the conjugate focus for d', and/' that of d';
then

111 11 1

~( )=( )-

/' / d' 26 3600 26-19

1111 1 1

-=( ; =( )=

J" f d" 26 1800 26-38

The extreme difference of the foci of the more and less dis-
tant objects in the case before us is, therefore only 19-lOOths
of an inch ; and by adjusting the camera to the mean, that is
to say, dividing the indistinctness when focussing, no portion
will be 1-1 0th of an inch out of focus.

We have next to find the measure of the lateral confusion of
the image, or I'ather the diameter of the circle of confusion due
to this 1-lOth of an inch, for a focus of twenty-six inches and
an aperture of three inches, by the formula given iu my last
paper, viz.,

d
C-(AX-;,
0.1 /
=(3X— )=0-0115,
26
or l-90th of an inch (nearly.) That is to say, each pencil of
rays, instead of coming to a point on the screen, will be dif-
fused over a space of l-90th of an inch.

Lastly, to consider the effect of this on the distinctness of the
image, let the object be supposed to be the sharp aud straight

outline of a dark object projected upon a light or sky ground;
such an outline is one of the severest tests of distinctness. Let
its image be considered as made up of innumerable discs ar-
ranged in lines, these discs being as already ascertained l-90th
of an inch in diameter — the discs up to a certain line will be all
bright, immediately beyond that line all dark. This will give
the effect of a shaded line, whose entire breadth is l-90th of an
inch, but having one portion of this breadth shading insensibly
into the dark, and another into the bright portions of the image
to which it is the boundary; while the whole space (being so
shaded) cannot be considered as effecting the eye sensibly for
more than half its breadth, or say l-180th of an inch, which
quantity is the most which, I apprehend, we can fairly estimate
(practically speaking) the visible (?) indistinctness of the
images of the more and less distant objects in the view of the
Burgplatz, taken with a lens of three inches diameter aud
twenty-six inches focus.

These observations have taken up so much space, that I defer
until the next occasion the proof of the compound lens being
equally definite iu its focus (visual or attinicj as a single lens
of the same focus and aperture.

BI.

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

m POIILI'S PROCESS FOR COLLODION *

Clean the glass plates by means of elm charcoal reduced to
an impalpable powder.

TO MAKE THE rYROXYI.INE.

In a wide-mouthed stoppered bottle introduce fifty to sixty
cubic centimetresf of sulphuric acid: add, in several portions,
eighty grammes of powdered saltpetre (nitrateof potash) ; then
four grammes fine cotton in small quantities at a time. Allow
the whole to soak for about ten minutes. Wash iu eight or ten
changes of water until there is no taste of acidity.

ANOTHER FORMULA FOR THE SAME.

200 grammes sulphuric acid of commerce.

100 " pulverised nitrate of potash, in small quantities
at a time. Mix well, and add, little by little, five grains of
fine cotton very dry. Allow it to soak, and wash as before.

FORMULA FOR PYROXYLINE FROM PAPER, ACCORDIXG TO
MAXWELL LYTE.

Pure sulphuric acid. Pure nitric acid (quaatities not given).

Introduce by small portions at a time as much "papier
Joseph" as can be covered by the liquid. Allow it to remain
for twelve hours, then wash and dry as above.

COLLODION.

Ether at 62° (scale not given.) 105 cubic centimetres (about 3| oz.)
Alcohol at 40" '• 60 " ( " If " )

Pyroxyline .... 8 decigrammes . . 12^ grs.

Iodise with —

Bottle No. 1 .... 10 cubic centimetres .... (170 minims.)
" No. 2 .... 7 " '• . . . • (119 " )

" No. 4 . . . . 5 drops.
" No. 3, a sufficiency to produce the color of brandy.

The bottles alluded to for sensitising the collodion are pi'e-
pared as follows, viz.,

BOTTLE NO. 1.

Alcohol at 40° saturated with iodide of potas. 50 cubic centimetres.
Then add

Iodide of ammonium .... 1 gi-amme.

Iodide of ziuc
Lther

5 cubic centimetres.

* The above is a translation of notes furnished by Mr. Richard Foxall.

t A cubic centimetre of water measures about seventeen minims, and
weighs about fifteen aud a half grains — tlic same as a gramme; consequent-
ly, if for cubic centimetres drachms or half drachms by measure be substi-
tuted, aud for grammes drachms or half di'achms by weight the relative
proportions will be duly retained.

Alcobol at 40° . . .
Ether at 60" . . . .
Bromide of ammonium
Bromide of cadmium .
Fluoride of ammonium.
Cyanide of potassium ,

BOTTLE NO. 2.

. . 30 cubic centimetres.
. . 40 " "

. . . 5 decigrammes (about 8 grains).
. . 5 "

. . . 1 " (about IJ grains).

. . 1 " "

BOTTLE NO. 3.

Saturated tincture of iodine.

BOTTLE NO. 4.

Acetic acid, or prussic acid.

I use bottle No. 1 to iodise my collodion; this ought to be
but weakly done, so that in that in the nitrate of silver bath it
should not ac-juire more than a bluish tint. It is, however, re-
quisite that the film should be capable of giving a picture, but
in this state its sensitiveness is not sufficiently great to produce
intense results.

I then add, by small portions at a time, some of the solution
from bottle No. 2, until I obtain a convenient amount of sensitive-
ness. At length, in order to cause the proofs to acquire in the
dark parts an intensity which they lack, I color the collodion
to a deep brandy color by means of the solution in bottle No. 3;
then add a few drops from bottle No. 4.

It always happens that this collodion alters, I then begin
again to treat it according to its condition, say with 2, 3, and
4, but rarely with No. 1. This collodion becomes at length so
stable that it remains good almost indefinitely. I never find it
requisite to reject the old collodion, being able always to restore
it either with new collodion, or to render it sensitive with the
solutions above-named.

EXCITING BATH,

Distilled water 100 cubic centimetres.

Crystallized nitrate of silver .... 8 grammes.

Alcohol 5 cubic centimetres.

Sensitized collodion 2 to 3 " "

Dix and shake up the above several times, allow it to rest for
twelve hours and filter. This bath should be always maintained
at a strength of from five to eight per cent.

At the same time as the quantity of silver in the bath is di-
minished by use, an excess of iodide is formed there, the film
then becomes wanting in sensitiveness; the defect is remedied
as follows, viz..

The new bath contains 510 cubic centimetres; as soon as I
perceive that it has become weakened, I add a quantity of wa-
ter sufficient to restore the volume to 510 cubic centimetres. A
portion of the liquid having been lost by use the bath becomes
cloudy, I filter it immediately in order to free it from the iodide
in suspension. I test the strength by means of the aerometer,
and add the quantity of nitrate of silver necessary to bring up
the strength to eight per cent.

DEVELOPING BATH, NO. 1.

Eain water saturated with whiting 250 cubic centimetres.

Sulphate of iron 00 grammes.

Nitric acid 10 cubic centimetres.

Sulphuric acid 10 " "

Nitrate of silver 1 gramme.

Sensitized collodion 2 to 3 cubic centimetres.

Shake up several times, filter, then add —

From bottle No. 3 2 cubic centimetres.

" No. 1 2 " "

" No. 2 2 " "

Liquor ammonise 10 drops.

Allow it to settle for twenty-four hours, and filter.

DEVELOPER NO. 2.

Rain water 120 cubic centimetres.

Sulphate of iron 20 gramme.s.

Sulphurie acid 5 cubic centimetres.

Solution of nitrate of silver at 10 per cent . . 4 " "

Acetic acid 5 " «

Let it remain twenty-four hours and filter.

Now, in a bottle of sufficient capacity put some ordinary col-

lodion, as prepared for pharmaceutical purposes, and precipitate
the cotton by the addition of a suflSeient quantity of water,
(nine volumes of which are requisite to dissolve completely one
of ether,) shake it up carefully, removing the stopper from time
to time, and preserve for use. One hundred parts of collodion
for 100 of water had better be used.

Twenty-four hours after your iron developing baths, Nos. I
and 2, have made and filtered, pour into each of them' some of
this ethrised water until they present a silky and metallic ap-
pearance. Here it is necessary to be careful, for the reaction
is so powerful that the bottles run the risk of being broken bv
explosion.

Take eighty cubic centimetres of bath No. 1, which you mix
with bath No. 2 entire, and you will obtain a jie.rfed iron bath
provided your operations have been properly conducted.

This bath will keep indefinitely, only it is necessary to restore
its action, when weakened, thus: —

When it developes slowly, having become filled with metallic
cry stals, I restore it by adding several cubic centimetres of a satura-
ted soluT.ion of sulphate of iron, then a few drops from bottle
No. 1, and a precipitate is formed which I withdraw by filtra-
tion.

When the tones obtained are not satisfactory, the defect may
be remedied by the addition of etherised water.

FIXING BATH.

Cyanide of potassium . . . . 8 to 10 grammes.

Rain water loo cubic centimetres.

Alcohol ...... 5 " "

Solution ofnitrate of silver (10 per cent). 2 " "

This bath deteriorates by use and contact with the air, it is
therefore, better to replace it from time to time.

The quantities that I have indicated are those that I think
best as starting points. As to the bottles Nos. 2, 3, and 4, the
quantities from which to add to the collodion are not indicated,
I leave the employment of them in the prescribed formula to the
judgment and experience of the operators; they will find in a
variation of the doses, a range of tones that they may desire to
obtain.

The most brilliant proofs are those obtained by a minimum of
exposure; for one prolonged beyond what is requisite injures the
whiteness of the lights and depths of the shadows.

The washings after the iron bath, as well as after the fixing,
should be carried to an excess; it is the first condition for ob-
taining unchangable proofs. A distinct lustre has shown me
nearly always, that when the proof is dried, the dessication must
not be carried on too rapidly, and it is absolutely necessarv that
it should be perfectly dry before varnishing.

The choice of a varnish is not a matter of indifference, I de-
scribe that I generally: —

Solution of bitumen of Judea in benzine ... 50 cubic centimetres
" " " in turpentine. ... 50 " "

Virgin wax 5 grammes.

Indian rubber solution , 2 "

This varnish dries quickly, and does not scale off.

These constitute the formulae for my process for pictures
called "mother-of-pearl positives;" however, when the proper
exposure has been prolonged, it has happened that I have ob-
tained proofs of sufficient intentity to use as negatives. I sus-
pect that the absolute metallic reduction obtained by my iron
bath is the principal cause that the molecules of silver are so
closely connected that they form a surface impermeable to the
light, possessing then the properties of the dark deposit in the
negative prco"s.

To the nacreous tones of my positive proofs, when transferred
to waxed cloth, iridescent reflections are added, producing the
best effects.

The above, which was promised insertion in a former number
we now pubisli, because there are a few useful hints contained
in some of the directions given; but we cannot forbear express-
ing our dissent from the notion conveyed that better effects are
to bo produced by so heterogenous a compound as the above,

16S

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

June,

than from a much more simple combination. On the contrary,
we are convinced that the more simple is the collodion employed,
the more uniform are the results likely to prove. We suspect
that our correspondent has given a recipe of ancient date, if
the mushroom existence of photography upon glass can be re-
garded as yet having a past age to look back upon. It is the
old story: we begin by simplicity, — we increase our complica-
tions,— a reaction sets in, — we discard one by one the unneces-
sary adjuncts, and return again to simplicity, — not necessarily
the same as we started with , but a simplicity recommended by
experience, and the result of laborious investigation. — Ed.

ON TKE DRY

ill-
active

From Photographic Notes.

COLLODION PROCESS.

64a, New Bond Street.

To the Editor of Photographic' Notes:

Sir, — It appears by your report of the January Meeting of
the Birmingham Photographic Society, that, during the dis-
cussion which followed the reading of Mr. Morris's Paper, ex-
ception was taken to the Preface of the Second Edition of my
work on the "Dry Collodion Process," the remarks therein
contained respecting Dr. Hill Norris's discoveries being charac-
terized by Mr. Osborn as unwarranted and uncalled for. It
appears also that on a previous occasion that gentleman intro-
duced the subject to the Society, and treated it in a somewhat
similar manner.

Will you allow me, through the medium of your Journal, to
reply to these observations, and to give my version of the
matter ?

My first successful negatives, (Rotherithe Church, and Som-
erset House, enclosed herewith), were photographed and ex-
hibited in October, 1854. They were taken by the method
described in the First Edition of " Dry Collodion Process,"
May, 1856. That pamphlet would have been published in
July, 1855, (the rough notes being quite ready), had not
health compelled me to abandon all photographic or
pursuits.

In that edition will be found the following remarks;—
" I find the Collodion is greatly improved after the lapse of
eight or ten weeks. Especial care should be taken to reserve a
small quantity of old collodion to add to the freshly iodized.
If the collodion is required to be used in a day or two after it
has been iodized, the addition of the old collodion should be
made in the proportion, &c."

An appendix appeared in December, 1856, containing slight
modifications of the process, and in which I pointed out, more
strou"-ly, the advantages to be derived from the use of albumen,
a substratum of which was already recommended in the first
edition, pages 25, and following. The second, aud last edition,
came out in August last.

Dr. Hill Norris's first letter, dated April 1855, appeared in
the " Journal of the Photographic Society," of that month.
He simply directs the plates to be sensitized in the usual man-
ner, immersed in distilled water, and dried; those intended for
the production of negatives, being finally washed over with a
solution of pyrogallic acid.

His next communication, dated May, 1856, (inserted in the
July No. of the "Journal of the Photographic Society"), con-
tains the following paragraphs: —

"Atter numerous experiments, many of which were directed
towards re-softening the film by substances having a partially
solvent action upon it, I have arrived at this conclusion, that in
order to prepare a collodion plate in such a condition that after
dessication it can be restored to a penetrable pappy state, it is
necessary to float over it, while still wet, some substance soluble
in water, or at least penetrable by water, so that its capillaries
or pores, being filled with this substance, the gallic acid and sil-
ver solution used in developing, may readily penetrate_to the
particles of iodide of silver, acted upon light." * *

"As regards the collodion, it does not seem to matter whe-
ther it is new or old, as the object is merely to produce a beau-

tifully even layer of iodide of silver, with a collodion giving a
pappy soft film, easily receiving the impression of the finger, in
contra-distinction to one of a very firm, contractile nature: the
after-development is far more rapid, being completed in from ten
minutes to a quarter of an hour, instead of, as with the latter
collodion, an hour or two."

In the third letter, [Phot. Notes, Sept., 1856), we find no-
thing novel respecting the collodion, it being merely stated that
"all good collodions, either positive or negative, will be suitable
for my process; but some require a longer time than others in
the gelatine bath."

In the fourth communication, however, (Dec. 1856), Dr. Hill
Norris seems to have become suddenly aware of the absolute
necessity of using an old collodion in the preparation of dry
plates, for he then says: —

"I find that almost any manufacture of collodion is suitable
for dry purposes, providing it has acquired age. In nearly a
hundred specimens of collodion, prepared for experiment, I was
unsuccessful so long as they were new, but they gradually im-
proved by keeping, till most became workable."

Upon comparing dates and quotations, the only conclusion I
was able to arrive at, was, that up to — indeed, until some time
after — the publication of my pamphlet. Dr. Hill Norris was
working absolutely in the dark, and that it was only after
issue, that the facts above referred to, were discovered by that
gentleman. You will therefore readily imagine, that it was
with considerable astonishment I found this so called discovery,
paraded in Mr. Hardwich's "Manual of Photographic Chemis-
try," and you will perhaps allow, that I was quite justified in
making the comments complained of, a copy of which I beg to
enclose.

Apologizing for taking up so much of your valuable space,

I remain,

Tour obedient Servant,

R. F. Barnes.

THE RECOLLECTIONS AND

For the Photographic and Fine Art Journal.

REFLECTIONS OF A COUNTRY OPERATOR.

In these dottings and observations of a poor country opera-
tor, it must be remembered that he is one who practises the
art for the love he beareth it, for I have not had the satisfac-
tion of an over full pocket since I first laid my hand on a
camera; but I feel doubly poor when the isolated condition of
my situation is forced on my recollection by a sense of the en-
joyment and satisfaction our European friends must feel when
meeting in friendly union for the comparing and exhibiting of
their work, and communicating to each other the results of the
observations and discoveries made since their last meeting.
We, in the country, have not the opportunity to see the work
of those who are said to excel; therefore it depends, in a mea-
sure, on the aptitude of the operator to take notice of those
changes that are so constantly taking place in his daily prac-
tice, for his eventual success. I need not ask the question, why
have we not a Photographic Society ? It has been tried and
failed! Oh that the Sun could but imprint on the minds of
those who make use of his power, the pleasure and benefit that
would result from a free and unrestricted intercourse between
its votaries, and bleach from their future lives, that selfish
egotism that fills the breasts of so many who profess to be the
elite of the profession. My first recollection connected with
photography, runs back to the year 1845. I was then in En-
gland on a visit; once when passing down Cheapside, I saw a
daguerreotype hanging in the window of an optician's shop,
whose name, if I recollect right, was Willat; it was a landscape
with a description attached. Being fond of drawing, I thouo-ht
what a deal of labor and care might be saved by this means. I
made bold to enter the shop, and met a very pleasant gentle-
man who took pains to show me several more, together with
some calotype heads, which I well remember were of a peculiar
red color; also a small landscape of a light blue. From this
time I became charmed, as It were, ever remembering that first

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAnilC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

1C9

picture. I soon afterwards got an introduction to a Mr.
Egerton, of whom it was my intention to have talieu lessons,
but which I never received. It was he who was the first to
phice improved apparatus before the operator; he has the
honor to be the first who gave battle to those who sought to
place restrictions on the art, so far as to exclude it even from
private practice for scientific purposes. He tried hard to have
the daguerreotype placed on that free and independent footing,
that France had endeavored to place it when she bought it of
Dagnerre, and made to the World a free gift of it; and so far
was he prosecuted, that an injunction was placed on him, pro-
hibiting not only the vending, &c. of likenesses, but also the
sale of the apparatus. One Miles Berry, made application
to the British Government for a patent, acting as an agent as
is indicated by the application, viz: "A certain foreigner resid-
ing in France, instructed him to petition Her Majesty to grant
her Royal Letters Patent for the exclusive use of this discovery
within this Kingdom; and that he believes the said foreigner
to be the inventor or discoverer of this process, for the sponta-
neous reproduction of images or pictures by the action of light."
This patent was granted, and that after the same had been
purchased and given to the World by France. It was pur-
ciiased by a Mr. Beard, who opened an establishment in King
William street, and continues it to this day; by the patent, he
held an exclusive right to the same with one exception, that of
Mr. Claudet. Not long since, Mr. Talbot claimed jurisdiction
of right to the collodion process. In France, a Mr. Deboscq
had seized a very large number of transparent stereoscopic
slides, claiming that they were an infringement of a certain
patent held by him; both failed in the object sought. And
the attempt to fetter the practice of the collodion process in
this country, I am happy to say failed also. One would think
that after receiving the process from Mr. Archer, that they
would have at least returned the compliment by making known
any improvements that they might have observed, but they do
not do it, not even subscribe to the aid of the widow. Is there
an artist in the States so full of knowledge and perfection, that
he does not seek and receive information from others? if not,
let him do to others that which he does himself, and return a
portion of the knowledge he may acquire in his practice. We
receive a great proportion of our knowledge in the improve-
ments in the art from across the water, and to console our-
selves, make the brag that we excel them in their own processes.
Have we returned anything? very little; have we given our-
selves anything? very little; and that not without first demand-
ing an alleged equivalent in solid dimes. It was not until the
year 1851, that I became possessed of an apparatus, little
thinking that from that time out, it was to be the means of my
livelihood; but so pleased was I with my first attempt, that I
have made it a scientific study, that I might be the better ena-
bled to carry out its practice. I commenced it alone, and
alone have I practised with such help as I received from the
published knowledge of others, and feel grateful to them for
the fulhiess of their descriptions. One sore recollection looms
in the vista of the past. An artist, then holding a high position
in the practice of the art, had obtained Whipple's process, and
had commenced the practice of the same in Detroit; and on an
occasional visit to his gallery, I once inadvertently asked per-
mission to visit his dark room — that sanctum sanctorum of the
artist — and never dreamed of the enormity of the offence, till
receiving a severe rebuke. The bare idea of a country opera-
tor wishing to enter the dark room of a city artist, bah I How
different on a visit to another; he was pleased to see me at any
time, showed me his unfinished work, and wished me to inspect
his arrangements, which were then on a small scale. And
what is the fate of the two? the man has thrown up the prac-
tice in disgust — the gentleman is fast gaining public favor, and
advancing to the upper ranks as an operator. The trials and
tribulations of a poor artist, who would attempt to teach him-
self the practice of the art, needs not be told, for those who
have passed through, have abundance of recollections on the
subject, he has had to train his feelings and ill-temper to that
degree, that the monks of old would have been glad to

VOL. XI. NO. VI. 21

attain, he has succeeded in rendering himself the very picture
of Patience sitting on a monument smiling at grief; bnt it car-
ries with it its own reward. He becomes acquainted with
minutiae that otherwise would never have been observed.
There are too many artists who are not possessed of a sinHe
page of chemistry, who could not tell the composition or chemi-
cal equivalent of a single article used. They can work after
the formulae given them by their preceptors, but to depart from
the strict working of the same, woukl be wandering into the
dark realms of confusion. I have often heard that the Journal
had too much about that paper stuff; little dreamed they of the
change that was taking place. In the year 1854,1 placed a
bath in my dark room, but for nearly a year, could not give a
glass picture away; and some that I have retained, that were
then taken, are as good as some taken at this day. The great
remedy to purge the ranks of all ignorant and mean spirited
men who pervade in, and practiced the art, would be to take
them by the hand in a friendly manner, teach them how to
make better pictures, foster in them a love of the Art for its
own sake, and try to elevate that self-esteem and liberality of
sentiment, that is so seldom found in our midst. Let an artist
go to a new town and start a gallery; and who is the first man
to cry wolf, to utter slurs, and to raise a perfect hue and cry ?
why it is a brother artist !

Do you suppose the public take no notice of such things ?
they do most assuredly: and the consequence is, the profession
generally sink in their estimation. Gentlemen, this jealousy,
heart-burning, strife and dissimulation that is practised towards
each other, is doing sad work among us; we had better work
just as hard the other way and root it out if possible. Let us
have Photographic Societies, where we can meet as men and
get familiarized with each other's society, and let us have exhi-
bitions on a liberal scale in different parts of the country, and
let all contribute; and it will act as an incentive to that desire
to excel, that all must have, who wish to place themselves on
the uppermost rounds of the ladder. J.J. B.

From Photographic Kates.

THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF PHOTOGRAPHY.

BY MR. C. L. HAINES.

Read before the Birmingham Photographic Society.

It is both interesting and instructive to trace an art from its
earliest discovery, in its gradual increase to the time when to all
appearances it has nearly reached perfection; to follow the
windings of the stream of science as it flows towards the great
sea of knowledge to which it tends; to seek out the first springs
from which the river flows, and to follow its course as it joins
other springs, and thereby increases, little by little, until a
wide and deep river is the result. Who would imagine as he
contemplates the little springs that give rise to the Thames —
that mighty river — that little by little those springs would in-
crease until at length they bear on their bosom the wealth of
Europe. Such is Photography. Look back to the 16th cen-
tury, (for even thus far back we can trace the commencement
of tins now important and still increasing science) look back, I
say, to the 16th century, when the alchemists first stumbled,
among other things, upon a peculiar combination of silver with
chlorine, which they called horn-silver; when they first observed
that this horn-silver, by being exposed to the light, became
blackened, who then upon looking upon this first spring, as we
may call it, of Photography, would have imagined that from
that very fountain-head such mighty waters would in time pro-
ceed. But so it is, and we have already arrived at the time,
after many hindrances (for the progress of discovery must be
and ever has been slow) when we see the. stream, as it were
fast increasing in width and depth and pouring on, as day by
day, we might almost say hour by hour, it approaches that
great sea of perfection which all lovers of the art, and in fact
all men must wish to see it reach. Little did the alchemists

no

THE niOTOGllAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

June,

tliemsclves think in that early age, of what a tree of knowledge
thej- had planted the seed. Tiiat seed, as it were, lay buried in
tlie soil of obscurity for many year.^, till at last it burst the soil
and continued increasing little by little to the present time.
Who would imagine upon cxtimining the little acorn which lies
unnoticed in the forest, that from that apparently worthless
thing, in years to come, a mighty tree would grow, that may be
in years yet later, that little acorn would form a part of a
mighty vessel, on whose success all the wealth and prosperty of
Europe may depend, but so it is. Photography is flourishing
as a tree. It has been planted by our forefathers, for years it
has been almost forgotten, and now we again behold it as a
mighty tree, which although not at present near its full growth,
is ah'eady an ornament to that forest of arts and sciences of
which it forms a part. To trace the growth of Photography
from the time of its very Qrst discovery by the alchemists, and
its progress through difficulties which it would seem almost im-
possible to have surmounted, to follow the science from year to
year as it increases, is the object of my present Paper (and I
must here beg your forgiveness if I am unable to tell you any-
thing that is new, for I know that so many Papers have been
read, and so many lectures given on this subject, of late years,
that it is almost impossible for any one to write what has not
at some time or other been written before). I shall only, there-
fore, in as few words as possible, trace out the progress of this
interesting art, as far as I can, from the sources I have been
able to obtain.

Bat before I begin to investigate the origin of Photography,
it may not be out of place if I say a few words ou the nature
of light.

Hunt says, "It is now established that the sun's rays cannot
fall upon any body without producing a molecular disturbance
or a chemical change. "Wherever a shadow falls, a picture is
impressed. It matters not whether the material whicli receives
the image be one of these chemical compounds which are so sus-
ceptible of change, or a plate of metal, or a block of stone.
The surface of all material things are constantly, under the in-
fluence of sunshine, undergoing a mysterious change, which is
communicated by molecular vibrations to the entire mass, and
new conditions established, which, with all the powers of
chemistry, we cannot yet follow."

Thus we see, that whether visible or invisible to mortal eyes,
the light of the sun has its effects on all things, — on animate
nature, we know it lias its effects in promoting the health and
vigor of the frame. On the vegetable kingdom also we know
its effect, for without it no plant or herb would grow. It
has been proved beyond doubt that it is not only the heat of
the sun which causes jilants to grow, but that heat alone, with-
out other chemical agencies of light, would have no effect. If
we could look into the depths of the sea, we should discover
that at a very considerable depth, where the light cannot pene-
trate, would be an eternal blank; no sign of vegetable or ani-
mal to be found. As we ascend into where the light but faint-
ly illuminates, a few animal and vegetable productions could be
discerned; but near the surface we should find quantities of ani-
mals and every species of sea vegetables of all colors.

Even on our globe the power of light is plainly to be seen.
Look at our Arctic regions, and you will find, in consequence of
there being little sun there, that all creation has a darker ap-
pearance than elsewhere. As you approach more temperate
climes you will find the flowers, and all other things, of a much
brighter hue, and in the tropical climes thty will be found to
glow in richness and splendor of color never to be surpassed.

^Ve all know that if a bright flower had never seen light it
would have had no color, but would have been perfectly white.
How wonderful then is that light to which we owe all the beau-
ties of this our world, and how merciful was the Maker of all,
in thus, before any other thing was created, giving the Divine
command: Ld (here he light. All we are told is with sublime
conciseness that God said let there he light, and there loos light.
How wonderfully does this in itself show the importance of tiiis
element of nature. All things owe their growth and beauty to
it. How wonderful must have been the change which thus gave

form to the earth and chased the darkness from the face of the
deep. That light has more power over some substances than
over others is easy to be perceived by all who take any interest
at all in the subject. Thus, while light may bleach some ob-
jects, it may not injure, or may even add to, the color of others.

But having said a few words on the chemical action of light,
let me at once proceed to investigate the "Origin and Progress
of Photography up to the present time."

The earliest account that we have of Photography, is as I
said before, iu the 16th century.

Among the alchemists of that early date there were men
gifted with minds of very superior order, as indeed their many
careful experiments show. A pity however it is that these men
did not give their minds and attentions to things that would
have been more gratifying to themselves, and more useful to
their followers, than their fruitless search after the Philosopher's
Stone, or their vain endeavors to distil the Elixir Yitse. In the
course of one of their experiments, however, in the year 1556,
it was discovered that horn-silver, exposed to the rays of the
sun, became discolored, This, after a time, was thought no
more of, and we hear no more of the subject until the year
1122. In this year. Petit showed that solutions of saltpetre
and muriate ot ammonia, crystallized more readily in the light
than in the dark. This, however, trifling itmay seem, is doubt-
less the link which connects the long chain of experiments which
have since been tried, with the previous knowledge of the early
alchemists.

In 1175, Kearsley's Pocket Ledger quotes from Dr. Hooper's
Rational Recreations, "a Process for Writing on Glass by the
Rays of the Sun;" the materials used are "chalk, dissolved in
aquafortis to the consistence of milk, and strong dissolution of
silver. These are to be placed iu a bottle, on the outside of
which, letters cut out of paper have been pasted, and the whole
exposed to the light of the sun; the inner surface of the bottle
is blackened in all those parts unprotected by the paper."

Two years after this date (1111), the great Scheele gave his
first examination of the peculiar change of salts of silver, un-
der the influence of light; and also found that they sooner grow
black under the influence of the violet ray than a ray of other
color. He says, "It is well known that a solution of silver in
acid of nitre, poured on a piece of chalk, and exposed to the
sun, becomes black." And again he says, "That if you fix a
glass prism in a window, so as to let the rays fall on the floor,
it will blacken sooner in the violet ray than in any other."
Sennebier, in 1190, repeated these experiments, and discovered
that the chloride of silver, which would take twenty minutes to
blacken in a red ray, would be equally blackened in a violet ray
in fifteen minutes. Count Rumford, soon after this time, pub-
lished a Paper in the "Philosophical Transactions," in which he
seems to think that the chemical changes caused by light are
attributable to heat, and that light, without heat, would be use-
less in effecting these changes. He concludes by stating that
the same chemical effect would bo produced by a prolonged ex-
posure to a heat of about 210" Fahrenheit.

In the year 1198, however, this distinguished man sent a
paper to the Royal Society, entitled "An enquiry concerning the
Chemical Properties that have been attributed to Light." In
one of his experiments pieces of ribbon were wetted with a so-
lution of gold; those which were exposed to the strong light of
the sun, gradually changed color, and in a few hours acquired a
fine purple hue, whilst those left in the dark remained unchanged.
It was also found that the change took place much sooner when
exposed in a wet state than if allowed to dry before exposure,
Mr. Robert Harrup, in 1802, states also that several salts of
mercury were discolored by light and not by heat. In 1S02,
Wedgwood, who undoubtedly was the first person who made an
attempt to copy objects by aid of the sun's rays, published a
paper in the Journal of the Royal Institution, entitled "An ac-
count of a Method of Copying Pictures, and of making Pro-
files by the agency of Light upon Nitrate of Silver." From
this paper I will make a few extracts.

He says, that "white paper, or white leather, moistened with
a Bolutiou of nitrate of silver, undergoes no change when kept

iu a dark place, but on being exposed to the daylight, it speed-
ily changes color, and after passing tlirougli different shades of
grey and brown, becomes at length nearly blaek. The altera-
tions of color, and after passing througli different shades of
grey and brown, becomes at length nearly black. The altera-
tions of color take place more speedily in proportion as the
light is more intense; in the direct beam of the sun, two or
three minutes are enough to produce the full effects; in the
shade several hours are I'equired."

He also states, "that light transmitted through various co-
lored glasses has different effects. It is found," says he, "that
red, or common sun rays, pissed through red glass, have but lit-
tle efl^oct; those passed tlirough yellow or green glass are more
powerful, but those through blue or violet glass have the most
decided and powerful effect." No plan, it appears, had at this
time been discovered for fixing the image on the paper or lea-
ther. He says that neither rubbing, nor even washing in soap
and water; would remove the image; and that it. was in the
highest degree permanent whilst kept in the dark, but that on
exposure to the light, the uncolorcd parts of the picture would
at once darken till it entirely obliterated the image. A trans-
parent varnish was tried, but was found to be entirely unsuc-
cessful, as it did not protect the uncolored parts from the ac-
tion of light.

An attempt was now made to use these sea^itive papers to
impress the image given iu a camera obscura, tut they were not
sufficiently sensitive to produce good results. Davy, however,
succeeded better in some experiments with the solar micros-
cope.

The failure of these two distinguished men seems to have dis-
heartened their successors, for from this time we hear no more
of Photography, until the year 1814. In this year Niepce en-
deavored to fix the images of the camera obscura. He disco-
vered that light altered the solubility of various resinous sub-
stances. He spread a thin layer of asphalte on a glass or me-
tal plate, and placed this in the camera. After waiting from
five to six hours he found on the plate a latent image, which
became visible upon treating the surface of the plate with a sol-
vent.

In the year 1824, Daguerre (a man whom all Photogra-
phers well know as being the inventor of one of our most
important processes), also turned his attention to the fixing of
images rendered by the camera obscura; with what ultimate
success I need not name, for all of us know the beauty of a
good Daguerreotype. The first substance tried by Daguerre it
appears was paper, soaked in a solution of nitrate of silver, —
but this did not satisfy his wishes, and it was not until he be-
came acquainted with Niepce, two years after (1826) that any-
thing further was done in the matter. Fi'ora this year they as
it were joined hand to hand in promoting the great work they
both had at heart.

In the year 1829, in a letter, dated December 5th, Niepce
communicated to Dnguerre his process. "Tlie discovery 1 have
made," says he "and to which I have given the name of Helio-
graphy, consists in this, that I produce instantaneously, by ac-
tion of light, the image of the camera oljscnra, in all its grada-
tions, from white to black." He then proceeds to explain in de-
tail the method he adopted, but this it is quite unnecessary for
me to give. In 1829, Daguerre and Niepce first used iodine to
blacken the impressed image.

From the use of iodine for this purpose it appears probable
that the celebrated process of Daguerre arose.

In July, 1853, Niepce died, and an agreement was entered
upon between Daguerre and the nephew of the late Niepce.

In the year 1834, Mr. Fox Talbot first commenced his expe-
riments for the permanency of pictures on papers, of which ex-
periments we hear no more until the year 1839. In the Janu-
ary of that year he read before the Royal Society a paper en-
titled "Some Account of the Art of Photographic Drawing, or
the Process by which Natural Objects may be made to Deline-
ate themselves without the aid of the Artist's Pencil." The
method he suggested was to cover a sheet of paper with a thin
coat of chloride of silver by repeated washings. To fix the

image, he recommended a solution of common salt, but this ho
says, succeeded but indifferently.

In the March of the same year. Sir John Horschel, in a com-
munication to the Royal Society, recommends the use of hypo-
sulphite of soda as a fixing agent, instead of common salt. He
also recommends the use of iodide of potassium to convert the
nitrate of silver on the paper into iodide of silver.

To trace the different discoveries and improvements from this
date is more than either time or inclination will allow, so vari-
ous and numerous arc they; suffice it then if I choose a few,
and those few some of the most important of that number.

In 1840, glass plates were first introduced by Sir John Hers-
chel for the purpose of obtaining pictures, a discovery, which
under the able hands of the late and much lamented Scott
Archer, has since become one of the chief and certainly the
most popular of all the photographic processes.

In 1842, Mr. Fox Talbot patented the Calotype, of which
process I need say nothing, as it is so well known to all.

During the next few years Talbot tried various substances for
the production of photographic pictures, among many others I
may name porcelain plates as giving satisfactory results, but
the difficulty of preparing these is so great that it is probable
they will never come into constant use.

In 1848, Niepce de St. Victor first brought under notice the
use of albumen on glass plates, a process, which having been
improved upon by Le Gray and several others, gave a clear
and perfect image, but which was not sufliciently sensitive for
portraits.

In 1851, Mr. Frederick Scott Archer first published in the
C/mnist, the now well-known collodion process, and I need only
say by way of a mark of esteem to that gentleman that the
sympathy which is all over England being shown to his widow
and children can but partially show that gratitude which I am
sure all photographers must feel towards a man who spent a
great portion of his life in the discovery of a long wanted pro-
cess, which it is only a pity for ua all he did not live long enough
to practise and improve.

From this time, which must be in the recollection of us all, I
will let the matter drop. Of Le Gray's celebrated process I
need 1 am sure say not a word, when we have so beautiful a
specimen presented to the society by one ot its members. In
fact I cannot, I think, do better than refer you to our late ex-
hibition, to show you how Photography has improved during
the last few years. That exhibition will speak for itself, with
no weak words of mine to recommend it.

One word though I must say before I conclude. There is a
great talk of taking pictures by artificial light. This m^y be
very well in theory, but it will not, in my opinion, do in prac-
tice. ^ I commend all who try to make discoveries of any de-
scription in the art, but I cannot see what is to be the ultimate
good of such an object as this.

For evening scenes, moonlight maybe desirable, if practica-
ble, or for the astronomer it would not only be desirable but of
the greatest use — but for the taking of portraits I can see no
advantage. It may be well, as I know it is, to search out the
properties of various kinds of light, but further than that I
consider the sun's great and best light enough for practical pur-
poses.

One word and I have done. The next and greatest aim of
the Photographer is to obtain pictures in their natural colors.
Many have been the opinions on this subject. I can only say
that if such a process should eventually be discovered, the Pho-
tographer could wish no more, and Photography, from the little
spring from whence it arose, will at length, after many wind-
ings and obstructions, widening and deepening as it flows, have
reached its boundary, and flowed into the great ocean of know-
ledge of which it is doubtless destined to form a most conspicu-
ous part. ( Cheers j.

Mr. Bourne. — I must say that I am of different opinion to
Mr. Haines, respecting artificial light. I consider that it will
eventually prove of great benefit to amateur photographers, in-
asmuch as many of us have little or no time during the day to
practise the art.

112

THE PnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

June,

The Chairman thought that the artificial light would be very
useful during tlie winter mouihs.

Mr. Morris agreed with the previous speakers respecting the
advantages of artificial light, and said that the best portrait he
had yet seen was tal<en by that meaiiS. _

Mr. OsBORN said he really could not see that the artificial
Wcrht would be of such manifest advantage as some persons
st°ove to show. The great desideratum, a strong diffused light,
had not been obtained, and could not well be so, by any method
yet adopted. A great intensity of light had been produced,
but was confined to one spot, and consequently you had a ghast-
ly white face, starting from a sombre mass; and moreover, the
light being too glaring for the eyes, invariably gave that sleepy
unpleasant-looking, contraction of the pupil of the eye.

E X p e r im

ON M.
e n t s

From Photographic

NlErCE DE ST. VICTOR'S
on the Action of Li

BY TH05IAS SUTTON.

Notes,

gilt

We have some remarks to offer on the subject of M. Niepce
de St. Victor's recent experiments. We have repeated some of
the most important of them, and our results have, in every in-
stance, been similar to those described by him. But we see no-
thing in any of these experiments to lead us to believe in any
"new action of light." Our impressions, as we stated in the
last number, are that instead of bottled sunshine in the sealed
tube there is simply bottled hydrogen gas; and that an isolated
paper, instead of absorbing light and radiating it again in the
dark, ii simply deprived of some of its oxygen by the well-known
chemical action of light, and becomes in its turn a de-oxydizing
body, capable either of decomposing aqueous vapor and liberat-
ing hydrogen, or of reducing a sensitive salt of silver placed in
contact wTth it. In support of this view we have now a re-
remarkable experiment to describe, A jar was filled with pure
hydrogen gas, and (in the dark room) a piece of sensitive chlo-
ride paper laid across its open end. In a very few minutes the
paper was darkened to a brown tint. Next, an engraving on
tolerably thick paper, was laid with its back across the mouth
of the jar, and a sensitive chloride paper placed in contact with
it- in a few minutes the gas penetrated through the whites of
the en"-raving, and darkened the paper behind, while the blacks
of the°engraving prevented the gas from passing through, and
thus preserved the whites. In this way a well defined negative
image of the engraving was produced by the action of the hy-
drogen in the jar.

AVith respect to the action of light on paper prepared with
nitrate of uranium, it is sufficient to say that the paper exhibits
after isolation, a faint image of the negative superposed, when
viewed by transmitted light, to upset at once the conclusion of
M. Niepce that in that "case, at any rate, a "new action of
li<rht" is concerned. The production of a visihh image by ex-
posure to light, is surely nothing but common photography.

In the first paper M. N. de St. Victor's cotton, dyed with
various substances, was experimented on. Some of these dyes
were favorable to the production of an image by insolation and
subsequent contact with sensitive paper; others were not.
Among the wisensitive dyes are mentioned madder, alumina,
cochineal, alum, and indigo;— among the sensitive dyes, Prus-
sian blue, and a per-salt of iron. Now, none of the former
substances have, to our knowledge, been proved to be re-oxy-
dized by light, and in that state to be capable of absorbing oxy-
gen again;" but many of the per-salts of iron do possess that
property. ' So far, therefore, those experiments are favorable
to the idea of a chemical change produced by insolation.

A-^ain, in certain experiments, a sheet of glass, or rock crys-
tal or mica, placed between the insolated engraving and the
sensitive paper, was found so prevent the formation of an image.
This is intelligible enough if we suppose the image to be pro-
duced by hydrogen, or by contact with a re-iodized substance,
but it is difficult to understand how colorless glass can prevent

the passage of the chemical rays through it. M. Niepce has
himself thrown some doubt upon his first experiments with sul-
phates of quininine, in which an opposite result is said to have
been obtained.

The experiments of M. Niepce are curious and important,
from their appearing to indicate the fact that white paper, mar-
ble, chalk, &c., are sensitive to light. The chemistry of lig-
nine is still very obscure. There is a per-oxide of lignine; may
there not be a lower oxide of it which parts with oxygen when
exposed to light, and recovers it in the dark, either from the
air, or by decomposing the aqueous vapor which the air always
contains? The chemistry of the bleaching process by chlorine
is but imperfectly understood. What then may be the effect of
bleaching upon lignine? Paper also contains size, and is some-
times dyed with artificial ultra-marine. May it not therefore
contain some substance capable of being de-oxydized by light?
The chief value of the experiments of M. Niepce appears to us
to consist in the new class of substances which he has shown to
be chemically affected by light.

The printing processes with a per-salt of uranium, reduced by
light, and the image developed with a gold or silver salt, are
not new, having been published a year ago in this Journal; and
since the principle is identical with that of the old chrysotype
process of Sir John Herschel, we are much amused at the ex-
travagant enthusiasm with which the Editors of certain contem-
porary Photographic Journals, both French and English, have
announced the supposed wonderful new discoveries in printing
by M. Niepce de St. Victor. We are glad, however, to find
public attention directed to any form of the chrysotype process,
for wherever gold is concerned in the production of a print, experi-
ence has sufficiently proved that increased permanence is the result.
The theory of the Auro-Uraniura process (as it may be
called) is simply this. — A paper impregnated with a per-salt of
uranium, fthe nitrate of the sesqui-oxide for instance), is ex-
posed to light under a negative. Wherever light acts the salt
is reduced to a proto-salt (which is a de-oxydizing agentj, and
a visible but faint image is produced. On immersing the paper
in a solution of chloride of gold, an atom of water is decom-
posed by the proto-salt of uranium, which takes the oxygen and
becomes converted again into a per-salt, while the hydrogen
combines with the chlorine of the chloride of gold and gold is
precipiatted in a state of fine division, which presents a blueish
tint. The picture is therefore blue and cold in color, and not
very pleasing. It is then immersed in boiling, water, which dis-
solves out the uranium and gold salts. In this state the print
is supposed by M. Niepce to be fixed, and its permanence es-
tablished because boiling cyanide of potassium does not affect it.
The only difference between the above process and the
chrysotype of Sir John Herschel consists in the employment of
a salt of the sesqui-oxide of uranium instead of one of the ses-
qui-oxide of iron, (the ammonia-citrate of iron). John Her-
schel did not consider a Chrysotype print to be perfectly fixed
by mere washing in water. He fixed it with iodide of potas-
sium. "Nothing," he says, "can surpass the sharpness and per-
fection of detail of the resulting photograph."

Another uraninm process of M. Niepce is to develop with
nitrate of silver instead of chloride of gold. In this case me-
tallic silver is reduced by the de-oxydizing uranium salt, and
the print is of a deep brown tint, and will also resist the action
of boiling cyanide of potassium. The latter process was de-
scribed a year ago in this Journal as well as the former, and it
is precisely anologous to the modified form of Chrysotype in which
Sir John Herschel substituted nitrate of silver for chloride of gold.
With respect to the probable pernipnence of a Chrysotype,
or Auro-Uranium print. We have said that the image is formed
by metallic gold in a state of fine division, and therefore pre-
senting a blue tint; but there is a prot-oxide of gold of a pur-
ple tint, and this oxide might combine with lignine and give a
picture having the same appearance as the other. If, however,
tlie material of the picture were not prot-oxide of gold, it would
be acted on by hydro-chloric acid, and converted into metallic
gold and per-chlcride of gold; and this effect mxost occur by de-

veloping with acid

chloride of gold.

The picture is therefore,

1858,

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE AUT JOURNAL.

113

no doubt, metallic gold, and the dark parts are permanent; but
unless the whole of the chloride of gold is removed from the
paper by some more energetic mode of fixing than mere wash-
ing with water, we think it not unlikely that the lights might
turn pink in the course of time by exposure to light. Chloride
of gold, in the presence of organic matter, is sensitive to light;
still it is very soluble in water, and unless the liguine holds a
definite quantity in chemical combination with it, which it pro-
bably may do, the print may be considered permanently fixed.

But these Auro-XJranium prints are not the only ones which
resist the action of boiling cyanide of potassium. Prints on
ammonia-nitrate paper, toned with sel d'or and hydro-chloric
acid to a maximum purple tint, will also resist boiling cyanide
of potassium; and so will developed prints on serum, toned to
the same deep blue tint with sel-d'or. In both these processes,
which were published by us in the year '55, the image is princi-
pally metallic gold, the same as in the prints of M. Niepce, or
Sir John Herschel. The purple tint of a print fully toned with
gold, is, however, inky, and is objectionable in an artistic point
of view; and the silver prints sliglUly toned with gold have cer-
tainly the best effect. It is important, however, to be able to
produce a blue permanent print if we choose. In the sel-d'or
processes the use of hypo-sulphite of soda is objectionable be-
cause metallic gold is not capable of resisting the continued ac-
tion of an alkaline sulphide, bat combines with it to form a
double sulphide of gold and the alkali. This is no doubt the
reason why prints, toned with gold, and not properly washed,
have been known to change, and the blue tint of the gold to
become red. It is possible also that in the fading of silver
prints the black sulphide of silver may combine with an alka-
line sulphide in the paper, and form a yellow double sulphide of
silver and the alkali. It is quite certain that washing in an al-
kali, after fixing with hypo, rather assists than prevents fading;
while prints that have been immersed in weak hydro-chloric acid
after fixing in hypo have, according to our experience, a con-
siderable degree of permanence. The great merit of the Auro-
Urauium process is, that no fixing or toning bath is required.

The experiments of M. de la Blanchere with this process
will no doubt interest our readers. The proportions he recom-
mends are, —

Nitrate of uranium 96 grains.

Distilled water 1 ounce.

The paper to be either floated or immersed. Expose to sun-
shine, at this season, from two to ten minutes, and develope im-
mediately with

Acid chloride of gold 2 grains.

Distilled water 1 ounce.

The print is very quickly developed to a deep blue tint. Fix
with boiling water.

Or, expose only half as long as before, and develope with

Nitrate of silver (slightly acid) 30 grains.

Distilled water 1 ounce.

The print is quickly developed to a brown tint. Fix as be-
fore with boiling water.

Another method is, to expose three times as long as in the
first case; to immerse the print in a nearly saturated solution of
bi-chloride of mercury until bleached; to wash it thoroughly;
and develop with nitrate silver as before. The tint is a sort of
greyish black.

Nitrate of uranium is an acid salt, and coagulates albumen.
A piece of paper simply albumenized, and when dry floated
upon the uranium bath, may therefore be used for printing upon.
In this way very fine definition may be obtaiued. Gelatine
may also be employed in the same way.

Nitrate of uranium is soluble both in ether and alcohol, and
may therefore be added to collodion. Plates coated with this
collodion, and allowed to dry, may be used for printing trans-
parencies.

We have found the nitrate of ux*anium more sensitive and
better than the tartrate of uranium, A sun-print may be ob-
taiued by floating a uranium paper on nitrate of silver, and let-
ting it dry. The paper is not very sensitive, but the print may

21*

be fixed with hot water. The nitrate bath is not discolored by
this process, and the yellow tint of the paper is removed by the
nitrate of silver. The print may be intensified with gallic acid,
or toned with sel-d'or.

Uranium is not a costly metal. It is obtained from a mineral
termed Pechblende, and from varieties of uranitic mica found at
Callington, in Cornwall. Bucholz observed, some years ago,
that an etnereal solution of nitrate of uranium was affected by
light. This salt is yellow, and its crystals resemble those of
hypo-sulphite of soda. Sesqui-oxide of uranium is a yellow
powder.

We strongly recommend the Auro-Urauium process to the
notice of those professionals who take portraits on paper to be
colored by the artist. But the new method of printing in car-
bon has for us at present much greater interest than this resus-
citation of the old Chrysotype process, or in fact than any
purely chemical process, from the infinite variety and perfect
control of tints which is likely to be obtained by it. We sent
two or three of Mr. Pouncy's carbon prints to Mr. Hardwich a
few days ago, and in reply he says: "I view the carbon prints
with the greatest interest, and when I have time shall certainly
try the action of various chemicals upon them, and let you know
the result."

LONDON

From the Lwer2Jool Photographic Journal.

PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.

The ordinary meeting of this Society was held on the 6th of
April, R. Fentox, Esq., Vice-President, in the chair.

The minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed.
M. 0. G. Rejlander's paper

" ON PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPOSITION,"
with a description of his " Two Ways of Life" was then
read by the Secretary, as follows: —

I have been honored with a request to read a paper this
evening, the principal subject of which should be, the photo-
graphic composition entitled "Two ways of Life."

Considering the very unusual amount of criticism to which
this work has been subjected, I am thankful for the opportuni-
ty afforded me of giving some explanation regarding its origin,
and the object which 1 sought to accomplish in its construction;
and I trust that I shall not be charged with possessing any un-
due quantum of vanity in thus responding to the call, and en-
grossing your attention for a few passing moments upon a sub-
ject you have done me the honor to stamp with your approval.

Permit me to ask your indulgence for the many imperfec-
tions which this attempt at addressing you will manifestly con-
tain. Artists are not necessarily toriters; and while it is ray
highest pride to rank as the former, I have not the smallest
claim to be regarded as the latter.

The composition referred to arose out of the competition
which was naturally excited among photographers by the de-
sire worthily to represent, not only themselves, but the new art
which they had espoused at the Art-Treasures' Exhibition in
Manchester; and as every true soldier should fight as though
the battle depended upon his individual exertion, I buckled-to
in earnest. In passing, however, I cannot but remark, that in
my opinion, and in that of other's also, the Manchester authori-
ties very inadequately seconded the efforts which were made,
as they treated photography too much as an art belonging to
the future, and consequently as one scarcely deserving of their
present care.

Whether good or had, my effort duly appeared, and full many
a tilt did it sustain from the shafts of critics upon both sides of
the Tweed, until at last it was fairly, or perhaps you may say
unfairly, tilted altogether out of the Ediubugh Photographic
Exhibition.*

* The rejection of the picture, which I believe was solely instigated by
ignorance, should surely have sufBced ; but I have learned that asper-
sions were uttei'ed that have fallen harmless upon me, but which were a
disgrace to their authors. Even so recently as the 13th January, 1858,

174

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND PINE ART JOTJRNA]

June.

It is not for me to say how far the reasons are correct which
were adduced in justification of its rejection, but I take my
stand in defence of my work, adopting the national motto,
" Hold soil qui mal y ^ense."

Tiie principal reasons which actuated me in its production
were the following: —

Istly. It was to be competitive with what might be expected
from abroad.

2ndiy. I wished to show to artists how useful photography
might be made as an aid to their art, not only in details, but in
preparing what may be regarded as a most perfect sketch of
their composition; thereby enabling them to judge of eSect, be-
fore proceeding to the elaboration of their finished work.

Srdly. To show the plasticity of photography, I sought to
bring in figures draped and nude, some clear and rounded in
the light, others transparent in the shade, and to prove that
you are not, by my way of proceeding, confined to one plane,
but may place figures and objects at any distance, as clear and
distinct as they relatively ought to be.

I know well the prejudicial opinion I had to work against in
attempting a composition; I kept in good memory the exin'es-
sions made use of by that authority on art, the Art Journal, in
its notice of our Exhibition of 1856, to wit: — "They are won-
derfully clever, but after all they are but images of actors,
posed for the occasion; they all want life, expression; passion
they have none; yet these pictures tell a pleasing tale." Again,
"We believe indeed that such pictures as those will have a
tendency to lower the appreciation of art in the eyes of the
public, and unfit them for receiving the full impression intended
by, or seeing the beauties of, the artist's production."

In 1857 the same Journal remarked on that year's photo-
graphic exhibition: — " With the photographic exhibition it is
not necessary to speak of individual works, as we would of the
production of the painter, the cases are not parallel; the
painter employs, or should employ, eye and hand governed by
a presiding mind; the photographer uses a machine, and re-
quires a ' little' judgment; the artist works from within to that
which is without; the photographer employs external ageuts to
do his bidding."

When reading these opinions I thought the same as I think
now, that as far as the conception of a picture, the composition
thereof, with the various expressions and postures of the fig-
ures, the arrangement of draperies and costume, the distribu-
tion of light and shade, and the preserving it in one subordi-
nate whole, that these various points, which are essential to
the production of a perfect picture, require the same operations
of mind, the same artistic treatment and careful manipulation,
whether it be executed in crayon, grey-in-grey, paint of any de-
scription, or by photographic agency, and the same in mosaic,
if the worker be also the artist.

I should like to set all presumption of rivalry at rest, by not
comparing this art-process with what is generally understood as
art: let us reject all parallel, and examine the modus operandi
of this, which is a new and distinct art, one but of yesterday,
and discuss it according to the results produced, without com-
parison.

I believe a time will come, and that not far distant, when
real art and photography will go hand-in-hand, the latter as a
means to the artistic end. It cannot be otherwise: photogra-
phy is but "ihe holding of a mirror up to nature;" and the
more thoroughly a mind is imbued with the love of, and a dis-
cernment of the true in art, the oftener will it plume and re-
fresh itself at the fountain of its inspiration, and draw from its
ample, but too many, hidden treasures.

I cannot for my part see the objection that photographs want
life, expression, reality. I cannot understand how a painting
upon the same subject can, except in its coloring, be more real
or truthful than a photograph, both being but representative.
The difference is in favor of the photograph, which having

I read in the daily ' Press," in its report of the proceedings of the Photo-
graphic Society : "The discussion of the merits of Sir. Kojlander's pic-
ture was also mixed up with the general question, Mr. George Harvey
taking occasion to denounce it in strong terms,"

passed through fewer mediums, must necessarily be the more
truthful, at least in details.

But I will come now to the argument of the composition,
" The Two Ways of Life." The world is aptly described by
the immortal bard as " a stage, and all the men and women
merely players."

It is upon this stage that I have lifted the curtain to intro-
duce to you the dramatis persona.

In the background is represented a country scene, where,
far from the tumult of life, two youths have been fondly reared.
The time has arrived when duty calls them to perform their
part in the busy haunts of men. The father, with many mi.s-
givings, but with many prayers, conducts them from the home
of their childhood, through an archway, which is symbolic of
the boundary between town and country. Left orphans at au
early age, the spirit of the mother is seen still hovering near
them, instilling into their minds good desires, and attending
them as a guardian angel, that their feet slip not.

Aware of the dangers and temptations which will beset their
path, the Sage cautions and counsels them: —

"My sons, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not:" "Keep
thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mo-
ther:" " That they may keep thee from the strange woman,
from the stranger that flattereth with her words:" " Go not
astray into her paths:" "Incline thine ear unto wisdom, and
apply thine heart to understanding:" "Length of days is in her
right hand, and in her left are riches and honor."

With faith in his leader and guide, one of the youths ap-
pears willing to be led by wisdom and experience, and is thus
brought into the paths which lead to Religion^ at whose
feet

" A lowly child, with unkempt hair,
Is crouching down, yet welcome there."

Near to Religion is Knoioledge, personified by a female read-
ing, the book being a sign of human progress. From these,
we come to Mercy, who binds up the wounds of the sufferer,
and, " while pouring out the healing oil, consoles the weak and
weary." The proper use of life is further illustrated by Indus-
try, Handicraft, and Mental Application; whilst Married Life
is faintly traced behind the group of Industry,

The other youth, more impulsive, braves the future for the
present: believing in nought but what he sees, he slips the
hand of his guiding friend, and, strong in his own conceit, goes
his way, the wise man waving his hand in grief. Two Sirens
with song and dance display their charms to tempt the youth;
'tis but a step, — he looks not far before him. Behind them,
but in the foreground, lies an Idle group; — Idleness the root of
every eviL The Old Hag thereby contrasts them well: like
them she was; as she, they'll be, despised and vengeful in their
turn. A Bacchante is in the foreground placed with the cxip in
either hand; in the deepest shade of tnat dark Bacchante lurks
Murder v]].i\\ ready arm. Hid from his view the Gamblers ^\i\-^;
one wins the throw, foul or fair; the other seems aggrieved, yet
ready to drown his anger in the tankard; the third has lost his
all, and seems as lost himself. Complicity whispers close be-
hind, and some strong arm is drawing off a pinioned man. To
the central figure, with half-covered head, I have given the
name of Fcnilence. She is placed, I think rightly, between the
two ways of good and evil, to convey what is taught to and be-
lieved by us all, that repentance, if true, will not be refused by
Religion.

Tiiis was the only subject I could then think of , which would
enable me to bring into one picture various draped figures, as
well as exhibit the beautiful lines of the human form; and in
one or two of those unadorned figures I think I have succeeded
in showing such gradations of tints between the highest light
and the deepest shade (as in the Penitent for instance) as may
serve for a lesson in art without the aid of language. There
are numerous spots and masses which I admit have no business
there. I could not avoid them then, but with the experience I
have gained I could be more successful now; having, however,
to conceive every point in the picture in my own mind, and

1858.

THE rnOTOGRAPUIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

175

there, if I may so say, fluish it, keeping it clay and night in
view, hke a chess-player playing witliout the board, I could not
be perfectly sure, when taking individual figures, whether the
backgrounds should be light or dark, which diiBeulty you may
easily understand. I had, in printing one figure whose general
background might be dark when placed in the picture, to put
cue side or other against a light background, for the sketch I
made was not sufBciently worked out in light and shade. Cir-
cumstances, too, made me vary from the sketch. The various
peculiarities in the positions of some of the models are owing to
their being more or less perfect in shape. Anxious to display
the good lines, I had to hide what seemed less correct, not be-
ing able, like the painter, to draw upon the antique.

The rule of proceeding here is also contrary to the art of
drgwing. I began with the foreground figures and finished
with those farthest off. After having fixed upon the size of
most of the nearest figures, I proceeded with those in the sec-
ond plane. With a pair of compasses I measured on the focus-
ing glass the proportionate size according to the sketch; simi-
larly with the third plane, and so on, until I was as far off the
smallest group as my operating room would allow, and then I
was not far enough by yards, so I reversed the whole scene
and took them from a looking-glass, thus increasing the dis-
tance.

Having got all the figures of the various sizes, attitudes, and
lights and shades that I wanted, and again sketching them on
a sheet of paper, I found likewise that our largest prepared
paper was much too small, and fastening two sheets together
caused an inequality on the surface; how to cement them to
show no difference of color at the joining was a poser
which occupied me some days in solving, I had made
various experiments, until at last I found the best way was not
to cement at all, but to put the two papers together edge to
edge, and those parts of the picture which bordered on either
side of those edges had to be printed at the same time, to en-
sure their having the same strength ; and then I devised, to
ensure the two edges being perfectly similar, to put the end
of the larger sheet upon the smaller, and with a razor on a
plate of glass I cut them both simultaneously. But as you
know that a paper is put on glass in printing with the reverse
side to you, I found that I could not be sure, after printing the
first figure on either side those edges, that when I came to the
second portion, I could with certainty put the papers in the
same position as before: so I had to cut my papers again, and
did so now irregularly with a nick top and bottom: this pro-
duced many inconveniences, particularly in the washing, until
at last I cut the papers straight down to within a couple of
inches of the bottom, when I continued the cut obliquely,
which afterwards proved a sufficient guide.

Those papers v. ere chosen from the same maker, and sensi-
tized at the same time, to ensure the same tint after having
been in the hypo; but even then it happened that the two
sheets turned out with a different tint, and once the smaller
sheet yielded a bluish tint,- while the larger sheet was of a rich
brown, though both were put into the bath at the same time;
and, as a curious fact, I must mention that in all of those I
have yet printed, the smaller sheets have shown a slightly
cooler tint, for the reason perhaps that being of a smaller body
it was sooner acted upon. After having printed in all the
figures, I had to find a background; and in the place where I
reside there is not within some considerable distance any sign
of classic architecture. So I went into a friend's grounds and
selected from his garden-ornaments and portico what you see,
excepting the draperies, which were arranged in my room,
which is not twelve feet high; this, however, did not prove a
serious obstacle, for if I wanted a curtain of large dimensions I
had but to move my camera so much the nearer to obtain the
required size, which would be properly tested when introduced
into the picture, and so with any other objects I wished to por-
tray, If I wanted to introduce an urn three feet in height, it
might be taken from one not more than six inches with the
same effect.

In printing, I commenced with the Old Hag, and rendered

her so deep as to be nearly invisible, the figure alone being ex-
posed to the action of light. This was eflected by first priiit-
Hig from all the negatives upon separate pieces of pajjcr, neatly
ciTtting out the figures, and then, instead of fixing the' prints,
exposing both pieces to the light until they were blackened all
over. By this contrivance I was enabled to cover up, so as to
protect from the action of the light, any portion of one nega-
tive corresponding in outline exactly to such part as I wished
to introduce from another negative. The remaining portion of
the sheet of sensitive paper that was not under immediate
manipulation was protected by a covering of black velvet. 1
next printed in the Bacchante, having measured off the dis-
tance, almost as dark; then Murder, perfectly bronzed: then
Repentance, very deep: next I came to the Group of Idlers,
where the highest lights were just covered ; then the Dancers
rather lighter, and the Gamblers lighter still, and the figures
behind yet more so. The Disobedient Youth was then begun,
followed by the Sage and the Good Youth, hand in hand;
then the two papers were put together, and the Religious
Group was printed, when the larger sheet was put by into the
dark room, and the smaller sheet was proceeded with in the
same way. After all the figures had been printed, the two pil-
lars and the lions were proceeded with: the pillar and lion be-
hind Religion had, of course, to be printed with the two papers
together, and the top curtain in a similar manner. Then the
archway and the landscape appear, next the curtains, and finally
the dark fringe.

_ When all these were printed, immense faith and determina-
tion were still required; for I can assure you it was a motley
group: in spite of all the care I had taken in shading some
parts in the light that they should not print too dark,°and in
spite of having used a sun glass for printing through the thick-
est whites, there was no harmonious whole. The li"-hts and
shades and distances for so many figures appeared to set me at
defiance; so I put the two sheets together, and covered them
with a plate of glass. Now comes the sun-painting. I cover
up some parts of the picture, and use a few rays and mncih of
light to just glaze over the gambling group, and using them a
little more freely on the hinder figures; I said " thank you,"
and covered them up (for you must know that I talk a good
deal to the mysterious agents while I am at work); "Now
please to paint me the background behind them." The rays
do my my bidding, and on it goes smoothly and evenly. I can
almost see the fluid flow; and knowing from practice how it
will be reduced in the hypo, bath, I let the light paint it deeper
in appearacce than it was intended to be. I then uncover the
Idle Group, and bid the light sink one of those figures deeper
in the shade. I then solicit the rays of the sun to do the same
on the side of Industry, and many of the spots and marks from
the printing of the separate figures are then evened by the same
brush, and finally the whole top of the picture is exposed; but
as such light as I choose works quickly, I must move as fast
and guide it well, or there will be marks from his brush: and
thus the picture is produced.

My ambition has been that this composition should be wholly
photographic. It is evident, that if art were employed to give
it the finishing touches, it would be more consonant with what
art requires, and equally evident that an abler artist with better
means could do a better thing. Nay, I believe that if Maclise
were to make a composition indicating light and shade, like
some of those splendid series of sketches which were exhibited
in the Royal Academy Exhibition last year, I could produce
from life a photographic picture that would require but little
touching. I dare not say how far I believe we may carry this
art; but I have a lively presentiment that the time will come,
when a work will be judged by its merits, and not by the method
of its production; and then, with some fostering care, things
can and will be done, that scarcely believers, and never unbe-
lievers, yet dream of in their philosophy.

Having concluded my paper upon the composition, " The
Two Ways of Life," I shall be happy to give you a few sketches
from my photographic experiences, with the hope that they will
possess some points of interest.

no

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

June,

la the midsummer of 1855 I was printing a group of several
figures, and my assistant was doing the same under my direc-
tion ; it was a beautifully clear, sunny day, and the sky was
cloudless. From that morning's experience I knew how soon to
expect the figure to be done, or nearly so. When I thought
the third fisj-uro sufiiciently printed, I took the printing-fiiame
into a dark-room to ascertain the progress made, when, to my
astonishment, I found there was but a faint image, instead of
its being rather over-printed, as I had feared. I was being
apprehelisive that I had exposed it too long; I first thought
that something might have been amiss on that very spot as to
the salting or silvering; but, when the printing-frame of my as-
sistant was brought in, and that print examined, and found to
be as little affected as my own, I was fairly astonished.

I scanned the heavens, but could see neither cloud nor smoke,
nor anything like a red or yellowish light. We brought our
frames into the sun again for printing purposes, and on re-examina-
tion we certainly found some progress made, though the figures
were yet scarcely half done, and not to be compared with what
I expected, although they had been exposed for the same pe-
riod as the' first figures. We again proceeded to print; and,
after exposing our prints for about the same length of time as
preceded our last examination, we again removed them to the
dark room. I recollect well that though our respective figures
did not require the same amount of printing, we exposed them
similarly for the sake of comparison; and now my astonishment
was complete, for both our figures were nearly over printed, and
I could not see any cause, nor can 1 now give any reason for the
remarkable difference in the results produced. I must here ob-
serve that after this we continued to print with the same steadi-
ness and celerity as marked the progress of the first figures;
and the only conjecture I can make with regard to the pheno-
menon is, that there may have been an undulating motion, or
shortcom'ing of the actinic ray. I have not since noticed any
similar effects in printing, though they may have occurred. I
would not have ventured to mention this fact had I been alone;
but the case being similar with both the prints, and having
also the evidence of another witness, I thought it worthy of

mention.

Another of my experiences I will also touch upon, only in
corroboration of what I read in the Liverpool and Manchester
Phonographic Journal of January 15th this year, about the va-
riation of the foci in photographic lenses by Mr. Claudet. I
have noticed the same for a couple of years, but cannot give a
reason why. I can only guess that there may have been a va-
riation in the actinic ray, as in the case previously noticed, but
more perceptible here. In the same Journal attention was
drawn to the curious appearance of narrow streaks of light
round the edges of objects in some landscape photographs,
where the light appears stronger than the sky. That also has
occurred to me, but each time there was a humid atmosphere
and a prolonged exposure. And in addition to this, I may men-
tion that I have several specimens taken in my room in dull
weathei-, where the white cuffs round the ladies' wrists against a
dark dress, and the white strings from a widow's cap which, I
have no doubt, has been pointed out as a failure, when it is only
an attempt to show against a black dress, have been surrounded
with a halo of fainter light spread over the black surface. The
hygrometic state of the lens at the time may have been the
cause, or I must plead ignorance.

The want of ajrial perspective, particularly in the larger
landscape photographs, has been one of the causes that has in-
duced me to try to take a picture in different planes separately,
and then print them together, which mode I have seen termed
"tricks." An extensive landscape taken particularly with a
large lens, is not true, nor will it ever be so — the focus cannot
be everywhere. Here is a fair specimen of a view from Loch
Katrine, taken at once; if it had been drawn by a skillful hand,
directed' by a correct eye, there would not have been so much
detail, but the proportions would have been different and more
true- 'and the larger the lens, the greater the errors. In this
picture the focus was taken for the middle distance, between the
steamer and the eminence, and that part is no doubt correct;

but the distant mountains and the woods are too large, and the
foreground is too small. While the camera was in the same
place as when the picture was taken, I took another instan-
taneous view, with the focus for the distant mountains; the
camera had to be so much shortened that, when the view was
taken, the difference between the two backgrounds was so great
that, when lineally measured, .it amounted to 3-40ths of an inch,
as you may see by these specimens; aud, if I had taken a near-
er focus for the foreground, the difference between the two pic-
tures, I have no doubt, would have been half an inch, if I may
judge by these two photographs, taken by smaller lenses, when
the one was focused for the distant mountain, and the other for
the immediate foreground. And here the difference is a quar-
ter of an inch — ride the specimens produced — and mathemati-
cally they must differ, as much as the difference of the squfires
described, and the angle from the nearest off focused object to
the sensitive plate in the more elongated camera; and this is
what I think is the cause of the apparent want of asrial per-
spective. I should be very glad to possess a lens that did not
need focusing. I should carry it in my pocket, and with a dry
collodion process I could catch positions and expressions in a
crowd far better than with my own eyes; for these poor orbs
have to obey fixed laws, for they cannot even see a man clearly
in the street while looking at a spot on the windov/ frame.

The Chairman, upon inviting the discussion which ensued,
stated that he had no doubt that the picture, at any rate, was
highly instructive to artists.

Mr. Crace: I must beg leave to express the admiration which
I think all must feel. I consider that the picture produced by
Mr. Rejlander, of which he has been good enough to furnish us
with an explanation, is the symbol of a new era in photography.
I think never before have we had a really living scene so clear-
ly and so perfectly portrayed. The picture itself has been sej
verely criticised; audit certainly is to be regretted that two
or three figures in it, though, perhaps, not exactly indelicate,
verge so closely upon it, as to prevent that general approval of
the picture which it otherwise would have met with. I am sure
that I express the feelings of all present when I say that it is
a wonderful performance, and that we are much indebted to him
for his open and candid manner in explaining the process by
which it was produced.

_ Mr. Shadbolt: I did not intend to have made any observa-
tion, but I cannot let pass the opportunity of exjiressing also
my great admiration of this work of art, and of stating that I
most strongly dissent from the opinion expressed by Mr. Crace,
that there is aiiy position of it which is offensive to delicacy.

Mr. O. G. Rejlander: If some people have thought any
part of that picture at all approaching the indelicate, that I
cannot help; I never intended it. Six weeks was the whole
time that I had to conceive the picture in my mind, to compose
it afterwards, to carry it out and deliver it at the Manchester
B.xhibition. A great many trials had to be made before 1 could
get one at all fit to be sent, without being touched by hand.
Perhaps some of the peculiar positions were owing to my wish
not to show too great an approach to the pre-Raphaellites and
Bunyans. I was anxious to show only what I thought were
good lines, and if the models were not perfect, I tried to make
the most of them. I carefully selected, and where I could I
draped. I tried to show what was good, and hide what was
bad, at the same time keeping in view the intention that the
figures should jjlainly relate their own stories, and the morals to
be derived.

The Chairjian: I will ask Mr. Fry to take the chair for a
few moments, in order that I may say a few words, which I
think of very great importance to the future interests ani to the
advance of this art.

Mr. P. W. Fry then took the chair, and Mr. Fenton conti-
nued as follows: —

L^pon the last meeting of the sub-committee of the Society
of Arts appointed to consider the best means of protecting the
copyright for works of Art before the adoption of their report,
the question arose as to the position which photography would
occupy in art, and while every wish was entertained to givepho-

/■..awyrifea

v.'HWf'7tii

Keg, ]>}■ Faeib from an Engraving.

BY CASTOR AND POLLUX

After Rubens.

1S53.

THE PHOTOGRAPniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

Ill

tographers the the fullest jirotoxiion that they could desire for
the works that they should produce, yet there was a feeling
among the artist members that they (the photographers j were
not entitled to take their place among artists, but must be con-
tent to take their copyright as re-producers of art. Agaiust
that position I dissented very strongly, and I am glad to say,
not without some success, and, although I was at first outvoted,
the matter was again taken into consideration, and the difficulty
of giving a direct decision was avoided by leaving the matter an
open question. I think that as the question is now before us
for consideration, it would be as well if photographers would
devote some consideration to it — that they should take the
trouble to go to the Photographic Society's Exhibition and
look at the attempts that have been made, some very crude, all
imperfect, but they are the beginning of the artistic application
of photography. I will not refer to this picture, which, with
all respect to its very great merit, T think is too ambitious a be-
ginning, and what can be done; l3ut I will refer you to small
pictures. I will refer particularly to a picture by Mr. Grundy,
of Birmingham, of the Wilkie or Tenier's kind. There is one
picture of a Fisherman — a single figure, in which the lines have
all been studied, as well as the pose of the figure and the chiaro
oscuro; there is everything but color — there is expression,
though no doubt expression of a low order. The question was
started whether it was possible to obtain a picture of a high
character from the human body? To that picture I would re-
fer as an answer to the question in one form, viz., with respect
to a lower description of art. If you wish to answer it with
respect to a higher class of art, you have only to take the same
pains, and selecting the requisite models, to meet with the same
success as has been done with the lower style of subjacts. I
make these remarks in the hope that they will bring forth ap-
proval or dissent, by bringing the attention of the Society to
what has been done, and by stimulating endeavors to carry that
little to a greater degree of perfection.

Mr. Buss: I think that, notwithstanding any adverse criti-
cisms, they have been passed without appreciating or under-
standing the immense difiicnlties under which such a work as
that before us has to be performed. The mind of the artist has
been completely exemplified throughout, but the difficulties of
the camera of course show themselves in the picture, and I am
quite sure that those who have adversely criticised the picture
are unacquainted with the difficulties of the camera. I am per-
fectly aware of them, and am astonished to see how well they
have been overcome, and I can scarcely conjecture where he
went for his models. I cannot allow this to pass without ex-
pressing my high appreciation of Mr. Rejlandei"'s production,
and I have no doubt, from what has been said, that the art will
be advanced by that gentleman.

Mr. Le Neve Foster: Although I perfectly agree with all
that has been said with reference to the talents of Mr. Rej-
lander and the picture he has produced, and although I perfect-
ly concur with every one in congratulating Mr. Rejlander in
the attempt he has made in a direction to rescue photography
from the reproach that it was merely a mechanical art, still I
and several others have come here wich the idea that we should
not only hear an explanation of that picture, but some explana-
tion of the means by which it was produced If Mr. Rejlander
has invented a mode of production, he has an undoubted right
to keep it to himself, but I thought from the title of the paper,
we should hear some exolauation of the means employed. I am
utterly as loss to know how he has produced that combination
of figures from the various studies separately taken.

Mr. Rejlander: I thought that the paper explained what I
meant to convey, but if it did not, and you will be pleased to
ask me any questions, I shall be happy to answer them. I think
I stated that I first commenced to print the figure called Hag,
[pointing to the figure in the picture placed against the wall.]
This was then a large plain sheet of sensitive paper. I put the
negative of this Hag upon it, and carefully excluded the light
from every part except the figure, and the black velvet with
which I covered the whole plate, with the exception named,
was wrinkled just round this figure; while the sun shone, ac-

VOL. XI. NO. VI. 22

cording to the intensity of the light, the velvet was moved so
as to prevent any lines: if the chemical light was very strong,
it was moved very quickly; if it was slow, of course it was not
moved so fast. After a while I looked at it, and if I found
that it was as much overprinted as I wanted, knowing how it
would come out, I have taken that paper out of the frame in
the dark room, and I then applied this negative [pointing to
another figure in the picture] as before, but in the place where I
intended this figure to be, and of course, as before, I excluded
the light from the entire sheet of paper, as also from the figure
(the Hag) already printed; and to be sure that the half tones
on this side may be kept intact, I had another Hag printed and
cut out very neatly, without being fixed, and subsequently al-
lowed to blacken of itself. It ought to be albumenized, not
plain paper, because plain paper is apt to slip, and albumenized
paper, if it is slightly damped in distilled water, will stick in the
place when applied over the printed part, while I examine it
now and then. Thus I have gone on with every figure, until I
came to the background. Evei'y one was done in the same way;
all were covered up, except what was to be printed, and I print-
ed some, as I said, vei-y deeply, and some others not so deeply;
some slightly, according to the distances required; and after
having printed all, as every one of these figures had been taken
in the same light, all equally strong, in order to give gradation
of tone, having covered up all these, I exposed this group, for
instance to the light, and it had the efi'eet of apparently weak-
ening the shades, while the lights were intensified. Each figure
was taken separately, each with separate backgrounds, as hap-
pened; one was an easel, another a warming pan. Of course
I had aright to stop that out; then I covered up every part, and I
exposed parts alternately for a considerable time, so as to give
value to this figure, and went on from one to another, until I
got them more perfect. I should say it was done, the whole
thirty figures and all, in six weeks, and that was a year ago. I
hope that next year I shall do something better, and I shall
take very great care not to lay myself open to animadversion
upon the ground of indelicacy.

Mr. Monson: I have seen Mr. Rejlander down at Wolver-
hampton; he has a very small operating room in a mining dis-
trict, in such a very bad town to obtain subjects that I do not
know how he managed it. If you were to get up a picture in
London you would, perhaps, procure them readily; but Wolver-
hampton is the most unlikely place in the world for such a pur-
pose. I was so interested in the subject of Mr. Rejlander's pic-
ture, that directly I saw his name down to give a lecture I tra-
velled up to London to hear it, and very much gratified I have
been with its explanation.

Mr. Buss: May I ask if the picture was entirely produced at
Wolverhampton?

Mr. Rejlander: Yes.

Mr. Monson: I think it a meritorious affair to produce large
pillars from small models and so on.

Mr. Grace: We must not forget other pictures that we have
seen of Mr. Rejlander's with figures in action — we could not
easily forget the washing scene, with figures hanging up the
clothes and others in the suds, which could not be produced
without a great amount of genius on his part, and practice in
the drilling of the models to get them perfect; and then again,
that scene of the factory boy and his sweetheart walking one
day in their working dresses and the next day in their holiday
attire. I consider that photography is materially advanced by
the way he has produced absolute pictures, and while looking at
this one we should not forget the smaller works that have led
to the great one.

A Member: Will you allow me to ask how long the picture
has taken in printing, because if you keep a paper long after it
has been excited the high lights take a tint of yellow.

Mr. Rejlander: It takes three very fair days, but if you
employ albumenized paper you may accomplish it sooner, but if
you are careful you may keep it perfect three or four days. It
has happened sometimes that some of the lights have been
slightly tinged, but not more than has been obviated by immer-

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

June,

sion in the hyposulphite of soda. It takes three good summer
days to produce a picture like this one.

The CuAiRirA?^ (exhibiting a photograph): Mr. Rejlander re-
quests me to show this picture to the Society as illustrating a
most important point in art. You may notice the muscles of the
fore-arm are very much contracted, while the rest of the muscles
are comparatively inactive, some of the muscles are so contract-
ed that if they had been seen in a painting, it would have been
pronounced an exaggeration, but it was really the momentary
contraction.

Mr. Rejlander: There is among artists a conventionalism
that when a man is drawn of great muscle, for the sake of keep-
ing, all the muscles in the body are drawn apparently equally de-
veloped, which could scarcely happen. I want to show that of
those muscles which are greatly excited, the opposite ones are
just as quiescent. If any man presses me hard litre, (placing
his hand upon his arm) this will be developed, and itee muscles
{Jure) will be perfectly flaccid. I hope photography will do
art so much good that people will know that all the muscles
should not be painted in action because some are.

Mr. PouNCEY exhibited some photographs which he alleged
to have been produced by printing in the pressure frame in such
a mode that the material forming the picture is simple carbon.
He stated that he was not prepared to communicate the pro-
cess, it being, in his opinion, one of value, and his means not al-
lowing him to forego any advantage to be derived from it.

A long and somewhat personal discussion then ensued, but as
it is contrary to the established practice in any of the Scientific
Societies to discuss at all any matter not freely communicated,
we decline to repeat it.

The meeting then closed.

M. PETZVAL'S

From Photographic Koies.

NEW LENS.

Letter from M. Petzval to M. Paul Pretsch; translated by
the latter: —

Several articles in English journals have shown me that
some people there are favoring the results of my researches with
their attention. But there is also M. Yoigtlander, who states
having known my new lens for many years, and somebody else,
who declares having obtained full particulars from myself. Al-
though I have published a detailed treatise about these matters
(a correct translation of which into English I should like very
much to see published), it seems, nevertheless, that the real
qualities of this new production are not sufficiently known. I
take therefore the liberty of making some observations for this
purpose, and should be much obliged to you if you would make
them known in some Journal connected with this subject.

One of these observations relates to the smaller aperture of
the second lens of my objective, the real cause of which I think
is not well perceived. Every combination of lenses, invented
for any purpose, suffers, as a matter of course, some imperfec-
tion , known by the name of aberrations. It is not possible to
remove all, because there are many of them. We must be
therefore satisfied to remove the most troublesome, and to com-
pensate or balance the remaining ones amongst themselves.
These remaining ones consolidate the natural ability, the special
character of the instrument, limit the aperture and degree of
sharpness, cause sometimes the use of a diaphragm, to which
they give a certain place. In the combination for views, this
place for the stop is near the place of the second lens, therefore
the mountings of this lens can be used as a diaphragm. For
the same reason the place of a diaphragm in a portrait combi-
nation is in the centre of the tube, between the two lenses.
These circumstances regulate the proportions of aperture, and
if, in a combination for portraits, both achromatic lenses can
possess the same aperture, it is still necessary to diminish, in a
combination for views, the aperture of the second lens. But,
if we are not afraid of a little sacrifice in glass, which is con-
nected with a repeated enlarging of the front lens, this diminu-
tion serves also for another purpose, viz., perfect equality of

light in the centre, as well as in the extremest corners and
edges of the picture, a peculiarity which will be appreciated in
future more and more.

To make this more clear, we may imagine two cylinders of
rays of light, the first one falling in parallel to the axis of the
instrument, and rejiresenting a dot in the centre of the field of
view; — the other one inclining to the axis under the half angle
of view of the instrument, and representing a dot on the utmost
corner. The full aperture of the second lens is efficient for
both cones of rays, but not the full aperture of the first one.
If the aperture of the first lens is 36 lines (one line equal to
one-twelfth of an inch, therefore 36 lines equal to 3 inches),
the cylinder of the central rays possesses in falling in a diame-
ter of 36 lines (3 inches), yet it is transformed after the refrac-
tion by this lens into a cone of rays which has at the place
where it reaches the second lens, only a diameter of 32 lines
(2§ ins.) of the section. However, this quantity of light will
not be admitted through the second lens, because this lens has
not 32 lines, but only 24 lines (2 inches) aperture. Therefore
the edges of 4 lines (i of an inch), round the first lens, are not
efficient or active, and form the sacrifice which has been, made
to the equal distribution of light. Consequently the objective
acts like a combination of lenses with an aperture of 28 lines
(2i inches), which is now equally available for all the bundles

of rays, with the only difference that the aperture with the
centre O acts for the central bundle, but the aperture with the
centre P for the utmost edges of the picture, the last one touch-
ing the edges of the lens. All these are fixed proportions,
which are founded in the nature of the matter; they are there-
fore not at all arbitrary, and I can only add that such a lens
vniyst possess the aptitude of producing by the given proportions
of aperture without any diaphragm the sharpest picture of an
object suitably placed.

I have found in some papers the opinion expressed that this
new lens is especially constructed for taking views, and not at
all available for taking portraits. I am convinced by the pro-
fundity of the theory, that it is not so. With some sacrifices in
optic means, namely, by adding two lenses more, we can obtain
such an important advantage in light, that this will become
really practicable. Moreover, I think that we might, under
favorable circumstances, for the sake of the extraordinary
beauty of the pictures, and of their plastic appearance, prefer
the use of the view combination for taking portraits, because the
time of exposure is not much more than double the amount.

M. Voigtlander asserts in his letter about these matters that
this new lens has been known to him for 11 years, and has made
this assertion also to the Imperial Academy of Sciences in
Vienna — that among the unsuccessful trials made at that time
for the purpose of carying out some of my calculations, had
been a similar lens; — I had been, as usual, not satisfied with
his productions, — and some little things, for instance the pro-
portions of aperture, differences of about three inches in the
diameter of curvatures, which reach the absolute value of one-
sixth, were no matter of importance, if only the principle be the
same. He considers therefore the matter as an old acquaint-
ance, and gives it the name of " Orthoscopic objective."

1 wish to reply hereto briefly. There is only one principle
iu all optics, and this is the law of sines of the refractions; all
combinations of lenses, whatever they may be, must be con-
structed according to this law. Therefore in this respect M.
Yoigtlander is right, if he means that this new lens is con-

1858.

THE rilOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOrRNAL.

1(9

structed according to this old and well-kDOwn principle. He
possesses also the merit of having been the first who executed,
17 years ago, the well-known portrait lens, calculated by my-
self, but known by the name of Yoigtlander's. After I had
broken ofif every connexion with him, and not communicated to
him any new theory, or formulsB, or tables, he was obliged to
go his own way, and has in fact invented the chemical focus. I
am unable to appreciate this new invention of M. Yoigtlander's.
I consider it rather a great "misere" of photography; he has
therefore all the merits of this invention for himself, and has in
in fact (the short period of 1*1 years excepted), never, and in
no way worked according to my calculation, does not work even
now according to them, which is proved sufficiently by his
chemical focus, boasting in his price list under my name. If
the calculation of the new lens was communicated to M. Voigt-
lander seventeen years ago, there arises reasonably enough the
question, "why has he kept from the photographic world during
seventeen years this valuable production, the want of which
has been felt long ago ?" But perhaps he might have wanted
seventeen j-ears for inventing the very nice name " Orthoscopic
objective," which invention would not have been due to
myself.

M. Voigtlander says also that the 'camera with the move-
ment on a prism, and the surface of the image inclining to the
axis of the instrument, is a very ingenious arrangement, but not
necessary at all, since everything can be obtained with an ordi-
nary camera. But I myself have found this camera indispen-
sable for the view lens, because the nature of the lens requires
the inclination of the surface of the image to the axis of the
instrument. And there arises the question again, how it hap-
pened that M. Yoigtlander could have known this lens during
seventeen years, remaining in perfect darkness about its pecu-
liarities. No doubt he might be very glad to put his name be-
sides my own; this is quite natural, and somebody else thinks
the same, but the mode and manner in which this has been
carried out is more than ingenious.

At all events I am obliged to assert that at present nobody
works according to my calculations, except the optician, M.
Dietzler, in Yienna,*

M. Yoigtlander's memorial to the Academy of Yienna has
been rejected as an absurdity.

Please to translate these my observations into English, and
make them known in some of the photographic Journals.

Joseph Petzval.

Vienna, May 20, 1858.

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

rm HOLES L\ NEGATIVES.

To ike Editor of the Liverpool Photographic Journal:
Sir, — Will you, in an early number, explain to me the cause

of line pin holes in a collodion negative printing black in the
positive. The negative was developed with — l^ grains pyro-
gallic acid, 15 minims acetic acid, 10 minims alcohol, 1 ounce
water. Yours truly, J. Y.

[The defect complained of may arise from one of several
causes, viz.: — 1st, if the nitrate of silver bath be not properly
saturated with iodide of silver the plate would be partially
affected by the dissolving out a portion of the iodide, as soon
as produced by the double decomposition. 2nd, particles of
matter (oxide of silver for instance), in suspension in the bath
become deposited all over the plate, and in those parts prevent
the action of the developer. 3rd, a similar effect would be pro-
duced by a discolored developer from a like cause. 4th, the
collodion may be filled with minute bubbles of air in conse-
quence of having been shaken up, or other causes. Reinedy. —
Leave a plate coated with sensitized collodion in the bath all
night; filter the bath into a perfectly clean vessel; see that the
dipper is perfectly clean and dry, or if moistened, it should be

* Whose sole Agent ia Englaad is Mr. Paul Peetsch, G7 Great Port-
land street, London, W.

With distilled water. Fdter your developing solution or make
It afresh. Omitting the alcohol. The introduction of a small
quantity of common water, though of little importance gener-
ally, will occasionally cause that defect, by the formation'' of a
small quantity of chloride of silver in fine powder- this is more
apt to be the case where the nitrate of silver bath is an old
one, and surcharged with organic matter. The use of the de-
veloper after it has become discolored, either on the plate or
before, is also frequently the source of this annoyance.— Ed ]

For the Photographic and Fine Art Journal

SMALL MATTERS.

With the Heliographer, as with every other professional per-
son, and indeed with all of whatever vocation or condition,
things, which in themselves small, are not unfrequently of very
considerable moment.

For example, how much may the beauty and attractiveness
of a portrait be enhanced by a graceful lock of hair— an easy
fold of the dress— the point or slight glimpe of the collar or
the wristband, or the cravat 1 It is not unimportant, then
that the Heliographer should secure these graces, with a little
care and proper adjustment.

So, too, a lady's hair may require the operant's attention
Her dress should fall easily and gracefully, both sides bein^-
balanced or correspondent; while the head should be neither
too high nor too low, and the eyes should be fixed upon some
object in the proper direction— a circumstance which will give
them the best expression, and one conforming to the attitude of
the body, position of the head, &c. All these individually
" small matters" are, in the aggregate, of inestimable value
and constitute the difference between a highly artistic and
pleasing picture and a worthless shadow. The things required
should be seen at a glance, and quickly adjusted without any
appearance of hesitation or of study by the artist at the
camera.

Such attentions will be rewarded with success, and the
artist's judgment and skill will prove highly valuable to the es-
tablishment, provided everything be done in a graceful and
pleasing manner.

I have known some very skillful manipulators, who were yet
very disagreeable and injurious to the establishment, while per-
mitted to manage the camera and control the sitting depart-
ment. All things were performed mechanically ; and every
word they uttered before an intelligent sitter was proof posi-
tive to him of their unfitness to occupy the post of artist at the
camera. No energy— no feeling— no politeness— no socialness—
but cold, dull, rough, morose; a person of this cast is exces-
sively disagreeable and offensive to the sitter— a fact, which is
generally indicated by the entire aspect of the portrait taken.
By consequence, the Art is degraded and condemned in this
country. Such a man has either mistaken his vocation, or he
has wantonly compromises the character of his Art and'the in-
terests of his employer and the reputation of the galleryhe occupies.

The " small round lights" on the eyes are indispensable, in
order to impart thought or meaning and expression to the face ; yet
numerous persons, possessing sound judgment in other matters,
will find fault with, and refuse a good daguerreotypic or photo-
graphic likeness on account of the " small lights in the eyes"—
remarking, that they look like " cataracts" on the eyes. There
may, indeed, be truth in this remark, unless the light spot is
very small and located close under the eyelid.

They, moreover, frequently object to a good picture, because
of its boldness and strength and depth of its shadows— the very
circumstances which give it rotundity, truth and beauty— and
wish it to be light, flat, and without shadow. The fault of
such lies in their judgment— the result, perhaps, of a bad
education.

A learned Professor once remarked to me, that his portrait
was perfect in every way, both as a truthful likeness and as a
work of Art, with the sole exception of the "cataract" on the
eye— each eye having a very small round light spot close be-

180

THE PHOTOGRAPniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

June,

neatli tlie edge of the upper eyelid, whicli was secured with
some difficulty, and gave to the eyes a bright, life like ex-
pression.

These are specimens of some of the drawbacks and difficulties
to be encountered and explained to the ignorant or misjudging
by the enthusiastic practitioner of the Heliographic Art.

Another person, who was a better judge of works of true
Art, on seeing a bold, round, artistic picture of himself, just
taken, beside another of a different stamp, exclaimed, "look!
here are productions of different men — mark the contrast be-
tween these two portraits of the same iudividuall Both are
good, as daguerreotypes — good, that is, ckemkally and mechani-
cally — but one is the production of a 7nere mechanic, while the
other exhibits high artistic skill in the handling. The first is
without expression — a fiat, meaningless shadow — while the
other is a round, truthful, life-like representation of the original
face, fud of intelligence, thought and meaning. I see it now —
the mystery is solved — the secret lies not in the instrument, or
the materials, one or all. It is in the vian — the man, who is
thoroughly qualified for, and whose soul is in his Artl"

Perhaps these miscellaneous scraps may be of some utility,
as sitggestives, to my brother Heliographers. If you so judge,
Mr. Editor, they are at the service of your Joitrnal.

M. A. Root.

Philadelphia, April 28, 1858.

From (he FhoiograpJiic Notes.

PHOTOGRAPHIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS.

MR. TAYLOR'S PAPER.

I will tell you how, on a recent occasion, I made the most of
a lens. It is a landscape lens, 18 inches focus, but the camera
to which it was attached would only expand 11 inches. I got
a set of long focus undipped meniscus spectacle eyes, one of
which I inserted under the diaphragm. This reduced the focus
to the desired length, and the resulting picture was very sharp.
I was so pleased that I tried the converse of the experiment,
viz., by a concat't; lens to lengthen the focus. In this I was suc-
cessful. I advise any of you to -try this, by all means, as the
cost is so small. Unfitted biconvex spectacle eyes, round, and
about 1 inch diameter, only cost 9d. per dozen; meniscus and
bi-coucave about three times that sum."

Mr. Taylor then describes a pair of lanterns he is having
made, for exhibiting dissolving views, transparent photographs,
&c. He says, — "The object-glass is an ordinary quarter-size
achromatic combination, of a rather short focus. Pictures, when
exhibited through such achromatics, are exceedingly sharp com-
pared with the ordinary object-glasses." He uses the lime-ball
li"-ht and oxyhydrogen gasses, and places a condenser between
the light and the picture, the object-glasses being in the focus
of the condenser. He proposes also to place a parabolic re-
flector between the condenser and lime-ball light, and asks if
any one will advise him on this matter. [We consider Mr.
Taylor's arrangement quite correct in principle, and the para-
bolic reflector an improvement. The portrait lens. No. 1,
makes an excellent lens for the magic lantern. When the two
lenses of a stereoscopic camera are used in dissolving view lan-
terns, a pair of transparent styreograms may be exhibited on
the opposite walls of an apartment, and viewed by reflectors.
This application of the Stereoscope is very important, and has
yet to be worked out. The oxj'-calcium light is very good, and
the oxygen very easily made. It is less dangerous than the
other, and the light very white and brilliant. We exhibited a
set of Mr. Firth's views of Egypt, in this way, the other even-
in?, and they were greatly admired, but we had unfortunately
only one lantern. Copies of sculpture, on a black background,
exhibited in this way, are very fine; and so are portraits, when
good.— [Ed. p. N.]

ma. R. L. JONES' PAPER.
"Two subjects are at present very interesting to Photogra-

phers; perhaps the most of any is Permanent Printing, and a
Dry Collodion Process that shall be in all respects satisfac-
tory.

"With regard to the former, I am disposed to think that
the processes of development are the only ones to be relied on
with certainty, and at present I am inclined to follow that of
Mr. Sutton, last published, where he prepares his paper with
salt and lemon-juice only. I find that with slight exposure and
long development I get fine blacks, and with longer exposure
and cutting the development rather short, I get good browns,
which nevertheless appear to have gallic acid enough to render
them permanent. I enclose a specimen of the latter, which, to
my eye, presents a very pleasing color, more like a drawing
than an engraving, which is what I think we ought to aim at°
It is printed on 'Papier Saxe.'

"With respect to the latter. Dr. Hill Norris's and Mr.
Long's process seem to do almost all that we need; the tender-
ness of the film is a drawback, but the especial difficulty I find
is that of their requiring a neutral exciting bath, and therefore
there is a continual liability to get out of order. Now the al-
bumen upon unsensitized collodion, if it could be successfully
carried out, would be as simple as the gelatine process, and
would enable us to add acetic acid to the exciting solution and
to keep it always in order.

"Will some of our contributors turn their attention to this?
That is, to Collodion — unexcited if possible — and covered with
albumen, or something that will bear an acid bath. I have had
some fine negatives on waxed paper, but unless much washed, a
single hot day will deteriorate it, and if much washed the ex-
posure must be very long. With Long's Dry Collodion I have
to give five minutes in the sun at this time of the year,"

ME. G. C. "WARREN'S PAPER,

"I am sorry I cannot give Mr. Taylor any advice regarding
Parabolic Reflectors for his Dissolviiag View Lanterns, but I
would like him to try an experiment with the Lime Light when
his apparatus is complete.

"During last summer I managed to enlarge several small ne-
gative portraits to life size, upon Iodized Paper; the exposure
varied from five minutes to half an hour. This comparatively
dull weather prevents my obtaining a good picture in any rea-
sonable time, so I have thought of trying Artificial Light, and
think the Lime Light would be the best to adopt. If Mr.
Taylor, when his apparatus is in working order, will just pin
up a piece of sensitive paper (Calotype) at the focus of his en-
larged picture, he may very possibly obtain an impression; if
so, the use of the Lime Light in his lantern will be an advance
in the Art of Photography.

"Dry Collodion Process. — At present I am much inclined
towards a modification of Long's Gelatine Process. When I
first tried this method, as published, I could not keep the film on
the glass, nor could I prevent my negative developing unevenly
(I usedpyrogallic), owing to the innumerable blisters formed.
I tried Long's and Hill Norris's Collodion, but both were the
some; thinking over the matter, the following ideas struck
me: —

"The gelatine in drying will contract, and when again wetted
will expand or swell, and at the same time be almost sure to
move the collodion with it. You are sure to have innumerable
hills and dales. It at once sugguested itself to me to dilute the
gelatine and introduce some ingredient to prevent its drying so
hard and horny, or contracting so much, I introduce either
honey or dextrine, or both, about 1 drachm to 20 ounces of
gelatine solution. This I find has the desired effect, and the
plates can be developed with the pyro-gallic solution without
fear of blisteriu.n-, and, with jsroper collodion, without coiniuo-
off the glass. My method is to make the preservative solution
according to Long's formulas, and then add an equal bulk of wa-
ter, for instance, if I make 10 oz. of Long's Preservative solu-
tion, I add to it 10 oz. of distilled water, then add the honey
or dextrine.

"Instead of using honey to preserve plates for a short time

185S.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

181

I find the ordinary syrup Csimple) of the chemists', adding half
a grain of citric acid and iialf an ounce of water to each ounce
of syrup, much better, and more likely to produce a picture free
from stains. The enclosed developed print by Mr. Jones is the
best specimen of the sort I have met with, still there is the
same want that we experience in all developed prints, the want
of richness and depth, comlined with transparency in the dark
parts and shadows. I suppose we shall get over it just in time
to welcome an entirely new process, such as the Printing Direct
in Carbon. I tried, some months or more back to print in a
similar way, as Mr. Sutton suggests, with bi-chromate of potass
and and lampblack. Lampblack is too coarse, even the finest.
Indian ink would be better, or perhaps a mixture of transparent
water colors, as lake sepia and indigo, but I do not think this
way will answer well at all.

"If the Panoramic Lens can be woi-ked well it will be just
the thing that is wanted for views. It must have occurred to
many besides myself how much better the pictures would look if
we could but include a larger angle; it will add greater inte-
rest to the picture."

MR. E. RIMMER'S PAPER.

"Our friend Mr. Jones, in his remarks on the Dry Collodion
Processes complains most justly of the tender films which they
but too often produce. I have no doubt that this may be avoid-
ed by employing a suitable sample of collodion, which it is, how-
ever, almost impossible, with any degree of certainty to procure.
I have more than once gone to the fountain head, and employed
that prepared (or, all events, said to be prepared), by Hill
Norris himself, but there was always the same blistering and
peeling off of the film. I believe that Mr. Berry ot Liverpool,
can supply a sample of pyroxyline, expressly prepared for the
Dry Process, with which any amateur may make most excellent
collodion. For my own part, however, I much prefer the Ho-
ney Process, it steers as it were a middle course; it is neither
absolutely wet, nor absolutely dry, and is capable of producing
negatives which no other process can easily surpass, while its
keeping properties are, for all ordinary purposes quite sufficient.
In medio iutissimus ibis.

"In the employment of honey moreover, Mr. Jones need not
in any way distress himself about his nitrate bath. It is quite
true that honied plates, being moist, are not quite so easily
packed as those perfectly dry, still I would rather endure this
than experience the morxification of finding a long day's toil re-
warded only with tender and blistered films.

"I enclose a view of the South Porch of Lincoln Cathedral,
taken on a honey plate, and am sorry that I have not a better
print to vindicate the claims of my favorite process."

MR. SUTTON'S PAPER.

"I enclose a few little specimens which will no doubt interest
yoa. One is, a print in carbon, by Mr. Pouncy; another a
transferred daguerreotype; another, a negative on coUodionized
paper; another, a positive on the back of an address card; and
the last, a positive transferred from glass to leather by damping
it with spirits of wine. The great novelty is of course the print in
carbon. If you examine it narrowly you will see that the
paper was first blackened all over, and the photograph fixed in
carbon by means of bi-chromate of potass. Observe how re-
markably clean the lights are, although the paper has once been
blackened all over; they are in fact whiter than the paper was
originally; that the paper was blackened all over I have no
doubt, because Mr. Pouncy has himself told me so, and as for
the bi-chromate, you may see it, at the bottom of the paper, at
the back of the paper, and by transmitted light. I find that
if I first gelatinize a piece of paper, and then blacken it with
printer's ink, the most adhesive stuff of all, the whole can be
removed on the following day by a boiling hot solution of soda,
and the paper left rather whiter and cleaner than it was at first.
Again, if a piece of paper is rubbed all over with stone blue,
dried, and then a solution of bi-chromate applied, dried and ex-
posed under a negative, — and lastly, soaked in a hot solution of

22*

soda, the whites become perfectly clean, and the dark parts are
absolutely fixed to tlie paper. We are assuredly on the eve of
an important change in the printing processes, and this will
open a new branch of industry to hundreds, and give Photogra-
phy an immense spur onwards.

"As tor the Panoramic Camera, I am quite satisfied it will
answer. It is a mere question of £ s. d. to get the mechanism
of it perfect.

"I am now unfortunately greatly occupied with a Dictionary
of Photography, which will be published next month, or I
should have more time to experiment with the carbon priutin"--
but I hope Mr. Pouncy will soon publish the details of his mani-
pulation. I consider that great credit is due to him for what
he has done; and I hope he will be adequately rewarded for
it."

HONEY PROCESS .

Liverpool, March 13th, 1858.
To Editor of Liverpool Photographic Jov.rnal:

Sir, — I am emboldened by your kind and very satisfactory an-
swers to enquiring photographers, to request the favor of your
furnishing me with the formulae for your honey process — as to
the collodion, bath, honey syrup, and developing solution. A
paragraph on this in the Journal would be very welcome to
many amateurs looking forward to a summer's campaign; and
no doubt you have effected improvements in the process to
render it worthy an additional notice. A constant subscriber,
I would take the liberty also to say that I go to the country
early next month, and if you would kindly send me a memo, of
the formulae direct I would feel much obliged.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

Vale Salve.

[It would be quite incompatible with our arrangement to
answer correspondents except through the medium of the
Journal, but in this way our best assistance will be always
cheerfully accorded. The collodion we prefer is one that is
somewhat old, thick, and which forms an absorbent film, in fact;
that which for other purposes is generally regarded as spoiled,
the sensitizing bath, the ordinary thirty grains of nitrate of sil-
ver, saturated with iodide of the same base. If you have to
make a new bath we prefer Mr. Hockin's method of adding
about a drachm of the iodized collodion, shaking well, allow it
to settle, and filter. The honey solution: equal volumes of the
liquid portion of the honey and distilled water; stir well, and
filter. The filtration is somewhat tedious, and if the syrup be
very thick, a little more water may be added, just enough to
permit it to pass through the paper. Developing solution:
two grains of pyrogaliic acid, one ounce of distilled water, and
one grain citric acid. Having coated and excited your plate in
the ordinary way, drain it vs'ell for about a minute, then pour
over it a sufficiency of the syrup, beginning along one edge, and
causing it to flow in a steady wave towards the opposite side,
driving the free nitrate of silver before it; this may be done
several times with the same portion of syrup, and continue until
there is no tendency to streakiness, then stand on edge to drain:
the face of the plate should be towards the wall, resting against
a slip of glass, and with one corner down in a porcelain dish,
the lower edge being supported over the opposite rim, thus
there is an inclination towards one corner. The plate should
be left for about a quarter of an hour at least to drain, and
may then be removed to the dark frame, or left until convenient.
The exposure of plates thus prepared should take place within
the next twenty-four hours; if desired to be kept longer, they
may after being drained say for five minutes, be again treated
as at first with a fresh portion of syrup, and they will then be
fit for use for some weeks; but the requisite exposure will be
longer than before. If we require plates to be kept for any
length of time, we prefer Dr. Norris's dry plates, but if for use
the foUwing day, our predilections are in favor of the syrup,
especially as we can always convert a plate prepared with syrup,

182

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

June,

if not used when expected, into one of Dr. Norris's by washing
off the latter, and pouring on a hot soUition of gelatine. The
washing may be considered complete when a drop of the water
from tlie plate ceases to have either a metallic or sweet taste.
Develop the syruped plate by first iaimersing in water for an
instant, in order to allow the solution to How without check,
which may be poured on as with a fresh plate. When sufQ-
ciently intense, wash and fix with hyposidphite of soda, not
cyanide of potassium, and subsequently wash copiously to re-
move the hyposulphite. If the details are all perfect, but the
intensity deficient, this may be increased to almost any extent
by another development before drying the plate, only adding a
few drops of the nitrate bath before pouring the pyrogallic
acid solution on. Lastly, wash well, but no further fixing is
necessary. — Ed.]

From the Live7-pool Photographic Journal.

BINOCULAR AND STEREOSCOPIC VISION.
To the Editor of the Liverpool Photographic Journal:

Sir, — In reply to your query respecting an instrument which
has lately occupied some attention, termed the Tdeslereoscope, I
have to state that I made a similar instrument upwards of five
years ago. It consisted simply of four rectangular pieces of
looking-glass mounted upon a flat staff of wood four feet long;
the two pieces fixed in the middle of the staff were inclined at
an angle of 45°, the vertex being towards the observer. Two
eye-holes, about one inch in diameter, were cut through the
wood to admit the reflected images from the fixed mirrors into
both eyes. Each mirror at the end of the staff was hinged at
its base, in order to adjust the degree of outward inclination for
objects more or less distant, and to direct the first reflected im-
age on to the two mirrors of 45°, and from thence to the
eyes.

Some of the effects of this piece of apparatus were very re-
markable: objects so far distant that the ordinary angle of vision
of the two eyes was not sufficient to enable one to appreciate
their size and relative positions, were brought into high stereo-
scopic relief, strongly persuading one of the fact that for long
ranges, at least, there is considerable advantage in taking a
hippopotamus view of distant objects. On the other hand, the
use of the instrument on near objects was instructive, hut not
satisfactory, in producing a true stereoscopic effect — for exam-
ple, on standing at the end of a row of pillars, or trees, both
sides were seen atthe same time, producing a double image. The
outer minor required to be adjusted to a range of at least fifty
yards before agreeable or correct vision could be obtained.

These adjustments proved to be a matter of such nicety that
it occurred to me the instrument might be usefully employed as
a means of approximately measuring short inaccessible dis-
tances, up to about 1000 yards, by attaching a lever index to
the arrangement for simultaneously moving the outer mirrors,
which lever would point out the distances, upon a properly di-
vided scale. I have also now before me another instrument
constructed about the same period. This is just the converse
of the preceding. The vision from the two eyes being carried
imvards or brought together by means of reflecting prisms
through a small aperture over the bridge of the nose. This a[)-
paratus is figured and described in the transactions of the Mi-
crospical Society, contained in the Quarterly Jozornal of Mi-
croscopic Scicvce, for May 25th, 1853, from which I quote the
following passage.

"On looking through this instrument without the magnifier,
a singular illusion is produced, for the vision with the two eyes
is brought so nearly to a state of parallelism that they are in
effect blended into one, and we so far lose the power of appre-
ciating distance that we appear able to grasp objects several
feet away from us, as the deceptions arising from monocular
vision are increased, by seeking with both eyes from the same
position as with one."

There has been much discussion with reference to the proper
angle for obtaining stereoscopic pictures; but if the angular po-

*

sition from which the two objects are represented is to be con-
sidered simply as a means of giving ike appearance of solidity
and relative distance, then, I take it, that any degree of angle
that will produce the desired effect is correct and advisable.
The argument against a large angle is, that we then do not see
the objects similarly correct in size and proportion as seen with
the naked eye; but that the distance between the eyes is not
sufficient to meet many cases has been repeatedly shown. On
looking with both eyes at a landscape, a building, across a broad
river or valley, there are many conditions which enable us to
form a correct idea of size and position, which cannot be in-
cluded in a camera picture. There may be moving clouds in
the background. The eye has the power of making instant
comparison by glancing quickly from object to object, and scan-
ning the space from the feet to the place observed. Now set up the
camera, and take two pictures with the lenses the same distance
apart as the two eyes, the result will be a flat picture deficient
in stereoscopic relief, because the conditions I have re-
ferred to are ^'anting, for no camera lens can ever be made to
give the same panoramic indications as the eye. I have sup-
posed a case where even the foreground cannot be delineated.
Move the camera some feet asunder for each picture and a good
stereoscopic result will be obtained, free from distortion, and
giving a correct idea of the form and size of the object. I have
no hesitation in stating, that for a very distant object, where
no foreground can be shown, (such as a rock, or a ship at sea,
for example) , the camera may be moved as much as ten or fif-
teen feet asunder with advantage. This I frequently have been
obliged to do in cases where, with the usual angle, I could not
obtain any stereoscopic effect at all.

I consider it simply absurd to set down one definite distance
between the points of vision for all ranges; as well might we
expect to obtain a stereoscopic picture of the moon with the
ordinary stereo-camera. In illustration I would allude to the
beautiful stereoscopic pictures of the moon, by Mr. De La Rue,
taking during her libratious — equivalent to an angle of vision
from two points exceeding /o!«- thousand miles asunder.
I am, dear sir, yours faitlifully,

F. H. WexXham.

ON DEVELOPING NEGATIVES WITH IRON,

Aberdeen, April 7th, 1858.
To the Editor of the Photographic Notes:

Sir, — You have on several occasions been good enough to
mention with unqualified praise some of my Stereoscopic Views
which you had seen, remarking at the same time that you un-
derstood them to have been developed with the proto-sulphate
of iron. This is not altogether correct, however, for I use both
pyrogallic acid and proto-sulpliate of iron, according to the cir-
cumstances of the case require, indeed I sometimes use both
of them in developing the same negative.

Almost all the Scottish photographers that I am acquainted
with have used iron as a developer for years, and Mr. Tunny, of
Edinburgh, who instructed me in the art five years ago, has
used it, if I mistake not, since 1851. I cannot claim any merit
therefore on the score of originality; and I suspect it is more
in the manner of using it, and being careful in choosing snlijects
and timing the exposure, than from any superiority tiiat iron
has over pyro-gallic acid, that my views are said to be excellent.
When my subject is well lighted, I prefer pyro-gyllic acid as a
developer, but when there is great contrast in the picture, and
an undue portion of deep shadow, then iron is much to be pre-
ferred.

When proto-sulphate of iron is used, a much shorter exposure
in the camera is required, and when uncertain about the proper
time I begin to develop with pyro-gallic acid, and if all the de-
tails come up I develop in the usual way. If the plate appears
to be under-exposed, however, I wash oft' the pyro-galiic acid;
when the negative is half developed pour over it a solution of
nitrate of silver, from a little kept in a measure for that pur-
pose, and then dash on the solution of proto-sulphate of iron,

This brings up the details at o'.ice, and often saves a negative
that would have otherwise been useless.

Before taking the camera to a spot, I f5nd it a good plan to
maice a previous visit on a clay when nothing else can be done,
and after taking the bearings as it were, au'l choosing the best
point of view, the hour of the day when the subject will be
best lighted will be more easily determined. This saves time
when you come back to work on a fine day, and often prevents
tlie annoyance of walking to a spot with all yonr apparatus, in
the early morning, and making the discovery that it will not be
properly lighted till the afternoon. When I pitch my camp op-
posite a good subject, perhaps 50 to lUO miles away from home,
I think it foolishness to come away with one or two bad nega-
tives, if, by a little perseverance, or by waiting a day or two
even, I can bring home a perfect one. Perseverance, and as you
remarked some time ago, "a little artistic knowledge, and a lit-
tle common sense," are more to be depended upon than pecu-
liarities in the developing solution. These are not to be ne-
glected, but I believe that any little excellence my works may
display, is to be attributed more to some artistic knowledge
than to any little excellence in the Chemistry of Photography.

I hope, therefore you will continue to advocate the claims of
Photography, as an art, and to uphold its dignity in an artistic
point of view, as you have done, almost alone, hitherto.
Your most obedient Servant,

Geo. N. Wilson.

From the Liverpool rhotographic Journal.
THE HISTORIC SOCIETY OP LANCASHIRE km CHESHIRE.

Although the formal amalgamation of the Liverpool Photo-
graphic Society with the Historic Society of Lancashire and
Cheshire has not yet taken place, the preliminaries are all sa-
t isfactorily arranged, and the union has in reality commenced.

On Thursday evening, the usual meeting of the members of
the latter society, held in the Grand Jury room, St. George's
Hall, was considerably augmented by the presence of a number
of the leading members of the late Photographic Society.

P. Macintyre, Esq., M.D., having taken the chair, the mi-
nutes of the previous meeting were read by the Assistant-Sec-
retary, Mr, Jean, some donations were announced, and a variety
of subjects of scientific and literary interest were exhibited.
Taose relating to photography included, by Mr. Atkinson, a
patent American solar camera, the reflex of the sun being re-
ceived on a looking-glass attached to the camera in a horizontal
position, and fitted with appliances which enable the operator to
place it at such an angle as to transmit the likeness through the
lens to the prepared plate.

Mr. Forrest stated that, with the assistance of this camera,
they could get impressions life size. It was going to Wool-
wich on the following day ; but, before it was sent, he thought
it of sufficient interest to submit it to the society. It was a very
high class instrument, was the latest new work of the kind out,
and its cost, he said, was £20. The camera created much in-
terest.

Mr. Forrest exhibited a new lens, manufactured on Prof.
Petzval's principle, by Messrs. Voughl and Fra, Berlin. It
was composed, he said, of three glasses, and its peculiarity lay
in the preservation of the lines of buildings perfectly straight.

Mr. Glover exhibited a stereoscopic view of Dr. Livingstone's
steel-built launch, for the exploration of Zambesi River.

Mr. Corey, one of the vice-presidents of the late Photogra-
phic Society, then read a paper on " The History of Photogra-
phy." In the course of his remarks he commented at some
length on the progress of this art, tracing it back to a very
early period, yet showing that though philosophers were fully
aware of the action of light on silver at very remote periods,
it was not until the present age the areana by which the pleas-
ing representations that it produces could be prevented from

fleeting away almost as rapidly as they were produced. After
giving a chronological account of the invention, expatiating on
experiments of Sir H Davy and Mr. Wedgwood, interesting
as they were, yet futile until the discovery of Sir John Ilers-
chel, on the effect of the hyposulphites in fixing the pro-
ducts of the camera, and awarding their several aerits to the
labors of M. Daguerre, Mr. Goddard, Mr. R. Hunt, Mr Fox
Talbot, and above all. to Scott Archer; he congratulated his
hearers on the utilitarian character the art had assumed by the
rapid progress it was making to "record its own reflections,"
and supported his arguments by some very choice specimens.

Mr. TowsoN hoped that what remarks he had to urge in con-
nection with photography would not be deemed to savour of
egotism. Mr. Robt. Hunt had been mentioned as one of the
earliest photographers; but perhaps Mr. Corey was not aware
that scarcely a single day elapsed in the year 1838 in which he
(Mr. Towsonj was not making experiments in concert with Mr.
Hunt, while he was also in constant communication with Sir
John Herschel and the Honorable Mr. Fox Talbot. At that
period, although their experiments were not perfectly satisfac-
tory, they were quite sanguine that the art would arrive at the
condition it had since attained; and although he had no idea
that they should be able to bring it to a state of perfection,
they were still determined to prosecute their experiments until
the work got into better hands. Although there was very lit-
tle he himself had done to be proud of in connection with pho-
tography, he had the satisfaction of knowing that he had been
instrumental in preventing the success of Mr. Fox Talbot's ap-
plication for a patent for the glass processes; for, in 1838, be
(Mr. Towson) produced a photograph on glass, which is still
in existence and which, at the time, was sent by him to Sir
John Herschel with the knowledge of Mr. R. Hunt, and was
referred to by both as a proof that Mr. Fox Talbot had no
claim whatever to an exclusive enjoyment of the privilege of
producing photographs on glass. By reference, also, to the
London and Edinhurgh Philosophical Magazine of that period
it would be found that the proposition, as to the possibility of
taking photographic figures from life, camo from him (Mr. Tow-
son ) .

Mr. Corey was glad of having that opportunity of bearing
testimony to the value of Mr. Robert Hunt's experiments, to
which he and other photographers of the present day were
greatly indebted.

The series of Mr. Frith's beautiful photographic views from
Karnac and Thebes were next exhibited on a screen, by means
of the oxyhydrogen light, under the able management of Mr.
James Cassady, of Lime street, Liverpool: the lamp and ap-
paratus employed having been kindly lent by Messrs. Abraham
& Co., of Lord street.

The Rev. H. U. Higgins, who had travelled in Egypt, ex-
plained the views as they were thrown upon the screen, giving
little historical accounts, which added greatly to the interest of
the exhibition. He bore testimony to the remarkable fidelity
of the views, which not only preserved the details, but, as seen
by means of this beautiful and wonderful phase of the art,
showed the exact appearance of the stone, which was as white
and chaste as if it had just left the chisel of the sculptor. He
considered that that the facility afforded by photography in its
application to dissolving views, which might be shown on a
large scale to a great number of people at once, was one of the
most remarkable triumphs of the art. The colored views which
are generally shown by this process, are extremely beautiful,
and convey an excellent impression of the wonderful architec-
tural remains of the East; but they are in no way to be com-
pared with these photographic views of Mr. Frith.

The exhibition excited much interest, and the members of the
late Photographic Society received a vote of thanks for the
pleasing entertainment they had provided for the mepibers.
The proceedings soon afterwards terminated.

Oxide. — A compound of oxygen and a base destitute of acid
and salifying properties.

184

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FIXE ART JOURNAL.

June,

A

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

MODIFIED DRY PROCESS.

BY J. GLOVER.

Being rather late for the next publication, I most necessarily
be brief, but shall be happy to supply any further information.

COLLODION.

From pyroxyline prepared at a high temperature, and in con-
tact with the acids longer than usually recommended, with full
proportion of alcohol. To one ounce of plain collodion two
grains iodide of ammonium, one-and-a-half grains iodide potas-
sium, half a grain bromide ammonium, and one drop saturated
tincture of iodine: iodised at least ten days before use.

PRESERVED LIQUID.

120 grains gelatine, twenty grains citric acid, sixty grains
gum arable, two fluid drachms honey: dissolved in two ounces
distilled water; boiled slowly in a flask twenty minutes, cooled,
and again boiled five minutes. Make up the volume with dis-
tilled water to twelve ounces. When cool, add half an ounce
alcohol, containing two grains camphor dissolved. Stand two
days, and filter just before use.

DEVELOPER. '

Two and a-half grains pyrogallic acid, ten minims glacial
acetic acid, one quarter grain citric acid, ten minims alcohol,
and one ounce water.

SILVER SOLUTION.

Eight grains of nitrate of silver to one ounce of water.

FIXING.

Four grains cyanide potassium, and one ounce of water used
as a bath.

MODE OF MANIPULATION.

Make sensitive in the usual way, allowing the collodion to
set to the maximum extent before immersion. Drain one
minute, pour the first portion of preservative on at one edge,
then flow slowly across the plate, and off at the opposite edge
into the waste dish. Place the plate on a levelling-stand,
cover with the second portion of preservative, allow it to rest
three minutes, then run the solution round the plate several
times, and off into the measure, to be used as the first portion
for the succeeding plate: drain from one corner, when dry store
in dark frames or boxes. Prepare the plates twelve hours before
exposure.

TO DEVELOP.

Place on the levelling-stand, pour over the silver solution,
and off again; rest the plate herizontally one minute, then ap-
ply the developer and proceed as with wet collodion, adding
silver as required. The development takes from ten to twenty
minutes.

The chief features in this process are — a hard glassy surface,
giving exquisite detail, good keeping qualities, tolerable sensi-
tiveness, easy development, freedom from stains and blisters, if
prepared as directed, wide range of exposure, and last, not
least, almost absolute certainty in the results.

From the Photographic Note).

ANALYSIS OF TEE ORTIIOSCOPIC LENS.

Chloro-Chroiiic Acid. — This is a beautiful salt made by the
addition of a small portion of chlorine to chromic acid, evapo-
rating and crystallizing. The crystals are of a brilliant carmine
color and very deliquescent, and should bo kept in a closely
stopped bottle. It is supjjosed that this compound will enter
largely into any substance discovered for taking daguerreotypes
in the natural color.

shall endeavor in the present article to discuss fully the
itry of the new lens lately introduced by Messrs. Voigt-

We

geometry _. — ^ .^^„ ,v,wo x^^^,j mu.v^^uwtwi k^j ^ucasio. » uiyi,-
lander andSon, and called by them the "Orthoscopic Lens;"
observing that it is constructed on the same principle as a new
lens manufactured by M. Dietzler, of Yienna, according to the
formula and under the superintendence of M. Petzval, an emi-
nent German Mathematician, who is the inventor of this form
of instrument, as well as of the Portrait Lens in common use.

The term "Orthoscopic," adopted by Messrs. Voigtlander, is
derived from the two Greek words "orthos," right, and "sko-
peo," I see; and the idea intended to be conveyed by the term
as applied to a photographic lens, is, that it gives a picture
much more free from distortion than other photographic lenses.
We shall show bye-and-bye that the term is not misapplied
to it.

The Orthoscopic Lens is an arrangement consisting of. two
achromatic compound lenses separated by an interval, as shown
in the figure.

The front lens is the larger, and is the same as the front lens
of the present combination for portraits; that is to say it is
composed of a double convex lens of crown glass, cemented
with Canada balsam to a concave lens of flint, the entire lens
having negative focal length-— that is, causing parallel rays to
converge to a focus on the opposite side of the lens to the orio'ia
of light.

The posterior lens is an achromatic compound lens formed of
two, not cemented together, but merely touching at the edges,
and having a space between them in the middle, as shown° in
the figure. The inner lens is of flint glass, and double concave,
the flatter side being outwards. The outer lens is a meniscus
of crown glass, having its convex side outwards and next to the
picture. The deepest concavity of the flint lens is therefore
opposite to the concavity of the meniscus. As these lenses are
not cemented together, but have a cavity between thpm, their
inner surfaces may sometimes require wiping; they are there-
fore merely deposited in the cell which receives them, and are
fixed in their place by an open cap, which is screwed until it
touches a brass ring laid in contact with the outer lens. When
a stop is used it is placed between the ring and the cap, as shown
in the figure. The diameter of the posterior lens is about two-
thirds that of the front lens, and the distance between them is
about half the diameter of the front lens.

The posterior compound lens has positive focal length, and
would cause parallel rays to diverge from a point on the same
side of the lens as the origin of light. The front lens there-
fore tends to bring parallel rays to a focus, the black lens to
scatter them wider apart. In popular language the front lens
is convex and magnifies, the back lens is concave'and diminishes *

* We would take this opportunity of observing that in optics the signs
plus minus are introduced into forumlaj from their property of being able
to represent not merely the operations of addition and subtraction, but
also contrariety of position or direction. By calling lines measured ou
one side of a lens positive, and ou the other side negative, and aftixinf
the signs 7)/»s or mimm to the magnitude of a lino, according to itsposb
tion, it is possible to make one formula include a great variety of diffe-
rent cases. The convention adopted in optics is, to call lines measured
I'rom the lens toivards the origin of liglit ;;os;7/i'c. and in the opposite di-
rection negative. In other brandies of mathematics it is found verv con-
venient to adopt similar conventions in which the signs plus and minus
indicate opposite qualities, as well as mere addition and subtraction.

1858.

THE PnOTOGRxiPIITC AND FIXE ART JOURNAL.

185

The exact particulars of the compouad lenses are as fol-
low:—

Front lens-^Diameter 8 centimetres.

Focal length 40 do. (Negative)

Back lens— Diameter 5 centimetres.

Focal length 90 do. (Positive)

Distance between the lenses 4 centimetres.

Focal length of entire combination.... 63 do. (Negative)

Diameter of the field 54 do.

[A centimetre is about two-flfths of an inch.]

Tliese dimensions apply to the 6-inch lens, but by dividing or
multiplying them all by any given quantity, the corresponding
dimensions of any other size of lens may be obtained.

The front lens is placed with its convex side to the view, and
the back lens with its convex side to the picture. The optical
principle, therefore enunciated by M. Derffel at a recent meet-
ing of the Photographic Society, and said to be the discovery
of M. Petzval, has not been observed in the construction of this
instrument; nor has that principle, so far as we know, been de-
monstrated in any work on Optics.

Since the front lens of this new instrument is the same in
every respect as the front lens of Voigtlander's Portrait Com-
bination, the latter may be converted into the former by re-
moving its posterior lens, and substituting for it the posterior
lens of the Orthoscopic Combination, mounted of course at its
proper distance from the front lens.

lu order to cut off reflected light from the inside of the tube,
a stop is placed midway between the front
and back lens; but not so as to intercept any
of the legitimate rays of light.

Such is the construction of the Orthosco-
pic Lens. It is essentially a view-lens, and
is not intended for portraiture. We have
therefore to discuss its merits as a view-lens
when compared with the ordinary form, and
in doing so must direct our attention more
particularly to the following points: —

1st, — Flatness of Field, and the included
angle of view.

2nd, — Freedom from Distortion. ^

3rd, — Equality of illumination.

4th, — Perfection of focus and freedom
from spherical aberration.

5th, — Coincidence of the visual and actinic
foci.

6th, — General convenience, freedom from
diffused light, copying powers when the focus p

is elongated, power of rendering a3rial per- •ii'

spective, and other good qualities.

We shall discuss these matters in the
order in which they stand.

1st, — Flatness of Field, and the included angle of view.

In determining the flatness of field of any lens, we have to
compare the course of the most oblique with that of a direct
pencil; and the simplest plan is to suppose the pencils cylindri-
cal, or that the lens is pointed at extremely distant objects;
should it be found to answer well in this case it will be equally
good for all ordinary purposes.

In the above figure the lenses are represented by straight
lines, strong and black, the front lens passing through A and
the back lens through C; A C q being their common axis. A
stop is placed behind the back lens, and in contact with it. In
order to fix the ideas, and render what we have to say more in-
telligible, we shall suppose the lens to be a No. 1, having a
combined focus of rather more than 11 inches, and covering a
picture 10X8, with a half-inch stop.

It will be seen, from the above figure, that the oblique pen-
cil passes eccentrically through the front lens and ce^itrically
through the back lens. If, then, q be the focus of the direct
pencil from a distant point Q and p the focus ot an oblique pen-
cil from a distant point P, we have to compare the length C p
with C q, in order to discover the flatness of field, and how far
it deviates from a sphere whose centre is C; and we would ob-

VOL. XI. NO. VI. 23

serve that unless it dnea deviate, and that pretty considerably,
from such a sphere, the leos would be next to worthless for the
purpose intended. We have to show, then, that the focal lengtli
C. p, of the oblique pencil, is greater than the focal length, C
q, of the direct pencil, and to calculate the difference between them.
' Let us consider first the case of the direct pencil incident at
A. After refraction through the front lens it converges to-
wards m, the principal focus of that lens; the distance A m
being 8 inches ('in round numbers). This converging pencil is
then refracted by the posterior lens, the positive focal length of
which is 18 inches (in round numbers). The effect of this is
to diminish the convergency of the rays and bring them to a
focus at q, which is further than m from C. The distance A
C being one inch, C m is 1 inches, and C q is tlien found in the
following way: —

Multiply 7X18, and divide the product by their difference; —
that' is, divide 126 by 11. This gives C q=lly'V inches.

Next, let us consider the oblique pencil which proceeds from
a distant point P, is incident e.rcentrically on the front lens at B,
and passes centrically through the back'lens at C.

Through A, the centre of the front lens, draw a dotted line
A 1, parallel to B. P, and with a A as centre, and and A m as
radius, strike an arc of a circle cutting A 1 at 1. Then, A 1
equals 8 inches; and the oblique pencil from P will, after pass-
ing through the front lens, converge towards the point 1 (as
shown by the dotted lines).

Now we come to the pith of the matter. What happens at
the second lens?

We have at the second lens an oblique pencil, incident centri-
cally, and converging towards 1. Join, therefore, C 1, and pro-
duce it to p. Also, with C as centre and C q as radius, strike
a circle cutting C p at n. C n is therefore equal to C q.

Now, adopting the same formula as in the former case in or-
der to find C p, we must must multiply CI by 18 and divide
the product by their difference. What then is the length of C 1 ?

In the reply to this query will be seen the great ingenuity of
M. Petzval's arrangement; for it appears that C 1 is greater
than C m.

The proof of this is easy enough. Any two sides of a tri-
angle are, together, greater than the third, therefore 1 C and C
A are together greater than A 1, and therefore than A m.
Take away the common part A C, and C 1 is proved to be
greater than C m.

The actual difference between C 1 and C m in the No 1 lens,
with the extreme oblique pencil, is about the one-tenth of an
inch. If then we multiply txVXl8 and-f-the product by their
difference, we get C p^llyVo inches. The difference between
C 1 and C m, (n pj, is therefore nearly one-third of an inch.
This is of course in favor of flatness of field, because it brings
p nearer to the plane through q.

186

THE PUOTOGRArniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

Juue,

In the common view lens, presented to extremely distant ob-
jects, the field is very approximately a sphere, the centre of
which is the centre of the convex surface of the lens. On tak-
ing the exact dimensions of the Ortboscopic Lens, and worlcing
the problem out completely, we find that, as regards flatness of
field, the common view-lens has a little the advantage; and this
result of theory is also borne out by the experiments we have
made with both forms of lens differing but little in their focal
length. In what follows, however, we shall show that in other
respects the Orthoscopic lens has many and great advantages
over the common view-lens.

So much for flatness of field. Next, with respect to the an-
gular extent of the field of view. It might be supposed that
ought to include a wider angular field; but that is not the case
the common view lens having the advantage \n flatness of field, it
because the distortion produced by the common view-lens is so
great, and becomes so unbearable when a certain small angle of
field is exceeded, that it is necessary from this cause to restrict
that angle to about 35^^. In the case of the Orthoscopic Lens,
the distortion is not only different in character, but much less in
amoimt, and therefore, although the field is not absolutely so
fiat, still an angle as great as 47° may be included. This is a
great merit of the Orthoscopic Lens, and one which should re-
commend it particularly to the notice of the landscape photo-
grapher, because the bad effects of curvature of the image may
be remedied by using a small stop, but for distortion there is no
such remedy. A small stop gives a finer point to the pencils,
but does not affect the curvature of the lines of the picture.

We now come to the 2nd topic, viz; Freedom from Distor
tion.

In the common view-lens with the stop in front, the oblique
pencils do not pass straight through the margin of the lens, but
are bent out of their course, inwards, towards the centre of the
picture. This produces distortion, in a way in which we will
endeavor to explain. Suppose the stop extremely small, and
the lens removed; a perspective view would then be formed on
the focusing screen, but larger than the picture produced by
the lens, and quite free from distortion. Suppose a plain irre-
gular polygon to be the figures represented, the angles of which
on the focusing screen are points A, B, C, D, &c,, and let 0 be
the point where the axis of the camera cuts it. Draw radial
lines 0 A, 0 B, 0 C, 0 D, &c. Now introduce the lens. In
consequence of the deflection of the axes of the pencils which
pass through the margin of it, towards the point 0, the image
of the polygon will be smaller than before, and its angular
points a, b, c, d, &c., will lie on the lines OA, OB, OC, &c.,
nearer to 0. Now, if the decrements aA, bB, cC, &c., were
exactly proportional to the radial lines 0 A, 0 B, OC, &c., the
small polygon a b c d-- would be exactly similar to the large
one A B D C---and there would be no distortion; but no such
is observed in the production of these decrements as that of di-
rect proportionality to the radial line, and the greater the ra-
dial line may he, fortiori greater the decrement becomes. This
produces distortion, and causes all straight lines which do not
pass through the centre of the picture, to be bent inwards at
their extremities.

Now let us turn to the Orthoscopic Lens. Here we see that
the axes of the oblique pencils are bent outwards out of tlieir
course, and a larger picture produced than if a small hole, with-
out lenses, were put at C. Instead of (i?ecrements we have now in-
crements of the radial lines — and the production of these in-
crements depends upon a different law from that of the decre-
ments in the farmer case, and qroduces less distortion. What
little distortion there is has the effect of rendering straight lines
convex to the centre of the picture, by bending their extremities
outwards, but this defect is so inconsiderable as to be scarcely
appreciable, and so far as it exists it has \\\e good effect of in-
creasing the comparative size of the side objects, and therefore
throwuig the central objects apparently further back; while the
common view lens has the opposite effect to such an extent as to
interfere greatly with the asrial perspective, by diminishing the
objects at the sides of the picture, which are generally the near-

est, and thereby bringing the central and generally most distant
objeets apparently too much forward.

3rd, — Equality of Illumination. Through m imagine a line
m k drawn at right at right angles to m C, and cutting C p in
k. Now let a straight line passing always through this imagin-
ary point k sweep round the circumference of the stop at C and
mark out with its end a circle on the front lens, in the neighbor
hood of B, which would be its centre. Similarly, let a line
passing through m sweep round the circumference of the stop
and trace another circle on the front lens, the centre of which
would be A. These two circles, viz., that at A and that at B
will t»e equal to another. But if instead of the point k we take
the point 1, nearer to C, the circle at B will then become larger
than before, and consequently larger than at A. Hence it
follows that the area on the front lens covered by an oblique
pencil is greater than that covered by the direct pencil. On
the other hand the obliquity of the pencil occasions loss of light,
as shown by the dotted lines across it. The gain from one
cause does not entirely compensate for the loss fiom the other
and there is not perfect equality of illumination; but in the
common view-lens there is less from obliquity of incidence with-
out any set off to counterbalance it. The Orthoscopic Lens
has therefore the advantage as regards equality of illumination.

4th, — Perfection of focus, and freedom spherical aberration.
In the common view-lens no attempt is made to cure spherical
aberration, or improve the focus, except by means of the stop.
Everything is sacrificed to flatness of field. There would be
much less spherical aberration in the central pencil if the lens
could be turned with its convex side to the view. But in the
Orthoscopic Combination spherical aberration may be, and is,
comflelely remedied, and the quality of the focus, both of the di-
rect and oblique pencils, greatly improved.

5th, — Coincidence of the visual and actic foci. With four
glasses instead of two, more lines of the spectrum may be unit-
ed, and therefore the chemical focus improved. So that the
Orthoscopic Lens has the advantage in that respect.

6th, — In lightness and convenience, and freedom from dif-
fused light, the Orthoscopic Lens has greatly the advantage
over the other. In copying, the common view lens cannot be
used when the copy is to exceed one half the size of the origi-
nal; but when the focus of the Orthoscopic Lens is lengthened
by bringing the object near it, it gives a sharp and good image
up to full size. It is in fact the best copying lens that has yet
been produced.

On the whole, therefore, although we do not by any means
go the length of the French Committee appointed to try and
report on this instrument, in asserting its good qualities, we are
inclined strongly to advise our readers to procure a lens on this
principle: — ann to render the matter complete we should sny,
add to it one of M. Petzval's cameras, in which the plate may
be inclined at any angle to the axis of the camera. We shall
take an early opportunity of describing this piece of apparatus.

In a letter just received from Mr. Knight, alluding to the
negatives we sent him, taken with the Orthoscopic Lens No. 1,
on 10X8 plates, with a half-inch stop, he says, "I have printed
some copies from your negatives and they are beautifully sharp."
It requires, us Herr Pretsch says, a photographer to take a pic-
ture, but it also requires a good lens to take it " beautifully
sharp.— [Ed. P. N.]

Platinuii. — This rare and valuable metal occurs native in
Peru, Brazil, and other parts of South America, in combination
with gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, &c. It is procured in the
form of round or flattened grains, of a white color, mixed with
sand and other alluvial deposits. Pure platinum is a soft metal,
and an imperfect conductor of caloric; it has a white silver like
appearance; but less malleable than either silver or gold. Its
density is greater than other metals, being 21 5; its atomic
weight is 96; it does not fuse at the highest temperature of a
Smith's forge, but may be welded like iron when heated at a
high temperature.

1S58.

THE niOTOGRArmC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

1S1

For the Photographic & Fine Art Journal.

A AVORD OR TOO FRIll A\ AMATEUR.

Di5AR Sir, — It has long been a subject of wonder to me, that
we should have so few amateur phoiograpliers in this country,
and it seems as if those we have were ahnost ashamed to ac
knowledge that they practice an art which has been so degraded
by the thousands of ignorant, illiterate clowns, who have taken
up the trade of picture-making, because they found themselves
totally uuht for everything else.

The country fairly swarms with these men, and the mischief
that has been done by them in vitiating the tastes of the masses
of the people, seems to me almost irreparable. I have found
that even the better informed, among the country people espe-
cially, have been so long accustomed to see the distorted and
ghastly shadows, which they buy under the name of cheap da-
guerreotypes and ambrotypes, that they now judge all pictures
by that standard of comparison. It is a notorious fact, that
the few among country "operators," who possess taste and
skill, dare not take artistic pictures, being well aware that their
customers would reject them.

Suppose, for instance, the subject to be a young lady, and
that the artist has taken unusual pains and trouble, in arrang-
ing the pose of his sitter, and in distributing the light and shade,
so as to produce the most artistic effect. The picture, when
finished, proves to be a gem, and the delighted artist, hastens
to show it to his customer, who at the first glance, turns up
her nose, and " hopes she isn't quite as ugly as that." She
wishes him to understand that her " head is as straight between
her shoulders as his own ," and that " her face is jwst as white on
one side as on the other." She also declares, that her wrist
hangs so "limber, that people will think her arm is broken."
In all probability she has greased and polished her hair to the
last possible degree, and if any light has fallen upon it, she
abuses the unlucky artist for "making her grey-headed."

If the artist had had some experience and knew how to
please his subject, he would have placed her perfectly straight,
stiff and upright in her chair, as could be effected by the aid of
a plumb line, with her eyes staring directly into the camera, one
hand in her lap, and the other upon ber stomach, with the fin-
gers of both spread wide apart, so as to show her rings to the best
advantage. If there is a lover in the case, he will be seated by
her side, in the same attitude, but his right hand will be laid
palm upward, with the fingers spread, in her lap, and her left
placed in the same manner palm downwards upon it. The pic-
ture must be exposed in the camera, till the faces are perfectly
flat, and white, without so much as the suspicion of a shadow,
for strange as it may seem, there are few uneducated people
who can understand the meaning of shadows in a picture, no
matter how delicately transparent, and truthfully rendered they
may be.

It is not two weeks since I took the portraits of a loving
couple, in precisely the attitudes described above; I need hard-
ly add, tliat, the merit of this truly original composition, be-
longs entirely to themselves. Any attempt to convince these
people, of their error, and persuade them to be guided by the
artist, is a mere waste of words, for he will be told, that they
can show him " plenty of pictures taken just that very way."
The itinerant manufacturers of cheap pictures, are undoubtedly
responsible for this state of things, and it will be found, a far
more difficult task to unlearn this false taste, than it would
have been to teach the people, had they been ignorant of the
very existence of art.

I began the practice of photography, with the intention of
using it as an aid to my favorite pursuit of landscape painting
but I soon found that it opened a field so wide, as to claim my
undivided attention, if I wished for success. At that time, it
was almost impossible to obtain chemicals and materials in this
country, which were in a fit state for use, and I was in conse-
quence, obliged to go through a long course of difficult, and
sometimes disheartening experiment, for I was not long in find-
ing out, that forranltes written in England or France, were of
but little use in this country. I built myself a neat sky-light
gallery with dark rooms, &c. complete, near our house (we live

in the country), and am now adding to it, a small but comjilete la-
boratory where I can carry on my experiments with every facility.

My attention being turned more particularly towards land-
scape photography, I found it necessary to devise some means
of rendering my apparatus suflBcienily portable, and after care-
fully studying all the portable tents, cameras, &c., of which the
English and French Journals contains so many descriptions, I
decided upon a plan of my own. I have a small hand waggon,
the bed of wliich is about six feet long by three feet wide, and
upon this I raised an exceedingly light frame, over which I
stretched first, yellow calico, and over that oil-cloth. This is
my " dark room," at the back of which, there is a little window
of yellow glass; and under that, a small sink to carry off the
washings. My chemicals are packed in a case, where each bot-
tle has its place, and the case, camera, stand, bucket for water,
&c., are all put into the waggon, which, when fully loaded, can
be drawn with one hand with the greatest ease. When I find
a suitable view, the case is taken out, placed beside the waggon,
opened, and the necessary chemicals placed inside the dark
room, which is always ready, and needs no setting up. The
plate is prepared, and the picture taken and developed, as con-
veniently as at home.

Even with the dry process, it is necessary to carry a camera,
and this alone is more inconvenient, than drawing my little
waggon. But the greatest advantage consists in being enabled
to work with wet collodion, for after having tried all the dry pro-
cesses, and seen many specimens, I am satisfied that the delicate
gradation of the middle tints, which so delights the eye of an
artist, have never yet been attained by any of those processes.
Besides this disadvantage, it would afford me but little plea-
sure to spend two or three weeks or month , upon a photographic
excursion, without being able to tell, until my return home,
whether I had succeeded in securing a single picture.

Why is so little attention paid to landscape photography la
this country ? I can imagine nothing more delightful than a
photographic trip during pleasant weather. In my former
sketching excursions, the labor of transferring the view to paper
by hand, detracted greatly from the pleasure, but here the
dnudgery is done by the camera, leaving the mind of the artist
perfectly free to select his point of view, and watch for those
beautiful but transient effects of light and shade, which the
sketcher in vain attempts to remember, but which the camera,
seizes as they pass. That photography deserves to rank as a
fine art, is only disputed by a few bigoted artists, actuated by a
mixture of jealousy and ignorance. Their inconsistency is
absurd, for they profess to despise mere mechanical skill in
painting, and yet deny photography a place among the fine
arts, simply because it relieves the artist from the purely me-
chanical part of the work. The fact is, it is only the works of
really great artists, that will bear a comparison with sun pic-
tures, and this is the secret of the prejudice against them ex-
isting among the rank and file of the profession.

Although in the present state of our knowledge, we cannot
obtain the colors of nature, yet by modifying the processes, I
have been able to produce a great variety of tints, and it is my
constant practice, to tone my prints to such a color as rule
suggest, the prevailing tone of the landscape at the time the
picture was taken, and this I accomplish by having several
baths which yield different tints. This is an idea, which I do
not remember to have seen suggested, and yet any one who
tries the experiments, will be astonished to find, that a picture
which appeared flat and spiritless, when printed in one tint,
will be most brilliant and striking in another. In illustration
of this fact, I send you a few prints of different subjects. The
beauty of the t-arble monument with the bronze angel upon it,
consists in the purity of the white marble and delicacy of the de-
tail, contrasted with the dark background of forest, upon which
the shades of evening have already settled, while a ray of sunlight
still illuminates the monument, bringing it out in bold relief.
The sketch entitled "potato picking," or any of the views in
warm tints, would be miserably weak and spiritless, if printed
in black and white, the clear yellow of the lights, with the rich
warm purple of the shadows, suggest the mutual color of the

188

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

June,

objects when lighted by the sun. I never touch a photograph
with brush or pencil, as I do not consider one which needs such
assistance worthy of the name, and to re-touch a fine print

would be sacrilege.

Yours respectfully,

B. M. Brackenridge,

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

m THE PRODUCTION

Of Direct Positives— On Printing l)y tiie Salts of tlic Uranic and Ferric

Oxides, witli Observations t'limetic and Cliemieal.

BY C. J. BURNETT.

The search after processes giving good positives direct is one
of great interest in many ways, and which has received far too
little attention.

Among the advantages which might be expected from pro-
cesses of this nature we may enumerate the being able to see
and judge at once, as soon as we have developed it, of the suc-
cess or failure of our pictures.

At present the beginner, and often even the accomplished
photographer, has the greatest difficulty, and is utterly at a
loss, even after he has developed it, from the strange effect of
the reversed lights and shades, to know whether his negative
has received too much or too little exposure. He is also at a
loss to know at what point to arrest the developing of it.
With a positive direct process, all this is removed, the picture
speaks numistakeably at a glance, and the inexperienced or oc-
casional amateur is placed, so far, on much the same footing as
the professional photographer, whose correct judgment as to the
state of ripeness and development of negatives has been secured
by constant practice.

In collodion or other film-pictures, to be developed on the
spot, (though it is possible that this may be avoidable,) we
might judge of each picture at once, before we lay it past as a
good one, while, with paper and allied processes, the develop-
ment of one positive at the beginning ot the operations, or one oc
casionally during the day, enables us to know sufficiently exact the
character of those which we are reserving for after-development.

One great object of our search after positive-direct processes,
should be to enable us to extend the use of paper or waxed pa-
per processes to those classes of subjects, in photographing which
the use of collodion or other transparent films on glass 's now
rendered necessary, by the inequalities of texture, aud of trans-
lucency in our papers.

The original positive-direct is manifestly unaffected by these
inequalities in the interior of the paper, aud, if we take the
pains to secure a sufficient quantity of the blackenable (or
otherwise sensitive) chemicals on the surface of the paper,
should be a very perfect picture. Were we to proceed to mul-
tiply it in the pressure-frame, by transmission of light in the or-
dinary way, whether at one step by positive direct processes, or
by making negatives, by any common printing process in the
first instance, to be afterwards printed from one positive in the
same way, we should of course introduce the evil; but by either
taking otlier positives direct by the camera from our first posi-
tive, or better, by taking a negative instead of a positive from
it, in the camera, and then printing from this'm a pressure-frame
by the common processes; or possibly still hdler, by printing by
juxta-positiou in another way, the feasibility of which has been
suggested to me by some of my uranium experiments, we may
be able to get nearly, though possibly not entirely, rid of the
evil. AVhat I allude to is the clevelo|)able impression produced
on uranic papers by newspaper printing which has been placed
in contact with it; audi have observed analagous phenomena
in the case of argentine papers in various cases. The investiga-
tion of these phenomena, to see whether something practical in
the direction just alluded to cannot be fas I have every expec-
tation) got out of them, is one of the first things I intend pro-
ceeding to when able to resume my cxpcriincnts. AVith the
ordinary system of taking negatives in the camera, these nega-

tives might be afterwards multiplied or printed from in the or-
dinary way we have just spoken of on the uranic, and probably
also the chromic, ferric, manganic, and argentine papers, with-
out, or nearly without, reproducing the internal paper flaws;
only, for this style of printing, the original negative paper would
require to be prepared or managed (which would be simple
enough), so as to keep the picture as much as possible on the
surface, instead of having it, as is general in our ordinary paper
or waxed paper negatives, all throiigh the body of the paper.

Such modes of multiplication and of manipulation might not
only extend the most convenient use of paper for negatives ta-
ken in dehcate subjects, as foliage, and to which it has not
hitherto been so well applicable as are collodion aud albumen
films, without compelling us to use positive-direct processes, but
might also, ot course, be turned to very useful account in the
copying of drawings and engravings, and reproduction of them
from stones or plates, either impressed from the original direct-
ly, or in such a form as to afford a basis for the after manufac-
ture of photographic or photo-metallographic stones or plates,
all this being managed without recourse to the camera, and we
might even reproduce a printed page with woodcuts complete in
either copperplate or stereotype metal.

Some of the experiments which I have made seem to point to
rather startling and strange possibilities in connexion with the
changes produced on ourcalotype and other sensitive papers by
light or actinism.

One or two experiments have seemed even to indicate the
possibility of producing pictures on an unsensitized paper or
other surface, by the afUr application of sensitive mixtures
containing silver along with gallic acid or ferrous or allied salt.
But, still the imperfect result, or comparative or approximate
failure, of such experiments generally seem to show the neces-
sity, for practical purposes at least, of the presence of some
substance capable of entering into a more definite or stable com-
bination \yith actinism, or more capable of being allotropised
into activity, than such substances as paper or glass are.

It has been observed by others, as by Mr. Hunt, in his "Re-
searches," that most invaluable storehouse of observation, and
accords with my experience that many salts which do not ap-
pear to be "chemically," as the phrase is, changed by light, are
yet so acted on by it, either by simple absorption or allotropisa-
tion, as to act differently on silver salts, these, previously inac-
tive, reducing it after light exposure. The action of proto-sul-
phate of iron on silver (and gold) salts, offers some very curious
and interesting observations. The presence in or previous ab-
sorption of actinism by, or (cyanic) allotropisation of, either the
silver preparations, or the ferrous salt, seems to be almost essen-
tial, at least to anything like rapid action, i e., in the presence
of acetic or other free acid. The non-blacking all over of our
ordinary negatives proves this; and there are other proofs of
it, e. g., sulphate of iron may be applied to our silver papers iu
preparation before solarisation. I have also made, not allo"-e-
ther successful though very doubtful, experiments in the taki°]g
of pictures on paper which had been prepared by proto-suf-
phate alone, and developing them after exposure by silver.

I have also, and successfully, mixed a proto-salt of iron, both
with the uranic salts used in preparing uranic sensitive paper, and
with the ferric or ammonia-ferric salts used in preparing ferric sen-
sitive paper, and succeeded in getting pictures in these cases by
silver and gold developments, showing amongst other things, and
what can more clearly show it, that it is not the mere production
of ferrous oxide, or its presence in the ammonio-citrate papers, and
theirallies, which enables them to reduce the silver salts after solar-
isation. Two principal questions must be asked regardini"-
tliese papers: — 1st. Js it necessary that this reduction must
have commenced, or is an unreduced ferric or uranic salt allo-
tropisable, or otherwise convertible by light — absorption into
an active silver — reduced? — 2. Is the proto oxide more capable of
this allotropisation by light when acting on it at the exact mo-
ment of its production than after it has been formed?

The so far inferior results (almost failures) of my protosul-
phate experiments may be partly owing to the oxides in it as
bought, being partly in the more active (or cyanotropic form

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

189

to coin a word for our momentary accommodation.) It is a
point to be ascertained, in whicli form it exists in each salt, and
wlietlier it is capable of existing iu botli, in combination witli
different acids.

The effect of the red rays, which are probably capable of
not only undoing the aliotropic change produced in substances
by tiie blue rays, but of producing an allotropism of another or
opposite character, ought to be investigated.

'.Ve must also carefully examine how far the new activity of
the ferrous oxide in these cases is due to the looser absorption
(?) before alluded to.

As we have been speaking of the use of ferric and uranic pa-
pers, I think it well to remark that it does seem stange that tiio
published experiments of Mr. Hunt, Sir J. Herschel, and others,
with regard to ferric salts, and mine with regard to uranic salts,
should not have directed the attention of practical photogra-
phers to the employment of iron with the after-development by
silver salts and gold, &c. , or by irixtures of silver salts with
such other substances as might further promote the reduction;
and uranium salts, not only for positive printing, but also for
use in the camera. Ferric salts would have very great advan-
tage in cheapness over silver salts for preparation; and if our
negatives are accidently mismanaged in any way, if we find for
instance, on trying one or two, that they have been under or
over exposed: there is, at all events, little loss of money. I in-
tend giving the ferric and uranic salts a fair trial next summer
with a camera which I had constructed last year* partly with a
view to this, having a slide adapted to contain, and enable us to
unroll as it is wanted, paper enough for a large number of pic-
tures,f so as to avoid the troublesome shifting of papers when
we are at work. I propose among other plans connected with
this, the charging the paper in the coil with the sensitive salt
under pressure, as proposed some years ago by Mr. Stewart, by
first exhausting, and then re-admitting the air. The developing
silver solution might also, perhaps, be applied to a similar way,
or by first exhausting the air, and then admitting the solution
into the cylinder. We might try various salts of silver, as well
as the nitrate and ammonia-nitrate for developers; and some of
my experiments point to the use of protosalts as accelerators or
stimulants here, either by moving them with the silver develop-
ing solution fwith addition of a little acetic, formic, citric, ni-
tric, or other acid), or by transferring the negative, as soon as
it has imbibed sufficient silver from the silver bath, to a stimu-
lating solution of acidulated protosulphate of iron, (gallic acid
being also compatible with the urantum salts,) or cuprous or
uranous salt. When using the paper coils I have spoken of, for
negative-taking, they may be spread out during development.
I have already alluded to the possible use of an unsolarized
protosalt of iron, or uranium, or copper mixture, with the ses-
quisalt, in paper preparation in both ferric and uranic silver de-
velopment processes, as well as in the preparation of argentine
papers.

To enter a little further into particulars, I may mention that
in preparing uranic or ferric papers we may take our choice of
two modes. The first being to use a readily soluble neutral salt
or this bin-acid salt, or a solution of ammonio-acid salt, where
the neutral is not sufficiently soluble, as is the case with many
of the vegetable acids, e. g. in uranic paper-preparation I have
used, and been successful, with the neutral and bin-acid, or am-
monio-acid salts formed by the nitric, chloric, phosphoric, hydro-
chloric, hydrofluoric, hydrobromic, citric, formic, acetic, oxalic,
tartaric, succinic, benzoic, and with ferric oxide we may use the
ammonio or the bin-acid salts; or, as I have found out, the per-
nitrate salt, and the second, (though here I speak less from ac-
tual experiment,) being to employ an insoluble salt of the ses-
qui-oxide, deposited on the paper by the application of the suc-
cessive baths, the one contaiuing the nitrate, acetate, hydro-

* I understand that my contrivance of December, 1856, has been in
some respects anticipated by one of Mr. Melluish'S, but I do not know to
what extent, as I have not seen bis description. Th^ plan o/mine may be
found in Photographic Notes of last year.

t Paper is originally made in most cases in the web, and only after-
wards cut down.

23*

chlorate, or some very soluble salt of uranic (or ferric-nitrate
oxide), and the other acid, or salt of an acid, as benzoic, suc-
cinic, or oxalic, giving an insoluble precipitate with the scsqui-
oxide.

( To he conlinucd.)

From the Liverpool Pholographir Joarnal.

PROCESS FOR POSITIVES, WITH TIIE SALTS OF URiNIUM.

BY H. DE LA BLAXCHERE.

M. Blanchere, who assisted M. Niepce de St. Victor in the
prosecution of the experiments resulting in the discoveries an-
nounced in our last, has published the formula for the produc-
tion of the uranium pictures as used by him up to the present
time, and we propose to give a short abstract of his instruc-
tions.

It is not considered by any means as at present perfect, but
will form a foundation for further researches.

Nitrate of uranium is an acid salt of a greenish yellow hue,
and is really a nitrate of the sesqui-oxide, the construction
being, —

U2O3+N. 0,+6H. 0.
It is almost as soluble in ether as in water, while the action of
light appears to be similar vrith regard to all the other salts of
uranium as with the nitrate, which is rendered insoluble when
affected by the chemical rays. It is therefore advisable to keep
the bottles contaiuing the salts in solution carefully excluded
from daylight, although it is certain that the dry crystals are
absolutely insensitive to the action of light.

The paper employed should be unsized, and it is indispensa-
ble that for several days previously to its preparation, it shall
have been carefully withdrawn from the influence of light by
being exclosed iu a box or drawer.

In one ounce of distilled water, dissolve one hundred grains
of nitrate of uranium, filter, and preserve the golden yellow
colored solutions iu a stoppered bottle kept in the dark.

The paper is to be immersed iu or floated on the solution for
five minutes, which will penetrate completely through the paper;
it would, however, be desirable, if possible, to keep it as much
on the surface as can be managed, to obviate a tendency in the
proof to become veiled by the substance of the paper.

The paper may be hung up to dry, freely exposed to the air,
but in the dark, in which condition it will keep indefinitely.

Expose under a negative from one to ten minutes in the sun-
shine, or from fifteen minutes to an hour in the shade; from
three to five minutes in the sun will suffice on an average under
a collodion negative of ordinary density.

The beauty of the proof depends especially upon the time of
exposure, and without contradiction it is the most delicate part
of the process. It is necessary to give a sufiBcient exposure,
but not to overdo it, because by allowing it to remain a little
in the developing bath the image gains brilliancy.

The yellow color of the paper should be at least of a lemon
tint, and by passing it twice through the uranium bath, the
quantity imbibed is augmented, and at the same time the sensi-
bility of the paper in equal proportion ; comparative experiments
leave no doubt upon this point.

This tint is altered where the light has acted, and becomes
of a brownish red, which is more perceptible on looking
through the paper than by examining the surface, and its de-
gree of intensity serves nearly always (but not invariably) as a
guide to the amount of the luminous impression. When iu pro-
per condition the image should be slightly visible when removed
from the pressure frame, and if kept in darkness, can be developed
after the lapse of twenty-four, or even of forty-eight hours.

The paper is to be plunged rapidly into a bath composed of
distilled water one ounce, crystallized nitrar.e of silver, slightly
acid, thirty grams. The proof will immediately appear, and be
completely out in from thirty to forty seconds. Remove it
quickly, and wash well in two or three changes of distilled

190

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AXD Fl^'E ART JOURNAL.

June,

water, wheu it becomes permanently fixed, and unaffected even
by boiling cyanide of potassium.

If the nitrate of silver bath is not acidulated, In removing the
proof to immerse in the water bath, the darkest parts change
to a lemon yellow color, which, howtver, disappears on toning
with chloride of guld, or even by heating before a brisk fire in
order to dry the paper, and these parts in the latter case as-
sume a vigrous brownish black tone. The touiug with chloride
of gold gives to all the proofs a violet tint, similar to that of
pictures obtained iu the ordinary manner.

The chloride of gold bath should be made by dissolving one
graiu of the salt in one ounce of distilled water, and if the pic-
ture on its removal from the pressure frame be immersed therein,
it will be developed of a somewhat cold blue color, but the ex-
posure should be almost double tbat required for the silver
bath. The true use of the gold bath, however, is to tone the
pictures produced previously by that of the nitrate of silver,
and as chlorine has a tendency to dissolve the uranium salt,
even if not exposed to light, it assists in brightening those pic-
tures that are somewhat foggy.

A formula is given in which the bichloride of mercury is em-
ployed, in conjunction with a silver bath, but the exposure re-
quired is thrice that for the first quoted method of operating,
and, moreover, the half tones of the picture materially suffer.

General Remarks: — If the exposure has been too great, or
the immersion in the developing bath too prolonged, so that the
lights have become somewhat veiled, an improvement may be
effected by washing with water slightly acidulated with hydro-
chloric acid.

The acidity of the nitrate of uranium immediately coagulates
albumen into which it is thrown. Papier Saxe has been era-
ployed, after being floated for five minutes upon a solution of
gelatine fifteen grains in one ounce of warm water, as also upon
albumen, which has been subsequently floated for ten minutes
upon the bath of nitrate of uranium. The proof is much more
on the surface than with the other method, and it seems also
more vigorous and sharp. It presents also this remarkable
fact, that the image is not perceptible wheu taken out of the
pressure frame, but developes and tones with rapidity, equal to
that with the paper prepared as before described.

personal ^ ^rt 3ntc\\\Qenu.

— The only great distinction we can draw between the cha-
racteristics of the Fine Arts and those of Photography are: the
former absolutely requires that its practitioner shall possess
genius — a natural talent — for the particular l)ranch to whi-h he
intends to devote himself in order to attain even mediocrity in
skill and reputation; and it is further necessary that he should
submit to the severest discipline and study to fully understand
nature as it should be depicted upon his canvas. His study
must also cover an extensive field — a world of animated beings
must be, not only superficially inspected, but anatomically in-
vestigated to the minutest detail — a world of inanimate na-
ture has also to claim his closest attention; every tree, plant,
and leaf; every rock, fossil, mineral, and earth must be tho-
roughly mastered iu form and color. Then, to depict all these
with truthfulness, he is obliged to master the combination of co-
lors upon his pallet, to learn the most intimate blending of tints
from the most harsh to the most delicate. Night after night
he must pour over the best works on anatomy, mineralogy, and
botany. Every 'indulation of the human form, the construction
of every bone and joint, must be as familiar to his mind as his
ABC. The passions must be also as an open book to him —
every defect of animal or vegetable life; in short, the slightest
change in nature, the most minute thing, must be as intimately
known to him as the pencils which are intended to reproduce
them upon his canvas, if he would become a true master of his
art, and acquire the highest pinacle in the temple of fame.

The latter requires (actually) no such intense application and
study. A ready, skillful hana aud an eye to appreciate the

beautiful and sublime, with a good knowledge, either natural or
acquired, of perspective, is quite sufficient to produce pictures
perfectly true to nature in every respect save color. To depict
nature as she is, he takes the natural model, aud troubles him-
self very little about the minutia of organism. Objects are
rendered by the camera as they stand or lie before it, and it his
instrument is what it should be, he feels confident that he has
rendered the image true to the subject. So far he can rest sa-
tisfied; but although it is not essentially necessary to pass
through the intense study of the painter in order that he may
rival him in the higher works of art; in showing nature as na-
ture is, there is knowledge to be acquired before he can stand
pre-eminently forth in the front rank of photogaphy. The con-
stant changes, both in theory and practice, the improvements aud
inventions daily made, require some portion of time to study.

But although the study of the Photographer is limited to a
narrower compass than that of the painter or sculptor, it is
quite as necessary for him to acquire thorough knowledge of
correct taste, rules of art, graceful position, aud of chemistry,
as for the painter to master the various branches of learning
above enumerated.

The necessity of this, as well as the capabilities of the Photo-
graphic art, was forcibly brought to our mind a few days since
while examining a series of stereoscopic views in one of Mr.
Becker's patent stereoscopes, at his gallery, 411 Broadway.
The views were of American, European, Asiatic, and Egyptian
scenery, and the marked difference between those taken by the
educated hand and the mere mechanic, stood out in striking con-
trast. The imperfections of the latter caused painful sensations
(and we were highly gratified that there were but two of them),
while the beauties of the others carried us iu soul and body,
mind and estate, to the very scenes they depicted. We were
transported so completely to the place that it was really difficult
to divest our mind of the idea that we were not a part of the
actuality before us.

The Stereoscope.— How little is this wonderful instrument
understood and appreciated. The thousands who purchase it
do so simply for the moments of pleasure it may afford — as a
mere toy. Yet it is more than this; it is one of the most
powerful instruments for investigating the past and present ever
given to man to study. The past, in the contemplation of the
vast piles of ruins and deserted cities of the ancients, which it
places before you. The present, by the living scenes of to-day.
In your parlor you can, by it, study every stone, its very fashion,
size, and position, as hewn and placed by the workmen of every
age — trace the progress of architectural art and sculptor, view
the wonderful cities, living and decayed, of every country and
period, or revel in the beauties of the primeval forest, the grace-
ful valley, or the beautiful and sublime waterfall. The student
of the day in ancient history has, in the stereoscope and its pic-
tures, a means of knowledge unsurpassed by even a visit to the
lands of which we read. And to what great uses cannot this
simple little instrument be devoted were it properly understood
and appreciated. Besides giving us the most intensely natural
embodiment of scenes all around us. near and far distant, what
a wonderful assistance would it be in tiie lecture room of the
anatomist, or the closet of the medical student — what a ready
help in the transition of information in architectural design, or
construction! With such a stereoscope as that ot Mr. Beckers,
you have before your eye, not merely a picture, but the object
itself, in its length, breadth, and heighth— every stem can be
counted, every line traced, each marking of the hammer or
chisel is prominently visible. In the medical college they cau be
made to take the place, iu a great measure, of the dissecting
room; every vein, muscle, and nerve can be reproduced to the
eye in all the roundness and relief of the natural object. How
many vexatious cnses might tims, also, be preserved for future
investigation long after the poor diseased body has crumbled into
dust. The stereoscope was not given to us as a toy, but as a
powerful source of knowledge and investigation, and as such it
should be em])loyed.

As we said before, nothing proves the necessity of study to

1S58.

TUE niOTOGRArniC AND FINE ART JOURXAL.

191

the photographic artist, in this country at least, so strongly as
the tridiug estimation in which stereoscopic pliotography is held,
and the poor attempts at producing stereoscopic pictures. Those
engaged in this branch of photography in the United States, are
not only ignorant of its vast importance, but of the principles
upon which it is based. There is not one stereoscopic picture
in a thousand, taken here, that is worth a moments' considera-
tion by any one of good taste or judgment; and yet, there is
no branch of the art deserving of more attention.

— We have received several little photographic gems from
Mr, Breckenridge, of Tarentum, Pa. In another column a
letter from Mr. Breckenridge will be found, giving an account
of these pictures. Since that was in type we have received the
following, jvhich we take the liberty of inserting here: —

Tarentum, May 15th, 1858.

H. H. Snetxing, Esq — Dear Sir — I have this day forward'
ed to you by express a small box containing a few of my prints.

I have delayed sending them so long in the hope ot being
able to send you some portraits &c.; but I find it impossible to
obtain a single sheet of paper fit for my purpose, and I have no
prints of that kind on hand, for you will see by the date upon
the back of each of these 1 send, that they have been printed
some time

I have tried almost every photographic process as it was pub-
lished, and after comparing prints from the same negatives (the
only true testj obtained by all the known printing and toning
processes, with those printed and toned by the process which
produced the prints I send you, I have come to the conclusion
that nothin ; has yet been discovered which, for depth, brilliancy,
and permanency, can equal albumen treated in the proper man-
ner. With regard to permanence, I can only say that I have
never known a single one of my prints to fade which had been
carefully treated by the process I now use, and I have prints
nearly six years old.

I am of opinion that one of the greatest causes of fading is
the paste used in mounting prints. I am satisfied that no mat-
ter what paste is employed it will destroy the print if used wet
enough to penetrate the paper. I have lost prints which had
remained good for several years, by soaking them in water to
remove them from the mount, and this I have found to be the
case no matter what process of printing or toning had been
adopted. The great objection to albumen in this country seems
to be, that it it is difficult to obtain pure blacks and whites, but
I find no difficulty in producing that or any other tint, as you
will perceive from the specimens 1 send, and I feel assured. that
if instead of taking it for granted that the process is impracti-
cable, artists would devote themselves to rendering it perfect,
the albmuen process would yet supercede all other modes of ob-
taining plain photographs, which are the only ones that I con-
sider worthy of the name. Who would think of coloring a fine
engraving? It would be considered barbarous, and it is an ac-
knowledgement of weakness or inferiority in photography thus
to call in the aid of another art. It is this practice of always
coloring or retouching photographs which, in my opinion, re-
tards its advancement as an art in this country, for the operator
knows that his deficiencies will be made up by the artist who
colors the picture, and who alone deserves a particle of credit^
for the production, which is called, "photography in oil by

I have conversed with professional photographers who were
under the impression that landscape photography is the easiest
thing in the world, and that, as one of them elegantly expressed
it, "you had nothing to do iaut point the camera anywhere, and
let her rip." Let any one who has some knowledge of what
constitutes a picture, make the attempt, and I think he will
agree with me that it is by far the most difficult branch of the
art. No one who has not tried it can imagine the obstacles
which have to be overcome in order so produce an artistic land-
scape by the camera. In the first place, it is necessary to have
a chemical surface which will give all the middle tints, detail in
the deep shadows, and upon which all the different colors, from
pure white to green, yellow, brown, and black, will produce the
proper effect when included in the same view. This 1 need

scarcely say, is no easy task. Then the selection of the view,
and the point from wihch to take it, is a matter requiring taste[
judgment, and the eye of an artist, and not merely the'eye of
an artist, but of a photngraphic artist, for there are many scenes
which would furnish beautiful sketches which are not at all appli-
cable to the camera, and vice versa. My own practice is, to take
a small camera and spend a day or two in selecting subjects-
when I find one I make a memorandum of it with the time of
day and effect under which it should be taken, and when I start
with my little waggon, I have nothing to do but go directly to
each place at the proper time.

If you think it would interest your readers to know the pro-
cess by which my prints are obtained, I will be happy to com-
municate it to you at any time.

Yours truly,

B. M. Breckenridge.

P. S. — What is the reason that no Saxe Paper can be
had?

Of course the experience of one so successful as you have been
in photography, must not only be interesting, but instructive to
our readers. The prints you send us are in some respects equal
to the best English and French views, and fall very little short
in any. Tolerably good Causon Paper can now be had, and
we hear of some Saxe being in port. All the paper mills of
Europe were stopped by the panic, and they have only recently
commenced operations again.

— Our Illustrations this month consist of a copy of Thor-
waldseu's i?as-relief of Winter — the negative by Messrs. Whip-
ple & Black; and a copy of an old Italian engraving after
Rubens, of the Elopement of Pho-^be and Ilaira. W^e pro-
mised in our last to give some account of the bas-reliefs of
Thorwaldsen in this number, but we have been so occupied since
the first of May with alterations in our ofiice — which has con-
sequently been turned upside down ever since — that we have
found it impossible to devote the usual time to our Journal.
We must therefore omit our usual descriptions.

The Formulas by which the present illustrations were printed
are as follows: —

The Salting Solution was the same'as for May, adding 30 or
40 drops lemon juice.

The Nitrate Solution was made in the usual way, but con-
taining only twenty grains of nitrate of silver to the ounce of
water.

The toning lath: Water \ gallon, chloride of lead solution 1
quart, chloride of silver, 2 ounces, hyposulphite sola to satura-
tion. The chloride of lead solution (see May number) was
made by simply dissolving the acetate of lead in the water (a
good proportion is one ounce acetate to one pint water^, pre-
cipitating it by common table salt, re-dissolving with hyposul-
phite soda, and filtering.

Great care must be taken, in toning, not to suffer the print
to remain too long in this bath, as it will become dull, and
veiled, and chalky, besides being liable to fade. Never tone to
a decided black, but stop at the purple tint, as the prints darken
in the washing trough and in drying.

xMr R. J. NuNN, of Savannah, Ga., writes: — "Mr. Hamilton
states that he uses whiting for a canvas process. About a year
ago I made experiments on the use of powders for that pur-
pose, and found that almost any powder would do; such as
magnesia, tripoli, allumina, rottenstone, flour, starch, &c.,
&c. Alcohol is not decidedly necessary, water answering as
well, and the chloride of ammonium or sodium mixed with
other powders may be applied at the same time, thus lessen-
ing the process by one operation. I have been for some time,
and am still, engaged on a series of experiments in toning posi-
tive prints with various metals and metalloids, such as anti-
mony, arsenic, palladium, copper, iron, zinc, platinum, iodine,
&c., &c., and hope soon to give you the results of my experi-
ence." It will give us pleasure to have you do so, so that we
can lay them before onr readers at an early day.

— The photographers of our large eastern cities must look
to their laurels, or they will very soon be deprived of them, if

192

THE PHOTOGRArHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

June,

they Imve not already, in many respects, lost them. We have
this month received a number of plain prints from our country
friends, that not only compare favorably with anything executed
in Boston, New York, or Philadelphia, in all respects, but are
superior iu some points.

— Mr. McPherson, of Concord, N. H., has sent us four
cabinet heads, which, for brilliancy of tone, delicacy of shade
and color, sharpness, freedom from imperfections, and cleanli-
ness of manipulation, are equal to any prints we have seen. The
details, with the slight exception of the lower parts of the
drapery, are also well preserved. Such photographs would be
ruined by retouching, for their softness cannot be approached
by the pencil of the artist.

— Mr. Gage, of St. Johnsbury, Yt., has sent us a charming
little lot of portraits and views, some of which are exquisite.
The portrait of the Rev. B. F. Hall is unsurpassable either by
the camera of the photographer or the pencil of the painter.
It almost speaks; every portion of the picture within the focal
reach of the camera is delightfully round, exquisitely shaded,
and minute in detail. That of Dr. Newton is of different style
of finish, but equally good, except in position, and in the evi-
dent desire of the Doctor to give prominence to a fine pair of
bright eyes and large overhanging eyebrows. A little drooping
of the eye-lids would have produced a more pleasing result.
The views are fair, but a little overtoned. This is a branch of
photography in which our American artists have yet much to
learn. The manipulations and details of these views are good,
but they want perspective and nn atmosphere. The best solar
camera prints we have yet seen have been executed by Mr.
Gage They are not now before us, and we therefore cannot
point out their good qualities.

This reminds us of the article we copied last month from Mr.
Sutton's Photographic Notes, on enlarging collodion negatives
by Woodward's Solar Camera. The position therein assumed
by Mr. Sutton is not tennable, and had he seen its operations
would never have been put forth by him. His objections, sug-
gestions, and speculations are all chimerical, and we can have
no better proof — nor would he require bettei" — against his ar-
arguments than the portraits sent to Mr. Anthony by Mr. Gage

Mr. Ford of Ravaune, O., sends us two half size portraits
that evince decided improvement in every respect, since our first
notice of his efforts. The positions, shadings, and brilliancy are
good; but sharpness and detail is wanting in the drapery,
caused, we should judge, from sitting the models too near the
background, and too thin a film.

We can only say, in regard to the Spkereotype patent,
t'lat the question of its validity can be decided by the United
States court only. Our own opinion is, that it would be sus-
tained. There is no patent for the use of colored glass for Am-
brotypes. The man was a " sucker," and tried to cheat you.

Messrs. Cutting & Turner have sent us several Photolitho-
graphic prints of microscopic objects, printed in various colors.
They surpass anything of the kind ever executed by the litho-
graphic art. We have only to examine them through a mag-
nifying glass to be convinced of this fact. They are entirely
free irom the disagreeable grainy appearance so prominent in
lithographs, and in other photolithographic processes. Messrs.
CuTTixG & Turner have made a great stride in the right direc-
tion for this kind of illustration.

— We copy the following from the Cincinnati Dispatch:
Miss Davenport. — During the late engagement of this cele-
brated actress in our city, she sat to Mr. Mullen (of Faris &
Mullen's Melodeon Gallery) for a photograph in character dress;
with what result the following letter from Miss D (which ili/-.
M. has kindly given us for publication) will show:

" Miss Davenport presents her compliments to Mr. Mullen,
and feels that she cannot leave Cincinnati without first express-
ing her thanks for the remarkably fine Photograph he has crea-
ted, remarkable both as a work of art and as a likeness — the
best certainly she has ever had taken of her.

— The Portland (Me). Advertiser, gives us the following in-
formation :

"Puotographic Association. — At a meeting of the Photogra-

phers of this city, held on Saturday evening last, a Societv was
organized under the name of the Portland Photographic Asso-
ciation. B. F. Smith was chosen President; Rufus Adam3
Vice President; and Mark F. King, Secretary ana Treasurer.
The Association includes all the Daguerreotypists and proprie-
tors of picture galleries in the city. It is got up for the mutual
iiuprovement and benefit of all concerned."

This is the right spirit, and we hope to see it followed in every
town and city in the Union where there are six photographers.
We shall be highly gratified if some one of our friends°in Port-
land will keep us advised of the progress of this initial society.
That it has our best wishes for its prosperity, will not be doubted
by any one who has read our Journal for the last nine years.

— No one can peruse our present number and doubt that the
Photographic Art is eminently progressive, or that it is destined
to work wonderful changes not only in the world of art, but the
world of science also. The article on " Panoramic Negatives,"
contains some useful hints. This is a subject which we sha'll
take an early opportunity to discuss, as we conceive that we have
a plan for the production of panoramic pictures, superior to any
that have been yet suggested.

Mr. Grubb continues the discussion on photographic lenses
very ably, and gives information that must prove valuable to
every photographer. The discussion on the Dry Collodion pro-
cess is continued with considerable spirit by various claimants.
We have also, a very interesting paper on " The Rise and Pro-
gress of Photography." One of considerable value on " Photo-
graphic Composition," both interesting and curious. Two we
consider of great importance on M Petzval's and the Ortho-
scopic lenses, both of which should claim the attention of every
artist who intends to devote himself to landscape photography.
Mr. Root's article on " Small Matters" should be read° atten-
tively, for his hints and advice are worth pondering. Besides
a great fund of other valuable information, we present two very
interesting communications.

But now again turn over the pages of the present number,
count our appropriations of the brains of foreign authors, and
then the free gifts of those of our own country, and then think
of the miserable contrast that must be justly made between the
iwo classes, and contemplate it if you can without shame, all
you readers of this Journal. Is there no process by which we
can stir you up to sufiBcient self respect, to have you prove to
the world that you are not the mere machines iu Photographic
Art you are now considered by the majority of all thinking
men ? Is there no gentle purgative we can give you, nor any
species of gall and wormwood to be administered that will purge
you of your apathy ? Are we really talking to stocks and
stones ? The motto of the Messrs. Fowlers & Wells is " Think
of living;" we say to you Think of immortality also.

— We have now our rooms suitably fitted up for printing
photographic postives in large quantities, and in the best style
of the art, including a room for enlarging small negatives to
cabinet and life-size, and are prepared to execute orders for
photographers throughout the United States in either branch
at the shortest notice and at very reasonable rates. We have
also a department for the instruction of pupils, or for the prac-
tice of those who desire to improve their knowledge of the art.
In this department our terms will be ten dollars a week for in-
struction. This will give the student an opportunity to acquire
experience according to the length of his purse.

— Our second edition for the first six months of 1858 is en-
tirely exhausted. All who subscribe, therefore, hereafter to
the two dollar edition must commence with the July number
with which we will increase the number of copies. The increase
to our subscription list during the present year is highly grati-
fying, and if it continues as it has begun, we shall soon ha °e the
largest circulation as well as the most beautiful Photo-'Taiihic
Journal in the world. °

— We have been for the last month completely upside down
in our office, consequent upon our enlargements and alterations
to meet the demands of our increased business. Necessarily
our present issue is a few days behind time; but we shall be
prompt again with our next.

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

193

From Photographic Ifotes.

PHOTOGRAPnY— ITS APPLICATION
To the Present Wants of Society and its Future Prospects.

BV MR. W. B. OSBORN.

Read Before the Birmingham Photographic Society, March 30th 1858.

HE beautiful art of Photography is al-
most universally declared to be at pre-
sent in its infancy. The term, per
haps, may be considered scarcely ap-
plicable to an art, which has been be-
fore the public for so many years, but
we may liken it with safety, to a youth
of bright promise, watched over with
anxiety and pleasure by its friends,
beautiful and charming even in its pre-
sent realities, partially revealed though
they are, yet foreshadowing a glorious
manhood, when bursting from the
trammels which at present confines its
path and dims its lustre; it shall repay its enthusiastic admirers
by a display of power and beauty, of which even the most san-
guine scarcely dare to dream. It is not our province this even-
ing to trace its early history and search for the slight causes
from which this young giant of the age has sprung, that has
already been done, over and over again, in the works of such
men as Hunt and Hardwich, and in papers read before our
own, and other Societies.

Our aim to-night is to consider the present applications of
Photography to the Arts and Sciences, and to shadow forth our
anticipations for its future, to hint at its probable uses, and to
show as nearly as we can, from bygone experiences, and the in-
dications now before us, of what the art may reasouaWy be sup-
posed to be capable; and should these ideas be thought roman-
tic and extravagant, and not likely to be realized, let me re-
mind you of the past, and of the gigantic strides that have al-
ready been made in the art, and of the wonders that have been
accomplished, and then ask you, — Who shall dare to place a
limit to its progress, or say of what it shall not be capable,, or
where its onward course shall stop?

Look back for a moment to the time, when the Alchemists,
in their ardent search after an impossibility, stumbled over the
apparently insignificant fact, that Horn Silver (chloride of sil-
ver), darkened by exposure to light. Who would have thought
that such an humble origin, from such a simple fact, thrown
aside as worthless, and well nigh forgotten as soon as disco-
vered, the mighty structure we now admire so much, should
have arisen? Truly it furnishes us with an apt illustration of
the adage —

"What great events from trifling causes spring."
The germ of this discovery lay hid for many years, but at
last, in our own time, it suddenly burst forth into life and light,
like a lovely flower,

" A thing of beauty, and of joy for ever."
So much for the past, now let us consider the present and the
future.

I shall first endeavor to place before you a rapid summary of
the processes nov/ most in use, together with their recent im-
provents, and then show their adaptation to the present wants
of Society, and their probable bearing on the future.

First on my list comes the glorious, although I regret to say,
almost obsolete discovery of the great Daguerre; for beauty
and delicacy it is unsurpassed, even at the present day, but I
am compelled to admit that the objections urged against it are
many and weighty, so much so that I fear it must eventually
give way to more modern and simpler processes.

Yet can anything be more exquisite than a really first-rate
Daguerreotype portrait — more delicate in its detail, or softer,
or more beautiful in its gradations of light and shade? For
certain purposes to which I shall presently refer it undoubtedly
stands unrivalled.

The Calotype, or Talbotype, comes next in order, the result
of the experiments and researches of our illustrious country-
man, Henry Fox Talbot, to whom, with Daguerre, equal honor
is due. Who can contemplate the beautiful pictures of the
earlier Calotypists without a feeling somewhat akin to envy at
the superiority of their works over some of ours, even with all
the increased appliances at our call. Our own town has pro-
duced some excellent followers of this branch. I may mention
our Yice-Presidents, George Shaw and William Howell — John-
stone, and George Hill, whose works were in our EKhibition.
What delicacy and softness and beautiful delineation, do you
find in many Calotypes, and there are numbers upon which we
can still gaze with feelings of admiration, although years have
passed since they were produced.

But times and things change, and other methods have sprang
up to supplant the old ones, and there are but few who practice
the Colotypy now. The Wax-Paper has found many votaries,
and is in some respects superior to the Calotype; some splendid
things have been produced by this process, and in skillful hands
may rival glass. Albumen on glass has also had its day, its
chief drawback being its extreme slowness in receiving impres-
sions in the camera; many practitioners have produced first-rate
pictures, worthy of emulation and praise.

But to our lamented countryman, Frederick Scott Archer, is
due the crowning triumph of the art. With his grand disco-
very of the applicability of Collodion as a vehicle for the sensi-
tive film, a new era dawned upon Photography, new powers
were given to it, a new field opened to its research, and num-
berless applications brought to bear upon it.

The Collodion Process, whether Positive or Negative, is un-
surpassed for giving extreme delicacy and softness combined
with marvellous rapidity, or sensitiveness, so much so that in
the hands of clever manipulators, absolutely instantaneous pic-
tures have been obtained. This process is now almost univer-
sally adopted and merits a high degree of praise, and yet with
all that is known about the practice of the art, there is a great
amount of ignorance upon the subject of Collodion, that is, the
Chemistry of it. Light, however, is dawning upon us, and we
may hope that now we have some of the first chemists of the
day employed upon it, we shall not long remain deficient of true
theoretical knowledge upon the matter, for until we obtain this,
we are only groping in the dark, and occasionally stumbling
over facts hitherto concealed. It is a mortifying reflection that
we know so little of the nature and properties of light, the
subtle agent by which we work, or that we find it so difficult to
assign satisfactory reasons for the many perplexing changes,
which so often occur in practice, and the curious results we fre-
quently meet with.

The use of collodion in a dry state next claims our attention;
this is a discovery of infinite value to all Photographers, and
promises to prove of immense utility. The one drawback to its
extended use — want of sensitiveness, will no doubt be soon re-
moved, but this is more than compensated by its keeping quali-
ties. I believe, by Dr. Hill Norris's process plates may be pre-
served an indefinite time; to this gentleman is due high praise,
for his liberality in giving to the Photographic world the result
of his arduous researches and experiments; and also for produc-
ing a really useable and simple Dry Process.

While we may claim for him the merit of being the first dis-
oovei'er, whilst on this subject we must not forget the claims of
Mr. Barnes, as the author of a process, more complicated it is
true, but tending to the same end. To both gentlemen we wish
every success in their efforts, and trust that they may be able
very soon to render Dry Collodion as sensitive as the wet is
now. Collodio-Albumen deservedly holds a high rank as a dry
process and in some hands has produced exquisitively beautiful
results, but its complication precludes its general use.

With this cursory glance I must now proceed to the con-
sideration of the main subject of the present paper and endeavor
to show how far Photography is applicable to the present wants
of Society, and what -may be the future prospects of the Art.
And here a field of speculation is open to our view, which might
occupy several papers like the present without exhausting the

VOL. XI. NO. VII.

25

194

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

July,

subject. In the first place, then, Portraiture will ever claim
the services of Photography to a great extent. The facility
with which it is accomplished, and the marvellous fidelity of its
results when in good bands, will always secure it a place in pub-
lic estimation; for you must bear in mind that the fault of the
hideous caricatures we so often see exhibited under the name of
Photographs, lies with the sitter and operator, aud not in the
Art itself. Due attention to this will always secure remunera-
tion to the cleverartist. Who can look without emotion upon the
portrait of some dear friend, separated perhaps by hundreds or
thousands of miles, or perchance removed by the hand of death,
aud gaze on each well-remembered feature, so faithfully depicted on
the tablet before him by the unerriuif pencil of light, without
blessing the art which can thus immortalize and recall the re-
membrance of happy days and hours, long since buried in the
irrecoverable past? It is needless to dwell upon this theme, as
it must find an echo in the hearts of all present, who will en-
dorse the value of Photography for this purjjose.
i What a noble future opens out for Photography in its appli-
cation to the purposes ef education. Here its utility will be
immeasurable, and so obvious that it is really a matter of sur-
prise that the instructors of youth have not availed themselves
of its existence, in conjunction with the Stereoscope, to a much
greater extent than they have yet done. By its aid we can
place before our youth the whole wonders of the animal, vege-
table, and mineral kingdoms; all the remarkable places of the
earth, unembellished and unexaggerated by the fancy of the
painter, but vivid transcripts of the reality. Beginning with
the infant schools, we can give correct representations of the
objects of common life, in any size, and instead of the impos-
sible animals so depicted in their picture books, we can furnish
them with exact copies of the originals. To the youth, aud the
more advanced student what infinite assistance and interest does
Stereoscopic Photography give to their studies. Is he reading
History? Photography furnishes him with the identical spots
on which mighty events took place, and in which the world's
heroes lived. Is Biblical history his study? and the manners
aud customs of the East? Here, again. Photography is ready
to help him. By its aid we can roam through Pale.stine and
the Holy Land, visit the scenes where our Saviour performed his
wondrous miracles, — the spots rendered sacred by his presence in
life, and his sufferings in death. Rome with her Castle and the
Vatican, St. Peter's and tlie Coliseum, and the hundred recol-
lections of her departed glory. Egypt, with her Pyramids and
strange hieroglyphics, aud the wonders of her Architecture.
Thebes, with her hundred gates and ruined Memnon. Nubia,
with her tombs. Assyria, with her wondrous sculptures and
buried palaces. All these have been and will be photographed
for the benefit of those who stay at home.

Still further in the scale of education. The geologist can ob-
tain faithful records of every peculiarity in the formation of our
earth, and of every fossil which marks a distinct era in the his-
tory of our world, and shows him the form of the strange and
wondrous animals which once inhabited our globe, and roamed
through the mighty forests, whose place is now occupied by
thriving towns and cities.

The Antiquary, who delights in the glories of the past, and
the buried relics of bj'-gone ages, in old brasses and tombstones,
in ancient armor, and antique carving and tracery, and in fact
all that bears the stamp of age, will find Photography a faith-
ful helper in the pursuit of his much-loved study.

We have seen, in a recent excellent paper, I'ead before this
Society, of what immense utility it will be to the Architect and
Builder, and there are piany other professions to which the art
is higlily adapted, and it is a matter of surprise that it is not
more extensively used, for instance, the student of Anatomy,
the Surgeon, aud the Physician, would all find it extremely use-
ful in their studies. The various forms of the skeleton, the
numerous peculiarities of disease or mal-formation, might all be
studied with almost as much facility by the fireside as in the lec-
ture room.

To the Sculptor and the Painter it will furnish models of the
human form divine, for reference, at times when a living subject

might not be available; while to the painter of Landscape
scenery its assistance is invaluable, the ever-varying effects of
light and shade — the little bits of detail aud the numberless
points which go to make up a picture, may be faithfully rendered
for his use and consultation in the studio, like the memoranda
of a student. But while no true artist will make up his pic-
tures by sordid copying from a photograph, there is, on the
other hand, scarcely an artist in the kingdom who would not de-
rive great benefit from its assistance. This consideration natu-
rally brings me to the subject of Landscape Photography, and
I had thought of saying a word or two on the arrangement of
pictures, only that this object has been accomplished so much
better by Mr. Mudd, in his able paper, read before the Man-
chester Society, on the 3rd of February, that I can only advise
you to carefully study it. There is certainly very ample room
for improvement among amateurs in this respect — there is a
want of artistic feeling in their productions, they are so often
tame and spiritless, and not only so, but very often the worst
possible position is chosen for the view, as though the operator
had dropped his apparatus on the first ground became to.
Look at some of the stereoscope slides offered for sale, how
very few are really artistic in character, many of them positive-
ly vile; surely this sliould not be, and you may depend upon
this, that as the public taste gets more cultivated, only those
pictures which are really and artistically good, M'ill meet with a
ready sale. The Photographer inust pay more attention to the
characteristics of a good picture, and must study effect; in a
word, he must be an artist in the true sense of the term, as well
as a careful manipulator.

Our friend Mr. Rejlander has shown us how Art may be
wedded to Nature in Photography, in many of his beautiful
pictures; for example, his "Home, Sweet Home;" a picture
made up of artistic bits from various localities, and worked up
with great taste into one harmonious whole, presenting, as you
all know a picture, at once true to nature, artistic in execution,
and pleasing in effect. I should earnestly recommend all pho-
tographers who desire to excel in the art, and to improve their
taste, to purchase several first-rate examples of the works of
such men as Featon, Rejlander, Delamotte, and others, and re-
fer to them constantly, as standards of comparison for their own
works, so that by aiming high they may eventually improve
their taste, and consequently their productions. What one man
has accomplished cannot be an impossibility to others. But I
must hasten forward.

The next adaptation of Photography, to which I would di-
rect yonr attention, is its application to the purposes of trade.
Manufacturers have too long neglected and overlooked its im-
portance and utility in furnishing them with pattern books.
We had in our exhibition some first-rate specimens of this use
of the art. I refer to the Agricultural implements of Messrs.
Rausome and Sims.

Microscopic Photography has yet to take an important sta-
tion in the sphere of utility. I mean the impressions of magni-
fiid microscopic objects, so that we can see the objects, before
invisible, save by the aid of the microscope, now fairly and cor-
rectly mapped down before us, on a scale large enough for book
illustration. This is a part of the subject which has not yet re-
ceived the attention that it deserves. Closely allied to this
in its uses of Photography is Botany. The minute vesicle aud
and cellular structure of Plants will come under the head of
Micro-Photography, while the camera and the pressure frame
are both useful in copying the peculiarities of each order of
plants.

The Astronomer will doubtless find great advantage from the
use of Photography; already have we got Photographic maps
of the Sun and Moon, together with a number of Cloud pic-
tures, all of which will be very useful even as they are, but when
they are rendered more perfect by means- of accurate machinery
and extremely sensitive surfaces, we may not only expect to
have first-rate copies of every change in those bodies, but the
whole planetary system may be nightly mapped for reference,
and many phenomena probably explained.

One more instance of the utility of Photography, and then I

1858.

THE rHOTOGRAPHIC AXD FINE ART JOURNAL.

19;

mnst leave this iuteresting part of tbe subject. With the aid
of the Magic Lantern the lecturer may illustrate his subject
with the transparent slides now to be purchased in every shop
where Photographs are sold. By a suitable arrangement such
as described recently in one of the Journals, these pictures could
be exhihited on a screen about 4 feet by 4 without the neces-
sity of puting out the lights in the room, and while upon this
subject, I might suggest to those of you who do not possess a
Magic Lantern, that the camera itself might be used as one, re-
quiring only a little alteration, which any one of common in-
genuity might add. The diagram I hand round will fully ex-
plain my meaning. By the use of the camera iu this way many
a winters' evenina; may be amused.

There are many of the professions to whicli Photography may
lend its aid, either now or in the future; for want of space and
time, it would not do to enlarge upon them. I would just in-
stance the Army and Navy, the Surveyor, the Engineer, and
Machinist, the Designer, and many others which will probably
suggest themselves to you, Much, however, remains to be ac-
complished before Photography can be considered a perfect art.
The first difficulty that presents itself to our notice, is the pe-
culiar and I may call it opposite effect of different colors on the
sensitive surface. Mauy colors, which in nature are lights, such
as yellow and red, &c., are, in the photographs, dark, while
blue, which may be called a shade in nature, is always white in
the Positive photograph the rich tints of Autumn, the glowing
color af ripened corn, and the brilliant hues of many birds and
flowers, so beautiful to the eye, are in the Photograph sombre
and dull, giving a contrary effect to that of nature and spoiling
the general character of the picture. Then again the high
lights, such as the reflection of water, the glistening of leaves
lighted by the sun, the polish of any metal or stone, in fact any
surface which strongly reflects light, are at present often
brought out with such startling force and abruptness as to be
disagreeable and offensive to the eye. The best of our photo-
graphers have remedied this defect to a certain extent, by only
taking pictures in a suitable diffused light, and indeed this is the
only method we have of artistic working, yet even with this,
the defects still exist, and until they are removed, Photography
can never take the high place among the arts to which our
wishes aspire.

This, of course, must continue until we arrive at a better
knowledge of the action of the actinic force, or rather I might
say at what is the real cause or foundation of the molecular
changes which take place. Another bar to progress, and a
very strong argument in the hands of those who wish to decry
oiir Art, is the want of originality, and the miserable servility
of imitation adopted by so many would-be professors of the art.
1 often hear people say, "Oh, Photography is all very well in
its way, but there is no Art in it; it is all mechanical; yon can
only copy. If your chemicals work, you mnst get a picture,
and then what pictures some of them are, when jou have got
them — nothing but patches of white and black!"

Much of this is unfortunately true, as I remarked before, it
is not every man who plants his camera iu the neighborhood of
some charming spot, that is an artist; he may be a clever ma-
nipulator, but if he lacks the artist's feeling, he will do no good.
Fifty men may go to the same place, and but one bring back a
really artistic picture. Why is this? Because the forty-nine
are content to place the camera in the first convenient spot,
while the one studies his picture, chooses the most favorable
point of sight, weighs caretully the amount of light and shade,
calculates the bearing of part upon part, and judiciously aranges
and selects his foreground. The true artist aims not at mere
picture making. Loving his work he endeavors to render his
subject pleasing, he throws his soul into his Art, and whether
Painter, Sculptor, or Photographer, true genius will shine forth
in the productions.

• In the future what great changes may we expect will take
pla^e in the practice of photography, how the materials with
Avhich we now work, will probably be superseded by others of
a far more sensitive character, and perhaps at the same time
more evenly, (if I may so express myself) impressionable to all

the rays of the spectrum. The recent suggestive experiments
of Niepce de St. Yictor open up an interesting field for specu-
lation and enquiry into new and unthonght of properties of lif>-ht.
We find that there is latent light as well as latent heat, and the
uses to which this property of light may be applied are very
numerous. And there are doubtless many other properties of
light, which must be studied ere Photography cau take its place
as a perfect Art.

With regard to our printing processes much remains to be
done to secure a really permanent method of fixing ohotoo-ra-
phic impressions. We may probably hope great things from
the promised communications on the printing iu pure carbon;
should this be successfully carried out we shall have quite a new
phase in photography.

Photo-galvanography and photo-lithography are both im-
portant steps iu the advancement of the art and deserve all
encouragement, yet they are but the dawn of what may be ac-
complished, and I think we may hope to see the day when pre-
pared plates, impressed by light in the camera, shall be quickly
engraved by chemical or electrical agency, and ready to place
in the hands of the printer in a few hours, — nor is this hope de-
void of foundation; you have only to look along the surface of
a collodion negative, to discover, that it is in fact engraved and
consists of raised and depressed portions. I trust that ere long
the Copyright Act may be in some measure applicable to pho'-
tographs, for there are many who have sacrificed time, labor,
and expense, in procuring negatives of distant places, only to
have them pirated as soon as published, by some unprincipled
person.

^There are mauy other interesting speculations into which we
might enter, did time allow, but I draw to a conclusion, and I
cannot close this paper more fittingly, than with an allusion to
the aim and object of all true photographers, the production of
photographs in the natural color.

Few who have carefully watched the progress of our art will
venture to deny the possibility of this illumination. I believe
that it will be accomplished. Faint gleams have already shown
themselves, in the experiments of M. Testud de Beauregard and
others, and I have in my possession a collodion positive in which
one color is naturally impressed (the blue of a lady's handker-
chief) but how I cannot tell. This desideratum accomplished,
photography will step at once into a new existence, and revel
in a new world. A wide field is here opened for us; there is
ample room for all to exercise their genius. Then let me ex-
hort every true photographer, to cast aside as puerile, the exhi-
bition of petty jealousies which have of late so much disfigured
the pages of our Journals, and each contributing his mite to-
wards the common stock, strive- to advance the progress of our
delightful art.

STRUP, lOBIZLXG SOLITIO^, A.\D COLLODIOX.

To Editor of Liverpool Photographic Journal;

Sir, — Will you kindly give me a reply to the following
queries in a future number of your Journal.

1st. — How long will honey syrup (honey and distilled water
equal parts) keep in a good working state? (Temperature be-
low 10^). 2ud. — To which iodide do you give the preference

for iodizing collodion employed in the honey process? 3rd

Having a large stock of an old un-iodizei positive collodion
how would yoa advise me to proceed to render it available for
negatives. ' I am. Sir, yours faithfully,

George Hatdon-.

[1st.— Almost indefinitely; in hot weather it will probably
ferment slightly and become charged with carbonic acid o-as
but if this occurs, pour it backwards and forwards from one
tumbler to another several times, to dissipate the gas, and it
will work as well as at first. If it becomes turbid filter it un-
til clear. 2ad. — If pure, iodide of potassium, but iodide of
cadmium will do. 3d. — Add from one half grain to two o-rains
of pyroxyline to each ounce of collodion, then iodize with five
grains of iodide of potassium, dissolved in one drachm of alco-
hol to seven drachms of the collodion. — Ed.]

i

196

THE FUOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

July,

Frrni Photographic Notes.

RECOLLECTIONS AND JOTTINGS
Of a Photographic Tour, Undertaken during the Tears 1856-7.*

BY J. W. G. GUTCH, M.R.C.S.L.

We found nothing that suited us in Lynton, and therefore
soon wended our way down the steep ascent that had required
six horses to draw us up the night before, and when fairly
down, we were as much delighted with the scenery which met
our eye as we had been at Lynton, and congratulated ourselves
on the chance that directed our steps to this most favored spot.
Were I to make a comparison, I should say that the two places
I have seen closely resembling it, only on a far grander scale,
are the Baths of Lucca, and the Baths of the Lady, in the Car-
pathian Mountains; but in England I should think it unique,
at least I have never, in all my ramblings, seen anything like it.
Here we determined to rest, and were soon comfortably housed
in what was formerly the hotel, now removed to another part
of the village, the influx of visitors requiring now better accom-
modation. No description, in my humble opinion, can do jus-
tice to the beauties of Lynmouth. He who has sung its praise
so well, and who has described the numberless beauties so
truthfully, (I mean the late Mr. Eagles), still fails to give any
idea of such scenery as this, which must be seen, and which nu
words can paint, not even so skilful and able an artist as he
whom I have named. Its beauties are truly endless, for turn
your steps which way you will, fresh ones meet your eye; ihe
host of artists that are each summer to be seen, dotted about in
every direction, and under every description of grotesque and
picturesque form, testify to the truth of these remarks. Now
too may be seen mysterious machines, mounted and unmounted,
on stands; even flys, fitted up with yellow blinds, and laden
with boxes as unlike the ones our forefathers used to travel
with as possibly can be, in fact gentlemen photographers, who
hide their head, not under a bushel, but a black apron, and
who, with watch in hand, seem ever anxious that time should
pass away faster than it does. I one day, in the valley of
rocks, counted no less than six of these perambulators, each
carrying away portions of the valley, and seemingly quite satis-
fied with the spoliation they had so harmlessly effected, leaving
those picturesque rocks intact, and ready to be taken again and
again for many generations to come. May they long remain,
and never be subject to worse treatment, for they seem well
nigh to defy the all-devouring hand of time, and though grown
grey and covered with moss and lichen-wort, still no crumbling
is visible.

I am inclined to think the wonders of the Yalley of Rocks,
at Lynton, a little ovei'-rated, although, under certain atmos-
pheric effects, it is certainly very grand. The North Cliff Ter-
race Walk, too, is perhaps almost unique in England, and want-
ing the deep blue and cloudless sky of Italy, I was almost re-
minded of the road to Castelanan. The glorious feature of the
landscape, the Castle rock, and the far-off hills of Wales, with
the billows breaking at the foot of the cliffs, hundreds of feet
below, produces an effect that is not often met with iu our pre-
cious island.

I remember, on my first visit to Rome, I was scarce half an
hour in the Eternal City before I found myself wending my way
towards St. Peter's, and so at Lynmouth, directly that lodgings
had been found, we started off to the well-known and often de-
scribed place of Waters Meet. We were enchanted with the
road thereto, but must I own to a feeling of disappointment, on
reaching the termination of our walk, and like many others of
those localities, so lauded in the printed descriptions, found the
reality by no means equal to the'description.

Having nothing to hurry us away from this really most lovely
and favored spot, we lingered on for nearly six weeks, and took
between forty and fifty good negatives of the place. For a de-
scription of its scenery, I would advise any one to purchase the
Sketches, written by the Rev. John Eagles, of Bristol, and de

* Coatinued from page 151, vol. xi. no. vi.

tailing, in most graphic language, all the marvellous points of
beautiful scenery here to be met with.

Although there is no great difficulty in reaching this place,
yet, as often now occurs in those localities, distant from any
railway, there is much trouble in getting out of it, from the
hilly nature of the country, heavy luggage, (and the boxes of a
photographer are never very light j, is objected to, and charged
heavy jjrices, and must be sent before. In short there are many
of these little obstructions to be overcome, and no little extor-
tion attempted. However we at last tore ourselves away, and
proceeded via Barnstaple, to Dawlish, wishing to pay a visit to
the many watering places along this part of Devonshire coast,
formerly most fashionable, and still much frequented. Dawlish
is a pretty, bright and sunny place, and quite worth a visit; the
red sandstone cliffs, which are pierced above by thousands of
rabbits, and the sand-martin, and below by the railway tunnels
of the South Devon Coast Railway, standing out in bold relief,
and from the wash of the sea, forming most picturesque head-
lands, and isolated rocks in every direction, and all coming out
well, in any picture that I took. Here I managed a dozen, and
some of them very nice. An easy ride conveys you on to Teign-
mouth, having all the appearance of one of those watering
places that in former years attracted its crowd of visitors.
There is the pile of buildings so necessary to the requirements
of our respected parents, the Assembly Rooms, and the Circu-
lating Library and Reading Rooms, with, for ought we know
to the contrary, its wonted collection of Pamelas and Pene-
lopes, but the place now looked, to my eyes, deserted, and
like Weymouth, seemed as if its glories had passed away. Nor
did I see anything very tempting for camera work, so instead of
loitering on my road I determined on proceeding still further
along the coast to Torquay. Here there is evidently much to
be done, not in the town, but in the environs. Babbicombe is
still very pretty, though this once secluded little nook is now,
like others, being invaded by the mean and ugly villas that are,
in every direction, in around Torquay, covering each acre of
ground. It looked to me a hot and dusty place, and too large
for any quiet or repose. In fact I felt disappointed with this
my first visit. Totness next engaged my attention, and here
several very nice photographs may be taken. Berry Pomeroy
Castle, too, is close by, though, from its being so closely shut in
by trees, it is not an easy matter to get any good view of this
fine ruin, and which, from the neglected state it is allowed to
remain in, is fast disappearing. I never saw a fine old ruin in
such bad preservation, overgrown with brambles and nettles,
broken tables and stools strewed about, the vestige of the last
excursion train party, broken necks of bottles, and other rem-
nants of the visit, being anything but in keeping with the hall
where once a vastly different assemblage were wont to congre-
gate and converse.

From Totness, a row to Dartmouth is of course necessary, and
although I could see nothing iu the scenery to permit its being .
called the English Rhine, still it quite repays the tourist, and
should by all means be visited if only to permit an inspection of
that most picturesque and quaint old town Dartmouth. Here
a week will not suffice to take all that is worth taking; — old
gables, the remains of the Castle; — nice bits of shipping and
boats; — in short tl*ere is much here to repay the photographer,
and very diffei'ent from any other English town.

This formed the termination of my Photographic Tour in that
direction, and I retraced my steps to Dawlish. I now pro-
ceeded in the direction of Exeter, to visit and photograph
Powderham Castle, the seat of the Duke of Devonshire, and
well worth taking; and Exmouth, where I did not find much of
interest.

I now proceeded to a greater distance, determining on see-
ing Sidraouth before finally leaving the South Devon Coast,
and here you have again recourse to the old four; or rather
three-horse coach, and from its being some miles from any rail-
way, it is apparently languishing, and looks deserted and pov-
erty stricken ; nevertheless it is a very pretty and picturesque
bathing place, and the fine cliffs of sandstone which form the
termination of the Bay, stand out with great effect. Near

1858.

THE PrtOTOGRAPIIIO AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

197

here is tlie restored Church of Ottery St. Mary's, quite worth
a visit, aud which makes a very good photograph. In the iri'
ternal decoration, large sums have been spent ot late, and for a
restoration in the mediteval style, a more beautiful specimen
cannot be seen anywhere in England.

The weather now getting cold aud stormy, and the year fast
waning, warned us to make the best of the remaining few weeks,
and before packing up for the winter, and bidding adieu, till
Spring, to the pursuit, which of all others, to my mind, gives a
larger allowance of health and enjoyment, one other place re-
mained on the list marked out for the Summers tour, and that
was Weymouth; so bidding adieu to the warm and relaxing
climate of Devon, we soon found ourselves among the chalky
downs of Dorsetshire, and entering the old town of Mclcombe
Regis, so favorite a resort, in former days, of old Gleorge the
Third. It has not in any way changed in appearance; it is
just the same as it was in his palmy days. Here, from the
dreary country around, there is little to interest the photogra-
pher, Sundstert Castle and the Island of Portland being the
two principal points of any interest. The new Breakwater
gave me some very good pictures, and the dreary and wild
scenery of the back of the Island, with its weather-beaten cliffs,
afforded some beautiful studies of cliffs and rocks, so admirably
adapted for Photographic display. This concluded a nearly
seven months tour, pleasurable, profit, and health-giving; and
here, for the present, I shall conclude this long account of my
rambles and proceedings in 1856, promising, if you so desire,
at no long interval to forward you the account of 185t, and
which, from its more extended and varied route, may perhaps
prove the more interesting of the two.

In 1856 I became possessed of IfO good negatives, viz.,
Cheddar 8; Dawlish 8; Lynmouth 36; Lynton 5; Weymouth
and Portland 26; Wells 4; Weston 10; Sidmouth 10; Teign-
mouth 2 ; Malvern 32 ; all of which, notwithstanding the
rough roads they have been over and the rough handling they
have received, and the number of copies, over 2000, that they
have afforded me, are still, I am happy to say, as perfect as
when they were taken, and are still, I hope, destined to do me
good and profitable service. I last year, 1857, obtained 180
negatives, and from these, with four copying frames only, I ob-
tained 2800 positives: this consumed 31bs. 6ozs. of nitrate, four
pints of collodion, and a ream of Marion's paper. And now,
to prove that after this long story what I have stated is cor-
rect concerning the success of my mode of manipulating, I send
a few examples of positives, selected at hazard from my port-
forlio of duplicates, which, I am happy to say, is never allowed
to become overstocked, and abide your decision as to their
merits, again most conscientiously recommending the " Archer
Camera," as being the only one that combines every requisite
for field-work; and I would say to the sceptic, make trial, and
I feel quite sure the result will give you satisfaction.

2. Absence of bubbles in the albumen, these being washed
off with the surface albumen.

3.. The resulting negative is remarkable for softness,

4. The plate only requires once sensitising.

5. With some collodions, whicii will be mentioned in the next
number of the Journal of Photography, much less exposure is
required than by any other keeping process known to me.

6. The negative only requires a few minutes in developing by
using (after previously moistening the plate) from \\ to 2
grains of pyrogallic acid to the ounce of water, and the usual
amount of acetic acid.

The only disadvantage I have yet encountered fand that not
often) is a tendency of the development to get under the film.
As yet, however, I have only had one picture slightly impaired,
but not soiled by that circumstance, and I think the evil may be
entirely prevented by rubbing the edge of the plate, after the
last washing, with the finger dipped in a little albumen.

From six to nine drops of liquor ammonite added to each egg,
seem to increase the sensitiveness of the film, but, at present, I re-
commend trying the plain albumen.

I believe plates can be kept an indefinite period when pre-
pared with care. I have kept some a week, without the slight-
est loss of sensitiveness.

I have the honor to subscribe myself yours obediently,

Thomas Fothergill.

8 Inverness-road, London, April 24.

PROCESS FOR PRESERVaG THE SESSITITENESS OF COLLODION PLATES.
To the Editor of the London Times:

Sir, — Having lately made a series of experiments to find
out some less complicated process than any at present in use for
preserving the sensitiveness of collodion plates, I have disco-
vered one which is so simple that I venture to hope you will
deem it of sufficient value to the photographic world to give it
publicity through your widely-circulating journal.

The plate, being collodionized and sensitized in the usual
manner, is washed with rain water, and after draining for about
half a minute, I pour on the collodion film some plain albumen,
which has been obtained by well beating up the white of one
egg with a quarter of an ounce of water, aud allov/ing to sub-
side. After half a minute the albumen is washed off under a
gentle stream of rain water, enough remaining in the pores of
the collodion to answer the purpose of preserving its sensitive-
ness. The plate is then allowed to dry, and is fit for use.

The advantages of this process are: —

1. Absence of blisters.

25*

From Photographic Notes.

INSTRUMENTS FOR TESTING NITRATE OF SILVER BATHS.

To the Editor of Photographic Notes:

Sir, — Is it not to be regretted that we still see so many ad-
vertisements respecting Hydrometers " for testing nitrate of
silver baths." It must occur to every one, who reflects for a
moment on the matter, that this form of instrument is entirely
incapable of estimating the amount of silver existing in a bath
which has been even a short time in use.

Without taking into account the ever- varying amount of al-
cohol and ether reducing the specific gravity of the collodion
bath, each plate, as it removes its dose of iodide of silver,
leaves an equivalent of nitrateof ammonia, potassa, or cadmium,
as the case may be, which of course is indicated by the so-called
" Argentometer," and produces an error in the calculation in
direct proportion to the equivalent number of the base con-
tained. In fict the only use of an anhydrometer is to show us
what we know quite as well without it, that our bath decreases
in strength by being worked.

I have devised a very simple form of apparatus for testing all
aqueous solutions of nitrate, or ammonia-nitrate of silver; in
which, however, it must be observed, there is no new principle
involved; my only claim is to have carried a well known in-
strument and process to their last degree of simplicity.

A glass tube, 5 inches long, and |-inch diameter, has welded
to one of its extremities another tube not quite f-inch diameter
and five in length; — the former has fitted to it a piston, which
constitutes it a syringe, the total capacity of which is equal to
that of the lower portion; which is graduated into 25 divisions
each subdivided into five graduations, each one minim; the in-
ferior extremity is drawn out to a capillary orifice.

I make the best liquid by dissolving 69 grains pure dry chlor-
ide of sodium in 1000 minims, (2 fluid ounces plus 40 minims)
of distilled water.

Take any fraction of a fluid ounce of the bath to be tested,
mix it with an equal volume of nitric acid and twice or thrice
its bulk of pure water, fill the instrument to the top mark, (the
zero), with test liquor, and gradually depressing the piston, al-
low it to run into the bath prepared as above and kept vigo-
rously stirred.

At first the precipitate (chloride of silver) subsides very
readily; but, near the point of saturation the supernatant liquid
remains much longer milky, and more caution must be exercised.
When the addition of one drop no longer occasions a precipi-

198

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

Jill

tate tbe operation is complete. The number of graduations
left empty indicates the number of grains of nitrate of silver con-
tained in the liquid under examination; a graduation of live
minims being one division of the instrument, as before ob-
served. J. 13. HocKix.

[Mr. Hockin does not seem to be aware that the Argen-
tometer advertised by Mr. Wood of Cheapside acts on the
same principle as that which he has described. Every photo-
grapher should possess an instrument of this kind, and a quantity
of the test solution of pcke chloride of sodium. Common salt
will not do, as it contains the chlorides of calcium and magne-
sium, and the sulphates of lime and magnesia.

Pure chloride of sodium is made by adding pure hydrochloric
acid iu excess to pure carbonate of soda, and evaporating to
dryness.

It is very slightly deliquescent, when pure; the deliquescence
of common salt being occasioned by the pressure of chloride of
magnesium. — En. P. N.]

F7-om Photographic Notes.

PROFESSOR PETmL'S NEW LENS,

EXPLAINED BY HIMSELF IN A LETTER TO MR. PAUL PRETSCH.

( Translated and finally corrected by Mr. Pretsch )
" After having finished my new lens, I introduced it to the
public by placing the same before the Imperial Academy of
Sciences in Yienna, and by explaining its qualities and abilities
in certain lectures. These lectures have been published iu two
pamphlets, but, as a matter of course, they are published in
German; a few copies of the same I have sent, through Mr.
Pretsch, to England, and I hope to see them shortly published
in a good English translation. It is therefore not my fault if
the English Photographic world is so little informed of the
real qualities of this lens. Some views expressed in public pa-
pers have induced me to mention this fact again; moreover,
there appear to be some competitors trying to make the public
believe that their inferior imitations are the only genuine ones.
All these matters stimulate me to publish again some observa-
tions on this subject in the hope that I may not lose the atten-
tion of the public.

" I consider it very dangerous to the success of any new pro-

duction, if people expect to find in it certain qual'ties which it
has not, and which it neither can, nor pretend to possess. I
will therefore candidly state all the abilities which the public
might expect, but which my lens cannot possess, afterwards ex-
plaining those which in reality it does possess.

" No lens, nor combination of lenses, can be so constructed as
to reproduce objects at long and short distances on one and the
same plane. This is an absolute impossibility in optics. To
suppose such a thing possible is an absurdity, which can be ea-
sily exposed iu the following manner: —

" Suppose rt J to be such a lens, and suppose the pencil of
rays c a to come from c, — the pencil d a from d, and the pencil

e a from a very long distance. Now some people perhaps
would demand that all these pencils of rays should be united in
one place or dot /. Suppose it could be done, consequently we

could imagine o- (^ e as one object, and we shall perceive that
such a lens (if its production should be possible) would repro-
duce all the parts of the object e d g in f, and would therefore
give no image at all, but only an illuminated dot in the focus/.

" On the contrary, if the pencil e a, after its refraction, cuts
the axis at/, it is an indispensable necessity, that d a cuts at
h, and c a at ^. It can also be added that the difference of
the spaces / and k, is quite independent of the curvatures of
the lens, or of the system of lenses, and also of the arrangement
of the constituent parts of the lens; but it depends upon the
focus of the lens or of the system of lenses, and the difference
of these spaces /and k increases in the quadrature of its pro-
portion, namely, if the focus becomes double the length, the
space f k increases to four times its original value.

" It is needless to explain here how it happens that we never-
theless can take equally sharp pictures on one and the same
surface, from objects at short aud long distances, and even with
full aperture, because this has been explained by Mr. Grubb,
in the Journal of the Photographic Society; and I cannot add
anything of importance to these observations, except that he
has estimated the difference of distances a little too short, and
that he did not consider the circumstance of the real aperture of
the lens being not 3 inches, but 2^ inches. He treats there-
fore the image a little too slightly, which can be proved to any-
body by examining the photographic picture by means of a
magnifying glass.

" We may here repeat the very simple but important rule to
photographers going to take an equally sharp, or perhaps an
equally unsharp picture, to rely not only on his lens, but also
on his experience, and on the construction of his camera; and
especially I consider of great importance the inclination of the
surface of the image to the axis of the instrument. In the
camera which I hnve sent you as a specimen, this is provided
for by a certain contrivance for the purpose, and it would be
very desirable that every photographer should possess knowledge
of the simple formula3 iu optics for the purpose of finding out
easily, without searching a long time, in each case, the required
inclination of the surface of the image. I am very sorry to be
obliged to confess that unfortunately, and against the taste of
Englishmen, this specimen of a camera is made of light-colored
wood, not of poplar, as supposed, but of 'Ahorn,' (maple, false
plane-tree).

" The second capability which ought to be discussed, is the
mode of obtaining a perfectly flat picture. The construction of
such a lens would not only be possible but in fact I myself
possess tables for the combination of lenses which are able to
produce pictures with less curvature, and also tables for the
construction of lenses which are capable of producing perfectly
flat pictures. But it appeared to me, that the curvature of a
paraboloid of revolution, with about 8U inches radius of curva-
ture at the vertex, would be just suitable to the greater number
of practical purposes, My new lens, with 3 inches aperture,
possesses this peculiarity, and it remains constantly the same,
whatever the distance of the object from the lens may be, there-
fore, also in the case if the object to be taken is situate at a
great distance from the lens. Consequently the lens possesses,
and ought to possess, the capability of reproducing from a flat
picture, an image curved in the mentioned proportion ; but it
will reproduce from a picture, curved in this proportion, a fault-
less image of the fifth order.

" I have preferred this curvature of the image instead of a
perfect evenness, because it hnppens very seldom, or not at all,
that we can take views of objects placed in a straight line. On
the contrary, it happens very frequently that the objects to be
taken are placed in a curve whose concavity is directed to the
camera.

" In tactics we possess certain rules for the battle-array of
the various troops, but not for the purpose of adhering strictly
and only to these rules, but for the purpose of giving a general
view of the advantages which might be gained by a certain ar-
rangement. Every photographic apparatus possesses also its
tactical rules, — namely, the position of the objects to be taken;
in fact, such a position as is capable of rendering an equally

sharp picture ou a flat surface placed vertically to the axis of
the instrument. It is advisable to understand this position.

' If the objects in the centre of a picture are to be seen at a
very long distance, but if there are at the sides, or in the fore-
ground, objects nearer situated, perhaps at a distance of 80 or
100 steps, we obtain an equally sharp and flat picture.

"The best mode of taking groups of persons is, to place them
in the periphery of a circle which is made by the radius of seven
feet from any point of the axis of the instrument. The more
we deviate from it, the more we shall be troubled by the un-
sharp parts of the picture, and the more necessary will become
an inclination of the surface of the image to the axis of the in-
strument.

" But I do not intend to say that we can take a picture only
in this position; — this rule ought to be applied, for instance, in
this way. The photographer going to take a view, tries
whether he can find out a spot from which the objects to be
taken are seen in the above-mentioned position. Has he found
such a spot, then he can take a picture ou a surface vertical to
the axis of the instrument, and can do it without a diaphragm.
If no such spot can be found, then he ought to ascertain
whether he can obtain the desired effect by incUning the axis
of the instrument, in v;hich case he can obtain by a correspond-
ing movement of the surface of the image, a sharp picture with-
out a diaphragm. The same mode can be applied, if we are
going to take objects at near distances, objects which we can
place if we choose at the required distance, and mode, from the
instrument. But if we are obliged to take objects in unfavora-
ble positions, perhaps in quite a contrary position to that re-
quired, near and far objects on the same place, or near to each
other, in this case we can only obtain a good picture by using a
more or less small diaphragm, and allowing a longer time for
exposure.

" I may here as well observe that a camera with a long focus
is sensible to unequal distances in the quadrature of the propor-
tion of the foci, namely a lens with 26 inches focus in compari-
son with such a one of 1 1 inches, supposing the quantity of
light to be the same, will show this difference, in case of an ir-
regular position, five times more.

" The human eye is also a camera obscura, but a very little
one. The limits of its efficiency are from 8 inches to an indefi-
nite distance. A lens of 11 inches focus will reach from 20
steps to the indefinite; — a lens of 26 inches focus from 120 steps
to the indefinite; — and if we should construct an instrument of
still greater dimensions, perhaps of 52 inches, we should be
enabled to take, without a diaphragm, pictures of objects whose
distance from the instrument is from 500 steps to the indefinite.
These are the troubles in photography which are indispensa-
bly connected with the production of large pictures.

" However, I must also state that there might be some cases
where lenses reproducing images with other curvatures, or with
plane, or even reproducing convex images, might render better
service; in fact I myself possess them already. But the present
lens possesses a certain curvature; — that is to say, the combi-
nation for portraits reproduces a curvature of 15 inches; the
combination for views a curvature of 80 inches; — therefore the
last one is five times flatter than the first; — and people finding
the pictures of the first one tolerably flat, will find also no doubt
the last one not too much uneven.

"Having made these observations about the abilities which my
lens does not possess, and cannot possess, it may be permitted to
me to state also something about the advantages which the
same in reality does possess, and which are founded on the prin-
ciples of sound theory.

"1. A PERFECTLY CORRECT PERSPECTIVE, which has already
been observed in some of the English papers. Therefore
straight lines will remain so, and will not become curved. It
has been stated that Voigtlander's ' Orthoscopic Lenses' show
slightly curved lines; this might be easily explained by the
great haste which he was obliged to use in carrying out his im-
itation. The ' Orthoscopic' procedure executed by him differs
an immense deal from the wearisome mode which is applied and
used by real science for the production of a novelty. This 'Or-

thoscopic' proceeding does not want long formula, carefully cal-
culated tables, troublesome examination of the i)ropcrties of the
glass, exact execution of the curvatures according to the given
radius, &c., &c. At all events it is easier, and not so trouble-
some. It is very simple, and executed in the following mode,
viz.. Waiting quietly till Professor Petzval has executed labo-
riously any new production in optics; there is obtained a speci-
men of it; the lenses are taken out of their mountings, moistened
and tried whether they fit one of the many grinding dishes of
iron, of which every optician possesses a great store. The
grinding dish which shows the most contact, is the right one.

A difference of some inches in the radius of the curvatures is
considered in this kind of proceeding of no great importance.
There is also a store of glass; a specimen of it is chosen as most
likely to suit the purpose. No investigation is applied because
it is too wearisome, and requires time and knowledge. The
only care to be taken is that the lens of crown glass is not made
of flint or vice versa. This expeditious mode of making an in-
vention does not quite originate with Mr, Voigtlalander; on
the contrary, it is very old. His merit is chiefly in haying in-
vented the name 'Orthoscopic' It is a very nice name,-and the
want of it has been felt long ago, because the Latin flagiare
plagiahwi, is too vulgar, and has been applied only to common
scrawliugs of soi-disant authors. But 'Ortlioscopic' is pleasant
and elegant, and sounds well ahr.ost in every language. For in-
stance, how agreeable sounds the advice to a young assistant in
optics, 'Try and make some invention in the Orthoscopical way,'
or ' I am now occupied with making Petzval's lenses Orthoscopi-
cal.' It seems therefore quite sure that the invention of the
name has been more wanted than the invention of the lens.
However, in spite of this beautiful name, there are remaining
some little faults, the straight lines get sometimes crooked, there
is something left of the chemical focus, and some other little
amiabilities. At all events the 'Orthoscopic procedure' has been
so far successful, that a committee of several names of the first
photegraphers de la grande nation have paid acknowledgment
to his production of the fine art of 'high Orthoscopy.'

" Ths second ability which my lens possesses, is the considera-
ble sharpness of the picture. You will be able to obtain a better
idea of it, if I state that I have constructed a telescope, mount-
ing two of these view-combinations together, one with three,
the other with five inches diameter, to which is added a ter-
restric eye-piece; the first one allows a magnifying power of 40
times, the other one of 80 times, therefore about as ranch as
we demand from the best telescopes by the given proportion of
aperture. Dietzler is now engaged in constructing such a tele-
scope for yourself, and you may expect to receive it shortly.
But please do not believe that these lenses were selected by
myself, that they are isolated cases, which are expressly done
for the purpose of rendering such excellent services; not at all, —
on the contrary, all the lenses which you have obtained, and
which you will obtain from the manufactory of M Dietzler, and
which are marked with my initials, are quite as good and per-
fect. Those telescopes require a careful rectification, they are
what we call dialytic, and possesses the well-known peculiarity
of being exceedingly sensible to the distances between the two
constituent lenses. One hundredth part of an inch shows a very
remarkable difference, and another eye-piece, or another dia-
phragm requires also an alteration in this distance. It was
therefore necessary to mount the two constituent lenses in a
mode that they are movable, like what is done in the dialytio
telescopes, and even in such an exact manner that the centra-
tion of the lenses is not lost. A peculiar construction of the
mountings is required for the use of those lenses as a telescope,

"To speak with numerical certainty, the picture of the view-
combination, being carefully rectified, is so sharp that it can be
examined by a microscope of |-inch focus, or it allows the ap-
plication of a magnifying power of 12 times. Sbould you think
perhaps this to be a superfluous degiee of sharpness, then please
to consider — ■

" 1st. — The full extent of this sharpness is only quite availa-
ble in the centre of the field of view, and decreases a little to
the edges of the picture.

200

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

July,

" 2ntl, — It was my aim to construct the lens for the purpose
of copying maps to the fifth part of their scale, and even in
snch a manner that by coi)yin|^, nothing be lost of tlie details
of the original, in so lar that we are able to observe in the copy
distinctly all the contents of the original by means of a micro-
scope of five times magnifying power, or almost 2-inches focus.

" 3rd, — In using an instrument for photography, there is al-
ways semething to be sacrificed ;— therefore we must possess
something superfluous for the purpose of being able to sacrihce

■ something. .

" A third qualily of tiie new combination of lenses is the equal
slren'^lh of light from the centre to the utmost corners of a sur-
face of the image of lGxl2-inches, or of a circle of 20-inches
diameter. If we compare the same in this respect with the com-
bination for portraits, wc shall fmd a superiority of 1:10, be-
cause the picture of the combination for portraits has only a
round spot in the centre, of about a little more than 2-inches
diameter, wliere the light is quite full and equal;— from there
to 6-inchcs the strciigtli of tiie light decreases to half of its
maximal value, and passes from there very quickly to 0.

As 1 observe in the Journal of the Piiotographic Society, two
members of this respected Society have examined ray view-
combination with respect to the field of view, and strength of

liglit, both of them, I think, have examined too slightly. I

am obliged therefore to observe, that we can understand, under
field of view, various matters. For instance — 1st, the angular
extent of the space where the strength of light is constant; —
2nd, the larger angular extent of the other space where the
strem'th of light decreases, without a diaphragm, to half its
value. But we must well observe that this can be only sup-
posed if there is no other obstacle or wrong influence, for in-
stance, any interception by mountings too long, or by cameras
too small for the picture, &c. An examination of the field of
view in this precise meaning, and a comparison of the same
with other lenses, would lead, no doubt, to other results.

" I would also request the favor of the other member of the
Society to try again, in spite of the inferior strength of light,
my new combination for taking portraits and groups of figures,
under favoraljle circumstances. It is quite sure he would be re-
munerated for a longer exposure of 2^ or 3 times more, by the
sharpness, correct delineation, and plastic appearance of the

picture.

"However, it was not my intention at all to dispose of a for-
mer production of my own by a new combination of lenses; on
the contrary, I wish only to increase the richness of optic
means. I have not calculated this lens expressly for the pur-
ijose of taking portraits, and I do not demand to use it for this
purpose. But I myself would, under favorable circumstrnces,
always use this instrument, and only use the first combin^ion in
lack of light, or on oljjects which cannot be taken too quickly.

" Tiiese are the abilities which I desire to be searched for in
the new producLioii of optical science. I watch still the execu-
tion of them in Dietzlcr's factory, and all these productions arc
examined by myself, whether they really possess the required
qualities. But you will perceive that I cannot take this trou-
ble for ever, but only until the photographic public may become
sufficiently aware of the abilities of the instrument, and be able
to judge for itself. I wish, therefore, that you would make
known the contents of this letter to the English public.

" I has not been approved that I did not publish a descrip-
tion of this new lens. This will account for it. It has been
done because no one is able to judge from the description of an
optical instrument, whether it is good or not. Its theory ought
to be compared with its execution. Such a description would
have becu useless so long as the object in question could not
have been examined in reality. Now I will give it.

"The combination for views, groups, &c., consists of two
achromatic lenses. The first one, whose constituent parts are
cemented together, is almost plano-convex, the convex side
turned to the objeet. The second achromatic lens is placed at
a distance from the first one of about one-sixteenth of the focal
length of the first. Its first constituent lens is bi-concave, the
slighter curvature turned to the object, the stronger one to the

picture; the second constituent lens is concavo-convex, the con-
cavity turned to the object, the convexity to the picture. This
description may serve for the purpose of directing any photog-
rapher how to place the lenses again in their mountings if he
should have taken them out to clean them. Any other use of
such a description of an optical instrument can hardly be ex-
pected.

"Some of the fighting men in public life might perhaps ask,
why I have not yet published the theory of this new produc-
tion of mine ? The reply is, the theory is a corollary of the gener-
al analytical researches which ascertain the course of a pencil
of rays through a system of any number of refracting or reflect-
ing surfaces of revolution. -It will occupy about two volumes
of the three of my new works upon Optics, the publication of
which will begin, after the publication of my ' Integration of
the Linear Differential-equations' lias been finished. As a mat-
ter of course I cannot easily separate the theory of a single
optical instrument from the great structure of science.

" You have also mentioned to me, that complaint has been
made that the caihera does not possess any contrivance for
moving the lens up and down, and to and fro. I do not con-
sider it in this case very practicable. I have preferred to give
a larger surface to the ground glass, and to obtain the same re-
sult by a movable set of compartments in the sliding frame, but
without demanding that any else should have just the same
view as myself.

"I have the honor to thank you very heartily for the active
mode with which you have so kindly assisted me in the propa-
gation of clear and precise conceptions iu Optics

"Petzvau

" Vienna, April 12th, 1858."

From the Fhotographic Notes,

VOIGTLANDER versus PETZVAL.

To the Editor of Photographic Notes:

Sir, — Enclosed with this, I hand you a copy of a letter I
have received from M. Voigtiander, in answer to the letter of
Professor Petzval, addressed to Mr. Paul Pretsch, and which
appeared in the Photogra/phic Notes, of the 15th of April. I
shall feel much obliged by your inserting it in your next num-
ber. Youra, very truly,

George Knight.

2 Foster Lane, London, May 1, 1858.

" TO GEORGE KNIGHT, ESQ.
" Dear Sir, — I have received yesterday the Journal which
contains the letter of Professor Petzval, and though very un-
well and scarcely able to write, still I hasten to forward ray an-
swer to it, and beg you will cause it to be inserted in the same
Journal. I have written it in English, so as to prevent any
misconstruction taking place by a translation, and hope, as a
foreigner, to meet with indulgence for any grammatical errors.
When writing my letter to M. Lacan, in Paris, about the lens
of Professor Petzval, a translation of which will be found in the
Photographic Notes, No. 45, I was fully aware that it would
meet with an answer from Professor Petzval, indeed I was ex-
pecting its coming down upon me, crushing and thundering,
like an avalanche; but my astonishment has been great, when,
])repared to encounter a giant I only met a dwarf. The letter
of Professor Petzval, instead of containing precise and clear
statements, is nothing but a compilation of sarcastic attacks,
which have nothing to do with the object in question, and such
assertions as will be easy for me to prove as founded upon noth-
ing, and opposed to facts and truth. The dislike to enter into
any controversy with Professor Petzval, which has caused me
to keep silence for 14 years, on various matters connected with
him, not even asking liim any explanation about his more than
strange conduct towards rac, would induce me to take no notice
of his letter, should ray high regard for public opinion compel
me not to act differently. Without wishing to trespass upon
the patience of the reader, I must needs go to a certain length

1858.

THE PnOTOGRAPIIIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL,

201

to give a clear view of tlic wliolc case, and must, for that pur-
pose, touch on mj' former cotiiioctions with Professor Petzval.

" It may have been a year after Daf^ucrre's discovery, that,
when calling upon Professor von I'jltingsiiansen, I was asked liy
that f^entlemau wiietlier I could determine the refracting- and
dispersing power of different sorts of flint and crown glass? An-
swering in the airirmative (liaving been occupied for a long
time in determining these (juestionsj, I was infurmcd that Pro-
fessor Petzval had made the calculation of a Photographic iicns,
which could not be executed for want of the qualities of the
glass to be employed. Professor von Ettingshausen asked me
to call immediately on Professor Petzval, giving me a letter of
introduction to him, saying, that by furnishing the means to
execute this lens I was rendering to the world a great service;
and securing for myself a high reputation; T jjrcsentcd the let-
ter to Prof. Petzval, was well received, furnished the above-
mentioned qualities of the glass, which formed the foundation
of the calculation of two combinations of lens executed by me,
the one well-known since 17 years: the other, the same as now
presented to the world by Prof. Petzval as newly-constructed;
the original drawing of these two lenses, from the hand of Pro-
fessor Petzval, together with the statement of the curves, is
slillin my 'possession. Both the lenses were examined by Prof.
Petzval, but not finding them as perfect as he wished them to
be, they were put aside, when, sometimes afterwards, urged by
me to have the lens for portraits practically tried by M. Mar-
ten, and the results having been found surpi'ising, I was author-
ised to make this lens known. Professor Petzval intended to
apply his new theory to ail optical instruments, and I was to
do the practical part; our connection grew a very intimate one;
we made another quick-working lens, a dissolving view appara-
tus, and the opera-glasses, with achromatic eye-pieces, well-known,
particularly in England. I then also constructed lens of a
larger size; besides all this work my whole time was devoted to
Prof. Petzval, in assisting him in his researches, inasmuch as I
made all the various apparatuses necessary to him, when his
conduct towards me became so very strange and inexplicable
that I could not find it any more consistent with my honor to
pay further visits to him, and our connection was Ijroken up,
without my knowing for certain what the motives of Professor
Petzval were, though I may have had some vague ideas about
it. He then allied himself with another optician, whom he soon
deserted likewise, and is now connected with M. Dietz'er, a
very able meclianic, who, when still iu Vienna, made part of tiie
brass mountings of my lens. Since the time our connection
was broken off, (during some 15 years), with the excejjtion of
an improved dissolving view apparatus, nolhing new appeared,
only from time to time a pamphlet was launched into the world
promising wonderful things, which were to come; the last of
these reports were declared in England to be ' a tremendous
flourish of trumpets,' and they are regarded mucli in the same
light iu Germany. I said nothing new appeared till last year,
when the so-called '. new lens' came out, and which I recognised
immediately as alike in principle and with little differences of
the curves to the one I had made It years ago, which discovery
caused me to address to the Academy of Vienna a memorial, in
which I raised a protest against this lens being called new, I
claimed my right, not only to the priority of the first execution,
but also of my partnership, in some measui'e, to the scientific
part of the work. I offijred to show that this lens, not new in
principle, was to be called identical with the one constructed 11
years ago, in spite of the apparently great difference of some of
the curves, as the effect of both lenses was nnich the same, only
the focus of the new lens is shorter, and a mere revisal of the
former calculation of Professor Petzval, or even a new calcula-
tion, could never vindicate for this lens the name of new. The
way to obtain a certain object may be new, )mt that denomina-
tion caimot be transferred upon the object iLseif, if this remains
in both cases much the same. I chiefly wLshed to show by this
memorial that Professor Petzval was guilty, in my eyes, of an
injustice, by not mentioning that this lens had been made 17
years ago by me. As to his appearing with the lens at all, he
was certainly at full liberty to do as he liked, and I further

VOL. XI. NO. VII. 26

wished to prove that by ai)pearing now with this lens I was not
guilty of an infringement of the rights of Professor Petzval.

"This is the outline of the historical part of the affair, in
clironological order, — a preface to my now passijig on to the
letter of Professor Petzval. I shall touch on the various points
of it in the same order as they present themselves. Regarding
my assertions about the new lens, I refer to my statement on
that subject. I protest against having mentioned the new lens
amongst the 'unsuccessful' trials; in my memorial I said that both
the lenses have been put aside, not being found quik salisfadoTy;
in that memorial I never mentioned Prufessor Petzval not being
satisfied with my j)roduclious; the cojiy of that memorial is be-
fore me, but I cannot find even the slightest allusion to it which
might be misconstrued; this would be contrary to truth, little
flattering to myself, and carrying modesty rather too far. I
must declare this as an invention of Professor Petzval. With
regard to the observation of my sjieaking of the differences of
the curves as little things put forth in such a railing manner as
to show, as it were, my ignorance iu such matters, I must as-
sist the memory of Professor Pelzval, and remind him that some
time before! hadtheadvanlageof hisacquaintance, I had already
made telescopes according to my own calculations, and by means
of my apparatus, telescopes which have been pronounced Ijy men
like Gauss and Schuhmacher, and others, as amongst the best they
had ever seen, and in some points even superior to those of
Fraunhofer. Professor Petzval will therefore oblige me by not
assuming towards me a language which may be excusable when
addressing a mere mechanic, particularly as he is aware that I
have constructed such instruments as will give me the means of
executing any given curve up to 0005 of an inch, by which it
may well l)e inferred that I know perfectly what I am about
when pretending that the dilferences of the curves of the two
lenses in question are of no importance. I am now coming to
a part of his letter which I might well call amusing, should I not
wisli to avoid falling into the same fault as Professor Petzval . I
am to be the inventor of the chemical focus. " I am nut work-
ing according to his calculations," and Ijy mentioning his name
In my list of prices I have made myself guilty of au ingenious
me/Jiod of putting his name by the side of mine.

" Ptcgardiiig the first <iuestioii. Professor Petzval allows that
I have made the first lens according to his calculations. Now
it is a fact well-known, that soon after the first portraits were
made, we found that, when setting the eyes to the point, the
ears became sharp, which induced Mr. Marten, not to set to
the point on the face at all, but to do it on a print held just on
the nose of the person whose portrait is to be taken; sometime
afterwards, Professor Stampfer, an authority in such matters,
oljserved to me that, in order to get the c(jpy of an engraving
very sharp, he found that the lens was to be screwed out, after
having been set to the point, which proved the difference of the
visual and the chemical focus; later, vt'lien constructing my
3in. lens, of course that difference Ijccame more apj)iirent; it
was then simply called ' Chemical Focus,' but not Ijy me: and
men like Claudet, Zantedesclii, and others, began to write about
it; now, in the name of all that is reasonable, I wish to know
how / can be called the ' Inventor of the Chemical Focus? /,
who, as far as concerned the working of the lens, was only the
instrument of Professor Petzval. The best of all is, that, in an
indirect way, I can prove that this first lens could not Ijc free
from the chemical focus, by Professor Petzval's own statements;
in one of Professor Petzval's reports to the Academy of Vienna,
he says that a Photographic Lens can oidy be free of the chemi-
cal focus when the achromatism was determined differently, as
is done for the object-glass of a telescoite; in another passage
he pretends that all the lenses made according to his calcula-
tions have no chemical focus; now combining those two asser-
tions, every one should naturally be led to the conclusion that
the achromatism of the front lens must have been determined in
the way pointed out by Professor Petzval; but, as ha.s been
seen in the beginning of this, this part of tlie work has been
done Ijy me, and it was done just in the way I always followed
when constructing an object-glass for a telescope; it is pushing
the thing rather far to pretend that all the lenses made accord-

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THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

July,

ing to his calculation were free from the chemical focus, when
there are still hundreds of lenses of the very first period exist-
ing, which may prove the contrary, a7iii in the same report I
vientioncd: Prof. Pelzval alloios even his new lens having a dif-
ference of focus for a very sensible eye. 1 should indeed like to
know how Professor Pctzval could have been able to avoid that
ditference in the first period when nobody was yet well aware
of the great difference in the chemical action of the differently
colored rays. With reference to my not working according to
his calculations and putting his name in my list of prices, I have
simply to say that I was authorized to do so at first, and as all
my other lenses have been only the result of multiplying aper-
ture and curves of the first lens with lb, 2, &c., I could not
consider them changing, by this simple process, their nature,
and not being any more according to Professor Petzval's cal-
culation. Should I perhaps have said they were calculated by
me? I suppose in such a case Professor Petzval would have been
amongst the first to proclaim this as the height of presumption,
and with perfect right too; it is very obvious that, after having
sold thousands of lenses, now up to the number of 1,200, I
might well have dispensed with his name, had I not continued
to put it on my list in justice to him. I cannot find it fair to
put such misconstruction upon an act of mine done in deference
to Professor Petzval. His next attack is nothing but a very
poor attempt to ridicule me, there is Utile merit in such a pro-
ceeding and no diEBculty at all, for as the French proverb has
it: du sublime au ridiculeil n'y a quhm fas.

" I have never laid any pretensions to my having invented
that name. Should Professor Petzval not be aware of the fact
that this name has been introduced by M. Kellder, of Wetzlai',
a very able optician, for his achromatic eye-pieces, I must take
the liberty to tell him so. I have adopted that name as it
seemed to me well applied. I have done so with the particu-
lar object in view, to distinguish this lens at once from the old
combination, and I am happy to say that in France and En-
gland the name was considered well applied.

" Professor Petzval goes on saying that I had declared his
camera not necessary at all, since every thing can be obtained by
an ordinary camera, I beg the reader will take the above-men-
tioned Journal in hand and read my letter, in which, after
speaking with great deference of Professor Petzval, I only say,
'1 cannot understand why,' &c., &c., and 'some very fine re-
sults may be obtained,' &c., which, as every man must allow, is
quite a different meaning. Either Professor Petzval is not suf-
ficiently conversant with the English language to understand
that difference, in which case I should advise him to look out
in future for a good translation, or I must consider his proceed-
ing, if not as a malignant interpretation of my expressions, at
least as a forced construction on my words.

" To deduce from the circumstance of my being ignorant of
the arrangement of his camera, the proof that I could not have
known for IT years his new lens, is more than common sense
can understand. I am feeling quite at a loss to find any answer
to such new logic, but shall leave it all to the numerous photog-
raphers in England, already in possession of my Orthoscopic
Lenses, whether they cannot obtain very good pictures without
Professor Petzval's camera, by which tact an indirect proof is
furui.shed, that without being aware of the peculiarities of this
lens, it may still be used. 1 find that I have passed over the
question ' why I have not made that new lens when known to
me 17 years ago?' to which I have to reply that the success
of the lens for portraits has been such to make it impossible lor
me to take any more work in hand, and having been allied at
that time with Professor Petzval, my actions in this respect
were dependent upon him. Latterly, I forgot the whole affair,
as I explained in my memorial to the Academy.

" Hitherto the optician has spoken to Mr. Petzval the Pro-
fessor, with a certain restraint I considered due to his superior
knowledge, but the scene changes entirely when touching upon
a passage in his letter which, combined with his whole language,
appears to me to be so very personal that I shall not hesitate
to meet him on his own grounds. I refer to his saying: 'I
might be ghxd to put my name beside his,' I must take the lib-

erty to ask him whether by this he means to consider an alli-
ance with me dishonorable to him, either as regards my posi-
tion as an optician or my quality as a gentleman, I must desire
him to come manfully and openly forward, speaking out what
he has to say against me, or to desist from using such equivocal
expressions, otherwise I should consider myself at Jiberty to
designate such proceedings by their proper name; as I am in-
clined to believe that Professor Petzval, standing so long a
time upon a somewhat self-erected height, has made him lose
the faculty of seeing the realities of life in their proper colors,
I must take the trouble to remark to him, that, with the ex-
ception of his great superiority over me in all abstract sciences,
in point of good breeding and general education, I consider my-
self fully his equal, and that in point of honor, I am still as sus-
ceptible as I was fifteen years ago, when forced to call him be-
fore the magistrate, to give some explanation about some disre-
spectful expressions he was reported to have used regarding me.
He then denied ever having said any such thing,. adding, to
confirm the truth of his assertions, that it was absurd to sup-
pose he would make use of such expres.sions with reference to a
gentleman like me. I beg to state to Professor Petzval that
I must insist upon being regarded by him still as the same gen-
tleman. Pi'ofessor Petzval, making an indirect comparison
between our names, I venture to observe to him that his name
is of a standing of some 20 year.'^, during which time, with the
exception of his own certainly eminent work, he has enlightened
the world only by promises of wonderful things, whilst my name
has been handed over to me by my father and grandfather, who
both, for more than a century, have done honor and credit to
it, to whose efforts I have joined mine, and I flatter myself not
without success. I shall further permit myself to say that my
name has never been subject to a public reprimand, which has
been the case with his, about a year ago, when reporting to the
Academy of Yienna about the work of another man of science,
he allowed himself to use such an expre.ssion as called forth the
indignation of the assembly and caused the reprimand I was
speaking of in the Journal which gave me an account of that
meeting.

"Lastly, I beg Professor Petzval to consider that he has
thrown me the glove in a country where, even as a foreigner, I
may enjoy the greatest of all earthly blessings, that of freedom
of speech. 1 certainly am not seeking for a quarrel, as my hav-
ing kept peace for 1 5 years may show, and I am now ready to
decide the differences of our opinions about that lens in a more
becoming way than giving to the world the, at all events, dis-
pleasing spectacle of two men quarrelling, who were well fit, by
their united efforts, to greatly promote science and art. How-
ever, if Professor Petzval throws me the glove again in a like
manner, I shall not shrink from taking it up, but, when enter-
ing the lists again a second time, I may most likely change my
defensive position into that of the aggressor, and he will yet
have to learn that, very far from having exhausted my strength
at this first onset, I shall as well know how to attack him as I
have known how to defend myself.

" I had very nearly forgotten that I have yet to repulse the
last of Professor Petzval's attacks, viz., ' my memorial having
been rejected by the Academy as an absurdity.' It is quite
true that my memorial was not accepted, but when this was
noticed to me it was accompanied by a somewhat detailed ex-
planation, and the wish expressed I should get by this the con-
viction that the Academy was not in a position to act difiercnt-
ly, inasmuch as the whole object did not come within the
sphere of its operations; and it was stated, that if such a me-
morial had been presented even by a member of the Academy
it could not have been accepted, the Academy never entering
into such discussions; besides this, I am in possession of some
letters from one of its members, from which it appears that my
memorial was very far from being regarded ' as au ab-
surdity.'

" I cannot refrain from advising Prof. Petzval to get better
information before he ventures the attempt to make his personal
view of this case pass off as the opinion of a body of scientific men.

" I have now done with Professor Petzval.

1S58.

THE THOTOGRArHIC AND FINE ART JOURxVAL.

203

" It has been reported to me tliat iu England some persons
have made it their business to spread about certain rumors re-
garding me, such as my having been cast off by Professor Petz-
val, my uot worlsing according to his calculations, my only hav-
ing'played the part of a common workman in that affair, being
void of any learning, and some such things. I beg these gen-
tlemen to desist from such endeavors, or I shall, on my next
coming to England, treat them iu the way calumniators de-
serve.

" Before I conclude I must address a few words more to the
impartial readers; should some of them consider my language
rather strong, they have to bear in mind that the language of
truth like the path of virtue, is very often rough; they must
allow that an honest man must needs feel indignant at being
assailed by a compilation of vague assertions, ungrounded, un-
true, and invented, well calculated to show the weakness of the
cause instead of supporting it, and all this put forth in a man-
ner little iu keeping with the object in question. Let the read-
er compare this witli my statements, and I hope the conclusions
will not be found difBcult. 1 will not refer to my name and to
my social position in life, which to many will afford sufBcient
guarantee: but I am ready to prove every word I have said, by
tcitmsses, Idlers, and documents. 1 am writing now a longer
memorial on that subject, in my own language, fat which I feel
certainly more at home), which I shall publish, and, should this
affair be carried further, I shall perhaps come to England to
plead ray cause personally, and to give positive proofs of all my
assertions to all those who take an interest iu this case.

" YOIGTLANDER.

"Brunswick, April, 1858."

We enclosed a proof of M. Yoigtlanders letter to Herr
Pretsch, and iu reply he begged us to insert the following re-
marks with respect to it;—

To the Editor of the Photographic Notes:

giK^ — Although I possess already quite enough of adversa-
ries, and should therefore not like at all to begin a new contro-
versy, still my name being connected with the introduction of
Professor Petzval's productions iuto this country, and I am
proud of it, I cannot abstain from making a few observations.

Professor Petzval's letter is a long one, but it contains much
information, which will be, I think, acknowledged by many
people, Mr. Voigtlander's letter is also a long one, but
it contains chiefly explanations about himself.

I acknowledge that " freedom of speech is the greatest of all
earthly blessings," but I think, like many Englishmen, that if
we accost the public, we ought to consider that we do not ac-
cost a public-house.

In spite ot such a very long "speech," it is undoubtedly
proved that the lens in question is Professor Petzval's produc-
tion. Mr. Yoigtlander himself asserts, curiously enough, " lat-
terly, I forgot the whole affair;" — I suppose he has been only
put in mind of it by my paper, read in December last, before
the Photographic Society in London.

Most likely Professor Petzval will himself rej^ly toMr. Yoigt-
lander's letter.

Loudon, May 1, 1858,

Paul Pretsch.

From the riwiograpldc Holes.

M. RE-XACD SAILLARD'S PROCESS.
To the Editor of Fhotograpkic Notes:

Sir, — Permit me to make a few remarks about an article in
the last number of your Journal. There is inserted a report of
the French Photographic Society, stating, among other mat-
ters, that M. Saillard had made some improvements in the
Electrotype part of my process, " Photo-gal vanography." So
far as I am able to gather from the given details there, and in
the French original, and comparing some communications from
M. Laulerie to myself, M. Saillard considers himself as having
made an improvement by depositing copper immediately on the

surface of my raised picture on gelatine. But this was executed
by myself, many years ago, has been repeated afterwards sev-
eral times, and is also stated in the specification of my patents
from November, 1854. It is wrong to suppose that those
plates do not require retouching; the degree of more or less
touchi^ig depends partly upon the quality of the original,
and partly upon the cleanliness and care with which all the
various parts of the process have been executed.

Parasites are plenty, and there might appear some more.
"Judge not, that ye be not judged."

The "break-down" of the Company is an episode which, sad
enough,! am obliged to share with the inventor of lithography,
Senefelder, whose personal exertions in Englsnd were not suc-
cessful, and whose invention waited 7)ia7i'y years before it became
approved of in England,

Paul Peetsch,

61 Great Portland Street, May 6.

From Fhotograjphic Notes.

POSTSCRIPT TO MR. BARNES' LETTER,

PUBLISHED IN APRIL 15.

To the Editor of Phoiograjphic Notes;

In all my experiments with dry collodion, I have aimed at
perfection. If this cannot be obtained by simple means, we
must unavoidably fall back upon others, seemingly or possibly
more complicated.

Professional photographers require a process certain in its
results and upon which they can at all times rely. In fact, it
would be extreme folly on their part, to employ a method of
working in which failures inherent to the process itself were to
be feared or expected at every turn. Such processes (and the
easier the better^ will do very well for amateurs with plenty of
spare time, little love for labor or trouble, and a genial tempera-
ment very easy to please.

In the first edition I advocated the use of collodion alone,
unsupported by any other substance. The difficulty, however,
experienced by beginners in preparing a collodion always suita-
ble for the purpose induced me to lay greater stress upon the
use of the albumen as a protective sub-stratum to the collodion,
in the appendix published in December, 1856.

The use of old collodion is attended with this great disadvan-
tage,— if, during the development the slightest excess of silver
is employed, all the finer details of the picture are completely
lost, and sky and water become dotted all over with minute
holes, visible iu the positive print.

In order to obtain perfect results upon dry plates, with per-
spective, distance, details well-defiued, the collodion itself must
be in a perfect state in every respect, very sensitive and newly
iodized, but in this condition its contractibility precludes the
possibility of keeping it upon the plate without some protective
substance underneath.

During my preliminary experiments I used gelatine, both
under and over the film, but I found that even by the use of the
greatest skill and care it was absolutely impossible always to
succeed, the plate being very liable to blister all over.

My views of the requirements are these: The great cause of
failure is the blistering and tearing of the thin film of collodion.
On re-wetting during development, the solutions permeate the
collodion, damp the glass nnderneath, the collodion expands,
slides about the plate, and finally, either blisters or breaks
away in flakes. If you have a substance underneath, impermea-
ble to water, the film will not be disturbed. The substance,
far excellence, for this purpose, is albumen, to the use of which
is not attached the slightest risk. Gelatine, when re-moistened,
swells considerably, absorbs much water, and when used over
the film it retards the sensitiveness of the already not over-sen-
sitive old collodion, which it is necessary to use with it.

Objections have been taken to the use of camphor, as this
substance is liable to spoil the nitrate bath when employed for
the wet process. This effect certainly docs take place when the
bath contains a large proportion of alcohol, but not otlierwise.
In fact, at one time, my sensitive bath was constantly kept satu-

204

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

July,

rated with camphor, but uo injurious eEfccts were produced. I
have disused it lately, my bath containing now a large quantity
of alcohol, the addition which produces extra sensitiveness.

Collodion, it is well known, becomes slower by age, and a lon-
ger exposure has to be given. Much, therefore, depends upon
the judgment of the operator. To lessen this evil, and facilitate
the manipulation, au equalization of the collodion is necessary.
This is attained by the addition of acetic uaptha, which certain-
ly renders the collodion slightly less secsitive, but it prevents,
to a great extent, any further change; the after-loss of sensi-
tiveness being so limited (even during three months), as to re-
quire no allowance to be made in the exposure of the plate.

Plates and Collodion, oue week, or one mouth old, are equally
sensitive, so that it is needless to keep separate glasses pre-
pared at different periods.

Should the subject of Dry Collodion prove interesting to your
readers, I will recur to it at some future time.

R. F. Barnes.

["We are inclined to think that all such evils as blistering
and tearing of the film, and want of adhesion to the glass,='= con-
tractility, &c., may be avoided by using the profer kind of collo-
dion, made as Dr. Norris has pointed out, with pyroxyline ob-
tained with hot and weak acids. — Ed. P. N.]

From the Liverpool FhotograpTiic Journal.

NORTH LONDON PHOTOGRAPHIC ASSOCIATION.

At an ordinary meeting, held at Myddleton Hall, Islington,
on the 28th April, 1858, G. Shadbolt, Esq., Vice-President, in
the chair. The minutes ot the previous meeting having been
read aud confirmed, the following gentlemen were duly elected
members — Jos. Causton and W. Moens, Esqs.

Mr. J. A. Judge read the following paper —

" ON THE WET COLLODION PROCESS,"
aud exhited a large number of specimens : —

I believe I may be justified in terming collodion the process
of the day. It is the one most universally practised, and the
results obtained by it surpass by far, both in the beauty and in
the ease with which they are obtained, any other of the photo-
graphic methods.

It is for this reason I chose it as the subject of my paper,
thinking that, whatsoever the manner in which it might be
treated, it would be calculated to interest all parties. Before
proceeding any further allow me to remind you that you are uot
to expect anything particularly novel or striking in the course
of my remarks. I have been connected with photographic pur-
suits for some considerable time; I have read the greater part
of the publications respecting the art; I have watched many
good, more bad, photographers at their operations; and, bear-
ing in mind the good old maxim — ^'Benefacit qui ex aliorum tr-
rorihus sihi excvi^lam sumviat," I have rejected all those matters
which were not, in my humble opinion, calculated to aid and
assist one's progress, and have retained those only which pos-
sessed decided points of excellence. These it is my intention to
offer to your notice in my paper, in the shape of an elementary
one to the practice of the wet collodion process; and, if I shall
only succeed in enabling you again to put in practice the afore-
said maxim, the time we shall pass together this evening will
not, I trust, be deemed ill-spent. It will be needless for me to
give a list of articles required — much depends upon the amount
intended to be spent. The best plan is to get a photographic
friend (and who does not possess one amongst the circle of his
acquaintance) to accompany you to some respectable optician
(avoid the "Cheap Jacks,") and then select your set. All I
would suggest is, that you should not overburden yourself with
knick-knacks, which would be rejected as soon as you had at-
tained proficiency in the art.

* The " blistering, tearing, and want of adhesion to the glass," may
be prevented by using glass witli finely ground surfaees. The good quali-
ties of the coUudiua are uot interfered with by doing so.— Ed. F. & F. A.

JOUKXAL.

The lenses should be buruisheJ oi- fastened in their respective
cells; if not so when purchased, you should get this done by
some competent optician. If the leuses slip about in their
cells, it will frequently occur that the centres of the correspond-
ing leuses do not coincide, or are not in the same plane; and the
pencils of light, instead of proceeding through the second, or
back lens, will be distributed obliquely in various directions, ac-
cording to the angle at which the lenses may be placed, giving
rise a distortion of the image. Each lens should, therefore, be
ground perfectly true at the edges, centred and fi_xed immove-
ably in its cell. I dare say it has beeu noticed by several here
present that, after cleaning a lens, it has given much better pic-
tures than before that operation was performed, this happy re-
sult being attributed to the polishing,' whilst in many instances
it is due to the altered and corrected position of the glasses.
The lenses should be cleaned, wheu required, with a piece of
fine diaper or chamois leather; silk, which is generally used,
having the objection, as stated by Mr. Ross, of scratching the
surface of the glass. They should be kept in winter in a warm
situation, in order to avoid error in exposure, through becoming
covered with condensed vapor on being taken into a room, the
temperature of which is higher than that of the lenses them-
selves. It is well, also, if not likely to he required for some
considerable period, to let them be exposed to the light; the
Canada balsam employed to cement the front lenses together
will not then be likely to become yellow, which it might other-
wise do. Some samples of balsam are very sensitive in this re-
spect.

The diaphragms, when used, should be placed between the
lenses, and not in front of them. When placed in front, and if
very small, the surface covered is mnch contracted; this is not
the case when used otherwise. Mr. Maugey has just introduced
a very ingenious method of altering the size of the internal
diaphragm without removing the lenses; by merely turning a
screw, the aperture is enlarged or diminished at pleasure, and
to any extent — a method which vrill be found extremely useful
for out-door operations in changeable weather.

The camera slides should be provided with silver corners, not
merely wire, but pieces of silver, so placed as to prevent the
prepared glass from touching the wood at any part. They
should also have moveable frames, to be renewed when become
soddened by use. It is never advisable to work wet plates in
the slide itself.

The prepared surface of the plate, when in the dark slide,
should be in the same plane as the focusing glass. To ascertain
whether this is the case, cut a piece of card in the shape of a
wedge, place a straight-edge across the front of the dark slide,
open the shutter, and insert the wedge between the straight-
edge and tlie glass, and mark the point of contact with the for-
mer. Proceed in the same way with the focusing glass, and if
in both instances the wedge stops at the same spot, their respec-
tive positions are identical — if uot, the requisite correction
should be made. I mention this because it frequently occurs
that, when the foci of a double achromatic portrait lens do not
coincide, the correction is made by altering the glass; and if
this fact is omitted to be mentioned to the purchaser, he may be
very much aiuioyed if he attempt to use the camera and slide
with a single lens.

The stand, if for in-door use, should be very firm and steady
to prevent vibration, and should be provided with a moveable
table, that can be inclined at a considerable angle. For out-
door use the table is not required, and the legs may be as light
as possible consistent with the strength of the material.

Having procured the apparatus, do not be in too great a hur-
ry to commence until all ig in perfect readiness and order; for
although the tyro is invariably mightily pleased with his first
pictures, however wretched they may appear in the eyes of a
connoisseur, a scries of failures, due to the incompletenp"'ss of the
arrangements, is liable to discourage and annoj', besides causing
sometimes a large expenditure of time and money.

DARK ROOM.

This room should, if possible, be on the north side of the

1S5S.

THE PnOTOGRAPEIC AXD FINE ART JOURNAL.

205

house, aud be lighted by a side window, iu front of which the
operating table or sink should be placed. The window should
be covered with three thicknesses of the best yellow glazed ca-
lico, that at about IQid. a yard. If the window is a very large
one, it is advisable to entirely block out all the upper part of it
with baize or other opaque fabric, and to concentrate as it were
the light to that portion of it which is immediately opposite to
and in a level with the eyes of the operator. With too much
light it is difficult to properly examne the negative during the
developing aud fixing of it. If the apartment is to be perma-
nently occupied for photographic purposes, or indeed in any
case, the yellow calico should be nailed to a stretcher of wood
fitting into the window frame, and attached to it by three or
four nuts; it can be easily removed, and the window opened at
pleasure. There should be no dust-engendering carpet or mat-
ting in the room. The boards should be bare, or covered with
oil cloth. They should be frequently cleansed with a wet flan-
nel, but never swept, at least, not whilst any of the chemicals,
&c., are in the room. It is impossible to avoid at times spiUing
some of the saturated solution of hypo on the floor, the dry
crystals of which when disturbed by the broom would fly about,
and might insinuate themselves into the baths, collodion, &g.,
however well they might be protected.

Above all things do not let any of your relations or friends,
who may be blessed with an experimental turn of mind, have
tlie run of your room and chemicals, but keep your solutions in
locked bottles, those with caps, the fastenings of which are out-
side the neck, and does not affect the liquid; you will soon save
thefr extra cost, and your peace of mind will not be disturbed.
In winter time the operating room should be kept as warm as
possible, the chemicals will otherwise act but very sluggishly.

The developing measures should be kept whilst in use on a
shelf or raised surface on one side of the developing dish, and
the hypo solution on the opposite side, either being placed on a
piece of blotting paper, which will absorb all moisture, and pre-
vent any of the dirty solutions dripping on the plate and stain-
ing the negative.

The cloths used for polishing should be of the material known
as "nursery diaper," which is freer from fluffy particles than any
other fabric suitable for cleaning glass plates. They should be
placed in a clean drawer or box when not required for use.
When dirty wash with soap or soda and water, and well rinse.

A discussion then ensued upon the subject, in which many
members took part, and a vote of thanks was passed to Mr. Judge.

A letter was read from Mr. Morgan stating his inability to
attend and exhibit his camera and lens on the present occasion,
but promising to do so at the ensuing meeting.

The following apparatus were exhibited: —

By Mr. Shave, a design for a very portable tripod stand —

By Mr. Foxlee, a trough for washing positive prints —

Mr. HisLOP, P.R.A.S., exhibited a collapsing deal camera
10X8 plates, weighing, with mahogany collodion frame and fo-
cusing glass, under six and a half pounds.

He also exhibited aud explained a stereoscopic camera (of
which we shall give a description in our next number), fitted
with his new converging adjustment, simply consisting of a
single small screw placed at the end of the traversing table.
Together with this camera .was shown a dark chamber, suitable
for working wet collodion in the field, or changing dry plates.
When in use this is suspended beneath the camera tripod, and
folds into a very small space for packing.

He next exhibited an apparatus for producing transparent
stereoscopic positives, or multiplying negatives by the wet col-
lodion process without contact.

A remarkably compact arrangement of stereoscopic camera,
with eight dark frames for dry plates, with Mr. Hislop's con-
verging adjustment, by Messrs. Home and Thornthwaite, was
also shown. The weight of this apparatus, with extra view
lens, &c. complete, being under five pounds.

Mr. D. W. Hill exhibited a developing hood, and Mr,
Spicer a series of Indian views by the calotype process.

Votes of thanks were given to all the above-named gentle-
men, and the meeting adjourned.

26*

POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES.
Producing Transparencies — New Varnisli

To the Editor of the Liverpool Photographic Journal:

Sir, — I was prevented from sending my method of obtaining
transparencies in time for insertion in your last number, but now
take the first opportunity of doing so. I enclose you a large
print from a negative, taken with my collodion in positive time,
the light being very bad at the time it was taken; also a ste-
reoscopic view of the river side, and another of the oil cake mill
in this place, whicli was taken in three seconds on Good Fridny,
the plate having been kept two hours before exposure. The
method employed was just the same as the one I now send for
transparencies, which is at once simple and certain in results.
The valuable properties of honey, in photography, as a pre-
servative, photograghers have reason to thank you for suggest-
ing.

I have taken views in less than a second with it, and can only
say, that with this process it is the easiest thing possible to get
good intense negatives with a thin collodion.

The reason I did not give the composition oi my collodion in
my last letter, is that I manufacture it for sale, but I send
printed instructions for making it to those who prefer making
their own (see advertisement). But photographers generally
will find it difficult to make it well, as it requires a good deal of
experience and observation to obtain really good collodion; one
person may mix the ingredients together, and another may mix
them in exactly the same proportion, and yet obtain quite dif-
ferent results, owing to the strength and purity of the chemicals
differing, especially with regard to the pyroxyline. I shall be
happy to give you a sample of the colllodion if you would like
to try it. My meaning respecting the strengthening of pictures
after they are developed and fixed, refers only to positives. I
have always found that a positive that has been strengthened
after having been fixed, becomes too intense in the high lights,
and not enough so in the shades, but such would not have been
the case had the pictures been developed for a negative at once,
with the same exposure. My method is to develop with an iron
developer, until the detail just begins to show itsself in the
shades, then wash off well, free from any trace of the iron solu-
tion, and continue the development until intense enough, by
pouring on and off a portion of the following solution, with a
few drops of the silver bath added to it just before pouring on.
It is of great consequence that the picture and measure used
for containing the solution , be quite free from any iron solution,
and the fresher the solution the better will be the results. Wa-
ter one ounce pyrogallic acid two grains, citric acid one grain,
acetic acid (not glacial), ten minims, alcohol twenty minims.
This will be found to give any intensity desired, universally good
results, and I have used it for two years.

I will now describe my method for producing transparencies.
In the first place prepare the following solutions: —

No. 1. — Pure honey two parts, iu distilled water three parts;
mix and filter quite clear.

No. 2. — A saturated solution of gallic acid in distilled water.

No. 3. — Distilled water one ounce, nitrate of silver fifteen
grains; dissolve, then add sugar of lead fifteen grains; shake,
and filter from the curdy precipitate.

No. 4. — Spirits of wine one ounce, gum-juniper one and three
quarter drachms, gum Thus two and a half scruples.

Having arranged all your bottles, &c. on a table, turn down
the gas, which should have an argand burner, with only one
glass chimney, no outer glass.

Take a piece of common glass the required size, and coat it
with collodion; immerse in the bath of nitrate of silver thirty
grains to the ounce of water for about a minute, lifting the
plate up and down several times after it has been in about a
quarter of a minute, and remove as soon as the solution flows
evenly; wipe the back and bottom edge of the plate with a
cloth, and pour on enough of No. 1 to half cover the plate, and
keep it moving about until it flows evenly, then drain off, and
wipe the back, &c., as before. Now cut two narrow strips of
cartridge paper, and lay along the oiiposite sides of the prepared

206

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

July,

plate, and lay the negative face downwards on the two slips, so
that the two coated sides come together, beiug only divided by
the slips of paper. Now hold them firmly together, parallel
and in a line with the gas, and allow the light to shine through
the negative for thirty or forty seconds. You must have some
one to hold a looking glass at the back of the gas, to reflect
all the light on to the plate. Now turn down the gas, and pro-
ceed to develop.

Pour on No. 2, or lay the plate in a dish containing- it for a
minute; there will be no image seen, or scarcely any, if it has
not been over exposed. Take it out, pour over it half an ounce
of No. 2, with one drachm of No. 3, mixed together in a mea-
sure, keeping it moving about until intense enough; then wash
and fix with hyposulphite of soda, and wash well; then dry at
the fire, and when cool pour over the plate some of the varnish
No. 4. As soon as it has ceased dripping, breathe all 5ver the
plate, and the varnish will immediately become like ground
glass, and will keep so if dried without heat, but if heat is ap-
plied it dries transparent; the former is for stereoscopes, and
the latter for magic lanterns. These may be colored over the
varnish, and wheti nicely done, the effect is beautiful.

I am surprised that opticians and those interested in phantas-
magoria lanterns, do not direct their attention more to this in-
teresting branch of photography, as it can be done at night, in
any weather, when photography out of doors is out of the ques-
tion, besides being a nice amusement of an evening. I would
here direct the attention to the varnish No. 4, which is a first-
rate substitute for ground glass. It gives a coating not easily
rubbed off, and without grain makes it very suitable for focus-
ing on in case of breaking the focusing screen in cameras. I
enclose you a portion of a trunsparency done iu this way, so
that you may judge of the effect.

I have the honor to remain, dear Sir,

Yours faithfully, Arthur Maddison.

POSITKE AND NEGATIVE COLIOLION.

To the, Editor of the Liverpool Photographic Journal:

Stockton-on-Tees, April 10th, 1858.

Sir, — As our Journal of the 15th March came late to hand
we were unable to look over it till yesterday, and as we observed
that you were somewhat sceptical relative to a statement there
made by Mr. Maddisou, that his collodion is adapted equally
well for positives and negatives, or rather you doubt that any
collodion would answer perfectly well for both purposes, we
think it but justice to our fellow readers of the Journal to ob-
serve that we have used Mr. Maddison's collodion for both posi-
tive and negative processes, with success; indeed we regard it
as superior to any of the collodions we have tried for negatives,
as any amount of intensity can be got iu the high lights, with-
out endangering the shadows, which remain as clear as the
glass itself; and yet this collodion is known to hold a very ex-
alted position among the profession for positives. Perhaps it
might fairly be questioned, if we have not been laying too great
stress upon the terms "positive" and "negative," our experi-
ence leads to believe this, as we find many of the positive col-
lodions will produce tolerably good negatives, although we cer-
tainly have not found any equal to the above-named in this respect.

Are we not gradually arriving at the conclusion, that we have
been uselessly incumbering the art with unnecessary complica-
tions of "positive this," and "negative that?" We all know
that only a few months ago most photographers believed that
no negative could be good unless it had been developed by py-
rogallic acid, or at least gallic acid. Now it turns out after all
that the proto-salts of iron will soon replace these agents for
negatives, just as they have done for positives, and thus reduce
the number of bottles that crowd the shelves of our photogra-
phic dark rooms, to our serious annoyance.

And now, since wc have a medium of communication with
each other through the Journal, let each of us add our mite of
experience towards the attainment of an uncomplicated yet ef-
fective method of practising the art.

We remain Sir, yours respectfully, J. & T. Clarke.

[We publish the two preceding letters entire, in pursuance of
our principle of allowing the utmost freedom of discussion, but
we must also accompany them by a few comments. We fear
both our correspondents have fallen into the /ery common er-
ror of comparing themselves with themselves, instead of with
others.- AVe are more sceptical than ever of the probability of
any one collodion being equally adapted for both positive and
negative pictures of a hi^-h class — certainly the specimens sent
by Mr. Maddison are all very weak as negatives, the two ste-
reoscopic ones especially. The large portrait is stated to have
been taken in positive time, but the length of exposure is not
given. Although this picture is more perfect as a negative, it
still has the appearance of being imder exposed, the details in
the shadows being deficient. If Mr. Maddison manufactures
collodion for sale, and wishes to make any remarks upon it loith-
out giving the formula for its composition, the advertising co-
lumns alone are the most appropriate place for them, but in the
body of the Journal all sliould meet upon an equal footing.
Mr. Maddison's method of development as here given somewhat
resembles in principle that published by Mr. Hardwich, in our
number of 15th March, in combination with that of M. Frank,
which appeared in our last; but the details as given by Mr.
Hardwich are preferable in our opinion. Mr. Maddison, how-
ever, appears to have practised it for the last two years, conse-
quently for a longer time than Mr. Hardwich, and the two
coinciding results are highly satisfactory.

The mode of printing transparencies here recommended is
very old, having been published in this Journal shortly after its
commencement; any preservative solution, being, however,
quite unnecessary. The results obtained when a slip of paper
intervenes are never so good as when dry plates are used in con-
tact with the negative, the former being deficient in sharpness.

Judging from the small specimen received (about an inch
square) , the varnish alluded to seems to produce a pleasing and
effective result; it is, however, of a somewhat yellowish hue, but
this does not in our opinion detract from the appearance of the
transparencies in the stereoscope — iu fact, in some subjects it is
an improvement.]

From the Liverpool Photograptiic Journal.

ON NITRATE OF SILVER FOR THE NEGAimj BATH.

At a meeting of the Society in January, 1857, I read a paper
on impurities in commercial nitrate of silver, and recommended
the more general use of the fused in preference to the ordinary
crystallized nitrate Fifteen months have elapsed since that
time, and we have had an opportunity of proving how far the
suggestion was a good one. The result, although confirming
the views advanced iu the paper, has not been altogether satis-
factory, for both the fused and the crystallized nitrate are found
occasionally to fail. Some samples appear good, and others
bad, without any obvious difference between them being observ-
able: of this I have lately had experience. I prepared a bath
from the commercial crystallized nitrate of silver, neutralising
the trace of nitric acid, and acidifying faintly with acetic acid.
We then took it into the field, with an ordinary landscape
camera for plates nine inches by seven. The collodion was
rather an intense sample, inclined to give red negatives, and
hence I hoped to succeed without using any acetate. Every-
thing, however, went wrong. On applying the developer, I
saw at once, by the manner in which the sky came out, that I
should not succeed. The silver was thrown down in the grey
fa metallic^ form, and there were numerous spots and brush-
like prolongations from various parts, such as the spires of a
churches, &c., giving the appearance as if the image were out of
focus. Fortunately, a friend who lived near was able to pro-
vide another bath, and with this we took good pictures, free
from spottiness and imperfections.

That nitrate of silver requires repeated crystallization, or
treatment of some kind to fit it for use iu the negative bath,
will, I think, be allowed. Supposing the impurities to be vola-
tile, the simple process of melting in a capsule ought to expel
them. In what respect, then, does the fused nitrate of silver

1S58.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

207

fail? Ycry often it succeeds perfectly, but sometimes it does
not. When such is the case, tlicre is a tendency to clouding of
the film towards the latter end of the development; and the so-
lution of pyrogallic acid, instead of assuming by degrees the co-
lor of sherry wine, becomes turbid. All tliis may happen even
when the bath has been carefully rendered acid with acetic
acid.

To ascertain, if possible, the cause of these peculiarities, I
examined a particular sample of nitrate of silver, which seemed
to be injured by fusion, and was led, by de rees, to the convic-
tion that it contained traces of organic matter. This I inferred
from the occurrence of markings of a peculiar kind upon the
film , and also from an increased tendency to solarisation and
redness of the negatives: both of which effects I am able to pro-
duce at will by adding organic matter of a certain kind to the
nitrate bath.

At present I decline to give a positive opinion as to the source
of the organic matter; but I would call attention to the fact,
that in the assay processes it is usual to employ small fragments
of charcoal to prevent "bumping" as the metal dissolves, and,
in consequence, the nitric acid acquires a brown color. It is
questionable whether one crystallization is sufficient to free it
from a contamination of this kind Dealing with the commer-
cial nitrate, however, as it is sent out, at a price barely cover-
ing that of the metal it contains, I find that I can purify it suf-
ficiently in many cases by reducing the crystals to a fine pov(«:ler
and drying them in a hot air bath, at 350° Fahrenheit. The
solution of the salt so treated corresponds in properties to that
of the best fused nitrate, having an alkaline reaction to red-
dened litmus paper. I conclude that this must be the proper
reaction of pure nitrate of silver since I invariably observe it
in all samples when thoroughly dried. It is essential to begin
by reducing the crystals to a fine powder, otherwise the acid is
retained in the interstices. A copper bath, with a mercurial
thermometer in the interior may be used; but a common plate,
in the oven by the side of the kitchen fire, would, no doubt,
answer the purpose. Forty degrees above the temperature of
boiling water is amply sufiicient.

At a higher temperature — viz., 300° to 350° — the nitrate is
apt to brown a little on the surface if kept in the hot air bath
longer than twenty minutes or half an hour. All substances
likely to give off empyreumatic fumes must be removed. On
one occasion I injured more than a pound of the salt by using
a piece of wood as a support for the dish in which it was placed
to dry. It changed color, and was' spoiled, except for use in the
printing processes.

Mr. Thornthwaite remarked that he thought Mr. Hardwich
had overlooked an objection which existed to drying nitrate of
silver in a kitchen oven, viz., that in all ovens of the kind par-
ticles ot organic matter were sure to be found, and these would
give off fumes that would be fatal to the object in view. He
was anxious not to make remarks too strongly flavored of the
"shop," but as the subject of nitrate of silver was before the so-
ciety, and his firm had manufactured the article pretty exten-
sively, he might be permitted to say a few words on the subject.
When the silver had been dissolved in the nitrie acid, the object
aimed at was to get crystals as large as they could, in order to
rid them as much as possible of all extraneous matter, these
were picked out and washed with nitric acid, and subsequently
dissolved in distilled water, and re-crystallized. It might give
some idea of the progress of photography when he stated that
his firm alone during the last year consumed upwards of a ton
and a half of silver for manufacturing the nitrate.

Mr. W. A. Delferier then demonstrated his method of

"PRINTING TRANSPARENT POSITIVES IN THE CAMERA,"
and read as follows: —

Having experienced two obstacles in printing transparent
positives on wet collodion in the camera — firstly, in equally il-
luminating the negative to be copied; and secondly, in obtain-
ing a sufficient amount of light to give the necessary intensity to
the positive — I determined, if possible, to overcome them, and
the apparatus before you is the result of my experiments.

I must apologise for its not being more slightly; but as it is
the same which I use succossfully, I hope it will be acceptable.
With the addition of the illuminating apparatus and a piece of
board, the ordinary portrait camera is all that is required, ^ith
the exception of the illuminating apparatus, which consists of a
wooden screen, with two double convex lenses inserted side by
side, each lens being cut to a rectangular shape of the size of
the size of one of the pictures of the negative, the centre of
each lens being placed exactly opposite the centre of each pic-
ture. The focal length of the lenses is twelve inches. A ledge
and spring keeps the negative in its place, and a mat, which
may be of any form, is used to limit and define the outline of
the picture. A moveable standard, carrying two argand gas
burners, capable of adjusting to any height, and at varying dis-
tances apart, is furnished with a flexible tube, in order to con-
vey a supply of gas to the burners.

The camera is the ordinary sliding camera, and the lens a por-
trait combination of three inches diameter. A stop of one and
a half inches aperture can be used when necessary. This lens
requires the focus to be taken on the extreme edges of the pic-
ture, to give the required sharpness all over.

The mode of proceeding is as follows: —

Place the camera at one end of a piece of board, four feet
long, and the same width as the came; and at the other end the
screen carrying the squared lenses and the negative; then the
gas-lamp, one foot behind the screen. Place the cap on the
lens, and see that both flames are well represented in focus;
then make the picture of one of the flames overlap that of the
other by regulating the distance between the burners; and you
will find, on removing the cap, that both squares on the ground
glass are equally illuminated. Adjust the camera so that those
two illuminated squares are exactly the size of the picture re-
quired, focusing as sharply as possible, and the apparatus will
be in its proper position.

Having proceeded thus far, it will be well to mark the posi-
tion of the camera and screen on the board, and to screw slips
of wood thereon, so as to enable you at any future time to place
the apparatus ready for work, without having to go over the
same ground again.

I have tried to copy the negative with two small lenses, but
without success, as they require so small a diaphragm to cover
the plate equally in focus as to interfere materially with the in-
tensity of the light. I therefore copy both pictures with one
large lens, by which means I obtain an abundance of light, with
what I conceive to be a great advantage, — which is, that the
right hand side of one picture, and the left hand side of the
other picture, are copied in the same circle of focus of the same lens.

Any collodion that will give intensity under ordinary circum-
stances will succeed ; but it you wish for transparent shadows,
develop with pyrogallic and acetic acids only.

These two transparent positives [exhibiting them] are both
printed from the negative I now place in the screen, — one posi-
tive on a dry collodion plate in close contact, the other on wet
collodion in this apparatus, so that a fair comparison may be
made between them. The time of exposure was two minutes
and a half in the camera, but a less intense negative would not
require so long.

The negative can be placed with the collodion side to the
light without any difference in the result, thereby allowing the
positive to be mounted on a piece of ground glass (as the late
French slides are) without reversing the picture.

In daylight I place the screen close to a window having a
north light, for, if the sun shines directly upon the lenses, a
piece of ground glass must be used between them and the win-
dow; also n piece of thin board, one end resting on the camera,,
the other on the screen, and a piece of black cloth thrown over
so as to exclude the extraneous light.

In conclusion, I must remark that I find it impossible to fo-
cus so truly without the lenses in the screen, independently of
the advantage of intensity of the light gained.

The thanks of the Society were accorded to Messrs. Hard-
wich and Delferier for their respective communications, and the
meeting closed.

208

THE PHOTOGRArHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

July,

From the Liverpool Photo(jraphic Journal.

BIRMINGHAM PIIUTOGIIAPIIIC SOCIETY.

A meeting of the members of this Society was held on the
evening of Tuesday, April 21th, at the Oddfellows' Hall. The
chair was occupied by William Howell, Esq., one of the "Vice-
Presidents.

The Rev. Wm. Law, of Marstou Rectory, an honorary mem-
ber of the Society, read a paper entitled,

'•• A FEW STRAY NOTES FROM MEMORANDA OF PHOTO-
GRAPHIC DIFFICULTIES."

He commenced by remarking on the importance of their
meeting to report and exhibit failures and difficulies, however
offensive it might be to the aviour propre. A hospital for lame
photographers would seldom want occupants, and yet the judi-
cious care of such doctors in the art as Birmingham affords
ought to be gradually bringing it into more healthy condition.
What he wished to see was a committee composed, say of
twelve gentlemen, men of sound scientific acquirements, good
chemists, and skillful in photographic manipulation, who should
test the value of the suggestions and discoveries continually
brought before the public. Such a tribunal might give offence
to some, but this would soon evaporate, and the benefit to pho-
tographers would be great and lasting. Before such a tribunal
mere empirics would find their proper level, the wide spread
dissemination of unsound formula would be ended, and need-
less trouble and expense be saved. Proceeding with the sub-
ject of his paper, Mr. Law said that probably the choice of
processes, either for portraiture or landscape work, where they
had no dprk operating room, presented one great difiBculty to
photographers. The chief desideratum seemed to be a dry pro-
cess possessing the characteristic quahties of collodion.
Whether any dry film will ever be discovered in which the
iodide of silver is so united, and yet so ready to be disturbed by
the momentary gleam of light as in moist collodion, seems
problematical; but it is encouraging to know that amongst En-
glish photographers the discovery of such a process is consid-
ered quite within the limits of probability. He was happy to
say that in a letter recently received from Dr. Hill Norris, of
Birmingham, that gentleman mentioned that he was not without
a hope ere long accomplishing this desideratum. Before going
farther he (Mr. Law) might dispose of one difficulty, namely,
that of selecting a really workable and certain dry process. In
giving his own individual preference to some, he begged not to
be understood as speaking to the disparagement of others. He
had at different times experimented with almost all, and in
every instance in which the rationale of the process seemed to
rest on a philosophical and sound basis, he had succeeded in ob-
taining satisfactory results. Of all the wet processes, Mr.
Shadbolt's was undoubtedly the best. The metagelatine pro-
cess is good, but there is trouble in the boiling and re-boiling.
It was important that the free nitrate used in any of these pro-
cesses should be washed off, as the leaving of the slightest por-
tion on the film would I'ender the plates exceedingly liable to
stain. The gelatine process of Dr. Hill Norris, and the dis-
covery of a collodion with the requisite qualities for its use in
connection with the process, were subjects well worthy of com-
ment. From his own recent experiments he could fully confirm
all that was said regarding their certainty, if not the slightest
knowledge of photographic manipulation were combined with
ordinary care. The difficulty of selection seemed to be betwixt
this process and that of Taupenot. The results were the same,
though the latter process was a trifle superior to the other in sensi-
tiveness, but it was right to mention that he did not follow the doc-
tor's directions, having used gallo-nitrate of silver for the bath.
The dry collodion plate was fully developed in half the time re-
quired by collodio-albumen.

Mr. Law here read a letter he had that morning received
from Mr. Keene, of Leamington, in reference to the new pro-
cess discovered by Mr. Fothergill, which he said he had no
doubt would soon supersede the other dry processes. With
regard to the selection of a dry process for field work,

there could be no doubt that paper possessed advantages
they could never have in glass; but after all, he would rather
run the risk than have the granulation which always accompa-
nied a picture produced from a paper negative. For ordinary
use. Turner's common paper was preferable, because, if you suc-
ceeded in getting a picture, the after process of waxing is very
easy; while, if you do not succeed, you save yourself a mon-
strous deal of trouble and vexation. His (Mr. Law's) favorite
process was the waxed paper process. He immersed Turner's ne-
gative paper (the patent Talbot) in a solution consisting of iodide
of potassium, with bromine. It was left there for about two hours,
and was then taken out and dried, and sensitized upon the usual
bath for waxed paper.

He produced a number of pictures to show the beautifnl de-
finitions he had thus obtained. He also produced and explained
a developing frame, for enabling the fluid to run evenly over
the plate; a modification of Crookes's albumen Slterer, indis-
pensable to those who work Taupenot's process; an apparatus
for securing absolute contact of the paper with the negative; a
frame for draining collodio-albumen pictures; and a new came-
ra box of most compact and complete construction.

At the conclusion of Mr. Law's paper and experiments' (of
which this is a very inadequate sketch, owing to the proximity
of the meeting to the time we go to press \ a vote of thanks
was passed to the reverend gentleman, on the motion of Mr.
OsBOEN, seconded by Mr. Morris.

Mr. Morris then introduced an American solar camera, for
enlarging photographs, kindly lent him for the occasion, by Mr.
Atkinson, of Liverpool, the mode of operating with which he
explained. As Mr. Law remarked, there seemed to be uotliing
about the instrument to account for its cost (£20), and its pro-
bable manufacture for less than one-fourth that amount was
hinted at. Mr. Morris also produced on invention of Mr. At-
kinson's, for throwing a halo of any shape round the figure; and
one of Voigtlander's lenses, capable of producing a fourteen-
inch picture.

A vote of thanks to Mr. Morris and Mr. Atkinson closed the
proceedings.

DEAL CAMERAS.

To the Editor of the Liverpool Photographic Journal:

London, 6tli April, 1858.

Sir, — I am happy to see, by a paragraph in your last leader,
that you are disposed to advocate simplicity and portability in
our photographic apparatus, in preference to weight, show, and
consequent high cost. The subject of the material for cameras,
and also their form for field work, is one of the highest import-
ance to the amateur photographer as an artist. It would form
a very appropriate theme for a prize, if ever such a proposition
were made in connection with our numerous societies.

Ton mention deal as a desirable material, except that it is
"too hygrometric." I wish to call the attention of your readers
to the fact that the well known Captain Kater was engaged for
some time in searching for a material for the rods of his pendu-
lums, which should be as invariable as possible. At length he
adopted and recommended this very substance namely deal, as
the least afi"ected by moisture and temperature. After cutting
it to size he simply coated it two or three times with linseed oil,
and then varnished it. Thus prepared, deal is now used for the
same purpose, and forms the best, because the most unchange-
able substance that can be employed for an uncompensated
pendulum.

I have recently had a collapsing camera constructed of French-
polished pine, the body being made of India rubber leather
cloth, and the base board of ash, made to hinge in two pieces.
The size is for plates ten in. by eight in., and the weight of the.
whole including a Spanish mahogany collodion frame and focus,
ing glass, is under six and a half pounds. I have no doubt
from my own experience, that this camera will prove as durable
as mahogany, while its lightness and cheapness render it a much
more useful tool than one of the ordinary form and material.
I am, yours, &c., F. R. A. S.

135S.

THE PIIOTOGRAPIIIC AXD FIXE ART JOURNAL.

209

[The late Captain Kater's requirements for a pendulum were
fulfilled in the use of deal, because it varies very little in length,
but this is not the case laterally. However, if treated as sug-
gested by our corresponpeut, we think it highly probable that
it would answer perfectly for a camera. AVe consider Spanish
mahogany as quite unfitted for any part, on account of its great
weight, nor do we Approve of ash. Where greater strength is
required than is afforded by deal, plain Honduras mahogany,
such as is used by coachmakers, is the article we should pre-
fer.—Ed.]

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

ON THE PRflDUCnON

Of Direct Positives— On Printing by the Sails of the Uranic and Ferric

Oxides, with Observations Climetic and Chemical.*

BY C. J. BURXETT.

With collodion, albumen , and other films, it would appear
that we have the same choice of employing soluble or precipi-
tated salts. With collodion we might either dissolve in it the
uranic or ferric salts and precipitate by a vegetable acid, or re-
verse the order; and if we wish the soluble salt, the nitrate, hy-
drochlorate, and formiate of uranic oxide are soluble in alcohol
and aether, and afford highly sensitive collodions, beautifully de-
velopable by silver with or without aid of accelerators or sti-
naulants (or by gold or other developers as ferro cyanides) and
in the case of iron (and possibly manganese), the sesqui-chloride
and pernitrate seem not unlikely to give a sensitive collodion.
With albumen, and for collodion and gelatine films for positives
or negatives, we may also, if preferred, prepare the film with-
out any sensitive mixture, and charge by subsequent immersion
or immersions, and (solubility in asther or alcohol being not here
necessary) a greater variety of salts will answer.

One great difference between the results given by the uranic
and the ferric salts, with silver developments, appears to be the
harsh black and yellow tinted lights, which (though I do not
mean to say that this raightf not be probably overcome,) we
frequently get with the latter; while with the uranic salts we
get purity of whites and a variety of reds, browns, greys,
blacks, and other tints and shades, varying according to the
solvent acids (a. relation being here traceable to the colors ob-
tained by the simple argentine papers pi'epared with the same
acids), strength of solutions, acidity or alkalinity of the baths,
length of insolation, mode of fixing, &c. Using generally ni-
trate of silver, or ammouio-nitrate or ammouio-oxide solution
(though we may use many others), I have got good greys,
browns, and grey-blacks, on the uranic nitrate paper, mouse
greys, &c., on the phosphate, rich purple browns, &c., from the
tartrate, and good colors from mixtures of the phosphate with
citrate, tartrate, or acetate. The hydrochlorate, hydrobromate,
hydrofluate, hydrofluosilicate, and some others, are apt to give
unpleasant raw reds, toneable, however, as are all the others,
to any extent, by solution of chloride of gold, platinum or pal-
ladium. In spite of obtainableness of good color, as indicated
by adding a few drops of a ferric salt, as pernitrate, to the
uranic nitrate solution, and in spite of so far proved durability,
at least when kept from fingering, to which I have sometimes
found them remarkably sensitive, I am inclined to recommend

* Continued from p. 189, vol. xi., no. vi.

t Rg; prepare the paper plain, gelatinized, collodionized, or gcletino-
coUodionized by floating it on a solution of the ammonio-ferric-oxalate.
Dry and keep in the dark. Expose under negative say two to six minutes.
Develop by solution of nitrate of silver (we may develop also with gold
or palladium). Transfer to an acid bath or bath of binoxalate of ammo-
nia (or oxalate), and fix with that and plain water, or rather with the ad-
dition of a little ammonia to one or two of the later waters to make more
sure of extracting the silver-chloride. Tone, Sinijyrotect with a platinum,
gold, or palladium bath. The ammonia-citrates or ammonia-tartrates may
be worked in the same way. I have also got an excellent print by sen-
sitizing albumenized paper with the medical pernitrate, developing with
ammouio-nitrate of silver, toning with platinum or gold, and dissolving
out ferric oxide by hydrochloric or other acid.

VOL. XI. NO. VII. 21

this toning with chlorides of gold ov philinum, which costs only
about 15s. per ounce, and which I have found answer equally
well. These, or ferric, or ordinary prints, thoroughly platinum-
toned, promise extremely well for burning into class or porce-
lain. As to sensitiveness, I find the tartrate more sensitive than
the nitrate; and the benzoic, succinic, formic, and oxalic papers,
seem to be also very highly sensitive. Some of these solutions
are a little troublesome to make directly from the commercial
oxide, as boiling will sometimes produce deoxidation as well as
occasionally alteration of acid. J The ammonia in the oxide en-
ables us, however, to obtain a stronger§ neutral solution than
we otherwise could.

The phosphoric solution gives a considerably less sensitivefilm
possibly apart from its binacidity. But in most of these cases,
from the exact strength of the solution of oxide not being as-
certained, I do not like to speak too decidedly as to my propor-
tionate sensitiveness till after further experiment. The nitrate,
or salt of other acid, whose salt with silver is also soluble, has
particularly in positive printing apparently some advantage in
facility of fixing. If we could fix with distilled water alone
this might deserve consideration; but if we use ammonia, or
acid, or acid salt, or ammonia salt of the same acid in the water,
or combination of any of these, as I recommend on account al-
so of salts already in the paper, and of the tendency of silver
to form organic combinations — this advantage disappears, and
there are even cases, i. e., where we intend calling in the aid, in
development, of the salt of ferrous (or other lower) oxide, or of
gallic acid or its allies, where the insolubility of the resulting silver
salt, as in the case of the citrate, may be a great advantage. In
the development of collodion or albumen positives or negatives
on glass (enamelled glass or porcelain alsoj, we may either
pour on the acidulated stimulant (gallic, pyro-gallic, ferrous, or
other) , along with or after the silver salt, or we may first steep
the glass for a sufficient time in the silver bath, and then place
it in the stimulant bath. In paper (albumenized, plain, or col-
lodionized or albumeno-collodionized), whether for positives or
negatives, the proper plan of development on this system is
clearly first to float the paper on (or immerse it in) the silver
bath till enough silver is taken up, and then immerse in or float
on the bath containing the acidulated gallic, tannic, pyrogallic,
and ferrous or allied stimulant. Even for positive printing on
paper this plan will be found, I believe, occasionally to have
great advantages, and for negative-taking with the uranic or
ferric papers, the use of one of these acidulated stimulants,
either mixed with the silver solution, or in the separate bath,
will evidently enable us to produce our pictures on collodion pa-
per or other material by a much shorter exposure than would
lie otherwise possible, and still more as to the application of
these stimulants to the paper or films before insolation, we must
put a very small quantity of gallic acid or protosalt of iron into
the collodion (we may add a little vegetable acid to it in this
case), or protosalt to the albumen, or we may dip either of them
in the acidulated soluble stimulant immediately before placing
it in the camera (or there is even nothing to prevent our using
them both before and after exposure). And on paper, either
plain, albumenized, or collodio-albumenized, their application in
these ways by mixture or floatation is equally simple. I have
been trying to persuade our photographers here to try a few
drops of alcoholic solution of gallic acid, or one of its allies, in
ordinary collodion for instantaneous pictures. However, I am
rather inclined, with uranium, to give the preference to the re-
serving of the stimulant action till after exposure in the camera,
particularly in the case of paper. We thus save ourselves all
trouble and risk of paper going wrong on our hands, and in
warm climates especially, this is a matter of great importance.
With uranic collodion some of my experiments seemed to indi-
cate that the exact amount of exposure is not a point ot such
nicety as with argentine collodion; this might probably enable

X The saccharic acid seems easily changed, and the meconic acid I have
found destroyed even without application of heat. Both meconic and
saccharic acids seem deserving of attention in photography.

§ Some of the aramonio-acid salts crystallising well, and not being de-
liquescent, might be convenient for general use, also the acetate.

210

THE PnOTOGRAPIIIC AND TINE ART JOURNAL.

July,

us to avoid the necessity of developing at the time. TJranic
and ferric papers certainly keep admirably, and we may print
upon both the uranic collodion and albumen dry, by juxta-posi-
tioii in the pressure frame. I have experimented sufficiently to
fiud out that we may produce not only negatives and good trans-
parencies OQ glass, with collodion, alburuen, and gelatine, bnt
also very beautiful positives on enamelled glass and porcelain,
both by the silver and gold, and also by the ferridcyanide or
palladium development of uranic salts. The albumen film im-
bibes very readily the uranic salts (and also the ferric); and,
with gelatine, we may mix the two substances. In sensitizing
and developing in such processes, the upright bath with dipper,
is, on the whole, decidedly the most convenient, and one of gut-
ta percha seems, in most cases, to answer well, but for some so-
lutions, porcelain is probably preferable.* Albumen and col-
lodion, on paper, give good positives.f We might, probably,
have a dry collodion process with silver, uranic, or ferric salts,
on paper or waxed paper, with or without albumen above or be-
low, such a process would have great advantages in point of por-
tability, and there would not, probably, be any impractability
in afterwards transferring the film to glass it wished (say, by,
in the first instance, cementing it to the glass w^ith varnish, and
then wetting the albumenized paper till it could be peeled off).
The attraction for moisture of the uranic salts seems to help to
keep the collodion open to penetration, even ivithout the assist-
ance of grape sugar. I have long been trying to persuade our
jiractical photographers to give the uranic salts a fair trial with
silver developments, both for printing, and still more especially
for negative taking on collodion and paper in the ways indicat-
ed. Though my experiments have been made principally in the
pressure frame, (and though I have been much interrupted by
bad health, &c , during the last year,) yet still, they have been
quite varied and numerous enough to entitle me to speak with
some confidence. As to the comparative advantages of uranic
and ferrric salts for silver development positive printing, I have
stated that the results I have got from the uranic have been
more generally pleasing and varied, (but could this be got over
and apparently it may), the superior cheapness of the ferric
salts would be an immense advantage. The getting rid, at
once, of the hypo-sulphite of soda, (which, ichelher it can he or
not, is not likely, on a large scale, ever to he thoroughly washed out,
does much to remove the objection to the application of photo-
graphy for purposes of book-illustration. Not that I mean
to say, for my experiments have not yet demonstrated it, that
there is any absolute necessity for having recourse to uranic (or
ferric) salts, to enable us to fix without hypo-sulphite, | and tone

* Mr. Barnett lias showed, publicly, specimens of both these develop-
ments on enamelled glass.

t For collodionizing paper for positives, when we do not wish the albu-
men-like shine on the surlace, I prefer a weak collodion containing a large
proportion of alcohol to prevent too rapid evaporation. This is a process
which R-ould be better conducted by a professional manufacturer than by
the photographer. Such papers give good definition without unpleasant
gloss or glare.

X See my paper of February last year in Photographic Notes. I have
tried some not unpromising experiments for the fixing of the oxides or
other aqueously insoluble dark or colored compounds (or mixtures) of
manganese, coper, iron, cobalt, nickel, &c., &c., both on paper, and on
glass and porcelam, for burning-in, (and textile fabrics), with the aid of
gelatine or albumen, on this same principle. In the case of paper wc
may adopt either of two plans, the finst being to precipitate the oxide or
other compound or mixture in the pores of the paper by double decom-
position, then saturate the whole with gelatine or albumen, mixed with
the sensitive chemical, then solarise, wash out gelatine where unacted on,
and dissolve out the oxide or other compound, where left unprotected,
with acid or other suitable solvent ; and the second plan being the appli-
cation of three substances ground up with or covered liy the gelatine,
externally, and after removal on the same principle. The giving the
paper a previous coating with alljumen or similar substances, before ap-
plication of the oxide or other compound, would much facilitate the re-
moval of it, and might even make that possible without aid of acid.
There has been some talk of applying carbon in a similar way, lately,
but without the protection of tbe paper in some such way, tbe use of
I such a peculiarly adhesive powder seems to be out of the question. For
porcelain and glass it is, of course, the second plan we adopt, and with
or without acid or other solvents. All sorts of colors mi.nht be mixed in
this way, and a good deal done in the way of shading both on p^per and
on porcelain, by a little dexterous nuiuagement, the oxymel apj lication
of the colored oxides or other substances with the gelatine.

with chloride of gold or platinum. Still, in the meantime,
photographers might do much worse than pay a little attention
to the silver and gold developments of the uranic , and also the
ferric salts, both on paper, plain or prepared as indicated, and
glass. The ferricyanic developments also, though of minor im-
portance in one way, are, particularly with iron toning baths,
well worthy of attention both for films on glass and on pajjer.
I have developed the sesqui-salt papers also with salts of palla-
dium. I have elsewhere suggested the use of uranic and other
salts, along with gelatine or albumen, &c., for photographic and
photometallographic processes, instead of bichromate of potash,
as well as a combination with resins, as an experiment well
worthy of thorough practical trial.

( To he continued}^

POSITIVE PRINTING BY DEVELOPMENT.

To the Editor of the Liverpool Photographic Journal:

Sir, — As a reader of yonr Journal from its commencement,
allow me to trouble you on some points of positive printing. I
am satisfied your knowledge and experience will be of advan-
tage to all amateurs of the photographic art. I confess to be-
ing an admirer of positives printed on albumenized paper, also
of obtaining pure white and black tones. These objects are
not always easily obtained, especially by those who use an old
solution of hyposulphite of soda and gold, which is readily given
to tone purples, which afterwards japidly fade.

To oljtain pure white and black on albumenized paper, I
lately unsuccessfully tried a new or different mode of printing
which at first promised well, but alas! soon, like may sun ex-
periments, disappeared under clouds.

But to the question. I took a sheet of the albumenized paper
and floated it for two minutes on a solution of the bichloride of
mercury, strength 1 part to 4 parts water, dried the paper, then
floated for three or four minutes on nitrate of silver, solu-
tion 50 grains to the ounce dried, and next morning the paper
which had remained still uncolored was exposed under a nega-
tive for one minute. The picture which had faintly appeared
was washed well in water, then developed by a solution of pro-
tosulphate of iron, fifteeu grains to one ounce of water, adding
one grain citric acid.

The picture developed rapidly and intensely, giving clean
whites and dense jet blacks, and when well washed appeared to
give me what I wished, but, lo and behold my despair, on en-
deavoring to fix my picture in a new solution of hyposulphite
of soda first, and at another period cyanide of potassium two
grains to the onnce of water, to find my fine picture become
ugly and defaced, whites becomes yellow, the blacks no color,
in fact, the appearance of my positive was so altered that I re-
moved it out of sight by putting it in the fire.

Now I hope great things from your superior knowledge, and
will feel as one of many could you aid me how to fix my posi-
tive and yet keep the beautiful whites and blacks I can get by
the process I have recorded. I hope you will pardon my long
letter, and believe me, yours sincerely,

Gl.a.sguensis.
[We know of no means by which you can dissolve out the
undecomposed chloride of silver without altering the color of
that which has been reduced, unless it has been protected by a
coating of gold either from the use of the chloride of that metal
or sel d'or, The rationale of the process seems to be as follows: —
bichloride of mercury Ilg. CI. 2 in connection with nitrate of
silver Ag O. N. 05 in excess produces chloride of silver, plus
nitrate of silver, plus nitrate of mercury, plus free nitric acid;
the latter doubtless preserves the whites under the action of the
developer, while the nitrate of mercury would probably be inert
or nearly so, consequently we do not see how the material form-
ing the picture diliers from those ordinarily produced. We
tried some experiments, and the best effects we were able to pro-
duce iu this direction were accomplished thus: The paper being
prepared and rendered sensitive as you describe, was exposed
under a negative until all the details were faintly visible, then
washed well iu water, and floated on some of Mr. Hardwich's

1S58.

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

211

acetate of iron solution diluted with ten times its bulk
of water. The development was complete in about two or
three minutes; it was then washed in salt and water, and sub-
sequently plain water; then fixed by immersion in diluted am-
monia, washed and dried. The dark parts were then of a me-
tallic bronze color and very intense. It was afterwards floated
upon the solution of bichloride of mercury until the picture had
disappeared, was well washed, and then immersed in very weak
ammonia and water, when the impression again made its ap-
pearance, and when dry assumed a brownish black tint, and the
glossiness of the albumen having been entirely removed — Ed ]

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

STEREOMO.^OSCOPE.

We noticed some short time ago that Mr. Claudet had in-
vented a new instrument in connection with stereoscopic pheno-
mena; the following account of this instrument, which was ex-
hibited at the Royal Society on the 15th April, is extracted
from the Al/ienwum: —

"At the meeting of the Royal Society, on the 15th ult., Mr.
Claudet presented a new optical instrument of his invention,
called the Steremonoscope, by which, as its name implies, a
single picture produces the stereoscopic illusion. In the ceutre
of a large black screen there is a space filled with a square of
ground glass upcn which, by some light managed behind
the screen, is thrown a magnified photographic image represent-
ing a landscape, a portrait or any other object. When we look
naturally at that picture, with the two eyes without the help of
any optical instrument, an extraordinary phenomen takes place:
we see the picture in perfect relief as when we look at two dif-
ferent pictures through a stereoscope. It is not necessary to
be at a fixed distance from the picture: it may be examined as
■well at ten feet as at one foot, as an ordinary picture, without
the least fatigue to the eyes. Although considerably enlarged
by the instrument itself, we may magnify the picture still more
by using large convex lenses; and two or three persons at once
can examine it with the greatest ease, being able, while looking,
to exchange any remarks, or express the sensations suggested
by the picture, — an advantage which is denied by the use of the
common stereoscope. By this remarkable discovery, Mr.
Claudet has solved a problem which has always been considered
as an impossibility by scientific men, — for the Steremonoscope,
by its very name, must sound like a paradox to the ears of all
those who are versed in the knowledge of the principles of bi-
- nocular vision, until they have had the opportunity of repeat-
ing the experiments by which the author has found a new fact
which they had not noticed or explained before. This new fact
is, that the image on the ground glass of the camera obscura
produces the illusion of relief. But the phenomenon does not
take place if the image is received on paper. AVhen the me-
dium is ground glass, the rays refracted by the various points of
the lens upon that surface, are only visible when they are inci-
dent in a line coinciding with the optic axis. So that the rays
emerging from the ground glass, and entering the right eye, are
only those which have been refracted obliquely in the same di
rection, by the left side of the object glass, and those entering
the left eye, are only those which are refracted by the right side
of the object-glass; consequently, both eyes have a different
view, and perspective of the object represented on the ground
glass, and the single imnge is, in point of fact, the result of two
images, each only visible to one eye, and invisible to the other.
This is the main point of Mr. Claudet's discovery, which cannot
be fully understood without reading the paper which he com-
municated on the subject to the Royal Society, the 8th May,
1857 (see Proceedings of the Royal Society for May, 1857),
and without repeating the experiments described in that paper.
The Stereomonoscope is founded on the same principles: it is
nothing more than a camera obscura, before which are placed
the two images of a stereoscopic slide, and by means of two ob-
ject-glasses, sufBciently separated, the two images are refracted
on the same space, at the focus of the camera obscura on the

ground glass, where they coincide. By the same laws we have
alluded to before, the right picture is seen only by the left eye,
and the left picture by the right eye; so that, although only
one picture appears represented on the ground glass, each eye
sees on the same spot a different picture having its particular
perspective, and, consequently, in order to obtain a single vision,
the eyes have to converge differently to bring consecutively in
the centre of both retinas the different similar points of the two
pictures according to their horizontal separation on the ground
glass, the criterion of their respective distances. This altera-
tion of the convergence of the optic axis, according to the dis-
tances of the various planes, gives the same sensation of relief
we obtain when we look at the natural objects, or at their pho-
tographic representations The invention of Mr. Claudet, in
our opinion, is calculated to produce a revolution in the applica-
tion of the splendid discovery of Professor Wheatstone to the
exhibition of photographic pictures. At all events, it is one of
the most curious facts connected with modern discoveries in op-
tics,— deserving the attention of philosophers and the admira-
tion of the public. We recommend the lovers of the arts and
sciences to go and see the Stereomonoscope which is exhibited
in Mr. Claudet's photographic establishment. Regent Street.

COLLODION NOT ADAPTED FOR BOTH POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES.

433, West Strand, London, May 3rd, 1858.
To Editor of Liverpool Photographic Jonrnal:

Sir, — I am somewhat surprised at so much of your last and
a former number being devoted to what I consider as little else
than puffs of Mr. Maddisou's positive collodion. I consider it a
very bad precedent to insert letters professing to give general
information, yet insinuating an eulogy on a particular collodion,
especially when it proceeds from the maker thereof. As you
have allowed a note to appear confirmatory of the supposed ex-
cellence of this particular article, allow a word to be said on
the other side. I too have used this special collodion, pints of
it, made it myself from Mr. M.'s formula, used it for months
until I discovered better, and although admitting that it is good,
decidedly give it as my unbiassed opinion that it is not the best
in the market for positives, and not at all suited for the general
purposes of negatives, giving too weak a picture with an iron
developer, and impracticably slow with pyrogallic acid. As to
the curious melange of honey, acetate of lead, nitrate of silver, and
gallic acid, a collodion that requires such a mixture as this to de-
velop it, may be at once put out of court for all practical purposes
In fact, so far from its being equally adapted for positives and
negatives, I consider that it is not well adapted for either, as a
reference to its composition will, I think, satisfy all who have
had any experience in rraking collodions. The formula is, "py-
roxyline made from paper, to dissolve thoroughly, and dry trans-
parent: quantum svff. Ether five parts, alcohol three parts,
iodide of ammonium four grains per oz., a few drops of saturat-
ed aqueous solution of chloride of sodium (which fall to the bot-
tom, and remain almost entirely if not quite undissolved, and
which can therefore do little good or harm), and thirty minims
pyro-acetic spirit per oz." This last addition prevents the col-
lodion changing color and liberating iodine, but it does not pre-
vent its gradually losing its sensitiveness. It is this addition of
pyro-acetic spirit that spoils it for negatives, and the absence of
bromides for positives.

I have experimented largely, and without the slightest bias
in favor of any particular maker, honestly declare that his col-
lodion is not so well adapted to give softness, gradation of half
tone, combined with rapidity of impression, as the positive col-
lodions of several makers in London, Birmingham, Sheffield,
Norvvich, and elsewhere.

The above remarks have been made certainly out of no oppo-
sition to Mr. Maddison, but from a desire that both sides should
be heard, and to show that the merits of even a good collodion
may easily be over-rated.

Yours, &c.,

C. J. Hughes.

[When we inserted Mr. Maddison's first letter we were ig-
norant that Le was conamercially interested in photogra-
phic materials; with his second letter we expressed our opi-
nion of the impropriety of his remarks relative to his own col-
lodion except as an advertisement; but as he offered other in-
formation without reserve, we saw no objection to any of the
remaining portion of his communication. We certainly com-
mitted an error in not erassing Mr. Maddison's name from the
letter of Messrs. J. and T. Clarke; but to carry out the princi-
ple of "audi alteram partem," we retain the name in Mr.
Hughes' letter /or this occasion only, but for the future we pur-
pose being more circumspect.

We wish it to be understood that in our correspondents' co-
lumns amateurs, professionals, and dealers are all equally wel-
come, but all must stand upon the same footing. Let the motto
be Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. — Ed.]

PAUL

Frovi the London Art Journal.

VERONESE.

WITH HIS SUCCESSORS IN THE DUCAL PALACE.

PART n.

What shall we do ? whither betake ourselves ? Why, since
we have been recently moving about almost incessantly, and it
promises to be too hot for slight exertion, even in this dustless
and water-paved city of la belle Venezia, I think we can do no
better thau pass the morning quietly in the halls of the Ducal
Palace, which are not only magnificently interesting, but shady
and cool, — not only decorated with the full splendor of the six-
teenth century, in the shape of Palladio's and Scamozzi's massy
guilded ceilings and marble portals, and the superb allegorical
and mythological canvases of Tintoretto, Veronese, and Zelotti,
but free from everything that tends to hurry you along, and in-
terfere with your deliberate enjoyment of these treasures. For
here, liberally allowed to dispense with a guide, you may tarry
as long as you please. You may take out your book, and, es-
tablishing yourself on the abandoned seats of " the Ten" and
"the Forty," read and enjoy it; and ever and anon, raising your
eyes from the record of some great embassage or council in
Venitian history, you may feast them on the veritable scene of
its occurrence, or on some vast and magnificent picture in com-
memoration of it, painted by order of the Dodge and the
Senate. The only interruption, in all probability, will be an
occasional troup of tourists, silent phlegmatic English, or rougher
and more noisy Germans; but they will scarely disturb you,
since, in almost every instance, they stay only long enough just
to enable the guide to bawl out the names of the principal pic-
tures, and of their painters. Those names — " Jacopo Tinto-
retto, Paolo Veronese" (what a howl they make of the Paolo,
to be sure!) — resound through the hall, not unfrequeutly ac-
companied by a profusion of the harshest auchs and ichts of the
Teutonic dialect, roared in the most boisterous tones. But a
momentary stare at the objects thus euphoniously indicated is
almost always evidently deemed quite enough; and the party
troops on in orderly subservience to the pompous guide, not
much wiser than before, one would think; and you are left once
more alone with the spirit of the illustrious past, to receive as
much from it as your powers of observation, guided by your
previous reading and reflection, will enable you.

Having adopted this recommendation, we were soon in the
interior court, from which is the entrance to these state halls of
the Signory by the Giant's Staircase. The architecture around,
reared after a fire, in a Renaissance style fwliich, however, fre-
quently retains the pointed archj, is wholly difl'erent from the
noble Gothic of the exterior facades, and wholly inferior,
though stately and magnificent, from that richness, solidity, and
fine finish of details which are so eminently characteristic ot
the Venetian structures. The steps of the Giant's Stairs, for
instance, are faced with beautiful arabesques in metal; and the
marble balustrades and panellings abound with delicately cut

grotesques, in that pseudo-classical style which the Maestri
Lovilardi cultivated at Venice in the sixteenth century, with
remarkable grace, and minute Lilliputian vioacity of fancy.
The present Giant's Staircase, though associated with Marino
Faliero's execution, as much as Whitehall with the fate of
Charles I., was not constructed until nearly 150 years after
that catastrophe. Nevertheless, as we ascended, it was of
course, bestreaked with sanguine shades: and, at the top, we
saw a half-stripped figure of much anatomical magnificence
waving a reddened scimitar, and holding up a hoary head, and
crying out, "Justice has been done upon the traitorl" Tet,
but for the grateful compassionate treason of one of Doge's
minor accomplices, he would even now perhaps be crying aloud,
" Justice has been done upon the herd of tyrants" — on the very
dignitaries who now stand around with looks of immovable
composure, suppressing every symptom of the revengeful triumph
that is running riot iu their hearts. Not that Faliero by any
means merits the sympathy which Lord Byron, with his mag-
nificent, but most undramatic rhetoric and special pleading, has
labored so hard to awaken for him. He was not, it is true, a
hoary madman, who would have drowned in blood the govern-
ment of which he was chief, in mere revenge for a petty insult;
but there is nothing to show that he was actuated by better
motives than selfish ambition and the greed of power: and had
that revolution been accomplished which he intended to secure
by the indiscriminate massacre of the entire aristocracy, it is
most probable that Venice would have gained nothing in ex-
change for her wise and prudent, though arbitrary obligarchy,
but a single lord, or tyrant, altogether too much of the Vis-
conti or Malatesta breed. After ascending the Giant's Stairs,
before the place of the lions' terrible accusation-receiving mouths,
you next pass along the upper arcade — a favorite promenade,
no doubt, in the olden time, of the m.embers of the Ten, when
bent on quietly disposing of their victims in the dungeons a
little beyond; or, if the secret code discovered by Count Daru
was not a forgery, as there seems some reason to suspect, a
lounging-place of the still more terrible and unknown Three In-
quisitors of State themselves. Here they may have confabula-
ted sometimes. Here they may have discussed that delicate
point, occasionally, whether, by virtue of their legalised prerog-
ative of assassination, they should dispatch one of their trusty
bravos after some troublesome person who might fondly con-
ceive he had found a resting-place in some remote country, fur
up the Nile, or down the Tigris. Fancies of this kind have,
no doubt, been scandalously multiplied to answer the purposes
of coarsely-horrible romance; but even the darkest reports of
the Ten and the Three, it should be remembered, make them
no worse than our own murderous parliaments in the times of
the earlier Tudors, who, by their eager acts of attainder, so
often hurried illustrious innocence to the scaffold, in basest and
most slavish subservience to the will of the English Shah.
From this whispering-gallery of the Ten, a second staircase, an
interior one, ascends to the Halls of the Signory. Its slanting
roof is very rich and striking, being massively banded with
gilded garlands of fruit, enclosing white bas-reliefs by Vittoria,
and little paintings by II Semolei, of much merit, with some-
thing rather Michael Angelesque in them. The pannels and
pilasters beneath, too, are cinque-centoed with stems or trees,
which bear—as the thyrsus of Bacchus may be supposed to
have done, obedient to his wish, on some given occasion — not
simply pine-cones or ivory, but fruits of dragons' heads, dol-
phins, harpies, satyrs, and nymphs in teeming abundance, with
frightful masks, and urns, and arms, and musical instruments.
How such as these, swiftly bursting and rolling forth from the
Wine God's wand, would have scared away the hinds who had
stolen it, thinking to work with its power such wonders, but
first of all, having set it in the ground, were daucing round it in
a ring, in giggling triumph! The view down thiss'ojiing ar-
cade, looking into the court far beneath, where a group of the
female water-carriers was assembled in bright sunshine, round
one of the bronze wells, as one which "gave us pause." The
steps ascend in the opposite direction to the great Sala del
Maggior Consiglio, the first of that very long and stately series

of balls which are all ceilinged with such massy gilded magnifi-
cence, and are resplendent overhead and on every side with the
immense canvases of the most powerful and brilliant Yeuetian
painters, and their numerous followers. The plain and sombre
panelling beneath in some of these halls, seems precisely suited
for grave magisterial assemblies. But many of them are mag-
nificently fitted up in every respect, and where not only Tritons
and Nereids mounted on sea-horses hold across the ceilings the
flowery wreaths enclosing the pictures of Tintoretto and Paul
Veronese, but around you ascend pompous portals and
chimney-pieces of costly marble, designed by Palladio and
Scamozzi: tlure you will recognize a scene equally appropriate
for the most superb state ceremonials — for the feasting-tables on
the marriage ot a young Dogaressa, such as we are told filled
several of these chambers on the nuptials of Zilia Dandolo with
Lorenzo Priuli, or for the reception of embassies from the Otta-
mite, or the Kings of France and Spain.

The Sala del Maggior Cousiglio (and, indeed, most of the
other halls are so) is covered witti large pictures of the most
famous achievements, some of them imaginary ones, in the ro-
mance of history of Venice: the suppostitious victory off Pi-
rano, the reception of Pope Alexander III., the assault of Con-
stantinople, the taking of Tyre, being conspicuous amongst the
rest, with the strange old machines and weapons of war, — the
mangonels, catapults, and perrieres, — the crowded galleys, the
quaint habits, and the carpeted and tapestried semi-oriental
pageantry on land. They are quite a rich and valuable store-
house of such romantic antiquarian imagery; only that, for the
most part, it belongs to the times of the painters, and not of
the events represented. They are the principal examples exist-
ing of that snowy, though somewhat mechanical style which
was common to the immediate successors of Tintoretto and Ve-
ronese, when, partly from taking in a low sense the example but
too often set by those great men, the art of Venice declined too
much to what is merely decorative or ornamental, neglecting
still more and more such things as tend to soften the heart, and
raise and refine the imagination, for superficial pomps, which
only flatter the eye, and touch not inward. Of this degenerate
and waning period, the younger Palma, Leandro Bassano,
Aliense, and Contarini are the most distinguished ornaments;
and sometimes they rise above the level of the rest into a re-
markable vigor and brilliancy of effect, and a fine execution of
parts which is not unworthy of their great predecessors. The
look-out from this superbly rich, but sombre old hall is, I should
not forget to say, charming; and it was especially so when we
were there, from its lively exhilirating brightness. The island
of San Giorgi, just opposite, lay in the most brilliant sunshine
beyond the calm pale blue water, which was bordered below by
long lines of idle barques, each with its white awning or black
cabin, like lines of dazzling spray and little dark rocks inter-
mingled. Vivid green promontories of foliage, and little isl-
ands, with churches and other sparkling buildings, scattered the
broad lagune beyond, and over the distant narrow line of Lido,
we could see just the clear horizon of the open sea deepening
like a sapphire against the silvery azure of that cloudless sk .
The usual hum of life, the not unusal cry of men keeping time
musically as they tugged at their cables, the wonted call, or bel-
lowing of the gondolier!, gave animation to this delightful view.
And whilst we were there, St. Mark's pigeons proved to us that
they consider themselves perfectly free of this hall, as well as of
the vesribnle of the adjoining cathedral, for they came flying in
at the window, and rested themselves very composedly on the
cornice, where are the portraits of all the earlier Doges, ex-
cept Marino Faliero, "decapitated for his crimes."

A painter worth attention, of the declining decorative period,
Aliense, a Greek of the island of Milo, was banished the studio
of Paul Veronese from jealousy — a high honor, which, however,
we would rather had not been paid him by one who seems to
have been usually of a noble and generous disposition. Aliense's
picture here, of a certain city surrendering its keys to some
Venetian general or other, is rich in pleasing figures, and conspi-
cuously briihant and vigorous in color. In the same apartment
a Doge adoring the Madonna, by Marco Vecellio, the intimate

2Y*

nephew of Titian, and his companion in his travels, is liigiily re-
markable for its very clear and fine silvery tone. The Sala of
the Council of Ten contains a strikingly splendid painting by
Leandro, the son of Jacopo Bassano, of Pope Alexander 111.
meeting Ziani after the victory over Frederick Barbarossa.
The magnificent martial and ceremonial personages meeting to-
gether are well contrasted by the hnmbler figures lustily °bus-
tling ashore the spoils; and the painting is exceedingly brilliant
and forcible containing passages, here and there, which for
beauty of color and splendor of execution, would have done
credit to any Venetian. Leandro Bassano, though seldom
thought now-a-days, enjoyed, it seems, a brilliant reputation in
his own time. The Emperor Rudolph II., a liberal patron of
Art, wished to appoint him his court painter, and Doge Gri-
mani made him his Cavalier. And we are told that Leandro
supported his dignity in a sufficiently imposing manner. He ap-
peared in public, nobly attired, decorated with the insignia of
St. Mark, and accompanied by a retinue of scholars, one of
whom bore his gold cane, and another the book in which was
noted his very numerous and truly important engagements.
His pupils attended him also at table, which was maintained in
a very handsome and costly manner; and, as he was ever suspi-
cious of poison, he had his tasters, like the greater personages;
though they were ordered, it is said, to taste with moderation
and reserve, for fear of exciting too much attention and ridicule.
Whether from these apprehensions or not, he was subject to fits
of melancholy; but it is added, for our consolation, that they
were apt to give rise to comic rather than tragical scenes.

But here, in this hall of the Council of Ten, are some pre-
cious paintings, far superior to those of Leandro Bassano and
his compeers — a few precious relics of that very rare painter
Batista Zelotti, of Verona, a friend and fellow-worker of Paul
Veronese, and one who alone seems to have succeeded at times
in catching the delicacy and refinement of his excellences, some
of which he has followed so closely in these pictures that they
have been engraved as Veronese's own. They are in the ceil-
ing, and consist, in each instance, of one or two allegorical
figures of a truly captivating beauty and dignity. In these re-
spects, and in delicate brightness of color, they vie with the
very exquisite Veronese beside them; the conspicuous difference
being that Veronese's picture has a most brilliant silvery tone,
whilst Zelotti's tender coloring (as is said to have been usual
with him) is warmer, more cowslip-like, more rosy, if we may
so express it. Of absolute inferiority there is but little. The
lovely frieze round this room is also Zelotti's. It represents
naked little children amusing themselves in various ways with
books and musical instruments, or tumbling about and earessing
each other, and suddenly affrighted by lions. It rivals our own
most innocent and lovely Stothard in such subjects; and one
cannot easily pay it a higher compliment than by saying so. It
was well — was it not admirably? — thought of to decorate the (
council-chamber of the severe and gloomy "Ten" with represen-
tations of cheerful loveliness and softening innocence, such as
these. For who shall say that tenderly sliding into the upturned
eyes of the doubtful thinker now and then, at the right moment,
they may not have exercised a subtle influence over his heart,
and so been powerfully instrumental to the defeat of the harsh
decree, and the substitution of a gentler one. The seldom-
thought-of-painter of these sweet things, though undoubtedly
one of the first artists of his time, was not, it appears, even
then known and esteemed according to his merits, from his hav-
ing worked chiefly in fresco (in which he is said to have been
more dextrous than Veronese^, away from considerable cities,
in villages, and country seats, and palaces, where his produc-
tions were most likely to moulder away in solitude, neglect, and
oblivion.

Having thus, by mounting higher, approached the very kibe
of Veronese and Titian themselves, we will proceed by saying
Titian has in the Ducal Palace only one picture on canvas, and
one fresco — his only fresco in Venice; the former Dncal Palace,
which was rich in his works, having been gutted by fire the year
after his death. The oil picture is certainly one of the grandest
here. It is of immense dimensions, and represents the Doge

2U

THE PnOTOGRAPHIC AXD FINE ART JOURNAL.

July

Antonio Grimani in arniov, witb an odd sort of white mob-cap
on bis head, kneeling with his arms uplifted , apart, with an ex-
pression of wondering admiration, before Faith, impersonated
by a gradually handsome woman, who holds a cup and a cruci-
fix, which latter is further supported by two very pretty little
winged children, or converted Cupids. St. Mark, with his lion
stands beside her, regarding the incident. The picture is one
of great power, painted with a grand largeness, solidity, and
force, melting in parts; most appropriately, into the true Titian-
esque softness and subdued richness of tone; and the two prin-
cipal figures have a majestic and solemn air. This is the pic-
ture to which Mr. Ruskin specially refers as an evidence of Ti-
tian's utter want of religious feeling. Assuredly, it displays no-
thing of the monkish or ascctically religious feeling; yet, whilst
moved by the grand emotion of Grimani, and the demure ma-
jesty of the noble figure of Faith, to whom he lifts his reverent
eyes, I could not help thinking that it must be a rather fastidi-
ous and exceptions piety of the mere fancy which could pro-
nounce them to be decidedly and absolutely of a non-religious
character. It must be admitted candidly, nevertheless, that Ti-
tian has not given the warlike Doge the cloistral or seraphic
expression of a St. Francis or a St. Domiuick. The fresco, a
St. Christopher with the Infant Saviour, is at the bottom of a
mean, whitewashed staircase — a robust figure, with a fine,
handsome, manly head, colored with a vigor not common in
fresco. It has been copied in mosaic in the southern facade of
St. Mark's Church.

To the works here by Tintoretto we have endeavored to do
justice in another paper; but, after all, Paul Yeronese bears
the bell in the Palace of the Doges; and in the superb guard-
room— where the Sclavonian halberdiers, pages, and officers
were wont to wait whilst the Doge and the Grandi (his privy-
council) received ambassadors within — is the Europa, one of
his celebrated master-works. A fine-grown Veuitian lady, in
an interesting disorder of rich brocade, and crowned with flowers,
and with a pensive melancholy in her countenance, is seated on a
a beauteous, couchant, milk-white bull, who licks her foot, with
languishing and love-softened eyes; whilst other handsome, full-
blown madams are supporting her with much animation and
courtly grace. A sylvan glade, leading downwards to the sea,
forms the background, where some of the after circumstances of
the story are anticipated. Of course there is nothing of classical
antiquity — one does not expect it in Veronese; and but for a few
stray Cupids flutteringiu the air, for the pensive melancholy of the
principal figure, and the perfect seriousness of her attendants, one
might very well fancy that the Lady Morosini and her waiting-
women, had, in a rather frolicsome mood, taken it into their
heads to ride on some beauteous pet brute, of wonderful docility
and tameness, round the paddock of her rural sea-side villa.
The picture is magnificently painted; and though much untuned
— disharmonised by restorations — rich and brilliant in effect,
without one gorgeous color in it. A notable lesson is it of the
splendor which may be produced by temperate means.

But now, before we proceed to the hall within, which is the
very sanctum sanctorum of Paul Yeronese, it will be advisable
not altogether to overlook one of his most considerable works
here — to go back for a moment to the Sala del Maggior Con-
siglio, whence we were somewhat precipitately led away by Zelotti,
Leandro Bassano, and the others we have briefly noticed. This
important work of Caliari's in the ceiling of the great hall,
represents Yenice crowned by Fame. Impersonated by a fine
lady, in gold brocade, of the fashion of the painter's times, she
sits at the top of the picture, between most superbly-ornate
twisted columns, some very serviceable goddesses being grouped
around her. Beneath runs a balustrade, crowded with ladies
and their children gazing up admiringly at Yenetia and her
heavenly court; and under them are knights and cavaliers
prancing on horseback amongst an animated crowd of the com-
moner sort — a splendid composition, most rich in picture inci-
dent; but now, lamentable to relate, spoilt by the restorations
recently perpetrated. When I was here five years ago, tiiis
pictnie was absent for the ])urpose of being repaired; and Mr.
Ruskin describes himself as having been " present at the re-

illumination of the breast of a white horse in one of Yeronese's
pictures, in this palace, with a brush at the end of a stick five
feet long, luxuriously dipped in a common house-painter's ves-
sel of paint." Now as here is a horse, and, moreover, a horse
with a very painty chest, I suppose we may pretty safely infer
that this is the picture to which he alludes. At any rate a dull
bad grey, a muddy brown, a leathery smoothness, are now in
the work, as much as possible the I'everse of Yeronese's man-
ner, and so much in the raw and crude style commonly cultiva-
ted now-a-days, that it can scarcely be rash to describe them as
the slimy track of that organized body of picture-destroyers,
the Yenetian Academy. Restorations, ever of all things to be
deprecated, are in the case of such a colorist as Paul Yeronese,
likely in an especial manner to be utterly fatal: where, as with
him, every tint, up to its most delicate modifications, is sug-
gested by the most refined consideration of the harmony and
eiFect ot the whole picture, colors superimposed by any less
gifted hand, may, even in ^ae first touches, mar the entire
scheme hopelessly. You might just as well try to restore some
highly-wrought poem, of which the most delicate passages have
been all lost, as seek to repair the damage in any great work of
Yeronese's, such as this.*

However vapid and common-place the incidents of these alle-
gorical works, it will not be supposed that the pictures resemble
in general insipidity those of similar subjects by the lower order
of artists. The noble truthfulness of the objects of which these
fanciful compositions are built up, the excellent portraiture with
which they are enriched — taken fresh from nature — the admir-
able grouping, coloring, and execution , give them high interest
and value, and raise them indefinitely above all productions of
the Yerrio and Thornhill class, for instance. As an example
of the Yenetians' matter-of-fact way of filling up their allego-
ries, their personifications of Yenice itself may be cited. They
do not, turning up their eyes to the clouds, ask them to lend a
hazy lady for the purpose; but, looking around, choose some
comely maid or dame at hand, very probably in part from cour-
tier-like motives. Her they enthroned in the very dress then
worn on state occasions; and really it is not quite easy to see
how, in the absence of that higher imaginative power which
these painters did not possess, Yenice could be more satisfac-
torily personified. It is to be wished, we think, that our own
artists, until they can bring to the task more poetical invention,
would modestly content themselves with representing Britannia
on the same principle; for who ever looks a second time on the
impostor they have hitherto substituted for her? — a dull, cold,
lifeless maid, with nothing British about her — a hybrid crea-
ture of illegitimate Athenian descent, who, having no wit or
art to equip herself in any way honestly, has disgracefully, most
derogatoriiy to the nation, stolen Minerva's helmet and Nep-
tune's trident. Shame on her; fye! Brittannla surely should
be not only honest, and original, but most emphatically English
in features, physiognomy, dress, and every ornament and acces-
sory; and therefore, no doubt, it is highly desirable that the
felonious false Minerva should be summarily and contemptuous-
ly banished on the first convenient opportunity. And until some
imaginative figure thoroughly characteristic of the heart, intel-
lect, and beauty of England descends from the high heaven of
invention to succeed her, why, it were surely better, on occa-
sions where Britannia cannot by any means be dispensed with,
that the artist should faithfully copy for the purpose, the dam-
sel whom for her right good English face he admires the most;
and if his subject will not admit of his seating her in a green

* It may lie as well here to say a word or two on the other Veroncscs
in our owu National Gallery. '' The Ottering of the Magi"' is, in all like-
lihood, his composition, but so poor in character, color, and execution,
as to betray, in almost every part surely, the hands of assistants. Our
old picture— '• The Consecration of St. Nicholas"— is, on the contrary,
very fine and genuine, and in the beautii'ul composition of light and shade,
play of delicate color, and light freedom of execution, most characteris-
tic of the master— m these respects preferable to the I'isani picture.
Much in his del ghtful manner is the variegated brightness of color
(fresh greens and rosy hues especially), touching dispersedly, or as it
were tipping the transparent greys on which the picture is based, like
emerald moss and pinky flowers glancing about some shadowy fall of
waters.

1858.

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

215

field among the primroses and forget-me-nots, or where the free
eglantine, of its own sweet will, wreathes itself into a beauteous
orderly canopy, or crowning wreathe for her fair head, he may
(as Paul Veronese would assuredly have done) promote her to
a velvet state-chair, arrayed in the most tasteful and harmo-
niously-tinted millinery that was seen at the last drawing-room
of our sovereign lady the Queen. At any rate, this would sure-
ly be far better than equipping her, as we have hitherto done,
in the cast-off things of a cold and superannuated antiquity.
There is not much doubt, we think, of her proving sufSciently
interesting, enthroned side by side with a Parisian grisette, her
French national counterpart, decked in the Empress Eugenie's
most delicate lace and jewellery; the two together receiving
the homage of Russians, Cossacks, Tartars, and a rich variety
o{ other barbarian figures, on the occasion of the fall of Sebas-
topol; the news of which, arriving here on the very day when
we last contemplated these pictures, manifestly excited no un-
pleasant sensation amongst the loiterers at St. Mark's, Austrians
as well as Italians. With something of invention and true
poetry dedicated to the purpose, it is scarcely to be questioned
that the too much depreciated allegorical style might be employ-
ed with much pictorial advantage, in commemorathig the events
of the recent war, in the halls of our new Houses of Parliament,
or in the vast dome of the new Reading-room of the British
Museum. For (as Mr. Ruskin, I think, somewhere observes)
no other mode of treatment admits of grouping together such
magnificent varieties and contrasts of picturesque objects — ideal
beings; of course, we do not mean the trite ones; but novel
creations conceived with witty sapience and sagacious fancy,
human portraiture, animals — the symbolical ones, as well as
others — and for backgrounds, glimpses of any events, or land-
scapes, which, however remote in place, are associated in idea
with the principal part of the subject, or may be supposed as
present to the minds of the persons introduced. Thus might be
presented lovely visions of home, for instance, neiving Crimean
heroes; or as an antithetical background to the indomitable
heroism of that humbler rank and file, on whose few bayonets
the reputation, and perhaps the lasting weal, of Britain, de-
pended for some hours at Inkerman, some of our most accom-
plished senators at home, blinded by Faction, or lost in the
mazes of their own sophistries; and one or two not the least
shrewd of their body led floundering into the mud by Mammon:
or certain of our lordhest captains, under the generalship of
Pride, galloping blindfold up and down a long lane of blood,
and death, and horror. Or there might be drawn elsewhei'e,
in some quiet corner or other, a heaven-sent Nightingale, sing-
ing in "the perplexed shades" of the very Wood of Error, and
charming away Pain and Grief with her clear melodies; or bet-
ter far than any such light conceit, we might, unknown to her,
snatch a veritable portrait of the noble Lady herself, and show
her, even as she was, led on by Faith and Charity, with healing
power, into appalling places; whilst cold, formal, calculating
Duty stops far behind her. And might not Humor itself, in
which, by-the-bye, in Art the British — of course including the
Irish — are unequalled, be introduced with capital advantage in
these allegories, embodying with refined skill such incidents as
we sometimes admire in the cartoons of Punch, which display,
doubtless, a shrewd and lively invention not often seen in the
works of our finishing painters ? If wholesomely satirical hu-
mor, equal to that of Leach, were set forth with highly-wrought
Art having one tithe the skill of Veronese, why then, indeed,
might the ceilings of our new senate-house be adorned with some-
thing so interesting as very desirably to draw attention away
from the cramped, stiff, pettily-ornate architecture, which from
certain points of view, at least — in the opinion of a certain
cynical friend of mine, which, however, I could not myself ven-
ture wholly to indorse — seems more suitable for a vast bazaar
for all the milliners and bijouterie in London, than for the Par-
liament House of certainly one of the most manly and energetic
nations the world has ever seen.

And now let us return from this light allegorical digression
to the Venetian Hall of the Ambassadors, the door of which is
ajar, and the space within most happily custodeless. A sump-

tuous chamber! But, first of all, look out of its windows, and
see the cupolas of St. Mark's clustering close opposite, above
the fantastic spiral roof and statuary of the Porta della Carta;
and beyond them the Campanile soaring into the cloudless
azure, its shadows ajrially and tenderly reflecting it. Look on
this picture, window-enframed, and painted by the brightest
hand of Noonday all with azure, and silvery white, and grey,
and then contrast it with the warm, deep glow of the shadowy
hall within — the Doge and Council's vacant seats of cedar hue,
touched delicately with gold, the portal and the mantlepieces
of costly marble, and, over them all, the sumptuous ceiling by
Da Ponte (the architect of the Rialto), of wreaths of fruit and
flowers, studded with masks and other grotesques; these the
frames of Paul Veronese's most cheerfully charming works.
Here let me sit by the hour, or rather by the morning, and
read, iu the simple and lively language of some old historian,
such as Knollee or Contariui, the narrative of that great war
with the TTurks, which, beginning with the loss of Cyprus, but
ending in the victory of Lepanto, is especially commemorated
by Veronese's paintings in this hall. Let me read of the Ni-
cosian matron, who slew her child to save him from the Turks,
and of the noble captive maid who blew up the galeass which
was conveying herself and her companions (a supercargo of
Cypriote lovehness) to the Sultan's harem. Let me familiar-
ise myself thoroughly with the glorious though unsuccessful de-
fence of Famagosta; and between whiles, now and then raising
my head from the book, let me gaze around the very room where
the Doge and his Council received with calm firmness that
fierce and haughty challenge of Sultan Selim's chaoosh, or
envoy, which led to the war, and where, after the mighty vic-
tory at its close, the last great Venetian painter wrought on the
ceiling those three lovely works of "Justice," and '' Faith," —
the main pillars of the Signoria during the frightful struggle, —
and " Peace," the ultimate reward of its self-devotion and hero-
ism. They are amongst Caliari's most beautiful productions —
somewhat small pictures, with not more than three or four fig-
ures in each, grouped in his exquisitely way, and colored to the
height of that delicate brilliancy in which he is supreme. Ro-
mantic designs are they, conceived in a highly graceful and
cheerful spirit, and set off with a right royal splendor. In the
centre oval some magnificently-clad figures kneel around an
alter, with white-robed Faith above them iu the heavens. In
the second picture Justice and Peace, kneeling too, most courtly,
offer respectively the sword and olive-branch to a young lady
(Veniero or Moncenigo, who can tell which?) in white satin,
brocaded with gold and ermine, seated on a throne under a
canopy, and impersonating la Bella Venezia quite satisfactorily,
one cannot help thinking. But the third painting — though one
has the same difficulty in choosing between them that the
Knight experiences in selecting from the three lovely Sisters
who, arm-in-arm, greet him in the lonely castle-hall — is, I do
verily believe, my favorite. Here a shaggy Neptune and a cava-
lier in armor, representing Mars — the two, of course, signifying
the strength and sp'rit of Venice — with her winged lion be-
tween them, recline most leisurely under a soft and balmy blue
sky, where the Venetian Campanile rises with an srial tender-
ness rivalling that of the real building which appears through
the window; whilst two lovely children are flying through the
air, .one carrying away Mars' helmet, and the other bringing
him a pretty veined shell to play with in that sweet-resting time
of peace. This is surely one of the most beautiful pieces of
bright but delicate color that ever gladdened the sight, vying,
if I mistake not, with slopes of roses descending through the
tenderest silver air down to the bosom of some becalmed blue
mere, which mirrors softly the purity of the resting heavens.

Here one would willingly believe the Mars to be a portrait
of one of the heroes of Lepanto: at all events the whole pic-
ture, painted shortly after that victory, commemorates in a de-
lightful manner the peace which followed it; but the enthusiasm
and glory of the exploit itself are illustrated on a far more mag-
nificent scale by one of Veronese's chief masterpieces above the
throne at the end of the ball.

In this picture Venice, personified in the usual way, is con-

216

THE PUOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

July,

ducting the leading Instruments of the victory, her generals, to
the Saviour, who, having descended, is seated with a globe in
His hand, amidst a jubilant spreading and profusion of angels
and cherubs bearing palm branches; white-robed Faith, kneeling
below, with her cup in her hand, being represented as the suc-
cessful suppliant to the Real Vanquisher — as the link between
the earthly and the heavenly beings. The admire, Sebastian
Veniero, afterwards Doge, and the Proveditort, Agostino Bar-
barigo (who, though slain in the fight, is finely, not the less, in-
troduced here as sharing in the triumph), are habited in mar-
tial state, their mantles supported by graceful pages in white
and gold. Speaking portraits! Veniero, a wrinkled, white-
bearded, but fervent-looking old man, and Barbarigo (who was
mortally pierced by an arrow whilst cheering his men during an
unequal conflict with six Turkish galleys), and handsome in the
prime of life — a noble example of a Venetian high-born and
high-thoughted cavalier. Behind Veniero significantly follows
a beautiful and dignified female, bearing that ducal bonnet which
rewarded his deseits five years after the victory. And, lastly,
the nature of- that victory is shown by a crowd of galleys co-
vering an horizon of sea extending across the foot of the pic-
ture.

Of the composition, coloring, and execution of this work, it
would be difficult to speak too highly : the coloring his Paolo's
characteristic wide range of brilliant, lovely hues, pervaded by
much of his delicate silvery tone. It has all his melodious
magnificence, as it may with but a slight figure of speech be
called ; and the effect, before it was somewhat faded and dead-
ened by time, must have been something superlative indeed.
Kugler says of some of these pictures, that "they touch the
heart of the spectator like heroic music;" a kind of compari-
son which may here, perhaps, without deviating into what is
fantastical, be dwelt upon a little, with characteristic variations.
Some of the pictures we had been recently enjoying, such as
Giorgione's "Bassanio at the Caskets" (as we ever call it), and
Titian's "Gentle Shepherd," both in the Manfriui Gallery, may
be likened to some simple, deeply tender air played on one in-
strument, a pipe or violin; but this is like a fine animated over-
ture (one of the Rosini's best, for instance), with many melo-
dies running through it, played grandly by a full-toned orches-
tra; consisting of many instruments of various kinds and powers,
not any of them lost to the ear, yet all consenting to one bril-
liant and magnificent tone. This is not a single flower, culled
for the tender bosom of some thoughtful maid, but a triumphal
wreath of many, exquisitely matched, and gathered for the fes-
tive brows of Victory and Joy.

It is indeed every way worthy — as the representation of the
Saviour descended amidst His adorers is significant — of the
plenitude of enthusiastic faith which inspired the Christian com-
batants on the occasion; when the vessels were decorated gaily
for the fight as for a jubilee, or rather as if the victory were al-
ready gained, and all the galley slaves were freed and armed,
and all animosities melted away in magnanimous tears, hke de-
lusions of night before a divine dawning; and not only the
priests, but many of the captains, hurried from stem to stern,
with crucifixes in their bands, exhorting the multitude to look
above all to the Saviour, — to fight fearlessly and with joyful
confidence for Him who had died for them, and who, as He
had more than once in former times descended visibly to con-
found his enemies, was now, no doubt, mightily present in" the
spirit amidst them. What could be looked for after this but
th e frequent boardings and re-boardings which ensued, and the
prodigies of valor, and the sea discolored with blood, tossing
shoals of corpses, and covered for miles with the wrecks of the
Turkish navy, almost entirely destroyed; and such trepidation
at Constantinople that the Turks already meditated the aban-
donment of the city, and traversed their streets in despair, ask-
ing the Christians whether the victors, on taking possession of
the capital, would permit them to remain and live there accord-
ing to their own laws, on payment of a tribute? The Chris-
tians, however, were too much weakened by their losses at the
time, and too much divided by their petty jealousies afterwards,
to follow up their glorious and complete success; and in a few

months the Captain Pasha satled forth again with a powerful
fleet to menace and insult the Christian seas, just as if no defeat
had been experienced. "In this vain exploit," observed a cap-
tive pasha, smartly, "you Christians only shaved away the Sul-
tan's beard, which has speedily grown again quite 'as thick,
bushy, and handsome as before; but in Cyprus the Venetians
have irretrievably lost an arm, and so become crippled for
ever."

The only addition one cannot help wishing for in this splendid
monumental picture is, in some corner of it, a portrait of Miguel
Cervantes, who, though he lost an arm at Lepanto, gained
there, it may be, new power to his soul, in the glorious heighten-
ing of those generous and heroic feelings which so often glow
through his satire on the follies of knight-errantry, like brilliant
sunrays streaming through rents in the fantastic clouds. But
this is an irregular excursion of my fancy, and it is enough that
Venice alone should be honored here.

This Chamber is as the inmost heart of the fine old city,
where its heroic emotions seem most to linger. These memo-
rials of her last grand achievement, painted by her last grand
painter — and they are amongst his masterpieces — compose sure-
ly, one of the most dignified and deeply interesting national
monuments existing, to be fitly ranked, I think, not very far be-
neath those others in which Art still pleads in honor of extinct
heroic races of men and powers, from the Rock of Pericles and
the Seven Hills of the Caesars. But the full majesty, the na-
tional sanctity (if I may use such an expression), of this Vene-
tian Hall of the Ambassodors, has not, perhaps, been sufficient-
ly apprehended by us. My fancy often returns, often dwells
there to contemplate those many-colored glories, which bring
home to us the greatness of the past; enriching our imagina-
tions with noble and fervid thoughts, here emblazoned for the
instruction and delight of after ages also, not perishing, not
sinking into the grave with the great and gifted hand that
traced them.

PROPORTIONS OF llftUIUS AND SOLIDS.

To the Editor of the Liter]^ool Photographic Journal:

Sir, — In common with many others, I also am desirous of
drawing a little from your well-stored literary stock. May I,
therefore, request the solution of the following difficulty? — Oc-
casionally, nay I think I may say frequently, an ambiguous
kind of description of quantities of chemicals is made use of in
the Liverpool and Manchester Photographic Joivrnal difficult, at
least to the tyro, to understand, in consequence of the articles
consisting both of solids and liquids. An example of the case
in point will be found at page 101 of your last number, about
two-thirds from the top of the first column, where the latter
part of the sentence runs thus: " pouring off the liquid into a
glass vessel, we have added five or six drops of acetate of lead,
dissolved in distilled water, in the proportion of six per cent."
The doubt exists in the scored words. Am I I'ight in reading
the sentence thus: Six grains of sugar of lead dissolved in a
hundred grains by loeight of distilled water? If so, it would,
as a general rule, have been much more intelligible to the gen-
eral manipulator to have given the quantity of salt in grains,
and that of the water in minims, fluid drachms or ounces, as
each formula might require. Or should I be correct in always
considering the grain of solids to be equal to the minim of li-
quids? Yours most truly,

ESCULAPIUS.

April ULh, 1858.

[The concluding portion of your letter is so complimentary
that we had not the courage or vanity to publish it, but we
thank you heartily for your good opinion and kind wishes. It
is generally the practice amongst our photographic brethren
in France to quote the strength of a" solution at so much per
cent., but in translating we generally give the approximate
quantity , according to the English method; but when prepar-
ing the last number we were suffering severely from an affec-
tion of the head, having literally risen from a bed of sickness

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC ATs^D FINE AUT JOURNAL.

211

iu order to do it, and we therefore overlooked the poiut. Your
surmise is correct, one miuiiu being regarded as equivalent to a
grain, — consequently six per cent, would be about 28-^- grains to
the ounce. A simple rule to follow is to multiply the per cent-
age hy Jive, and that will give nearly the number of grains to
the ounce; and if all the solutions employed be treated alike in
this respect the relsLtWe proportions are still adhered to, and the
absolute strength very slightly varied, so little as to be immate-
rial in practice.]

For the Photographic and Fine Art Journal.

HEIIOGRAPHY;

Its powerful agency in, and its great importance to, the development
of iiuman civilisation and refinement.

Mr. Editor, — I am glad to see, by one of your late numbers,
that the " good work goes bravely on" — the work of vindicating
the dignity of the Heliographic Art, and its title to a rank
among both the fine and the useful Arts. You may possibly
remember, that, in my occasional contributions to your Journal,
during the last three or four years, I have been accustomed to
press this point with considerable earnestness and at the hazard
of some repetition. The truth is, that our Art bore a reputa-
tion, not at all agreeable to myself as one of its practitioners —
the reputation of being a merely mechanical process — and inca-
pable of even rising to the rank of an Art. This reputation
has manifestly been owing, not so much to the nature of the
Art itself, as to the character of a large number, if not a ma-
jority, of the persons, who had taken up its practice. It was
an obvious matter of fact, that these persons were marked
neither by native artisticg'miws, nor acquired culture and accom-
plishment. As a general rule, they excelled, if at all, in chemical
and mechanical manipulation solely, but were incompetent to
produce pictures distinguished by liveliness, grace, pronounced-
ness and individualising expression. On the contrary, the speci-
mens produced were, chiefly, flat, tame, lifeless, wooden.

Of course the reputation of the Art suffered through the
incompetence of the bulk of its casual operants. But such a
state of things could not permanently exist, nor could impressions
so essentially false prevail, when the subject became better ap-
prehended. In Europe both the amateur and the professional
cultivators of Heliography have been, generally, men of educa-
tion and acquirement, and to no small extent men of genius.
By censequence, the true quality and just claims of the Art
could not very long remain obscured, — especially at a time of
such unparalleled rapidity of progress in the Sciences and Arts.
So that, for some time past, the foreign heliographic journals
have teemed with essays designed to authenticate the artistic
dignity and worth of this Art. It may, pei'haps, be well to
give a brief enumeration of the grounds, upon which the claims
of the Art under review are based, although they may not be
novel to the reader. And

1st, The Sciences, on which. Heliography rests, and with
which it has to deal, are among the most magnificent and prac-
tically important within the domain of human knowledge. The
sunbeam, which is not alone the secondary creator of universal
beauty, whether in the inanimate and animal kingdoms, and the
face and form of man, but the fountain and ever-active agent of
all material growth and development, — chemistry and mechanics,
on whose laws the ongoings of all life, whether that of this
solid globe, or of the infinitely multiplex vegetation springing
out of it, or of the myriads of animal and human creatures mov-
ing over it are every instant dependent — electro-magnetism,
that mysterious and &QQmmg\j , omnipresent principle, in which
new marvels and new uses are daily coming to light, and which
may yet be discovered to be that central unity, of which all
sciences are but different and kindred offshoots, — these sciences,
to name no other, are the agencies, wherewith the Heliogra"
pher must daily and momently work — are, to a great degree, the
very materials and tools of his craft. Without a considerable
knowledge of these sciences, any large measure of proficiency

and skill in Heliography is unattainable— and that an individ-
ual without mental discipline and education should stand before
the community as a practitioner of the Art, is an absurdity,
which public opinion cannot much longer tolerate. Now that
the general attention is aroused to this matter, the individual of
a profession, dealing with agencies so important, will soon be
constrained to furnish proofs of the same general and thorou"-h
culture which are demanded in the other so-called liberal pro-
fessions.

2nd, But I pass to a few remarks on the various special bene-
fits rendered by Heliography to the world. The portrait-
painter may derive very essential aid iu taking a faithful and
spirited likeness, from having by him an excellent Heliograph
of his sitter. In fact such a Heliograph, being an exact tran-
script, will serve him, as well as the present original, in getting
the drapery and all the outlines of face, head and figure — thus
saving, to the sitter, the time and tedium of several sessions, he
being present but just long enough for catching the individualis-
ing expression. This last was, with Lawrence, the work of an in-
stant— that felicitous instant, when the soul, concealed perhaps
before, gleamed radiantly outl I have no doubt, that the por-
traitists will thus reap a benefit wholly beyond his present con-
ceptions.

And the Heliographer in turn will be benefitted by the por-
traitist, who, skilled in wielding the pencil and in the appliance
of colors, can touch up the product of rhe camera wiili those
fleshy tints which make the picture an all but literal double of
the original.

Another incalculable benefit, which Heliography is rendering
and is hereafter to render still more extensively, to mankind, is
its supplying them, at moderate rates, with exact transcripts of the
natural scenery, the noted edifices public or private, the localities
memorable for great deeds or events, and the distinguished per-
sonages, male or female, either in our own or in distant or for-
eign lands. By this means we gain all the advantages common-
ly derived from extended travelling, without the fatigue, the
danger, the expense, and the loss of time incurred by the latter
— without, indeed, ever passing our own thresholds. What an
inexpressible advantage that, throughout every community, the
families even of moderate means may have their walls of their
domicils, or of their public buildings covered with beautiful rep-
resentations of the sublimest and loveliest things and of the
greatest and noblest persons, which any portion of the globe,
in any age, has contained — and that thus, while the eye is fed
with visual beauty, the heart is thrilled and the mind enriched
with the most inspiring emotions and most precious thoughts!
Must not a community wherein such a state of things prevailed,
advance rapidly in the growth of refined tastes and the devel-
opment of a love of the beautiful? And must not a community
improve also in moral respects, which is abundantly provided
with these guiltless intellectural pleasures together with a love
for such, iu lieu of those sensual enjoyments, which in times fore-
gone, have almost alone been within reach of the 7nasses of every
country?

Microscopic Heliography, again opens to the universal view
an infinitude of wonders and beauties, which to the naked eye
are utterly invisible. It was an inestimable discovery, which
first brought these unknown worlds within our ken. How is
the value of that discovery enhanced by our ability to represent,
on plate, paper or glass, these invisibly tiny scenes and crea-
tures, wearing the same bulk, as when witnessed through the
magnifier, and thus to have them perpetually suspended before
our eyes! It will easily be seen, too, what facilities for en-
larging our knowledge of the incalculably small is furnished by
these microscopic Heliographs of specimens of the same,

I might mention also the advantages to be derived, in every
department of science, and every branch of study or pursuit
from Heliographic representations of specimens or objects per-
taining thereto. In the anatomists study, and in the lunatic
asylum, such representations of subjects dead or living, have
been found useful, not less than similar representations of living
faces and forms, of Assyrian, Egyptian, Grecian, Roman,

VOL. XI. NO. TII.

28

Gothic or Saracenic sculptured or architectural specimens iu
the studio of the painter, the statuary, or the architect. And
may not even the infractor of society's laws be driven out of
the " broad" destruction-ward road into the " straight" and se-
cure path by the fact, that his Heliograph, taken in the Peni-
tentiary where he was confined, can at once be multiplied and
universally diffused, so that he must be recognised, wherever he
appears, while the telegraph can, within a few moments, scatter
the tidings of a crime perpetrated from Maine to Florida ?

A thousand appliances, of similar kinds, will at once occur
to all and verify a remark, previously made, that Heliography
is entitled to a rank in the tiseful as well as the ornamental
Arts.

My space, however, being exhausted, I must close for the
present. M. A. Root.

Philadelphia^ June 10, 1858.

ON

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

THE OPTICS OF PHOTOGRAPHY.

BY RET. W. J. READ, M.A.,F.R.A.S.

[Read before the llanchester Photographic Society.]

The title, "The Optics of Photography," he remarked, did
not limit them to any particular branch of the science of optics,
except so far as regarded the size of the lenses employed. All
the calculations and all the results of optics depended upon very
simple principles, and he should make it his endeavor to state
as simply as possible what those elementary piinciples were,
showing their application in the lenses which they were in the
habit of using, not attempting at all to enter into the abtruse
or difficult calculations which could afford no interest to very
many. Light proceeds generally in straight lines when it is tra-
versing a uniform medium; but when it passes from one medium
to another a change takes place in its direction, not variable,
but according to a constant law as ascertained by experiment.
Mr. Head here referred to his diagrams, without which we shall
not be able to follow him closely, but will point out the main
features of his demonstrations. He showed clearly the deflec-
tions of rays of light on passing through different bodies, such
as air, and glass of various densities. It is found also, he said,
that different substances exercise different dispersive effects upon
ft ray of light; this gives the power of producing a colorless
pencil of light, and deflecting it which way we please. A ray
of light passing through a compound prism might re-appear on
the other side with a change of direction, but achromatised.
Mr. Read proceeded to apply these principles to lenses. A
ray of light passing through a prism is, in all cases, bent to-
wards the thicker part ot the glass. Mr. Read pointed out the
cause of what is called "spherical aberration," and added, that
it is possible, by properly choosing the curves of the lenses, to
bring such a set of curves together, so that the greater deflec-
tion of the outer part is counterbalanced by a smaller deflection
elsewhere. This was acertained by intricate and difficult calcu-
lations. Por the correction of spherical aberration it is not at
all necessary that different kinds of glass should be used; the
same glass might be employed, but the curves might be so
chooseu that the deflection of the ray on passing the subsequent
snrfaces shall be more or less in an opposite direction from that
which occurred at its entering the surface. Light might fall in
any direction upon a lens; when it falls in an oblique direction,
there are certain curious. and somewhat intricate results follow-
ing. Photographic images consist not of a series of points one
upon another, but of a series of circles of least confusion lap-
ping one over another, of a breadth that may be calculated.
To avoid a confused image, it is usual to place before the lens
a "stop," — that is the name given to it by workmen, and he pre-
ferred it to the scientific name "diaphragm." According to
these principles all the lenses which are used are constructed.
AYith some of tiiem they were no doubt familiar, such as the
ordinary portrait lens invented by M. Petzval, and that made
by Chevalier, of Paris. Mr. Read described this lens by the

aid of chalk, and remarked that Chevalier had improved this
by adding another lens. The reason why the back lenses of the
portrait apparatus are separated, is, that the aberration could
not otherwise be corrected. Chevalier placed two lenses in
front, and he was thus able to take large pictures, but in a
longer time. As Mr. Ackland was present, he would say no-
thing about M. Petzvla's most recent invention, the "caloscopic
lens." Mr. Read proceeded by desire of the company, to de-
scribe an invention of his own in reference to the "stop," by
which some of the defects of landscape photographs are reme-
died. The stop iu an ordinary view lens is placed parallel to
the surface of the lens, and consequently the sky is brighter
than any part of the foreground. Hence it was that skies are
so often "overdone," or "solarized," or "burnt out." In many
cases it is necessary to paint out the sky, so as to get an effect
and be able to print from the picture. The sky had become
transparent from the continued action of light, before the fore-
ground had produced its full effect. He proposed, instead of
using a "stop" placed parallel to the lens, to use a stop placed
at a certain, or perhaps he ought to say an uncertain, inclina-
tion to it. By using a stop of this kind they might cut off as
much of the sky as they pleased, thus adding to the amount of
light received upon the foreground, and preserving the relative
proportions of light in the distance In this way he thought
they would be able to get what photographic landscapes long
wanted, namely, something like clouds along with the landscape.
Mr. Read produced what he called a "rude representation" of
this invention, and demonstrated its action to the company. In
Mr. R.'s model the lens is placed in a square tube, in which a
square partition is fitted so as to move on a centre turned by a
button on the exterior, the bent portions at the top and bottom
are of thin springy cardboard to shut out the light; a collar of
velvet surrounds the front and shuts out extraneous light.
This was merely a rough model, and is of course capable of im-
provement. He had not been able to bring any pictures as a
result from want of time. He had tried it, however, and found
its effects abundantly evident, it being possible to shut out the
whole of the sky, while the foreground continued as bright as
before, if not somewhat brigliter. After exposing the picture,
the stop should be turned up for a few seconds, just the length
of time necessary to take the sky alone, and then the effect of
the clouds would be produced along with the landscape. He
also thought of proposing a new form of copying lens, which
would enable copying to be done more accurately and readily by
the use of the present apparatus.

WHITE POSITIVES ON CLASS,
To the Editor of the Liverpool Photographic Journal;

Sir, — In your Journal for 1st March I observed a letter from
Mr. W. Anderson, of Bradford, wishing for information on the
whitening process. I have seen a specimen of the pictures he
mentions, the whites of which were pretty good. On seeing
this I made several experiments to gain the effect by re-develop-
ment. The one in which I have been most successful is this:
take a picture in the usual way, and after fixing, lay it in a dish
containing hot water, and let it remain there about three mi-
nutes, then take it out, and wash with cold water, drain it a
short time, and place it on a levelling stand; now pour on the
re-developing solution, composed of

1 ounce distilled water,

12 minims saturated solution of bichloride of mercury in mu-
riated acid,

20 grains protosulphate of iron,

1 2 grains nitrate of potash ,

\ drachm alcohol.

On the first application of the solution the picture will al-
most disappear, and then gradually become more and more de-
veloped. Let it remain in this position until you have gained
the desired effect, which will take from twenty to thirty minutes;
then wash thoroughly with water, and dry by the fire. But
then the picture wants varnishing, and I have tried many kinds

1S5S.

THE rnoTOGRArnic and fine art journal.

210

of varoish, but have net yet succeeded in finding the right one,
for the general kinds, especially the French, turns the picture
into slate color. The best method I have adopted is, after the
last washing, and whilst the plate is still wet, pour on a solution
of isinglass, ten grains, warm water one ounce, filtered, on which,
when dry, you may color, and with care produce some very
beautiful results.

Hoping this will be of service to some of our photographic
brethren, who will, I trust, make a further advance in this
branch of the art and report their success.

I am, Sir,

Yours respectfully,

J. B. R.

P. S. — I shall be glad to hear of a suitable varnish.

[Try gum arable thirty grains, water one ounce, glycerine ten
minims. — Ed.]

For the Photographic & Fine Art Journal.

SUGGESTIONS
For the Organization of a Photograpliic Society.

H. H. Shelling — Dear Sir — Why have we not a Photogra-
phic Society? This, Sir, has become a most important question,
and reasons have been given explanatory of the cause, the principal
ones of which are: there is too much jealousy on the part of our ar-
tists; they are too selfish, few, if any, being willing to communi-
cate to a brother artist a single result he has ever obtained in
any experiment he has ever made. "Why is this, Sir? The
answer can be found in the letter of Mr. Breckeuridge in the
June number of the Journal. There are those in our profession
"who have taken up the trade of pidure-ma.k\Qg because they
found themselves totally unfit for everything else;" consequently
the true artist, holding such in contempt, resolves to keep his
own counsel and experience to himself. I have never seen any
suggestions made of a plan by which we could be enabled to
overcome this resolution, and my object in writing to you now
is to throw out a few ideas which, in my opinion, if they could
be made practical, would do much to eradicate this jealousy and
selfishness. But let me in the first place, for a better under-
standing of my plan, review the condition of our art at the pre-
sent day. All over the country and in every city are to be
found parisites sucking the life blood of the mighty tree. Photo-
graphy— sapping its very roots to that condition that were it
not for a few tenacious tendrils, the noble monument would in-
evitably fall, wither, and be forgotten. Many of them are not
willfully perpetrating this infamous outrage, but are of neces-
sity compelled to follow in the wake of the ignoble band of il-
literate blockheads who have degraded our art, vitiated public
taste, and reduced the compensation of our labor to a miserable
pittance. The first step of one of these newly fledged artists
when he finds he lacks brains sufficient to make him a superior
practitioner on the high road to fortune after a weeks' instruc-
tion, is to reduce the prices and advertise "pictures taken with-
out shade." By this means he gains customers — people who
are unable to judge a good picture from a bd one, and Apollo
help us their name is legion. He gives the same case at half
the price as his neighbor, the true artist, next door, and poor
creature, he can see little beyond that, for if he only makes
them white both sides of the face it is all satisfactory. Now,
Sir, how does this operate on those men who pursue the art for
the love they bear it, and are contented to make both ends
meet? Why their business for the time is wonderfully cut down
— if they can afford to wait it works all right in the end, but if
they cannot afford to wait, if they have families around them
depending on their efforts, what is the course they are com-
pelled to pursue. They must either descend to the pecuniary
level of their artistic friend, or abandon the art for something
more stable, and leave the incubus master of the field, and a
prop is dislodged from the fabric. There is another devotee of
Photography, who, I am sorry to say, is equally, if not more,
injurious to it than the one I have just mentioned. He is the
ekillful manipulator described by Mr Root in the June number

whose cold, dull, rough, morose manner renders him totally un-
fit for the practice of the art. He produces work of superior
qaulity, but the expression of every sitter speaks but too plain-
ly the want of that magnetic influence so essential to complete
an otherwise excellent picture. The entire want of this quality
deprives him of patrons, and, as he says, he too must live —
down comes the prices, in rush the customers, and another prop
is gone. These are sad thoughts, Sir. but the experience of
years has taught me they are true ones. With such instances
as these before us can we blame the respectable members of our
profession for their jealousy, their selfish? No! Is their busi-
ness not daily in jeopardy? Why should they be communicative
for the benefit of those who will fawn upon them to-day, and
undermine them to-morrow? Most assuredly they should not, but
were there a plan by which this undermining could be prevent-
ed, then the man who could withhold the results of his labors
would be selfish indeed. A severe disease is engrafted upon our
art; let our remedy be to pluck it out. The plan I would pro-
pose for the organization of Photographic Societies is this: let
there be a principal one in New York and branches in every
city; for the country I would propose all those artists within a
a circuit of twenty or thirty miles to form a branch. Let those
societies resolve and fix a minium price, below which no pictures
shall be taken by any members thereof, and the better to ensure
the success of this rule, no member shall purchase of any manu-
facturer of, or dealer in stock who is not a member of the so-
ciety, or or who will sell to any one who disposes of his pictures
at a price below the minimum. This would force the manufac-
turers and dealers of necessity to enter into the ranks of the
society and also the artists to seek the same protection. It
might be urged against this that were all the manufacturers and
dealers to unite with us to carry out this scheme that new ones
would spring up to supply those who were still desirous of
grovelling in the mire. My answer is— it would not pay.

With such an organization the superior artists would throw
off his fetters and become communicative. The inferior one
would profit by the details of his experience, and cultivate those
essential qualities necessary to perfection, which would enable
him to pursue the profession without injury to his neighbor and
with honor and profit to himself. The art would thereby be
elevated in the esteem of the people, and they would be led to
feel and appreciate the importance a short time would give it,
and willingly remunerate the artist for his labor. Taste would
be cultivated and thin "ghastly shadows" be forgotten, or only
live in the memory (to be smiled at) of those who had been
taught to admire the true and the beautiful. Their places
would be filled by the clear, round, artistic, and life-like re-
presentations of the "human face divine," and Photography
would at last be placed in the highest niche of the temple of
art. I have no doubt that judicious modifications and improve-
ments could be made on this scheme, and principally for this
purpose have I penned these suggestions. If I succeed in draw-
ing into the arena one more lover of the art, my object will be
gained, and if the ball that has been started can only be kept
rolling, the time is not far distant when it will reach the much
wished for goal,

F. J. E.

MINUTE HOLES IN GLASS POSITIVES.

To the Editor of Photogra^phic JYotesi

Sir, — Since I have arrived here from the North I find that
all my positives go into small minute holes. Last year, when here,
they did the same. I consider that it is owing to the Lime in
the water, as the silver tests show abundance of it in the wa-
ter.

In your first volume I wrote you about the same thing,
signed "Chemical." Since then I have been in several towns,
and always find, when Lime is in the water, that, in a week or
less, the pictures go into minute holes. I do not admire varnish-
ing the pictures, but I can find no other remedy.

"CHEMICAL."

220

THE PnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

July,

THE CARBON

From the Photographic Notes.

PROCESS.

BY THOMAS SUTTON.

Once more we would earnestly call the attention of our read-
ers to Mr. Pouncey's method of printing positives in carbon.
"What is to be done in this important matter ? In a letter just
received, Mr. Pouncey informs us that he will dispose of _ the
process for a liundred guineas; but also that on his last visit to
London he registered it provisionally with the view of taking
out a patent. Here then is a definite proposition which we are
able to submit to our readers; Mr. Pouncey offers them a me-
thod of printing permanent photographs in carbon, for one
hundred guineas, a sum which could be raised at once if every
one of them would subscribe a shilling. Surely the process is
worth that. There cannot bo one of our readers who would
not gladly give a shilling to know it. "Well then, shall we see
if we can all combine and purchase it ?
Here is a plan for that object; —

Let every one who feels inclined to give a shilling for Mr.
Pouncey's process forward to us his name and address. We
will file all these addresses. If we get a sufficient number we
will purchase the process, and publish it in a shilling pamphlet.
All we now require are written orders for a sufficient number
of copies of the pamphlet when it comes out. It is evident that
if we purchase the process on our own account, and incur a
great deal of trouble by so doing, a guarantee is necessary,
because it would no sooner be published than it might be copied
verbatim into any public journal; the pamphlets would then be-
come waste paper, and we might whistle for our hundred
guineas.

If then we can secure a sufficient number of orders for the
pamphlet, we will purchase and publish Mr. Pouncey's process.
Should this attempt fail, it seems that photographers will have
no help for it but to wait patiently for six months, until the
Specification of the process is made public; and then the patent
will be binding on every honest man. Besides, it might be
worth while for some of us to consider how many shillingsworth
of silver would go down the sink, and how many perishable
prints be added to our portfolios during these six months. Let
the past history of Photography answer these queries; and let
no one grudge his shilling for a process which appears to com-
bine economy in the material with permanence of the proof.
Admitted that the color of a carbon print is black, and not red,
or purple, or any fancy tint; and also that there may possibly
be in Mr. Pouncey's prints a little want of half-tone; but it is
equally certain that the whites of the paper are perfectly pre-
served, and very probable that a black pigment such as carbon
might be replaced by others of a great variety of beautiful tints;
nor is it improbable that the want of half-tone in the early
specimens of a new process may be remedied by improved mani-
pulation. These considerations should, we think, weigh with
reasonable men, and a whole season not be allowed to pass
away while they remain in ignorance of the most important
step in Photography which has been recorded for some years; —
in a state of ignorance which may be terminated in a few days,
by merely writing a letter and paying a shilling for a book
when published.

Do these remarks savor of " enthusiasm," or are they not
rather consistent with common sense? Time will show.
Meanwhile we leave it to our contemporaries to record, if they
prefer it, the minor improvements in Photography — to run the
changes eternally on the preservative syrups, the modifications
of waxed paper formulas, the vexed questions in optics, which a
week's application to the geometry of the subject would settle
at once and forever; and so on, ad nauseam. We are surprised
certainly, but not less pleased to find ourselves the sole advo-
cates of M. Petzval's new lens, and Mr. Pouncey's carbon
printing.

But before we quit this subject of carbon printing we must
mention that a few weeks since we received from Herr Pretsch
a print, supposed by him to be in carbon, and printed by him

in the year 1852 by the following process, as described in his
own words: —

" The print is executed in the ordinary way like another
positive, but instead of salt or ammonia, carbonate of soda is
used. If I recollect right I used at that time a fixing bath of
hyposulphite, to which was added a concentrated solution of
acetate of lead, till it became dull, well stirred up, and then
again added till at last it became clear."

With all due deference to Herr Pretsch, whom we respect
highly as an intelligent and enterprising photographer, we do
not believe this print to be a bo'tia fide carbon print, but on the
contrary a silver print, toned with sulphur and lead. Unfortu-
nately it was got possession of and either mislaid or destroyed
by a little rogue named Arthur Sutton, who lays hands upon
all such photographs as are not deemed pretty enough for his
papa's portfolio; and as this print was the only one of the kind
which Herr Pretsch possessed, the accident is much to be de-
plored.

F7-om the Liverpool Photographic Journql.

STEREOSCOPIC CAMERA, &c.

To the Editor of the Liverpool Photographic Journal;

Will you give me your advice under these circumstances: — I
am about to give orders for a stereoscopic camera, having, as you
recommended in page 65, No. 5, a number of separate dark slides.
My principal wish is to take views, and from the negatives to
print transparencies. This involves me in some difficulties, which
are these, —

1. If I obtain a camera with two lenses, can transparencies
be printed without first reversing the two pictures ? Suppose
the plate exposed in the camera with the collodion slide from
the lens instead of towards it, would that do away with the
necessity of transposing the pictures obtained ?

2. Although my main object is to take views, and therefore
as I am told that single lens are much superior for this purpose,
I feel almost inchned to get them, besides they are somewhat
lighter, and portability is a matter of consequence, however, as
I might occasionally like to take the stereoscopic portrait of a
friend, I wish to ask whether, if the portrait lenses were so
stopped down as to take pictures in the same time as the single
lenses, (I suppose with an equal stop they would take much more
quickly), the single lens has «?!?/ advantage. If there be the
slightest advantage on the part of the single lenses I should pre-
fer them, as my object is principally to take views.

3. What is the proper distance between the two lenses ? Is
the question yet fairly settled by scientific disputants whether
they should always be the same distance apart, no matter how
far off, or how near the objects to be taken, are from the
camera; and should the lenses be mounted with their axis
parallel or converging.

I am now exposing a stereoscopic plate prepared by Long's
process, giving a quarter of an hour to each picture, making
half an hour for every negative I take or spoil. This seems a
great deal, but I know from previous results it will not be at all
overdone. It seems very necessary then, that if a twin lens
camera will give as good results as when the two pictures are
taken singly, it should be used with a dry process.

I hope you will be able to get me a reply inserted in next
number. I intend starting on a tour very shortly, and want to
give orders for the camera as soon as possible.

You hint that you will soon have a paper on stereoscopic
cameras, — I hope it is ready. Stereoscopic photography seems
to be the great rage, though but little space is given to it in
any of the journals, and yet how many open questions connected
with it there are for discussion.

I remain, truly yours,

NEOPnYTE.

[In replying to enquiries we prefer to give our reasons with
the advice, but we fear that in the present instance we cannot
afford the necessary space, we will, however, endeavor to meet
your views. You say you have a number of dark slides — but

1S58.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

221

yon omit to state the size of the plates that they carry; are
they 51 by Sj, or 6f by 3|- ? Upou this will depend the pos-
sible distance of the lenses from one another, if two be employed.
1st. You can print transparencies from negatives taken by two
lenses without reversing the pictures, provided that you print
two at a time., and that the negatives are on the same sized
glasses as you use to priut upon. In this case if the plates be
65 inches long, and the width of each for stereograph 2f inches,
as is usually tlie case, the centres of the lenses should be four
inches apart thus —

n

^

n

Taking the negative with the collodion side from the lens would
give a final result of a picture as seen reversed in a mirror.
"With two lenses, whose centres are four inches apart, and the
col.odion towards the lenses, the negative taken would give a
printed positive, thus —

R

To print transparencies place two dry sensitive plates end to
end, thus —

and cover with the negative , thus-

R

protecting the two outer halves of the plate with black velvet;
expose to the light, then reverse the position of the two plates
on which you are printing replacing the negative and velvet as
before , again expose and the result will be, with the collodion
towards you, thus —

R

on each plate, which is what you require. We recommend you
to have a camera with two single lenses, placed four inches
apart, and by having a shifting front you can at any time re-
place them, either by one portrait combination to slide over
both segments or two combinations, as desired. The double
lens does not preclude the possibility of taking the two pictures
at any distance, by moving the camera, but, of coarse, when
this is resorted to, the two pictures cannot be taken at the same
moment. Read the remarks in our last leader. Portrait
lenses, stopped down to the sa7ne aperture as single ones, if of
the same focal distance, do not work any quicker. Your expo-
sure is enormous — in a good light from one to three minutes
ought to suffice; what you call Long^s process is only Dr.
Norris's spoiled. — Ed.]

From Photographic Koia,

SPOTS ON COLLODION POSITIVES.

To the Editor of the Photografhic Notes:

My Dear Sir, — I beg to submit to your opinion the accom-
panying glass photograph; it is as you may observe partially
covered with small black spots, resembling pin points; it is one
of many that have turned so after remaining apparently free
from defect for about two weeks. They then presented faint
spots which for some days became deeper, and having reached
the stage of the one I sent you, got no worse. I do not think
the cause is in the collodion, as all sorts give the same defect:
neither has the washing anything to do with it. I wash well;
and in order to obviate the spotting, have soaked the plates in

28*

water for hours together, after being fixed, but all of no avail.
I appeal to your scientific and practical knowledge to point out
the cause of this, and by doing so you will confer another boon
on an unfortunate

"Photographic Leopard."
[We have had many queries lately with respect to these spots
on collodion positives. To us they are not familiar, and we can
only offer conjectures as to their cause. Are they owing to sul-
pLiurous particles in the atmosphere of smoky towns, which
stick to the varnish; or to the film perhaps, while being dried
before the fire? Or are they owing to impurities in the wash-
ing water, or to undissolved particles in the developer, or ni-
trate bath, which stick to the film? We can only suggest to
filter all the solutions carefully, even to the washing water; or
to use distilled water for the final washing, and to dry and var-
nish the plate in a place free from smoke, and then to enclose it
at once in the case. — Ed. P. N.]

From the American Jourrial of Photography.

WHO MADE THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT ?

BY DR. JOHN W. DRAPER.

University, New York, May 3d, 1858.
Gentlemen:

Your letter of April 29th has only just come into
my hands, owing to my absence from the city for a few days.
In answering it I cannot refrain, in the first place, from ex-
pressing surprise that any question should arise respecting
priority in taking Photographic portraits. It will soon be
twenty years since I took the first one, and during that time I
have uniformly laid claim thereto in various publications, — in
my chemistry, which is commonly used as a text book in schools
and colleges, in the Philosophical Magazine, in lectures, and in
various other ways, — and I have not learnt that there was any
question upon the point. I will however, without any hesita-
tion, furnish you with such facts as you ask for, and shall also
be happy to give you any further explanations which your pro-
posed enquiries may appear to render necessary.

It will shorten very much what I have to say, if you will
refer to an article published in Mr. Snelling's Photographic
and Fine Art Journal for December, 1854, p. 381. It con-
tains a short statement of my early connection with Photogra-
phy. From it you will learn that for nearly ten years before
any one in America had turned attention to the subject, I had
been occupied with the chemical effects of light, and had pub-
lished in the Journal of the Franklin Institute and elsewhere, a
good deal in relation to it.

For years before either Daguerre or Talbot had published
anything on the subject, I had been in the habit of using sensi-
tive paper for investigations of this kind. It was thus as you
will find by looking into the Journal of the Franklin Institute
for 1831, that I had examined the impressions of the solar spec-
trum, proved the interference of the chemical rays, investigated
the action of moonlight and of flames, either common or colored,
red or green, and also the effects of yellow and blue solutions,
and other absorbing media. You will notice that in these ex-
periments I was using the preparations of bromine, about which
so much of late has been said. The difficulty at this time was
to fix the impressions. I had long known what had been done
in the copying of objects by Wedgewood and Davy, had amused
myself with repeating some of their experiments, and had even
unsuccessfully tried the use of hyposulphite of soda, having
learnt its properties in relation to the chloride of silver from
Herschel's experiments, but abandoned it because I found it
removed the black as well as the white parts. This want of
success was probably owing to my having used too strong a so-
lution, and kept the paper in it too long.

To come to the point of your more particular enquiry, — When
Mr. Talbot's experiments appeared in the spring of 1839, they,
of course, interested me greatly, as having been at work on the
action of light for so many years. I repeated what he pub-

523

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FIXE ART JOURNAL.

Julv,

lished aud varied it. This was whilst I was professor at Hamp-
den Sidney College in Virginia, and before anything had been
published by Daguerie. I tried to shorten the long time re-
quiretl for setting the picture of a house or a tree, by using
lenses of large aperture and short focus, and this was the germ
from which the art of portraiture eventually arose. I may men-
tion among such experiments that, not being able to get a lens
of aperture enough to suit me, I tried a reflecting mirror or
rather a reflecting telescope belonging to that college, and I
presume, is there still. It was a Gregorian one, the mirror
from four to five inches aperture and perhaps 3| feet focus. (I
speak from recollection not having seen it for nearly twenty
years.) My plan was to protect the small mirror from injury
by putting in front of it a piece of a cigar box the size of a
cent, on which the bromine sensitive paper was fastened. I ex-
pected to be able to focus by looking through the hole in the
great mirror aud moving the little one by hand, but on trial
found it unmanageable aud not answering so well as the com-
mon refracting camera. Nevertheless I could get images of
any brightly illuminated object, though too large and too faint.
There was no difliculty in getting the outline of a part of a per-
son standing against a window, but then it was a silhouette and
not a portrait, like those spoken of in Mr. Talbot's paper.

It was during ray repetitions of Mr. Talbot's experiments that
I recognized the practical value of the experiments I had made
in 1835, and published in 1831 respecting the chemical focus of
a non-achromatic lens, and saw that the camera must be short-
ened in order to obtain a sharp picture. It is the experiment
of passing a cone of light through a known aperture on sensitive
paper. It was from considering the difSculty of getting an im-
pression from colored surfaces as red or green, that I saw the
necessity of enlarging the aperture of the lens, and diminishing
its focus, so as to have the image as bright as possible; for it
was plain that in no other way landscapes could be taken or
silhouettes replaced by portraits. And when I had failed alto-
gether in these particulars, I knew it was owing to insufficient
sensitiveness in the bromine paper, and waited anxiously for the
divulging on Haguerre's process, respecting which statements
were beginning to be made iu the newspapers.

The first that I knew of the particulars of Daguerre's process
v/as the publication of it in the London Literary Gazette, which
contained Arago's report of the meeting of the Academy of
Sciences on Aug. 19 th, and this I saw at the time of its arrival
in New York. I do not recollect the date, but it strikes me it
must have been in September, However, it would be very easy
to ascertain by looking in the newspapers of that time. I
bought at once some of the common silver-plated copper, and
next day tried Daguerre's process. I believe I was at that mo-
ment the only person in America who had any practical skill in
experiments with light, but then I had had ten years' experi-
ence in such matters. Those of you who know the failures and
disappointments incident to photographic experiments, can ap-
preciate thoroughly the value of such a schooling, in a delicate
operation like Daguerre's. I succeeded with no other difficulty
than the imperfection of the silverplating in copying brick build-
ings, a church, and other objects seen from my laboratory win-
dows.

I now returned to the attempts at portraiture, and upon the
principles I had already ascertained before the publication of
Dagucrre, resorted to a lens five inches in diameter and seven
inches focus, which I still have. I dusted the face of the sitter
with flour and pushed the back of the camera to the violet
focus. At this time I did not understand well the manner of
illuminating the object, and making the trial in a room succeed-
ed, however, in getting an impression, but observing that the
dark parts of the clothing impressed themselves, I saw it was
altogether unnecessary to whiten the face, and on trial found
that the forehead and cheeks and chin on which the light fell
most favorably, would come out first. By increasing the illu-
mination and prolonging the time I could get the whole counte-
nance. But as you will gather from the size of the lens I used,
though it was a combination of a pair of couvexes, nothing like
a good picture was possible, so I exchanged it for one of four

inches aperture and fourteen inches focus. As improveraen t
went on from day to day, I found that a common spectacle glas s
would answer if the sitter was in the open air, and with such a
one fastened into a cigar box I obtained many proofs; but since
it was necessary with such an aperture to use so much light, all
the proofs I had obtained were defective about the eyes.

At this stage the problem of portraiture must be considered
as solved. It had become a mere question of obtaining a good
plating. As respects the latter, I bad for some time used a
piece of pure sheet silver, which answered perfectly while it
lasted, but with so often heating it on the spirit lamp it became
crystalline, and broke to pieces.

About this time I became acquainted with Prof. Morse, and
we subsequently had a building on the top of the University in
.which we took many portraits, at first with my four inch lens,
and then with a French achromatic and French plates which we
imported. We also gave instruction to a number of the earlier
artists. I could relate to you many incidents of our conjoint
trials, disappointments, and eventual success, which would
doubtless interest you, but they are perhaps what you are not
looking for now.

In March, 1840, I sent a note to the editors of the London
and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine, mentioning my success
iu solving the problem of portraiture, and in September the
same year published a detailed account of the whole operation.
I had sent to Europe, in the meantime, specimens, and had re-
ceived letters of acknowledgment.

In 1840 I was informed that Mr. Wolcott had succeeded in
making an elliptical mirror of seven inches aperture and fifteen
or eighteen inches focus, and had obtained portraits with it. I
alleged against it the limited size of the plate that could be
worked, the impossibility of preventing its being stained in an
open camera, its unfavorable position in front of the mirror,
though admitting its advantage in correcting the lateral inver-
sion of the image. But some years subsequently, one of his in-
struments coming into my possession, I found that I had been
altogether misinformed as to his success in producing an ellipti-
cal mirror. It was only bpherical, and was not as good as the
telescope mirror I had myself used and rejected in making sil-
houettes. I do not think that any of those instruments are now
employed, aud believe that in the present state of mechanical
art, even at this day, no one can grind and polish a piece of
metal of such dimensions, to that figure, as was then asserted.

From what I have said you will therefore gather that my
connection with portraiture dates back to the summer before
the publication of Daguerre's process, and that both as respects
the use of mirrors and lenses, that I met with various partial
successes, but that within a day or two after the Daguerreotype
was made knowu here by the London Literary Gazette, I had
accomplished the object. If there is any question of priority
it must be reduced to a few hours, and when your inquiry comes
to that, I think you will find a reliable guide in ascertaining
whether there was any one in the United States k;iown, by
the publications he had before that time put forth, to have the
necessary practical skill in these manipulations to bring such a
delicate operation as Daguerre's to a successful result without
hesitation, and to apply it in a case in which Daguerre himself
had failed.

Photographic portraiture, as we understand it, implies the
use ©f a lens of large aperture and short focus, it implies a know-
ledge of the correction for the chemical focus, and perhaps the
use of bromine. All these things I knew before the name of
Daguerre was mentioned on this side of the Atlantic, having
been occupied with experiments on the chemical action of light
for ten years. How any doubt can be now entertained as to
who took the first portrait, passes my comprehension.

Yours truly,

J. W. Draper.
Messrs. Stetson, Cohen, Seely,

Committee of Mechanics' Club.

Compound your Photographic Chemicals carefully.

Personal v^ Qlrt Intelligence.

— As we predicted at their introduction, our photograpliic
artists are becoming heartily sick of anibrotypes and the ambro-
type business. The reasons for this are obvious; as pictures they
are abortions, and nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every
thousand takeu in the United States are montrosities. The
only uniformly good ambrotypes we have ever seen are takeu
by Mr. Judson, of Newark, N. J. Occasionally we have seen
fine portraits of this style taken by other artists, but they have
been very few. The public are becoming disgusted with them
for their worthlessness, as mementos of departed or absent
friends or relatives. This is because the cheapness at which
they are sold induces nine-tenths of the operators to slight them
in every way possible, consequetly in a very few months, and in
some cases days, they either fade, the film peels off the glass,
or the varnish becomes yellow. Were they not, at best, poor
apologies for pictures, these last considerations will soon drive
them out of existence and the daguerreotype will again assume
that rank in the photographic art from which it was so unjustly
thrust. We have always viewed the introduction of the ambro-
type and the expulsion of the daguerreotype with disgust, and
expressed such sentiments freely, wondering how any one of
taste and refinement, could possibly give way to the adoption of
the first at the expense, or in preference to the last, even on
the ground of its being the '^latest discovery," and as in all last
discoveries, or newest articles, run after them like a flock of
sheep following the bell-wether; or as a pen full of swine each
thrusts his nose into the hot swill regardless of the burnt snouts
of bis predecessors. This is not very refined language to be
used in writing of art matters, but this peculiar subject is
worthy of no other. To discard the richness, softness, delicacy
of detail, naturalness and roundness of figure, with all the mi-
nutely exquisite gradations of light and shade which are the
characteristics of the daguerreotype and of the daguerreotype
only, for the harsh outline, rough exterior, and abruptness of
shading of the ambrotype, speaks, certainly, very unfavorably
of the taste and judgment of our people. Undoubtedly, if the
dear public generally knew that the reasons why a certain class
of operators are so strenuous in urging the ambrotype upon
them, are simply because of the ease with which they are multi-
plied, and their almost costlessness compared with the daguer-
reotype, they, perhaps, would not have held them in such high
estimation as long as they have. On the other hand, if all our
first class operators had followed the example given by Mr.
Gurney and Mr. Lawrence, of New York, and refused to intro-
duce these abortions, called ambrotypes, into their galleries, and
adhered to the daguerreotype for all small pictures, they would
not now be mourning in sack cloth and ashes,their departed glory
and their active profits. Instead of falling into the ranks of the
abortionists, and putting forth their energies in endeavoring to
make a bad thing passable, they had devoted the same labor to
the improvement of the daguerreotype and striven to correct the
onlydefect— that of the reflecting surface — their bumps of common
sense (if they have such — ask Fowlers and Wells), would have
been more noteworthy. We, however, take consolation in the
conviction that one year more will witness the entire resurrec-
tion 0 fthe daguerreotype, and the final burial of the ambrotype.

We have another cause for surprise in the continuance of the
ambrotype — leaving the daguerreotype out of the question —
after the introduction of the mlainottj^e, which, when skiHfully
made, is in most respects quite equal to the daguerreotype, while
the facility of manipulation, as improved by Mr. Waldach, is
not inferior to the ambrotype. The adaptation of these pic-
tures to small sizes, for lockets, rings, and broaches, should also
commend them favorably to the notice of both artists and the
public. The complaints that have been made in regard to me-
lainotype pictures among artists are unjust. They are readily
avoided by care in fixing and in varnishing. A thorough wash-
ing in the first instance, and ithe use of the genuine diamond
varnish in the second, will satisfy any unbiased artist that the
fault has been entirely with himself. Then those who, like ourself,
cannot avoid disliking the disagreeable glare reflected from the

polished surface of the daguerreotype picture, while they at the
same time deplore it, should by all means give preference to the
melainotype over the ambrotype. It possesses all the boldness
of the daguerreotype, as well as the fineness of detail, and its
want of the exquisite softness and richness of the latter, is com-
pensated by its perfect visibility from every angle of view. To
institute comparisons, we should call the daguerreotype the
counterpart of a masterly executed pencil drawing; the me-
lainotype that of the steel engraving, and the ambrotype that of
the most ordinary style of lithography; and yet we do lithog-
raphy an injustice by the comparison, for we should certainty
prefer an ordinary lithograph of the p-esent day to an ambro-
type.

In these remarks, we must be understood as speaking of
photography as applicable to small pictures. For all sizes over
the 2-3 we shall always give decided i^eference to the paper pic-
tures, and such gems as are now made all over "the United
States, speak in volumes for the process over all others. Too
much cannot be said in praise of the prints that came under our
editorial notice last month, and those for this month are, in the
main, equally worthy of the highest regard.

--- Mr. H. Lazier of Syracuse, N. Y., has sent us seven por-
traits that are perfect gems. We reget, that after so many re-
quests made by us to have the name written on each picture
in order that we might individualize them, and criticise under-
standingly, in this case, as in all others, it has been neglected . We
must therefore, we can only say, generallize. In every point
constituting high photographic art, as applied to portraiture,
these pictures excel. The group, the full length lady, and two
other heads have never been surpassed, either by the' most deli-
cate touches of the pencil, or by the most skillful photogra-
pher of this or any other country. They are mezzotint; but
mezzotint elaborated and perfected. The steel plate never
produced such exquisite points of excellence in boldness, deli-
cacy, deep shade and high lights as are brought out in these
pictures. We sincerely hope Mr. Lazier is fully appreciated
in Syracuse. No field is too large for his genius. It would be
the most depraved sacrilege to retouch such photographs as he
has sent us. Mr. Gaudin of Paris, lately paid our photogra-
phers a high compliment, in a conversation with a friend of ours,
who was on a visit to France. He remarked, that the old
world could not produce such photographic portraits as came
from America. " America," said he, " is far in advance of
every other country in i^hotography;" yet he had never seen
anything equal to these pictures of Mr. Lazier.

— Mr. a. Bisbee, of Columbus, Ohio, has sent us two very
excellent portraits which will compare favorably with the
work of our eastern artists.

— Mr. J. H. FiTZGiBBON has sent us several very fine views
of South American architecture. We were not aware until we
received these pictures, that our old friend had been so far away
from home, and we are highly pleased to receive these tokens of
his regard, for they are really and particularly valuable pro-
ductions. Apart from the valuable information they convey as
to the style of architecture adopted by the discoverers of the
South American continent, in the fourteenth and fifteenth cen-
turies, and the classical and correct taste, and the munificence
displayed in the construction of their public buildings, the
photographs are highly creditable to Mr. Fitzgibbon's skill as
an artist. Some of them are equal to the best French land-
scapes. When we say this, our readers will understand the full
meaning of the remark better, for our stating that it is extreme-
ly difficult to obtain photographs in the section of country where
these pictures were obtained, on account of the yellow hazy at-
mosphere which constantly pervades.

— We take the liberty of inserting the following letter — al-
though not written for publication— as it contains matter inter-
esting to our readers:

MiLWADKJE, May, 1858.
H. H. S-VELLiNG — Dear -Si?-— The June number of the Art
Journal will I hope, tell us who "Albert Smith, Esq.," is.
Editor, Poet, Divine, Artist? Perhaps not to know him "ax-

224

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

July,

11

p;ues oneself unknown," but, for the life of me, I cannot now
guess who he is. He is certainly a splendid looking gentleman.

I am glad to see my old friend and instructor, M. A. Root,
taking right ground in the right direction, as he generally does.
Having heard similar sentiments from his lips in 1846,1 know
they are no new thoughts with him. There is another gentleman
in Philadelphia who, I wish, could be induced to give his photo-
graphic brethren the benefit of his experiments and experience.
"Who can say how much our beautiful Art would be advanced
if artists like him had imitated the little wren, who cheerfully
gives up the best she has in the way of song , despite the cut-
ting blasts of stormy weather. The gentleman referred to
seems to me to be a really scientific operator, and did not mo-
desty prevent, could greatly benefit our fraternity by an occa-
sional contribution to your Journal. An -amateur here has just
invented, and I hope will patent, a most ingenious apparatus
for using wet collodion plates in the open air. His plate holder
fits, light-tight, upon the moveable frame of a box holding six
plates, each in a separate water-tight apartment. The slides
are drawn and the plate takes its position in the plate-holder;
the slides return to their places, and the plate is ready for the
camera. It is then exposed and returned to the water tank.
The time required to take the plate from the tank, place it in
the camera box, and return it to the water box again, does not
exceed one minute. His stereoscopic camera box — also his own
invention — is a beautiful thing. Both pictures are taken with
one tube and lens, on one plate, in the proper position for ex-
hibiting in ihe stereoscope, which, by a new and exceedingly
simple method of adjustment, enables any one to instantly see
the pictures in relief. In fact, it is impossible to see more
than one picture, and that in beautiful relief. His transparent
stereoscopic pictures, printed on wet collodion plates, from col-
lodion negatives, are very line. Merit is proverbially modest,
or I should give the gentleman's name — but should any one
wish to avail themselves of this invention, any communication
forwarded to me will be handed to him. I send you some views
which I have taken this spring, by Long's Dry Collodion Pro-
cess. Also a "Boot-Black," the negative of which you will see
I had the misfortune to break.

Hoping the reading of this will not tire you,

I am, yours truly,

H. S. Brown.

As to who Ralph Smith is we are as much in the dark as our
correspondent. It is as difficult to get the contributors of our
negatives to tell who and what they are as to find hen's teeth.
We have never received the photographs mentioned. Let your
friend patent his inventions, and send us drawings and descrip-
tions for the Journal.

— Mr. Gebhakd called upon us to-day and showed us some
negatives taken by a camera, the lenses of which were made by
him after M. Petzval's calculations, and which have created so
much commotion in the photographic world of late. These ne-
gatives were very line, on plates ten by twelve inches, and pro-
duced by an exposure of five seconds. The nearest object in
the view was twenty feet, the farthest was two miles, and yet
equal sharpness and detail were evident throughout the whole
picture. The others were microscopic, and were equally excel-
lent.

— We hear of another Photographic Society having been
established in St. Louis, Mo., and we have been promised re-
ports of its proceedings for the Journal. We sincerely hope it
may prosper, and become a fruitful source of information. St.
Louis has the material for effecting a vast amount of good to
the photographic art, if properly applied.

Mk. Rogers, of Pittsburgh, Pa., will find his letter ans-
wered in our leader of this mouth.

— Mu. Sekly has commenced a new volume of his "Ameri-
can Journal of I'holography " greatly improved in appearance,
although reduced somewhat iu size. It is the design of Mr.
Seely to make his journal exclusively American; We sincere-
ly hope he may be able to succeed. The number before us
(June 1st) contains several original articles of interest. We
copy ono in our present issue, although wc doubt the propriety

of publishing matter in advance which is intended to make part
of the report of a committee of investigation. As it has been
published, however, we consider it no impropriety to copy it;
but we must protest against this principle of taking advantage
of position to forestall contemporaries. It is not fair, yet we
exhonorate friend Seely from intentional wrong, as he is yet
young in the publication business.

— There are many valuable papers in our present issue.
The opening article does not give us anything decidedly new,
although it points out various paths to distinction in photogra-
phy in the right way. The Jottings of Mr. Gutsch are highly
interesting, and the controversy between Professor Petzval
and Mr. Voigtlander is not only entertaining, but highly in-
structive. We are informed by Mr. Gerhard that Prof. Petz-
val is decidedly in the right, and that Mr. Voigtlander has
acted far from honorable towards the Professor. These per-
sonal matters, however, are of little moment to the great body of
photographers, but the events to which the discovery, claimed
by both gentlemen, tend, are of the greatest importance to
every one engaged in the art. We have an excellent paper by
Mr. Hardwieh, which will command the attention of ail who
desire to excel in the art. Mr. Law's Notes on Difficulties will
assist many who occasionally "get into a fog." Mr. Burnett's
article should certainly be carefully read and investigated. Im-
portant results must eventually arise from the processes de-
scribed. " Stereomo7ioscope" is highly interesting, while the few
original articles should be perused with care. Several other ar-
ticles make up the whole, and treat upon subjects which must
always be not only interesting, but instructive to the reader.

— We see that the solar camera is highly spoken of by the
English Journals, which declare it the best instrument for the
purpose of enlarging yet introduced. We are likely to have
considerable controversy on this subject, as others claim equal
excellence for the instruments they have adapted to the purpose.
We say controversy, but although our present predilections are
in favor of the Woodward solar camera, we shall try others, if
loaned to us for the purpose, and give our unbiased opinion ' iu
regard to the working of each.

— We regret to inform our subscribers that we are com-
pelled to issue this number of the Journal without illustrations
for the want of paper. All our readers are aware that paper
has been almost impossible to get for the last six months, and
the American mill, upon which we relied to supply us, having
failed to do so, we are placed in the same category with the
rest. We shall, however, give four pictures in our next, as we
shall have paper in a day or two, and our facilities for printing
are now equal to almost any quanity daily,

— Mr. L. H. Bradford has sent us a Photo-lithographic
stereoscopic view, which evinces still further progress in this
process, and is exceedingly fine.

— Mr. Churton, of this city, has invented an admirable
stereoscopic camera, in which entire manipulation of the plate
can be carried on, and yet the whole affair can be comfortably
carried under the arm. AVe hope he will furnish us with an il-
lustrated description of it for our Journal. Inventors in this
country should follow the example of Europeans in this respect
for their own as well as others' benefit.

— Mr. J. B. Hall has opened a photographic gallery at
No. 283 Fulton St., Brooklyn, L. I. He has repurchased the
entire patent of the Huilotype, and greatly improved the process,
rendering it more easy and the coloring more brilliant.

— Messrs. Vance & Bradley have each sent us a fine nega-
tive portrait, wiiich we shall issue in our August and September
numbers. We have also received a very fine negative from E.
T. AVniTNEY of Rochester, representing the scene of the Little's
murder, with which we shall illustrate our August number.

— We dislike to be obliged to call on our subscribers
through the columns of our Journal, for the amounts of sub-
scription due us, but so many are in arrears that we are com-
pelled to do so. We have to pay cash for every item of expense
on the Journal, and it is absolutely necessary that our patrons
pay up promptly. Where so many are behind hand, it makes
the matter a serious one with us.

1858,

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

225

From the Liverpool PhotograpMc Journal.

MANCHESTER PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.

i

E now give the conclusion of the report
of the proceedings of the iibove Society
at their meeting on the 5th ult., whicii
press of matter prevented us from-in-
sertiug in our last number.

Mr. Wii.uAM AcKr.AXD, manager for
Messrs. Home andThornthwaite, New-
gate Street, London, thought the sug-
"•estion a.s to the stop one of the best
he had heard for a long time, and in-
tended taking the earliest opportunity
of putting it iuto practice. Certainly
photographers wished to prevent their
skies being solarized. By the ordinary
plan so much time has to be allowed for the foreground
that the sky necessarily suffers, but with this con-
trivance the evil can be obviated. Mr. Ackland pro-
ceeded to describe the lens recently invented by Profes-
sor Petzval, of Vienna. Some parties had endeavored
to prove that this gentleman was not the original in-
ventor of the new lens, but there was not the slightest doubt of
the fact; he, for one, must give him the credit of it. This form
of lens is applicable only for landscapes, not for portraiture
generally, that is, in towns or in ordinary glass houses. It
might also be used to advantage for copying. Mr. Ackland
described its construction which is very peculiar, there being
three convex and five concave surfaces; the effect is to elongate
the lateral rays and thus produce a flat image. The light col-
lected by this lens reduces the time necessary for taking a pic-
ture by one-fifth. Mr. Ackland exhibited a specimen fa news-
paper broadside, very sharp and well-defined), taken by it, and
regretted that a fire on their premises had destroyed others. In
copying, these lenses are said to be superior to any before used,
and require only about half the time of exposure which an ordi-
nary landscape lens does. Mr. Read had remarked that M.
Petzval called them "caloscopic" lenses; erroneously however,
as this distinctive name was given by Messrs. Home and
Thornthwaite.

The Chairman said they were much obliged to Mr. Ackland
for his explanation of the new lens, with which many then
present were not acquainted before.

Mr. Ackland stated that the shorter the focus of the lens
employed the sharper will two objects situated at different dis-
tances from it be in the picture; also that it is a question not
definitely settled as to the best focal length for a length for a
lens to be employed to produce a picture of any given size.
One of almost any focal length could be used, but we want ar-
tistic photographs; hence the question arises — providing we
can get lenses of different foci to cover our ground glass, which
is most aavantageous with regard to artistic effect ? It had
been stated on very good authority in Loudon, within the last
few days, that a lens which produces a picture at an angle of
forty degrees, is about the best that can be used, and this ac-
cords with bis (the speaker's) own experience. Petzval's lenses
take pictures at an angle of 41 degrees, so that by them pic-
tures are taken moderately sharp all over, thus producing very
artistic photographs. We have hitherto been accustomed to
use lenses of too long foci, those of fourteen inches focus, and
not more than 30 degrees, being generally employed to produce
a picture nine inches by seven inches.

Mr. Ackland then introduced to the company a compact and
in"-enious stereoscopic camera that he had recently used in pre-
ference to the field box, which contained eight plates in eight
separate backs, and weighed, with the eight plates, only six and
a half pounds! He showed the mechanism of the camera,
which is adapted for avoiding delay, mistakes of forgetfulness,

injury, &c. . t • ,r

The Chairman remarked that there was a prejudice m Man-

VOL. XI. NO. VIII. *^

Chester against taking the pictures twice, the sitters being apt
to move.

Another Member thought Mr. Ackland would not find many
photographers using single lens stereoscopic cameras.

Mr. Ackland said that in London the feeling wns the reverse.

Mr. Read said he was quite sure that they would all accord
Mr. Ackland a very hearty vote of thanks for his interesting
information regarding M. Petzval's lens, and also for the very
ingenious and beautiful camera he had exhibited. He had no
doubt of the correctness of what Mr. Acklaud had said in favor
of the lens, and they owed him their thanks.

Mr. Ackland remarked further upon the relative positions of
MM. Voigtlander and Petzval, and the peculiar feeling which
the latter entertained towards the pliotographic public. The
new lens, he said, was first introduced to the English public by
M. Pretsch, in a paper read before the Loudon Photographic
Society, in which he told them that such a lens had been made
under M. Petzval's directions. He (Mr. Ackland) saw suffi-
cient at once to convince hiin that there was something very
good in the lenses, and on consulting with Messrs. Home and
Thornthwaite, he was commissioned to proceed to Vienna to
obtain all the information possible. When he arrived he found
that M. Petzval had made a prior business arrangement with
M. Dietzler, and would not afford any information as to the
theoretical principles upon which the new lens is constructed.
Mr. Ackland, therefore, purchased one of M. Dietzler, and on
examining it found it to be twenty-six inches focus to take a
picture fifteen inches by twelve inches. Such a lens for photo-
graphic purposes would be, in his opinion, perfectly useless; so
that, in fact, the lens had but very little improvement in it.
The principles were there but they were not fully carried out.
He (Mr. Ackland), therefore, determined to ascertain if it were
not possible to materially shorten the focus and yet cover the
same field. Then came the curious discovery that as he de-
creased the focus he increased the sharpness. He entered into
the mathematical construction of it rather deeply, and succeeded
in eliminating great principles. He thought he had discovered
the princii)le upon which Petzval based his calculations; still
he was not in a position to say that the lenses he had laid before
them were made by any assistance he received from M. Petzval,
who, having made a bargain, of course would not have been
justified in departing from it; but it was to be regretted that
he had confined it exclusively to one maker.

Mr. Ackland, at the desire of the meeting, promised to for-
ward a specimen produced by this lens, and offered to send a
lens to be tested by the Society, which offer elicited applause,
and the Chairman said a committee should be appointed to test
it and make a report.

The Chairman drew attention to another matter, which he
said was becoming serious, namely, the fact that people were
continually re-discovering inventions, so that it became quite a
bore. He found that no less than four people had claimed to
have invented the form of stereoscope made with whole lenses.
Now here was a stereoscopic camera made with whole lens by
Mr. J. B. Dancer, optician, of Manchester, in 1853, and used by
him, along with Mr. Williamson, Mr. Grundy, and other mem-
bers of their Society, both as a camera and as a stereoscope.
He thought that this ought to be put on record, for, he believed,
that M. Claudet patented the principle in 1854, and one or two
other persons had patented it since. He also stated the con-
stant use, during the past four or five years, of stereoscopic
transparencies as slides in the magic lanthorn, about which peo-
ple were constantly enquiring, as if it were a novelty, and there
was some difficulty to be overcome. The thing was getting
quite absurd ; people were re-discovering processes as if they had
never read the journals.

One other subject was mentioned by the Chairman. He
said that members would remember that the other evening they
had some photographic specimens on the table with a light line
round the trees and buildings, giving a very curious effect or
sort of halo. This phenomenon was remarked upon in the
journals. He Was speaking to Mr. Dancer upon the subject,
and he had written to him as follows: —

226

THE PnOTOGRAPniC AND PINE ART JOURNAL.

AiiKiist,

"Those photographers who have had much experience in
printing from glass negatives, will donbtlcss have noticed in
some paper positives that dark objects, such as trees, buildings,
rocks, &c., are sometimes surrounded with a light margin.
This is seen most distinctly with a bright sky for a backgronud.
If the negatives of such pictures be examined, it will be appa-
rent fgenerally) that the plates have been over-exposed in the
camera, a corresponding dark line being visible around the
trees, &c., &c. The cause of this appearance, in my humble
opinion, has a very intimate relation with molecular disturbance
(caused by the light) on the sensitive surface of the prepared
plate. Those who have experimented much in electro-metal-
lurgy will have noticed the thickened deposits which frequently
occur at the edges of the reduced metal, when the conducting
surface suddenly breaks off. Sometimes cracks occur, interrupt-
ing the conducting medium, and then a complete wall of metal
will form itself on each side of the crack. These marginal effects
of molecular arrangement appear to be analogous to those ex-
hibited by magnetic force. Had time permitted I could have
sent you several illustrations, but perhaps I may refer to them
at some future period. The phenomenon in question has been
noticed in some of the photographic journals, and one gentle-
man has explained the cause by supposing an interference ex-
erted by the heated air surrounding the objects. This latter
explanation does not appear to account for all cases, as the same
appearance can be produced in a picture taken from an engrav-
ing; possibly an efi'ect may be produced by some lenses being
imperfectly corrected for their chromatic aberrations; in this
case the violet rays would no doubt exert some influence on the
outlines of objects Perhaps some remarks may be elicited by
discussion, ancl I regret not being able to come and hear them."

The Chaikman thought that Mr. Maun had some specimens
with him.

The negatives were accordingly exhibited to the meeting.

A Member remarked that as in these pictures the sky was
nearly gone, the trees had robbed some of the light of the adja-
cent parts.

The Chairman : But why should they rob it ?

Mr. AcKLAND said he had noticed the phenomenon once, and
he thought it was due to the lens.

Mr. Reed thought that was the principal cause.

The CnAiRHAN: Not in this case; because Mr, Mann has dif-
ferent sized lens and cameras.

The Chairiian exhibited an ingenious contrivance for carry-
ing in the dark two or three plates in small compass. It was
made by a designer in the employ of their firm. The ingenuity
of the contrivance elicited admiration from the members.

The hour of separation having arrived,

Mr. CoTTAjr, the Secretary, stated that he should be obliged
to postpone bringing under notice some interesting views or
diagrams showing the relative heat of the suu, as measured
a mechanical contrivance.

have taken before without the said wash. From several expe-
riments I should say that the latter process was from six to

eight times more sensitive than Long's process.

J. TV. Bull.

^y

From Fhotographic Notes.

MR. FOTHERGILL'S PROCESS.

To the Editor of riiotogra'phic Notes:

Dear Sir, — Allow me to bear my testimony in favor of the
Dry Collodion Process, published in the Times, by Mr. Pother-
gill. It seems to me in point of sensitiveness to hold a middle
place between Collodio-Albumen and Norrls's gelatine, but I
have not myself obtained, by any dry process, such soft and
pleasiog pictures as by this of Mr. Fothergill's. The plates so
prepared develop beautifully under gallic acid and acetate of
lead, as recommended lately in your Notes. I strengthen the
picture sometimes with pyro-gallic and citric acid when the de
tails are well ont. I for one feel much obliged to Mr. Pother^
gill. As to collodio-albumen I find Mr. Ackland's suggestion
of washing the collodion film in a weak solution of iodide of po-
tass a very great improvement, the plates that have been so
treated seem to develop with much more certainty, and the
shadows arc clearer than in almost any of the pictures that I

From the London Art Journal.

ARCHITECTURAL rilOTOGRArHIC ASSOCIATION.

The photographs selected by the committee for distribution
amongst the subscribers to this most excellent association, are
now exhibited in the Suffolk Street Galleries, wiih the Archi-
tectural Exhibition. This is a judicious arrangement in itself,
and its good effect is considerably enhanced by the high char-
acter of the photographs. On the occasion of the opening con-
versazione of the Architectural Exhibition, the screens and
portfolios, upon and within which the photographs are either
displayed or placed for examination, were covered and closed,
with the view to a special conversazione of the Architectural
Photographic Association, which took place under the always
agreeable and effective presidency of Professor Cockerell, R.A.,
on the evening of Thursday, January 1th. The rooms were
well filled, and great interest was shown in the photographs,
which then for the first time were submitted to the general
body of the subscribers. So careful have the committee been
to vary the subjects that they have chosen, as well as to pro-
cure photographs of different sizes, that every subscriber must
be able, with the utmost facility, to select for himself such speci-
mens as will prove peculiarly acceptable to him. The com-
mittee have also faithfully redeemed their pledge, that none but
works of the highest excellence would be placed by them before
the subscribers. The special adaptability of photography to
the production of architectural pictures is demonstrated in a re-
markable manner by this collection ; and at the same time, the
skilful handling of the artists employed, is no less satisfactorily
made known. The only want is interior views. Groups of de-
tails, also, to a large scale, will, we trust, in future collections
be found to occupy prominent positions.

The present collection comprises views from Constantinople,
Athens, Florence, Pisa, Sienna, Lucca, and the Roman States;
from Burgos, Seville, and other places in Spain ; from
Paris, Strasburg, Rouen, Chartres, Rheims, Lou vain, Bourges,
Heidelberg, and Ghent ; from the cathedrals of Lincoln,
Canterbury, Ely, York, and Peterborough; with some mis-
cellaneous views from Malta, Switzerland, North Wales, Scot-
land, Yorkshire, and other places. Amongst the finest speci-
mens are (Nos. 171 and 112 in the catalogue) small views of
the Baptistry at Canterbury; No. 146, the central western
doorway of Lincoln, which shows with truly graphic exactness
the two eras of the Norman work of Bishops Remigius and
Alexander; Nos. 141 and 144, which severally represent parts
of the west fronts of the cathedrals of Ely and York ; No.
104, the principal doorway of Rheims, with No. 91, the statues
in the north door of the same cathedral; No. 92, doorway of
Berne Cathedral, a photograph distinguished by the most ex-
quisite treatment of light and shade; No. 95, the fine old Ho-
tel de Ville at Ghent, and No. 38, the principal doorway cf
the Cathedral of Orvieto. All the works of the Florentine
photographers, the Alinari, are indeed worthy of high com-
mendation; these works include many fine examples of sculp-
ture.

There is one point connected with these photographs that de-
mands particular notice, which is the generally judicious selec-
tion of the points of view from which the pictures have been
taken. Too much thought and carefulness cannot be bestowed
on determining the spot, upon which the photographer is to con-
duct his operations; and it is evident that the committee of the
association have thought seriously upon this subject. We hope
to find that in their future productions the committee may be
even more successful than they have been already in this most
important particular. We venture also to repeat the expres-
sion of our conviction that, in future collections, it will tend in
a great measure to promote the best interests of architecture,
if each more important general view of any great building, or of

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

22T

any part of a great building-, be attendedby a series of views of de-
tails, given on a scale sufficiently large to exhibit their details
with all that wonderful minuteness and precision which are the
characteristics of photography.

It must not be forgotten that, in addition to supplying their
subscribers with copies of certain photographs to be selected by
themselves, the committee of this association are forming a
grand collection of architectural photographs, which must
speedily exercise a powerful influence upon the Art-education of
all persons, who either practise architecture as a profession, or
take an interest in it as a great and noble art. The photo-
graphs for each year's distribution, are also each year's contri-
bution to national collections of works of this class. A few
years may be expected to produce a really magnificent assem-
blage of these most beautiful, most interesting, aud instructive
pictures. And every fresh subscriber strengthens the hands of
the committee for carrying on their work of thus forming,
throughout the empire, national galleries of architectural art.
It is to be hoped that this consideration, taken in connection
with the great advantages offered to subscribers in the matter
of their own collections, will very speedily cause the list of sub-
scribers to swell to as many thousands as it now numbers hun-
dreds: and that it will comprehend the names of the architects
and lovers of architecture of America, and the continent of
Europe, as well as those of our own country and her colonies.

From Photographic Notes.

ON THE TREATMENT OP OLD NITRATE BATHS.
To the Editor of Photographic Notes:

Sir,— In August, 1857, after six months of absence, I found
my sensitizing bath of a deep brown color. I tried kaolin and
filtering, lut in vain. I put it by as useless, (says about 40
ozs., and call this hath A). I then converted an old nitrate
bath which had been used for over twelve months, into a sensi-
tizing bath (say 40 or 50 ozs.) I used it continually for about
five months, cleansing it from time to time with kaolin (call this
hath B). As this bath had originally been only a 30-grain bath
(reduced by the iodide of potassium, when mixing it), it must
have been very weak.

Having used a large portion of this bath, I mixed the disco-
lored bath A with the remains of it, and used kaolin: the result
was a PEEFECTLY CLEAR BATH, whJch actcd Well, (call this mixed
bath C). I took about 14 ozs of C, and added to it 6 ozs. of
a 5-grain solution of nitrate of silver. Supposing C not to con-
tain more than 18 grs. of nitrate per oz., this new bath (D),
would contain under 26 grains per ounce. I divided a sheet of
Sanford's albumenized paper into two parts.

I nitrated one in bath C and the other in bath D; the
same time was given to both, they were dried together; a slip
of each portion was placed on the same plate; they were ex-
posed for the same length of time aud toned together. This
was repeated.

I send you the results. It would not be easy to distinguish
which had been floated on the stronger solution; which on the
weaker.

I began these experiments with a bath which had been disco-
lored (I know not how), and which had been laid by for over a
year, I forget the number of your journal in which I mentioned
this. I drew the conclusion that time is, to a certain extent,
an equivalent for strength, in nitrate of silver in sensitizing. I
believe that I am right.

I now find that a discolored nitrate bath, though at first in-
curable hy kaolin, if put aside for some months, and then clean-
sed by kaolin, may be made a most effective sensitive bath. I
do not attempt to account for the chemical changes which must
have taken place. All I know is that a bath which kaolin
failed to cleanse, was, after lying by for five months, perfectly
cleansed by kaolin. Nor was the cleansing result of mixture
with the old clean bath; for before mixing the two solutions, I
tried a small portion of A with kaolin, aud only when the li-
quid became clear did I mix the two baths A and B together.

"N."

P. S. — Perhnps I ought to add that the color of the solution
A remained unaltered until the last use of the kaolin.

[The strips sent by our correspondent arc precisely similar in
appearance, and the whites are beautifully preserved. The
paper is certainly very good, and appears to be of English make.
This may have something to do with it. "N." should procure
one of Mr. Wood's Argentometers, and test his bath accurate-
ly. His results would then have more scientific interest. — Ed.
P. N.]

From Photographic Notes.

PRINTING BY DEVELOPMENT.

To the Editor of Photographic Notes.

Dear Sir, — I have been trying your new modification of the
development process with lemon juice, but have meet with in-
different success. I send you herewith two prints as specimens;
one on Canson's Positive, and the other (the ChurchJ, on Hol-
lingworth's thin paper. You will see that the former is very
granular and terribly dirty, the view of the church is less so,
but the sky-part had a strong tendency to discolor in the gallic
acid, and I had to remove it before it appeared half dark
enough; the development occupied perhaps fifteen or twenty
minutes, and I may mention that both papers were similarly
treated in every respect, viz., salted with chloride of sodium, 8
grs,, and lemon juice, 2 drops, to 1 oz. of water, excited with
Buckle's brush. Clean. Silver 40 grs., lemon juice, 4 drops,
exposed five minutes to diffused light, which gave a faint im-
pression, and developed with fresh gallic acid, the print forming
a tray.

I think all these appears to be conditions which should give
successful results, and cannot conceive the cause of failure, at
least on the Hollingworth's paper, but apart from the dirty de-
velopment, the color which the process seems to yield is not de-
sirable. Now when I tried the process the first time, directly
after you publish it. Notes, No. 15, I easily got fine deep blacks,
but with this modification it seems difficult, if not impossible, as
one print I took remained in the gallic acid upwards of three
quarters of an hour without passing the red tinge; another dif-
ficulty seems to be that they change color in the hj'po as a sun-
print; this I did not observe to occur on those prepared with
gelatine and chloride of barium.

Now a word on your recommendation of Buckle's brush; it
is certainly a very desirable implement, as it saves a dirty dish,
but is liable to leave various markings and isolated spots,
which seem to say that the silver is not uniformly spread.
Would a stronger nitrate bath or a double dose of the ordi-
nary one, better obviate this. My time available for Photo-
graphic experiments being so very limited I prefer to impose
these questions upon you. Your solution of them may proba-
bly benefit others as well as myself. " Phos."

[It appears that our correspondent only brushed the paper
over once with nitrate of silver; it should have been brushed
over a second time, about five minutes after the first applica-
tion. The paper is therefore insensitive, and did not contain
sufficient free nitrate to complete the development to the black
tone; hence arose all the evils complained of.

There are some difficulties in this process of printirg
without a toning bath which should be clearly stated,
and, as far as possible, understood. When these are mastered
the process is an extremely good one.

In the first place, a good negative is an essential condition of
success. There is no possibility of getting a fine print from a
bad negative. The negative should be sufficierdly dense, but
not too dense, in the blacks, and the lights should be clear and
free from all discoloration; the blacks should not be quite so
dense as those of a sun-print.

The nitrate bath should be in good condition, and the gallic
acid freshly made, and energetic in its action. The exposure
should be correctly timed, and the development pushed as fnr
as possible. The hypo not stronger than one part hypo lo
twenty parts water. All that is now required in the process is
to find some substitute for hyposulj^hite of soda. — Ed. P. N.l

228

THE rUOTOGRAPIlIC A^'D FINE ART JOURNAL.

AuKust,

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal

ON THE SIMULTANEOUS
P Ii 0 1 0 g r n 1) li y of Variously Colored 0 1) j

eels

BY MR. HEISCH.

[Read before the Blacklicatli Photographic Society, April 19.]

Mr. President and Gentlemen,— The subject to which I pur-
pose calling your attention this evening is one of great interest
to all photographers; and one presenting, as we all know, con-
siderable diflicultics— difficulties which I do not profess by any
means to have perfectly overcome, but towards the surmounting
of which 1 hope to be able to show you that I have made at
least some progress. Long since. Sir J. Herschell stated his
belief that if we wish to obtain good representations of foliage,
that is, of green colored objects, it is to bromide of silver we
must look as the sensitive agent. The images of the spectrum,
obtained by Mr. Crookes, on bromide of silver, show that that
salt is more affected by the green ray than the iodide of silver.
13ut bromide of silver alone is too insensitive for ordinary pho-
tograpliic purposes, and it has been a pretty general custom, at
lealt iu paper photography, to employ a mixture of both salts,
with a view of securing the advantages of sensibility both to
ordinary and to colored, more especially to green light.

Li the early part of the year 1852, 1 published a formula for
waxed paper, in which I stated my belief that the best effects
were produced when the iodide aud bromide and chloride of
silver were united in the proportion of four equivalents of the
first, two of the second, and one of the last salt. Ever since
that time I have constantly used paper thus prepared, and have
compared it with that prepared by almost every formula that
has been published, and six years experience has only served
to convince me of its superiority.

The almost universal practice of using iodide alone in collo-
dion, coupled with the broad assertion of some photographers,
whose opinion is generally admitted to have some weight, that
the green bodies met with in nature reflect so much white as
well as green light that bromide of silver is not required for
their reproduction, and indeed that if present in conjunction
with ioditie the latter will be solarized by the white light before
the bromide is affected by the green, induced me again to take
up the subject, with the determination of trying such experi-
ments as should leave no doubt on the main facts, whatever
room there might be for improvement in any particular formula.
Before bringing the result of these experiments under your notice,
I should like to say one word on the assertion above alluded to.
It is taken for granted, by those who make it, that paper
or collodion prepared with mixed bromide and iodide of
silver contains those two salts simply iu a state of mixture,
and that the light acts independently upon each of them as it
would were they separate. I do not believe that such is the
case; and I will lay before you one or two facts which I can
only occount for on the supposition that there is a chemical
compound of iodide and bromide of silver on which the action
of light is somewhat different to that on either salt separately.
To place these facts most easily before you I must refer to the
daguerreotype process, which I cannot but regard as a sort of
type process, inasmuch as the discrepancies introduced by varia-
tions in collodion or paper, and the various solvents employed,
have there no existence, and we can better determine the ac-
tion of tl.e pure silver compounds.

All who have practised this process are aware that in it bro-
mine must be employed to obtain anything like sensibility. They
also know-that great attention must be paid to the precise pro-
portions of the bromine and iodine; and that, if this bo done,
the plate will possess two, at first sight, contradictory proper-
ties, viz., great sensibility, together with the capability of stand-
ing'a sufficiently long exposure to copy the darkest parts of an
oVijcct without the lighter portions being in the least solarized.
These pro[)crties depend not on the aljsolute .|uantity of iodine
and bromine present, as a plate may be iodized to a light yellow
and bromizcd to a pink, or iodized to a deep yellow aud

bromized to a plum color, and give equally good results,
provided tlie proper proportion be observed between the two.
Now, lean only account to my own satisfaction for the extreme
nicety required in proportioning the two substances, and the
great difference at once observable if either be in excess, by
supposing the existence of a chemical compound possessed of
the two properties before alluded to, which properties certainly
do not exist in either of the salts alone. I known of no way iu
which positively to determine if such a compound be formed on
the plate, nor indeed of determining the precise amount of bro-
mine and iodine present, so that, in attempting to obtain the
same desirable properties in paper or collodion, I was reduced
to trying various mixtures, always taking care that they should
be in combining proportions. Various considerations, however,
induced me to think that the proportion of two equivalents of
iodine and one of bromine would probably be the best, and ex-
periment has at present tended rather to confirm that view, al-
though I am by no means sure that there is not more than one
proportion possessed of the desired properties. The addition of
chloride to the iodizing solution for waxed paper gives, I believe,
a certain amount of density not otherwise attainable. I at first
thought that this too must be iu equivalent proportions; but I
incline now to the belief that if there be a sufficient quantity of
the properly proportioned bromide aud iodide present, the pre-
cise amount of chloride is not so material.

In order to make the experiments, the results of which I shall
now show you, as crucial as possible, I sought for objects pre-
senting as many and opposite colors (photographically speaking)
as possible, and the first selected was the circle chromatique of
M. Chevreuil, but, on photographing it, every color produced
an equal effect, red, blue, and yellow all having the same tint,
showing me at once that it was not among artificial, or, at least,
mineral colors that I must look for objects for these experi-
ments. I would here show to the Society a copy of a number
of different colored porcelain tiles, taken by my friend Mr. G.
Hoffman. The composition of these colors being known, some
clue is given to the apparent mystery ot the result with the cir-
cle chromatique. You will observe that the presence of certain
substances in a color, although producing but little apparent
effect, materially alter its photographic properties. This is
very remarkable in Nos. 8, 9, 10, and 11; the first three being
various shades of cobalt blue, aud the last a greenish black,
produced by manganese, iron, and cobalt, yet they produce
very nearly the same effect, seeming to show that the small
quantity of cobalt present gives great chemical energy to the
last color, ihortgh its effect to the eye is slight. I shall go on work-
ing at this part of the subject, aud hope at some future time
to have some curious results to lay before the Society. I next
turned my attention to flowers, and found in them all that I
could wish. The flowers selected for the experiments were
white and red camellias aud daffodils, thus giving me a mixture
of the most brilliant white, dark green, red, and yellow. In
the first pictures which I shall exhibit there are red and white
camellias only.

The collodion, alcoliol, &c., employed were, of course, the
same, the only difference being in the proportion of the iodizing
substances. All the samples were iodized at the same time.
The plates were exposed for exactly equal times, and iu order
to avoid any error from changes in the light, pictures were
taken alternately on the various mixtures for some time. Thus,
out of the negatives I now produce, six are on simply iodized
collodion, some on collodion prepared with equal weights of io-
dide and bromide, some with one equivalent of each, some with
two equivalents of iodide to one of bromide, some with the same
and the addition of half an equivalent of chloride, and some with
one-fourth by weight of bromide and three-fourths iodide.

An inspection of these will at once show that the presence
of liromide is an immense advantage. In those prepared with
iodide alone the white is overdone, and the green leaves still
invisible, while the greens are well out in those containing bro-
mide. I think it will also be admitted that those in which the
iodide and bromide are in the proportion of two equivalents to

one possess the property of sensibility to the red and green,

1S58.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

229

with the absence of soliirization in the vvliite, more perfectly
than the others. The pictures were all made on collodion which
had been iodized some wcoics, on which account tlic iodide gave
even better results than it otlierwise would. Tliose now pro-
duced were made on collodion iodized the day before, and
here we sec the full effect of the bromide. You will notice tliat
the white camellia, in those prepared with the iodide alone, is
not as in the former pictures simjdy a black, but is altogx'ther
gone and become quite transparent; while the greens, and even
the basket containing the flowers, are scarcely visible; but in
those prepared with bromide the whole are well preserved.

For ordinary purposes there is not either in collodion or
paper photography the necessity for the same minute exactness
in the proportions as in the daguerreotype. This is easily un-
derstood, if we remember the much larger quantity of silver
salts present in former j)rocesses; for if there be a considerable
quantity of the true compound, the admixture of a small excess
of one or other salt could not make the same difference as when
only a few hundredths of a grain are present in all; but when
we come to the most dinicult cases, such as choso we have been
considering, the nearer we keep to the strict proportions the
better, I think, are our results.

In tliose pictures containing the daffodils it will be observed
that the yellows presents the greatest difficulty; as although in
the best wilh the bromide, every petal is depicted, while with
the iodide the flower is a simple blot; still it is much darker
than it should be. As an illustration of the working of the
mixture on paper, I would bring forward this picture of the
Roman Catholic Church, on Crooms-hill, Greenwich, in which
we have a very vvhite stone steeple standing out against the
sky, and a number of trees and a bank of nettles beside the
church. You will observe that the steeple does not merge into
the sky; while the trees and nettles are perfectly represented.

I must remark, in conclusion, that I do not pretend to have
arrived at a. perfect result; all I wish is to point out what 1 be-
lieve to be the only road in which we can hope to meet with it,
viz. by endeavoring to make chemical compounds, and not ran-
dom mixtures.

As some of the members of the Society may like to know the
precise iodizer employed iu producing the best results, I subjoin
it-
Iodide of amraouium 3G grs.

Bromide of ammonium 12 "

Clilorido of calcium 3-5 "

Absolute alcohol 2 oza.

One part of this to be mixid with three of collodion.

I wish it particularly to be understood that I by no means
deny the possibility of obtaining photographs of foliage, <fec.,
on iodide of silver alone; by prolonged exposure it is quite pos-
sible, provided there be no very bright white or blue objects
present with the green. What I assert is, that when combined
in proper proportion with bromide, it is far more sensitive, and
that the whites do not solarize.

For the Photographic and Fine Art Journal.

AMBROTYPES IN COLORS.

Ml Bkoadway, N. Y., Juue 28, 1858.

Mr. Snelling, — Dear Sir: My process for producing ambro-
types in colors, with numbers and letters correct, is as follows :
Coat the plate in the usual way, place it in the holder, collo-
dion side back, not allowing the spring of the holder to touch
the plate. It is necessary to have the ground glass adjusted
to the focus of the plate, which may be done in two ways, viz,
one by inserting a strip of glass (same thickness as the plate
used for the portrait) in front of theground glass in the camera:
or have two ground glasses, one set for the plate collodion side
front; and one for collodion side back. There will be no diffi-
culty in keeping the plate up to its place iu the holder without
the spring, as the suction caused by the solution on the plate,
will cause the plate to adhere. This stylo of picture gives
great satisfaction to firemeu, military men, and in fact all por-
traits, where color, letters, and figures are to be represented
properly. Yours truly, W. H. Kimball.

29*

From the riiutoyraphic Nutea.

RECOLLECTION'S AND JOTTINGS
Of a Pliotogrnjiliic Tour Undcrliikcii Dunug the Years I8J(j-7.*

BY J. W. G. GUTCII, M.R.C.S.L.

As panteth the hart for the water-brooks so docs the ardent
photographer long to be " up and doing" with the occurrence
of these few dcliciously, bright, fresh, and hcalthgiving days
which often occur in early Spring; but here, theory, as in other
affairs of life, proves vastly more fascinating than practice for
they are not the days to coimuence the "gentle art," and 'the
"longing lover" had better delay and curb liis ardent aspiration,
taking to himself for consolation that "discretion is assuredly
the better jiart of valor." The sun has but little power, and
the pictures share it from their fullness and want of force and
brilliancy.

Family matters compelled me to break up my winter quarters
earlier than I conld have desired, and early in April of last
year, (185t). I found myself wending Northwards and finaliv
safely deposited in "auld Reekie," enveloped, as I entered, in a's
genuine a Scotch mist as I can remember, and all looking com-
fortless and giving anything but a warm welcome to the'South-
enicr; day by day slipped away in the hopeless expectation of
bright weather assuming. Easterly winds, mist, snow, rain,
and hail, were the order of the day ; the camera, of course ne-
ver was unpacked, and the heart was sick with hope deferred ;
at last, however, a bright gleam of real sunshine began to show
itself, and eager for the fray, at the end of April, I started by
railway for Melrose, making this the starting i)oint for wliat I
would term an AMotsford rilgrimap^c, and one as well worth
making as any, to Compestell, and if with camera and a fair share
of success the traveller will not regret the trip. At Melrose
most comfortable quarters are to be met with, cither in the
Inn, which is very good, or in lodgings, which are abundant.
Of the Abbey, perhaps the finest scene in Scotland, I need
scarce descant much. It has been praised and described in
much moi-c graphic language than I can boast of using ; it has
been iininted by thousands on canvas, and yet neither verbal
description or the cleverest limner on canvas, can I think, suffi-
ciently do justice to its various beauties. Its location too, and
accessories, are so truly beautiful. Waving away the garrulous
old Custode and turning a very deaf car to his oft-told tale, I
began to frame in my own mind the several pictures I purposed
taking ; and I think, if I had rested there for weeks, instead
of days, I could each hour liavc found out some fresh and un-
discovered beauty. Summer, bright, fine, sunny weather, is,
however, certainly the right time to sec this scene in perfection,
and not at the early period of the year when I saw it. It is
well cared for too and most carefully preserved, as it richly de-
serves, and in its declining years iiropi)ed up and supported
when weak, and every attention paid to it to it to keep it as
much as possible from falling under the ruthless hand of the de-
stroyer Time. Several very beautiful views arc easily attain-
able iu the interior of the building, the light being very
good, and some of the details of the tracery of the windows
and the graining of the arches worth any pains being taken to
ensure success ; of the exterior every facility is obtainable for
view-taking in the church yard, and what is no small luxury to
the church-yard being securely railed in, thus preventing the
small-fry that generally buzz around the operator, from pene-
trating. I spent two clclightful days, bringing away eight ne-
gatives. From here to Abbotsford is only an easy drive.
Shall I own to a feeling of disappointment which I felt on first
seeing this world-known house. I had expected much more
from the situation. The hills, as all the Scotch hills arc to my
mind, wanting in verdure, and the fields wanting their hedge-
rows, present the same w?i-picturcsquc expanse of verdure that
one sees through France and other parts of the Continent ;
wanting in fact, the very essence of a beautiful landscaiie, the
hedge-rows, and tree-covered hills and glades of old England,

* Couliuued from page 197, vol. xi. no. vil.

230

THE PnOTOGRAPniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

Ano-ust,

The liouse too, I was disappointed with, externally and internal-
ly ; although in the various rooms are crowded objects of great
interest, still I seem to have expected more. I was not allowed
to take any view of the front of the house ; but from the ter-
race behiud, I readily obtained two that quite repaid me the
trouble of the visit. The house, an irregular and not unpic-
turesque pile of modern building, photographs very well, the
stone being a dark grey, and doubtless had I had more time,
from the opposite bank of the river several very beautiful views
would be obtaiuable. From Melrose a few hours takes the
tourist to Kelso, a most picturesque town, beautifully situated
by the side of a fine clear river, spanned by a noble bridge, and
close to the town, the majestic ruins of the Abbey. A general
view of these fine and extensive ruins is readily obtaiuable from
the church-yard which surrounds it, and amply repays the pho-
tographer. There is very much to be done here and all is
easily accomplished from its peculiar locality, not being closed
in by buildings ; but, as is the case with nearly all these eccle-
siastical ruins iu Scotland, the surrounding ground is appro-
priated to the purpose of a burying-place ; thus answering the
double purpose of a resting-place for the dead and a security
also for the ruin that it surrounds. Crossing the river Tweed
is seen the fine gothic seat of the Duke of Roxbuiy, Eleur's
castle, a fine and extensive pile of buildings ; but 1 came for
the Abbey, and was content with getting several, six, good ne-
gatives of it.

The great advantage of this agreeable little tour is the fa-
cility with which each place is reached by the railway and the
comfortable and moderate priced Inns that are to be met with
in the various towns ; for eager as the artist is for his men-
tal food during the day the comforts of a good Inn and well-
dressed dinner are by no means to be despised; or the clean,
wholesome, fresh-suielliug sheets at night, whereon to rest the
weary body, and dream of coming enjoyments. Near Kelso is
a hill called the Pinnacle Hill, quite worth the trouble of as-
cending, and giving the visitor an excellent idea of the singular
beauty of the situation of this pretty town. Having obtained
what we thought a fair number of views we journeyed on next
to Dryburgh, the ruins of Dryburgh Abbey being about a mile's
walk from the station ; this, to my mind, was the most pictur-
esque fragment of a ruin that I had yet visited, irrespective of
the interest attaching to it from its being the resting place of
the remains of the unknown, a curious fancy to be thus buried,
nor is the tomb, or tombstones, with the modern iron railing, at
all in keeping with the venerable building that enshrines it.
He lies buried in St. Mary's aisle, with his wife and son. The
beautiful foliage of the trees enlivening ihese ruins particularly
struck me — a beauty that most of the Scotch ruins are sadly
wanting iu. The ivy here twines its tendrils to great advan-
tage, adding, if possible, fresh beauties to the Witches Wheel
window, that must ever be admired and gaped "at with delight.
Here is truly a rich field for the photographer. Fear not to
over-expose, for the large masses of green, and the dark color
of the stone will admit of nearly any length of time.

Jedburgh and Dryburgh can comfortably be accomplished in
the same day, and still allow ample time for all necessary work.
The Abbey at Dryburgh, if nothing else were visited, is worth
all the trouble of the ride from Edinburgh. Jedburgh is some-
what more difficult of access, I mean as to the finding a good
point of view from which to take the extensive ruins ; one is
obtainable from close to the gate of the church-yard, and ano-
ther from the road, but both are somewhat too close. The in-
terior did not seem to me to present many points of interest.
It is a L^ost venerable pile, of the date of 1,000, rebuilt by
David I. Part of it has been roofed in and glazed in the worst
possible taste, and is now used as a place of worship. Sir
David Brewster and Mr. Somerville first drew breath iu this
little town. I contented myself with two views of the Abbey,
and not liking my quarters, the Hanar (the Spread Eagle evi-
dently being the Inn of the place), I determined on taking the
late train to Edinburg, thus closing a week's most enjoyable and
instructive tour ; moderate in expense, most easily accomplished,
and possessing many and great points of interest, whether to

the ordinary traveller in seareli of the picturesque, or to the prim-
ary and more searching eye of the photographer, who seems ne-
ver satisfied, not even with M'alking away with Abbeys in his
portmanteau, and bridges, rivers, ruins, and palaces, under his
arm, — he still craves for more.

I found on my return to Edinburgh that I had quite repaid
myself for the trouble and expense of this little trip, and brought
back a very nice collection of negatives, calculated to do good
service at a future day.

I much coveted one of Edinburgh old town, but the oppor-
tunity allowed occurs so very seldom, from the smoke and thick-
ness of the atmosphere, that even resident photographers have
waited in vain. 1 obtained some good ones of Scott's Monu-
ment, Holyrood, (the Chapel quite worth a day or two's work
bestowed on), and very comeatable and quiet.

The endless bits of street architecture in the old town of Ed-
inburgh are very tempting; but having had one taste of the
quality of the lower classes in Princes Street Gardens, when I
was at last obliged to call in the aid of a policeman, I did not
summon up courage enough to attempt any views in the Con-
gate and Cannongate, beautiful and picturesque as they would
have proved; for instance, John Knox's house, or those venera-
ble old houses near the House of Assembly. So failing in the
town, I wended my way to Roslin and Hawtharnden. The
Castle is such a mere fragment that otherwise than grouping
and forming an integral part of the general landscape, it is
scarce worth putting up the camera to take. Not so, however,
the Chapel. This is so closely encircled with a wall that you
can only get very near views and therefore only bits, but these
are quite worth taking. The interior I did not attempt, the
very yellow light of the old glass not promising any possibility
of success, though the architecture is strikingly beautiful. A
general or distant view of the Chapel is anything but pic-
turesque, it looks more like a family mausoleum, and the acces-
sories are not harmonious and not at all calculated to form a
good picture.

Having in vain waited for anything like a chance of getting
a good photograph of the old Gardens, I determined on another
railroad trip, and this time wended my way first to Dumfernline,
a miserable and dirty town, and possessing an Inn that I should
hope is unique, surpassing in filth and dirt, and therefore dis-
comfort, any that I have ever been in iu civilized Europe; so
that instead of sleeping, for I very believe had I halted there
for one night nothing would have been seen of me in the morn-
ing, I remained long enough to take some nice views of the fine
fragments of ruins of the old Abbey, again surrounded by a
church yard, and got into most comfortable quarters at a most
excellent Inn, at Cupar. After breakfast, there being nothing
of any interest in the town, I proceeded on to St. Andrews, a
quaint and most picturesque old town, quiet enough, and I hear
very aristocratic. At any rate the situation is quite enough to
tempt one to remain some little time, independently of the inter-
est attached to the ruins of the old College, Church and Castle,
all most interesting and capital studies for the photographer and
draughtsman. The coast scenery too is very interesting, — the
harbor, and even the town itself.

A couple of days may be well spent here, there being plenty
of work and beautiful studies. From here I proceeded again by
railway to Perth and on to Dunkeld. I may mention, enpassa7it,
that both at St. Andrew's and Perth there are several very
clever photographers, especially the former, wdiose museums are
open to any visitors, and quite worth going to see. AVith Dun-
keld I was well acquainted, and found it in every respect as I
had seen it nearly 20 years ago; the same comfortable Inn, the
same lovely river, and the beautiful hills, pine-covered, surround-
ing it on every side.

Here, meaning to remain some little time, lodgings were
sought, and at the early season of the year, readily obtainable,
as comfortable in every respect as could be desired, at Mr.
Plain's, exactly facing the Hotel. Whilst photographing the
interior of the Cathedral, or ruins of what it formerly was, the
Duke of AthoU introduced himself, and to his kindness and con-

1858.

THE THOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

231

sideration during a fortnight's sojourn, I was indebted in no
small degree, seeing mucli that I should not otherwise have seen,
and taking many photographs that would otherwise have been
impossible. He prides himself much on his new Dog Iveunel
for a pack of Otter hounds; noble studies, and well worth any
pains-taking to accomplish.

I much sorrowed that I could not be present at the High-
land gathering, which doubtless would have offered plenty of
occupation for the quick-working process, — picturesque group-
ings and costumes of every hue. The kilt seemed to be very
generally used by the gentry around Dunkeld, Blair and Tay-
mouth, and doubtless for the summer months it may prove cool
and pleasant; but the trews I should crave for in winter. A
fortnight slipped away quickly, as it always does when agreea-
bly occupied. His Grace kindly gave me a letter to his factor,
Capt. Macduff, at Blair, and though there is not much of inter-
est here; still, as it was for many weeks the residence of Her
Majesty it of course is worth looking at. The exterior of the
house is ugly in the extreme, very much resembling a parish
Union workhouse, and anything but like what one would pic-
ture a Highland Castle. A photograph of the Castle, one of
a small hut, a very pretty fall of the Fender, in the grounds,
completed my work. Before and after dinner was necessarily
dedicated to repose, and the ride back to Dunkeld, than which
scarce anything can be prettier, through the pass of Kellianar-
keu; and at every turn of the road fresh beauties present them-
selves, with the sparkling Tay several hundreds of feet below
the road, still bright and glistening, even at that distance.

I was sorry when the day came to leave Dunkeld and all its
unnumbered beauties, still I was forced to do so, as if work is
to be done it does not do to loiter. Taymouth was the next
place of halt, and here, for the first time, imposition was at-
tempted; the wax-light system and other items in proportion;
a deduction was asked for and refused; the only alternative I
had was to strike off the article, service, stating at the same
time my reason for so doing. The parting of cour&e of host and
visitor was disagreeable. Taymouth Castle is quite worth a
morning's work; the situation is unrivalled for its beauty; but
the landscape scenery is too extensive for any camera to do
justice to it; nevertheless, two or three ruins of the house are
quite easily managed, and will well repay the photographer.
There are, too, some noble studied of trees in the park. The
village is very pretty and picturesque, and the sun and the sur-
rounding houses group very nicely and make a very pretty sub-
ject. There are, too, some very pretty bits of costume in the
peasants; but for all this, a day or two is, of course, needful and
the extortion of mine host was not calculated to induce any
lengthened stay.

A very pretty ride along the borders of Loch Tay brought
the traveller to KilUn, and for instantaneous pictures here are
some unusually fine studies, whether of the falls, which are very
fine, close to the town, or the rapids formed in the rocky bed
of the river. It was a bleak, cold and uninviting day unfortu-
nately when I was there, and feeling unwell into the liargain, I
was induced to push on and not sleep as I had arranged to do.
A wild ride through one of the wildest of the Highland passes,
and a ride full of picturesque beauties, brought us by 8 o'clock
to Callandar, where being early in the season, lodgings were
easily met with. I do not know that there is much to be done
here except the river scenery, and falls at the bridge or pass of
Lery. An easy ride takes the traveller from here to Dumblane,
where there is a nice lot of ruins, and the railroad is then joined
to Stirling; several beautiful points of view are here easily to
be met with, and on the return journey to Edinburgh, the
dreary old pile of Lorlithgen Castle is quite worthy of a visit.
Three weeks had thus slipped most agreeably away and the
bright weather once more appearing, and there being many
miles yet to be accomplished and much to be photographed,
one bright morning, the very opposite to that on which the town
was first approached, the railroad was once more racing us away,
this time to stop at the entrance (as it were to the Lake dis-
trict of Cumberland and Westmoreland) , of the Oxenholme
Btatiou of the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway, which it was my

wish thoroughly to explore and delineate, and therefore the
months of June, July, and August, were set apart for that pur-
pose. A_ peep of a week at the Manchester Exhibition, its
wonders, its photographs, and the conclusion of a most delight-
ful summer photographic ramble through a part of North
Wales, Llandudno, Conway, Bangor, (Anglesea, and Holy-
head) must form the subject of my concluding paper, if indeed
you feel disposed to devote so much of your valuable space to
these desultory jottings and recollections; not, I trust, however,
without offering some hints worthy the consideration of my
brethren in the gentle art.

From the Photographic Notes.

VOICTLANDER versus PETZVAL.

TO GEORGE KNIGHT, ESQ.

Dear Sir, — I am very happy to see that my last letter to you
has been inserted in the Birmingham Photographic Society's
Notes, which also contains another letter from Prof. Petzval, in
which my name is mentioned.

I do not wish to tease the patience of the reader too much,
and have only to say some few words in answer to that letter,
particularly as little is left for me to add to the assertions in my
last letter.

Professor Petzval, instead of coming to the point at once re-
garding me, again contents himself with sarcastic remarks on
the word "Orthoseopic," devoting half a page to that purpose.
Even suppose my having misapplied that word, how can a man
of Professor Petzval's faculties make so much ado about no-
thing? I have, however, no right to complain of his wit, see-
ing that he does not even hesitate to ridicule a whole nation,
calling it La Grande Nation, on no other account than because
a committee of Photographers and scientific men , (I shall add),
have dared to find my (or to speak more correct, his own soi~
disant) new lens superior to all others, giving him all the credit
of the invention. With far greater right he might declare war
with all England, because not only my lenses have been found
good by English photographers, but particularly because an
English assembly have dared not to feel enlightened by a lecture
on his works, but has been so audacious as to pronounce not very
flattering at all events. I should like to know whether it can
be considered dignified to draw a whole nation into a private
affair; and no eloquence of mine could have painted Professor
Petzval's disposition in more lively colors than he has done him-
self. I shall pass over his description of the very empirical way
he supposes my having employed in copying the lens, as well as
over his calling my proceeding an expeditious mode of making
an invention; the first is too absurd, the latter untrue, for never
have I laid any claim to the invention either of the lens, or the
name. It may be observed that my last letter, by which all
these insinuations are repulsed, was not known to Professor
Petzval at the time he was writing his last letter, — very well;
but my memorial was known to him; he waspleased to call it an
absurdity; but very far from being an absurdity (if my state-
ments were not true) it would rather be a shameful piece of im-
position, and I should like to know to what circumstance I am
indebted to the forbearance of Prof. Petzval in both his letters;
he has only sharpened his wit in various things, and has rather
evaded the question of my being in possession of the drawing
and the curvatures of that lens. To give a further proof to
any non-prejudiced mind, how the affair stands, I will say one
thing more: Prof. Petzval has taken a patent in Austria for
his new lens; in spite of that patent I have openly sold the
same lens, distributing every where my circulars about it. How
is it that Prof. Petzval does not proceed against me on that ac-
count? Yery simply because he is an'are that by producing the
paper I was so often speaking of, I should not only repulse his
attack, but at the same time upset his patent, and by not tak-
ing the first step, the world may at least see that on my part
no pecuniary consideration has got anything to do with the af-
fair. The answer of Professor Petzval will, however, soon ap-
pear, and should he evade the question again I shall consider

myself excused giving further reply, but should be carry the
thing so far as particularly to deny my being in possession of
that document my final answer shall follow, and with it such
proof as will put the whole transaction beyond any doubt.

With regard to Mr. Paul Pretsch's observations I have only
to state this, the lecture of this gentleman, from which he sup-
poses my having got Crst any tidings about the lens, appeared
on December 21st, 1857, and is but a translated extract from
various reports of Professor Petzval to the Academy in Vienna
delivered already on March 12th of the same year; my^ first
Orthoscopic lens arrived in Vienna at the legimiing of Novem-
ber, and my memorial, together with four different sized lenses, were
handed to the Academy about December 24th. The observation
of this gentleman may therefore well rank amongst many of
Professor Petzval's— founded upon nothing at all. Further, I
take no notice of his letter. I have not the honor of knowing
Mr. Pretsch, nor has he the disadvantage of knowing me, as
far as I am aware. The affair lies entirely between Professor
Petzval and myself, and no third party has any right to inter-
fere. Professor Petzval may want an age7it; but certainly can
dispense with a proxy; should Mr. Pretsch continue his person-
al attack, he may do so; but certainly he will never receive any
answer from me. Perhaps some consideration will show to Mr.
Pretsch that such a proceeding against a man who never injured
him in any way, would not be honorable and gentlemauhke, and
would carry in itself its judgement.

You will oblige me by causing these lines to be inserted in the
same Journal.

I remain, Sir,

Tours truly,

VOIGTLANDER.

than a single portrait. With respect to the half-plate portrait
combination I purchased of you, it cannot be overrated by any
praise I can bestow upon it. My knowledge of lenses extends
to those of all makers of any note in England, France, and
Germany, and I must say yours stands pre-eminently first for
flatness of field and fine definition. I can copy any engraving
with full aperture, every line correct to the corners of a 6|x4:|
plate, with a combined focal length of only seven inches'"

At the above favorable testimony in favor of Mr. Goddard's
Lenses, I can add my own, as I possess both his No. 3 and No.
4 combinations. The former will give good portraits to 8iX6|,
and the latter to 12X10 inches. The front lenses of these com-
binations are adapted for views, and give landscapes of 12 and
16 inches respectively, with good definition to the edges. I
have therefore no hesitation in recommending them to the no-
tice of photographers in search of a really efQcient instrument,
at a very moderate price, and with this view, I shall feel obliged
by your insertion of this in your next number. R. A. R.

MR.

From Photographic Notes.

GODDARD'S LENSES.

The following letter is from a Cambridge M.A. No one can
read Mr. Goddard's communications to the London Journal and
the Notes, without being convinced that he is a man of great
perseverance and good practical knowledge of his business. We
insert the letter with much pleasure, and feel sure that in doing
so our motive will not be misunderstood:

To the Editor of Fhotogra'phic Notes:

London, May 26th, 1858.

Sir,— In Yol. TL, p. 126 of the Photographic Journal, is a
letter from Mr. Brown, a well-known photographer of Newcas-
tle, recommendatory of the Lenses made by Mr. T. Davidson,
Optician, Castle Hill, Edinburgh. He there states "that he
possesses a portrait combination by this maker, the back lens of
which is cemented, thus having the fewest reflecting surfaces a
lens can have, and thus ensuring the least possible loss of light
from reflection of surfaces. The outer lens is 14 in. focus, and
the inner one 21 inches. The combined focus is 6^ inches, pro-
ducing a half-sized picture. They can be reversed in the tube,
and give a longer focus, thus producing a larger picture; or the
14 inch focus lens can be used for views, giving a well-covered
field of 9x7. The lens of 21 inch focus, when used for views,
gives a picture of 15X12. Thus the lens has a four-fold use,
each change working to the visual and actinic focus perfectly."

Being anxious to ascertain if Mr. Brown, after three years
further experience of the working of this lens, still recommended
it, I found on enquiry that he had laid it aside, and has for
some time used a portrait combination made by Mr. Goddard,
of Whitton, near Hounslow.

In a letter to that gentleman, dated 24th May, Mr. Brown

■writes as follows: — " In justice to Mr,
that his lens was a very fine one, and

Davidson, I must say
I still believe that for
groups, the close cemented back lens is best. It has not the
same amount of brilliant light as the open lens, yet it has de-
cided advantages in my estimation, which the other does not
possess, unless stopped down; for in lenses of all other makers
(excepting yours) they are too central for any other purpose

ARCHER'S LENS versus THE ORTUOSCOPIC LENS.

To the Editor of Photographic Notes:

30 Upper Rosoman Street, London.

Sir, — A word or two in relation to the Orthoscopic lens. I
have a double combination lens, made according to the formula
of the late Mr. Scott Archer, 3-in. in diameter, 8|-in. solar
focus, covering a plate 9i-in., price JE6 6s. Mr. Archer took
all his pictures with a similar one. He found it give the lines
of architectural subjects without curvature. It is furnished
with diaphragms for views, and it is used without for portraits
in the usual way. The front lens can be reversed, and used
alone for views (having a focus of 15 inches), but this is not
recommended for architecture.

Knowing that it covered a large plate in comparison with the
focus, I was curious to know what angle of view was comprised
by it. Calculating from the supposed data, of a lens which
covers a plate two-thirds of its focal length, including an angle
of 35 degrees, I had concluded that one that covered more than
half as much again as an ordinary lens, M'ould include an angle
more than half as large again, or more than 52^ degrees; but,
on measuring carefully the angle actually included, I found it
to be 45 degrees. I consider that I am very fortunate in pos-
sessing an instrument which practically equals the Orthoscopic
Lens, and at the same time can be used to take rapid portraits.
The focus and field of the No. 6, ordinary Yoigtlander combi-
nation, is much the same as the above, namely, 10 inch focus,
and covers a 12 inch plate. The diameter and price do not
correspond, they being respectively 4|- inch and £45.

Mr. Archer, when he wished to lengthen the focus of his
lens, used a diverging lens attached to the back lens. His
views are very well worth inspecting.

W. Edw. Holmer.

To the Editor of the Photographic Notes:

30 Upper Rosoman Street, London, E.G.
Sir, — On inspecting this lens it appears to be of the usual
construction of portrait lenses. Not being myself a judge, I
have submitted it to a friend who has had considerable expe-
rience in a large optical warehouse, and he informs me that the
lenses are of longer focus than usual. The front lens is a ce-
mented plano-convex. The concavo-convex lens of the back
combination is more concave, and the plano-convex, or back lens
of all, is less convex than usual. The front lens reversed has a
focus of 15 inches and the back lens about 30 inches, and about
32 inches -when reversed. In other respects it is the same as
the ordinary portrait lenses, such, for instance, as those sold by
Home and Thornthwaite. The diameter is 2^ inches not 3
inches as stated in my letter above. The distance between the
lenses is 4 inches. There is a permanent diaphragm between,
and cqui-distaut from the front and back combinations, giving
an aperture of 2 inches for portraits and 3 diaphragms for views
of the respective aperture of three-eights, five-eights, and seven-

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

233

eighths of an inch. The exposure for a landscape with a fire-
oighth of an inch aperture and moderate sunshine, is from seven
to ten seconds. Portraits in the shade, with good light, about
five seconds. I have very little time to experiment, but I will
endeavor to take one or two negatives and submit them to you.

W. Edw. Holmeb.

PHOTOGRAPHIC

Self-registeriug Magnetic aiul Meteorological Apparatus.

INVENTED BT MR. BROOKE, OF KEPPEP-STREET, LONDON.

[This article was published in our July No. , 1853; but as
we consider it a very valuable paper, in the present state of the
Art, and as there are now, undoubtedly, a great many amateurs
who have never heard of the instruments described, it is quite
worthy ot re-publication. — Ed. P Sf F. A. Journal.]

The importance of instruments whereby the direction and in-
tensity of the earth's magnetism (Oiay be readily ascertained, is
acknowledged by all scientific men; and the application of pho-
tography to this purpose is a means whereby much labor has
been saved in meteorological observations. In the following
paper we purpose explaining, as briefly as we can, how these
observations are made by self-registering apparatus.

Terrestrial magnetism is a directive, not an attractive force,
exercised by the earth and its surrounding atmosphere upon a com-
pass needle, or a freely suspended bar magnet. That it is not an
attractive force, may be readily shown by floating a compass needle
by means of apiece of cork on a vessel of water: the needle will be
found to take its position in the direction of the magnetic meridian ;
but it exhibits not the least tendency to float towards the north,
although perfectly free to do so if any attractive force were ex-
erted upon it in that direction.

The magnetic does not coincide with the astronomical meri-
dian, but is variously inclined to it at different points of the
earth's surface. The angle at which these two meridians are
inclined to each other is the magnetic declination. The value of
this angle is at the present time about 22|° in the vicinity of
London, and its direction towards the west.

A compass needle is ordinarily supported in such a manner as
to rest horizontally in the magnetic meridian; but if it be so
sustained as to be capable of moving freely in a vertical plane,
the marked end of the needle will point or dip downwards, and
the angle which the needle when in its position of rest makes
with the horizontal plane is called the dip. The present value
of this angle, in tUe same locality, is about 68f *.

The force by which the marked end of the needle is thus di-
rected obliquely downwards, may be conceived to be compound-
ed of two forces, one acting horizontally and the other verti-
cally; by the former of which, acting alone, the needle would as-
sume a horizontal, and by the latter a vertical position. In the
present instance, the proportion of the vertical to the horizontal
force is nearly as 2 to 1.

These three elements of terrestial magnetic force, namely, the
declination or direction of the vertical plane in which it is ex-
erted, and the amount of its horizontal and vertical components,
are found to be continually in a state of change: some of the
variations being of a periodical character, while others, far
more irregular and extensive in amount, are of less frequent oc-
currence, and arises from causes that are at present very im-
perfectly understood.

The general object of magnectic observations is to obtain a
complete knowledge of the physical causes on which the exist-
ence of terrestrial magnetism, and its various changes, depend.
This knowledge is to be sought by a comparison of the observed
changes in the three elements of magnetic force with the occur-
rence of other natural phenomena. The instruments by which
the changes of the magnetic elements are observed are the de-
clinometer, the bifilar or horizontal force magnetometer, and
the balanced or vertical force magnetometer. The declinome-
ter consists of a bar magnet freely suspended by a bundle of un-
twisted silk fibres; the variations of the position of this magnet
correspond with those of the vertical plane in which the earth's
force is exerted. The bifilar is a similar bar magnet, suspended

VOL. XI. NO. Till. 30

bj two nearly parallel bundles of fibres, separated by a small
interval. The double point of suspension is twisted round until
the bar assumes a position exactly perpendicular to the mn"--
netic meridian, in which it will then be retained by the opposi-
tion of two equal forces— the gravity of the bar and its append-
ages tending to untwist the suspensive skeins, while the horizon
lal component of the earth's force tends equally to turn the bar
in the opposite direction. As the former of these forces re-
mains constant, it is clear that any variations of the latter will
produce corresponding changes in the position of the magnet;
and it is by observations of these changes of position that the
variations of horizontal magnetic force are determined.

The balanced magnetometer is a bar magnet, very delicately
poised on knife edges, so as to move in a vertical plane like the
beam of a balance. The instrument is placed at right angles
to the magnetic meridian, and is maintained in a horizontal°po-
sition by a weight, which counteracts the tendency of the
earth's vertical force to place the magnet in a vertical position.
As the counterpoise remains constant, it follows that any changes
in the amount of vertical force will be indicated by correspond-
ing changes in the position of the magnet; which latter have
been made a subject of observation.

The method hitherto adopted for observing the indication of
these instruments, has been that of viewing, through a fixed
telescope, the division of a fixed scale reflected by a plane mirror
attached to each magnet. But by this system of observation a
very imperfect knowledge of the nature of magnetic changes
has been obtained; and as it has been deemed necessary, in
magnetic observatories, that the observations of the various in-
struments should be made at intervals of at furthest two hours,
by night as well by day, this laborious duty has devolved upon
the assistants; hence some means of enabling these instruments
to record their own changes has long been an acknowledged
desideratum in physical science. With the aid of photography
this desired object has been attained by the instruments that
form the subject of this notice, the merit of which has been ac-
knowledged by the award of a council medal by the jurors of
the Great Exhibition of 1851.

By these instruments an uninterrupted and unerring record
of all magnetic changes is now maintained at the Royal Obser-
vatory, Greenwich. These results could not have been ob-
tained by personal observation; for even if every telescope were
constantly watched by the eye of an assistant (which would re-
quire a very numerous staff), the results would still be liable to
errors of observation; and occasionally the magnetic variations
are too rapid and transient to be continuously recorded by an
observer. We may further remark , that since the employment
of this apparatus at Greenwich, the number of assistants in the
magnetic department has been reduced, and the fatigue of night
duty has been dispensed with entirely.

Magnetic registration is undoubtedly the most useful applica-
tion hitherto made of the beautiful art of photography. The
method suitably applied to each of the magnetic instruments
may be thus described: — A concave metallic mirror, three
inches in diameter, is attached to each magnet by a frame pos-
sessing all requisite adjustments; the rays of light from a lamp
or gas-burner, placed at a distance of about two feet from the
mirror, pass through a small aperture in a metallic plate, and
fall on the mirror, when they are reflected to a focus at a dis-
tance of about nine feet. The source of light being fixed, it is
clear that the movements of the focal point of light will corres-
pond with those of the magnet. A cylinder covered with pho-
tographic paper is so placed that the point of light may fall on
it. The cylinder is carried round on its axis by clock-work, and
by the combined movements of the point of light and of the
cylinder, the magnetic curve is self-traced upon the sensitive
paper. The photographic process has also been applied to the
barometer, and to the wet and dry bulb thermometers; but the
mode of application is different from the preceding, the light
not being reflected from a mirror. The description of the fig-
ures will render further explanation unnecessary.

As the preparation of the sensitive paper used in these in-
struments differs somewhat from the ordinary photographic pro-

234

THE PnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

August.

cesses, it may not be inappropriate to describe it: — The paper
is first washed with a solution of four grains of islinglass and of
iodide, and twelve of bromide of potassium, iu oue fluid ounce
of distilled water, and dried quickly by the fire; a considerable
quantity of paper may be thus prepared at once. Previously
to being placed on the. cylinder, the paper is washed over with
a solution of fifty grains of nitrate of silver to oue ounce of
water, which communicates to it the requisite degree of sensibil-
ity. After having been in action for twenty-four hours, the pa-
per is removed from the cylinder, and the impression developed
with a warm solution of twenty grains of gallic acid to one
ounce of water, with a small addition of the ordinary commer-
cial strong acetic acid. We may now proceed to explain the
working of these very ingenious instruments.

Fig. 1 represents the principal self-registering apparatus in-
vented by Mr. Brooke. The apparatus is supported by a frame-
work of tubes springing from the four corners of a black marble
slab (which when iu actual operation, would be cemented on
the top of a stoue pillar firmly fixed in the ground, and insulated
from the floor of the observatory): these tubes, about four
feet long, converge alternately to four points of the torsion plate;
they thus compose a framework possessing great stiffness. To
the suspension frame of each magnet, a plane glass mirror and
a concave metallic speculum are attached. The plane mirror
is for the purpose of making eye-observations with a telescope in
the usual manner. A gas-light or lamp is so placed, at a dis-
tance of about two feet iu front of each specu-
lum, that an image of a small slit in the copper
chimney surrounding the burner may fall on
the sensitive paper attached to the registering
apparatus. This consists of a stand support-
ing horizontally on friction rollers two concen-
tric glass cylinders, round the inner of which is
wrapped a sheet of prepared photographic pa-
per: the outer or covering cylinder keeps the
paper moist during the twenty-four hours it re-
mains iu action. A bent arm, attached to the
axis of these cylinders, is carried round by a
fork at the end of the hour-hand of a time-
piece specially constructed for the purpose. The
horizontal motion of the tracing point of light
combined with the vertical motion of the pa-
per, traces out the magnetic curve. A third
light is attached to the registering apparatus
for the purpose of drawing a standard or base
line on the paper; by the varying distances of
any point of the magnetic curve from this line,
the magnetic variation is determined. At the
distance at which these instruments are placed,
an angle of 1° is represented by two inches on the paper; but the
scale value may be enlarged at pleasure, by placing them fur-
ther apart.

A A, the declination magnet.

B, a concave speculum attached to the magnet.

c, a plane glass mirror also attached to the magnet, for mak-
ing observations by a telescope, on the old method when required.

D, the torsion plate, reading to minutes by two verniers.

E, a frame standing upon the torsion plate. A hook, capa-
ble of being raised or lowered by a screw, is attached to this
frame, from which the magnet is suspended by a skein of un-
twisted silk fibres.

F F F, a glass box, in which the magnet and its appendages
are enclosed, to protect them from the air; for the same purpose,
the suspension skein is enclosed in a glass tube g, which passes
through a stuffing box h, in the lid of the box.

I, a gas-burner enclosed in a brass chimney, from which the
light can escape, except a small pencil which passes through a
narrow slit h, capable of being adjusted by a screw; on the
breadth of this slit, the breadth of the register line depends.

L L, a combination of two plano-convex cylindrical lenses. The
pencil of light passing througli k, falls on the mirror b, and is
reflected to the cylindrical lenses; by these, the image of the
slit is condensed to a point of light on the surface of

M M, the registering apparatus, consisting of two concentric
cylinders, between which the photographic paper is placed.

N, the magnetic curve traced by the point of light.

0, a gas-burner, fixed to the stand on which the cylinders
rest.

p, a plano-convex prismatic lens, attached to the top of

Q Q, an opaque box, which protects the photographic paper
from extraneous light. A pencil of light from o passes through
p, and is brought to a focus on the surface of the paper.

K, the base line, described by the point of light.

s s, the bifilar, or horizontal force magnetometer.

T T, the apparatus for producing an automatic temperature
compensation ; this consists of two zinc tubes, which are clamped
to a glass rod by two adjustible clamps v v, the suspension
skein passes over a pulley x, and the ends are attached to two
hooks, w w; as the temperature rises, these hooks are approxi-
mated to each other by a quantity equal to the difference of the
expansion of the glass rod and the zinc tubes, between the
clamps V v; and thus the torsion force is diminished; the posi-
tion of the clamps is so adjusted, that the diminution of the tor-
sion force shall be equivalent to the loss of power in the mag-
net: and me t'er^a, when the temperature falls. The magnet,
its appendages, and the suspension skein are enclosed similarly
to the declination magnet; the glass box, &c., is omitted to
avoid confusion. The registration of its movements is likewise
similarly effected on the opposite side of the cylinders.

Fig. 1. — Brooke's Self-registering Declinometer, and Bifila Magnetometer.

A blackened zinc case is placed over the cylinders, wlien in
actual operation, to prevent any light from falling on the paper,
except the two pencils which describe the magnetic curves, and
another which passes through a prism on the top of the case,
and draws the base line. In order to avoid confusion this is
omitted in the drawing, as well another case of the same mate-
rial, which covers the whole of the apparatus, to protect the
sensitive paper from any stray light, as well as to defend the
whole from dust, &c.

Fig. 2 represents the Balanced Magnetometer, the Barome-
ter, and the apparatus on which the indications of both these
instruments are registered.

A A, a self-registering barometer, enclosed in a case, resting
on a stand.

B B, the upper and lower ends of a syphon barometer tube,
which are of the same diameter, and of large size.

c, a float resting on the surface of the mercury, which bangs
in a notch on the short arm of a lever.

D, the pivot on which the lever turns.

E, the long arm of the lever, which carries at its extremity
an opaque screen f, with a small aperture, through which a
small pencil of light passes.

G, a plate on which the tube rests, which is raised or lowered
by a screw.

H, a stand supporting a gas-burner.

I, the register line, described by the pencil of light transmitted
by the screen f, which will evidently rise and fall with the col-
umn of mercury; the indications will be amplified in proportion
to the length of leverage.

Fig 2 — Brooke's Self-registering Balanced Magnetometer and Barometer.

K, a tube with a plano-convex prismatic lens at each end of
it, placed at the back of the burner; through this, a pencil of
lio-ht is conducted in the direction indicated by the dotted line,
and describes the base line l. By this arrangement, two pencils
are derived from the same source of light, which fall perpendicu-
larly on two remote points of the paper.

M, tlie Balanced Magnetometer, is supported by a brass
framework surmounted by agate planes, and firmly attached to
a slab of black marble, which, like the preceding instruments,
would be cemented on the top of an insulated stone pillar, when
in actual operation; it would also be enclosed in an air-tight
case (omitted in the drawing) , having a plate-glass window in
front of

N, a concave speculum, connected with the magnet by a brass
bar in which two agate knife edges are imbedded ; these rest on
the agate planes attached to the supporting frame. The knife
edges may be raised out of gear on four y's by means of an ec-
centric.

0, is a small plane mirror for making observations with a
telescope in the usual manner.

p, a gas-burner, similar to those of the preceding instruments.
A small pencil of light preceding from this is reflected from the
speculum n towards the photographic apparatus, and passing
through

Q, a combination of two plane convex cylindrical lenses in
frame work of wood, falls upon a vertical
covered with photographic paper, and describes

R, the register line.

s, is a brass frame which supports a turn-table on three ver-
tical and three horizontal rollers. A pin projects vertically
from the centre of the turn-table, which enters a hole in the
centre of the cap of

T, the cylinder, resting on the turn-table; by these means the

revolving cylinder

axis of the cylinder always coincides with the axis of revolu-
tion.

V is the gas-pipe by which the burners are supplied.

The balanced magnetometer is, like the bifilar, furnished with
an automatic temperature compensation, not visible in the
drawing. This consists of a small thermometer tube, clamped
to the magnet, so that the axis of the tube may be in the same
horizontal plane with the centre of gravity of the magnet and
its appendages, and the centre of motion between the bulb and
the end of the thread of mercury in the bore. The length of
the stem, and the capacity of the bulk and bore, are so ad-
justed that the weight of the small quantity of mercury driven
out of the bulb by expansion, may exactly counter-balance the
loss of power in the bar occasioned by the same elevation of
temperature.

The necessity of this and the previously described tempera-
ture compensation, will be better understood by stating that in
both the force magnetometers, the position of equilibrium of the
instrument depends on the natural action of the earth's magne-
tism and the free magnetism of the bar, and that a variation of
either of these elements will induce a corresponding change of
position of the magnet. In order, therefore, that the magnetic
curve may truly represent the changes in the earth's force, it is
necessary that the variations of force in the bar itself should be
mechanically counteracted by the same agency that produces
them, namely, change of temperature.

Fig. 3 , is a representation of the self-registering thermome-
mometer and psychrometer. This is essentially a wet and dry
bulb self-registering thermometer. The bulbs of the thermome-
ters are placed underneath the table, through which the stems
pass vertically, and are placed between the opposite sides of the
cylinders and two lights. A narrow vertical line of light,
brought to a focus by a cylindrical lens, falls on the stem of the
thermometei-, and passing through the empty portion of the
bore, affects the prepared paper. The boundary between the

Fig. 3 — Brooke's Self-Registering Thermometer and Psychrometer.

dark and undarkened portions indicates the position of the
mercury in the stem of the thermometer. Fine wires are placed
across the slit in the frame through which the light falls on the
stem; and coarser wires at every 10th degree as well as at cer-
tain other fixed points of the scale, namely, 32", 54°, 16°, and

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

August,

98*. The shadows of these wires protect the portions of the
photographic paper on which they fall from the action of light, and
the darkened surface of the paper is consequently traversed by a
series of parallel pale lines; and the relative position of the
broad and narrow lines readily explain the temperature indicat-
ed by the register. In this illustration figures are used instead
of letters: — 1, 2, are camphine lamps, now superseded by gas,
whereby tlie time and labor of trimming, and a greater uniform-
ity of light has been obtained; — 3, 4, are cylindrical lenses, by
which a bright focal hue of light has been obtained; 5, the psy-
chrometer or wet bulb thermometer; 6, the dry bulb thermome-
ter; 1, two concentric cylinders, between which the photogra-
phic paper is placed; 8, the register, it appears after the impres-
sion is developed; 9, one of the rollers of a turn-table, on which
the cylinders rest; 10, the frame which contains the timepiece;
11, a bent pin, or carrier, attached to the axis of the cylinder,
this is carried round by a forli at the end of the hour-hand of
the timepiece.

As this apparatus is necessarily placed in the open air, when
in actual operation, it is provided with an inner cylindrical zinc
case, with sliding doors, to protect the sensitive paper from
light, when the cylinder is removed from, and brought back to,
the photographic room; and an outer wind and water-tight zinc
case, with water-tight doors, for removing and replacing the cy-
linders, and for trimming the lamps, if lamps are used.

As the timepieces employed in notating the photographic
cylinders exhibit several peculiarities of construction, our ac-
count of the apparatus would be incomplete without some men-
tion of them. In order to avoid the unsteadiness of the hour-
hand, which in ordinary movements results from the play of the
motion-wheels under the dial, the central axis which carries the
minute-hand is placed out of the centre. As the forked or car-
rying arm is firmly attached to the axis, another moveable hand
or pointer is added; which travels with the former, and points
to the hour. The compensating-bars of the balance of this
piece are composed of brass and palladium, to prevent the rate
being influenced by proximity to the magnets. The number of
the leaves in the pinions are all prime to the numbers of the
teeth in the wheels with which they are in gear, to diminish the
chance of irregular motion from wear, as the face of the piece
must necessarily be exposed.

A lithographic fac-simile of one day's work of all the photo-
graphic self-registering instruments employed at the Royal Ob-
servatory, Greenwich, will be found in the introduction to the
volume of "Greenwich Magnetical and Meteorological Obser-
vations for 1841," to which the reader is referred for further in-
formation respecting the practical application of the apparatus,
as well as for a more detailed description of it. The reader is
also referred to a series of paper by the inventor, published in
the "Philosophical Transactions."

POSITIVE

From Photographic Notes.

PRINTING.

"Enquirer^' finds a difficulty in getting good prints on albu-
meuized paper. His tones are too red, and he wishes to ob-
tain purples. The plan usually adopted is, to place the print, on re-
moval from the pressure frame, in a bath of hypo-sulphite of
soda to which chloride of gold has been added; to fix and tone
it in this bath, and then wash and soak it for some hours in
water frequently changed. The prints so produced are greatly
admired by most people, but unfortunately are very liable to
fade. When the prints are washed before being put into the
above toning bath, they are more difficult to tone; this plan is
however the safest as regards the permanence of the print.

Prints on plain " Pai)icr Saxe," excited with ammonio-ni-
trate of silver, toned with sel-d'or, and then fixed with fresh
hypo, are very permanent. They are sometimes of too cold a
tint, and look dry and mealy. A little serum of milk with the
salt bath greatly improves them in the above respects. _ We
have never seen a faded prmt by this process, if the lights

are too yellow, this will be corrected by adding a little muriatic
acid to the sel-d'or bath. The ammonia-nitrate should be ap-
plied with a brush twice, and the paper dried by a gentle heat,
and used at once. Ammonia-nitrate gives better whites than
plain nitrate, but the sensitive papers will not keep; they turn
brown as the ammonia evaporates.

The simplest and bgst printing process is, in our opinion, that
which we have described in Notes, No. 42. This requires no
toning bath, and the prints exactly resemble engravings. The
negatives should not be quite so dense as when they are required
for sun-printing.

_ Some years ago, we sent Dr. Hill Norris a print from one of
his beautiful Dry Collodion negatives, a small stereoscopic sub-
ject full of detail, aoid not too dense for developvient prinlivg.
In a letter from him, alluding to this print, he says ; " I have
had the pleasure of examining the very beautiful print you sent
me. It is really a great point to achieve so excellent a tone
without the use of the toning bath."

In all printing operations, a good deal depends upon the con-
dition of the nitrate bath. We have lately received a valuable
communication on this subject from a former correspondent,
" N," which, with his permission, we have published.— Ed: P. n!

From Photographic Notes.

BIRM INGHAM PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.

GENERAL MEETING, MAY 25tH, 1858.

The Vice Presiaent, W. Howell, Esq., in the Chair.

The Minutes of the last Meeting having been read and
passed, the Secretary announced, that in accordance with the
notice given at their last sitting (this being the last meeting of
the present Session); the Council propose to make this evening,
their first presentation of photographs to the Members. The
pictures, being of different subjects, will be balloted for.

Pictures to the value of nearly £4, were then balloted for.

The CHAiRiviAN then called upon Mr. Bourne to read his pa-
per on

"THE APPLICATION OF PHOTOGRAPHY TO BUSINESS
PURPOSES."

Napoleon, by contrast, stjded the Great, once contemptuous-
ly stated his deliberate conviction that "England was a nation
of shopkeepers;" a remark, which to this day has met with no
denial, and in all probability is destined never to be contradict-
ed. Doubtless, that far-sighted man afterwards discovered
that hidden in that all-absorbing love of traffic, lay the real se-
cret of England's immense power, irrespective of Industry's
twin sister, wealth. Sufficient, that other nations have by
their humble imitations of our business propensities, learned to
look upon the sword as a mere auxiliary in the structure of a
nation's greatness.

The principle of self is so deeply inherent in us all, more or
less, that on the accidental discovery of any wonder in science
we are lead to examine in what manner it may be made sub.ser-
vient to our worldly aggrandizements and to grapple with it
till bound hand and foot in slavish attendance on our increas-
ingly varied and capricious wants; using it as a chariot wheel
for the purpose of trade, or to pander to our love of pleasure.

This may at first sight appear very low ground, but a slight
recollection will show it is not so in reality, for I ask, what, of
late years has been so beneficial in promoting the cause of ci-
vilization as railwa}'s, and I conjecture, without fear of contra-
diction, prospective, and I might add perspective dividends,
played no small part in their rapid spread throughout the laud!

Besides, I repeat, it is to commerce England owes her ascen-
dancy over other nations; and what is commerce, but the ag-
gregate endeavors of individuals to acquire pecuniary advan-
tages? That these endeavors are made in unjust ways as well
as just ones, as lately we have had so many opportunities of

f

Jf^f.<

i

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

231

knowing, rather tend to strengthen my assertion that self-inte-
rest is a motive power in discoveries of a scientific nature.

Tliis point settled then, we proceed to notice a few of the
multifarious in which photography has been applied to business
purposes. The primary effect of the discovery, after the sur-
prise it excited had somewhat abated, was to call into existence
numberless likeness-takers; men of a rather scientific turn of
miiid, and in some cases, perhaps, unfitted for any other pursuit,
lueeed, of late years, since the lamented Mr. Scott Archer's
Collodion Process was thrown open to the world, the name is
legion of those who earn their hvelihood by presenting you with
"your likeness, colored, in a magnificent frame, for the small
charge of one shilling." More particularly in sea-port towns,
■where "Jack" is rampant, is to be noticed this increase. I was,
myself, struck with the quantity in the main street leading from
Plymouth to Devonport, nearly every other house being a pho-
tographic establishment, and in some cases as many as three to-
gether, all doing literally, a roaring trade; some man, by no
means a candidate for the Hospital for Diseases of the Chest,
stationed at each door, with persuasive eloquence, requesting
you to step inside. It is only natural to presume they answer
as a commercial speculation or they would not be there.

Now, I take it, this "holding the mirror up to nature" in a
highly popular form, must have a tendency to elevate the hum-
bler classes, who, surrounded by these scientic substitutes for
daubs and scissor-cut profiles, are led to enquire into some of
the first principles in the chemical action of light; and the
spark of intelligence once ignited, is perhaps soon fanned into
a flame exciting a thirst for knowledge on other subjects, diffi-
cult to appease. I remember seeing a notice of a trip to the
Lickey Hills a summer or two ago, every pleasure-seeker on
that occasion receiving a likeness of himself, or herself, in a
frame, taken on the spot. Imagination paints some bashful son
of toil whose brawny hands testify to their owner's disregard
of hard labor, yet diffident, when wishing to make to some coy
maiden an avowal of love and constancy. What opportunity
so good, as when amid the freedom of nature's beauteous scenes
the swain comparing with his dulcinea the artist's attempt to
portray their facial characteristics? What opportunity so good
to exclaim unconsciously with Shakspeare, "Look on this pic-
ture and on that," and to add, but not with Shakspeare, "how
well them two 'ud look together I" Imagination fancies these
two, ("now happy parents) looking back with pleasure to the
day when the business necessities of some humble photograiiher
caused his attendance at a gipsy party to take likenesses. I
might dwell upon the pleasure afforded by the possession of life-
like portraits of those whom we love or respect. I might touch
on the good the picture of some venerated mother, now no more,
exercises over some son, who, his wild oats unsown, is restrained
in some wrong doing by that sainted look, in which warning and
benevolence are so plainly mingled. But my subject demands
my withdrawal from those more fruitful themes.

Photography has been applied with great success to the busi-
ness of Medical Men. Mr. Diamond, in 1856, read a Paper
before the Royal Society, in which he showed how beneficial is
this science in cases of lunacy. A patient at one moment may
be full of gaiety and pleasure, and at another, dejection and
despondency hold their sway. The photographer catches in-
stantaneously the cloud or the sunshine of the soul, thus enabl-
ing the metaphysician to witness and trace out the connection
between the visible and the invisible in the philosophy of the
human mind. These records thereafter form a gnide by which
to act in other cases. Dr. Diamond also stated that cures in
cases of insanity may be effected by means of portraits them-
selves, and gives the following account of a case in which pho-
tography, as he conceives, unequestionably led to a cure: —

"A. D., aged 20, was admitted under his care in August,
1854, having been recently discharged from Bethlem Hospital,
after a year's residence there. Her delusions consisted in the
supposed possession of great wealth and of exalted station as a
queen. Any occupation was therefore looked upon by her as
beneath her dignity. It was not without great persuasion that
his patient was induced to allow herself to be photographed;

30*

but when she saw her likeness, and was led to converse upon the
subject of her delusion, an improvement took place, and she was
eventually discharged cured."

The author also showed that portraits were highly useful in
case the patient, having left cured, should have a relapse, and
require re-admission into the hospital; when the former likeness
has been found more useful in calling to his mind the care and
treatment than any recorded description could possibly be. T.
N. Bruslifield, Esq., Superintendent of Chester County Lunatic
Asylum, states the gratification patients, under his care, evinced
at being shown their own portraits, or those of friends, and that
a woman who had been one of the worst cases, begged for a
portrait of herself, tliat she might send it to her son in Ireland
to show how much better she was. So many other circumstan-
ces will so readily occur to the minds of all my hearers, in which
photography could be made serviceable in Surgery, that it is
needless forme to particularize.

Then again, reflect on the immense use this noble art is to the
Detective Officers. Happening to need the services of this use-
ful fraternity, I was struck with the numerous likenesses sus-
pended in the office, of different ladies and gentlemen whose
avocations were of a doubtful character, thereby rendering their
apprehension at any future period, when found necessary, a work
of great facility. In fact while in the office, one policeman in
plain clothes, having just received per post a photograph of
some one "wanted," handed it to another, with the question,
"Do you know that?" receiving in reply, "I should think I do,
ratherl" The inference is easily drawn. By the way, it is a
curious fact that criminals always manifest great interest in
their likenesses, and are always particularly anxious that they
should be good ones. Again, a strong advocate of Teetotalism
having tried in vain to convert a tippling brother, made it his
business to photograph him when considerably the worse for
liquor. The hkeness, with its silent moral, shown to the brother
when sober, produced the desired effect, and another disciple
was gained to the cause of Temperance. Dr. Roulston, of
Leeds, recommends that immediately upon a dead body being
found, two or more photographs should be taken, so that a per-
fect fac-simile of the features, both in full and profile, should re-
main for the inspection of those who have lost friends or rela-
tives^ and who would by this means frequently be relieved from
a state of agonizing suspense, when the putrefaction of the
corpse no longer permitted of recognition. Every one knows
that the morbid curiosity of the lower orders in Paris, and more
particularly of young girls, leads them frequently into the
" Morgue," where the dead bodies of those who have met with
a tragical end are exhibited in a nearly nude state, on a stone
slab, on a gentle inclination, waiting the recognition of friends.
I cannot but think photography might be there substituted with
advantage.

The Play-writer has even made this art subservient to his
business, for the London Newspapers have lately informed us of
a farce, produced at the Strand Theatre, entitled: "Your Like-
ness, One Shilling," in which is graphically and amusingly de-
picted the fear into which some photographer plunges an old
lady customer by sundry technical allusions to his professional
apparatus, and the process of focusing viore especially; causing
immense laughter. Again, with what benefit is photography
used by an artist when engaged on a portrait of children. How
extremely difficult to retain them in one set position, and with
one expression of countenance for any length of time I I Where-
as the collodion process enables the portrait painter to dispense
with the frequent posturing required in such cases. It is re-
ported that while Sir Thomas Lawrence was portraying on
canvas the features of some noble peeress, a collision occurred
between them from the want of stillness in the one, and the in-
sisting of it by the other. Had sun-printing been then known
and adopted, the end would have been attained without any
loss of temper on either side. I am fully aware that many emi-
nent artists look with great distrust on the adoption of photog-
raphy to their assistance, but doubtless, as " Time works
wonders," these Conservatives in painting will gradually give
place to others of a more Radical turn of mind, who, with the

238

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

August,

energy which accorapaniea youth, will gladly avail themselves
of the mechanical exactness which a photograph will give, and
yet find abundant scope left for the genius of the true artist.

A talented member of your Society, (Mr. Reglander) has so
recently shown you its applicability to picture composition, in
the arrangement of figures, that it is needless for me to enlarge.

That the copper-plate engraver will yet make great use of
this art in his business I confidently believe, though, its applica-
tion either to copper, steel, or box-wood engraving, must be
considered as yet in its infancy.

Again, the abortions got up to amuse little children in the
way of magic lantern slides, will at once suggest with what
propriety photography can be applied to their improvement.

The Librarian is just beginning to appropriate its benefits.
By its means, a catalogue is formed of photographic fac-siniilies
of the title-page of every book, in miniature, so that any biblio-
pist can at once tell which edition of any work he would
select.

The Astronomer soon found his business was not only facili-
tated, but rendered more accurate by its use. Professor Bond,
of America, was the first who surmounted the primary difficul-
ties. He successfully produced miniatures of the moon, which
when examined by a microscope, showed clearly the dark and
light spots, serrated shadows and mountain peaks with which
that interesting, but as yet unknown region, abounds. One of
the stars in ihe constellation Lyra, has already been photo-
graphed, and from the supposed distance of that star, the light
is calculated to have taken more than twenty years in passing
down to the prepared silver or paper surface.

To the Commercial Traveller, this art has been an immense
boon. Instead of carrying great, heavy samples, a pocket-stereo-
scope with the veracious copies of his wares answers every pur-
pose. I beg to offer as an illustration of this part of my subject
some photographs of Toast Racks, &c., and I can, from my own
experience prove how serviceable is photogrnphy. I also, by
way of contrast, show a lithograph copy, in which you will ob-
serve a great want of perspective, the handles all turning round
in a most unartistic fashion. Besides, customers when looking
at engravings or wood cuts, invariably allow a slight per cent-
age of beautiful lines and curves which existonly in the imagina-
tion of the draughtsman, and not on the article; now, as Nature
never told a lie and never can, a photograph of any article car-
ries conviction with it. Pianos, to wit, being somewhat incon-
venient to carry round the country, in variety, for sale from
samples, are found, when their pictures are viewed through the
medium of a stereoscopic magnifying glass, satisfactorily to ex-
hibit all their solidity and beauty, without actual presence.
Customers when requiring articles to match, now send per post
a photographed copy of the goods required and can rely on pro-
curing exactness. When, in cases of emergency, manufactures
of an elaborate description are hurried away to their destina-
tion, minute graphical detail is dispensed with, by the agency of
light-printing. As mementoes of manufactured articles I sub-
mit three copies of ecclesiastical vessels, made of silver; also a
monument made of marble and brass, all of which will well bear
minute inspection with a powerful niagniCcr.

Messrs. I'adbury and l)ickcns, of the Sandpits, Birmingham,
have most kindly permitted me to illustrate my subject with the
accompanying copies of Art Manufacture, and which as speci-
mens, both of i)hotography, and its utility to business, are well
worthy of close examination. A microscope would, I think, be
found considerably to assist in their due appreciation and in-
spection.

Messrs. Wright, of Salsley, have lately used the art for pre-
serving to them the form and general ajipcarance of the mag-
nificent Railway Carriage just sent off to the Pacha of Egypt.

Beiuiett, of Exhibition fame, has by it, copies of the clock-
works he erected at the Houses of Parliament and at Bolmoral,
thereby facilitating any correction when requisite.

I have seen it reconmiended that railway accidents and war,
should both be brought under photographic supervision. In the
case of a collision taking place, a jihotograph would at once be
made strictly impartial evidence and so prevent important dif-

ferences which will creep into the statements of diiferent eye
witnesses of catastrophes of that nature. Iii Austria this has
actually been accomplished on more than one occasion. And
though for the purposes of actual warfare, it has yet been but
little used, if at all, unless the milenniura speedily arrive when
"our spears will be turned into pruning hooks," even in our day
we shall hear of its application by aide-de-camps and reconnoit-
ering officers when sent by their commandant to ascertain an
enemy's position; thereby avoiding a waste of time by lengthy
verbal descriptions, and facilitating rapid movements. We all
remember, how some adventurous English Captain, just prior
to the recent war, made a pretext for entering the harbor at
Sebastopol, and used the short time allowed him, in taking pho-
tographs of the fortifications for future use. In connection
with Russia, you will doubtless remember that an English En-
gineer constructed over the river Dnieper at Kiefif, the most
magnificent suspension bridge, perhaps, which the world pos-
sesses. The powerful Emperor, far away from Kiefif, but impa-
tiently longing to know how the work progressed, caused pho-
tographs to be sent to him periodically, showing the exact
state of the bridge at a given time. Two tliousand miles of
distance were thus practically annihilated; and the Czar could
know all that was going on, without stirring from his palace at
St. Petersburgh, by comparing the photographs successively for-
warded to him. The crafty autocrat knew too well the little
reliance to be placed on drawings prepared by his mercenary
subordinates, and must therefore have hailed the advent of pho-
tography with much secret pleasure. Stages of progress in
numerous works of art and of ingenuity can thus be easily regis-
tered, as it were; for each photograph tells a true tale concern-
ing a particular spot at a particular time.

The photograph now exhibited of a steel engraving, illustrates
its service in copying rare works of art, or articles of ve.rtu.

I have thus then endeavored feebly and inadequately I admit,
to point out some few of the purposes of commerce to which
photography is, or can be applicable.

Should any words of mine to-night suggest to some brother
member its applicability to some purpose conducive to industrial
art, or the extension of knowledge, to which as yet, he has not
applied it, the evening will have not been wasted.

And of those present, to whom perhaps this paper bas ap-
peared a dreary occupation of precious time, I ask their kind
indulgence. To each and all for their sympathetic attention,
and more especially to those, to whose kindness I am indebted
for some of the specimens now exhibited , I beg to tender my
most heartfelt thanks. Believing, as I do, that to make a So-
ciety strong and useful, the energies of every individual member
should be called out; as one I have done my best; that it is no
better, please accept my apologies and overlook the defects for
the sake of the motive. (Cheers).

Some discussion followed, and the pictures brought by Mr.
Bourne were handed round, and greatly admired.

Mr. OsBORN then rose to propose a vote of thanks to Mr.
Bourne, He said that the Application of Photography to
Business Purposes was of very high importance, and he had fre-
quently urged upon manufacturers the utility of such a course,
but was sorry to find that it did not meet with much favor; one
reason was, probably, the high price which photographers put
upon their services, as it rru.st be borne in mind that cheajnicss
was an essential quality in this application; and operators must
look to the quantity to pay them, while, at the same time, they
must not sacrifice quality. He had, however, great pleasure in
moving a vote of thanks to Mr. Bourne for his interesting pa-
per, which he was sure all present would agree in saying, had
but one great fault — that of being too short.

Mr. Phillips seconded the motion.

The Chairman said that he perfectly agreed with the views
advanced by Mr. Bourne, and he hoped, that as the Society
numbered so many young men among its members, they would
follow the good example set before them during the session just
closing, and open their stores of knowledge for the benefit of
othcrs,j He would impress upon them the utility of jotting
down any observation that might strike them when iu the field,

and hoped that tliey would occupy the vacation well in adding
to their store of knowledge as well as of pictures.

]\Ir. BouKNE having responded, the meeting then adjourned
for the vacation.

COLORING

Fro7n lite London Art Journal.

STATUES.*

BY JOHN BELL.

In a former number, I stated ray view that the marble statues
of the Greeks were not painted, but that the vast ivory idols
of the divinities of the temples usually were; and I purpose to
continue the subject with a few more remarks. I called atten-
tion to ivory not being in itself a truer imitation of flesh than
the finest kinds of marble, or at least that opinion would differ
on this subject, or at any rate, even if some might prefer the
tint of ivory, that it was not preferable to marble to that de-
gree as to counterbalance its perishable quality when laid on in
thin plates, as was the case with the cruseo-elephantine statues.
In these instances the joinings could never have been perfectly
hidden, and there must have been a world of trouble connected
with such a surface even after it was perfectly adjusted. In
some cases we are told it was moistened by means of oil, at
others of water. The manufacture of these idols is elaborately
set forth in the magniticent work on the Olympian Jove by Qua-
tremere de Quincey, and seems to have been of the most trou-
blesome and intricate character — I had almost said undignified
— being put together on wood cores, being hollow within, and
strengthened in the interior with rods of metal and various ap-
pliances; which hoUowness was requisite probably not only for
strengthening the structure, but for adjusting and fixing the
ivory and gold plates of the surface from within.

The sculptor prides himself on his art for its lasting qualities;
but these cruseo-elephantine idols had not this dignity, and
must have required the utmost attention to keep them in good
repair. We are inclined to call sculpture pa?- excellence the
lasting, the imperishable art, and yet here were the highest sub-
jects of the time executed in materials so little calculated to last,
that not only not a vestige of any of them have come down to
the present time, but they must have been about the first things
in the temple to decay. The marble statues of the Parthenon
are not very much more destroyed than the columns, but not a
"pinch of dust" is left of the daughter of Jove.

How jast is the retribution that the idols should have per-
ished, while other works of the same art, less closely connected
with the grossness of superstition, have remained. How much
have we to thank the Providence, which, while it crumbled
these Greek Dagons, garnered up for us in less perishable ma-
terials so many triumphs of Greek art.

We have no definite accounts how the cruseo-elephantine
style of art first grew up in Greece. It was not bor-
rowed from the Egyptians, from whom the Greeks borrowed so
much, for not only have we no records of such works having
been ever executed in Egypt, but it is wholly opposed to the
spirit of Art in that ancient country, which emulated eternity
in the steadfastness of her productions; and if it was heralded
in by the Phoenicians, we have no account of any works on a
similar scale being executed in that country, or by any other
Asiatic race. It appears, at least to at all the degree in which
it prevailed among the Greeks, to have been an indigenous
growth, although for their ivory they were of course indebted
to other lands. It does not seem, however, to have been uni-
versally adopted.

On the authority of a passage in Valerius Maximus, we un-
derstand that Phidias desired to execute the Minerva in the
Parthenon 7iot in ivory and gold, but in marble, but that he was
overruled; and this reason is given, — that marble was not
thought a material sufficiently expensive and precious to do suf-
ficient honor to the goddess. But it is evident that this could
not have been the true cause, for the quantity of ivory requisite

* Continued from p. 104, vol. xi., no, vi.

for a cruseo-elephantine statue would not have been more expen-
sive than to have obtained huge blocks of sufficient scantling to
have executed the colossus satisfactorily; and the gold and
other precious enhancements could as well have been applied to
a statue in marble as in any ether material.

The difficulties of the manufacture of such vast statues of
ivory and gold as the Jupiter at Elis, the Minerva at Athens
by Phipias, and the Juno and Jilsculapius by Poiycletus, are
perhaps sufficiently illustrated by the quotation in the last arti-
cle from Muller on the subject; but they are mentioned also by
Flaxman, and are elaborately detailed by Quatremere de
Quincey. It is further illustrated by these authors that the
trouble of keeping them in repair was also very great, the
veneers of ivory which formed the surface of the flesh being lia-
ble to curl, unless very securely fixed, and to gape and display
the joinings from time to time, ivory being a material that
swells and contracts according to the state of the atmosphere.
In addition to this, the perishableness of statues constructed in
this manner requires no illustration, and when we consider how
opposed such perishableness was to the spirit of anything con-
secrated to the gods, especially their images, and that ivory in
itself is not superior to fine marble in the imitation of flesh, in-
deed, when left to itself, it is apt to become very yellow and
somewhat ghastly in effect, it seems on us that there must have
been some other substantial reason for the employment of ivory
instead of marble.

I repeat that I consider this was that these great idols were
desired to be colored, and were so, if not quite up to the hues of
human flesh, yet to a pretty close simulation of it; and that ivory,
instead of marble, was employed as more suitable for coloring.
Ivory is a material still selected for the most delicate of all
painting, miniature painting, and is also capable of being indeli-
bly and beautifully stained; and in one of these two methods, I
believe, the flesh-surfaces of these great statues to have been
tinted. And, let it be observed, that this view of the subject,
if allowed, affords a double light; not only does it elucidate why
ivory was used for these works, but also shows why marble was
not — viz., because it was not thought suitable for receiving col-
or, and moreover illustrates that it was not the practice of the
Greeks so to treat the latter material; for if they were in the
habit of coloring marble, why, par excellence, was it not used in
this manner in these cases?

It may be suggested that Phidias's objection did not proba-
bly stop short at not not wishing the statue to be made of ivory
and wood, &c., but extended to the wish that it should not be
colored; and that, if his idea had been carried out, the whole
treatment of the Parthenon might have been modified by such
adoption of a simpler style for the figure which, forming the
acme of the whole, would have given the key to the whole deco-
ration of the building.

I conceive, as I have said before, that the style of temple
sculpture among the Greeks was by no means uniform, biit, on
the contrary, various. The simple style in which Phidias de-
sired to execute the colossal Minerva was not without precedent;
but the more elaborate and decorated style was preferred by the
priests and the people. Phidias, no doubt, viewed the future
statue more as a work of Art; the priests more as an engine
of state religion: and the priests prevailed, the consequence of
which is that their idol utterly perished long ago; whereas, had
the artist had his way, some lordly fragments would probably
have remained to the present time to give us a still higher ven-
eration than we even now have for the triumphant sculpture of
that period.

In entertaining the view, however, that these great statues
of the presiding divinities of the temple were thus done in ivory
for the purpose of being colored, so as nearly to imitate the
hues of flesh, we must not suppose that they had a common
vulgar effect like wax figures, to which we seem to have an in-
stinctive repugnance. This, indeed, would have defeated the
very object for which the priests were so anxious. No doubt
the exquisite artistic taste that characterises nearly everything
that has come down to us from the Greeks in anything like
perfection, was also exerted to the utmost degree upon these I

works The Minerva of the Parthenon was no sbam of an act-
ual being (even the mere scale of the work would havepreventea
this), but a bold attempt to realize the celestial idea of a bemg
solemn, impassive, far above the human level, and througH
whose veins coursed not blood, but celestial ichor.

I conceive, then, that in these works the Art-craft (so to
speak) was overruled by the Priestcraft; and, in considering
this branch of the sculptures of the Greeks, we must hold in
view that they were not only works of Art, but that the native
truth of Art in its inherent principles was bent to be the instru-
ment of a false religion, in creating images which were to be the
objects of worship. These were created at vast expense to be
the means in the hands of the priestcraft to rule the people and
impose upon the public. In the temples that contained them a
"dim mysterious light" reigned around, produced in part by
the o'verlapping of the centre roof over the side roof, for the
protection of the interior, affording but a modified trifonum-like
light, and in part by the sacred veils, which probably were also
colored so as to produce an effect analogous to that of the
painted windows in our cathedrals. All was shadowy ; the dim-
ness that reigned around increased the apparent proportions ot
the divine occupant, and harmonised the general effect of the

colors. ,

Dramatic effect in their worship was ever sought by tlie
Greeks, and it has been supposed that it was only at certain
times that the divinities were unveiled at all. Doubtless, on
these occasions of unfolding them to the eyes of enthusiastic
worshippers, every means were taken to work upon their senses.
Ceremony lent its impression, and music and the chant their
charm, and sacrificial incense waved before the god in curling
clouds', like those of his imaginary heaven, from behind which
moving veil the votary might deem he saw his divinity frown or
smile. To effect impressions like this naturally led to these
statues being very nearly fully painted, so as the more to awe
and terrify; and whatever might have been the taste of the
artist, he had to bend to these requirements.

It appears, however, probable that just as Mr. Penrose ob-
serves with respect to the marble surface of the architecture —
viz " that it played a considerable part in the appearance of
the'temple," it is also probable that the ivory statues were not
ever heavily painted, but rather that the translucent quality of
the ivory was taken advantage of by the most delicate colors
that would enter into the material, like a stain rather than by
body color applied over the surface. I have alluded to both
methods as probable, but quite incline to the view that staining
colors were probably used, not only as more beautiful, but as
more durable. Still, however, as we have no positive evidence
on the subject, it is safest to suppose that no constant identity
existed in the treatment of these statues, still keeping in view
that the actual material— as this was always precious in cherished
works to a more or less degree— played a considerable part in
the variety of tint produced . This was probably more especially
the case as regarded the outer decorations, as such treatment
was more adapted to withstand the elements than any ajuucts
of paint, the repair of which, too, would be attended with great
trouble,' as it would have of course to be done in an ^exquisite
manner', not unworthy of the other parts of the structure.

It appears, indeed, probable that what was effected in the
way of variety and relief of tint on the outside sculpture, was
chiefly carried out by means of variety of material and not by
paint If actual paint, for instance, had been used on the
statues in the tympana of the Parthenon, Minerva might just
as well have had a marble helmet painted or gilt as a bronze
one, the holes for affixing which are still remaining ; and the
same as regards the buttons and other adjuncts. If any gen-
eral slight stain, however, was applied to the broad surfaces of
the arc4iitecture, it is probable tiiat the outer statues received
the same treatm'ent to harmonise them with the architecture;
for the same reason that caused in them a distribution of colored
material to carry off that similarly introduced on the outside
architecture, as the shields which were hung round the entabla-
ture &c. Also, it is highly probable that a faint blue stain

was introduced at the back of the tympana, to increase the re-
lief of the figures they contained.

As regards the frieze under the colonnade being protected
from the weather, it would bear, if requisite, a higher degree of
decoration: but as the forms in it are so small in comparison
with those on the outside, a similar treatment with that in the
tympana would give the effect of being more decorated. They
were probably relieved by a faint blue background of an atmos-
pheric character, and the bridles, helmets, buttons, and even
the hoofs of the horses might have been gilt. These relievi of
men and horses in this frieze had no light from above, but were
lit from below by reflection from the marble pavement, in the
same way as the faces and forms of performers are at the
theatre when they advance to the footlights. A somewhat simi-
lar effect may be perceived where dust has been allowed to ac-
cumulate on casts of such works, producing much such dark
tints on the upper surfaces as would be caused by light from
below. These Parthenaic relievi, in especial, are remarkably
well displayed under such circumstances, whence it is evident
this effect on them was studied. It does not appear probable
that the coloring in these works were carried much further. than
I have mentioned above, as any distinguishing of the horses by
color wholly destroys the beauty of the groups as a continuous
piece of ornament, which is the great feature of their decorative
effect; and their relief being very flat, and their effects of light
and shade most delicately studied, points decisively to their dis-
tinctness not having been destroyed by any addition of various
and full color. If, however, more of their surface was treated
with color than that of the tympanum statues, I conceive it was
by means of sub-tinting with the most delicate stains.

Having thus, in some measure, considered that class of
statues which were probably tinged, or painted, or colored by
difference of material in various degrees, we come to those
which I conceive there is sufficient evidence to show were mono-
chrom, their surface being left pure. Among these I submit
were the superior marbles statues — not specially used as idols,
and not secondary to architectural effect.

The Venus of Cnidos, by Praxiteles, was doubtless, on the
whole, the most celebrated statue of antiquity. So great was
the admiration of this work, that Nicomedes, King of Bithyuia,
offered to remit the whole public debt of the city if they would
allow him to be the possessor of it; but so highly was it prized
by the Cnidians that they rejected the offer. They built a small
circular temple expressly for it, open on all sides, so that it
could be seen in all views, and surrounded the spot where it
stood with every beauty of trees and flowers that their climate
could supply.

Neither was the admiration of this statue confined to the
King of Bithyuia and the Cnidians themselves. " Many per-
sons," Pliny states, " sailed to Cnidos with no other object but
to gaze on this statue." " It was," he adds, ''not only the
finest statue of Praxiteles, but the finest statue in the world.
Every point of view was beautiful," and visitors remarked that,
"whichever way they approached her the goddess smiled benig-
lautly on them;" but not a word about coloring does there ap-
pear in the whole account. Now is it probable that if coloring
was really considered an essential enhancement to the highest
class of marble statues, that it would have been omitted on this
great occasion? or, if the the eyes had been painted blue,
and the hair blonde, or any other color, and the flesh
tinted, would Pliny's account have been completed without
any allusion to it?

But Lucian enters still more into particulars as regards this
statue. In the " Amores," ('13, vol. v.), he tell us that the
mouth was a little open, and somewhat smiling. In another
part of his works, he goes on to expatiate on the beauty of tlie
hair and forehead, and admires the precise yet delicate eyebrows;
but not a word of the color oi the hair and eyebrows I He
then makes especial mention of the swimming softness of the
eyes, but not a hint of their hue, which surely he would have
mentioned bad they been painted, or even tinged ever so
slightly.

The statue was nude, the position of one hand like one of the

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE APvT JOTJIINAL.

241

Venus Medici ; the other holding a pendant of drapery that
fell over a vase: but there is no ineutiou of color even ou these.

But the partof evidence on this marvel of ancient Art yet to
coiue is the most important, as it has direct relercnce to the surface of
the nude portions of the figure having been left untouched. The
statue, Lucia n says, was made of Parian marblp, and a blemish
or a slain on the left thigh, he says was the more rcmarkaMe on ac-
count of the extraordinary hrilliancy oj the marhle. Kow what-
ever fancied foil such a stain might be in the idea of the loving
possessor of this statue, this remark can be considered but an
ingenious defence of a blemish in that they loved. The artist,
we may be sure, was not of this way of thinking. Solicitous as
sculptors are to obtain the most beautiful and unblemished
marble, especially for nude figures, there is no doubt that Prax-
iteless would have done all he could to conceal the blemish in
question. And if his friend Nieias had been in the habit of fin-
ishing the flesh of the sciilptor's works by painting, it would
have been ou this occasion that his services would have been par-
ticularly in requisition.

Painted, it appears to me, as regards the flesh, certainly
this statue was not, or the stain in question would have
been assuredly the first thing to have been concealed.
Neither could it have been even stained. The sparkle
and brilliancy of marble is at once destroyed by any for-
eign substance applied, as it hinders the lambency produced
by the reflection of light from its innumerable crystals far
down in the material. One might as well attempt to varnish a
diamond I

That the ancient Greeks did their best to obtain for their
highest class of works the jnost precious quality of marble is
evidenced by every bit having been scooped out of Paros, — the
pure quality of which, when untampered with, is perfectly ex-
pressed by Lucian. Any one who, having the opportunity of
examining a fine specimen of Parian marble perceives the pure-
ly brilliant, lightsome character it possesses, like that of the
milky-way, will acknowledge how descriptive is the epithet ap-
plied to it by Lucian as existing in the surface of the statue he
describes, and how certainly any application over it would mar
the quality he mentions.

Thus we have seen that there was no marble statue of an-
cient time, that was prized or honored as this statue of Yenus
was; and yet we have evidence of the strongest nature that, in
her case, not only the flesh was neither pamted nor stained, but
that neither the eyes nor hair were tinged. No impartial judge
can have any doubt (in consulting the above passages from
Pliny and Lucian) that if these parts were colored, it would
have been mentioned in so detailed a description. It is impos-
sible to deny the above conclusion as regards this work, and
further in respect to the general practice of painting marble
statues of the same class, the evidence is the stronger from the
fact of its being negative. Had Pliny or Lucian felt called on
to specify that the Venus of Cuidos was not painted or stained,
it might have been argued that she was an exception in this re,
spect to the general rule; but not a word is saidou the subject-
In fact these writers both treat the subject just as we should
now, or at any time when the painting or statues is ignored.

Among the meagre and vague details that we have in the
way of evidence ou the painting of statues by the ancients, it
appears most fortunate for the interests of pure Art that the
above most important evidence should remain to us that this
chef-d^ ceuvre of ancient Art was decidedly not painted or stained
as regards the flesh. Further, it is valuable inasmuch as it
conveys the strongest presumption also that neither the eyes nor
hair were colored in any degree. Moreover, it is to be remark-
ed that it contains no allusion whatever to such additions even
on the secondary parts, as the drapery or the base. In addi-
tion to this, the passages in question contain no hint that the
above purity of surface was any way unusual; and in the ab-
sence of all positive evidence whatever that the highest class of
marble statues of ancient time were colored, the silence of
Pliny and Lucian in this case must be taken as proving tha,t the
coloring of statues was by no means universal with the Greeks,
but that it was common for them to leave the marble surface of

their best works wholly untouched, as has been the recognized
mode in the best modern times.

In regarding therefore this whole section of the subject, it
appears from the preceding considerations that the questtion of
the coloring of their statues by the Greeks is not a simple one,
and that not only is there no reason to suppose that the same
mode prevailed with respect to all statues, but the evidence of
the contrary is direct and plain. The Venus of Cnidos was
not colored. Some of the other statues of Praxiteles appear to
have gone under the hands of an encaustic painter, and may
have had some of the adjuncts tinted; but there is no mention
at all with regard to his works of the flesh, eyes, eyebrows, or
hair being colored, although he probably executed works in va-
rious ways. There appear, however, to have been other works
of the greatest importance connected with architecture that had
colored adjuncts by means of difl'erent materials. There were
also those colossal occupants of temples, that were covered with
ivory, probably for the purpose of being tinted, at least to a
subdued imitation of natural colors. And there were the
Archaic statues, and those connected with the licentious rites,
in which their crudity of form and exaggeration of character
were probably carried out in the color that was added.

The chief passages in the ancient writers bearing on this sub-
ject of coloring statues exist in the works of Plato, Pausanias,
Pliny, Lucian, Virgil, and Plutarch. But the array of all
these would be out of place in these brief remarks; and also
what information they may really afford, is confined to a few
passages. I have detailed those which appeared to me most
important. The most valuable of them all, being, I conceive,
those from Pliny and Lucian just quoted, which evidence that
no color was used on the pure Parian surface of the far-famed
Venus of Cuidos. •

From Photographic N0U3.

PECmATE STOP OF A VIEW LENS.
To the Editor of Photographic Notes:

Sir, — Having invented a method of stopping the view-lens
for the purpose of modifying the light of the sky and the distant
parts of the landscape, I have much pleasure in communicatino-
it to you.

I propose to call the arrangement a pectinate stop; the most
general form of the stop being like a comb.

I have adapted this arrangement to the Orthoscopic lens, to
which it is most easily applicable; but it will also be found ap-
plicable to the ordinary view-lens, the conditions being reversed
as regards the position of the stop. A disc of cardboard or
thin metal being cut so as to fit with the cap of the Orthosco-
pic lens, a semi or semi-lunar portion, is cut out, and the re-
maining portion indented like the teeth of a comb; this being
placed in front of the lens, and the new stop being also used
behind the lens, the light of the sky is considerably modified,
and the illumination of the picture rendered much more equal
than before.

I have tried the arrangement with Voigtiander's No. 3 lens,
and found the performance of both the lens and of my new stop
most satisfactory. The stop of 1 inch aperture behind the lens
was retained; focus 25 inches, size of plate It-gXis inches.

I may remark that it may be found requisite to have various
stops to suit the intensity of the sky, and the position of the
line of the horizon in the picture, and that the apparent effect
of the new stop in diminishing the light on the focusing glass is
much less than would be anticipated, and that even when build-
ings or trees project considerably above the line of the horizon,
the new stop may nevertheless be used.

A friend, to whom I have suggested the use of the pectinate
stop, reports that it has enabled him to obtain effects of dis-
tance which he had otherwise found impossible.

I also anticipated that under favorable circumstances this
method of stopping will enable us to obtain photographs of
clouds with a fair development of the landscape, and will also

VOL. XI. NO. VIII.

31

H2

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AIs^D FINE ART JOURNAL.

Annrust.

give a greater scope to artistic talent in modifying the efifects
of light ou the picture.

Tours respectfully,

William Sykes Ward.

Claypit House, Leeds.

[The "pectinate stop" would we tliiuk be better placed at a
little distance in frout of the true stop of a common view lens,
as suggested by Mr, Howell, in Notes, No. 45. The principle
of Mr. Read's stop appears to us to be more correct; for when
its plane is inclined to the horizon, the pencils from the fore-
ground objects have a circle for their base, those from the sky
an oval of less area, while in the "pectinate stop," the base of
all the couicals pencils which diverge from the bright points of
the view are of eqital area and shape. Onr correspondent will,
if he thinks this carefully over, perhaps agree withus-^ but if
not we shall be glad to hear and insert his objections to our
reasoning.

We do not see exactly how to apply Mr. Read's stop to an
Orthoscopic lens. Has he any suggestion to offer ou this sub-
ject.—Ed. P. N.]

For the Photographic & Fine Art Journal.

HELIOGRAPnY vs. FAINTING.

Philadelphia, July 3rd, 1858.

Mr. Editor — In your present number I propose to pursue the
topic opened in your number for May; that is, I would offer
some suggestions as to the means to be adopted by the Helio-
grapher to overcome the difficulty ansing from the rapidity^ with
which the sunbeam acts upon the plate. The portrait-painter
(as I said in the former article) may have several sittings,*
each lasting for an hour or more, and thus have time to learn
what is his sitter's most characteristic expression — or, perhaps,
to call up that expression by his conversation and personal in-
fluence. The Heliographer has his sitter with liim but a few
minutes, or, it may be, seconds — and even then the circumstances
are such as not to be very favorable to producing in the sitter's
mind the mood which will give to his face and figure the best
expression. What can the sun-paiuter do to counterbalance
these disadvantages?

As I have said more than once before, he must have genius
as a sine qua nov, for this will not only spontaneously suggest
various expedients to be used, but it exerts, upon those coming
in contact with it, a kiudling, genial influence, which can be
neither analysed nor defined.

But genius, without the cultivation, which supplies it with
materials and implements, can accomplish little. Let us note,
then, some of the iaea7is to be used in effecting the end above
alluded to.

In the first place, then, the Heliographer should have his
rooms so arranged as to act favorably on his sitter's mind, prior
to as well as during,the sitting. It will be understood, without
my going into details, that I mean he should fit up his rooms
with ar/is^ic taste — having therein books, pictures, eniyravings,
sculpture, (kc, of a kind to attune the visitani's mind to the
mood he would wish to express in the portrait to be taken.
The furnishing oi the apartments, including the forms of the
windows, the shapes of the chairs, sofas, and other appendages —
in short, all the items of equipment should be regulated with a
view of awakening in the visitants the best and highest thoughts
and feelings. If I were speaking to common-place prosaic per-
sons, I might expect ridicule in requital of these remarks. But
you, Mr. Editor, and your readers generally, I trust, have suf
ficient knowledge of human nature, or in other words, philoso-
phy, to know that we are very much in character, what the cir-
cumstances about us have moulded us to be. The dark or the
bright, the black or the white, around us cast their peculiar
shadows upon our minds, whether we be permanently or tempo-
rarily under their influence. As the end we are supposed to

*The biography of Sir Thomas Lawrence relates that this artist often
required even a dozen or more sittings before he could catch that expres-
sion, the obtaining of which was his leading excellence.

be aiming at is to get from the sitter his best expression, and
as all surrounding circumstances operate in oue way or another,
to affect the jnind whence the expression comes into the face
and figure, let us make all be sees or comes in contact with, in
the Heliographic Rooms, tend to produce upon him the influ-
ence we desire. I need not enlarge or go into details upon this
subject, since those who can understand itat all, will understand
it aS once, and fill up the outlines here given , from their own
minds.

This previous preparation having been made, we now come to
the time of sitting itself. And here, as I have repeatedly in-
timated, a momentous task falls upon the artist who would get
a portrait, expressing the best and highest phase of his sitter's
character. I might fill many pages with a detail of v/hat ex-
perience has taught me in reference to the position the sitter
should be required to assume — the mode iu which the light
should fall upon his face and figure, so that blemishes may be
alleviated, and good points brought distinctly into view. In
short, a thousand things respecting the configuration and local-
ity of the sitting room, the windows, through which the light
comes, &c., &c., all of which myriad particulars bear directly
and essentially upon the fact, whether a mere mechauicaf trans-
cript, or a mimic life reduplication of the sitter, at his best, is to
be obtained. I may, perhaps, hereafter present the results of
what a vigilant observation, prolonged through many years, has
taught me in regard to these matters. ■ As I have more than
once hinted before, it seems to me strange th^t in all the nu-
merous, and, it must be said, excellent treatises on our art,
scarcely the slightest attention has been given' to- a subject,
which is by far more important than any other — that is, the
means to be employed for getting the sitter's best and indivi-
dualising expression — his living, thinking, feeling self, instead
of 2, face and- foi'm, which makes us

" Start, for soul is wanting there."

At present, however, I must restrict myself to a few words
on a single point — the action of the artist upon the sitter at the
moment of taking. The Heliographer should possess certain
conversational powers, together with a certain kind of manners
and deportment, whereby he can adapt himself to his sitter —
whoever and whatever be may be — with such effect as to call up
in such sitter his best and most characteristic moods — or he
should instantly quit the camera for some very different imple-
ment. You will find, in looking over the biographies of all
who have been distinguished in portrait-painting, that they have
uniformly been distinugished by their powers and conversation.
To possess such powers demands first original genius — involving
a ready sympathy with persons of all tera|)eraments and charac-
ters, and next an assiduous cultivation of such genius — a culti-
vation which puts one in possession of all those myriad methods,
both in the way of solid and of graceful, whereby the hearer's
mind is arc-used and his heart set all aglow. Therefore, I would
say that the Heliographer who would be truly such — who would
do honor to his profession, and not do discredit to that bright
orb, who lends his luminous pencil for his work, exacting nothing
in requital but 2i fitness for the profession assumed — must know
at the outset, that he possesses a conversational capability, and
then must cultivate such capability to the highest possible de-
gree. I need not specify hoiv he is to do this — his own spon-
taneities will prompt him. It is, however, obvious upon the
surface that a large acquaintance with books of the rarest
quality is oue important item of such culture. But more im-
portant still for him, as in truth, for all men else, it is to ob-
serve— observe all men, of whatever class or character, with
whom he comes in contact — observe them, too, with that genial
humane feeling, which so acts upon all coming' within its sphere,
as to summon into activity whatever is best and noblest in them,
and to bring into view that imprint of the Divine Original and
Sire, which is stamped on every soul, though often hidden by the
rubbish of worldliness, or covered by the black, fetid waves of illicit
passion and appetite. Thus mingling with men of all degrees
and qualities, the Heliographer learns how to approach and
commune with all — and thus is able so to act upou his sitter,

1858.

THE rilOTOGRArillC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

243

both by his conversation and his mere personal presence, as to
bring out the expression desired.

My space forbids ray extending these remarks further. But
to you, Mr. Editor, who have hibored so worthily to vindicate
the dignity of our art, I can confidently appeal for sympathy
with and approbation of these views. If they show that to be
a first-class Heliographer requires both high genius and large
culture and accomplishment, they show at the same time wiiat
you have so often declared, that the assumption of tlie Helio-
graphic profession by persons possessing neither, is an imperti-
nence and an outrage upon commonest propriety.

M. A. Root.

From tlie. Liverpool Fhotographic Journal.
m THE WET COLLODION PROCESS.*

BY MR. J. A. JUDGE.

Read before the North-London Photographic Association.

In addition to the cloths already enumerated, a piece of fine
muslin is also required, which (like the other cloths) should be
always kept scrupulously clean and free from dust.

The glass plates must, if of a large size, be of patent plate,
the edges being ground or removed by scraping one plate
against the other, taking care not to scratch them during the
process, and rinsing them in water immediately the operation is
over. If they were placed face to face, the small particles of
glass rubbed off the edges and adhering to the plate, would in-
evitably scratch its surface, and render it unfit for use. If of a
small size, not larger than 3| by 4^, French white glass may
be employed: it is not as flat as patent plate and consequently
is more liable to fracture whilst under pressure in the printing
frame; the smaller sizes are generally carefully picked by the
dealers — its cost is much less than that of patent plate.

The camera should be occasionally wiped inside with a damp
cloth, and the dark slides, when not in use, stowed away in a
cupboard or other receptacle, to keep them free from dust.

The collodion should be used from a long thin stoppered bot-
tle, which will allow floating particles of film, &c., to subside,
and prevent them being disturbed whilst coating the plate.
Two of these long bottles should be provided, one to contain
the collodion in actual use, the other with the spare supply.
This latter, especially in hot weather, should be considerably
thinned with ether, and as the collodion diminishes by use and
evaporation, the bottle should be replenished from the stock.
The advantage of employing two bottles is this:— the ether
evaporating more rapidly than the alcohol, if not re-ihinned, the
collodion would become unworkable. If thinned with plain
ether, you would be liable, by adding too large a proportion of
it, to precipitate the iodide of potassium, and you would get
spotty plates in consequence. The collodion should be mixed
over night, but is better when several days old. When working
with large plates, with an extensive evaporating surface, use a
thin, comparatively under iodized collodion. Keep the necks of
tne loottles free from pieces of dried film, which might be carried
on to the plate; and give rise to specks and blemishes. When
learning, keep to one collodion from a good recognized manu-
facturer, until you are pretty well advanced. By using different
specimens of collodion you are very liable to be led into error,
and your progress may be considerably retarded.

I should strongly dissuade a beginner from making his own
collodion. Even in the most skilful hands it is a very ticklish
affair, and the beginner would derive considerably more annoy-
ance than profit from the attempt. When proficient let him
make it by all means, if he considers that by so doing he will
obtain it cheaper than by purchasing from a well-known house;
but while learning the manner of using the chemicals, let him
avoid dabbling in the manufacture of them as much as possible.
It will be unnecessary for me to allude further to collodion, a

* Contiaued from p. 205.

paper on that subject having been, I believe recently read be-
fore this Society.

About the best material for a dipping bath is gutta percha;
it should have a piece of wood attacljed to the back, to prevent
its bulging out and rendering the glass plate liable to be thrown
off the dipper. It is well to be provided with two dippers, so
that in case of accident the plate may be fished out without loss
of time; a piece of stout cane with a slit at one end is a very
convenient instrument for tlie purpose. A new bath of gutta
percha should never be used until well seasoned. This is effect-
ed by filling it with a weak solution of nitrate of silver, which
is allowed to remain in it for a week or so, or until required; it
is then well washed with rain or distilled water, and it is fit for
use. It is decidedly false economy to use a bath only just large
enough to contain the plate. With so small a quantity of so-
lution it rapidly gets out of order, and is the source of much an-
noyance to beginners.

I may mention that the Council of the Society of Arts have
just appointed a Committee to direct the institution of a series
of experiments in gutta percha, with reference to the nature
and causes of its decay, &c. The Committee invite the co-ope-
ration of those who have had any experience of it. Pei'haps
some of the members present may have made experiments or
observations touching the action of nitrate of silver upon that
substance, in which case the Committee would be happy to re-
ceive any information on the subject. The queries to which re-
plies are solicited will be found in the Journal of the Socieiy of
Arts, April 16th, 1858.

The bath should be of the strength of thirty-five to forty
grains of nitrate of silver to the ounce of water, and should be
saturated with iodide of silver to prevent it attacking the
plates when immersed in it. It can be prepared as follows: —

Nitrate Silver, re-crystallized, and free from nitric acid. . 1-J- oz.
Distilled water ,..,..,..,.. 2 "

Dissolve.

Iodide potassium , . . , 6 grs.

Distilled water , . . , , ,.,.... 1 oz..

Dissolve.

Pour the solution of iodide potassium into that of silver — the
precipitate of iodide of silver formed by the interchange of the
bases will be almost immediately dissolved — then add seventeen
ounces of distilled water (making twenty ounces altogether, im-
perial) to the mixed solutions; the iodide of silver, by this ad-
dition, owing to its insolubility in water, will be re-precipitated
in the form of a fine yellowish powder. The bottle containing
it must be kept in a warm place for twenty four hours or so, oc-
casionally shaking it, or until the greater portion of the iodide
has again been re-dissolved. The bath will now be almost com-
pletely saturated with the iodide of silver; however, it will still
attack plates immersed in it, and to prevent this injurious ef-
fect upon the sensitive film, either a small portion of iodized col-
lodion must be pured into it, or, if preferred, a large glass may
be coated with collodion and plunged into the bath, in which
it must remain until the film looses its opacity and becomes
quite transparent. Fresh collodionized plates must be added
until, on being left five or six hours in the bath, the film is but
very slightly attacked by the solution. A bath seldom gets in-
to thorough working order until it has been used for a few days.
The pictures at first are generally hai-d, and the semi-tones are
not as perfect as when the bath is a little older. It is well not
to try any more experiments with the bath than can be avoided.
When it becomes old and insensitive, and the film produced
slips about on the plate, the better plan is to reject it entirely,
and convert it into a solution (with the addition of a fresh quan-
tity of nitrate of silver) for sensitizing the positive paper. A
renovated old bath will never work nearly as well as a new one
and the old solution answers very well for the purpose above
named.

The developing solution is made as follows:

Pyrogallic acid , 4 grg.

Distilled water 4 oz.

Acetic acid i dr.

Dissolve.

244

THE PnOTOGRAPHIC A^^D FINE ART JOURNAL.

August,

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

HONEY PROCESS.

Darlington, May 7, 1858.
To the Editor of the Liverpool Photographic Journal:

Dear Sir: — I was induced, by your clear instructions to
"Vale Salve" on the lioney process (Ko. 1, vol, ii.\ and also
from seeing Dr. Holden's (Durham) pictures by the same pro-
cess, at the exhibition in the S. Kensington Museum, to try my
hand at it on Easter Tuesday last, but, from some mismanage-
ment on my part, was not so successful as I could have wished.
I used Home's fZr?/ collodion, and pure honey solution, asdirected,
and slightly acid bath, which gives clear pictures by the wet
method. The plates were prepared and finished in one day.
I was disappointed by their requiring so long an exposure.
With a sixteen-iuch view-lens, three-quarter-inch stop, in work-
ing Taupenot's process last summer, I obtained tolerable pictures
with five minutes' exposure; and yet, under similar conditions
with honey, the negative of the print enclosed was exposed se-
ven minutes, and, independent of the long exposure, could not
develope the honey plates clearly. A negative by collodio-al-
bumen, when laid upon a sheet of white paper, has the deep
shadows quite trausparent, which, I imagine, is the correct ap-
pearance of a good negative; but with the honey there is a deep
deposit all over, and the sky being very thin prints through, it seems
under exposed. As the detail in the deep shadows is imperfect-
ly rendered, can you suggest a remedy? It is perhaps, a bad
plan to change from one process to another. Taupenot's has
produced good results in my hands; and I imagine all we read
about its being complicated, troublesome, &c., is more imaginary
than real; with ordinary attention the plates are easily pre
pared, and to me much more certain than by any other keeping
process. One reason for trying ho-jey was, I expected to ob-
tain a film very little less sensitive than wet collodion. Can
this be done? If you could give me any further hints in this
direction I should feel obliged. In working with the above
mentioned lens, sunlit view, most sensitive honey film, what ex-
posure would you give? and how much more in a diffused light?
Although an admirer of collodio-albumen, I do think the promo-
ters of it very much over-rate its sensibility. I find it two or
three times slower than usually stated; have also found the
same with Long's process. Is the dry collodion suitable for the
honey process? A friend sent me a sample of pyroxyline the
other day for dry collodion made by Mr. Berry, of Liverpool;
he says it will not take a picture by the wet method. I dis-
solved it in three parts of ether to one of alcohol, three grains
to the ounce. A portion fell to the bottom, and on shaking up
did not dissolve. The spirit was very pure, obtained from
Home's. Am I right in so doing? I would just trouble you
once more on a subject which seems to present an obstacle to
amateurs: it is the washing of dry collodion plates. Some re-
commend copious washing, others merely float the silver off the
surface with the first coating of gelatine. Is the latter plan
equally successful? Is evidently less troublesome. Does long
washing interfere with the sensibility? It seems a disputed
point, and one that ought to be set at rest. If you would kind-
ly state your opinion on the above queries, it would be a boon
to many amateur photographers, besides a

Darlingtonian.

p. S. — It is generally recommended to use very old collodion
for Taupenot's process, but I find it possible to keep it till it is
too old. I used some tiie other day a year old, very dark co-
lor, which I partly removed by inserting a strip of zinc; but it
seemed muddy, not so bright as new collodion; and when sensi-
tized gave a dull opaque film, which seems liable to crumble off
the glass when fixed and dried. Would it do to mix with new
collodion?

[We think your picture has been very much over exposed:
hence the weak sky and the fogginess of which you complain,
the latter compelling you to check the development be-
fore the details iu the deep shadows are sufficiently intense,
and obscuring them when printed; that they arc there, however,
is sufficiently perceptible by examining your proof by transmit-

ted light. If prepared as we directed with such a lens and
aperture as you describe, an exposure of from two to three mi-
nutes in sunlight at the present season would be ample, while
wi^th diffused light from three to five minutes might be given.
We have been working recently in this way, and not exposing
for more than one-and-a-half to two n)inutes. We prefer more
alcohol than you have used to make collodion, say five parts
ether, three parts alcohol, and not less than five grains of py-
roxyline to each ounce of solvent. It is very rare to find a
sample of pyroxyline that does not leave some slight sediment;
and we find practically, for syruped plates, that an admixture
of the stringy kind of collodion (as exposed to the powdeiy),
in the proportion of one of the former to two of the latter, is
preferable. There is no doubt whatever about the fact that for
dried plates (not syruped) you cannot wash them too carefully
and completely. We think your old collodion very likely to be
adapted for mixing with new for your collodio-albumen plates.
Try a small portion as a sample, say with equal bulk of new.
— Ed.]

Foi' the Photographic and fine Art Journal.

NEW ORLEMS PHOTOGRAPHIC GALLERIES.

Mr. Snelling: — Having resided the past season in New Or-
leans, and been a close observer of the photographic artists of
that city, and of their galleries, I have noted down some ob-
servations which may interest your readers.

J. H. Clark's Gallery at No. 94 Canal Street, deserves es-
pecial notice from the good display of plain photographs, and
those in water colors. The latter are deservedly fine, as Mr,
Clark possesses the best water color artist in New Orleans,
His photograjihic artist was in E. Jacob's employ for some
mouths, and Clark bids fair to rival all other galleries, as his re-
putation is constantly on the increase, and his facilities keep
pace with his reputation. Only photographs and ambrotypes
are taken at this gallery.

Anderson & Blessing's Gallery, No. 134 Canal Street, pro-
duces the largest photographs from life in New Orleans. Their
ambrotypes are rather inferior to those in other galleries. Con-
nected with the gallery is a depot for the sale of materials for the
art, and their trade in this line is considerable. These rooms
are well furnished, and every convenience for the production of
good pictures, and there should be no reason why they should not
excel in their profession.

F. Law's Gallery, corner of Camp and Canal Streets — for-
merly Moissenet's — is confined exclusively to daguerreotypes
and photographs. Their quality is not, however, the very best.
At this gallery the celebrated Hallotypes are made by an ex-
clusive right. This corner now has been long known as a Da-
guerriau Gallery, and its old established reputation should not
be allowed to wane under the hands of Mr. Law.

Mr. W. W. Washburn, Canal Street,has a finely furnished gal-
lery, but few specimens. Such as are to be seen are mainly
good ones, and consist of ambrotypes. He takes no piioto-
graphs. This is not right. As Washburn was formerly a New
York operator, he should not allow others to excel him iu the
higher brauch of the photographic art:

DoBYNs & Harrington, corner of Canal and Camp Streets.
I called at this famous old stand of these distinguished artists,
and found, ^^uch to my surprise, a sign with T. A. Gkay's name
thereon. From the extensive display at the door one would in-
fer that the work up-stairs would excel all others in New Or-
leans; but on viewing the specimens on exhibition, I was more
surprised to discover that they were the productions of Mr.
Brady, ot New York, from the fact of the mats being stamped
with his name — indicating that New York Ambrotypes were
preferred in New Orleans instead of their own work. I also
discovered here a solar camera, but it was laying perfectly use-
less amongst the rubbish of the gallery. Although Mr. Gray
was so loud in the praises of this ca'inera, and his ability to
work it successfully, I was astonished to learn that he could not
succeed with it. If he possessed the requisite photographic skill

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

245

be certainly should not have allowed so valuable au iastrument
as the solar camera to remain idle

E Jacobs, 93 Camp Street, has a magnificent display as a
Gallery of Fine Arts. In reality, it is more a gallery devoted
to the exhibition of splendid Oil Paintings by the old masters,
than a Photographic Gallery. He has imported a large collec-
tion of rare works from Europe at a considerable expense, and
takes much pride in the display. His attention is consequently
directed from the art photographic. Consequently all his speci-
mens are the productions of Northern operators, whom he has
employed from time to time at stated salaries, which he has in
many instances refused to pay, when the work has been well
executed. This, of course, will briug discredit on any establish-
ment, however superior it may be in external appearances.
Mr. Jacobs has only a few oil portraits, and these no larger
than cabinet size. The credit of these are due to the artists he
has employed to paint them, not to any photographic skill which
he possesses; and I observed that all the specimens, both of am-
brotypes and plain photographs, were made by the successful
artists he has employed from the North, and who have left him
with many regrets, on account of the non-payment of their sala-
ries, thut they ever were engaged to him as operators.

C. Galvani's Gallery, 103 Canal Street, is devoted exclusive-
ly to the sale of old and modern paintings. Connected with
this business Mr. Galvani devotes much of his time to painting
photographs in oil and water colors, in which department he
excels; and he deserves much credit for his skill in the pro-
ductions of his pencil, as evinced by the display in his gallery.

Besides the galleries above mentioned, there are several
small affairs in Camp and Puydras Streets, mostly conducted
under the name of Moses (surely an IsrEelitish name). The
pictures displayed in these diminutive establishments are, of
course, no credit to the art, but rather bring discredit on the
profession by the low prices and the still lower character of the
pictures. If your valuable journal was more extensively read,
and its teachings observed the style of photographs at the
South would be greatly imyroved. The only place in New Or-
leans I could find a copy was at Clark's. His pictures are con-
sequently more ia accordance with the improvements qow known
in the art.

Yours &c.,

R. A. C.

wo refer them to MM. L. and H. Wulff, 51 Rue Chariot,
Paris, who are appointed agents for the sale of them. The
price varies from 60 to 80 francs, according to the size. It
will be understood that the papers are said to keep as well
after exposure under the negative, as before, so that the opera-
tions of fixing and toning may be deferred " sine die."

From the Photographic Notes,

PREPARED PAPER BOX.

Every photographer who has had any experience in positive
printing must have suffered from the annoyance or'casioiied by
exciled chloride papers becoming discolored by keeping. It is
customary to excite papers in the evening, in hopes of being
able to use them on the following day, — the weather looks
promising perhaps, and five or six dozen sheets are excited, and
huQg up to dry,— but next morning, perhaps, turns out cloudy
or wet, and successful printing is impossible, so the papers are
taken down and put away in a portfolio, there to remain until
fine weather returns. Or, possibly, in this unsettled climate of
ours, the glass may be low and the weather threatening in the
evening, and no papers are prepared, — while the next day turns
out all that could be desired for printing. These are among
the drawbacks to the pleasures and profits of ohotography.
Now an ingenious French gentleman, M. T. Cognacq, of La
Rochelle, professes to have found a remedy for the evil. He
has invented a box which can be closed air and light tight, and
in which he says sensitive chloride papers may be preserved in
all their original whiteness and purity for an unlimiled time; &nd
in proof of the assertion he offers to enclose any number of
sensitive papers, marked in such a way as to be known again,
and to produce them at any future time, when required, in their
original good condition. This really appears to be a valuable
invention, and if our readers wish to procure one of these magic
boxes for the indefinite preservation of sensitive chloride papers

31*

OUR ILLUSTRATIONS.

With this number we give four illustrations, not having been
able to get sufficient paper to finish the pictures for July.

I.— ME. II. WATKINS as Wandering Walter, in the Drama of the Maid of
Penrith ; by T. Faris.

U.— NIGHT ; by Whipple & Black after Thorwaldsen.

III. — GENESEE FALLS, with Rochester in the distance and the scene
of the Little's murder in the foreground ; by E. T. Whitney.

IV.— A PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHIC HEAD; by Cutting & Turner.
(See article Photo-LUhography in another page).

We shall not stop to describe these pictures at present, but
may give a general sketch of Thorwaldsen's at the close of the
series. Mr. Whitney has sent us the following communication
in regard to his picture.

Rochester, July 16, 1858.

Friend Snelling, — According to your request in the Journal
some time since. 1 send a brief outline of facts concerning the
murder of Chas. Littles, as published in the Rochester Demo-
crat. The exact spot where the deed was committed, is the
highest point of laud in foreground, near where a man is stand-
ing in the picture; alongside this fence is a narrow path on
which the parties walked to the fatal spot. About five rods from
the precipice the first pool of blood was found, and about ten
feet further another pool. On this spot a dreadful struggle
must have taken place before the bloody deed was accomplished.
Here was found the arm of a chair used (as is supposed^ to ac-
complish the deed; from the level of the spot described, to
where the body struck when it was thrown over, is about fifty
feet (where another man is standing leaning on the rocks);
and from thence it was dragged in a straight line to the water
over 100 feet, most of the distance being a sleep bank down
which the body may have rolled with but little assistance: all
the way down a bloody track was visible, the night was ex-
ceedingly dark, and in the struggle all three went over the bank
together, Ira Stout and sister each breaking an arm and being
severely bruised.

It is with great difficulty that the river can be reached from
the spot described; the path is sleep and the descent by day-
light requires care; down his bunk was found the victoriue
worn by Mrs. Littles, and in her hair next morning were found
burs, such as grow thereabouts. This is about the substance
of the description as given in the Democrat, December 21, 1857.

With the result of the trial of Ira Stout and Mrs. Littles, no
doubt all are familiar; the former was to have been hung July
18, but has been granted a new trial, the latter was convicted
of manslaughter and sentenced to the State Prison for seven
years.

Those unacquainted with Rochester, need to be told that
the river and falls divides the city in the centre. Just above the
falls is the Pt. R. Bridge of the N. Y. Central; on the west (or
right hand side in picture) is the R. R. Depot; above the
bridge on either side is the business part of the city. tSeveral
years ago, a beautiful island was in the centre of the river just
above the falls, and forty-five years ago, all around was a howl-
ing wilderness infested by none but beasts of prey and the Red
Man of the forest.

Rochester now contains 50,000 inhabitants and growing
rapidly; the river gives immense water power; all along its

246

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND PINE ART JOURNAL.

August,

banks are the famous flouring mills of the Genesee; and manu-
factories of various kinds. It was at these falls Sam Patch lost
his life; at low water there is a rock in the centre of the river,
there, on a scaffold 25 feet high, he made his last fatal plunge;
his body was found some days after in the river near the Lake
seven miles below; below these falls about 2 miles is what is
called the Lower Falls, a most beautifui and romantic spot, far
surpassing the Upper in natural beauty; below these falls the
river is navigable for large vessels to and from Lake Ontario,
which is five miles below, winding along between banks from
one to two hundred feet high, reminding one of the Hudson at
the Highlands.

I cannot close this article without paying a tribute to the
genius of one of our townsmen, who has invented a new style of
negative bath, which I have used the last two years with good
success, I allude to Kellogg's Patent Flowing Bath; the amount
of silver used for cabinet sizes is only one ounce, that is suffi-
cient to make a good many; this is very convenient when mak-
ing views, I take a small tent, have my glasses cleaned only on
one side, after collodionizing, secure it in the bath, and then by
tipping the bath with a steady motion get a perfect even flow of
silver over the entire plate ; after a minute or two the plate is ready
for the sitting: if my bath is spoiled or lost, a few minutes and
a few shillings will give me a new one, and by it you dispense
with a twenty or thirty ounce bath, dippers, dirty fingers, &c.

A few words about cyanide of Potassium and I have done.
Tou know how I have been afflicted the last year and laid aside
from business over twelve mouths; when I returned this spring
to my rooms, I was advised by a distinguished chemist of your
city. Dr. Geo. H. Smith, to dispense with the cyanide. For
the first month I oisregarded the advice, and the consequence
was that I speedily got back to my old troubles, nausea at
stomach, weakness in the eyes, loss of sight, and swimming of
the head; I finally concluded to follow his advice, and since
then I have resumed my place in the operating room and make
sittings as formerly, and my health is almost entirely restored.
Please make a note of this, and correct as far as possible any
erroneous impressions that others may have formed from an ar-
ticle you published a few months since, in which a certain M.D.
says it is harmless; and I am fully satisfied that it is hurtful and
every photographer should know it. It should iiot be used for
cleaning the hands even, for it gets in the blood, and to some
persons it is very poisonous.

Yours truly, E. T. Whitney.

The formulas for printing were as follows:

SALTING.

Water 1 gal.

Common table salt 180 grs.

SENSITIZING.

Nitrate of silver 438 grs.

Water 16 ozs.

Four ounces poured off after solution ; precipitated and vedis-
solved by ammonia, and the 4 ounces poured back and filtered;
then 1 drops nitric acid are added.

TONING AND FIXING.

Water 1 gal.

Acetate of lead 640 grs.

Chloride sodium 160 grs.

Hyposulphite soda added till clear ; then
Acetic acid No, 8 2 ozs.

Washed in running water twelve hours.

CRANIUM

From Photographic Notes.

PRINTING.

Mr. Haudoy, of Lille, has introduced an improvement in the
uranium printing process. The paper is first prepared with
gelatine and nitrate of uranium, then dried, and exposed in the
pressure frame, the time varying from 1 to 15 minutes; the
picture, faintly visible, is thea intensified or developed with

aceto-nitrate of silver of the usual strength for paper negatives;
in 30 or 40 seconds all the details should appear; the print is
then placed upon the surface of the following bath:

Water 100 parts.

Proto-sulphate of iron 6 "

Acetic acid 4 "

This gives great vigor to the print, and brings it out upon the
surface of the paper. The color is then a deep sepia, but may
be changed to a black by washing the print, and toning it with
chloride of gold, strength, half-a-grain to the ounce of water.
The iron bath is very energetic in its action, and the print must
be watched when placed in it. Uranium prints developed with
silver appear sunk in the paper, and look better by transpa-
rency, but by treating them with iron they are brought out
upon the surface, and look better by reflected light.

GIOVANNI

From the London Art Journal.

BELLINI.-

The rise of the art of painting at Venice, about the middle
of the fifteenth century, it is remarkable, was not until more
than a century and a half after its rise at Florence; and at the
time when the painters of north Italy were making their earliest
efforts to break through the mediaBval trammels, the Tuscans
had advanced almost to their highest excellence. Fra Angelico,
so much revered as the master of seraphic expression, and Ma-
saccio, who, enlightened by the Florentine sculptors, at length
introduced well shaped, ably-limbed humanity into pictures — a
most tardy improvement — both died about the time when the
painters of the lagune were only just beginning lo infuse some
life and bloom into the old traditionary Byzantine forms, with
aid derived, not from the Florentines and Siennese, but first
from the ruder and more homely early schools of Germany, and
secondly from certain hard and crabbed notions of the antique
which were beginning to be taught in the neighboring city of
Padua At an age when Giotto had long before adorned al-
most every quarter of Italy with his most vigorous and pathetic
conceptions full of dramatic expression, and with allegories re-
plete with beautiful serious wit and sapient fancy, and his suc-
cessors had produced many a long poem of the pencil, deeply
imbued with the favorite mystical theology of the age, or awful
with Dantesque power, the Vivarini of Murano — as if Venice
had meanwhile, in her island seclusion, been wholly ignorant of
these grand and most intellectual works, or rather as if, with
her characteristic jealousy, she had turned her back wilfully
and resolvedly on the example and teaching of the Italian
terra firma — commenced with monotonous single figures of
saints, standing apart from each other in Gothic panels, such
as are characteristic of the earliest period of Art. And in
their more ambitious efforts they contented themselves with an
occasional Coronation of the Virgin, in an antiquated half-Ger-
man and somewhat rustic style, or some very quaint and feeble
representation of more active events, painted on a diminutive
scale, and inlaid in the gorgeous frames of their more important
works, like illuminations in the border of some old missal. The
chief interest in their works, so soon as they show any — al-
though religious tenderness of expression is not altogether want-
ing in them — derives itself, uot from any tendency to ideal
grace and unearthly sanctity, — such as characterises the simi-
lar subjects painted ages before by the Tuscans, — but from
a portrait-like individuality of character, leaning towards ordi-
nary life; and, above all, a soft, delicate, and rosy dawning of
that beautiful and magnificent coloring which became the dis-
tinguishing glory of Venetian Art.

A succession of the Vivarini extended to the close of the fif-
teenth century; and the works of the latest of them, Bartolom-
meo and Luigi, display a rapid advance in this soft and sj)lcMdid
coloring, and in the liveliness of their saints; but their progress
seeins to have been derived in a considerable degree through
the example of a second independent school of painters which
had meanwhile arisen in Venice — that of the Bellini. The

1868.

THE rilOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

247

founder of this second school, Jacopo, chiefly known by his
studies of the antique at Padua, under Sqanrcioue, was not a
paiuter whose abilities call for extended notice: but his second
son, Giovanni Bellini, is one of the most venerated names Art
bus to boast of; for he it was who raised the devotional spirit
of Veuetian painting to the utmost height it ever attained, and
also carried forward many of its more purely technical merits
to an excellence so appropriate to his class of subjects that his
scholar, Titian himself, could not, in that respect, have equalled
hiin. Not only have his saints more tenderness, and pious fer-
vor than those of any other Venetian, but the colors in which
they sbiae forth are unrivalled in clear strength by those of any
previous Italian painter; owing in some degree, perhaps, to a
study of the Van Eycks, but far more, I believe, from Van
Eyck's medium of oil, which he was the first Venetian to adopt,
enabling him to produce richer and more transparent tones
than the former method of tempera, and so more fully express
his own notions and feelings with regard to color. In grouping
and composition likewise, Bellini introduced the first essential
improvements. He led the way in breaking down those Gothic
partitions between the solitary saints ; bythat means enabling them
to meet and look tenderly on one another, and, by-and-by, assem-
ble round the throne of the Madonna in those orderly but digni-
fied groups called Santi Conversazioni, which constitute the chief
charm and attraction of the purely devotional painting of Venice.
These groups supply, assuredly, some of the Venetian recol-
lections 6a which you are apt to linger with the most delight,
for ever afterwards. The prow of your gondola strike* against
the weedy steps of some church, which is shabby enough in all
conscience exteriorly, — an unfinished rubbishy brick fagade, per-
haps; and the dingy black veil hanging across the portal is
lifted up by some equally shabby and sometimes almost idiotic-
looking, neglected youth; but within, even in the midst of
meanness and obscurity, a picture of a most rare splendor and
preciousuess may dawn and brighten before you, such as you
will never forget, if you have any heart or memory for such
things. A group of saints of a dignified and holy aspect, slancl-
ing around the enthroned Madonna, within a niche of some re-
splendent temple, or surrounded by some landscape serene and
heavenly-peaceful as theDfiselves, is before you, making " a sun-
shine in a shady place," with glorious hues of crystaline, spiritual
purity, glowing with an internal light, and therefore admirably
suited to the beautified condition of the sacred personages whom
they irradiate; and still more movingly are the shady tribunes
lighted up with the gentle looks of just and reverend men made
perfect, and there fascinating yon with the loveliness of a calm
religious peace. Defects the work perhaps has, for it was pro-
duced at an early period, when drawing had been but imper-
fectly cultivated; yet it is undeniably a holy vision for all that.
They could not — those early painters — draw feet and hands by
any means adequately; but some of the purest and most sacred
emotions of the soul they could draw, in their happiest moments,
profoundly and quite marvellously. The architectural back-
grounds (usually an apse or magnificent altar-niche, where these
gentle-eyed personages, as in the intermediate Paradise, seem
calmly awaiting their final glorification) are painted in a con-
summate manner, amounting almost to the appearance of clear-
est yet deep-toned reality: and they are especially fond — these
devout, tender-hearted old masters, Giau Bellini, Vittore Ca-
paccio, Firolamo Sante Croce, and others — of introducing infant
angels playing on musical instruments with naive assiduity, at
the feet of the enthroned Madonna, or with an artless se-
rious simplicity which is inexpressibly beautiful and touctiing.
Their harmony is evidently ministering to the sweet and solemn
thoughts of the saints who stand above; and its tones are not
unheard by the soul of him who gazes at the picture, although
unrecognized by his mortal ear. Those little earnest Bellini-
musicians will often revisit the memory, always piping some
persuasive strain in honor of innocence, and gentleness, and
peace: and at the feet of the Infant Redeemer are sometimes
placed a few fruits or flowers, — beautiful simple things which
had conciliated the affections of the painter, and seemed to him
not unworthy of being offered in that holy place.

The first picture of this class by Bellini I met with at Venice
js in the Academy, in the same room with one of the freest mid
most brilliant triumphs of hi:; great scholar — "The Assumption
of the Virgin." The fastidiousness of critical writers of an
ascetic turn, has beeu prone to hint slightingly of that glorious
work af Titian's, whose liberal heaven, full of blooming joy and
sweet healthy human tenderness and innocence, there honored
and exalted, it is nevertheless truly refreshing to contemplate,
even as a relief, after reading their mongrel compositions, made
up of sour bad theology and rambling fancy. I cordially ad-
mire that work of Titian's. It is a delightfully humane and
cheering conception. Yet we can admire Bellini's melancholy
tone of piety in this picture too, as an amiable weakness; or
rather as a feeling of short duration, justified by some r^ in-
telligible sin or affliction, and not by any means a mood to be
encouraged or permitted long. Nay, we think it is rendered
even more striking by the contrast with Titian's blooming hea-
ven, from which every trace of ascetic care is so properly judi-
ciously, and amiably banished. The work we are now approach-
ing was formerly an altar-piece of the Church of St. Job in
Venice. The Madonna, with the Bambino on her knees, is en-
throned under a superb golden semi-dome or alcove; "San
Giobbe," St. Sebastian, and two sainted monks, standing in
sorrowful and indeed somewhat lachrymose piety about her-
whilst at her feet are seated three of those draped girl-like an-
gels, playing on lutes and a viol. Present picture is an admir-
able one, though not quite a first-rate Bellini. On approach-
ing it, you are at once hushed into a deep respect by the very
atmosphere of contemplative, cloistered religious feeling which
you are breathing, and it is some time before you descend to
think of the magnificent but reverential elaborateness of the
painting. Considerable remains of the old feebleness and
meagre stiffness there are, it is true, in the drawing; but other-
wise the painting is generally soft and delicate, the coloring es-
pecially meritorious, of a tender subdued warmth, beautifully
clear and harmonious, animated throughout by a mild glow.
The nich'e around the throne, with its golden semi-dome, mosaiced
with Byzantine cherubin, exactly like some in St. Mark's is,
characteristically of Bellini, quite magnificent in its apparent
solidity and warm transparent tone. The attendant saints, as
frequently with the painter, — are, it must candidly be admitted,
somewhat monkish and mawkish in their melancholy devoutness;
but for this it looks as if truth and nature, or rather the mis-
tempered piety under the eye of the painter, were justly respon-
sible; for the faces and expressions have all the air of real truth-
ful portraits. The pity is that Bellini had not better models,
and that he had not here learnt — as in his last and greatest
works, accomplished at a marvellously advanced age — to repre-
sent through combined imitation and feeling, a more manly,
noble, and beautiful expression of devoutness. But be this as
it may, no one can doubt his perfect sincerity and tenderness of
feeling, up to the measure of his light; and these it is which
give a deep and edifying charm and fascination to the present
work, notwithstanding its shortcomings. Bellini's pictures do
not often display any very intense appreciation of physical
beauty. The Madonna here, one of his most pleasing, is a some
what interesting woman, not much above the ordinary kind,
rather heavy in her form and languid in her looks. Yet a sweet
feeling mildly animates her; and she is very softly and beauti-
fully toned and painted. One of the girl-like angels beneath
her, playing on a lute, has, perhaps, the prettiest face to be
found in the painter's works; but that of another tends too
much to the reverse. Lovely nevertheless in feeling are for the
most part these innocent young beings, seated at the feet of the
venerable Sanctities, and soothing you, both at first and when-
ever afterwards yott think of them, with their looks and with
their spirit-heard airs of their viols and mandolins.

Eventually it came to pass that one of our favorite pursuits
at Venice was Bellini-finding. Yet, in the first instance, I am
bound to say, the works of this painter disappointed us. The
picture just described is by no means healthy-minded in expres-
sion; and his other productions in the same collection (smali
ones of subjects similar, with half length figures) are likewise

:J

248

THE PKOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

August,

disagreeable, from the same monotonous defect of a morbid
melancholy devoteeism, expressed not unfrequently in visages
so ill-favored as to be altogether the reverse of pleasing
Haughty or sickly looking Madonnas, sometimes with weak
eyes and disagreeable countenances, Bellini evidently passed
lamentably too mucli of his long life in painting, holding up be-
fore them Bambinos, now and then extremely ugly, for the adora-
tion of lackadaisical old sants, whose piety seems to be of the
most vapidly sentimental kind, and younger sanctities quite dul-
ly woe-begone; these pictures being chiefly distinguished from
those around them of the same period by the greater force of
the coloring, which is commonly tempered by fine sober greenish
tones. But with regard to the sulyect and expression, religion
he* seems to have but one idea, and that idea, like even the
very highest and best when entertained too long, becomes dead-
ened and diseased from constant repetition. Madonnas and
Bambinos continually required by the priesthood, and continual-
ly limned by the painters, become at leuiith— it is here abun-
dantly evident — very incubi on the imaginations of the latter;
oppressing them most drearily, till all freshness and healthiness
of feeling and conception being worn out, the lugubrious insane
result becomes most cloying and wearisome to the beholder.
These were the inferences whicli, with much unwelcome violence
to our predilections, we coal I nol esca])e from, after passing
through long galleries iu the Aeadeiuy, abounding in the minor
devotional pictures of that "seriou- and loving man," Gian Bel-
lino — as Mr. Buskin calls him — and his loUowers; and indeed
we went away (absolutely we could nol help it) with a mortify-
ingly prevalent disinclinalion for his works. But soon a change
came over us, and this feeling wa^^ nlicrly reversed. To account
for so sudden an alteration in our \ lews, we must now explain
teat we bad not yet seen those three pii tures of his which dis-
play conceptions so incomiiarably mure beautiful, elevated, and
touching than any of the others, that oa first seeing them, you
would, perhaps be tempted, in the true spirit of some graceful
sentimental lady-critic, to eiilertaiu for a few moments the fau.y
thai tiiu painter's guardian angel, ]ilcased wiih his good and de-
vout intentions, and compas.-ionaling his partial defl iencics of
power, had here verily and indeed guided his hand, and so done
the best part of his work for him.

The first which we saw of this matchless triad was the pic-
ture in the Church of 11 Saatissimo Kedentore, on that long
narrow island to the south of the Canale della Giudecea. 1'he
morning before we first went there was cold, wet, and gloomy.
No; by no ui' ans is it always sunshine and warmth in this solt
Italy. The rain-drift threw cjuite a dim grey veil before tlie
doomed Church of Our Lady of Safety, close opposite; and the
mouth of the Grand Canal was roughened with waves, brown,
turbid, and stormy, which required a far longer stroke, and far
more vehement forward movement thau usual on the part of the
gondoliers, wnose craft continued to shoot along extraordinarily
fast, considering the impediments with which they had to con-
tend. ]3ut what most struck me was the entirely altered ap-
pearance of the men themselves, all equipped for the weather,
in high-crowned hats and long dark coats, which, reaching to
the ankle.s, reminded me at once of my old accimuntances, the
tall dismal-looking peasants of Tippcrary: indeed n(jthing could
correspond less with one's usual notions of a Venetian gondolier.
The whole scene, in point of gloom and chilliness, was not un-
worthy of England, not unworthy of the Thames itself — so lo'\^
as it lasted; but how dilferent in its short duration, and in the
complete oblivion of it which smiled through all the serene air
within an hour or two afterwards! Tliat which with ns at
home commonly remains so long, and at last quits us as slowly
and gradually as care itself, lingering for days in heavy sullen
shades and damjis, here rolled off at once in clouds bright a:;d
solid as the silvery domes beneath thcuT, huger than acennui-
latcd piles of suowy al|)S, yet swift as victorious bannered hosts
hastening away with joy and glory to receive the gratulations
of their frieuds, their queen, and country. Dniing our stay at
Venice, at any rate, thus it was the very little wet and gloomy
weather came and went; coming as if simply for the benign pur-
pose of giving Venice a thorough right good washing; and hav-

ng accomplished that object in an hour or two — and in so do-
ng no doubt subdued in the narrower canals and purlieus a
thousand smells, a thousand germs of epidemic malady — depart-
ing magnificently, cheerfully, utterly; leaving no sign of its
visit except a yet purer softer blue in the heavens, a delightful
lightue.ss and freshness in the air, and sometimes (we have seen
it once) an apparent lake in the piazza or grand sqaare in front
of St. Mark's Church, in which the cupolas and glisteinng mo-
saics, and the groves of variegated columns of that Oriental
Pageant of a building, are reflected for a brief space, smoothly
and vividly as in a burnished mirror. This beautiful effect, it
is said, sometimes occurs in the most complete perfection during
the full flow of the spring-tides, when the gondolas glide about
freely in the square, and deposit their inmates at the porch of
the mirrored basilica itself. But I am forgetting the Bellini.
The Church of 111 Santissimo Redentore, which contains it, is a
thank-offering for the remission of the plague which carried
off Titian; and its notable inferiority in size and costliness to
the opposite one dedicated to the Madonna on a similar occa-
sion, is alluded to by Mr. Ruskin as illustrating neatly and
appositely enough, the comparative estimation in which the Re-
deemer and his JMotlier are usually held in this part' of the
world. Nevertheless, II Redentore was pronounced by Palla-
dio's admirers of the by-gone days to be his finest church; and
even such men as Beckford and Goethe, carried away by the
fashion of their age, praise it ridiculously, hailing it with rap-
ture as an object most conducive to graceful classical impres-
sions. ^ But it really seems marvellous that it was so admired;
for what can be more unmeaning and awkward than a pediment
supported by pilasters, with lower down, the ends of another
pciliment sticking out on each side. It is as if two facades had
been shiifQed, or inlaid, into each other. The composition, on
the whole, reminds one much of the houses which children build
with cards. The interior with its handsome Corinthian columns,
and cold and bare proprieties of proportion, might perhaps have
formed a tolerably appropriate rotunda for some Roman prator
to dispense justice in; and the niches around are, it may be,
not altogether unworthy of receiving statues of some of the phi-
losophers and rhetoricians of the declining empire; but certainly
any figure more graceful and poetical would be ignobly placed
in them, whatever Goethe and Beckford may have fancied and
eloquently advanced to the contrary. ChrisUan sanctities are,
of course, wholly out of place there.

In the sacristy is the first we met with of the three first-rate
Bellinis now remaining in Venice, a somewhat small very simple
picture of a half-length Virgin with the infant Saviour lying in
her lap, and two infant angels sitting beneath, playing on lutes.
it is indeed an exquisite work. The Madonna, with something
of the old Byzantine stiffness, is nevertheless highly impressive,
as she sits solemnly with downcast eyes and palms together; but
the two little cherub lute-players, for a truly touching iufantile
Hmplicity, are absolutely, and without any exaggeration at all,
liiile woniiers. Yes, it is quite evident here at once that old
" Zuanbelin" was, in his happiest moments, one of those wizards
of the brush who could stir up from their sleepy beds some of
our very deepest and sweetest feelings. It is, I verily believe,
to these identical little cherubims that those in Raphael's Ma-
donna di San Sisto are so thoughtfully listening, as they lean on
the threshold of heaven's court; but these, I think," in their
simple, serious, artless childishness aie even lovlier and more
air cling. I ncit remember in Art any figures of the kind more
thoroughly exquisite. The one who sits to your left, looking
before him, and seriously touching his mandolin, is more like a
simply human child; the other, throwing up his eyes rapturous-
ly, is more cherubic and heavenly. Their lovely strains (lovely
no doubt) have drawn thither a goldfinch, who quietly jjcrches
on the top of a green curtain hanging behind t'he Madonna:
and to complete this most simple conposi; ion in that exquisite way
so characteristic of these tender-thongliied early masters, three
cherries, peaches, and two pears, painted wiih the most affection-
ate delicacy, lie scattered on the sill at the foot of the picture.
Some innocent child has left them there for a loving gift or offer-
ng. 1 should humbly imagine little " San Giovanni Battista."

1858.

THE PnOTOGRAPIIIC AND FIXE ART JOTJRXAL.

249

From Photographic Notes.

MACCLESFIELD PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.

At a numeronsly attended Meeting of the above Society,
held on June 2d, the following paper was read by Mr. W. B.
Osboru, Treasurer of the Birmingham Photographic Society: —

" THE DRY COLLODION PROCESS."

Mr. Chairman and Genthfiiini

Feeling duly impressed with the honor you have done me, in
requesting me to read a paper before you this evening, an honor
more prized because bestowed at the opening Meeting of your
Society, thus giving me an opportunity of making your acquaint-
ance at an early period of your history as a Society, and ena-
bling me, I trust, to be of service to you in giving you the re-
sult of my experience in a very delightful branch of the fascinat-
ing art, of which we are all disciples.

The Process which your Secretary has kindly pointed out to
me, as likely to prove of interest to you, is fortunately a process
to which 1 have devoted considerable care and attention during
the past year; and, from a series of careful experiments, I
feel convinced that it is at once of high utility to all classes of
photographers, and that Dr. Hill Norris' Process, (the one I
am about to introduce to your notice), is the simplest, cleanest,
and most successful Dry Process now extant. To this gentle-
man is due a very large amount of praise, for the liberal manner
in which he has given the results of his arduous labors to the
world ; and I shall endeavor this evening to explain the modus
operandi of this exceedingly useful adaptation.

The advantages of this process will be obvious to all who
have ever worked collodion in the open air. The perfect free-
dom of action is a great charm to any one who has been tor-
tured with the portable and convenient tents, so light that one
person may carry them while it inevitably requires another per-
son to carry the remainder of the apparatus, so that extreme
portability is not attained in this way. I have tried all ways,
full tents, demi-tents, &c., &c., and had I not been enthusiastic
in the pursuit of Photography under difSculties I should long
since have given up out-door Photography as hopeless. The
stifling sensation of a tent on a hot summers' day are anything
but pleasant. Besides, I was quite disgusted on one of my ex-
cursions with a tent, by the advent of a crowd of urchins running
after what they were pleased to call the Punch and Judy nan.
I next tried the manufacture of a portable developing Box, and
in this I flatter myself I was tolerably successful, because I could
carry all I wanted myself. However, this soon became a bore,
and, although the box is light, the whole of the apparatus is
heavy, so after many trials I took to the Dry Process.

I shall of course presume that you are all acquainted with the
Wet Negative Collodion Process, so that I shall spare some of
the details that I might feel bound to give to mere tyros in the
Art.

With your permission we will just glance at the rationale of
this Process.

I might here suggest that if Amateur Photographers would
as a rule, examine the rationale of any new processes submitted
to their notice, and convince themselves that they were based on
really correct and scientific principles, before venturing upon
actual experiment, they weuld save themselves much time and
trouble as well as unnecessary expense. A great number of the
formulae often published in the pages of the Journals are empiri-
cal and useless, and when tried can only end in disappointment
and failure.

The manipulation of Dr. Norris' Dry Process may be said to
consist of 9 distinct operations, viz.

I. Selecting and cleaning the plates. 2. Coating with collo-
dion. 3. Exciting. 4. Washing. 5. Pouring on the preser-
vative solution. 6. Drying. 1. Exposing. 8. Developing.
9. Fixing. Being only three ^operations more than in the wet
process.

First then, the Collodion. You are all probably aware that

32

various samples of Pyroxyline possesses very different character-
istics; some kinds are highly e.\plosiVe; others nte simply com-
bustible, while others again are not explosive, and are only
slowly combustible. This difi"erence is carried out in the manu-
facture of collodion, some kinds being only sparingly soluble in
ether, while others are abundantly so. Again, some kinds
yield a fiue thin glassy film; some a hard, horny, and strongly
contractibie film; and others a porous non-contraetible and
structureless film. It is this last kind— the powdery or porous
sort — which is best adapted fol' the purposes of Dry Collodion.
New Collodion, as a rule (except when made in the way I
shall describe), is highly contractibie and is very easily washed
off the glass. The wavy lines so often seen in some collodion
pictures are doubtless due to the contraction of the skin-like
collodion when drying.

Collodion, when it has been kept some time, undergoes a
change, and becomes porous and fit for using for dry purposes.
This is generally the case, but not always, and those of you who
have a stock of old collodion will be in a very good position to
experiment with the process now before you. You may easily
test any collodion by manipulating in the ordinary way, finish-
ing, and washing; if, upon passing the finger across the film
while wet it follows it like a piece of skin, and will allow of
being nearly restored to its original position, it will not do for
the puspose; but, if on the contrary, it crumbles up into a pow-
der, and remains so, then it is quite fit for use.

Another method of testing is to pour a small quantity of the
collodion into a glass of water. If the residue is stringy it will
not do, but if powdery it will answer the purpose.

To make collodion new and fit for dry operations, great care
has to be taken in the strength and temperature of the mixed
acids in making the pyroxyline. The difference between a high
and low temperature being very remarkable. The proper
strength of the acids will of course vary in the different samples,
but a good rule is to procure the strongest acids, and when
mixed, add a portion of water, and raise the temperature to be-
tween 130° and 110° Fahrenheit. This will give you a fluid
porous collodion, if mixed in the usual way with ether and
alcohol.

I never recommend amateurs to meddle with making pyroxy-
line; it is a very uncertain thing and requires great experience.
The collodion may be mixed as follows: —

Soluble cotton (as above) 6 to 8 grains.

Rectified ether 6 drachms.

Alcohol absolute 2 "

Iodide cadmium 6 grains.

Let it stand for a few days to settle. It improves with keep-
ing.

The bath is the ordinary 30-grain nitrate of silver, and
slightly, but viry slightly acid.

The preservative solution is made by dissolving 80 grains of
pure gelatine in 20 ozs. of boiling distilled water. Filter while
liot through two thicknesses of bibulous paper. Then carefully
boil down to half the quantity, stirring with a glass rod; when
cooled put it into a bottle with 1^ ounces alcohol, and shake it.
It should be as clear as water.

We shall now proceed to work, selecting and cleaning the
glass plate. The flatted crown glass is what I generally choose;
it is nearly as good as patent plate. Take a file and run along
the edges to prevent cutting the hands; then, with a Buckle's
brush, dipped in nitric acid, rub over the plates on both sides;
wash well in water and polish off with dry cloths and wash-
leather. Never use silk handkerchiefs.

2. Collodionising the plates is accomplished in the ordinary
way; so is 3. Exciting in the nitrate bath. We then arrive
at an important operation.

4. Washing the free nitrate off. Upon taking the plate out
of the bath drain upon blotting paper, and place the plate in a
vessel of distilled or very pure filtered rain water; this should
be collected in a vessel kept for the purpose — immediately after
the first fall of rain — -and not taken out of the water butt, as it

250

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

August

would most probably contaiu organic matter, wbicli would iu-
sart! the purity of the iodide of silver.

After the plate has remained a few minutes in the first dish
of water, lift it out and plaee it in a second, then in a third,
and Uistly in a fourth disli; let it remain in each dish for two
minutes. R;peat the operation witli each plate successively
and change the water for every three or four plates.

It is very essential tliat the free nitrate of silver in the film
should be nearly all washed off, or at least reduced to the miui-
nuim, otherwise, should any remain, the plates will uot keep so
well, and are very Lkely to stain during development.

After slightly draining they are ready for the (5) Preserva-
tive solution, riaee tlie bottle containing this in a saueejjan
or jug of boiling vvat.a-. When hot, take the plate in the left
hand, and pour out sufficient of the solution to cover the plate
evenly. The operation is precisely similar to the coating with
Collodion, only that in this you pour on at one of the corners
and slightly tilt the plate. In half a minute pour this off and
g-ive a second dose, beginning at the opposite end of the plate.
The plate may now be drained and either allowed to dry spon-
taneously or submitted to

G. The Drying operation. — This should be conducted in a
box somewhat like the sketch. The plates are reared up (faces
under), against the partitions, and a spirit-l.imp, lighted under-
neath the box I use, is mide of tin, with sliding wooden frames.
AVhen dry the plates may be kept an indefinite time.

1. Exposure. — On this point, it is impossible to give any defi-
nite instructions. As a rule, I think it is about four tirr.es as
slow, as modi-rately sensitive wet collodion. I have taken good
[)ictjres with Ross' Stereoscopic lens, 4^ ins. focus; | ins. ajter-
ture; bright sunliglit, 2^ to 3 minutes; dull weather, 5 to 15
minutes; the last were overdone.

8. Development. — Immerse the plate in a dish of distilled
water to soften the gelatine; and, for stereoscopic plates, pour
over 1 drachm of the following solution, mixed with three drops
of nitrate of silver, 40 grains to the ounce: —

Pyrogallic solution S grains.

Distilled water 2 ounces.

Glacial acetic acid 1 drachm.

Citric acid, 2 grains, may be substituted for the glacial acetic.
The development will proceed very rapidly and produce very
intense pictures Should the solution become muddy, wash off"
and proceed as before, using rather more silver.

Printing transparencies is accomplished by placing a negative
and a prepared jilate iu contact and exposing to gas-light for
live minutes, diffused daylight for about three to five seconds;
they are then developed in the ordinary way. I shall now pro-
ceed to develop some transparencies exposed last week.

For develojiing large plates a safer method is to use a satu-
rated solution of gallic acid, to every ounce of which add 10
drops of the nitrate of silver, as above. The temperature of
the room should be about *I0'' and the development will occupy
from one to two hours.

9. Fixing. — This operation may be performed as iu the wet
]n-ocess, with cyanide of potassium; this is preferable to the
hyiiosulphite of soda, which requires so much washing. The
plate may now be varnished and the jirocess is complete.

In conclusion, lean confidently recommend this jjrocess; it is
simple, easy, expeditious, and is well worthy your notice and
trial. It requires a little care at first and then all is compara-
tively easy.

May 1 hope that I have done you some little service this eve-
ning, and that I have imparted some information that is new to
yon; if I have done so, and have thereby contributed to your
gratification and the advancement of our art, my object is ac-
conqjlished.

On Mr. Osborxe's resuming bis seat a vote of thanks, pro-
posed by Mr. Stewart, was carried with acclamation.

Mr. J F.sPEU also begged to thank the Birmingham Society,
thiough Mr. Osborne," for the kind assistance afforded inthcfor-
mation of the Society.

Jilu. Osborne returned thanks in an appropriate speech and
the proceedings terminated.

From Photographic Notes.

DRY COLLODION PROCESS.

Tu the Editor of Pholograjphic Notes:

Deaf Sir, — Some twelve months since, while experimenting
on Dr. Taupcnot'd process, a modification of it occurred to me,
which I have found to answer remarkably well; but I did not
think it of sufficient importance to make public. I have always
been averse to that rage for immediate publication which
seems to have seized photographic amateurs. It is the cause of
an immense amount of mischief, as the process (or modifica-
tion merely as too many are,) published in a crude form; fre-
(luently the result of some accidental state of the ingredients
employed, and found eventually to be a mare's nest and not the
great discovery which the amateur at first fondly imagined it
to be; your own experience must tell you that my remark will
apply to the great majority of cases; in what other way can we
account for the many other photographic bubbles which rise,
sparkle for a moment, and are sunk in oblivion. Let any one
who doubts what I say, if he has a half hour to spare, take up
the back numbers of the Photographic Journal, and, commenc-
ing at No. 1, go through the volumes, and see how many of the
various processes there mentioned are in existence at the pre-
sent moment. Alas! they are few; of course I do not say all
are so, on the contrary, there are some gentlemen to whom our
warmest thanks are due for the freedom with which their disco-
veries are given to the public; these are, iu nearly all cases, the
result of study and experiment, and herein lies the difference
between these and the hasty invention I have condemned; many
of the latter have written iu the height of enthusiasm, before
time had been allowed for cool refiectiou, when the heart of the
amateur was beating high with the proud thought that he too
should appear in print as the discoverer of the simple process,
which in his sanguine imagination has already swamped all the
old and clumsy methods, and has taken a first place in the an-
nals of Photography; whilst he, the inventor, is written to,
talked about, his name constantly before the public, as amateur
after amateur bears testimony, — "through the medium of your
excellent Journal," — to the practical utility of the discovery or
modification, whatever it may be. (Though this may be called
a little flight of imagination; yet it is very evident from the
style and manner of many of these letters to editors, that such
were the feelings under which the writers labored when their
communications were pened). Where is the process now?
Have the inventor's high anticipations been realized? I fear
not, the probability is, that after the first appearance of his ar-
ticle in the Journal, it is heard of no more, unless some fickle
photographer should try it, and write to the much enduring edi-
tor an account of the manner in which "his plate blackened un-
der the iiiflucnce of the developer," or "the film rose up in blis-
ters and then slipped off the plate." We hear of no more af-
ter this, even from the inventor, who often finds himself unable
to produce the same results on his next attempt, and in his in-
most heart feels ashamed of his precipitation, and resolves in
future to see that his shi}) is fairly ready for sea before he knocks
away her support and launches her on the public; but to return;
I bes>an by saying, "Some twelve months since, &c." You
had better read it again, as my long digression will have caused
you to forget it, while I go on thus: This process, I find e!;s> n-
tially the same in principle as the one Mr. Fothergill inserted
iu the Times, some short while since, and a conuuumcation re-
specting which is in the last number of your Journal. I have
not written to you to set nj) my first claim to the discovery, (if
discovery it be); but firstly, tor my own amusement, and jios-
siblv some of your readers; and secondly, to mention the me-
thod I have subsequently followed as giving better results than
the one I first employed. This was identical with Mr. Fotlier-
gill's, excepting that I used gelatine instead of albumen.

The plan I afterwards followed is rather more troublesome,
but 1 think more certam, and less dependent on the state of the
collodion film: this is of great advantage to many new begiuneri>,
who in almost all cases prefer the coUodio-albumeu process to
the gelatine, the later being iu a great measure dependent for

1SB8.

TUE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

251

its success on the coUodioti employed. The process is as follows:
After sensitizing, the plate must be coated with albumen, but
iodized, (not plain, as in Mr. Fothergiil's method), allow it
to rest a moment and then wash well under a tap until all the
albumen is waslied off and nothing remains but what is lodged
iu the pores of the collodion. After this, it must be dipped a
second time in the same silver bath, washed and dried. 1 may
mention, that after the albumen has been waslied off, the plate
UKiy be immersed while still wet; but when time is not au ob-
ject the results will be fouud better if the plate be allowed to
dry previously. This latter method was suggested by my friend
Mr. Hooper, of Manchester, who has worked the process as
Well a-i myself, for some time, and can speak to its good results.
As regards sensitiveness, I do not think it has much advantage
over the ordiuarjcollodio-albumen process; it is, however, much
quicker in development, and this, at first, led me to believe that
I had hit upou a more sensitive process; subsequent experiments
however, showed, that to procure good half-tunes, the exposure
required was nearly the same as by the old method. The de-
velopment is conducted iu the usual manner, either with gallic
or pyro-gallic acid, as may be thought most suitable. If this
modification is of any use to your readers they are quite wel-
come to it. I never thought it worth while publishing before;
but seeing that the new process was occupying a good deal of
public attention, I thought I might as well mention my new ex-
periments ia that direction.

"Old Photo."
In reply to the query contained in your postscript, please con-
sult Mr. Ilowlett's letter on taking Instantaneous Pictures, in
Notes No. 43.— [Ed. P. N.]

PRINTING IN

From^iotographic Notei.

CARBON.

Our readers will find, on referring to p. 28, No. 43, of the
Journal, the notice of a patent applied for ou December 12th,
1857, by Mr. Charlks Cowper, (No. 3,066), tor certain " Im-
provements in Photography." This patent has at length been
filed and completed, and the following is a copy of the Specifi-
cation. The process is the iuventiou of Mr. Testud de Beau-
regaid: —

" Now KNOW YE that I, the said Charles Cowper, do hereby
declare the nature of the said iuvention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to
say:

" The invention relates to the production of photographic
images, pictures, or proofs, without salts of silver. For this
purpose, carbon, or other pigment is employed, and it is fixed
on the paper, or other surface, by means of a preparation, which
is acted upon by light.

" If gelatine or gum be added to a saturated solution of bi-
cromate of potasln or ammonia, and the mixture, after being
dried, is exposed to solar light, the gelatine or gum is rendered
insoluble in water. If, before exposing the mixture to light an
insoluble coloring material is added to it, such as carooa or
black lead for a black color; vermilion or carmine for a red
color; indigo for a blue color, or other pigments or mixtures of
pigments, the result is that when the mixture is exposed to light,
and thus rendered insoluble, the coloring matter or pigment is
imprisoned or retained by ihe mixture and rendered indelible.
When such a preparation is exposed to light under a photo-
graphic negative or other transparent or partially transparent
picture, and is afterwards washed with water, the pigment be-
comes fixed at those parts where the light acts upon it, but is
removed by the water from the parts which are shielded from
the light, so that the picture is reproduced in a similar manner
to that in which pictures are reproduced by the ordinary photo-
graphic processes with cliloride of silver. This mode of pro-
ceeding is uot new, but iu applying this principle iu practice,

there are certain difficulties to be overcome. Thus it is neces-
sary to preserve the whiteness of the paper in the whites of the
picture, and to prevent the adhesion or fixing of the pigment or
coloring matter in the parts which have not been exposed to
light, and also to employ the pigment iu au extremely fine state
of division; for in the ordinary photographic processes, the
molecules of silver may be said to be in an infinitely fine state
of division. It is also necessary that the particles of coloring
matter should be spread as uniformly as possible upon the sur-
face of the paper, and to give to the last operation of the
washing, ft liberty of action, such that the molecule or particle
of pigment which is uot fixed may not carry off with it, by its
proximity or adherence, the neighboring molecules which ought
to be fixed by the action of the light,

"A saturated solution of bi-chromate of potash is heated in
a water bath and a quantity of gelatine is dissolved in it. For
one quart of the saturated solution of bi-chromate of potash,
from one ounce and a half to three ounces and a quarter of
gelatine may be employed, or in lieu of gelatine, from ten ounces
to sixteen ounces of gum arable, with a slight addition of albu-
men, may be employed. I do uot however confine myself to
the above-mentioned proj)ortions, as they admit of considerable
variation, according to the quality of the gelatine and the de-
gree of sensitiveness required; a strong solution requiring less
exposure to light than a weak one. The strength or density of
the solution of chromo-gelatine should be such that it is syrupy
at a temperature of one hundred and forty degrees of Fahren-
heit's thermometer, and becomes solid or gelatinous when cold,
and does not crystallize iu cooling, and affords a film or thick-
ness of the mixture on the surface of the paper immersed iu it.

" Tills mixture or bath is used hot or warm, and the paper is
either entirely immersed or floated on the surface. The immer-
sion may vary from two to six minutes, according to the inten-
sity of the light, and the season of the year. The more power-
ful the light, the stronger may be the solution, and the longer
the immersion. The paper after removal from the bath is sus-
pended in a hot and dry place until quite dry. All these ope-
rations must be performed iu the dark or by artificial or yellow

" The carbon or other coloring matter or pigment, is now to
be applied to the prepared paper. The coloring matter being
insoluble the perfection and delicacy of the proof will depend
on the application of the coloring matter in an extreme state of
division. The preparation of the paper therefore consists of
two operations; first the application of the chromo-gelatine to
the paper, and second, the application of the coloring matter,
uot to the surface of the paper itself, but to the surface of the
layer or film of chromo-gelatine on the paper, by which means
the proof admits of being perfectly cleared orcleaused as herein-
after described.

" The coloring matter may be applied in various ways, by the
dry process, or by the greasy process, or by the wet process.
By the dry process, the dry coated sheet of paper may be
rubbed mechanically with the coloring matter spread upon a
pad, or rubber of cloth, or leather. This method is particularly
adapted to the application of plumbago or black lead. The
opei'ation is facilitated by moistening the rubber or pad with al-
cohol. The coloring matter ought to be spread as uniformly
as possible. By the greasy process, carbon, or ivory black, or
lamp black, or other suitable pigment is ground up very fine,
with neat oil or other suitable oil, and applied to the coated
paper by a pad or dabber. As soon as this mixture has been
uniformly applied to the paper, it is immersed very quickly in a
bath of sulphuric ether, either alone or with a slight addition of
collodion. This last mixture has the effect of drying the pa-
per or removing the oil, and of causing the coloring matter to
adhere to the surface. By the wet process, a bath is employed
composed of carbon or Indian Ink, very finely ground with wa-
ter and gelatine, and a small quantity of gum-arabic or dextriue.
The coated paper may be immersed from ten minutes to three

quarters of an hour in this bath, according to the thickness of
the him or layer which is desired. This bath containing gela-
tine is employed warm or hot, A bath of Indian ink, with al-
cohol added to it, gives good results, when the paper is removed
rather quickly from it. As in other photographic processes,
practice and skill in manipulation enable the operator to obtain
superior results. Mechanical means, such as presses or rollers,
may be exployed to facilitate the operations. Thus, the mix-
ture of carbon and oil may be applied by inking rollers, instead
of employing a dabber. As the object ot the paper is to form
a support for the chromo-gelatine, other materialjuor surfaces
may be employed for this purpose. Glass, or collodionized
glass may thus be employed, and coated with the chromo-gela-
tine, and afterwards with the coloring matter, and thus trans-
parent pictures and negatives may be produced; ivory, wood,
and other materials may also be used in lieu of paper.

" The paper or other surface having been prepared in the
dark, as above described, is then exposed to sunlight, or day-
light' or other Ught of sufficient chemical power, either in the
camera-obscura, or in contact with, or in close proximity to, a
photographic negative, or other article to be reproduced, in the
same manner that ordinary photographic paper is employed.

"The duration of the exposure to light varies with so many
circumstances that no rule can be laid down; but it is easy to
ascertain the necessary time by exposing pieces of the prepared
paper to light for several different lengths of time, and noting
which gives the best result.

" After exposing to light, the proof is fixed and cleared by
simply washing it in hot water, either with or without friction,
by a brush or sponge The water dissolves out the gelatine or
gum which has not been acted on by light, and washes away
the coloring matter from those parts which constitute the lights
of the picture, while the parts which have been acted on by the
li"ht remain undissolved, and retain the carbon or coloring
matter. The proof may thus be considered as an engraving
produced by light, and not liable to be acted on, or faded by
the agencies which injure ordinary photographs.

" A great variety of coloring matters, or mixtures of coloring
matters may be employed in the manner herein-before described.
Gold and silver in the metallic state, and in impalpable powder,
may be employed in the same manner. Yarious effects may
also be produced by applying different colors to different parts
of the paper or surface.

" It will be seen that the paper, or other surface, is always
covered with a layer or film, on which the coloring matter is
superposed and fixed. When the coloring matter is mixed with
the chromo-gelatine, and applied at once to the paper, it is very
difficult or impossible to wash it off so as to leave the lights of
the picture clean and white. The application of the carbon or
colorin"- matter by superposition in the manner herein-before
descriljed, is intended to obviate this defect.

" lluvin"' now described the nature of the invention commu-
nicated to me; and in what manner the same is to be performed,
I wish it to be understood that what I claim is:

" The mode or modes herein-before described, of producing
photo-n-aphic proofs or pictures by means of carbon, or other
coloring matter, applied by superposition, as herein-before de-
scribed." , , , 1

We need scarcely inform our readers that the process de-
scribed in the above specification is not new to us, as we have,
on several occasions, suggested in that Journal this mode of
proceeding, at the same time observing that we have only par-
tially succeeded with it. Mr. Pouncey, of Dorchester, is now
spendiii'i- a few days with us, and he emphatically states that
his process is different from the above in some important par-
ticulars, and very superior to it. We have very httle doubt of
beiii;'- able ultimately to arrange with him with respect to the
publTcation of his process, but at present the number of names
ou the list for the purchase of it does not exceed five hundred.
The specimens which Mr. Pouncey has brought with hiin are
greatly superior to anything we have seen before of his, and we
feel convinced now that the days of silver printing are numbered.

We conjure our readers to come forward and assist us, without
loss of time, in the purchase of the process. The importance of
the matter cannot be over-rated. Beautiful prints may be pro-
duced in a variety of colors, precisely as we have all along pre-
dicted.

PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHY

Just before we sat down to pen this article, we glanced over
the New York Times of the day, and the first words that met
our eyes were the following:^

" The amazing development of Invention, of the practical
application of Science, in this country, is a matter which does
not lack general recognition. Of the thirty millions of Ameri-
can minds, it is estimated that at least fifty thousand are more
or less engaged in embodying into concrete form, some scientific
conception for the amelioration or adornment of man's phy.Mcal
or social condition. Scattered all over the country, but chiefly
in the great free Northern States — hidden in cities and villages,
often amid poverty and discouragement, nursing their thoughts,
are the cunning heads and hands that are spinning the threads
to be woven at the mighty loom of Time, into the many-colored
web of our life, h= * * * *

"The startling fact of concentration of so much mental energy
or practical science, has a very deep significance. It is not
merely the result of a certain combination of circumstances; it
has a root in the structui'e of the American mind — a versatility,
an aptitude, a constructiveness, that sheds inventions with a
fertility that rivals the fecundity of nature. a *

"The effects of this wonderful mental activity directed towards
practical applications of science, towards the industrial and me-
chanical arts, are and must be manifold. * * * Tiiere is
a class of croakers, who are eternally whimpering at the defi-
ciency of AmericPwi Art and Literature. * *

" The inventors are doing a work beyond the dream of poet
or prophecy. * * * ^he sublimest epic ever composed is
the progressing subjection of matter and force to spirit, is the
the conquest of Nature by the thought of men."

The article is too long to be quoted in full, and we give such
extracts as we deem applicable to the subject under considera-
tion. Had Photography been the theme of the writer, he
could not have uttered greater truths in regard to it, than those
which he has made upon the general topic of invention. It is
now little less than twenty years since the Photographic Art be-
came known to the public, and it is second only to the steam engine
in the influence it exerts over the human mind and in its revolu-
tionary tendencies. No branch of Science or Art reveals so
much the triumphs of mind over matter. It is made the lever
by which the veil is raised from over the past; it is made the
vehicle to reveal thought to mind; it enters into every branch
of industrial art to its knowledge and profit; it moves the
hearts of thousands with simultaneous pleasures, and it causes
the criminal to tremble. Its works are declared wonderful, yet
its steps have not reached half-way to the zenith of its glory.
Each day reveals some new wonder; each day produces some
new process, or perfects a theory and reduces it to practice.

Among the many processes which have claimed the atten-
tion of the searchers after hidden things, that of Photo-Lithog-
raphy was among the first. In fact, it was quite simultaneous
with the publication of the Daguerreotype, by MM. Niepce and
Daguerre, the most successful attempt having been made in 1839
by an Italian nobleman, (whose name has escaped us), who suc-
ceeded by the aid of a telescope, in impressing the nebulaj of
Orion upon a lithographic stone, and taking pretty fair speci-
mens from it with lithographic ink.

So far as we are enabled to learn, the next attempt at all
worthy of our consideration, was made by Joseph Dixon, Esq.,
who, in 1840, made several experiments in this direction, and
succeeded partially in solving the problem; but it is reason-
able to suppose, from his having abandoned his researches,
that he failed to come to any satisfactory practical result.

Several French and German savans essayed to elaborate this

1S58.

THE PHOTOGRAPniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

253

process and apply it to illustrative art, but up to the present
time their endavors have met with slight reward; wo hear of
nothing having been done to render it worthy the notice of
publishers, or those who take an interest in tho progress of Art
matters. With so many of the first minds of Europe engaged
iu the study of this branch of photography, and delving deeply
into the hidden recesses of nature with the purpose of transfer-
iiig the exquisite limnings of the sun to stone, copper and steel,
in aid of their multiplication, it is — and should be — a source of
great pride to us, that it was left to the American mind to attain
that perfection in Photo-Lithography, which alone can make it
of practical utility.

It was left to Messrs. Cutting, Bradford, and Turner, of
Boston, to perfect this art, and that they have done so
iu a masterly manner is shown by the results before us.

For these improvements Messrs. Cutting and Bradford obtained
a patent, and although in photography proper we have invari-
ably set onr face against patents, (and were we to-day to dis-
cover one of the most important improvements that could be
made in it, we should not take out a patent j; yet if we never
felt disposed to have a band in patents before, the results of
Messrs. Cutting, Bradford, and Turner's Photo-lithography,
which the latter gentleman has shown us, have given us a very
strong inclination to bid for an investment.

We have seen many specimens of European Photo-lithography,
and of European and American Lithography, and we venture
to say, without fear of contradiction from any who have the op-
portunity to compare the results, that in any point of view, na-
tural or artistic; elaborate finish or detail, or in striking effects
nothing can be superior, in the present state of the art, to
prints produced by Messrs. Cutting Bradford, and Turner.
We have been shown prints of every description — microscopical
objects, magnified thousands of times, portraits from life, copies
of drawings and engravings, views of manufactured articles,
landscapes, fossil remains, &c., &c.; all possessing delicacy and
minutise of detail, which we say, without hesitation, cannot be
approached by the eye and hand of the best artist.

As a partial — and it is only a partial indication of what is to be
accomplished — evidence of the truth of our opinions, we give
our readers, in the present number, a copy of an engraved head.
It will be seen that every line is accurately copied, and that
the print partakes materially of the nature of the engraviug
from which it is taken. The grain of the stone, as shown in
this, is admirably overcome in many of the other specimens
shown us. In fact, the process is capable of entirely obliterat-
ing all trace of lithographic grain, and giving the picture the
appearance of a fine mezzo-tint engraving, or of a first class
photograph.

In the illustration of every description of books, this process
must supercede the present lithograph, and to the naturalist and
physiologist it is invaluable. In copying insects, animals, fish,
fowls, miueralogical specimens, trees, and all kinds of vegetable
productions, not a speciality is lost, for, as with the photograph,
what the eye alone cannot see is revealed upon the application
of the magnifying glass.

Another point to be considered in this photo-lithographic pro-
cess is, not only its general application to illustrative art, but
its adaptation to the wants of a large class of artists who usually
wish to multiply their drawings and paintings at a nominal cost.
All they require is the process, the photographic material, and
the stone — any lithographic printer can strike off the desired
number.

Our readers, by comparing the picture in the present number
with those given in April and May, will at once note the rapid
strides the patentees have made in improving their process, and
we feel convinced we shall be able to give, in future issues, pic-
tures that will indicate this improvement in a more marked de-
gree. There is no Avierican improvement in art that has given
us so much pleasure and satisfaction as this, and we do not re-
gret that it has fallen to our lot to congratulate a gentleman
whom we have heretofore been — reluctantly — obliged to oppose.
This subject admits of still further observation, and we shall
again refer to it in our next.

32*

THE NEW DRY PROCESS.

To the Editor of the Liverpool Photographic Journal:

Dear Sir: — The dry process you allude to was discovered by
Mr. Fothergill. My e.vpcrience of its working is such as to
lead me to believe that it will supersede every other dry pro-
cess known; but I have no doubt that improvements will be
founded upon it, as it appears to me to involve a very important
principle. Many here found it not to work, but I have made
some fifty or sixty experiments with it, and with invariaUe sa-
tisfactory results. I believe, however, that, whatever the prin-
ciple of action may be, it is delicate as it is sure ; and therefore
the plan, simple as it is, must be rigidly carried out, although
at present, I do not know how the failures can arise. A friend
of mine, to whom I showed the preparation of a plate, has been
just as successful as myself. A few days ago I got an excellent
stereoscopic negative, with figures, (a woody scene) in twenty
seconds with a Millet's double combination lens and small stop.
The same day I got excellent negatives (stereoscopic) with a
Ross's simple lens iu seventy seconds. I have found no loss of
sensitiveness after five days' keeping. The plates readily solarize,
a result of their sensitiveness, I presume. The plan is as follows :—
Coat your plate with a sensitive negative collodion, which has
been prepared with the acids at high temperature — old collo-
dion won't do; sensitize in a bath thirty-five grains of nitrate of
silver to one ounce ot water; drain for a few seconds, and wash
away the free nitrate by pouring gently over the plate some fil-
tered rain water, and moving it round and round the plate by
the direction of the hand, — do this four or five times till all greasi-
uess has left the surface ; let your plate stand corner ways on clean
blotting-paper for half a minute, and then pour on a coating of

White eggs (fresli) lo drachms.

Distilled water 6 drachms.

Liquid ammoaia 8 minims

previously filtered and allov/ed to re-liqnify by standing; no fil-
tering required. Move this albumen coatiug round the plate
for about a minute, and now repeat the washing as before. Care-
fully keep your plates in the dark, A 10X8 plate with a Ross,
lifteen-inch focus lens will require, with a small half-inch diame-
ter stop, three to four minutes; a stereoscopic Ross's lens ordi-
nary stop, forty to ninety seconds ; a Millet double combination
lens, with a half-inch stop (excellent for landscapes with figures)
will take twenty to forty-five seconds. Develope with

Pyrogallic acid I5 to 2 grains.

Water 1 ounce.

Acetic acid 10 minims.

Sp. Rect 5 minims.

Being careful to add at first two drops to a drachm nitrate of
silver solution, thirty-5ve grains to one ounce. Fix in the hy-
posulphite of soda. Yours obediently, J. P.

FAULTY NEGATIVES.

To the Editor of the Liverpool Photographic Journal:

Sir, — For some time I have been trying my hand at out-of-
door photography, but have been so very unsuccessful that I am
dispirited, and now seek for your kind aid to put me in a better
way. I enclose a few specimens, and shall be glad if, in your
next issue, you will point out the reason why I do not get bet-
ter printing negatives.

Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4 are by the collodio-albumen process, as
given by Mr. Ackland. Nos. 5 and 6 are by yoitr oivn honey
process, as given in recent numbers of the Journal by yourself.

I have proceeded in all the manipulations as Mr. Ackland
and yourself advise. Hoping you will do me the favor request-
ed, by noticing this in your next. I am, &c.. Winter.

[Improper exposure in the camera, coupled with errors in de-
velopment, are the points at fault, except in No. 4, which is nearly
correct in both. The stain arises from v,rant of the proof being
washed free of the nitrate of silver before being put into the ton-
ing bath. It is difficult to decided from your prints alone whe-
ther the weakness of the negatives is due to under or over ex-
posure; but No. 6 appears to us as simply requiring further de-
velopment, which may even now be carried on further, if it has
not been varnished. — Ed.]

254

THE PEOTO GRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

An^st

For the Photographic and Fine Art Journal.

THE APLANATIC STEREOGRAPllIC vs. THE ORTHOSCOPIC LENS.

H. H. SxELLiNG, Esq: — After I had the pleasure of visiting
your editorial establishment.and had laid before you the bird's-eye
view of some streets of Nev/ York, takeu by a new camera con-
structed by us( Wm.Gerhardt and E.Prussen,) it will be perhaps
interesting to you to compare our instrument, which we call the
Aplanatic Stereographic Lens, with other cameras of our con-
struction. We have to remark that oar camera produced a
picture on which the objects of twenty feet distance are just as
clear as objects of two miles distance; so that you are able to
read every sign in this reach. The angular action of this field
is 55 degrees, and gives a picture of 12 inches square, with
equal light over the whole field, which would only be possible
by such a construction of lenses. For better understanding I
give you a full description of our lens.

The first lens opposite the object is an achromatic one con-
structed according to Clairaut, where the adjoining sides are
equal and cemented with the intention not to lose too much light
by reflection. This lens in our apparatus is remarkably large in
diameter, in comparison with the focus. The reason for this is to
collect as much light as possible from objects, as well in the cen-
tre as on the edges. The form of this lens is very different accord-
ing to the refrangibility and dispersive power of the glass, and a
certain kind of glass may be very good for a telescope, where
it does not require a great aperture for an arrangement of this
kind. After this lens is made as perfect as possible, in respect
to chromatic and spherical aberration, the remaining devia-
tion has to be corrected by a second achromatic lens, with the
contrary property of the first lens. We will observe that
the remaining part of spherical aberration of the first lens is

\

image, which we call free from planary aberration or apla-
natic. By the well adapted negative lens of our constrnction,
the image becomes solid (stereoscopic), and by using such a
lens for photography, the lens becomes aplanatic stereographic,
hence the name adopted aplanatic stereographic lens.

You will find the diaphragm placed before the negative lens,
and not behind, because in this case the reflection of the light
from the back lens, and the thickness of the last two lenses,
has not so great an influence on the quality of the image. The
separation of the positive and negative part of the achromatic
negative lens is considerable, which gives the opportunity to
make the picture more relieved. I remark that a combination
of such lenses will give a good negative with i inch diaphragm
a 12 inch picture in 5 seconds, with a good sensitive collo-
dion.

Here I give you the dimensions of our view camera tube of
the above construction, completed in the last of February, 1858.

Aplanatic Stereographic Lens of Win
Gerhardt and E. Prussen.

The front lens focus 12 ins.

Diameter 3

The negative lens focus 60

Diameter 2

Size of the image ]2

Distance between the 2 achroma-
tic lenses 2.45

Separation of the negative lens. 0 5

Combined focus n

Angular action of the combined lenses
55 degrees.

Fig. 1.

considerable, if we leave the whole aperture for the image;
it would be tolerable only in the centre, and not extend
one inch; but if we give a free passage of light as well
through the centre as on the edges, and cut off the cone of light
by a diaphragm at a suitable distance, we receive a better image
with still more and better light, as well from the centre as from
the circumference of the first lens, as if we would place the
diaphragm 2 or 3 inches in the front of the first lens, or near
behind it. Here is the great advantage to use a large front
lens, and adjust the spherical aberration after the light has
passed the diaphragm. This diaphragm, as you will find in
Fig. 1, is placed between the front lens and the correcting
lens, but only a short distance from the correcting lens,
which is here in our apparatus a negative achromatic lens,
which corrects the spherical aberration left by the front lens.
The reason why the correcting lens is negative, is easily ex-
plained, because the spherical aberration left by the front lens is
such that the circle of indistinctness lies near the direction
of the objects, and the image will become more distinct on the
edge if we push the ground glass more towards the objects. In
this case we say the aberration of the image is positive; it is
therefore a want of negativity till the positive comes to a plane

Orthoscopic Lens of Voigtlander.

The front lens focus 6.97 ir

Diameter 1.39

Small lens focus 15.72

Diameter 0.87

Size of the image 9.43

Distance between the lenses 0.698

Combined focus n

Angular action of the combined lenses 44
degrees.

The dotted lines and drawings show the angular action of the
combination. Our apparatus (Fig. 1) has an angular field of

Fig. 2.

55 degrees with an aperture of double the amount of Yoigt-
lander's Orthoscopic Lens by the same focal length. By the
drawing Fig. 2 of Yoightlander's Orthoscopic Lens, the angular
field is only 44 degrees, and in consequence of this it gives a
smaller image with less light than our apparatus.

The drawings are reduced to one half the above mentioned
measurements, and are sufficient to compare one with the other.

Yours respectfully,

William Gerhardt.

From Pkoiographic Notes.

MR. POUNCY'S PROCESS.

To the Editor of rhotographic Notes:

Portrait Rooms, Triangle, Bristol, June litb, 1858.

Sir, — I, as an old professional photographer, have long
wished for a method of printing photographs, that would en-
able me to say to my customers, (without making ray
conscience wince) "this will be a dear relic of your old father
for your children to look upon!"

The above desire made me call upon Mr. Pouncy, the inventor
of the Carbon Process, to carefully examine his productions.

I found him an intelligent man, of quick nervous tenipernment,
very kind and free with a mixture of love of approbation and
a little caution. He has spent much time and money in the
development of this new Carbon Process. The prints astonished
me ; they far exceeded my expectation. The minute detail is
hardly so finely rendered as by the common method, but the
process is yet in swaddling bands. Mr. Pouncy gave me a few
prints; I have shown them to many scientific photographers,
who all wonder that the Photograj^hic Journal should use its

1858,

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

255

little influence to throw cold water upon, (in ray opinion), the
onlv real discovery ii: art since the ap[)lication of collodion. If
Mr. Touncy's Process could be brought out, and improved only
a Utile it would give an impetus to the sale of photographic
productions hitherto unknown.

Photography and art, which are only courting each other
now, would then become wedded altogether, and large land
seajDe photographs, by a process of coloring adopted by Mr.
Elliot of Tannton, will be rendered not much inferior to some
of Gainsboro's best works. One word more, iu conclusiou, on
portraiture. Mr. Pouncy's Process is already perfect for that
purpose. I saw many prints in fit order for the pencil to work
into beautiful works of art. I examined Mr. Pouncy's nega-
tives, capital impressions will be got for the pencil. 1/ need be,
I can prove the pencil to be absolutely necessary in the produc-
tion of a correct resemblance of nature in portraiture. I now
conclude ray note by thanking you, Sir, for your bold and sen-
sible method of trying to buy Mr. Pouncy's Process, and I
strongly advise all' those who are wishful to aake permanent
portraits that will bear refiwd criticism and a little breath of
time, to assist you iu this worthy speculation.

I have been induced to write the above letter, which you can
use at your discretion, by reading the unjust, and very unphilo-
sophical criticism in the Photographic Journal.

John Beattie.

in color but did not show any of the yellow color which proves
it to be useless to the Photographer. In the course of ray ex-
periments to discover the cause, I tried every remedy suggested
iu your publication, without effect,' but upon trying a fresii sam-
ple of iron my plate became as free from fogging as possible.
I send this note, hoping that you will mention the matter in
your JYotes and thus perhaps save others from the trouble and
vexation caused by repeated failures; more especially as iron is
now coming into use as a developer for negatives.

J. L.

From Photographic Holes.

DISTILLED WATER.

To the Editor of Photographic Notes:

Sir, Will you please to inform me if condensed steam water,

collected from a steam boiler, kept purposely for steaming prints
at a calico printer's establishment, will not answer every pur-
pose for photography as effectually as water distilled over a
common fire. In such a boiler there is nothing introduced for
cleaning the boiler, as there is iu common steam boilers, as they
are obliged to be very particular or they might damage the co-
lors of the prints.

I believe it is customary for some photographers to use water
condensed from somewhere near the mercurial tube; can you
inform me if there is any advantage in this over water con-
densed from cylinders heated for the purpose of drying yarns in
cotton mills.

An early answer to the above will save the expense either in

wasted material or purchase of distilled water, to one who would

practice a

Dry Process.

[If the steam is free from other volatile matter it does not
signify from what source it is obtained. Distilled or rain water
should not be collected in leaden vessels, or passed through
leaden pipes, because the lead is oxydized by the air contained
in the water, and the water dissolves a small quantity of oxide
of lead, which fogs the plate if used in the nitrate bath. The
objection does not apply with equal force to spring or rain wa-
ter, as these contain salts which form an insoluble precipitate
^pon the surface of the lead, and thereby protect it from oxy-
dation. Filtered rain water from leaden tanks is sometimes sold
for distilled water. Lead may be detected by sulphuric acid,
which causes a white cloudiness in the water containing it, — or
by iodide of potassium, which produces a yellow turbidity due
to iodide of lead, — or by hydro-sulphate of ammonia, which
produces a black tinge from sulphide of lead. — Ed. P. N.]

From Photographic Notes.

FOGGING OF COLLODION POSITIVES.

To the Editor of Photographic Notes:

giR_ Amongst the numerous causes of fogging of Positive

Collodion Plates, I have not seen mentioned one which caused
me much trouble' and expense. It was some proto-sulphate of
iron I had by me for some time. It had become slightly lighter

Personal # !lrt Intelligence.

— Our remarks in the last number of the Journal on the
Daguerreotype, Ambrotype and Melainotype, have called forth
various marks of approbation and censure, according as they
have affected the artists concerned. We find, however, the
preponderance in favor of the Daguarreotype and Melainotype.
That the thousands of miserably executed ambrotypes which
have flooded the country for the three last years, has disgusted
the great body of the thinking portion of the patrons of the
Photographic Art there can be no doubt, and in order to cor-
rect the deplorable effects this cause has produced in the public
mind, as well as in the decline of photographic portraiture, it
should be the aim of every artist throughout the land, to en-
deavor to improve those branches which bid fairest to satisfy
the demands and desires of the public. Had the same amount
of labor during the three years past, been bestowed upon at-
tempts to improve the Daguerreotype and Melainotype that
have been upon the Ambrotype, a very different series of re-
sults may have been expected, and those artists who now de-
plore the loss of that reputation which they sustained in the
Daguerreotype would have progressed instead of receded iu the
public estimation. The fact that the Daguerreotype has not
improved in the same ratio with other photographic processes,
can be attributed only to the universal stampede of artists from
an actuality to an ignis fatmis, which has eventually led them
into the worst kind of a quagmire. What is the Daguerreotype?
It is the facsimile of the object delineated, possessing iu bona-
fide light and shade, all the requirements of artistic taste —
marred only by one fault — its glassy reflection — with a boldness
and roundness that challenges criticism, with a delicacy and
softness that cannot be surpassed even by the crayon ; perfectly
free from angular or abrupt outline, and with exquisite modula-
tions of light and shade; and yet more, what is of greatest im-
portance, a permanence which, thus far, time has failed to com-
promise. Its fault we have always believed and asserted can
and should be overcome. Now that business is so prostrated
and our artists have time to experiment, we would advise all
who have the ability, to experiment for the removal of the diffi-
culty. All will now agree, we doubt not, that the two great
obstacles to be overcome in Photography are, to render the
Daguerreotype visible from all points equally, and the Papyro-
lype, or paper positive, permanent. These accomplished, and
the strides of the art will be far more rapid than ever before,
and results will be obtained beyond the present feraof man.

What is the Mc^aMio<3/;)e, that it should take precedence of
the Ambrotype, and be placed on an equality with the Daguer-
reotype ? It is a collodion positive on an iron plate, and iu its
characteristics resembles the Daguerreotype more closely than
any other photographic portrait, while it stands out in bolder
relief iu consequence of stronger contrast between the figure
and the background. Its detail and gradations of light and
shade compare favorably with the daguerreotype, although its
tone partakes more of an engraving, wanting only iu the deli-
cacy of the daguerreotype. When properly made, we believe
it also equally permanent and perfectly free from the destruc-
tive ao-ents which are so constantly destroying the Ambrotype.
Now what is the Ambrotype 1 It is, even in its most attrac-
tive form, but a poor frail mem.ento, and if the utmost care is
not taken in its production, as fleeting as it is fragile. Time
chano-es it with remorseless cruelty, no matter how carefully pre-

256

THE PHOTOGHAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

August,

pared. These changes are so marked, that very little observa-
tioa will confirm the truth of our assertions. Walk up Broad-
way, or any other street where Ambrotype galleries exist, com-
pare the specimens placed at the entrance hall of each estab-
lishment, compare the pictures placed on exhibition to-day with
those of one, two, or six mouths exposure, — for some ambro-
typists are silly enough to ferrait this comparison at their doors —
and the changes are palpable. Even at the great marts where le-
gal ambro^ypes only are made, we have noticed the change in a most
decided degree as we daily passed up and down, taking note of
the gradual but sure alterations. The problem of the perma-
nence of Ambrotypes is, we think, further from solution than
that of paper prints, for it seems tbat even balsam won't save
them. This is because the contingencies likely to occur, are
equally — if not more — numerous in the ambrotype as in the
paper picture, and there is not that field for investigation and
correction. In our mind there is no doubt that in depending
upon the ambrotype to perpetuate the images of cherished ob-
jects, we lean upon the most frail of all frail things in art.

Some of our readers while commending our remarks upon the
Daguerreotype and Ambrotype, have condemned those upon the
Melainotype. In the latter case, we have found, upon inquiry,
that the gentlemen have never essayed their skill in Melaino-
type, and have permitted their prejudices against collodion pos-
itives to decide the value of the Melainotype. This should not
be. Give it as fair a trial as the Ambrotype has received, and
let it stand or fall on its own merit.

— It is as undoubtedly perceptible to our readers as it has
been to us, that in the present state of our knowledge in photo-
graphic positive printing it is a dangerous thing to depend upon
it for book illustrations. We sincerely believe, that with the
necessary care in printing, photographic proofs may be made as
permanent as any other kind of paper pictures, certain contin-
gencies— which have been time and again explained — being
avoided. Even water color, or oil paintings, will not always
escape these same contingencies, and hence we see both these
styles of art gradually destroyed. In order, therefore, to ar-
rive at the best pr^tcess for printing positive proofs, to avoid, in
themselves, as many of these contingencies as is possible, it is
necessary to experiment. In experimenting we must, of course,
expect to make many failures, more particularly, when to other
hands you are obliged to trust the practical carrying out of your
theory. As we have before stated, the object of the illustra-
tions in our Journal is mainly to give instruction in this branch
of photography, and eventually lead to the establishing of a
process upon which we can rely for permanence. We therefore
wish to call attention to all the illustrations we have given dur-
in the present year, and desire our readers to note facts in re-
gard to them, while we endeavor to give reasons for these facts.
With an excellent negative for our January illustration, and
our own personal attention to the printing, we gave that month
uniformly the best photographs of the year. So far as we have
seen and can learn, not a proof among out January pictures have
faded. The defects in the illustrations for February were en-
tirely those of careless manipulation. We see no change in
them that can be attributed to the destructive action of any
agent apart from dirty fingers. Sulphuration of any kind does
not appear. Many of the illustrations for March, April, aud
May have faded. The toning baths for these months, as well
as for June and July, were very similar. Those proofs which
were toned to the purple tint, according to our instructions,
have remained permanent thus far, while those left in the bath
until they passed into the black or brown are going or gone.
The Illustrations for Juue, part of those for May, and those for
July, printed before our paper gaveout, were printed with lemon
juice in the suiting solution. Every one of these — i. e., contain-
in"- lemon juice — no matter how toned, that have come under our
ob°3crvation, have faded out entirely, or are rapidly going the
road to ruin. We think therefore, that this experiment estab-
lishes the fact that lemon juice so applied is highly destructive to
a photographic proof, and this fact learned is of more considera-
tion than the picture lost by the experiment. Of the pictures
given this month, a portion of the portrait of Mr. Watkins aud

of NiGOT were printed with the lemon-juice salting. These are
on thick paper. All the others are strictly after the formula
given in this number. With this toning bath we find it abso-
lutiiy necessary to be careful not to go beyond a clear purple
tint. If this rule is strictly observed we think the pictures by
it are the most permanent that can be made. In our Septem-
ber number we will try to inaugurate the carbon process.

Since this was written all the prints on hand printed with
lemon juice have faded, aud we are obliged to give our subscribers
an assortment instead of those strictly intended for this number.

— Mr. Benecke, of Brunswick, Mo., sends us some small
but very fine and interesting positive views and portraits, the
negatives of which were taken on dry plates. The plates were
sensitized in the usual way, and dried, no preservative being
used. They exhibit the skill of an artistic and careful operator.
Some of them are little gems. The steamboats at the landings
must have been printed from the very best of negatives, but with
the exception of the ''St. Louis River, F. M.," are over-printed
and toned. The two views of residences are excellent in every
respect, sharp, clear, and well defined; the portraits are beauti-
ful, sharp, clear, and delicately toned, the positions admirable.
In every respect they are little gems. Mr. Benecke should
work with a larger apparatus.

— Mr. Garden has returned to New York from New Or-
leans, and has given us in the present number his mipressions of
the art in that city. He has shown us a number of prints and
ambi'otypes taken by him while there, which confirms the good
opinion we expressed of his skill in a former number.

— Mk. Carson, of Toronto, C. W., has been paying the east
a visit, and returns with a solar camera, which will enable him
to give his patrous any sized portrait they may desire.

— Mr. Fitzgibbon has sent us the negatives of two of the
South America views of which we spoke in the July number,
proofs from which will be given in a future issue.

— We have before forgotten to speak of the removals of
the ScoviLL Manufacthring Co., to No. 4 Beekman Street, and
Messrs. Holmes, Booth, & Hayden to No. 81 Chambers
Street. Had the daguerrean artist of ten years ago been told
that Ms business would have contributed to build up such
establishments in this city, he would have derided the idea.
Both these establishments are very extensive, and the arrange-
ments in every department complete.

— The contents of our present number is varied, useful, and
will be highly entertaining to all who love art and desire its pro-
gress. The most important paper we conceive to be that on
printing by carbon. There can be no doubt but this will even-
tually be the process universally adopted if it is all that is
claimed for it. The process for printing by uranium is worthy
a trial. It may be useful with enlarging cameras.

— OcR attention has been particularly called, during the
past week, to specimens of the Photo-lithographic process of
Messrs. Cutting, Bradford, & Turner, and we have taken oc-
casion to give our opinion of them in another column. These
pictures are so very fine — some of them so unlike lithographs —
that we shall probably adopt them as illustrations to our Jour-
nal, at least, so far as to give one each month.

— AiMBROTYPisTS will be pleased to learn that they can
greatly improve their black (asphaltum) varnish by dissolving
as much bees'-wax in turpentine as it will take up, and mixing
it with the asphaltum varnish in the proportion of three
parts of the latter to one of the former. This varnish will not
crack, no matter how thick or thin it is put on. Another very
excellent black coating can be made by thinning the Excelsior
Co.'s Printer's ink to the required consistency with turpentine.

— We regret to learn of the bereavement of our friend Mr.
Frank Ford in the loss of his wife, who died on the 11th inst.
The funeral of Mrs. Frank Ford was attended from the resi-
dence of her father, Mr. T. C. Sutherland, on Bowery Street.
There was a very large concourse of sympathizing friends and
neighbors present. Rev. J. A. Young, a local preacher of the
M. E. Church, led in the devotional excercises. A funeral dis-
course will be preached by Rev. Mr. Norton, on his return
from Conference.

MICRO-PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHY,

Of Messrs. Cutting & Ti-rner, No. 10 Tremont Row, Boston, Ma.s8

4

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FIXE APvT JOURNAL.

254

From Photographic Notes.

DIACCLESFIEID PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.

The following paper, by the Editor of Photographic Notes, was read at the
last Meeting of the above Society : —

ON THE NATURE AND PROPERTIES OF LIGHT.

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,

HAVE felt great pleasure in re-
sponding to the request made me a
few days since by your Secretary,
to prepare a paper to be read at
one of the Meetings of your So-
ciety, and my only regret is that
I cannot be present amongst you
to read it myself My " insnlar
position," among the advantages
which it affords me of quiet and
retirement, a delightful climate,

and sufficent light all the year round for the prosecution of
photographic experiments, has also the disadvantage that it cuts
me off in some measure from becoming personally acquainted
with many photographers whom I should like to know. Under
these circumstances, I can but assure my brethren of the camera
of the pleasure it will always give me to see any of them in
Jersey; but more particularly any of the members of the Socie-
ties of Birmingham or Macclesfield. I have watched with much
interest the formation of Photographic Societies, and am con-
vinced that a great deal of good has been done by them ; permit
me then, to assure you of the pleasure it will always give me to
be able, as a journalist, to assist you in your praiseworthy exer-
tions, and I beg you will command my services at any time with-
out hesitation. If I may be permitted to offer you advice with
respect to the conduct of the affairs of your Society, I should
say, you cannot do better than follow the excellent example of
the Jiirmingham Photographic Society, the members of which
have shewn great spirit in the general conduct of their affairs.

And now we will proceed to the subject of my paper, viz.,
The "Physical Nature of Light and its properties."

The question, " What is Light ?" must have frequently oc-
curred to the mind of every Photographer, and it is one to
which science is able, fortunately, to offer a satisfactory reply.
Since the days of Newton, I believe I may say that no subject
has more deeply engaged the attention of scientific men than
that of the Nature of Light, and a constellation of the highest
talent has been brought to bear upon this problem. It is to a
British philosopher, however, Dr. Thomas Young, that the
honor is mainly due of having established the true theory of
Light; and among other eminent British philosophers, whose
researches have contributed to the elucidation of this subject,
may be mentioned the honored names of Professor Airy, Sir
John Herschel, and Professor Stokes, (all Senior Wranglers of
Cambridge^; not forgetting that of Sir David Brewster, whose
experimental investigations in Physical Optics, have led to some
valuable results. Among foreigners, the names of Laplace,
Fresnel, Fraunhofer, Zantedeschi, Arago, and many others, are
conspicuous, for the services they have rendered in this depart-
ment of science.

Two different theories have been he' f. .-ith respect to the
physical nature of light; — one called the " Cohpuscolar," the
other the "Undolatory" theory. According to the corpuscular
theory, light is composed of material atoms discharged inces-
santly, and with enormous velocity, by the luminous body,
and which after undergoing various reflections and refractions,
impinge ultimately upon the organs of sight. According to the
undulatory theory, light is the undalatioa of a subtle and elastic
ether which pervades space. The corpuscular theory is incap-
able of explaining many of the most remarkable phenomena of
optics, such as those of "Interference," in which the superposition
of one luminous spot upon another produces darkness; — while
most of the phenomena of light can be easily and satisfactorly
explained on the undulatory theory. The latter has therefore
received the general sanction of ineu of science, and the corpus-

VOL. XI. NO. IX. 33

cnlar theory is now abandoned as an absurdity. The undulatory
theory has nevertiieless had its difficulties to surmount, and appa-
rent anomalies to reconcile, — just as the Law of Universal
Gravitation has been at times shaken by the .supposed imi)os-
sibility of reconciling with it certain observed facts; — but these
difficulties have been gradually overcome, and the two tlieories
viz , that of light consisting of the vibration of molecules, — and
that of the universal gravitation of particles of matter, now rest
on equally satisfactory evidence, and are admitted by men of
science as equally true.

The following quotation from the preface to the Tract by
Professor Airy on the Undulatory Theory of Light, will con-
vmce you that no doubt now exists on this subject : —

"The undulatory theory of optics is presented to the reader
as having the same claims to his attention as the theory of
gravitation; namely, that it is certainly true, and that by math-
ematical operations of general elegance, it leads to results of
great interest. With regard to the evidence for this theory;
if the simplicity of a hypothesis which explains with accuracy a
vast variety of phenomena of the most complicated kind can be
considered a proof of its correctness, I believe there is no phys-
ical theory so firmly established as the theory in question," &c.
I cannot do mofe within the limits of the present paper, than
explain briefly and familiarly the nature of an undulation, and
enunciate the theory as it stands. The evidence for it is not by
any means of a popular kind, on the contrary, it involves a
knowledge of the highest mathematical analysis, and conse-
quently many years of preivous training. This, like some other
scientific truths, must be taken for granted even by the great
mass of educated persons; — but although the evidence would be
difiicult and laborious to master, the results may be briefly stated,
and rendered intelligible in a popular form.

The undulatory theory of light is simply this: —
A luminous body is supposed to consist of material particles
in a state of intense agitation. These communicate vibratory
motions to the molecules of ether which surround the luminous
body, and these are communicated from molecule to molecule of
the ether, in a rectilinear direction through space, and with the
velocity of 192,000 miles a second; so that a ray of light could
travel eight times round the earth in a second !

The nature of these undulations will be understood by refer-
ence to those produced in a pond of still and deep water, when
a stone is thrown into it. Each particle of water moves through
a vertical space, without suffering any motion of translation in
the direction in which the wave is propagated; and similiarly,
each molecule of ether vibrates in a line at right angles to the
direction of propagation of the ray, and the molecules to which
its motion is communicated all vibrate in a plane passing through
that line. Let us then consider lirst the system of vibrations
which occur in one plane stretched like a ribbon through space.
The velocity of light, although enormous, is not infinite, and
time is occupied in the transmision of vibrations, so that whilst
one molecule of ether is at one part of its short transversal p ith,
another molecule is at some other part, and the curved line
drawn through the instantaneous positions of a system of vibrat-
ing molecules exhibits a system of undulations. It will be under-
stood that the molecules of ether do not travel along the line
of the ray, — but merely oscillate through an exceedingly small
space on either side oi it, losing their velocity at either end of
their path and having the greatest velocity when crossing the
line of ray, — just as the bob of a pendulum which is describing
small oscillations has its greatest velocity when crossing the
vertical line through its point of suspension. The molecules of
ether no more travel along the line of the ray, than the log
which is thrown overboard from a vessel travels in a horizontal
direction along the water, it being merely raised and lowered
through a small vertical space by the undulation of the vv-ater.

The nature of an undulation of light is now, I hope, clearly
understood. It differs from one of sound, (which is au undula-
tion in the air,) in this important particular, viz., that in sound
the particles of the air vibrate in the direction of propagation
of sound, and not transversely to it; so that if Light is com-
pared to the undulations in a pond of water, Sound may be

255

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

September,

compared to those of a field of corn when the wind sweeps over
it, tlie motion of each separate ear taking place in a small
circular arc, of which the root is the centre, r jd therefore occur-
ring in the direction in which sound is propagated.

But a ray of common light is not composed of a system of
undulations propagated in one flave only, but in an infinite
number of planes, passing through the direction of the ray, and
making all possible angles with it; and this brings me to the
subject of "Polarized Light."

There are some transparent bodies whose internal structure
is so peculiar that a ray of common light cannot entirely 'ass
through them, so that the light which does pass through is al-
tered in its character, or "Polarized," as it is termed. Tourmaline
is an instance of this. The fibres of a thin sheet of this substance
are supposed to be arranged like the bars of a gridiron, so that
of the infinite system of planes of undulation of a ray of common
light, only one ribbon, as it were, can be passed between the
bars of the tourmaline, and the transmitted ray is thus red iced
to a system of undulations in one plane only. A ray of common
light may therefore be considered as round, like a ruler; a ray
of polarized light as flat like a ribbon. If a second sheet of
tourmaline is placed with its fibres crossways to the first, it will
completely intercept the polarized ray; so that two layers of a
transparent substance may be converted into an opaque screen !

If a ray of common light is incident upon the surface of a
crystal of Iceland spar, it is divided into two rays, one of which
follows nearly the ordinary law of refraction, — the other a totally
different law; but both emerge parallel to the incident ray, and
therefore parallel to each other; and both are polarized by
refraction through tlie crystal, — the planes of undulation, or
"planes of polarization" as they are termed, being at right
angles to each other. This is called "double refraction."

There are other kinds of Polarized Light, called Circularly,
and Ellipticaliy Polarized Light. In the former case the undul-
ation forms a spiral, like a corkscrew, about the line of direction
of the ray; and in the latter case the spiral may be supposed to
be coiled round an elliptical instead of a circular cylinder.

I have endeavoured to compare Light with Sound. Let us
return to that comparison.

Sound travels in air at the rate of 1100 feet in a second, but
it is much more rapidly transmitted through water, and more
rapidly still through a bar of metal. Light travels through
space at the uniform rate of 192,000 miles in a second. The
length of a wave of sound varies from a few inches to several
feet, the short waves giving the high notes, the long waves the
low ones. The length of a wave of light is about the 40,000th
part of an inch in the case of red light, and the 60,000th part
of an inch in that ot violet light, — so that the undulations of
light are not only propagated with extreme velocity, but are
also extremely small. You will perceive also that the difference
between the colors of light depends upon the length of the undu-
lation, the red having the longest and the violet the shortest
wave. I would observe also that the supposed decomposition
of orange, green, and violet liglit by absorption into red and
yellow, blue and yellow, and blue and red, is a notion of Sir
David Brewster's which is not admitted by men of science, and
with respect to which Prof. Airy, Helmholtz, and others, are at
issue with him; the general notion being that to each color of
the spectrum belongs a wave of particular length, and therefore
a light of a peculiar and distinctive physical character.
K And now that we are on the subject of the colors of the spec-
trum, let mo crave your particular attention to what follows.
It is well known that the short waves of violet light produce
most chemical action on the salts of silver and many other sub-
stances; that the waves of yellow light, of medium length, pro-
duce Light in its greatest intensity; and that the long waves of
red light are those in which Heat prevails; — while beyond the
spectrum, at the violet end, are invisible chemical rays, and at
the red end invisible htat rays. May we not then conceive that
Light, Heat and Actinism, and probably ail the various forms
of Electricity, are the same thing, viz., motio!i in one and the
same universal ether which pervades space, and fills the inters-

tices between these agents consisting simply in the length of the
wave, and possibly the nature of the undulation ?

Let us briefly compare Heat with Light, and Actinism. They
all travel with the same velocity; Heat rays may be reflected,
refracted, and polarized like those of light; and they all produce
chemical change in bodies; — while conversely, chemical changes
are frequently accompanied with the evolutions of Light, Heat,
and Actinism; a lime-ball for instance, in a jet of ignited hy-
drogen and oxygen gases, evolves Light, Heat, and Actinism.
Again; when a body is held before a source of radiant heat,
it becomes heated, that is, it becomes itself a source of radiant
heat; — similarly, in the case of "solar phosphori," certain bodies,
calcined oyster shells for instance, when exposed to sunshine,
become themselves luminous when taken into a dark room; and,
according to the recent experiments of M. Niepce de Victor, a
sheet of white blotting paper, after exposure to sunshine, is cap-
able of emitting in the dark actinic rays. Is it not then highly
probable, nay, certain, that Heat, Light, and Actinism, are un-
dulations in the same ether, differing only ia the length of the
wave ?

These are, I think, suggestions worthy of your serious con-
sideration. I do not advance them as either original or peculiar.
They are not my notions alone, but are gaining ground day by
day among men of science, and every new discovery seems to
add fresh support to them.

Now with respect to the ether itself, and the ultimate consti-
tution of bodies.

In mechanical science, the definition of matter includes what-
ever has weight. If a thing can be weighed it is material, if
not, immaterial, or which amounts to the same thing, "imponder-
able." Now the ether in which light is propagated is far too
subtle to be weighed; it does not therefore come within the de-
finition of matter; — the molecules of which it is composed are
not sensibly subject to the law of gravitation. Nevertheless it
may be, and no doubt is, material. Indeed we cannot conceive
of it as existing in any other form than that of matter. That
it should not possess sensible weight might be concluded a priori,
from the enormous velocity with which undulations are propaga-
ted in it. If the undulations in so subtle a fluid as air, produced
by the discharge of artillery, and propagated at the rate of II 00
feel in a second are sufficient to break the windows of houses,
what would be the effect of such undulations as those of light,
proceeding at the rate of 192,000 viiles in a second, if the fluid
in which they we.'e propagated had sensible weight, as airbus?
They would of course entirely smash and destroy everything on
which they impinged. If a stranded vessel is now gradually
broken to pieces by the battering of the surf, how long would
she be able to withstand the action of such undulations as those
of light, if propagated in a fluid which was sensibly material ?
She would surely be reduced to impalpable powder by the first
flood of light that fell upon her. Knowing then the vast velo-
city with which light travels, we must not expect to find the
lumeuiferous ether sensibly ponderable when tried by any such
tests as man can apply to it. Nevertheless its materiality might
be provided in other ways. A material fluid pervading space
would act as a resisting meaium to the motions of heavenly
bodies, and its effect would be to cause them to describe con-
tinually decreasing orbits about the centre of gravity of the
system to which they belong, and ultimately, in the course of
ajons of time, to bring all the bodies of the universe to one single
lump of matter, non-luminous, intensely cold, and having no
motion either of translation or rotation, for both would be de-
stroyed. If then the lumeniferious ether be a resisting medium,
as it surely must be, its effect would first be perceived upon the
comets of the solar system which revolve in short periods about
the sun. Such are the comets of Eucke, and Biela, the first
revolving in 3| years, the latter in 6| years. Now it is found
that from some cause or other the period of Eucke's comet is
diminished by a few hours in each revolution. Here then is
something like evidence of what we should expect to result
from the action of a resisting medium on bodies of so little mass
as comets. But we must not be too hasty in jumping at con-
clusions, for there may be nebulous matter surrounding the sun,

1858.

TUE PIIOTOGRAPniC AND FIXE ART JOURNAL.

256

and this "uay produce the efifects above alluded to upoa a comet
passing through it.

The question of the constitution of bodies involves of course
much that is at present hypothetical, but the conjectures which
I shall ofifer for your consideration are borne out, I think, by
a good deal of sound reasoning based on observed facts. It ap-
pears then that there is no such thing in nature as actual con-
tact between the ultimate atoms of matter, and that these are
constantly in a state of vibration, the intensity of which depends
in great measure, if not entirely, on that of the ether existing
within the body. We know, for instance, that bodies in gen-
eral expand by heat and contract by cold. But a solid piece
of iron may expand and yet continue solid ; how then can there
be actual contact between the atoms in both cases ? and yet
solidity is not destroyed; the iron does not tumble to pieces on
being warmed, it expands and yet remains solid. When a body
is heated beyond the temperature of surrounding objects, it ex-
pands beyond the dimensions whfch are consistent with that
temperature, and on removal ot the source of heat begins to
contract. By contracting, the vibrations of the ether contained
within it are increased in intensity, and intensified vibrations
are therefore communicated to the surrounding ether, that is to
say, the contracting body becomes a source of radiant heat. It
appears to me that the sun may be now precisely in that con-
dition; He may be contracting in volume, and thereby prop-
agating undulations of light, heat, and actinism in the ether
which surrounds him. The time may come when he will con-
tract no more. Like the planets which were once incandescent
globes of fluid, emitting light and heat, — but which have now
cooled down, crusted over, and become opaque and non-luminous,
the sun may himself contract, skin over with a solid crust, and
cease any longer to be the lamp of our system. Ages ago the
whole matter of the solar system was probably distributed in a
nebulous form over a space far exceeding the orbit of Neptune;
the temperature of this nebula being perhaps nearly as low as
that of space; but the atoms were impelled towards a common
centre of gravity by the law of gravitation, and the nebula began
to contract, acquiring at the same time rotatory motion. The
evolution of heat and light then commenced. As the vast
whirling mass, now luminous, continued to contract, planets
were thrown off, and as they by the operation of the same law
became spherical, and contracted, rings were formed and satelli-
tes thrown off from them. Mercury is the last planet that was
detached from the sun, but more may yet be detached; — the
sun may go on contracting and throwing off planets; until at
length the limit is reached, and then he may become encrusted
with an opaque coat, and, like the planets, cease to be self-
luminous. Such may be the fate of our sun; and the solar
system may be doomed to roll for ages through the icy regions
of space, a dark and cheerless cluster of frozen worlds; — possibly
like other systems which have already passed through the self-
luminous phase of their existance.

There are one or two other matters connected with the undula-
tory theory which will no doubt interest you, as photographers,
and on which I will offer a few brief remarks. These are, the
"Diffraction of Light, and the Polarization of Light by Reflexion

III Geometrical Optics a ray of light is treated as a straight
line, and is not supposed to be capable of being bent round a
corner; yet we find this to be a very imperfect view of the mat-
ter. When a carriage turns the corner of a street we still con-
tinue to hear, in a modified degree, the rumbling of the wheels;

and in the same way rays of light may be bent round the edges

of bodies, and thus shadows are not bounded by well-defined
straight lines. If light is admitted through a small hole in the
shutter of a darkened chamber, a white screen placed opposite
to the hole, aud an opaque body placed so as to intercept some
of the light aud cast a shadow upon the screen, the shadow is
found to decrease gradually in blackness toward the edge, and
round the edge are arranged a number of colored bands separa-
ted by dark lines. This effect is produced, part'.y by the undu-
lations of li^ht being propagated laterally as well as directly, on
passing round the edge of a body, — and partly by what is called
the " interfereuce " of undulations, — the dark lines being pro-

c^uced by that kind of interference in which the crest of o::e
wave exactly fills the hollow of another, aud the colors by in-
^.erfereuce of a more complicated character, and which I cannot
now discuss.

This bending of a ray of light, so to speak, round ^the edge
of a body is called the Inflexion of I'ght, or 'Diffraction." It
has been thought by some persons likely to interfere with the
obtainging of a sharp, well-difined copy of a negative, by light
transmitted through it, and received upon a lens; but I have no
hesitation in saying that this idea is a mistake.

Light may be polarized by reflection, as well as by refraction.
If a ray of light is incident upon a sheet of plate glass at an
angle of about 37 ", the reflected ray is completely polarised.
Sir David Brewster discovered that in order for this to happen
at the surfaces of difi'erent media, the tangent of the angle of
incidence must be equal to the refractive index of the medium.
The refractive indices of opaque bodies may therefore be found
by this law of the tangent. The refractive index of a medium
is, according to the undulatory theory, the ratio which the ve-
locity of the propagation of the undulations in vacuo bears to
that in the medium; it being understood that the velocity of
light is diminished on entering a denser medium, and conversely.
Since the rays of difi'erent colors have a diiferent refractive in-
dex for the same medium, it follows that their velocity in a
dense medium is not equal, as it is in vacuo. This was for some
time a difficulty, but it has now been cleared up.

You will perceive that photograghs might be taken by light
that is entirely polarized. I do not think this subject has re-
ceived much attention.

And now. Gentlemen, T must conclude this paper. There
are some among you, no doubt, to whom the interesting facts
which I have stated are well-known, but probably others to
whom they are new. If this brisk sketch of a subject which
lies at the root of Photography should have afforded you any
pleasure, or have whetted the curiosity of any of you for more
information, my object will be answered, and I shall be much
gratified at having been able to contribute my share towards
the amusement of the evening.

THOMAS SUTTON.

St. Brelade, Jersey, June, 1858,

From PhotograpMc Notes.

A COMPARATIVE VIEW

Of the New Orthoscophic Petzvel Lens, with the ordinary Single

Combination Landscape Lens.

BY ANDREW K0S3, OPTICIAN.

As the subject of the claim of Professor Petzval to the inven-
tion of the new Orthoscopic Lens, is now clearly before those
who practice photography,. through the medium of Professor
Petzval and M Voightlander, — also that its prominent proper-
ties have been shewn in those plain synthetical papers publish-
ed by the Editor of the Photograjihic Notes, — it may now be
consistent for the practical optician to present, in distinctly a
popular form, a comparative view of this novel invention with
the ordinary form of landscape-lens, consisting of one combina-
tion only, the observations being derived from the practical
construction and well known theories of these difi'erent objectives.

Much has been vaguely said about the mathematics of this
subject, which might lead those unacquainted with the practi-
cal construction of optical instruments to consider the complete
aud most perfect developement of form and arrangement of such
combinations to be the abstract production of the studio; but
this is not so; for however skilled and persevering Professor
Petzval is in the resolution of the most abstruse mathematical
formula), such as will form a new era in optical investigations,
the Professor must have considerable practical knowledge of
the propriety of arrangement in such instruments; for it is only
by the combination of this latter acquirement that the mathe-
matics could be rendered completely available.

The conditions of a landscape-lens having the maximum of

251

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AKD FINE ART JOURNAL.

September,

practical perfection, are, that the chemical and visual foci of
the optical combinations sliall coincide; that the axial aberra-
tions of both the central and the oblique pencils shall be balan-
ced, that is, that all the rays of each pencil shall intersect its
axis at the same point; and, resuluting therefrom, together with
tlie other corrections affecting the whole surface, that the optical
picture (and sconsequently the chemical effect) shall be simul-
taneuosly equally depicted, free from linear distortion or perspec-
tive derangement throughout the whole screen.

Now, the erratic tendencies of the ordinary single combination
landscape-lens which are opposed to these conditions of perfec-
tion, and which it is the chief object to correct, are, — that those
rays' of light principally producing the sense of vision, and those
which are chemically, are differently refrangible; — that the
image of a flat surface produced by a lens, is a curved surface ; —
that the rays of light reflected from the object forming a pencil
which, when converged by the lens, goes to form the picture of
that part, do not all cross the axis of the pencil at the same
point, and in consequence produce a confused or indistinct pic-
ture of it (this is called axial aberration); again, that all per-
pendicular lines, or those which are nearly so, iu the picture,
except those which may pass through its centre, are more or
less curved, and this is termed distortion; — that an excentrical
pencil (or one, the course of which is directed by a diaphragm
placed at some distance from, and usually having an aperture
smaller than the semi-diameter of the lens) tends to place the
subjects of the picture towards its margin proportionally nearer
together than they are in the object, thus deranging the per-
spectrive of the picture. Another peculiar effect is produced in
a camera-obscura picture which the single combination land-
scape-lens has no power to ameliorate, namely, the inclining of
marginal perpendicular lines towards the centre line of the pic-
ture, which is referred to perpendicular perspective. This effect
is not produced with ordinary vision; for in consequence of the
natural narrow limits of its distinctness, especially in a lateral
direction, each perpendicular line is made to pass through the
centre of the picture ou the retina (or nearly so) by the motion
of the head or eye.

Now, in the construction of the ordinary landscape objective,
consisting of one combination of lenses, the only correction which
is produced by positive and negative qualities is that of the dif-
ferent refrangibility of the visual and chemical rays, and is effect-
ed upon the weil-knowu principle of the compound achromatic-
lens; when by similar management of the radii of curvatures,
the chemical rays are compounded with visual, and both are
made to converge together ou the screen where the picture is
formed ; but those other tendencies which are opposed to the
perfection of the ordinary landscape-lens, namely, axial aberra-
tion of the central and oblique pencils, also difference of foci,
for near and distant objects, and the curving of the surface of
the picture, cannot be corrected by a single combination, but
onlj ameloirated by diminishing the aperture in the diaphragm;
wliile the curving of the marginal perpendicular lines and the
effect of the perpendicular perspective, are not only entirely
uncorrected, but both having similar dispositions of distortion
produce the greater ill-effect. These are the optical properties
in connexion with the single combination photographic land-
scape-lens.

We will now sir. .'.>a'ly trace the Orthoscopic construction,
and review the effects of the second or negative combination,
which by its oppasite or negative properties tends directly to
the correction of the erratic tendencies of the single combination.

The Petzval Orthoscopic combination may be considered as
a construction of lens for transmitting small angular pencils of
lio-ht, such onlj as are suitable for extensive pictures and land-
scapes. This is iu contra-distiction to the portrait combinations,
where the transmitted pencils are required to be large; and if
the principles of construction of this latter were carried out to
form a landscape-lens, the result would be a combination of ex-
travagantly large dimensions. This new Orthoscopic-lens may
then be consistently spoken of as a const ructiou having the small-
est possible combination for the specified purpose. It consists
of two achromatic (or rather, chemically acting') combinations

of lenses: the front one tends to converge the rays of light, and
the back combination has an opposite property tending to
diverge them, and is therefore called a negative combination.
They are separated to about one-sixteenth ot the focal length of
the front combination; and the diameter of the pencil to suit
the nature of the picture to be taken, is defined by moveable
diaphragms near the back one. The rays then which diverge
from the oljject are first converged toward a focus by the front
combination; and, by the contrary tendency of the back, the
focal length is prolonged to from once-and-a-quarter to once-and-
a-half that of the first, where the picture is produced.

We must here introduce the observations, that with reference
to a lens of small dimensions, an attempt to substitute a small
single combination for the ordinary form of landscape-lens has
recently been made; but the original experiments being merely
adventitious, and unguided by fundamental principles, the essay
was soon given up. All experienced and correctly-informed
opticians know that with one actinic combination of two or even
three single lenses, cemented together at their contiguous con-
vex and concave surfaces, however they may be modified, the
above requisites of a landscape-lens cannot be produced; 'and
it remained for the inginuity and skill of Professor Petzval to
accomplish the construction of the smallest possible arrangement
by the introduction of a second actinic combiaatiou of such
quality of focal power, and position in the instrument, that
all the requisite corrections can be approximately accomplished.
Again, the second combination being placed at some distance
from the front one, together with the peculiarity of that com-
bination to diverge the rays of light, the foci of those converg-
ing pencils which are incident upon it, after emergence from the
front, are prolonged, and this effect virtually produces a larger
picture than is due to the back focal length from the negative
combination, and that, in the proportion of the distance to
which the rays emerging from the front combination are con-
verging, to the greater distance they are made to converge to,
after refraction by the second combination; consequently the
saving in the length of the whole camera with relation to the
size of the objects in the picture produced.

As this Orthoscopic lens consists of two achromatic for
rather, actinic) combinations, a more perfect and active effect
in this respect can be produced; also by the property of the
negative combination relatively prolonging the foci of the more
marginal pencils, together with the opportunity of varyinf its
curvatures, also its focal power, the other erratic tendencies of
a single combination can be corrected. The restrictions to the
correction of the axial spherical aberration of both the central
and excentrical pencils, imposed by the ordinary combination,
having its means of such correction absorbed in the production
of an approximate flatness of field, are in this Orthoscopic one
overcome, and the correction of axial spherical aberration effec-
ted to the second degree of approximation. The curving of
the surface of the 'picture can also, by means of the neo-ative
combination prolonging the marginal foci, be directly corrected,
while at the same time the curving of the marginal perpendicu-
lar lines making the straight sides of a square appear curved or
barrel-shaped, as produced by the ordinary single combination
landscape-lens, is by the same property corrected, as is also the
derangement of the marginal perspective. This property of the
negative combination to prolong the focus of the marginal pen-
cils is likewise employed to ameliorate the effect of perpendicular
perspective at the upper part of the picture; but as this per-
spective produces inwardly-inclined straight lines, and the tend-
ency of the correction is th<»t of outwardly-curved lines, although
not producing geometrical exactness, considerably ameliorates
the ill effect, which, together with the aid of the photograj)her
in slightly tilting the camera and placing the horizontal line
rather high in the picture, the visibility of this defect is nearly
obliterated. With reference to the subject of the variation of
the focal length of a lens in proportion to the distance of the
object, this Orthoscopic lens is under the same optical laws as
the ordinary single combination, and in this respect requires a
suitable modification of aperture to produce distinct images of
the various p: eminent objects iu the picture situated at dif

1853.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE AUT JOURNAL.

258

t'erent distances; but the perfectioa of the corrections of th'
aberratious in this Orthoscopic lens, gives to each point of the
picture a more perfect concentration of light than the ordinary
one, producing quiclcness of photogenic action; but as this is
accomplished by a second pair of lenses, light is lost by reflection
at their surfaces: hence upon the whole, the old form may be
the more quickly acting lens.

In the employment of the means of direct correction afforded
by this lens, the optician has to produce that amount of flatness
in the picture which is suitable to the focal length, and con-
sequently size, of the picture yielded by each individual lens; as
in the practice of photography for landscapes, the focal length
of the lens, or size of the camera, will be prescribed by the dis-
tance of the nearest object in the foreground, which must be
distinctly shewn. As an example of this condition, our Ortho-
scopic lens, of 2i-iDS. diameter, and 16-ins. back focal length,
is made to exhibit all the detail of a landscape in one tocus,
with an aperture at the second combination of | of an inch
diameter, when the nearest distance of the principal objects is
40 yards, and the greatest indefinite. For the grouping of ob-
jects the whole aperture of combination, namely, Ij^-iu. may be
employed, and the diaphragms with the smaller apertures for
copying.

The superiority then of this Orthoscopic lens is that the
actinic focus being more intense, and the marginal definition
being nearly as perfect as the central, and the flatness of the
picture under control, a freedom from distortion, and nearly
perfect perspective over an angular picture of great extent, all
of which can be produced by the experienced optician, with the
elements of correction possessed by this new construction, to-
gether with the exterior advantages of the capability of com-
bining a perfectly constructed portrait and landscape lens in
one arrangement, and in one half the bulk as regards the land-
scape part, a reduction in the length of the camera for the size
of the picture as compared with the ordinary one, and a corres-
ponding diminution of price in both camera and lens.

These advantages are obtainable by the instrumentality of
this double combination, and which no single cemented combina-
tion can accomplish.

We have just received an account of a camera-obscura lens
recently patented by Mr. Grubb, who expects it will be found
more suitable for photographing views than any other extant.

_ The first argument in support of this opinion, is, by bringing
his patented form of single combination into comparison with
Professor Petzval's Orthoscopic lens, consisting of two combina-
tions, with reference to their comparitive quickness of photogenic
action; and, secondly, that this patented lens has its spherical
aberration nearly corrected, thereby affording, either a more
distinct picture than the ordinary lens (if similar apertures be
used), or an image as distinct as that given by the old lens,
using a considerably increased aperture of the new.

In regard to the first argument the representation might be
strictly correct, as an ordinary single cemented combination can
neither obstruct nor reflect so much light as one consisting of
two combinations; consequently, on this individual point, the
single combination would promise the quicker action. But the
whole of the case for and against has not been shown. The
Orthoscopic lens may, as before stated, be made to include more
of the actinic rays than the single combination, and these can,
in the Orthoscopic, be brought to more definite foci; hence the
comparative quickness of action of the two lenses is resolved
into a balance of advantages; but my experience would dictate
the single combination would produce the quicker action with
similar apertures.

His second argument, — that of the spherical aberration being
nearly corrected, — is not to be granted as an improvement,
unless it is shewn that other veritable conditions co-exist, the
production of which has been previously understood to interfere
with the correction of this axial aberration ; but this has not
been shewn; and in the course of my experience I have deter-
mined that when that indispensable quality of a consistent amount
of flatness in the picture is provided, and which can only be
produced by a bending of the combination, all other errors must

33*

remain as they happen, the means of optical correction provided
by the single combination being exhausted; and when a certain
amount o[ flatness is oblained, the lengthened and otherwise de-
foriried focal points of the excentrical pencils equally ensue the
position of the lenses with reference to the picture being ulti-
mately of little consequence, but as the greater command of the
quality of flatness is obtained when the crown lens is toward
the picture, we have continued that practice. Again, the claim
that a "considerably increased aperture of the new lens" is af-
forded in consequence of the spherical or axial aberration being
nearly corrected, which is at the expense of flatness of picture,
we demur to; for even without this exception, the condition of
aperture is dominated by others ??i this single comhinnlinn. It
is not the state of the axial aberration of the more central pen-
cils that determines the diameter of the aperture to be employ-
ed,— it is the size of a pencil afforded by this necessarily imper-
fect lens which is sufficiently indefinite to exhibit a picture at
the difi'erent distances resulting from the roundness of field or
curving of the screen due to the object, together with the differ-
ent depths of the focal points arising from the different distances
of the objects forming the picture. This latter limit of aperture
is inseparable from the subject, and applies to the use of all
lenses, in degree according to their properties; but Mr. Grubb
leaves untouched that most important point of correct represent-
ation; for even if his second argument had any validity, the ar-
rangement he has patented necessarily leaves all the geometrical
errors without correction and as they happen, and which are
fully described in the former part of this paper.

For the Photographic & Fins Art Journal.

PHOTOGRAPHY Ii\ GERMANY.

Leipsic, July 11th, 1858.

Mr. H. H..SNELLIN6 — Dear Sir — According to promise, I
will endeavor to give you a short sketch of the present condi-
tion of the Art of Photography in Germany.

The first thing you notice here is the entire absence of un-
touched photographici portraits. The reason for this is, that
they do not understand kow to make a good picture by photo-
graphy alone, and not because people wouldn't take them un-
touched, as a photographer here wanted to make me believe.
He tells me that he can make perfect pictures, but that it is no
use doing so; people don't want them. But the truth is, experience
shows the contrary. Specimens of the best untouched Ameri-
can photograph-portraits never fail to be highly admired and
eagerly sought for here.

The most general excuse for tliis inferiority is the "atmos-
phere." Now this is merely ridiculous; the atmosphere may
have something to do with the greater beauty of Daguerreo-
types in America, but certainly not with collodion pictures.
The atmosphere is generally believed to contain here more mois-
ture, which may indeed influence a daguerreotype plate, but can
only be favorable for collodion processes. And as for clear
days, there are here certainly about as many as across the
water.

Next, it could hardly be said that Germany has not photo-
graphers just as experienced as can be found in the New World
— only with this difference, that the experience of the latter is
coupled with great competion, which is the principal mover to-
wards perfection.

In going round the establishments of this kind one will soon
see where the difference lies — not in the atmosphere, but princi-
pally in the Atteliers. Almost without exception they do the
sitting in a so-called "glass saloon," that is, a cage about 20
feet by 12, built of boards and glass in a garden; the roof and
sides, with the exception of one end, made entirely of sash.
Not only does the sun shine in all day long, but they are gene-
rally so placed near houses and trees, that all manner of shadows
and reflections must necessarily interfere with the sittings. The
only thing that could remedy this to any extent, a side screen,
I have no where met with. Any American operator can im-
agine what sort of pictures such an arrangement will produce I
This is the reason why most of the untouched pictures are so

259

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

September,

])Oor and so little liked; — the best artist cannot make a ronni
and effective picture out of a flat photograph. The relief and
roundness of a good American photograph appears to them like
a mystery.

Next to the light, comes the apparatus, it explains why their
pictures are so full of spots, stains and streaks. I have seen
plateholders used for wet collodion, made the same as those for
daguerreotyping, where the plate lies all around in contact with
the wood. I have seen them operate without an upright silver-
bith, using merely a dish for sensitizing the plates; camera
boxes with the groundglass clear out to the end of the box, so
that it is a hard thing to get focus.

As to their way of using the chemicals I cannot say much, as
in this they are just like their American competitors, and like to
make a secret of their particular way of preparation. Pyro-
gallic Acid seems to be the principal developer, and of course
they think that they cannot get too much light for making a
negative without too long a sitting.

The best untouched photographs I have seen, were made in
Yienna. At this year's Easter-fair in Leipsic, a number of
Photographs were exiiibited by different producers of Germany
and France, giving an insight into what is done in this branch.

Most of them were photographic copies, engravings, paintings,
statues and architecture. Among the photographs from statues
tiiere were some of large size and beautifully done, coming I
believe from Cologne. Some prints of copies of engravings on
albumanized pa]>er toned with gold were well executed, the
only drawback is the great difference in tone and strength of
impressions from the same subjects, which makes it unpleasant
to have to order from a distance. More uniformity is seen with
impressions on plain paper toned black. Ammonia-nitrate
paper I believe to be seldom used.

Colored photographs are hardly ever called for, the bulk is
touched up in India Ink.

In Dresden there is an operator from Philadelphia, making
Melainotypes, otherwise these pictures have not yet been intro-
duced here. Positives on glass are rarely seen, they go to the
trouble of transfering the film to black oil cloth, which process
of course destroys its original beauty. The best of this kind of
pictures (sold under the name of panotypes) must be despisable
things to every man of taste.

As for life-size photographs, they have not been seen here yet;
a few have heard about thenj, and are trying their hands at it —
but anything like a first success seems not to have been achieved ;
whether this kind of picture finished in Oil, will find favor here
or not remains to be seen ; any how they would have to be offer-
ed for half the money they bring in New York.

In the June number of thePhotograpliic and Pine Art Journal
there is an inquiry after Saxe-paper, I will say here for general
information that this paper is manufactured by Ferdin Fluisch,
wliose principal Depots are in Leipsic and Frankfort on the Main ;
he received lately an order for 12 Reams from a Mr. Forster
in Philadelphia, part of which quantity only could be sent. The
fact is, that he cannot manufacture enough of it to keep any on
hand, and has many orders from photographers themselves in
France and Germany to supply them, I have been assured
that this paper never varies in quality, and can therefore always
be depended on, which is a great advantage.

In the pleasant expectation of soon meeting you again.

Yours, very respectfully,

Osc. J. Wallis.

For the Photographic and Fine Art Journal.

PlIOTOGRAPUIC SOCIETY.

Pittsburgh, August 16th, 1858.
H. H. SxELLiNG, Esq. — Dear Sir — In looking over last
months Journal, there is a communication over the signature of
F. J.E.for the organization of Photographic Societies through-
out the country. It is to be regretted that there is no action
taken upon the subject by practical men, for, I believe if the
ball was once set in motion it would be like the snowballs of
our boyhood, its proportions would increase in size and weight

at every revolution. It appears to me that a few energetic
gentlemen, yourself talcing the lead in New York could put the
thing into shape; say for instance the head of the society to be
in the city of New York, to be composed of a president, vice
president and a recording secretary, the last named oflSce to be
elected annually at a salary of $800 or $1000 per annum, whose
duties shall be defined by the society; that each member shall
pay a fee of membership yearly, say $10 if necessary, and upon
becoming a rr^ember he shall receive a diploma from the society.
The object of the Society to be the advancement of the Pho-
tographic Art, and the upholding of the prices of Pictures to a
uniform standard throughout the country. The object I believe
could be attained if the leading Gentlemen in the business would
pledge themselves only to buy of the manufacturer and stock
dealers who are members of the society, and in return pledge
themselves to put the prices of stock up fifty per cent, to those
who are not members of the society, which can be easily ascer-
tained by the society, furnishing to each of its members a Pho-
tographic Directory in which each name, place of business, city,
town or state, is recorded. It appears to me Mr.Editor, we can
crush this cheap picture business if we put our shoulders to the
wheel, if we do not it will crush us,for I am sorry to say that cheap-
ness appears to be the great desidratum with a majority of the
people in our city; we have several twenty-five cent establish-
ments, and to mend the matter we have several wagons located
about the city, and when business gets dull in one part they
hitch up and go to another, they take pictures in cases from
tweny-five cents up. I shall now close hoping that this may
have a tendency to awaken our photograhic friends to their own
interest, and that of our beautiful Art.

I am, dear Sir, Yours, &c.
J. R.

From Photographic Notes.

LOG OF A PllOTO-YACHTING EXCURSIO.^ TO THE COAST OP
BRITTANY.

BY THE EDITOR.

There are probably few of the readers of this Journal who
have had the good fortune to enjoy the combined pleasures of a
photograpliic and yachting excursion, in the height of summer,
to a romantic and interesting locality; I have therefore no doubt
that a brief account of a trip from which I have just returned,
and which proved in every way most delightful and satisfactory,
will be read with interest, — particularly as I have received carle-
hlanche from the hospitable owner of the yacht and my agreeable
compagnons de voyage, to mention the full particulars of the ex-
pedition.

Well then, on Monday morning, July 26th, the beautiful fore-
and-aft schooner yacht "Rosalind," of 101 tons, made her ap-
pearance off St. Brelade's Bay, and her gig, manned by four
strapping rowers, and steered by the owner, Mr. Birchall, of
Preston, came ashore and took me on board. I had to start
at a moment's notice as the vessel was laying-to in a heavy sea
a mile outside the bay, and under reefed sails; but I had every-
thing ready and not an instant's delay occured. I took with
me a stereoscopic camera, six or eight dry plates which I had
received from Dr. Hill Norris nearly a year ago, and a stock of
clean glasses for working wet collodion, all the other parapher-
nalia being provided by Mr Birchall. The stereoscopic camera
is fitted with a pair of portrait lenses, with stops of various sizes
from Jth of an-inch upwards, capable of being inserted between
the front and back lenses of the combination; — the lenses being
mounted 2^-inches from centre and having a focus of 4-inches
measured from the back lens. This form of instrument I con-
sider the best, because in the first place it is strictly correct in
theory, and in the next place instantenous pictures can be taken
by removing the stops and fixing a front shade to the camera
to prevent the effects of diffused light.

We had rather a stiff pull on board, and the long, narrow
gig, propelled at full speed by the rowers, leaped merrily from
wave to wave without shipping a drop of spray. Should any

1858,

THE niOTOGRAPniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

2G0

nautical reader enquire why the vessel laid-to so far outside, I
would inform him that this coast, although beautiful to look at,
is beset with daugers in the shape of rocks and tides, and to
approach it too near without a pilot in a vessel drawing 11 feet
of water is au act of which no prudeot captain would be guilty,
for ship's bottoms are not exactly calculated to withstand much
bumping upon Jersey granite.

Some little dexterity is always required in getting on board
a vessel from a boat when rolling in a heavy sea, because there
is a chance of the boat being stove-in; but a yacht's crew is ex-
pected to be particularly dexterous in all manoeuvres of this kind,
and there certainly never was a finer set of men than the ten
well-disciplined and good-tempered fellows who compose the
crew of the "Rosalind"; so the word "in bow" was given at the
proper moment by the steersman, oars unshipped, boat-hooks
and fenders put out, and the gig brought alongside the lee-gang-
way, through which we jumped on board one after the other as
the vessel gave a lee roll, clawing hold of a couple of beautifully
white cotten ropes fastened to brass stanchions, and scrambling
up a mahogany step ladder. The helm was then put up, the
sails filled, the weather fore sheet let go, and away we went,
close hauled on a wind, for the Isle de Brehat, on the coast of
Bretagne, distant some fifty or sixty miles from Jersey. In the
course of half-an-hour or so the wind moderated, the sea went
down, the sun came out, and so the reefs were shaken out, and
a gaff-top-sail set upon the main-mast. Then my dear little is-
land soon began to look blue and hazy, and at one o'clock the
steward announced "lunch." Our party in the main cabin was
a quartette, my three companions being all Preston gentlemen,
two of them Aldermen, the third a Clerk of the Peace, so I
found myself in august society. As the vessel heeled over con-
siderably under the press of sail we were carrying, the swing
table was brought to an amusing angle with the floor, so that
while my plate nearly touched my chin, that of my vis-a-vis was
literally upon his knees and at arm's length from his mouth ;
but the freaks of Old Neptune did not appear to spoil the appe-
tites of any of the party. In the afternoon the wind went down
entirely, and we had a roasting sua and a flat calm, the sea
looking as if it had been oiled. As the flood tide was running
strong and drifting us towards a reef of rocks called Les Min-
quiers, the captain thought it prudent to anchor, so there we
lay until about seven o'clock, midway between Jersey and the
French Coast and nearly out of sight of land. But the sun
went down somewhat suspiciously, and the weatherwise predicted
wind and rain before many hours. Dinner was served at six,
and we turned into our berths at midnight just as a light breeze
was springing up.

Tuesday, July 27. — I was aroused this moi'ning at six from
a profound sleep by the rattling of the chain-cable through the
hawseholes, and on enquiring, found we were anchoring in the
roadstead at Brehat. This is an island lying close to the main
laud, and about two or three miles long and a mile wide, but of
very irregular form, and surrounded with rocks of all shapes
and sizes. It was pouring with rain and blowing very fresh
rio'ht in to the roadstead, nevertheless we determined after
breakfast to go ashore, so mackintoshes were donned, the gig
manned, and away we pulled for the little harbour. I must not
foro-et to mention however that the "Chef des Douaniers" first
paid us a visit on board, and after a great deal of jabbering in
French a small fee was paid pour la sante.. Mr. Birchall had
been once before to Brehat, so he took us direct to the great
curiosity of the Island, viz., a remarkable old chuch and church-
yard well adapted for photographing. But the weather was so
bad that nothing could be done that day; so we returned on
board, eat, drank, played chess, and cleaned plates, and thus
whiled away the hours till bed-time.

Wednesday, July 28. — Rain and wind again. I was pro-
nounced the "Jonah" of the ship, for on Monday I had brought
with me a flat calm, and ever since we had rain and wind ; — in
fact we were all as sulky as bears. About two o'clock however
it left off raining, so although the light was bad we determined
to try our luck at photography, rather than remain idle and out-
of-temper on board. I took with me my dry plate and stereos-

copic camera, and Mr. Birchall a camera for views 9 x 7, and
all the wet collodion paraphernalia. We got an out-building
close to the church-yard, hung up yellow cloths before the win-
dow, and employed two of the crew in carrying water, cameras,
&c. It was nearly four o'clock before we began work, and the
light was very bad. I exposed one dry plate ten minutes with
a J-inch stop, and another half-an-honr. Mr. Bircliall's first
wet plate, exposed three minutes, gave only a grey and feeble
sky; but the bath was too acid, so we added some carbonate of
soda and tried again; the second plate, with a longer exposure,
gave a decent positive quite free from fog. These first attempts
were not encouraging, so we returned on board and spent the
evening as usual. At midnight it was a flat calm and the
weather seemed improving.

Thursday, July 29. — A fresh breeze and cloudy sky, but
with patches of blue in it, and the weather evidently clearing
up; so arrangements were made to go in the gig with all the
photographic traps to Beauport Abbey, a fine ruin, situated at
the head of a creek about three miles from our anchorage. We
took with us a large tent, and the chemicals, cameras, &c.,
packed in a huge basket, and started immediately after break-
fast. The wind was fresh and on the beam, so a sail was set
upon the gig large enough to have capsized her in an instant
had not six out of the eight persons on board sat well to wind-
ward, and then it was exciting in the extreme to see this long,
narrow boat, five or six times her beam, tearing through the
water against the tide (and with a good lop of sea on outside
the headlands which we had to weather) without shipping a
single drop of spray. I mention these performances of the gig
because I hold certain theories with respect to the construction
of boats and vessels which I intend some day to publish in a
pamphlet on the mechanics of sailing boats. My idea is that
speed is to be obtained by means of length, the height of the sails
and rig depending not upon the length but the beam, so that a
long vessel is not necessarily more crank than a wide one, since
it may be considered as equivalent to two or more .wide ones
fastened together fore-and-aft; at the same time I believe that
modern experience has established the fact that a bluff bow is
a wet, and a sharp bow a dry one; but this Journal is hardly
the place for discussing questions of this kind.

Somehow or other we mistook the landing place, and surpris-
ed a party of ladies from the neighbouring town of Paimpol, in
the act of making their toilet after a bathe. One of these,
whom we dubbed the "blue lady" from her wearing a blue polka,
excited the particular admiration of one of our party, as gather-
ed from his frequently turning his eye-glass in her dircctiou and
from the dreamy and sentimental mood in which he indulged
until he paid Paimpol a visit on the following morning, which
appeared to dispel the romantic illusions of the previous day.
For my part I have somehow got to regard everything, even the
pulchrum sexum, in a photographic point of view, and my first
thoughts are always how to get a good pose, or make a good
composition; now this is an abnormal state of mind which ought
not to be encouraged. Certain it is however that the "blue
lady" tripping about upon the wet beach with shoes and stock-
ings off and lower garments clued up, hunting for shells, or sea-
weeds or shrimps for her aquarium, and surrounded like Nau-
sicaa with her attendant nymphs, would have cjade a charming
study for the camera.

Having mistaken the landing place we had to cross another
creek on foot, and to wade through the mud for about a mile,
two of the sailors carrying the the traps slung from the sprit
of the boat. One of the men, nicknamed "Toby," (as hand-
some a fellow as one Oiten sees, and a Hercules in build,) was
with Lord Duffer in a year or two ago, on a yachting trip to the
Artie Regions.

We got to Beauport Abbey about two o'clock, and at once
pitched the tent under some trees. It was a lovely afternoon,—
cloudless and calm, and the ruins of Beauport far surpassed my
xepectations. Strange to say this part of the coast is beautifully
wooded and the scenery of a pretty inland character, altho' the
tide washes the Abbey grounds. I worked up two or three
more dry plates, and also took two or three stereoscopics upon

261

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

September,

wet ones. The chemicals were in good order, and Mr. Birchall
got three or four exceedingly good negatives. The tent he
worked in is on the military principal,— that is, it has a pole at
each end, and is fastened to the ground with ropes and pegs, so
that when up it resembles a high pitched roof with two gables,
throuc'h one of which you enter, and in the other is a yellow
windo°w. The plan is very good when there are two men always
at command to shut you in, let you out, and so forth, but otlier-
wise I hardly approve of it. My ideas on the subject of a tent
shall be given in a future number.

This successful photographing put us all in good humour, and
we had a glorious sail back to the yacht, arriving in time for a
roast goose at 9 p.m.; and ending the day in a very jolly man-
ner Just before tarning-in I went on deck to look at the
weather There was absolutely no wind, the stars were twink-
lin"- and the sea calm as a mill pond, while upon its surface,
appearing as if sown broadcast were a thousand rocks, large
and smalf which now scarcely provoked a ripple, and on the
land side the funny little Island of Brehat with its amphibious
population. And beneath my feet lay the beautiful "Rosalind,"
asleep upon the water, with her tall raking masts, and taught
ri"-ging, and luxurious appointments; and in their berths her
intellectual and hospitable owner, and our agreeable companions
the gentleman dreaming of the "blue lady," and the musician of
the party, (of whom more to-morrowj, and the skilful captain: —
and in their hammocks the gallant crew, and the glorious old
cook who was never seen on deck after six in the morning,
and the obliging steward,— all in fact but the "anchor watch,"
the one man forward chewing his quid in a red nightcap. _ It
was a scene never to be forgotten; and such as makes us wiser
and better men bevond a doubt.

Friday, July 30.— Aroused this moining at an unearthly
hour by an unusual wishing-washing-slushing-scraping-scrubbing
over head, for altho' the decks were scrubbed divinely _ every
mornino-, it was thought proper on this particular occasion to
make an' unusual business of it. All these operations on ship-
board, together with the strange noises one hears, — for instance,
the gurglfng of the water close to one's ears all night, the creak-
ing of the bulkheads, groaning of the masts, tramping over head,
thumping of ropes on deck, and rattling of chains, are very ex-
citing; and then the tossing and tumbling one gets, one-half the
ni"-ht over to leeward in one's berth and down where the keel
ought to be, and the other half up to windward, with the fear
of being pitched out bodily, and having to hold on ' 'like grim
(jeath"; the novelty of all this sort of thing has for me a pe-
culiar fascination, for I do not often suffer from sea-sickness, and
heartily enjoy anything in the shape of adventure; as, in fact,
do most people.

The sun was shining brightly, and from that moment to the
end of my trip I do not remember that a single cloud crossed
his blessed disc. We determined to make one more trip to
Beauport, and take some more views, while the other two of
our party went off to Paimpol. The first two or three plates
did not turn out quite so well this morning, and one of them de-
cidedly fogged from alkalinity of the bath, but a few drops of
acetic acid put matters right at once, and then the chemicals
worked beautifully, the process being reduced to a dead cer-
tainty. I worked to-day on my wet plates, and got some nice
litth stereoscopes, and Mr. Birchall did capitally on his 9X1
plates, so that all went " merry as a marriage-bell."

The Abbey of Beauport belongs to a French lady who mar-
ried lately a Polish refugee. The site has been chosen with
that keen appreciation which the old monks appear to have
possessed for fine natural scenery; and it is not difficult to un-
derstand why men of educated minds and quiet habits should in
dark and troublesome times have congregated together in remote
and beautiful spots as far away as possible from the tumult of a
badly-governed, fighting, squabbling world, and lived on the
produce of the rich and smiling vallies which surround their
common dwellings,— not however exactly like angels, or entirely
free from the vices and wickednesses of humanity.

This evening we were all in glorious spirits with the day's
work. I have said that one of the party was musical. He is

in fact an accomplished musician and singer, and either is or
was president of a glee club in the North. This evening then
we had a musical soiree, and never did I enjoy " Tom Bowling,"
"Sam Spritsail,'^ "Fly not yet," "The Thorn," and several of
Tom Moore's and Burns's immortal songs so much as when ren-
dered by Mr. Burnett on this occasion. His execution was full
of "fine detail" and " half-tone," and in finish and taste perfect.
Between the songs we were favored with some vocal harmony
from the men for'ard, some of whom have good voices and mu-
sical tact. Then followed speechifying, returning thanks, and
similar jollyfication, which we kept up till after midnight and
concluded with a song or two on deck. That evening will ever
be with me " a green spot in memory's waste." Our kind en-
tertainer is a noble fellow. " May his shadow never grow less."
Saturday, July 31. — This day was spent in Brehat, taking
the old church and church-yard over again from various points
of view. We worked in the tent, and everything came out cap-
itally. When one has all the paraphernalia at hand there is no
process like wet collodion. The church-yard is full of wooden
crosses, painted black, upon which the name of the departed is
inscribed; a bottle of holy water is placed at the foot, and on
the back of most of them are painted flames, pointing upwards,
and a skull and cross bones; at the end of every inscription is
added; Priez Dieu pour le repose de son ame ! I got good ster-
eoscopic negatives of this church-yard, and have no doubt they
will be very effective when printed. Many of the graves are
planted with flowers, and some with weeping willows. Fortun-
ately not a leaf stirred, and our negatives are sharp and perfect,
This was our last day in Brehat. The island has but little
interest and the houses are stiff and ugly. The population dur-
ing the summer months is composed principally of old men,
women, and children, most of the young and able-bodied men
being at sea. There are several good houses upon it inhabited
by capitaines de long cours, who have realized an independence
at sea

Sunday, August 1 . — We started at three o'clock this morn-
ing for Roscoff, a small town situated on the coast near Morlaix,
and about 60 miles from Brehat. An old pilot took us as far
as the Isle de Batz, and then another came on board and took
us into the roadstead of Roscoff. The wind was right aft, and
we bowled away at about 9 knots, with square-sail and square-
top-sail set upon the foremast, so that I had the pleasure of see-
ing the "Rosalind" in " full feather."

It was a glorious sail. We passed in succession the Heaux
lighthouse, — the seven Islands,-- -a dangerous reef of rocks called
the Triagons, — and then came in sight of the lofty spires of
Rosolifif, and of the magnificent Creisker and Cathedral of St.
Pol de Leon, — the spire of the Creisker being rather higher
than tliat of Salisbury, or the cross of St. Paul's. An amusing
and exciting incident occurred when passing the Seven Islands.
A large French government cutter, accompanied by two smaller
cutters, came so close to us, as to enable Mr. Birchall and the
captain of the large cutter to exchange courtesies by a wave of
the hat. The Frenchman was close-hauled, and we were run-
ning with the wind right aft, the most unfavorable point of sail-
ing for a fore-and-aft schooner ; but after having saluted us he
bore up, and gave us a race, setting all the sail he could upon
his vessel, viz., square-sail, gafi'-top-sail, and half-top-sail. In
half-an-hour we left him a mile a stern, and saw him haul down
his square-sail and half-top-sail, defeated.

The " Rosalind " is built somewhat on the model of the
" America, " and is one of the fastest yachts afloat. She has
only raced once, and then carried oflf the cup. Every sailing
craft we came in sight of was beaten " into fits," and many of
the large trading cutters which ply between France and Jersey,
and carry provisions, and frequently live-stock, are fast and fine
vessels, — but these and other craft when on the same tack with
ourselves were generally left " hull down " in a couple of hours.
The coast of Brittany, which we were now skirting at a dis-
tance of six or eight miles, was once in a high degree a land of
romance and sanctity. Here King Arthur is said to have had
his encounter with the dragon, and the Bretons dispute with
Glastonbury the honor of possessing his remains; — at the same

1853.

THE PECTCGIIlAFnTO A17D FHTE AIIT JCTJR2TAL.

262

time the numerous ruins of fine ecclesiastical buildin'^s in this
part of France bear witness to the former sanctity of this
locality.

We anchored in the roadstead of Roscoif in the afternoon,
took a stroll to the Isle de Batz, and went ashore at Roscoff in
the evening. The cliurch has a tower and spire, built in the
time of Louis l-ith, which struck me as singularly elegant, and
I regret exceeding that we could not find time to get a pholo-
graph of it. About a mile from Roscotf, in a garden formerly
belonging to a convent or Franciscans is an immense fig-tree,
probalily the largest in the world. The branches are extended
literally and supported upon stone pillars. I measured the
diameter of the space covered by it as nearly as T could by step-
ping it, and the distance was twenty three long strides, so that
three-hundred people could probably stand beneath this tree.
It was loaded with fruit.

In the neighborhood of Roscoff great quantities of onions,
asparagus, and other vegetables are grown for thp English
market, and these are conveyed across the Channel in a kind of
lugger called " Chasse-Marec."

MoxDAY, AuGDST 2. — Started at eight this morning in a
most wonderful French traj for St. Pol de Leon, a distance of
three miles, taking all the photographic apparatus with us, and
the useful man " Toby." Put up at the Hotel de France, equi-
distant from the Cathedral and Creisker, and got a room there
to work in, so the tent was unnecessary The tower of the
Oreisker is a marvellous piece of architecture, running up
straight like an Italian Campanile to the height perhaps of 200
ft. or more, and then terminating in a spire, the entire height
being 393-ft. It is of elegant design. We got three or four
successive views of it, both on the 9 X t and stereoscopic plates.
The best view of the upper i)art of the spire is got from a stage
on the top of the Hotel de France. Tl],e Cathedral offers no-
thing remarkable in its exterior, except la. rose window, but the
interior is very fine. Since my return home I have received
from Mr. Larkin, of Lichfield, a stereoscopic view of the interior
of Canterbury Cathedral, which is so periect that I greally re-
gret its not having occured to me to try the interior of the Ca-
thedral of St. Pol de Leon. There are some curious skull-coffins
here. The practice was to disinter the body some years afler
burial, cut off the head and place it in a small box like a dog-
kennel, having a cross on each gable, and a hole in the shape
of a heart at one end through which the skull is seen. Outside

is an inscription commencing thus : Ci git le chef de ,and

ending wilh: Priez Dieupour son ame.

We returned to Roscoif by the same ricketty conveyance in
the evening ; but too late to take the elegant tower of that
place. I wo;i'd observe that in the corner of the cl urch-yard
at Roscoif is a curious building, unlike anything I have seen
before, and which I b lieve to have been an ossuary, or place
for containing the bones of those bodies from which the head
was removed to be deposited in a skull-coffin.

TuEiiiAY, August 3. — Got under weigh this morning at
eight wilh a fair wind for Jersey, and were soon bowling along
at ten knots under square-sail and square-top-sail, as on Sunday,
which we considered a jiiece of exiraordinary good luck. This
was to be the last d.iv of ray holiday, and my kind friends, who
were anxious to wiiuuss the approaching ceremonies at Cher-
bourgh, were going many miles out of their course for the ex-
press purpose of pulling me ashore at Jersey. As the spires of
Roscoff and St. Pul de Leon, and the vaiious objects on the
French coast receded from view I took my leave of them in a
sort of mournful reverie from which I was aroused by a cheering
proposition from Mr. Pedder, the naturalist of our [)any, to try
and obtain a jjortrait of Mr. Birchall on the deck of his yacht,
with the bulwarks, sails, &c., for a background. In this matter
there appeared to be no difficulty, for although the vessel was
tearing through the water wilh all the sail set she could stagger
under, and tossing and rolling right merrily, still as the camera
moved with her, her particular motion during the exposure was
of no consequence; so we darkned the after cabin skylight with
black and yellow curtains and got to work. Mr. Birchall stood
n the shadow of the mainsail wiih a telescope in Lis hand, and

34

the background as it happened, and a No. 2 Ross portrait-len3
was brought to bear upon him. On focusing I could discover
no traces of difi'used light, for the precaution had been taken to
place a diaphragm of about li-ins. aperture immediately in con-
tact with the front lens, which cut off the ring of light generally
seen round the edge of that lens when working in the open air
without a shade to the front of the camera. The operation
therefore offered no difficulties, and out of three trials two ex-
cellent full-length portraits were obtained with an exposure of
two seconds in the shade. We next took three or four stereo-
scopic views of the vessel from the stern, including the captain
and crew, (save the mate at the helm), together with my three
cabin passengers. These came out admirably with an exposure
of twenty seconds and the \-m. stop between the lens Then
followed an attempt to take the waves instantaneously. It was
now six o'clock. I knew it would be of no use to employ the
full aperture of the portrait lenses, as my stereoscopic camera is
badly constructed and lets in diffused light when no stops are
employed, so I tried wilh a |-in. stop between the lenses, and
gave an inslantaneous exposure by quickly uncovering and re-
covering the lenses by a black glazed hat. The sky came out
quite dense and the horizon well-defined; the distant waves
were also sharp and crisp, but the near ones under-exposed and
devoid of detail. The sun was at my back; there was no fog
on I he plate, and the lines of the picture are intensely sharp.
I have no doubt whatever but that with a properly constructed
camera, and lens properly mounted so as to prevent diffused light
li'om entering and permit of the whole aperture being used, the
waves of the sea might be taken in broad daylight with great
ease and certainty. In fact photography may, lam quilt certain
be turned to a most useful purpose in navigation ; 1 mean for
taking the marks described in books of sailing directions, and
also the various appearances presented by the coast, while the
vessel is under weigh. The governments of civilized countries
should take this matter up at once. It would doubtless save
many shipwrecks, and prevent much suffering and loss of valua-
ble jiroperty. I conceive this matter to be so important that
I prupose in the next number devoting a special article to the
consideration of it.

We did not save our daylight into Jersey, and therefore lay-
to outside the dangers of the coast until daybreak the following
morning, when we ran in and anchored in St. Aubin's Bay.

I found all well at St. Brelade's, and heaps of letters requir-
ing my immediate attention. To my kind friends Mr. Birchall,
Mr. Pedder, and Mr. Burnett, I am indebted for a delightful
holiday, rendered intellectual by photography, natural history,
and music; and to the skilful captain of the Rosalind, Mr. Trout,
fur some valuable information in nautical maiters, and many
amusing anecdotes of trips to Iceland, jSTorway, the West Indies,
&c., &c. All this enjoyment, and my introduction to these kind
tViends, who have given me a pressing invitation to visit them
at Preston, was brought about by Mr. Birchall breaking a
bottle of collodion on a former visit to Jersey, and applying to
me to replace the loss. Among my readers there are probably
hw who have not made some valuable acquaiutauces, or eveii
esteemed friends, through photography.

I took my last look at the beautiful "Rosalind" on "Wednes-
day alfceruoon as she passed St. Brelade's on her way to Cher-
bourg.

The 10th commandment has not the especial clause "Thou shalt
not covet thy neighbors yacht," but in the "nor anything that
is his," I suppose the yacht is included; I must not therefore
covet the possession of the beautiful "Rosalind"; but if there is
anything on earth I should like to possess, it is a yacht big
enough to take me on a photo-excursion to the Mediterranean.
Five or six years ago I built, in my own garden, a schooner of
forty tons on the model of a trading vessel, the hold being fitted
up temporarily wilh bulk-heads and cabins, and in this little
craft took a few trii^s to France, but the res angusta dovii com-
pelled me to dispose of her and give up marine pleasures.

And now I must bring a long story to an end, with an apology
to the reader for having tresj)assed perhaps too long upon his
patience. I would observe however, that the collodion we used

263

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

September,

was my own make, after the formula of Mr. Hadow, given iu
my Treatise, and iodized only with iodide of potassium; and that
we used both acetic and citric acids in the developer, Mr. Birch-
all piving the preference to the latter.

Since my return home, I have developed two of the dry plates.
The first was under-exposed, the second quite successful. It
will be remembered that these plates have been kept for nearly
a year; there is no fog, the blacks are extremely dense, and the
definition perfect. Dr. Norris's {)rocess is really admirable; it
deserves to be recommended extensively, and is a great step in
photography. [Ed. P.N. ]

For the Pliotograpic and Fine Art Journal.

SOME ITEMS, RELATING TO THE TRIICESS OF SITTING FOR
IlELIOGRAPlllC PORTRAIT.

Mr. EorroR, — There are so many circumstances connected
■with a Heliographic Sitting, which bear directly and essentially
upon the character of the result to be obtained; — circumstances
any one or more of which, if mismanaged or neglected, will leave
the picture either defective or positively blemished, — that one
cannot but marvel at the recklessness with whicli this profession

For example, is his subject a puhlic speaker, political or otlier?
Or is he a literary man, writing prose, or poetry, or both ?
According to which of these characters he bears, will the artist
vary in the method of apjjroach and the expedients to be used
for exciting and interesting. It migkt be advisable to make a
difference in the positions of these different subjects. Thus it
might be best, that a Clay or Webster should be represented in
that standing attitude to which they have been accustomed in
those moments of greatest intellectual and moral excitement,
which stamp expression most powerfully upon the face and form.
But Irving, Bryant, and Longfellow might best be represented
as sitting surrounded with books and papers, which use has as-
sociated with their seasons of highest interest and enthusiasm.
These brief suggestions will show the principle involved in this
matter; and the reader will easily make abundant other a^p/zca-
tions of the same for himself.

At the same time, that the suliject is instructed to assume
an attitude and is aided to surround himself with objects and
conditions, which have been wont to be associated with his
most interested and highest moods, and thus to arouse and elevate
himself. — The artist should bend his own efforts in the same di-
rection In other words, he should strive to introduce into the
conversation the topics most likely to touch and excite his sub-

is assumed by many, who have hardly a quality either native jec^s, feelings in a manner at once the strongest and most agree-

cr acquired to fit them therefor.

How continually, for example, do we witness a stupid blunder
committed at the very outset, in the awkward placing of the
subject's face and figure in relation to the Camera 1 The face
and head instead of being sketched diagonally, or so as to ex-
hibit a partially side as well as front view are represented, as
staring directly afront, and consequently being so broodened as
to appear absolutely distorted and deformed. You may perhaps

able. The more powerful an emotion is — provided merely it be
not absolutely painful and oppressive — the more pleasing it is
to the majority of persons. And no feeling is so capable of
calling forth the fullest and noblest expression of one's nature,
as one that is both potent and pleasing.

Now let the artist possess a genius however rich and finely
toned, it will not completely subserve his purposes without the
most careful and unremitting cultivation. A knowledge of hu-

look over a collection of fifty Heliographs without finding five\ ma" nature in its myriad forms and shades, so as to be able, on

that vary from the asjiect of gazing straight a head ! And all
this, too, when a single glimpse is sufficient to show the measure-
less superiority of the side view over the view so generally
adopted.

Consider, again, of how much importance are a score of mat-
ters pertaining to the operating room, such as the admission
and regulation of the light, &c. &c., — any one of which being
misadapted and misarranged may greatly injure, if not positively
spoil the picture.

How very important, moreover, is the regulation of that de-
licate process, the jilay of lights and shadows over the head and
face and figure — which to the Heliographer must execute the
work performed with colors by the painter, — must mitigate, or
cast entirely out of view defects and blemishes in either, and
bring the fine points conspicuously into sight ! How insuffer-
ably absurd the idea that nothing else is required of the operant
t'lan to station the subject directly before the camera, whatever
is necessary beside being performed by the sunbeam itself I

What a rajiidly working and infallibly sure eye, — how familiar
an acquaintance with the constituents of the sunbeam and with
optical instruments are required of the practitioner, — and yet
stupidity and ignorance dare to commence Heliographic prac-
tice, after a few weeks' mechanical manipulation ?

How much versatility and power of adaptation are also re-
quired of the Heliographer ? For, if fully alive to all the re-
quirements and exigencies of his profession, he will find, that
nearly every successive subject demands a different arrangement
of light and shadow with a different location in the room, view
of the face &c., accordingly his genius (for nothing else can)
will suggest such a change in the position of the camera, in the
background, and in all the other conditions, as is needed for
producing a likeness both true and artistic.

The items hitherto mentioned in this article, as aiding in the
production of the picture, are chiefly, if not wholly mechanical
in kind, and yet not the less useful to the artist in his work.
Without their observacne, his specimens will be faulty and de-
fective. These, however, arc but a portion of the things requi-
site; he must also, and most especially so operate upon the
mind of his subject as to call up the expression of character
desired. There are various means to be employed for this end.

slight intercourse to decide upon the character and dispositions,
is of measureless value not only to the artist, but to well nigh
all others — and to gain this should be a leading object with all.
Of scarcely, if any, less importance is the power to act upon
men's minds and hearts, whether through the medium of written
or vocal address, or the more familiar modes of conversation, and
to cultivate this, should also, be with all a paramount end. To
the Portrait-taker, with whatever implements, conversational
influence is more especially important. For on his possessing
this, must it depend in a great degree whether he will even be
competent to produce an expressive picture, — or, iu other words
whether he has any claim to the title of artist. I have now oc-
cupied all the space for the time at command, — and if I follow
this topic further it irust be in another paper.

Yours &c.

M. A. ROOT.
Philadelphia, Aug. 6th, 1858.

From Photof/raphic N'otes.

ON THE TREATMENT OF NEGATITE NITRATE BATHS TUAT ARE
GIT OF ORDER.

If a negative nitrate bath for collodion is simply alkaline,
acidify it with acetic acid, adding a drop or two at a time, and
testing it with litmus paper between each addition of acid.

If too acid with nitric acid, add so much of a solution of car-
bonate of soda as is necessary completely to neutralize the nitric
acid, or even to render the bath alkaline, and then acidify it
again with acetic acid. On first adding the carbonate of soda a
yellow turbidity is produced, with effervescence; this is due to
the formation of carbonate of silver, which is speedily re-dissolved
and carbonic acid liberated. As soon as the carbonate ceases
to be re-dissolved, the whole of the free nitric acid is neutralized.
On adding acetic acid the carbonate of silver is decomposed
into acetate of silver and carbonic acid. A small portion of
the acetate of silver (which is a white salt insoluble iu water) is
then dissolved by the nitrate of silver in the bath.

Never add ammonia to a negative bath, and never use the
ammonical salts in photography, (except the iodide of collodion

positives, and eveu in this case it is a question whether iodide of
potassium is uot better). The salts of ammonia are all very un
stable, from the volatile nature of atamonia, vehich causes it to
escape from its compounds. Besides, ammonia and nitrate of
ammonia are solvents of oxide of silver, and generally ammonia
forms complex and unstable compounds in the nitrate bath.

Sometimes the bath fogs the plate and is nevertheless acid; —
and it commonly happens that a new bath fogs and works badly.
When a bath is in this state it requires energetic treatment.

1st. Expose it to sunshine for a day or two, with a piece of
muslin tied over the neck of the bottle. This will precipitate
most of the organic matter in combination with sub-oxide of
silver. Then filter the bath without disturbing the precipitate,
add a little nitric acid, boil it down in an evaperating dish on a
sand bath, and recrystallize it. The crystals of nitrate of silver
may be mixed with crystals of nitrate of potass or other salts,
but the impurities are removed by crystallization, and unless
these salts exist in great excess they may be harmless. Redis-
solve the crystals in pure distilled water, and try the bath again.

2nd. Throw down all the silver in the bath as a brown oxide
by adding liquor or potassse to it. Wash the oxide in several
waters, dry it, and roast it in a crucible. In this way organic
matter will be burnt off and the oxide reduced to sub-oxide or
metallic silver. Re-dissolve it in nitric acid, evaporate, and
crystallize.

3rd. Throw down all the silver as a yellow carbonate by add-
ing carbonate of soda to the bath. Wash it well in several
waters, roast it in a crucible as before, re-dissolve it with nitric
acid, evaporate and crystallize.

Should these plans fail, throw the silver down with salts as
chloride, and send it to the refiners, who will give pure silver in
exchange for it, making of course a fair deduction for their
trouble.

We advise photographers to make their own nitrate of silver
for the negative bath. The plan is to obtain pure silver from
the refiners, pure nitric acid from a respectable chemist, and to
make their own distilled water with a large glass retort, and a
Liebig's condenser. Then they will know it cannot contain lead
or organic matters. All that now remains is to dissolve the
silver in the nitric acid. This done by adding to it a sufficient
quantity of nitric acid, diluted with three parts of water, it is
of no consequence if the diluted acid be in excess. It must be
done out of doors or under a chimney as suffocating fumes are
given off. The water is necessary in order to oxidize the silver.
When the metal is dissolved the solution must be evaporated
and crystallized; or if it be thought desirable to drive off the
whole of the free nitric acid the crystals may be fused ; but this
renders them alkaline, probably because a little oxide of silver
is formed and held in combination with the nitrate; the remedy
is acetic acid. A bath thus made is pretty sure to act well at
first. In cases where a bath acts badly at 'first, either the nit-
rate of silver, or the distilled water, or both, must be in fault.

Distilled water, so called, is frequently nothing but filtered
rain water, which has been collected in leaden tanks, and holds
oxide of lead in solution, besides other impurities. The lead
may be detected by furt sulphuric acid, which renders the water
cloudy. [Ed. P.K]

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

SUGGESTIONS RELATIVE TO TESTING QUALITIES OF GLASS
INTENDED FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC OPERATmG ROOMS,

By THis Editok,

The sub committee- of the Liverpool Photographic Society,
which has been charged with the investigation of the question
above indicated, as well as the changes which various kinds of
glass undergo, is composed of members too much in earnest in
the promotion of photographic science to take umbrage at hav-
iuo- a few suggestions offered for their consideration, which we
consider calculated to enhance materially the value of the result
of their labours.

It has been argued by one side, that glass tinted of a light
blue color is preferable to simple white glass for the purpose,
while the other side contends that blue glass has already been
tried, and found inferior to the uncolored sort; but further, that
the colored glass is found by experience to deepen in shade by
exposure, and at the same time to retard the actinic action
materially. A reply has been given, that glass of a dark blue
has been tried, but that the recent recommendation has been
for a lightly-tinted article, and that by no means follows, that
because color in excess may be baneful, a smaller amount of in-
tensity is necessarily equal, or even proportionably injurious ;
and further, that every kind of glass that is tinted does not be-
come deeper by exposure.

In the discussion that has taken place nothing appears to
have been said about the medium by which the color is produced
as bearing upon the question of retardation of the actinic force,
although it has been noticed with reference to the change by
exposure; but in our opinion, this point is deserving of far more
attention than has hitherto been accorded to it. We have a
notion, founded upon more than surmise, that it will be found
upon trial, that the nature of the materials employed in the man-
ufacture of the various kinds of glass has as much to do with
the effect as color, possibly more.

In fact, we think we can trace a suspicion of this supposition
in the remarks made by one of the gentlemen of the committee,
and we would strongly urge him to experiment in this direction,
the more particularly as he has opportunities for so doing above
the generality of photographers.

Let us review what has already come to light bearing upon
this subject, and we shall probably be able to arrive at some
conclusion as to the possible utility of such an investigation as
we have indicated.

Professor Stokes, to whom photographers are deeply indebted
for some valuable researches into the nature of fluorescent bodies,
has shewn that a solution of disulphate of quinine, of about aa
inch in depth, is capable of arresting the whole of the actinic
part of the solar light — the solution named being of a purely
limpid and colorless nature — although the arrested rays are
capable of being perceived by the eye, when looking nearly at
right angles to the plane of interception, and present a some-
what blueish appearance. In a similar manner he has also
shewn, that an infusion of the bark of the horse-chesnut, and
also of the seeds of the datura-stramonium are endowed with a
similar property. The first-named instance is that, however,
which bears most strongly upon the matter under consideration,
as shewing that the effect is not due to any color in the material ;
the others are valuable, as shewing that the solution first cited
is not the only one possessing this remarkable power. At a
lecture given by this gectleman at the Royal Institution, he ex-
hibited many interesting experiment relative to the powers of
certain media in stopping the passage of the actinic rays;
amongst others, he shewed that glass stained of a light yellow
color by means of oxide of bismuth, possesses this quality in an
eminent degree.

Professor Robert Hunt has also noticed the fact, that of two
samples of glass, stained of a yellow color, of equal intensity
(the one by means of oxide of silver, the other by means of car-
bon), the former is much more active than the latter in arrest-
ing the chemical rays.

It is also pretty notorious that the time of exposure required
in any glass-room is greater than in the open air, though some
rooms are more obstructive than others, and that not always in
proportion to their apparent light.

With regard to light reflected from variously colored surfaces,
the molecular condition of the surfaces exercise a material in-
fluence upon the comparative results, as the following examples
will testify, viz: — In landscape photography the peculiar con-
dition of the foliage is a most important point in determining
the beauty of the results obtained. In spring time, when the
leaves are young, they appear to make a much stronger im-
pression upon the sensitive media generally employed, than
when they have attained maturity. Leaves with a polished
surface act more vigorously than those destitute of this pecu-

-)

265

THE PEOTOGRAPniG AlsD TIIs^E ART JOURNAL.

September,

liarity, probably owing to their reflecting a portion of the or-
dinary white light, as well as radiating that of their own proper
color; but there are few observant photographers who have not
noticed that there are numerous occasions when foliage comes
out well very unexpectedly, and others, when the reverse is the
case, and such exceptions are not capable of any such explana-
tion as that indicated above. Again, some kinds of yellovr
flowers are very active in impressing the sensitive surface, whilst
others are equally inactive. Buttercups, for instance, almost
invariably appear as small w/n(e specks in a photograph; while
yellow clirysanthcmums, of very nearly the same shade, appear
as black flowers; as also calceolaries. The dark green leaves
and bright yellow clusters of flowers of the berberis (the former
being very polished) both impress the film with about equal vig-
or, although the contrast in nature is very marked. Similar
variations may be noticed amongst the blue shades and tlieir
compounds; but the point to which we desire to draw particular
attention is, that our results are not constant with the conditions
of illumination vary.

We rcLueniber seeing some few years back a curious illustra-
tion of the effect of a slig/d tinge of color in producing a most
marked effect. Our friend Dr. t)iamond had been taking the
likeness of a little girl (glass positives being then the favorite
method), and had experienced two or three failures in conse-
quence of a stain upon the light part of the figure, represented
in this case by a pinafore; but, noticing that the from of the
Btain was alike in two instances, he examined tbe article of dress
itself, and found it slightly soiled by some of the juice of an
orange which he had given her to keep her quiet while prepar-
ing his plates. Every photographer must have experienced the
annoyance of finding a sitter's face appear as if splashed with
ink, owing to the presence of freckles: and this defect is some-
times more conspicuous when the sitters happen to be young
ladies with very fair and delicate complexions. A remedy for
tills defect is not unfrequently found in applying a little violet
powder; but who knows a remedy for the transformation pro-
duced in the appearance of an individual, so far a.s his photo-
graphic portrait is concerned, if he happen to be supplied with
the adornment of red hair ?

With regard to copies of paintings, we have only to look at
many examples in the Photographic Exhibition at South Kens-
ington to be convinced of the undesirable alteration of effect
produced by the photographic interpretation of many of them.

We take it that it is a fact beyond question, that photograph-
ers by profession are deeply interested, as a class, in a soluiion
of the diificuUy of a correct rendering, in light and shade, of
variously colored paintings, because there are very many artists
and coimoisseurs who would gladly avail themselves of the skill
of an able photographer, in order to multiply, to a moderate
extent, copies of their conceptions or possessions in art treasures,
provided such a task can be atcomplished without the introduc-
tion of an amount of caricature.

From certain experiences of our own, we are convinced that
a solution of the problem indicated is by no means an impossi-
bility, or even an improbability, and it is to this task especially
that we would invite the attention of the committee of investiga-
ti< a on the influence of various kinds of glass used in photo-
graphy.

In proposing to these gentlemen the undertaking of an ardu-
ous, l)ut by no means unjjleasing task, it is but right tliat we
should suggest the course of proceeding that strikes us, as being
the most ready, having but little doubt that, should they adopt
the idea, they will easily improve upou our first crude nolions.

We propose, then, the construction of an oblong deal box,
say eight feet long, and from eighteen to twenty-four inches
square, or perhaps eighteen incites wide by twenly-lour inches
high — the dimensions not being important, except as regards
the general size of sheets of colored and other glass obtainable.
The box should be blackened inside, and at one end a circular
aperture made suflicieutly large for the introductioa of the lens
attached to the front of any camera to be employed. A lengih
of abiait two feet at the opposite end of the long box should be
removed from its upper surface, aud also from one sii'fi (either

the right or left), and in these openings some kind of sash or
framework should be contrived, capable of receiving temporarily
panes of the glasses to be tested. The end of the box itself
should be capable of opening upon hinges, in order to allow of
the ready introduction of back-grounds of any colors, as well as
the subjects to be experimented upon, which may consist of col-
ored pictures, va.ses of natural and artificial flowers, porcelain
and other figures (white and colored), in short, every' variety of
object that can be included within the dimensions of the box.
By this arrangement we conceive that all the advantages of a
glass operating room for conducting these experiments would be
obtained at a small expense, and with the facility of chano-ing
the glazing at the cost of a couple of good sized sheets of glass
of each kind to be tested.

With regard to the proposed investigations, they will natu-
rally divide themselves into two classes, viz:— first, the examina-
tion for ascrtaining what kind of glass permits rhe passage of a
maximum amount of the actinic rays; and secondly, thel^hades
that illuminate paintings, or other colored objects, ' in such a
manner as to allow of a correct representation, in light and
shade, of the efi'ects presented to the eye.

We have no doubt that light greens, yellows, reds, and browns
will all be found useful under certain circumstances, because, al-
though it may not be possible to stimulate an inactive color, it
may be quite practicable to retard the violent action of one that
is powerful, such as white, or light blue, while the retardation
of the more inert kinds is scarcely perceptible.

MANCHESTER PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.

The last jneeting of the above Society was held on the 30th
ultimo, at the Literary and Philosophical Society's house; Mr.
SiDEBOTHAM presided.

A very beautiful collection of photographs, printed frotr col-
lodio-albumen, collodion, and oxymel plates, were placed upon
the table by the Chairman, and Messi's. Mabley, Parry, You no-
Wardley, Brothers, and .v'Jann, which two last gentletiien pre-
sented three prints for 1he Society's portfolio.

Mr. Sidebotham reported hissuccpss with an orlhoscopic lens
eleven inches focus, seven-eiglifhs aperture, five minutes expo-
sure, with collodio-albnmen. He produced some very satisfactory
views of Slonehenge, the Xeedles, a portrait of Handel, froi.i a
German lithograph, and a view of the interior of Bowden Church
now undergoing demolition — this last had been exposed twenty-
five minutes.

A plan for making vignetting glasses was shewn, consisting
of a black oval, painted on a board, an image of which beino-
taken with the lens out of focus, answers for this purpose very
well.

On the subject of blisters a Member remarked that his bath
being by accident only partly full, the part of the plate undipped
rose in a large blister, while the immersed portion remained per-
fectly free from that annoyance. It was said that to avoid blist-
ers four requisites must be observed: —

1st.— Plates to be well dried.

2nd. — Collodion to be thin.

3rd. — Collodion to be allowed to set well before sensitising.

4th — AHiumen to be dried rapidly.

A conversation followed as to some collodio-albumen plates
prepared in the broad davlio-ht; after the followimr letter from
Mr. Roscoe was read, and the mcpiing terminated:

Ouens Collcgp. ^tanrlvster. May 4. 1858.

Dear Sir — T inclose, for the inspection of the Society, some
drawings, sent me by Mr. Campbell, of the Board of Health,
Whitehall, .shewintr the amount of direct snn-li^-ht, as measured
by his snn-dial, for three half years, from 18,54 to 18.56.

The description of this registering sun-dial is contained in one
of the late numbers of your Jourval, and will therefore be know
to most of your members. It consists simply of a semi-spherical
cup or vessel of wood, havinsr a solid spherical gla.ss lens placed
on a support in the centre of the cup, so that the focus of the
'ens falls upon the surface of the wood. The sun, when it shines,

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

266

burns, therefore, a track in the wood, and the amount of direct
sunlight is thus registered.

The results obtained by this instrument, and tabulated in the
manner seen in the drawings, will form important additions to
our knowledge of meterology; and as every subject connected
with the solar rays is of interest to the photographer, I thought
that the members might like to see the relative amount of the
sun's burning power, as estimated by Campbell's instrument for
three cosecutive half years. —

Believe me, dear sir, very truly, yours.

HENRY E. ROSCOE.

Samuel Cottam, Esq.

FRENCH PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.

The ordinary monthly meeting of this Society was held, at
Paris, on the 28Lh May, when the chair was occupied by Mr.
Regnault, the President Two new members were elected and
several presents were received. The following letters were
read, viz. : —

From M. Alexander Vattemore relative to the collection of
American photographs, presented by Major Bowman.

From Charles Chevallier, accompanying a model of a diaph-
ragm of variable aperture, made by him in the year 1840, to-
gether with a printed statement of the same date, as follows :
" I have also adapted to my apparatus a variable diaphragm
or artificial pupil, which permits of obtaining with one bi-achro-
matic object-glass, the same sharpness for objects situated at a
distance from or near to the instrument." The diaphragm con-
sists of a series of metallic plates simultaneously acted upon by
a rack and pinion, causing the edges of the plates by their in-
tersection to form an opening approximating to a circular figure.
It appears, then, that the object aimed at by the diaphragm
is precisely similar to that of M. Mangey, though the mode of
carrying it out differs entirely.

The Abbe Moigno communicated the extract of a letter from
Professor Govi, of Florence, claiming to have been the originator
of the pupillary diaphgram, constructed of vulcanized india-
rubber, in the year 1851, and citing some occasions when it had
been publicly exhibited at the professor's lectures.

M. de la Blanchere exhibited some positive impressions from
negatives, by his own process, with dry collodion.

M. Quinet presented a negative on glass of about twenty-one
inches by seventeen, obtained upon dry collodion, as prepared
by himself, the exposure in the camera having lasted five
minutes.

M. Jamin exhibited two negatives of about sixteen and hal(
inches by thirteen inches, being enlarged copies of engravings,
taken on moist collodion, by lenses constructed by him upon
the " orthoscopic " principle.

The thanks of the Society having been accorded to the resp-
ective exhibitors and donors, the following letter from M.
Hocede du Tremblay was read : —

" Gentlemen and Colleagues, — The new process for the pro-
production of positives, discovered by M. Niepce de St.
Yictor, has been accompanied in several photographic journals,
as also in the Monittur, with praises calculated to cause
its adoption with eagerness by photographers.

" To render the proofs unchangeable, and to suppress the use
of hyposulphite of soda would be at once the triumph of this
new process above all others.

" But still it would be requisite that the artistic quality of
the results obtained should ba preserved in a sufficient degree.
Then comes the question of economy, a secondary one, no doubt;
but of some importance nevertheless.

"If it fulfils the conditions so highly announced, the adoption
of Niepce's process is as useful as desirable ; but is this sufficiently
proved to induce one to adopt this method without any fear of
being deceived? One can form an opinion by comparative ex-
periments, but many amongst us rightly entertain some mistrust,
and their remoteness from Paris leaves them dependent upon

34*

the information obtained from the journals, more or less ac-
quainted with it, more or less explicit: is the a failure to be at
tributed to the process itself or to their inexperience ?

" Hence arises amongst our colleagues and subscribers to the
Bulletin the legitimate desire to receive advice and counsel from
this meeting of photographers, associated to encourage, pro-
pagate, and examine, each to the utmost of his power, works of
photography, and to indicate and record the progress.

" Useful to all — these counsel? are indispensable to those ig-
norant of chemistry.

"As far as regards myself I admit that I regret having found
nothing in the Bulletin relative to the printing process of Niepce.
Will the Society remain silent on the carrying out of a method
signalized as one which ought to produce a revolution in pho-
tography. I shall, without doubt, only anticipate the intentions
of the Council in requesting them, in my own name, and in that
of several of our colleagues, to be kind enough to take the fol-
lowing questions into consderation, viz. : —

" 1. — Is the process of printing by nitrate of uranium, and
fixing with pure wacer, superior to the old method, in which the
unalterability of the proof is insured by substances destructive
of the sensitive agent ?

" 2. — Respecting the quality of the proofs obtained by this
process, the brilliancy, the richness of tone, in fact, the artistic
value, is it equal or superior to that of those hitherto obtained?
" 3. — Is it economical ?

" 4. — What are the comparative advantages and disadvant-
ages of the two modes of manipulation under consideration ?

" I dare to reckon, gentlemen, upon a favorable consideration
of these questions, trusting, in common with all those devoted
to our art, that a serious examination will bring a new glory to
that name which is deservedly so dear to us, and place a new
discovery more within the reach of us all."

The President remarked, that M. Niepce de St. Victor con-
sidered the facts which he had published as belonging rather to
the domain of scientific observat.'on, than to that of practical
photography. His intention was to throw open a new field for
researches, in which photographers ought to exercise themselves.
He tho'ight further that the methods derived from the facts
that he had observed required the sanction of experience, and that
it is not at first that the best results are obtained. If then the
Society appoints a committee to examine this process, it is only
on the ascertained facts that they ought to report, rather than
on the probable future of the process itself.

M. Paul Perier seconded the proposition of M. Hocede du
Tremblay. It appeared to him in fact difficult for the public to
separate the discoveries of M. Niepce de St. Victor from that
which has been said in connexion therewith. No one would be
more pleased than himself to see realised all the promises made
in connection with this process, not so much by M. Niepce de
St. Victor, as by those who have published them with an en-
thusiasm which he is far from disapproving, but which he should
like to see light itself perform. It has been stated, in fact, that
the nitrate of uranium processes presents such advantages over
1,hose in common use, that the latter should be abandoned in
favor of the former. In the face of these assertions, those pho-
tographers who, far from head quarters, are left to their own
exertions, find themselves exposed to such embarrasments and
discouraging failures, that they are unable to succeed in their
attempts. The Bulletin of the Society ought then to come to
their assistance, and it would not be natural that in such a ques-
tion it should remain silent, after having simply inserted the
two Memoires of M. Niepce de St. Victor; for a publication of
this kind is not so much for those who know most, but for those
who know least, and who need to find in it guidance and advice.
It would not be proper, it is true, to attempt to predict the
future of this process; but the Society ought to publish in its
Bulletin that which the operators may expect of the process
such as it is at present. M. P. Perier asks then that a com-
mittee be named to examine the actual value of the process as
regards the threefold qualities of artistic excellence, stabilii,}',
and economy. He affirmed, in conclusion, the importance of
enligthening the members of the Society on these points; for,

261

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

September,

to cite but one example, it lias been stated that proofs from the
nitrate of uranium enjoy a peculiar stability, resisting the most
energetic chemical agents, whist he knew for a certainty, from
the results of some experiments which had been communicated
to him from some of the members of the Society, that these
proofs fade and change under the same conditions in which or-
dinary proofs suffer deterioration, when, for example, they are
exposed to the action of moist sulphuretted hydrogen or of by-
drosulphate of ammonia.

The Abbe Moigno added, that the process is still in its in-
fancy, and that no one could say hitherto that he had seen a
beautifiul commercial proof obtained by nitrate of uranium.

The matter was referred to a committee, consisting of MM.
Balard, Paul Perier, Bayard, Davanne, and Girard.

M. Balakd proposed that M.Tremblay's letter, as well as the
observations to which it had given rise, should be inserted in
the Bulletin, which was agreed to.

M. DE BLANcnERE Said that he was charged officially by M.
Niepce de St. Victor with the investigation of the practical ap-
plication of his processes. He offered to communicate to the
Society a long memoire that he had written oh the subject, and
the publication committee were requested to extract for the
Bidhlin such part as they might consider advisable.

M. Delahaye exhibited several uranium prints produced by
M. Houday, of Lille, and which were more on the surface than
in the fabric of the paper. They were accompanied by a letter
laudatory of the process by which they were obtained, which
was described as follows:

The paper is prepared with gelatine and nitrate of uranium
as directed by M. de Blanchere, developed after insulation with
aceto-nitrate of silver as employed for exciting waxed paper for
negatives, then floated on a bath of

Water 1 ounce

Propostulphate of iron 40 grains

Acetic acid 10 minims

The impression acquires on this bath a considerable vigour, and
leaves the fabric as it were to appear upon the surface of the
paper. If the exposure has been too long, it is necessary to wash
the proofs slightly before submitting them to the iron bath. When
removed Irom the bath they are of a sepia tint, but may be toned
of a black color by a bath of chloride of gold, half a grain to
the ounce of water.

M. Regnlaut enquired whether the photosolphate of iron was
the only agent that had been employed.

M. Davanne said that he had seen theComt Olympe'Agnardo
and M. Robert, of Sevres, make some trials in this direction
with gallic acid, and that the proofs were decidedly superior to
those obtained with the uranium salts alone.*

M. PoRRO presented his third and concluding paper on the
improvements to be introduced into the construction of photo-
graphic object glasses. He also presented a lens of new con-
struction applicable to the production of panoramic views.

The thanks of the Society were accorded to M. Porro, and
his communication was directed to be inserted in the Bulletin.

M. Davanne reported upon M. Gatzel's modification of Tau-
penot's process. The report was adopted.

MM. Davanne and Girard presented a continuation of their
researches on paper positives, which was ordered for insertion
in tlie Bulletin.

M.Georges de Bello exhibited a gutta pereha funnel, which
he had constructed for use in filtering solutions into flat dishes
without any extraneous support; the neck of the ordinary fun-
nel being absent, a branched foot is attached, which is done so
as to admit of its being stood on a flat dish, or on the neck of
a bottle.

A report of the sale of photographs on behalf of the Society
concluded the proceedings.

* Tbis is a very imperfect description of the method formerly rccom-
mcnded by Mr. liunielt lor producing uranium pictures, to which we
niiide allusion in our last. Truly the coolness with which piihlished pro-
cesses are claimed as new discoveries is one of the marvels o[ the present
day.— Ed.

ON VARNISHES FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC PURPOSES.

By D. Van Monckhoven.

From La Lumiere.

One of the most important questions in connexion with pho-
tography, is that of covering the tender and fragile film forming
the image with a coating of some much harder substance, and
which resists perfectly the conditions demanded for the printing
of a considerable number of proofs.

During the year 185T, we have submitted this question to a
careful and extended research, and purpose detailing here the
result of our labours.

The ordinary varnishes of commerce differ from that adapted
for-photography, in that the latter demands some special qual-
ities (we allude particularly to that intended to protect the film
of collodion while printing a number of positives), for instance,

First, it ought to be sufficiently fluid, in order not to give too
great transparencey to the negative, so as to cause it to lose
vigour, yet to be sufficiently thick to preserve the collodion
perfectly.

Second, it ought to be insoluble in water, so that the pos-
sitive shall not become attached to it, inconsequence of moisture
which condenses on the glass under the influence of the solar
rays.

Third, it must not soften under a temperature of from 140°
to 200o Fahrenheit.

Fourth, finally, the liquids which enter into the composition
of photographic varnish must not be subject to become resinous.

Let us now consider the various varnishes which have been
proposed in France, in England, and above all, in the United
States of America.

Amongst the various substances, resinous and liquid, employ-
ed in this kind of manufacture, we may mention,

Copal Melted amber

Soft copal soluble in alcohol and Essence tupentine

benzole. Benzole.

Sandrac Alcohol.

Mastic. Ether.

Yellow and white lac. Chloroform.

All these substances, mixed in proportions more or less different,
produce photograpnic varnishes.

M. Legray recommended commercial copal varnish, diluted
with an equal bulk of benzole; but we have before remarked
that liquids which became resinous are not adapted for photo-
graphic purposes, while it is well known that turpentine, which
enters into the composition of copal varnish, becomes resinous
in contact with the air, with the utmost facility ; consequently
this varnish gives but poor results, tor it dries with difficulty,
becomes sticky under the solar rays, and rises up in parts, for-
ming veins which become effaced under friction, thus injuring
the proofs.

If we dissolve soft or oxidized copal in benzole we obtain a
perfectly colorless varnish, the proportions being 40 grains of
the former to 1 oz. of the latter. The solution is rapidly effect-
ed, and the filtratiou through paper easy.

If varuish is poured on the negative, a film is obtained which
dries very rapidly — (at the enil of a few hours) — and which is
very brilliant, but which is subject to become adherent to the
paper when the solar rays become powerful. In England this
varnish is very much demanded, because it can be used without
heat; but in the countries further south, as Italy, Spain, and
the interior of France, its employment would be very restricted,
because of its becoming softened under the influence of heat.

We come now to the hard varnishes capable of being applied
cold. A varnish, the preparation of which we have not hitherto
seen indicated, is one composed of amber and benzole, and as its
preparation is easy we shall describe it.

Amber is a resinous substance, met with on the shores of the
Baltic Sea and is used for making beads, mouth-pieces, &c.,
in the fabrication of which a number of waste fragments
are produced, and as these arc generally ot the best quality.

1858,

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

268

and of moderate price, they are of the kiad most suitable
to the purpose in view.

The amber is to be first pulverized, and after having placed
it in a closely covered vessel, with a small opening in the lid, it
is to be heated gradually up to about 510°. A quantity of
white vapour becomes disengaged, which is allowed to pass off,
and the amber gradually softens, melts and bubbles, when the
vessel is to De removed from the fire, and the mass allowed to
cool. Amber thus modified is extremely soluble in benzole and
in chloroform, and is to be dissolved in the proportion of from
forty to fifty grains to the fluid ounce.

With benzole a brownish varish is obtained, but which pro-
duces a film on the negative but slightly colored, and dries after
the lapse of a few minutes ; it is then very brilliant, so much so
that it is frequently diSicult to distinguish the varnished side
from the plain glass, and what is also valuable, it does not soften
under the action of the sun's rays.

Chloroform may be used as a solvent, but is more costly, and
the varnish produced thereby is much more brittle, and liable
to injury by rapid changes of temperature. The solution in
benzole is, however, highly to be recommended.

The following varnish requires heat in its application: —

Place in a flask

Alcohol at 90° I quart.

White stick lac 3 oz.

Picked sandrac 3 drms.

Raise the temperature slightly by plunging the flask into hot
water, and in a few minutes the solution is effected, with the ex-
ception of a few light filaments of insoluable lac. Filter through
bibulous paper, and the light yellowish liquid is fit for use, as
follows: —

The glass is to be heated before a fire, or over a spirit lamp,
to a temperature of from 100° to 140°. After applying the
hand to ascertain that it is not too hot, the film of varnish is to
be applied in precisely the same way as is employed to spread
the collodion, returning the surplus to the bottle, and the varn-
ish dries with a brilliant surface.

If the glass be made too hot, the varnish dries very rapidly,
and forms veins, which, however.do not appear on the paper proof.
A few drops of essence of bergamot are sometimes added to give
a perfume.

There is one point of the highest importance to be borne in
mind, that is, never to attempt with this varnish to give a second
coating to the negative, as by so doing it would be inevitably
spoiled.

A, similar varnish is used to produce the effect of ground
glass with transparent positives, as follows, viz.: alcohol four oz.
white stick lac, ninety grains, sandrac sixty grains — dissolve as
before. This is to be applied cold, and the glass allowed to dry
by being stood on end, resting against the wall.

From the Liverpool and Manchester Photogrpahic Journal.

A WEEK WITB THE CABIERA AMOA'G THE KENTISH PxILLS.

The following paper, by Mr. Travers B. Wire, is that men-
tioned in No. 12 of our Journal in the report of the Blackheath
Photographic Society : —
Mr. President and Grentlemen,

Last May, Mr, Ledger and myself, having a day or two to
spare, determined to visit Hever, in the hope of obtaining a few
views of the old castle there, so rich alike in picturesque beauty
and historical reminiscence. We fixed upon Monday, the first
of June, as our opening day, and proposed going to Hever by
rail from London, via Edenbridge. Our plan was to look about
us on our arrival ; and having determined the best points, to
photogragph them upon Tuesday and return on Wednesday to
London.

But having mentioned our intended trip to Mr. Wood, he ex-
pressed a wish to accompany us, to which proposal we, of course
readily acceded.

By his suggestion we altered our original plan, thinking, upon

reconsideration of the proposed route, that we might experience
considerable difficulty in taking to Edenbridge by rail, and
thence to Hever (possibly on our shoulders), our camera, bath,
plate-boxes, camera stand, chemicals, and all the materia fhoto-
graphica ; the successful transmission of which practical opera-
tors know to be equivalent to the gaining of half the battle.
Visions arising of ourselves toiling along dusty roads, under a
June sun, and the weight of our impedimenta, soon made us fall
in readily with our friend's proposition ; which was, that we
should drive down instead, and thus obtain a chance of catching
a stary view or two upon our road, and would certainly make
us very independent.

A dog-cart was considered the most convenient conveyance
for photographic purposes, and forthwith procured. We con-
structed a tent to fit on to the back of the vehicle, so that,
were it impossible to obtain a room upon the spot (which, by
the way, we always preferred to the confined space and heat of
the tentj, we should not be altogether non-plussed for want of
a second string to our bow.

Monday, the first of June, at last arrived — as lovely a morn-
ing as any photographer could wish for. We left Lewisham
about seven o'clock, with a full cargo of photographic apparatus,
carpet bags, a large stone bottle of water, and some Macintoshes.
We had taken the prcaution of providing ourselves with the or-
dinance map of the N.W.. corner of Kent, and a pocket com-
pass; which articles we found of the utmost value. Without
them, an intimate knowledge of the country and of the relative
position of every village is indispensible : the information to be
derived from the rustics being of little value, as their photogra-
phical knowledge rarely extends to more than a circuit of three
or four miles from the places where they are bred.

After about five hours' delighful and amusing "jog-trot" (for
we had a remarkably sober old horse, who did not at all see the
fun of proceeding faster than a walk), we reached Hever. In
the gateway we found a small room, in which was a quantity of
old broken furniture. This we speedily removed, and nailing a
large yellow curtain, which we had brought with us, over the
doorway, we went to work.

At Hever we succeeeded in obtaining five 10 X 12, and two
10X8 negatives; we then explored the old place, which is in-
teresting from its many historical associations of the time of
bluff King Hal.

Here it was that he courted Anne Boleyn; here died Anne
of Cleves. In the church is a fine old tomb to the memory of
Sir Geoffrey Boleyn, grandfather of Anne.

We found with regret that we were unable to photograph
this church, from its being situated on the top of a hill, a weak-
ness prevalent amongst many Kentish churches.

The next morning, June 2, we wheeled out our dog-cart, and
fixed up our tent for the first time to take a distant view of the
old castle. The shafts of the dog-cart were strapped tightly to
the church-yard fence, to keep our vehicle in a horizontal posi-
tion, it being one of the two-wheeled kind.

A plate was prepared and exposed, but as I was developing
it, I was impelled, by the appearance it presented, to sing out
that the tent was a complete failure, and that the picture was
spoiled, as I fancied that light must have been somehow admit-
ted. This we could hardly understand, as the tent was composed
of two thicknesses of yellow calico, with an external covering of
black. However, upon dissolving out the iodide, to our aston-
ishment this appearance vanished, and, instead of a spoiled plate,
we had a very passable negative; and our tent, of course, rose
wonderfully in our estimation. We here ascertained that about
two miles off was a little village called Chiddingstone, which we
found, as described, a most picturesque place, composed of houses
in the half-timbered style. After some little search we found
an obliging cobbler, who readily gave us the use of his stall,
and we proceeded to work.

Much to our chagrin, upon focussing for the first picture we
found a rent in the India-rubber cloth body of the camera, prob-
ably made in getting over a hedge at Hever. This accident we
thought would seriously impede our proceedings, but a penny-
worth of sticking plaster from the grocer's repaired the damage;

269

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

September,

and there the patch remains to this day. a triumph of " mind
over matter." Here we managed to obtain five 12 X 10 views.

In the evening we fraternized with our friends the cobbler
and the grocer, in order to get from them what information we
could respecting the picturesque. They took us to see a fine
old oak iu the grounds of Captain Strathfield, and a curious
old stone, called the Chiding Stone, whence the villiage has its
name. The tradition is, that from this stone the priests or
druids used to chide the people for their sins.

The grocer's house, of which we have a view, is a glorious
old place. He kindiy showed us his parlor, which is wainscot-
ted with oak, black with age. He was rather a superior man,
with a taste for art, and a subscriber to the Art Union, from
which he had been fortunate enough to obtain a prize. From
him we got some information respecting Brambletye House,
which we determined to visit on the next day, especially as Mr.
Ledger wished to return to town in the evening. Another in-
ducement for us to visit Brambletye was its proximity to East
Griustead, from which station we availed ourselves of the tele-
graph to procure from Mr. Thomas more collodion.

Of the Chiding Stone we could not get a view without much
difBculty. With the oak before referred to we were equally
unfortunate, as the weather, when we reached it, was very un-
favorable. But by the time we reached Brambleyte House a
fresh breeze had sprung up, the rain clouds had passed, and the
sun was shining. After having stabled our steed in an empty
stall near the ruins, and found him some fodder, we went on an
exploring expedition, and soon found, as at Hever, a dark room
ready to our hands — an old cellar under one of the towers, with
a doorway to it leading into the fields. Over this our yellow
curtain was soon nailed, and we possessed as good an operating
room as any one can desire. Having accidentally left our stone
water-bottle at Chiddingstone, we borrowed a pail from the
farmer and set to work. Our task here was enlivened by the
presence of a couple of ladies, who took great interest in our
proceedings, and persisted in appearing in all the views, which,
by the way, they did their utmost to spoil by constantly moving.
Here we succeeded in getting four views; the grass at the
time, as you will see, being unfavorably long for the practice of
photography. We now returned to East Griustead, and visited
Sackville College, founded by the Earl of Dorset in 1616, of
which we all heard so much a short time since. We went to
the station, and found that our collodion had arrived, and bid-
ding adieu to Mr Ledger, who returned to London with a pre-
cious charge of twelve negatives, Mr. Wood and myself returned
to the town, and borrowed from a chemist measures with which
to iodize part of our collodion. The evening being fine we drove
over to Edenbridge; for we intended to follow the valley of the
Darenth up from Sevenoaks, and thought it advisable to lose
no time.

On our road to Edenbridge we passed Gabriels, which we vis-
ited In the morning. Here we had again to use our tent, and
this time no fault could be found with it.

Our road hence to Brasted, on the Thursday forenoon, was a
terrible puil: the hills were such as we did not expect to find
so near home; but the views which we had from time to time
were truly magnificent. Often, whilst toiling up these steep
lanes, did we stop the horse and throw ourselves down on the
grass which bordered them, and enjoy the prospect. Truly loath
were we to rise again; however, by dint of much self-denial (for
the weather was exceedingly hot, and the heather exceedingly
soft), we reached Brasted, where we took two views — one of
the church, another of the entrance to the tower, through a
curious arched door-way formed in the buttressses. This, I am
told, is, with one exception, the only specimen of this kind ex-
tant in this county.

Sniidridge Church was the next place we reached; but al-
though we tried this form all pionts, not one was available to
our purpose; it being, like most of the other churches, built on
the highest ground. The approach to it was through a fine
avenue of trees, with a litch gate at the end, and beyond was
the church. The light, when we were there, was perlect, fall-
ing prettily upon the trees, shadows of which fell across the

road with a glorious effect. With much regret we packed up
again, and made our way to Otfortd, where the archbishops of
Canterbury formerly had a palace, portions of which still re-
main. We tried one view; but the day was too far advanced
and although our plate was exposed four minutes, the result
was anythmg but satisfactory.

At Sevenoaks we found the old mansion at Knowle closed
in consequence of the death of the Earl of Amherst; and as
there is occupation there for a couple of days, we thought it ad-
visable to leave it for a future visit. At the hotel (Sevenoaks)
we met a gentleman, who like ourselves, was amusing himself
with photography ; and from him we learnt of Ightham Moat
House, which, on his recommendation, we visited. Permission
to photograph it was soon obtained, and also a room in a small
cottage hard by. I was busily engaged in focussing our first
view, and Mr. Wood, with a plough-boy, was taking the horse
out of the dog-cart, when the family turned out to take stock of
us, and to watch our proceedings. To us they were particularly
kind, doing all that lay in their power to assist us, taking us to
diffierent points whence views of their houses were to be obtained.

It is a very old house, built partly in the time of King John^
with a court-yard in the centre ; the whole surrounded by a
moat. Of the chapel, the hall, and also of the entrance, Nash
has given us views in his Old English Mansions. Hence we
drove to Farmingham, and the next day (Saturday) we spent
with some friends residing in the neighborhood. Thus ended
our week's photographic tour among the hills of Kent.

Since our return, the dog-cart has been properly fitted up,
and divided into two unequal portions, having entrances back
and front. The back part, which is the largest, is devoted en-
tirely to photography, and in this division are compartments for
the different bottles ; and a hole has been made through the
bottom for the bath to be suspended in, thus rendering h much
less liable to be upset. The front part contains a zinc tank, the
water from which is conveyed to the photographic department
by means of an India-rubber tube; and the space under the tank
is intended for our carpet-bags &c. The tent has also undergone
some modifications, which render it more easy of adjustment.

The ordnance maps of the whole of Kent, "Surrey, and Sussex
have been procured, and all the places of interest that can be
found out by reading or otherwise, have been marked upon them
with a red circle; and a book, with a small description of what
we may expect to find at any one of these circles, has also been
arranged with an index, so that, as we are travelling (say, for
instance, from Seal towards Ightham), on the left side of the road
we see one of our circles at a place marked on the map as Stone-
pitt. We refer to our book, and there find that Stonepitt is a
very ancient mansion, in the Elizabethan style. This, as it lies
about a mile from the road, we should undoubtedly pass, were
it not for our maps.

We have all heard a great deal of the difficulties attendant

on working wet collodion away from a regular operating room

and we had ourselves, on a former occasion, experienced many;
so, of course, on this one we had prepared our minds to encounter
innumerable obstacles. Some of these, I may say ma^iy, proved
to be myths, and, for the remainder, a little ordinary forethought
and ingenuity removed them. We have at present only been
looking at what may be called the bright side of the subject.
We have been describing the halcyon days of our photography.
But there is another side to consider. Let us picture to our-
selves a miserable pedestrain photographer. " He grunts and
sweats under the weary load" of his apparatus, toiling along to
the scene of action with a pack on his back. He arrives in a
semi-animate condition, and has then to prepare and develops
his plates in a shaky tent — highly recommended for steadiness
and portability. The portability is obtaiued by the sacrifice of
space, so down he squats upon his box of chemicals, and pours
a fiUii. The weather is warm ; the ether volatile. H s head
approaches very near the top— in some cases, is itself the apex
of the structure. In a few minutes, therefore, with a pain in
his neck and a cramp in his legs, he begins to experience the
advantages of a portable tent. The chemical vapors rapidly
accumulate round his doomed head, and long before he has fixed

1858.

THE PnOTOGRAPIIIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

273

his first picture, the excess of exhalation, and the absence of
ventilation, have given him a headache for life. I have worked
in a tent myself, and therefore speak feelingly.

The bath, after his plate is sensitized, is usually placed under
the table, in the open air; for portable tents are only roomy as
long as you have nothing in them. Manifold are the dangers
to which this nitrate bath is exposed. The ground by road sides
is not usually level as a billiard table. If it escapes this danger
of being upset, it has to receive dust, leaves, and, inquiring
coleoptera within its depths. Presently, within the tent a bottle
of liypo is upset, and some of it, finding its way through the
cracks in the table, quietly and unobtrusively drip, drip, drips
into the bath below. On noticing this, our photographer wakes
to a sense of his situation, drops the picture he is fixing, springs
up to save his bath, and down goes the tent and the bottles and
all. And so he comes to grief.

Sometimes, again, rude Boreas (or rude boys) upset his ta-
bernacle, while he is exposing his plate. Picture to yourselves
the expression on his travel-stained toil-worn face, when, return-
ing, he sees the wreck of all his hopes. He loses heart, curses
open-air photography ("especially with collodion), and is reduced
to the miserable expedient of providing himself with divers dry
plates or sheets of sensitive paper, at — per doz. ; exposes them,
despatches them by post for developement, at — per doz. ; has
the results printed at — per doz.; and .... fancies he is
taking photographs.

Seriously — though views, and very good one^, have been got
in spite of the porrable tents — I believe misfortunes such as I
have described to be of no uncommon occurrence; but we want
some contrivance that we are sure will auswer, under the most
unfavorable circumstances. As far as we are concerned, we
point to our dog-cart, and maintain that there the secret is
solved. Strong must be the hurricane that can blow that down.
Ingenious the insect that can commit suicide in oitr bath. The
hypo must perform and act contrary to the laws of gravitation
to get into it. Therefore, I can confidently recommend any of
onr members who may venture upon a photographic tour this
summer to follow our example.

I must trespass yet a few minutes longer on your patience, to
point out, that with the wet collodion process we found much
pleasure, and even advantage, in showing the negative to the
inhabitants. They could then plainly see that our object was
what we represented it to be, and we found a great alteration
in their manner. All reserve vanished, and assistance was
eagerly proffered. This advantage the waxed paper cannot
afford. With paper, too, one must leave the field with half a
dozen pieces of blank paper, uncertain whether the negatives
are good; and their developement at night adds a hard evening'' s
to a hard day's work. Whereas, the wet collodion operator
spends his evening in searching for pictures for the morrow, and
extracting from the aborigines the whereabouts of the picturesque.

Our improved arrangements we hope, next August, to put to
the test of practical experience; and I confidently predict that
the month which we then intend to devote to photography in a
dog-cart, will not be the most miserable in our lives.

"THE PHOTOGRAPHER."

{Manuscript Photographic Journal.) — No. II.

NEW SERIES.

MR. J. T. Taylor's paper.

"I have the pleasure of introducing among us two gentlemen,
one being Mr. Archer, of Manchester, and the other the gen-
tleman for whom was reserved the honor of striking the first
fatal blow at the root of the dark-tent system, by his applica-
tion of the hygrometic properties of honey to the collodionized
plate, and secondly, of opening the door for the introduction of
a novel, interesting, and now widely-extended branch of our
art — the manufacture of micro-photographs. The first of these
tiny little pictures I had seen, were some kindly presented me

S6

by the inventor himself, Mr. Shadbolt, and they interested me
exceedingly. While in Edinburg a few days ago, I also saw an
excellent collection by Mr. Bryson, Optician, thei-e, who seems
to be doing quite a trade in them. While visiting that gentle-
man's establishment, he showed me a novel and effective modifi-
cation of the Bunsen gas burner, by means of which views in
the lantern could be exhibited with great splendor. It would
be desirable were he to publish a short account of it. I have
been trying to introduce micro-photographs, but in the mean-
time have given it up until I get hold of a proper structureless
collodion. I have completely succeeded with the converse of
this operation, viz., producing enlarged pictures of microscopic
subjects. How remarkably simple it is ! This forms a highly
instructive and pleasant application of the micro-camera. By the
way, will Mr. Shadbolt (who is an authority in microscopy), or
any one else, kindly suggest a suitable name for such magnified
pictures ? "Micro-photograph" won't do, because that name
has been given to the reduced pictures; the name should be as
short and concise as possible, and be as far removed as possible
from the photogalvanographic style of nomenclature.

"To those of you who like vignette portraits I will communi-
cate a simple way of producing a first-rate vignette printing-
glass.

"Procure a piece of black paper with a dead surface, and
from this cut an oval (or any shape you preferj. Paste this
oval upon a sheet of white paper, and from the sheet thus pre-
pared take a negative on a piece of nice fiat glass — or paper if
you prefer it — but observe in taking it that it be considerably
nut of focus. By these means you will have a vignette plate
with the centre quite transparent, gradually merging into per-
fect opacity.

"I see Mr. Maugey, the celebrated lens maker, has intro-
duced 'the expanding and contracting stop between the lenses
of the portrait combination,' which I published in this journal
a year ago. It will prove a great boon to photographers.

"I very much admire the manner in which Mr. Warren rea-
sons on his modification of Dr. Norris's process for preserving
collodion plates, and quite homologate his strictures on the re-
lievo-engraving process.

"I enclose a picture, poor enough in itself, but interesting on
account of its having been taken during the late eclipse of the
sun. The figures represent the President, Vice-President, and
Secretary (myself) of the Dumfries Photographic Society. You
will see that we have an ordinary telescope fixed in the camera
instead of the usual lens. We used the non-reversing eye-piece,
and by a little care in adjusting the focus succeeded in getting
fair pictures of his Solar Majesty, spots and all; but, alas, when
he came to be eclip.sed, he was eclipsed in reality, for thick
murky clouds covered the whole sky. We must just hope for
better luck another time."

MR. R. L.

PAPER.

"Were I in a South Sea island I should be tabooed; were I
in India I should be a Pariah, but being in England I feel my
position as degraded as if I were both. I, nothing but wax-
paper, while all around me rejoice in the Brahminism of collo-
dion. Before I was quite lost in the abyss of paper processes,
it is true, one or two friends in the Notes, and one or two in the
'Photographer' condescended to notice me, to try if there re-
mained one spark of true photographic fire, and to explain how
baths might be used acidified and films kept fast to glass, but
now all lean expect is, "why does the fellow bother us about
waxed-paper, when nobody cares a grain of hypo about it ?"
But this is only when I have the blues.

"I feel myself a hero, a champion, a defender of the needy
and defenceless ; all others are feeble, faithless, lovers of novel-
ty, fond of the trick of definition to the sacrifice of artistic
beauty. They are the tea-board painters, (pretty bits for bel-
lows and card-racks are their work,) while I am Michael Ange-
lo on the one hand and Turner on the other.

"Come, I think that will do, and having placed myself where

2U

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

September,

I ought to stand, I will begin njy lucubration at once, merely
adding that if the readers feel afflicted with the above, let them
thank their stars that they have not to pay an extra penny for
the privilege.

"I have been trying the turpentine process, and my expe-
rience is rather that named in the last journal of the 'Photo-
graphic Society, page 230; the lights are not as dense and the
process is no shorter. I have taken on the same day and same
hour an ordinary waxed paper negative and a Sisson's, and I
will send a print from each as an appendix to this, requesting
the member whom they may reach , while he has the 'Photograph-
er' in his possession, to add them to the other contributions. I
buy the waxed-paper, iodized, from Knight, and to be sure of
the turpentine I get it from Marion, iodized and albumenized.
Albumen is a bad solution, and I have a difficulty in keeping the
paper from being marbled. I fancy the definition rather better,
but I must be consistent with my exordium and not insist too
much on that. I enclose a print from a Knight's waxed paper
negative, I never fail in getting something worth keeping, if
not first-rate."

MR. G. C. warren's PAPER.

"It is pleasing to see the 'Photographer' turn up once more,
I began to think it had lost its way; although it has been long
in coming it has picked up on its road a good pocketful! of ma-
terial.

"I feel sure we shall all be proud to number amongst us Mr.
Shadbolt, to whom many photographers are indebted. I fancy
I renjember reading in some account of the Dry Albumen pro-
cess, now termed Fothergills, that several substances had been
used in lieu of albumen; such as dextrine, gum, honey, &c.
Now I cannot get a satisfactory negative with the albumen, the
development is so very weak that the picture is good for noth-
ing. I tried the honey process both with old and new collodion,
washing the honey off the plate and setting aside to dry. The
following day I exposed this dry plate and was gratified to find
a most excellent negative, giving very fine half-tones and good
density in the sky and high lights, the only drawback was that
the film of collodion seemed very liable to move in a body off
the plate. _ I must say I have succeeded well with the ge-
latine solution, as given in my last, and have also worked quick-
ly with it, in comparison with the albumen preservative, but
what appears to me rather singular is, that having obtained
another sample of collodion fold) I could not get a picture un-
der three times the exposure; the only difference appeared to
be, that the first sample was very old, and had lost its property
of forming a strong film. I mean such a film as you could lift
from the glass. In my last sample, altho' a twelvemonth old,
it had retained this quality, and I suspect this to be the cause
of the diminished sensitiveness.

"Mr. Rimmer may perhaps be induced to try the washed
honey. The results will be very clean, and any kind of collo-
dion may be used. I should think that if the plates were coat-
ed with plain albumen first the film of collodion would stick
tight enough, and avoid the bother and trouble of coating the
plates in the usual manner. I th'nk a q-jantity of albumen, af-
ter being beaten up to a froth and allovrcd to settle, might be
poured into a bath and the plates carefully dipped one after the
other into it and stood up to dry Iree from dust.

"The carbon print is, I think, verjgood for its age, in fact it
is quite as good as the early photographic prints from calotype
negatives, and I certainly thin.: ;t worth knowing, and shall
gladly forward my shilling to Mr. Suttou for the pamphlet, not-
withstanding the criticism in the London Journal, which, by the
bye, is rather a queer piece of criticism altogether

"In his statement about photography on wood, the critic, as
'one of the public,' says : 'But successful as it may appear it is
not equal to some attempts we have seen,' and 'we do not know
whether Couteiicin's method meets this difficulty,' (of preventing
the solution penetrating the wood, 'but a recent experimentwhich
we had the pleasure of inspecting does so with great success.'

I think it rather unfair to make a comparison and speak so
highly of a process that has no representative in the exhibition
without becoming acquainted with what Coutencin's method
really does. I happen to know Mr Coutencin, and also his
process, and can state that blocks prepared by him are put iu
the hands of the wood engravers and give great satisfaction, the
solutions do not penetrate the block, and the artist has a wliite
ground to work on in the same manner as an ordinary drawing
on wood.

"The samples of collodionized paper are capital; but who en-
closed them t* How were they done ? Suppose each member
when enclosing any pictures puts his initials to them.

"In this town there is an artist who knows little about pho-
tography, but has taken out a patent for 'Improvements in Pho-
tography,' a method of copying pictures of any size without the
lensular defects, &c., &c., &c., ad infinitum.

''I have seen several of his productions, and can only say they
are very soft in the half-tones, but the shodows and high lights
hard and scanty. After all, he does not give a photographic
copy of the picture except in one sense. His method, as most
of you are aware, is to faint a negative on glass — not use a lens
or camera at all ! 1 1 — and after that, print his negative on chlo-
ride paper; his softness is gained in a similar way, or, I may
say, the same way as that by which many persons have obtained
a very soft and strange-looking positive, viz., by printing the
negative with the plain side of the glass or negative next the
sensitive surface of the paper. I think he is on the wrong track ,
the better way would be to take an enlarged positive as enclosed,
then touch it up; from this, take a negative, and then his posi-
tive prints.

"Mr. Jones must bless his stars that Sisson's Turpentine Wax-
ed Paper process has appeared illustrated with two stereographs.
It will bring many disciples, but I think a part of the secret is
in cyliudering the paper. I should also think that if the nega-
tive was cylindered alter waxing it would be improved, and
sharper impressions obtained.

"The difference produced in positives on paper is quite sur-
prising.

"I have made a few experiments with the nitrate of uranium,
but with poor success, the prints appear very weak, especially
those developed with gold. Have any of you experimented in
this line — if so, what sort of pictures have you obtained V

MR. J. archer's paper.

"The 'Photographer' took me quite by surprise, and unpre-
pared with any subject, as I almost began to think it would nev-
er come round.

"However, to make a start, I will confess to a fervent admi-
ration for wd collodion, believing it to be, for all important ar-
tistic purposes, the process. It has, notwithstanding, its draw-
backs, and these are by no means light ones, (I mean for land-
scapes, j I have for some time been trying to obviate the diffi-
culty by means of a developing camera, but am sorry to say
fruitlessly; the risk in coating and exciting prints, the extreme
uncertainty of, and want of command over, the development,
liability of the film iu all stages to damage, and last, but not
least, the nasty disgusting messes that frequently occur, will, I
think, always be found impassable barriers to this system be-
coming general. A print of the camera, set up (a very poor
one, the negative being fogged) will be found iu the pocket. I
am now turning Roger Feuton on a small scale, with lent, &c.
Can any of the contributors give a suggestion as to the best
form of tent to employ for working 9X7 plates ? With regard
to printing, I noticed a remark by Mr. Sutton, in the Notes,
some little time since, to the effect that prints immersed iu an
acidulated water bath (hydrochloric acid I think) had, accord-
ing to his experience, acquired a considerable degree of perma-
nence. A short while ago 1 tried the experiment of immersing
an ammonia-nitrate print, without washing, iu a bath of hy-

*Mr. Suttou.

1S58.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

215

drocliloric acid, two or three drops to the ounce; immediately
on removing it from the hypo it instantly became dear, a little
of the half-tone was dissolved, but it left creamy whites and sha-
dows of an agreeable light-brownish purple. I have not yet
applied any destructive test to ascertain its permanence.

"The carbon print is very interesting, and I think full of pro-
mise for so youthful a process. One good feature observable is
the purity of the lights. It is to be hoped that Mr. Sutton's
shilling plan will succeed in purchasing the process; the appa-
rent want of self-tone, and depth of shadow would doubtless
soon be obviated if photographers could bring their experimea-
tive energy to bear upon the subject.

"Notwithstanding my avowed preferences for wet collodion,
Mr. Rimmer's print of Lichfield Cathedral, taken from a honied
plate, I must own speaks strongly in favor of a preservative
process; the detail in the shadows is beautifully given. Would
he kindly give his modus operandi in an early paper ?"

MK. GEO. SHADBOLt's PAPER.

"In thanking you for your welcome, I must hasten to disclaim
one of the honors that you have attributed to me. It is true
that I had been long engaged in trying to do away wiih the
dark tent system; but the first effective blow is due to Messrs.
Spiller and Crookes, who brought out their nitrate of lime pro-
cess, and in it threw out a suggestion which enabled me almost
immediately to strike the second. The hint to which I allude
was that of sensitizing the plate first, and then adding some-
thing to preserve it; whereas I had been striving to do both at
one operation; but without any satisfactory result up to the
time ot the publication of their paper in the May number of the
Philosophieal Transactions.

"1 shall follow the lead of writing a little gossip, principally
in reply to what I already find before me in the 'Photographer.'
The word 'micro-photogriiph' originated I believe with myself,
and is applied, I think, correctly to very small photographs, not
to photographs of small objects, which would more correctly be
'photo-micrographs'; but probably a convenient word for this
class of subjects as well as for enlarged copies generally would
be 'mega-photograph,' or perhaps we might shorten it to 'mega-
lograph,' or even 'megagraph.' If my brother contributors will
express their opinions upon the claims of these various suggestions
I may possibly be somewhat surprised when next the Journal
comes round to me.

' 'Mr. Taylor is at a stand-still for want of a 'structureless'
collodion; this is easily obviated; there are several in the mar-
ket, amongst which I can at once mention Hardwich's and
Thomas's, and several others, but there is really no difficulty in
producing it if the pyroxyline be made with the mixed acids at
high temperature and the alcohol and ether nearly free from
water, the former being the most difficult to obtain strong
enough for the purpose. I prefer also iodide of cadmium for
the iodizing material, though this is merely a matter of conve-
nience as regards keeping properties — not a necessity to suc-
cess.

"I am sorry to say that I do not share the favorable antici-
pations of the carbon printing process, as expressed by Mr.
Jas. Archer, for the reason that I have already given, viz., that
all the proofs from genuine photographic negatives, not being
mere copies, are almost entirely aevoid of half-tone — the most
fatal of all.

"Immediately after Mr. Pouncy exhibited his proofs at the
Photographic Society, I published in the Journal already cited,
ihe two suggestions following, viz., that they were produced by
means of paper coated with the bitumen of Judea, as used by
Niepce, the parts unacted upon by light being subsequently dis-
solved out, or by gelatine, bi-chromate of potash and coloring
matter; as it appears, kom Photographic Notes, turns out to be
a part at least of the truth. Now the difficulty lies here, viz.,
that the action of the light, when sufficient, renders the g&Vdu-
imii insoluble , but when insufficient it is not partially insoluble ;
but simply soluble more slowly than the rest, hence the amount
of half-tone fif any) would be dependent principally upon the

skill in washing, which would be a very delicate operation to
free the lights from every trace of color without destruction of
the middle tints.

"It is upon these grounds that I think unfavorably of the
process, and though it goes very much against the grain with
me to discourage any attempts at so laudable an end as the
production of photographs in carbon, it would neither be justice
to my brother operators or to the photographic art to encourage
that which I really and truly think must end in failure. If Mr.
Pouncy had succeeded in producing satisfactory results, and
chose to demand pecuniary remuneration for making the process
pubHc, he would have every right to do so, and I see no reason
why the public should object to pay for what they want and can-
not get without payment; but if those results are, as I contend,
very imperfect, I cannot see the policy of paying for that which
is absolutely useless in its present state, and which if it be even
possible to improve enough to make useful, eventually may, upon
precisely the same grounds, have to be paid for again to the
i'uprover. No one would be more pleased than I should were
the present mode of printing to become reasonably superseded."

MR. Sutton's paper.

"When the 'Photographer' comes round next, I will enclose
some carbon prints from stereoscopic negatives which I have
lately taken in France; but I have been so busy lately with
finishing the Photographic Dictionary, that I am unable to en-
close anything of interest in the present number.

" I mentioned in the last number of Photographic Notes that
I had lately taken some negatives upon dry sensitive plates,
which I received from Dr. Hill Norris about a year ago. I have
now developed half-a-dozen of them, and the results are as good
as any photographer could desire. The preservative which Dr.
Norris employs is simply gelatine and alcohol, which is inert,
and therefore much better than honey. I advise you all to pur-
chase a dozen of Dr. Norris's stereoscopic plates and try them,
for the process appears to me to be a complete solution of the
problem of preserved collodion. The addition of honey as re-
commended in Mr. Shadbolt's paper, would I think ruin the
process. However, next time you shall see some prints from
dry plates which have been excited for nearly a year; and you
will then be able to judge whether the process requires any mo-
dification. When a process works well in its simple form, it
should surely be left alone. The tendency to modify and com-
plicate is the great photographic sin of the day. I propose that
a fine be levied upon any person who suggests in priut a compli-
cation of any process which cannot be proved to be better than
the original process in its simple form, and that the fine be hand-
ed over to the discoverer of the original process for his use and
benefit. What say you ? Shall we agree to this among our-
selves ?

"With respect to Mr. Pouncy's process, Mr. Shadbolt's re-
marks are directed against an imaginary process, and not that
of Mr. Pouncy. Th.& facts are, that carbon printing (iow give
half-tone and good detail. This I hope to be able to prove to
you before long by specimens. But a good deal depends on the
nature of the surface in Carbon printing, as well as in all other
kinds of printing. Examine, for instance, the portraits of the
worthy officers of the Dumfries Photographic Society, in the
pocket of the present number; although printed upon albumeu-
ized paper, how coarse and rough they look by the side of the
developed prints, by Mr. Jones, upon plain paper.

"Apropos of developed prints. I enclose you a couple print-
ed by me exactly a year ago, one on plain, the other on albu-
menized paper; they were printed on the same day, and treated
in exactly the same way, for I wished to see which would be the
most permanent with only one or two rinsings under the pump
for a couple of minutes. The priut on plain paper is as good
as ever, that on albumenized paper is fearfully faded. Must we
then conclude that albumenized prints require more washing than
plain prints, and are more liable to fade, either from their retain-
ing the hypo more pertinaciously or from the albumen contain-

16

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FIXE ART JOURNAL.

September,

ing snlpbnr ? I am really inclined to tliiiik the use of albumen

one of tlie causes of the fading of prints. Please also to look

' at the liorrible curvature of the marginal I'lies in one of these

j prints, from a negative tak^n with a Koss view-lens of the or-

ii dinary construction. Willi an Orthoscopic lens these lines

wou'd have been absolutely straight.

"Now 1 have a proposilion to make to you all. Suppose we
■ I were to resolve ourselves into a com' littee, and instead of writ-
I iugr andom papers were to attempt to settle, by our joint expe-
j riments, snrae of the vexed questions in photography. Let us
I suppose, take some one subject, confine ourselves to that, and
work it out; then take another. By comparing specimens, hold-
ing post morltms upon failures, and working on some definite
system, a great deal of good might be done by a circulating
specimen-comparing journal of this sort; for after all what is
any man's i^st dixit worth without the guarantee of a specimen ?
"If you think well of this plan, I would propose to you for
solution the following problem :

"■How much absolute alcohol S. G. *194:mayhe advantageously
used in the mamofacture of collodion ?

"If we can agree that by adding more alcohol the process
may be rendered more sensitive, the greasy streaks in the nitrate
bath abolished, the film rendered more nearly structureless, and
the developer caused to flow better, then a great improvement
will be effected on the present mode of making collodion. For
ray part I believe the present proportions of ether and alcohol
susceptible of considerable modifications for the better.

"Your opinions please on this subject. But remember the
alcohol mnst be absolutely anhydrous, and distilled over quick-
lime or alkali. Alcohol containing water won't do. I believe
you will be greatly surprised to find how much absolute alcohol
may be added to the ether for dissolving any good sample of
pyroxyline.

"I should be greatly obliged to Mr. Warren if he would fur-
nish me with the particulars of Mr. Conteucin's process.

ON THE WORKING OP NEW COLLODION.

To the Editor of the Photographic JVotes.

Dear Sir, — The letter in your August number, from Mr. J
Barbrook, " Upon the work! ng of Collodion," is interesting no
doubt to many of your readers who, taking more interest in the
correspondence, than they do in those clever articles which
adorn your JVotes, are perpetually stumbling on minor points.

Your correspondent has not very clearly expressed himself ;
I cannot conceive how any one can know too much to take
good pictures ; instead of requiring some practical dodge, they
rather want experience, or perhaps industry, to connect and
arrange previous efforts and results, for while one is content to
take things as they are and at second hand, so long will dodges
be looked for, which at best is but ajjpropriating in an unsatis-
factory way the result of anothers industry and talent.

To return to the object of my letter on the working of new
collodion, perhaps the following may be of service, it being
practical ; the theory of the matter 1 do not touch on.

Pictures on new collodion are generally wanting in density,
the film at this time being hard, and the layer ot iodide thin,
the developer must be modified to suit it, and herein consists a
great matter, more appertaining to a proper developer than
many dream of, and 1 think it will be fuund, that the harder
the film (giving 'hin pictures) the weaker and less acid ought
the developer to be. An industrious and thinking photographer,
will not expect different qualities of collodion to work equally
well, with a given formula of development ; by modifying the
ingredients any amount of density can always be obtained. 1
speak of good clean whites and clear blacks.

A chair in front of a while background is a good object for
experiment, which should be taken over and over again, until a
satisfactory result is obtained. If the o|)erator's memory is de-
fective, notes must be made for reference, the pictures being
saved for examination, a good groundwork will be had towards
obtaining a valuable pradicid dodge.

1 have experimented in every way with collodion, and I ad-

vise, that the less it is meddled with the better. Should a sam-
ple be found unmanageable, a twelve month's keeping may bring
it into use; the very best I ever used, was some that conquered
me. Putting some Iodide of Potassium into it, I placed it aside
for eight months; ou trying ir,, it proved very sensitive, and
almost too good for use, and it was with regret that 1 used it
up.

The collodion I prefer is Fisher's. With myself it generally
works well. 1 recommend keeping to one collodion, and that
when a quantity gives unpropitious results, to consider that the
fault lies with the operator and not with the maker; a moments
consideration will be sufficient to recall to the mind, that after
using a collodion for some time, the bath, exposure, and deoelop-
er, have been working in harmony, and that a new collodion will
require a different treatment.

Periiiic me to offer you my cordial thanks, for so ably discuss-
ing the theory of matters relating to photography. I cannot
read a number of your Notes without deriving pleasure and much
information.

Your obedient servant.

Winchester, August 24th, 1858

Richard Baigent, Jun.

THE ORTHOSCOPIC LENS.

To the Editor of the Photographic Notes.

Dear Sir, — In the leading article of the last number of the
" Liverpool and Manchester Journal" is mentioned several
times the " Petzval lens" and the " Orthoscopic lens." For the
purpose of preventing the public being mistaken by mixing up
the various descriptions of those lenses at present brought into
the market, permit me to state, that the lens alluded to in the
above mentioned article, — the same lens which gave " the evi-
dence of the own eyesight," — has been, not one of Professor
Petzval's, by the simple reason, because none of thisde<crii)tioa
and size have been issued by Professor Petzval. The first con-
signment of those smaller lenses I have only received a few days
ago, and they possess a focus of 18.-ins. tor pictures of 13XlO|
ins.

It is perfectly true Mr. Shadbolt had two of Professor Petz-
val's lenses for examination, but they are of the larger size,
focus 25-ins., size of pictures 16X12 or a circle of 20-ins. diame-
ter. 1 suppose that Mr. Shadboldt has only examined the por-
trait combination with short-focus, and perhaps the capabilities
of the three lenses together. But I do not think that he has
examined at all the large pictures reproduced by the new com-
bination with the larger focus.

I consider it my duty to make this statement, and I am
obliged to add that I do this only for the sake of stating the
true facts, without the least wish of beginning a new contro-
versy.

Paul Pretch.

6t, Great Portland Street, London,
August 21st. 1858.

ON CERTAIN MODIFICATIONS
Of the Positive Printing Process.

BY JAMES ALEXANDER FORREST.

In the following details of my modification in positive prin-
ting, the chief points I have aimed at, are pure whites and an
economical use of the gold.

Take the whites of two eggs to one ounce of water, shake
them well up, then add fifteen grains of salt for every ounce of
solution; allow this to stand for one hour, then float the paper
upon it in the usual manner, and hang it up to dry.

Sensitize upon a solution of forty grains of nitrate of silver
to each ounce of water; after drying, the exposure in the pres-

1858.

TUE PHOTOGRArillC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

277

sure frame is to coutiue until the detail is fully but not over
printed, as is generally the custom, and on removal wash the
proof in cold water, and afterwards immerse in a solution of
salt and water, say a teaspoouful to six ounces. The object of
this operation being the removal of the unaltered nitrate of sil-
ver from the print, or rather to effect its conversion into the
chloride, the former being liable afterwards to affect the color
of the finished picture if not neutralized.

After rinsing in cold water, lay the pi'int upon a piece of
glass face upwards. Have at hand two stock bottles, one of
solution of chloride of gold three grains to the ounce of water,
and the other a solution ot carbonate of soda, also three grains
to the ounce.

Mix together half a drachm of each solution, which quantity
will be found suflicient for a dozen prints 9X7. Pour it into a
dish and apply it by means of a flat camels hair brush to the
surface of the print. In the course of a minute or two the so-
lution produces a desired tone; wash well, and fix in new hypo-
sulphite of soda, the strength being three ounces to one pint of
water. After immersion for about a quarter of an hour, take
the greatest possible care to wash the prints in a running stream
of water for at least four hours.

These instructions may appear tedious, but I am persuaded
that permanency cannot be ensured with less labour. I have
tried prints so treated in damp situations, and have never found
them to give the slightest indication of failure.

From The Times,

August

btk, 1858.

PHOTOGRAPHIC CURIOSITIES.

The following letters, addresed to the editor of Ihe Times
newspaper, alludes to some hitherto unobserved phenomena of
considerable interest: —

From The Times, July 1 4, 1858.

Sir: — As you did me the favor of inserting my letter on the
photo-stereo of the exploding thirteen inch shell on Woolwich
Common, in the Times of 29th of May last, perhaps the following
account of a subsequent experiment made by me at the same
locale, may not be uninteresting to your photographic readers.

On Monday, the 28th ult., at twenty minutes past eleven a.
m., a thirteen inch shell was tired from the mortar battery by
the 2ad company of the 1st battalion of Royal Artillery. The
shell, weighing 200 lbs. was ten seconds in traversing the air,
and fell within two yards of the flagstaff, distant from the bat-
tery six hundred yards.

The enclosed photo-stereo (No.l), taken as the shell emerged
above the smoke, shows three-eights of an inch of the pro-
jectile's track, commencing at the distance of eighteen times the
shell's diameter above the mortar, and 11-8 inch visual dis-
tance, above the head of the superintending officer in front.
But though this is I believe, the first time a mortar shell has
ever been photographed in its ascending flight, sufficiently in-
tense to print from, it is not that "what next? "to which I
wish to call particular attention, but the likeness of the human
head which so distinctly dominates in the smoke. This phan-
tom does not appeat to be the result of chance, for on repeat-
ing the experiment it is invariably reproduced at a certain phase
in the smoke's expansion.

Further, the apparition is not, nor can it I believe, be seen
by the human eye, excepting through the medium of photog-
raphy, which, in its highest instantaniety, appears to eternize
time, by giving at the photographer's will a series of pictures
of things which have their birth, marked phases of existence,
and extinction in a moment (from the 20th to the 20,000th
part of a second,) much too fleeting to be noted by the naked
human eye. In short, photography, as exemplified within the
last fortnight at ihe Woolwich mortar battery, promises to do
to epochs of time that which the microscope already does to
small objects, and the telescope to distant ones.

I am, yours, &c. ,

Vanhrugh House, Blackheath, Thomas Skaife.

July 12, 1858.

35*

Sir, — In 27^6 Times of last Thursday is an account of the last
firing of the 36-inch mortar on the Plumstead Marshes.
Through the kind facilities afforded me by General Carter,
president, and Colonel Pickering, secretary of the select com-
mittee (War Department,) I was enabled to take a pl^oto-
stereograph of the monster shell in the course of its flight, to-
gether with a phase of the mortar's explosion : a print from
which (No. 1) I take the liberty of enclosing for your inspec-
tion, and which, you will perceive, is confirmatory of what I
intimated in my last letter (see Times, 14th July), viz that
epochs of time, inappreciable to our natural unaided organs of
vision, couid be made evident to our senses by a photographic
camera as decidedly as the presence of animalculas in blood or
water is by a microscope.

_ It was, undoubtedly, ignorance of this newly-discovered prin-
ciple in photography that induced a professional gentleman,
well acquainted with the action of shot and shell, in the Crimea,
on my pointing out to him the track of the projectile and its
termination in the stereo, to exclaim, " But what stopped the
ball ?" What stopped the ball ? This indeed was a poser.
But, thank God I I mentally exclaimed, this is the nineteenth
century instead of the seventeenth, or, as sure as fate, the
" stopper" of the ball would soon have found his poor flesh
quivering in the red-hot pincers of the witch-finder. The nine-
teenth century is the epoch of mesmerism, and mesmerists will
perhaps attempt to account for the sudden stopping of the mon-
ster projectile in mid air to the passing before it of a piece of
vulcanite (term applied to the substance by Mr. Goodyear, the
patentee ;) but be the mesmeric theory a bubble or not, it is
undoubtedly a fact that by a peculiarly rapid motion given to
two small thin pieces, each two inches square, of baked india
rubber, by means of what I call a trigger movement, an opti-
cal illusion is produced on the transit of a projectile which may
be likened to the stopping of a railway carriage by a brake.

The first application of this optical brake is perceived in the
commencement of the shell's track on the side of the mortar.
The shell then appears gradually to have decreased in speed,
until it has gone the length of four of its diameters after the
brake has been applied, when it appears finally to have stopped,
and that for an interval sufficiently long to admit of its portrait
being photographed accurately enough to give a tolerable idea
of Its size and shape ; after which, it is assumed, the shell pro-
ceeded on its rapid course for one mile and a half further, arriv-
ing at its goal not one measurable iota of tune less for its having
lagged by the way to coquet with the photographer.

And thus I account for this seeming paradox. The whole
operation of putting on the optical brake to the flying projectile
stopping its course and photographing its portrait, according to
data supplied by this stereo, appears to have been done in the
fiftieth part of a second. The sliell at this part of its course is
supposed to be flying at the rate of five hundred feet per second
(the diameter of the shell is believed to be about two feet and
a half,) when the now applied brake gradually retards its flight,
and finally succeeds in stopping the shell, after it has gone four
diameters, or ten feet from first application of brake.

The commencement of the shell's track on the side of the
mortar, it will be perceived, is misty and ill defined, whilst, on
the contrary, the termination is sharp, and gives a tolerably
clear idea of the sort of snail that has been leaving its trail be-
hind.

This difference between the beginning and end of this photo-
graphed section of the projectile's parabola, is thus accounted
for : — The vulcanite " spring shutters" admitted to the sensi-
tized collodionized plate, through a pair ot lenses, a view of the
shell the instant it emerged from the mortar's smoke, by being
made to revolve on their axes ninety degrees, at which point
they have exposed the full aperture of the lenses, and at this
point the hundredth part of a second has elapsed ; meanwhile,
the shell, flying at the rate of five hundred feet per second, has
just interposed its trail on the collodionized plate the length of
two of its diameters (J-inch,J and succeeds in trailing two

278

THE rnOTOGRAPniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

Septeuiber,

otbers while the shutters are having tlieir action reversed and
returned to their original light-excluding- position behind the
lenses.

Now, as the first part of the shell's track fone-sixtecnth of an
inch wide) has been exposed to the full action of light from the
commencement of ihe shutters' opening to their final closing,
this part of it has, consequently, been undergoing a gradual
effaceracnt during the whole period of the fiftieth part of a
second ; while, on the contrary, the terniiims of the track pho-
tographed at the final closing of the shutters must, in the short-
ness of its exposure lo the action of light, bear a moving analo-
gy to the ra])idity of light itself — known to travel more than
one million of times quicker than a cannon ball : and hence the
ball's apparent stoppage in tlie air malgre the tremendous physi-
cal force argument seen in the act of urging it forward.

But what military man, however familiar he might be with
the firing of projectiles, would believe, had he not witnessed the
photographic fact, th'it that physical force argument, so sharply
depicted in the stereo in question, was other than pure allegory
instead of being, as it actually is, the lx>na fide stereoscopic por-
trait of a real natural cyclops, sprung into giant life by the ig-
niting of eighty pounds of gunpowder in the most ponderous
piece of artillery probably ever constructed by the hands of
man.

No. 2 is merely added to show the thirty-six inch mortar sixc,
and relative position at the time it was fired. — I am, yours, &c.,

Yanhrvgh House, Blackheath, Thomas Skaife.

Zrd August, 1858.

COIOURIHG GLASS POSITIVES.

To the Editor of the Liverpool and Manchester Photoc/raphic Journal.

^m, — Can you kindly, through the medium of your very valu-
able Jcni?-)iaZ (^or otherwise, as it may suit you,) give me any
information, as to colouring collodion pictures on glass, or inform
me in what number or numbers of your Journal anything of the
kind lias appeared. I have applied to the party mentioned in
the enclosed advertisement, cut from the Journal, and enclose
you the reply, which the advertisement contains. I have tried
the balsam preparation in every way that has suggested itself
to my mind, and cannot get it to answer at all, not even as vi^ell
as when the plate is simply varnished. Such disappointments
as these occur to me as being calculated to discourage, rather
than otherwise, the amateur ; and I am sure you will coincide
with me hi thinking that unless some better method can be sent,
and more detailed information can be afforded, the advertisement
would be better kept out of so valuable a journal (in other re-
spects) as your own ; or at all events, I would that the adver-
tisement should be worded in more truthful terms, and such at-
tractive phrases as to the plates being scarcely distinguishable
from "miniatures on ivory, &c. &c., should be omitted.

Trusting that you will kindly give me the required informa-
tion, or inform me of any work on the subject of colouring, I am.
Sir, yours respectfully,

245 Burlington-slnet, Richard Brown.

Liverpool, J%dy, 8, 1858.

[See reply to " R. C. Gorens" in No. 14.— "We cannot, of
course, answer for the statements made in advertisements (in-
deed we do not see them any sooner than our readers,) nor can
■we exercise any control over what is a mere matter of commerce,
except by rejecting altogetlier anything ])ositively oflfensive.

We have seen some good results said to be produced by the
method detailed in your enclosure. In No. 5, page 65, and
No. 9, page 116, you will find what we have published on the
subject. — Ed.]

of Liverpool, at lis. 6d. and 283., is of any real practical use,
as I cannot hear of any one who have given them a trial.
An answer in your next will oblige. — Yours, &c.

LiLLYWHITK.

[The instrument yon mention is used by many, if not most, of
the Liverpool photographers, and is perfectly effective. It was
contrived originally by Mr. Mayall, of London, in whose studio
we saw it many years ago, and consists of a circular disk of zinc
or tinned iron, painted blue, having an opening in the centre
with radiating points in the form of a star. This disk is sup-
ported by a light iron frame, and rests upon tliree rollers, to
allow of a circular motion on its axis being communicated to it ;
and the disk also is adjustable in height, so as to be placed cen-
trically with the head of the sitter, between whom and the lens
it should be arranged about midway. During the exposure, the
disk is kept in constant rotation, and consequently, being out
of focus, is not itself delineated, but by partially obscuring the
edges of the field of view, and this in regular gradation in pro-
portion, as the part is more obliquely situated from the axis of
the lens, the effect is to produce a very artistic shading of the
figure that is extremely pleasing. We made a suggestion to
one or two of our Liverpool brethren, which we think might be
a convenience to them if carried out. It is this : It is necessary
that when in action, the disk shall have a circular motion com-
municated to it, and this is nsuallj done by means of a smsil
wheel and band, and requires that the operator, or an assistant,
should work the handre. It is, however, immaterial whether
the motion is continuous in one direction or reciprocal ; conse-
quently, we believe that, by the addition of a short pendulum
with a heavy " bob," the trouble of turning the handle might be
dispensed with as, if set vibrating, it would continue moving
much longer than necessary to take a portrait. — Ed.]

IIGNETTE M.iClIlXES FOR GLASS POSITIVES.

SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENT.
To the Editor of the Liverpool and Manchester PhotograjMc Journal.
Sir, — Can you, or any of your kind readers, inform me if the
small machine for xx^wiXmg glass 'posllues sold by Mr. Atkinson,

• TRANSFERRING TEE COLLODION FILM.

To the Editor of the Liverpool and Manchester Photographic Journal.

Sir, — Knowing your liberality in answering all enquiries, I
beg to trespass on your kindness.

If you or any of your numerous correspondents could give any
information respecting the transfer of collodion positives from
glass to paper, leather, cloth, &c. in your next number, it would
be deemed a great favour. — I am, yours, &c.,

Birmingham, July 24, 1858, Collodio.

[The transference of the collodion film from glass to paper
was firs effected and brought forward by Sir William Newtou,
at a meeting of the London Photographic Society, on 1st June,
1854, his method being to pour ovel- the collodion fihii a varnish
composed of one ounce of pure gum mastic dissolved in eight
fluid ounces of alcohol, and two drachms of poppy oil added :
the glass being then placed in a horizontal position, while a
piece of thin paper, previously cut to a size slightly smaller thau
the glass, was saturated with the same varnish by the aid of a
camel hair pencil, and at once placed carefully in contact with
the collodion film so as to exclude every particle of air, and the
whole allowed to become dry by evaporation of the spirit.
When dry, the glass was placed paper side upwards in a dish of
water, until the film began to separate from the glass, when it
was o-ently and carefully drawn away. We see no reason why
the same method should not be applied to leather, cloth, &c.
A varnish formed of bleached shellac, dissolved in water by the
aid of borax, assisted by heat, m'ght also be useful for this pur-
pose.— Ed.]

COLOURING GLASS POSITIVES.

To the Editor of the Liverpool and Manchester Photographic Journal,
Sir, — At page 193 of your issue of the 1st instant, I find one
of your corrcsi)ondents requesting information on the colouring
of glass positives. I once laboured under the same difficulty in
not being able to get sufficient depth of colour, but can now
manage to lay on any quantity I tike. Mr. T. S. Glaister, an
eminent artist in Sydney, Australia, kindly furnished me with

! 185 3.

THE niOTOGRAPlIIC AND FIJsE ART JOURNAL.

279

the following recipe : — Colour your photograph as usual and
then varnish with the ordinary chloroform and amber varnish,
which dries hard almost immediately. Colour your picture a
second time wherever it requires a greater depth of colour, and
fix this second layer of colour with only the vapour from your
varnish bottle, by holding the mouth of ic (all but touching)
close to the glass, going over the parts that havebeeuie-
colourcd. Care must be taken not to let any of the liquid run
out, but only the vapour, which being heavier than the surround-
ing air, pours out of the bottle (quite visible on a warm day,)
dissolves the varuish already on the picture, causing the colour
which was resting on it to sink down into it, and thus become
incorporated with it. If after this the colour is still not yet
deep enough, repeat the dose by recolouring and revapouring
any number of times yoa like. I consider a portrait may be
very much improved by a little recolouring iu certain parts in
accordance with the above method.

I should feel much obliged if in your next you would kindly
give the recipe for making such instantaneous collodion as that
by which I see a portrait was taken at Woolwich the other day,
of a shell in the act of bursting in the air, and stating also your
opinion as to whether such preparation will keep well, as I have
been informed it will lose its sensitive qualities in a few days.
I suppose the said portrait was taken by the wet process. — I am,
yours, &c.

M. J. SOARES, JUN.

50, Mark Lane, August Zrd, 1858.

[By the wet process, certainly. We have made enquiry upon
the other point, but as the operator explains his mode profes-
sionally only, we cannot assist you in the present instance. — Ed.]

THE FOTllERGILL DRY PROCESS.

To the Editor of the Liverpool and Manchester Photographic Journal.

Sir, — In my communication in your last Journal, " Practical
details for working Mr. Fothergill's new dry process," I should
I have inserted in that part where I direct the albumeuized plate
to be placed in a dish containing so much water, &c., after
" empty out the water and repeat the washing with a second
quantity," take out the plate, incline it a little, and pour lightly
071 at one corner or along the end sufficient loater to flow all
over ike surface ;" place on end on several thicknesses of blotting
paper, &c. The water in the dish after the second washing, ne-
cessarily contains a little albuminate of silver, which is left, on
the evaporation of the water, on the surface of the plate, and
might possibly affect its keeping properties if not removed. The
above obviates this, and does not at all injure sensitiveness.

I find I also stated, "place the plate in a dish containing, for
stereoscopic size, two or three ounces of water," as dishes vary
very much in size, and this quantity in some would not cover
the*plate. It would have been better had I directed as follows:
. — " Place the plate in a dish containing sufBcient water to
cover it to the depth of from a quarter to half an inch, accord-
ing to size and depth of dish ;" wash well for about half a min-
ute, &c. ; " take it out, incline a little, and pour on sufiicient
water," &c., as recommended in first part of this communication.
The dish should be sufficiently large to allow of the water for
second washing bein^ poured iu without its falling on any part
of the plate.

From the universal interest this beautiful process is exciting,
I feel that no apology is necessary for being thus minute, and
occupying your valuable space ; for although it is as certain,
easy, and simple as possible for any to be, when properly mani-
pulated, it necessarily produces disappointment improperly done,
either from misunderstanding or not following the directions
given. I would also here remark that these take longer detail-
ing than carrying out, and lessen i-ather than increase the time
required for preparing the plates.

1 have frequently the following inquiries made — " May the
prepared albumen be used more thau once ?" No. " Will it
keep, or does it require to be prepared fresh each time ?" If

kept in a bottle corked, it may be used several days after being
prepared, as long as it continues clear and bright. I would re-
commend it alway to be filtered through sponge before using.
If the proportion 10 oz. white of egg, 6 oz. of water, 80 minims
strong liquor ammonia, make it too thick to filter easily, add
2 oz. more distilled water : with eggs two or three days old,
this is liable to be the case — such as are not fit for boiling should
on no account be used. Of what use is the ammonia iu pre-
pared albumen ; it is not likely to injure the keeping properties
and produce fogging ?" It increases sensitiveness, causes pre-
pared albumen to keep fit for use until sometime after being
made ; does not affect keeping properties — plates having been
found unchanged a month and five weeks, the limit yet tried,
after preparation ; and, as far as the writers knowledge extends,
a foggy picture (except from diifused light or similar cause) has
never occurred. — I am, yours, &c.,

Alfred Keene,
115, Warwick Street,

Leamington, August Qth, 1858.

PROOFS BY NITRATE OF URLMUE

The following is from Cosmos, of 15th July : —

AVe have received from M. Godefroy, professor of physics at

the Lyceum of Chateauroux, the following letter,which we hasten

to publish : —

In trying to obtain positive proofs by M. Niepce's process,
I have discovered a method of proceeding which shortens ma-
terially the time of exposure. This modification appears to me
so simple, that I have no doubt of seeing it proposed by several
persons at once. However, as I have not seen it indicated in
the latter number of your publication, I take the liberty of
pointing it out to you, I do not send any proofs, because it is
so extremely easy for any one to obtain the results that I an-
nounce, that I do not fear any contradiction.

preparation of paper.

Float a sheet of paper upon a bath containing both nitrate
of uranium and nitrate of silver. The sensibility increases in
proportion with the amount of nitrate of uranium. A conve-
nient formula is —

Water, SJ ozs.

Nitrate of silver, 120 grains.

Nitrate of uranium 2 ozs.

The paper is to be allowed to remain for two or three minutes,
and then dried. It may be exposed either in a camera or un-
der a negative, and the impression is to be developed by immer-
sion in the following batli, viz : —

Water, , 1 oz.

Protosulphate of iron, 40 grains.

Tartaric acid, 20 "

Sulphuric acid 5 miniums.

The image is rapidly developed, and can be fixed by soaking ia
rain water.

RESULTS.

1st. Exposv,re under a Negative. — In a well-lighted room,
with diffused light, at about a yard and a quarter from the
window. No. 1 . Five seconds exposure ; the image perfectly
visible, and of a greyish black tone. No. 2. Ten seconds' ex-
posure ; image very strong ; tint that of an engraving,

2nd. With the light frovi clouds. — Thirty seconds exposure ;
the tint of the paper changed in the parts affected by light ; the
image is visible iu the camera ; on the iron bath an uniform
tint is in general obtained.

3rd. With sionshine. The action is much more rapid ; at
the end of a few seconds the tint changes, and various tones
can be produced by variations of the process.

4th. Before a small sized modtrater lamp. If the pressure
frame touches the glass shade of the lamp, ten minutes' expo-
sure will produce the tint No. 2 ; but if the frame be with-

2*10

TEE PHOTOGRAPHIC A^^D FINE ART JOURNAL.

September,

drawn to a distance of about twenty inches from the lamp, an
hour's exposure will be required to produce the same effect.

EXPOSURE IN THE CAMERA.

I operate with a quarter plate apparatus of M. Ch. Cheval-
ier's before old fashioned red roofs lit by the sun's rays. With
three minutes' exposure the image has the tint No. 1, but by
prolonging the exposure deeper and deeper tones are obtained.

In dull weather, with rain falling part of the time, in an ex-
posure of one hour deep tones were obtained,

If I do not deceive myself, this paper is destined to supersede
the ordinary dry papers, aud to put dry collodion in jeopardy.
I have repeated with my paper the followiug experiment of
M. Niepce : I open a book, and leave it for three hours ex-
posed to a strong light ; I place in it a sheet of prepared paper,
shut the book, and at the termination of three hours obtain by
the iron bath a sharp negative of the impression. This experi-
ment requires a very strong bath, but it never fails.

Should my weak attempts be interesting to you, I can give
you, in another letter, the theory of my process. I have to visit
Paris in the middle of August, and if you have the goodness to
spare me a few moments, I can communicate to you a simple
process for preserving the chemical intensity of the luminous
rays— a process which I hope will be of great use to photo-
graphers.

ON THE WET COLLODION PROCESS.

[ CONTINUED FROM P.^OE 240 ]

By Mr. J. A. Judge.

In the winter, and in dull weather, the solution should be
rather stronger — say one-and-a-half grain of pyrogallic to the
ounce, the quantity of acetic remaining the same. It is well
not to weigh the pyro in the operating room, as, being extreme-
ly light, it will, without great care is used, be blown about the
room, and get into the solutions.

The fixing solution is merely a saturated solution of hyposul-
phite of soda. Cyanide of potasium, which is sometimes recom-
mended for the purpose, although not requiring as much washing
as the hypo, is very liable to attack the half-tones, and destroy
the beauty of the negative,

VARNISH.

Spirit varnish, requiring a slight heat, will be found better
than either amber or chloroform, or benzole varnish.

A beginuer should never attempt to take portraits at first;
he must practise upon objects of still life — a house or landscape
opposite his window. When proficient, and he has become used
to the management of his apparatus, then, and then only, should
he try his hand at portraiture.

Before commencing to clean and coat his plate he should set
up his camera and get the object to be taken as sharp as possi-
ble upon the ground glass; he will then ouly have to place the
slide in the groove on bringing it from the dark room, other-
wise the plate is liable to be left too long in the bath and to be-
come (jlljd with minute holes. In any case it is always well to
focus roughly before commencing.

The plates can be cleaned with a solution of washing soda, if
the water used be not too hard, but if it contain a large quantity
of lime the glasses seen: liable to become coated with it, and it
is very difficult afterwards to obtain a clean surface. Liquid
auuuonia and tripoli are recommended, but although a nice
polish can be obtained l)y their use, everything becomes covered
with the particles of dust, which are very annoying. It is al-
ways better to clean the plates in a room adjoining the opera-
ting room as, however carefully the cloths may be kept, there is
always a certain amount of dust aud stufl." flying about.

After rubbing the plates on both sides and edges with a strong-
ish solution of cyanide of potassium or carbonate of soda, by
means of a coarse piece of rag, well rinse under a stream of
flowing water, continually rubbing the plate with the fingers,
and dry off innncdiatcly with a clean cloth. Do not let the
plate dry spontaneously, as you will rarely get a clean plate by

that means. As you clean the plates place them face to face
against the wall, or in a drawer; and as required for use finally
rub them over with a mixture of spirit and ether, dust the surface
with a piece of fine clean muslin, and coat immediately alter-
wards.

There are several ways of pouring on the Collodion; the best,
I believe is to hold the plate in the left hand by the left-hand
corner, and to pour the collodion first on the right-hand corner,
allowing it to flow towards the left (avoiding to touch the thumb)
and then down the plate, pouring off the superfluous liquid by the
lower end. Whilst coating, the plate should be so held as to
be able to look down the surface of it and perceive any floating
particles of dust or film detached from the edge of the collodion
bottle. Should any such exist, pour on a larger quantity of
collodion so as to remove it bodily from the plate. Rest the
plate on the neck of the bottle, and cant it gently from side to
side until the lines which are at first formed run into each other,
and the film presents an even, structureless surface. Do not
press the plate too hard upon the edge of the bottle, neither
give it too rapid a motion — by so doing, pieces of glass are rub-
bed off the edge of the plate, stick to the neck of the collodion
bottle, and are carried on to the next plate that may be coated.
The film must be allowed to set before being plunged into the
bath, if put in too rapidly the film will peel off in flakes at the
end last coated, and if kept out too loug a time the film will de-
tach itself from the plate, and allow the developing and fixing
solutions to get under it, rendering it very dangerous to wash
afterwards. The same effect takes place with an old bath. In
cold weather the operator, if not on the alert, is liable to be led
into error if, after coated plates that have Ibeen washed some
hours and left in the operating room, he uses one that has been
freshly washed in cold water, and has not remained sufficieutly
long in the operating room to have acquired a higher temper-
ture. When the film has had the requisite time to set, plunge
the plate at one movement into the bath. It should be taken
out and examined after the lapse of about two minutes, and if it
still presents a greasy appearance plunge and replunge it into
the bath two or three times, and wheu the oiliness has disap-
peared it is ready for draining. The bath should be so placed
with respect to the window as to allow the light to rake along
the surface of tht glass when removed from the bath. You are
enabled to see whether any particles of dirt, &c., are adhering
to the surface of the film, and if so, remove by re-dipping into
the bath. It must not be allowed to remain too long a time in
the bath, as a long immersion tends to render the plate insensi-
tive, and to flatten the resulting picture. The negative also be-
comes filled with a number of minute holes, which are distinctly
visible in the positive picture.

Now remove the plate from the dipper, and examine, by placing
between you and the light, which is the best end of the plate:
if for a landscape use this for the foreground, the blemishes, if
any, being readily got rid of in the sky, by painting out or other-
wise. In this case turn the blemished end downwards, and julow
it to drain from that end for about two minutes, or until the liquid
no longer drops from the corner of the plate; then place it in the
dark slide, having previously put small pieces of clean blotting-
paper in the corners of the frame to prevent stains from a return
of the solution. lu carrying the slide, keep it in the same rela-
tive position as it will occupy when in the camera, and if the
glass-room in which you are operating is a very warm one leave
the slide outside until wanted, if out of doorsplace it in the shade.
Do not allow it to remain longer than five minutes before expo-
sing, especially in hot weather, the film will otherwise become
dry in patches, and the nitrate solution will attack the iodide of
silver very energetically,

I omitted to mention that if the bath solution is allowed to
remain in the bath for a few days, the top of it will become cov-
ered with floating particles of film, dust, reduced silver, &c.,
which -will stick to the collodion on immersion; and give rise to
blemishes in the negative. This film should be removed with a
jtiecc of clean blotting-paper, and the solution agitated with the
dipper, until tlie whole disappears.

1858.

TUE PHOTOGRAnilC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

281

The following notes were also added ly Mr, Judge:

It is advisable to place a sheet of blotting-paper bebiud the
plates, and the spring of the dark frome should be electro-plated,
as, in case it is requisite to re-dip the plate iu the bath, the par-
ticles of reduced silver which would be apt to produce blemishes
upon subsequent plates.

The slides should be kept clean and dry externally, so as not to
soil the fiugers, which should be washed before and after each
operation. Do not use finger stalls as they are apt to produce
stains on the plates.

After focussing, use a dark cloth to cover the lens instead of
the cap, as it is more convenient and less liable to alter the fo-
cus by accident.

The proper management of the light is of the utmost impor-
tance, as well as the time of exposure, which is better to be over
than under done.

Accustom yourself to count'seconds, and do not look at the
sitter, or move about in order to avoid attracting attention.

According to locality, the time of exposure is affected by the
direction of the wind; for instance, at the west end of town a
longer exposure is requisite with an easterly wind.

In moist weather it makes a material difference whether a
picture of a given size be taken with a lens that requires to be
a long or short distance from the sitter, as the intervening mois-
ture retards the actinic action more at a long than at at a short
distance, and the result is less brilliant than it would be with
the shorter distance.

After the exposure, do not wave about the slide, and remove
the plate with the same edge downwards, as when in the camera,
to avoid any chance of the nitrate of silver solution that has
drained off it running back and staining the plate, or carrying
particles of dust, &c., with it.

In developing, pour on the solution towards the end to which
the drainage has been carried; the high lights should appear
first, but not too suddenly, then the half and intermediate tones.

Should the piature be under exposed, and it be impossible to
get another, it may be saved by washing off the developing so-
lution containing silver, auL using plain pyrogallic solution, thus
avoiding, in a great measure, too great intensity of light and
depth of shadows.

If over exposed, it may be known by the whole of the picture
appearing at a flash. Develop till the details are out, then use
fresh pyrogallic solution, with some silver to blaken it.

In any case long development gives the soxmdest^\ci\xxQ. Car-
ried on till the high lights are almost opaque, and thf hyposul-
phite of soda generally removes slight foggiuess.

In fixing it is not necessary to wash off the developing solu-
tion before pouring on the hyposulphite of soda, nor to reject
the latter after use, as it does not then attack the half tones.
Wash one-half of the plate at a time.

Should the collodion slip, the best way is to allow it to run a
little "over the edge of the plate and then clinch it, washing gen-
tly the other way, and should a piece break at the edges, it is
better to remove at with the fingers than to allow it to mash off
as it in that case frequently tears away a l^rge piece.

Drain on a shelf with blotting paper, and do not remove it
after once it is set down until dry. Keep the back of the plate
upwards, as dust will stick to the film while wet. Spirit var-
nish is preferable to amber varuish, as the latthr softens in the
sua.

OX THE ADVANTAGEOUS EMPLOYMENT

Of Stereoscopic Photographs for the Representation Scenery.
To the Editor of the Photograjphic Notes:

Mr. Editor. — The remarks which I take the liberty of offering
to you bear upon nothing absolutely novel in practice. Yet I
think it may be useful to urge them on the attention of persons
who occupy themselves with the delightful and instructive
science of stereoscopic photography. I have been led to this
opinion by remarking that several photographers whom I have
met in the field had no idea of the effect of distance between the

36

two cameras, or of the relation which ought to be maintained
between that distance on the one hand and the distance of the
photographed objects on the other hand. I have seen a person
using, for the stereoscopic photograph of a mountain at the dis-
tance of several miles, the same apparatus whicii he would em-
ploy for building or a statue at the distance of ten yards, It is
true that, by taking care to have some near object as foreground
a house, a rock, or a pine-tree, he succeeded in producing the
impression of c^wteMce of the mountain, but nothing more: he
produced no impression whatever of its relief : for all the effect
of his stereoscope, the mountain might have been a flat wall du-
ly painted, and its picture to the eye and to the mind would have
been as good as that of the noble and deeply-relieved object be-
fore him. This is not the proper employ of a mighty principle
like that of stereoscopy. If it had been applied as it ought, —
that is to say, if the two pictures had been taken from two sta-
tions sufficiently seperated, he would have produced on the
mind an image representing the projection of every salient point
and the recess of every hollow, an image not so much visible as
tangible, from which a moulder of ordinary experience could ac-
tually mould an accurate model of that face of the mountain
which is in view at the two stations.

To illustrate my meaning, and to indicate the difSculties which
are to be met, I will refer to two instances.

The first is, the series of pairs of views which accompany Pro-
fessor C. P. Smyth's book on Teneriffe; a series which form a
new epoch in the art of book-illustration, and for which we can-
not be too grateful to Professor Smyth, the artist, and Mr.
Lovell Reeve, the publisher. It appears (as far as I can judge)
that these views were taken with a single camera, removed from
one station to another, I know not at what distance, but proba-
bly seperated several feet. The effect iu the vigour of the relief
of objects moderately near, and in the seperation of distances, is
admirable. It will be remarked that these views were taken
under a cloudless sky, so that there is no material change of il-
lumination between one view and the other. Still, it will be found
that the position of a figure, or the place of a piece of cloth, has
sometimes been changed; and the effect is thereby much injured.

The second is, the pair of views of the Full Moon, made by
Mr. De la Rue (now sold I believe by Messrs. Smith, Beck, &
Beck,) the effect of which I must pronounce to be unequalled.
To form these, photographs of the Moon were taken in two po-
sitions, the distanca between which (referring each to a radius
of the moon produced) was, — how much does the reader sup-
pose ? — nearly 24,000 miles. And by means of these, the moon
is presented to us with a convex disc as protuberant and sherical
as that of a terrestrial globe or a cricket ball. A new meaning
is at once given to every oval spot and every fore-shortened
steam of lava. It will be remarked that, when an observation
of the moon is secured at the right period, as regards libration
and solar illumination, we are certain that we are taking views
of an object which is unclouded and invairiable.

It appears from this instance that, to exhibit to the mind the
true relics of the body viewed, the seperation of the two cameras
may be one-tenth of the body's average distance, and ought not
to be much less. Generally, perhaps, we may say that the
separation of the cameras may be from two to four furlongs.

A moment's consideration will show that we scarcely hope to
succeed, even when the distances ai'e much less than this, by
transporting the camera. The change of solar illumination and
the changes of shadows of the clouds, independently of the
changes of living figures, &c., would injure the effect.

I see no prospect of success except by having two cameras
worked in concert, strictly at the same instant (by signal,) un-
der the direction of one person. With this arrangement, success
would be certain. And the effect would be so immeasurably
superior to that of all other stereoscopic views that, if it be un-
dertaking by a professional person, I cannot doubt of its com-
mercial success.

It is to be remarked that the value of such views is not li-
mited to the lover of the picturesque. They possess a real
scientific value. The geologist, or surveyor, or mountain-clim-
ber, sees at once the relief of the mountains with which he is

282

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

September,

conccriiecl, even to the dip of strats, the possibility of construct-
ing a new carriage road, or the practicability ot makii)g foot-
path. The speculator on placiers discovers at once pecnla.rities
and relations of form whicli he conld not obtain from any single
view.

I may now indicate a few views, partly for their own merit,
partly iu illustration of my ideas as to the proper separation of
cameras.

The north face of Mont Blanc is seen advantageously from
the ridge of the Breven. The interval between the camera-
stations should not be less than two forlongs. Tiie south face
is well seen from the path which leads from the Col du Pain de
Sucre to the Col de Seigne ; tliis is nearer, and the interval of
cameras may be one furlong. For views within the glacier-hol-
lows, the interval may be perhaps 100-ft. or less, according to
the distance of the scenery towards which the face is turned.
Tiiose of the Mcr de Ghice and the Glacier des Boissons are
very interesting ; the first, as the special su!>ject of Professor
J. D. Forbes' illustrations ; the secoud, as being the usual course
of ascent to the summit of Mont Blanc,

The most interesting glacier in Switzerland is perhaps that
which is most accessible, viz, the lower glacier of Grindlewold.
Between the Eismeer, or upper plain of ice, and the bottom,
this glacier presents five or six different appearances, all com-
manded laterally from a good path. The camera-stations ought
perhaps to be 50-ft. apart. For illustrating the structure of
the Eismeer itself, small separations would also sufBce. But
upcn the Eismeer there are views of most stupendous surround-
ing scenery, for the due representation of which a separation
of 300 or'400-ft would be barely sufficient.

The moraines on the lower glacier of the Aar (which, in con-
sequence of the surveys by M. Agassiz and others, possess ex-
traordinary interest) would be well commanded from stations
near the chalet of M. Agassiz. The stations ought to be at
least 100-feet apart. Magnificent views of the north branch
of the glacier will be obtained on the surface of the ice ; 200
ft. of scparatien would be little enough.

For the north face of the Jungfrau, &c., an interval of seve-
ral hundred feet, would be required on the Wengern Alp.

I will not troble you with the details of the distance which
I could reconmiend lor such views as, — the Hollow of Loch
Cornick; the Cliff Range of Loch-na-Gar; the radiating Ripgn
of Grisei)ale Pike, the Depth of Borrowdale and the Em-
branchment of Langstreth; the deep Corries of Snowdon (for
which, stations in Moel Shiabod would probably be very favor-
able); the twelve Pins and Mwlrhea, above Killery. An artist
who has once fully seized the principle, and has tried it in one
or two well-marked cases, will have little difficulty in deciding
on an advantageous interval of cameras for any instance that
uiay present itself.

The only apology, Mr. Editor, that I can offer for so long a
letter on a subject which (as I have said) possesses no real
novelty, is my belief that, by a genuine practical recognition of
well-known principles, the science of Stereoscopic Photography
may be placed on a footing far higher than it occupies at present.
I am, Mr. Editor,

Your very faithful Servant,

A. B. G.

August 20th, 1858.

FUEXCJI PIIOTOGRAnilC SOCIETF.

Ordinary Meeting, July 16</i, 1858.

M. Recxadlt, President, put to the vote the nomination of
the committee ai)pointed to examine the proofs sent by compet-
itors for the ])rize founded byM. le Due de Luynes, for obtain-
ing i)liotographs in carbon, A list of names, which had prcvi-
ouly received the sanction ot the latter gentlemen, was submit-
ted to the Society, and ap]irovcd. It is as follows : —

M. M. Rrgnault, of the Institute, President of the Society;
Bahird, of the Listitute, President of the Committee of Admin-
iblratiou ; Paul Pcrier, Vice-President of do. ; Mailaud, Secre-

tary of do. ; Le Comte Agado, Member of do. ; Bayard, do,;
Edmond Becquerel, Professor of Physics at the Conservatoire
des Arts et Metiers ; Cousin, E-igravcr, Member of the Com-
mittee of Administration ; Leon Foucault, of the Imperial
Observatory, and Member of do. ; Halot, of the Mint ; Le
Comte Leon de Labordef of the Institute, Member of the
Committee of Administration ; Peligot, of the Institute Pro-
fessor at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers ; Robert, Prin-
cipal of the Paintees at the Imperial Manufactory of Sevres.

The President then announced that all the papers and proofs
which had been forwarded to the Society in time, would be
submitted to the above Committee.

A letter was then read from M. Maugey, optician, on the
subject of the " pupil diaphragm, " see Notes, No. 52,
page 132.) It claimed for the writer the priority of the above
invention in opposition to the claims of Mr. Govi, and M.
Charles Chevalier.

[To us it appears that Mr. J. Traill Taylor, of Dumfries,
was the first to publish the suggestion of the pupil diaphragm.
See Notes, No 24, page 121.]

A letter was read from M. Gaume which stated that the mo-
dified process of Dr. Taupenot, in which iodized albumen is
spread upon jilain collodion, is due to the writer, and not to M.
Bayard, as liad been affirmed by M. Delahaye at the prev-
ious meeting, The latter gentleman admitted his mistake.

M. Jeanrenacd presented to the society a print from an al-
bumcnized-coUodion negative of the Lake in the Bois de Bou-
longne.

M. Charles Negre presented to the Society a large j^late
engraved by Photography, representing a portal of the Cathe-
dral at Chartres, and measuring 15 +48 centimetres, (about
30 + 20 inches.) This plate is one of, the specimens sent for
the Luynes Prize.

M. l'Abbee Laborde sent a paper containing the acconut of
a new sensitive substance to be used in Photographic engraving.

[An abstract of this paper will appear in the nest number.
Ed. p. N.]

M. Girard offered the following remarks with respect to
some positive prints obtained by Mr. Pouncy, by a new process,
and submitted by him for the Luynes prize.

" During the lust four months certain English Photographic
Journals, but more particularly that edited by Mr, Thomas
Sutton, have been occupied with the discussion of a secret pro-
cess discovered by Mr. Poucy, of Dorchester, by which prints
are obtained in carbon.

of the numbers of Mr. Sutton's Journal, he stated

■e ootame

" In one

his belief that Mr. Pouncy's prints are really produced in car-
bon, and by means of a mixture of bi-chromate of potass, ge-
latine, and lamp black. Great interest has been taken iu the
process, and a subseription was opened for purchasing it. Al-
most at the same time, however, we receive the specification of
a patent taken out in England by Mr. Charles Cowper, for a
process invented by M. Testud de Beauregard ; and which ren-
ders probable the surmises of Mr. Sutton with respect to Mr.
Pouncy's j)rocess."

In this Specificction we read as follows:

[See Mr. Dowper's Specificatiou iu Notes No. 54.

" Mr. Girard added that Mr. Pouncy had written to say
that his process differs from the preceding iu some important
points, and is very superior to it ; that he has not yet decided
whether to complete his patent at the end of the three months
which the English allows; and has sent two prints to the So-
ciety, for the Luynes prize.

" Further, M. Girard stated that it had appeared to him in-
teresting to examine these prints, without waiting for the la-
bours of the Committee, so as to leave no one in doubt on the
subject. According to his experiments they are really carbon,
and have resisted the prolonged action of concentrated nitric,
and hydrochloric acids, aqua regia cyanide of potassium, cyan-
ide of potassium with iodine, and alkaline sulphides. None of
these energetic agents have affected them. It is only when
the print has thoroughly imbibed the liquid that the black sub-
stance can be removed mechanically from it. M. Girard, ia

presenting Mr. Ponncy's prints to llic Society expressed his
regret tluit they were copies of cngraving.s, from wliich one
could not dolvriiiino whether the middle tiiiLs cdiild he proihiced
by Hi<! iiroci'ss."

M. Ijii;MKi!Cif:u (liongiit thiit Mr. I'ouiicy'H ])roeesf; offered a
strong nnology to tlmt of M. roitcvin, i)iil)li.siio(l in tlie .bulle-
tin in IHfiU.

[In a note to tlic !il)ove rcnuiiks in tlu! I'ullclin, nn extract is
made from P/io/o^i^-ntpIiir. IVofa, of July If), of that ))arl. of M.
Poitevin's patent which relates to ])riuliug in pigments, and
which has not been published by him in France. — En. |

M. 15Ai,T-.\m) said it was difficult to speak of Mr. Ponncy's
process, since uolliiug was known foi' ('(ii'tain with respect to it;
but in any case there was a groat dilference between incorpo-
rating lamp-black with the impressionable material and black-
ening a ja-iiit already taken.

[With reKpect to M. (xirard's tests. We can a.ssure that
gentleman, and the French Society, from our certain knowledge
of Mr. Ponncy's jjrocess, as eonununicated to us by liim, and
dcmostrated by him in our jirescnee, that the black material of
his prints is really and truly carbon, that carljou being of course
cemented to tlie paper by an organic; substance;, which nniy be
dissolved out by a cau.stic aleali, (quick lime for instance,)
while the carbon itself may, we believe, be acted on and oxy-
di/,ed by a hot mixture of nitric acid and turpentine. Jt might
be worth while to try the comparative stabilil,y u]ii\('V distruc-
tive tests of engravings and Pouney's prints ; tlie carbon in the
former ))cing merely attached to the paper by organic matter
and strong ])ressin'e, in the hitter by a reduced imi)ressiona,bIe
Miorganic substance, in addition to organic matter. — K\>. P. N.J

M. Oaiiniiou Si, Salmon deposite(i with the Society, for the
Luynes prize, certain process for obtaining positivcH jirints,
both in carbon and snlphice of mercury. A great imndier of
proofs by these processes accoinDiuiied tlicii- eoinmuniciition.

M. (jiiKAKi) read a letter in which M. (jiauine describes, a
new method of printing and fixing positives. This was submit-
ted for the liuynes prize.

M. I)Kf,AiiAVK, exhibited several prints he had obtained with
nitrate of uranium, and described the process employed.

M. llu.MJjEKT de MoLAiio described some ex[)erinients made
by him, with respect to the alleged permanence of uranium.

"The uranium jirocess is new, and should therefore be re-
ceived with favor. We cannot yet say how far it may succeed:
but 1 believe peo])le are wrong in supposing it to be the ne plus
ultra of Photography.

The print which 1 present to the Society was given me by M.
do Brel/isson. It has been pretented that prints Ijy nitrate of
uranium resist boiling cyanide of potassium. I submitted one
part of this print to cold cyanide of pota.ssium and in (ivc min-
utes it was destroyed. I suluuitted the other part to idoized
cyanide and it was destroyed instantly. 1 have tried successively
hydrochloric acid, a(jua regia, Ijromine water, chloride of iodine,
and hy|)0-sulphitc, ami in a-rpiarter-of-an-honr nothing was left
of the image. Ammonia is the only agent which does not affect
it, on the contrary it improves it. In fact, I only require five
minutes to destroy the image completely.

"Then tried nitrate of uranium in the camera. I worked
with a large plate, and a quarter-plate Uerimin lens, and with
four minutes ex])0surc obtained the bad results which
1 show you. At present, at least, the nranimn jjrocess is of no
use for negatives ; and as for the vaunted pernmnence of the
prints, it is no such thing, Why do ordinary prints fade ? On
account of the alteral)ility of the salts of silver. Put idtrate
of silver is used for developing a uranium print. The silver
salt being the element of destruetibility it matters not whether
it be employed first or last.

_" As for the novelty of tlie process, we may say that it con-
tains nothing that is absolutely new having a strong analogy to
the Chrysotype process of Sir John Jf erschel, published in 1842
and diflering from it only in the nature of the salt, a white
piece of paper being in the Chrysotype process impregnated
with ammonia-citrate of iron, which gives it a golden tint- then
developed with nitrate of silver, or choride of gold, and fixed

with liqnor-ammoniiu. My conclusion is that the permancnco
of the uranium |)riiits is a chimera, and that the process is not
new in itrinciplc, since that of Hcrschel leads to the same result.
Further, if it is not the vi: jilw.s ul/ra of pholographv, we can-
not, say l)ul that with time and experience it may not lead to
good results. M. de Prebissou has obtained some excellent
proofs. The process is so far good that it is an addition to
photography.

" J beg of the Society not to lose sight of tlui ends which
M. de iJrebisson and I have had in view. M. de Prebisson eu-
deavord to show that good prints might bo obtained by the
process, and he has succeeded. J have endeavored to show that
the pi-ints are not jiermanent, and 1 ahso have had the misfor-
tune to succeed."

It appears to us that the prints experimented on by M. Hum-
bert de Molard were developed with nUralt: of silver. We
have left a uranium print d(!Vclop(!d with r/iloriile. of f^old for
live ininut(;s in boiling cyanide without any ajiparent injury to
it. As for the novell,y of the uraninm jirocicss it was i»ublislied
by Mr. JJurnett, in all its particulars, and a uranium print was
exhibit(!d by that gentlenian at the Fixhiliilion of tin; I'lioto-
graplii(; Society of Scotland, in .laiiiiary, 18.^7. How then, in
the face of such evidence, can anyone presume to talk of the
novelty of the uranium process, or to attach any credit to M,
Niepce dc St. Vic(,or for the jniljlication of it in November,
W.A. The popular objec-tions to the process when gold is
used as a developer, are the cold inky tint, and the want of
brilliancy, or rather of albumen. When silver is used as a
developer, instead of gold the permanenco of the prints is per-
liajis open to HnH])icioii., — l<h). P. N.J

M. Devannk exhibited some uraiiium prints by M. dr; Brebis-
son, and read a letter from that gentleman describing Ihh process.

M. i,,AnnK Moiono thought that the Meeting would be as
much struck a,H he wa„s at the coidident a.ssertion of M. Ifum-
dert de Molard tlnit the uranium process contained no novelty,

The President observed that H erschel had done nothing in
photography properly so called. It was merely as a physicist
and chemist, that he had observed that certain compounds of
bromine and iodine paoducetl such and such results. Such ap-
pears to have been also the nature of the researches ofM,
Niepce de St. Victor. They wei'e undertaken rather in a gen-
eral than a particular point of view. In i)liotograpliy, as in
everything else, we should neither condemn a new meiliod too
hastily, nor take it up with too much enthnsiasura.

M. li'AnBE Moiono observed that in his opinion an entire
Society was wrong in asserting that there was nothing new in a
process which had scarcely been tried.

M. Bayaui) asserted that with ammonio-citrate of iron, and
nitrate of silver or chloride of gold, he would engage to do all
that had yet been done with nitrate of uranium.

^CAR«0 PRINTING PROUESS.

BY M. IIKKUl GAllNIER, AND AU'IIONSE HAI-MON, (OF OIIAKTRES.)

{From the Bulldln of the. French Photographic Society, for Au-
gust, 1858,]

The proi)crty which ammonia-citrate of iron possesses of be-
ing affected by light is no new discovery, but one which either
)ireceded or closely followed that of the analogous jiroperty of
Iji-chromate of potass. It is true that the list of substances
modified by light has since been singnlarly extended. For in-
stance, bi-eliromatc of ammonia, chromic acid, nitrate of ura-
nium, Ac, have been mentioned, and we have added to the list
chloride of cojiper and sul|)liide of copper, and we now add the
inks of tannate and pyrogallate of iron, oxalate of iron, and
alkaline sulphides. The nitrate of uranium is only worthy the
attention of experimenters from its special action on the salts
of silver, and not from its connexion with a new theory of the
storing up of light, a theory which the examination of facts
compels us to repudiate as incorrect.

284

THE PnOTOGRArniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

September,

But to return to the metallic salts which are sensitive to ligh*;
let us see in what way they are so affected by light as that they
may be eraployed in practice.

The following is the de primo visu way in which light acts on
these bodies.

1st,— Tiie greater number of them are only affected by light
when organic matter is present, sucli as a textile fabric, gelatine,
gum, &c. The citrate of irou is, however, an exception to this
rule, for light acts on it without the help of organic matter—
for instanc"e, when spread upon a metallic or glass plate, a litho-
graphic stone, &c.

2nd,— These sensitive substances are very slowly affected by
light when in a state of solution, so that they may be kept in
that state without any particular precaution, and it only be-
comes necessary to screen them from light when they are on the
point of becoming dry.

3rd,— When exposed to light the sensitive salt becomes gra-
dually darker in color ; this happens to bi-chromate of potass,
bi-chromate of ammonia, chromic acid, nitrate of uranium, and
tannate, pyro-gallate, citrate, and oxalate of iron. In the lat-
ter case the salt is at first darkened by light to a violent color,
like the silver salts, but by continuing the action of light the
darkened part becomes decolorized.

4th, — At the same time that parts of the salt are darkened
by light, they become less soluble in water, and certain liquids
have no longer the property of dissolving them. For instance,
alcoholized water, and glycerine no longer dissolve citrate of
iron.

As for the more profound chemical action which occurs from
exposure to light, that is not what we intend to discuss, or take
practical account of iu this communication.

Preparation of the Paper.

First make a very strong solution of citrate of iron ; next,
take a sheet of highly-glazed paper ; and lastly, a soft dry dab-
ber of linen.

Dip the dabber in a solution of citrate, and pass it over the
paper — at first quickly, then slowly, iu order to equalize the
coating of the metallic salt.

Dry the paper iu the dark.

Exposure to Light.

The cliche to be printed must be positive, with the lights and
shades true to nature. The time of exposure is from eight to
ten minutes iu sunshine, fifteen in strong diffused light, thirty
minutes in a dull light.

Development of the Image.

When the paper is removed from the light there is a visible
image upon it, but feeble and impei'fect iu the details. The
blacks of the cliche preserve the color and original properties
of the citrate, and of these unaltered parts use is about to be
made.

Take some dry lamp-black and a tuft of coHon wool, and dip
the cotton wool into the lamp-black ; it is thus charged, so to
speak. Instead of lamp-black, black lead may be employed in
impalpable powder, or the powder of any metallic salt of zinc,
iron, &c.; or any permanent colored powder; and by using
black paper, a white powder may be employed.

[The idea of printing upon blackened paper with a white
powder, appears to us a very valuable suggestion, and a process
of this kind may possibly supersede carbon-printing for certain
purposes. — Ed. P. N.]

The picture is then taken into a feeble light, and fastened by
its corners to a table, or polished glass plate. The tuft of cot-
ton wool ciiarged with black is then passed lightly over the
image. Nothing at first appears, but if during this operation
you blow upon the paper the parts of the citrate that have not
been affected by light moisten the lamp-black which sticks to
them, and the details appear. By continuing tiiis process of
dabbing on the black and blowing, fresh details make their ap-
pearance, and the image eventually appears in all its parts.

Fixation of the Picture.

It only remains to fix the print. All that is necessary is to
immerse it carefully in a dish of clean water, having no dust
upon its surface, and thus to remove all the citrate of iron from
the paper. It is then dried, mounted and varnished if need be,
which terminates the process.

[We suggested a mode of printing in carbon by means of
ammonia-citrate of iron and lamp-black, in No. 48 of this Jour-
nal, page 82.— Ed. P. N.]

ON THE URANIUM PRINTING PROCESS.

BY M. DE BREBISSON.

In the preparation of positive paper, I generally use a solu-
tion of 12 grammes of nitrate of uranium to 100 grammes of
distilled or rain water, f About 60 grains to the ounce.)

Although it has been recommended to use thick paper, I nso
the thin negative papers of Cnnson and Saxe, because they are
more easily washed, and the salts of silver and uranium removed.

I immersed the sheet of paper for five minutes in the uranium
bath. Papers completely immersed give more vigorous proofs
than those floated on one side only. In pinning up the papers
to dry, the pin should be stuck through a corner, kept dry for
the purpose.

Paper thus prepared is less sensitive than chloride paper. It
requires a strong insolation under a very transparent negative.
A negative slightly fogged, and which may give good prints
upon chloride paper, which is not suitable for the uranium pro-
cess, requires a clean glass negative. It is very difficult to ob-
tain a good print by diffused light.

The best developing liquid is 3 or 4 grammes of nitrate of
silver to 100 grammes of distilled water, (about 16 grains to
the ounce). This bath will serve until it is quite exhausted of
silver. I add at first a few drops of acetic acid, but when it
has been used for a few proofs, the quantity of nitrate of ura-
nium which becomes mixed with it, renders it very acid. I have
developed one half of a print in a bath containing 2 per cent of
nitrate of silver, and the other half iu a bath containing 4 per
cent. Both halves were equally intense, so that it is unneces-
sary to use a stronger nitrate bath.

By using an old developing bath, I have frequently obtained
prints which do not require toning ; but I generally tone the
prints with chloride of gold, in much weaker solutions than
those indicated in the journals. Thus, in order to make the
prints pass from the red color, which the nitrate of uranium
generally gives, it is sufficient to add to 200 grammes of water,
contained in a dish, from 20 to 20 grammes of a solution of
chloride of gold, strength 1 to 100. (To a pint of water add
about 1 grain of cloride of gold). The tone of the print im-
mersed iu this weak solution, will not be long in changing, and
iu two or three minutes will acquire the proper intensity. If
the action of the bath is too prolonged a disagreeable blue-black
tint is produced.

It has been said, that in order to finish the print, it is now
only necessary to wash it in several waters. I can affirm, how-
ever, that 1 have very rarely obtained a proof sufficiently fixed
in this way to resist exposure to sunshine, which in general red-
dens it, particularly iu the white parts. However feeble the
nitrate bath may be, there always remains in the texture of the
paper some nitrate of silver which no amount of washing will
remove, and which is acted on by light.

I enclose a print which after having been thoroughly washed
was exposed for some days to a strong light. All those parts
of the paper which were not covered by the passe-partout iu
which it was exposed have been leddened by the light.

The principal advantage of the new process consisting in the
non-eiu[)loyment of hj'po-sulphite of soda, a salt so destructive
to positive prints, I have tried various means for avoiding its
use. Tiie unreduced nitrate of silver in the paper must be ren-
dered harmless. Ammonia renders the washing easier, but not
complete. Sait and water in the first washing converts the

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

285

free nitrate of silver into loose chloride, which is removed by
the water, but some always remains in the pores of the paper ;
and the print often assumes a marbled appearance, which should
be avoided. I have tried other means from which I hoped to
obtain good resnlts, but the sun never failed to impress upon the
whites of my prints the mark of his power.

What shall I say then ? In my distress, weary of war, I
sought help from the enemy. After having toned the print to
the required tint, I immersed it for two minutes in a bath of
fresh hypo, strength 8 per cent, (about 40 grains to the ounce),
and I then washed and soaked it in the usual way. I believe
that by using a new and weak bath of hypo, and leaving the
paper in it a short time, there are few dangers to be apprehend-
ed from the last operation.

Tiie development of the image by chloride of gold alone, or
by bi-chloride of mercury, has not given me satisfactory results;
and I must say nearly as much of the iron bath proposed by M.
Haudoy, of Lille. Whenever I have tried it according to the
prescribed formula, I have obtained proofs either completely
fogged or nearly invisible. By diminishing the proportions of
the iron salt, the prints are still too grey. By adding to 200
grammes ot water about 20 grammes of a saturated and acid
solution of proto-sulphate of iron, I have toned the prints to a
tolerably good bistre tint.

I have also tried Mr. Draper's mixture of nitrate of uranium
and nitrate of silver. The prints after along exposure to sun-
shine were incomplete in the details, and of a feeble red tint. I
should not deem the matter worthy of mention had I not ob-
tained two very curious effects of color. In one case a print
when immersed in a weak developing bath of chloride of gold,
became of an orange color; in another case a print immersed in
a weak iron bath, assumed a fine rose color.

Now I hardly dare pronounce an opinion as to the permanence
of uranium prints, for possibly my chemicals may not have been
of irreproachable purity ; but, by way of example, I enclose a
print upon the dark parts of which I laave written the names of
four different solutions which I employed as an ink, and the
destructive effect of which may be perceived at a glance. The
cyanide of potassium and iodine, suggested by M. Humbert de
Molard, for removing stains from the hands, or linen, has so
vigorous an action on uranium prints, that the characters traced
upon the shadows, with a pen charged with this mixture, are
immediately bleached, even before they are dry.

If I may be allowed to express an opinion on this new process,
I should say that it offers great advantages from the simplicity
of the preparation of the paper, the easy development of the
image, and in economy from the weak solutions employed. But
the development is sudden, and uncontrollable, which leads to
frequent mistakes in the exposure ; and the image produced by
light is such that you cannot tell exactly when the action ought
to cease ; hence arises an uncertainty which makes success a
matter of chance.

In the chloride process, the photographer can more nearly ap-
proach the artist. He can follow step by step the action of
the light, being master of the powerful agent which he directs,
and able to localize its action if need be The proof showing
itself in all its details he can judge with certainty the course to
be' pursued ; and finally, ^s by means of hypo-sulphite of soda,
employed with care, and aided by chloride of gold, he may ar-
rive at the most perfect result, either by prolonging the action
of the fixing agent, or modifying it, and stopping at the proper
point,"

MR. HARRISON'S NEW lENS.

■Washington, D. 0.
Mr. Spelling — Dear Sir — The attention of your readers
have been drawn with much interest to statements of a new and
important improvement in View Lenses, as made by Petzval or
Voigtlander ; which improvement I should like much to realize ;
and when it shall have been declared which of the two has
claim to the preference, it has been my intention to order one
to be sent here.

36*

In the mean time, allow me to bring to the notice of your
readers a very much improved Lenses by our old friend Mr.
Harrison, which in the absence ot the Petzval, or Yoig-
lander, I consider equal to either. This Lense I found in Mr.
Walker's possession at the Treasury buildings who kindly lent
me the same for trial. Without being requested by the maker
Mr. Harrison, or by Mr. Walker. I send you the result of my
first trial with an 18-in Focus Lense with patent Diaphrsim,*
and also — another Print from a negative made with one of Har
rison's old 24 in Yiew Lenses, which I considered the best pre-
vious to his last, which I think you will decide with me has
now greatly the advantage for Views or Coping, cutting clear
and sharp over a Field greater than the Focal measurement of
the lense, which is more than we can obtain with the lenses previ-
ously made by Mr. Harrison, which I consider was equal to any
made in Europe.

I also inclose two prints one made with Silver, the other with
Carbon after the directions found in your August number, as
patented in England by Mr. Charles Cooper. After trying his
receipe — and some few varieties this is the best result obtained.

As this method of Printing promises very much — I beg to
suggest that a purse of $1,000 be made up by 200 subscribers
to be paid to the person who shall send you the best specimen
with a writen receit for producing the same. The award to be
made by a committee appointed to test the sauie, according to
the wi'itten receipt all of which receipt and communication shall
be printed in the Journal — for this purpose I subscribe myself
for $5.

No. 1. Print of Bridge, is from the New Lense.
" 2. With the old Lens 24-in.

The drawing was reduced about one third, the time of expo-
sure was the same for each.

Neg. with Albumo-Collodion.

Respectfully, John Wood.

U. S. Cafitol-Ex.

From the Liverpool and Manchester Photographic Journal.

ALBUM ENIZEl) COLLODION PROCESS.

BY M. GATEL.

The following process for Albumenized Collodion has been
well reported of by a committee of the French Photographic
Society, as a modification of that introduced by M. Taupenot :
This process has nothing in common with Taupenot's but the
albumenization of the collodion, and possesses the advantage
of an impressionable film of perfect solidity during the develop-
ment of the image and its fixation ; thus obviating the liability
to blistering which so frequently appears by the ordinary me-
thods.

Take of albumen 20 oz.

In one-third of this quantity of distilled water,

that is 6 oz. 5 drras.

Dissolve iodide of ammonium 192 grains.

Then add solution of tincture of iodine 3| drms.

Pour this iodized water, little by little, into the albumen,

beating it with a wooden fork.
The tincture of iodine is of the strength of twelve grains of io-
dine in flakes to a fluid ounce of alcohol.
The albumen having been well frothed is allowed to stand for
from 12 to 15 hours.

Take simple collodion 1 oz.

Add iodide of ammonium , 2| gra ns.

Iodide of cadmium 2^ "

Solution of proto-iodide of iron 15 minims.

Allow it to settle,

The solution of proto-iodide of iron is thus made,

Iodine in flakes 12 grains.

Iron filings 120 "

* The convenience of this arrangement need only to be seen to be ap-
preciated.

286

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

September,

I

Distilled water 1 oz.

Heat it till it becomes discolored, filter and evaporate the liquid
stirring it with a long nail until it ac luires the consistence of
syrup, then add two ounces alcohol and six drachms of acetic
acid, and filter.'^" This solution will keep good to the last.

When about to prepare the plates, decant the albumen and
the collodion.

Clean the plates with tripoli, moistened with alcohol, ten
parts, liq. ammonia one part.

Collodionizo the plates in the ordinary way, sensitize in a bath
of nitrate of silver forty grains to the ounce of water, and wash
perfectly with the albumen solution, and allow it to dry for
twelve or fifteen hours.

To sen>itize the albumen make a bath of —

Distilled water 3 oz. 6 drms.

Dissolve and add fused nitrate of silver. 2 " 4 "

Acetic acid 1 " 3 "

Alcohol 30 oz.

Let it remaiu at least twelve hours, then filter.

The plates having been prepared as above directed, and being
very dry, are to be plunged for from fifteen to twenty seconds
into this alcoholic silver bath, then washed in a dish with alco-
hol, and lastly with distilled water. They are then to be al-
lowed to dry, and not to be used for from five to six days after
being excited, in order to obviate variation in the requi^te ex-
posure, which would not be constant if used before they were
perfectly dry.

Plates thus prepared can be preserved for a very long time
after excitation, and are extremely sensitive to the action of the
light.

Devolope with pyrogallic and acetic acids, adding a few drops
of a Boluliou of nitrate of silver, ten grains to the ounce, when
the image begins to appear.

If, in developing, any deposit forms on the surface, it may be
removed by lightly rubbing with a piece of cotton without fear
of injuring the film ; then, after being copiously washed with
water, the development may be continued until complete. Fix
with hyposulphite of soda.

It will be at once observed that one of the principal novelties
introduced, is the use of alcohol instead of water for tlie sensi-
tizing bath for the albumen ; and, although this adds somewhat
to the expense, it is not of so much importance as the necessity
for its use in the subsequent washing of the plate, which wilf,
wc fjar, be a bar to its general adoption in this country, unless,
iiideed, it will be found practicable to substitute melhylated spi-
rit for the pure alcohol. We hope that some of our friends
may be induced to give it a trial.

The following extract from the report of Messrs. Davanne,
Bayard, and Fortier, upon the process may offer some induce-
ment :

" By his process M. Gatel obtains a sensitive film less liable
to blistering than that of M, Taupenot's. He has made no
change in the preparation of the albumen with the exception of
the addition of a small quantity of free iodine ; the collodion
is made in the 0Tdinai7 manuer, but to this is added a small
quantity of proto-iodide of iron and of acetic acid.

" Although the influence of the proto-iodide of iron relative
to the adherence of the sensitive coating has not been rigorous-
ly demonstrated, we know, nevertheless, that the proto-salts of
iron seem to render the collodion film more tenacious, a fact
of which it is sufficiently easy to satisfy ourselves ; it is there-
fore possible that the proto-iodide of iron acts in a similar man-
ner under the present circumstances.

" The most considerable variation, and the one that exercises
the greatest influence on the solidity of the film consists in the
employment of alcohol in place of water for the formation of
the sensitizing bath of aceto-nitrate of silver. It is known that
alcohol ci^agulates albumen with considerable energy ; it ispio-
bable that, under the double action of nitrate of silver and al-
cohol, the albumen is subject to a coagulation more regular and
more complete, and gives, in consequence, better results.

" We have thought that, after excitation in an alcoholized

bath, it might be possible to dispense with the nse of alcohol
for washing, and that alcoholized water, or pure water alone,
might be substituted, provided that the necessary precautions
be adopted for covering the plate uniformly ; but experipjent
has proved to us the efficacy of the alcoholic ablution.

"All the proofs that we have made, or seen produced, by
this process have heen per fedly free from blisters; and we there-
fore consider it a useful modification of that of M Taupenot ;
we therefore propose to accord thanks to M. Gatel for his com-
munication, and to insert this report in the Bullelin."

NOTES ON MR. BURNETT'8 LETTER OP MARCH, n.

We are requested by Mr. Burnett to insert the following
notes in reference to his letter of the 23d March.

1st Note. — By a later and more careful perusal of M. Niepce'3
paper, I was surprised to find that I was mistaken in supposing
M. Niepce to have been ignorant of the sensitiveness of ferric
papers, which, on the contrary, I now find to be expressly al-
luded to in it, though strangely enough only to contrast them
with the uranic papers. I must now suppose, either that M.
Niepce has made a fresh and independent discovery of the ferric
as well as of the uranic papers, and has, from want of time, not
yet hit on the fact of their de-oxidation, or else, that he has
some good reason, not yet communicated to the public, for his
ignoring of all chemical change on such papers before their de-
velopment.

'ind Note. — It is possible that we may yet find sources of
photographic and other actinisras, unaccompanied with either
heat or light.

Zrd Note. — Among others I have found alkaline ammoniated
baths of chloride or oxide of gold answer well for toning of both
ferric and nranic, and also ordinary silver prints, and I may as
well mention that I have succeeded also in the same solutions as
uranic and ferric chrysotype developers. Common nitrate of
gold and other gold salts also deserve trial, though the discard-
ing of chlorine is not so important here as it is in platinum
baths, in consequence of the tremendous affinity between chlo-
rine and the latter metal.

Owing to a slight peculiarity in Mr. Burnett's handwriting,
together with an accident in the transmission of the proofs,
several inaccuracies were allowed to appear in the letter above
refered to : the following corrections will, however, render the
whole intelligible.

Personal ^ ^rt Jntclligfitcc.

We have very little to say this month of a general nature
interesting to our friends, but something in regard to personal
affairs. We dislike the task, for task it is, and yet some points
are so absnrd that we have been obliged to laugh heartily over
them. It is now nearly nine years since we established this
Journal, and although it has been attacked from all quarters
very frequently, our old and tried subscribers can testify to oar
having seldom taken notice of the attacks.

We commenced the publication of the Journal with the in-
tention of making it — so far as our ability would permit — a first
class, high-toned periodical, free from every species of favoritism;
and so far as we are able to judge we have succeeded. Our
connexion, however, with one of the leading houses in this city
caused a dead set to be made against us by rival houses, and
more particularly by a contemporary print, who, without a par-
ticle of truth on their side, gave circniatiou to various reports
and falsehoods, which, we are sorry to say, have found many be-
lievers among men who have formed entirely erroneous opinions,
from the mere hearsay of interested and unscrupulous persons.
It may be remembered that among other things we were ac-
cused of sending our Journal to operators without orders, and
requiring them to pay for them at the end of the year. This
falsehood we considered so palpable at the time, that we gave
it the free scope we had to others, considering it equally un-

1S53.

'-, I

THE rnOTOGRAFHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

281

worthy onr attention. This has been recalled to onr mind re-
cently by statements made to us, to the effect that, although
they had not ordered it, a certain journal has been regularly re-
ceived at post offices to certain addresses. This operation 'is un-
doubtedly a renewal of the old attempts to run ahead and quash
our monthly, as it has been done among our subscribers. But
this is a small affair compared with what took place in Albany
a short time since.

We are creditably informed, that when the resolutions sym-
pathizing with Mr. Henry Meade for the death of his brother,
were offered to tite meeting of the Aloany Photographic Socie-
ty (or whatever it is called,) a terrible fnror was created be-
cause the resolutions directed the proceedings to be published
in the Photographic and Fine Art Journal. It seems the
members were impressed with the belief that we should send in
an enormous bill (perhaps as much as ten cents) for the privilege
of having it in this Journal, and that in consequence each mem-
ber would be called upon to subscribe his share (one cent), and
thus oblige him to give extra attention and work four or five
hours a day more in order to recover the enormous outlay fall-
in"- to each individual, and as there was no calculating the vast
number of years it might require to acquire the amount out of
their profits, the boldness — perhaps the presumption — of the
mover of the resolutions, fairly caused a shiver of horror to agi-
tate the heart of every man present. What a ghastly-looking
set of photos they must have been I We wish some clairvoyant
had notified us of the state of intense feeling which at that mo-
ment agitated that august council ; we should have been ex-
tremely pleased to have sent them sufficient assofcetida, or some
other soporific to quiet their nerves. It seems the whole assem-
bly were affected with the nightmare, but we sincerely pray they
may all survive. It is delightful to comment upon the intelli-
gence and manliness evinced by the tirades indulged, and the
fears expressed by the assembled multitude ; but the cream of
the joke is, not one could give a reason for the faith that was in
him, for we will venture to bet a tarnation big cookie that not
one man in that vast assemblage spoke from personal experience;
and we will bet another bigger cookie (or doughnut, if they like it
better,) that they may take a calcium light and search through-
out this republic, and they will not find one anywhtrt who can lay
such a charge, as was made at that meeting, to us and prove it
truth.

It does seem too ridiculous to require denial from us ; how-
ever, we will give a life subscription to the Journal, or a full set of
bound volumes, to any one who can swear before a notary that he
is knowing (or has paid to usj of our ever having received one
cent, or any amount of money, for anything that has appeared
in our editorial columns, or in any portion of our Journal, except
the advertisement columns.

Were it not that this incident proved another phase in the
nnoriucipalled opposition to our Journal and the mean, under-
hand, systematic methods of attack, it would disgust us with the
character of every photographer ia Albany. As it is, we are
really of opinion that the intelligence, manliness, credulity, and
fairness as evinced by their proceedings at the meeting alluded
to richly entitles each and every one of them to the thanks of a

(dis) criminating public and to a leather medal. If there

had been the slightest shadow of cause for raising such a hubub
we could find some excuse ; but as base as some men have
proved themselves towards us, we do not think any member who
attended that meeting ever received from the lips of a man he
did not know to be unworthy of belief, the idea which his action
proved to have taken possession of his mind. If such a one can
be found, give us his name and we will prove him a liar, for
there is no part of oar editorial career which we haye kept more
unsullied than this ; whatever errors we have committed have
been those of judgment, and we defy the whole photographic
community to truthfully charge us with humbugging them in any
■ manner, by selling or offering for sale any photographic patent,
spurious chemicals.adulterated varnishes, secret processes, or any
other clap-trap by which they have been deceived or robbed of
their money. In our publications, even, have we not given more
for the price charged tlian any other publisher in the world ?

Compare our Journal with all the others, European as well as
American — does not each number contain from five to eight
times as much information as any number of any other periodi-
cal published ; and if the subscriber choses at no higher price,
as our non-illustrated edition is only two dollars a year. So
much for the last misrepresentations made in regard to us. We
know that those who are personally acquainted with us will say
that we treat the subject too warmly ; but as there are evidently
very many who lend a willing ear to every slander that is con-
cocted by evil disposed persons it is a duty we owe to ourselves
— when these slanderers present themselves in a manner so
pointed, as these have done — to brand those who lend themf elvi s
to its discemination as falsifyers.

F. B. Bailey — The original cause was beyond our control,
and as we have had many inquiries on the subject we will state
them as briefly as possible. In one respect it is within the
power of our subscribers to help us. First — The supply of pho-
tographic paper became exhausted. Secondly — The dealer who
supplied us with paper for the letter press also got out and it
was six weeks before we could get any more made of the right
size and quality. Thirdly— Wq were placed in the same pre-
dicament for want of cover paper— and then came our annual
trouble in photographic printing. For the accomplishment of
this part of our work we had rented and fitted up an additional
room in the same building with our office, and thinking all things
were ready commenced the work, but after two weeks trial and
the spoiling of two thousand prints wc were obliged to give it
up, for the time being, for want of water. To obviate this lat-
ter difficulty we made arrangements to illustrate with photo-
lithographs until we succeed in producing perfect carbon-prints,
and by a new process of photogalvanography of our own inven-
tion. All these causes combined to delay the August number,
and our subscribers may form some idea of the great draw back
we received in the photographic printing by the few illustrations
they received in that number. Of course the extraordinary de-
lay in issuing the August number would necessarily detain future
issues, unless they could be overcome by extraordinary exer-
tions. These exertions could only be met by the employment of
greater force, and more money in every department, and so far
as we have been able we have done so, but our efforts have been
thwarted by our subscribers themselves, or rather a part of them.
All must be aware that since we left Mr. Anthony, one year
ago, our time has been devoted to the Journal, and consequent-
ly from the receipts of the Journal we ave to look for the means
of its support. Now, on the first of July last more than one-
half of our subscribers had not paid their subscriptions for this
year, and since that time we have received very little, except
from new subscribers, and as we have to pay cash down for every
particle of paper and work employed on the Journal, it must be
evident to all that the mainspring for exerting the efforts to re-
cover the ground lost by the other causes was wanting. We
must therefore take this occasion to say to those of our subscri-
bers who are still in arrears that the sooner they 'pay up the
sooner they will enable us to resume the prompt position we sus-
tained during the first half of the present year. We shall also
improve this opportunity to say to all our subscribers that here-
after we shall adhere strictly to the cash principle, and send the
Journal to none who do not pay in advance. As it would be
unjust — and is unjust — to favor any one in this particular, our
hest friends must not take offence if they do not receive the first
number (January, 1859,) of tiie next volume (Vol. XII.) be-
fore they send the money. Our present year's experience has
taught us many things which will gnahie v\s tp, avoid during tha^
to come the errors and perplexities which feave beset us, and in
vanquishing them to improve the Journal still more, and please
our readers better. Among other things we can venture to
promise our patrons that that e:!vcelleut photographer and writer,
M. A. I^oot, will assist us in the editorial conduct of our Jour-
nal^ and also that many of the best writers in the country will
contribute to its coIuiLns, We do not intend to confine our-
selves to original American contributions, for that field, in its
largest sense, is a narrow one ; but we shall sl^im the cream,
as heretofore, troxa, the milk of every country.

288

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

September

OuK friend Seely, after enjoying onr remarks in tlie Jnne
number, regarding his publishing Mr. Draper's letter to a com-
mittee of the American Institute, replies in this wise :

" The article copied from our journal is the letter of Prof.
Draper to the committee of the American Institute. We share
tiiat doubt about propriety ; but we plead not guilty to the
injurious insinuation contained in the above. The letter was
read at a public meeting, discussed, and permission given for
wider publication, when we suggested that our journal was the
most suitable medium for communication with the parties con-
cerned. As a member of the committee we were opposed to
the immediate publication.

' ' We confess to having forestalled cotemporaries, on many
similar occasions, and we take pains to be in a position to do so.
If tills is only a trait of youth, we do not desire to grow old in
publication business. We have changed no sentiment concern-
ing enterprise since we commenced the first of the six volumes
now published. Where is the unfairness in an ambition to be
superior to our neighbors, and in honorable competition ? We
say to Mr. Snelling, with emphasis, that we do not desire or in-
tend that he sliall publish a better journal than we, in regard
to matters where there can be competition ; he shall not fore-
stall us unless he drugs us and takes us asleep. Yet all the
time, as in the past, we shall be proud to hail him as brother
and friend."

NrAc we absolve brother Seely from intentional wrong doing
in the matter ; but we must point out wherein he misinterprets
us. We do not object to fair competition ; but we do not, nor
can any one, consider it fair, to say the least, for an editor, of
a scientific journal to permit himself to be placed upon a com-
mittee, and then take advantage of that position to forestall his
contemporaries. We would suggest that it has heretofore been
the custom — we know of no honorable exceptions — on all such
occasions for an Institution to send such papers, by resolution —
to all city periodicals interested in the particular subject — un-
less they happen to publish one of their own. As the " Ameri-
can Journal of Phopography" is not the official organ of the
American Institute the injustice must be apparent, and we
could, and can, only exouei'ate the editor on the score already
mentioned. Forestalling and enterprising we consider words
of diametrically opposite meaning ; the last is honorable ambi-
tion energetically carried out, the other is a mere trick of trade,
and all who practice it, have received, in New York, the sig-
nificant term " S/iyster" and are looked upon with aversion by
those in the same business. Now, we know Mr. Seely too
well to impute to him an intentional course of action that would
subject his being placed among such a class — but if he is ever
placed in such a position again and takes the same undue ad-
vantage, we shall not, certainly regard him in the light we are
most happy in being able to do now, and it shall not be our
fault if we do not travel the road to honorable competition in
mutual friendship and brotherhood. As to the matter of enter-
prise and labor necessary to produce the " American Journal
OF Photography," and the "Photographic and Fine Art
Journal" with the intrinsic value of each we leave to the Pho-
tographic public to decide.

SiG. EsTEVAN Mestre Aulet of Havana has sent us a col-
ored ambrotype and asks our op-'nion first, as to the picture, and
5eco«fZ as to the propriety of patenting and introducing it into
tlie United States. As to its beauty and excellence we can
only speak of it in terms of jiraise, as it is executed as a skillful
artist only could execute, and in our estimation only as an am-
brotype should be finished, for they (the ambrotypes) are the
only pliolngrnphs that are improved as photographs by coloring.
Our Cnliaii friend, however, is not so well posted in American
l)liotograiiiiy as he should be. This same style of picture was
l)atenled in tiiis coiuitry and introduced to the public three years
ago by Mr. Bisbee of Columbus (now of Clevelandj Ohio.
Sig. Auh't has also sent us two very fine negative portraits,
jiositives from one of which we shall introduce to our subscribers
in a future number.

Mr. T. Farris has placed in the Fair of the American Insti-
tuc five exquisite Dlaphoneolypes illusuatiug the FIVE SEN-

SES. These pictures have called forth markcdand just encomi-
ums from the public and one of our distinguished Literali has
honored them with the following lines.

There the keen SIGHT that grasps tlie highest star,

In playful mood seeks telescopic aid,
To draw some pleasing object from afar,

Or pierce Ihe dimness of the distant shade.

Now to her ear she holds the seaborn shell,

Still vocal with the Tiiurniur of the wave,
And nE.VRS its voice in solemn cadence tell

The wondrous secrets of the Mermaid's cave.

Tho flowor'.s sweet children of the smiling sun,
All feelings please, but chiefly give delight

To that quick sense whose throbbing fibres run
Midway betwixt the gates of Taste and Sight

To try tlie scnpe of TASTE, the maid displays
The fatal fruit which tempted Eve of old ;

There's appetite apparent in the gaze
The sister throws upon the globe of gold.

And FEELING finds a sharp electric thrill,
When the warm hand upon the boreal ice

Unwitting falls. So shrink from every ill.
And shun instinctive every touch of vice.

We take pleasure in calling attention to the letter of John
Wood Esq., one of the engineers on tlie Capitol at Washington.
The differences between the i)rints No. I , and 2, are marked,
showing a decided superiority in the Harrison lens referred to.
The carbon jirint gives great promise of future excellence.

Three silver medals, two diplomas and fifteen dollars, were
awarded to J. F. Ryder for the best Photographs of various
styles, ou exhibition at the State Fair at Sandusky, just
closed.

We clip the following from a San Francisco paper.

Selleck's Potographic, Daguerreotype and Ambrotype
Rooms. — The high stage of perfection to which the Daguerreo-
type art has been brought within the past few years, is justly
looked upon as one of the most remarkable features of the age.
In every part of Europe and America the most wonderful ad-
vancement has been made in it, and the splendid establishments
in all the large cities where likenesses and views are taken by
this process, have become the subject of universal admiration.
San Francisco, keeping pace with her sister cities, now boasts
some magnificent picture galleries of this class, among which is
the new establishment of Mr. Silas Selleck, at No. 163 Clay
street. A visit to the room of Mr. Selleck will well repay any
lover of the art who desires to witness it in its highest state of
perfection. His arrangements are of the most perfect descrip-
tion for taking every kind of a picture, from a life-size portrait
by the solar camera process, down to the small daguerreotype
for lockets, etc. His rooms are elegantly furnished, and the
specimens of his work which are to be seen there are the best
recommendations to his abilities as an artist. Mr. Selleck, in
fitting up his establishment, has certainly shown a determina-
tion to be up with the spirit of the age, and we doubt if his
rooms can be surpassed in point of completeness by any estab-
lishment in the United States, and are certain chat his pictures
cannot be.

Messrs. Palmer and Longking have patented a new and ex-
cellent ptate shield having a glass tablet rnnning entirely around
the opening and so secured as to obviate the diflieulty experi-
enced with simple corners ; and also preventing contact between
the glass plate and the wood.

Mr. E. Gordon has also patented a new shield. The im-
provement consists in having the corners made of a composition,
which is not acted upou by the silver solution, and double, so
as to take in the glass plate horizontally or verticady without
turning the shield.

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1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

289

From Photographic Notes.

PRINTING IN CARBON.

h

E would earnestly call the attention of our
readers to the fact that a Subscription
List is now open for the purchase of
Mr Pouncy's Process of Printing iu
Carbon. We publish at page 241 , the
names of those gentlemen who have al-
ready come forward in this matter. As
soon as the amount of promised subscrip-
tions reaches £100, we shall call on
subscribers to fulfil their promise by
enclosing the amount subscribed to Mr.
Pouncy, and the particulars of the
process will then be published in exLenso
in tiiis journal, in a communication from him. In this
communication notliing will be kept secret ; the entire
results of his experiments during the last nine months
will be made public. But £100 must first be guar-
anteed to him, because he has been out of pocket to at
least that amount in the prosecution ot his experiments.
No one with a spark of liberal feeling could ol)ject to pay his
share for the time and materials which an inventor has expended
in perfecting a valuable discovery, and photographers can now,
if tliey choose, obtain the particulars of a valuable process, with
the unfettered use of it, on the above easy terms.

Mr. Pouncy's process of printing is now in a very perfect
state. During the last few months he has made great improve-
.raeuts in it. The color of the prints may be n.odified in a va-
riety of ways. The process is more sensitive than that iu com-
mon use, and so simple tliat any one may succeed with it on tiie
first attempt, and tlie materials are so inexpensive that for a
few shillings some hundreds of large prints may be produced.
These prints are as good in definition and half-tone as ordinary
prints, and require no re-touching, but at the same time tliey
are exceedingly well adapted for receiving color when that is
thought desirable in portraiture. Tliey have besides this ad-
vantage over both plain and albumenized prints, that they hold
a sort of middle rank between the two ; for the organic matter
which attaches the carbon to the paper exists in precise propor-
tion to the amount of reduction by light, so that it is only the
darkest parts of the picture which exhibit a glaze, while the
fainter portions remain dead. Thus atmospheric effect is not
lost in- landscapes, through a universal glaze being spread over
tlie picture as in albumenized prints, while the deep shadows of
7ifiar 'objects exhibit the richness and vigor due to the excess of
organic matter which glazes them and preserves their transpa-

rency. In a word, Mr.

process, when published, is

calculated to effect a complete and immediate revolution in posi-
tive printing.

Now, will photographers combine and purchase this process,
or is Mr. Pouncy to keep his secret, and work it out commer-
cially in his own way ?

We can assure our readers, that everything that has transpir-
ed with respect to Carbon Printing has been published in this
journal during the present year, and of all the processes brought
forward, none is, in our opinion, in a more advanced state than
that which we ourselves discovered, and published in the Leader
of No. 42, except Lhep-oass of Mr. Pouncy. That gentleman,
acting partly on the hints wliich we then threw out, and partly
on the experience which he. had himself gained in photo-litiio-
graphy, Sella's process, &c., (which processes he had learned
from articles published in this Journal,) after nine montiis of in-
defatigable labor, has brought Carbon Printing to the same per-
fection as any other branch of photography. This great success
having been accomplished, it now remains for photographers to
make up their minds whether they will pay a trifle for the knowl-
edge of the process, or remain satisfied with their present im-
perfect methods of printing.

But these remarks will be read by hundreds of earnest and
liberal-minded men, and we have but little doubt of the result.

VOL. XI. NO. X. 37

We have but little doubt that the subscription list, although
scanty at present, will speedily swell to the required sum, and
that many weeks will not elapse before Mr. Pouncy's process of
printing imperishable proofs will be purchased, and given by
Englishmen to the world. Tlie photographic processes upon
paper and collodion are pre-eminently English, and it would be
an inglorious thing if the crowning process of all — viz : that by
which direct photographs can be handed down, unalterable,
from father to son, and from age to age — the discovery of an
Kngiishman — should go unpurchased, and unpublished, while a
foreigner may perhaps be on the eve of perfecting and patenting
a similar thing. Surely English photograpers will now combine
and respond to this our appeal for subscriptions, and enable us
to report in our next number the good news that the subscription
list is complete. But let no one be ungenerous enough to leave
it to his neighbor to do that which he ought to do himself. Let
every one contribute; be it ever so small a sum, and the thing
will be done ; but, we fear, not otherwise.

But whatever may be the result of this our second and last
appeal, the world shall not remain ignorant of the names of
those who act generously in this matter, and come forward in the
cause of progress. The list of subscribers, be it perfect or im-
perfect, shall be published in this Journal ; and that list, what-
ever the result may be, will then become a fact in the history
photography.

From Photographic Notes.

NITRATE OF SILVER.

Among the valuable papers which have at different times been
communicated by Mr. Hardwich to the Journal of tlie Photo-
graphic Society there is probably not one of greater practical
importance than his last communication, published iu No. 70 of
that Journal, in which the effects of using impure nitrate of
silver are pointed out. This salt is the most important chemi-
cal used by photographers, and it is now evident that on its
chemical purity a great deal more depends than has generally
been supposed. The experiments made by Mr. Hardwich were
briefly as follows : First, a pure sample of nitrate of silver,
made by dissolving pure silver in pure nitric acid, was made in-
to a 30-grain bath, and slightly acidulated with acetic acid ;
next, two samples of commercial nitrate of silver, obtained from
the largest manufacturers of that salt, were made into separate
baths of equal strength, and acidified to the same extent as the first
with acetic acid. These three baths were then tried one against
the other, with the same collodion and developer. The result
was that the bath made with pure nitrate of silver gave good
negatives in 15 seconds, while the other baths gave negatives
which exhibited many serious defects, and required a much long-
er exposure. The experiments are minutely described in the
paper referred- to, and were no doubt most carefully made.
They lead to the conclusion that nothing but pure nitrate of
silver should be used by photographers. With such evidence
before him the practical photographer should now make up his
mind to use no nitrate of silver except that which is manufac-
tured by dissolving pure silver in pure nitric acid ; and iu order
to obtain this pure article he must not object to pay a reason-
able price for it — that is, at least five shillings per oz. We
should be truly glad to see every photographic firm in the king-
dom at once raise the price of nitrate of silver to five shillings,
and sell none that is not of guaranteed purity, and manufactured
in the first instance from pure silver, totally free from alloy.
Or, at any rate, we should be glad to see two varieties kept by
the ti'ade, one for those customers who cannot afford to use a
cheap and impure article, having neither the money nor time to
throw away upon failures ; — and, if necessary, another sort
kept for those who can afford to use a bad article, who havi
money and time to throw away, and who consider failures an
agreeable excitement rather than otherwise.

In every branch of photogra[)hy pure nitrate of silver no
doubt yields the best results, diminishes the chances of failure
and increases the sensitiveness of the excited film, or paper-

290

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AXD FINE ART JOURNAL.

October,

and in every branch of photography no doubt many of the fail-
ures which occur are to be attributed to the impure commercial
nitrate of silver which has been so ]arp,ely supplied to photo-
graphers. In the Negative Collodion Process the effects due to
impure nitrate of silver are felt chiefly when anew bath is used.
Where is tlie pliotographcr who is not nervous about the quali-
ties of a new bath, or who has not been dismayed by the extra-
ordinary failures produced by new baths; and what is the proper
remedy for this state of things ? The addition, first of carbon-
ate of soda, and then of acetic acid, generally succeeds in so far
remedying the bath that it gives clean and dense pictures, but
this is equivalent to adding acetate of silver ; and does not a
bath which has been so treated give somewhat coarse pictures?
Then again, it is generally admitted that the iron developer gives
far liner negatives than pyro-gallic acid, when it can be made to
work ; and why can it not always be made to work ? — why can
it be used with one bath and not with another ? Why does a
bath which gives good negatives with the iron developer to-day,
give bad ones with the same collodion and developer to-morrow,
rendering the developer muddy and covering the picture with
stains ? Is it not likely that these things are brought about by
impurities in the nitrate of silver which have been overpowered
or masked for a time by the addition of an acetate ? And
again, in the Positive Collodion Process, may not the almost
bad tone of positives be due to a great extent to the almost
universal employment of impure commercial nitrate of silver ?
And in the printing processes, what is more likely than that
impure nitrate of silver may be the fertile cause of the many
irregularities which occur in these processes ? There is surely
no greater mistake than to suppose that any old negative bath,
or refuse nitrate of silver, will do for positive printing ; on the
contrary, we believe it to be quite as essential to use pure fresh
nitrate of silver in printing as iu any other operation, if brilliant,
vigorous, and permanent prints are desired.

The photographer may depend upon it he cannot be too par-
ticular in the purity of his nitrate of silver ; or, if he be a da-
guerreotypist, in the purity of the silver with which his plates
are coated. To buy clieap nitrate of silver, or cheap daguer-
reotype plates, is certainly false economy, and we shall be glad
to see a strong reaction set iu in favor of pure silver ; and then,
when the demand has become imperative and universal, the sup-
ply will follow as a matter of course. It has surely been a great
mistake of the trade to reduce the price of nitrate of silver.
Instead of doing this, the price should have been maintained at
5s. per oz., and the rivalry have been to produce the purest arti-
cle. Considering that nitrate of silver contains about two-thirds
by weight of pure silver, we cannot imagine how a pure article
can be supplied at the prices now cited by some of the leading
firms. But the tact is the commercial article supplied at these
low prices, is not fit for photographic purposes, and a totally dif-
ferent process should be employed ia its manufacture. That
process will be found to consist in first obtaining pure silver,
then dissolving it in nitric acid. We know of no other means
of obtaining pure silver than by throwing down the
chloride from an impure solution of the nitrate by means of
salt, and then reducing the chloride, by fusion with soda, to a
melted mass of pure silver. This appears to be a necessary first
step in the process of making photographic nitrate of silver.
Should the nitrate thus made by dissolving the pure silver in
nitric acid be found to contain a very slight excess of free nitric
acid, it will perhaps be better to leave it alone than neutralize
it by adding oxide of silver of questionable purity. With good
collodion there is no objection to afainl trace of free nitric acid
iu the negative bath, and for positives excess of nitric acid is a
decided advantage, nor is it at all objectionable in the printing
processes. The quantity should, however, be reduced as much
as possible by evaporating and re-crystallizing when extraordi-
nary sensitiveness is required. A great clamor has been raised
about the free nitric acid in nitrate of silver, but in our opinion
the nitric acid is harmless in comparison with other impurities,
which are either metallic or carbonaceous.

Our readers may depend upon it that pure nitrate of silver is
a matter of great practical importance. The exact nature of
the impurities in the salt now commonly sold is very obscure.

but their effects are nevertheless very strongly marked, and since
they are avoided by dissolving the pure metal in the acid the
practical conclusion is that that plan should be generally adopt-
ed, and the present mode of manufacturing the salt from mixed
metals given up.

From Photographic Notes ^

ALCOHOLIC COLLODION.

We have been engaged lately in an interesting series of ex-
periments in the manufacture ot collodion, which have led to
a curious and important result.

The usual formula for making collodion is

Ethcp, S. G. -750 5 fluid draclims.

Alcohol, S. G. -8X6 2 "

Pyroxyline ; ... 2 to 4 grains.

Iodide of Potassium 3 to 4 "

(See Mr. Havdwich's Treatise, American Edition page 127.)
Hitherto the al)Ove formula appears to have been generally
adopted, with but modification. Now, we propose to substUut e
for it the iollowing : —

PLAIX COLLODION.

Ether, S. G. -720 1 fluid drachm..

Alcohol. S. G. -794 4 "

Pji-oxyliue 4 grains.

lODIZIXG SOLUTION.

Alcohol, S. G. -825 5 scruples.

Iodide of Potassium To saturation.

By comparing the two formula?, it will be seen that the latter
indicates more than five times as much alcohol as ether, the for-
mer three times as much ether as alcohol. The difference there-
fore between the two formulae is very considerable, and for the
sake of distinction we propose to call the new collodion '' Alco-
holic Collodion."

The reader will observe, that in alcoholic collodion, the ether
and alcohol of the plain collodion are in the absolute or anhy-
drous state, while the iodizing solution is the same as that which
has been for some time in common use, and is added to the plain
collodion in the usual proportion of 1:3. The difference is
therefore iu the plain collodion, and not in the iodizing solution.
It will also be observed that alcoholic collodion contains more
pyroxyline than the common sort.

' We' have now to describe the advantages of this kind of col-
lodion.

1st, —Since it contains the minimum quantity of ether and the
maximum quantity of alcohol, there is much less difficulty in
coating the plate, particularly in hot weather, and several mi-
nutes may elapse before the immersion of the coated plate in
the nitrate bath. This arises from the slow volatilization of al-
cohol in comparison with ether. It is not necessary, therefore,
to hurry, or observe any particular precautions in coating the
plate ; and on removal from the nitrate bath the film exhibits a
perfectly even sheet of iodide of silver, free from waves or irre-
gular markings. The operation of coating the plate is so ex-
ceedingly easy and certain with this new collodion that any one
may succeed on the first attempt. In short, the chief difficulty
iu the manipulation of the collodion process in hot weather or
hot climates is now removed.

2nd, — No greasy streaks appear upon the film when removed
from the nitrate bath. Ether repels water, alcohol has an at-
traction for it, therefore the film containing the maximum of
alcohol is most easily wetted and penetrated by the chemicals.
Streaks in the direction of the dipper, which are occasioned by
the imperfect removal of the ether from the film when in the
nitrate bath, when the collodion contains a large proportion of
ether, do not occur with alcoholic collodion.

3ixl, — The plate does not get dry so quickly between the ex-
citing and developing, because the film is more thoroughly pene-
trated with water.

4th, — The plate is more sensitive than with common collo-
dion.

5tii_ — The developer flows much more readily over the late,
and never requires the addition of alcohol.

6tli,— The film is not contractile, and adheres so tightly to
the glass as to resist any amount of rude and careless washing,
even when a portion of the plate only is coated with collodion.

'Jth, — The tilm is entirely structureless and as clear as glass.
Iq density, detail, and half-tone, there is nothing to be desired.

Such are the advantages of this new collodion ; and we have
no doubt it will prove to be the best possible for the tourist.
The only wonder is that it has never been thoroughly tried and
reccmuieuded before.

In making alcoholic collodion the reader will observe that the
alcohol must be absolutely anhydrous, and distilled with quick-
lime, for if the alcohol contains any water, the negative will exhi-
bit reticulation in the blacks. The pyroxyline should be made in
the nsual way. A mixture of one part absolute ether and four
parts absolute alcohol will dissolve as much as forty grains to
the ounee of good soluble pyroxyline. By adding pyroxyline
to the coliodioa the density of the blacks is increased and the
film rendered more " creamy," and adhesive to the glass. When
the collodion contains only three grains of pyroxyline to the
ounce the film is thin and tender, but by increasing the quantity
to seven or eight grains, a magnificent tough and creamy film is
produced.

Thinking it likely that some of our readers may be curious to
give this new collodion a trial, we have made a few gallons of
it which will be supplied as stated in an advertisement ; but any
one may make it for himself by following the formula stated in
this article ; there is no secret in the matter, and the rationale
of the thing is self-evident. To us it appears that this collodion
was the one thing wanted to render the collodion process com-
plete, for in hot weather or in hot climates there was considera-
ble difficulty in the manipulation. Mr. Frith relates that when
in Egypt and Syria last year, the collodion was sometimes ac-
tually boiling when poured upon the plate.

So far as we can judge at present this collodion answers as
well for positives as negatives ; and we see no reason why it
should not become generally adopted for all purposes.

If our readers will refer to any of the old Treatises on the
Manufacture of Collodion, or if they will test the specific grav-
ity the collodion commonly sold by the manufacturers, they will
find that hitherto ii has been the general custom to use less al-
cohol than ether in the mixture which forms the solvent of the
pyroxyline, altho' it has been generally admitted that the addi-
tion of alcohol has the tendency to render the collodion more
sensitive, aiid at the same time more easy to manipulate. But
it seems to have somehow escaped the notice of experimenters
to try the addition of alcohol in its anhydrous or absolute state,
as distilled with quick lime, instead of that which is commonly
called " absolute alcohol," but which in reality contains as
much as 10 per cent, of water. In short it appears that ex-
periments have been tried with alcohol S. G. '820, that is with
the strongest alcohol which can be produced by the simple dis-
tillation, instead of with the really anhydrous alcohol S.Gr. -894
which can only be produced by distillation with quick lime ; so
that it has not been generally known that the latter kind of
alcohol may be used in a large proportion as compared with the
ether in the mixture which forms the solvent of pyroxyline ,
and we consider it a valuable discovery which we have made;
that absolute alcohol may be extensively added to ether in the
manufacture of collodion.

It appears from experiments made by us, and which seem to
be quite conclusive, that the best collodion for general practi-
cal use, is that which is made by adding one part of absolute
ether S.G. •t20 to four parts of absolute alcohol S.G. '194,
dissolving in this mixture from six to eight grains to the ounce
of good photographic gun cotton, — and iodizing it with the
usual iodizer, in the proportion of one part of iodizer to three
of plain collodion. This is without doubt a much better formu-
la for collodion than any that has been yet published, and we
conceive that collodion thus made possesses advantages which
will be certain ere long to bring it into general use. These
advantages we will briefly state again under the
heads:

following

Facility of Manipulation,— VI\\g\\ collodion contains the
usual large quantity of ether it is not easy to coat a plate pro-
perly in hot weather ; and it generally happens under any cir-
cumstances, that even when an operator has attained consider-
able skill in the process be fails in producing an even layer o^'
iodide of silver, when the film is viewed by transmitted light
on removal from the nitrate bath. It frequently happens, even
in skilful hands, that the collodion which has run to the edge
or corner of a plate flows back again, when the plate is tilted
over the part which has become partially dry, so as to pro'
duce a cloud or wave. If anyone will examine critically
the film on removal from the nitrate bath, he will in general
find a wave existing near some edge or corner, which has been
produced by the cause stated. But when there is much less
ether in the film it does not dry so rapidly, and these irregular
markings do not occur, because the collodion flows like oil over
the plate, and may be passed backwards and forwards over tho
same place with impunity. A plate is therefore more easily
coated with alcoholic than with common collodion, under any
circumstances, but particularly in hot weather; and when coated
it exhibits an even film. Again, the less ether the film contains
the more easily it is wetted in the nitrate bath, and the more
easily the developer flows over it; which are by no means un-
important advantages.

Sensitiveness. — It might be concluded a prion that alcoholic
collodion, would be more sensitive than common collodion, and
that we find to be the case; for if the same ingredients are
mixed according to the old proportions,, and the same bath and
developer used, a longer exposure is necessary. This experi-
ment is conclusive on the head of sensitiveness.

Density and half-tone. — Alcoholic collodion contains more
pyroxyline than the common sort, and therefore the film has
more body. This modifies the effects of solarization from over-
exposure, because when a larger quantity of material is acted
on byjight we may suppose that altho' the surface layer is solar-
ized, still the part beneath it may be to some extent protected,
so that density may be obtained in a thick film when it could
not in a thin one; moreover, since thf lights may be permitted
to receive a longer exposure without injury, the details of the
shadows may be better brought out. It has frequently been ob-
served in the paper processes, that thick paper gives denser ne-
gatives and better half-tones than thin paper, — and this is equal-
ly true of thick collodion films.

Alcoholic collodion has therefore the good qualities of being
very easily manipulated, — very senitive, — and giving good den-
sity and half-tone; — add to this that the film is so strong and
adhensive to the glass as to bear an unusual degree of rough
treatment in washing, and that it is perfectly structureless, and
gives very clean and pure lights, and the reader will perceive
that alcoholic collodion is a good and practically useful vehicle
for general purposes, and that it offers great facilities to the
tyro in the art, and great advantages over the colludion hither-
to employed by photographers.

The good keeping qualities of alcoholic collodion are also
worth pointing out. It is well-known that iodized collodion
gradually deteriorates by keeping, until in time it becomes red,
insensitive and useless. This efl'ect is due chiefly to the ether
contained in the collodion, and the more ether their is the more
rapidly the change takes place. Now the first peculiarity that
struck us in the alcoholic collodion was the paleness of tint pro-
duced on adding the iodizer, and the comparative slowness with
which the tint changes to a deeper yellow ; for even after sev-
eral weeks the iodized collodion, (altho' iodized with iodide of
potassium,) does not pass beyond a straw-yellow color, nor is its
original sensitiveness much impaired.

It will be observed by an advertisement on the wrapper that
we are about to manufacture this collodion for sale, with the
assistance of a gentleman whose acquaintance we have recently
made, and who, by profession, has been an Inspector of Distil-
leries, and who is also a practical photographer. We are build-
ing an additional laboratory and cellars for the purpose ; and
as in the course of time experiments may reveal new facts we

292

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

October,

li

shall have no secrets from our readers, bnt publish everything-
connected with this subject ; at the same time that we shall be
gliid to learn the nature of the results obtained by others, and
to compare notes with them. The dry processes will also form
a subject for experiments, and also the collodionized paper pro-
cess, and the various methods of transferring ; and we have no
doubt these practical operations in which we are about to en-
gage will from t'rae to time furnish the materials for interesting
articles in this Journal.

rnOTOGRAPHIC ITEMS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS.

ALBUMANIZED PAPER.

The following is a method proposed by M. I'Abbe Laborde
for preparing albumenized paper which will not discolor the ni-
trate bath : —

" I employ a method which by uniformly coagulating the al-
bumen imprisons and retains the soluble organic substance, so
that you may sensitize a great number of albumenized papers
without discoloring the nitrate bath. Proceed thus : Fill with
water a metallic vessel large enough to float the albumenized
papers in, and heat the water to the boiling point ; then take an
albumenized paper previously dried, and lay it with its back
upon the hot water, taking care not to wet the surface of the
nlbumen. In about half-a-miuute remove it, hang it up to dry,
and replace it by another.

" When a hot iron is used to coagulate the albumen it is not
easy to equalize the operation , for if the iron is too hot the albu-
men is discolored, if not sufBeieutly hot the albumen is not co-
agulated, and if of a proper temperature the iron may not be
applied uniformly to every part of the paper. A paper properly
prepared should withstand the following test without losing any
of its lustre, viz., immerse it in water for a quarter-of-an-bour,
or sponge it with water ; then dry it. If it has been ironed it
generally exhibits after this test imperfect coagulation.

"The same process may be used for varnishing prints upon
plain paper. When the print is finished and quite dry, it is to
be albumenized in the usual way, (not salted, of course,) dried,
and floated with its back upon boiling water.

" I thought the process might be rendered more expeditious
by floating the papers without previously drying the albumen,
but the heat produces in the albumen a host of little air bubbles.
The albumenized paper should be perfectly dry, and put under
pressure before the operation, for it is difficult to float it wheu it
is curled up and out of shape."

M. Laborde also observes that sensitive albumenized papers
should not remain suspended to long in the air, but be put away
as soon as they are dry, otherwise they are liable to become
discolored. He finds that by keeping them between plate
glasses they preserve their whiteness for any length of time.

GUTTA PEKCHA PAPER,

The following is a method of preparmg paper with gutta per-
clin, for purposes of printing, proposed by M. Gaume, and com-
municated by him at the last meeting of tiic French Photo-
graphic Society :

" Dissolve gutta-percha in benzole ; let the precipitate settle,
and decant the clear liquid. In this state it is very clear but
colored ; and after evaporating the benzole it forms a finely
granulated substance wiiich melts at 212°, and then forms a
colorless varnish. Put this into a porcelain dish, i'umerse the
sheets of paper one at a time, and hang them up to dry. When
dry they are rather more transparent than before immersion,
but exhibit the same glaze as before, only within the pores may
be observed an infinity of little white grains of gutta perclia
which melt before a hot fire, and combine JO as to form an inter-
nal varnish or species of sizing, which renders the paper imper-
vious to liquids and comparable to a sheet of glass. It may
then be albumenized and printed upon in the ordinary way ; the
final washings, however, do not require so much trouble as is
usually bestowed upon them. The prints are as permanent as

those upon glass. Negatives may be taken by M. Elarquart-
Evrard's process upon iodized albumen applied to these p;ipers.
This method of sizing with gutta-percha is very cheap and sim-
ple."

PHOTOGRAPHIC ENGRAVING.

The new substance for photographic engraving, discovered by
M. I'Abbe Laborde, and alluded to by him at the last Meeting
of the French Photographic Society, is simply boiled linseed oil
containing litharge. This mixture, it appears, is sensitive to
light, and is said to be more suitable for photographic purposes
than bitumen of Juda3. It has long been known that drying
oils are oxydized and resinified by exposure to air and liglit.
The first indications of a process consist in diluting the mixture
of boiled oil and litharge with ether, spreading it upon a glass
plate, and when dry exposing it under a negative. After about
five minutes exposure a picture may be developed by the breath,
and after a much longer exposure by passing lightly over the
plate a dabber charged with lamp-black in powder, which ad-
heres to the parts where light has not acted, and slips away
from those which have been hardened by light.

Another process consists in applying the mixtureof oil, lith-
arge, and ether, to a metal plate, — exposing the plate to sun-
shine for about half-an hour, — then washing it with ether, which
removes the compound from the parts which have not been ren-
dered insoluble by light, — and lastly, etching the plate with an
acid. Of the various substances upon which the oil may be
spread that appears to be the best which is the least oxydizable,
and they may be stated in the following order of merit, viz.,
glass, silver, copper, iron, zinc.

SULPHIDE OF MERCURY PRINTTNG PROCESS.

The Sulphide of Mercury Printing Process of Messrs. Salmon
and Gamier, consists in applying to paper a solution of sulphur,
either in chloroform or sulphide of carbon, exposing it under
a negative to sunshine for about a minute, and developing the
image either with a dabber of cotton charged with lamp-black,
or by exposing the print to the vapor of mercury. In the form-
er lamp-black, in the latter mercury, adhered to those parts only
which have been affected by light. The print is then to be im-
mediately varnished with gum or albumen. The sulphide of
mercury forms a dark brown substance in the shadows, which is
so far permanent that it resists the action of alcohol, ammonia,
and sulphuri, cuitric, and iiydro-chloric acids of ordinary strength;
also the action of cyanides, organic acids, and alkaline sul-
phides ; this sulphide of mercury not being the same as that
treated of by Messrs. Pelonzc and Fremy, and which does not
resist all the above-mentioned destructive agents.

URANIUM PRINTING PROCESS.

We have received from a correspondent some Uranium prints
upon albumenized paper, wliicii are so good as to raise the pro-
cess considerably in our estimation. In detail and vigour they
are quite equal to silver prints, but the color of the shadows is
perhaps somewhat too red, and lies between a burnt sienna and
Vandyke brown ; the whites are entirely free from yellowness
and as pure as tiie paper itself. These prints we aro assured
have not been fixed in hypo, and that is all we aro told with
respect to them. Should any of our readers be experimenting
in this direction we would suggest to them the following mode
of proceeding : —

Albumenize a sheet of paper in the usual way, omitting the
salt. Hang it up to dry. Float the back of it upon boiling
water, as recomineuded by M. Laborde, for the purpose of co-
agulating the albumen. Dry it again, and put it by for use
when required, ^\''hen you wish to print float it upon or im-
merse it in a strong solution of nitrate of uranium, and dry it in
the dark. Expose it in the pressure frame for about the same
time as an ordinary ])rint, and develop the picture by immersing
it in a 20-grain bath of nitrate of silver, which may be used a
great number of times This brings out the picture iu all its
details, and as it will appear when finished. Then wash it well
in cold water, and lastly iu boiliug water, and immerse it in a

!i

very weak bath of bromide of potassium in order to decompose
any free nitrate of silver that may remain combined with the
lignine of the paper and convert it into insensitive bromide of
silver, the yellow tint of which would not be perceived. Then
wash again to remove the bromide ; and the print is finished.
The bromide fixing bath may be used a great number of times,
and it would not redden the print so much as ammonia, which
after all is not a fixing agent, for the ammoniacal oxide and
chloride of silver are sensitive to light.

GRADUATED BACKGROUND.

A professional photographer in Jersey advertises in the pres-
ent number a simple method of producing a graduated back-
ground, which he has described to us, and which we think bet-
ter than anything that has yet been proposed. In fact, the
plan is so simple and efficient that every photographic portrait
room should be provided with this piece of apparatus, the des-
cription of which, illustrated with a woodcut, may be obtained
by enclosing thirty postage stamps to the inventor.

And this leads us to another subject. Time was, in the early
days of photography, when new processes and ingenious inven-
tions were freely given to the public, and it was thought suffi-
cient reward to obtain a favorable notice of them in the Photo-
graphic Journal ; but now photographers seem to have become
mercenary, and prefer postage stamps to the honor of contribut-
ing to the common stock of knowledge. We would propose the
following plan for consideration. Let us suppose that a cor-
respondent communicates to this or any other Journal the ac-
count of anything new and valuable which he has discovered in
photography. The Editor might then, after its insertion, call
the attention of his subscribers to the matter, and endeavor
amongst them to raise a subscription and present the inventor
with either a silver or gold medal, bearing on one side his name
and on the other an inscription to the following efifect : —

" Presented by the Editor of and Subscribers to Jour-
nal, in acknowledgement of a valuable improvement in Photo-
tography freely communicated to that Journal, and published in
No.— 18.

RECIPE FOR A WHITE VARNISH, BY EDWARD THOMAS HOBSON.

Methylated Spirit 1 ounce.

Gum Thus 10 grains.

Gum Sandrac 15 "

Dissolve, and filter through sponge.

PHOTOGRAPHY FOR PORTRAITS.

There is an amusing article in the last number of the " Art
Journal," (No. XLY., for September,) headed " Photography
for Portraits," written by Mr. Ronald Campbell. We copy
the following analysis of it : —

" The object ot this essay is to show that the hody of Photo-
graphy is incompetent to maintain its existence in antagonism
with the soul of Art : that no mechanical process can long su-
persede the living agency of man's mind : that there could have
been no jealous anticipation of the discovery of Photography in
Sir Joshua Reynold's hypothetical allusion to the ' ' litlleness and
meanness of " a view of nature represented with all the truth ot
the camera obscura," — Photography uot having been even
dreamt of till more than half-a-century after his death ; besides,
that the samera reflects nature in all her rainbow hues, instead
of the colorless stains which Photography produces : that as well
mi"-ht the heart-strings of Pagauini's violin be enmlated by the
revolving cylinders of a patent music box, or the ephemeral wax
fio-ures in a barber's window vie with the sculptures of Michael
Ano-elo, as Photography's pretensions, in arbitrating for itself
the noble rank of eqioxlity with the arts, be able to maintain it
in possession of the usurpation which it now assumes ; for it is

nothino- and never can be anything — more than " a servant of

servants :" and, lastly, that all the extraordinary expertness and
parade of literal detail which delight the common people, are
just the very objects which the educated painter studies to con-
ceal • " for " says Reynolds, " if the excellence of a painter con-

sisted only in this kind of imitation, painting must lose its rank,
and be no longer considered as a liberal art, and sister to poetrv,
this imitation being merely mechanical, in which the slowest in-
tellect is always sure to succeed best, for the painter of genius
cannot stoop to drudgery, in which the understanding has no
part : and what pretence has the art to claim kindred with pov-
erty, but its power over the imagination ? To this power the
painter of genius directs his aim ; in this sense he studies nature,
and often arrives at his end, even by being unnatural, in the

confined sense of the word To mingle the Dutch with

the Italian school is to join contrarieties which cannot subsist
together, and which destroy the efficacy of each other. The
Italian attends only to the invariable, the great, and general
ideas which are fixed and inherent in universal nature ; the
Dutch, on the contrary, to literal detail, as I may say, of na-
ture modified by accident. The attention to these petty pecu-
liarities is the very cause of this naturalness so much admired in
the Dutch pictures, which, if we suppose to be a beauty, is cer-
tainly of a lower order, that ought to give place to the beauty
of a superior kind, since one cannot he ohtained but ly departing
from the other." — R. C.

The writer of the above essay, advocates portrait painting,
and disparages photographic portraiture. His line of argument
is, that photography can neither idealize, nor tell the truth. —

while the artist can do both. Altho' we

with him in

thinking that photographic portraits are sometimes very un-
satisfactory, yet we cannot admit the principle that a portrait
should be an idealised representation of the sitter. In our
opinion, idealization should be strictly confined to works of im-
agination, while a portrait should represent a person as he ac-
tually appears, and not as he might have appeared had his ca-
reei and ocQupations been more exalted. The portraitist, be he
artist or photographer, has merely to study light and shade,
and the circumstances which determine a pleasing expression.
It matters not then whether the camera or the paint-brush do
the copying work, provided it be done correctly. The sitter is
a fact, his history is a fact, and the effects of his career,
thoughts, and feelings upon the material features of his coun-
tenance, are facts ; these facts should be rendered correctly, or
the portrait can be at the best but a pleasing falsehood. Ar-
tists talk a great deal of nonsense about the ideal. We admire
the ideal greatly, in its proper place, but certainly not in por-
traiture. We have seen photographic portraits in which the
finest portraits by Titian, Rembrandt, and Reynolds have been
eq'ialled in artistic qualities, and surpassed in truthfulness ; and
that being the case we disagree entirely with Mr. Ron'^ld Camp-
bell in many of his remarks. But these photographic successes
appear to bear about the same ratio to photographic portraits
generally as the works of the great masters in art bear to those
of inferior artists ; and artists of the latter class have to be told
plainly that they have nothing to brag of over photographers of
the same grade. The majority of the works which cover the
walls of exhibitions of paintings certainly leave much to be de-
sired, and exhibit faults which the more extended study of pho-
tography among artists might correct.

PATENT LAWS.

To the Editor of Fhoiographic Notes.
Sir — It is a saying that what is everybody's business is no-
body's, and in personating the latter individual for the sake of
making a few remarks upon the subject above-named, I am in-
clined to persuade myself that there is a respectable body of
opticians who must consider, and justly so, that little or much,
the patent of Mr. Grubb's is an infringement of rights and lil)er-
ties that we enjoy, as a matter of course, in an equal degree.
But the matter requires elucidation (I suppose since the patent
is settled and it is hinted is to be upheld,) from one acquainted
with its practical bearing upon the work of an optician, before
a correct estimate can be formed by the public of the depriva-
tion that we lay under during the continuance of this patent.

294

THE rUOTOGRAPniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

October,

I can solemnly assure Mr. Grubb that the lens is not new,
and that its merits have been variously known to myself for a
moderate angle of its picture, and to others, Mr. Slater for in-
stance, to the full angle of its picture ; and furthermore, that I
never knew before that any optician was bound to publish tlie
curves of his lenses in order to sustain the privilege of making
them. Tliis remark applies to the note appended to Mr. Slater's
letter. Permit nie most respectfully to suggest to Mr. Grubb,
bow was it that while he pursued the investigations which led
to his adoption of this lens that he should think no one else had
made it ? But we must explain the subject a little. Ai. opti-
cian's tools are the "grinding dishes," as our honored and dis-
tinguished continental neighbor. Prof. Petzval, has denominated
them ; it is by a pair of compasses we describe circles upon pa-
per ; so with our optical tools we can make our lenses spherical.
Should we not think it rather hard if we were not allowed to
describe certain circles on paper ? But what is this patent that
we are not to grind a piece of crown glass, convex on one sidv,
and flat, or nearly so, on the other, and cement to it a concavo-
convex flint, and thus achromatize it ? This is certainly a vex-
atious determination. How came it about that we may not have
the free use of our tools, glass, skill, science, and so forth ?
Why, simply because Mr. Grubb, after he had discovered that
it was a useful lens, considers it impossible that any one else
should have made it before, so what does he do ? He asks Her
Majesty's Minister, alias the Patent ofBcial, to give him the sole
right of making this lens. The minister (or functionary) says,
"1 suppose its all right : we don't usually bother our heads
about optical matters, Mr. Grubb ; we perceive we are dealing
with a gentleman who will rectify it another time if anything
is amiss." " Excellent," responds our friend at Dublin, and
pays over the fee, (this latter circumstance I regret deeply.)

On one hot morning in June, about the 21st of the month,
the postman brings the Photographic Journal, and we speedily
discover what has occurred. What's to be done ? Two impor-
tant lenses that have been made from time immemorial in our
workshops form the subject of a patent when put in juxtaposi-
tion and sold as a camera lens. Now meniscus lenses are al-
ready largely used for various purposes, condensers and astro-
nomical lields, (see Grifliu's Optics, Art. 163,) calotype lenses,
and various other purposes ; and its fellow the concavo-convex
lens is soh-ly used for the black flints of our photographic com-
binations in the shops of London, Paris, and Germany. It is
the form assumed by Herschel for the flint lens in the telescopic
object glass, whose exact radii have been published to the world,
a work of great skill, without even a patent being thought of.
Very well. Here are two lenses that are constantly being made
that we are prohibited from converting together into an achro-
matic compound, and selling. Does it require a councillor to
discover some degree of nonsense in this ? Nothing more need
be said, though I will not lose this opportunity to bear witness
to the interest with which I perused his comrrunication to the
Loudon Journal, and he will permit me to sum up by saying
that there are reasons existing that the form, number, and dis-
positions of lenses should never become the subject of a patent.
I trust Mr. Grubb will support that proposition. Honor is of
more precious worth than pearls, nay gold, and this I. am cer-
tain our respected friend Mr. Grubb is about to show us.

God save the Queen, crown her senate with honor, her officers
with humanity, at home and abroad, her people with obedience,
equity, and respect for good things. Excuse me for saying so
much, but I have done.

James T. Goddard.

Whittox, near Hounslow, Sept. 6th, 1858.

These remarks are as applicable on this side of the Atlantic
to nuiny photographic apparatus and improvements. — Ed. P
AND E. A. Journal.

CIIORLTON PHOTOGRAPHIC ASSOCIATION.

At the monthly meeting of the Chorlton Photographic So-
ciety, held at the Chorlton Town Hall, August 11th, 1858, the
Vice-President in the chair,

A discussion relative to the testing of light for photograoliic
purposes was carried on, and it was thought desirable for as
many members as possible to make experiments on the subject
and report the results at the next meeting.

An instrument was exhibited by the secretary for compario"'
the intensity ot a shadow produced in any given light, with a
scale graduated by various shades of Indian ink, so tiiat, with
a shadow equal in intensity to the darkest shade ot the scale, a
minimum of exposure would be required to produce a given ef-
fect, the time, of course, increasing in regular (?^ gradation as
the intensity of the shadow decreases.

A discussion on the effects produced by the state of the winds
as regards exposure was also carried on, and it was considered
that S. W. was the best wind for photographic purposes, and
east about the worst.

The Chairman thought that electricity had much to do with
the matter.

Mr. RoGERSON said Le had, twelve months ago, exposed a
plate connected with a galvanic battery in the camera, and
could notice nothing rjore than the ordinary effect produced.

A wire levelling stand, made on the principle of the tripod at
a cost of sixpence, was exhibited.

A substitute of easy application was suggested by the Chair-
man, by floating upon water a piece of buoyant wood of dimen-
sions a trifle smaller than the plate to be developed, and suffi-
ciently thick to project above the fluid.

Thanks were then voted to the chairman and the meeting ad-
journed.

From Plwlograjjhic ^^'otcs.

ON A MODE OF PROCURING STEREOSCOPIC PAlHIiNGS,
Pictorial Works of Imagiualion.

OR

We recommend our readers to get " The Photographic
Text Book." It is a capital twenty-five cent manual of the va-
rious processes.

According to a promise given in No. 51, we shall endeavor in
the present article to describe a method of producing stereosco-
pic paintings, or pictorial works of imagination, of any sizes to
be viewed by means of a pair of reflectors. The process is ex-
ceedingly simple, and does not necessarily require any know-
ledge of the rules of perspective on the part of the drauglitsman
who makes the outline of the second picture Irom the original
one; although the second Picture is in fact a perspective view
of the objects as they would appear if taken from a difi'erent
station to the hrst.

Take any pair of small mounted pictures intended to be viewed
in a lenticular stereoscope. Call the nearest object in view,
no matter in what part of the picture it occurs. A, and the
most distant object Z ; and call the principal intermediate ob-
jects in the picture by the oiher letters of the alphabet, begin-
ning with B and proceeding towards Z, according to the order
in which the objects recede from the spectator.

Now, measure the distance between Z in the right, and Z in
the left picture, with a pair of compasses, and prick off upon a
strip of card the distance ZZ. Next, measure the distance be-
tween the two A's, and prick that off upon the same strip of
card, putting one leg of the compasss into the same hole as be-
fore. You will find the distance between the two A's shorter
than that between the two Z's. Suppose we call the difference
between these two lengths the " differential " of A. Proceed in
the same way with the two B's, C's, D's, &c., and call the re-
spective difference between these lengths and the length ZZ the
"differentials" of B, C, D, &c. You will then find that the
differential of B greater than that of C, — and so on.

Before proceeding further, let this result be carefully under-
stcod, and fixed in the mind. It may be briefly stated thus.
If we take a pair of compasses and open the legs until one point

1858.

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

295

is on A iu one picture, and the other point on A in the other
picture, and then proceed to span the distances between the
two B's, the two C's, &c., (no matter in what part of the picture
the B's and C's occur), we shall find the legs of the compasses
must be opened wider and wider, as we proceed from the nearest
object in the view to that which is most distant. And it ap-
pears that the reason why stereoscopic effect is produced by
looking at a picture taken from the right station, by the right
eye, and from the left station, by the left eye, is because tiie
optic axes after passing llirough two K's, suppose, on being
directed through two M's, or H's, are made to pass through the
extremities of a line which is either longer or shorter than before;
and therefore the point of intersection of the optic axes, (that
is the point where the object M or H is supposed to be), is
either caused to recede further from, or approach nearer to the
spectator than that in which the K's were united ; which con-
sequently conveys the idea of relief.

There are two other points which will be discovered by care-
fully examining mounted stereoscopic pictures. One is that the
two A's, the two B's &c., are always respectively upon the same
horizontal line. The other is, that no object which does not
appear in both pictures can be seen stereoscopically ; for any ob-
ject which only appears in one picture is seen as a transparent
phantom in the stereoscope.

Now we come to the application of the principles, and that
is so simple, that the reader has probably already anticipated
what we are about to say.

A has the greatest differential, B the next, C the next, and
so on; and there is a certain law which connects the differential
of an objct with its distance from the spectator. But that law
is complicated, and need not be rigorously observed in practice.
The principal thing to be remembered is, that if an object M be
half way between A and Z, its differential must be viore than
half that of 4-; and this principle must be observed throughout.

Now, let us suppose that an artist has painted a picture, and
wishes to paint a second which when viewed in conjunction with
the first in a pair of reflectors, shall produce stereoscopic illusion.
An easel capable of holding both the original picture and the
blank canvas upon which the copy is to be made is provided.
The painting and the blank canvas are placed upon it, side by
side ; — and upon a shelf which supports both, the end of a T
square travels, the blade or straight edge of which is always
vertical.

The position of the most distant object, Z, on the blank can-
vas is then decided on, and accurately marked on its horizontal
line by means of a pencil mark made upon the T square, when
placed opposite Z in the original painting. The horizontal dis-
tance ZZ is then carefully measured, and marked upon a thin
wooden straight edge.

The Bext thing is to determine the position of the point A
upon the blank" canvas. The artist must consider how much re-
lief he wishes to give to it, and t ike his differential accordingly.
This done the position of A is marked on its true horizontal
line by means of the T square and straight edge, as before.
With respect to the intermediate objects, the artist must then
consider how far they are situated from A, between A and Z,
and take their respective differentials accordingly. Having in
this way determined the principal points in the outline of the
second picture, that outline may be completed, and the color
applied exactly as in the first.

If the blank canvas is placed on the right hand s'de of the
painting, the second picture is that which would be seen from a
station to the right of the first; and vice-versa.

The finished pictures are to be viewed by a pair of reflectors
in a way which is too well known and understood to require de-
scription in this place. If the paintings are small they may be
hung from the opposite sides of a window, or if very large upon
the opposite walls of a gallery, and lighted by a skylight, the
reflectors being mounted upon a stand placed midway between
them.

We have now described the means of producing a great
novelty iu Art, viz., that of adding stereoscopic illusion to picto-
rial works of immagination. But in bringing this matter for-

ward and showing how easily it may be done, we wish to be
understood that we offer no opinion as to the artistic merits of
this application of the principles of Btereoscopy in what is called
High Art. We are not among those who admire mere mechan-
ical excellencies in art, and if the poetry of a fine painting were
likely to be disturbed, or its intellectuality destroyed by impart-
ing an appearance of greater material solidity to the objects
represented, we should certainly object strongly to the adoption
of the method described in such a case. Nevertheless there will
retnain to the artist a large class of subjects iu which Stereo-
scopic illusion would certainly be a great gain; and we think it
likely that a Stereoscopic Pictorial Journal like the " Illustrated
London News," might be very advantageously illustrated on
these principles. In fact, there are many important applications
of reflecting stereoscope which remain yet to be worked out, and
that instrument has yet to be popularized. We are certain
that any one with talent and capital, and who is conversant
with art matters, might carry out the ideas suggested in the
present article, with considerable profit. To every class of
artists, from the historical or landscape painter, down to the en-
graver, chromo-lithographer, or mere drawing-master, the appli-
cation of Stereoscopy in the way we have suggested, offers a
novelty which may iu a variety of ways be successfully carried
out, and which would no doubt greatly please the public. — Ed,

{From Cosmon.)
ALBUMENIZED PAPER NOT DISCOLORLVG THE SILVER EXCITIXG BATH.

BY M. l'aBBE LABORDE.

Formerly, the practice of coagulating, by means of a hot iron,
the albumen on the surface of prepared paper was advised ; lat-
terly, however, this operation has been omitted, in consequence
of the fact having been observed that the submission of the film
to the action of nitrate of silver in the sensitizing part of the
process was sufficient to render it perfectly insoluble. However,
the albumen in becoming coagulated under the influence of
the nitrate of silver, allows of the solution in ike latter of an or-
ganic matter which decomposes it gradually, and finishes by
rendering it unserviceable. It becomes, therefore, necessary
either to make a fresh silver bath or to decolorise by the use of
animal charcoal or kaolin.

I employ a means which in coagulating regularly the albumen
enclo.-^cs and retains iu it the organic soluble substance, so that
it is possible to sensitize a large number of sheets of albumen-
ized paper without sensibly coloring the bath of nitrate of silver.
The following will explain it : — .

A metallic vessel, sufficiently large to contain conveniently a
sheet of the paper employed, is filled with water, the latter
being heated almost to the boiling point, then a sheet of paper
previously albumenized, and very dry, is floated upon the water,
albumen side upwards, taking care not to let the upper surface
become moistened. After remaining about half a minute the
sheet is to be removed and hung up to dry, and can be replaced
by another on the water.

When a hot iron is employed to coagulate the albumen, it is
not easy to regulate the operation ; if the iron be too hot the
albumen becomes yellowish ; if it be not hot enough the coagu-
lation is not effected ; and even if the temperature be correct
the operation may still fail from not applying it equally all over.

A paper well prepared ought to bear the following proof
without losing any of its gloss, viz. : plunge it in water for a
quarter of an hour, or rub it well on the surface with a moist-
ened sponge, then dry it. Paper prepared with a hot iron does
not always resist this test, after being dried it presents here and
there parts that are dull or less glossy, which indicate an irreg-
ular coagulation.

The same process can be employed for varnishing positive
proofs upon plain paper ; after it has been finished and dried
perfectly it may be floated upon a clean surface of unsalted albu-
men, dried, and then treated as albumenized paper.

296

THE PHOTOGRArHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

October,

I endeavored to render the operation more expeditious by
floating the paper upon liot water while the albumen was flow-
ing and still moist ; but the heat gave ripe to the formation in
the film of albumen of an immense number of small gaseous
bubblets, which did not disappear on drying.

The paper ought to be perfectly dry, and put under a press
before the operation, for it is extremely difficult to float it upon
hot water wheu it is curled up.

From Photographic Notes.

NOTES ON CARBON PRINTING.

The following communication from M. Gabriel de Rumine ap-
pears on the first page of the last number of the bulletin of the
French Photographic Society :

"I have produced direct positives by following the method
described by Mr. Sutton in the Photografhic Notes, published
at Jersey. I coat a sheet of paper with a saturated solution of
bi-chromate of potass and gelatine, and then cover the surface
with a light coating of plumbago. Thus prepared I expose the
paper for a quarter-of-an-hour to sunshine, under a negative.
I then place the impressed paper in boiling water. The parts
acted on by light remain fixed and insoluble, while the parts
which have been shaded are easily removed by rubbing with a
tuft of cotton wool. The prints thus obtained resemble those
which were exhibited by Mr. Pouncy, in London, and printed
by a secret process. I think this process susceptible of great
improvement, and it is desirable that photographers should di-
rect their experiments towards it, as it would enable us to dis-
pense with the use of the silver salts, and costly substances
in printing, and yield prints likely to be as permanent as those
in printing ink. I shall pursue my experiments in this direc-
tion and make the results known to the society."

The printing processes with bi-chromate o{ potass are begin-
ning to attract much attention abroad, and we have no doubt
that before long the silver salts will be superseded for printing
purposes by less costly and more permanent substances. We
are frequently in communication with Mr. Pouncy, and he tells
us that he does not intend to publish his process until after the
prize offered by the Due de Luynes has been awarded to the
successful competitor. In the meantime he is not idle, but
gradually improving his process. The following extract from
his last letter will no doubt be read with interest : —

" I received yours of August 31st, yesterday. You say, you
cannot get depth by the trials you have made. I have printed
pictures since I saw you with as much depth as an ordinary en-
graving." [Then follows an account of a good modification of
his process, whit^h if all the world knew instead of ourselves
only, we should be better pleased]. " I do not pretend to as-
sert that I can obtain all I wish in a picture at all times, but
this I do assert, that I have pictures that contain all halt-toue,
detail and depth ; therefore if the process will give it in one
case, it will in another, the same conditions being present. If
we do not obtain it, it is, I honestly believe, through imperfect
manipulation, which we cannot expect to understand all at once.
I would ask Mr. Shadbolt, are not my carbon prints far better
than the first productions of Talbot ? Is not c.\RBOX-rRiNTi.\G
as much a new invention ? Again, we know many persons
would not look favorably upon photographs of any kind for
yenrs, until their vision had been educated, as it were. Hence
arise many objections to photography, even now. Apply the
S;ime remarks to carbon pictures, and it becomes a matter of
taste, and as we cannot account for taste, such objections are
not worth notice. When Mr. Shadbolt has failed to produce
prints by my process it will be time enough to raise his objec-
tion. The clay of which we mortals are composed is far more
susceptible in some than in others of receiving false impressions;
but there are none so blind as tliose who will not see; a man
must be blind indeed not to see through Mr. Shadbot," &c.,
&c.

Carbon printing is now beginning to attract considerable at-
tention on the Continent, but of the various processes which

we have published in this Journal, from time to time, there is
none so simple in the manipulation as Mr. Pouucy's, and we
believe his to be the best.

We insert the following extract from the Athenaeum :
"A successful attempt has at last been made to obtain what
has long been a desideratum in lithography, namely, the means
of transferring a chalk drawing from paper to stone, so as to
yield any required number of impressions. Mr, Paul Gauci,
whose name, and that of his father, have long been honorably
known in conne.xion with drawing on stone, has discovered and
holds the secret of this desirable process. From the practical
means afforded us of testing the operation, it seems highly satis-
factory, but the number of impressions which such transfers
will give, in comparison with drawings on stone, has yet to be
seen. It has long been known that writings and drawings in
ink, executed in plain black lines, made on prepared paper, can
be transferred most perfectly on to a stone surface, and be mul-
tipled ad infinitum, but all attempts to completely transfer
shaded chalk drawings have hitherto failed. By Mr. P. Gau-
d's process, however, any one can sketch or draw in chalk
upon his pleasantly smooth or, if requisite, roughed paper, and
have numerous impressions in printing-ink, or, what is more cap-
tivating to amateurs, in blak lead, so printed as really to have
the effect of an ordinary lead-pencil drawing. Some studies
from Nature, and of trees especially, drawn by Mr. Gauci him-
self, which have been printed in this process, are absolutely de-
ceptive. For drawing-masters at schools we are of opinion
that this new discovery will be of infinite value."

Might it not be possible to transfer a carbon print to stone,
and multiply impressions by means of the lithographic press ?
Or might not a carbon print which would take ink be made
directly upon stone by a method better than that of M. Poite-
vin ? Nothing is so much wanted now as the means of multi-
plying, in printer's ink, and by means of the printing press, real-
ly satisfactory untouched photographs. '

PHOTOGRAPHY IN BIRMINGHAM.

The following article from the Birmingham Jotirnal is very
interesting as evidently pointing to new methods of manipula-
tion, which we hope to see published hereafter.

" Owing probably to the character of Birmingham manufac-
turers, no town possesses a greater number of ready good pho-
tographers than this. Several important improvements in ap-
piratus and chemical materiel have originated here — profession-
als and amateurs meet periodically for the discussion of princi-
ples and practice— and no better exhibition of what EnHish
and foreign operators can do has been held in the provmces
than that which the Local Society got up at the Hen and
Chickens last Autumn. Until the other day, however, we
were not aware that we had amongst us an amateur capable of
producing pictures quite equal to those wonderful transcripts of
sea and sky which have made the name of LeGray well-known
wherever photography is practised. The gentleman to whom
we allude is Mr. Charles Breese, of Stanton Place, Icknield
Street, West, a member of the Birmingham Photographic So-
ciety. Having accideutly had the opportunity of inspecting
some specimens of his skill, we regard their production by a
townsman as redounding to our credit as an Art-loving commu-
nity, and, therefore, though unpublished, a legitimate subject
for public notice. The pictures we have seen include landscapes,
sea views, street scenes, &c., which seem to have been selected
in order to show how Mr. Breese can triumph over the difficul-
ties that ordinarily beset photographers. They have been taken
by the collodion process on glass, and being double, to serve as
stereoscopic .slides, the practical pliotographer will understand
how' if only equal to LeGray's pictures in power and truth,
they may yet possess qualities evincing even a higher range of
manipulatory hkill. This is especially noticeable in regard to those
of the series before us winch more directly provoke a compar-
ison.

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

291

strugg
being ]

" Perhaps the most remarkable picture executed by Mr.
Breese is a view of the sea olf Llandudno, close to the Great
Orme's Head. A quiet summer breeze is playing over the sur-
face, here rippling the long swell which rolls shoreward, there
scarcely disturbing the quiet an sunny bit which shows that a
sand-bank is beneath, while farther out the waves are of that
short broken-up character usually observed in what sailors call
" a chopping sea." Looking at the pictures, one might imag-
ine that he was gazing on the sea itself. But for the disen-
chanting rattle of of a four-feeder printing machine a few yards
from us, we should be wondering how it was that the hoarse
murmur of the waves as they swept up the bay was not making
itself heard. Breaker, rolling wave, and ripple, have all been
seized, as it were, "commanded to standstill" until old Sol,
artist and portrait-painter in general, had secured their likeness
Nothing has been lost. The glossy surface of the water— the
play of light on the waves as they rise and fall — ships ten and
twenty miles off — all have been transferred to Mr. Breese's
"canvas," so as to make it almost nature's self. Equally
wonderful is a view taken from the pier in Kingstown Harbor.
'• Landscape, storm clearing off," is a common enough subject
in our exhibitions, artists sometimes waiting till the finishing
touch is given before deciding by what name the darling of their
brush should be christened. No room for doubt in this case.
It was worth the drenching Mr. Breese endured in the cause
of science and art, to have secured so glorious a transcript of
the beauties of cloudland. Overhead all is blackness, and you
can almost see the huge raindrops as they patter amongst the
rigging of the ships beneath the town, or break up the smooth-
ness of the wavelets as they course in from the open bay. But
away in the distance, over the green hill of Howth, the sun is
ling to break through ; the curtain of the hurricane is
ifted, and magnificent contrasts of light and shade are
seen. There is nothing lumpy or harsh in the whole view ; all
the tones are soft and round, and true to nature. Bank upon
bank ot clouds, in well-defined but eccentric series, occupy
many miles of back-ground down to the edge of the horizon,
and within the picture are hill-side pastures, rocky surfaces,
villas, the streets of Kingstown, the sea, and a dozen ships.
The peculiar texture and form of each object are beautifully
rendered. Another view, taken at Kingston, having her Ma-
jesty's ship Ajax for the principal object, is also a noble picture.
With a bright but nicely chequered sky in the background,
every rope and spar stands out clear and distinct ; and the sea
and town are as effectively caught as in the one just referred
to.

'•■ It is obvious that to have successfully depicted rising wave,
ever-changing light, and shifting cloud, Mr. Breese must have
taken his picture by an instantaneous process. Another of the
series, representing Powerscourt Waterfall, in the county of
Wicklow, shows this still more strongly. In all the photo-
graphs of this kind which we have previously seen, the descend-
ing water has usually assumed the appearance of an enormous
whitey-blue table-cloth, hung for drying purposes over the face
of a very indefinite cliff. This was owing to the length of time
which the process usually occupied. The cascade was allowed to
photograph itself over and over again. Instead of a dashing
steam, breaking on a hundred points, and surrounded by clouds
of spray painted in all the hues of the rainbow, it became in-
finitely less picturesque than would have been a photograph of
Kitty of Coleraiue's milk pitcher at the moment of the catas-
trophe celebrated in Irish song. But with Mr. Breese's came-
ra and hood in its neighbourhood, Powerscourt Waterfall as-
sumes a very different aspect. Its leapings and dashings, its
gradations of volume, its very spray, are all painted in a way
we could scarcely have believed possible ; while the tree stand-
ing out grandly in the foreground, with the slaty rocks on either
side, are given with such solidity and minuteness as to prove
that the subtlety of the instantaneous process used by the ope-
rator does not involve a sacrifice of power.

" Having thus cursorily glanced at a few of the long series
of landscapes which Mr. Breese has taken, we turn to one or
two of local interest. It would have been a pity had we not

38

possessed some worthy record of the niost stirring day Birming-
ham is likely to see during the present century, but the sketches
furnished by the illustrated newspapers on the occasion of the
Queen's visits to the town were either caricatures or character-
less. However, as far as photographers generally were con-
cerned, the 15th of June was so intensely bright, the rays of
the sun so scorching powerful, that the most expert and care-
ful professionals failed in nearly every case to produce a satis-
factory result. Though from thirty to forty gentlemen were
stationed with their cameras at various point of the royal pro-
gress, we had not seen one tolerably good picture until two
taken by Mr. Breese were shown us. They represent respect-
ively the arrival and departure of her Majesty from the Town
Hall. The views were taken from the offices of the Birmingham
Canal Company, at the top of Paradise Street, and of course
include all the features of the sea of life which ebbed and flow-
ed so strongly on the eventful day betwixt that point and
Christ Church. Pictures more full of animation it is impossi-
ble to conceive. The arrival scene shows the crowd literally
on the tiptoe of expectation, several groups near the artist
being caught in the most picturesque and amusing attitudes.
While some are content to clasp the pillar of the great lamp,
otners, in the forgetfulness of their loyalty, have their arms
round the waist of wife or sweetheart, unaware that a gentle-
man behind was handing them down to immortality in that
loving fashion. The dense crowd, the thronged windows,
the decorations of private and public buildings, the line of
Hussars, the carriage of Her Majesty, the Christ Church
platforms, the very hour at which the Queen arrived —
all are as distinctly and individually visible as if they had been
painted by Horace Yernet, life size, for a national picture,
though the plate is not more than an inch-and-a-half in diameter.
The " departure" is equally remarkable for its amusing fidelity.
The ci'owd is beginning to separate ; bare-headed Councillors
are running about in search of their carriages; but rapid as
their movements are, they are not quick enough to prevent Mr.
Breese's wonder-working camera seizing their lifted leg, and
showing it suspended in mid-air. One gentleman is caught in
the very interesting operation of applying his handkerchief to
his nose. We question if street scenes at all equal to these
have ever been produced in England or elsewhere, whether re-
garded as works of art or of photographic science and we
think it a pity they have not been published.

" We are much mistaken if there is not involved in the pro-
cess by which these pictures are taken another advance towards
that perfection which will no doubt, ere the century closes, find
the sun no longer a mere etcher of blacks and greys, but pain-
ting a portrait and limning a landscape with the gayest
colors which the chemist's laboratory affords. We believe
that one or other of the chemicals used by the gentleman
of whom we have been speaking is of a more senitive nature
than is commonly used, but probably dexterity of manipulation,
and skill in the treatment of the plates, has much to do with
the production of these pictures. One fact we happen to know.
They are so instantaneously taken that the merest flash of light
upon the camera is amply suBacient for the completion of the
process. The ordinary movement of the hand not being quick
enough, Mr. Breese is contriving and apparatus to ensure the
greatest possible celerity."

RECIPE FOR IODIZING SOLUTION.

Thi-; potassium iodizing solution is made by dissolving about
14-grs. of iodide of potassium in one ounce of alcohol, S. G.
■825. The salt dissolves with difficulty in the alcohol, and must
be previously powdered in a mortar. If absolute alcohol, S. G.
•*I94 can be procured, it is a good plan to dissolve the 14-grs. of
iodide in 45 minims of water, and then add absolute alcohol to
make up the ounce. Iodide of potassium is freely soluble in
less than its own weight of water, but difficultly soluble in alco-
hol.

298

TUE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

October,

BIRMINGHAM PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.

■WINTER SESSION, 1858.

The Yice-Prcsident, W. Howell, Esq., in the Chair.

The members of the above society held their first meetinp;
of the present session at Odd Fellows Hall, August 31st,
1858.

After the usual business, a paper was read by Mr. H. Branth-
waite, P. S. A., u^jon

THE CHEMISTRY OF PHOTOGRAPHY.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen :

The past half of the nineteenth century has been prolific with
discoveries the most useful, interesting and fascinating. Human
minds have given birth to ideas, vast, and for a time so tran-
scendcntly above the thoughts of the mas.scs, that they have
been voted as impossibilities. Intellect has been developed to
such an extent that but for the fact of our having grown up
amidst the results, they would have appeared but as the imagin-
ation of some madman's disordered fancy, and time would fail
me to enumerate ail the discoveries and improvements which
have been made, tending morally and socially to elevate man.
The last and greatest of these triumphs has bnt just been issued
victorious from its almost overwhelming difficulties, and is now
thrilling the whole world with wonder and admiration, whilst
with the rapidity of lightning the glorious news is flashed across
the broad Atlantic, that, "England and America are united,
glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good will towards
men !"

Amongst all ttese inventions, that which called into existence
the society before which I have to-night the honor of appearing,
claims a prominent part, whether as Sparling says, "It be used
as an assistant to the artist, or a means of sending home from
far off scenes of war and bloodshed the portrait of a friend, or
perhaps the spot on which he died or conquered, for what can
equal its truthfulness ? — what can surpass its beauty ? The
art has been made subservient to the purposes of the artist, the
naturalist, and the mechanic, and even to the antiquary who

Bending o'er some mossy tomb
Where valor sleeps,

may be enabled to preserve a lasting memorial by this science."
So much having already been written upon what is really
known of the " Chemistry of Photography," renders the prepar-
ing of a paper upon the subject a matter of some difBculty,
when we consider that notwithstanding its achievements and
rapid progress, we have to confess that it is still encumbered
with the long clothes of infancy, and although we are perfectly
aware that such and such manipulations and processes will yield
such and such results, yet why this is so, or what is the nature
of the chemical action, upon the substances employed in the
production of the photographic image, is not yet understood
and may fairly be classed amongst those mysterious chemical
changes constantly going on, and for which we are totally at a
loss to account. Every photographer has found in his practice,
be it amateur or professional, that disappointments and difficul-
ties arc ever besetting his path, and as yet he has uo certain
course to pursue in order to discover the source of these annoy-
ances and avoid them in the future ; our certainties are based
upon the results of experiments, tried in order to obtain good
pictures, and I must confess myself, as far as I have been able
to judge, some of the best photograjjhs I have seen have been
produced by mere rule ot three practice, by individuals who
neither had nor pretended to have any knowledge of chemistry.
It has long been known that chemical changes, both of com-
bination and decomposition, but particularly the latter, could be
effected by the action of the sun's rays. This effect at one time was
attributedto its luminous rays, but it is now proved beyond doubt,
that these changes are produced by an imponderable yielding
neither light nor heat — to which the term actinism, or chemica
power, has been ajiplied. The point at which the greatcs

amount of chemical action is exerted, is at the verge of the vio-
let part of the prismatic spectrum, as seen in the diagram, A
representing the actinic rays arriving at their maximum power,
first beyond the violet, decreasing in intensity till it reaches its
minimum at the yellow. From thence it is again augmented till
it reaches an apparent maximum at C, the red. The luminous
rays it will be seen are wholly confined within the spectrum,
commencing only at the point where the actinic have arrived at
their maximum, and reaching their greatest intensity at B, the
yellow. The calorific or heatgiving rays likewise take their rise
at or near the violet, and arrive at their maximum at D, extend-
ing far beyond the luminous spectrum. By thus analysing the
sunbeam it is found to possess three elements, which although
closely associated with each other, yet have properties diametri-
cally opposite, the actinic or chemical power arriving at its full
strength at the weakest points of the luminous A, calorific. It
will be well to notice here the reason for admitting yellow light
only during the manipulations in photography. The actinic rays
A having ceased to exist, when the luminous, B, have arrived
at their maximum.

It has also been proved that more of the actinism is present
at certain hours of the day and particular mouths of the year.
During the day we have it most between the hours of 8 and 12.
In the year it is found to reach its maximum intensity in the
Spring months, becoming less in Summer and Autumn, wheu the
luminous and calorific preponderate. In proof of this, various
experiments have been tried by Hunt in the course of the ger-
mination of seeds. Having found that germination went on
more rapidly under blue glass, representing actinism, he was led
to have a cucumber frame glazed with blue. The result of this
was, that although the seeds germinated fast enough, the plant
was diminutive and yielded nothing, having all run to stalk void
of chlorophy, (or the green coloring matter to be found on all
plants); by this experiment, which, although it failed to pro-
duce cucumbers, yet it proved to him the fact, that germination
depended upon the actinic power of the sun's rays, and con-
vinced him that something more was required for the production
of leaf ; his next experiment, therefore, was to follow the course
of the spectrum, and try the effect of yellow glass, by which
means he concentrated the luminous rays : his plants grew rapid-
ly and most luxuriantly, but they yielded no fruit. One course
only^was now open to him, and being determined to work out
his experiment, he had recourse to the calorific represented by
the red, having a frame constructed of that color, and found by
this that the fructifying principle was so augmented as to pro-
duce more and finer fruit than under any other condition.
From these experiments he deduced that actinism produced ger-
mination, the luminous developed the plant, the calorific the
fruit. This analysis of the sunbeam may have appeared some-
what irreleveut to the subject, but I hope to prove by it, that it
is to the actinism, and the actinism alone, that we have to look
for the chemical changes effected in the production of the pho-
tograph. The germination of a seed is purely a chemical change,
depending upon the actinic rays, and cannot be effected by
either the luminous or calorific. The same may be said of the
photograph : its production depends entirely upon actinism, and
the same results would not be, if we could shut out the actinic
and use merely the luminous and calorific. Almost all other
chemical changes may be traced to well-known laws of chemical
affinity, but in the germination of a seed and the photographic
process, the force which we call actinism interferes as it were
with the regular laws of chemistry, causing phenomena which
we are able to view without having the knowledge to unfold.

In speaking of the chemical agents used in photography, I
must at the outset give it as my firm conviction that most of
the failures of the photographer may be traced to the impurity
of the chemicals used. In many instances this arises from care-
lessness of preparation, but in many more I am afraid from tho
dishonesty of the trader, who in his love of gain sacrifices the
interests of customers, in which of course he is supported by
parties who unhesitatingly say sacrifice success to cheapness.

The salts of silver are the most acted upon by the actinic rays
The nitrate is the most permanent of these salts and may be

1858.

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

299

kept either in crystals or dissolved in distilled water, even in the
diffused light of the day, not being susceptible to the decompos-
ing iuflaeace of the chemical rays till it has come in contact with
some organic matter. Its permanence is attributed to the na-
ture of the acid, which, with the oxide of silver, enter into com-
bination, the effect of which is neutralised on its being brought
into contact with organic matter. In the collodion process of
course, that organic matter is the collcdioa which retains the
iodide of silver and forms the sensitive surface.

From the important part nitrate ot silver holds in our mani-
pulations, being the ground-work of the chemical action of the
actinic rays, it must be evident that its purity to the photo-
grapher is a matter of -vital importance — the manner of its pre-
paration is so well-known as not to need any description. I
should strongly recommend every photographer to submit his
nitrate to thorough testing before used ; sometimes we find a
quantity of free nitric acid, wliich of course the test-paper will
readily detect, and may be easily thrown off, by placing the cry-
stals in a porcelain or glass vessel and holding it over boiling
water till the silver is heated to a few degrees. As nitrate of
silver is often adulterated with nitrate of potash, from its simi-
larity and ready fusibility, I should next proceed to test for this,
which may be done by making a solution of say five grains in
half-an-ouuce of water ; in this, saturate a piece of bibulous
paper, and if nitrate of potash be present, even to the extent
of 5 grains in 500, it vtill be readily detected by the paper
burning in a similar manner to a fusee, which neither ordinary
paper nor that soaked in a pure solution of nitrate will do. A
further test may be used as follows : to a solution of chloride
of sodium, 6 grains to the ounce, add a solution of nitrate of
silver, 1*1 grains to the ounce ; the whole of the chloride in the
chloride of sodium will be precipitated if the nitrate be pure,
but if, on the addition of more nitrate solution, a further preci-
pitate takes place, it is a clear proof that some adulteration of
most likely either copper or nitrate of potash is present, both of
which are alike objectionable in photography. It is sometimes
a matter of importance to be able to determine the strength of
the nitrate bath after it has been in use for some time, and I re-
gret that Professor Medlock, with whom I have been in corres-
pondence on the subject, was compelled to visit Switzerland be-
fore he had supplied me with his apparatus for easily determin-
ing this. It is done by means of a cubic centimetre measure
and a standard solution of chloride of sodium of such a strength
as that 10 cubic centimetres should precipitate 3 grains of ni-
trate. This would be an easy way of ascertaining the strength,
and as soon as I am in possession of full particulars, I shall
have pleasure in communicating them to the society. The plan
I at present adopt is as follows : Dissolve 6 grains of chloride
of sodium Rue in 34 fluid drachms of distilled water ; this I
call standard solution, No. 1. I then take one drachm of the
bottle to be tested and add to it 1 ounce of distilled water,
which we will call solution No. 2. I then add drop by drop of
No. 1 to No. 2 as long as a precipitate is given. Every drachm
of No. 1 used represents half-a-grain of nitrate of silver in No.
2. Therefore all that is necessary is to multiply by 8 and the
product will give the number of half-grains in an ounce.

Before leaving this part of the subject I may just state that
I have been informed by a photographer of some fifteen years
standing, who gives it as the result of many experiments, that
for every ounce of collodion that passes through the bath, the
solution is robbed of five grains of nitrate of silver Great
care should always be taken to keep the nitrate bath from the
light, for although pure nitrate of silver solved in distilled water
as I before stated is not affected by exposure, yet, after it is
brought into use, each plate that is dipped leaves behind it some
portion of organic matter, which, in conjunction with the oxy-
gen, causes decomposition. This maybe illustrated by exposing
to the sun two bottles containing solution of nitrate of silver,
into one of which some organic matter has been put.

Iodide of potassium is the next article of importance to the
photographer, and one which it is difficult to obtain pure. This
arises either from use of an impure carbonate of potash in its
preparation, or of carbonate being added to too great an excess ;

if the first be the cause we shall have the impurity consist of
sulphate of potash or chloride of potassium , if the latter, we
have an excess of carbonate. This is easily detected by the
addition of lime water, which will cause a precipitate.

In the nitrate of silver and the iodide of potassium we have
the two elements forming the iodide coating ready for exposure
in the camera, when the actinic rays reduce the silver, which is
deposited in minute particles upon the organic matter (collo-
dion) . Their capabiliiy of doing this is shewn by the following
experiment : — Suspend a piece of charcoal in a solution of ni-
trate of silver of any strength and expose in the sun-light, when
the metallic silver will be deposited in beautiful crystals, and this
will continue until the whole of the silver is reduced.

The next subject is the developing of the latent image, and
no point in photography appears to have been more contested.
After reading considerably on the subject, my own opinion is
that the developing process is but an extension of the reduction
f^^ the salts already commenced during exposure in the camera,
in which the actinism has partly disengaged the oxygen which
the developing agent completes.

The only two developers I shall notice, are the proto-sulphate
of iron and pyro-gallic acid. The former of these, from its low
price, is not likely to be adulterated, but it often happens that
owing to carelessness in its manufacture and preservation it con-
tains sesqui-oxide of iron, known by the angles of the crystals
becoming yellow or brown ; if they are clear, green, and tran-
slucent, we may safely consider it pure. Pyro-gallic acid is pro-
duced by submitting gallic acid to a temperature of 430° Faht.,
and its use for photographic purposes is in a great measure in-
jured if the temperature has been too high, as it causes the acid
when mixed ready for developing, to decompose more rapidly ;
freedom from color will show that it has been carefully prepared ;
its impurity generally consists of tannic acid, which maybe
readily detected by a solution of isinglass, causing a precipi-
tate.

Having now developed the image, it becomes necessary to re-
move the iodide of silver which has not been acted upon. This
is done by what is erroneously termed fixing agents ; for it must
be apparent that the image itself is jpermanent, but that part
which has not undergone the process of reduction, is still sensi-
tive, and if not well and thoroughly washed away, will in its
turn decompose and affect the whole picture. And here we
have a great proof of the necessity of free use of water, both
after the developing and clearing away of the unaltered iodide ;
but if the washing be complete, I see no reason why the photo-
graph ought not to remain forever unchanged either by time or
light. The cyanide of potassium is the best clearing agent we
can employ, when the iodide of silver is the sensitized surface,
as this salt rapidly dissolves in a solution of cyanide ; but in
cases of positive paper proofs where we have the chlorides of
silver, hypo-sulphite of soda is the best solvent. From the price
of these two articles they are not likely to be adulterated, it is
therefore unnecessary to enter into any details of tests.

Unforeseen circumstances in business have prevented me giv-
ing that time and attention to the getting up of this paper that
I should have wished, and that I consider the importance of the
subject demands. In conclusion, I can only repeat that the Art
of Photography is still in its infancy — that great and glorious
discoveries have yet to be made. Let not, therefore, disappoint-
ments and difficulties deter us from that amount of perseverance
which is necessary to overcome them ; if none of these difficul-
ties existed it would be fatal to the swell of triumph which will
attend complete success. Let us then

" Despair of nothiag we would attain,
Unwearied diligeace our point will gain,"

Mr. Osborn — Byway of commencing the discussion, I would
just remark that my experience slightly differs from that of Mr.
Branthwaite (unless I have misunderstood him), for I have fre-
quently found a bath considerably improved by an exposure to
sunshine : it seems to clean it.

Mr. Branthw.\ite — If much organic matter were present
you would find the silver would be reduced very considerably.

300

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

October,

Mr. Osborn — In allusion to the impurities of nitrate of silver, i
I had a bath which gave me very bad pictures, or I should say |
no pictures at all : the plates decomposed all over ; on testing
the nitrate of silver, nitrate of potash was found. A second
bath was made and went on very well for a few days, but gra-
dually began to give the same results. Being considerably an-
noyed and pnz/.led, I was led to uuike some enquiries respecting
the locality of my operating room (as I was in a strange i)lace),
anil I found that a quantity of chloride of lime had been thrown
down a drain close by, and the vapor of the chlorine had con-
verted the film nito chloride of silver, On removingto another
room all annoyance ceased.

Mr. Harrls — I cannot conceive it possible for nitrate of sil-
ver to be adulterated with nitrate of potash without being at
once detected, as the crystals are so widely different. I
should have thought the merest tyro would have seen the im-
purity.

Mr. Howell — You must recollect that there are a great
many photographers who are not at all acquainted with che-
mistry.

Mr. Harrls — The crystals of nitrate of silver are flat, while
those of nitrate of potash are like needles.

Mr. Howell — Would it not be likely that the needle-like
crystals would be broken down into dust and so lose their
character, and therefore pass undetected by inexperienced per-
sons.

Mr Morris — I have great pleasure in moving a vote of
thanks to Mr. Branthwaito for his valuable paper, I would
observe that I differ from him on the subject of the impurity of
cyanide of potassium : some samples I have seen only contain 2
ozs. of cyanide to the lb. Hypo-sulphite of soda is also often
adulterated, but not so much.

Mr. Ball — I beg leave to second the vote of thanks, and have
felt highly interested by the paper and the experiments, but must
endorse Mr. Morris's opinion respecting the cyanide of potas-
sium. I have seen some sold to photographers not worth 2d.
per lb. E.vtreme whiteness is not a test of purity, rather the
reverse ; in fact, the purest sample I have met with is of a dirty
brown color.

The Chairman — In presenting a vote of thanks to Mr.
Branthwaito for his interesting paper, &c., I feel very forcibly
that it is one of a class of papers we much want, eminently
practical, scientifically treated, and generally useful. I hope
we shall have many such.

The members of this Society mustered in great strength on
Tuesday, September 28th, and the result was a very interesting
meeting.

After the minutes had been read and passed, the Chairman
called upon Mr. PercivalJenns (a non-member, who had kind-
ly offered to read a paper and exhibit several interesting expe-
riments,) to read the following paper : —

THE CAMERA OF NATURE.

In tracing the analogy between the human eye and the came-
ra, it is not my intention to fathom the ocean of time, and dive
into the mysteries of the science of optics, as known to the
Ciuildcans and Egyptians, or to penetrate into the vague hypo-
theses of Pythagoras, Aristotle, Euclid, or Archimedes, or any
others of the primaeval schools of philosophy ; far easier would
it bo to become the encomiast of so august a science, than to
trace its history, or to follow its progress from the first bursting
forth of the embryo germ, to the full development of the perfect
phmt and ripening fruit. I shall therefore confine myself wholly
to those laws of the science which have been deduced from sa-
tiiifactory experiments by our best authorities in modern times.
Consequently, out of the multitude of hypotheses that have
from time to time been fabricated for the purpose of unfolding
the nature of light, I shall only take notice of two, viz : the
atomic and undulatory. But as the atomic will not explicate
the latent cause of many of the beautiful phenomena of light ;
which phenomena may easily (in most cases) be explained by

the undulatory, I propose not to dwell upon it more than to
take notice that it comes next in importance to that of the un-
dulatory.

Now, by the undulatory theory, we areled to suppose that all
space (that is to say as far as we have any notion of,) is filled
with an imponderable fluid capable of receiving vibrations from
a luminous body.

Thus, by the decomposition of coal gas by combustion, we
can trace the union of the oxygen of the atmosphere with the
hydrogen, and afterwards the carbon of the gas. But we can-
not trace any corpuscles of any description, that are evolved to
produce light according to the atomic theory. On the contrary,
if we weigh the equivalents of carbon and hydrogen contained
in the carbonic acid and water, produced, we shall find them
exactly of the same vveight as before they were disinteo-rated
from the gas. We are, therefore, led to suppose that the light
has been produced, not by the disengagement of any particles
either of matter or of the latent sun's rays, but by an undula-
tion created during the decomposition in that imponderable fluid
that has been called ether.

We shall therefore consider white light, not as being made
up of three colors ; but that all colors are produced by the dif-
ference of velocity of the undulation. In the same manner that
the numberless multitude of sounds are only the result of the
difference of the undulation of the atmosphere.

The eye is the camera constructed by Omniscience, and is so
formed as to be made susceptible of the most delicate of these
undulations. It is somewhat analogous to the tympanum of the
ear, which has the power of receiving the most gentle vibra*
tions of the atmosphere. Inasmuch as the one gives us the sen-
sation of light, and the other sound.

We shall do well to consider minutely the construction of this
marvellous little camera, for undoubtedly the nearer we briu"-
our artificial ones to it, the nearer will they approach perfec-
tion.

On glancing at the diaphram, we shall observe at once, that
there is great similarity between them. The sclerotic membrane
forms the case of the camera ; the choroid being covered with
a black pigment, represents its dark lining. The cornea is a
transparent substance, composed of a number of thin foils, for
the purpose of giving it strength ; and covers the front of the
eye, and protects it from external injury. The retina is an ex-
pansion of the optic nerve, and is analogous to the sensitive
plate in our cameras, for it receives the whole of the picture,
and by the agency of the optic nerve it is transmitted to the
brain. The lens, which in the natural camera is called the cry-
stalline lens, we shall consider more fully when we have taken a
casual glance at the two primary laws of optics, viz : refraction
and reflection.

By refraction we have to consider the bending of the rays ot
light when passing from one medium into another of a different
density. Thus, when a beam of light passes from a rare me-
dium into one of greater density, it becomes bent towards a
perpendicular drawn from its surface ; and when passing from
a dense into that of greater rarity, the reverse takes place, and
it is consequently bent away from the perpendicular. We must
here take notice that if the rays fall perpendicularly they suffer
no refraction. For example, when the rays of the sun are in a
line with the horizon, they become refracted upon entering the
atmosphere, and give us the idea of his being higher in the
heavens and larger than his apparent size ; but when in the
zenith they fall in a direct line, and consequently suffer no re-
fraction, and present to us his true position and apparent dimen-
sions. Whereas, when we view the bottom of a stream at an
angle from its surface, we are deceived in its depth, it appearing
much more shallow than it really is, because the rays of light,
having been reflected from tiie bottom, have to pass from a
dense medium into one of greater rarity ; consequently, by their
being bent upwards, we have the impression of the water being
of less depth. How marvellous, when we contemplate, that
upon this one simple law depends the whole of the beauty ot
our refracting optical instruments 1 Thus, by forming a dense
medium in the shape of two spheres cutting each other, and of

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL,

301

such a substance as glass, we produce the magnifying lens, with-
out which our cameras, telescopes, microscopes, and even the
camera of nature, could have no existence.

[The action of a convex-lens in bringing rays to a focus was
here explained.]

It will now be seen how the double convex-lens of our came-
ra of nature has the power of collecting the rays of light that
are reflected from surrounding objects, and bringing them to a
focus upon the retina, and thus impressing it with the miniature
picture of the scene towards which it is directed ; in the same
manner that the lens in our photographic camera transmits the
rays and impresses them npon the prepared plate. We might
here take notice of one perfection in the natural camera that
we can never hope to be able to imitate in the artificial ; that
is, the circular form of the retina upon which the picture falls.

To regulate the amount of light that enters the natural ca-
mera is a very beautiful contrivance, known by the appellation
of the iris, and is so constructed as to be able to open and shut
according to the amount of light present. Here we have the
representation of the diaphrams used in the photographic came-
ra, but being vastly superior to it, in being self-acting ; for all
photographers know that it is one of the most dif&cult things
they have to contend with to get exactly the requisite amount
of light upon their prepared plate. How beautiful then is Na-
ture in all her laws I and what vast amounts of wisdom we may
gain by observing and studying her most trivial phenomena.

Having thus superficially glanced at the law of refraction,
let us incline our attention for a few moments to that of reflec-
tion. Firstly, we shall observe that the sun's rays, upon being
reflected upon a smooth surface, follow the same rules as those
Oi the ponderable elements, that is, that their angles of inci-
dence are equal to their angles of reflection. Secondly, that all
things are seen by reflection, for the light must first fall upon
the object and become reflected within the field of our vision
before we can be made sensible of its existence. Upon the
former depends the power of all our beautiful reflecting optical
instruments, whether it be the telescope, microscope, or looking-
glass ; and upon the latter, our sight of all-existing things save
self-luminous bodies. In speaking of the colors produced by
reflection, I might here notice a phenomenon that has always
made me strongly in favor of the undulatory theory. If we
take a piece of slate that has been perfectly hardened and po-
lished, and heat one end of it in a flame, we shall observe, as it
rises in temperature, the whole of the prismatic colors formed
upon its surface ; but not in the order of the spectrum, the yel-
low appearing first, then the red, and lastly the blue. Now, it
is well-known that steel tempered at yellow, is the most hard,
and at blue the most flexible. It is therefore manifest that the
heat has only separated the atoms of the metal at different dis-
tances from each other, the blue the most, and the yellow the
least. Moreover, it is clear that the molecules of which the
steel is built up, must have become sufficiently separated to al-
low of their free motion, before it could be rendered flexible.
•If, therefore, its atoms have removed slightly from each otiier,
they must have left small spaces between each, capable of alter-
ing or retarding the undulation of light that falls upon them ;
now, as the yellow are nearest together, it is natural for us to
suppose that they would produce upon the undulation the least
change, and so it is, for we find that they reflect that which we
call the luminous ray ; whereas the blue, which are the farthest
apart, would physically produce the greatest change, and conse-
quently we find them reflecting that color which nearest ap-
proaches to black. We are, therefore, led to suppose that the
colors of all objects are nothing more than the result of their
different surfaces, and the power they possess of reflecting in a
more or less perfect degree the undulation that falls upon them.
What can be more grand, and what more beautiful, than the
contemplation of so wonderful a contrivance, to present to our
Tiew the multitude of colors in all their richness that adorn our
finest landscapes ? And whether we look at the tints of the
morning sky, the blush of the opening rose, the shades of the
-mighty forest, or the brilliancy of the mineral crystal, we cannot
but be struck with wonder and admiration at the beauty of that

38*

law, which furnishes such a mnltiplicity of exquisite phenomena
for the grati'ication of our intellectual pleasure.

Having considered (altho' in a very superficial manner) the
two primary laws that govern the science, and the mode by
which we are made sensible of the external world through their
instrumentality, let us give our attention for a few moments io
the great source from whence we derive our light. Wc are told
in Genesis that in the beginning (that is as far as the creatioQ
of this planet is concerned) the Divine command went forth,
"Let there be light, and there was light ;" or, according to
the modern exposition, "Let light appear ;'' for it will be mani-
fest that either of these will signify the same thing, as it is evi-
dent that it has relation only to the new-born world, as it had
recently come forth from its mother nature, and permitted for
the first time to behold the light of the great monarch of the
solar system. Now, upon inquiring into the nature of this light,
which we have every reason to suppose has possessed the same
properties ever since the Cosmogony, we shall find that whether
it be produced by atoms or undulations, it is closely associated
with two other principals, which, although yastly different in
their physical properties, cannot be wholly separated from it,
viz : caloric and actinism. However, it yet remains to be
proved whether this heat and chemical radiant power does not
result from a different manifestation of the self-sauje principle.
However, be this as it may ; we know that the combined efl'orts
of these three properties of the sun's rays, enabled the seed in
the new-born world to burst from its latent embryo and cover
the earth with "grass and herb, yielding seed, and the fruit-tree,
yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself ;" so that
when man was created and furnished with a double "camera of
nature," he might be able to view with stereoscopic Deauty, the
many wonders of that planet, over which, for a time, he has to
have dominion. In conclusion, though I may not this evening
have broached anything but what all present are familiar with,
still I trust that what has been said may serve the purpose of
refreshing our memories and making us bear more in mind the
marvellous construction of that prototype of which our photo-
graphic camera may be considered the type ; and doubtless the
nearer our artificial ones approach that of Nature's, the nearer
will they approach perfection. Moreover, what science is there
that is at all times more worthy of our perusal and study, than
that of optics ? For if we reflect that it grasps at the two in-
finities and brings them as it were nearer to our comprehensions,
(the infinitely large on the one hand and the infinitely small on
the other,) we must feel that there cannot be a more soul-en-
nobling study, or one that can give us a more clear Insight into
the profundities of creation. For if we soar with the telescope
into the far distant heavens and contemplate the myriads of
worlds revolving in the most perfect order ; or view with the
microscope a single drop of water, containing thousands of liv-
ing creatures, all perfect in their organization, the weakest mind
must expand with gratitude to the Great Omnipotent who has
shown such power and glory for the instruction and happiness of
His creatures, and be ready to exclaim with the Psalmist,
" Great and marvellous are Thy works. Lord God Almighty 1"

In the course of the reading of the paper Mr. Jenns exhibit-
ed a beautiful preparation of the eye of an ox, and explained
its structure and the analogy between it and the ordinary came-
ra. He also exhibited tlie experiments of producing color, by
the mixture of colorless liquids, the effect being to change the
geometrical form of the atoms, and so render the body reflective
of different colors.

The thanks of the meeting having been given to Mr. Jenns
for his able paper, Mr. Osborn rose to introduce to the meeting
Herr Pretsch, who had kindly come down from London for the
purpose of explaining to them the Pctzval Lens, and also to
show the pictures produced by it. He would also exjjlain some
portions of the photo-galvanographic process. (Cheers J

THE PETZVAL LENS.

Here Paul Pretsch exhibited two specimens of the Petzval
Lens, with a large number of photographs, taken with the in-
strument. The photographs consisted ot" portraits and large

302

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE APvT JOURNAL.

October,

views, by Rejlauder, Llewellyn, Horatio Ross, and other well-
known artists ; they speak very hij^lily of the capabilities of
these lenses for landscape purposes. Most of the pictures were
of large size, wcll-deiincd, sharp to the edges of the picture,
and the lines perfectly straight. The distortion usually com-
plained ot in landscape lensc:; seems to be totally got rid of, and
the resulting pictures were (even with the full aperture,) very
straight in the lines. The distances, too, are well preserved
and faithfully rendered ; there is a total absence of the blurring
at the corners so often painfully apparent.

The Photo-galvanographs consisted of several unpublished
specimens of the process — tlie greater number quite untouched ;
and, (with all due deference to the inventorj, there was far more
artistic beauty in the untouched specimens than in the doctored
ones ; for instance, the Bed of the Garravalt, by Roger Fen-
ton, (the master of landscape photography,) would lose a great
deal of its grandeur by the addition of any touches of the
graver.

Our readers will be already familiar with the description of
the Petzval Lens, from tlie correspondence in the journals on
the subject. It will suffice, then, to give but a few of Mr.
Prctsch's remarks, the whole of which were highly interesting
and instructive.

Mr. Pretsch observed, in reverting to the early lenses, that
Dagucrre had used the lensof a telescope, reversed, and although
slow in its action, this form of lens gave very good pictures.
After some little time. Professor Petzval, of Vienna, introduced
the well-known portrait combination, and about a year since
the Professor completed the calculations, which have resulted
in the form of lens just introduced.

The radius of the ordinary portrait lens is in a curvature of
IG-ins., while in the Petzval combination it is only 8-inches,
thus giving a flatter and brighter picture. The new lens then
possesses superior and peculiar properties, and we claim for it
three capabilities, viz: 1. Perfect sharpness of delineation to
the edge of the picture. 2. Correctness of perspective. 3.
Proper effect of distance.

If the operator has proper time and distance of station to
choose from, and can select his own point of view, then, with a
small diaphram, it is not to be denied that the ordinary view-
lens will produce very good pictures ; but these requirements
are i\ot always to be met with. [The large lens exhibited bad
a focal length (for views) of 26-ins., and a combined focus of
8|-ins., the portrait combination taking pictures 8|X6|. The
smaller lens, for views only, had a focus of 18 ins., and covered a
plate 13iXlI. The full combination consists of three pairs of
lenses only, two pairs of which are required to be used at once.]
Mr. Pretsch observed that it was necessarv, in some cases, to
have a camera constructed for the purpose, with a swinging
back, so as to adjust for near and distant objects, also for fore-
ground and sky ; for copying maps, and other surfaces of that
kind, the article should be slightly curved, as in the case of ar-
rangement of groups.

PHOTO-GALVANOGRAPHY.

Mr. Pretsch then proceeded to explain the details of his Pho-
to-galvanographic process. He stated that by its means any
picture that could be rendered transparent could be copied, and
that by the powers of re-production the supply of proofs was
unlimited. He alluded to the advantages and permanency of
printer's ink over the photographs, iioi only in the command of
the tone produced, but in the durability. The problem of en-
graving by light had occupied the attention of scientific men
ever since the discovery of photography, and various means had
been tried, such as etching, to engraving, partly by light and
partly by hand ; but his process, when brought to perfection,
would be independent of all extraneous help ; it would be a
purely natural process ; the picture would be drawn by light
and engraved by electricity. As regards the touching up of
some of the plates, that was at present unavoidable, but he hoped
it would not be necessary in a very short time.

In alluding to Mr. Fox Talbot's new process, Mr. Pretsch
Raid, that a gelatine preparation similar to his own was used

but for the purpose of regnlating the permeability when etching
upon the steel. By the new processes just patented the copper
plates might be made as hard and as durable as steel. (Ap-
plause.)

[The engravings and photographs exhibited by Mr. Pretsch
were the theme of general admiration to a crowded audience.]

Mr. Rejlander, in moving a vote of thanks to Mr Pretsch
for his very interesting communication, said, that he had tried
the Petzval lens, but was not quite used to it at present ; its
action, in one or two cases, had been so rapid, as to produce
overdone pictures in less than one si.-eond. He should, however,
continue his experiments, and would communicate them to the
society.

Mr. OsBORN then read a paper, communicated by Mr. Sutton,
of Jersey, entitled, " Suggestions for some Improvements in
the Camera, and Mounting of Lenses." (Seepage 306.)

A vote of thanks was given to Mr. Sutton for his paper, and
also for the present of his dictioi.iary to the Society's Library.

Mr. OsBORN, in acknowleduing for Mr. Sutton the vote of
thanks, said, that the society was greatly indebted to the gen-
tlemen who had given them papers that evening, and who, at
the cost of considerable time, labor, and expense, had favored
them with such information. He was glad to see such a nume-
rous attendance, and while the council would spare no trouble
to render the meetings interesting, he hoped the attendance of
the members would continually increase. He regretted that
there was no time left for the discussion of the papers they had
heard, but he would propose that the after part of the next
meeting should be devoted to that purpose.

It was then announced that the next exhibition of the society
would be opened at Aston Hall, on the 1st of March, 1859, so
that the members would have plenty of time to prepare speci-
mens. The managers of Aston Hall had granted them the use
of a room as a permanent exhibition.

Trom Pho/ographic J\''olcs.

RECOLLECTIONS AND JOTTI^'GS OF A PilOTOGRAPlIlC TOUR,
Undertaken during the Years 1856-7. *

BY J. W. G. GUTCH, M.R.C.S.L.

Judging from the multitude of artists that one meets where-
ever one wanders in the Lake District of Cumberland and AVest-
ffioreland, I should think that more umbrellas, palettes, portable
easels, and all the usual artist's paraphernalia, are consumed
there, than in any similar given area that is to be met with in
any other part of our Island ; but notwithstanding all this
evident attraction, I am not quite sure that it is pre-eminently
the country for the Photographer. I was able, quietly and leis-
urely, to wander through all this favored district, and with
camera in hand, and therefore I speak not unadvisedly. That
the Tourist meets with many a striking and eligible bit of scenery
in each day's perambulation, and well calculated for the pho-
tographer, I will not deny, but I think 'tis better fitted for the
brush and the painter; the distances are too great, the pictures
too large, and the aerial perspective, which gives such a charm
to the Lake scenery, unattaina'^ilc in photography, at least to
that extent which will do justice to the unrivalled scenes tliat
have met one's eye. I will quote as examples the Waterhead
end of Windermere, with all that glorious grouping of distant
mountain.'^, bright, sunny, and with ever-varying aerial effects,
unattainable but with the aid of color, for to color is the prin-
cipal charm and beauty owing. The same may be said of the
Borrowdale end of Derwentwater. I several times tried this
in the camera and gave it up as hopeless ; still, many isolated
spots are eminently beautiful as photographs. Furness Abbey
alone is worth many and many a mile's journey, and will amply
repay any one for the pilgrimage. I spent three days here, and
worked hard too, for the beautiful parts of this most picturesque
ruin are endless. I would specially signalize the east window,
a good view of which is attainable from the rising ground op-

* Continued from page 231, vol. xi. no. viii.

1858.

THE niOTOGRAPniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

303

posite to the Druid's temple, near Keswick, from its perfectness
and antiquity, and the panorama of Hill's Island makes an ad-
mirable picture. Bonness, Ferry Side, Uray Castle, Coniston,
the Baider Stone, and Honister Crag, all make good subjects
The Falls, concerning which so much is said, did not at all
equal what has been written concerning them ; a scarcity of
water too — a sad want — which is often to be met with in the
summer months. Several times I have seen Lodin fall, with
scarce anything more than a thread of water leaving the wide
chasm, with the marks only of where, in the winter months, the
rush of water has worn its way into the crumbling rock. To
those who possess the means of taking instantaneous pictures,
many of these, as for example Scale Force, Lodore Fall, Rydal
Fall, &c., may prove acceptable ; but as they are generally pro-
duced with the water looking like a solid, still, and heavy mass,
and losing all its lovely and ever-varying effects from movement,
which, except it be caught instantaneuosly, it is utterly impos-
sible photographically to display. The small stereoscopic pictures
perhaps convey the best idea of these Falls, and from them
fmany of them being done with a patent lens and instantaneously)
a much more truthful and pleasing effect is obtained.

The homes of Coleridge, Wodsworth, and Southy, are to my
mind unpicturesque enough. I took these as a matter of course,
but not often, on looking at them, wonder that they were con-
tent with such abodes. I can only suppose the natural scenery
that everywhere met their eye compensated them for the un-
picturesqueness of their habitations. What, I would ask, can
be more hideous than Southey's House at Keswick ? for, shut in
on every side as it is with trees, can the views, obtainable with
difficulty, be said to compensate one? nor is his tomb, on which
£1500 was spent, better. This, as is well-known, is in Cresth-
waite Church, Keswick, — a full length recumbent figure, taste-
less, and little worth what it cost to erect. Three months'
pleasant wondering will soon slip away in this fniry land ; they
should be in mid summer, for as the days shorten and the
shadows lengthen, and with the masses of foliage, one misses all
the deliciously bright and sunny effects that here so peculiarly
throw a charm over the landscape. I accomplished fifty views
of various parts of the Lake District, and was quite satisfied
with my exploration. A week's revel amongst the treasures of
the Art Exhibition at Manchester formed a most agreeable
entr''ade to the Summer's drama, and the camera remained
closely shut up and unused, for verily, had one's time not been
wholly engrossed in the Art Treasures Exhibition, there is no-
thing in Manchester that could by any possibility tempt one to
perpetrate Photography. At the expiration of the week I was
not sorry to bid adieu to the smoke and cotton palaces and find
myself at the most quaint and picturesque town, Chester ; for
September and October still remaind unappropriated, two
months of the year, which (now that the seasons are not what
our forefathers used to call them), oftentimes afford the tourist
the finest and brighest days, and specially favorable to the pho-
grapher. waiting, as they do, the excessive glare of July and
August. At Chester one may linger with no small benefit :
the street architecture, for an English town, being antique and
highly picturesque. The Cathedral and St. John's Church and
attached Cliapel all being very beautiful and affording capital
work for the camera; the views around too are very satisfactory;
Llandudno, a new watering place of only seven year's growth,
was the next place visited, being situated three miles from the
Conway station. With Conway Castle I must own to a feeling
of disappointment. It is more picturesque from a distance, the
interior presenting but few points of interest. On the road to
Llandudno, is Glodeath, the seat of Lord Rostyn, which is very
pretty and photographic, if I may be permitted to use the phrase.
Llandudno abounds with nice bits; the Great Orme'sHead and
Little Orme's Head forming the boundaries of the beautiful
bay on which the town is built. The fine old and rugged lime-
stone cliffs present jjlenty of points of great interest. The town
too is very picturesquely placed. A month soon slipped away at
this pleasant bathing-place, and October still remaining, was
decided that Bangor should be the next resting-place, and final
one for this year. Here are many points of well known interest,

and all easily accomplished. The Slate Quarries of Penrhyn,
Penrhyn Castle, the Menai Straits and Tubular Bridge," Beau-
maris, and Carnarvon, all within easy reach, and presenting
most excellent studies for the photographer. But time and tide
wait for no man, and the temperature and shortening of the
days warned us that our photographic pursuits were°drawino-
to a close, and accordingly, after taking most of the salienl
points, the camera was finally shut up for 1857, after a most
fruitful, healthful and instructive tour, with the acquisition of
180 negatives. The meeting with many old friends, and becom-
ing acquainted with several new ones, — the acquisition of health,
and the improvement of mind and body, — who need regret, nav'
who cannot but feel grateful, to be permitted such enjoyment?-!^
and sordid and miserable indeed must he be who would not
profit by such a tour, enhanced, thanks to photographv, a
hundred-fold.

Thus, then, let me conclude the Jottings for 1857, in the
hopes, that if permitted, I may, in 1858, report fresh progress
and fresh experience, for any usefulness that I may be at any
time able to impart to any of my fellow laborers in the field is
ever a fresh and rich source of gratification to me. Go on and
prosper, persevere, and though difficulties beset your paUi, ia
the end the accomplishment is all the more gratifying.

THE STEREOSCOPE.

A new article has been introduced into the commerce of art.
The Stereoscope, although an invention no longer new, is yet
now for the first time brought to New York in manufature, and
the exquisite representations of nature and art which have been
made by it for a few years past in Paris, London and Phila-
delphia, are just beginning to find among us appreciation and
customers. Those who have seen the marvelous fidelity with
which it repeats to us the triumphs of man and the wonderworks
of God, the weird trick by which Niagara and the Pyramids
are brought before us in all the sublimity of reality, will hardly
be able to understand why an art so generally diffused in London
that already there are circulating libraries of Stereoscopes, has
hitherto found so little encouragement in this country. Yet we
are informed by Mr. Beckel, one of the largest importers, that
he kept his first invoices for a long time, and was obliged to sell
them then far below cost, and in fact that the whole amount
sold in this country so far, does not amount to much more than
$50,000 at retail, or about half that sura at wholesale.

But now that we have a New York Stereoscopic Company,
and the Paris and London-made pictures are becoming so well
known that single persons, among them the Preacher of Brook-
lyn, buy them by the hundred dollars' worth, we should be very
unlike ourselves did not New York soon assume the same po-
sition with regard to the rest of mankind in the manufacture of
the Stereoscope, that she now occupies in that part of the
Daguerreotype and Photograph.

Wheatstone long ago invented the Stereoscope — two pictures
of the same object, taken from the different points of the two
eyes and then united by prism-spectacles so as to give to the
combined picture that solid appearance which we fee in all
nature, but in no single picture. The first Stereoscope pictures
made for sale were of statues; they were double daguerreotypes on
silver plates, and were far inferior to the transparent pictures
on glass which have since supplanted them. Dubosq Soleil
commenced the manufacture of Stereoscope pictures of landscapes
on glass. He sold them for three dollars apiece, but has been un-
able to maintain his fame against some of the artists who have
since entered the field.

At the head of these stands Ferrier, who has made a fortune
of $200,000 since 1854 from the sales of his pictures. His Stereo-
scope pictures on glass are in such demand that he has recently
informed his customers that he can fill no more orders for Stereo-
scope pictures on paper. His catalogue comprises an immense
nu(uber of views in Europe, Asia and Africa. He has 150 of
Paris; and many of the Provinces of France; considerable number

304

THE rUOTOGRArillC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

October,

of tlie Pyrenees, Belginiii and tlic Black Forrest; 30 each of tlic
Rhino and Eusland; 200 of Italy and 250 of Switzerland; 40
of Athens; 100 of Constantinople; and lately he has added to
these 100 of Ey:ypt, from Cairo to the Cataracts, from negatives
taken by Firth.

MM. Clousard and Sonlier, who took the medal at the E.\'-
position Universelle for tiieir maiden attempts in Stereoscopy,
have afcmnulated a large stock of pictures; 122 of Paris; 250
of Germany; 150 of Spain and Algiers. Daring the Summer
they have been taking new pictures in Saxon Switzerland; last
year they added to thoir stock from the Tyrol. To illustrate the
care they bestow on their Stereoscope pictures, Mr. Bekel, in
whose employ they are, tells us that Mr. Clousard spent three
weeks together on the Tyrol without being able to ^take a single
picture, waiting for extraordinary clearness in the atmosphere.

Among other makers in Paris is M. Croupier, who has taken
some good views of Russian scenery principally in St. Peters-
burg, Moscow and Waisaw.

The Loudon Stereoscopic Co., makes more than lialf the
Stereoscope pictures that are made in London. A single section
of its estabiisiiment has facilities for turning oS" 1,000 every
day. Mr. Williams, one ol its principal artists, we met the
other day at High Bridge taking views of that noble structure
and its beautiful surroundings. He has been through the
country during the past Summer. He spent the Summer of
1841 in Ireland. The Englisli groups are widely renowned;
groups illustrating any striking thing, from a play at cards to
the impediments thrown in the way of lovers by a too extensive
crinoline. Tliese groups, it is well to see, are giving place, in
estimation of the public, to scenery, for the representation of
which the Stereoscope has no equal.

Mr. Langenheim of Phil., has patented an improvement
on the early French Stereoscope pictures on glass. It consists of
a plate ot ground glass behind the picture which renders the
ground glass in the instrument for holding the picture unnecess-
ary,and so, by dispensing with one glass, secures a better picture.
Tlie French makers use the inveution, and say that it was used
in France before he patented it. Mr. Langenheim has a number
of views taken in this country: 14 Summer views and 4 Winter
views of Niagara; 4 of Quebec; 5 of the White Mountains; 18
of the Hudson; 5 of the Catskill Mountains; 9 of New York;
1 of Philadelphia; 9 of Baltimore, 1 of Washington; 8 of
Boston; 6 about the Pottsville Coal Region, and 4 of Genesee
Falls. He colors his views, the French say, because they are
not so clear as theirs. However that may be, they are very fine.

A Stereoscopic Company has just gone into operation in this
city. It Ims complete sets of scenery for groups, and hopes to
find a considerable demand for family groups, which are taken
finely. A group of 50 persons can be taken, but 10 or 12 are
more convenient. A family of negroes are now sitting for groups
to illustrate Uncle Tom's Cabin. At the salesrooms arc a good
assortment of views where many pleasant hours can be spent in
looking over them. Here one may see Sunuyside, witli Wash-
ington Irving sitting in his porch; Longfellew's residence, with
the poet standing in the doorway; Agassiz' house, with the nn-
bougbt uaturalisl sitting on his steps; most of the views einune-
rated above; all sorts of domestic scenes, such as a series re-
presenting a courtship and marriage, and married life, from
girlhood round to blooming girlhood again; sports and plays;
everything. One cares no longer to go to Moscow, for here is
the Kremlin and the great bell with the crack in it, and we can
see it just as well on Broadway or at home.

And more complete assortments may be found elsewhere. A
John street house, in conjunction with an associate house in
Paris, employs MM. Clousard and Soulier exclusively, and,
besides, have on hand all valuable productions of other artists.
We were shown the best means of examining Stereoscope pictures
the inveution of an American, Mr. Becker. It is an elegant
piece of rosewood furniture — holds 25 views, arranged so that
by turning a knob they are successively brought into the range
of vision, and costs $25. Several hundreds of these have been
sold in tills country and in Europe. Here we also saw micro-
scopic Photographs — the Lord's prayer iu a piu-hcad space, and

several of Landseer's and Winterhalter's pictures of the same
dimensions. These, when placed under a microscope magnify-
ing 250 diameters, were expanded into course print and fine
pictures.

An ordinary hand instrument for examining views costs about
$3 at retail; landscapes on paper from $6 to $9 per dozen;
landscapes on glass from $15 to $30; English groups from $3
to $10.

Stereoscopes will probably soon take the place of engravings
in most parlors.

BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

ACTINO-CIIEMISTRY,

Extract Jrom Sir John HercheVs speech at the meeting of the
British Association at Leeds.

" If the phenomena of chemistry are ever destined to be re-
duced under the dominion of mathematical analysis, it will, no
doubt, be by a very circuitous and intricate route, and in which
at present we see no glimpse of light. We should, therefore,
be all the more carefully on the watch in making the most of
tliose classes of facts which seem to place us, not indeed within
view of daylight, but at what seems an opening that may possi-
bly lead to it. Such are those in which the agency of light is
concerned in modifying or subverting the ordinary affinities of
material elements, those to which the name of the actino-che-
inistry has been affixed. Hitherto the more attractive applica-
tions of photography have had too much the effect of distract-
ing the attention from the purely chemical question which it
raises ; but the more we consider them in the abstract, the more
strongly they force themselves on onr notice : and I look for-
ward to their occupyiug a much larger space in the domain of
chemical inquiry than is the case at present. That light con-
sists in the undulations of an ethereal medium, or at all events
agrees better in the characters of its phenomena with such un-
dulations, than with any other kind of motion which it has yet
been possible to imagine, is a proposition on which I suppose the
minds of physicists are pretty well made up. The recent re-
searches of Professor Thomson and Mr. Joule moreover have
gone a great way towards bringing into vogue, if not yet fully
under acceptation, the doctrine of a more or less analogous con-
ception of heat. When we consider how the marked influence
which the different calorific states of bodies have on their affini-
ties— the change of crystalline form effected iu some by a change
iu temperature — the allotropic states taken on by some on ex-
posure to heat — or the heat given out by others on their resto-
ration from the allotropic to the ordinary form (for though I
am aware that Mr. Gore considers his electro-deposited antimo-
ny to be a compound, I cannot help fancying that, at all events,
the state in which the antimony exists in it is an allotropic one),
when, I say, we consider these facts in which heat is concerned,
and compare them with the facts of photography, and witii the
ozonizatiou of oxygen by the chemical rays of the electric
spark, and with the striking alterations in the chemical habi-
tudes of bodies pointed out by Draper, Hunt, and Becqnerel ;
and when again we lied these carried so far that, as in the ex-
periments of Bunsen and Roscoe, we find the amount of chemi-
cal action measuring the quality of light absorbed — it seems
hardly possible not to indulge a iiope that the pursuit of these
strange phenomena may by degrees conduct us to a mechanical
theory of chemical action itself. Even should this hope remain
unrealized, the field itself is too wide to remain unexplored, and
to say nothing of discovery, the use of photography merely as
a chemical test may prove very valuable, as I have myself quite
recently experienced, in the evidence it has afforded me of the
characters of arsenic, but differing from it in others, and strik-
ingly contrasted with it in its powerful photographic qualities,
which are of singular intensity, surpassing iodine, and almost
equaling bromine,"

1858.

TUE PHOTOGRAPniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

305

ON THE DRY COLLODION' PROCESSES," BY W. SYKES WARD, ESQ.

Hft observed that some apology was due from him for occupy-
ing the time of the section with this subject, as he had ah'eady
introduced it at Cheltenham, and again last year at Dublin ;
but in the dry j)roces3 he thought there was more scope for in-
vestigation than in any other department of photography, and
he mentioned the continued researches and experiments of both
French and p]nglish photographers on the subject ; a result of
which being that they had a vast number of different processes
published — so many, indeed, that they were likeiy to create
confusion. There was, however, an advantage in their variety,
as most of them were capable of modification and interchange-
ability, so that au operator might adapt each to his own parti-
cular requirements. It had been objected to the use of many
of the methods proposed that they required so much manipula-
tion ; but, in his opinion, the great thing to be aimed at was a
superior result, and certainly he was no true artist who objected
to one or two more operations, provided a successful result were
attained. Many of the operations were for the purpose more of
correcting errors or removing stains than necessary parts of the
process. He then detailed a variety of the dry processes, refer-
ring in terras of high eulogy to that proposed by Mr. Maxwell
■ Lyte, in which a film of meta-gelatine is used. This process,
be thought, liad not obtained tlie notice of which it was well
worthy. It had been urged that the dry process had mostly
failed in the production of views of the foliage of trees and of
water in motion, but in this respect Mr. Lyte's process was sin-
gularly successful. He might state, in conclusion, that none of
the dry collodion processes that had come under his notice were
so sensitive as they were represented to be, although that was a
matter of minor importance as it regarded small pictures, espe-
cially such as were used for the stereoscope ; yet it was of much
consequence in larger pictures.

MR. R. J. FOWLER ON A PROCESS FOR THE ESTIMATION OF AC-

TINISM

W

He said that in drawing the attention of the section to the
estimation of the actinic force of the solar radiations his object
was rather to add what he presumed were new facts to the
science of actinometry than to present a perfect and complete
process in every respect. In the 9th volume of Gmelhi's Hand-
book of Chemistry he found it stated that " Oxalate of ammonia,
mixed with aqueous proto-chloride of mercury, is decomposed
uuder the inQuence of light, yielding sal-aminoniac, calomel, and
carbonic acid ;" it also stated that " the mixture of the two so-
lutions remains clear in the dark ; in daylight it becomes turbid
in six minutes, and in the course of au hour deposits calomel,
which in sunshine quickly falls down in soft flakes, surrounded
with bubbles of carbonic acid. The filtrate no longer contains
mercury, but chloride of ammonia and undecomposed oxalate of
ammonia^." On seeing this he was at once struck with the idea
that there might be the elements of a process for actinometry,
and whether this was the fact, he left them to judge from the
experiments he had tried on the subject. He found it true that
the solutions might be kept unchanged for an indefinite period
in the dark ; that the calomel began to precipitate in from 15
to 20 minutes in full sunshine ; and also that the precipitate
ceased immediately the vessel containing the solution was re-
moved from solar influence, thus showing that the action is not
continued in darkness, even when the change has been partially
effected, and that the action of the actinism, is not in this case
catalytic. He had also exposed three tubes containing the mix-
ed solutions to pretty uniform light, No. 1 for ten minutes; No.
^ twenty minutes; No. 3 forty minutes; the results being that
No. 2 contained twice the bulk of precipitate of No. 1, and No.
4 twice the bulk of No. 2. When the solutions were exposed
several hours the vessel containing them was found to be com-
pletely filled with a magma of the precipitated calomel. From
these experiments it appears conclusive that the mixture of so-
lutions of oxalate of ammonia and proto-chloride of mercury is
very sensitive to light, and as this action of light is not cataly-

39*

tic, the precipitate obtained may be considered as produced by
solar influence alone; and lastly, that a definite amount of ac-
tinic force ; thus proving that there are elements of certainty
and uniformity in the behavior of the mixed solutions when ex-
posed to solar influence, from which a certain method for estima-
ting the actinic force may be formed If extreme delicacy were
required in the estimations, the precipitate might be collected,
dried and weighed ; but, where this was unnecessary, graduated
tubes might be used for exposing the mixed solutions, and from
which, after standing a certain time in the dark, the amount
could at once be racked off. Mr. Fowler stated that in his expe-
riments he had used a nearly saturated solution of the two salts,
but this was by no means necessary, as he found that, if a drop
of the solution of proto-chloride of mercury, containing one l-
1500th part of a grain of that salt were added to 300 grains
of the solution of oxalate of ammonia, and exj)0sed to the light,
the calomel would still be precipated. The reaction in fact be-
ing so delicate that it might be used as a confirmatory test for
the presence of proto-chloride of mercury. He stated in con-
clusion that it would be interesting to know how the absorbed
actinism of M. Niepce de St. Victor would affect the solutions.
He had made some experiments in that direction, but not with
sufiSciont success to warrant any positive assertions.

At the close of Mr. Fowler's paper, no immediate remarks
being made on the subject, Mr. Mercer, F. R. S , exhibited
several specimens of Chromatic Photographs, some being on
calico, or a similar fabric, produced by previously soaking the
material employed in a solution of per-oxalate of iron ; the ef-
fects produced were both singular and novel, and the method
promises to lead to photographic color-printing ; it is at least a
step in that direction. As the photographs were being handed
round for examination, Mr. Mercer gave a few brief explana-
tions of the circumstances that led to their production.

MR. W. LYNDON SMITH ON THE " CHOTCE' OF SUBJECT IN PHOTO-
GRAPHY, AND THE ADAPTATION OF DIFFERENT PROCESSES."

He said it was the grand reproach thrown against photogra-
phy that it was a merely mechanical operation, and that its vo-
taries need not necessarily possess taste, imagination, or even a
knowledge of the rudimentary elements of pictorial art. A
writer in the last number of the Art Journal states that his ob-
ject is to show that no mechanical process can long supersede the
living agency of man's mind, and that photography is and never
can be anything more than a servant of servants ; and the
writer proceeds in a long and tedious ex'position to prove by ar-
guments, neither novel nor ingenio-js, the utter inadequacy of
photography to maintain the position in which its admirers
would place it. Now the^'e remarks, he was awiire, would not
make the slightest imp/ression on genuine disciples of the art,
but he introduced tl:iem because adverse criticisms were in some
measure meritp/a by the ill choice of subjects the majority of
photographers, both professional and amateur, had made, the
former generally styling themselves photographic " artists,"
but with what impropriety their specimens too often showed.
However, within the last two years there had been very great
improvement. The art in the first days of photography was
totally lost sight of in the excitement produced by the marvels
of the science, and it is but lately that the camera has been trans-
ferred from the hands of the chemist, (who has taught us indis-
pensable knowledge, and to whom we could not be sufBciently
grateful,) to the hands of the artist, who now demonstrates
daily the beauty and truth of its representations. The most
common subjects represented have been architectural views, and
the French photographers have arrived at a great amount of
perfection in this department, yet, in even the best of their pic-
tures, there is often a want of taste in the point of view select-
ed. They are too often taken from an elevation, to prevent the
inclination upwards of the camera, which causes the uptight
lines to converge, and consequently there is a loss of magnitude,
and the beauties of perspective are diminished. Again, they
are generally full front instead of in \)erspective, which latter
position is always more picturesque. But it is in landscape that

the glorious fidelity of tlie camera, when its direction is con-
trolled by the true artist, is most evident. No:ie but lie can ex-
perience the delight of catching the most transient effects of
ever-changing nature. It is in tliis direction that the glo-
rious future of artistic photograpliy lays, and the true lover
of nature will delight more in a specimen of this class than in
scores of hasty sketches, even by clever men, or in the gaudy
and meretricious coloring of thepre-Raphaelite, vainly attempt-
ing to delineate, by the liaiid, tliat wliicli the sun himself paints
for us in the photograph. Photographers are generally too
frightened of getting the sun in the camera, as they say, to take
their views with its back to their best friend, and thus they lose
all the cross shadows which give a stereoscopic effect to a pic-
ture, and, in fact, get hardly any shadow at all : as with the
sun in the position mentioned, the shadows are all behind the
different objects composing the view. He had invariably found
that the most pleasing pictures were taken with the sun shining
riglit on the front ot the camera, and in this case the precaution
must be taken to shield the lens froin the direct rays of the sun
by the hand or otherwise. Water in motion is rarely repro-
duced with success, except in instantaneous views, and for the
present that must be left to the painter, who, by the aid of while
paint and hard brushes, can give us any amount of cataract.
The paiuter himself even condescends to use the camera for the
depiction of foliage and herbage, and photographic studies of
foreground are most generally admired for the extreme delicacy
with which the veiniiigs and markiugs of the tenderest herb or
flower are delineated ; still it must not be forgotten that fore-
grounds are most lovely when adjuncts to an extended view
The study of compositiou is as necessary to the photographer as
to the painter, and every student of the art may derive much
benefit from the study of J. D. Harding's " Principles and Prac-
tice of Art," which, coutaining much from which many will dis-
sent, conveys to an inquirer much useful aod practical informa-
tion. AVith reference to the latter portion of his subject, Mr.
Smith mentioned that calotype paper was, in his opinion, suita-
ble for giving bold effects, though open to objection on account
of its want of clear definition and its granular surface. The
wax paper was more homogeneous, but i)oth methods are now
generally exploded. Albumen on glass gave exquisite defini-
tion, and was most successfully used for taking engravings and
paintings, on account of the clearness of lines and the absence
of dirtiness in the white parts, a fault to which collodion is lia-
ble. In his opinion the albumen on glass process could not be
improved upon by any of the modern processes to which Mr.
Ward had alluded. Undoubtedly the collodion process was the
best, notwithstanding the inconvenience attending its use. The
collodio-albumen process, so much advocated at present, appear-
ed to him extremely unsatisfactory, though the confideuce'of its
supporters was unbounded ; and as to the dry collodion process,
by it no unsatisfactory effects have yet been produced, though
every effort had been made by its advocates. He concluded,
by hoping that the remarks he had made might excite discus-
sion, that so any fallacy might be confuted, and any truth con-
firmed.

The Rev. W. Y. Harcourt, who had taken the chair in the
absence of the President, deprecated any lengthened discussion
on account of the time.

Mr. W. S. Ward said the thanks of the section were due to
Mr. Mercer for his experiments, and in reference to the last pa-
per remarked that he could not agree altogether with its author
as to artistic difficulties. A tyro in the art would do anything,
but a photographic artist could only become one by repeated
trials. He did not consider it to be right to change photogra-
phy from a science to an art ; and genuine artistic effects vvere
produced through photograpliy being under the dominion of the
chemist and physicist. To secure the full effect of foliage and
of water much exposure was absolutely necessary. The great
practical difliculty was to hit the right point between under and
over exposure, as the efl'ect of light was more powerful at first
than alterwards. He might say that the less a photographer
was satisfied with what he had accomplished the more likely was
he to succeed better in future.

Mr. Smith said that he believed the simpler the manipulation
and materials the better. He thought the dry process a com-
plete failure. Photographers might be divided into two sections;
the scientific, who sought out and experimented upon complicat-
ed processes; and the artistic, whose great object was to pro-
duce the best effects.

Dr. Odli.n'g observed that some instruments had been used by
Bunsen and others to determine the actinic force, but they were
entirely out of the reach of the ordinary practitioner. He
trusted Mr. Fowler would proceed with his researcheSj and in^
quired if the decomposition of the solution referred to had pvO'
needed pari passu with the length of exposure ?

lu

SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENTS
the Camera, and Mounting of lenses.

BY THOMAS SUTTON.

[Wrilteiifor the Sept, Meeting of the Birmingham PJiotographic Society.]

Mr. Chairhan and Gentlemen:

When I received for insertion in the Journal of your Society,
the report of your last meeting, it was accompanied by a letter
from your Secretary inviting me to contribute a paper for your
next Meeting. I can assure you I felt much flattered by the re-
quest, and it has been an agreeable task to me to comply with
it.

Mr. Osborne proposed that I should take for my suliject
"The Photograpliic Camera, and Mounting of Lenses," and
lay before you certain suggestions which have occured to me for
the improvement of the instrument by means of which photo-
graphic pictures are taken. The subject is important, and I
feel the more pleasure in submitting my remarks to your notice,
because I am sure that an audience in such a town as Birming-
ham must be likely to contain many ingenious practical men
who will percive at a glance the merits of any real improvement
in apparatus which may be pointed out.

But first let me observe that my object in proposing certain
modifications in the present form of the photographic lenses, is,
that we may improve our means of obtaining a good picture and
not that the instrument may be rendered more portable or more
convenient, or prettier to look at, or cheaper to buy. I feel
sure that I am expressing the opinions of every one present,
when I say that since photographic pictures have now reached
a high point of excellence in the hands of skilful operators, no
one should rest satisfied with only tolerable results obtained
with comparatively little trouble or cost, if it can be shown that
by any improvement in his apparatus, and by bestowing a lit-
tle more trouble and thought upon the matter, better results
can be obtained. I mean that we must now look more to the
end, and less to the mere convenience or economy of the means
employed ; and if with a rather less portable, and perhaps more
costly instrument, better pictures can be got, then we must
rather congratulate ourselves that a little extra trouble and
money can be well laid out, than grumble because the camera and
lens are a little heavier and cost a trifle more than they did
before. . In fact, I feel sure that there is not one among yon,
who does not agree with me that it would be better, if need" be',
to carry the apparatus to the field in a waggon, drawn by a tcain
of horses, and return with good negatives, than to walk there
comiorlably with the whole of the apparatus in one's coat pocket,
and return with indifferent pictures; for surely labor is a i)lea-
sure when it ends in success,— amusement a toil when it ends in
profitless results.

In a word then, I will endeavor to direct your attention to
some defects which I observe in the ordinary construction of
cameras and lenses, and will suggest how I think they may be
remedied, without caring to consider whether the apparatus is
thereby rendered heavier, or more costly, or unsightly,— or
whether the bulk of amateurs or professionals are liliely to
trouble their heads about these improvements, — or the trade

1858.

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

307

likely to modify the instruments which are now made and sold
by the gross. My remarks are addressed to the thinking,
pains-taking photographer, who will be glad, I am sare, to have
any method pointed out to hiiu, by wliich his own apparatus
may be improved.

To the point, then : —

I will asume, for the sake of argument, that the glasses of
the lens do their work properly, and produce a good image upon
the focusing screen, and tliat the camera is light-tight, and well
put together. The question then becomes, — is all extraneous
light which enters through the lens completely prevented from
falling upon the iuuige ? I regret to say that in general it is
not ; and my object in this paper will be to endeavor to show
why, aud where, stray light finds its way into the camera, and
falls upon the picture.

Suppose, gentlemen, you were any of you to enter an artist's
studio, and observe him at work before his easel, and you saw
that while he was painting one part of his picture in pure clean
colors, a monkey seated upon his shoulder was amusing himself,
unknown to the artist, with applying a long brnsh filled either
with black or white paint, to some other part of the picture —
would you not be inclined to knock that mischievous monkey off
his perch, and remonstrate with the artist for permitting sach
an animal to enter his studio ? Now, the unfortunate photo-
grapher is very much in the position of the artist in the above
case, only instead of the monkey, he has to deal with a thousand
stray beams of light which the optician has allowed to enter the
camera, and which paint a second picture of their own upon the
legitimate image. Let us then do battle at once with these
straggling rays, — trace them back through their tortuous paths
to the point of ingress, and banish them from the image, so as to
get pictures free from accidental blurs and fogs.

The way to deal experimentally with this subject, is to take
the camera out of doors, and expose it to a view that is strongly
lighted, — then, (the end of the camera being open, and without
the ground glass), to throw the black cloth over your head,
and draw it tightly under your chin and the bottom of the
camera, and observe what light you see within, bearing in mind
that whatever light from any part enters your eye, would also
fall upon the sensitive tablet in the same place.

I will first discuss the case of the view-camera and lens with
a stop in front.

The first thing j'ou will observe in this or any other camera
is, that the picture formed by the lens is round and larger than
the oblong end of the camera, so that on all four sides of the
camera, next to the open end, a luminous image is thrown, in
the shape of the segment of a circle; consequently the reflected
light from these four segments, which enters your eye and
lenders them visible, from all possible positions, must fall upon
every part of the sensitive tablet. Here then we have discovered
one source of diffused light, which fall upon the entire picture,
and produces universal fog, to an extent depending upon the
rellecting power of the sides of the camera. These outer seg-
ments of the image formed by the lens, and which fall upon
the sides of the camera, may be easly cut off by a diaphram,
having an aperture, the size and shape of which is determined
by supposing a straight line to travel round the circumference
of the back lens, and the edge of the picture, and at the same
time always to pass through the axis of the lens. In all my
cameras the first thing I do is to insert a diaphram, made of
millbord, at about one-fourth of the distance from the picture
to the lens. I make the diaphram like a shallow cardboard
box, and push it into the camera to the required distance.
Should the lens be raised or lowered by the sliding adjustment
in the front of the camera, a different diaphram must of course
be substituted for the first. This involves a little trouble. I
leave it to your ingenuity to suggest some simple plan for effect-
ing these changes, without which I think you will agree with
me, that no camera is complete. It would answer the purpose
nearly as well, to put a diaphram having an aperture the same
shape as the picture against the back of the lens, but the ob-
jection to that plan is, that such a diaphram would cut off the
outer half of ail the extreme oblique pencils. In some cases

it might be necessary to add a second diaphram between the
first and the lens. In fact it may be stated as a general prin-
ciple to be observed in the construction of all optical instru-
ments, that a series of diiiphrams, having suitable apertures,
should be inserted between the lens and the image in order to
cut off reflected light from the side of the tube. On looking
through such a tube towards the lens, nothing would then be
seen but the lens, because the dark sides of the diaphrams
wo'dd be turned towards the eye, and these could reflect no
light. I do not know whether this principle is generally ob-
served in the tubes of telescopes used at Observatories, but I
have a fine astronomical telescope 4i-ins. focus, in which the
principle has been overlooked, aud the consequence is a want
of purity iu the image, which is sadly diluted with diffused
light.

The insides of cameras are usually blackened with lamp-black
and glue, which is a very good composition for the purpose. I
think black velvet unnecessary when proper diaphrams are in-
serted. I believe nothing more is wanting in the inside of the
camera.

The next stray light you will perceive is a ring of light round
the lower part of the circumference of the lens. This is seen
most clearly from the middle and upper part of the camera. To
convince yourself of its bad effect, put the ground glass in
its place, and you will find that the shadows in that part of the
picture are diluted with diffused light ; but the effect disappears
if, while you are looking in, some one shades the upper part of
the lens with his hand, so as to cut off oblique light from the
sky ; but this shading of the lens must be carried down to such
an extent as to cut off also a part of the picture. The proper
remedy is simple enough. The lens should be made half-an-
ineh larger iu diameter, and an annulus a quarter-inch wide,
should cover the outer part of its face ; because this luminous
ring is occasioned by light, which is internally reflected from
the broad outside edge of the lens.

Next, remove the lens from the tube, and make your observa-
tion again for stray light. In some view lenses the tube is
shaped like a cone, having the stop at the small end and the
lens at the large end. In this case the inner sides of the cone
are lighted by oblique rays, and consequently reflect light,
which is scattered in all directions by refraction through the
lens. This conical mounting of a view-lens is as ill-conceived as
can well be. But suppose the lens to be mounted in a cylin-
drical tube, having a small stop midway between the open end
and the lens ; — observe what happens. The lower part of the
tube, outside the stop, is lighted by the sky ; some of this light
is reflected through the stop and lights the upper part of the
tube inside, and a confused image of this patch of light is form-
ed by the lens towards the bottom of the picture. The pro-
longation of the tube beyond the stop is therefore of no use. In-
stead of this, a diaphram, having a round hole of suitable diam-
eter, should be placed midway between the fixed stop and the
leus. When this is done no light will be seen on the inside of
the tube, and the mounting of the lens is perfect.

We have, so far then, a properly-constructed view-camera
with a properly-mounted view-lens of the ordinary form ; but I
have not yet done with this instrument. You all know that by
"'oinf down to the bottom of a well the stars may be seen at
mid-day. That is because the diffused light existing in the at-
mosphere is cut off aud only the light emitted directly from the
star allowed to enter the eye. Now this principle should be
observed in the construction of cameras, and only the light
which is emitted by the objects of the picture be allowed to fall
upon the lens. To effect this, a long tube is by no means nec-
cessary ; all that is required is to continue the camera iu front
of the lens to about two-thirds its focal length, and to close the
open end of the camera in front by a diaphram having a hole
the same shape as the picture, and of the proper size. This ren-
ders the instrument complete, and no light, save from the ob-
jects to be taken, can by possibility fall upon the picture. Some
time ago you will perhaps remember that a little discussion was
conducted in this Journal between myself and some other gentle-
men vrith respect to the shape of the diaphram as determining

the slmpc of the picture. What I said then is not contra-
dicted by what I say now. The diaphram in tlic lens tube may
be any shape you choose, — round, square, or triangular, — and
the picture will still bo round ; but a diaplirani in the front of
the camera produced wi/i! delcrmiue the sliajie of the picture, for
it will form, so to speak, a part of the picture. I hope this is
now clearly understood,

The niodificalion which I have made in my own cameras, and
which I have now described, may therefore be summed up as
follows : —

My camera is a bo.\, nearly twice as long as the focal length
of the lens. Nearly in the middle of this bo.x, a partition is in-
serted wliicli carries the lens upon a slider having two motions
in the u.Mial way, and which when necessary passes through the
sides of the camera. One side of the camera has a trap door
through which the hand may be inserted for focussing the lens.
Both ends of the camera are open. In one the dark slide is
placed ; in the other a diaphram the same as the picture. Be
twecn the lens and thedaik slide, and rather nearer to the lat-
ter, a d'laphram is inserted. With such a camera, and a lens
mounted as I have described, no stray light can by any possibili-
ty fall upon the image.

There are one or two other points connected with the camera,
on which I shall be glad to have your opinion. I think it a very
desirable thing to be able to do away with the ground glass, and
to focus upon the film itself; partly because the ground glass is
an extra article to carry, and one very liable to get broken ; prin-
cipally because a better focus would in general be obtained by
focussing directly upon the film. I find it perfectly easy to focus
upon the film, when a piece of yellow glass is put before the
lens, — the head and arms being of course inserted in a black bag
attached to the back of the camera. Let us then see if we can
get rid of this black bag operation, and still focus upon the film.

My idea is that the dark slide should have two sliding shut-
ters, one in front as usual, the other at the back ; and that in-
stead of putting the head and shoulders in a black bag, a Rams-
den's eye-i)lecc should be used as a focussing magnifier, which
might be passed about upon the back of the plate, and be con-
nected with black stuff to the end of the camera. The lenses of
of this magnifier, Cwliich arc simply two equal plano-convex len-
ses with the plane sides outwards) should of course be made of
yellow glass. One great advantage of focusing upon the film
would be in taking instantaneous pictures ; the proper moment
for uncovering the lens might then be determined to a nicety and
the yellow cup be removed by the mere pressure of the finger
upon a trigger ; and while ou this subject 1 should be glad if
you cau tell me of the best CDlitvivance for an instantaneous
cap.

There is however another plan for focussing upon the film itself
which might be better than a Kamsden's eye-piece, with yellow
lenses, and a black bag. Every dark slide, you all know, should
be made capable of taking non-reversed pictures if required, by
putting the plate with its plain side next to the lens. Suppose
then we make the slide so that the plate is put in from the front
and that cither side of it may rest ui)on silver wires, while some
simple contrivance at each corner fixes it in its place. The
back of the slide way then be mode of yellow glass, covered
with a black curtain, and the focusing may be done upon the
fdm, with the head under a bhick cloth in the usual way. These
are matters which I think worthy of your consideration, and 1
shall be glad to have your suggestions will) respect to them.

I would now discuss the mode of mounting the Orthoscopic
and Portrait combinations, did your time permit ; but I believe
that enough has been said to indicate the principle which should
be observed in the mounting of photograithic len.ses. Tlic bad
cfl'ects of not attending to these principles are immediately per-
ceived when a portrait lens and camera of the usual construc-
tion are taken out of doors, or when a common view lens is
turned a little towards the origin of light, or towards the sky,
for the purpose of taking clouds. As for the portrait-lens, the
mounting of that instrument might pro[)erly form the subject of
1 separate paper.

With respect to the mounting of the Orthoscopic Lens, 1

cannot suggest any improvement. The diaphram which has
been judiciously inserted between the back and Iront lenses ap-
pears to be all that is required.

I shall be glad to have your opinion on a point connected with
the portrait-lens when used with a small diaphram for taking
views. According to my expciicnce, it happens with all portrait-
lenses, when the diaphram is placed between thelenses,^^or in con-
tact with the front lens, it matters not), that a round patch of
fog occurs in the middle of the picture, when the lens is present-
ed to an ordinary well-lighted view. I cannot quite explain this
satisfactorily to myself. It does not proceed from dew upon
the lens, nor from diffused light which enters in any way, be-
cause I have taken every possible precaution to prevent this.
My impression was until yesterday, that this patch of fog did
not occur when the stop is put midway between the lenses, but
I find I was wrong in that idea. Only yesterday, I went out
for the first time to take some views with my large portrait
lens, which is 4-iu8, diameter, and 13-iiis. focal length, and mid-
way between the lenses of which I inserted a stop three-eighths-
of-an-inch diameter. I took three negatives, in the centre of
everyone of which a dark spot the size of a half-crown was pro-
duced. Before sitting down to write this jiaper this morning, I
busied myself for a couple of hours with the attempt to unravel
this mystery, but I am sorry to say in vain, for I can only guess
at the cause of that .spot. It ai)pears, however, that the larg-
er the diaphram the larger and more diffused the spot becomes,
so that with full aperture out of doors the entire plate is cover-
ed with a veil of fog, which is thickest in the middle ; and
when the lens is used for instantaneous pictures, this fog des-
troys the brilliancy of the shadows in the centre of the picture,
a defect which I have perceived in all the iiistantaueoiis pictures
by other artists that 1 have seen, and which have been taken
with portrait lenses. I am inclined to think that this spot is
occasioned by light which has been internally reflected at the
inner side of the convex surface of the front lens, and which
forms a sort of cone of light, having the front lens for its base
and its apex a little way nearer to the back lens than the stop.
This apex then forms the origin, so to speak, of a diverging
pencil very near the back lens, which pencil, after refraction
through it, forms a confused circle of aberration npon the piC'
ture, which occasions the unfortunate spot in question. I have
never thought the portrait combination at all adapted for tak-
ing views, even with a small slop, and now that this spot seems
to be a frcqncnt accompaniment of the use of that instrument
out-of-doors, 1 shall in future feel doubly distrustful of it The
Orthoscopic lens, although a double combination, works ex-
tremely clean, Ijut that may be because the back lens is actually
placed at the stop, so that any supposed cone of internally re
fleeted light from the front lens would not have the opportun-
ity of coming to an appex or point, but would be .scattered in
all directions. I wish it to be understood, however, that the
spot produced by a portrait-lense with a small diaphram be-
tween the lenses only occurs to an injurious extent when one
part of the view, (the sky for instance,) is strongly lighted,
and the exposure timed with reference to the deep shadows.
Besides, 1 sometimes develop my negatives with iron, and that
may fetch out tho spot more disagreeably.

And now, I think, gentlemen, I have pretty nearly exhausted
your patience, and the tiine alloted to the reading of a i)aper.
1 fear my subject has not been very entertaining, and that I
have not treated it in a very amusing way. It is however im-
portant that all obvious optical defects should as far as possible
be removed from the instruineiit in which ])hotographers take
their jiietures, and I trust that my inlroduetion of the suliject
will elicit some able comments and suggestions from yourselves.

rermit me, in conclusion, to assure you of the plea-^ure it al-
ways gives me to receive for insertion in my Plwlograjihic Nulcs
the valuable eomniuiiieatioiis read at your meetings, and of the
satislaction with which 1 observe the growing importance and
increasing usefulness of your Society. Jf I can, in any way, as
a Journalist, promote your interests, I beg you will never
hcsitaie to make use of me. I am sure you will be glad to hear
that the Journal of your Society has nearly doubled its circula-

1858.

THE PnOTOGRAPIIIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

309

tiou during the present year, — that it is gradually gaining a
footing in America, tiirough the kind exertions of Messrs. An-
thony, of New York, — and that in India, vVnstralia, Cliina,
and the Cape it has numerous subscribers, principally among
military gentlemen, many of whom have now adopted photo-
grajthy as a hobby ; while on the Continent most of tiie eminent
photogiapheis with whose names you are well acquainted
appear to be fameUar with its contents. In fact, the Notes are
now rejoicing in a state of financial prosperity which far surpas-
ses the expectations I originally formed of such a periodical.
1 have been frequently asked why I do not carry out an idea I
once entertained of jiublishing a weekly. — but 1 have thought
it better to leave well enough alone, having my doubts how far
a weekly Journal of Photography is really required or could be
satisfactorily sustained, and feeling quite sure that a weekly
Journal would take me too much from my dark room, and inter-
fere with the experiments which can alone sustain my original
articles, and keei) me up to the mark in my replies to correspon-
dents. I confess it is my ambition to be something more than a
mere newsmonger or writer, — and tliat being the case, my dark
room, and the days I spend in it, are as necessary to my Jour-
nal as the type and printing press.

You know I have published lately a Dictionary of Photo-
graphy. I have enclosed a copy along with this communication,
•which I trust you will honour me by adding to the library of
your Society,

ROMANCE AND RUBBER;
Or Tlie Vicissitudes of an Inventor.

Every man who has labored to bring into being some creation
for the common good of mankind, has been subjected to unkind
criticisms, opposition and derision. These remarks forcibly ap-
ply to Mr. Charles Goodyear, the inventor of the numerous im-
provements in the manufacture of India Rubber. We subjoin
some extracts from the opinion of Mr. Holt, the Commissioner
of Patents, on the application to extend Mr. Goodyear's patent.
They will amply repay the reader for their perusal :

Upon the first point, the testimony alike of the applicant and
of the contestants is concurrent and conclusive. From the first
moment that the conception entered his mind until his complete
success — embracing a period of from sixteen to eighteen years —
he applied himself unceasingly and enthusiastically to its per-
fection, and to its introduction into use, in every form that his
fruitful genius could devise. So intensely were his faculties con-
centrated upon it that he seems to have been incapable of
thought or of action upon any other subject. He had no other
occupation, was inspired by no other hope, cherished no other
ambition. He carried continually about his person a piece of
India rubber, and into the ears of all who would listen he pour-
ed incessantly the stories of his experiments and the glowing
language of his prophecies. He was, according to the witness-
es, completely absorbed by it, both by day and night, pursuing
it with untiring energy and with almost superhuman perseve-
rance. Not only were the powers of his mind and body thus
ardently devoted to the invention and its introduction into use,
but every dollar he possessed or could command through the re-
sources of his credit, or the influence of friendship, was uncal-
culatingly cast into that seething caldron of experiment which
was allowed to know no repose. The very bed on which his
wife slept, and the linen that covered his table, were seized and
sold to pay his board, and we see him with his stricken house-
hold following in the funeral of his child on foot, because he had
no means with which to hire a carriage. His family had to en-
dure privations almost surpassing belief, being frequently without
an article of food in their house, or fuel in the coldest weather,
and indeed it is said that they could not have lived through the
winter of 1839 but for the kind offices of a few charitable
friends. They are represented as gathering sticks in the woods
and on the edges of the highways, with which to cook their
meals, and digging the potatoes of their little garden before

they were half grown, while one of his hungry children, in a
spirit worthy of liis father, is heard expressing his thanks that
this much had been spared to them. We often find him incar-
cerated in the debtor's prison, but even amid its gloom his vi-
sions of the future never grew dim, his faith in his ultimate
triumph never faltered. Undismayed by discomfitures and sor-
rows which might well have broken the stoutest spirit, his lan-
guage eveiy where, and under all circumstances, was that of en-
couragement and of a profound conviction of final success. Not
only in the United States did he thus exert himself to establish
and apply to every possible use his invention, but in England,
France, and other countries of Europe, he zealously pursued the
same career. In 1855 he appeared at the World's Fair in Pa-
ris, and the golden medal and the Grand Cross of the Legion
of Honor were awarded to him as the representative of his
country's inventive genius. Fortune, however, while thus ca-
ressmg him with one hand, was at the same time smiting him
with the other; for we learn from the testimony that these brd-
liant memorials passed from the Emperor and reached their hon-
ored recipient, then the occupant of a debtor's prison, among
strangers and in a foreign land — thus adding yet another to that
long, sad catalogue of public benefactors who have stood ne-
glected and impoverished in the midst of the waving harvest of
blessings they had bestowed upon their race. Throughout all
these scenes of trial, so vividly depicted by the evidence, he de-
rived no support from the sympathies of the public. While
the community at large seemed to have looked on him as one
chasing a phantom, there were times when even his best friends
turned away from liim as an idle visionary, and he was fated to
encounter on every side sneers and ridicule to which each
baffled experiment, and the pecuniary loss it inflicted, added a
yet keener edge. The mercenary naturally enough pronounced
his expenditures, so freely made, culpably wasteful ; the selfish
and the narrow-minded greeted the expression of his enlarged
and far-reaching views as the ravings of an enthusiast ; while it
is fair to infer from the depositions that not a few of the timid
and plodding, who cling, tremblingly apprehensive of change,
to the beaten paths of human thought and action, regarded him
as wandering on the very brink of insanity, if not already pur-
suing its wild and flickering lights. Such in all times has been
the fate of the greatest spirits that have appeared on the arena
of human discovery, and such will probably continue to be the
doom of all whose stalwart strides carry them in advance of the
race to which they belong. With such a record of toil, of pri-
vation, of courage, and of perseverance in the midst of discour-
agements the most depressing, it is safe to affirm that not only
has the applicant used that due diligence enjoined by law, but
that his diligence has been, in degree and in merit, perhaps with-
out parallel in the annals of invention.

Inventors and other men of high creative genius have ever
been distinguished for a total want of what is called " business
habits." Completely engrossed by some favorite theory, and
living in the dazzling dreams of their own imagination, they
scorn the counsels and restraints of worldly thrift, and fling from
them the petty cares of the mere man of commerce, as the lion
shakes a stinging insect from its mane. The law, in its wisdom,
takes cognizance of human character, and deals with men and
with classes of men as it finds them. It seems, in this instance,
to have assumed, and justly, that, if we would have the magni-
ficent ci cations of genius, we must take them with all these in-
firmities, which seem as inseparable from them as the spots are
from the sun.

*

*

*

*

Sulphur had already been advantageously combined with In-
dia rubber by Hayward, so that the discovery had been ap-
proached to its very verge. The step, however, which remained
to be taken, short as it was, was indispensable, and without it
all those which had preceded it would have been unavailing.
Science could afl"ord but little assistance in the inquiry, for, as
the event proved, the most potent element in the process was
too subtle to be disclosed by the severest chemical analysis.

310

THE PIIOTOGRAPniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

October,

The applicant bad, therefore, to pursue the investigation grop-
ingly ; but he persisted in it with an ardor and a courage which
uoUiing could abate or daunt. His aim was definite, liis convic-
tion as to its attainability complete. As one who searches for
a hidden treasure in a field where he knows it is to be found, so
pursued he his explorations in quest of this secret. He sought
it on the right hand and on the left, by day and by night, in the
midst of ceaseless toil and lavish expenditure, and by the light
ot every form of experiment which his most; fertile genius and
daring spirit could suggest. He became completely master of
everything known in regard to the properties of the material
which it was his ambition to irjprove, and so thoroughly was he
imbued with tlie soul of his inquiry, and so intensely quickened
was his vigilance, that no phenomenon, however minute, could
meet his eye ; no sound, however faint, could fall upon his ear
without his at once detecting and appreciating its bearing upon
the great problem whose solution he was seeking. From four
to five years were passed in these unremitted labors, when an in-
cident occurred which at once revealed the long-sought truth.
And it is a singular coincidence, that the spark of light yielded
by this incident, was elicited by a collision, so to speak, the re-
sult of that intense zeal which, so far as health and fortune were
concerned, had been the consuming fire of his life. In one of
those animated conversations so habitual to him, in reference to
his experiments, a piece of India-rubber combined with sulphur,
which he held in his hand as the text of all his discourses, was
by a violent gesture thrown into a burning stove near which he
was standing. When taken out, after having been subjected to
a high degree of heat, he saw — what, it may be salely afBrmed,
would have escaped the notice of all others — that a complete
transformation had taken place, and that an entirely new pro-
duct— since so felicitously termed "elastic metal" — was the
consequence. When subjected to fuller tests, the thrilling con-
viction burst upou him that success had at length crowned his
efforts, and that the mystery he had so long wooed, now stood
unveiled before him. His history in this respect is altogether
paraliel^with that of the greatest inventors and discoverers who
have preceded him. The lamp had swung for centuries in the
Cathedral of Pisa, but, of the thronging multitudes who wor-
shipped there, none had heeded the lessons which it taught. It
was reserved for the profound and observant intellect of young
Gralileo to extract from its oscillations the true laws of the pen-
dulum, which led to the creation of an infallible measure of time.
The theory of universal gravitation loses nothing of its grandeur
or value, because suggested by the falling of an apple from the
tree. In all lands, by teeming millions, this phenomenon had
been observed, but to none had it imparted instruction — to none
had it spoken of that wonderful secret which lurked beneath its
simple features. At length its "still small voice" fell upon tiie
delicate and appreciative ear of one whom it startled into in-
quiry. The light thus afforded, to which all had been blind,
was, indeea, dim and twinkling ; but, loUowing its guidance as
one wiio traces back the dawn, the great Newton soon plunged
into tlie full orbed splendors of a discovery confessedly the most
brilliant whicli has gilded and ennobled the annals of science,
On all the hearthstones of the civilised world, lor thousands of
years, the kettle had boiled and lifted its lid by the expansive
power of its steam ; yet for none had this seemingly trite and
ever-recurring incident been significant — to none had it an-
nounced that measureless power of which it was the humble but
distinct exponent. At length the movement caught the eye of
a lonely student of nature, then a prisoner in the Tower of Lon-
don, and in the soil of his prolific mind it proved the rapidly
expanding germ of that steam engine whose triumphs have
changed the social, political, and commercial aspects of the
globe. So India-rubber, in combination with sulpimr, may by
accident have been exposed to a high degree of heat often be-
fore, without attracting the attention of any ; and it is safe to
allege that it might have been thus exposed a thousand times
afterward without the world having been tiie wiser or wealthier
for it. The thorough self-culture and training of the applicant,
and his unwearied researches, prepared hini at once to seize upon,
to comprehend and embody in a practical form, the truth he

sought the moment it presented itself, no matter how dimly, to
him. This was his merit — the same in kind with that of the
most illustrious inventors who have appeared in the world,
and by that of but few ot them surpassed in degree.
It is a figure of speech — but an exalted mode of expression —
which assigns to a man any part in the work of creation. la
his very best estate he is but a ministering priest at her altar,
and when he has reached the highest walk in the drama of in-
tellectual power, to which his feeble steps can ascend, he is still
but an humble translator of the languages of uature. It is a
fact which singularly increases the credit due to this inventor,
that the very path in which he finally achieved success, was the
one which the experience of the past had taught him to shun.
A low degree of heat had been applied to a combination of In-
dia-rubber and sulphur, and it had melted under it, so that heat
— the increased intensity of which consummated the discovery —
was the very element which he had felt himself admonished to
avoid. The discovery being made, the applicant soon thereafter
added white lead to the combination, which rendered it complete,
and, assuming that his mission was but begun, he bravely bent
himself to the task of surmounting the obstacles which still
frowned upon him on every side. These obstacles, so graphical-
ly sketched in the testimony, seem to have been almost unpre-
cedented. Capitalists shrunk away from the discovery, so con-
fidently announced, as a chimera, and manufacturers who had
suffered so deeply by the India-rubber business, denied it thtir
confidence. Its practicability had to be demonstrated by a long
series of illustrations, which the total want of experience ren-
dered protracted, and often ruinously expensive. Every inch
occupied in the enlarging field of its usefukess, had to be con-
quered by many sacrifices, while of the Protean-formed applica-
tions to which it was destined to attain, where was not one that
did not involve an outlay of treasure, of toil, and high artistic
skill ? All these, from the beginning to the present hour, have
been bestowed — unceasingly bestowed — upon it, and as the fruits
of all these have been, and are still being reaped by the public,
the applicant is entitled to remuneration for them.

Has the applicant been remunerated for the time which be
has devoted to this invention, and to its introduction into use ?

It is extremely difficult to estimate into the coin of dollars
and cents the worth of eighteen years ot the prime of human
life — especially so when that life is one of lofty genius, of indom-
itable enterprise, and of stainless virtues. It is, however, about
that period of precisely such a life that has been consecrated to
the pursuit and development of this discovery — nor would a
shorter period of time have sufficed tor the arduous and perplex-
ing task. This declaration may be made with the more emphasis,
because, in all the volumes of testimony tiled, there is not one
word found tending to its contradiction. Throughout those long
and toilsome years it is apparent that there has been no compro-
mise with the suggestions of avarice, or with the claims to self-
indulgence and ease. It has been already fully shown that the
applicant's fortune, his healtli, the comforts of his family, the
freshness of his early, and the patient energies of his later man-
hood, have all been uuhesitatingly melted down in the crucible
of his inquiry, and he is now seen tottering toward that grave
which must soon open in his path, with nothing left of the he-
roic and athletic man but what remains of the maimed and
scarred soldier on the battle-field — a wreck which every great
and generous people have taken fondly to their bosom. The
time of the indolent, the selfish, the dissolute, and the dull is
little worth to a world which they rather cumber than bless by
their presence ; but the time of the gifted, the brave, the phi-
lanthropic, and unconquerable sons of genius, has for mankind
a value which we should but feebly express in the arithmetic of
dollars. But while we may have no means by which to measure
with unerring accuracy the intrinsic worth of the ingenuity and
time which have been expended, and cannot by any analysis
weigh or compute their ingredients, there remains to us one
standard by which a proximate estimate at least may be reached,
that is, the residls which have been froduccd. A\''hat that time
anil ingenuity have yielded to the public is the test of their va-
lue, alike to that public and to the inventor ; for what the for-

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPmc AND PINE ART JOURNAL.

311

mer have received the latter must, upon every prhiciple of sound
logic, be held to have parted with. What, then, have been the
results of the discovery and iutrodnctiou iuto use of the vulcan-
izing process ? The testimony is very full upon this point. We
learn that through this instrumentality a large foreign commerce
has been created' in the raw material, and an inland trade in the
India rubber fabrics, amounting to between four and five mil-
lions of dollars annually ; that extensive India rubber manufac-
tories have grown up, giving profitable investment to some seven
million of dollars of capital, and active employment to some ten
thousand operatives ; and that a large portion of these fabrics
is intimately connected with human comfort and preservation of
human life.

Not to enumerate more of the articles produced by this pro-
cess, it would be hazarding nothing to say that the shoes and
wearing apparel perfected by it, and so cheaply and abundantly
made, and almost universally in use, have saved thousands from
a premature death, and may save millions in the ages which are
to come. In the presence of these vast and still expanding
achievements of this invention, the criticisms which have been
made upon the applicant's accounts, as though they were some
petty grocer's bill, shrink into insignificance, and indeed, can
scarcely be listened to without a blush. We have, however, a
yet more definite basis on which to rest our judgment— the
testimony of Hayward and Haskins. Both have long been In-
dia-rubber manufacturers under the vulcanizing process, and the
former made the valuable discovery of combining sulphur with
the gum, for which a patent was granted to him. Their depo-
sitions are marked by frankness, and leave no doubt of their
perfect acquaintance with this great interest in all its ramifica-
tions and aspects. Hayward says that the vulcanizing process
for the next seven years would be worth to the public one mil-
lion of dollars ; if so, it should have been worth two millions for
the last fourteen years. Haskins does not hesitate to estimate
the process at " many millions of dollars." It should be ob-
served that the evidence of the contestants does not reduce these
estimates. It is not possible to escape from the conclusion to
which statements so emphatic, and coming from sources so fully
entitled to credit, lead us. If, then, this process is worth two
millions of dollars, the applicant has received but a little more
than one-fortieth part of the remuneration which he was en-
titled to claim.

It has been assumed, as a means of avoiding the force of these
estimates, that the applicant is entitled to receive from the pub-
lic, not what the invention is now worth, developed and estab-
lished as it is, but what it was worth when the patent issued.
This view has been urged with much persistance and plausibili-
ty, but it has not impressed me as liberal or sound. When the
invention came, timid and strugling, into existance, meeting in
every cjuarter with scoffs and distrust, had it been ofifered for
sale in the market, it would probably have commanded a few
thousand dollars — possibly less. But to say that its value is to
be measured by what it was then considered to be worth, would
be to determine that the character of the tree is to be judged
rather by the green than by the ripe fruit found upon its
branches. The present expanded and prosperous condition of
the invention is mainly owing to the genius and unceasing strug-
gles of the applicant, and he may justly reap what he has sown
and so diligently cultivated. In the adjustment of machinary
to accomplish the ends so distinctly pointed out by the inventor,
and in the manipulation of the gum and treatment of the fabrics
in the various stages of their manufacture, it is admitted that
many improvements have been made by skillful mechanics and
operatives, and these have their utility and importance ; but to
allow such labors to rival or depreciate the claims of the appli-
cant, would be to rank the simple plowman of the fields with
that sublime and beneficent Providence which creates alike the
soil out of which the harvest springs and the sunshine and
the shower by which it is nurtured and matured.

Another and most potent reason why this patent should be
extended is found in the acknowleged fact that the public have
not kept the faith they plighted with the applicant when he
covenanted to surrender to them a product which was, in effect,

the concentrated essence of the physical and intellectual energies
of his entire life. That public stipulated with him that he
should peacefully enjoy for fourteeu years the monopoly created
by his patent and, had he been permitted to do so, he would,
no doubt, long since have realized a handsome remuneration ;
but, so far from this having been the case, no inventor proba-
bly has ever been so harrassed, so trampled upon, so plundered
by that sordid and licentious class of infringers known in the
parlance of the world, with no exageration of the phrase, as
"pirates." The spoliations of their incessant guerilla warfare
upon his defenceless rights, have unquestionably amounted to
millions. In the very front rank of this predatory band stands
one who sustains, in this case, the double and most convenient
character of contestant and witness , and it is but a subdued ex-
pression of my estimate of the deposition he has lodged, to say,
that this Parthian shaft— the last that he could hurl at an in-
vention which he has so long and so remorselessly pursued — is a
fitting finale to that carear which the public justice of the coun-
try has so signally rebuked.

Important as are to the parties to this issue the immediate
consequences bound up with it, they are insignificant indeed as
compared with the value to the public of the principle involved.
From the very foundation of this government, it has been its
settled policy to secure a just reward to all inventors, and it is
the inflexible maintenance of this policy that we are indebted
for the unparalled advancement which, as a people, we have
made in the useful arts. All that is glorious in our past, or
hopeful in our future, is indissolubly linked with that cause of
human progress of which inventors are the preux chevaliers. It
is no poetic translation of the abiding sentiment of the country
to say, that they are the true jewels of the nation to which
they belong, and that the solicitude for the protection of their
rights and interests should find a place in every throb of the na-
tional heart. Sadly helpless as a class, and offering in the glit-
tering creations of their own genius the strongest temptations
to unscrupulous cupidity, they, of all men, have most need of
the shelter of the public law, while, in view of their philanthro-
pic labors, they are, of all men, most entitled to claim it. The
schemes of the politician and of the statesmen may subserve the
purpose of the hour, and the teachinj°;s of the moralist may re-
main with the generation to which they are addressed, but all
these must pass away, while the fruits of the inventor's genius
will endure as imperishable memorials, and, surviving the wreck
of creeds and systems, alike of politics, religion, philosophy, will
diffuse their blessings to all lands, throughout all ages.

* * ;(; * * * *

At the close of all his toils and sacrifices, and of the humila-
tions he has been called on to endure, this public-spirited inven-
tor, whose life has been worn away in advancing the best inter-
ests of mankind, is found to be still poor, oppressed with debt,
and with the winter of age creeping upon his shattered consti-
tution. It is perfectly manifest that this is in no degree the re-
sult of vice or improvidence on his part, but an inexorable con-
sequence of the impoverishing experiments inseparable from the
prosecution of his great enterprize, and of that prolonged and
exhausting strife in which unscrupulous men have involved him.
He now begs of that country to which the energies of his man-
hood have been so freely and so faithfully given, that he may
be allowed to enjoy for a few yeai's longer that precarious
protection which our most feeble and imperfect laws extend to
the fruits of intellectual labor ; and were the appeal denied, I
feel that I should be false to the generous spirit of the patent
laws, and forgetful of the exalted ends which it must ever be
the crowing glory of those laws to accomplish.

The patent will, therefore, be extended for seven years from
the 15th June, 1858.

Freshly made collodion gives the most sensitive film. Sensi-
tized albumen-paper can be kept three or four days if the albu-
men is good.

312

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

October,

DARK TENTS

ACIDITY OF COLLODION.

To the Editor of Photogtaplm JVotes.

Sir, — In Mr. J. Arclier's paper, inserted in the last Notes,
information is sought as to tlie best form of tent for working
philes9XT. The following very simple contrivance I have
found to answer the purpose admirably : — A tent, one yard
square and 6| high, is made of black Holland, lined with one
tiiickness of yellow cambric : the only support required is two
splines, placed diagonally, inside, at the top, and a piece of stout
card passed through the centres of the splines and tent, and
thrown over the branch of a tree or any other projection at
hand, in the shade. The tent is thus drawn up to the proper
heiglit, and fastened at the bottom by pegs and loops at each
corner.

The entrance at the corner is fastened by three buttons, and
the light effectually excluded by means of a lamp of yellow cam-
bric inside.

A small square of black Holland is cut out at the proper
height, and two or three thicknesses of yellow cambric inserted
in its place to form the window; this completes the tent, which
can be pitched in leas than five minntes, and when taken down
can be folded in a small roll and carried under the arm without
the least inconvenience. The splines (weighing only a few
ounces) can be packed up with the camera legs.

The entire cost does not exceed 123. or 14s. I have used it
with great comfort and invariable success, and strongly recom-
mend its adoption by all practitioners of the wet collodion pro-
cess.

The accompanying view of Farmlingham Castle was .printed
from a negative developed in a tent of the above description on
a windy day.

Charles S. Alger.

Diss, September, 1858.

WET V. DRY COLLODION.

From Photographic Notes.

Sir, — "For after all what is any man's ipse dixit worth, with-
out the guarantee of a specimen 7"

I take this sentence from page 208 of your number of Notes,
for September, as my text, and have to complain of the off-hand
way in which some of, indeed I may say all, the writers in the
Journals state how actively their plates w^ork, taking a "picture"
in 25, 30, 45, seconds, and so on, without informing us what
kind of picture it is, whether it is a hoitse a grove of trees, or
what ? Let them state that important particular, and I'll ask
no other guarantee, except, in all good faith, I trust to their
honor, that the "picture," is a prime one, and not a failure.

In your interesting account of your photographic trip lately,
I agree fully in one remark, "that when you have all the requi-
sites by you, there is nothing like the wet collodion process."

I may safely say, that no one has worked harder than I have
at the dryjjrocesses, and I think, as well as I can judge in this
remote place, without seeing the "guarantees," that I have suc-
ceeded at least as well as my brother photographers ; but I
liave now settled down to the collodion process, and am now
beginning really to enjoy photography. Before, it was late
uig-hts, and many weary hours of toil in the dark room, with
their attendants — pale face, jaded limbs, and reduced health ;
now it is all open air and sunshine, with their attendants —
good helath, good spirits, good appetite, axidi good pictures; and
no mistake.

I do my work with a tcry portable dark box of my own de-
sign and workmanship; the pictures are all begun and finished
in the open air, under the blue canopy, free from suffocating
odours, and they yield me tlie full enjoyment on the spot of the
beautiful and delightful wonders of our fascinating art. In con-
clusion, if you receive this letter kindly, I may be induced to
send you some "guarantees" (I like the word) of my dark box.

R. Haines.
82 Grand Parade, Cork, Sept, 1858.

To the Editor of Photographic Notes.

Dear Sir, — I have a bottle of collodion, rather acid, whether
from old ether, (the cotton being imperfectly washed) or from
what cause, I don't know. When iodized it will do, but being
rather high-colored, I fear it may acidulate my bath. Be so
good to say in your next whether soda, ammonia or potash would
do to add to the plain collodion in minute quantity, and if so,
which is best ?

Have you Oleum Vini in your Dictionary ? Some time ago,
when working large glass positives, I found 6 drops to one pint
of developer caused it to flow over any size plate without a stain.
I took the notion from its property of causing ether to mix with
water, a portion of which, i.e., ether, remaining for some time
in good-bodied collodion after coming from the bath. No doubt
it would be equally useful in negatives.

Thos. T. Opie.

St. Agnes, Sept. 10th.
— Dissolve caustic potass in alcohol and idd a drop or two to
the collodion; it will remove all the redness by causing the free
iodine to combine with the potassium. But if the pyroxyliue
should be decomposed and rotten, this will not restore the col-
lodion to good working order. [Ed. P. N]

INSTANTANEOUS PHOTOGRAPDY.

In a recent number of this publication we drew attention to
some singular results obtained by Mr. Skaife, of Blackheath,
when taking instantaneous photographs of some military shells
in the act of exploding, but want of time and space prevented
our describing the particular apparatus employed by that gent-
leman for the purpose. We now propose, however, to do so,
as it differs in many important details from the appliances usu-
ally resorted to.

Within the camera, and immediately behind the back com-
bination of a portrait lens, a square opening, somewhat larger
than the diameter of the lens, is closed by means of a pair of
shutters fitting tightly and slightly overlapping one another by
means of a small rabbet or groove in the corresponding edges
of the shutters. The material of which they are constructed
is that known as "Yulcanite," a combination of caoutchouc
with some other ingredient, in extensive use for the manufacture
of combs, &c., under a patent of Mr. Goodyeare's. This article
is hard, strong, of but little weight, and impervious to light
and moisture.

Each little shutter is hinged so as to cover one half of the
aperture, and the pair can be opened and shut precisely like a
pair of folding doors. The hinges consist of wires attached to
one edge of each shutter, and these wires are prolonged upwards
so as to project through the top of the camera. Each wire is
armed at its upper extremity with a very small reel or bobbin,
with little projecting pins or " studs." Now, by turning the
bobbin one quarter of a revolution, that is, by bringing any one
of the " studs" to a position at right angles to that in which it
was previously, the shutter attached to its wire is completely
opened, and being of such trifling weight, this operation is ac-
complished by a minimum expenditure of force.

If we regard the position of the pair of shutters with respect
to their proper "bobbins" as east and west, the "studs" are north
and south, and a silken cord connects the north stud of one
with the south stud of the other, the south stud of the former
being also connected with the north one of the latter by means
of a ring of vulcanized India rubber stretched between them,
the elasticity of which keeps the shutters tightly closed, excepting
when a suflieent force to overcome the power of the elastic band
is exerted in an opposite direction.

It is only necessary, then, to rotate one of the bobbins a
quarter of a turn in order to cause loth shutters to be completely
opened, as any movement of one bobbin is immediately conveyed,
but in an opposite direction, to its companion, by means of the

silken thread or the elastic baud, the latter always coming into
play when extraneous force is withdrawn ; consequently, if a
thread be attached to and partly wound round one bobbin, by
a very slight jerk of the tliread the shutters may be completely
opened, and will of themsclvres close again in a very small frac-
tion of a second of time. Of course with a stereoscopic bi-lens
camera there will be two pairs of shutters and four "bobbins,"
and by attaching each end of one thread to the extreme two of
the four bobbins, and acting upon the centre of the thread by
a slight touch all four of the simtters will be opened and closed
simultaneously, and the same length of time will, therefore, be
allowed for the partial or entire exposure of each lens, uo matter
how short a time that exposure may be for.

We have now described, however imperfectly, the ordinary
arrangement of Mr. Skaife's apparatus, but rapid as is its action
even in this condition, the movement of the finger was found to
be far too slow for some of the experiments that it was con-
sidered desirable to make. In order, then, to accomplish a
greatly increased rapidity of movement, an addition was made
of a little lever to act like the touch of a finger upon the thread,
this lever being held in place by a small detent resting in a
notch at the shorter extremity of the lever, the detent being
raised at will by means of a key or trigger, and the ensuing
movement of the lever regulated as to velocity by means of
vulcanised India rubber bands, which, by variations of thickness
and number, can be made to produce any amount of quickness
desired. These bands are preferred to more permanent springs,
as they are economical, more under control, and any fracture is
quickly and easily repaired by the merest tyro.

We have endeavoured to describe, as well as we are able
without the aid of intricate diagrams, this very ingenious con-
trivance, which is far more simple in fact than in description;
those of our readers, however, who (eel interested in the matter
will probably take an opportunity of examining the apparatus
for themselves-.

Before entirely quitting this subject we may as well take
another of Mr. Skaite's manipulatory hints, for the especial
benefit of our friends who work with wet collodion in the field,
which enables the operator to dispense with a portion of the
troublesome fingering of the excited plate.

The bath containing the solution of nitrate of silver is furn-
ished with a lid, like the cover of a box, fitting over it all round.
To this cover the dip^r is attached, it being somewhat in form
of the letter W, the lovi'er angles of which are recurved so as to
hold the coated plate much in the same way as the ordinary
dipper acts.

The usual dark sliding frame of the camera is
omitted, and in place thereof a couple of ledges of about one
quarter of an inch in length are constructed at the lower angles
of the camera to receive the plates for exposure, a point for it

of the plate, the pieces of cork pressing against it and keeping
it in contact with the same bearings previously touched by the
focussing screen.

By this arrangement the operator is not encumbered cither
with separate focussing screen or dark slides, and the plate is
ready for exposure while retaining its maximum of sensitiveness.

Although this last described arrangementisalniost a necessity
in order to avail one's self of the advantage of shutters, it is
clear that the shutters are not a necessity as regards the
plication of this adaptation.

ap-

The best developer for instantaneous negatives is composed
thus, —

Distilled water 1 ounce

Proto-sulphate of iron 5 grains

Acetic acid 5 minims

When the collodion and nitrate bath are in good order no
after-intensifying is required, nor need any silver be added to
the developer.

From Liverpool and Manchester Photographic Journal.

DIFFICULTIES IN FOT IIERGILL'S PROCESS:
Bag for cliangiiig plates.

altogether

to rest against being provided at the upper extremity.

A piece of ground glass is attached to and depending loosely
from the upper part of the camera by means of tapes, and little
pieces of cork are attached to the ground side of the glass, very
near to, but not quite at the four corners.

A slit or groove in the tailboard of the camera is provided to
receive the sensitizing bath when in use.

The mode of operating is as follows : — A hood of black
velvet with a window of yellow calico to admit light being
placed over the head of the operator and end of the camera
the plate is coated and inserted in the bath by means of the dip-
per attached to the lid, which closes down upon the solution
and keeps out the light.

The ground glass screen, already depending close to its
proper place, is lifted on to the ledges and pressed up to its
bearings, the focus is then adjusted, and the point of view finally
decided on.

The ground glass is next turned back upon the top of the
camera,°the excited plate lifted out of the bath by means of the
dipper and lid close beside the place intended to receive it,
and by this form of dipper it can be immediately placed in situ,
merely pushing it off by applying one finger between the legs of
the W The ground glass is then turned down against the back

40*

To the Editor of the Liverpool and Manchester Photographic Jouriial.

Sir, — I shall be much obliged for your valuable assistance in
the following matters, which as regards the first I think may be
caused by my own unskilfuluess in the manipulation.

After developinr;: some plates prepared by Fothergill's process
agreeably to Mr. Keen's useful suggestions, I find occasionally
that the edge of the plate becomes stained with a long brown
or dark slaty border, on which the film curls up and peels off on
drying. I don't know whether this is attributaoleto the juality
of the collodion or to some neglect on my part, but I shall be
glad to be informed how it is to be avoided.

Not long ago, making an excursion to South Wales, I took a
few stereoscopic plates with me prepared as above, and trans-
ferred them for exposure to the slide in a dark closet by the
light of a candle. Several days after exposure on my return
home, I tried to develop them, but found they turned to a grey
muddy color in developing, without a vestige of any object, and
in fact were utterly spoilt. I am inclined to suppose that it
was caused by the caudle-light, which was probably injurious to
a sensitized plate.

The difficulty of transferring plates brings me to Mr. Lawson
Sisson's " Treatise on the Turpentine Waxed-Paper Process,"
at page 29 a bag is described for this purpose which 1 have uo
doubt would be most useful if I could make out the description,
which is as follows: —

" For greater security in changing the papers in the open air,
I employ a black cotton velvet bag, lined with yellow calico,
the ends of which have a strong vulcanized India rubber ring
running loosely in a hem so as to close tight round the wrist.
In this I can change either papers or dry collodion plates."

I am puzzled by the word "ends" and how the plates and
slides are to be introduced, the shape, also, of the bag. Per-
haps some of your readers who have used such a one can eu-
li"-hten me, as I wish very much to have one made. — I am,
yours, &c., W.

September, 1858.

[The dark brown line which readily peels off is probably
owino- to an error in coating the plate, the collodion at that
part not having become so dry as the remainder before immer-
sion in the sensitizing bath. It may be caused also by some of
the water from the washing collecting at the lower edge while
draining. Perhaps Mr. Keene may furnish a reply on this head.
Pv-eo-ardlng a bag for changing plates, we have formerly employed
one°of yellow calico, of three thicknesses, with openings for
the hands at the lower angles furnished with elastic bands, the
mouth of the bag, also supplied with elastic, fitted over the end

of the camera (the box of plates being put into the camera
previously). We had also a couple of circular pieces of yellow
glass, about the size of spectacle lenses, sewn in the side of the
bag, with another piece of elastic across them, wliicli was slip-
ped over the hea,d when in use, so as to bring and keep the
glasses in contact with the eyes, like spectacles, thus enabling
us to observe what we were doing. The plates ws then tssed
were 8|X6i inches in dimensions. — Ed.]

From Liva-pool and Manchester Photographic Journal.

THE SOURCE OP WHITE SPOTS ON PAPER POSITIVES,
And fttlier Obsenatioas Connected with the Subject of Photographic

Print ins.

BY THE EDITOR.

Some time back a. report by Messrs. Davanne and Girard
api^eared in the Bulletin de la Sociele JFrancaise de Photogra-
fhiz, these gentlemen having been appointed by that body to
examine various points relative to tiie question of positive print-
ing, wliich, however interesting, did not contain anything of
sufficient novelty to demand from us immediate notice, ef;pecial--
ly as at the time of its issue, we bad before us an abundance
of matter demanding precedence of consideration : We now,
however, turn to it with some satisfaction, for, although (as we
have already indicated) it contains many things not absolutely
new, it confirms very completely the conclusions on the same
subject arrived at by our English investigators.

Were it at all permissible to make use of sueh a word as
rigmarole in connection with the details of a scientific enquiry,
we should have been almost tempted to apply it to the report
nuder consideration ; but, at any rate, we may say that the
conviction forces itself upou us more and more — that our allies
set to work upon a matter which interests them in quite a dif-
ferent manner from that which we adopt ; or rather, they have
quite a different mode of conveying their intelligence.

In France the report of a seientifio commission becomes quite
a work of literary art — the various possible courses of proceed-
ing are passed in review ; this might be adopted because so and
so — but then there is a grave objection on account of something
else ; that might be substituted as the mode of investigation —
but that s%i,ch an convenience forbids it. Is there not, then, any
way &f avoiding both of these courses, and yet attaining the
object sought ? Certainly there is : by doing it in such a way
we accomplish it perfectly, &c., &c. Then comes the account
of how it was done, omitting none of the dramatic disappoint-
ments, taking care however, not to hint at the solution until the
last paragraph is reached, where it culminates as in the point
of a jest. This is so completely the case that old hands at read-
ing a French report know at once where to look for the pith
of it.

In our own coantry we are far lesS' artistic in these matters ;
like blunderers, as we are, to use an inelegant but expressive
phrase, " we let the cat out of the hag" at once, and then ex-
plain such incidents and mishaps as may still retain any inter-
est, but by so doing we annihilate that of nine-tenths of what
might otherwise have been included in the report. It is true
that by acting thus we may give a more condensed account, but
wc must bid adieu to all dramatic effect.

In the report which has called forth these remarks, the course
of investigation into the cause of the annoying white spots so
frequently found in our paper proofs is indicated, as also the
source of those which are most detrimental, which do not make
their appearance until the proofs are subjected to the action of
the hyposulphate of soda, and by which all the previous mani-
pulations are rendered nugatory.

That the spots are due to minute particles of copper or brass
is affirmed ; and thus the assertion to the same effect published
in " Notes and Qnerries" by Dr. Diamond some live years back,
confirmed by these gentlemen, as it also was at the time by
many of our own countrymen — the novelty of the present sug-
gestion consisting simply in the presumed source of these annoy-

ing particles; Dr. Diamond attributing them to portions of the
wires used in the formation of buttons which may have acci-
dentally been crush up with the pulp when being converted from
rags, of which it is made, while Messrs. Davanne and Girard
conjecture that they may be owing to minute particles abraded
from machinery employed in tearing the rags, many of the
" combs" in some mills being made of brass. IS'ow, although
this may seem but a small matter in itself, it is important in its
way, as teaching us to avoid papers made where brass machinery
is employed in the process, the injurious effects of particles of
steel or iron being much more easily guarded against.

We have, in previous numbers of our Journal, alluded to
earlier portions of the report of these gentlemen especially
directed to the influence of the size in the paper, and since
writing the above a third portion of their report has appeared,
in which the effect of employing different chlorides for ihe pur-
pose of producing decomposition of the nitrate of silver is con-
sidered, as well as tlie substitution of other haloid salts and
organic bodies known to be capable of producing definite
compounds more or less impressionable by the actinic force : and
here again we have the satisfaction of finding that our own
views, which we have long ago published ii]>on the subject of
the chlorides, are fully corroborated, viz :. That provided they
are all in a state of tolerable purity and neutrality, and corres-
ponding chemical eqnivaleiit quantity of each of the alkaline
chlorides be employed, the results are indistinguishable from one
another. This is a point we have insisted on. over and over
again, having first deduced it from theory and verified it by re-
peated experiments.

What say these gentlemen upon the subject ? " At first, in
employing these salts in a state in which they are found iu
commerce, we observe very noticeable differences, which fully
justify the preferences accorded by photographers in order to
obtain such and such results." But after testing them as above
indicated by us, " the numerous differences which we had pre-
viously observed had then entirely disappeared, all the proofs
shewing a tone and y'lgouY perfectly identical."

We have now to call attention to some facts of which we had
a vag'iie sort ot conviction previously, but which have been fully
and satisfactorily established by the carefully conducted ex-
periments of Messrs. Davanne and Girard. These relate
especially to the presence of free alkali and free acid in the pre-
pared chloride papers ; we give the results in their own words :
" If we compare a proof furnished by the neutral bath with
those by each of the three others, we remark, in the first place,
that of the four, that which is printed in the pressure frame with
the greatest rapidity is the one prepared on the bath having
ammonia, while those prepared with/ree acid or free alkali are
more slowly impressed than that from the neutral bath. In a
a word, that the presence of ammonia accelerates, whilst that of
an acid or a fixed alkali retards the luminous action. As re-
gards color, the acid and alkaline baths present a tone of the
soiine oi'der, at once more red and clear than that otthe neutral
bath, whilst the ammoniacal one gives rise to that woody tone
habitually observable when ammonia is employed as a fixing
agent." They further observe that as acids and alkalies have
both a solvent action upon the sizing of the paper, especially
when starch of any kind is employed for the purpose, the ad-
vantage using a neutral salting bath will be readily appreciated.
Another special point of interest will be found in the conclusions
derived from experiments directed towards the substitution of
other combination with a silver base instead chlorine, for in-
stance, those of Iodine, bromine, cyanogen, phosphorus, carbon
sulphuric, acetic, nud citric acids,

Papers prepared with the above named substances were com-
pared as to their effects with one of the ordinary kind from
chloride of sodium, which after an exposure of five minutes m the
pressure frame had assumed the usual appearance. Long be-
fore this, however, with an astonishing rapidity the sheet pre-
pared with bromide had produced an image, untortuuately, how-
ever, not presenting the sharpness and vigor of an ordinary
proof, being veiled, greyish, and tinted in a somewhat uniform
manner. With a rapidity hardly eciual to that of the chloride,

1858.

THE rHOTOGRAPIIIC AND F EXE ART JOURNAL.

315

the proof from tlie phosphate of silver presented similar defects,
though in a slighter degree, to those apparent with the bromide.
With the remainder of the substances, although in:pressions of
some sort were obtained, one word will described them —
failures.

The facts described convinced theinvestigators that chlorides,
bromides, and phosphates are the only insoluble compounds with
silver that can be employed with advantage to impregnate paper
for positive printing, but even these cannot be applied under
the same conditions.

It is suggested that where the negative is harsh from exces-
sive contrast of lights and shadows, the addition of a small
portion of bromide to the salting solution would probably enable
us to obtain good results, as the lights would not then appear
so startling, nor the shadows so intense as without this addition.
This appears to us as a happy idea, and one well worth a trial.

In conclusion, we shall sum up in the words of the authors of
the report, — " Amongst all the salts that can be employed in
positive photography to incorporate with the paper an insoluble
salt of silver, the chlorides are always those which give the best
result ; the addition of a certain quantity of bromide or phos-
phate may, under the conditions indicated with sufficient preci-
sion above, produce happy effects ; but we do not consider that
either one or other of the two last named classes of salts em-
ployed alone, can give results equal to those that are produced
by the chlorides alone.

From PhotograpMc Notes.

CHORLTONPHOTOGRAPIIICSOCIETY.

The monthly meeting of this Society was held on Wednes-
day, the 8th ult., Mr. Dean, the Vice-President, in the chair.

A mode of preparing highly albumanized paper was made
known to the meeting by the chairman.

Coat the paper in the usual way on albumen, then coagulate
with nitric acid, coat again with chlorized albumen, and dry.

The following paper,

" ON SOME FAILURES BY FOTHERGILL'S NEW

PROCESS AND THEIR CAUSES,"
was then read by Mr. John Heywood.

On the 25th April last this process was announced to the
public through The limes, by Mr. Fothergill, who deserves the
praise for the unreserved manner in which he has made known
his discovery ; and should these remarks be made public, I
would ask the Society to acknowledge the debt we all owe to
this gentlemen for perfecting a process which has already out-
rivalled any dry process known. Mr.Ackland, who has done
much to perfect collodio-albumen, and therefore a high authori-
ty, says, "this process is far superior to collodio-albumen, gela-
tine, metagelatine, or o.xyrael process, possessing a hard surface
when dry, is very quickly prepared, yeilds negatives of great
softness and delicacy, develops with rapidity, and, if an opinion
may be formed from no deterioration or stains on plates after
being prepared a month, we may safely infer they will keep any
length of time.

I would also mention that Mr. Keene has kindly given me all
the information possible by letter, and without his useful infor-
mation I should have long since abandoned the process. I hope
to make this paper useful to those gentlemen interested, not so
much by saying how to work this process, for that has been
fully described in the Journals by Mr. Keene and J. P., and
lately by Mr. Ackland, but by describing some failures I have
met with, and their causes.

1st — Want of sensitiveness.

Those who have worked the collodio-albumen process, and
were accustomed to wash away all the free nitrate, found very
little sensitiveness, and looked with doubt upon its usefulness ;
the error was not in the process, as many of my friends have
since discovered, but in their wrong washing. To obtain the
greatest amount of sensibility requires very careful washing ; if

the free nitrate is all washed away, as in collodio-albumen, very
liUle sensibility remains ; but by washing as described by Mr.
Keene to whose method I shall presently refer, the highest
amount of sensitivness is obtained. The exposure as compared
with wet collodion and collodio-albumen, I End thus : — Say,
wet collodion one minute, Fothergill's one-and-thrce-quarters,
collodio-albumen three to four minutes. I use this method of
indicating the exposure, as lenses and other appliances vary so
much that operators are liable to be deceived by the time of ex-
posure given by one operator, and subjects also vary so much in
the exposure required. I have, on the same day and with simi-
lar liglit, given one subject one minute and another ten minutes,
with no perceptible difference in the negative ; proper drying is
also requisite, — the sensibility being increased by it. There
are two states of dryness, if I may be allowed the expression,
surface dryness and dryness of the film. If the latter is not
complete the plate is unevenly sensitive, and developes with dif-
ferent degrees of intensity, the partially dry part is not so sen-
sitive as the thoroughly dry part, the opposite result to what is
generally experienced in other processes. In drying place the
plate on a corner in the dark for one to two hours to dry spon-
taneously, then complete the drying by a little heat, and the
plate assumes a pale blue color as the moisture dries off , if
dried rapidly by heat, one end is more sensitive than the other ;
wheu dried spontaneously, dust, &c., &c., is very apt to attacli
itself to the film. Marbled patches are apt to be produced if
the washing is improperly done and the washing water not well
drained away, causing an unequal deposit on the plate. The
remedy is easy : drain well, and then rest a moment on clean
Bltering paper ; one and a half drachms albumen will then coat
the plate evenly. Lines somewhat circular are caused by the
washing water coming to a stand in being spread over the plate;
they are rather faint, but still they will injure the finished nega,-
tive in beauty of appearance. When the washing water is
poured on the plate, it will not flow so well as the developing
fluid, and requires forcing well up to the edges in a wave. By
looking across the plate, it can be best observed. None should
be spilled, or that plate will be increased in sensitiveness. In
dry plates uniform sensitiveness is important. By moving the
water about for thirty seconds, all greasiness will have disap-
peared ; and I pour the water into a bottle for evaporation,
and further uses which will suggest themselves. Dark patches
are produced round the edges, and spread more or less over the
plate, by the bath solution not being well washed away from
that part ; consequently, when albumen is poured on an uneven-
ly sensitive surface is the result. Let the washing water flow
well up to the edges, and this will be obviated Lines in the
direction the plate has stood to drain, producing lighter or dark-
er parts in the developed negative, are generally caused by bath
or albumen being on the fingers, and by them, transferred to the
edges of the plate afterwards running over the film. A damp
towel to wipe the fingers after being in.contact with either S'lL-
stance, is an excellent remedy A snip in the edge of the glass,
if of any extent, will often produce the same effect ; the reme-
dy is obvious, Many have met with the marks similar to those
left by a comb in the hair, and have found them very frequent.
They are the effect of not washing until all the greasiness has
disappeared. This causes the albumen to come in contact wilh
nitrate of silver at too great a degree of concentrated strength,
and it is partially coagulated I have found such success from
using Mr. Keene's collodion, that I have preferred it to other
samples, either for this process or others ; there is such an ab-
sence of what has been facetiously termed " blacking and white-
wash." Circular rings are caused by a drop of water falling on
the plate during preparation, and leaving their impression on
the finished negative. I will now describe the modes of wash-
ing, and conclude my paper.

1st. For stereoscopic size : pour on the plate four drachms
filtered rain water from the corner, and spread it over the plate
evenly as if developing a negative, it will not flow so easily, and
requires moving to throw the water where it is required to go.
After covering the plate well up to the edges and corners, keep
it moving about for half a minute and draia off well, then

/l-'

31G

THE I'lIOTOGPvArillC AIs^D FINE ART JOURNAL.

October,

1 i

; I

touch it on filter paper for a secoucl or two before pouring ou
alljumeu.

2iid. Immerse iu a dipping bath containing sufficient water
to cover the plate well, and after moving up and down several
times, take out and drain as before-mentioned. Many plates
may be washed in the same water.

3rd. Place in a vertical bath containing six ounces water^ as
described by Mr. Acklaud, and washed by being raised and low-
ered ten times.

I believe any of these ways of washing will answer, but the
first way, as described by Mr. Keene, gives in my hands the most
sensitive plates ; in the second the dippnig is very easy iu com-
parison with the four drachm washing, which requires care and
a little practice ; tiie third, the latter, I have not tried. Wash-
ings, I should remark, at this stage of the process, must be
with filtered rain or any other water.

Albumen may be washed away with common water, and to
prevent holes in the sky, as they are termed, flooded with two
or three drachms of filtered rain water.

Other failures common to all photographic operations are not
a part of my subject, yet to ensure success, they also must be
guarded against , these particulars may appear mmute and te-
dious, but they are not so in reality, and the operator may more
easily ensure the result he desires by this process than any
otiier.

No one who provides himself with pure water, a suitable col-
lodion, a neutral bath, pyro', developer, and hypo', can fail with
care. A bath prepared in March is still working well. I ex-
hibited some negatives taken then by this bath, and those I
bring here to-night are prepared in the same, with no addition
except a few grains of nitrate of silver ; only on one occasion,
when it was alkaline, I added two drops of nitric acid to ten
ounces.

The thanks of the meeting were given to the chairman, for
presiding ; and to Mr. Heywood, for his paper, which concluded
the business of the evening.

From Photographic Journal.

STEREOGRAPHY.

BY WILLIAM ROSS, NEW YORK.

The discord usually attendant on the discussion of any other
questio vexata is not yet ended as far as this subject is concerned,
if one may judge from the incessant outpourings of fresh re-
cruits rushing into the wordy warfare.

I have already appeared in the field, as may be seen in Xo. 18
of the last volume of this Journal, and should have done so a
second time in the same volume, only my communication and
male.rinl were lost on the road between here and Liverpool.

As that article miscarried iu some way I intend in this to go
over the same ground as near as I can ; not that I hope to do
it better, for nothing that I have seen since has induced me to
change my views on the snbjcct.

I liave always believed that the object was to see things as
they are, or as they could be seen by both eyes at once, and not
to look at an object — say on the right side of the street with
the riglit eye, and afterwardsat the other side of the street with
the other eye, at stations equal to thirteen or fifteen metres
apart.

Being professionally conversant with perspective, I was at no
loss to understand that anything projected by its rules was truly
a monocular view, and that a stereographic picture must be com-
posed of two such from different stations adjacent to each other,
and on the same horizontal plane, forming what may be called
a hinocular view, when super-imposed ou each other by means of
the stereoscope.

Now the question arises, what is the proper horizontal dis-
tance, and how can it be ascertained ? Assuredly the rule of
three cannot be the proper rule for a mathematical solution of
any difficulty, whether in optics or in anything else. Many

adopt no other rule, while some others have some empirical for-
mula depending on the distance of the object ; one iu twenty-
five being Professor Wheatstone's rule, so that a tape line or
a surveyor's chain is a necessary adjunct to the stereographic
toui'ist.

I quote the following paragraph frOm Mr. Berry's paper, read
before the Liverpool Photographic Society in June, 1856, and
which may be found in the JoVyrnal for that month — " I believe,
then, if we desire to depict, by any photographic process, a min-
iature representation of (for example) a street view, which shall
faithfully represent the original when viewed through the stereo-
scope, we must use an instrument which shall be constructed as
near as possible in accordance with the optical arrangements of
the human eyes, to which only it is destined to be applied."

To this doctrine I fully subscribe, and I believe the present
editor of the Liverfool and Manchester Photographic Joitrnal
holds opinions not very dissimilar to the above ; but neither that
gentleman nor Mr. Berry have given us a formula representing,
in a concise manner, the application of their doctrine to the ste-
reoscopic camera having lenses of some particular focal length,
far less for lenses of any focal length whatever, that may be ap-
plicable to the purpose. This I now propose to do, and I take
my data for " the optical arrangements of the human eyes,"
from the work of Dr. Mackenzie on " The Physiology of Vi-
sion," (Loudon, Longman & Co., 1841,) a work replete with
optical information, and which ought to be in every practition-
er's library.

The close analogy between the ordinary camera and the eye
is too well known to be dwelt upon. Each eye is a distinct ca-
mera, having each its own lens and surface on which the image
is formed. Each eye forms its own picture round its own axis,
each picture being precisely of an equal area to that formed by
the other eye, and this is precisely the conditions we have to
meet in producing stereoscopic pictures to be viewed by the ste-
reoscope. Taken singly, each of these pictures formed by the
eyes is a monocular picture, just as is a perspective view from
one station ; and in order to ascertain the distance between that
station and another, from which the other perspective view is to
be taken to match the pair formed by the eyes, we must make
that distance precisely proportional to the distance between the
two eyes, and neither less nor more.

In investigating this subject, we do not require to notice either
the correction or non-correction of the aberrations of the eye,
nor need we do more than mention the controverted question of
the adjustment of the eye to dilierent distances ; for if we con-
sider the distance between the retina and the optic centre of the
eye to be the focal length of the eye for objects infinitely dis-
tant, it will require no adjustment whatever for any object be-
yond the distance of distinct vision, provided it subtends an ap-
preciable angle. It is well known that every lens, whatever
may be its focal length, has conjucate foci for all distances up
to a certain number of its focal lengths, while every object be-
yond that distance is in focus at the same time. That distance
varies in the number of feet, yards, &c , for everylens of differ-
ent focal length ; but by using the focal length as the unit of
measure, the number of focal lengths is constant for everylens,
as well as for the eye.

The following proportions of the eyes are extracted from Dr.
Mackenzie, pp. 72 and 98.

Axis of eye i^ of an inch

Axis of transparent media of eye. ,

Diameter of crystalline

Aperture of pupil varies from y"/^ to

Distance between centres of pupils 2^*0 inches.

Distance from optic centre to retina tV ^f '^^ '"^''»

(focal length of eye.)

Taking the focal length of the eye as the unit of measure, we
see that the distance between the centres of the pupils is equal
to four times the focal length.

A binocular view miy therefore be enunciated thus : If. is a
combination of two monocular vieios formed by apair of cquifocal
lenses (the eyesj taken from two stations situated horizontally

19.

•20

i^

• 20

_7_

• 2 0

JIJ_
1 0 0

2-''-

■ -'l 0

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

311

apart, at a distance equal to four times the focal length of the
lenses e»ij)loi/ed. Hence the formula is, wlieu F is tbe focal
length and E the horizontal distance of the stations apart,

D = 4 F.

This formula will apply to lenses of any focal length what-
ever, so that lenses of short foci may be used for very near ob-
jects, and as such lenses would give to distant objects too minute
a character, lenses of long foci should be used for the latter.

The gross exaggeration in the distance from which the pair
of views of very many of the stereographs sold have been taken,
is such as to render them contemptible as works of art, or even
of curiosity. Such exaggeration can only affect the horizontal
proportions of objects, leaving their vertical proportions of the
proper height, while they are so dilated horizontally as to be
downright caricatures of the original. In cases where the object
is so distant as to render a great separation of the stations ne-
cessary to shew its solidity, the impression ought to be taken by
a lens of a corresponding focal length. " The celebrated view
of Paris," which was taken at fifteen metres apart, ought to have
been taken by a lens of four metres focus I

The greatest stereoscopic effect is always produced on the
bodies or objects nearest the foreground, the objects iu the back-
ground having little or no stereoscopic appearance, beyond the
fact that they stand behind the other objects, which really ap-
pear to stand out iu relief. These near objects should therefore
be the principal portion of the picture ; and hence, buildings
consisting of a plane facade only cannot form pleasing stereo-
graphs from a near station, unless the relief is produced by a
conspicuous object or group between it and the camera.

I have just fiuished the fitting up of a waggon for the pur-
pose of a camera, in which to take views of all sizes up to 2iX
20 inches, and of every kind — scioptric, stereographic, and cy-
clopic, by the wet collodion process, and shall, if encouraged,
send the negatives to Britain for sale. I use lenses of different
focal lengths, all of them achromatic. Those I use for stereo-
graphic purposes are in pairs, four and a half inches and eleven
inches focus respectively. The apertures are pierced in the
waggon at the proper horizontal distances apart, and are so
large as to permit a considerable adjustment of the lenses when
the waggon stands on sloping ground, so that both pictures can
be taken on the same level. The lenses are fitted to the proper
distance apart, according to their focal length, as herein indi-
cated, and the caps of each pair are so connected as to be open-
ed and closed simultaneously and instantaneously. The closed
waggon is itself the camera, every operation, from cleaning the
glass to finishing the impression, being performed in it.

equation
.(, represents the

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

OPTICiL A^D CHEMICAL EXTINCTION OF THE CHEMICAL BAYS.

At the meeting of the Royal Society, held on 18th June,
1857, a third communication upon " Photochemical Researches,"
vvas presented by Prof. Bunsen and Henry B. Roscoe, B. A.,
Ph. D. On " The Optical and Chemical Extinction of the
Cherrdcal Rays," they state : —

" In order to determine whether the act of photochemical
combination necessitates the production of a certain amount of
mechanical effect, for which an equivalent quantity of light is
expanded, or whether this phenomenon is dependent upon a
restoration of equivalent loss of light we must now study the
phenomena occurring at the bounding surfaces and in the interior
of a medium exposed to the chemically active rays.

" If I „ represents the amount of light entering a medium, and
I the amount issuing from the medium, we have a I^ = I, when
a represents tbe fraction of the original amount of light which
passes through the medium, on the supposition that the light
extinguished is proportional to the original intensity of the
li.ii'ht. The first series of experiments was made with the view
of determining this point. The intensity of the chemical rays
proceeding from a constant source of light was measured before
and after passage through a cylinder with plate-glass ends, filled

41

with dry chlorine. The amount of transmitted light I, was
determined for various intensities of incident light, "l and the
fraction j\ was found to remain constant, proving that tlie ab-
sorption of the chemical rays varies directly as the intensity of
the light. From this result, the general law of the optical and
chemical rays iu transparent media may be deduced. For as it
has been shown that the amount of light transmitted thron^'h
a medium of infinite thickness is proportional to the intensity "of
the incident light, it may be assumed that this same relation
will hold good for an infinitely thin medium. According to this
supposition, the relation between the transmitted light," I, and
the thickness of the medium, is represented by the

1 lo

I == lo. 10-'"^ and a = -log ( - ), in which I„

k I

light before transmission, I, that after transmission throu"-h a

layer of h thickness, and - the thickness of absorbing medium

a

by passing through which the amount of light has diminished to
t^th.

" The difference between the incident and transmitted light,
i.e. that lost in passing through the medium, is made up (1) of
aportion effected, and (2) of a portion absorbed or extinguished.
We have experimentally determined the values of the coe-
fficient of reflexion 5, and the coefficient of extinction a, for the
glass plates used in our cylinders. We fonnd that 4-86 per
cent, of the chemical rays, from a flame of coal-gas, which fall
perpendicularly on a surface of crown glass, are lost by the first
reflexion ; and that the amount of light absorbed in our plates
was so small as to fall within the limits of observational errors.
The value of ^ for the plates of glass employed was found to be
0-0509. When the coefficient of reflexion for glass p is known
the amount of light a transmitted by n plates is found from the

formula ■

lX(2ra— ]p=a.

Hence the amount of light transmitted by two plates is 0-823.
We have confirmed the accuracy of the calculated result by
direct experiment, and obtained a value 0-800, or a mean of
0-811 as the coefficient of transmission of our plates.

" If all the transparent media have not the same coefficient
of reflexion, the order in which the media are placed will affect
the amount of transmitted light. We have given an example
of the mode in which the calculation must in this case be made,
in the determination of the coefficient of extinction of water.
We found that the amount of light absorbed by a column of
water 80 millimetres thick was inappreciable. According to
the method here adopted, it is possible to determine the coef-
ficient of reflexion of all transparent fluids for the chemical rays.
We have only determined the coefficient of reflexion for Ameri-
can mica ; for the chemical rays of a coal-gas flame p was found
to be = 0-101'T. From the coefficient of reflexion, the refrac-
tive index (z) can be calculated from the equation

^ ^> I'he refractive index for crown

glass thus calculated from p — 0'0509 is found to 'z ^1-583 ;
the refractive index for Fraunhofer's line H has been optically
determined to be between I -5406 and 1-5194 (Buff's Physik).

" Another important element in the investigation of photo-
chemical extinction is the law according to which the optical
coefficient of extinction varies with the density of the absorbing
medium. A series of experiments proved that the amount of
chemical rays transmitted through a medium varies propor-
tionally with the density of absorbing medium.

'" We may now proceed to the investigation of the original
question proposed, viz : — in the combination of chlorine and
hydrogen effected by the light, are the chemical rays expended"
in a relation proportional to the quantity of hydrochloric acid
formed ? The first point to be determined, in order to answer
this question, is the coefficient of extinction of pure chlorine for
the chemical rays of a coal-gas flame. The amount of light was
measured before and after transmission through cylinders filled
with chlorine.

IXi i

or I-

318

THE PnOTOGFvAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

October.

From the Liverpool and Manchester Photographic Journal.

DECREASE OF THE INTENSITY OF NEGATIVES.

Sir : — Having seen how kindly you answer tho numerous
queries of perplexed young photographers, I trust you will in-
clude me among that' favored number. The other day I took
a most beautiful negative (a potrait), the shadows ot whicli
were exceedingly sharp and delicate, but when I came to var-
nish it, the intensity of the negative was considerably lessened,
causing it to appear of a bluish tint when viewed by transmit-
ted light. A print from it was not nearly so sharp, and most
of the delicacy of the half-tone was completely destroyed. If
you can suggest a remedy I shall be much obliged. If the color
of the negative could be changed to a more yellow hue, I think
it would be all that would be required. I am, yours, &c.

A Constant Reader.

Liverpool, September 6, 1858.

[The delicacy and sharpness of detail in the shadows of a
p'cture are not of themselves sufficient to make a good negative ;
they are simply an indication that the correct exposure for the
collodion, &!'., employed has been obtained. It is probable
from your description, either that the development was inter-
rupted at a stage too early to have allowed of a sufficiently
intense deposit, or that the collodion was too thin for a nega-
tive, or too lightly idolized. In order to change the color now
it would be necessary to entirely remove the varnish, but this
would probably destroy the picture altogether. Tou may,
however, still get good proofs from it by the process of develop-
ment instead of sun printing, by giving very short exposure,
and developing highly ; we should recommend albumenised
paper for this purpose, and gallic acid as a developer. — Ed.]

From Pholograpldc Notes.

PHOTOGRAPHIC BATHS AND DISHES.

To the Editor of Fhotogrvphic Notes.

Sir, — I have lately seen many letters concerning baths and
dishes for photographic purposes, some, and as it is frequently
offered to the public, there advocating porcelain, some gutta-
percha, some glass ones, and others again recommending a com-
bination of the two latter. Gutta-percha has the advantage
of strength and lightness for travelling purposes, but I don't
like it ; you cannot see if it is clean ; and as it is frequently
offered to the public, there is considerable mischief done to the
nitrate of silver. My travelling baths are of gutta-percha, and
varnished inside with shellac, as recommended by some writers ;
this is certainly an improvement ; but a slight deposit still
forms now and then ; all resins and gums precipitate silver, and
I fancy that the shaking about disturbs the first-formed deposit,
thus again exposing the gum to the action of the liquid.

In the last number of the Photographic Journal, page 32, the
Editor rcommends a porcehin bath, and not even a porcelain
dish, of English manufacture ; those made in England are of
common earthenware, soft, glazed over, and I do not hesitate to
call them rubbish ; the glaze soon cracks all over, and then
are worse than useless.

I happen to possess some French dishes of which I can speak
very favorably; they are oi \\\\\iQ porcelain, (real porcelain),
hard burnt, and vitrified through their whole substance ; deptli
an inch-and-a-half inside, with the edges ground level, so that a
glass plate lies over the top forming an air-tight cover; the name
on them is Cuilloux ; they come from Paris, as iodizing pans
for large Daguercotype plates, and after four years constant use,
with all sorts of liquids, they are as good as ever. Now, why
cannot our china manufactni-ers make the same sort of thing, —
. or rather, why don't they ? Are we always to look to other
countries for inprovements in such articles.

The glass upright baths we see in London are certainly very
nice things, but do you really know any one who travels with
one of any considerable size ? I don't ; and for this reason :
they make them so wide, that it takes an awful lot of liquid to
fill them. A glass bath, 12X10, as at present made, is an iuch-

and'an-eighth wide inside, all the way down, requiring about
half-a-gallon of solution to fill it, and this, with water-tiuht
cover and case, will probably weigh 15 or 201bs. I can afford
the price, but cannot afford the weight and inconvenience of such
a bath ; therefore, my indoors bath I made with plate glass and
marine glue, and my travelling baths are of gutta-percha.

Now, what is the use of this width of an inch-and-an-eighth ?
The V-shaped baths, made by the late F, Scott Archer' were a
step in the right direction ; and why cannot we have a Y-shaped
bath of glass or porcelain, (mind no common eartheware fo.v
me), say 12XlO-ins. , about three-quarters-of-an-inch wide at
top, and three-eighths of-an-inch wide at bottom ; such a bath
would hold rather less than a quart when full. This would be
much more portable, and the width quite enough for any but
the most clumsy operator. I have used a bath for plates 8-iiis.
square, which was only three-eighth.s-of-an-inch wide at top and
found no difficulty oiU of doors even. The sellers of the present
glass baths will tell you, that the strength of a small quantity
of nitrate solution is soon exhausted ; but 't is easy to carry ni-
trate of silver and drop in 5 or 6 grains for every ounce of col-
lodion used u.p.

Now, Mr. Editor^ yon will, T know, have all sort of' objec-
tions made, particularly to my last suggestion of narrow porce-
lain baths ; some will say they can't be made ;. and others will
declare that they can't be used if made ; — to such I can only
say, "try first and form an opinion afterwards." The actual
quantity of nitrate solution taken up by a large coUodionized
plate is only two or three fluid drachms, and for the sake of this
small quantity, we are compelled to carry a half-a-gallon about
with i>s, — very clever, certainly, for the nineteenth chetnry.

I formerly worked upon 8-in. plates, and by way of showing
how I succeeded with the above-mentioned bath, three-eighths-
of-an-iuch wide, I enclose a spoiled print for your inspection.
I am now more ambitious, having got to plates 11X9, and am
at once met with the inconvenience of increased bulk and weight.
If yon will assist in getting rid of these difficulties, you will.,, I
think, do good service to the art generally, as well as to

Your obedient Servant,

" SiMONIDES. "

From the Liverpool and Manchester Photographic Journal.

F 0 T H E R G I L L PROCESS.

Sir : — In reply to " W.'s" enquiries respecting curling off of
film and dark border at the edges of the plates, the most pro-
bable cause of the first is unsuitable collodion ; but, if sati.-fied
that the collodion is right, it may be looked for among the fol-
lowing : — Plates not roughed or well cleaned at the edges, also
those placed in a box or dark slide before being perfectly dry ;
collodion not allowed properly to set before the jdate is placed
in the bath ; or prepared albumen not carried well np to i/ie edges
of the plate. Remedies for the first four are obvious, and for
the latter all that is requisite is to cause the albumen to follow
the finger all round the edges of the plate, taking are that the
finger is quite clean, and rests rather against the under edge
of the plate, so as not to disturb the collodion film. The long
brown or dark stains mentioned (if the dark slide does not ad-
mit lightj are caused by |^either not carrying the water well
up to the edges at the commencement of washing the sensitized
plate, so that the middle is washed more, or rather the bath on
it more diluted than at the edges — ride my communication in
the Jott,rnal of 15th September — or the plates have been put in
the box or dark slide before the " film" has become dry.

Before concluding, 1 would draw attention to the remark by
Mr. Hey wood, in his ably written paper " On the Fothcrgill
Process," reported in your last as read at a meeting of the
Chorlton Photographic Society, to the effect that there are two
states of dryness — one that he has termed surface, and the other
film dryness — and that plates used before the latter has taken
place are liable to uneven sensitiveness, recommending artificial
heat to complete the drying as obviating this, and also iucreas-
inj? the sensitiveness.

This I consider particularly worthy of attention, and am
inclined to think that to plates having been placed in dark
slides, and more ■particularly in deal boxes before the film has
been thoroughly dry, may be attributed the difference experienced
by some in tlie keeping properties, and in many instances the
brown stains at the edges, and other similar ones mentioned by
W., several circumstances have tended to convince me that this
is the case ; among many others, on one occasion I put some
prepared plates in a dark box quickly ^ after preparing them, and
all proved more or less damaged, while others prepared at the
same time and under the same circumstances were quile perfect.

The advantage of using artificial heat lias also been observed by
others besides Mr. Hey wood. ]\Ir. Prichard mentioned in a com-
munication in the last London Photographic Journal, recommend-
ing the plate to be placed on a hot water plate for the purpose,
and Mr. Ebbage, another of our amateurs, has for some time past
practiced it ; h.'s plan is to place just underneath the shelf of the
cupboard in which he finally puts them to dry, a suitable bottle
of nearly boiling water. With plates thus dried and a four-
and-a-half inch Iloss' stereoscopic landscape lens (single,) very
small stop, be gives, on general subjects, an exposure of from
forty to sixty seconds ; forty-five and fifty being the usual, and
the results are the most beautiful I have ever seen.

Both these ptaus of drying avoid the necessity of removing
prepared plates from the operating room, and also the risk of
too high a temperature. Three gentlemen, so well versed in
this process, having, without any knowledge of each others pro-
ceedings, arrived at the same conclusion, strongly recommends
the plan, to say the least, to our notice.

It may further commend this much admired process to your
readers by informing them ot its superiority Jor copying purposes.
I have this day seen the copy of a print, by anotlier of our
persevering amateurs, Mr. Bright in which every line and
shadow, even the most delicate, of the original is delineated,
without the harshness of contrast so frequent and objection-
able. It is decidedly superior to any he has taken by the wet
process, though very successful, and requires an experienced eye
to detect that it is merely a photographic copy. 1 am yours, &c.
Leamington, Oct. 6th, 1858. Alfred Keene.

From Liverpool and llanchesier Photographic Journal.

On a Convenient Method for
WORKING WITH WET COLLODION IN THE OPEN AIR.

8^ X 61, stowed away in a plate box, and thus a negative se-
cured in the short space of three and a-half minutes.

On my arrival at home the plates were first washed in water,
then a solution of pyrogallic acid and silver poured on and off
till sufficient density was obtained, and finally cleared with hy-
posulphite of soda, washed and varnished. There is no fear of
the film coming off, as the syrup fixes it firmly as a sheet anchor.
The syrup is composed of coarse brown sugar, honey, an acetic
acid, and water. I do not trouble myself to carry any develop-
ing table or tray, as I consider them quite useless, and the little
mess that is made is left on the ground. I enclose a print from
one of the negatives taken on the occasion described above.

[The manipulation of the proof is decidedly good, the faults
that are present appear to belong to the lens not working too
well towards the edges. — En.]

BY THOMAS GULLIVER.

Perceiving that there are still enquiries for a ready method of
employing wet collodion for landscape purposes, without being
overwhelai.ed with incumbrances, I beg to offer the following
statement of my method of operating with the dark tent, de-
scribed in a letter of mine, which appeared in No. 4, February
15th, of the Liverpool and Manchester Photographic Journal,
which I have had in use now seven months, and can speak high-
ly in its favor.

A short time back I received an order for three views of a
bridge to be used in a court of justice as evidence. I started
with the tent about three in the afternoon, having to walk a
mile to the place of action, and I returned by half-past four with
four negatives, three of which were good.

I will now describe the viodus operandi. The chemicalsk ta-
en consisted of thirty ounces nitrate of silver solution, two ounces
collodion, four ounces developer, and four ounces of syrup. No
water for washing, nor any hyposulphite of soda. And here let
me advise all photographic tent travellers never to encumber
themselves with these nuisances. On arriving at the spot the
camera was screwed on to the top of the tent, which serves as
tlie camera stand. The plate having been coated and put in
while the focus was adjusted, was exposed for twelve seconds,
and taken inside the tent, and a developer poured on, consisting
of protosulphate of iron and acetic acid. When the picture
was fully brought out, about three-quarters of an ounce of sy-
rup was poured on and off three or four times, then the plate.

Personal ^ ^rt Intclligcuci;.

Very little has occurred since our last worthy of com-
ment. We are sorry to say that very few of our subscribers
who were in arrears on the first of July, have responded to our
last call. They do us great injustice by their neglect. While
we have so many Mack sheep among our subscribers this year, it
is refreshing to receive such letters as the following, from a man
who always pays in advance : Jamestown.

Mr. H. H. Spelling :

Dear Sir — I have had the honor of having ray name enrolled
amongst the subscribers to the Journal from its commencement
to the present time. It has been the source of much gratifica-
tion and the vehicle of very valuable information ; it is contin-
ually presenting something new that is of highly practical im-
portance to the Photographer, and is deserving of their highest
commendation. I am so well pleased with the Journal, and the
aid it has been to me, that I would not be deprived of it for the
future for more than double its cost ; and I lament very much
that I am incapable of contributing anything that would be
worthy a place in its pages. I have no doubt but you met with
much difficulty during the earlier part of its publication. 1
thought at the time that it was a hazardous enterprise, and
would not be remunerative ; but as it came regularly I began to
think that I was mistaken, and that your zeal and very commen-
dable perseverance was duly appreciated and met its reward.
To those who are indifferent as to the success of the Journal, I
would say, contrast the first volume with the eleventh ; consider
the labor, care, anxiety, and disappointments the Editor must
have experienced during its growth — let them sum up the many
advantages it has been to then), and they could not do otherwise
than give you, Mr. Suelling, their heartfelt thanks, and the sup-
port and encouragement you so richly merit.

May the Journal continue to flourish and its subscribers in-
crease— and may theyall be prompt paying ones, is the sincere
wish of your friend ,

John C. Gray.

Friend Long, of St. Louis, writes despondingly of the busi-
ness in that city, and of tlie languishing state of their Pho-
tographic Society. A " good time" is coming, depend upon it,
when long faces shall be made short and drawn down moutlis
will put on a broad grin ; but never expect to sustain a Pho-
tographic Society, or any other on a price list basis. It will
never succeed. Brains are the only capital that can give a
q^l,id pro quo in such an investment.

Chs. Or. Crane. — The best toning baths we have ever used ,
and decidedly, in our opinion, the best formulas extant are
those given in the June number, 1857, and January number,
1858, of the Photographic and Fine Art Journal.

The following just tribute is from the Augusta Dispatch :

The Fine Arts in Augusta. — Messrs. Tucker & Perkins'
Gallery. — None of the evidences of improvement in our de-
voted city afford us a more pleasing topic for a paragraph, than
to note a growing taste for the line arts. If any evidence is
needed to convince "Gunny Bags" that our busy people are

320

TUE rnOTOGRAPHIC A^^D FINE ART JOURNAL.

October,

not wliolly engrossed in his staple, we would refer to the Art
Gallery of Messrs. Tucker & Ferkixs.

We have before alluded to the very creditable specimens
of Photographic portraiture executed by them ; but their Gal-
lery now contains a collection of portraits such as has never
before been exhibited in our city. These comprise life-size
Portraits in oil. Photographs, colored in oil, pastel, and plain,
besides their usual collection of fine Ambrotypes. They have
secured the very best artists in each department, and there
is no gallery in the Union where better work, from the full-
sized likeness in oil, down to the smallest Ambrotype — can be
obtained.

Among those who are engaged at their Gallery, are Mr.
W. Hunt, an English Arlist of celebrity, Mr. R. Freeman,
whose portraits have been admired throughout the Union, and
Mr. J. M. ToMLiNSON, au Artist of fine ability.

Messrs. T. & P. will exhibit a large number of specimens
at the Fair in Atlanta, next week, and as they will be shipped
to-morrow, we advice our citizens to look at them before they
leave.

Among the works of Mr. Hunt, on exhibition, are life-sized
poi-ll'aits of Miss Gallagher, a very beautiful young lady of
Savanah; Miss Levert, (daughter of Mrs. Levert, of Mobile ;)
Airs. Keasley, of New Haven ; Mrs. LeConte, formerly of
Athens, Mr. Potter, of Savannah, Judge LeGrande, and Col.
Anderson, of Baltimore ; C. A. Laear, of Savannah , a staid
looking Quaker family, and gentleman and child not named.

Among the notable pictures by Mr. Freeman, is a most ex-
quisite portrait, in oil, of Miss Finly, of Macon ; one of Mr.
and Mrs. Fitzgerald, of Perry, Ga ; a family groupe, quite a
novelty, and a fine life-like portrait, in oil, of Col. Lochrane, of
Macon.

Mr. ToiiLiNSON has completed a portrait of Miss Perry, of
Covington, and is engaged on one of D. H. Hill, Esq. All
these, and many others are fine specimens of art. We hope our
enterprising friends. Tucker & Perkins, will be repaid for the
pains and expense they have incurred in offering our people such
facilities for fine pictures. Theii* prices, we learn are very
reasonable — usually below the rates of Northern galleries.

Our readers can prove the correctness of all we have said, by
calling at their rooms, nearly opposite the Dispalch office, over
the store of S. S. Jones & Co., and looking for themselves.
We clip the following from the Syracuse Daily JVews :
"The Fine Arts. — AVhen the Roman General asked his
faithful servant Zenani, what favor he could grant him, he re-
plied, "Thy likeness, my master." The favor was granted ;
but history does not inform us iu what style of art the coveted
picture was taken. Daguerre was then unborn, and the Camera
reposed among the unwaked skill and science of the inventor's
brain. It is therefore safe to surmise that the pallet and the
easel were summoued into requisition to fulfil the humble Zenani's
request. As pictures, ambrotypes are abortions and worthless
as mementoes of departed or absent friends, a few months fade
them ; the film peels off the glass, or the varnish becomes yel-
low. As the material is cheaper which composes the ambrotype,
some makers urge their sale, but it is conceded not only by the
most skilful artists and practical chemists of the day, but by
persons of any discernment in the art of picture-making, that
for durability, richness, softness, delicacy of detail, with all the
niinutcly exquisite gradations of light and shade, and perfec-
tion of a whole picture, the daguerreotype is superior to all
others. No delineation of the human face receives such bold-
ness as that by the Daguerreotype process. The cry has been
often raised that the daguerreotype fades I This is untrue.
We will show the fallacy of this error, and if you, dear reader,
have a faded daguerreotype, and you are prejudiced against it,
let us remove that i)rejudice. Take off the glass and clean it
with alcohol and your daguerreotype will look as good as new.
It is contrary to the nature of things that a perfect daguerreo-
type fades. When the glass that covers the daguerreotype be-
comes warm, it expands, and the pores open, and when it chills
the pores of the outside close, pressing the moisture through on
the backside of the glass, where it dries, forming a scum, and

blurring the picture. By removing the glass and properly
cleaning it^ the picture looks as well as ever, and will stand the
test of ages. The moisture docs not injure the face of the pic-
ture, whereas it spoils the ambrotype. The reason of this is
obvious : moisture will press through the glass of the ambro-
type in the same manner as the daguerreotype glass, but lodges
between the collodion film and the glass, rendering it impossible
to clean without effacing and spoiling the picture. We saw au
experiment of this kind tried recently at the Daguerriau Galle-
ry of J. S. Coonley, iu the Frankiu Buildings, and we were not
only highly pleased with the process, but shall ever believe with
Mr. Coonley that a perfect daguerreotype supersedes in every
way all other pictures made by the hand of man. Photographs
have their merit, and as to durability they will rank with the
daguerreotype, and come nearer the daguerreotype than that of
any other process for boldness and delineation of light and
shade, but in very large pictures it may be said the Photograph
is superior to the Daguerreotype."

The beautiful Dlaphaneotype?, " The Five Senses," of
which we gpoke iu our last, as being on exhibition by Mr. Faris,
at the Fair of the American Institute, were destroyed- by the
burning of the Crystal Palace. The largest photographic suf-
ferers at that fire were Mr. J. Gurney and Mr. Fredericks, who
both lost large and valuable collections.

Our illustrations this month show a decided improvement in
Mr. Cutting's PhotO'lithographic pictures. These prints are
furnished by Messrs. Cutting & Turner, of Boston.

We shall illustrate our next January number with a splendid
view of Long Island, from the New York shore, taking in a
portion of Blackwell's Island, on a full size sheet — picture 16X
18 inches. The capabilities of Mr. Harrison's new view lenses
will be beautifully illustrated by this picture, and as we have
made new arrangements for our photographic printing, we can
promise that the execution of these pictures, as well as all others
hereafter published iu our Journal will be of the first class.

We have received a communication from a Mr. Parsons, of
Albany, in answer to our leader of last mouth ; but too late for
this number.

Death of M J. Gurney of I^aUcsez, Miss. — It is with
extreme regret that we learn — from the following paragraph —
of the death of our old subscriber and friend, M. J. Gurney,
and we sincerely sympathize with his brother and family iu their
bereavement. Our intercourse with Mr. Gurney, has always
been of the most pleasant, and we shall always bear him in
memory with pleasure, and regret for his loss.

The Late Marsh J. Gurney. — On Sunday evening last, a
long procession of mourning friends, preceded by the Adams
Light Guard, accompanied to their last resting place the re-
mains of Marsh J. Gurney, so well known in our city and
county.

Mr. Gurney died on Saturday night last, of yellow fever, after
an illness of less than a week's duration During a residence
in this city of many years, he had endeared himself to all who
knew him. His smiling countenance told of earthly happines.s,
and his merry laugh and friendly word betokened the warm,
geflerous heart that beat within his manly form. A member of
the Light Guard, that company turned out in force to pay the
funeral honors over the grave of their comrade, and sad was it
to hear the slow and measured music which marked the time for
their mournful procession. Mr. Gurnej's loss will be deeply
felt, not merely by a troupe of friends, but iu the peculiar branch
of art of which he was so enthusiastic an admirer, and so great
a proficient.

" Art is brief, and time is fleeting.
And our hearts, though strong and brave.

Still lilco nuifflcd drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave."

Pkoto-Litho^rapli

1858.

THE PHOTOGUAnilC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

321

From Liv. and Man. Photographic Journal.

THENEW PETZVAL LENS.

BY WILUAM ROSS, NEW YORK.

0 diagram of this celebrated
combination has yet found its
way to tliis country, without
which it is very difficult to un-
derstand wherein its claimed
improvement consists.

As soon as it was first an-
nounced here, and long before
the most vague description of it
had been given, it was gravely
asserted in "our Journals,"
that the problem had already
been quietly solved here, and
that a more celebrated optician
("for this last term read " com-
mon Jens maker:') than either Dr. Petzval or Voightlander,! had
not only done so, but had made the lenses themselves "eigh-
teen mouths ago 1"*- a canard of course, but its key will be
found in the fact that the celebrated optician cannot sell a lens
except through two houses, who are equally celebrated as
" Dealers in Photographic materials," who each own (s%h rosa)
a Journctl of their own^ — hence the facilities for celebration.

Whatever may be the qualities of the new lens, it is hence-
forth— " An American Invention" and so far as I can see, from
the published descriptions, the prioriiy of date will not be worth
disputing.

Mr. Fenton's statements of his trials with it are the first
reliable accounts we have of it. M. Pretch's German idiom is
to me imcoaiprehensible, and Dr. Petzval's own is, although
better English, still less descriptive of the lens than could have
been wished, especially from the inventor. Fiom the first
announcement of the thing I was led to think that all the three
lenses were used at once, till Mr. Fenton " let the cat out of
the bag," and showed the new addition lens to be only a sub-
stitute for one of the others. From all the other statements
since published, this must be the fact, although some of them are
not very explicit on that point, and so far as they go, leave this
ill doubt. I, therefore, assume the fact of substitution as being
confirmed. Tlie whole claim therefore, simply amounts to get-
ting an impression in a shorter time than with a lens of the
ordinary description.

The ordinary landscape lens is a single achromatic, iu front
of wliich a diaphragm is usually so placed as to be readily
removed and replaced by another containing a larger or
smaller aperture as the wants of the artist may require. The
time iu which the impression can be made is directly as the area
of the aperture in the diaphragm, compared with the focal
length of the lens.

For portraits, in addition to the above lens, another achro-
matic lens is placed behind it, at a distance much nearer to
it than where the image is formed ; the efi"ect of this is to
change the direction of the rays transmitted through the first
lens, and cause them to form an image — not only much nearer

* i. e. About August 1856.

Notes by Ed. P. & F. A. Journal. — ■ We will venture to say that
there is not one word of truth in this assertion. Not one of the Ameri-
can Journals ever (.'xpressed an opinion contrary to the acknowledged
talent and position of M. Petzval.

2 This undoubtedly refers to remarks ttid-de by ourselves. The writer,
however, designedly misquotes. We stated that similar results had been
obtained by Mr. Harrison of this city — that is, similar to those described
at the time our comments were made, and if Mr. Ross did not look through
the green goggles of a supercilious Englishman, be would show better
judgment and write with less bearish venom. We again assert that Mr
Harrison produced similar results long before M. Petzval's announce-
ment was made in Europe.

3 This assertion is a falsehood. He suffers his prejudices to over-ride
truth.

VOL. XI, NO. XI. 41*

than where it would be formed by the first — but also smaller
and brighter, by condensing all the rays into a smaller area.
From this squeezing the image into a smaller space much of the
aberration of the oblique rays is rendered impercei)tible to the
eye and this is the same as if it were entirely removed — conse-
quently a much larger aperture may be and is used witli a double
combination than can be nsed with a single lens.

But, according to the claims for this new lens, its substitution
for the above back lens is to cause an enlargement of tlie picture
above what the front lens would give alone, while it shortens
the exposure and at the same time renders the image, sharper,
attributes which seem to me incompatible, except by supposing
that the new lens is of very much longer focus than the one for
which it is substituted, so as to enlarge the picture (nay, in
order to do this, it must be a concave lens, even though one of
its component glasses may be convex, for we are told it is achro-
matic), and that the aberrations are cured, either by a small
aperture, or the lens itself must be of much smaller diameter ; in
which case most of the light from the front lens will of neces-
sity be entirely stopped out. What particular benefit cm we
derive from the lens as now proposed ? We merely substitute
a small lens behind our present landscape lens, instead of a dia-
phragm with a small aperture, which would answer every pur-
pose of the new lens, for its faculty of enlarging the image en-
larges also its imperfections, whatever they may be.

With any kind of a lens of large aperture, and whatever its
focal length, our impressed image is only a com]5romise, selected,
as we may term it, from among a number of images all formed
near together, not on different jj^a-nw, but on different bases
of globular surface, and we select and call the focus that
one which appears to the eye as being less indistinct than the
others, being in fact the circle of least confusion. To reduce
the number of these bases or circles with their separate images
is the object of stopi)ing out the rays that form them by a dia-
phram, and in proportion as these are shut out, so much sharper
and more distinct will be the impression. A plane surface can-
not, therefore, have an image ot plane object equally sharp all
over its surface, unless such surface equals only a very small
part of the focal length of the lens. A landscape, however, has
its various parts in different planes ; but when these are all
beyond a certain number of focal lengths of the lens, no difQcnlty
is experienced in getting the focus — while, when they are situated
within this distance more skill is required to get a fair picture,
and this increases in proportion as the distance between some of
them and the lens decreases. In many cases the difficulty can
be overcome by using a lens of short focus, but wherever prac-
ticable, a lens of long focus is to be preferred, especially where
any rectilinear object is near the margin of the proposed view.
With the new Petzval lens we shall be no better off than before
in either of these cases, while in America our light is so good
that I get instantaneous stereographic impression with an ciu-hth
of an inch bottle aperture in sunshine, as if there were a foot of
snow on the upper surface of every projection as well as on the
ground, caused by over exposure, although the lens is opened
and shut by a spring.

In the above paper I may have been arguing on false data in
regard to the new lens. Could not a crude diagram, without
regard to scale or degree of curvature, be given iu the Journal ?
It would no doubt be of interest to many others as well as to
me.

[The preceding was written by our American correspondent
shortly after the first rumor of the newly-introduced lens reach-
ed that country, and it will be at once noticed that upon some
of its peculiariiies he is completely at sea, more especially upon
the mode in which the aberrations are rectified. These misappre-
hensions have been doubtless by this time corrected by better
information ; but we ha,ve considered that it would be interest-
ing to our readers to lay before them a genuine expression of
the impression realized from an American point of view," from

■» The English editors must not base their opinions of " Ammcan
vieics," sentiment, feelings, inventions— or anything else that is Ameri-
can— upon any of Mr. Ross's communications ; for they will find his state-

323

THE FUOTOGIlAPniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

November

the first announcement of the lens in question. Some of the
theoretical observation iu the precedinji; article we cannot assent
to, but it is needless to particularise them ut present. — Ed.]

From Photographic JVotes.

CARBON-PRINTING AN DP II OTO-LlTHOGaAPHY.

Our readers will remember tliat about six months a^o Mr.
Pouncy patented provisionally his process of Printing in Carbon.
1q taking this step certain particulars relating to his process
were described in a document deposited at the Patent Office, to
be kept secret for six months, according to the Patent Laws,
and tlien made public. The six months having now expired,
and Mr. Pouncy not having completed his patent, these parti-
culars of his process have become public property, and we are
of course at liberty to publish them

Mr. Pouncy's Provisional Specification is as follows :

POUNCY'S PROCESS OF PRINTING IN CARBON.

jJo_ "jgO. JoHM Pouncy, of High West Street, Dorches-
ter, in the County of Dorset. " Improvements in the pro-
duction of Piiotosranhic Pictures." — April lOlk, 1858.
" I, John Pouncy, of High West Street, Dorchester, in the
County of Dorset, do hereby declare the nature of the inven-
tion for ' Improvements in the production of Photographic Pic-
tures,' to be as follows ;

"This invention has for its object improvements in producing
photographic pictures on paper and other surfaces ; the surface
has us'ually been prepared with substances which, when acted on
by light in the process of producing the picture, are chemically
acted on so as to produce (either immediately, or when other
substances are applied afterwards to the surface,) the coloring
matter, or substance, in which the picture is formed. Now, ac-
cording to my invention, I prepare the paper, or other surface
for having the picture produced on it, by applying over its
whole surface the coloring matter which is to form the picture,
and together with this coloring matter, is applied a substance
wliich Ts acted on by the light. Tlie following is the manner in
which 1 proceed when printing positive pictures on paj.er from
negative pictures ; — I coat the paper, or surface which is to re-
cei've the picture, with a composition of vegetable carbon, gum
arabic, and bi-cliromate of potash ; and on to this prepared
surface I place the negative picture, and expose it to the light
in the usual way ; alterwards, the surface is washed with water,
whicii dissolves the composition at the parts on which the light
has not acted, but fails to affect those parts of the surface on
which the 1 ght has acted ; consequently, on those parts of the sur-
face the coloring matter remains in the state in which it was ap-
plied, having experienced no chemical change. Sometimes, for
the vegetable carbon, I substitute bitumen ; or other coloring
matter may be employed.

" By this process, pictures are obtained which are not liable
to fade like ordinary photographs."

Such, then, are the main features of Mr. Pouncy's process.
Now,' the subscribers for the purchase of Mr. Pouncy's pro-
cess wil'l have to consider whether they will remain content witli
the above particulars, which are exceedingly imperfect, or carry
out the original plan, and purchase from Mr. Pouncy the full
parliculars^of his process, with the view of giving publicity to
the whole secret of the manipulation. We advise them strong-
ly not to de.<i.st from their original intention. The mere knowl-
cd"-e tliat Mr. Pouncy uses bi-chromate of potass, vegetable
carbon, and gum arabic, is not enough to enable any one to suc-
ceed at once in getting such a print as that which we last re-
ceived from Mr. Pouncy. The proportions of the ingredients,
the mode of mixing them, and of applying them to the paper,
are not described iu the Provisional Specification, nor is any al-

lusion made to the particular kind of paper which it is really
necessary to employ. The experience of six mouths has enabled
Mr. Pouncy to produce very much better specimens than those
which he exhibited at the last Exhibition of the Photographic
Society, and those who purchase from him the full particulars of
the process which he now uses, will be able to get good pictures
as once, and will gain information which it would be very impor-
tant to publish. Nevertheless, we cannot disguise from our-
selves or our readers the fact that the publication of the main
feature of Mr. Pouncy's process releases subscribers from any
promise they may have made, and puts the matter of the sub-
scription on a somewhat different footing from before. So far
as we are concerned, we shall be happy to carry out our part of
this affair by publishing the subscription list, when complete,
and the process when purchased ; but at present we do not quite
see our way in the matter. It remains now for Mr. Pouncy
hiuiself to come forward and state clearly what his intentions
are, and whether he will now, for a certain sum, publish his en-
tire process, and inform subscribers how they are to arrange
matters with him. We place this Journal at his service and
that of bis subscribers for accomplishing the object they may
have in view ; and we have written to him urging him to take a
decisive step in this matter. We have all along understood
from him that the document deposited at the Patent OfBce con-
tained no information from which any one could produce prints
similar to his, and our surprise was therefore extreme when we
received from the Patent Agent the paper published iu this
number. Nevertheless a great deal remains untold, and if £100
would purchase that information, it would be money well laid
out, and at ihe same time fairly earned by Mr. Pouncy.
The history of Carbon-Printing may now be briefly told :
In 1838, Mr. Mungo Ponton described in the Edinburgh New
Philosophical Journal, a mode of producing photographic prints,
by applying to paper a mixture of bi-chromate of potass and
sulphate of indigo. In this process the bi-chromate, the color
ing matter, and the organic matter of the paper, are the three
materials on the reactions among which, under the influence of
light, the principle of printing in carbon or pigments depends.
The prints produced by Mr. Mungo Pouton appear to have been
the hrst permanently-tixed photographs, and we may consider
that gentleman as the discoverer of Photography, for the Tal-
botype and Daguerreotype processes were not published until
the following year, 1839.

The next step, if it can be called a step, iu this direction was
taken by M. Poitevin, who patented in England, in the year
lb55, a process of Photo-Lithography and Printing iu Pig-
meuts : that clause of his Speciticatiou which relates to the lat-
ter process, being as follows :

" i apply various liquid and solid colors upon paper, cloth,
glass, aud other surfaces, by mixing such colors with the afore-
said mixture of achromate or bi-cliromate with organic matter,
and applying this new mixture or combination to the paper of
other fabric or surface.

" The photographic impression is produced upon this prepared
surface by the action of light passing through a negative i)hoto-

menls of tlioso subjocls quite as inconxct as bis ideas, above expressed,
on tlu' I'etzval lens. Ilis evil gcuius has ltd him into many precarious,
perplexing predic;>ments since he canw among us, and we fear that the
icstous he has received have not yet taught him discretion or liberality.

i^raphic picture, or an engi-aving, or other suitable object, or
screen, or in the camera-obscura, and it is then washed with a
sponge and a large quantity of water. The albumen or other
organic matter is rendered insoluble at xhe parts where it has
been acted upon by the light, and the design is thus produced
in the color which has been employed. Mixtures containing dif-
ferent colors may be applied to different parts of the surface,
corresponding to different parts of the negative or screen em-
ployed to produce the photographic impression. A design in
several colors may thus be produced. The proportions of the
materials may be varied."

The organic matters which M. Poitevin has alluded to, are
mentioned in the former part of his specificatiou, and are " al-
bumen, iibrine, gum arabic, gelatine, or similar organic sub-
stances" The materials used by Mr. Pouncy, viz : bi-chromate
of potass, gum arabic, and carbon, or solid matter, are there-
fore included vaguely in M. Poitevin's specification, and the
mode of removing the unaltered chemicals by washing the paper

in water is also iiiciicated. But we have never beard of any
prints produced by M> Foitevin having been exhibited, nor do
we think his patent would hold good after what had been pub-
lished by Mr. Mungo Ponton, in 1838.

Tiie next step in this direction was that taken by M Testud
de Beauregard, who, in December, 1857, provisionally regis-
tered a secret process for some "Improvements in Photo-
graphy," the speciQcation of which was made public in May of
the present year, and published in No. 54 of this Journal. M.
T. de Beauregard applies a mixture of bi-cliromate of potass
and gelatine to a sheet of paper, and when dry applies the car-
bon, denying at the same time the possibility of producing a
print by applying the mixture of bi-chromate, carbon, and gela-
tine, directly to the paper.

The next step was taken by ourselves, without any knowledge
of what M. Beauregard had done a fortnight previously. In
No. 42 of this Journal, that is in the number for January Ist
of the present year, at p. 1, we make the following remarks :

" Some experiments in which we were engaged a few weeks
ago, lead us to believe in the possibility of Printing in Carbon,
by the following process :

" First — Dip a sheet of blotting-paper in a mixture of bi-
chromate of potass, albumen, and tinely-ground charcoal ; or
blacken it ;^in the dark J with Indian ink, ground up with a so-
lution of bi-chromate and gelatine, or albumen.

" Next — Dry the blackened paper, and expose it to light,
under a negative.

" Lastly — Immerse it in water, which will more or less per-
fectly remove the black material from those parts where light
has 7ioi acted, without disturbing those parts where light has
acted, and thereby rendered it insoluble. In this way a print
in black, and a sort of dirty white, may be produced. After
which it is probable that immersion in an alkaline solution may
clear up the lights sufficiently. This was the direction in which
we were experimenting a few weeks ago, when some matters in-
terfered to prevent our carrying the experiments any further."

The use of blotting paper was wrong, but we are convinced
that with vegetable carbon, and either albumen or gelatine,
good prints may be obtained.

Now, comes the part which Mr. Pouncy has played in this
matter. In the month of March, of the present year, that is,
about two months after he iiad seen the foregoing remarks in
tills Journal (to which he has been a subscriber from the first,)
he enclosed us some carbon prints, in which the whites were
clean and the blacks black ; and on the 10th of April he pa-
tented the process provisionally, according to the specification
published in the present number. Since that time he has great-
ly improved in his manipulation, but has allowed the patent to
go uncompleted. To us it appears that Mr. Pouncy was the
first to produce a presentable carbon print, and that to him be-
longs the credit, and a very great credit it is, of having practi-
cally worked out a process which was merely suggested by
others, and brought it to about the same perfection as any other
photographic process. So far then as the discovery of Carbon-
Printing is concerned we should consider Mr. Mungo Ponton
tiie discoverer of the principle, and Mr. Pouncy the discoverer
of the best mode of carrying it out ; at the same time we enter
tain a high appreciation of what M. Poitevin has done in Pho-
to-Lithography, and also of the many ingenious experimental
investigations of M. T. de Beauregard, but with all due defer-
ence to these gentlemen, we require to see their productions
in direct Carbon-Printing, or to hear of some one who has, be-
fore we can give to the patentee of what appears to have been
little more than an idea, the glory which by right belongs to the
man who has, after many months of indefatigable toil, produced
fine results.

So much for Carbon-Printing, a process which was suggested
before the discovery of the present methods of Photography,
and which has been taken up and perfected during the present
year. Hitherto all the productions of photographers havj been
more or less perishable. Daguerreotypes fade if not properly
washed ; collodion positives and negatives fade if not properly
washed and varnished ; developed prints upon iodide and chlo-

ride of silver fade if not properly waslied ; untoncd sun-prints
upon chloride of silver fade if not properly washed ; toned sun-
prints upon chloride of silver frequently fade when they are
properly washed ; but in Carbon-Printing the case is reversed,
for those parts which are not properly washed, become perma-
nent, and the difficulty in this process, if it can be said to have
a difficulty, is to prevent parts of the picture from becoining too
permanent ; at the same time, if a thing whith is already per-
ment could be supposed to become more jjermanent, the expo-
sure of a carbon print to light fixes it more indelibly to the pa-
per. Another important feature in Carbon-Printing is tlie
absolute purity of the whites ; and it is a remarkable thing thnt
a sheet of paper which has once been blackened all over should
by mere washing in water entirely regain its original whiteness
a trace of discoloration — but so it is. It is also a remarkable
and important fact, but one which is consistent with all that we
know of direct snn-printing, that the amount of carbon fixed
by the isolated bi-chromate and gum should be in exact propor-
tion to the amount of isolation, so tliat all the half-lones of the
picture are faithfully rendered. With respect to definition, that
must depend, in any photographic process, upon the sniootluiess
of the tablet, and if Carbon-Printing could be applied to opal
glass or porcelain, nothing would be left to desire on this point.
.Taking then all these things into consideration we are inclined
to think Carbon-Printing a very important step in photography,
and one which is capable of many useful applications, and which
may open new branches of industry. To us it does net seem
likely that any method of photographic engraving, or etching,
or Photo-Lithography, will ever achieve the same delicacy of
detail and modulation of tone as Carbon-Printing, for the me-
chanical operations of pulling a proof in printer's ink can hard-
ly yield so perfect an impression, even supposing the plate more
perfect than it is ever likely to be, as the direct action of light
in Carbon-Printing. But all these processes are interesting,
and who can tell to what •ihe progress of discovery may
lead ? Let us hear what the Americans have to say on these
subjects :

Mr. Snelling's American Pkotngraphic and Fine Art Journal
for August last is illustrated with an exceedingly fine Photo-
Lithographic copy of an engraving, by Messrs. Cutting, Brad-
ford, & Turner, Boston, U. S., and contains an article on Photo-
Lithography, from which we make the following extracts :

" Among the many processes which have claimed the atten-
tion of searchers after hidden things, that of Photo-Lithograj)hy
was among the first. In fact, it was quite simultaneous with the
publication of the Daguerreotype, by MM. Niepce and Da-
guerre, the most successful attempt having been made in 1839
by an Italian nobleman, fwhose name has escaped us,} who suc-
ceeded, by the aid of a telescope, in impressing the nebnlte of
Orion upon a lithographic stone, and taking pretty fair speci-
mens from it with lithographic ink.

" So far as we are enabled to learn, the next attempt at all
worthy of our consideration, was made by Joseph Dixon, Esq.,
who, in 1840, made several experiments in this direction, and
succeeded partially in solving the problem ; but it is reasonable
to suppose from his having abandoned his researches, that he
failed to come to any satisfactory practical result.

" Several French and German sai-ans essayed to elaborate
this process and apply it to illustrative art, but up to the pres-
ent time their endeavors have met with slight reward ; we hear
of nothing having been done to render it worthy the notice of
publishers, or those who take an interest in the progress of Art
matters. With so many of the first minds of Europe engaged
in the study of this branch of photography, and delving deeply
into the hidden recesses of nature with the purpose of transfer-
ring the exquisite limnings of the sun to stone, copper and steel,
in aid of their multiplication, it is — and should be — a source of
great pride to us, that it was left to the American mind to attain
that perfection in Fkolo-Lithografhy, which alone can make it
of practical utility.

" It W'^s left to Messrs. Cutting, Bradford and Turner, of
Boston, to perfect this art, and that they have done so in a
masterly manner is shown by the results before us.

! 324

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC A^D FINE ART JOURNAL.

Kovcmbei

"For these improvements Messrs. Cutting and Bradford
obtained a patent, and although in photography proper we
liave invariably set our face against patents, (and were we to-
day to discover one of the most important improvements that
could be made in it, we should not take out a patent); yet if
we never felt disposed to have a hand in patents before, the
results of Messrs. Cuttixg,Eu.\dford and Tukxer's Photo-Litho-
graphy, which the hitter gentleuian has shown us, have giveu us
a very strong inclination to bid for an investment.

" We have seen many specimens of European Pholo Litho-
graphy, and of European and American Lithography, and we
venture to say, without fear of contradiction from any who have
the opportunity to compare the results, that in any point of
view, natural or artistic, elaborate finish or detail, or in striking
effects, nothing can be superior, in the present state of the art,
to prints produced by Messrs. Cutting, Bradford and Turner.
We liave been shown prints of every description, — microscopical
objects, magnified thousands of times, portraits from life, copies
of drav/ings and engravings, views of manufactured articles,
landscapes, fossil remains, &c., &c.; all possessing delicacy and
minutiae of detail, which we say, without hesitation, cannot be
approached by the eye and hand of the best artist.

" As a partial — and it is only a partial indication of what is
to be accomplished — evidence of the truth of our opinions, wg
give our readers, in the present number, a copy of an engraved
head. It will be seen that every line is accurately copied, and
that the print partakes materially of the nature of the engraving
from which it is taken. The grain of the stone, as shown in
this, is admirably overcome in many of tne other specimens
shown us. In fact the process is capable of entirely obliterating
all trace of lithographic grain, and giving the picture the ap-
pearance of a fiue mezzotint engraving, or of a first class pho-
tograph.

"In the illustration of every description of books, this process
must supersede the present lithograph, and to the naturalist and
physiologist it is invaluable. In copying insects, animals, fish,
fowls, mineralogical specimens, trees, and all kinds of vegetable
productions, not a speciality is lost, for, as with the photograph
what the eye alone cannot see is revealed upon the application
of the magnifying glass.

" Another point to be considered in this Photo-Lithographic
process is, not only its general application to illustrative art,
but its adaptation to the wants of a large class of artists who
usually wish to multiply their drawings and paintings at a no-
minal cost. All they rpquire is the process, the photographic
material, and the stone — any lithographic printer can strike off
the desired number.

"Our readers, by comparing the picture in the present number
with those given in April and May, will at once note the rapid
strides the patentees have made in improving their process, and
we feel convinced we shall be able to give, in future issues,
pictures that will indicate this improvement in a more marked
degree. There is no American improvement in art that has
given us so much pleasure and satisfaction as this, and we do
not regret that it has fallen to our lot to congratulate ^ gent-
leman who we have hitherto been — rcluctantlj' — obliged to
oppose. This subject admits of still further observation, and
we shall again refer to it."

We also extract the following remarks from the last number
of Mr. Seely's American Journal. They occur in an article hy
Mr. Seely, headed, " Carbon Photographs, — Photo-Engraving
&c." :—

" As to Carbon-Printing, I have little doubt that Photo-
Lithography will prove the best process where many copies are
needed, — the best in view of economy and rapidity. The pre-
paration of the stone requires little labor and but a few minutes,
when it is ready for printing, in every respect, by the ordinary
lithographic press. Photo-lithographs can be produced cheaper
than other lithographs, for the reason that the pliotogra()hic
impression on stone is easier made than a drawing in the usual
way fan important itemj while all other expenses are precisely
the same. As to the permanency of Photo-Lithography nothing
need be said; and any who have examined the best work done

by Cutting, Bradford and Turner, of Boston, and Isaac Rehn,
of Pliiladelphia, are satisfied that the Photo-Lithographs are
not far behind the photograph in truthfulness. I have seen no
carbon impressions produced in any way that can be considered
as superior as pictures.

" On page 32, bi-chromate of potash, &c., are alluded to as
materials for producing carbon prints. I commenced exper-
iments with those substances eagerly. The theory of the pro-
cess, and the manipulations seemed palpable and easy. But
my ardor cooled on learing from the "Bulletin" that M. Poitevin
had anticipated me by several years — had not only made pho-
tographs in carbon but a variety of pigments by the same plan.

[These remarks in the Bulletin were sioiply extracts from
Photographic Notes. — Ed. P.N.]

" The method 1 find quite easy is as follows: — I make a solu-
tion of gum arable in water about as thick as molasses. With
this I grind on a glass or in a mortar a sufficient quantity of
calcined lampblack, ivory black, or other pigment. When the
mixture is thorough, I add in the dark an equal part by measure
of a saturated solution of bi-chromate of potash in honey, diluted
with an ec^ual part of water. The whole is now to be carefully
mixed by stirring or grinding. This intimate mixture is a point
of the greatest consequence. The paper I prefer is the highly
albumenized. The mixture is laid on by. floating, or with a
large flat brush. Dry in the dark. The printing is performed
in the usual way, only using about half the time for ammonia-
nitrate paper. After exposure the print is soaked ten minutes
or more in water, and then exposed under a stream of water till
the whites are fully brought out.

[Mr. Seely has pretty nearly hit upon Mr. Pouncy's process.
—Ed. P.N.]

" Any one on reflection will perceive that the above process
cannot produce a picture so perfect in detail and delicate shad-
ing as the ordinary silver prints. The only recommendation I
can give it is the permanency of the results, and its simplicity
and economy. Although better pictures have been produced
here than the specimens of Mr. Pouncy's work sent by Mr.
Sutton to America, they are as yet slightly inferior to the best
Photo-Lithographs. Assuming that they may be made of the
same quality, it appears to me that Photo-Lithography will be
found advisable when fifty or more prints are required.

' ' The changes I have in the process as published are : the
use of honey, to facilitate the washing development, and the
albumenized paper.

" I have attempted, on a totally different theory, to produce
carbon prints, and although I have not had much success, I
have not lost confldeucein the principle. It is well-known that
a mixture of chlorine and hydrogen is extremely sensitive to
light, combining speedilj and only in the light. If carbide of
hydrogen is substituted for the hydrogen, the carbon is preci-
pitatevi on exposure to the liglit. Saturate a sheet with cam-
phine a (carbide- of hydrogen) and expose it to the camera
image in an atmosphere of chlorine, and the image will be fixed;
or expose the camphiue paper to the vapors of chlorine or bro-
mine— and then to the image, or under a negative. Such a
procedure thus stated is evidently imjjracticable, yet I have lit-
tle doubt that it may prove the germ of something valuable.

" Photo-Engraving —For the following process I am in-
debted to Mr. Joseph Dixon, of Jersey City, by whose courtesy
I am permitted to give it to the public. I have had no oppor-
tunity to test its value by trial, but I am assured by Mr. Dixon,
that it is capable of very good results : ' The process is founded
on the fact that if a polished steel plate be rusted in spots,
printer's ink will adhere only to the rust, from which it may be
printed in the oi'dinary way. Expose a paper or collodion pho-
tograph to the vapor of iodine. The iodine is absorbed only
where the impression exists. The photograph is now pressed iu
close contact with a steel plate, prepared as for engrossing. The
iodine partly leaves the photograph and rusts the steel corres-
pondingly. The time required for rusting properly may be days.
The applying the ink and printing are quite similar to the com-
mon method of the steel printers, making the necessary varia-
tion for the raised surface instead of cavities.'

" A conversation with Mr. Dixon on the above sug<^ested to
me a plan which hns some advantage. It is commonly known
that if an arabvotype be cautiously heated to about 500° the
collodion film burns away, leaving the whole of the silver pic-
ture undisturoed and adliering to the glass. The plate may now
be etched with hydro-fluoric acid, and thus a tolerable printing
surface obtained. But I should prefer to transfer the collodion
picture to a plate of metal burn the film, and etch with any
acid which will not affect the silver. I found the transferring
the film easy enough, but ou burning the film the silver did not
adhere, owing apparently to a film of oxide formed on the plate
If the metallic plate is first amalgamated the difficulty is mostly
overcome, but the sharpness of the etching suffers.

"Both of the above processes require a positively transmitted
light."

The above remarks of Mr. Seely's appear to contain some
very valuable suggestions.

An improved process of photographic etching has lately been
patented by Mr. Fox Talbot, and has been called by him Photo-
GLYPHic ExGRAViNG. We sliall pubHsh his specification m ex-
tenso at the earliest opportunity,* and in the meantime the fol-
lowing particulars of the pro'>ess will suffice :

A steel or copper plate is first cleaned with soda and whiting,
then coated with a mixture of gelatine and bi-chromate of pot-
ass, and exposed under a negative to li.uht. It is then, without
being washed, powdered all over very thickly with finely pulver-
ised copal, which is then melted upon the plate by holding it
over a spirit lamp. This forms a sort of a |uatint ground. As
soon as it becomes cool a solution of per-ehloride of iron is ap-
plied to the plate with a camel's hair-brush ; this attacks the
parts which have not been acted on by light, and thus the plate
is etched ; after which the surface is cleaned, and prints pulled
from it in printer's ink in the usual way.

This new process differs from the former one patented by Mr.
Fox Talbot in 1852 in the following particulars : viz., in the
plate not being washed after exposure to light, in its receiving
an aquatint ground, and in the substitution of per-chloride of
iron for per-chloride of platiimm.

AVhile on these subjects, we may mention that we are endeav-
oring, with the help of a gentleman who is one of the engravers
for the Illustrated London News, to perfect a process of taking
photographs upon wood, so that they may be afterwards cut,
and we hope shortly to be able to illustrate a number of this
Journal with a picture produced in this way.f

Can any of our readers kindly reply to the following query
from the engraver who cuts the diagrams for this Journal ? He
wishes to know how the ink of a very old print may be trans-
ferred to a wood block. If a proof, recently printed, is simply
damped, laid upon a wood block, and the back rubbed with a
burnislier, the design is transferred to the block, but the plan
does not answer with an old print. We have advised to damp
the old print with a solution of caustic potass in alcohol. A
method of transferring the prints is successfully practised in
America. Can any of our American readers favor us with the
particulars of this process ? We are lold that the solution em-
ployed turns the paper buff-color. |

NEW COMBINATION

From Photographic Notes.

OF LENSES.

In a former number we recommended the use of the " E.x-
celsior Printing Ink" as a black varnish for Ambrotypes. This
is a patent Ink, the component parts (except coloring matter)
of which are entirely different from ordinary printer's ink, and
may be had of the "Excelsior Printer's Ink Company," No. 34
Ann St. New York City.

*See present number P. Sf F. A. Journal, page 333

fPerfectly successful methods for producing collodion pictures on wood
for the engraver have been practised in this couutry for two years past.
Oae by Mr. Waters, another by Mr. Bernard. Tbe latter geiitiemaii re-
ceived tlie premium at the Fair of the Ame.icaa lustitate for 1837. — Ed.
P. Sc F. A. Journal.

tMr. Sutton has hit upon the American method ; a solution of caustic
pota>h in alcohol, of raediuin strength, being used. The impression is
moistened with this, placed upon the block, and passed through a copper
plate press. — Ed. P. Sf F. A. Journal.

42

We have alluded on two or three former occasions to a new
combination of lenses invented by a gentleman at Manchester,
in which distortion of the image is absolutely corrected, and we
mentioned that immediately on hearing of this invention we got
Mr. Ross, of Featherstone Buildings, to make for us a combina-
tion on the new principle, in order that we might thoroughly
try and report upon its merits. This we are now prepared to
do, but must observe in the first place that we are not at liber-
ty to lay the full particulars of the construction of the instru-
ment before our readers, as the inventor has not yet completed
a novelty which he is working out in the mounting of tlie lenses,
and which he imagines will render the instrument much more
perfect ; so far, however, as the general principle of the ar-
rangement of the lenses is concerned we can sufficiently explain
it in a few words.

Let the reader imagine a pair of achromatic convex lenses of
any form, but identical in all respects, placed in a tube at any
distance apart vvithin a certain limit, with their similar sides op-
posite, and a diaphram exactly midway between them. Or, in
order to fix the ideas, let him suppose the arrangement to con-
sist of a pair of plano-convex achromatic lenses, having their
convex sides outwards, and their plane sides inwards and oppo-
site to one another, and a small diaphram midway between
them ; this combination will then be perfectly symmetrical.
Now, let any straight line be drawn through the centre of the
diaphram till it meets the inner sides of the lenses, and let it
then be continued through the lenses according to the law of the
refraction of light. It is evident, from the symmetry of the
combination, that the directions of the two lines without the
lenses will be accurately parallel ; from which it follows that if
a ray of light be incident obliquely and eccentrically upon the
front lens in such a way as that its course between the lenses
may pass exactly through the centre of the diaphram, it will
emerge from the back lens in a direction parallel to that at in-
cidence.

Now let us suppose the diaphram infinitely small, that is to
say so small that only a single ray can pass through it, and let
the combination be presented to the objects of a view. From
every luminous point of those objects a pencil of light proceeds
which covers the entire front lens, but of that pencil only one
particular ray can pass through the diaphram, and that ray will,
after passing through the back lens, emerge in a direction paral-
lel to its direction at incidence — the deviation which it suffers in
consequence of refraction through the front lens being exactly
counteracted by refraction through the back lens. If, then, we
suppose an infinitely faint image produced by these single rays
impinging upon a focusing screen, that image will be entirely
free from distortion, as much so as the image formed by a pin-
hole in the tront of a dark camera, in which case, as in that of
the combination, the rays suffer no deviation.

All this being understood, it remains to show that the actual
image formed in the photographic camera by this new combina-
tion when the diaphram is of small but finite size, and when for
single rays of light we substitute jpsraci/^ of light passing through
the diaphram, is equally free from distortion. To demonstrate
this point we shall assume that the image is sharp and distinct
upon the focussing screen, and that the astigmatism of the foci
is of too small amount to be appreciable by unassisted vision ;
or in other words that the " circles of least confusion" of the
oblique pencils are of inappreciable diameter If this be not
the case, and if the image be "fuzzy" and indistinct it is hardly
a subject for comment or criticism. The object is to show that
the apparently sharp image upon the focussing screen of a lu-
minous point not situated upon the axis of the lens is really in
the line of the ray which passes through the centre of the dia-
phram. This is a very simple matter. Tlic focus of a pencil is
produced by the concourse of all the rays which pass through
the diaphram, and since the ray which passes through its
centre is one of them, the focus is formed at the point where
that particular ray meets the focusaing screen. The combiua-

326

THE niOTOGRAnilC AND F1^'E ART JOURNAL.

November,

tion therefore absolutely cures distortion of the image in the or-
dinary process of working with it, with a small diaphram.

The reasoning does not involve any particular form of the
equal and similar lenses, the conditions of the combination may
therefore be satisfied in an infinite number of ways, but of the
infinity of solutions which it allows one particular solution is
the best for remedying spherical aberration and curvature of
the image. That best form we imagine to be plano-convex, and
the combination which Mr. Ross has made for us consists of
two equal plano-couvex achromatic lenses, separated by an in-
terval which is c^oable of variation, and mounted with their
plane sides inwarus, and a diajihram midway betvy'eeu them.
This new combination we have now thoroughly tried, in a varie-
ty of way.s, and the following are the results obtained :

With respect to distortion. Wiien the diaphram is placed
nearest to the front lens, and the image of a perpendicular
straight line is brought to the edge of the field, it is curved in-
wards at its extremities. On the contrary, when the diaphram
is placed nearest to the back lens, the line is curved outwards
at its extremities. When the diaphram is placed exactly mid-
way between the lenses the line is absolutely straight. So far,
therefore, the results of theory are strictly borne out in prac-
tice.

With respect to spherical aberration and flatness of field.
When all the stops are removed the combination gives inferior
central definition to an ordinary portrait combination, and the
marginal definition is very bad ; so that the combination has,
on the whole, no other advantages than that of curing distor-
tion. We were not surprised to obtain this result, for we ex-
pected to find the new combination inferior to the ordinary por-
trait lens as regards central definition, and so far as we can
judge, it is inferior. Any one who possesses a twin lens stereo-
scopic portrait camera, will find, on removing the front lens of
eitlier combination and mounting it as a back lens to the other
combination, with its flat side inwards, that inferior definition is
obtained.

With respect to curvature of the image. Neither the new
combination, nor the ordinary portrait lens give a flat field.
The Petzval view-lens is by far the best in this respect. The
new combination is therefore only fit for use with a small dia-
phram, and then it makes a good view lens, or a perfect copying
lens, rendering the lines of a stereoscopic picture copied by it
full size as accurately as if the print had beeu obtained by su-
perposition. No ordinary lens will do this.

Having thus explained at some length the principle of this
combination, it is not too much to say respecting it ':hat it is
the most important optical instrument that has yet been made
for photographic purposes, for it is an absolute fact that all th;;
photographs which have been taken vv.'th the common lenses-are
more or less false and distorted representations ; while of all
optical instruments that can be conceived none is so fearfully
bad in the m;.tter of distortion as the view-lens with a stop in
front, no mattir low it is achromatized, whether with the crown
or flint glass in front.

In the common portrait combination the deviation occasioned
by the front lens is to a great extent corrected by an opposite
deviation produced by the back lens, and there is consequently
much less distortion with a portrait lens having a diaphram be-
tween the lenses than with a single view lens and diaphram in
front. But the diaphram not be placed exactly midway be-
tween the lenses ; that has been a mistake ; its best position
for curing distortion would be at a certain point which may be
determined by trial.

The inventor of the corabiriation which we have described,
and which is a symmetrica] combination, has devised a system
which is un-symmetrical, and which nevertheless cures distor-
tion, and gives a flatter field than the other. The particulars
of this instrumout will be published by him in the course of a
few weeks, and when his arrangements are ready for supplying
it commercially tiiey will be duly advertised in this Journal. He
does not intend to take out a patent, and if, on trial, Mr. Ross
finds them answer, he will manufacture them for sale.

In concluding this article we beg of the reader to study it

carefully. Photographers may now turn over anew leaf. Hith-
erto their works have been, without exception, false in outline :
in future they may be absolutely true.

Mr. Ross is now making for us a second lens, identical with
the first, so that the pair may be fitted to a stereoscopic came-
ra. The focal length of these combinations is only three-and-a-
half inches, and yet with a small diaphram they cover a field
three-and-a-half inches in diameter, with an image sharp in every
part and absolutely free from distortion. Mr. Cox, of Skinner
street, has lately made for us a beautiful instrument for copying
stereoscopic negatives by means of the above lenses. It an-
swers to perfection, so far as we have tried it in copying a single
picture, and will of course answer equally well for the pair when
the other lens arrives. When we have become perfectly fami-
liar with the use of this instrument we shall devote a long arti-
cle to the subject of coping transparent stereoscopics by wet
collodion. In the meantime it may be important to observe
thai ordinary negatives will not do, as they are much too dense.
The negative should be full of detail and half-Lone, and in den-
sity something between a positive and a negative. Our new
combination, with a three-quarter-inch diaphram between the
lenses, yields a perfectly sharp image ihe same size jis \\\<- oii;,M-
nal, an exposure of one or two seconds to light from the North-
ern sky transmitted through the negative being sufficient ; but
it is more convenient to use a much smaller diaphram, The co-
pying box is a camera having two sliding bodies, one of which
carries the negative, the other the dark slide. Its entire length
is about eighteen inches. It has a partition in the middle which
carries the lenses, and another partition longitudinally in the
middle down its entire length. One lens copies one picture
while the other lens copies the other. But more about this mat-
ter on a future occasion.

PflOTOCRAPinc

From Photographic Notes.

PRINTING.

The amount subscribed for the purchase of Mr. Pouncy's pro-
cess now so nearly reaches £100 that Subscribers may consider
it tolerably certain that the process will be published in all its
particulars in an early number of this Journal. They must
therefore be good enough to transmit at once to Mr. J. Pouncey,
High West Street, Dorchester, by P.O., the sums they have
kindly promised to subscribe. The matter will then stand thus :
— should the entire sum received by him fall short of £100 he
will transmit to Subscribers a private copy of the particulars of
his process, for their sole use, until the full amount is realized ;
but we think it nearly certain that the £100 will be made up
and the process published in our next number. Our intention
was to have ourselves made good any little deficiency that
might occur towards the end of this transaction, and to have
concluded the list with our own subscription, but having very
recently sustained a very heavy pecuniary loss, in consequence
of the complete destructiou of our laboratory by Ore, we are
scarcely at this moment in apo^iition to carry out that intention.
The matter must therefore be left more completely in the hands
ot Subscribers. On the conclusion of the business a correct list
will be published of the names of those to whom photographers
are indebted for the purchase and publication of this important
process, together with the sum actually subscribed by them ;
and we hope that many will increase their subscription in order
to remove any difficulties which may occur at the last.

We have from the first strongly advocated Mr. Pouncy's pro-
cess of Carbon-Printing, because we feel convinced that it is
the true solution of the problem of permanent printing, and
that the future of photography upon paper lies in this direction.
Positive printing has for many years occupied much of our atten-
tion, and we had not been three months engaged in experiment-
ing before we became convinced that the method of printing and
toning now commonly employed was wrong in principle, and
if persevered in would biiug photography into disrepute. This
we endi:i/ored emphatically to point out in a series of letters
which appeared in the Piiotographic Journal in the year 1853,

18; 8,

THE rnOTOGRAPniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

327

and the remedy we then suggested was the substitution of gold
for silver in the proof, by means of a toning-bath of sel-d'or, which
preceded and was independent of the fixing bath of fresh hypo.
The experienced of five years has proved that that process yields
proofs which are so far permanent that we have never known
one of our own to fatie. It is not, however, entirely free from
objections and difficulties, for the prints are someliraes inky in
color, the material costly, and the manipulation a little trouble-
some. Some operators have endeavored to improve upon that
process by the substitution of chloride of gold for sel-d'or, but
this is wrong in principle, because oxide of gold is substituted
for oxide of silver, in hotk cases, while die liberated chlorine in
cue case destroys a portion of the material of the image, which
remains quite unaffected in the other case. Observing, there-
fore, at that time the good effects of sel-d'or toning, and remark-
ing shortly after the great stability of negatives produced by
development or compared with that of positives produced by
sun-priuting, we endeavored to combine gold-toning with devel-
opraent-printiug, and the result ot these experiments was so suc-
cessful, and the proofs so entirely to our taste in their color and
artistic qualities, that we immediately published the process in
a pamphlet, and proceeded, in conjuntion with M. Blauquart-
Evrard, to carry it out professionally. Out ot some thousands
of prints issued by us, aud bearing the stamp " Permanent Pho-
tograph," only one has been returned as faded, (from a lady
residing in the north of England j, and strange to say, this has
not faded, but is merely ameauly print. But these prints, which
were upon plain paper, were not generally liked, partly because
ihey possessed less vigor and brilliancy than albuminized prints
and partly because they were deficient in modulation of tone,
which fault was attributed by certain persons to an inherent
defect in the development process, instead of to the true cause,
viz., the two great density of the negatives. (It is surely quite
absurd to attribute to the process of development of a latent
image an inherent defect when employed in positive printing
upon paper, which does not occur either in Collodion Positives
or Negatives, or in printing upon glass from transparencies, or
by superposition). Such then was the state of affairs when Mr.
Pouncy sent us his first Carbon print, and in that print, faulty
as it was, we perceived the germ of an important new printing
process, because there was black and white with gradation of
shade, and also sharp definition of straight lines ; and the faults,
which consisted in want of vigor and the presence of grain or
smudginess, we attributed to the wrong kind of paper having
been employed, and to improper manipulation in some stage ol
the process. But there evidently lay the germ of a valuable
new process, and now that it has been greatly improved it
became important to discuss the principle on which it is founded.
In Carbon-Printing, vegetable carbon is intimately mixed with
gum arable and bichromate of potass ; a piece of paper is then
blackened with this mixture, dried, and exposed to light under a
neo-ative ; it is then put into water, which after a time completely
dissolves out the black stuff t'roiu tliose parts where light has not
acted, leaving it permanently attached to the paper in the parts
where light kas acted, which parts form the shadows of the
picture. Now, it has been urged as an objection to this pro-
cess, that half-tones cannot be produced by it, because light does
not immediately render the gum insoluble, but causes it to pass
throu"-h various stages between solubility and insolubility, and
when the action is stopped at any one of these stages it must
depend upon the treatment which the print receives in the final
washing whether the partially insoluble gum, along vvith its
adherent carbon, is to remain in the paper or be removed. There
is some show of reason in this opinion, but we believe it to be
incorrect aud opposed to facts. The probability is that the
atoms ot gum do not pass through any intermediate stage be-
tween solubility and insolubility, but pass at once from one state
to the other the instant that the bichromate is deo.xydized by
li<>ht • and thus atom by atom of gum and carbon are combined
wTth an atom ot reduced chromium salt, so as to form an atom
of insoluble black cement firmly attached to the paper. These
Hack atoms accumulate in quan'ily dependent upon the intensity
of Ihti light and the time of its action, aud thus the deep blacks

and all the half-tones are produced ; and on washing the print
it is found just as impossible to remove the paler shades as the
deepest blacks ; in fact the print is faithful to the negative,
and no artifice in washing can obliterate any part of it ; it
might be dragged across the Atlantic behind the stern of a
vessel, and the half-tones remain as permanently fixed and
as unalterable as the strongest blacks. In short, the ob-
jection that we have endeavored to remove is as absurd
as it would be to suppose that in sun-printing there are an
infinity of gradations between chloride and sub-chloride of
silver, and that none of these gradations of shade would appear
in the finished print. We imagine that in sun-printing the
atom of chloride exposed to light passes at once from chloride
to sub-chloride, and that the deepening tint due to continued
exposure is produced by the acaovudation of atoms of sub-chloride.
It is certainly as wrong to suppose that in sun-printing the
whole mass of chloride is simultaneously acted on and passes
by degrees to sub-chloride through an infinity of intermediate
stages, as to suppose that a mass of carbon mixture passes
gradually from solubility to insolubility. No. The analogy
between Carbon-Printing and chloride-printing, and all kinds
of sun-printing is no doubt perfect.

We have therefore strongly advocated Carbon Printing
because we believe it to be correct in principle, and that the
utmost degree of vigor, finish, and gradation of tone may be
obtained in this way by using the proper tablet to print upon.
As for the objections which have been raised to it, it is right
that a matter of this kiud should be thoroughly discussed ;
let us hear the objections by all means ; and when the j)rocess
is published let all photographers try it and compare notes ; if
good it will stand, — if not it will go to the wall. Mr. Pouncy
has sent prints to a great many influential persons, but he has
only one pair of hands and other business to attend to, that is
why more have not been publicly exhibited. Those who have
not seen any of these specimens must have faith for a little
while, and, as we trust that we have never yet deceived our
readers in any matter, place confidence in our opinion that the
process is one oi great promise, and well worthy of their notice.

From the Liv. and Man. Pholographic Journal.

MANCHESTER rHOTOGRAPlIlC SOCIETY.

The Annual Meeting of this Society was held on the 3rd
instant, at the house of the Literary and Philosophical Society,
36, George-street. Mr. Laird in the chair.

The Chairman stated that Mr. Cottam, the late Honorary
Secretary, having been obliged to resign his Secretaryship from
ill-health, Mr. Mann had been appointed the Honorary Sec-
retary of the Society.

After the election of the Officers of the Society for the ensuing
year, it was unanimously resolved that a vote of thanks be
returned to Mr. Cottam for his past services as Secretary.

In consequence of the absence of both the Treasurer and
Secretary trom ill-heallh, the Annual Report was not prepared
for the Society, but would be ready by the next meeting ; it
was stated that there was a small surplus now in the hands of
the Treasurer.

Some very beautiful landscape and sea-views, with clouds, by
Mr. Ribble, of Glasgow, were exhibited, and much admired.

Also four very beautiful prints, from collodio-albumen nega-
tives, were presented by Mr. Sidcbotham to the Society's port-
folio.

A few prints taken by Mr. McCraw's bichromate printing
process, by a member, were shown, but considered very unsatis-
factory, some being half positive and half negative, and some
Quite negative, and otherwise imperfect.

A letter was read by the secretary, from the Liverpool Photo-
Siraphic Society, to the members, inviting them to a conversazione
at Liverpool, ou the 18th instant, when Mr. Shadbolt has pro-
mised to read a paper.

The Secretary also read the following Report of the Com-
mittee appointed to experiment ou the various dry process on
glass : —

328

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

November,

Report.

Tlie Committee appointed in November, 1851, to examine
the publislied dry processes on glass, present the following
Report : —

Each of the processes has one or more good qualities not
possessed by the others, and by all of them good pictures may
be produced ; but it is only when the -various processes are
tried by the same individuals that a true comparison can be
made.

After very careful experiments, your Committee have arrived
at the conclusion that the best dry process yet discovered for
landscape photography is that known as the Taupenot or collo-
dio-albumon process.

Its superiority consists in its rapidity and certainty and also
in the beauty of its results; the fact that since this Committee was
formed, the members who previously had successfully practised
the albumen, the oxymel, and the dry collodion processes, have
abandoned them for the collodio-albumen, greatly favors this
conclusion.

Your Committee briefly state what they consider the points
in which the other processes are inferior.

ALBUMEN PROCESS.

The long exposure and development required, and the diEB-
culty in the prepar?-tion of the plates, so as to produce an even
film perfectly free from spots.

DRY, OR BAKED COLLODION.

The difficulty of producing a collodion of suitable character,
also that the plates do not bear long keeping, nor prolonged
development.

OXYIIEL.

The long exposure required and the difficulty of carrying a
stock of sensitve plates, and keeping them free from dust. The
modification of this process lately published by Mr. Llewellyn,
appears very promising, being founded on the correct principle
of leaving a definite amount of free nitrate of silver on the plate,
but your committee are not prepared to report finally upon it,
although several members have tried it ana speak very favorably
of its results.

GELATINE PROCESS fOR. HILL NORRIS AND OTHERS.)

The time of exposure required is considered to be at least
double that of the collodio-albumen. Your Committee have
tried great numbers of plates, prepared both by themselves and
Dr. Hill Norris, taking the same views upon them and on col-
]o;lio-albumen jjlates, and their experience in every case shows
that very muck longer exposure is required than that usually
recommended. In common with all dry processes, there is often
a deposit formed on the plate during the development ; this in
coUoaio-albnraen can be entirely removed, but in gelatine it
cannot without destroying the picture.

Since this Committee was formed, Mr. Fothergill has publish-
ed his process, which promises much from its simplicity. It has
been carefully tried by some of the members, of this Committee,
and by them considered not equal to the collodio-albumen pro-
cess, in the longer exposure required ; in the negatives obtained
being of inferior quality ; and also any deposit formed on the
plate cannot be removed.

Your Committee will now briefly state what they consider a
few of the advantages possessed by the collodio-albumen process.

Any good collodion, whether positive or negative, will do it.

The albumen, being prepared with ammonia, will keep almost
any leng'th of time. The exposun; required is moderate. Pic-
tures may be taken with an exposure ot fifteen seconds and up-
wards, according to the focus of the lens, subject, &c. The
exact amount of exjjosure is not a matter of such great import-
ance as in some processes. A negative, either over or under
cx))oscd a little, may generally be so treated in the developmei.t,
as to come out quite perfect, whilst any deposit which may be
ormed on the surface can be easily removed by the finger without
injury.

The great drawback to this process, viz., the liability of the

plates to bli.ster, may be entirely avoided by adopting the fol-
lowing precaution : — Have the plate thoroughly dry before
coating with collodion ; leave the film to set well before immer-
sion in the bath ; and after coating with albumen, and the plate
well drained, to dry it quickly with the face to the fire.

During the investigation of the various processes, your Com-
mittee have been strongly impressed with the difficulty under
which photographers labor, in the multiplicity of the published
processes, each of which is said to surpass all others. Many
photographers, working almost alone, are incliued to think too
well of their own productions, and, consequently, of the process
they use, and your Committee think it would be a great benefit
to the members of this Society if specimens were to be procured
from well-known operators, or inventors of new processes, show-
ing, as far as possible, of what each process is capable, and also
serving as standards of which to judge their own productions.

Manchester, Nov. 3, 1858.

A vote of thanks was unanimously passed to those gentlemen
who experimented upon the various processes and prepared the
Report.

A general discussion as to the collodio-albumen process took
place, particularly to the bli:^tering of the film.

Mr. Broughton stated that he had very successfully removed
the red color of collodio-albumen plates, occasioned by long
keeping, and took with him a reddened plate belonging to a
member, which he promised to bring to the next meeting, free
from the red color. He stated the plan he adopted was, to use
a very weak solution of bichloride of mercury.

Mr. Perry explained his contrivance for drying collodio-
albumen plates after the albumen coating consisting of a gas
light under very fine wire gauze.

It was proposed and agreed that a lantern should be obtained
by the next meeting, and that members be invited to bring
transparencies for exhibition.

After passing a vote of thanks to the Chairman for his ser-
vices, the proceedings closed.

LONDON

From Liv. and Man. Photof^raphic Journal.

PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.

The ordinary general meeting of this Society was held on
the 2nd November, 1858, R. Fenton, Esq., in the chair.

The Chairman read a note from Sir Frederick Pollok, in
which it was stated that, in consequence of the meeting falling
upon the first day of the Micliaelmas term, the President
would not be able to attend and take the chair.

The Chairman then introduced the new Secretary Dr. Dia-
mond, to the meeting, and stated that he would, no doubt, be
welcomed by the Society with the same cordiality as by the
Council, and hoped his appointment would bring increased pros-
perity to the Society.

The minutes of the last meeting having been read and con-
firmed, and several new members elected, Mr. Reeves Traver,
M.R.S.C.S., &c , read the following paper,

"ON THE PHOTOGRAPHIC DELINEATION OP
MICROSCOPIC OBJECTS."

The application of the photographic art, to which the following
remarks more esj)ccially apply, is undoubtedly one of the most
beautiful and interesting with which its followers are acquainted.

Thanks to the modern popularization of science, most people
now know, that in each humble plant that ihrives in every
iiedge, there exists a diversity of beautiful minute structure, an
examination of which prompts the mind to venerate as well as
to admire ; while every insect, indeed the whole of animate
creation, teems with marvels for the student's eye, which show
him how wondrously the Creator's power has arrangea and
ordered all portions of each economy, whether of high or of luw
type, so that its intended functions shall best he carried on.

To delineate with the accuracy of photography soaie of these
beautiful structures must surely be both interesting and instruc-
tive ; and I regret tliat I have not had op[)ortunities hiteiy of
preparing more numerous specimens for your inspection, but I

ISoS.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC a:':d fi^e art journal.

329

trust that the few which I shall have the pleasure of laying
before you will be suBicieiit to illustrate my remarks, and to
prove how easy it is to obtaia maguiQed represeutations of
microscopic objects.

The first difQculty I met with was caused by my attempts to
adapt the body of the microscope to a camera. 1 hadread of suc-
cessess obtained by means of blackened tubes, and of course
tried that method but must confess that I found it both incon-
venient and uumanag-eable. Finally, when in Paris, 1 had some
conversation with M. Nachet, the intelligent microscope maker
of that city ; and the result was that he made, from my descrip-
tion, the instrument I have ever since used, and which has tho-
roughly fulfilled the purpose for which it was intended.

The necessary indication in the construction of such an instru-
ment is to adapt the essential portions of a microscope to a
camera, viz, the object-glass, the stage, mirror, and the adjust-
ment. These are so arranged in the apparatus which I use, that
the whole screws bodily in the camera, and thus becomes entirely
under control.

The first of these essential elements (the object glass) requires
some consideration. I would advise any person about to pur-
chase one to go at once to a good maker ; he will have to pay
a good price for it ; but as the whole success of his microscopic
study depends upon the excellence of the "glasses" he uses, I
am inclined to think that no one will regret the expense, seeing
that he will most likely possess as good an article as modern
intelligence can produce. Of the stage little need be said ex-
cept that it should be of sufiBcient size, and furnished fif in-
tended to assume a perpendicular position) with a " spring-
clip," or some other contrivance which will hold firmly the
slip of glass on which the object is mounted. I am of opinion
that what are called "stage movements" are expensive luxuries,
and not essential to the instrument ; for with a little practice
the hands will soon be found to become thoroughly educated,
and capable of moving the object with the greatest delicacy. I
found that the mirror originally adapted by M. Nachet was too
small, and I now use one of two and a half inches diameter.
Two adjustments, a coarse and a fine, will generally be found to
be necessary ; the former for focussing when using the lower
powers, and the latter when the higher are employed. The
milled-head belonging to the fine adjustment may be marked into
a certain number of divisions, to enable the photographer accu'
rately to give it any portion of a rotation that he may find ne-
cessary, should the chemical and visual toci of his object glass
not correspond. There is also an arrangement on the distal
side of the stage, which allows me to fix an inverted object glass
in the track of the rays of light, and thus condense them on the
object itself.

I will now explain, as briefly as possible, the modus operandi
I adopt ; and from that description you will, I hope, fully un-
derstand the applicability of the apparatus I have described.
Not having a " glass room" at my command, I operate in the
open air, and commence by placing my camera on a firm table
in the sun, so that its long axis is identical with the sun's rays,
taking care to throw a light colored cloth over it, to protect it
as much as possible from the heat. The mirror is now placed
at such a distance from the object glass as to equally illuminate
the field, which, if using the concave side, I found was best done
by allowing a space slightly greater than its focal length to
intervene between it and the object, so that the rays should
enter the instrument just after they have commenced to disperse;
otherwise, if the object was in the focus of mirror, I observed
a bright white spot occupying a portion of the field, which quite
destroyed the picture. I fancy this was caused by an image of
the sun bemg formed nearly on the ground glass. At any rate,
I never am now troubled with this difficulty, provided I place
the mirror as I have described.

If the object glass be a quarter-inch or a higher power, I
always use the concave mirror, and employ an object glass of
power next below that with which I intend to photograph, as a
condenser. They should now be arranged so as to give a cir-
cular field, and when this is evenly illuminated, the object may be
placed in position, the proper focus found, and then all is ready

42*

for the sensitive plate. Should a very large representation be
wished, and the operator does not regret a slight loss of defini-
tion, he may place a high eyepiece in the brass tube from the
inside of the camera. The large photograph of the " Acarus"
parasite of the Xylocopa violacea was taken under these circum-
stances.

Photographic manipulation^ as practised by me, presents
nothing peculiar ; indeed, it is that usually adopted in the col-
lodion process. I need not, therefore, enter into its description;
but a few remarks on the causes of some failures I have met
with will perhaps be interesting

The first that I had to encounter was the white spot, of which
and its cure I have already spoken. The next was induced by
the fact, that in object glasses of lower power than a quarter of
an inch, the foci of the chemical and visual rays do not corres-
pond : from their being slightly over-corrected for colors the
chemical focus is separated a little from the visual, and hence
the glass must be moved a little way from the object. Judging
from the recorded experience of others, I must be very fortunate
in my glasses, for this focal difference is very slight, even in the
lowest powers. I may add here, that they are all of Messrs.
Powell and Lealand's manufacture. In my half-inch glass this
imperfection has been counteracted by the addition, at its back,
convex lens, of about four inches focal length ; and I have found
out by experience how much of a circle it is necessary for me to
turn my fine a:ljustment to succeed with the lower powers.

Another difficulty which I met with was the time of exposure,
that general bane of photographers. In common with other
operators, I have found that, cceleris paribus the actinic power
of the sun's rays varies greatly day by day, and hour by hour
on the same day ; but with collodion iodized over night, I have
taken good negatives on a clear, quick day, in one second,
sometimes in less; while on other occasions I have been obliged
to expose my plate for seven or even ten seconds, very rarely
for more ; be it always understood that I am now speaking of
an unclouded sun. Once or twice I have, curiously enough,
succeeded with a short exposure, late in the day, with the sun
within a very few degrees of horizon

It may excite the wonder of some of my hearers that I have
not alluded to the photography of opaque microscopic objects.
I must here plead inexperience, but I am about to institute some
experiments with a view of photographing the Foraminifera.
The only difficulty I anticipate is that of illumination ; but I
think that a proper arrangement of an oblique condenser, and a
little longer exposure, will enable me to succeed.

I may, perhaps, be allowed to mention that the collodion I
now nse is of my own manufacture. I confess that motives of
economy prompted me to the attempt, and I think it right to
pay a tribute of excellence to that manufactured by Mr. Hard-
wich and Mr. Greenich, to the good qualities of which I can
fully testify. The pyroxyline I employ is made in Paris ; and
it may not be without interest to add that I sensitized with the
followimi: combination : —

Iodide of ammonium 2|

u

u

lodidide of cadmium.
Bromide o potassium.

grains,
"■rain.

to collodion, 1 ounce.

This collodion I have found to be the most sensitive I have
hitherto used ; I have taken good negatives (portraits) with it
in three seconds, and it gives good intensity with half-tone.

And now, gentlemen, although I have not added any new
fact to photographic science, I trust I have been successful in
describing an apparatus Dy means of which photographs of mi-
croscopic objects can easily be taken; and that, in conclusion,
I may be allowed to thank you for your patient attention to the
remarks I have had an opportunity of making.

Mr. Harding: Supposing that the microscope is fixed in the
camera at this moment as it lies upon the table before you,
and you were about to operate, where do you suppose the sun
to be?

Mr. Reeves Traee: Behind my head.

Mr. tlARDiNG: And you always have it behind you ?

Mr. Reeves Traer: Yes.

I

330

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

November,

Mr. Harding: And T suppose that experience has tauglit
you that that is the best position in which you can work ?

Mr. Reeves Tkaek: Yes; you cau get a circular field in that
way.

Mr. Uarding: I suppose it is by working with the sun be-
hind you that you are able to avoid that white spot to which
you ailud.'d ?

Mr. Reeves Traer: No; I fancy not. I get rid of that by
rapidly moving my mirror. I should be very happy if any gen-
tleman would inform me what the real cause of that white spot
is. 1 went to two or three opticians and manufacturers of ob-
ject-glasses, and they could not tell me.

Mr. Shadbolt: I have been for many years connected with
the Microscopic Society of London, and I recollect the intro-
duction of this subject by Mr. Delves, of Tunbridge Wells,
who, 1 believe, was the first person who produced a presentable
photograph of a microscopic object. Mr. Traer has suggested
one or two points for consideration, to which, I think, photo-
graphers will do well to attend. I am very glad that he has
brought this subject before the Society; for I confess that Ihad
not the courage to do it, having found in the early days of this
Society's existence such an utter and thorough misapprehension
of the object of a microscopic photograph, that "it was then
vain to expect to render one's self intelligible; but as the furnr
for mere details of phorographic manipulation is by this time
worn out, microscopic photography may have some chance of
attention.

The only difficulty we have in obtaining facile impressions of
opaque objects is that of illumination, and I have but little
doubt about readily overcoming that. The intense white spot
which Mr. Traer has met with is, I believe, owing solely to the
use of the concave mirror, which is unnecessary if he employs a
condensing apparatus. The usual mode of working would be
by the achromatic condenser The position selected by Mr.
Traer with regard to the sun is certainly something with refer-
ence to getting the greatest amount of light, but beyond that I
thi ik it would be just as well to have your face or your side to
it, the position being immaterial for insuring an uniform circle
ofjight. The "stage movement," which Mr. Reeves Traer has
said is "a??, expensive luxury and w/iolhj unnecessary," 1 must
state as the result of my experience, that for photographic op-
erations this is correct, but for observation of living objects, a
mechanical stage is a sitie que non, for it would be utterly im-
possible to follow the eccentric movements of some animalcule
by hand. A fine adjustment, unless it works very smoothly, is
almost useless, as it renders the instrument liable to vibration.
In some astronomical telescopes a little arrangement is adopted
of a long lever, furnished with a ring and a screw, which
pinches the coarse adjustment, the lever hanging down when
the screw is loose. This might be adapted wi\h advantage to
the microscopic camera, as by fixing that screw your movement
can be regulated to perhaps not more than the thousandth part
of an inch.

With regard to the chemical and visual foci differing, I may
observe that I am intimately acquainted with the microscopic
object-glasses of Ross, of Smith and Beck, and Powell and
Le.iland, and 1 think it is impossible to have any one of those
mtikers' glasses without this difl'erence existing, because for
microscoi)ical ])urposes it is essentially necessary that the chem-
ical and visual foci should difier, in order to allow for the
amount of correction that takes place in the eye-piece. It is
not that with high powers they do not differ, but simply that
the focal length is so small that the difference is scarcely per-
ceptible to the eye, especially with sunlight. If an object-glass
be eitiier under or over corrected, it will be found that the
light from a caraphene lamp and that from gas will require a
different amount of movement for correction of chemical focus
with the same object glass and the same distance; and I think
the same remark applies to other artificial lights. With the
low powers; for instance, an inch and a-half or two inches ob-
jective, tlie amount of correction is soon ascertained for the
]iartieiilar light you employ; but a very convenient arrangement
for removing the defect was suggested by one of our members

(Mr. Wenham,) a clever microscopist and ingenious photo-
grapher. It consists in employing a convex crown glass lens of
slight power in place of the posterior diaphram. One of the
most perfect combinations that I know of for microscopic pur-
poses, and the form constantly employed by our three best
makers to this day, is that first suggested by Mr. Lister, a Fel-
low of the Royal Society, to whose investigations it is owing
that we have them. This form I consider well adapted for
certain photographic purposes. The peculiarity of it is that
these two [fainting to a diagravi] combinations are so arraiio'ed
that a ray of light proceeding from the first is transmitted in
snch a direction towards the second, that the correction is ab-
solutely perfect at any point desired. I omitted to state in the
previous part of the explanation that there are two anterior
foci at which the achromatism is absolutely perfect, but at any
point between those two the achromatism is only approximating,
and he conceived the idea that by transmitting from the front
pair of lenses a ray of liglit proceeding from the near perfectly
corrected focus, in the direction of the back pair, as if proceed-
ing from its distant absolutely achromatic focus, he would then
have an oljject-glass, in which the amount of error in one lens
would be exactly compensated by that in an opposite direction
in the second lens, and such is found to be the case; so that
though we can never have o, perfect image photographieally un-
der any circumstances, yet we might get as perfect a one as we
have in the microscope. What I have stated with regard to
the low powers does not hold good with the higher ones, say,
from four-tenths to-one tenth of an inch, because their construc-
tion is entirely different.

The illumination for photographic purposes of microscopic
object is a point requiring more attention than irsual. When
you have illumination from sunlight you have not much diffi-
culty, because, of course, you receive your rays parallel to one
another, but with artificial light that is not the case. When I
was at work at this subject my great object was to use artificial
light for the purpose, and I succeeded in delineating many sim-
ilar objects to those now in the room, enlarged to about three
inches diameter. I imagined, prima fade, that the more light
I could throw on my object the more rapid would be the action,
but I did not find it to be so; and, of course, on reasoning upon
it I found why. Supposing I had a little flame here from a cam-
phene lamp, which I exhibited in this room one evening, I got
a condenser which brought the rays on it this way, at an angle
of, perhaps, ninety degrees, and the consequence was that, al-
though I had got the light condensed upon the object, the ob-
ject-glass could not make use of it, because it was only adnpted
to sixteen or twenty degrees of aperture, and as I had ninety
on the object I got a false light in the camera. I went to work
then on a different tack. I placed the lens in that position, and
threw the rays of light in this direction, and found I had got
much better off, but still could not get the amount of light I
wished for. I then came to the conclusion that I ong't, in
illuminating, to take a precisely similar course to that em-
])loyed in delineating an object. I had, first of all, placed very
close to the flame a small sized bull's eye lens, to collect the rays
of light proceeding at a very great angle, probably at one hun-
dred degrees, it was so placed that it would not form an image
of the flame, but it simply collected the light in this direction.
I arranged this at such a distance from the light that I could
fill the whole area of this second lens, which threw the rays
nearly parallel, so I could afford to place my object very near
to it, and this made a very great difference. Having worked in
that way I found that by using, instead of a bull's eye lens, a
very small one of similar form, that is to say, a plano-convex
lens of great convexity, I got another advantage, for instead of
covering a large surface I only covered a small one by the same
number of rays, and by this mode ot throwing them nearly
parallel, or very slightly converging, I found illuminated the ob-
ject so brilliantly and so perfectly that the rapidity gained '^as
very considerable. In order to ascertain the amount of chemical
variation, I recollect working with a parasite of the water rat,
the limbs of which are studded with numerous small hairs in
different planes. I may remark that the object glasses of the

1858.

THE rilOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

331

same maker, although worked from the same tools and corrected
to the same point apparenlly do not worked absolutely alike,
but the amount of correction required for one object s'lass is not
exactly a criterion for another. Those made by Powell and
Lealand are less over corrected than either Ross's or Smith and
Beck's, I may further remark, with regard to the enlargement
of the object by means of the eyep'ece— of course, as Mr. Traer
has stated, you do not gain anything in definition, on the con-
trary, you must of necessity lose somewhat, and it has another
inconvenience, it increases the convexity of the field of view,
whicli is not so flat as when the eyepiece is omitted. Some little
time ago I was discussing with Mr. Thos. Ross this very subject,
and be told me then that he had had some time in contemplation
the construction of an eyeyiece expressly for photographic pur-
poses so as to correct tlie variation in the object glass itself.
There is one other point which, I think , Mr. Traer has left a
little witliout explanation — he did not communicate how he
focussed his objects. If you take the ground glass of a camera,
and attempt to focus otjects requiring high powers, there are
certain fine marks and lines which would be absolutely imper-
ceptible upon the ground glass in the camera ; moreover, you
would require the assistance of an eye-piece, in order to render
them perceptible. No\v, the most useful adjunct that I can re-
commend is a positive eye-piece, the construction of which is
very simple. It consists only of two lenses fitted in a tube, the
foci being as 2 to 3. and they are placed apart at such distance
as to be equal to iialf the sum of their foci, the peculiar arrange-
ment of which is, that you get a flat field of view ; you can
then use this upon the camera, and you will get the enlargement
of the eye-piece to the amount of some twenty or thirty diame-
ters, according to its power. But it is better than using ground
glass to take a piece of plain glass, coat it with collodion, sensi-
tize, wash, and dry it, and you will have a beautiful surface on
which all the most delicate details of an object will be visible.

Mr. Reeves Traer : 1 never found any difficulty in focussing.
The glass I use is not ground glass — it is matted glass ; and I
have always found my object sufficiently defined to enable me
to see the marks with my naked eye of all the objects I have
produced. I have lately bfien devoting my study to photograph-
ing the diseases of the human body, such as the deposit in urine.
I have always used sun-light, because I fancy you can get much
better photographs by sun-light than by artificial light. Get-
ing a photograph in less than a second I always fancied was a
great advantage, therefore, I never went into the question of
artificial light. I have not noticed that the addition of the eye-
piece had the effect described. If you look at " tkat large pic-
ture," you will not find that there is any great convexity.

Mr. Grant, (of New York) : I should wish to suggest, as
applicable, an improvement patented by Mr. Harrison, of New
York, termed the " Scroll movement," by which you can move
the hundredth part or the sixteenth of an inch without any
slipping whatever. [Mr. Grant explained the mechanism as
consisting of a pin on the inner tube working into a spiral or
volute slit ]

Mr. Hughes: I am in possession of two of Mr. Harrison's
lenses, which vary in their foci. They are the second or third
lenses that I have had that varied, and varied considerably. I
also work with Ross's, and they do not vary. I think the co-
incidence of the foci is altogether an English notion.

Mr. Shadbolt: With regard to the scroll movement, which
is an ingenious adaptation of the wedge, I doubt whether it
■would do for microscopic objects; for, however perfectly a fine
adjustment is made, we find they all shake more or less with
very high powers.

Mr. Grant: What made me suggest this was that Mr. Pike,
our most celebrated optician in America, has adopted it, and
uses it for all his best instruments, even on the very smallest
scale.

Mr. Malone: M. Claudet maintains that every object glass
varies according as the light varies, and, therefore, that it is
impossible to have an object glass so corrected as to be correct
in all circumstances.

Mr. Shadbolt: I think that M. Claudet is under a misappre-

hension in consequence of his using a Voigtlander lens, which
varies in its chemical and vis-ial foci. I believe it to be perfectly
possible to correct a lens so as to be fitted for all times and
seasons. I have had some conversation with M. Claudet, and
requested him to show me how he operated. The moment I
saw him operate, I came to the conclusion that this notion of
his was owing to his not being thoroughly careful in the way in
which he focussed. The way he worked was with an ordinary
magnifier, by which he may see the object, not on the ground
glass, but through it. The least movement nearer or further
off will alter the focussing plane. It is only by employing an
eyepiece of considerable power that you can be certain that you
have your focus correctly.

Mr. Malone: Mr. Sliadbolt has put it upon a question of
manipulation. M. Claudet is a manipulator, and Sir David
Brewster agrees with M. Claudet. He could hardly see a
probability of a lens being corrected for white, sun-light being
affected in precisely the same manner by a sun-light which has
passed throuf;;h an absorbing medium ; which is no longer sun-
light, for it has certain rays abstracted.

Mr. Shadbolt: I may at once remark that Mr. Malone has
put it upon quite a different footing than that upon which I un-
derstand M. Claudet to put it. I quite agree that the amount
of correction for different sources of light, or, what amounts to
the same thing, pure sunlight, and sunlight from which some of
the rays may be filtered out, must be different; but, if he con-
tends that the difference between sunlight in the morning and
evening, or in summer and autumn, must upset correction of the
lens, I must differ from him

Mr. Malone: M. Claudet finds that focussing in the morning
gives a certain result, but focussing in the afternoon does not
give the same result. He does not attempt to define the cause,
but merely suggests that the sunlight of the morning may have
passed through different absorbing media. I have worked with
M. Claudet for two years.

Mr. Watsox: I have frequently remarked that in the morn-
ing a lens is very diffei ent to what it is in the afternoon, partic-
ularly as it gets towards sunset; and, particularly, if there is a
tendency towards yellow golden rays in the atmosphere, you
cannot get such a sharp picture as in the morning.

Mr. Hughes: M. Claudet was the first person who called our
attention to this difference in the foci; but I cannot help think-
ing that M. Claudet has refined upon his own practice, and
finally carried his theory so far that he has got it beyond the
range of practice. Theoretically, I think we must take it that
if the sun's rays pass through the clouds, of necessity they pass
through the medium which extracts some of them, and the
same in passing through the glass of our own rooms. If this
variation is sensibly and materially to interfere with our ar-
rangements, it will cause us to re-adjust our instruments every
day and hour. A great deal has been said about the difference
of chemical and visual foci, and I believe very excellent lenses
have been condemned simply because they have not agreed. I
have worked, and others have done the same, for many years
with lenses that did not agree. I think it is simply a question
of cabinet work. Now, the lenses that are constantly being
sold as having their foci coincident, only coincide at certain dis-
tances. If those distances are exceeded, their foci vary exceed-
ingly. I put the question to Mr. Ross one day: "Here is a
given lens; if I take a plate of a given size— supposing I take
the picture of the same size as the object itself — will the two
foci agree ?" and he would not say "Yes." I work very much
in copying and reproducing, and I have this fact constantly
brought home to me, that if I enlarge with Harrison's lenses, it
varies a certain given distance for portraits; if I make an inmge
of the same size, it varies very considerably; the more 1 enlarge
the greater the diversity.

Mr. Watson: With Mr. Ross's lens I cannot get so sharp a
picture in a yellow light as a white one.

Mr. Shadbolt: M. Claudet, I believe, always employs a lens
that differs in its chemical and visual form.

Mr. Malone: He affirms the proposition to be a general
one.

332,

THE PnOTOGRAPniC A'SD FI^^E ART JOURNAL.

Koveiuber,

Mr. SiiADBOLT : The practice seemed to me to go upon a lens
not absolutely corrected, and a lens not having its chemical
focus brought up to its visual one, is equivalent to an uncor-
rected lens. If that be the case, the amount of variation will
difltr greatly. Mr. Hughes has hit the question, without being
aware of it. If wo take a couple of prisms, one being of a
larger angle than the other — that of flint glass and this of
crown glass — you have an exact equivalent of the lenses; a ray
of light falling on them is refracted by both in opposite direc-
tions, so that a certain amount of deviation frcm the right line
remains ; but the sizes to which the spectrum is p7dled out by a
thick wedge of one, and a thiu wedge of the other, are equal.
I can make nothing more or less of it, look at it as long as one
will.

Mr. Malone: I must observe that Mr. Shadbolt will assume
that M. Claudet affirms this proposition, because he uses leuses
not corrected. Now, M. Claudet uses all lenses, even the new
Petzval leus; therefore, you must treat the jiropositiou as one
that is true, though I neither affirm nor deny it.

The cordial thanks of the meeting were then awarded to
Mr. Pweeves Traer.

The Chairman called attenliou to the various specimens pro-
duced by the oxymel process, and by Foihergill's dry process.
There were also some specimens produced by jVJr. Pox Talbot's
new modified method — he has writien to tlie Secretary saying
that the specimens are mere essays to give some idea of the
nature of the invention. Mr. Malune has also some specimens.

Mr. Malone: In consequence of the pul)lication of Mr. Fox
Talbot's specification of the modification of his former patented
process of engi aving, I thought it would be interesting to bring
some specimens which had some basis to start from. They are
by M. Poilevin, of Paris, and I think it must be admitted that
they form quite a new era in the art. These specimens of M.
Poiteviu's will bear comparison with any results which have
been produced in any part of the woild. They are photo-litho-
graphs, produced by a mixture of bichromate of potass and
gelatine, or of bichromate of potass and white of egg. The
object to be copied is placed upon a stone so prepared, and it
acts in such a maimer that the surface shall be so altered that
afterwards, upon applying water, it shall take on to certain
parts, as upon the ordinary lithographic stone, while other parts
of the surface appear to be altered in such a manner that it
will receive the [iriuter's iuk, when you have simply to lay the
paper upon it and pass it through the ordinary lithographic
press, and thus print it without any engraving or loss of time,
and have the result at once. It will be seen that this is an ob-
ject that can be carried out upon a large scale. Here is a pic-
ture of the designer's drawing, copied by the ordinary photo-
graphic process, then trausfeired to the stone and printed off.
By tliis method the original designer's touch is more clearly
conveyed than if this drawing were placed in the hands of
another artist to put upon the stone, which is a very important
matter. Ihre is a .specimen uhich has been uutouched; it is a
photo-lithograph of a bone, reproduced by the photo-lithographic
process iu such a manner as to be easily mistaken for the ordin-
ary lithographic process, it being in colored ink. This process
has been paiontcd in this counti'y, but some of the particulars
have been kept secret. In this case I endeavored to learu as
much as I could from M. Poitevin. He referred me to M. Ed.
Bccquerel, and M. Becquerel explained to me that M. Poitevin
was not a man of means, and he considered that he was justified
iu concealing it. He said he was acquainted with all the pi'o-
cess, and assured me that it was exceedingly simple and occu-
pied only a few minutes'. Still we have the fact that the stone
is prejiared with bichromate of potass and gelatine. This
certainly seems to me to be a process of very great promise. It
has been suggested that the light oxidizes the gelatine in such a
manner as to give rise to a resinous substance. I thought that
the chromium combined with the gelatine. Dr. Franklin in-
forms me that he thinks a resinous substance is foimcd which
resists the water on the stone, but allows the adhesion of the
printer's ink.

The CiiAiRiiAN: Here is a process handed up to me, which I

will read. " The method I find quite easy is as lollows: I make
a solution of gum arable in water about as thick as molasses;
with this I grind on a glass, or in a mortar, a sufficient quantity
of calcined lamp black, ivory black, or other pigment. When
the mixture is thorongh^I add in the dark an equal part by
measure of a saturated solution of bichronaate of potash in
honey, diluted with an equal quantity of water. The whole is
now to be carefully mixed by stirring or grinding. This inti-
mate mixture is a point of the greatest consequence. The
paper I prefer is the highly albumenized. This mixture is laid
on by floating, or with a large flat brush. Dry in the dark.
The printing is performed in the usual way, only using about
half the time for ainmonio-nitrate paper. After exposure, the
print is soaked ten minutes or more in water, and then exposed
under a stream of water until the whites are fully brought out."
I should be very glad if this matter could be brought before
the Socieiiy upon another occasion, and it would give an oppor-
tunity for being thought of previously. I am sure I know gen-
tlemen who can say a great deal about it, and propably may
throw a good deal of light upon the subject, which will be more
likely to terminate well for the interests of photograpy than the
present desultory remarks.

It is suggested that the subject be brought before the Society
at the next meeting. The Secretary will be happy to receive
any papers, and Mr. Malone suggests that any person
acquainted with any carbon process may be asked to assist us.

The meeting then adjourned.

From the Liv. and Man. Photographic Journal.

NORTH LONDON PHOTOGRAPHIC ASSOCIATION.

At an ordinary monthly meeting held at Myddletou Hall,
Islington, on the 2Tth Oct., 1858, Mr. W. Hislop in the chair,
the minutes of the previous meeting having been confirmed, the
following gentlemen were duly elected members — Messrs. J.
Spencer and G. Hilditch.

A paper was then read by the Secretary, explaining the use
of an ap[)aratus, e.\iiibited by Mr. Legg, for changing plates in
the open air, a description of which will be fouud at page 337
of this number.

Mr Babber read a paper " On the causes of failiure in the
Oxymel Process," and exhibited specimens: a discussion then
took place. (This paper will be found at page 336.)

Dr. Ryley explained his modification of the collodio-alburaea
process. Negatives taken by the process were shown by Dr.
Ryley and Mr. W. Morley: a discussion then ensued iu which
many members took part.

Mr. Bingham exhibited a box for prepared plates for conti-
nental travelling, a portion of the lid and bottom being made
to turn back and having yellow glass on the inside of each
aperture.

Mr. HisLOP exhibited a stereoscopic camera with double
lenses and spring movement for instantaneous pictures.

Mr. D. W. Hii,L exhibited some pictures from Port Natal.

The Chairman stated that in consequence of the Fhotogrn'phic
Journal being about to be published twice a month, the com-
mittee regretted that the finances of the Association would not
allow them to distribute that journal fortnightly, they had
therefore determined to supply the members with the Liverpool
and Manclu'sler I'liniographlc Joicrnal instead, and trusted that
the arrangement would meet with the approbation of the meet-
ing. Tlje proposition was unanimously accepted.

Votes of thanks were passed to Mr. Barber and Dr. Ryley,
and also the gentlemen who had exhibited apparatus, &c.

At the next mcetiiig, to be held on the 2ith instant, papers
will be read by Mr. Dawson " On ike Causes of Fading in
Fonlive Frinls," and by Mr. Hislop " On the Gelatine Pro-
cess."

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

333

From Photographic JVoles.

PnOTO-GLTPHIC ENGRAVING.

NEW PROCESS OF WILLIAM H. FOX TALBOT, ESQ., OF LACOCK AB-
BEY, WILTSHIRE.

Patent, dated 2lst of April, 1858.

" Tbe process described in this Specification, to which I have
given the name of Photo-Glyphic Engraving, is performed in
the following manner : — In this invention I employ plates of
steel, copper, or zinc, such as are commonly used by engravers.
Before using a plate, its surface should be well cleaned. It
should then be rubbed with a linen cloth dipped in a mixture
of caustic soda and whiting, in order to remove any remaining
trace of greasiness. The plate is then to be rubbed dry with
another linen cloth. This process is then to be repeated, after
which the plate is in general sufficiently clean.

" In order to engrave a plate, I first cover it with a sub-
stance which is sensitive to light. This is prepared as follows :
About a quarter-of-an-ounce of gelatine is dissolved in eight or
ten ounces of water by the aid of heat. To this solution is add-
ed about one ounce, by measure, of a saturated solution of bi-
chromate of potash in water, and the mixture is strained through
a linen cloth. The best sort of gelatine for the purpose is that
used by cooks and confectioners, and commonly sold under the
name of gelatine. In default of this, isinglass may be used,
but it does not answer so well. Some specimens of isinglass
have an acidity which slightly corrodes and injures the metal
plates. If this accident occurs, ammonia should be added to
the mixture, which will be found to correct it. This mixture of
gelatine and bi-chromate of potash keeps good for several
months, owing to the antiseptic and preserving power of the
bi-chroraate. It remains liquid and ready for use at any tinae
during the summer mouths, but in cold weather it becomes a
jelly and has to be warmed before using it. It should be kept
in a cupboard or dark place. The proportions given above are
convenient, but they may be considerably varied without injuring
the result. The engraving process should be carried on in a
partially darkened room, and is performed as follows :

" A little of this prepared gelatine is poured on the plate to
be engraved, which is then held vertical, and the superfluous
liquid allowed to drain off at one of the corners of the plate.
It is then held in a horizontal position over a spirit lamp, which
soon dries the gelatine, which is left as a thin film of a pale yel-
low color, covering the metallic surface, and generally bordered
with several narrow bands of prismatic colors. These colors
are of use to the operator by enabling him to judge of the thin-
ness of the film. When it is very thin, the prismatic colors are
seen over the whole surface of the plate. Such plates often
make excellent engravings, nevertheless it is perhaps safer to
use gelatine films, which are a little thicker. Experience alone
can guide the operator to the best result. The object to be en-
graved is then laid on the metal plate and screwed down upon
it in a photographic copying frame. Such objects may be either
material substances, as lace, the leaves of plants, &c., or they
may be engravings, or writings, or photographs, &c., &c.

" The plate bearing the object upon it is then to be placed in
the sunshine for a space of time varying from one to several
minutes according to circumstances. Or else it may be placed
in common daylight, but of course for a longer time. As in
other photographic processes the judgment of the operator is
here called into play, and his experience guides him as to the
proper time of exposure to the light. When the frame is with-
drawn from the light and the object removed from the plate, a
faint image is seen upon it, the yellow color of the gelatine hav-
ing turned brown wherever the light has acted. This process,
as far as I have yet described it, is in all essential respects iden-
tical with that which I described in the Specification of my for-
mer Patent for ' Improvements in Engraving,' bearing date the
29th October, 1852. The novelty of the present invention con-
sists in the improved method by which the photographic image

4.3

obtained in the manner above described, is engraved upon tlio
metal plate. The first of these improvements is as follows : — I
formerly supposed that it was necessary to wash the plate bear-
ing the photographic image in water, or in a mi.xture of water
and alcohol, which dissolves only those portions of the gelatine
on which the light has not acted. And I believe that all other
persons who have employed this method of engraving, by means
of gelatine and bi-chromate of potash, have followed the same
method, viz., that of washing the photographic image. But,
however carefully this process is conducted, it is frequently found,
when the plate is again dry, that a slight disturbance of the
image has occurred, which of course is injurious to the beauty
of the result. And I have now ascertained that it is not at all
necessary to wash the photographic image. On the contrary,
much more beautiful engravings are obtained upon plates which
have not been washed, because the more delicate lines and de-
tails of the picture have not been at all disturbed. The process
which I now employ is as follows : When the plate bearing the
photographic image is removed from the copying frame, I spread
over its surface, carefully and very evenly, a little finely pow-
dered gum copal (in default of which common resin may be em-
ployed). It is much easier to spread this resinous powder even-
ly upon the surface of the gelatine, than it is to do so upon the
naked surface bf a metal plate. The chief error has to guard
against is, that of putting on tuo much of the powder ; the
best results are obtained by using a very thin layer of it, pro-
vided it is uniformly distributed. If too much of the powder is
laid on, it impedes the action of the etching liquid. When the
plate has been thus very thinly powdered with copal, it is held
horizontally over a spirit lamp, in order to melt the copal. This
requires a, considerable beat. It might be supposed that this
heating of the plate after the formation of a delicate photograph-
ic image upon it, would disturb and injure that image, but it has
no such effect. The melting of the copal is known by its change
of color. The plate should then be withdrawn from the
lamp and suffered to cool. This process may be called the lay-
ing an aquatint ground upon the gelatine, and I believe it to be
a new process. In the common mode of laying an aquatiut
ground, the resinous particles are laid upon the naked surface
of the metal before the engraving is commenced. The gelatine
being thus covered with a layer of copal, disseminated uniform-
ly and in minute particles, the etching liquid is to be poured on.
This is prepared as follows : — Muriatic acid, otherwise called
hydro-chloric acid, is saturated with per-oxide of iron, as much
as it will dissolve with the aid of heat. After straining the so-
lution to remove impurities, it is evaporated till it is considera-
bly reduced in volume, and is then poured off into bottles of a
convenient capacity. As it cools, it solidifies into a brown semi-
crystalline mass. The bottles are then well corked up and kept
for use.

" I shall call this preparation of iron by the name of per-
chloride of iron in the present Specification, as 1 believe it to be
identical with the substance described by chemical authors under
that name. For example, see Turner's Chemistry, 5th edition,
p. 53t, and by others called per-muriate of iron ; for example,
see Brande's Mamml of Chemistry, 2nd edition, vol. 2, p. 117.
It is a substance very attractive of moisture. When a little of
it is taken from a bottle in the form of a dry powder, and laid
upon a plate, it quickly deliquesces, absorbing the atmospheric
moisture. In solution in water, it forms a yellow liquid in small
thicknesses, but chesnut brown in greater thicknesses. In order
to render its mode of action in Photo-Glyphic engraving more
intelligible, I will first state that it can be very usefully emplo}'-
ed in common etching, that is to say, that if a plate of copper,
steel, or zinc, is covered with an etching ground, and lines are
traced ou it with a needle's point so as to form any artistic sub-
jects, then, if the solution of per-chloride of iron is poured on^
it quickly effects an etching and does this without disengaging
bubbles of gas or causing any smell, for which reason it is much
more convenient to use than aquafortis, and also because it does
not injure the operator's hands or his clothes, if spilt upon t'liera.
It may be employed of various strengths for common etching,
b'lt requires peculiar management for Photo-Glyphic engraving.

384

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

November,

And as the success of that mode of engraving chiefly turns upon
this point, it should be well attended to.

" Water dissolves an extraordinary quantity of per-chloride
of iron, sometimes evolving much heat during the solution, I
find that the following is a convenient way of proceeding :

" A bottle (No. 1) is tilled with a saturated solution of per-
chloride of iron iu water. A bottle (No. 2) with a mixture con-
sisting of five or six parts of the saturated solution, and one
part of water ; and a bottle (No. 3) with a weaker liquid, con-
sisting of equal parts of water and of the saturated solution.
Before attemjiting an engraving of importance, it is almost es-
sential to make preliminary trials, in order to ascertain that these
liquids are of the proper strength. These trials I shall therefore
now proceed to point out. I have already explained how the
photographic image is made on the surface of the gelatine, and
covered with a thin layer of copal or resin, which is then melted
by holding the plate over a lamp. When the plate has become
perfectly cold, it is ready for the etching process, which is per-
formed as follows :

" A small quantity of the solution in bottle No. 2, namely,
that consisting of five or six parts of saturated solution 'to one
of water, is poured upon the plate, and spread with a camel's
hair brush evenly all over it. It is not necessary to make a wall
of wax round the plate, because the quantity of liquid is so small
that it has not a tendency to run off the plate. The liquid pen-
etrates the gelatine wherever the light has not acted on it, but it
refuses to penetrate those parts upon which the light has sufB-
cienlly acted.. It is upon this remarkable fact that the art of
Photo-Glyphic engraving is mainly founded. In about a minute
the etching is seen to begin, which is known by the parts etched
turning dark brown, or black, and then it spreads over the whole
plate, the details of the picture appearing with great rapidity
in every quarter of it. It is not desirable that this rapidity
should be too great, for in that case it is necessary to stop the
process before the etching has acquired sufBcient depth, (which
requires an actiou of some minutes' duration). If therefore the
etching on trial is found to proceed too rauidly, the strength of
the liquid in bottle No. 2 must be altered (by adding some of
the saturated solution to it), before it is employed for another
engraving. But if, on the contrary, the etching fails to occur
after the lapse of some minutes,, or if it begins, but proceeds too
slowly, this is a sign that the liquid in bottle No. 2 is too strong
and too nearly approaching saturation. To correct this a little
water must be added to it before it is employed for another en-
graving. But in doing this, I'le operator must take notice that
a very minute quantity of water added after, makes a great dif-
ference, and causes the liquid to etch very rapidly. He will
therefore be careful in adding water, and iiot do so too freely.
Wlien the proper strength of the solution iu bottle No. 2 has
thus been adjusted, which generally requires three or four expe-
rimental trials, it can be employed with security. Supposing,
then, that it has been ascertained to be of the right strength,
tlie etching is connnenced as above-mentioned, and [jrocecds till
all the details of the picture have be ome visible, and present a
satisfactory appearance to the eye of the operator, which gen-
erally occurs in two or three minutes, the operator stirring the
liquid all the time with a camel's hair brush, and thus slightly
rubbing the surface of the gelatine, which has a good elfuct.
When it seems likely that the etching will improve no farther,
it must be stopped. This is done by wi)Ding off the liquid with
cotton wool, and then rapidly pouring a stream of cold water
over the plate, which caiiies otl' all tlie remainder of it. The
plate :s then wiped with a clean linen cloth, and then rubbed
with soft whiting and water to remove the gelatine. The etch-
ing is then found to be compluted.

" I will now describe another etching process, very slightly
differing from tlie former, which I often use. When the plate
is ready for etching, ponr upon it a small quantity of the liquid
No. 1 (saturated solution). This should be allowed to rest
upon the pl.ate for two minutes. It has no very apparent effect,
but it acts usefully in hardening the gelatine. Ii, is then poured
off from the plate, and a sufficient quantity of solution No. 2 is
poured on. This ejOfects the etching in the manner before de-

scribed, and if this appears to be quite satisfactory, nothing
further is required to be done. But it often happens that cer-
tain faint portions of the engraving, such as distant mountains
or buildings in a landscape, refuse to appear, and as the engrav-
ing would be imperfect without them, I recommend the operator
in that case to take some of the weak liquid. No. 3, in a little
saucer, and without pouring off the liquid No. 2, which is etch-
ing the picture, to touch with a camel's hair brush, dipped in
liquid No. 3, those points of the picture where he wishes for an
increased effect. This simple process often causes the wished-
for details to appear, and that sometimes with great rapidity,
so that caution is required in the operator in using this weak so-
lution No. 2, especially lest the etching liquid should penetrate
to the parts which ought to remain white. But in skilful hands
its employment cannot fail to be advantageous, for it brings out
soft and faint shadings, which improve the engraving and which
would otherwise proliably be lost. Experience is requisite in
this as in most other delicate operations connected with photo-
graphy, but I have endeavored clearly to explain the leading
principles of this new process of engraving according to the
mode which I have hitherto found the most successful.

" With respect to the second invention mentioned iu my pro-
visional Specification^ in which the electrotype process is em-
])loyed, I have found that it gives less successful results than
that which I have fully described above, and I have tlierefore
omitted it from this Specification, and make lio claim with re-
spect to it.

" In conclnsion, I would remark that besides the process of
Photo-Glyphic engxaviug, considered as a whole, being new, I
believe the following points also to be new, viz :

" First — The etching a photographic image formed upon a
snrface of gelatine and bi-cliromate of potash without first dis-
turbing that surface Uy washing it with water or alcolioL

" Second — The laying an aquatint ground of resiu or copal
upon a surface of gelatine, and not, as usual, upon the naked
metallic surface of the plate.

" Third — After forming a photographic image on gelatine the
heating it strongly over a spirit lamp or otherwise.

" Fourth — The use and employment of per-chloride of iron
as an etching liquid for the production of Photo-Glyphic engrav-
ings.

" Fifth — The use and employment of the same as a substitute
for aquafortis in common etching."

It may be interesting to our readers to compare Mr. Talbot's
present patent with his former one, dated October 29th, 1852,
the Specification of which is as follows :

" The following is my method of engraving steel plates : — I
take a good steel plate, prepared as it usually is for the use of
engravers ; and, first, I dip it for a minute or two into vinegar
acidulated with a little sulphuric acid, then wash it and wipe it
quite clean and dry. Then I prepare a solution of gelatine or
common isinglass in water. It should be made of moderate
strength, such as when cold coagulates into a firm jelly. Hav-
ing warmed this solution, and strained it through a linen cloth,
I add to it about half its volume of a saturated solution of bi-
chromate of potash in cold water, and stir the mixture well.
This mixture is to be kept moderately warm while in use to pre-
vent its coagulation ; and since this warmth causes it gradually
to part with its water, and grow thicker or more viscid, there-
fore it is necessary that the operator should from time to time
add so much water as he judges necessary to replace what has
been lost. The steel plate, being first slightly warmed, I pour
some of the pr'^pared gelatine upon it, and with a glass rod,
held horiz-ontally, I spread it over the whole plate. I then in-
cline the plate, and pour off the superfluous gelatine. I then
place it on a stand, which should be kept as nearly horizontal
as possible to prevent the gelatine from flowing to one side of
plate. I then place a spirit lamp beneath the plate, and warm
it gently till the gelatine is dry. This process should not be
performed in very strong daylight, because the i)repared gelatine
would be injured by the light. The film of prepared gelatine,
when properly dried upon the steel, has an uniform bright yel-

1858.

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

335

low color, and a smooth surface. If too much bi-chromate is
employed in proportion to the gelatine, the surface of the dried
film appears clouded in various parts, owing to the formation of
minute crystals. This defect is easily remedied by adding some
more fresh gelatine to the mixture. After a little practice the
operator will have no difficulty in obtaining a uuiForm film.—
Wlien the steel plate has been in this manner coated with a re-
gular film of prepared gelatine, it is ready to receive a photo-
graphic image of the object which is intended to be engraved.
I will suppose, in the first place, that the object is capable of
being applied in close contact with the surface of the prepared
steel plate ; for example, a piece of lace, or the leaf of a plant.
I place the object upon the steel plate : then a sheet of glass is
laid over it, and screwed into close contact with it, which is best
done by means of what is commonly called a photographic copy-
ing frame. The plate is then to be exposed to the sun's rays
for a certain time, varying according to circumstances, from
ha!F-a-minute to five minutes, or more, until the operator judges
that a sufficiently strong image has been produced. The effect
of the sun's rays is to turn the color of the plate from yellow to
brown, but the parts shaded or protected by the object of course
retain their original yellow ; the result is therefore the forma-
tion of a yellow image of the object upon a ground of a brown
color. The plate is then taken out of the frame, and the object
being removed from it, it is seen whether a good image has been
obtained. In that case the operator proceeds as follows : The
plate is taken and dipped into cold water for one or two min-
utes, which removes all the bi-chromate of potash, and the great-
er part of the gelatine also, from the parts of the plate on
which the sun's rays have not acted, while on the contrary it re-
moves but little from those parts which have been fully exposed
to the sunshine ; the consequence of this is that the image is
whitened. The plate is then removed from the water, and dip-
ped into alcohol for one minute. It is then removed, and placed
in a vertical position in some warm place, and in the course of a
few minutes it becomes entirely dry. This completes the photo-
graphic part of the process ; and the plate is, generally speak-
ing, now seen to be impressed with a white image of the object,
often very perfect and beautiful, placed upon a ground of a
brown or brownish-yellow color.

" It now remains to etch the photographic image thus ob-
tained. For that purpose I take some bi-ehloride of platina,
containing a little free acid, and dissolve it in cold water. I
then add to four parts of this saturated solution one part of
water. This part of the process requires attention, for if the
quantity of water is in a material degree either too great or too
little, the etching process is liable to failure. The best way is
to proceed experimentally by adding water gradually to a
considerable quantity of the saturated solution, and making
trial of the results until they become satisfactory. When this
is attained the solution is to be kept in a well stoppered bottle
for immediate use at any time. A solution of the proper strength
having been carefully prepared, and tested as above-mentioned,
the etching process is executed as follows : — -The plate is laid
horizontally on a table, and a small portion of the platina solu-
tion is poured upon it, and quickly diffused aud spread over the
whole plate with a camel's hair brush. It is hardly necessary
to surround the plate with a wall of wax, as practised by en-
gravers, in the usual mode of etching copper plates, although
this may be done if preferred. But the liquid does not often
flow off the plate, in consequence of the small quantity of it
which is used. If a greater depth of it were poured on, it would
from its great opacity, prevent the operator from discerning the
effects produced by it upon the plate of metal. The platina so-
lution then being poured on the plate it produces no effervescing
or escape of gas, but in the course of a minute or two the whole
photographic image of the object which existed upon the steel
plate is seen to blacken, and when this change is complete there
is seen a very distinct and regular black image of the object.
The operator watches until it has a satisfactory appearance to
his eye, and looks finished, or as perfect as he judges it likely to
become, which generally happens in one or two minutes. When
he thinks it is finished, or not likely to be further improved or

developed, he inclines the steel plate gently, and pours off the
platina solution by one corner of the plate into a bottle placed,
to receive it ; the surface of the plate is then dried with blot-
ting paper, and then a stream of water, or, what is better, a
strong solution of salt in water, is poured over the plate, wliich
carries off the remainder of the platina solution. The plate is
then rubbed with a wet sponge, or linen cloth, which, in a short
time, detaches and removes the film of gelatine from the steel,
and enables the operator to see the etching which has been ob-
tained. The plate ought then to be coated with v/ax, because
a newly prepared etching is very easily o.xydated or rusted by
the atmospheric air. Impressions can be printed off from the
steel plate thus engraved in the mode usually employed by cop-
per-plate and steel-plate printers.

" When the etched parts are both broad and uniform, as in
the case, for instance, when the object is an opaque leaf of a
plant, although the etching holds the ink pretty well, yet when
printed off the effect is not always satisfactory. I proceed
therefore to explain a 'useful modification of theprocess, in order
to do which I must observe that when the object placed on the
steel plate to be engraved is a piece of black crape or gauze, an
engraving of it is obtained in the way above-mentioned, which
truly depicts the object, representing every thread in its proper
place by a corresponding engraved line ; but when two or three
thicknesses of this gauze are employed instead of one, and are
placed obliquely to each other at various angles, then the result-
ing engravings offers a mass of lines intersecting each other in
different directions which cover the whole plate, and which,
when printed off upon paper, produce a result which, to an eye
at a little distance, appears like a uniform shading Now let us
suppose that we have in this way covered a prepared steel plate
with two or three folds of black crape or gauze, and placed it
in the sunshine. When taken out of the sunshine and the crape
removed, let the broad leaf of a plant, or some other object of
irregular outline, be placed upon the centre of the plate, and
then let the plate be replaced in the sunshine for three or four
minutes. When it is removed for the second time, and the ob-
ject detached, it will be seen that the light of the suu, acting
upon the parts of the plate exterior to the object, has wholly
obliterated the previous effect produced by the gauze, and has
converted that part of the plate to a uniform brown color,
while the central part of the plate offers the image of the leaf,
upon which the crowded intersecting lines produced by the gauze
are still seen. The plate is now to be etched as previously de-
scribed, and the result is, that an etching of a leaf is produced
covered with engraved lines, which lines are entirely wanting on
the rest of the plate. When this is printed off, the impressions
offer the appearance of a leaf nearly uniformly shade"d. But
in order to obtain gieater perfection in this respect, it is onlv
necessary either to manufacture on purpose some pieces of more
delicately woven fabrics, or to cover a sheet of glass by any
convenient method with fine opaque lines, to intercept the light,
or with a powder adhering to the glass, consisting of distTnct
opaque particles, and very uniformly diffused over the surface.
These things, which I believe have not been heretofore used in
the fine arts, I would denominate photographic screens or veils.

" Another method is to cover the steel plate with an aquatint
ground, consisting of particles of resin, before coating it with
the gelatine ; but in that case the dipping of the plate into al-
cohol, which occurs in the foregoing description of my process,
must be omitted ; and moreover, a fresh aquatint ground re-
quires to be laid upon every plate ; whereas a single veil, such
as I have above described, serves for any number of plates in
succession. The metliod of engraving which I have here de-
scribed as applied to steel plates is also applicable to plates of
zinc. Lithographic stones are also readily engraved by the
same process.

" When the object to be engraved is not of a nature to be
placed in contact with the steel plate, it is necessary first to form
a negative photographic image of it on paper or on glass by the
usual methods employed in photography ; then to make from,
this negative photograph a positive copy, either upon glass or
upon paper of good uniform texture and moderately tran^a-

336

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AKD FINE ART JOURNAL.

Kovember,

when it will take an image of the object, as above described.
Tlie prepared steel plate may also be placed in the focus of a
camera, and the camera directed to the object, but as the film
of prepared gelatine is not very sensitive to fceUe lights this
process in general would occupy a considerable time.

"I have stated that I employ in this process a solution of ge-
latine mixed with bi-chromate of potash, but I do not confine
myself to the use of gelatine. Other substances may be used,
especially albumen or white of egg, and gum arable or mixtures
of tiiese aud other analogous subst'inces in various proportions.
But notwithstanding that I have found some of these mixtures
to afford good results, yet on the whole I think it answers best
to employ only gelatine mixed with the bi-chromate of potash ;
and throughout tliis Specilicatiou I have used lor brevity the
term " gelatine," to denote a solution of isinglass in water,
carefully strained and made as free from impurities as possible.
And I have used the terms positive and negative as they are
usually employed in the science ot jjhotography. I have de-
scribed the solution of platina which seems to me the best, but
I do not confine myself to this etching liquid. Other liquids
may be employed capable of etching surfaces of metal or
stone, provided they possess the essential quality of not
penetrating the film of prepared gelatine which cover the por-
tions of the surface not to be etched.

" Theproce:ses described in this Specification which I claim
to be new inventions, are —

" First — The producing or obtaining etchings or engravings
by photographic and chemical means alone upon plates of steel.

" SecoL'd — The method described of covering surfaces of me-
tal or stone with a coating of gelatine, rendered sensitive to
the action of the light by being mixed with a solution of bi-chro-
mate of potash or other liquid which possesses photographic
properties, and which unites freely with gelatine, producing,
when the gelatine is dried, a coating sensitive to light, and
which by the action of the solar rays upon it becomes either
less soluble in water than before, or altogether insoluble in that
liquid.

"Tliird — The removal by the action of water of the more
soluble parts of the photographic image, for the purpose of
rendering them permeable to an etching liquid.

" Fourth — The employing a chemical liquid for the purpose
of etching the surface upon wliich the photographic image has
been formed, as above-mentioned, which liquid possesses the re-
quisite etching property, but has not the property of penetrating
the coating of gelatine which covers and protects the portion's
of the surface not intended to be etched.

"And, whereas, in reciting these claims, I use for brevity the
word " gelatine," and I have already stated that albnmen and
gum possess analogous properties ; I would therefore be under
stood to include them in my claim as being capable of replaciu"'
the gelatine in the above described process. °

" Filth— The employing an apparatus for partially intercept-
ing the sun's rays, which in my present Specilicatiou 1 have called
a photographic screen or veil, for tlie purpose of producing a
change or alteration in the fiual character of the etchin"-."

TO TRANSFER THE COLLODION FILM

Sir,— First cut your leather or doth a little larger than your
glass positive, lay it face upwards on a table; then take about
hall an ounce ol spirit of wine, and add four ounces five drops
ot nitrate acid ; shake it up and it is fit for use. Take the
positive, after being dried by the fire or otherwise, and pour the
above mixture on as for collodion ; and when, still wet, lay it
on the eather or cloth face to face, gently squeezing out the
air bubbles, and keep them in close contact either in the print-
ing frame or in a book, or any convenient place, until the spirit
ot wine IS dry, which may be half an hour or so : then take out
and separate the glass from the leather or cloth, and the film
will bj so fixed to the black surface that you cannot even scratch

1 ffTV?"" ^'?°^'' '"^''^- ^"^ '"''■>' ^" "'^" to US" ^ collodion a
little thicker than usual in cotton for transfers. The above is a
ceiuiii, cheap, and easy method of manipulation

From Liv. and Man. Photographic Journal.

OX THE CAUSES OF FAILURE IN THE OXYMEL PROCESS.

BY MR. BARBER.

In noticing some causes of failure in the oxymel process, I
must mention that the plan I adopt, and which I think is gen-
erally followed, is to use three vertical baths, one for the nitrate
of silver, another for wasliing, and the other for oxymel. It is
in the last only I proceed to trace the failure, and give the
remedy, for I will assume the collodion and exciting bath to be
in a fit state for giving excellent pictures, aud disappointment
to wait only upon immersion id the oxymel.

After a lengthened experience in this very facile process I
find there are two conditions of the oxymel which will account
for most of the failures connecteil with it. In one case it con-
tains iron. The plate upon development has a rusty foggy ap-
pearance; the intensity may be increased to almost any amount,
but the picture remains as it were buried beneath it. For some
time during last summer every negative I took became clouded
in this way, and from experiments I made relative thereto I be-
came convinced it was due to the presence of iron; and whether
it emanated from impurity in the charcoal used for bleaching
the honey, or was contained in the gutta percha of the nitrate
bath, I failed to ascertain; most likely in the latter, as I dis-
covered an excrescence of metallic silver on one part of it,
proving the presence of one of the baser metals. By changing
the bath and abolishing the use of charcoal I got over this
difficulty. Uufortunaiely I have not preserved one of these
plates. I say unfortunately, because I think in giving others
the benefit of your experience, you materially assist in showing
the stumbling blocks in the road. The old adage, " a know-
ledge of disease is half its cure," applies with full force to pho-
tography.

The ordinary source of iron in oxymel arises from making it
in an iroii boiler, or one imperfectly tinned. My method of
procedure is this: Having first mixed some chalk with water,
add it to the honey and boil. It is then turned out into a deep
vessel, and, when cold, poured off from the grosser sediment,
again heated, and clarified with white of eggs; it will then run
rapidly and bright through a strainer or paper filter, after
which it is converted into oxymel by adding acetic acid.

Almost every sample of honey gives an acid re-action to test
paper, derived, in the first instance, probably from the fumes of
sulphur used for the destruction of the bees. The object for
adding the chalk is to neutralise this, and prevent its attacking
the apparatus in which it is made; it is also of great service in
brightening the product. I am not certain that the presence of
either tin, lead, or copper, would be of much consequence; but
the slightest trace of iron is so highly detrimental, that I would
not even trust this plan of making it in a state of purity were
it to come in contact with that metal in any stage of its manu-
facture.

In the other case, the oxymel bath contains nitric acid, and
as I have also failed from this cause, I will describe how it oc-
curred. In the spring of this year I took a few pictures quite
equal to any I expect to obtain from a preservative process.
After having suspended my photographic operations for three
or four months, I tried a picture with the same oxymel, but
found I could get no density, only a plate with unmistakeable
nitric acid symptoms, and the way it got there was this. In
spits of the washing, some nitrate of silver will find its way
into the oxymel bath, and it being the property of nitrate of
silver, in contact with light and organic matter, to become re-
duced, it was evident this operation had been .going on here,
for the honey had become much darkened in color, consequently
an equivalent of nitric acid must, at the same time, have been
liberated, or entered into some other molecular arrangements
productive of the same effect. I neutralised this by dissolving
some chalk in acetic acid, adding the resulting acetate of lime,
which completely righted it. Probably acetate ot magnesia
would be a better addition, it being a more deliquescent salt.
Any alkaline acetate may be employed for the purpose, the
rent ; and, lastly, to put this positive copy in close contact with
the steel plate, and then to place the plate in the sun's rays,

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

331

nitric acid, of course, unites with the base, setting free the
acetic acid. I produce two pictures, one taken before and the
other after the addition.

An objection has been made to the employment of honey as
a preservatiTe agent, because it contains a crystallizable sugar,
consequently crystals might form upon the plate by keeping.
So they will; but the plates must be kept at least two or three
months before they form, so that this appears to me a very
much overstrained objection, and of no practical importance.
Theoretically speaking, amorphous cane sugar, in its well-known
form of barley sugar, would be the proper thing to use.

One more objection, and I have done: the minute spots
caused by dust. They are of no consequence, as all who have
printed their pictures can testify.

CONTRIVANCE FOR CHANGING PREPARED PLATES IN OPEN DAYLIGHT.

BY M. S. LE6(J.

It consists of a kind of bag, about three feet square, intended
to be laid upon a table or even upon the ground, made chiefly
of black twi'.led cotton cloth, but the upper portion is composed
of a particular kind of oil silk, of a deep yellow color, such as is
used in tropical climates for surgical purposes ; the lower portion
of the bag is double, so that when the box containing the pre-
pared plates is introduced at one end it must be pushed on to
the other, and then passed over the inner portion of the bag
before it can be placed under the oiled silk, this is sufQcienLly
transparent to admit of seeing any operation that may be neces-
sary, and yet the plate is protected from the action of the
actinic rays ; the hands are to be introduced through short
sleeves at the sides, and there is sufiBcent room within the bag
to allow the back of a whole plate camera and box containing
the prepared plates to be placed in it and manipulated without
difficulty. The bag being composed of thin and flexible mate-
rials may be folded into a small space when not in use.

PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHY.

SPECIFICATION OF J. A. CUTTING AND J. H. BRADFORD.

" This Invention has for its object the production of a Photo-
graphic picture upon the surface of a lithographic stone, from
which impressions may be taken by the ordinary process of litho-
graphic printing, by which we are enabled to greatly multiply the
results of photography, and to avoid the tedious and expensive
process of drawing upon the stone by hand, as at present prac-
tised. In the ordinary process of lithographic printing the
surface of the stone, after the drawing is completed, is washed
or coated with a solution of gum arable in acidulated water.
The gum thus applied enters into a close union with the surface
of the stone, or adheres with great tenacity thereto, so that it
cannot readily be removed by washing, and thus protects it from
absorbing the ink employed in the printing process. In the
process of Photo-Lithography it is found^ however, that the gum
arable adheres so closely to the stone as -not to be readily re-
moved by the washing from those portions not fixed by the light.
On this account, in the experiments heretofore made in Photo-
Lithography, it has been fouud impracticable to employ this
gum, and a solution of gelatine has been used in its stead.
Stone thus prepared, however, yield but few impressions, and
are of comparatively small value in the arts. To remedy this
difficulty is the object of this invention, which consists in the
employment ol gum arable which has been deprived of its power
of intimate union with the stone, at the same time that it is
rendered capable of becoming fixed or insoluble by the operation
of light. When a stone, treated with the above prepared gura,
is subsequently submitted to the action of a solution of soap,
the unlighted portions of the gum are readily and expeditiously
removed, while the lighted portions are not injuriously affected

43*

thereby, at the same time that the soap performs its well-known
duty of forming the insoluble soap upon the stone to produce
the body or printing surface. The stone, after being prepared
in a manner which will be more fully explained hereafter, Las
the following solution applied to its surface: — Water, one quart,
gum arable, 4 oz. ; sugar, 160 grains ; bi-chromate potassa,
IGO grains ; the sugar retarding the immediate fixing of the
gum upon the stone, and the chromic salt causing it to become
more firmly fixed or much less soluble on exposure to the light.
The stone thus prepared is preserved in the dark until required,
and when the coating is dried it may be exposed in the camera
a suitable length of time to fix the gum upon those parts of the
picture where the lights are to appear, or it may be covered by
the print or picture to be reproduced and exposed to the light.
After it is thus " lighted," the stone is washed with a solution
of soap, which attacks the stone, removing the coating and
fixing itself for an insoluble soap formed by the mutual decom-
position of the stone and the soap employed^ upon the surface
in place of the coating removed. Where the gummed surface
has been entirely protected from the light, the gum is easily
removed, and the soap has free access to the stone, and the
consequence is a thorough union of the soap with its surface ;
where, on the contrary, the lights were strong, the gum having
been rendered much more insoluble, is protected from the action of
the soap, and is nor effected by it ; and at all intermediate points
the effect of the soap upon the stone is inversely proportionate
to the extent to which the gum was fixed by the light. The
most delicate grades and tints of light and shade may thus be
produced upon the stone, true to nature as the photographic
picture itself. The stone having been thoroughly washed with
clean water and dried, now receives a coating of ink from the
roller, which, uniting with the soap already deposited thereon,
serves to give additional body to the picture, and shortly after
the stone is ready for the printer ; the portions which have been
protected by the undissolved or " lighted" gum when wet resist-
ing ink, Previous to the commencement of the above described
process the stone is to be prepared, and this preparation will
vary according to the nature of the picture or subject to be pro-
duced. If it be a manuscript, a lithograph, line engraving or
any plan or line drawing without gradations of light or shadow,
running the one into the other, a polished surface may be em-
ployed. This will not answer, however, so well for portraits,
landscapes, and a great variety of other pictures in which the
variations of shade blend the one into the other ; in such cases
it becomes necessary to give the stone a roughened surface, or,
in the language of the workman, the stone is " grained." Into
such a surface the chroraated solution of gura sinks deeper, and
is then removed more or less according as it has been fixed by
the light, and thus the required variations of intensity and the
gradations of light and shadow are produced. Where a polished
stone is employed the chromated gum lies upon the surface, and
it is found that the variations of light and shadow cannot be
produced with that nicety necessary to make a perfect graduated
picture such as a portrait that shall be easily printed.

" In preparing the chromated solution the proportions of the
ingredients given above are by no means rigid, though they are
ihose which we have found to answer tlie purpose. The sugar
we have found also may be replaced by other substances, such
as molasses, acetic acid, or various acetates not decomposable
by the bi chromate of potassa. I do not, therelore, confine my-
self to the proportions given above, nor even to the use of the
exact substances named, when there are equivalents for them
which may be used in their stead without departing from the
essence ofthis invention. And in place of removing the unlight-
ed portions of the coating by means of the direct application of
soap, they may be washed off with water, acetic acid, or their
equivalents ; oils, resins, or printing inks being applied after
the stone has been dried for the purpose of forming the required
insoluble soap in the stone ; such a process is the entire equiva-
lent of the one above described, although it is neither so expedi-
tious nor so efficient. The quality of the soap employed is not
rigid, though those containing a proportion of resin will in general
give a better result. The strength of the saponaceous solution

I

!

338

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

November,

is not material ; i lb. of soap to six quarts of water has been
found to answer tlie purpose. Heretofore this process has
been spoken of as applied to lithographic stones, but there
are otlier substances which may be employed in lieu of the stone
to which it may be applitd, one of which is zinc, which has been
heretofore used by printers as a substitute for stone ; in the use
of this metal an insoluble soap of zinc is formed instead of one
of lime.

" Having now set forth the nature of this invention, and ex-
plained the manner of carrying the same intoeffect, we wish it to
be understood, that under the above-recited Letters Patent, we
claim the employment of gum arable, deprived of its power of
intimate union with the stone by means of sugar or its equivalent,
as set forth, and in combination with the above we claim the use
of soap, as set forth, for the purpose of readily removing the un-
lighted portions of gum aud of forming the printing surface, as
described."

r II 0 T 0 G R A p n I c

From Photographic Notes,

ENGRAVING.

The reader will find on another page of the present number,
the Specification of Mr. Fox Talbot's new patented process of
Photo-Glyphic Engraving, as well as that of the former patent
taken out by him in 1852. As this new process is now exciting
much attention, and as several leadiug London Journals have
spoken of it as one of great promise, it becomes important to
consider what are the real capabilities of any process of Pho-
tographic Engraving, when compared with the now advanced
processes of Photo-Lithography and Carbon-Printing,

The most perfect ])hotograph that it is possible to produce
by any known process is the Daguerreotype upon a silvered
copjier plate. Let us then imagine that this can be etched by
purely chemical means, and that a plate can be produced in
which the sunk parts correspond in depth to the intensity of
the shadows of the picture. But first observe that in making
this assumption we are also assuming that the means have been
discovered of biting into the plate in the direction of its thick-
ness by a solvent which does not at the same time bite into it
laterally, and undermine the lights of the picture; which disco-
very remains yet to be made, and would be one of imnjense
practical value. Well then, if we stride in imagination over a
great difiiculty, and imagine a perfect photograph, etched by a
perfect process, we obtain a plate in which the sunk parts cor-
respond in depth to the shadows of the picture, while the high
lighis remain i.ntact, so that the plate would exhibit hollows
gradually shelving up towards the surface according to the
modulation of the shades of the picture. But of what use
would such a plate be ? We answer. None. Proofs drawn
from it would exhibit nothing but blacks and whites, and would
be totally deficient in half-tones. Wherever a hollow existed,
that hollow would be filled with ink, and would print uniformly
black, no matter how it varied in depth, or how exquisitely
graduated in depth its shelving sides might be. A Photo-
Glyphic Engraving would therefore be useless unless it resembled
in an essential particular all other engraved plates — that is to
say, unless it possessed a grain, — a something which the pure
photograph does itol posseKS. All engravings, wliether lino, or
mezzotint., or aquatint, exhibit lines, or spots, or a grain; and
a Photo-Glyphic engraving, or Photo-Galvanograph, or any
kind of proof drawn from a plate engraved by ph.otography,
musi also of necessity exhibit a grain; so that to obtain a purk
jihotograph in Carbon from such plates is an absolute impos-
sibility, aud the only sul)jects wliicU could be copied truthfully
by such methods of engraving, when perfected, are those which
are composed entirely of lines, or dots, or black and white
patches. — such as prints, or printed matter, or manuscript;
natural lights and shadows could not be hiithfully represented
by sr.th means. The reader will therefore perceive why Mr.
Fox Talbot, in his new process, introduces the aquatint groui.d,
and why Herr Pretsch, in his process ot Photo-Galvanography,
introduces the means of obtaining a grain.

It is evident therefore that all processes Of Photographic
Engraving are of necessity imperfect, and must be liniited in
their application when the absolute truthfulness of photography
is required; and in addition to the serious defect under which
they lie, it must be borne in mind that printing from engraved
plates is a much more diflScult, tedious, and costly operation,
than printing from engraved wood blocks; and that the latter
can be printed along with ordinary type, which the former can-
not,— so that when the assistance of an artist is required to
doctor an imperfect plate it would be better tor him to cut at
once from a photograph upon a wood block.

All these things being carefully weighed and considered it
does not appear to us that the processes of PhotographicEngrav-
ing, containing as they do an unavoidable error of principle, are
by any means of equal promise with the processes of Photo-
Lithography, Carbon-Printing, and Photo-Xylography; and we
believe that the future of Photography in Carbon lies in the
perfecting of the two former of these processes, while if the
latter could be so far improved as to enable the wood-engraver
to cut the fmest work from a collodion positive upon a wood
block, the utility of that process would be immense.

We do not therefore hail with so much enthusiasm as some
of our contemporaries Mr. Talbot's new process, nor do we per-
ceive in it the elements of any great practical utility. For
certain purposes however it may be found useful , and should
this prove to be the case we shall not fail to call attention from
time to time to what is doing in this direction. Two or three
years ago we should have been more sanguine of the success of
this process than we are at present, but the ill-success of the
operations of the Photo-Galvanographic Conjpany has impressed
us with the conviction that photographs with a grain will never
be appreciated by the public. If we are to depart from pure
photography why not at once hand over photographs upon
wood to the wood-engraver, to be worked up into artistic pic-
tures, and printed along with ordinary type. In Photo-Litho-
grapy grain is not an indispensable necessity, aud if the print-
ing press is to be employed in the multiplication of pure photo-
graphs, these must be photo-lithographs and not photoglyphs.

We have given at page 268, the Specification of a patent
recently taken out in England by Mr. William Newton, for the
process of Photo-Lithography v/liich is now being so extensively
and successfully employed in America by Messrs. Cutting and
Bradford, of Boston, U.S. This process differs in an important
particular from that of M. Poitevin, (which is also patented iu
England). The Specification of M. Poiteviu's patent runs
thus: —

"I print photographically with ink of a greasy nature on
paper, lithographic stone, metal, 'glass, or other suitable material,
in the following manner: — I apply upon the surface which is to
receive the design one or more layers or films of a mixture of
equal parts of a concentrated solution of albumen, fibriue, gum
arable, gelatine, or similar organic substance, and a concentrated
solution of a chromate or bi-chromate of potash, or of any base
which does not precipitate the organic matter of the first solution.
This single or compound layer or film is then dried if the pho-
tographic impression is to be produced by contact; or it may be
used in a moist state when the photographic impression is to be
produ'^ed in the camera obscura. In producing the impression
by contact, the surface is covered with a photographic negative
picture, or an engraving, or other transparent or partially trans-
parent object, or screen, and then exposed to light, as in the
ordinary photographic process. After a sufficient exposure, if
the surface has become dry or has been used in a dr\ state, it is
moistened with water by means of a sponge, and, while moist,
the greasy ink or matter is applied to the suiface by a ball or
dabber, or by a roller or press, or otherwise, and it will be found
to adhere to those parts only which have been affected by light
Thus, if the screen employed be a negative, having the lights
and darks reversed, the print will be a positive, with the lights
and darks correct; and, if the screen be a positive, the print
will be a negative. The print may be retained on the surface
on which it is first produced, or it may be transferred or pi inted
upon paper or other suitable material, and the operation re-

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

339

peated. I thus obtain a design upon lithographic stone, or
other suitable material, from which I am euabled to multiply
impressions by the method of lithographic printing by inking
the moistened surface with a greasy ink."

In M. Poitevin's process the blacks of the proof are produced
by the ink from the roller adhering to those parts where light
has acted, while in the process of Messis. Cutting and Bradford
the blacks are produced by the ink adhering to those parts of
the stone where light has not acted. This difference between
the two processes is very important, and, so far as we have
seen, the American Photo-Lithographs are the best.

The following extract is from a recent number of the "Build-
ing News " : —

"M. Negre has lately communicated to the Academy of
Sciences in Paris a method for engraving metals by the action
of the sun, wliich, by the subsequent aid of the electro-typing
process, promises to render the art of engraving on copper and
steel plates obsolete. He first coats a metal plate with a sen-
sitive varnish, composed of gelatine and bi-chromate of potass,
or of asphaltum dissolved in spirits or in benzoin, and then sub-
mits it to the action of light through a negative cliche reversed,
or through an ordinary positive proof, accordingly as it may be
desired to obtain an engraving for copper-plate printing or for
printing with letter-press. After the plate has been suiBciently
exposed to the sun's rays those portions of the sensitive varnish
are removed by a solvent, composed of oil of naptha, or of
petroleum, benzoin, or spirits, when the varnish consists of as-
phaltum, and by means of water, when it is composed of gelatine
or "-ura. The plate will then exhibit a re-production of the
photograph, by means of portions of its surface being left bare,
and oUiers coated with the insulating varnish. In this state, it
is regarded as a matrix, so to speak, and a layer of metal, less
oxydisable than that of the plate, is deposited by electro-galvanic
agency upon the exposed portions. Thus, if the plate be of zinc,
iron, or steel, the deposited metal is copper, silver, or gold; but
if the plate be of copper, or its alluys, the deposit is gold. Next,
the heliographic image formed by the sensitive varnish acted on
by the light, and which in the electro-galvanic process just de-
scribed ifas served the office of an insulating mixture, is removed
but the design is still preserved by contrast of the exposed sur-
face of the plate and those of the deposited metal. Subsequently
the design is bitten in, that is to say, the plate is covered with
a diluted acid, which will corrode the metal off the plate where
it is exposed, but which will not attack the deposited metal. If
the plate be of zinc, iron, or steel, and the deposited metal of
copper or silver, sulphuric acid is employed, and nitric acid if
tlie plate be of copper or silver and the deposited metal gold.
Or the plate may be corroded by being used as an anode, sub-
mitted to the action of a galvanic battery in a neutral solution
of a salt of the same, or of a similar metal. How far plates so
prepared may be employed in copper-plate printing, is a point
to be determined. In letter-press printing they would not suc-
ceed. We speak positively, and from experience. The acid
.used to bite the design corrodes laterally as well as downwards;
'the consequence is that as much greater depth is required for
the whites than for the blacks in copper-plate printing, the re-
liefs are undermined, become rotten, and break in under the
pressure necessary to be employed for letter-press priutiug,"

From Photographic NotM.

BIRimGHAM PnOTOGRAPUIC SOCIETY.

ANNUAL MEETING, OCTOBER 26, 1858,

What a man most needs is a friend to make him do what he
is capable of doing. — Emerson.

" Disasters of Life," says a late writer, "like convulsions
of the earth, lay bare the primary strata of human nature;
they expose to us elements we might forget, or supposed to be
transmuted by the alchemy of civilization. In this respect they
are like those geological expositions, useful lessons and memen-
toes to the law maker."

In whatsoever house you enter, remain master of your eyes
and your tongue.

The Yice-President, W. Howell, Esq , in the Chair.

The Minutes of the last meeting having been read and con-
firmed,

Mr. Davts, of Tamworth, was balloted for and duly elected
a member of the society.

Some slight alterations in Rules 2, 3 and 10, were then pro-
posed and adopted.

The Secretary then read the following report of the state of
the Society :

" Your Council, in thus bringing before you their Second An-
nual Report, have to congratulate yuu again upon the prosperous
state of the Society.

" During the past year many highly interesting and instruc-
tive papers have been read, some by your own members, and
others by various gentlemen, who have kindly consented to do
so, at the request of your Council , and your Council take this
opportunity of urging upon you the necessity of all contributing,
as far as possible, to this branch of the Society's work.

" They also have to regret the thin attendance at many of
the meetings, and to urge upon members the necessity of being
present in greater numbers.

" Since your last annual meeting you have lost three mem-
bers, one of whom has been removed from you by death, and
two have tendered their resignation. Against this you have
the addition of five new members, and your council earnestly en-
treat the co-operation of all to promote the addition to your
members so necessary to the welfare of the Society.

" In the Autumn of last year, as you are aware, your Socie-
ty sustained a heavy loss, in consequence of the comparative
failure of its exhibition ; your Council, however, have the pleas-
ure to report, that owing to most of your members having kind-
ly acceded to their request that they would for the then current
year double their subscriptions, the difficulty is now removed,
and your treasurer's report shows a balance in favor of the So-
ciety of £3 12s. 6d.

" Your Council have also to report that your Society intends
early in March next, to open a Permanent Exhibition of Pho-
tographs at Aston Hall, in connection with the Aston Hall
Company's Exhibition, and requests the help of all its members
in aid of the. formation of the same.

" As the room at Aston Hall, where this exhibition is pro-
posed to be held, has been kindly lent, free of expense, by the
Aston Hall Company, the expense to the Society will be merely
nominal, thus enabling it to reap the benefits to be derived there-
by by a moderate cost.

" Your library has during the past year been increased by
the kind donation of several books, by several gentlemen ; and
it has been considered advisable that in future the books, jour-
nals, &c., contained therein, shall be kept at the secretary's of-
fice, from whom any book may be obtained on application.

"Your Council regret to say that the contributions to the
Album have not been so numerous as they could wish, and they
sincerely hope and request that during the year which is now
commencing, each member will contribute his share towards fill-
ing its pages.

" At this meeting you will have to elect your officers for the
ensain"- year, as also new Members of Council, in place of those
who, according to your rule, annually retire, but who are, how-
ever, eligible for re-election."

The thanks of the meeting were then given to the President,
Vice-President, Treasurer, and Secretary, and the following
gentlemen were elected as Council for the ensuing year ;

president.

Sir Francis E. Scott,. Bart.

vice-presiotnts.

George Shaw, Esq., F.G.S. W. Howel:, Esq., L.R.C.P.

340

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

November,

COUNCIL.

Mr. C. J. Phillips,
" J. T. Brown,

" T. xMoRRIS,

" J. 0. C. Phillips,

Mr. Holyoake,
" Bourne,
" Ball,
" Hart.

Mr. OsBORN then called atteutiou to the subscription list for
the purchase of the Pouncy process. Several of the members
at once put down their names.

A discussion then ensued upon Mr. Sutton's paper, published
in the Notes of Oct 1st.

Mr. OsBORN, in opening the discussion, said that he proposed
to take the principal points of the paper seriaiim, and would
commence with the mounting of the lens. He was decidedly of
opinion that the central diaphram between the aperture and the
lens in the tube of the landscape lens was a great improvement,
as also the anuulus round the outer surface of the lens itself ;
by this means they wo-ild get rid of a great deal of reflected
light, and render the picture much sharper and clearer. In the
portrait combination the centre diaphram was now generally
used.

Mr. Howell asked if Mr. Rejlander did not, on a pre-
vious occasion, recommend the use of old velvet for the lining
of lenses.

Mr. OsBORN replied that it was for the lining of cameras.

Mr. HoLYOAKE said that he had tried the experiment of hav-
ing inner diaphrams in the lens tube, but he could not perceive
any advantage.

Mr. Howell said many writers seemed to be opposed to the
use of a small diaphram, as affecting the beauty of the picture,
by forcing the rays through a small aperture.

Mr. Morris said he had had lenses to alter several times, the
complaint being that a white spot in the positive and a dark
spot in the negative were formed, owing to reflected light in the
lens.

The discussion then turned upon the other points sug-
gested by Mr. Sutton's paper, with regard to the focussing on
the film.

Mr. Osborn suggested the use of a revolving disc, containing
two pieces of yellow glass and two apertures ; this to be fast-
ened behind the lens ; it would then be applicable for instanta-
neous pictures.

"6. Immerse the pictures again in a saturated solution of
gallic acid in cold water, and the color will immediately begin
to change to a fine purple black. Allow the pictures to remain
in this until the deep shadows show no appearance of the yellow
bichromate. Repeat the rinsing.

" t. Immerse finally in the following mixture :

Pyrogallic acid 2 grains.

Water 1 ounce.

Beaufoy's acetic acid 1 ounce.

Saturated solution of acetate of lead 2 drachms.

This mixture brightens up the pictures marvellously — restor-
ing the lights that may have been partially lost in the previous
part of the process — deepening the shadows, and bringing oat
the detail. Rinse finally in water, and the pictures are com-
plete when dried and mounted.

" The advantages of this process may be briefly stated as fol-
lows : — First, as to its economy ; bichromate of potassa at 2d.
per ounce is substituted for nitrate of silver at 5s. per ounce.
Secondly, photographs in this way can be produced with greater
rapidity than by the old mode. Thirdly, the pictures being
composed of the same materials which form the con.stituent
parts of marking ink, it may be fairly inferred that they will
last as long as the paper on which they are printed."

From the Liv. and Man. Photographic Journal.

NEW METHOD OF PREVENTING THE FADING OF PHOTOGRAPHS.

At the late meeting of the British Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science, at Leeds, a letter was read from Mr. W.
0. McCraw, of Edingburgh, to Sir D, Brewster, " On a New
Means of Preventing the Fading of Photographs." To accom^
plish this object, Mr. McCraw had adopted the following
formula : —

" 1. Take the white of eggs and add about 25 per cent, of a
saturated solution of common salt (to be well beaten up and
allowed to subside). Float the paper on the albumen for thirty
seconds, and hang up to dry.

" 2. Make a saturated solution of bichromate of potassa, to
which has been added 25 per cent, of Beaufoy's acetic acid.
Float the paper on this solution for an instant, and when dry it
is fit for use. This must be done in the dark room

" 3. Expose under a negative in a pressure frame in the ordi-
nary manner, until the pifture is sufiiciently printed in all its
details ; but not over printed, as is usunl wilh the old process.
This requires not more than half the ordinary time.

" 4. Immerse the ]jicture in a vessel of water in the darkened
room. The undecoraposed biclironmte and albumen then
readily leave the light and half-tints of the picture ; change
the water frequently, until it comes from the prints pure and
clear.

" 5. Immerse the pictures now in a saturated solution of pro-
to-sulpliate of iron iu cold water for live minutes, and again
rinse well in water.

ON "FOCUSSING" THE CAMERA.

BT THE EDITOR,

We fancy the title of this paper will call forth no small
amount of astonishment and disdain amongst many of our readers.
What can be said upon such a subject that is not already well
known to photographers ? To some photographers perhaps — ■
but to others, shall we ventured to say to many, possibly to
most, that they have still somewhat to learn upon this subject,
simple as it appears.

These remarks have been called forth principally from our
having been witness to -some rather ludicrous efl"orts on the part
of a brother operator to obtain a sharp focus without the
requisite conditions being present. The case to which we
allude was one where the intention was to produce in the camera
a copy of an engraving slightly enlarged, but the greatest
distance possible between the r>ubject and the ground glass was
less than Jour times the length of the principal focus of the
lens in use, consequently there was no point at which the lens
was capable of adjustment that would allow of the conjugate
foci being included within the prescribed limits. Now, had our
friend been blessed with a lillle optical knowledge, he would
have been spared the trouble and mortification he experienced.
This little incident led us to reflect upon certain other circum-
stances we had at various times noticed in connexion with the
subject, and we came to the conclusion that a little public venti-
lation of it rr.ight very probably not prove unprofitable.

In examining a number of photographs it rarely happens that
we do not find some amongst them that are altogether or par-
tially indistinct from want of due attention to the correct focus-
sing in the camera ; such inattention giving rise to a peculiar
indistinctness of outline, or haziness of detail. It is true that
in certain exceptional eases, this defect is not altogether reme-
diable over the whole surface, but it very rarely happens that
some amount of mitigation cannot be applied.

We know that it is very much the fashion with some artists
to decry what they call i\\(i fainfid amount of detail visible in
pliotogrnpliy, and stigmatise it as hard and unpleasant ; as a
remedy for the evil they propose to take pictures that are a
little out of focus. This will certainly remove the harshness,
though we cannot at all agree in attributing the defect com-
plained of, frequently with some justice, to the clearness of
definition, but rather to other errors of manipulation.

We are then advocates not only for " sharp" focussing, bu

t

for doing this with the utmost possible distinctness attainable
over the whole field of view. If the subjects to be delineated
be pretty well in one plane, the accomplishment of it is not
dif&jult ; but if the planes in which they are situated be
tolerably distant from one another, it tlien becomes of importance
to brinirall our optical information to bear, so as to effect our ob-
ject with the least possible inconvenience. There are many photo-
graphers who perform the operation of focussing upon the ground
glass plate with the unassisted vision, others use some kind of
lens as a help, and a few — who well know the great valne of
such an aid — avail themselves of the assistance of an optical
adjunct called a Rarasden's or positive eye-piece. We wish to
induce the more general use of this instrument amongst our
photographic brethren, as calculated materially to improve their
productions, for we have very rarely found, however, well a
subject may have been focussed without it, that it has been so
perfectly done as to be incapable of still furtlier improvement
with it. As there is also another highly useful purpose to which
this piece of apparatus may be applied, we have considerable
hopes in the probable influence of our persuasion.

A Ramsden's eyepiece consists of a tube furnished with two
plano-convex lenses placed one at each end, vnth their convex
sides towards one another, at a distance equal to half the. sitm
of their principal foci. The foci of the two lessens should bear
a proportion to one another of about two to three, that with
the longer focus beiug next the eye, and the shorter, which
should also be of the larger diameter, next the ground glass.
For photographic purposes the eyepiece should be mounted in a
carrying tube with a screw adjustment, much in the style of the
old fashioned botanical microscope, and also furnished with a
collar so as to clamp the eyepiece in a fixed position when once
it has been properly adjusted to the ground glass upon which it
is intended to be used. When in use the carrying tube is to be
placed in absolute contact with the focussing screen, and its
action, in addition to its giving a highly magnified view of the
ima"-e, is such as to render such parts as are not in correct focus
stiirm'ore indistinct than they appear without its aid — this is
owing to the eyepiece restricting the vision to planes but very
slightly removed from that of the roughened surface of the
focussing screen — and thus operating as a test to distinguish
whether the focal adjustment is absolutely upon it, or only
very near it ; for it must not be forgotten that an image
formed by a lens can be seen more or less distinctly through the
ground glass, particularly if it approximates to the position of
the latter, as is evinced in the interesing experiments ot M.
Claudet, and which fact led to the invention of his stereomo-
noscope.

A plano-convex lens of about one inch focus, measured
from the plane surface, and one inch and a quarter in diameter,
and a similar lens of one-and-a-half inch focus and about five-
eighths of an inch diameter, are mounted in brass and fitted

into the two ends of an inner tube with

IX IK
their plane surfaces one-and-a-quarter in. (that is )

apart, their convex surfaces being opposed to one another.
The inner tube, into which the lenses are inserted, is furnished
on its upper exterior surface with a coarse screw which
works in a corresponding screw cut in the upper inner sur-
face of the outer tube. There is also a screw cut on the
upper exterior surface of the outer tube upon which a collar,
with milled edges, works.

In the outer tube are three longitudinal slits, and the
screw in the inside of the collar being slightly conical, as the
latter is screwed down it draws together the three segments
of the outer tube, pinching it so tightly upon the inner one as
to prevent its being afterwards screwed furtlier in or out.

To adjust the eyepiece for the camera, first unscrew the
collar • place the lower end of the outer tube upon the smooth
surface of the ground glass focussing screen, and having pre-
viously made a mark with a lead pencil upon the ground
surface, hold both together up towards the light, and, with
the eye applied to the smaller lens turn round the inner tube to

the right or left as may be requisite until the pencil line, highly
magnified, is seen with the utmost possible amount of distinct-
ness. When this is satisfactorily accomplished the collar
is to be screwed perfectly tight, and the eyepiece is then in
proper condition for use. nor will it require again adjusting
except it be for use with some other focussing screen, the thick-
ness of which differs materially from that upon which it was
first adjusted.

The proper employment of the Ramsden's eyepiece with the
camera is as follows, viz : First arrange your subject, and focus
roughly in the ordinary way ; then consider what you have
delineated upon the screen, and determine in your mind which
are those parts that are most essential to be rendered with the
greatest amount of definition. Apply the eyepiece flat upon
the ground glass to the most important part, and correct your
focus while viewing it through the eyepiece fit is rarely indeed
that some correction is not found requisite) ; remove the eye-
piece and inspect the whole to ascertain that s:)me other im-
portant part is not thrown too much out of focus ; if it be, a
compromise must be made between the two, giving most dis-
tinctness to the most important, and vice versa ; but if uo com-
promise will admit ot both parts being moderately sharp, then
a smaller aperture of the camera lens must be employed.

In a case of this kind, where a certain amount of compromise
is imperative, it is exceedingly dif3Qcult, not to say impossible,
without such aid, to apportion the relative proportions or dis-
tinctness that should be allowed to the respective parts of a
composition ; hence the painful hf-irdness sometimes complained
of, because the wrong parts get more than their share of defini-
tion at the expense of those parts which can not only bear it,
but I'equire it. By the judicious use of an eyepiece in focussing,
this error, is, or can be, entirely avoided.

That which is true of all the parts will also hold good as a
whole ; consequently, in delineating a subject nearly all in one
plane, it is much easier to get a sharp picture over the whole
field by the use of the eyepiece than without it. In portrait-
ure, for instance, the eyes of the sitter are the special points
of greatest importance, and here it renders good service.

We stated, in an earlier part of this article, that the Rams-
den's eyepiece could be applied to another useful photographic
purpose, which we now propose to indicate.

As it is by no means cumbersome, a landscape photographer
will do well always to carry it in his pocket, as it often happens
that daring a ramble he sees a subject that he determines upon
taking ; but on again seeking the spot, laden with all his ap-
paratus, he sometimes finds, to his intense disgust, that there is
no single point from which he can get the whole within the
limits of his picture. The application of the eyepiece to the
determination of a question of this kind is one of the simplest.
If it be held out at arrii's length towards any object, so as to look
through it, but v/ith the lens next the observer, that is, iu a
contrary position to that in which it is ordinarily employed, a
miniature picture of the whole subject will be plainly depicted,
but embracing a larger angle of picture than the camera will
include.

In order to prepare it, so as to be constantly ready for this
use, it is only necessary to set up your camera in front of any
subject, and having adjusted it, note what portions of it are
included within the limits of the focussing glass ; then, by fitting
a piece of brown o? other dark coloured paper upon the piano
surface of the lower le.ns, a rectangular opening may be cut
from the centre which v/ill admit of an equal angle of pictiore
being viewed thereby. The eyepiece will then always be ready
for employment in this way, without its being in the least injured
for its ordinary purpose ; and if you have several cameras, any
of which include different limits, a change iu the piece of paper
renders it applicable to either.

We have so frequently found the advantage of its use in this
way, that we should procure one for this purpose alone did v/e
not already possess the article ; but we regard it in this light
a luxury — iu the other (for focussing^, as an iudispensablfl
requisite.

342

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

November,

From the Liverpool Photographic Journal.

NORTH LONDON niOTOGRAPllIC ASSOCIATION.

At the ordinary monthly meeting, held at ]\ryddleton Hall,
Tsliiiaton, on tht 29tli St'ptembcr, Gcorg-e Shadbolt, Esq.,
Yice-PresidiMit, in tlie chair, tlie niinntcs of the previous nicetin;^
havinu; been coiifirnied, tlie Chairman seated that the presenta-
tion photograpli (a view of Rochester Bridge, «tc., by Mr. R.
Hewlett) was ready for distribution to members, and those pre-
sent received their co|>ics accordingly.

Tlie following gentienie!i were dnly elected members : — Messrs.
IT. Simpson— IlMrding, F. Smith, T. Fenn, — Brodrick, A.
Wetherhy, I). J. Stuart.

Tiie Vice-President then requested Mr. Tlislop to take the
chair while he read a ]iaper " On Focussing in the Camera" (for
which see page 2i0), and exiiibited and explained the uses of a
Raui.sden's eyepiece for focussing, &c., upon which a discussion
eiisned.

The Vice-President then read a paper which he had received
for publication in the Liverpool and Manchester P/iotngrnphic
Journal, from Mr. Thomas Gulliver, of Swansea, " On II ork-
ing Wet Collodion in the Field" and stated that it being
necessarily excluded for want of space from the forthcoming
No. (1st instant) he was not willing to allow it to lie altogether
fallow for a fortnight as it contained what he regarded as a val-
uable suggestion on out-of-door manipulation. (For paper see
page 319 Oct. No.)

A discussion, in which Messrs. Hislop, Barber, Shadbolt, and
others took purt then ensued, relative to the advantages of
commencing a development of collodion negatives with solutions
of the salts of iron, and strengthening the deposit by a sub-
sequent application of gallic or pyrogallic acid. It was the
general opinion of those who had experience in this practice,
that by adopting it a shorter exposure in the camera suffices
than when jiyrogallic acid alone is used to develope with.

A vote of thanks was accorded to the Vice-President.

Portable stereoscopic cameras and stands of amateur con-
struction were exhibited by Messrs. Shave and Bingham, also
glass positive pictures by Mr. Lander.

Notice being given that iiromises of papers for future meeting!^
would be received, Mr, Barber volunteered to read one "■Onthe
Causes of failure in the Oxymel Process" at the next meet-
ing, on the 21th October, and the meeting adjourned.

From Liv. and Man. Photographic Journal.

STEREOGRAPHY.

BY T. I,. MERRITT.

In the Liverpool and Manchester Photographic JournaHov the
Lst. of October there was a pa])er on the stereoscope by Mr.
Ross, of New York, and I felt somewhat surjirised that it was
allowed to appear without comment, as one portion of it was incor-
rect. He said, "we must make the distance (between the
cameras'! precisely proportioned to the distance between the eyes,
and neither more or less." Now, it he had said precisely tlu'
distance the eyes are apart, and neither more or less, he would
have been right, for no other space can be correct, and the error
will be in the ratio of the departure from that space. He then
said that the space between the eyes is exactly four times the
focal length from the lens of the eye to the retina ; and con-
tinues, " A binocular view may, therefore, be enunciated thus :
it is a combination of two monocular views, formed by a pair of
equifocal lenses (the eyes) taken from two stations situated
hurizoiitally apart, at a distance equal to four times the focal
length of the lens employed. Hence the formula is when F is
the focal length, and D the horizontal distance of the stations
apart, D^4F." Subsequently, " This formula will api)ly to
lenses of any focal length whatever, so that lenses of short foe;
may be used for very near olgects, anil as such lenses will give
to distant objects too minute a character, lenses of longer foci
should be used for the latter." He theu tells us that he uses

for stereoscopic purposes, lenses twelve inches focal length, so that
the space between cameras should be four feet, when in opera-
tion. This, I without the least hesitation, assert, would produce
monstrous and absurb results, which I vvil; prove to be the case.

Let the object to be taken be a long building, with a white
band along the top, and another along the base, and let llio
building be divided into equal portions by perpendicular lines,
also white (I say while, simply that the results may be more
obvious), and at the centre let there be an abutment four inches
in front, and projecting fifty feet from the face of the building,
and let the operator be at a station opposite the middle of this
building. This, taken in accordance with the formula of INIr.
Ross, would present the following anomalies : — the lines at the
tup and at the bottom would be lines vanishing at the wrong
sides of the jiicturc — supposing they could vanish nt all ; bv\t
which Mr. Ross, being ' professior.ally conversant with ]ierspec-
tive," knows, as well as I do, could not be the case. Then there
would be the iivo sides, as well as the front, of the abutment
seen, which, to any one placed opposite the middle of this abut-
ment, could not be perceived at all ; and the equal parts betvveea
the perpendicular.s would become less and less as they approach-
ed the middle ; and these appearances, taken altogether, pro-
duce results that I can only designate as I have already done.
It ajipcars to me that all which ought to he required in the
stei'coscope, is such a whole as that produced by natural vision,
which a variation in point of view of two and a half inches will
always effect. The result would be just as mnch of solidity as iu
natural vision, and, therefore, in true taste, all that is false
must be otherwise.

I shall merely add, that if gentlemen, before tlipy write on
this subject, wouh'i lie at the pains to reduce their theories to prac-
tice (as I always do), they would not jump to such erroneous
conclusions.

[Unless our memory plays ns some trick, the contributor of
the preceding paper is the same gentleman with whom we had a
controversy some few years back, published in Notes and Que-
ries. We do not feel bound to make comments upon every
article with which we are favored, even if we differ in opinion
with the views expressed by tlie respective authors, as we do to
a very considerable extent with those both of Mr. Ross and Mr.
Merritt.

We think it scarcely necessary upon every occasion to state
and re-state our own notions so pertinaciously, but are content
to let all parties have a fair hearing, ns comment has, however,
been invited, we take the opportunity of pointing out what we
consider correct principles iu connexion with the subject before
us.

We entirely agree with IMr. Merritt, that, if the object of the
operator be to produce an exact transcript of that which the eyes
perceive, no departure in the points of view for the respective
stereogrhphs, Irom those enjoyed by the eyes can be permitted ;
but, coupled with this condition must be taken also the fact that
the said stereoi>ra|ilis must be examined through lenses that
allow of the eyes of the observer being placed at a distance from
the pictures exaclli/ equal to the focal length of the lenses employed
for their delineation, otherwise each \A<iiwxii subtends an angle of
vision dilVering Irom nature.

We, however, totally dissent from the dictum that " all that
ought to be required in the stereoscope is such a whole as that
produced by natural vision." We do not see why any jicrson's
taste, or want of taste, is to be arbitrarily limitefl by any other
person ; but, furthermore, we consider that it is sometimes highly
useful to be able to produce the elleet of a stnall model of a sub-
ject as can be readily accomplished.

We are not exactly prepared to admit the correctness of the
assertion that certain hues " would vanish at the wrong side of
the i)icture — suvposing they could vanish at all," but which
" could not be the case." If they could not vanish at all, it
is clear that they could not vanish at the wrong side of the pic-
ture. We are always ready to facilitate discussion, but trust
that our contributors and correspondents will be in mind the
excellent motto, " siuiviter in modo, fortiter in re" — Ed ]

1858.

THE PnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

543

From Pi!.z^\l}yjn >. Bullentin.

now TO TAKE tHEAP AMBROTYPLS.

of

for making

[In a pamphlet recently published by Mr. Fitz:;ibbon
St. Loais, he gives the following capital directions
cheap Ambrotvpes. The hit is palpable. — Ed ]

"Take a piece of window gla.s3, a broken pane will do, cnt it np
to the size yoa want it with a pair of scissors or shears; this can
easily be dorte by holding the same piece of window glas.? and
scissors or shears in the water (Mississippi water will dojand it
will cut like butter ; then wipe it dry, and pour oa the same
piece of glass a decoction of ether, alcohol and cotton, all mix-
ed together, winch can be done by shaking it in a bottle ; this
compound, to give it a chemical name, might be called collo-
dioD, then pat your piece of gla^ with the .self same collodion
on — for no other will do — into a bath ; I don't mean a shower
bath, or a warm bath, but a bath that is made out of silver,
that you can get at any drug store — that is if you have not a
supply yourself in your own pocket — that is the reason it is call-
ed a silver bath, because there is silver in it. While it is get-
ting bathed in this silver bath prepare your machine, which can
easily be done by getting a burning or magnifying glass, either
will do, and to save expense, get a long cigar box, cut a bole in
one end of it, and force your magnifier into it. When thus is
all done, put into your machine(I mean your cigar box, which,
for artistic effect, you might cail camera obscura) the silvered-
over plate. Then sit yourself, family and friends, or take them
standing in a good straight, staring, npright position, right in
front of the machine. Let old Sol shine in upon the chemical
refraction of the reflection, and it will make the image called an
ambrotype, brilliant with all the hues of the rainbow indelibly
impressed upon it. Jerk it out quick, being careful in this part
of the manipulation not to let reflected light shine upon it, na-
tural light maybe won't hurt it, then have in right good order
some rasty nails, lenpenny will do, or old spikes that can be
purchased cheap at second-hand stores, on which you pour some
common vinegar, which most not cost over fifteen cents a gallon.
I almost forgot to say, you must add also, some water, else yoa
might make it too sour a picture. This chemical is called
" developer," and if it don't develope your pictnre, why, I am no
artist. Next and last chemical process is the fixing of the pic-
ture, or the holding of it fast on to the plite ; that is a secret |
worth knowing. It is one thing to get the pictnre, bnt entirely
another thing to keep it. Well then, you must do this in the
usual careful mannT, with hipo, have yoa never had the hipo,
reader ? If yoa have, I will say no more about it ; if not, why
ponr on your hipo, and the pictnre stands right out a shining
monument to your artistical genius, so permanent that fire,
water, acid, chemicals, steam power, or the power of all boman
nature cannot obliterate it.

N. B. — I almost forgot to say this pictnre is not entirely per-
fect without two coats of varnish, one before, and one l^ehind :
any kind of black varnish will do behind, and any kind of white!
varnish will do before, being carefnl all the time not to pot it on
too strong, for iu nature is sach that it might contract or ex-
pand, and yon might contract and expand with it. and thenyoar
picture would get spoiled. After this, you preserve your pic-
ture in a preserver or box, or ca.se it up, jnst as it pleases your
fancy. Now, all of this can be done at a trifling expense.

I caution the public against the iioposition of unknown itiner-
ant*, who charge the extravagant price of twenty-five cents or
fifty cents and a case or box thrown in. Only think of that !
to be boxed for that amount. Why, the operator will tell yoa
the cases are worth more than the pictnre, which no doubt is
true. Now, as one that has been initiated and dagnerreotyped
into the art of face-making, I merely advise all persons to be on
the look oat when these ciieap, would be style artists are abont. j
To show the enormoas profit these men make several hundred ;
per cent. I have, at a great deal of trouble and calcoktion, I
found oat the cost of taking cheap pictures. The principal i
material, window glass, costs about a qoarier of a cent, chemi- ^
cals a qnarter do., paper case or box one and a half cents, the
preserver and mats one and a quarter cents, labor not worth I

anything, whole cost three and a qnarter cents. Now is it not
an outrage to charge twenty-five or fifty Cfcnt=i, as the ca.«e may
be, on the verdancy of the customers for that which costs next
to nothing. Why, those worthies in time will be an rich as
Crce=us if they receive that patronage they srj richly deserve.

P. S — As this valuable information is given without price,
the writer urges on the community to take their own phixs and
save the above expense. It is as easy as easy can be ; only
follow the instructions here laid down, and by 3=;ttin-.r an ex-
ample to the balance of mankind and the human family in general,
unborn generations will ble^s von forever.

From Pfujfograpkie Xole*

IS Tl.SIO.y A PnOTCCP.APIIIC PEOtE.SX?

The following is an extract from a letter from a distingni.shed
professional photogripher, with whose permLssion we insert it
under an anonymous signature : —

'• You remember the story of the photograph of a man bein^
discovered on the retina of an ox's eye, the said photograph
being a portrait ui the man who had slain him, the action of the
chemicals in the ox's eye having lieen suddenly arrested by the
stroke which killed him. Well, I have been assured that the
story is all humbug ; bat I am not sati-sfied, becaa.se there are
still .several things in the phenomena of vision that cannot well
be explained without iMipposing the story to be all true. For
in.stance, if you touch any hard object with your finger, the
nerves of that finger convey the sen.sation of touch to the mind
instantaneously, but if the eye Is .suddenly directed to any object,
although the image of this object is in.stantly thrown by the
lenses of the eye upon the retina, it takes a quite perceptible
portion of a second for the optic nerve to convey the sensation
of the image to the mind.

" When you look steadily at a brilliant red setting sun for a
few seconds and then shut your eyes or look in an opposite
direction, you still see the image of the sun, bnt of a greenish
color instead of red, and if there should happen to be any bright
golden clouds near the snn their images will still be quite per-
ceptible on shutting the eyes, but instead of golden yellow they
will then appear purple. If you look steadily at the sun for a
couple of seconds, and then let your eyes wander over the neigh-
boring clouds for a few second.*, you will find, on shotting your
eyes, that several images of the sun have been impressed apoa
the retina.

" Now may it not be quite possible that the images which the
lenses of the eye throw upon the retina are actual pbotographa
after all, and thus these images of the sun are so intensely
solarized, so to speak, as to require a longer time than nsoal
to obliterate them ? Of course they are not black and white
photographs, they have all the glcry that color can give them ;
and when we have copied oar achromatic lenses from the con-
.struction of the eye, and lately made a self-contracting diapbram
in imitation of the iris, may it not be possible, by a still more
carefnl study of the eye in a chemical point of view, to make the
crowning glorious discovery of photography in colors I What
I particularly wish to know is this, has any competent person
made any careful experiments or t^ted the fluids of the eye
chemically, so as to be qualified to give a flat denial to the 'ox-
eyed' story ?

"When we weep, we know that the * salt, mU tear?. do flow,'
and the black pigment looks as if it contained iodine; and there
may be more things in it than have yet been dreamed of.

" When a Daguerreotype plate is made sensitive by holding
it above iodine and bromine, and exposed in a camera to the
image of some object until it has been suSBciently acted upon,
this image may be developed by holding the plate above the
fumes of mercory, but if, after it has been exposed in the
camera, and before it has been developed, it is taken into the
dark room and held for a second or less above the fames of
bromine again, the latent image that was npon the plate is
obliterated and its sorfaee k r^dj to receive a new ifflpresBun.

344

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

November,

We can believe from this that it is quite possible to obliterate
an image from the retina of the eye and have the surface ready
sensitized in a small fraction of a second.

Again, woi'ld not this theory tlirow some light upon Dalton-
ism or color-blindness ? You cannot fancy a lens giving perfect
ciL'Qnition as to form upon the ground glass of a camera, and at the
same time transposing the reds into greens, and the yellows into
purples ; but from some disarrangement in the proportions of the
chemicals you can easily conceive how a photograph migiit be
so clianged. If it is a fact therefore, that every time we direct
our eyes at an object, that object is photographed in colors on
the retina. Color bUndness is merely some derangement in the
proportions of the fluids used in obtaining such photographs.

If I mistake not, the people who are afflicted with color-blind-
ness, do know greens from reds, and yellows from purples, when
they see them ; but tiiey do not see them, if, through some
derangement of a local nature, the greens are transformed into
reds upon the retina of tlieir eyes. There are also some things in
somnambulism that might be capable of explanation by this
theory ; such as why a person walking in his sleep does not per-
ceive external objects although his eyes are wide open ; and it
may be to give time to the chemicals to be concocted or strength-
ened that we close our eyeballs and shut out external objects
when we go to sleep. " Photo-Chroiie."

PICTURES

From Neio York Daily Times,

ON BROADAVAY.

There are always pictures enough in Broadway for those who
have eyes to see them ; pictures which few painters take the
trouble to put upon their canvas, and fewer connoisseurs to enjoy,
as they pass in panoramic succession before their eyes; pictures
of the varied human life of the Nineteenth Century; comedies
of New York life, pregnant as the wouderful color dramas of
Hogarth; bits of sentiment, as touching as Edward Frere ever
imagined — quaint, stirring, saddening — a kaleidoscopic succes-
iou of appeals through the eye to all that feels, judges and en-
joys within us.

But it is not of these pictures that we are now thinking.
These will never make themselves felt till some artist shall arise
bold enough to attempt and vigorous enough to acheive their
iipotheosis in art. We remember now no such thing as an ef-
fort in this direction save some clever pencil sketches of Broad-
way scenes by Mr. Hoppin, one of which " made a success" at
Gur Exhibition two years ago. Perhaps something may come
of this good beginning before next May, but it has not yet ap-
peared. Meanivhile let us see what our print-shops have to
show us.

Mr. ScHAUs, to whom Art in this City is under divers obliga-
tions, lent his rooms awhile to the owner of a noble picture
claiming to come from the easel of Peter Paul Rubexs. What
number of the works attributed to him Peter Paul Rubens
did really paint, it would not be easy to say, Their name is
legion; but the man was a miracle of force, and doubtless carried
the patience of geniu'^, with its velocity, in that strong forearm
and broad brow of his. His own portraits of himself may stand
as types of combined physical and mental energy. As a draughLs-
nian the modern critics -pooh-fooh him : but he drew wirh his
Irush, if we may be pardoned the phrase, and there is a certain
truth of form in his marvelous coloring which it were wiser for
his critics to study than to carp at. All his finest works, too,
bear the evidence of extreme rapidity of handling, not, be it un-
derstood, in any bungling or triviality of treatment, but in the
purity and precision of tone which they exhibit. AVherever he
hesitated and went back over his can\as, as in the draperies of
his famous " War and Peace," In the British Gallery, the traces
of his uncertainty are plain in the thi(_'kness and muddiness of
the tints. That a painter of the power of which Rubkns wielded
should have achieved three or four times the extent of work
which another man, of equal genius, but less sap, as the French
would say, might have mastered, is easily credible. And we are

not bound to suppose that his army of scholars did really ex-
ecute any great proportion of the famous pictures which, in all
the finest galleries of Europe, hold up Peter Paul Rubens
to the mingle delight and despair of all who affect the palette
and the brush. The master's own touch in the treamt-nt of car-
nations is unmistakable — the pellucid pearl-grays of his shadows
upon flesh are his own, and no one's else. His warm love of
flesh and blood was a passion which his scholars may well have
partaken, but his power of reproducing its richest c'ombinations
was a gift of genius not to be communicated.

In the conception of the picture which has just left Mr.
ScHAUs' rooms, to find, if it may, somewhere else, a purchaser
willing to invest $18,000 in its fame and its beauty, there is
nothing inconsistant with the claims which are made for it. In
the whole range of Rubens' works, we remember but one, the
"Mother and Child in the garland of Roses." at Munich, which
can be called truly religious and refined in character. His Holy
Families and Madonnas are, in general, the most prosperous
and burgomasterish of beings; creatures by no means

" Too wise or good.
For human nature's daily lood" —

of the earth, earthy, and prophesying more of cakes and ale
than of fasts, penance and repentance, Such was the " Mag-
dalen" put before us by Mr. Schaus — a disheveled, tearful, well-
developed, well-dressed young lady, of a good Flemish family,
who has either been detected in some unpardonable impropriety,
or forbidden to join some very attractive party. But such as
she is, she is painted with wonderful power and skill. A figure
in the background of a sort of shadowy duenna, and a bit of
broken-China sky, are less commendable, and seem to have been
either lefc unfinished in the original picture, or to have been
cruelly dealt with by some merciless " restorer." Unequal as
the execution is, however, of this fine canvas, it well deserves
study, and v/e sliould regret that it has left our City, if it were
of the slightest use to indulge that feeling.

We shall not be called upon, we hope, to think of indulging
it in regard to another picture which v/e found sitting modestly
by the side of the great Flemish splendor. This was a charming
little cabinet picture by Guillemin — the subject, a miser, a pro-
vincial miser too, you see he is, one of those Grandcts of the
lowest order whom Balzac alone could have painted in words ;
the treatment exquisite in simplicity, fidelity finish and feeling.
Our art-loving public had already made acquaintance with this
fine artist, in the Belmont Gallery; they will delight to renew
that accjuaintance in this little masterpiece. Mr. Gambart to
whom we owe our French Exhibition of last year, has sent this
picture with some others from the best French easels to Mr,
Schaus. AVe ought to take care that Mr. Schaus is not allowed
to send them back to Mr. Gambart.

All our efforts, we suppose, would fall to retain that other
and larger French picture, in which our ladies have been taking
so much pleasure at Goupil's. Wixterhalter's "Empress with
her Ladies of Honor" belongs to Europe and not to America,
and as one of its ornaments was carried away from an American
family, we must reconcile ourselves to parting with the whole
group. Clever the painting certainly is — the grouping well
managed. Wixterhalter has a passion for groupings. His
first success — "The Party of the Decameron," and his best
picture — "Florinda," — are groupings both, and of both we find
souvenirs in this taubleau of the Court of Conipiegne. Au
astute flatterer he is too, this painter of princesses. When you
look at these lovely ladies, these stars about their moon, it
never occurs to you too bserve that Nature, in heaping her gifts
upon the head of the fair Eugenie forgot to support with one hand
the beauteous lady's rounded chin. In other, less courtly,
words, you are not aware of the fact that the face of the
Empress is a tri3e longer than ccraporis v.'ith absolute perfec-
tion. This conformation, which the old physiognomist tells us
"prognosticates misfortune," has too much to do with the char-
acter of the Empress' face to be softened away. Wintkrhalter
has therefore sacrificed the stars to the moon, and added just a
thought to the length of the sweet faces of all these charming

1

185S.

THE niOTOGRAnilC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

34.3

Countesses, and Marchionesses, these Princesses of the bonquct
and the hunting-button.

No such liberties was ]\[r. Baker called upon to take with
the models who gave him his tpyes for his picture of the "Roman
Corso," of which Messrs. Stevens & Williams exhibit to us
both the original and the fine etching now iu progress. The
picture is effective, certainly, though still crude in tone and very
unequal in color. The group on the extreme right, however,
of a picturesque peasant managing a fiery, maddened brute of a
horse is fine — one of the best bits of life and movement that
wc liave seen for some time. The drawing is masterly, nor do
we limit this praise to this group The whole scence, too, is
animated, and gives one a very just idea of that uproar of horses
and men and spurs and fireworks, of brute fury and human
frenzy, with whicii the Carnival race of the Corso concludes.
Kor should our readers forget that in going to see this interest-
ing picture they will have the opportunity of seeing also what
that most valuable invention, chromo-luhography , has been able
to make of Church's noble painting of "Niagara." Of this
work and of other specimeus of the " minor arts" we shall take
another and early occasion to speak.

Meantime let us take a look at the leading Photographic
Establishments of Broadway. All the world knowns that "in
the good old times when George the Third was King," and for
a long time afterwards, the taking of a portrait was a serious
matter, as much for the party taking as for the party taken.
There never was an elderly lady, for example, who desired to
live on canvas after she should have died in the natural way,
but family consultations had to be held to resolve the import-
ant question, — who should be the artist ? This point having
been settled, a deputation had to wait on the selected Porti-ait
Painter to inquire when his engagements would permit him to
"take" the old lady, and to arrange the periods for several sit-
tings. These, too, were most solemn occasions. The same
dress must be worn at every visit to the studio — the same
jewelry must be put on — and, harder this than all, the same
expression of countenance must be assumed. If twenty
thousand twinges of the gout were tearing like twenty thous-
and tigers at the old lady's great toe, the old lady must still
wear the same smile at the last sitting which she wore at
the first; — and properly too, — the gout was clearly no fault of
the artist. The sittings having extended over a period of six
or eight weeks, the old lady vvas at last relieved from the trouble
of coming any more until after three or four months, at the end
of which time, on the receipt of a manifesto from the artist, the
family party again organized,— this time at the studio, — to pass
judgment upon the portrait. Then came the artist's turn. If
he had made the old lady suffer the torture of smiling by the
hour, in spite of herself, — never mind; the hour of her revenge
was come. The critics were iu conclave. Even the old lady
in the flesh could now pass judgment on the old lady
on the canvas. Everybody had something to say against the
picture, and each critic took his own department with which to
find fault. Perhaps two or three would, metaphorically, take
hold of the nose— another would be down on the moutli — the
next would tackle the chin — still another would take to pieces
the elbows, — and all who had any eye to a place in the old
lady's will would declare that the picture made her look older
than she was. If the artist was a great man, these remarks
would be made, comparitively speaking sollovoce, and he would
not care much about them. But if he were only "a rising man,"
— poor fellow ! He would probably argue the point feebly
over every feature, but would, nevertheless, end by pretending
to agree " to some extent " with every member of the company,
and by promising to retouch the objectionable features. If he
were a wise man, he kept it three or four months longer in his
studio without touching it, and sent it home, when the family
circle being again congregated, each member of it would con-
gratulate himself on his having made that fortunate suggestion,
the likeness being now a speaking one. A portrait, by the
way, is " a speaking one " when it looks as though it would
speak if it could — it it cannot it is, nevertheless, a speaking
likeness — lucus a non. When, on the other hand, the artist

44*

was a fool, — speaking after the manner of the profane, — he
would adopt the various suggestions of the family, and, as a
matter of course, he spoilt the picture.

The same rule precisely applied to the miniature portraits on
ivory ofter the La Creevy manner, in which the artists literally
threw themselves at the complexion of their subjects, and made
everybody crimson about the cheeks and light pink over all the
rest of the face. We kr.ew an India merchant once who was
painted in this way. The old fellow was as yelloiv as a double
eagle of the most recent coinage, but the lady artist looked
upon him literally in another light, and painted him with a good
deal of Vermillion. The old chap liked it.

Then there came into vogue another branch of art which was
extremely popular because it was cheap. Artists — of course
they were " artists" — came from England, inoculated some
tlionsand or two Yankees, and in a brief space of time the
United States flooded by gentlemen armed with black paper
and scissors, who cut out your profile, beginning with the hair
of your head and ending with the heels of your boots, at rates
varying from one dollar — at which, if we remember rightly, they
commenced — down to one shilling, at which they left off, when
persons who had lost their arms undertaking to cut profiles with
their toes, the art became degraded into a show and was ulti-
mately abandoned. We sometimes see, even at this day, in va-
rious parts of the interior, some of these black paper profiles iu
ebony frames. They have the advantage of serving through
long generations, since one of them will resemble the last scion
of the family about as well as it did the original individual who
was so verdant as to pay for it.

In our day, however, we have acted on the principle of Mo-
liere's doctor, who studied Hippocrates' chapter on hearts,
" Noibs avons change tout cda." When we want a portrait tak-
en in this age of Jefferson Davis, we go, like old Peruvians,
to the Temple of the Sun. We brush our hair, sit down in a
chair of state — with or without a couple of knobs like petrified
oysters behind the head to hold it in position — call up a smirk,
look into the muzzle of a camera obscura, taking care not to
wink, and in a matter of twenty seconds they have us and can
reproduce us a million times if they please or if we choose to
pay for it. Complaints as to the correctness of the likeness, if
made at all, must be made to a Great Body who would care
nothing about them. The sun is the artist, and you can get no
redress in that quarter.

Photography, or the art of " writing by light," cannot be
called a new discovery. The fact that objects could be copied,
by means of rays of light, on metal chemically prepared, was
known long before the present century. Nothing practical,
however, resulted from this knowledge until the year 1802, wheu
Wedgwood & Davy, two Englishmen, ai)plied it to artistic pur-
poses. But even their efforts were unproductive of more than
an initiation into the first of a series of mysteries which it was
left to Dagoerre, Talbot, Archer, and others of a later day
to comprehend and take practical advantage of. All sorts of
"types" have since been introduced, from the Daguerreotype,
which was the first, to the Ivorytype, which is the latest.

This art ot writing by light, which is a very different thing
from light writiug, is one of the great features without which
the " elephant" of our city would not be at all complete. There
are, at the smallest estimate, two hundred " galleries." so called,
in Broadway, the Bowery, aiid the .several avenues, where, on
an average,'about 50 pictures are daily taken at prices varying
from 25 cents up to $150 each. These emi)loy Daguerreotype
materials of domestic manufacture to an amount which we
have found it impossible to estimate clearly, but which is on all
hands agreed to be over $3,000,000 per annum— besides tbe
cost of Photographic paper and certain chemicals which are im-
ported from England and France.

Of course, at some of the minor galleries, where excellence
is not so much of a consideration as cheapness, the pictures are
less remarkable for beauty than for a certain glassiness of eye,
and pitch-and-tarriness of expression, which mar their effect ia
an artistic point of view, though they may be bearable under
pecuniary considerations. But, iu the best galleries of this City

I I

34G

THE PUOTOGRAnilC AND FINE AllT JOURNAL.

November,

l)Iiotograpliic portraits have been produced tliat liave not been
equaled in Europe. European photographers attribute this fact
to our climate.

The prevalence of "blneliglit" is tlic theme of tlicir most
elaborate theories. But so far as photographic excellence de-
])ends upon atmos])heric influences, the palm must be given to
India, where pictures have been produced of yet unapproached
intensity in the effects of light and shade.

Photography has become so great an institution in this City
that it builds " marble halls" for itself. Gurney has just
opeii'd, at No 107 Broadway, a sort of Photographic palace,
which he has erected for the purposes of his business, and with
a special view to its requij'ements. Discarding the practice of
sending customers up three or four flights of stairs to an oper-
ating room which the sun can get at, he receives them in the
ground-Qoor^shows them his pictures, cases, and so forth, takes
their orders and passes them forward to his main gallery, on the
floor above, from which they enter upon a ladies' dressing-room
on one side, and an operating room on the other. This latter
aparment is jirovided with side-lights and roof-lights, so that in
the event of having a customer more " wrinkly" than usual —
in which case the roof-lights are insufficient — Gurney usually
smoothes down the creases with the side light, and somewhat
rejuvenates him by the process. When the operating rooms
below are full, which would seem to be a common occurrence at
this establishment, there are others on the ne.xt floor, which are,
however, mainly devoted to the artists, who are there, in great
force, to finish the photographs. These are taken of all sizes,
from the "locket miniature" to the " life"— sometimes contain-
ing only the face, at others, giving the bust also, and not un-
commonly the whole form, of the size of life. Tliese last pic-
tures are very costly, but they are also very beautiful. They
are characterized by all the delicacy of tint and shade which
distinguish the oil painting, since indeed they undergo in all re-
spects the same operations, save as regards the features por-
trayed, which are taken by the sun, and therefore must perforce
be as correctly delineated as they would be iu a mirror — and
much more so than they are likely to be when drawn by the
hand. This remark applies equally to the smaller sizes, and to
those which are colored in aqwarelk or in pastel. Mr, Gurney
e.\hibits in his main gallery, with becoming pride, the medal
awarded to him by the French Palais a^Inditstrie for the best
picture there exhibited in 1855. — the great silver pitcher called
the " Anthony Prize," which he obtained here on similar grounds,
— and several medals awarded to him by the American Insti-
tute.

Of the various "types" which are more or less advertised,
Gurney confines his operations to the Daguerreoiype and the
Photogra|)h. He objects to the Ambrotype that it is not dur-
abl !, which is another proof of the way iu which even doctors
will disagree, since Brady declares the Ambrotype to be thu
most durable picture made. The Hallotype is made at Gurney's
when ordered, but is not a favorite with him. The differences
between these kind of work are, that the Photograph is thrown
on the canvas or paper and afterwards colored ; — the Ilallotype
is colored by transparent painting put on from behind ; — and
the Ambrotype is taken on one piece of glass and covered by
another, the atmosphere being excluded by a balsamic cement,
which secures the surfaces to each other.

Gurney's rooms are not only the most easily accesssible in the
City, but are handsome and pleasant by reason of the much
light which, in the construction of the building, he has taken
care ta provide. He has added to tiie long array of pictures in
his own line of ar^ which grace his walls, a row of oil-paintings
by various native masters. He does this ostensibly Ijy way of
adding to the other attractions of bis gallery, but our opinion
is that the artful fellow has liung the oil-paintings uj) to show,
by contrast, the superiority of the Photographic article.
Nevertheless, there are, among some very poor productions and
some other very fair ones, a rural water scene by Williams, of
I'hiladelphia, and two marine pictures by Lane, of Boston,
which it is good to go to Gurney's and see.

BiiADY also has some admirable photographic pictures in nis

galleries, of which, like Gurney, he has two on Broadway, and
if he has not quite such elegant or commodious rooms in his up-
town quarters as Gurney has in his, there is quite as much in
his gallery at the corner of Bleecker street and Broadway, and
at his down-town establishment, where lie keeps his principal
collection of splendid portraits, to amuse you, and quite as po-
lite persons to talk to you as there are at Gurney's, which is
saying a great deal. There is a delicacy of work about some of
Brady's miniatures, which is as peculiar in its way as the bold
and powerful finish of Gurney's larger photographs is in that
branch of the art. At Brady's, the last new invention, called
the " Ivorylype," which is said to surpass everything in the way
of writing by light that has yet been effected, has just come
out.

There is no place in New York where one can better amuse
himself than at either of these galleries — Brady's is full of pic-
tures of historical characters and pretty women — Gurney's is
equally well furnished in both particulars, and either place will
give a better idea than perhaps auy of our readers now have of
tlie immense progress which has been made during the past ten
years, in the art to which these galleries are devoted.

FAIH OF FRA.MLIN L\ST1TUTE.-

Dear Sxelling :

-llELIOGliArillC DEPARTMENT.

Fhiladelphia, 20(fi A'ov., lSo8.

As a Historic indication of the progress of
the Heliograjihic Art in this city, I have thought, that a brief
notice of the photographs, &c., exhibited at the recent fair of
the Franklin Institute, might perhaps be acceptable to most of
your intelligent readers.

The first collection, according to the order in which we found
the specimens on exhibition, was by Mr. Richards. As, through
a deviation, by the managers, from the established rules of tho
Institute, he had been deprived of sufficient space on the wall
for displaying a large collection of his various styles of the art,
— such as portraits, views, copies of paintings, drawings, en-

gravings, Ac-

he was limited to a few of whole or -* size por-

traits, and a small number of beautiful copies of engravings and
drawings.

These were all plain and clean, unretouched photographs.

The portraits were representations of some of our well-known
and long-popular artists. Most of them were happy in pose
and arr.ingeinent- -felicitous in light and shadow — and life-like
in expression.

They received the first promiim — a Silver Medal — which, as
" modern rumor" says, seemed to surprise not only the public
and his competitors, but even Mr. Richards himself, all things
considered — and was a curious exemplification of the manage-
ment of the Institute and of the decisions of the judges on this
art.

Next in order was Mr. Walter Dinmore's collection of nearly
one hundred pictures. Among these were thirty or forty spe-
cimens of truly beautiful portraits, plain, clean and not re-
touched— of all sizes and of all ages, from the care-worn visage,
wrinkled grand-parent of many years, down to the infant of a
few weeks only.

Dr. Langdell, one of the best practical photographers in this
country, has charge of Mr. Dinmore's photographic department.

His large cabinet and imperial size portraits, finished in India
ink, are rare and exquisitely finished specimens of the art. As
llkeHRsses, too, they are all, that could be desired — bold, easy
ami graceful, at the same time, that they are faithful, life-like
and spirited.

The (lictures, in colors, were all true to nature. There was,
especially, one of a bride, robed in white, which was very re-
markable. The face had all the glow and beauty of actual life.
It was, iu a word, a wonderful specimen of the art, and did
great credit to the artist.

There were others, of from T by 9 inches to half-life size,
beautifully colored — faithful to nature — round, forcible and
highly artistic in every point of view — with an txprtssinn in
every face so life-like, as to seem almost to speak the thoughts
of the person portrayed.

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FIXE ART JOURNAL.

34T

Dinmore's was the largest, and in our opinion, the best col-
lection of photographs in the exhibition ; but owing to a little
jarring between the Superintendent and the Depositor, in con-
sequence of the former's Hnfairness and very free use of a " little
brief authority ;" this mean, pitiful spite was, probaoly, grati-
fied by having this fine collection passed by without notice — as
we learned it actually was in the report at the close of the Ex-
hibition— to the great astonishment of the public.

Next came a few specimens of photo-lithography by J. Rehn
— a new development of the San-painting art, admirably suited
to illustrate books, at moderate cost, with truthful microscopic
pictures, and works of science with drawings, &c. These spe-
cimens are, we think, the best yet produced in this, or probably
any other country.

Next in order was Willard's collection of photographs, am-
brotypes, &c. Some of the plain photographs were very good
— much like Dinmore's in color, tone and richness ; and one
large specimen of the ivory-type was among the best, if not the
very best, in the Exhibition.

Broadbent & Co. exhibited a few specimens of plain phota-
graphs, and a few finished with India ink, which were all cre-
ditable— though not in our view, equal to Dinmore's, especially
those in India ink — for which they were honored with a first
premium, a Silver Medal — to their own surprise, says report.

The Ivory-type is a species of Hallotype , but a hundred fold
more beautiful and pleasing. This new style of finishing photo-
graphs was introduced to the public by a Mr. Wenderoth of this
city, who is a good artist, and is now a partner in business with
Mr. Broadbent.

This style of finishing pictures is, doubtless, an off-shoot of
the old Grecian mode of painting ; in the hands of a good ar-
tist I believe it to be simple and easily managed ; it looks more
like a miniature upon ivory — whence its name — than any other
style ; while it has all the fineness and truthfulness of the most
ex luisite daguerreotype, with the life-like flesh-tints super-added.
When finished with skill and care, in detail, they are very beau-
tiful, and popular with our public. Doubtless, too, they are un-
changeable ; and if executed honestly aud faithfully by a good
artist, will become very profitable.

This firm — Broadbent & Co. — have attempted the process of
making these pictures a secret ; but specimens, equally fine with
theirs, are now produced by Winters, a miniature artist, now at
Havana, Cul)a, and at Dinmore's gallery , at McClees's gallery,
and by others in this city.

Broadbent & Co. had several good specimens in the Exhibi-
tion, in competition with a Mr. Williams, an old artist ; but
neither of them received any notice from the judges, though
both collections had beautiful specimens, which were admired
by the visitors universally — because (Report says,) these styles
of photographs are thought, by old artists, in oil, &c. , to inter-
fere very much with their legitimate cading, portrait, miniature,
&c. In fact, the photograph, in this and other modes, are now
very popular and give general satisfaction by their lite-like
fidelity and beauty, while the old-style work, sketched solely by
eye aud hand, although it may be a masterly achievement, must
be considered an imperfect and faint semblance of " the human
face divine," when compared with a felicitous skilfully finished
production of the Heliographic art, such as are now to be had
in a few of our leading establishments.

Portraitists of the Old School, as we have been informed,
were the judges to decide on the merits of tLe photographs on
exhibition this year, and, doubtless, embraced this opportunity
to rap photography on the head — perhaps hoping thereby to
further their own individual interests.

We, however, believe the prejucies of the legitimate artists
against the Heliographic Art to be fast giving way, and one
by one they are gradually conceding the possibilities and ad-
vantages of the camera in portraiture, when handled with judg-
ment and skill. And, as we have repeatedly intimated, when
every Heliographic gallery shall have an artist by nature, skill,
and judgment to attend to the pose of every sitter and arrange
drapery and light and shadow, and by his genial soul-stirring

manners bring out and fix on his plate the happy, thought-
speaking expression, which never fails of pleasing.

Neither McClees, nor Gcrmon, nor George S. Cook contributed
specimens of their beautiful work to grace the Franklin Insti-
tute Exhibition this season.

McCIees and Germon, I believe, considered themselves un-
fairly and unkindly treated by this same Superintendent, five or
six years ago, and have never favored the Institution with their
beautiful specimens since. Some of those specimens are ex-
ceedingly meritorious — finely finished in oil and water colors,
India ink and free crayon styles^ by skillful artists.

That widely known and far-famed Root Gallery, corner of
Chestnut and Fifth streets, in tliis city, from which issued thou-
sands of matchless Heliographic specimens, since it was sold to
Mr. Cook, and has been under his care, has unfortunately sunk
almost to a level with the third-class " picture shops." Mr.
Cook has been obliged to surrender the whole of this establish-
ment, in consequence of his other business, to the supervision of
others, and hence, these disastrous results. Yet, the location
is a good one, and the great number of excellent portraits which
went out from this well known -'Root Gallery," in years gone
by, still brings many strangers and some citizens, who value and
desire to obtain a superior Heliographic portrait, to this once
popular " Root Gallery."

Under good management — a little tact, energy, industry and
skill, we still believe it could be made a respectable and profit-
able business stand for the practice of the Heliographic Art.

Your's, &c.,

Jamus.

From the Liv. and 3Ian. Photographic Journal.

HINTS ON THE PERSERVATION OF SENSITIVE PAPERS.

Sir : — For yonr very prompt and polite reply to my last
queries, I beg you will accept my best acknowledgemects. I
send you the following suggestions or hints on the preservation
of sensitive papers for insertion in the columns of your periodi-
cal, if deemed of sufficient value.

Every one who has had much experience in photographic
printing, and in manipulating waxed paper, knows the great
difficulty of preserving the papers unimpaired for any length of
time. A few hours in summer suiSce to destroy the beautiful
silvery white of the very best albumenized paper, and to reduce
the sensitiveness of waxed paper to a minimum, besides serious-
ly influencing the subsequent development of the picture. By
adopting the following method these evils may be in a great
measure remedied or removed. Take a well made pressure
frame of the ordinary description with cross bars and screws,
and over the window of the frame fit accurately (so that it may
exclude all light) a liii of wood. A whole back I prefer to a
hintyed one. The interior of the frame to be lined with
cloth. Procure six or eight sheets of the best patent
plate glass, the size of the pressure frame, and your " Preserving
Box" is complete. Belore proceeding to charge the box with
seusitive papers, wash thoroughly the glass of the pressure frame
and the sheets of patent plate, and give them a good polishing.
As soon as your sensitive paper is dry (if dried by artificial heat
so much the better in the case of albumenized paper) place each
piece between the glass plates, commencing with the glass of the
pressure frame and so on ; slip in the back of the frame and screw
down firmly. If the weather be very sultry, keeping the "Preserv-
ing Box" submerged in cold water will be found very serviceable.
This may be readily accomplished by procuring a long Macintosh
bag, like a pillow case into which the " Preserving Box', will
slip' freely, place the box in the bag, tie the neck tightly,
and attaching an adequate weight of lead, &c , to the bottom
of the bag, sink it in a water butt, keeping the neck of the
bag at the rim of the butt. Waxed paper may be thus pre-
served for days. — I am, yours &c.

Eccles, October llh, 1858. Qeor&e HJaydkn.

^ I

348

THE niOTOGRAPniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

K'ovcniber,

From the Liv. and Man. Photographic Journal.

m THE PRODUCTION OF NATURAL COLORS BY LIGHT.

BY M. E. BECQUEREL.

The method is this : take a silvered plate, well polished, and
cover it at the back by varnish, so as to leave only the silver
surface to conduct electricity, and to be attacked only by the
chlorine ; then attach this plate by means of a bent copper
wire to the positive pole of one or two cells of a voltaic pile,
and attach to the negative pole a wire or a strip of platinum ;
then plunge the silver plate and the platinum into a mixture of
eight parts of water and one of hydrochloric acid, both by
measure. The chemical action of the electric current gives hy-
drogen upon the platinum, and chlorine upon the silver at the
positive pole. The silver is attacked, and becomes greyish vio-
let in color ; its tint deepens, and after some minutes of action
the plate becomes as black as though covered with lamp-black.
When the plate is prepared, it suffices to polish it slightly with
cotton or leather, to remove a sort of veil which covers the sur-
face ; and then immediately use it to produce color by the ac-
tion of light. This mode of preparation yields the best chloride
for obtaining the picture of the spectrum with all its tints ; un-
der certain conditions it may also be used in the camera-ob-
scura.

It is very remarkable tliat the sensitive surface here spoken
of is impressionable between the same limits of refrangibility
as the retina, and it is the only one having this property. If
we project the solar spectrum upon a plate prepared as directed,
We begin to see an action manifest itself in the yellow and
green ; then there follows action on the one side towards the
red, and on the other to the violet ; the action is moat energetic
tvhere we find the maximum of light. In the red part the sur-
face takes a red tint ; in the yellow a yellow ; in the green a
tint of green ; the blues are very fine, and the violet resembles
that of the spectrum.

If we isolate a bundle of red rays and cause it to act, we ob-
serve, when the action begins that the surface turns red; and
on continuing the action the tint remains; however, by prolong-
ed action the surface is completely changed, and nothing but
metallic silver remains where the light has fallen.

If we operate with a bundle of blue rays a similar effect is
produced; the blue tint obtained deepens by degrees, and at
last, at a certain limit, the appearance of metallic silver alone
remains. It is the same for every group of rays which is capa-
ble of reproducing itself, and at last all seem to give metallic
silver.

These effects show, then, that it is not by an action anala-
gous to the well-known case of the colors of thin plates, that
the surface reproduces the colors of the light, but by virtue of
a special action which causes this curious substance of which
we are speaking, to have the faculty of diffusing only rays of
the same I'efraugibility us those which have acted chemically
upon it.

I will now speak of the probable composition of this sensitive
substance : although I cannot give with certainty its composi-
tion, I am led to believe that it is violet suh-chloride of silver
that is to say a chloride of silver having one equivalent of chlo-
rine less than the white chloride. I may, in sui)port of this hy-
pothesis, adduce the fact, that in treating this chloride by the
usual solvents for the white chloride, such as ammonia, hypo-
sulphite of soda, &c., they dissolve out white chloride, always
leaving behind metallic silver.

The sub-chloride of silver is the only body chemically sensi-
tive which enjoys as yet the remarkable property of reproduc-
ing tlic tints of the lum'nous rays. The iodides, bromides, &c ,
give no color, and even if the chloride is mi.xed with one of
these compounds, all coloration ceases. Further than this we
may remark that the colors are obtained by the direct action of
light without the employment of a developer.

I may add tliat I have obtained this curious substance upon
tlie surface of paper, glass, porcelain, collodion, gelatine, lic;

but the effects have always been more difficult to obtain and
less beautiful than upon the metallic plates.

The influence of the thickness of the sensitive coating upon
the effects obtained is enormous ; when the coat is thin enough
the sensitiveness is greatest, though it is less sensitive than the
ordinary bromo-iodized silver plate. It is almost as sensitive as
Daguerre's simple iodised plate, but the effects of coloration are
weak as the sensibility increases. In using a thicker coating
the substance is less sensitive, but the colors produced are more
defined, and as the coating increases in thickness the sensibility
diminishes, but the colors are certainly finer.

There is a method of knowing with certainty the relative
thickness of the coating, and of preparing it in the same man-
ner. It consists in introducing into the voltaic circuit formed
by the pile and the plate in the hydrochloric acid bath, an or-
dinary apparatus for the decomposition of water, placed in
such a manner that the electric current which liberates chlorine
upon the silver surface shall decompose water in the second ves-
sel. Now, since electro-chemical decompositions take place in
definite proportions there will be the same quantity of chlorine
carried to the plate that we have of hydrogen liberated in the
water apparatus : thus supposing that the voltameter indicates
5, 6, or 1 cubic centimetres of hydrogen, we shall be certain
that there are as many cubic centimetres of chlorine fixed upon
the surface of the silver plate.

By operating in this manner we can learn at any moment dur-
ing the operation what is the exact quantity of chlorine we have
put upon the surface of the plate.

I have learned that we must have, in order to arrive at a
coating the thickness of which corresponds to the third order of
thin plates, three cubic centimetres of chlorine for each square
decimetre* of silver surface. Under these conditions we get
very good reproductions of the colored prismatic image. But
if we go on to six or seven cubic centimetres to the square de-
cimetre, that is to the thickness which corresponds to the thin
plates of the fourth order, we get our best colored results. It
is there that we must stop to get good effects. To give some
idea of the real thickness of this coating, I may say that with
four cubic centimetres of chlorine to the square decimetre, the
coating has about the y^'^^ of a millimetre in thickness.

When a luminous spectrum is directed upon a surface of sil-
ver prepared with from six to seven cubic centimetres of
chlorine to the square decimetre, the surface of which has a
shade of color resembling wood, the proofs of which I now sub-
mit to the Society will show the effects obtained : the parts af-
fected by the red of the spectrum is red and turns to a very
deep red towards the least refrangible extremity, the yellow is
.scarcely visible; the green is very perceptible, the blue and
the violet are superb, and present exactly the tints of the spec-
trum.

On the whole, the shades, though like those of the active
luminous spectrum, arc somewhat more dull, in consequence of
the under color of the plate, which remains somewhat distinct.
But aft we shall see hereafter that we can modify the surface
after its exit from the bath, and before its impression with the
spectrum, in such a manner that the colors obtained will be
much more beautiful.

In fact, this material, which might be called " mineral retina,"
is capable of undergoing very re:narkable modifications, whether
by the action of heat or by that of certain portions of light.
In elevating the temperature of the chloride, but not sufficient-
ly high to fuse it (Irom 150 to 200 degrees), the tint acquired
after cooling is seen to be of a rosy hue. If the spectrum be
made to act upon the substance thus modified, the effects are al-
together dill'erent from what they were previously; the limits of
action are very nearly the same, that is to say, are those of the
visible spectrum, only the yellow and green, though pale, im-
press themselves clearly upon the bottom, which remains of a
darker color; and if we carry on the action of the spectrum too
far, we have for a final result a trace of white instead of the
grey that we obtained before heating.

* The decimetre is about four inches. The metre being about forty inches, the ceuti-
metre is, of couVse, about the 1-lUUth part of tlie metre.

1858,

THE PHOTOGRAPIIIO AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

349

If we thas heat the plate beyond 150 decrees, the physical
transforruatioa of the material which takes place causes the
greater part of the shades to disappear; but if we limit the
heating to a slight elevation very much prolonged it is not the
same : to effect this we place the plate in the interior of a cop-
per box, which we introduce into a stove heated to from thirty
to thirty-five degrees, cr thereabouts, and keep up the tempera-
ture during four, five, or six days; then the colored prismatic
impressions are very beautiful, as you may perceive. Not only
the various shades of red, yellow, green, blue, and violet situat-
ed in the places acted upon by the spectral rays of tiie same co-
lor clearly come out from the foundation, which remains of a
more sombre hue, but further, a bundle of white rays produce a
white tint in the place upon which it acts.

Tlie sub-chloride of silver suffers equally from the action of
the extreme red rays of the solar spectrum, a physical modifi-
cation as remarkable as by the action of heat, and permits of
its having, by another means, beautifully colored reproductions
of the solar spectrum. To obtain this result we place in a
frame covered entirely with a deep red glass (colored by pro-
toxide of copper), a plate so prepared that it comes out of the
bath after being submitted to electrical action, and we expose
the whole to the solar rays ; at ihe end of from fifteen to thirty
minutes the plate becomes darker than before, and the same ef-
fect is produced that is manifested at the least refrangible extre-
mity of the spectrum At the same time this coloration takes
place the sensitive material gradually becomes modified, proba-
bly in the same manner as under the action of heat. In pro-
jecting the solar spectrum upon this surface it appears at the
close of several minutes with all its shades admirably repro-
duced, even with the yellow and green parts very distinct,
which before this operatioa would have beeu dark and scarcely
indicated.

It is not necessary that the previous action of the red rays
should be too prolonged, as the material would thus be render-
ed less sensitive.

A judgment of the different actions may be arrived at from
the proofs now laid before the Society.

Colored impressions once obtained can only be preserved in
darkness, but then they can be preserved indefinitely; if they
are exposed to the diffused light of the sun they gradually alter,
and finally disappear. It is very remarkable that it should only
be, as one may say, in a transition state that the sensitive mat-
ter should possess the quality of reproducing the shades of the
active luminous I'ays; thus, in parting from a particular physi-
cal condition, that portion of the substance not actually altered
but verging towards the extreme limits of complete decomposi-
tion, manifests different physical conditions according as it is
affected by this or that ray.

It results then from what I have just said, that the colored
impressions which I present to you are continually changing,
even while we look at them; if we preserve tbem in darkness
they cease to alter. Only as the material is not very sensitive,
above all if it is only acted upon by larap-light, we may leave
the proofs for several days under its influence without their dis-
appearing. The effect produced by diffused light is such, that
if we place a colored proof under a blue glass, for example, it
will assume a blue tint and will then become grey. It will be
the same with glass of every other color; the final condition
with regard to color, seems to be the same whatever may be the
light which strikes the substance. It appears, then, that it is
only when in an intermediate state, as I have already stated,
that it presents color.

It is possible to obtain colored images in the camera, that is
to say, paintings by light, as may be seen from the specimens
that I present, and some of which go back for nearly ten years.
But there are reasons against these paintings being so dis-
tinct or having shades as brilliant as the luminous spectra; in
fact, in the camera the images have colors more or less mingled
with white, it is then requisite that the action of the white light
should not change the shade of the predominating tints of the
colored rays. Then, in order to obtain this result, it is necessa-
ry previously to submit the prepared plates to a reheating or to

45

the action of red glass, and then the the lights are clearly ob-
tained, but the yellow and green tints are not clear. If we do
not reheat the plates the tints will come but the lights are grey.
On the other hand, the material is but slightly sensitive, and
several hours, even several days, may be required to produce
these images; nevertheless, with precautions we can avoid a
portion of these defects.

The proofs of the reproductions of colored images which are
here will show what it is possible actually to obtain by aid of
this sensitive material.

These last reproductions have occupied me but little as yet,
for they only possess for me an interest purely scientific, and I
have not thought that they can be usefully applied since the im-
pressions exist only in darkness, and gradually change iu the
light. All the attempts hitherto made co obviate this altera-
tion have been unsuccessful, and it is only in a transition state
that the sensitive material, the veritable mineral retina, possesses
the remarkable property of preserving the impressions of the
active luminous rays. I ought even to add that the attempts
made by some persons who have tried my process, and from
whom I have had the information, are far from bein g- as clear
as these which I have presented to you, and which have been ob-
tained by taking all the precautions above indicated.

Shall we find the means of preserving these images ? Will
the arts be able to enrich themselves by pictures painted by
light ? It is what one does not know how to affirm. I am bound
to render you an account of the experiments in all their details,
in order to make you acquainted with a material image in its
way which permits of painting with light, and to enable you to
reproduce readily the effects that I have obtained.

From the London Art Journal.

CHEMISTRY,
In its Relations to Art and Art Manufacture, Considered as a Branch of

Education.

The most striking effect resulting from the G.-^at Exhibition
of 1851, is the strong expression of the necessity that exists
for a more general diffusion of scientific knowledge amongst all
classes of society. It is felt that any extensive improvements
in our manufacturing arts must spring from an increased know-
ledge of the scientific principles involved; and therefore efforts
have been made to introduce into our schools several branches
of education which have not hitherto received attention in any
of our scholastic systems. We neglected for a long period to
cultivate even habits of observation; the young found their na-
tural curiosity stood in the way of scholastic honors, and, con-
sequently, they very sooon endeavored to learn the signs for
ideas, to the absolute neglect of the ideas themselves. Now,
being convinced of the folly of this, we rush into the opposite
extreme, and endeavor to urge the most juvenile capacity up to
the study of abstract science, disguised by the name industrial
instruction. Infant schools begin to display pictures of pumps;
the Nationals boast of their diagrams and apparatus; while
the British urge their boys and girls onward in all the mysteries
of physics and chemistry. Let it not be supposed that by these
remarks these branches of knowledge are considered useless;
far from it; they are regarded as the highest and most impor-
tant exercises for the human mind, The study of the natural
objects by which we are surrounded, tends to a more correct
appreciation of man's position on the earth, and leads to a really
"divine philosophy," which sees "good in everything." The
study of natural philosophy in the more limited sense in which
the term is usually employed, advances our real knowledge of
the constitution of things, and of the powers by which their
physical conditions are regulated. Although by an empiricil
system we may improve Art or manufacture^ the process i-i a
slow and uncertain one; whereas, by knowing the secret of cau-
ses producing visible effects, we become the owners of new forces
which we can apply to useful ends, with a remarkable freedom
from that uncertainty which attends the hap-hazard system of

S50

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND PINE AUT JOURNAL.

November,

too many inventors. It is not, tlierofore, that we object to the
introducLiou of science into our schools; but we fear that an
indiscreet system of forcing is being tried, which will certainly
produce wealmess from over-excitement, and end in short-com-
in<!;s, which will prove on all sides disappointing.

The Government, in the establishment of a Department of
Science, has done wisely; but we fear the connection of this de-
partment with that of Art is a mistalie. Beyond all question,
science may minister to Art in many ways; but the cultivation
of Science and Art cannot go on together. The student of Art
can never become really the student of Science; neither can
the learner in the laboratory of the chemist become other than
a merely mechanical recipient of those truths by which our
standard of taste is to be refined, and our appreciation of the
beautiful rendered more correct. The result of the experiment
up to tliis moment proves the correctness of this.

Now, the principles of Art may properly fiud a place in the
schools for our children; the eye may be taught at a very early
ao-e to value a straight or a curved line, and instructed in all
that concerns the harmony of colors. This education cannot
Oe"-'n too early, as false impressions are only removed with difiB-
culty. But with Science the case is far different; the mind
must be correctly trained into habits of observation, which is
the work of years, before it can properly appreciate the value
of an experiment— before it can comprehend that water rises in
a pump by the influence of the pressure of the external air, or
understand that a stone falls to the earth from the air by the
exercise of an unseen attracting power. The child may be
made to learn from certain text books that action and reaction
are equal, but to know the fact requires something more than
the mere effort of memory. Ou these grounds we believe that
the indiscreet introduction of Science into the primary schools
will not have a satisfactory result. We fear, indeed, that the
tendency of such studies on the plastic minds of the young will
be to stultify them, and produce a generation of scientific bab-
blers, guiltless of an original idea, and unable to produce a clear
deduction from any of the thousand facts they have in memory.
Beyond this, another serious difficulty stands in the way of
this kind of teaching — there are no teachers. These must be
created. Let not the attempt be made with teachers, who,
though they talk of scientific truths to the young, are them-
selves ignorant of the very alphabet of the science they pretend
to teach. Let us not forget that what is wanting in knowledge,
will be made up in pretension, and that we may expect the
pedagocrue of the old farce to become the realicy of modern
life.

A system for teaching the more advanced youth of our schools
and young adults, in the elements of science cannot but be at-
tended with the best possible advantages. Still, the difficulty
of teachers stands in the way, and if at the present moment
twenty schools throughout the country were to apply to the
Department of Science for teachers in any one branch, say
chemistry, these could not be supplied. It is imper itive, there-
fore, that the first effort should be made in the direction of
training a certain number of young men as teachers of such of
the sciences as may have a practical application. The mass of
our population have a full conviction that some improvement on
the present state of education is necessary, but they do not see
the direction in which the improvement should be attempted.
Hence, they are casting about, some in one direction and some
in another, all in uncertainty, and there is no onward movement,
although there is a great deal of talk.

The great olijects to be attained, in some way, and it does
not appear to us so difficult, is the introduction of a more uni-
versal knowledge amongst our mechanics and artisans, and to
establish a closer rehUiou between the man of practice, and the
man of science. There exists amongst us a strange contempt
for " theory " as the expression is, and an over-estimation of
the value of "facts" and practice." Now it is important that
all should learn that scientific investigations are based on theory
only as a prop to carry them from point to point, which is trans-
formed into a fact when the evidence becomes sufficiently con-
clusive. Every theory must be based upon observed facts, aud

facts cannot be properly sought for without the guidance of
some theory. There can be no real knowledge, says Bacon,
which is not based upon observed facts. Every fact discovered
has a practical value of the first importance, and we have re-
tarded the advancement of Art, through man's ignorance of
what he terms abstract Science. Numerous instances might be
given of the practical value of the truths revealed by science,
even when of apparently the most abstract character, but, in
the present instance, we desire to confine our notice to chem-
istry.

( To be continued.')

Personal &^ ^rt liUclligeuce.

Time flies and we are at the close of another year, with re-
sults not very satisfactory, so far as we axQ personally concerned;
but perhaps we have no right to complain, considering the de-
pressed stnte of trade throughout the country during A. D.
1858, and that no branch of business has been under the ban to
so great an extent as that of Photography. Yet, again, men on
whom we had to lean, and who have promptly met their sub-
scriptions during the whole eight years of the existence of the
Photographic and Fine Art Journal have, for the first time,
partaken of our labor, and drawn upon our time, without duly
honoring our drafts, which though small to them have made a dif-
ference to us, in the aggregate, of hundreds of dollars, yea, we
might say thousands — and unjuslly suffered us to flounder along
as best we could. In addition to this, a few — and thank Provi-
dence they are few — have endeavored to destroy us altogether
by idle and false reports. They have failed, however — missed
their calculations entirely — for we proved stronger than they
imagined ; and the Journal has lived through it all, and will
come out with renewed strength, beauty and vigor. This our
staunch friends and the public generally may count upon as a
fixed fact. Thus much for ourselves. To the Photographic
Artists two events have transpired, since our last, of momentous
interest. The perfection of the Carbon Printing Process, of
which we shall speak hereafter, and the decision of the United
Stales Court in the patent case of

ToiiLiN'soN against Bogardus. — This suit, as our readers are
aware, was instituted for an alleged infringement of what is
known as the Cutting Photograph and Ambrotype patents ; but
all may not know that it involved a right of deeper interest to
photography than the mere ambrotype picture ; in short, that
it strikes at the very base of the whole photographic structure,
namely, the employment of the bromides in any formula of the
collodion process. The " case " of Tomlinson against Bogardus
was brought to trial before the Hon. Charles A. Ingersoll,
Judge, and a Jury, of the TJ. S. Circuit Court for the Southern
District of New York, during its present term, and decided in
favor of the patentees.

This decision, as we said before, is of the greatest importance
to all manufacturers and employers of the collodion film, and
as it is now made to stand by the decision of Judge Ingersoll,
all, except those under the patents, are prohibited from using
bromine in any form as a sensitizer without the consent of the
patentee ; and any infraction of Mr. Cutting's rights involved
within the patents, will subject the infractor to damages aud
costs.

With this decision before us we are compelled to admit that
the patent stands confirmed, and of course we must choose,
either to bow with as good a grace as possible, or incur the lia-
tjilities which the law imposes. We feel the embarrassment of
our position, for we have heretofore opposed our influence and
that of our Journal, to what we honestly believed, an injusti'-e —
to the Photographic Art, as well as to photographers — was j)cr-
pctrated when the patents for the use of bromides were issued
to Mr. Cutting : but our duty now calls upon us to annoinice

the facts as they are established by one of the highest legal

1858.

THE rnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

351

tribunals of the land, and the one whose exclusive province it is
to pass upon the validity of patent grants, and in doing this we
cannot go behind the judgment of the Court for speculations
upon the probable causes for its decision.

It now becomes a question worthy of consideration whether
the interests of photographers will not be best served by sub-
milting to the decision of the couH establishing these patents,
and securing the privileges under them of pursuing the photo-
graphic art. May not the standing of the profession be
improved, and a better compensation received for productions of
the art? These important questions are to be decided by Photog-
raphers themselves ; but their solution may depend upon the
course pursued by the owners of the patents. They now have
an opportunity of rendering great service to the interests of the
art by that course which in our opinion would best secure their
own, and that is to observe moderation iu their demand, and
discrimination in the wants of the public. And we may be in-
duced to hope that past experience will not be lost upon the
owners of these patents, and that a conciliatory course on their
part will produce corresponding feelings in the entire photo-
graphic public.

We have conversed with many photographers on the subject
since this decision and of course we have found nearly as many
different opinions iu regard to it. While some have condemned
it and all concerned in the strongest terms, others have ex-
pressed themselves satisfied, in the hope that it will ultimately
work good to the art, and the artists in America; and we must
share that hope, and take consolation for our disappointment in
the decision in that hope, particularly when we look around us
and see so many dabsters gathered within the jportals of the Plio-
tografhic Temple.

The Carbon PBiNTiyo Process we must consider one of the
most valuable irjprovements made in the Photographic Art
since its discovery. We have experimented on all the formulas
that have been published, as well as various modifications of
our own, with various degrees of success. Having subscribed for
Mr. Pouncy's process, and obtained the right to publish it simul-
taneously with its appearance in England it lias been forwarded
to us, and probably will be published in our next issue. This
process is 'perfectly successful ; but strange to say it differs from
one we have tried for the last four mouths, without decided suc-
cess, only in the quantities of the ingredients. We have tried
it with lampblack, neutral tint, Prussian blue, sepia, and burnt
umber, and have produced as good results as could be obtained
with the negatives used. With good negatives, sufficient time to
devote to it, and strict adherence to the directions we are con-
vinced the most beautiful results can be obtained. We shall pub-
lish this process in our December number, if permitted, in order
that those of our subscribers who have paid us, and who may not
continue with us next year, can have the benefit of it — but we
shall withhold it from all those who are in arrears for amounts
due. Those who get the December number will obtain this
process at least three months in advance of any others. The
manipulations of this process require not more than one-fourth
the time in preparing the paper for use, and not more than one-
twenly-fourth for the whole operation. The solutions can be
prepared for a long time ahead, and can be kept in a liquid
state, or made into cakes to be used as required in the same
manner as ordinary water-colors. The preparation of the paper,
printing, and finishing, will not occupy, in a cloudy day, over
fifteen minutes. For painters use in painting or retouching, iL
must supersede every other method, and we are convinced it
will be also applicable to the solar camera.

A FEW numbers back we published the proceedings of a
meeting of Photographers at Albany ; subsequently we were
iuformed of sundry other proceedings which took place at that
meeting, and took occasion to comment upon theiu in our Sep-
tember number. In reply to those comments we received a let-
ter from the secretary of the meeting, from which we msike the
following extracts. The portions we omit are of entirely too
personal, and border too closely on vulgarity and bad blood, to
be admitted into our columns. In fact some portions are libel-
ous.

resolutions of condo
R. Meade, of N. Y
with

creating a ter-

Albany, Nov. 30, 1858.
H. H. Snelling :

Dear Sir — In your Journal for September, I notice an arti-
cle under the head of " Personal and Art Intelligence," from
the tone of which I find you are laboring under a great error in
regard to what transpired at a meeting of the Photographic
Artists of this city in March last, when
lence were passed on the death of Mr. C

You charge the artists at that meeting
rible furor" and "raising a hubbub," because the resolutions di
rected their publication in the "Photographic and Fine Art Jour-
nal," and you make a desperate attempt at witticism in trying
to describe the imaginary effect a bill for the insertion of the
said resolutions would have if presented to the artists at their
meeting, and as you appear to get warm on the subject yon offer
to bet your entire '^ pile," [X\\\s, h qiwted, and underscored as
ours ; but we made use oi" no such expressiou. — Ed.] ou an-
other equally ridiculous assertion.

I will now tell you what actually took place at that meeting
in reference to the publishing those resolutions. As soon as
the secretary read them, the question was asked by a person not
posted iu such matters ; " What will be the expense of print-
ing them ?" His reason for making the inquiry, as he then
stated, was so that the amount could be sent with the resolu-
tions, and therefore save trouble.

The reply to his question was — "There will be no charge ;
those things are published gratuitously." This was all that was
said in regard to your Journal, either directly or indirectly.

ijC i|C ^p 'i^ ^n 'i* *jC 5|C 5|C 5JC 5^ y^ *)* <p ^^

I consider you have done the photographic artists of this city
a great injustice, and claim from you a published retraction of
the vile slander upon them. Hoping you will consider this re-
quest nothing unreasonable, and that you will comply with it at
your earliest convenience, is the wish of
Yours, &c.,

S. E. Parsons, Sec'y.

By Order, &c.

It will be perceived that this comes to us officially, " By or-
der, &c." All we have to say in the matter is, that we regret it
if we have done the Albany folk injustice, for that is far from
our desire. We must, therefore, as our remarks were based
upon information, simply permit one statement to counterbalance
the other, remarking that we think Mr. Parsons goes a little
too far when he gratuitously fixes upon a single individual fas
he does in the omitted portions of his letter) as the informer,
and applies the vilest kind of language to that person. Were
we to show him that letter, or publish what has been omitted, he
would have abundant material for an action for libel. Our re-
marks) which called this letter forth, \vere made on a collective
body, free from personalities — which we always endeavor to
avoid— and in self-defence, and it not being the first time, and
from other sources, that we had heard of misstatements from
the capital of the State, we felt under the necessity of taking
some notice of what appeared to be a combined attempt
to injure us. In this particular matter there is a question of
veracity ; but it is not'between us and the Albany photograph-
ers, but between our informant and Mr. Parsons. This settled,
we can then decide how far we have been unjust, and will as
freely make the necessary "retraction" — if any to make— as
we were to make the charge. So far as we are personally con-
cerned vfdowe the Albany photographers nothing \n any sense oi
the word : but they have our best wishes in their endeavors to
sustain the position they claim for themselves.

The great Photographic event of the month in New York,
was the opening of Mr. J. Gurney's " New Photographic and
Fine Art Gallery," at No. tOT Broadway. As usual, Mr.
Gurney prefaced the opening of his new rooms by a soiree,
where joy and gladness, wine and wassail did abound. In this
beautiful establishment Mr. Gurney has exhibited his well
known and rightly appreciated taste, and for comfort and ele-
gance it is not surpassed, perhaps, in the world. With a fine
wide entrance hall, large, commodious, and well furnished re-
ception and working rooms, neat little boudoirs, and e-xcelleat

352

THE niOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

November,

artists studios, tbe liigbest state of artistic taste can be dis-
played in tlie production of portraits. On the evening of the
soiree we noticed many of the most notable men of New York.
During the evening an unexpected episode, of the most pleasing
kind, occurred, in^the presentation of a massive gold-headed
cane to Mr. Gurney by the attaches of his establisiiment.

Thk Photographic artists of this country are fast walking
into the literary (it is but one step from the artistic) ranks.
We have, from time to time, noticed various papers published
by photographers. We have now another before us, a very
handsom^ little affair, called ''The Sunbcavi"— most appro-
priately emanating from the establishment of Messrs. Bailey

& Spuroin, of Indianapolis, Ind. We must commend this kind
of enterprise, as such publications will tend materially to the
cultivation of true taste in arc-matters among the people.
Scatter them broadcast — t/ieij will pay.

Mr. Fitzgibbon chooses the pamphlet form, and the facitious
mood for the propagation and dissemination of his ideas on Art,
and has sent us his BivUenthu, from which we have made an ex-
tract into our pages. Fitz. is a sad dog, however, about keep-
ing promises. He is very observant, wields a ready pen, and
we should hear from him oftener; this he promised us, " once
upon a time " we should do ; but alas ! and lack-a-day I Fitz 1

C. W. Dill — You need give yourself no uneasiness — your
fears are groundless, and you will find it out before another
twelvemontli, if not sooner, we doubt not, however, if all were
liice those indicated by your letter your presentiments would be
fiillilled.

W. H. De Shong — The Journal has been mailed to you on
the issue of each number, and it is not our fault if you do not
get them. It is not possible it could have failed in so many in-
stances except by your own neglect. We have received no in-
timation from the postmaster at Memphis, where they were
sent, that they were not taken from the office.

W. Sawyer — We have mailed you all the numbers as soon
as issued, and yon should have received them at the same time
as your neighbors. We cannot duplicate numbers, paying
postage also, as required by law. It is demanding too much
of us.

The following communications should have appeared before
but were mislaid.

DaytOxX, July 6th, 1858.

Mr. Snelling —

Dear Sir : — In all communications, I perceive theblow dealt
at a disrespectful and dishonest tribe, begins to smart. I am
f'lad of it ; the acknowledgment at large is the first step to its
remedy. Now what is the best plan ; several suggestions have
been made. We have already delivered Dayton from it by the
following plan : — one of our establishments changed proprietors;
the new one — formerly employed by a Cincinnati cheap and
Sunday workman. Bills were out, saying : " New operator's
pictures at oue-half the usual price." The run commenced, and
immediately we circulated 25,000 bills, saying that we took
pictures at 25 cents — the new men's price was 50 cents. The
story changed ; the other's had to see crowds at our establish-
iiiont and nobody at theirs. They began to be alarmed, and
concluded to make also 25 cent pictures, and on Sunday too.
A threat from an officer prevented the latter, and our intention
to make 10 cent pictures stopped the former. All of them
became discouraged, and called a meeting. There it was re-
solved to establish a standard price, at one dollar, Enclosed
you will find a copy. This was our remedy, and this I advised
the Cincinnati artists to do when 25 cent pictures were first intro-
duced. If they had done so, if they set a room going, and charged
but one dime or less, the company would soon have been
cleared out or monopolized. If therefore a Society was form-
ed, and branched out, it would euon count 500 members, or
I, for my part, will contribute from $10 to $25 if the

for TO cents ;" but dagnerreotypists will. They learn and teach
the art for $3, and sell Union Cases, with the pictures, for $1,
half-size for $1,50, and have from eight to ten operators in dif-
ferent places. If each only clears $5 a week it amounts to
$50. An acquaintance told me a few days ago, "I shall stop
the business, but must clear this year $5,000 " What fools we
are I This man gets in the cars and visits John to-day and Bill
to-morrow, and collects the change and furnishes the stock ;
while I, for the love of the art, set to work with ten times as
much energy as in anything I ever done before ; here I sit, try-
ing to eat the bread and butter and cheese, and while not aware,
some dog comes along and lick'.^ up the butter and c'teese, and
leaves the hard crust to break one's teeth with. I say arouse !
ye drowsy fellows ; send in your names to Snelling, call a on-
vention, and let us see what can be done.

Very respectfully,

Louis Seebohm.

LARGE telescope.

Friend Snellino — I have just completed my large telescope.
The additional cost is $12, and equal to Pike's $250. My
mode is this — 1 got two eye pir-ees, one terrestrial of 56 magni-
fying power, and one celestial of 3 and 400 power. I took the
back lens of my five inch Voightlander camera tube, and placed
a Teinok tube, b\ feet long ; on the other end I adjusted the
eye-pieces. Any tinner can r^ake it for $1,50. This is the
whole story. A diaphram with small aperture must be placed
in front of the lens, another one in a quarter of length of focus
near the eye-piece. When I wish to use it I take it out of the
camera, and to take pictures pic ^e it back again. Pike, in New
York, sells eye-pieces at $5,00 each.

LOCIS SitEBOHM.

C. A. Johnson, Pittsburgh. — Your question in regard to
Ivoryiype will be found fully aiiswered in the communication of
" Junius" on the "Fair of the Franklin Institute."

Photography in a Nutshell. — Under this title, Mr. M. P.
Simons, has dished up the Art in a pleasing, practical, and com-
prehensive style.

J. F., Nice. — The subscription price for the " Carhon Pro
cess," is about made up, and as we have ourselves subscribed for
the purpose of giving it in the columns of our Journal, we shall
probably print it simultaneous with its appearance in England.

Our Illustration for this mouth is a Photo-lithograph of a
Microscopical insect. Our Decembf^r number will contain the
balance of all the illustrations due with this volume.

B. F. PoPKiNS. The October number was mailed to your
present address conformably to your request.

more.

principle shall be to help the willing and respected one, and
to trample down those who injure the business. The wood-
Eawyer asks 15 cents here for sawing a cord of wood ; and if
there is but one load in the market, and 50 sawyers, every one
anxious to have the job, not one of them will say, " I will do it

To OUR Subscribers. — In consequence of events already
stated in our previous numbers, and others of a satisfactory na-
ture of recent date, as well as to be enabled to effect our con-
temulated improvements, we shall not commence our twelfth
volume until March, 1859. We think this will be more satis-
factory to our friends than any other course.

We wish it understood that we invite all, both in America
and Europe, to send us original articles on the art, for which we
will pay at the rate of two dollars a column, printed matter.
Hereafter money will not be wanting to make this the finest and
best Photographic Journal in the world.

As the year is near its close, and a new volume commences in
January, we would call attention to the fact tliat it is decidedly
to the interest of photographers to subscribe to the " T/ioto-
graphic, and Fine Art Journal,'" in ]irel'erence to all others.
Tlirough it they have access to impor'ant matters that would
cost them ten times as much through ; v other channel, there
being no periodical published containing anything like the
amount of reading, all of which is of the first class. Hereafter
we ivill pay two dollars per printed column for all original corn-
munications accepted hy us.

l^W

r f ( / r T r r

!i!fK[!!i

iiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiitifS^

Plioto- LitliQdrdphed. ij CuUmd & Taraer

1858.

THE rHOTOGRAPIIIC AjSD FI^'B ART JOURNAL.

353

VOIGTLANDER Versus PETZVAL.

[Communication from M. Yoif^llinder , to the Editor of Photo-
tograp/iic JVolcs.}

N my last letter, in answer to
that of Professor Petzval,
I promised to furnish such
proofs as would put the mat-
ter regarding the new lens
beyond any doubt, should
Prof. Petzval continue to
uphold his assertions concern-
ing me In consequence
of his last letter, contained in
No. 59 of the Birmingham
Photographic Society's Jour-
nal, I find myself forced to
appear once more before the
public, though I am happy
to say, for the last time,
concerned), for, what there re-

(as far as this question is

mains to be settled between Prof. Petzval and me, beyond this
letter, must be done by law — a tribunal where neither rank nor
title are falling in the balance — where sarcastic wit will be found
deficient to serve as a substitute for honest truth, but where
simple I'acts are deciding the question. Had I been able to
foresee how far Prof. Petzval would go in his personal attacks
against me, I should not have condescended taking any notice
of them, but now I find myself much in the position of a man,
who, having begun running down hill for instance, finds himself
involuntarily forced to continue his course. Certainly, if this
controversy about the lens could have taken place in Vienna,
where we are both well known, I should have strictly adhered
to the question itself* without considering it worth my while to
pay any attention to his personal remarks ; but in England,
where neither his private life nor his character are known —
where his name is looked upon as sufficient authority for coni'-
meuts, somewhat in prejudice to me, the case stands differently.
I therefore must be permitted to show Professor Petzval in his
true colors, especially after his fresh attempts to impair my
character in his last letter, in spite of my having desired him
to come forward manfully and openly to say aught he has to
complain of.

Opposed as I am, to an adversary who is fighting under the
device of dissimulation, all reserve and forbear? nee would be
misplaced, though I am deeply regretting that this angry con-
troversy has assumed so very personal a character. This fault,
however, cannot be imputed to me, as I have become personal
only in order to repulse the personal attacks of my opponent,
and as I have offered, as every hody will remember, to decide the
question in a more worthy maimer, both to Prof. Petzval and to
me ; therefore, if to be considered the aggressor in the literal
sense of the word, in the true meaning ol it, I can never be re-
garded as such.

Prof. Petgval, finding my letter remarkable in view of psycho-
logy, I may well apply the same remark to his, and perhaps
with more justice, for he allows a curious and interesting insight
into his character and principles when asking to what purpose
all my assertions are made, having no interest for any body,
whilst these assertions have no other tendency than to repulse
and disprove those little pleasant accusations of his, as : " my
having m.isused his name, my having practised deception upon
the public by saying that such a lens was known to me, — my
having spoken untruth," and so on. Can any honest man snp^
pose me silently to submit to the accusations with perfect indif-
ference to public opinion ? Only a man like Prof Petzval could
suppose a thing, — a man so little master of his own tongue, so
deficient in manners and instincts of good society, to such a de-
gree, as to use publicly expressions so very offensive to every
decent ear as to have drawn repeatedly public reprimand and
censure upon him. "What shall we say of a man who pays no
regard to him«elf and his own assertions? At first he stated

VOL. Xli NO, XII; " 45*

that ray memorial was rejected by the Academy as an absurdi-
ty; and this being disproved by me, he says : ''It is not neces-
sary that a learned corporation should have done it since com-
mon sense does it," which means, properly interpreted : well if
my statement was false, never mind. Is such proceeding lionor-
able, or is it possible to discuss any point with a man who, in
such a way, perveits and disowns his own words :

His endeavors to disarm my accusations of his having malig-
nantly put the word " unsuccessful" instead of " not quite satis-
factory," are past all belief. The former always means " with-
out success," whilst the latter implies the contrary, at all events,
" satisfactory to a certain degree." No sophistry whatever will
give any other meaning to these woids, and Prof. Petzval either
considers his readers somewhat on a level with children or idiots,
or we must piteously shrug our shoulders and consider him not
in full possession of his mental powers, or infiuenced by a certain
well-known propensity of his which, to designate nearer, decency
and esteem for the public, does not permit me.

In like manner he construes my words regarding his camera,
which, certainly after having seen the drawing of it, I do not
consider any more as " ingenious" but on the contrary, as de-
ficient in the highest degree, and not at all practical, and in-
consistent with the rules of mechanics. With regard to that
camera, can any thing be more absnrd than his coming to the
conclusion that I could possibly not have known the lens, as I
did not know the camera, which, according to his version, was
indispensable. I have since made upwards of four hundred
orthoscopic lenses ; the most wonderful things have been done
with them without that " indispensable" camera. Prof Petzval's
observations regarding " the common workman" furnish a fur-
ther proof what an adept he is in the honorable art of malig-
nantly preverting the meaning of words. When I made use of
that expression it was in speaking of those persons who were
calumniating me ; therefore the expression was used in the sense,
these people would attach to it. I certainly find no dishonor
in being a workman ; I haVe been such from my childhood, and
am now working all day and finishing every article that leaves
my establishment, and am not afraid of dirtying my hands as
Prof. Petzval is pleased to ruminate by his sarcastic remaik
about " kid-gloves." If Prof. Petzval does not consider me to
be a good glass-grinder, he is, of course, quite welcome to any
opinion he may form of me ; yet I am astonished that, disposed
as he is against me, he does not hesitate to attack in such a way
a man whose works have been considered for more than twenty-
three years, both by men of science, and Ihe public at large,
as certainly not ranking amongst the last. I wonder he
does not despise having recouse to "dodgery" only adopt-
ed by the most common trades=-people to lower a competition,
for by his commercial connexion with Mr. Dietzler he certain-
ly has put himself on that level with me. It seems to have
escaped the logical reasoning of the learned Professor, that he
is giving himself, by this, a very unflattering testimonial ; for
how could he continue to remain in connexion with me for so
long a time, when having never found me to be a good glass-
grinder ?

Prof. Petzval will oblige me by perusing the Journal of the
Photographic Society of Scotland, No. 68: he will find there
the Report of the Committee appointed to examine both his
lens and mine. One of the passages of that report runs as
follows :

" Whether the Petzval or the Toigtlander lens is the best is
a question the Committee have not been able to decide, as both
are excellent." According to Prof. Petaval, that verdict decides
the whole question between ns he says : " The question at issue
iSj does he manufacture good lenses or bad ones ? when good,
they are valuable, even supposing he had fallen in with thera
but yest;erday." I dare say that report may puzzle Prof. Petg--
val, for how is the stated excellency of my lenses to be exphiiu-
ed, as I am not a good glass-grinder as I have not had the as-
sistance of his formulas, but have only been forging orthosc pic
lenses? In what way have I been al)le to produce lenses equal
to his ? I nmst, either have had other means, such as farnislied
by himself eighteen years ago, or the merits of las lens cannot

354

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

December,

be so very great, if an unskilful gl.iss-grinder like me can produce
as good ones ; there seems to me to be no ottier alternative.

Prof. Petzval being so very fond of appealing to llie common
sense of his readers, in want of more convincing proofs of some-
what vague statements, I beg to ask him wliat does common
sense say to his assertion, that I am not working according to
his calculation, and that 1 am consequently misusing his name ?
There would be some sense in it, if only a short time ago I had
used his name in my list of prices ; but 1 have done so from the
very moment I sold my first lens, after which I continued for
some years in connexion with Prof. Petzval, and constructed my
2-ins. and 3-ins. lenses. Why did he not remonstrate at that
time against my calling these lenses made according to his cal-
culation ? To do now, ofier the lapse of seventeen years, is more
than ridiculous. To show how common sen.se judges in that mat-
ter, I beg to state here some remarks of Mr. Horn, the Editor
of the Photographic Journal, in Prague, who received a letter
from Mr. Dietzler, written by Prof. Petzval (for I know his
pen too well as to mistake it) containing his well known state-
ments, in language so inconsiderate, as to cause Mr. Horn,
according to his own statement, to give only an e.xtract
of this letter in No 5 vol. 10, of the above-mcntioi;ed Journal,
and afterwards to comment in the following manner :

" Prof. Petzval, after having spoken himself, in his pamph-
let about dioptical researches, of his new lens, as made by
Voigtlander and known by the name of the Voigtiander lens,
comes now to state, in an indirect manner, that all the lenses made
by Voigtlander during the last fourteen years are not to be consid-
ered as made according to his calculations ; nevertheless the
learned Professor has silently accepted, during the last seven-
teen years, all the tribute of the world, purporting that the
Voiitlander lens was made according to his calculation." How
is this mystification of the whole f holographic world to be under-
stood 1 Mr. Horn further says : " As Mr. Voigtlander public-
ly declares himself to be in possession of the formula and draw-
ing of this lens, as received from Prof. Petzval since the last
1 i years, I, as well as every non-preoccupied per.son, must be
astonished that Fi'of. Petzval does not proceed against such auda-
city, the above statements being supposed not to be true," to which
1 will add, particularly after his having obtained a patent, in
spite of which I have openly sold my orthoscopie lenses in
Austria and other countries.

Prof. Petzval is perfectly right in stating that as soon as the
store of glass is exhausted, a new calculation of the curvatures
must be made by means of the tabulas ; be is likewise right in
maintaining that I never received tho!5e tabulas from him, but I
never pretended to have received them ; but I have received the
formulas for the first lense.s, and, therefore, as long as I am
working such glass, perfectly identical with the glass employed
at first, and as long as I preserve, at the .same iimc, the primitive
curvatures, so long my lenses nmst be considered as made accorti
ing to the first calculation. The great success of my lenses and
the difficulty in getting crown-gla.ss in sufficient quantity from
the same source, soon caused me to apply to Mr. Bontemps, at
Messrs. Chance, Brothers & Co., in i3irmingham. The glass
was analysed, and Mr. Bontemps succeeded so well in making
crown-glass of the same quality, that I could exchange a lens
made of that glass for one made of the former crown-glass, even
in an achromatic object-glass allowing a magnifying power of
thirty times ; — any photographer may convince himself of this
by taking a very old lens of mine, and one of my last numbers
of the same size, when he will find, by alternaiely exchanging
the four glasses of these two lenses, that the effect of them is
not at all impaired.

'V^hethor, under these circumstances, my lenses are not to be
called njade according to tlie calculation of Prof. Petzval ; of
this I dare say every one will now be able to judge.

Prof. Petzval may raise another objection referring to his
observations in one of his pamphlets, viz : that opticians have
committed a nji.stake in thinking, that, by augmenting aperture
and focus in the eame proportion, they will be able to construct
large lenses of the .same perfection. 1 simply reply to that re-
mark that he ought to have raised that objection, when yet in

connexion with him, I constructed my large lenses, and I must
moreover deny, to a certain extent. Prof. Petzval's assertion
being correct and refer to that end to his own description of the
new lens deposited at the Patent Office at Vienna, in which he
states that thislensmay bemadein any size, if only the proportions
of the drawing are strictly observed, and refer to his own 3-ineh
lens, for a proof of my refutation. That lens being twice as large
as tlie first lens, being made 17 years later, and of quite different
materials, every one should, therefore, consider that lens as be-
ing differently constructed with other curvatures : thot this is
not the case, I shall show when returning, in the sequel, to the
same subject. Indeed, aperture, distances, and curvatures in
this lens are, within a slight difference only in cue of the latter,
perfectly indentical with those in my 3-inches lens ; a fact which
shows v/Uat pro7Hinent and indespcnsable fari these so often-men-
tioned tabulas have acted in the construction of this lens.

Prof. Petzval com.es to the very logical conclusion that, as I
confessed myself to be in no way connected with him now, I
have spoken untruth in announcing my lenses to be made ac-
cording to his calculation. I must leave it to clearer heads
than mine to find out in what connexion the fact of our being
separated now stands to all the facts before that time, and how
the first can exclude the latter. His further statement about
my having published, in Leipzig, a pamphlet, in which I confess
never to have received from him any tabulas or frormdas, I must
declare to l)e a (WkqI fiction and invention of bis, inasmuch as I
never published any paper in Leipzig, only my cii'cular alout the
orthoscopie lenses and my list of prices were inserted in a
work on photography appearing there, but no allusion whatever
was made in the first regarding his formulas or tabulas, not
even his name was mentioned therein. It is certainly a difficult
task to contend with a man, who, repeatedly, has taken refuge
to direct untnUh. Such an attempt may perhaps, be considered
as foolish as — "fighting a windmill," or as vain as "carrying
water into the tub of the Danaids."

Considering all circumstances well, I cannot understand what
objection Prof. Petzval can raise against my using his name in
my list of prices. The case would stand differently, if he could
prove that my position was no more the same, that I had les-
sened in my zeal to keep up my reputation. Against this, I
think, the number of my lenses I am still selling at the original
prices, will forcibly speak, whilst the following lines I received
from Prof. Schrolter, Secretary ol the same Academy, of which
Prof Petzval forms one of the members, will show that my posi-
tion is not such as to throw any dishonor upon any one iu con-
nexion with me :

" Sir, — I beg to return to you, with many thanks, the four
photographs you have been so kind as to forward to the Acade-
my ; they have been insi)ected by al! the Members present with
great interest, ami I cannot but congratulate you upon the pro-
gress manifested by these excellent photogra))lis.

" Yours truly,

" To Mr. Voigtlander." " Schrotter.

I am inclined to believe that the virtuous wrath of the learned
professor about that misuse of his name be less originating from
an etcfw o/ri^-^iis, but may rather be traced to a more triral
and obvious cause, viz. : finding my competition rather impeding
the sale of his new lenses.

Prof. Petzval, in speaking of my want of gratitude towards
him, calls himself the founder of my prosperity and position iu
life. The former I am willing to grant to a certain extent ; the
hitler I must decidedly deny, as my position in the scientific
world had been already founded before I had the honor of making
Prof. Petzval's acquaintance. No. 516 of the Astronomical
News of ^Ir. Schuhmacher, in Altona, contains a report of my
telescopes which had been made in the year 1S3S, as I could
easily prove by my correspondence with the illnstrions Prof.
Grau.ss of the year 1839; a correspondence which might show
to the. world, that, already at that time, I was not exactly the
man , such as Prof. Petzval give- himself the trouble of repre-
senting me. It forms one of tlie features of Professor Petzval's
tactics, never to speak out his opinio;i openly, but to content
himself oidy to throw out such hints, by which ray character

1858.

THE PUOTOGRAPIIIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

355

appears impaired, leaving the unpleasant task to me in order to
repulse these aggressious ; to enter into such discussions as may
bring down upon me the accnsation of entering into particuiars
almosf too private for publication. This consideration, how-
ever, cannot induce me to abstain from showing to the reader in
what way and how far Prof. Petzval has to complain of any want
of gratitude on ray part, which he certainly wished to insinuate.

When Prof Petzval gave me full permission to make the
lens known, I immediately foresaw the immense success at-
tendant upon it, and I therefore, hesitated to accept that per-
mission fortwith, without stipulating any terms and request-
ed him to propose any commercial arrangement. 1 had
well done to state my proposition in as delicate terms
as possible, for I was nearly shown the door. Prof Petz-
val exclaiming almost in anger : "If you make a fortune
" with that lens, yon are welcome to it, but how can you snp-
" pose /, an imperial, Professor, would enltr into any coinmercial
" ar'-angemenis? I am paid by government and my productions
" must thervifore be public property. To take a patent (as like-
" wise proposed^ would be against my principles " I therefore
accepted the lens and began manufacturing it in large numbers.
Some months afterwards, the behavior of Prof. Petzval towards
me, became much changed : he threw out hints purporting his
friends finding out one thing and another. After vain conjec-
tures about the cause of this very strange conduct, a thought
striking me, J enclosed £200 in a letter to Prof. Petzval in
which I begged him to accept the enclosed amount not as an
equivalent of the services he had render to me, but as a token
of my gratitude, and that he would suffer me to renew, from
time to time, and in like manner, my acknowledgements of his
services. The success of this experiment was a perfect one. I
was again well received by him and all went on as r.moothly as
before, and we continued constructing all those various instru-
ments, I have already been mentioning in my former letters.
The -e is no harm in confessing, that, at the time I began to man-
ufacture these lenses, my means were limited, my business rather
small. Every man of business will understand, that, to enlarge
the business all at once, to buy materials in large quantities,
great outlays were unavoidable, while, at first, the returns were
only slowly coming in. By these circumstances my means had
bjen exhausted, (even those £200 above alluded to had been
borrowed from a friend of mine) so that I was not for some time
afterwards, in the position to offer to Prof. Petzval another
material proof of my gratitude. Whether owing to his impa-
tience or to some other cause, the fact was, that in the midst of
all the work we did together, he became again so very strange
in his behavior towards me, that I discontinued my visits and I
dech'.i'e that it is untrue that he has discarded me. There is no
blame whatever lying upon me concerning the rupture of our
connection, and should we be put man to man, I have no doubt
he would show the same want of moral courage and act the
same part as he did, when, on a formtr occasion which I have
already mentioned, he was obliged to disown those scandalous
expressions he used regarding me.

Leaving my gratitude quite out of the question, every one
must perceive that my own interest was calling forcibly on me
to remain on friendly terms with him as long as possible, as by
his productions a rich harvest seemed to be in store for me, but
I preferied sacriScing my pecuniary interest to my honor as I
could no longer put up with his strange conduct. Considering
all the facts mentioned above, can it be regarded as my fault
if Prof. Petzval has not shared my success to any extent he
would have liked ? Could I do more than offering him to parti-
c'pale in it ?

As an instance of my honest intentions in my dealings with
him, 1 will yet mention the fact, that I once offered him £5,000
(of course not to be paid down at once) for a niicroscoi)e of his
contrivance, on condition it possessed tiie qualities whicli he had
been describing to me in very glowing colors ; a microscojie,
which, may it be said en passant, has up to this moment never
enlightened the world.

I do not hesitate to acknowledge, that I am greatly indebted
to him ; but should not some part of my success be due to

my own exertions and to my energy ? For how is it that all
those opticians, with whom Prot. Petzval connected himself did
not obtain the Bame success in spite of the mighty sound of Prof.
Petzval's name ?

To show in what light our respective merits, relative to that
lens, were regarded in Vienna, 1 may as well state the words of
an eminent man of science, upon meeting me in Paris and pre-
senting me to another gentleman : — " Here is the man to whom
" the world owes that lens, for il-ough calculated by Prof. Petz-
" val, we should never have had it, without Mr. Yoigtlaiider."
There is indeed, much truth in that observation, when com-
paring what had been done during the comparatively short time
of my connexion with Prof. Petzval, and all the time ensuing
nothing at all, except the wonderful revival of on old lens.

After having shown that it was Prof. Petzval who had de-
prived me of tlie means of i)roviiig my gratitude to him to a
further extent, I will njw elucidate the question from another
side, remarkable in point of psychology; the man who first re-
fused receiving any rennmeration for the lens, accepts afterwards
money for it, and in spite of this circumstance by which any
honorable vian would have felt himself morally hound, he hands
the same lens over to a second and even a third party, and
though finding it at first ivconsislent with his principles to take
a patent for the said lens, ado-pis, after a lapse of seventeen
years, that very same measure, not for a new lens, but for an
old one, made 17 years ago, and, instead of mak.ng use of his
patent-right against the very man, who pretends having made
that lens together with him a long time ago, he contents himself
writing long letters instead of acting. These are very curious
incidents, showing, at all events, of how pliable a nature, the
principles of the learned professor must be, and how accommo-
dating to circumstances.

Squaring now our account, I cannot refrain from asking Prof.
Petzval ia what way he thinks to have come up to his promise
and engaged word, which he gave respecting the following
point : —

When the first pages of Prof. Petzval's pamphlet were prin-
ted and shown to me by him, I found, to my astonishment, my
name mentioned in no other way than as the manufacturer of
the lens made according to his calculation. I could not help
expressing my surprise at his not having stated how far I had
partaken in the scientific pait of the construction of the lens,
and what assistance I had lent him. He appeared much moved,
by my observation, apologized for having perfectly overlooked
that, and offered to make up for his forgetfulness in an appendix,
he would write on purpose, the last pages of his pamphlet being
yet under the press. I however did not accept his offer,, as n.o
doubt, he would have ample opimrtunity of making up for hig
present neglect in another work, but I have till now been look-
ing forward in vain for the acquittal of his promise if else he
does not consider his present mode of acting towards ae as .such.
Whatever may have been i)is views regarding me,, he ought net
to have suffered himself to be influenced by them so far as to
hbCovdQ guilty of a breach of promise; a iuaa like him of such
immense (?) merits might easily have spared a small portion of
them, and, whilst doing justice to me and himself would certain-
ly not have been the loser by it. To. the supposition of Prof.
Petzval, that, perhaps I con.sider myself entitled to put his name
on my list of prices on no other account than because others are
doing so, I can only retort, that, to pat mz \v:ho ha'ze been con-
nected with him for years, on a level with those who have never
stood in any relation to him, surpasses, indeed certain limiis pre-
scribed by decency and hoiwr,. and saves me the trouble of saying
one word more about it. I shall certainly acquiesce in Prof. l'e:z--
val's desire to discontinue using hio name is ray list of prices, as
our feelings are but coincident on that point, but I shall only
do so after a certain time, to show that I am doing so, not be-
cause I cons.'der liim antliorized to exact a thing in direct op-,
position to truth and facts, b.u.t because I am pleased to do so..

Prof. Petzval's observation purporting tiiat he should not
like any body believing him to have found the association with
me disagreeable, because he did not corsider me to be suf--
ficieut a "gentleman" for him, is very ingenious and rC'

— )

35G

THE rilOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

DeccDubcr,

markable from a man, who, in the eyes of many a respectable per- 1
sort, has long since lost every claim and pretension to that title. ,
Prof. Petzval compares me to the bellows-treader, assigning
to himself the part of the organist, in speaking of our respec-
tive merits concerning the lens. No doubt, my merits are very
inferior to his, yet) I must say, that the metaphor would have
come nearer to the mark, if he had compared me to the organ
builder, inasmuch as, only by my supplying the first requisite
elements, his calculation could be carried out.

What part Prof. Petzval is in the habit of assigning to the
opticians with whom he enters into nejj,'otiations, may be seen
from the following statements : — Shortly after our separation,
he connected hiiuself with a philosophical instrument maker, but
this connexion had no result and was soon broken up again. In
the year 184-1 he entered into relations with an optician of the
name of Waibel, who, unsuspicious and not versed in these mat-
ters was made to sign an agreement which left liim entirely at
the mercy of Prof, Petzval, who, not satisfied with Mr. Waibel
having exhausted all his means, under the pretence of his not
having come up to the terms of the contract, called upon him
for the payment of a 7Z«f? of £800 stipulated in the agreement
for such an event. The case brought for decision before an
umpire, (fixed upon in the contract in case of disagreement)
where Prof. Putzval's statement was proved to be false by one
of /lis own Idlers, produced by Mr. Waibt:!, whereupon the lattei
was not only released from all his obligations to Frof. Petzval,
but the contract itself was annulled.

Another incident may show in what way Prof. Petzval is
" taxing" the public and what we have to think of his accusa-
tion that I am the inventor of the "chemical focus" and this
pretension that all the lenses made according to his calculation
were exempt of it. A five-inch lens, made by Mr. Dietzler, is
offered now to me at Vienna in exchange for and part of pay-
ment of one of my .'j-inch lenses. I am informed that this lens
was sold by Prof. Petzval at £25, (my price being £10), war-
ranted to have no chemical focus, ly his word of honor and
wrillen promise in (wo letters of his, whilst this lens has a con-
siderable diemiial focus, as I am informed. Should Prof. Petz-
val like to be served with a proof of this, as well as of all the
particulars I have been mentioning, he is welcome to it every
moment. After having given himself so much trouble to prove
that all his lenses have no chemical focus, he speaks in his last
pamphlet on his new lens as an object-glass for a telescope, page
15, of a method of achromatizing a lens, for the purpose of
avoiding as much as possible the separation of the two Joci, the
optical and the chemical one. In the same pamphlet he men-
tions as something new that he examines all his photographic
lenses by combining them with an eye-piece and by using them
in the way like a telescope ; whilst from the first moment I mnde
the lenses, I tested them in this manner, which was seen and
much approved of by Prof. Petzval. This method, therefore,
appertains to me and not bim, as I shall prove in the sequel. I
do, however, not look upon this invention as a great achieve-
ment , on tlie contrary, only as upon one, as every optician
could make by dozens ; but I cannot find it honorable of Prof.
Petzval to boast with the idea of another. Having, however,
seen that Prof. Petzval does not hesitate to pvdctke plagiarism
by borrowing from men like Laplace and Euler their fomulas,
and by passing them off for his own, (as I shall shew in the
sequelj, I have perhaps, no right to complain it the learned pro-
fessor tlescends to so hutr.ble a person as I am for a supply of
his inventions. All these are facts which I am prepared to prove
every moment and which show with what sort of a man we have
to deal.

Having given, now, what I consider a very good likeness of
Prof. Petzval as a man, in the general sense of the word, I shall
also beg leave to analyse him as a man of science, less because
he has challenged and authorized me by the attacks to do so;
l)ut more, because some persons may believe that I ought to have
spaied a man who, surrounded by his friends, whose esteem he
is enjoying, is to be considered as one of the pillars of science.
In his first essay on dioptical researches, Prof. Petzval explains
that all optical instruments must undergo a complete change in

consequence of his new theory, and promises to publish from
time to time, in proportion as the practical execution of these
instruments should advance, the results of his researches. How
has this promise been realized ? After silence of many years,
at last, now and then, a report to the Imperial Academy in
Vienna appeared, containing nothing at all of any scientific
import, in fact, little more than general reflections and promises
of " wonderful things" which were to come perhaps in another
ten years, at all events, offering no aquivalent for a patience of
fourteen or fifteen years ; the whole put forth in a language
little fit for a scientific corporation, but rather conveyed in ex-
pressions a tutor might use towards his pupils, while at other
times, the somewhat excited imagination of the learned profes-
sor takes such a flight that common sense can hardly fol-
low him. There are some blind followe''s who are encir-
cling him like satellites, but the greatest number of men of
science in Vienna and all Germany know perfectly well what
they have to think of Prot. Petzval, and when speaking some
time ago of his works, one of our first astronomers in Germany
observed, that in all Prof. Petzval had hitherto published he
found nothing remarkable but a •presumption surpassing all limits
of modesty, the inseparable companion of true merit.

We must indeed be astonished at Prof. Petzval's want of tact
in causing a meeting of photographers in London to be enlight-
ened by a lecture on his wonderful discoveries, and it was cer^
tainly common sense which induced one of the gentlemen
present to call out ; "What have we got to do with all thi^?"

Let Prof. Petzval produce a good instrument instead of sound-
ing the trumpet in this way ; and the learned professor may-
pardon mCj if I find great analogy between his mode of proceed-
ing and the custom of a party of rope-dancers who, mounted on .
horseback, sounding trumpets, and waving color, are passing
thro' town, loudly proclaiming what wonderlul feats they are
going to perform the coming days.

As I should not like any body believing me to use against
my adversary any such weapons which were not furnished to me
by facts, and as it may at the same time, serve the readers as a
key to the behavior of Prof. Petzval against me, I beg leave to
quote here a controversy 'letwcen Prof. Spitzer, contained
in the Austrian papers, viz., "The Pres," No. 284, and "The
Austrian Gazette," Kos. 473 and 558, to which I refer the
reader for full particulars, which to reproduce here would lead
to far ; I shall therefore confine myself to quote some passages
from Prof. Spitzer's reply to Prof. Petzval's critical memoirs on
a mathematical work of the former, contained in the Zeiischrift
fut Mathematick ar.d Physick," edited by Professor Schlotmitch
and Dr. Witzschei, 3rd year. Vol lY. "I am giving up at once
all hopes and every intention of convincing thereby Prof. Petz-
val ; for how can I hope (even if I were disposedj to accom-
plish a proof to convince Prof Petzval, as it is impossible to me
to urge him to the acknowledgement of the fact that a method
which has been published more than three quarters of a century
ago, and which may be found printed almost with the same let-
ters and symbols in the memoirs of the French Academy of
1182, page 47, belongs to Laplace and not to him ; for upon
my attempt of doing so, he says i Nevertheless I call this method
my own, as at least for the time being, it has not yet been
proved to belong to another man, as Laplace for instance."

"Prof. Petzval thinks that this remains to be proved, at least
for the present ; well then, let him consult the memoirs of the
French Academy of the year 1782, and he will find there, page
47, the same method with the same letters and symbols, not
only applied to the differential equations in general but in par-
ticular to the differential equations, which he solves miraculously
enough, and as if it were by some Junny chanceahcv Laplace's
method and notations.

"As Prof. Petzval has read my work from beginning to
end, he must, of course, have seen the last page of it ; but
then, it appears to me incomprehensible how he can repeat
such untruths so many times.

1858.

THE PHOTOGRArUIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

Vol

' I will, in order not to t!re the reader, conclude by sayinj:
tl:at I do not liesitate to submit my productions to tiie opinion
of mathematicians, for which I am always thankful even in
case it should be unfavorable but just; however against a cri-
tique, untrut and calumniallng, where faults are imputed to me
which I never committed, and where my discoveries are taken
from me and assigned to others, I must raise a solemn protest."
To this I will add that Prof. Spetzer's memorial was accepted
by the Academy, in spite of Prof. Petzval's proposal to reject
it, he having been appointed to report to the Academy about
that work, and in one of the meetings of the Academy, Prof.
Petzval, after having been hammering away upon Prof. Spetzer
without mercy for more than aa hour, during which time the as-
jsembly amused themselves by looking at photographs without
listening to him, worked himself at last into such an excite-
ment, as to throw the glove to Prof, von Ettiugshausen, and to
all those who dared to be of Prof. Spefzer's opinion. Should
some persons observe, that all this has little to do with the
question at issue, I beg to rejoin, that I am only writing for
those persons who take sufficient interest in this affair, and
though I allow these allegations to be only of secondary impor-
tance in my controversy with Prof. Petzval, yet, as I have once
entered upon this certainly unpleasant task to depict a man like
Prof. Petzval, I must carry it through, and the above-mentioned
facts will, no doubt, come to the point, as they show that a man,
who must suffer himself to be accused pvMicIy by another man of
science of having spoken unlrulk and of Laving calumniated
him, may feel still less scruple to act in a like manner towards
me, whom he perhaps considers to hold an inferior station in
life.

I shally howevel*, proceed now to the question itself by prov='
itig not only that : 1st, in contradiction to the assertion of
Prof. Petzval, a lens for taking landscapes was really made by
me 18 years ago according to his calculation, but likewise by
showing, 2d, this lens to be the same as the lens in question in
our controversy.

Prof, von Ettingshausen, after his return from Paris in 1840,
where he had been in direct intercourse with Daguerre himself,
was considered, at that time, as the representative of this new
art in Vienna, and, anxious to bring it to the highest degree of
perfection, he desired Prof. Petzval to investigate why the lenses
used by Daguerre had a stop, and whether he could not contrive
better lenses. Prof. Petzval entered into the question, and the
result of his investigation was a lens for landscapes and another
for portraits; in fact, a compound lens consisting of three achro'
matia lenses constructed exactly in the way of liis present lens;
only the two systems were mounted separately instead of being
united in one body.

It will be seen from this statement that the very desire of
Prof, von Ettingshausen to get a better lens tor landscapes, oc-
casioned the existence of a lens for landscapes even before one
for portraits was desil'ed.

I have already hinted as my intention that the case between
Prof. Petzval and me must be brought before a forum, where I
shall not fail to call upon Prof, von Ettingshausen to certify,
upon his oath, all my statements, and I have good reason to be-
lieve that this gentleman will remember all the particulars con-
cerning this subject. I am also happy to say that I am able to
furnish by the subjoined letter from Mr. Martin, custos of the
imperial polytechnic library in Yienna, the most decisive and
convincing proof of all my assertions.

"Vienna, Oct. 18, 1858.
" Dear Sir — Toa desire from me some information on three
points relating to the time when we were in scienr.ific connexion
with one another.

" Soon after Daguerre's invention, I tested the efficiency of
the first apparatuses, made by you according to Prof. Petzval's
calculation, One of these apparatuses a double achromatic
lens, intended for taking likenesses, showed already upon the
first trials the inconvenience that, when the focus was adjusted
upon the eyes of the person, whose likeness was to be taken,
that the ear-flaps appeared sharply marked, whereas the eyes
appeared delineated with less precision. At first this phenome-

46

non Was attributed to a wrong position of the ground-glass re"
latively to the Dagucrrean plate; but afterwards, upon closer
examination, the same inconvenience was likewise met with in
other apparatuses, and it was scientifically proved to he owing
to the difference in the foci of the optical and chemical rays of
light.

" The second point relates to the method of testing your
lenses, and I recollect that, from the first moment, you used to
combine them with an eye-piece, and test them in the way an olject
glass for a telescope is tried.

"The third point concerns the testing of a combination of
lenses, calculated by Prof. Petzval for the purpose of taking
landscapes, which 1 undertook nearly at the same lime

" This combination of lenses was to produce a plane image
and a large range, and the image was to fill up the whole sur-
face of a normal Daguerrian plate. The aperture of this com-
bination was about 1^ in., and the focal distance JO ins. or there-
about. The image obtained by this combination was very pre-
cise indeed, but affected by two inconveniencies : 1st — there
was not scope enough when setting to the point on the ground-
glass to adjust the difference in precision between the fore and
back-ground, and the slightest change in the relative position
of the ground glass and the plate occasioned unprecise images.
2d — The images of the objects to be represented (^houses) were
too small in comparison to the image. In the image of a large
place, a great part of the surface of the plate was taken up by
the ground and the sky, while the buildings occupied, propor-
tionally, but a small streak of it. In consequence of these in-
conveniences, and, perhaps, also from other reasons, this com-
bination of lenses Was, at that time, laid aside, and has been,
for ought I know, no more used till now.

"This is the averment of the three points, which you solicit
from me, and which I think I have no right to withhold from
you. As you intimated that, perhaps, certain circumstances
may induce you to summon me as a witness in a legal way, I
preferred summing up, in a concise manner and by writing, what
is still alive in my recollection and whatever I am able to an-
swer for. As to the shape of the lenses, their curvatures and
the arrangement of the whole combination, I don't know at all
anything positive.

" It appears to follow from your request, that you intend im-
plicating me, with regard to my statements, into your contro-
versy with Prof. Petzval. I confess candidly that every public
proceeding against the said Prof., whom I esteem on account of
his scientific productions, would be the more disagreeable to me
as 1 am convinced that if Prof. Petzval's declarations should
not be in perfect unison with mine, this may be ascribed to the
pardonable circumstance that Prof. Petzval may have forgotten
the facts mentioned in my letter, in consequence of the multiplici-
ty of analogous pursuits in which he has been engaged during
the long interval of eighteen years, or thereabout, between the
present and that time.

" Yours truly,

" Martin."

" To Mr. VOIGTLANDER."

I cannot but find it very honorable on the part of Mr. Mar-
tin, that he tries to find out an excuse for Prof. Petzval, with
whom he stands somewhat in private intercoursej but I am sor-
ry to say that I do not consider it possible Prof. Petzval should
have forgotten such important facts, especially after my having
recalled all the particulars to his mind.

It will be found that the letter of Mr. Martin confirms my
statements about three different points : 1st — " The existence of
the chemical focus in the very first lens for portraits;" 2d —
'' my having tested the lenses from the first moment, in the way
Prof. Petzval describes as his own and new method;" 3d — " my
having made a lens for landscapes at the same time when mak-
ing another for portraits.'' It will be found afterwards that the
description of the lens by Mr. Martin coincides exactly with the
lens stated in the document of Piof. Petzval; that the lens was
not found quite satisfactory was only owing, as I stated already,
to the circumstance that no stops were used; let the new Iclis,
as presented now, be used without them, and the same inconve-

358

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

December

nience regarding objects in different distances will be encannter-
cd. I have now to prove that this lens is no other than the so-
called new lens of Prof. Petzval, although at all events in con-
sequence of the roost positive statements of Mr. Martin, Prof
Petzval must be found guilty of haying shamefully spoken un-
truth in denying my having worked according to his calculations,
any other lens than the one for taking portraits. The following

is a legalized copy and translation of a drawing and description
of two systems of lenses with their curvatures, hfvnded over to
me by Prof. Petzval, eighteen years ago. A similar legalized
doci;iment I have placed into the hands of my agents in London,
Messrs. George Knight & Co , for the inspection of every one,
to whom I have likewise forwarded the Journal containing the
controversy between Prof. Spitzer and Prof. Petzval,

First double lens, consisting of a double-convex lens of crown glass, and a double-concave lens of flint glass.

r=36,4'" =3" 0,4 " r=-28,5"'=— 2" 4,5'"=r r==300"' 25,'"

1 2 3. 4

T— 3,00'" l=— 2,3 r— 25"

12 4

The dispersing lens of compensation, consisting of a double-concave lens of crown glass and a conTexo-coneave lens of flint

glass.

r=— 86 4'"=— 7" 2,4'" r==50,8"'=l" 2,8'" r=— 126,3'"=— 10" 6,3"" r=— 3,69'"=— 3" 0,9'

1 ' 2 3 4

r=r-7 H" r=4.32" r=— 9,03" r=— 3.11"

12 3 4

The convero'in"- lens of compensation, consisting of a canvexo-concave lens of flint glass, and a double-convex lens of crown

glass.
^_72 1 "=:6" 0 V" r=25,3"'=2" 1,3" r=31,3"'=2" 7,3" r=— 102,8"'=- 8" 6,8"

\ ' ' 2 3 4

We certify this to be a copy of a drawing and a literal translation of a German document, presented to us by M. Yoigt-
lander.

Dr. Aug. Elhde, Prof, of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy,

These signatures verified,
Brunswick, Nov 12, 1858.

Dr. Herman Schefflur.

William Hugh, Public Notary.

at the Collegium Carolinum.

It will be observed that, with regard to the first lens, the
numbers marked by pencil are but a reduction in inches and de-
cimal parts of an inch of the numbers noted in the first columns,
which are expressed in twelfth parts of inches, with regard to
the second lens, the two columns of numbers do not coincide,
but each of them are denoting different curvatures, of which I
shall speak in the sequel.

By multiplying all dimensions and curvatures as given in that
document by 2, we get three lenses of 3 ins. aperture, forming
two systems of lenses with the following curvatures :

I

r=_14-22"

r=12166"
1

FIRST LENS.

r=r=— 4-U"
2 3

SECOND LENS.

r=8*64'^ r=— 18"06
2 3

THIRD LENS.

r4-216"

r=5-216
3

^50"

r=— n-133"
4

r=:— iri33"
4

The 3 ins. lens of Prof Petzval, as presented by liira to the
public, is constructed in the same way, and consists of the same
two systems of lenses, perfectly identical in princijjle with those
in the above document and only with some insignificant differ-
ences in some of the curvatures. Taking at first only the first
and second lenses into consideration, as forming the combina-
tion for landscapes, whilst the first and third lenses form a com-
bination for portraits, of which I shall speak afterwards, I beg
to state that I have verified this new lens of Prof Petzval and
found the aperture of the second lens only two-thirds of that of
the first, whilst in the drawing they are equal. The curvatures
arc as follows :

r=8.5" r=— 21" r==— 6.143"
2 3 4

r=— 14-445"

In comparing these curvatures with those above, we find the
following difff-rences :

Ar=0-225" Ar=0-14" =2.94 " r=0 Olt"
1 2 3 4

At denoting the differenc.

With regard to the aperture of the two lenses, I cannot al-
low this to have any influence upon the principle or nature of
the lenses, and it can be of no importance at all, because Prof
Petzval himself, by applying a number of stops to the second
lens, alters that aperture each time he changes the stop; there-
fore the aperture of the second lens is variable, while that of
the first lens is constant. The same thing it is with those little
differences in the curvatures, for it is obvious that if such differ-
erces could gain for the lens the name of a new leus, each time
other materials were used, different curvatures according to the
tabulas must be obtained,, and therefore as many so-called new
lenses might be presented to the public as different materials
were employed, while all these lenses ought to be regarded as\
of the same principle and resulting from the same theory.
Every optician knows that even in an object gla.ss, which de-
mands a great deal more care, there are some curvatures which
are very delicate, while others are not so. He knows that the
inner curvatures, having more influence upon the spherical aber-
ration, must strictly be worked according to the dimensions fur-
nished by the calculation, whilst with regard to the exterior
curvatures, which are bearing more upon the chromatical aber-
ration, a certain scope is allowed to him, variations in the exte-
rior curvatures being, even to a certain extent, founded upon
theory, as the achromatism of a lens can never be obtained per-
fectly, there always remaining a secondary spectrum. The cal-
culator is therefore at liberty to consider exactly such colors
as will suit his purpose, and according to his choice, he will
get, with the same materials and upon the same theory,
some of the curvatures different, whilst others will remain the
same.

I further beg to insert here the description of the new lens
by Prof. Petzval, deposited at the Patent Office in Vienna.

The new lens consists ot two achromatic lenses of which the
first as well as the second one are again compounds of two
parts, viz : a lens of crown glass and another of flint glass.
Tiie lens of crown glass of the first compound is a double-con-
vex one, the less convex side being turned outside, while the
more convex side fits exactly in the inner part of a lens
of flint glass both being cemented, this lens of flint glass is
double-concave, the second curvature being very little con-
cave, so that the compound is very nearly plano-convex, but
in fact being considerably convex towards the outside, with a
slightly concave part inside. The exact form is seen by means
of the drawing.

"The second achromatic compound, consisting of a lens of
crown glass and another of flint glass with an aperture some-
what smaller than that of the first lens, is placed from this first
lens at a distance varying from one-twelfth to one-sixteenth of
the focal length of this first lens, according to the purpose the
lens is to serve for. The lens of crown glass is double-concave,
the most concave curvature being turned towards the interior
of the apparatus; the second lens of flint glass is a meniscus,
turning the convex part towards the interior of the camera, in
the position and dimension seen in the drawing.

" The dimensions of the lens are forming no prominent part
of the invention, as they may be executed on any dimensions
provided the similarity be already observed, and as they will all
give most perfect pictures if executed in such a way.

" Joseph Petzval, Professor.
In this description there is no question about apertures and
curvatures, only the principle is mentioned. This being the
same in both the lenses, allowed by Prof. Petzval himself, there-
fore, according to his own declaration, his lens cannot be called
for. To show what little influence those little differences can
have upon the practical effect of the lenses, I beg leave to ad.
duce here a curious incident, Upon finishing and testing a cer_
tain number of my 2 ins. Orthoscopic lenses, I found that two
of these lenses gave, in the usual position of the ground glass,
no picture at all, but that the picture was a pretty good one at
a considerably greater focal distance. I examined thereupon
the different curvatures of the lenses, fancying that some mis-
take had been committed in the working of the lenses, and upon
finding all tiie curvatures correct, I ascertained the weight of
the lenses and discovered that the meniscus lens, instead of be-
ing made of flint glass, was made of crown glass. If such a
difference could have no great influence upon the nature of the
pict'ire, what can then those differences in the curvatures signi-
fy ? — indeed, the second lens is a very insensitive one m compa-
rison to the first lens; for if in this first lens, for instance, the
flint glass lens was exchanged for another, also of flint glass,
but of different density, the effect is entirely lost, and the whole
picture is found covered with colors. I have forwarded one of
these raeniscuses, made of crown glass instead of flint glass, to
Messrs. George Knight & Co., and every photographer will
oblige me by making the trial himself. That any little differ-
ences in the curvatures have no influence upon the quality of
the lens, may be seen from the report of the committee in Scot-
land, who pronounced my lenses to be of the same excellency
as those of Prof Petzval; yet my lenses are not worked accord-
ing to the curvatures stated in the document of Prof. Petzval,
neither are they like the curvatures of the new lens made by
Mr. Dietzler, of course, all this regard to the second lens, the
first one being in every case the same. The curvatures of my
second lens are as follows :

r=— 15" r=8-5" r=— 22" r=— G"

1 2 3 4

There are no considerable differences in the curvatures; stil!
Prof. Pitzval pretends in his last lette? that I have copied his
lens so well as to leave a d!ff rence of 3 inciies between two
of the curvatures, wliidi clearly shows that Prof. Petzval is
writing- about things witiiout having given himself, previously,
the troi )[e of asc.crlaining the fuc's My being able to ascer-

tain in the curvature of a lens to some thousand tli of an inch'
will prove whether I am obliged to have recourse to so clumsy
a method as Prof. Petzval supposes me to have employed in
copying his lens, should the formulas received from him not have
saved me that trouble.

Having shown that, in spite of those differences of the cur-
vatures as really existed in both the lenses, the one, now pre-
sented as new, cannot be considered as such. A most extraor-
dinary discovery I only made a few days ago will prove the per-
fect identity of both the lenses. Prof. Petzval having entrust-
ed to me the numbers marked by pencil as those according to
which the curvatures were to be done, I had of course no oc-
casion whatever to ascertain whether these numbers were coin-
ciding with tho.se of the first columns, particularly after know-
ing tiiat to be the case regarding the first lens; what was then
my surprise at finding, now, that the two colunins of numbers
denoted different curvatures. Reducing the first column into
inches and decimal parts of an inch and multiplying the num-
bers we get by two, we obtain the following curvatures :

r=— 14-4" r=8-466" r=:— 21-049" 4=— 6 15"
12 3 4

the curvatures of the new lens being, as we have seen :

r=— 14-445" r=8-5 r=:— 21 r=— 6143
1 2 3 4

we get therefore,

Dr=0-048" Dr=0 034" Dr=0-049 Dr=
12 3 4

^OOt

which proves these two lenses to he perfectly/ identical, for I should
think the most scrupulous person must allow those differences
only arising from the execution of the lenses, and the proof is
thereby established that Prof. Petzval in spite of his having
caused me to execute the lens with different curvaiitres, has already,
at that time, communicUed to me the very some curvature accord-
ing to which his present lens is worked; it is proved that he has
spoken untruth and. practised deception upon the public xohen pre-
senting his lens as Iheresult of a new calculation. 1 am quite at
a loss to guess what may have induced Pi of. Petzval to i)rac-
tice such mysticism upon himself, me, and all those persons in
expectation of the new lens for landscapes, when already at
that time he was in possession of it, in spite of which he suffer-
ed the world to feel the want of it for seventeen years.

The identity of the two lenses throws another very singular
light upon him. Having heard Prof Petzval repeatedly deny
my working according to his calculations on account of the want
ot those indispensable tabulas, we meet here with two lenses of
his, one made seventeen years later than tlieo ther, by two differ-
ent opticians, and, of course, of quite different materials, but
both with exactly the same curvatures, which proves to evidence,
for a second time, that Prof. Petzval has not viade use himself
of his own tabulas, in spite of their often mentioned necessity.

What must we think of Prof. Petzval wli^i connparing that
fact with the following passage in one orHiii left r.s,: "Per-
haps in a whole century optical glass is not produced twice of
the same identity. Therefore the calculator is obliged to extend
his calculations over all descriptions of crown and flint glass,"
&c., &c.

Tliere is in the English language, such a word ns huvilvg. It
is certainly not a very polite one, yet there are occasions where
it may appear well applied, and could not easily bo rej)laced by
another expression.

I shall now pass on to Prof. Petzval's lens for portraits.

We have seen that the first lens of the combination for land-
scapes as well as portraits of Prof. Petzval is tlie same as that
stated in the document.

I shall now examine his third lens, forming the ^.econd lens of
th ' combination for portraits of wliich the curvatures are found
as r'ollows :

r=12 166" r=4-216" r=8.2L6" r= — It 662"
1 2 3 4

Comparing these curvatures with tlios; resulting from the do-
cument and stated previously, it will be ^een that also this lens

360

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FIIs'E ART JOURNAL.

December,

is exactly the snvu as the corresponding one in the document, with
only tills difl'eruiice in one of the curvatures,

Ai— 0589"
4
wliicli shows that also the portrait coiubination of Prof. Petzval
is 110 new one, but exactly like mine. Be it observed that in
the drawing the second pair of lenses are in direct contact,
while all my lenses had, from the first moment, been separated
by a ring. Piof Petzval and I finding that, by this ring, we
could compensate some errors, which must have taken place in
the calculation. As theory did not demand such a separation,
as we see from the drawing, and as the second pair of lenses in
the new iiortrait-lens of Prof. Petzval are separated in a like
manner, I consider myself fully authorised to say that this lens
cannot be the result of a new calculation. Indeed, it would be
a very strange coincidence of circumstance?, if two lenses, made
according to two different theories, within 17 years, of quite
different materials, should have the same curvatures with the
sole exception of a difference in one of them, and that in both
lenses the same means to compensate an error should have been
adopted. I can perfectly well account for the circumstance of
one of the curvatures differing. This lens has been made of
crown glass of a greenisn color and of different density To cor-
rect that difference, one of the curvatures was changed a little,
and, for the same purpose, the lenses were also a little mol'e se-
parated than /nine are. I invite every photographer in posses-
sion of this new lens made by Mr. Dietzler, to exchange this
second pair of lenses for the second pair of one of my 3 ins
lenses, and he will improve the lens somewhat, for he will get
more light and rather more flatness of field.

If I am well informed, Prof. Petzval has proved to the Aca-
demy at A^'ienna, in consequence of my memorial, that his new
lens is the result of a new combination. We have seen how
far this has been the case; but even allowing it lo be a fact, he
cannot make mc change my vieW on this slibject. Prof. Petz-
val has not presented to the Academy his calculations, but on-
ly the lens, as the result of it; therefore this lens, being neither
new in princi|)le nor in construction cannot be called new.

The W'ay by which Prof. Petzval had arrived at the same
former result may be new, but this cannot vindicate for him the
right to transfer that name to the object itself, as we may ar-
rive at the same end by a multitude of different ways, and as
we have not to do with mechantcaC speculations, however new and
interesting they may be, but with a practical object. If Prof.
Petzval had presented his new lens as an improvement or as a
revival of his former calculation, and if he had mentioned at
the same time, as he was in truth and honor bound to do, that
a lens had formerly been made on the same principle by me ac-
cording to his calculations, no protest or controversy would
have l)ecn possible on my part, and the merits of Prof. Petzval
as to that new lens would have remained the same. So far the
question whether tlie lens may be regarded as new or not, seems
to be decided, bu%this question has still another side more im-
portant to me. Prof Petzval has denied my even knowing the
new lens ; he has accused me of saying untruths, and of de-
ceiving the public by pretending to have made such a lens ac-
cording to his calculation at the time already mentioned, all
with the malignant purpose of impairing my character. The
proofs I have given for all I have stated would, indeed, save
me the trouble of any further comments, the facts speaking suf-
ficiently for themselves, and I fear that by my long discussion,
I have already bestowed ujion Prof. Petzval and his conduct
more importance than he really deserves; however, it is my ear-
nest desire to bring, by all means, this angry controversy to a
close, the more so, as I feel neither the desire nor the inclina-
tion to ward off those new attacks, with which my adversary
may assail me from his inexhaustible store of malice, calumnia-
tion and sophistry, in spite of all the facts I have stated. It
must therefore be my desire to prove tliem in a legal way, and
to that effect, I should, at once, proceed against Prof. Petzval
in Vienna, but having been informed by my attorney there of
the impossibility of this proceeding on account of Prof. Petzval
not having attacked me in Vienna, 1 must adopt such measures

as to force him to proceed against me^ and it is with this parti-
cular view that I publicly deuounce him to be a liar and calum-
niator, in PARTict'LAli reference to his denials of my having re-
ceived from him the documetit referred to, and, therefore, of my
having known the lens in question, in which points I have
proved that he has been lying and calumniating. I think I
have left to Prof. Petzval, in order to ward off this insult, no
alternative but proceeding against me, which I shall expect him
to do in Brunswick. Should he content himself only with writ-
ing letters in the style of his former ones, instead of clearing
^ himself of my charge, any honorable man will be able to draw
his conclusions upon such proceeding, and must shrink from
coming iuto contact with a man who puts up with sv.ch an insult.
Being much afraid that, in spite of all this. Prof. Petzval will
not proceed against me, but rather try to screen himself behind
some pretence or other, such, perhaps, as he alleged, viz : that
the dispensation of justice in cases of intellectual property is
very expensive, my purse is offered to him, inasmuch as I pirdn-e
hereicith my word to pay all the expenses of his law-suit against
me in case he should be able to prove that I am not in possession
of that document.

The conduct of Prof. Petzval is so very strange that many
a man raises with me the question how he will escape the public
censure, when in case of a laW suit, the document will be
produced against him, as icell as in case he should avoid proceed-
ing against me, as I have challenged him to do. Should he dare
to disown his hand-writing the document not being signed? For
that even my measures are already taken, that paper having
been presented only a short time ago, to some persons of high
scientific standing in Vienna, who have recognized it as written
by Prof. Petzval, and who have engaged their promise to cer-
tify in case of necessity this recognition upon oath. The only
answer to this query is that Prof. Petzval knows he only runs
the risk of being regarded by some persons more in the light,
in which he already oppears to those, who know his transaction
With Mr. Waibel, his controversy with Prof. Spitzer, and his
conduct towards me. He is much like a man v.-ho has nothing
more to lose, but in staking all on one card, is playing " va-
banque," his sole object being to suppress, by any means,
ray competition. In England some comments have already
transpired against me, some persons not having found it credible
that an optician like me should have known such a lens for so
long a time ; the authority of Prof. Petzval has been considered
of sufficient weight against me, and so on. I allow tnat appear-
ance were against me, and must find it excusable that many a
man could not suppose Prof. Petzval, in his position, acting in
such a manner towards me ; yet I cannot conceal that these
comments have been to me a source of deep and bitter mortifica-
tion, considering my social position and the perfect justice of my
cause. I have however, the satisfaction that already one of
those gentlemen, who had commented against me, after hav-
ing seen my first answer to Prof. Petzval's letter, expressed
in a private letter, his regret at having hurt my feelings, and
I hope that now, as all the facts are knoiou, the public can-
not waver in whose favor to pronounce the verdict. I deeply
regret to have been obliged to divulge to the public the private
character of a man, to whom the photographic world is cer-
tainly much indebted, but no other alternative was left to me,
my honor having been at stake. Whatever may be the merits
of my adversary, every man of honor must feel with me that
these cannot entitle him to have acted in so mean and despicable
a manner towards me. Voigtlander.

Brunswick, November, 1858.

A cheerful face is nearly as good for an invalid as healthy
weather. To make a sick man think he is dying, look Im ■ dead
yourself. Hope and dcsjiair are as catching as cutaneon.'i com-
plaints. Always endeavor to feel sunshiny, especially in a sick
room, and to look so, too.

Dyspepsia — the remorse of a guilty ee*«eieaee.rt<ry»>- s^^

1S58.

THE PnOTOGRAPIIIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

5G1

l<rom London Phot. Journal.

CnEMISTRY,
111 its Relations to Art and Art Manufacture, Considered as a Brancli of

Education.*

The object of chemistry is to search out and indicate every
alteration which talces pUice in the constitution of bodies; it is
to decompose the compound materials of organic and inorganic
matter into their simplest forms, and from these simple forms to
compose new conditions of matter^ An infinite variety of forms
exist around us wliich, the chemist has shown us, consist of
comparatively few simple substances, which, in the present state
of our knowledge, are undecomposable. We learn also that
we may, under certain conditions, effect a recombination of
these elements, and thus produce compounds resembling those
which are the result of nature's " wonderous alchemy," and nu-
merous others which are not found in nature. It may appear
to many that such a science as this, requiring a well-trained eye,
and a hand adapted to all the requirements of the most delicate
processes, is not fitted to become a branch of popular education.
It is quite certain that all men cannot become chemists — that
is, attain to the position of successful analysers, much less be-
come discoverers of new combinations : but every man may
know so much of the elements of the science as to avoid the
errors which are constantly being made in the details of manu-
facture.

Tiic advantages of chemistry to the arts are, —
1st. The production of new combiuations which can be at
once applied to some useful end.

2d. The discovery of methods for utilising products which
appear worthless^ which have been therefore rejected.

3d. It devises methods by whieh operations may be much
quickened, and results obtained with greater facility : thus
economising time.

4th. Chemistry furnishes substitutes for mechanical contriv-
ances, and thus, by relieving, adds to human power.

It is not easy to select examples of each of these from the
number which present themselves; we shall, therefore, be con-
tent with such as may be regarded novelties. The most curious
of those belonging to the first cla^s are probably the artificial
essences and extracts of fruit, The extracts of pine-apple, ber-
gamot pear, the apple, the grape, and the flavoring of the cog-
nac brandy, are all of them combinations cf carbon, hydrogen,
and oxygen in ccrtahi proportions. The delicate odors of flow-
ers are but variations of the same elements, Pine-apple oil is
prepared from butyric acid, which is developed during the pro-
duction of rancidity in butter. The bergamot-pear oil is ob-
tained from one of the most offensive of chemical products —
fusel oil, which is obtained during the distillation of brandy
from potatoes. By a slight change this fusel oil is converted
into valerianic acid, and into an extract which in every respect
resembles the flavor of apples. The well-known essence of bit-
ter almonds is now imitated exactly by a chemical change
effected in th^ oil of compressed gas. Of these most singular
combinations Dr. Hoffman remarks in a letter to Liebig ; —
"The application of organic chemistry to perfumery is still in
its infancy, and we may expect that a careful survey of those
etheis and etherial compounds with whicti we are already ac-
quainted, and those which are daily being discovered, will lead
to further results. The interesting caprylic ethers which M.
Blouis has lately discovered are remarkable lor their extremely
aromatic odor; thus the acetate of eaprylic oxide possesses an
odor as strong as it is agreeable, and promises, if it can be ob-
tained in larger quantities, to yield materials for perfumery."

This subject has been investigated with much care, and we
have now thus artificially formed the essences of geranium, mille-
fleurs, new-mown hay, jassimine, and many others. All these
are prepared from two or three common and cheap essential
oils, and from organic elements. Beyond perfumes of the most
agreeable kind, orders of the most disgusting and nauseous
character are likewise produced, showing the extensive applica-
cation of the discovery. Nearly all soaps, the largest portion

of the fancy confectionary, and most articles for the toilet are
now prepared from the productions which were formerly rejected
as disgusting and useless.

In all our manufactories an immense amount of material is
allowed to flow to waste. The rivers of the north of Enn-land
run with spirits of salts, and the ponds of our woolen raaimfac-
tories are covered with dirty grease. These waste products arc
now collected, the first is employed in the formation of a new
white lead of a beautiful character, and the last purified to form
soap and candles. The white lead (the oxychloride of lead)
requires a little further notice. Few manufactures are of more
unheaUhfuI character than the manufacture of white lead in the
ordinary way. In this process the ore of lead is attacked by
hydrochloric acid {muriatic) and a soluble chloride of lead
formed. This soluble chloride, having a large surface exposed
to the air, absorbs oxygen and falls as a fine white powder (iJie
oxychloride) whieh is at ouce fitted as a pigment. It is found
to possess many most important properties for the house and
ornamental painter. It appears also that in the preparation of
this variety of white lead, the health of the men is preserved
free of any injury, We cannot learn that much has been done
by our chemists of late years in V\f production of new pigments
a purple from tungsten, which has not yet come inLo use, and
improvements on the white oxide of zinc, which have led to its
more extended use, are the only instances with which we are ac-
quainted of recent date.

The preparation of artificial uliramarine has been regularly
improving, until now, at an exceedingly cheap rate, a color in

Continued from page 350.

46=1

all respects equal to that produced from the lapis lazuli by a
tedious and expensive process, is rendered in the color-market
at prices which render it available for the most ordinary pur-
poses. The application of this to calico-printing is instructive.
It was suggested that this beautiful color might be employed
on calicoes and muslins by combining it with albumen, and the
flowers on ladies' dresses were printed at the cost of barrels of
eggs, though even then the colors on the muslins did not resist
the operations of the laundress. Chemistry showed that cheese
was soluble in ammonia, and the ultramarine when mixed with
this solution, could be applied to the textile fabric. The am-
monia soon evaporated leaving the cheese and ultramarine com-
bined with the fibre of cotton, and perfectly permanent. Mad-
der is employed in great quantities in the process of calico
pri'ting. The spent madder has been for years accumulating
in the calico works. A chemist proving that these heaps of re-
fuse still contained one-third of tlie original quantity of the co-
loring matter, showed how it could be readily extracted, and
these are now become new sources of wealth. Stannate of so-
da is most extensively used as a mordaunt; its mode of prepa-
ration was most difficult, and it is now rendered remarkably
easy. Tin ore and salt are roasted together, the soda of the
salt combined with the oxide of tin, and thus by one process all
is accomplished. The requirements of the tallow-chandler have
been constantly increasing, chemistry has been taxed to the ut-
most to provide fats, and in their search to supply these wants,
the chemists have produced fats from the vegetable world which
remove us from entire dependence upon those of Russia, and
even the oils produced from the mineral kingdom promise to re-
move the necessity of the whale fisher's incurring the dangers
of the Arctic seas.

Such are but a few of the great advantages which chemistry
has afforded us. They have been selected as showing the real
utility of the science, in answer to those who ever desire to see
at once the useful in a discovery. We hold that every truth
must sooner or later become useful, and that by improving the
general acquaintance with the sciences we shall dispel the doubts
which some have of its advantages.

Art and Science are closely connected; in some cases art pre-
cedes science, and in others science leads the way to the im-
provements of art. Iron and steel were prepared of the finest
quality by art : science discovers the cause, and imitates the
productions, of art. But all, or nearly all, our vast manufac-
tories, our cotton factories, bleaching establishments, cotton
printing establishments, chemical workSj engineer's shops, gas-

362

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

December'

works, soap and candle manufactories, and many others are ob-
viously the results of science. The advantages of chemistry —
of science — in our educational systems are therefore evident.
But let us not run on too hastily, and, by forcing, destroy the
plant to which we desire to give strength. Knowledge is not
power unless the possessor knows how to wield the instrument he
holds. A giant's club in a child's hand is not more useless than
scientific knowledge is to him who has not received that educa-
tional training which enables him to use the truths he has learnt.
Therefore let us first train the mind in those habits which are
necessary to the correct cultivation of inductive science, and to
enable She student to advance carefully to the generalitias of a
deductive philosophy.

Sir Humphrey Davy's remarks some years before his death
should bu applicable now : " You have excelled all other people
in the products of industry; but why ? Because you have as-
sisted industry by science. Do not regard as indifferent what is
your true and greatest glory. Except in these respects, in what
are you superior to Athens or Rome ? Do you carry away
from them the palm in literature and fine arts? Do you not
rather glory, and justly too, in being in these respects their imi-
tators ? Is it not demonstrated by the nature of your system
of public education, and by your popular amusements ? In
what, tlien, are you their superiors ? In everything connected
with science — with the experimental arts. These are your char-
acteristics. Do i\ot neglect them. You have a Newton who is
the glory, not only of your own country, but of the human race.
You have a Bacon, whose precepts may still be attended to
with advantage. Shall Englishmen slumber in that path which
these great men have opened, and be overtaken by their neigh-
bors ? Say, rather, that all assistance shall be given to their
efforts; that they shall be attended to encouraged, and sup-
ported."

Robert Hunt.

EXPERIMENTAL

From Photographic JVotet,

PHOTOGRAPHY.

"We insert at page 302,* a communication from Mr. Belfield
Letevre, of Exeter, which we consider to be the most valuable
contribution that has been made for some time to the Chemistry
of Photography. It relates to the Theory of the Daguerreo-
type process. That process is so little practised now that the
title of this paper may not perhaps recommend it to the notice
it deserves, but it must be remembered that the.''e are many
strong analogies between all the processes in which iodine, bro-
mine and silver occur, and that any investigation which throws
light on the theory of one of them is likely to clear up some
difficulties in the others. Take for instance any collodion nega-
tive of a view in which the sky or some strongly lighted objects
occur, and which has received sniBcient exposure to bring out
the details of dark objects in shadow, and examine such a nega-
tive by reflected light, it will be seen that the over-exposed
lights have a blue, the properly exposed lights a brown tint.
The same thing happens in the daguerreotype; the over-ex-
posed lights being blue. Or compare the solarized parts of a
glass positive with those of a daguerreotype, and the same blue-
ness is in both cases perceived. This similarity in the effects
due to over-exposure proves, we think, more than anything else,
that a strong analogy exists between the action of light on the
sensitive daguerreotype plate, and the sensitive collodion film;
so that if we can make out the theory of one process, we shall
be very likely to gain valuable practical information with respect
to the others. . .

In the daguerreotype process the effect of bromine as an ac-
celerator is very marked, while in the collodion processes differ-
ence of opinion exists as the effects of bromine, and the general
belief is that it is not an accelerator. Until very lately our ex-
periments with bromides added to iodides in collodion led us to
believe that lor some reason or other the analogy between the

*i>hot. & F. A. Journal, page 266.

daguerreotype and collodion processes was imperfect as regards
the effects of bromine; and although there was reason to sup-
pose that such an analogy might exist, yet experiment seemed
to settle the point the other way. Now, however, our opinions
are changed, and a number of convincing experiments which we
have recently made lead to the conclusion that bromine has the
same accelerating influence in the collodion as in the daguerreo-
type process; that is to say, that collodion may, under certain
conditions, be made six times as sensitive with a mixture of
bromide and iodide, as with an iodide or bromide alone. These
experiments we will now describe :

Take plain alcoholic collodion, such as we have described in
back numbers of the Notes — also two solutions, one composed
of alcohol S. G. '825, containing l-i grains of iodide of potas-
sium to the ounce, the other of alcohol S. G. 825, saturated
with bromide of potassium. Then iodize some collodion with
the iodizing solution by adding one part to three of plain collo-
dion, and call this collodion I, because it contains iodide alone.
Next, bromise the plain collodion by adding one part of the
bromide solution to three of plain collodion, and call this collo-
dion B, because it coutaius bromide «ilone. Lastly, make a
mixture of equal parts of the iodizing and bromizing solutions,
and bromo-iodize the collodion by adding one part of this mix-
ture to three of plain collodion, and call this collodion M, be-
cause it contains the mixed iodide and bromide.

We have now three collodions ready for use. In order to
compare them in the positive process, make a nitrate bath of
'pure nitrate of silver, and acidify it with one minim to the ounce
of nitric acid. Make the experiments with a twin lens stereo-
scopic camera, furnished with single view-lenses, and a quarter-
inch stop. (Mr. Thomas is quite right in saying that portrait-
lenses are of no use for testing collodions ) Coat one-half of
the plate with one collodion, the other half with another collo-
dion, place it horizontally ujK)n the dipper, immerse it in a large
bath, and develop the pictures with the same ordinary develop-
er for positives. Point the camera at a view out-of-doors, in-
cluding high lights and strong shadows.

This being understood, first coat one half of the plate with
I'.ollodion I, and the other with collodion B. I gives a creamy
film; B a film which is exceedingly pale, in fact scarcely visible.
Give a reasonably long exposure, say ten seconds, so as to bring
out all the details fully. On developing, both pictures will come
out together; there will not be much difference between them
except in tone. Now compare collodion I with collodion M.
The latter gives a very pale film, but not so pale as B. On giv-
ing the same exposure as in the first experiment the picture
taken with M will be greatly over-exposed. Next reduce the
exposure to two seconds, or less, and the picture taken with M
will be correctly timed, and all the details in the shadows fully
brought out, while that taken with I will only exhibit indica-
tions of the high lights.

From these experiments we learn that the analogy between
the daguerreotype and collodion processes holds good as regards
the accelerating influence of bromine, under certain conditions,
that is, as we shall see presently, when orgct,nic mailer is exclud-
ed from the nitrate bath and developer.

Now, since we have found an exceedingly sensitive process,
and the means of accelerating iodized collodion by the addition
of a bromide, let ns repeat the experiments with a nitrate bath
acidified with aeetic instead of nitric acid, and use a developer
composed of proto-sulphate of irou and ««/ic acid; that is to
say, let us introduce organic matter into the nitrate bath and
developer, and note the results. The peculiar sensitiveness of
collodion M now nearly disappears, and instead of being six
times as sensitive as I, the ratio is only perhaps as five to four.

But to render the retarding effects of organic matter on bro-
raized collodion still more evident make use of a negative with
collodion M. All its good qualities vanish. While I gives a
fine negative with a certain exposure, M requires perhaps
double the exposure, and then gives a feeble worthless nega-
tive.

It appears then from these experiments (which we have re-

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

363

peated so many times and under such varying circumstances as
to leave no doubt of their accuracy,) that the most sensitive
photographic process at present known is that in which a collo-
dion positive is obtained with a cullodion containing a mixture
of iodide and bromide, a bath acidilied with nitric acid, and a de-
veloper containing proto-sulphate of iron acidified vith nitric
acid. It remains then to consider whether such a positive, con-
sisting as it does of a thin metallic film, can be intensified into
a negative.

The attempt to intensify a thin metallic film of this kind with
a mixture of a developer and nitrate of silver altogether fails.
The plan to which we must have recourse is the following : —
After fixing and well washing the positive, pour over it a solu-
tion of bi-chloride of mercury. This will bleach the picture
and convert the silver image into one composed of chloride of
mercury, (calomel), chlori'le of silver, and perhaps a little
black oxide of mercury. This image, when viewed by trans-
mitted light, is more intense than before; but its intensity may
be greatly increased by first washing it thoroughly, and then
pouring over it a weak solution of sulphide of ammonia, which
forms black sulphide of mercury.

With a portrait lens of 4 ins. or 5 ins. focus, a half-inch stop
between the lenses, and the sensitive process which we have
described, an instantaneous positive may be taken of objects
out-of-doors tolerably well-lighted, and the details of tte sha-
dows fully brought out. This positive may theu be intensified
into a negative by means of bi-chloride of mercury and sulphide
of ammonium, judiciously applied; or it might be converted in-
to an alabastrine photograph. It seems probable also that with
an ordinary view lens and a half-inch stop, large pictures might
be taken^ sharp to the edges, of such strongly-lighted subjects
as breaking waves, skies, &c.

If the experiments described in this article are as reliable and
our conclusions as correct as we believe them to be, then this
communication has considerable importance, and we advise our
readers by all means to repeat the experiments described. It
is a singular result that nitric acid should not be a retarding
agent in the positive collodion process, when organic matter is
excluded from the bath and developer. But chloride of silver
darkens readily under nitric acid, and iodide of silver does not
seem to be affected by the presence of nitric acid, so far as its
property of receiving a latent image under the impact of light
is concerned. Nevertheless nitric acid acts very differently in
the positive and negative processes, for if we attempt to deve-
lop with pyro-gallic acid a negative which has been excited in
a "bath strongly acid with free nitric acid, uot only is the nega-
tive thin and grey, but the details of the shadows are wanting,
while if the very same plate is developed with the positive de-
veloper those details will be fully brought out. It appears
therefore that nitric acid in the bath does not interfere with the
production of a latent image, but simply with the action of an
organic developer.

In trying the experiments described, the salts of potassium
are recommended in preference to those of cadmium, for this
reason, that the cadmium salts tend to gelatinize the collodion
and impair its fluidity. In our opinion tlie cadmium salts ought
never to be employed in the collodion process. Alcoholic collo-
dion iodized with iodide of potassium preserves its color, sensi-
tiveness, and good qualities for several months, and more than
this cannot be said of collodion iodized with iodide of ca(imium.
In fact, the cadmium collodion, although it does not change its
color and become visibly deteriorated, nevertheless undergoes
actual deterioration and loss of sensitiveness by keeping. We
believe the use ot cadmium salts in collodion to be a mistake.
The best keeping collodion is probably that which is made of
pure metliylic ether and alcohol, (the latter in great excess,) re-
duced to the absolute state by distillation with caustic alkali.
If perfectly pure and good methylated spirits could be obtained
with certainty, the best collodion might be manufactured and
sold with profit at 3d. per ounce. No collodion that we have
u.sed is so good as some we have lately made with pure absolute
methylated spirits, and the potassinm iodizer, and as soon as we
can make sure of this result, we shall offer photographers a first

rate Alcoholic Collodion at 3d. an ounce.' This will perhaps
tempt the paper-men to try the collodionizcd-papcr process de-
scribed in our last number; and since we have now alluded to
that process, we would observe that plain paper may be used
instead of waxed-paper, if preferred, and the negative waxed
afterwards.

From Photographic A'otes.

URANIUM PRINTING.

SPECIFICATION OF WILLIAM CLARK.

No. 396.— PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION, left by WILLIAM
CLARK, Engineer and Patent Agent, at th« Office of the Commis-
missioncrs of Patents, with his Petition. — " Improvements in pre-
paring Paper for, and in obtaining Photographic Proofs or Im-
pressions.— February 27th, 1858.

" This process is based on the property that all bodies have
of absorbing a greater or less quantity of light. This new pro-
cess of photography, which I call " photography by absorption
of light." consists in taking a sheet of paper which has been
kept in the dark during a certain number of days, and immersing
the same in a solution of salt of uranium, (this salt has the pro-
perty of absorbing a very large quantity of light,) but I prefer
to use azotate of oxide of uranium. This latter is produced
either in treating oxide of uranium with diluted azotic acid, or
in dissolving in water crystals of azotate of oxide of uranium
in proportions of about ten per cent. The sheet of paper must
be impregnated with salt of oxide of uranium in a sufficient
quantity, that its tint may be of a nice straw yellow color, and
after it is dried it is to be kept in the obscurity mentioned.
Other salts of uranium will answer the purpose, and which I
substitute for the bi-chromate of potass usually employed in
photography.

"When it is desired to operate with this sheet of paper, it is
covered by a photographic negative impression or proof either
on glass or on paper. This sheet is then -exposed to the action
of the sun for about a qnarter-of-an-hour, and afterwards kept
in the dark, the proof which covered it is withdrawn and the
sheet is treated with a solution containing about six per cent,
of azotate of silver. The operator then sees the appearance
of a very distinct positive image of the chestnut colored tint of
the ordinary proofs. In order to fix this image it suffices to
immerse it in pure water which dissolves all that part of salt of
oxide of uranium, which by reason of the dark parts of the nega-
tive proof have not received the action of light, after which the
image or impression is fixed.

" If after having well washed the proof with pure water, it is
desired to transform it into a black tint, the said proof must
be treated with a solution of commercial chloride of gold in
proportions of about two-tenths ot a per cent., and then washed
again with pure water. All these operations do not require
more than half-an-hour, after which the photographic image is
entirely finished.

" The proof obtained with azotate of silver may also be trans-
formed into a black tint by using the two following processes :
They consist in passing the sheet of paper after it has been im-
pregnated with salt of oxide of uranium, and exposed to the sun,
in a solution of bi-chloride of mercury, and in which it is left
only a few minutes according to the length of time it is exhibit-
ed to the light, which time must be three times longer than in
the first process above specified. After the proof has been
washed in pure water, it is introduced in the solution of azotate
of silver, and left in the same till the image is perfectly obtained
with a black tint like ink; it is afterwards washed again with
pure water, and then the proof is fixed. After the passage of
the proof in the bi-chloride of mercury, the solution of azotate of
silver may be replaced by a solution of chloride of gold, which
latter will give the proof a blue-black tint or color.

" After the sheet of paper impregnated with salt of oxide of
uranium has been exposed to the light, the image may be instan-
taneously obtained by treating the said sheet with a solution of

364

THE PnOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

Deceruber,

commercial chloride of gold ; in this case the proof has a very
dark blue tint , it is at last washed with pure water, after which
the proof or image is fixed.

" The photographic images being obtained, as before mention-
ed with a salt of uranium, combined with salt of gold, or of silver
and of mercury, are capable of resisting and are not liable to be
effaced by the energetic action of a boiling solution of cyanide
of potassium ; aqua-regia alone alters them.

" As no sulphur exists in these impressions or images in con-
tra-distiuction to those obtained with chloride of silver, it appears
that such images will be much more stable than the photographs
obtained by the ordinary processes, and that this new mode of
obtaining positive proofs, which is very simple and very rapid, is
the desideratum long sought for in photography.

"The solution of azotate of uranium may be replaced by a
solution of tartaric acid, or of citric acid, or of oxalic acid, or of
sulphate of alumina, or of citrate of iron, or of arsenious acid,
or of neutral tartrate of potash, and of lactic acid, all the above
substances having much the same property as the salt of uranium,
but they will not produce an indelible impression, as does the
salt of uranium.

" Negative proofs or impressions may be produced by placing
in the camera-obscura a sheet of paper impregnated with salt of
uranium, but as this process is oflong duration, it would serve
only for obtaining views of inanimate objects. Yery fine and
beautiful negative proofs are obtained in the camera by putting
on a sheet of glass a solution of azotate of uranium mixed with
gelatine, and preferably in gum diluted. A salt of uranium,
mixed with gelatine or gum, give to these matters the property
of being insoluble, like the bi-chromate of potash, when these
substances have been exposed to the light, which would allow
of substituting them instead of the bi-chromate of potash in the
processes of engraving on steel or of litho-photography on stone.

" Positive proofs on glass for the stereoscope may also be ob-
tained by replacing the albumen by a coating of gum containing
azotate of oxide of uranium, and in developing or producing the
image either with chloride of gold or with azotate of silver. For
attaining this result the subjection or exhibition to the light
must be suh'^iently long to allow the instantaneous development
of the impressions or images, and in order that the gum shall
have CO time to dissolve where it is not acted on by the light.

" This process has the advantage of giving the proofs blue,
red, black, or chestnut-colored tints, according to the combina-
tion of the salts of gold and of silver."

From Photographic NotetL

rOUNCEY'S CARBON PROCESS.

Any of our readers can now, by enclosing to Mr. Pouncy a
subscription towards the purchase of his pro'^ess for publication,
obtain from him by return of post a printed paper describing
the full particulars of his manipulation. Most of the Subscrib-
ers have, we believe, paid their subscription and received this
paper, but the JEIOO have not yet been made up, and until that
sum has been realized, the paper must be considered as strictly
private, and intended for the sole use of the Subscriber. As
soon, however, as the above sura has been subscribed, the par-
ticulars contained in that paper will be published in this Journal
and given to the public. Already then a great number of pho-
tographers, and among them the highest personages in the
realm, and the Secretaries and leading members of the Photo-
grajjhic Societies of Scotland, Birmingham, and Manchester,
are in possession of a simple and economical method of printing
positive proofs in Carbon by a process which has been brought
to the same perfection as any other photographic procer j, by
the persevering industry of a man who well deserves to be re-
warded for the great benefit he has conferred on Photography.
And now that so man} skillful operators are in possession of
the means of Printing in Carbon, we hope soon to see the pro-
cess extended to a variety of beautiful pigments of ascertained
permanency, and tinted papers employed, so that prints may

shortly be produced by the new method Which are as superior
in artistic beauty to those printed by the process now commonly
employed as they are superior to them in permanency. And
since the end of the present year is approaching, and we are be-
ginning to collect materials for an article in our concluding
number which is to contain a resuvu. of what has been done in
photography in 1858, it is a matter of congratulation to us to
find that the most important step which has been taken is due
to one of our own Subscribers, and to the working out of a
hint given by ourselves in the first number for the year. The
Nutes have therefore not gone forth in vain, and the principal
photographic event of the year, viz., direct Printing in Carbon,
is an accomplished, and, to some extent, a published process,
through the means of this Journal.

The paper which Mr. Pouncy has printed and forwarded to
Subscribers contains full information with respect to the mani-
pulation of the process. His chief difficulty has been to find a
suitable paper, as the vigor of the print depends greatly upon
the paper. He has had a few reams manufactuied of the kind
which answers best, and this is so thick that the prints do not
require to be mounted, for by attaching a margin to the nega-
tive the margin of the print is preserved, (absolutely white, for
in Carbon-Printing the whites are preserved perfectly pure).
This paper he will supply, in small quantities at first, to Sub-
scribers, at cost price, viz., 2s. for twelve sheets 15 X 12.
Being by trade a painter, he will also supply the other materials,
so that Subscribers need not be inconvenienced by any delay in
procuring the proper materials for the process; and we can as-
sure them, from our own experience and knowledge of it, that
they will encounter no difficulties, but succeed at once; for Car*
bon-Printing is of all photographic processes the most simple.

Since very few specimens have been exhibited lately, we shall
take the liberty of mentioning that Mr. Kinnear, Secretary to
the Photographic Society of Scotland, after having received
some Carbon prints from Mr. Pouncy a few days ago, wrote us
the following ; —

"Dear Sir, — Mr. Pouncy has sent me some specimens of his
Printing in Carbon. I think the process gives good promise,
and therefore enclose half-a-guinea, which please add to the
Pouncy fund.

" C. G. H. Kinnear.
"Edinburgh, Nov 18."

We would also observe that those gentlemen who have sub-
scribed most generously to the Pouncy fund, have, in every case,
including His Royal Highness the Piince Consort, previously
seen specimens of Mr. Pouncy's process. These remarks are
simply made to meet the objection that no specimens have been
lately exhibited. We would also add that Mr. Pouncy, a few
days ago, wrote '^o us to advertise for him a Carbon print for
sale, but we dissuaded him from taking this step, for a reason
now to be explained. It will be remembered that in 1855, M.
Poitevin took out a patent for Photo-Lithography, and also for
printing in pigments, and that this patent includes vaguely the
process of Mr. Pouncy, so that, although we firmly believe that
M. Poitevin's patent would not be considered valid by a jury in
the event of his attempting to enforce it, yet the sale of Carbon
prints just at present might possibly involve Mr. Pouncy in a
law-suit with M. Poitevin. Our i-easons for supposing M.
Poitevin's patent for Carbon-Printing mete waste paper are
these : — A patent, in order to be valid, must contain such full
particulars of the process that a commonly skillful workman
may at once by following the directions therein contained, pro-
duce the article described, and unless these full particulars are
given the patent is worth nothing. A patent is a monopoly
granted by Government to the patentee, not for the mere fee
paid at the patent office, but on the condition that the lull par-
ticulars of the process patented are given to the public; so that
while the patentee has for a certain term the monopoly of manu-
tacturing the article, the public have the knowledge of how it is
done; a patent would otherwise be a very one-sided transaction.
Now, the patent of M. I'oitevin does not include such full par^
liculars of Carbon-Printing as that any photographer could at
ouce produce a Carbon print; — and besiJes, in its vague gener"

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAnilC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

365

ality, it iiiclades a process published by Mr. Miingo Ponton in
1838, so that it luio^ht be set aside on tliese grounds. Should
therefore M. Poiteviii attempt to enforce in England his patent
for Carbon-Printing, which nobody had heard of until we raked
it up in Juue last from its obscurity, we are perfectly sure that
a jury would decide against him. As for the patent of M.
Beauregard, that expressly states that Carbon prints cannot be
obtained by the very process which Mr. Pouncy employs. It is
a serious evil that patents should be so frequently granted with-
out due consideratioQ on the part of the authorities. However,
Mr. Pouncy does not appear to be afraid of any patents, for he
has disregarded our advice, and his advertisement is inserted.
Those therefore who wish to see a Carbon print can now ob-
tain one by purchase.

While on the subject of patents, we find that in Febrnary
last, M. Niepce de St. Victor patented in England his process
of Uranium Printing, but the patent was not completed, prob-
ably because he found that his process had been already pub-
lished in this Journal in a communication from Mr. Buruett.
We give M. Niepce de St. Victor's Specification in extenso, at
page 278, thinking it likely to interest our readers.

We insert the following letter at the particular request of
Mr. Pouncy. It appears that he has been playing off upon
Mr. Crookes a particular joke, by adding some brickdust and
flour of sulphur to the carbon, then taking a print with this
mixture, smearing it over with white of egg, and passing it off
successfully upon our unsuspecting contemporary for a silver
print.

When the " News " was started, Mr. Pouncy was invited to
become an agent, and to contribute to its columns. He has
replied by palming off upon the Editor a print in brickdust for
one in silver. That gentleman, after patting Mr. Pouncy en-
couragingly upon the back, has now turned the tables against
iim, and every fresh number of the " News" contains an anony-

had unusual opportunities of attesting what my process was able
to effect. Yet botli have embraced every opportnnity of cast-
ing doubt or even condemnation upon it, becau.se I was not pre-
pared, perhaps, to throw myself upon their mercy, or to mnke
either ot them the medmni of giving my invention to the public.

1. This Mr. Crookes for example, while Secretary of the
Society, professed his utter inability to decide whether ray prints
Were Carbon or not; at the same time, that, with what I must
call great dishonesty, he, although refusing^ to publish all thnt
was said with reference to them at the meeting of the Society
which I attended in London, 6th April, 1858, felt no scruple in
publishing the direct falsehood, that a long discussion bad taken
place respecting the probable process and the chances of per-
manency. Need I say that I confide so entirely, even at this
moment, on the good faith of the Subscribers who alone have
obtained information regarding the practical details, that no dis-
cussion whatever is likely to be entered into of this sort; and as
to the chances of permanency in carbon, — those only who own
them.selves unable to say whether carbon is carbon, like Mr.
Crookes, will attempt to call that in question,

2. This Mr. Crookes, in his Photographic NeVrs, started after
he had left the Society, seemed, at first, inclined to pursue the
same obstinate and ignorant course towards me; but.

for the man's blindness, I wrote a letter to his paper,

mous letter against " Permanent Printing," and the like. These
occupy space in that Journal harmlessly if not amusingly, and
if the readers of it are satisfied, so are we.

And now we leave Mr. Pouncy to tell his own story in his
own way. [Ed. P. N.]

THE CARBON PROCESSi

Dear Sir, — 'Slaving acted by yotlt advice in making public
my practical discoveries, and their ultimate improvement, to the
Subscribers only to the Publication Fund, I have extreme
pleasure in announcing to you the gratifying success which has
hitherto attended this step, and the complimentary acknow-
ledgements received from all quarters, and from the most com-
petent authorities, certifying fully the triumph of the mode of
manipulation I have propounded, as well as attesting the satis-
factory nature of the results attained by it. Amonst others,
H.R.H. the Prince Consort has seen, and expresses himself in
the most flattering terms of the Carbon prints, through the
medium of Dr. Becker; and from His Royal Highness having
further honored me with his commands for materials, I have
every reason to believe that it is his intention to test the process
practically. Mr. Brown, a practical photographer, of New-
castle upon-Tyne, has likewise written to me, after having been
afforded an opportunity of strictly investigating the details of
the process and its results, amply apologising for his previous
scepticism and enthusiastically entering into the practical adop-
tion of the process, to which he now gives his unreserved con-
fidence, t have every reason to believe, that amongst the
highly distinguished personages who intend operating practically
are the Countess of Rosse, f Lady of the celebrated astronomer),
and Lord Alfred Churchill.

Whilst these, and many other testimonials, not less flattering
because proceeding from more strictly professional sources, con-
tinue daily, and I may say hourly, to flow in upon me, so that
I can hardly supply materials fast enough to meet the demand,
I must confess myself entirely puzzled to account for the conduct
of the London Photographic Society, and more especially of a
Mr. Crookes, who was its Secretary, as both profess to be de-
voted to the advancement of photographic art, and both have

47

111 pity
offering
to produce before him a Carbon print by my process, and a
silver print from the same negative, that he might decide for
himself of what my process was capable. You, who know this
well, will readily believe me when I tell you that I had no dif-
ficulty in actually deceiving Mr. Crookes for a time, (and until
I chose to enlighten him), by allowing him to believe a Carbon
print to be silver. Mr. Crookes did not know, and could not
tell, the one from the other^literally, he mistook the Carbon
print for silver I

3. This Mr. Crookes behaved to me, aftef being thus brought
to the lash, with, as I consider, still greater dishonesty, in not
acknowledging to the world, as he had promised to do, that the
effects attainable with my Carbon, were of equal delicacy and
iudeed not capable of benig distinguished, even by authorities
infallible as Mr. Crookes, from those produced by nitrate of
silver. He still had the meanness, when saying anything of my
prints, to effect to doubt their leing Carbon. Of course, there
is always one supposition — the most charitable construction that
could be put upon such conduct — that Mr. Crookes labored
under incompetency and inability to decide, that, what the Times
of Aug. 7 had on the authority of the Bulletin de la Sociele
Francaise de Photografhie, pronounced to be "the ligitimate
results of Carbon — they have resisted a long immersion in con-
centrated nitric or hydro-chloric acids, in aqua-regalis, in cyanide
of potassium, in cyanide of potassium strengthened with iodide,
and lastly, in alkaline sulphurets,--not one of which powerful
agents influenced them in the least." — were Carbon prints ! But
with submission, I am much afraid that the real want of ability
under which Mr, Crookes labors, is the want of ability to speak
the truth t

4. This Mr. Crookes moreover has rendered himself memorable
in the history of my discovery, by professing to have an original
print of Mr. Fox Talbot's, some fifteen years old, which he pre-
tended it was his intention to produce for the purpose of show-
ing that the Talbotype, or photography in its infancy, produced
results as good as the results obtained by my process. Neither
has that first print ot Mr. Fox Talbot's been forthcoming, nor
has Mr. Crookes had the honesty to publish my letter which I
addressed to him on the subject, on receiving from the portfolio
of a friend in Dorchester, where it had been as carefully as pos-
sible preserved, and describing to Mr. Crookes the now invisible
condition of a print of Mr. Fox Talbot's of "Orleans on the
Loire, 1843."

I would not have troubled you with these vagaries of Mr,
Crookes, but that I am persuaded he means mischief, and has a
fixed purpose of slandering me and my process, although I sin-
cerely hope I may not be under the necessity of administering
to him any further castigation, which is eminently distasteful to
myself. And I am happy to know, by the letter I have alluded

3GG

THE PnOTOGRAPniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

December,

to from Newcastle, and from others competent to judge, tbat
those who now know my process are satisfied with it. I am
also gliid to learn that photographers are turning ther attention
to tlio important subject of Printing in Carbon. But allow me
to remind j<>a, that up to the present time absoluteley no prints

HAVE BEEN PRODUCED EXCEPT BY MY PROCESS.

Yours faithfully,
Dorchester, Nov. 21th, 1858. John Pouncy.

ON THE TIIEOBY OF THE DAGUERREOTYPE,

To the Editor of Photographic Notes.

Dear Sir : — la the article " Daguerreotype," of your Photo-
^rafhic Dictionary, I find the following passage :--" The theory
of this process is so exceedingly obscure and uncertain, that at
present any attempt at explanation of it mnsi involve much that
is hypothetical. The sensitive film is supposed to be at first in
an amorphous state, but to be crystallized and ronghened by
the action of light. The mercurial vapour adheres to this
roughened surface and forms the lights of the picture by amal-
gamating with the silver. The iodine and bromine are removed

by the hypo-sulphite of soda Such appears

to be the theory of this very beautiful process."

Perhaps I might fairly conclude from the above passages,
that the explanation which I gave some fifteen years ago of the
formation of the Daguerrean image has not found more favor
in your eyes than it did in those of " M. Daguerre" himself ;
but I would rather believe that the three papers which I pre-
sent to the "Academy of Sciences" on that subject, buried as
thev are in the voluminous Comptes Kendus of that learned
Society, have not come beneath your notice. No facts which
have since come to my knowledge, have awakened any misgiv-
ings in my mind, as to the soundness of my views. They have
explained for me all known phenomena, and they have suggested
new fields of experimental research ; and I have some hope thcit
I shall make you a convert to a theory, which is at least as
plain, as simple, and as elementary, as the theory to which you
allude is obscure, abstruse and transcendental.

The following are the simple facts on which my theory

relies :

1. When a piece of pure metallic silver is exposed to the ac-
tion of an atmosphere containing iodine in solution, the surface
of the metal is tarnished or encrusted by what might be designa-
ted, by analogy, as an iodide rust. This rust, porous, amor-
phous, and of pale yellow color, absorbs, and retains a certain
amount of atmospheric air, of aqueous vapour, and of pure un-
combined iodine.

2. When pure amorphous iodide of silver is exposed to the
action of mercurial vapour, the latter is absorbed, and the
double affinity of the mercury, both for iodine and silver over-
comes the affinity by which these two elements are bound toge-
ther • and an iodide of mercury and a silver amalgam are form-
ed. But, when the iodide of silver retains mechanically pure
and uncombined iodide in excess, iodide of mercury is formed by
the direct action of the iodine ; and between these two Haloids,
iodide of mercury and iodide of silver, no further reaction can
take place.

3. All halogene elements are alike characterized by an af6ni-
ty, more or less strongly marked, for hydrogen, and a conse-
quent tendency to form hydracids at the expense of any organic
substance of any hydrogenated compound with which they may
be brought into contact. It would appear however that this
tendency to combine with hydrogen cannot result in actual com-
bination without the presence of light ; and the quantity of
hydracid formed \s ceteres paribus \n-oportion(i\ to the intensity
of the light and the duration of its action. In this respect how-
ever the^halogene substances with which the photographer is
most concerned, iodine, bromine, and chlorine, differ widely one
from the other. The affinity of iodine for hydrogen is weak :
the combination can only take place under the influence of the
most refrangil)le rays of the spectrum, those situuted below the
double band F of Frauenhofe; the hydracid formed is unstable ;

and it is said that it may be again resolved into its component
elements of iodine and hydrogen, under the influence of the least
refrangible rays. The affinities of bromine and chlorine for
hydrogen are far more strongly marked ; the combination takes
place, though with widely differing intensity, under the impact
of all the different rays, and the acids formed are stable. Again,
the nature of the organic compound, with which the halogene ele-
ment is brought into contact, appears to be of some importance;
thus, iodine dissolves slowly in alcohol, and the formation of
iodhydric acid is gradual in the extreme ; in essence of turpen-
tine or essential oil of lavender, the rapidity of the combination
amounts to explosion ; whilst, on the other hand, if a few drops
of bromine are poured into a small quantity of alcohol the for-
mation of the bromhydric acid is so violent as to project the
liquid in all directions and seriously to endager the eyesight
of the experimentalists.

These are the leading facts on which my theory of the forma-
tion of the Daguerrean image is founded. I have purposely
refrained from offering any illustrations, as your readers will
find them at every page of your Photographic Dictionary. Let
us now see how they can be made available for my purpose.

Besides its more generally known constituents, oxygen nitro-
gen, carbonic acid and aqueous vapor, our atmosphere contains
another element, towards which the investigations of science
have been as yet but partially directed. I allude to that
organic matter, which, poured forth into the atmosphere under
the form of a volatile or essential oil, from the repiratory organs
and the skins ot animals, from the leaves and petals of plants,
and from vegetable and animal matter in every stage of decom-
position, is there more completely oxidized, and is again thrown
down under the form of a wax or resin on all the surfaces which
are freely exposed to the action of the air, and to which it
forms a protecting varnish. In our domestic economy this
organic matter is but too familiar to us: it dims the transpar-
ency of our window panes, deadens the lustre of our mirrors,
and tarnishes the brilliancy of all the polished surfaces on which
it is deposited. Physiologist and Sanitarians are seeking in it
the vehicle by which epidemic and infectious diseases are wafted
about and propagated, and by them its nature and properties
hare already been submitted to investigation and analysis ; and
physicists, we have no doubt, will some day find in this same
natural varnish an easy explanation of many anomalous pheno-
mena : thus, the images of Moser, attributed by him to the
somewhat obscure agency oiinvisibk light, were shewn by M.
Fizeau to depend on the transfer of this organic matter from
one surface to another.

The adhesion, or the non-adhesion of the deposited metal on
the cathode or mould, an uncertainty of no importance to elec-
trotypists — the unequal action of acids used in etching upon me-
tallic surfaces ; — the disposition of metallic surfaces themselves
now to retain, and now to repel liquids, and the singular optical
phenomena they present when the breath is condensed upon
them ; these and many other as yet imperfectly explained pheno-
mena will perhaps some day find an easy explanation in the pre-
sence or absence, the composition, the thickness, and the un-
equal distribution of tliis same atmospheric varnish. Rather
must it be believed that varnish can be removed by the chemi-
cal agency of dilute aeids, or by the mere abrasion of the polish-
ing pads. The abstract surface of the geomatrician "length
and breadth without thickness" is not the surface with which
the phisicist or photographer has to deal. Our surfaces, be they
of metal, glass or porcelain, must all be considered as thin layers
or strata of a more or less porous substance in which this organic
matter is absorbed, and from which it can be removed only by
incineration or carbonization ; incineration if the surface be
heated to a temperature of 500" over a spirit-lamp or a char-
coal brazier ; carbonization, when a saturated solution of caustic
potash is boiled, evaporated to degrees, and the residue fused
on the surface.

There is reason to bel'eve that the existence and properties of
this substance was not unknown to the modest and sagacious
" Niepee," to whose great merits as originator and founder of
the heliographic art in all its branches, a due meed of praise has

never yet been awarded. Indeed I have been informed that the
accidental observation of an effect attributed by liim to his cause
first drew liis attention to the action of light on tliiu oro-anic
fihns extended on highly pclished surfaces. Be this as it may,
however, it is certain that M. Daguerre, whom Niepce, during
his lifetime, had initiated into all his secrets, and to whom
at his death he entrusted his papers, was perfectly aware of the
existence of this element in the atmosphere, and of its inevitable
presence ri the sensitive coating of his silver plates ; but he
appears totally to have misapprehended the very important
part which it there performs ; at least he strongly repudiated
the idea that the formation of the Daguerreau image could in
anywise be attributed to the action of light on organic matter.
Perhaps this was in Daguerre the result of scientific conviction,
perhaps he was unwilljng to admit that the admirable process
which he named and claimed as exclusively his own, was in
reality bound by so strong a link of affinity to those earlier and
far inferior processes which he had received from his friend and
master.

M. Daguerre has never told the world by what steps he was
led to his marvellous discovery, and we can only conjecture the
clue by which a man, so strangely ignorant of the first rudi-
ments of chemistry and physics, was guided through the intri-
cate mazes of these most delicate reactions.
_ A highly-polished Daguerreotype plate then must be con-
sidered as a thin layer of silver, amorphous, and eminently
porous, on which the atmosphere has deposited an organic sub-
stance which the pores of the metal have absorbed and which
the action of the polishing pad has extended in a thin, even,
continuous, homogeneous and transparent film, over the surface
of the metal. The dilute acids can but have removed the
soluble metallic particles ; and the velvet buffers, loaded with
powdered charcoal, must have added to, rather than taken
from, the organic coating of the plate, for, it must be remem-
bered, that vegetable charcoal is the most powerful absorbent of
atmospheric organic matter which we possess. When the plate
thus prepared, is exposed to the action of iodine, the organic
film becomes rapidly impregnated with its vapor, whilst the
surface of the underlying silver is transformed into a layer of
iodine, each molecule of which is, as it were, surrounded by an
atmosphere of uncombined iodine. The action of the light on
the film thus iodized is simple in the extreme ; it transforms the
iodine into an hydracid at the expense of the organic matter, in
which it is dissolved ; whilst the iodhydric acid thus formed
takes up the uncombined iodine of the mineral layer beneath.
Thus the image formed by the lens is permanently impressed on
the sensitive film, the shadows bemg represented by pure iodhy-
dric acid, and the quantity of acid formed being exactly propor-
tional to the local intensity of the light.

The metallic vapor which ascends from the heated surface of
the mercury bath is condensed by the colder surface of the silver
plate into minute globules ; and" these penetrating the outward
or organic film, are brought into contact with the iodide of silver

beneath ; wherever that iodide still retains uncombined iodine
the contact is but mediate and indirect ; for the metallic globu-
les are at once encrusted with a coating of iodide which inter-
poses between the mercury and the iodide of silver, and at once
arrests all future chemical action : but, wherever the iodide of
silver has been denuded by the impact of light of its protecting
atmosphere of iodine the contact of the metallic glooules with
the idide is direct and immediate ; and the two-fold affinity of
the mercury is called into action ; the iodide of silver yields up
its iodine to the mercury, and the formation of iodide of mer-
cury, and the amalgamation of the reduced silver are the re-
sult. Finally, the solution of hypo-sulphite of soda dis=ol7es
out of the sensitive film both the uncombined iodine and the
haloids of silver !:nd mercury, and nothing is left on the surface
of the plate but an unaltered varnish in the blacks, and, in the
lights, altered organic matter, reduced silver, and silver amal-
gam. This is the Daguerrean image.

The familiar process of soldering or tinning copper offers a
simple illustration of these chemical reactions. If you place a
small piece of tin on a clean and bright copper plate and heat

the plate in the flame of a spirit lamp, as the temperature rises
a thin iridescent film of cupric oxide, will be formed, which will
expand in concentric rings over the surface of the plate. When
the melting point of tin is attained, that metal will assume the
liquid form, but instead of flowing like a liquid over the surface
of the copper, it will gather itself up in globules, as though re-
pelled, and constrained to limit its contact with the underlying
metal to a single point. Now let a few grains of powdered
resin, be sprinkled over the two metals ; the cupric oxide will
at once be reduced by the deoxydizing agency of the organic
matter, and, in an instant, the globule of tin will spread Itself
out like a liquid which has burst the pouch which contained it
— and the tinning process is complete. But if, before exposing
the plate of copper to the action of heat its surface has been
melted with a weak solution of chloride of ammonia, the oxide
of copper would be replaced by a chloride of the same metal.
In this case, as soon as the tin assumes the liquid form, the two-
fold nffinity of that metal for chlorine and copper will be called
into play. The copper will yield its chlorine to the tin and the
tin will at once combine with the reduced metal.

I need hardly point out the analogy which exists between
these reactions and the origin which I have ventured to assign
to the Daguerrean image. It must not however be concluded
from that analogy that I consider the presence of organic mat-
ter as absolutely indispensable. Such is not the case. As a
matter of fact, organic matter is always present, in the sensitive
film ; but, it must be remembered that, even if it were possible to
free the surface of the silver from all foreign matter, and to expose
it, chemically pure, to the action of iodine the iodide of sillver thus
formed would still retain both aqueous vapour, and uncombined
iodine, however small its quantity, would afford an ample supply of
hydrogen for the required reaction, so large is the equivalent of io-
dine (126), as compared to that of hydrogen (I). I shall perhaps
at some future time have occasion to shew that one-hundred-thoa-
sandth part of a grain of aqueous vapour would suffice for the
formation of the Daguerrean image over a surface of twelve
square inches. But if organic matter is not essential to the
formation of the image, it tends, at least, greatly to its perfec-
tion ; for, to the combination of organic matter with the re-
duced silver or the silver amalgam, is due that purple tint which
so greatly enhances the beauty of the whites ; whilst its action,
as a simple mechanical screen in the blacks of the image, pre-
vents the condensed globules of mercury from accumulating on
the iodide of silver, and thus overpowering the feeble obstacle
which the iodide of mercury opposes to the affinities of that
metal. That such is the twofold action of the organic matter
is clearly shown by those proofs in which the effective means
have been taken to reduce that element to a minimum ; the
image is still formed as usual, but the lights are faint, meagre,
shadowy and lead-colored, whilst the blacks, after a slight ex-
posure to the mercury, become blanched and apparently dusted
over by a grey powder which totally destroys their lustre aud
transparency.

It is possible that some other agency besides those which I
have pointed out may contribute in some measure to the final
result, thus : as silver is an eminently porous metal it may be
presumed that the silver plate itself exercises on the iodide of
silver and the mtrcury a catalytic action which calls into play
their mutual affinities, as a plate of platinum will determine,
even in the dark, the combination of hydrogen with chlorine
which has been previously exposed to solar light. Or it may
be presumed that the molecules of iodide of silver themselves,
formed as they are, beneath a superincumbent layer of varnish,
are retained in a non-natural axial position, from which they are
freed only by the partial disintegration of that varnish by the ac-
tion of light, and are thus rendered more amenable to the reducing
agency of the mercury. Again it may be argued, that the mer-
cury itself, in its passage from the metallic bath to the surface
of the plate, is iodized and that this oxide is reduced only where
it is brought into contact with the hydracid formed by the ac-
tion of light. Tliese and many other purely hypothetical causes,
may undoiibtedly be pointed out as contributing more or less to
the formation of the Daguerreau image ; but if indeed they

!68

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOTJRXAL.

December,

have any real existence, their influence, I feel convinced, can
only be secondary, tlie true explanation of that beautiful pheno-
menon will be found in that piiysical constitution of the Dapuer-
rean sensitive film, and those simply chemical reactions which
have been described above, and which may be briefly summed
thus :

1. The Daguerrean sensitive film is essentially composed of
two distinct layers, an upper or outer layer of organic mat-
ter, and an under layer of iodide of silver. Both are equally
impregnated with free uncombined iodine.

2. The action of light converts iodine, contained in the uppef
layer, into iodhydric acid at the expense of its organic matter ;
and the hydracid thus formed takes up an equivalent of iodine
from the mineral beneath.

3. Tlie minute globules of mercury which are condensed on
the surface of the film are absorbed into it, and are thus conver-
ted into iodide of mercury, either by the free iodine which that
film still retains, or, where the free iodine has been converted
into an hydracid by the iodide of silver itself, the silver yielding
its iodine to the stronger affinity of the mercury, becoming
amalgamated, and thus constituting the lights and half-tints of
the image.

I am fully aware how unavailing sunh an exposition must be
to carry conviction to the mind of the reader, unaccompanied
as it is by any of the collateral circumstances which alone would
give it weight, but I have been unwilling to intrude at too great
a length upon the patience of your readers a subject which ap-
pears far more important to me than it probably will to them.
If time and space were allowed me I could show how all those
phenomena, which may be considered as secondry in the forma-
tion of the Daguerrean image, and which the theoricians of
Photography have in general passed over in mute despair, un-
able as they were to square them with their hypotheses, present
themselves on the contrary, as the natural and self evident con-
sequences of the constitution which I have assigned to the Da-
guerrean film, and the action which light exercises upon it. I
here allude more especially to the action of iodine, bromine, and
chlorine, in restoring the sensitive film to its integrity after it
has been exposed to the action of light ; to the greatly increas-
ed sensibility produced by chlorine and bromine in the iodized
film ; the phenomena of hyper-bromization, commonly designated
as the fog, or the veil of bromine ; to the cyanizatiou of the
high lights, by exposure once improperly called the solarization
of the proof ; and to many other phenomena, which I need not
here enumerate. But you will at once perceive that this theory
suggests a viodus ojitrandi differing widely from that generally
in use, and recommended in most treatises on this subject The
first, the most important, and the most difficult operation of the
Daguerreotype process assumes an entire different aspect ; its
only object is no longer to remove from a metallic surface every
trace of foreign matter, so as to expose the silver chemically
pure to the action of the iodine, but also, aud rather to extend
over that pure silver surface a thin and even film of well select-
ed varnish, on whose propRrties, chemical, physical and optical,
the beauty of the future image will in the main depend. How
this object could be attained, I endeavored to show in a short
paper presented to the Academy of Science in 1843. Subse-
quent experience has taught me to modify in some of its details
the method I then recommended though it has but the more con-
firmed the theory on which that method was founded. If you
will allow me, I will describe miimtely, in a subsequent number
of the Fholografhic Notes the process which I have for some
years followed. To such of your readers as may wished to make
themselves masters of the most perfect, the most scientific, and
tiie most beautiful of all photographic processes, it will, 1 think,
commend itself for the simplicity and obvious directness of the
means employed, the logical sequence of the operations, the
constancy and the perfection of the results. Let them not how-
ever indulge the hope that any method can lead to unfailing
success. 1 for one, know of no means by which unskillful, or
ill-trained hands can be taught to perlorm, without reiterated
failures, the mosi delicate operation of modern chemistry ; and
those Photographers who boast that they nectr fail would per-

haps by less partial judges be thought never to Succeed. If my
own experience has taught me anything, it is, that a very small
per centage of faultless proofs is all that can be looked for;
and, even this result can be attained only by untiring patience,
by the most fastidious attention to details the most minute, by
the constant habit of scruitinizing every stage of the process by
the light of its own peculiar tests, by allowing no phenomenon
to pass unexplained, and lastly, by considering no explanation
valid which does not place the phenomenon under the complete
control of the operator — to produce or avoid at will.

Yours, very truly, Belfield Lefkvhe.

Uplands, Exeter, November 2lGt, 1858.

From Photographic Noies.

COLLODION IZED PAPER PROCESS.

The Collodionized-Faper Process is one well deserving the
attention of photographic tourists, and we submit to our readers
the following method of working the process, as likely, to inter-
est them; acknowledging at the same time our obligations to
M. Corbin, and the Rev. Wm. Law, for the hints which we
have taken from their communications on this subject, published
in back numbers of the Notes.

To take a negative upon collodlonlzed waxed-paper, proceed
thus : —

Take a sheet of Canson, or Marion, or Saxe paper, free from
spots and defects, and before waxing it submit it to either of
the following modes of treatment : —

{a.) Immerce it for half-an-hour in a dilute solution of muri-
atic acid, say one part of acid to three of water. This removes
any metallic spots, and softens the size so that the paper im-
bibes_ the wax uniformly and without granulation, which is a
very important point. Then wash it in several changes of water
and hang it up to dry. In doing this be very careful, for the
paper is extremely tender.

_ (h.) Soak the paper in boiling water, in order to soften the
size and enable it to take the wax without showing granulation.
Dry it as before, very carefully.

The next operation is to wax and iron the paper, which is so
well-known that it need not be described. Waxed-paper, pre-
pared in the above manner, should be compared with the same
paper, waxed, without being submitted to either of the opera-
tions {a) or (i);— the importance of these operations will then
be perceived, because the waxed paper thus treated is free from
grain and irregularities, while the common waxed-paper is very
granular, and quite unfit for photographic purposes. Let us
not be mistaken in making this assertion; we mean to say dis-
tinctly that waxed-paper prepared in the usual way is totally
unfit for photographic purposes, and that a first-rate negative
never has been, and never can be taken upon such paper.

Having thus prepared the waxed-paper, it must be cut about
half-an-inch smaller every way than the glass plate which fits
the dark slide used in the collodion process. Then, brush it
over on both sides with absolute alcohol, and apply it im*
mediately to the glass plate, pressing it into close contact by
means of the camel's-hair brush. The paper adheres perfectly
to the glass, and lies quite flat, but the edges require to be well
wetted with the alcohol, and pressed closely to the glass.

The collodion is then to be poured upon the paper precisely
in the same way as upon a glass plate. It flows beautifully
ui)on the alcoholized surface of the paper. The entire plate
must be coated up to the edges of the glass; the outer border
of collodion then protects the back of the paper from the action
of the chemicals, aud fastens it firmly to the glass.

The plate is then dipped into the nitrate bath, exposed in the
camera, developed with pyro-gallic acid or proto-sulphate of iron
hi the usual way, fixed with cyanide or hypo, and washed well
in water. After which the paper negative may be removed
from the plate and immersed in a dish of water to' soak for some
time; then dried, and ironed again at any fcture time.

The time of exposure is about the same as in the ordinary

■f-«

process, perhaps a little less, but certainly not longer. The
picture exists entirely in the collodion film, and not at all in the
waxed paper, for if, while the film is still wet after the develop-
ment, it be rubbed with the finger, the picture coraes off entirely,
leaying the waxed-paper perfectly clean. This is a very impor-
tant feature of the process, because all the delicacy and beauty
and sensitiveness of the collodion process is preserved, without
incurring any of the disadvantages of the paper process, such as
insensitiveness and grain.

When the negative is removed from the dish in which it is
finally washed it must be hung up to dry, and v\hen dry it will
be found that the collodion adheres so perfectly to the paper
that it cannot possibly be removed by any kind of rough treat-
ment, such as scratching with the nail, &c. It is then like a
waxed-paper negative in which the picture is entirely superficial
and free from all the defects due to the absorption of the chemi-
cals by the paper; and the back of it is perfectly clean. Prints
from such a negative are very fine, and for bold artistic subjects
of large size quite equal to those from glass plates; the differ-
ence between prints from paper beautifully waxed and glass be-
ing only perceived iu small delicate subjects.

Havinsr thus described a very simple process, with which any
of our readers may succeed at once, we will endeavor to point
out some of its advantages over the paper and glass processes
at present employed by tourists.

For Stereoscopic, or very small pictures, the process offers no
advantages over wet collodion, because in such subjects the
utmost possible delicacy of detail is required, and nothing should
be sacrificed to convenience; but for large bold subjects the
process would be quite suitable, and its principal merit is that
paper negatives are more portable than glass, and less liable to
injury.

For the sake of example, let us take the case of one of our
readers starting next summer for a photographic tour in Ger-
many and Switzerland, and desirous of taking pictures 12 X 10.
Say that he is familiar with the Wet Collodion Process and
anxious to take, in addition to such subjects as might be taken
upon paper, others which could not, such as skies, instantaneous
pictures, atmospheric effects, interiors, and so forth. Well, by
employing glass, he would have to encumber himself with such
a load of plates that a trip of a few weeks would involve serious
expense and trouble; but by employing collodionized paper,
only a few glass plates would be required, while the manipula-
tion of the process would remain the same as before. Again,
there is great advantage to the tourist in any process which
enables him to excite and develop his pictures at the inn where
be happens to be staying, instead of being obliged to excite and
develop in a dark lent or van; now the collodionized paper re-
tains its moisture much longer than collodionized glass, and this
would allow an hour or two to elapse between exciting and de-
Teloping.

■ Suppose, for instance, that a proper plate-box were provided
for holding damp plates, and that a piece of damp thick blot-
ting paper were stuck to the back of each plate, so as to be im-
mediately oppposite and quite close to the film upon the ad-
jacent plate, and th:it such a box could be closed air-tight, and
carried with the plates horizontal, film side downwards; — the
collodionized papers would then certainly retain their moisture
for several hour.<, and they might be excited in the morning and
developed in the evening without any loss of sensitiveness or
risk of failure. The tourist might then work the Wet Collo-
dion Process with all the advantages and couvenieiicies- of
paper, — and his negatives might be packed in a portfolio, and
only half-a-dozcMi glass plates and a single plate-box be required.
Putting all these advantages together, we would strongly ad-
vise our readers to experiment with this process during the
winter months, so as to be au fait with it before the next season
for out-oWour operations. Tne damp-plate box might be made
of vvouu lined with gutta-percha, or coated with several appli-
cations oi water-j,l iss; ur it might be made of jupanned tin,
and wrapped louad externally with a damp towel and enclosed
iu a cover of Mackintosh cloth.

47*

ON A KEW, CHEAP, AND

From Photographic Kotfs.

PERMANENT PROCESS IN PHOTOGRAPHY.

BY MR. W. M'CRAW,

\_Paj)er read lefore the British Association at Leeds.2

" I now set myself to repeat in writing the mode I use for
producing the specimens which attracted yonr notice to-day, of
permanent photographic prints, produced without either silver,
gold, or the noxious hypo-sulphite of soda. I need not expati-
ate to you upon the advantages of such a process. It is, in-
deed, felt to be the great photographic desideratum wherever
photography is practiced — and that is nearly all over the
world — particularly by the conscientious photographer and the
considerate collector of photographs. The labors of the Com-
mittee appointed by the Photographic Society of London, to in-
quire into the cause of the fading of photographs, after a lapse
of two years, have only amounted to this : that photographs of
a certain kind have all faded : and that some of those of the
kind that have stood best have unaccountably faded, — the sad
presumption being, that in time all photographs produced in
the usual way, by the means of chloride of silver, and fixed (as
it is called) by hypo-sulphite of soda, will perish. These consid-
erations, and the fact of a prize being offered by a French no-
bleman for the discovery of a proceSvS for printing photographs
in carbon, set me to experiment in that direction. But my ex-
periments with carbon and various pigments led me to think
that no material applied mechanically, or that could not be
made to take the shape of a dye or chemical solution; would
ever give results with the exquisite half-tmts of the present
beautiful but perishable process. The photographic properties
of bi-chromate of potass were pointed out by Mungo Ponton
twenty years ago, giving photographs of a pale tawney color
A piece of paper is washed over with the saturated solution of
the bi-chromate, and when dried in the dark is of a bright yel-
lew color, and very sensitive to light. If a negative photograph,
or a piece of lace or a leaf, be placed over the prepared paper,
and put in sunshine, in a few minutes a perfect impression of the
object is obtained. The light darkens the color of the bi-chro-
mate, and renders it insoluble in water, while the yellow color
washes out from the parts protected from the light by the lace
or leaf, or negative photograph, as the case may be. But pic-
tures of this kind have little or no practical value ; for although
the lights are good enough, the deep black shadows are only
represented by a tawney shade. Some eighteen months ago a
process was patented for deepening those photographs by treat-
ing them with gallic acid and a salt of iron, which went by the
name of 'Sella's process.' I tried this process at the time ac-
cording to the specification of the patent, but failed to make
one satisfactory specimen. They wanted every thing that a
good photograph should have, — pure lights, clear half-tints, and
deep shadows, — and as I found that others had not been more
sucessful, I abandoned my experiments. But in the course of
further experiments, a year afterwards, with carbon, I was
struck with the fact that a drop of a solution of bi-chromate of
potass allowed to fall on a piece of white paper and afterwards
dried and exposed to the sun, when washed with a solution of
proto-sulphate of iron, and then with gallic acid, while the spot
became perfectly black, the surrounding white paper was un-
affected by the liquids. Knowing the photographic properties
of the bi-chromate already described, I believed that this might
be the foundation of a good photographic process : and that if
the bi-chroinate could be kept iroin penetrating the pons of the
paper, by being kept on its surface, the delects of Sella's i)ro-
ccss might be avoided. With this view, 1 began by filling the
paper with albumen, and then to render it insoluble, immersing
the paper in ether. This, however, did not answer. But as it
would be tedious to detail all the pains I took to discover what
whould not do, and to find in what proportions and in what
order the riglit materials could be best applied. I will briefly
give the formula which I have adoi)tpd, and by which tlie spe-
cimens alladed to were produced : — First, take the white of

310

THE rnoTOGRArnic A^'D fine art journal.

December,

eprgs, and add 25 per cent, of a satuiated solution of common
salt (to be well beat up, and allowed to snbside); float the pa-
per on the albumen for thirty seconds, and hang up to dry. Se-
condly, make a satui-ated solution of bi-chromate of potass, to
which has been added 25 per cent, of Beaufoy's acetic acid.
Float the paper on this solution for an instant, and when dry
it is fit for use. Tliis must be done in the dark room. Tiiirdly,
expose under a negative, in the pressure-frame, in the ordinary
manner, until the picture is sufficiently printed in all its details,
but not over-printed, as is usual with the old process. This re-
quires not more than half the ordinary time. Fourthly, — Im-
merse the pictures in a vessel of water in the darkened room, —
the undecomposed bi-chromate and albumen then readily leave
the lights and half-tints of the picture. Change the water fre-
quently until it comes from the prints pure and clear. Fifthly, —
Immerse the picture now in a saturated solution of proto-sul-
phate of iron in cold water, for five minutes, and agaiu rinse
we'.l in water. Sixthly, — Immerse the pictures again in a satu-
rated solution of gallic acid, in cold water, and the color will
immediately begin to change to a fine purple-black. Allow the
pictures to remain in this until the deep shadows show no ap-
pearance of the yellow bi-chromate ; repeat the rinsing. Se-
venthly,— Immerse, finally, in the following mixture : —Fyro-
gallic acid 2-grs. ; water, 1-oz. ; Beaufoy's acetic acid, 1-oz. ;
saturated solution of acetate of lead, 2-di'ms. This mixture
brightens up the pictures marvellously, restoring the lights
that may have been partially lost in the previous parts of the
process, deepening the shadows and bringing out the details ;
riuse, finally, in water, and the pictures are complete when dried
and mounted. The advantage of this process may be briefly
stated as follows : — First, as to its economy. Bi-chromate of
potass, at 2d. per ounce is substituted for nitrate of silver at 5s.
per ounce. Secondly, photographs in this way can be pro-
duced with greater rapidity than by the old mode. Thirdly,
the pictures being composed of the same maferials which form
the constituent part of writing ink, it may be fairly inferred
that they will last as long as the paper upon which they are
printed.

A beautiful photograph of Sir Walter Scott's monument, ob-
tained by this process, was exhibited in the section.

— The above process only differs from Sella's, published in
JVotes, No. 30, in first alliumenizing the paper, and in the final
application of pyro-gallic acid and acetate of lead. Mr.
McCraws prints are exceedingly sharp, and good in the half-
tones, but feeble and bad iu color. The shadows are glazed, —
tlie lights not. [Ed. P. N.]

PRACTiCAl DETAILS OF

From Photographic Kotcs.

\. PnUNCY'S CARBON PROCESS.

BIRMIXGIIAM PJIGTOGRAPIUC SOCIETY.

WINTER SESSION, lb' 5 8.

The members of the above society held a meeting at the Odd
Fellows Hall, on Tuesday, November 30th, 1858.

The Vice-President, W. Howell, Esq., in the chair.

The minutes of the last meeting having been passed, Isaac
Smith, Esq., was elected a member of the society.

Some carbon prints from Mr. Founcy, of Dorchester, were
then exhibited. These prints were especially interesting, 'as il-
lustrating some peculiarities of the process, more especially with
reference to the kind of paj>er used. Oue print on albumenized
paper having all the detail, but being singularly deficient in
depth, while one on slack-sized paper rather thick, was deep in
color, and the half-tones quite perfect. For landscapes, copies
of engravings, and subjects of that class, the process' leaves
nothing to desire. The portraits were not quite so successful,
but this may be owing to faulty negatives.

Mr. OsBoRN then read a paper on " Photographic Dodges."
[This will appear in our next number.]

1. Prepare a saturated solution of Bi-chromate of Potass.

2. Prepare a common solution of Gum Arabic, about the
consistency of thin varnish.

3. Prepare Vegetable Carbon, by grinding it with a mullcr
on a paint-stone or slab, in the same manner that a painter
grinds his colors ; and be careful that it is ground very fine. It
is to be gi'ound with water.

4. Mix together equal parts of solutions (Ij and (2), say
four drachms of each, and then add one drachm of No. 3.

5. Stir the whole well together with a glass rod, and strain
it through the finest muslin that can be obtained.

6. Now ap))ly the prepared solution in the following man-
ner : — Lay the paper, face uppermost, upon a glass slab, or a
very level and smooth board ; the glass is the best of the two.
Commence coating freely with a broad camel's-liair brush, laying
on a copious supply over the whole surface ; and then allow the
paper to absorb for about two minutes.

1. This done, remove the superfluous liquid thus :^-Take a
painter's 4-ins. hog's-liair " softener," and work it regularly over
the paper, with an alternate vertical and horizontal motion,
until the whole presents a smooth even surface, partially dry.
The drying may then be completed by the fire.

[Operators will of course infer that the whole of these opera-
tions must be carried on in a dark room. They should also be
informed, that any other method of application, including float-
ing, &c., will prove ineffectual.]

8. Expose iu the usual way, varying the time according to
light, say about four or five minutes iu the sun, and from ten to
fifteen in the shade. This, however, will be alfected by the
intensity of the negative, time of year, &c.

9. On removal from the pressure-frame, lay the picture, face
downwards, in a flat dish of clean water, taking care to exclude
all air-bubbles. It will be found advisable to place some slight
weight upon the picture, that the back may thus be retained
wholly under water and kept free from stains. The time of
soaking may be roughly stated at five or six hours ; though in
some cases of over-exposure pictures may remain in the water
for days, and come out equally good.

It may be observed here, that when the high lights of the
picture a|ipear soon after immersion, the operator may conclude
that he has under-exposed, or that his gum arable is too thick ;
which last fault may be corrected by the addition of a little
more bi-chromate. It is preferable to find the picture develop-
ing evenly all over. Each picture umst be iu a separate dish,
and finally washed under a gentle stream of clean water from a
tap or a lip cup. Should the margin be not quite clean, pass a
camel's-hair brush carefully over it before rinsing from the tap,
and, if needful, any parts of the picture, but the best results
are obtained by soaking only.

Such is the process about which so much has been said durin-;- ^
the last nine months. The particulars of it are now public
property, thanks to the liberality of those who have come for-
ward and subscribed about £10 as an acknowleilge\nent to Mr.
Pouu(;y for his services, and for the labor he has bestowed in
biinging the process to its present state of perfection.

But the publication of this process is not the only piece of
good news with which we are able to commence a new volume
of the Notes. We are happy to inform our readers that M.
Poitevin's patents for Photo-Lithography and Carbon-Printing,
Nos. 2815 & 2816, have lapsed, in consequence of his not re-
newing I hem by paying some additional fees which became due
on the 13ili ult. These patents bear date Dec. 13, 1855, and
were good for three years ; that term has now expired, and M.
Poitevin has not lenewed them ; so that they have become pub-
lic property. The only jjatents now to be avoided are that of
M. Beauregard, for Carbon-Frinting, the Spec fication of which
is given in Noles, No. 54 ; and that of Messrs. Cutting & Brad-
foril for Photo-Lithography, given in Notes, No. 63.

It is with great salistaction that we are thus enabled to bring
this matter of ' ' Pouncy's Process" to a successful termination,

1S5S.

THE rilOTOGRAPinC AXD FINE ART JOURNAL.

311

so far as the public are concerned. But we must inform our
readers tliat Mr. Pouncy lias given his process to the public
before the £100 was subscribed, and we trust that the remain-
ing £30 will be made up to him. We would throw out a gentle
hint to Members of the Photographic Society, that they hare
been a little backward in this matter, and an opportunity is now
offered for exhibiting liberality to one who has worked hard for
the advaucemeut of Photography, and whose name will be as-
sociated with an important discovery in the future history of the
art. We read with much pleasure the Editorial remarks on Mr.
Pouncy's process in the leader of the Journal of the Photo-
graphic Society, No. 14 ; and have scarcely a doubt that the
Society will now act generously in this matter. In whatever
light different persons may regard the amount of success which
Mr. Pouncy has achieved, it cannot be doubted but that a per-
manent printing process of this kind is greatly needed, and that
a vast deal of labor has been bestowed by him in bringing Car-
bon-Printing to its present advanced state. Knowing, as all
photographers do, the diBieulties, anxieties, time, and expense
involved in a long series of experiments, and the great benehts
conferred by those who bring such experiments to a successful
issue, it is surely incumbent on a leading Photographic Society
to express in some way their appreciation of a useful expenditure
of time, thought, and materials. We have endeavoured, as a
Journalist, to do our duty in this matter, and the tusk has not
been without its troubles and disappointments, hat it has at
length been brought to a successsul issue, and we have our re-
ward in knowing that an excellent process of Carbon-Printing
has been hrst brought forward and published in this Journal.
Need we add that we shall always be happy to receive commuui-
catious from those who are practising this process ; and that
these columns are always heartily at the service of any one who
may have an improvement in Ph.otography to bring before the
public.

[We have been very successful in experimenting with this
process, and have produced very fair proofs in india ink, burnt
uvibcr, Prussian blue, raw umber, burnt^ and raw sienna neutral
tint, green, and vermillion. We have tried several methods of
putting on the color, and find it best to grind the dry color in
the 7)nxed solutions of chromate and gum, and after attaining
the finest point adding more solution until about as thick as
cream ; then standing it aside to settle and evaporate to a cuke.
When used, wet the brush in water and rub it over the surface
of the cake until sufiScieut is imbibed and spread upon the paper.
In this way the paper is not over saturated and the operation is
performed in much less time. The color may be also spread,
beautifully, in the same manner as steuselling, or theorem paint-
ing, is done. Any kind of w«// sized paper will answer, — £d.
F. F. A. Journal.]

From Photographic Notes,

A CURIOUS RESULT IN DEVELOPING A POSITIVE.

To the Fditor of Photographic Notes :

Dear Sir — As 1 was testing a sample of collodion a short
time ago, I met with rather an unusual occurrence. 1 was try-
ing a negative stereoscopic portrait, but found, on developing
with ihe usual pyro-gallic solution, that it was rather under-ex-
posed. I thought I would try an experiment with it, so I wash-
ed it thoroughly, re-dipped iu the bath, (rather hazardous to the
bath, perhaps,) and again poored on a protosulpliate of iron de-
veloper, with acetic acid, but not nitric acid. Instantly a solid
positive portrait flashed out, the l)lacks belugas solid and aense
as the whites and no transparency in any part, it was still un-
timed so that the image was dark and sombre. I meant to have
sent it to you, but in my absence it was thrown down and brok-
en. I intended to have pursued the subject farther, bat my
time is so fully occupied that I have had no leisure. I supposed
the dense black deposit in the shadows to be gallate of iron, re-
sulting from a portion of the pyro-gallic left in the film. If any
of your readers have the inclination and 0|)portunily to try the
experiment I should like to hear more of it. The bath was not
injured at all. F. Parsoxs.

For tlio Photographic and Fine Art Journal.

THE DAGUERREOTYPE.

Mr. Editqr :

I was exceedingly gratified to see, in one of your recent
numbers, a hearty, admiring tribute to our old friend, the
" Daguerreotype." Gratified, in that it so exactly reaches what
I have myself repeatedly declared, within those few past years,
which have witnessed the exaltation of the Photograph, the
Ambrotype, and sundry "graphs," "types," &c., beside, into a
popularity, which, for the time, cast the Daguerreotype in the
shade, and threatened to cover it with " blank oblivion." Nor
have I thus alone expressed myself in conversation, but 1 have de-
liberately put this opinion on record in a Treatise on the Helio-
graphic Art, which has long bein^y in preparation, but which has
been kept back from the press by my railroad casualty, and con-
sequent permanently crippled condition, — causes, however,
which, 1 trust, will ere long, be so jar at least obviated, that I
may give the results of my labors to the world.

It is not, indeed, strange, that the Dagucreotype should, for
a while, have fallen into partial obscurity. Our age is abund-
antly prolific of invention and discovery in all departments, be
it the ornamental or the useful, and mankind are proverbially
covetous of the new. And in no sphere of Art has there been
more rapid progress, or a greater multiplication of discovery of
novel and interesting varieties, than in the Art of Sun Paintiiio-.

Ttiis Art too is, in all its phases, so opulent of beauty and
wonder, and every new form, that makes its appearance of the
Sun's handiwork, is so attractive and meritorious of admiration,
that we have no occasion for surprise, that the original parent
of them all, the Daguerreotype, should, for a season, have pass-
ed comparatively out of sight. This is only what equally occurs
in all things, be they of great import or sm'all.

For man, finite being that he is, can give a concentrated at-
tention and an enthusiastic tribute of interest to but one thin"-,
at one and the same time. The new novel — the new poem —
the new hero— the new belle — in a word, the new notability, in
whatever kind, always abstracts the popular regards— for the
mnvient at all events — from the previously known and familiar
individuals of their several classes. Truthfully declares the
lyrist, that —

" We must be off with the old love,
Before we are on with the new"

Nor, indeed, is there one reason for regretting this tendency
iu human nature. Created, as we are, to be improveable beings,
and organically designed for perpetual progression, this very
passion for novelty iu all kinds is one of the principal and
strongest impulses that push us forward in the path of ad-
vancement.

Sooner or later however you will invariably find, that the minds
of men agree in putting individuals, and their performances, in
their proper places. The grandest, the most beautiful, the nob-
lest of man's works — as also the greatest, the wisest, the best,
and the most admirable among men themselves — eventually
become recognized as suck, and thenceforward assume their
places, as Stars iu the Firmament of Mind, to which we look
up as archetypes of beauty and fountains of inspiralion.

Thus, Homer, Virgil, Siitxkspeare, Milton and Dante, have
become our ideals among the poets — Alexander and Cassar,
Hannibal and Napoleon, our types of military genius — .Michael
Angelo and Rapliael, our representatives of the pictorial art.
and so on to the end of the chapter.

Tliis principle, so familiar to all, applies exacly to the case
of the Daguerreotype As Homer is entitled "The Father of
Poetry," so (if I may venture io personify) we may pronounce the
Daguerreotype "The Parent of Sun I'ainting." And as Homer,
though the earliest of his tribe, has never yet been excelled, and
some think never yet equalled, so is it, iu my own view, with the
Daguerreotype not less.

Tlie signs spei-ified by you, Mr. Editor, of a reviving atten-
tion to the Daguerreotype and a resurrectionary popularity of
the same, are syuiptomaLic of that process iu the general mind

372

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

December,

whereby the majority at last settle what specimen of hnman en- 1
deavorfor what person is best or greatest, or most admirable,
iu its class.

It does not, indeed, follow by any means, that because we
may prefer this or that form of Sun Painting, we are to overlook
or neglect the rest, or any one among them. It is not " that we
love Ca3sar less, but that we love Rome more."

I myself introduced tlie Ambrotype, at my establishment,
corner of, Chestnut and Fifth streets, and yet never for a mo-
ment intermitted my careful attention to my " first love;" the
Daguerreotype. This establishment passed from my hands into
those of George Cook, Esq., prior to my railway injury. I have,
within a few weeks, paid visits to the old Root Gallery and
other similar establishments in this city, and examined both the
Daguerreotypes and the Ambrotypes there produced. The for-
mer I found in perfect preservation — radiant in all their original
beauty and delicacy of outline. On the contrary, I found the
latter fading, blistered, spotted — in a word, passing rapidly o-it
of the number of existing things. In consequence of these signs,
the best artists have recently abandoned — mostly, if not en-
tirely— the making of the Ambrotype, and confine themselves to
the Daguerreotype.

In truth, for a small portrait, or a miniature, without color,
the Daguerreotype transcends every other species of Heliograph
in truthfulnes, beauty and durability. It is a style of picture
which connoisseurs and all best judges favor, and will, there is
little doubt, be taken in all the most respectable establishments of
our country, even though the other varieties of the art should
be taken also, as the intelligence, judgment and taste of the
people at large improve.

The minds of our 30.000 000 of people are rapidly expanding,
and are ever ready to give a hospitable welcome to indications
of improvement, iu whatever shape presented. With the diffu-
sion of intelligence, together with general culture and refinement
the sentiments of family relationship and of kindred — the ties of
human brotherhood — and a common reverence for the great and
good of our Land — will tend more and more to create a desire
to possess truthfull and life-like representations of the forms and
faces, alike of those near and dear to us, and of those, .who,
through their heroic deeds or their eminent wisdom and virtues,
have stamped their names iu lasting characters, on the pages of
our history.

The Sun Painting Art is also destined to grow in popularity,
through the Heliography Sketches, now becoming common, of
renowned and interesting localities and scenes in America, Eu
rope and Asia. In this work an important part will doubtless
be enacted by the Stereoscopic Societies of Europe and this
country. These serve to leave in the drawing-rooms of the opu-
lent, the intelligent, and the tasteful, in all sections of the globe,
faithful views of the spots cited in history — such, for example,
as Egypt's Pyramid, and the ruins of her temples and cities —
the reiiques of the half-disinterred Herculaneum and Pompeii —
in short, of whatever still survives of the empires, cities and peo-
ple's, that, in ancient days and all different countries, filled the
known world with their glory. Through the same agency, we
miiy obtain lile-like presentments of the countries and cities, and
the populations, together with their costumes, their fashions, and
thi-ir modes of life, of the modern world not less. ,^

The tendancy o( views of this class will be to educate, to ele-
vate, and in ail ways to i/»pr<>rc the minds of the popular masses,
and to furnish them with inexhaustible sources of innocent, and
at the same lime, edifying employmetit.

And tlie people at large, with their tastes and judgments,
thus culturtd and refined, will naturally come to desire, not
jnerely truthful but urtisticalty finished, portraits of their rela-
tives and kinsfolk. Nor will it, be long, ere ihey will be satis-
fied with iiolhlng less than skilfully made products of the Suu-
puinting Art in nil kinds.

Tlieiice il will follow, that when Ileliographers in general shall
shew themselves true to themselves and their art, and shall have
the Caiui ra managed l)y none butca|>able artists, who, l)y natural
taste and judgnient, as well as acquired aceouiiilislimcnt, shall be
qualified to pose every olject arlislically and with grace, so as to

secure effective lights and shadows, and bring out on each face a
thought-speaking expression — then this now underrated and mis-
appreciated art will receive its rightful dues, and will assume a
high stand among the arts, which are at once useful and orna-
mental.

Just so long, however, as carpenters, coblers, barbers, assist-
ant-cooks, and their like, who have not adequate capacity to
thrive in their legitimate vocations, shall turn their attention to
the Science and Art of Heliography — and after spending a few
weeks under the tutelage of imbeciles, as devoid of genius, and as
illy fitted to promote and elevate the art as themselves, shall
set up as Heliographers, and in flaming advertisements promise
to picture the " human face divine artistically," and " in all the
beauties of nature," — while I say, suck persons constitute four-
fifths of the profession — take flat, wooden, expressionless shad-
ows of the crowd for a shilling or two each — trumpet them-
selves, the while, as masters of the Heliographic Art — dis-
parage and decry legitimate, genuine artists of genius, who
have studied and practically labored, for years, to win a pro-
ficiency in their profession and to acquire a fair repute there-
in, and who, in this aim, have availed themselves of the advan-
tages to be drawn from long study in the best Art-schools of
Europe — while suck are the facts, as regards our art, no wonder
Sun-painting is looked upon by the more intelligent portion of
our community, and especially by most of our old artists in oil,
with distrust and contempt. But, in the hands of a few skilful
faithful and persevering men of genius and character, we feel
confident, it will rise gradually into favor with the old legitimate
artists and connoisseurs, and, by consequence, with the better
educated portion of the public. Nor this alone — but it will win,
and deservedly too, the patronage of the community at fairly
remunerative prices.

M. A. Root.

Philadelphia, 12th Jan. 1859.

ARCHER'S CAMERA

To the Editor of Photographic Notes.

Dear Sir : — I saw, some weeks ago, in the " Photographic
News," an enquiry which struck me as one of great interest and
utility, and to which I would fain have seen more answers than
have appeared, viz., as to the smallest quantity of water that can
be used in a day's work abroad and in a locality where it is un-
attainable. During a sojourn at Lynmouth two years ago, I
was much amused at seeing a two-gallon jar on the top of a fly,
(a heavy load for even a blue-bottlej, placed there as the con-
sumption for the dny's requirement , and I hare many times
since witnessed the distress occasioned by the paucity, or even
total want, of this necessary adjunct for photographic field-work.
I replied to the letter iu the Photographic News, and at the risk
of appearing a bore, and always seeming to harp on the same
subject, viz., the signal advantages that an Archer's camera
offers to the photographer, I would venture to occupy a few
lines again to reiterate what I have before advanced. Four-
teen ounces of water 1 find, — and have done now for three years,
— quite sufiBcient for a day's work, and to enable me securely
to bring home eight negatives 8-^X61, and as many stereosco-
pic negatives of the usual size It is certainly the most econo-
mical allowance I have ever heard of, but it is enough, as proved
by nearly 800 good negatives, copies from which are at the ser-
vice of any one choosing to require them. The form of bath is
fully and minutely descrif)ed in the number of your Notes wiiere
I described the construction of the camera. It is of wood,
strongly screwed and cemented together with marine glue. It
is -«y(/°-f</-sliaped, thinner at the Ijottom than the top, and in
its place in the bag in the floor of the camera, is kei)t in a slant-
ing position, the bottom of the flat side leaning towards the
operator; tiie dimensions externally are jiS follows: — without
the lid it is ll-ins. high, 8i-iii. broad, 1-in. thick at the top,
and ^-iii. thick at the bottom ; with the lid, which isS clamped
on with screws and two brass cluiiiiis, and lias thn-e layers of
sheet India-rubber to make it water tight, it is ll.],-ins. hi'^h.

Jrttcrnally it is 7|-in. broad, 8|-in3. high and |-in. thick. The
dipper is of wood, just long enough for the end to flush with the
top to allow of the lid being screwed on, and is 10|-ins. high,
4-ins. wide at the top, and at the bottom is a bevelled cross-
pipce, 7-ins. broad, to carry the plate bevelled in. By keeping
this pressed against the side of the bath when putting in or
taking out the plate, it is impossible, with ordinary care, to rub
or injure the film, — the accident has never occurred to me. The
bath, wlien charged with water, and having the dipper in, and
alloicing for the displacement caused by the immersion of the
glass flatt, holds 14-ozs. of common water. Mr. Arclier always
recommended the addition of a little common salt, but I have
never used it, and do not find the want of it. Of course, after
a day's work, I find the water yellow and discolored, but still
it answers well, and efficiently serves the required purpose. Im-
mediately after developing the plate in the ordinary way inside
the camera, and by the aid of the yellow blind at the top of the
camera, and I am satisfied that the image is as perfect as I re-
quire, I plunge the negative gently into tiie water bath, and
then open the end of my camera to daylight, I leave the nega-
tive for a minute or so in the water bath, and then bring it out
into open daylight, or sunlight, and having satisfied myself thft
it is uhat I wanted, put it in the plate-box. I do not mean
to assert, that for all practical purposes, it is quite sufficient to

81X6|, and a double stereoscopic one of the same subject, with
a facility and comfort which must be seen to be believed, and
which, should I be enabled to pay you a visit next summer, shall
be fully demonstrated to your satisfaction.

I was sorry to see this camera classed in your very useful
Dictionai-y, amogst the amateur's e.ccentricilies. " Let him laugh
who wins," and he who bewails the ordinary discomforts of pho-
tography out-of-doors adopt it. It deserved a longer notice,
and I can only attribute the imperfect account you have given
of it irom your not actually having seen one in use.

From Pholographic l^^oies,

NEW PRO CESS FOR ENGRAVING, AND OTHER ITEMS.

An important new process relating to the art of engraving
has just been patented by M. Joubert, a French engraver, who
has for some years resided in this country. It consists in a me-
tliod of hardening copper plates by means of a coating of steel,
deposited by the electrotype process. A minute account of this
process will be found in the Journal of the Society of Arts, for

Nov. 24th. There is also a brief account of it in the Art
enabled the operator to judge if he has obtained a satisfactory Journal for this month, from which we make the lollowing ex-
or unsatisfactory negative, and if the latter, of course giving tract
him the power of doing it over again before he takes down his
camera and quits the spot, which perhaps be may be unable
again to visit. This is, in my humble opinion, an immense boon:
and coupled with the small size and small amount of weight that
the water bath causes, is desiratum not obtainable by any other
method that I have seen ; — but then it would be useless for any

other form of camera than Archer's, — it is part and parcel of
the camera, and forms, with the plate-box, the most complete
apparatus that has ever been invented, meeting as it does every
requirement for the amateur or professional tourist. At home
I never use any other camera, and for portraits I find it ex-
ceedingly convenient ; the facility of being able to do any sized
plate (of course within the limits of the dimensions of the
camera), the absence of all chassis, and the inestimable advan-
tage and convenience of not wanting a tent or dark room for pro-
ducing the picture fit (with the exception of drying it before
the fire to varnish it) for the pressure-frame, an advantage that
need not be dilated upon. I well remember astonishing a friend
at Lynraouth, the day after I arrived there, in taking as good a
negative as I ever did, (and which has since been engraved in
his presence), in my Archer's camei'a, and whilst he was en-
gaged in going to take his and developing it in his dark room
somewhere in the village, I dried, varnished, and actually copied
mine, showing him a good proot in hypo-sulphite on his return,
bewailing his non-success.

One might certainly suppose, from my warm advocacy of the
Archer camera, that I had some pecuniary interest in thus
vaunting its praises, an accusation that any one who knows me
will readily refute. I have myself derived so many hours real
gratification from the mode of manipulation which I adopt, and
have so many hundred plea.siug reminiscenses ot past days' labor
to show, that I should be selfish indeed if I did not try to im-
part to my fellow-laborers in the vineyard, a means by which
they may, if they choose, gather much of the finest fruit, and
that too without all the terrible incumbrances that I often meet
them laboring and toiling under. As to describing a camera
like mine it is quite impossible, even with the aid of diagrams ;
it must be seen, and is then easily understood.

When out for a day's work I always take with me a small
and ordinary binocular stereoscopic camera, with its tripod stand,
and when I find the view 1 am taking (I mean my large one
8|X6^) is one applicable for the stereocospe, I coat my stereo-
plate in my Archer's camera excite it, place it in the stereo-
chassis inside my camera, and then, after exposing it in the
stereo-camera, return it to the large one, and develop and place
it in the water bath, as before described ; thus I generally obtain,
with a quarter-of-au-hour's longer expeuditnre of time, one view

48

"The hardening of the copper plate has long been in this
country, as well as on the continent, one of the philosopher's
stones of the chemistry of Art, and the more earnestly has it
been sought since the discovery of the method of dealing with
steel, because a success in this direction must be a certain for-
tune to the discoverer; and if, as we hope, the surface of the
plate, is so effectively enduring as to throw ofi' thousands of
well-conditioned prints this will be the fourth great Art-auxilia-
ry which may be almost said to almost signalize the former half
of the present century — we mean lithography, the hardening of
the steel plate, photography, and, fourthly, this method of mul-
tiplying copper-plate engravings."

The above remarks show the importance of the discovery,
one which is likely to affect considerably the process of Pholo-
Glyphic engraving.

A third communication has been published, from M. Niepce
de St. Victor to the French Academy of Sciences, relating to
a supposed new action of light. Many of the experiments de-
scribed have already appeared in the iSfoles, but others are new.
We shall give a translation of the entire paper in our next num-
ber, and offer some comments upon it.

We have received from Mr. Gutch a copy of his Literary
and Scientific Almanac for 1859. There is proliably no work of
the kind in existence which contains so much useful matter con-
densed into a small compass as this, and we advise our readers
by all means to get it.

We would call particular attention to an important communi-
cation which we have received from M. Yoigtlander respecting
the Orthoscopic lens, some comments upon which we shall offer
in onr next.

A new photographic society has just been established at Not-
tingham, We are glad to hear of this, for these societies do a
great deal of good, and deserve the hearty support of photo-
graphers.

Mr. Fox Talbot has kindly sent us a great number of his
photoglyphic engravings, some of which are by the process pa-
tented in 1852. Ou examining them very carefully, we are in-
clined to think the process one of great promise, and certainly
an improvement on Photo Galvanography. It would be hyper-
criticism perhaps to raise objection to the grain, wiiich is scarce-
ly perceptible in these prints; and then the sharply cut lines of
the architecture aud the gradation of shade in the distances,
are very encouraging. The faults seems to be only such as im-
proved manipulation may overcome.

Those who are trying uraiuum printing should use slack-sized
paper, and add alcohol to the nitrate of silver developer. This
gives greater intensity to the blacks.

3T4

THE PIIOTOGKArniC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

December,

From rholo^raphic Notes.

rnoTOGRAPnic siiuabble.

The council of the Pliotojjrnpliic Society, at a recent meet-
ing, piissed tiie following resolution :

" Complaints having been made that the papers communicated
to the society appear in other Journals before their pul>lication
in the Society's Journal, it is resolved that the secretary be di-
rected to request the proprietors to desist from any such publi-
cation."

This resolution is directed against the " Liverpool Photo-
graphic Journal" and the " Photographic News," not against
the " Piiotograi)liic Notes," because we have invariably abstain-
ed, not only froiu anticipating the I'cports of ithe proceedings at
the society's meetings which appear in the society's Journal, but
also from copying any articles which have already ajipeared in
that Journal. We have abstained from doing these things
from motives of common honesty, and we decidedly think that
in passing the above resolution the council are in the right.
No honest man would dream of disputing their argument. V^'^e
take that for granted, and are not going, in what follows, to
discuss the right and wrong of this matter, but simply to offer
a few comments on an article by Mr. Crookes, relating to this
subject, which appeared in No. 12 of the Photograjjhic News,
a Journal recently started and edited by him. In that article
the writer attempts to defend the course in which he, as editor,
has begun, and in which he says he intends to persevere in op-
positon to the resolution of the council; and also makes some
curious revelations with resjjcct to the Socitf}'s Journal, which
p('0i)le may believe or not as they choose. His argument is
that the Photographic Society is a j>?<.i/tc body, and its meetings
are puhlic meetings, at which any re)»ortcr has a light to be
present; and he inforrjs us that his only object in publishing a
report of the proceedings at those meetings is to serve the so-
ciety by giving to them increased publicity. " We may well
ask," says he, "what interest can we be supposed to have in
the publication of these reports beyond the desire to be of ser-
vice to members of the society"; and again, "our real motive
is obvious to every impartial and honest man." Of course it
is; how could any honest man fail to perceive the true motive,
considering that this gentleman was for about a year secretary
to tlie society and no doubt still takes a lively interest iu its
welfare? It also appears from Mr. Crooke's revelations that
the Journal of the Society, of which he was editor for about a
year, and which when he first became editor was reported by
liim to be in a very flourishing condition, gradually dwindled
down in its circulation (under his nninagement) until, when he
received his dismissal a short time since, it was brought to such
a pass as to "depend for its continued existence on its being
the cho.sen receptacle for all the desultory conversation indnlgeii
in by a few garrulous members at their meetings"; while in an-
other place he informs us that "not one in live who receive the
I'hotographic Journal ever reads it." llis own readers may
either believe or disbelieve these statements; but to those who
elect to believe tliem a clue will be iillbriied l)y which to account
for the change which has recently i)een made iu the editorship
of the Journal in (|uestion. The remainder of this gentleman's
article is such a silly gasconade that the council of the Plioto
graphic Society nuist now feel ashamed that the writer should
ever have had the control of their own Journal.

The Photographic Society may not have done all the good
that it might, could, and .sh.mld have done; nevertheless, it has
done much good, and will do more. A large part of its in-
come is dirived from the proljts of the Journal; photographers
will therefore no doubt generally condemn and oppose attempts
to divert these prcjfits into a private channel. Tlie council have
perceived the ill efl'ects of trusting incompetency, and now we
are tmly expressing a general feeling in congratulating them on
their present choice of editor. No doubt they will treat the
indecent attack of their late secretary with proper dignity, and
nhould they at any time find it necessary to maintain their rights
by an appeal to a legal tribunal, they may rely on receiviug the

support of every upright man to whom the circumstances of
their coini)laint arc explained.

[This article shows that the good old motto, " United we
stand, divided we fall," is as little regarded in England as in
America, and that petty jealousies and self-aggrandisement are
eciually ram[)ant in both countries. Public Art societies as well
as public boilies— according to our views — should "stand upon
their own bottoms," and should be free to all who subscribe to
their rules, and not dejiend upon publications for their sup]»ort ;
while periodicals, devoted to the interests of the arts should
eqmilly depend upon the talents and enterprise of their editors.
All public meetings .■should be as freely reported by one paper
as another. This is the republican view of the matter. — Ed.
P. & F. A. Journal.]

From Photographic Notes.

PHOTOGRAPHIC niPROVEMENTS IN 1858.

We will now give a brief resume of the improvemetita which
have been made in Photography during the year 1858.

First and foremost must undoubtedly be placed Mr, Fox
Talbot's improved method of Photo-Glyphic Engraving. This
process consists in obtaining upon a steel plate by chemical
means an etching from a photograph, from which proofs maybe
struck in the usual way. The Specifications of Mr. Talbot's
patents for this process, taken out in 1852 and 1858, will be
ibuiid in Notes, No. 63. The specimens which he has kindly
sent for our inspection, twenty-two in number, are not quite
equal to the finest silver j)rints, but are so far good that altho'
all the excellencies of a fine silver print are not to be found
combined in any single Photo-glyph, still they may be found
some in one specimen some in another. For instance, there is
boldness and vigor in the view of the Court of Lions in the
Alhambra, — beautiful half-tone in the views of Notre Dame,
the great Bell of Moscow, and the Schools at 0.\ford ; — and in
all the specimens the definition is jierfeet. We are therefore
inclined to think that the faults which a fastidious critic would
certainly detect iu any one of these specimens are rather to be
attributed to the uiisuitableness of the ]ihotographic original
than to any inherent defect in the Photo-Gly|thic process. The
fact is, ))hotographers have got into the way of taking negatives
too dense for any process of printing except that in common use,
in which the print is first over-printed iu the pressure frame, and
then lowered in tone by the fixing and toning bath ; and when
any new method of printing is brought lorward which is con-
ducted on a different principle, a hue and cry is immediately
raised about want of half-tone, — the admirers of the old j)roccss
forgetting that when exact justice is done to their negatives in
liie i)ressure frame, even by their favorite process, either the
hall-tones are wanting, or the shadows overdone. Take, for
instance, the snowy lights of a Photo-glyph, or Carbon print, or
developed jjrint, or glass transparency ; is it not certain that,
other things remaining the same, these snowy lights would have
exhibited tone and details if the negative had been snllicienily
transparent in those i)arts? Our belief is that no known ])ro-
cess of printing is to be blamed for the non-production of half
tone, but that the fault in every case lies with the negative.
The first step therefore towards the improvement of any method
of reproducing positives is to obtain a suitable negative.

On first hearing of Mr. Talbot's improved i)roeess of Photo-
Glypiiic engraving we expressed doubts as to the possil)iliiy of
avoiding the grain and smudginess which characterize the photo-
gal ranograph ; but the sight of the specimens reiuoved at once
t Hose doubts, and we now regret that we expresseil them.
There is so liUle grain in a photo-glyph that it is scarcely jier-
ceptible under a high magnilyer, and most of the proofs we have
seen eshil)it considerable delicacy and artistic beauty. Tiie
Ijreat value of the process will no doubt consist in the ready
means it affords of illustrating books by photography, and for
this purpose its im])ortance cannot be overrated. To Mr. Fox
Talbot is therefore due the honor of a second discovery which

1S58.

TEE rUOTOGRAnilC A^D ri5E ART JOURNAL.

may prore to be scarcely less important than that of Photo-
grupliy itself.

To those who have not seen any of Mr. Talbot's piioto-glyphs
it will convey some idea of what may be expected from this
process when wo say that on comparing a pliotoglypli with a
good albuineiiized sun-print, under a higli niagnifyer, the latter
looks much the coarser of the two. Albumenizing a sheet of
paper does not render the surface so smooth and even ascyiiuder-
ing it in an engraver's press ; and on the smoothness of tlie
tablet the delicacy of the print of course greatly depends We
are inclined to think that a cylindering press, like that sold by
M. Poirier, would be a valuable addition to the paraphernalia
of the dark room, and its extensive introduction vfvn]d pi-obaOh/
bring plain printing (which is certainly the most arlisticj, into
higher repute.

The next great step in Photography which will render the
year 185s remarkable in the history of that science, is the dis-
covery of Printing in Carbon, by a method extremely simple and
inexpensive, and which any amateur may easily master, and
practise with success. The process may be modified in a variety
of ways by substituting various pigments for carbon, and using
tinted papers. Carbon-Printing has been brought to a very ad-
vanced state during the past year by Mr. Pouuey, of Dorches-
ter ; and photographers owe him a debt of gratitude for the
persevering industry which he has displayed in experimenting in
this direction. Everything relating to this method of printing
has been fully discussed in our back numbers for the last year,
and the full particulars of the manipulation are given in the
present number, so that we need not introduce these matters
again.

The principal objection raised to Carbon Printing is, that the
material exists in a state of mechanical division instead of in the
form of a chemical precipitate But it should be remembered
that the surface to be printed on is paper, and this is coarse
even when albumenized, at the same time that paper positives
are valued rather for their artistic qualities than their micros-
copic perfection. Besides, on examining a fine architectural
drawing in Indian ink , (that is, carbon in a state of tine mechani
cal division), it would indeed be hyper-criticism to find fault
with the coarseness of the medium employed ; and it may be
questioned whether the most even tint which could be obtained
by holding a sensitive chloride paper in the light would exhibit
any superiority in evenness to tlie tint produced by applying to
the same paper a wash in Indian ink or water colors. Photo-
graphy must be greatly in advance of its present state before
such an olgection as we mentioned can be considered valid against
a process of Carbon-Printing upon paper. We would observe
I'.owever, that some months ago, Mr. Osborii, of Birmingham,
in a private letter, informed us of a method of Printing in Car-
bon which had been suggested to him by Mr. Johnstone, and
which would consist in applying to a sheet of paper a mixture
of bi-chromate of potass and susrar, exposing it to light under
a negative, washing off the umiltered chemicals, and acting on
the parts which had been fixed by liglit with sulphuric acid,
which it was supposed would carbonize the sugar which was
combined with the reduced chromium salt, without affecting the
whites of the picture. A similar suggestion has been lately
offered by Mr. Mabley, of Manchester. Tiie idea is good, but
we have not heard of any one having tried it. We shall do so
ourselves shortly and report results.

It appears now to be generally admitted that Mr. Pouncy's
process is an important step. We strongly advise our readers
to apply to him for their maierials ; and in making their fir.>t
experiments, to follow his directions implicitly. Hard, smooth
paper gives results in no way inferior to silver prints as reg.irds
detail and half-tone, but the blacks are feeble, and reseniblf
black lead ; slack-sized paper, on the other hand, gives vei'y
vigorous blacks, but tiie details and half-tints are not so fine as
before. If the latter kind of paper were cylindered before
being put into the pressure-frame it would perhaps be a great
iinprovement. Perhaps also a little indigo might be added to
the carbon with advantage to the tint.

Among other photographic processes which have been brought

forward last year are, Fofhergill's Dry Collodion Process ; -a
methoil of bleaching glass positives with a solution called "Ala-
bastrine Sohilion,"( the composition of which is a Trade secret; ;
—and a method of Printing by Development upon Opal glass,
which has been patented by Mr. Glover.

With respect to Mr. Fothergill's Dry Process, we believe that
more has been said about it than it deserves. It is closely allied
in principle to Dr. Norris's Dry process, and the only point in
which it differs from his appears to us to involve an error of
principle, if the plates are intended to be kept for any length of
time The mode of exciting and developing the jjlates is tiie
same in both processes, but in Dr. Norris's the plate is thorough-
ly washed after removal from the nitrate bath, and geintme
(which is a comparatively inert substance, containing no sulphur)
is applied to it ; while in Fothergill's process the plate is not so
thoroughly washed to remove the free nitrate, and albumen is
first applied to it, and then washed off. Now knowing what
we do of the properties of albumen when mixed with nitrate of
silver, it does not require a ghost to rise from the dead to tell
us that Dr. Norris's j)lates are more likely to keep well and de-
velop clean thiin Mr. Fothergill's ; and it is really surprising to
see questionable modifications of old processes caught at and run
after by amateur photographers without their first examining
I'n^ principle on which the modification is founded, or consider-
ing the end which it is proposed to gain by it.

Dr. Norris, alluding to Fothergill's process, in a letter which
we received from him in October last, writes as follows : —

" How ridiculous to attempt keeping open the pores of the
collodion film by introducing congvJated albumen. What sort of
develoi)raent could be expected? Will such rival wet collodion
in celerity and consequent clearness and brilliancy ? Certainly
not. I find, from experiment, that the best results are obtained
by my process. When the plate has been thoroughly washed
before applying the albu'uen you get little or no coagulation,
and the plate is in much the same condition as a simply washed
and dried plate, save that it developes rather worse.

" But is it not a fact, that a plate, having a pellicle on its
surface of a soluble character, is in a better condition for pres-
ervation than one in which the atmosphere, with all its im-
l^rarities, is in direct contact with the delicate film of iodide?
One would think this had been disproved, seeing how ready
photographers seem to take up processes having no such pro-
tection.

"As to sensitiveness, the maximum point attainahh is that of
a simply washed and dried plate ; past this no Diy process has
ever yet gone, and if you will make a few comparative experi-
ments you will find that this is the sensitiveness of my plates.
The notion that an organic salt of silver, as the albuminate,
confers sensitiveness, is unfounded, and however pretty in theory
is baseless in practice If photographers would make their
experiments more accurately we should hear fewer contradictions
in our .science. Whenever I make an experiment as to sensitive-
ness, I place the rival plates in one slide and expose with the
same lens ; by this means error is precluded."

The Dry processes, in which the free nitrate of silver is wa.sh-
ed off, certainly give exquisite details and the negatives, when
developed with gallic acid, are not liable to the fault of exces-
sive density so common in the wet collodion process with a pyro-
gallic developer.

Dr. Norris's is the simplest of all dry processes that have yet
been published, and the success of the Dry Plate Company, at
Biriningliam, sulBciently proves that his process is good. Wiiy
in the face of such evidence any photographer should desire to
turn his back uijou gelatine and seek to substitute for it such
substances as albumen, honey, raspberry syrup, &c., or why the
journals continue to be filled with endless stories about such
modifications, we cannot conceive. We have for months past
entirely closed these columns against the introduction of any
of the above complications of a good process; and we would
suiigest that in future a fine be levied upon any Editor who
iiultlislies a Dry Collodion Process which cannot Improved to be
betUr and simpler than that of Dr. Hill Norris ; the proceeds
of such fines to be banded over to the discoverer of a dry

316

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

Deeeniber,

process in which no preservative of any kind is required. The
endless modifications of the Dry Collodion and Wax-Paper Pro-
cesses witli -vvliich the pages of certain Photographic Journals
have for a long time been filled have lowered the character of
Photographic Journals generally in the opinion of men of science,
— and all clever practical photographers look or. such communi-
cations as sheer impostures, and only calculated to seduce un-
wary amateurs into subscribing for so much mere writing against
space. AVe have no doubt that this strong and frank expres-
sion of opinion will be echoed in many quarters, and be produc-
tive of good.

The Alabastrine Solution has been analysed by Mr. Horsley,
F.C.S., of Clieltenham, and the method employed and results
obtained are given in two letters from that gentleman, which
will be found at page 18. Some beautiful results have been
obtained with this solution in bleaching positives upon glass, and
the matter deserves the attention of all who practise the Posi-
tive Collodion Process. Mr. Keith, of Liverpool, has succeed-
ed in obtaining some fine positives with the following re-develop-
ing solution : —

Distilled water 1 ounce.

Saturated solution of bi-chloride of 1 ,„

. ,1 , , . . J h . . 12 minims,

mercury in hydro-chloric acid. . . . )

Pro-sulphate of iron 20 grains.

Niti ate of potass 12 "

Alcohol I dram.

The picture is taken, and fi.xed in the usual way ; then put into
hot water for three minutes, and afterwards washed in cold
watei'. The re-developing solution is then poured over it. At
first it causes the picture nearly to disappear but after a few
minutes, it is re-devoloped ; the process occupying about half-
an-hour.

It is worthy of remark that Alcohol is a much better solvent
of bi-chloride of mercury than water.

The printing process upon Opal glass, patented by Mr. Glo-
ver, yields beautiful results. The glass is roughened by grind-
ing it with emery, and the rough side is coated with collodion,
and any of the dry processes employed by contact with the ne-
gative,— or the wet process, the negative being copied by a lens.
The print is then toned with gold, if necessary. We received a
year ago, from Messrs. Ro.ss & Thompson, of Edinburgh, a
very fine print taken upon porcelain in this way. We thiuk the
method of Printing by Development upon opal glass so well
worthy of attention, that a short time ago we ordered £10
worth of the glass from Messrs. Forrest & Co. ; but nearly the
whole of it was unfortunately destroyed at the burning of our
laboratory. Prints taken in this way are positive both by re-
flected and transmitted light.

While on the subject of printing we must call attention to a
paper by Mr. Hardvvich, read at the Meeting of the Photogra-
phic Society on the 7lh ultimo, and published in No. 74 of the
Society's Journal. The object of the process described is to
tone alburaeiiized prints with an alkaline solution of chloride of
gold, instead of sel d'or, as we recommended some years ago for
jihiin paper. This process appears likely to solve the difficult
problem of obtaining permanent silver prints upon albumenized
paper; and as regards the tone and qualities of the prints, we
can only say that noihing we have yet seen of the kind is supe-
rior to two specimens which Mr. Hardwich has kindly sent for
our inspection, accompanied with the following note for inser-
tion in this Journal ; —

To till Editor of Photographic Notes.

" Dear Sir, — Some time back the Members of the London
Photographic Society were much interested in giving publicity
to a toiling process by sel-d'or, communicated by you to their
Journal, and uow extensively known and practised.

" We do not find, however, that this mode of coloring prints
is altogether adapted for employment with albumen, although it
gives excellent results upon jjaper simply salted. I wish, there
fore, to call your attention to a process with alkaline chloriile
of go'id published on behalf of the " Printing Committee" in the
last number of the Society's Journal, which ought to produc-

upon albumenized paper the same color as that yielded by sel-
d'or on plain paper.

" Perhaps you will oblige me by testing the value of this
process and recommending it to your readers if yon find it to
succeed. I may add that to obtain the black tones the paper
ought to be rather strongly salted, and rendered sensitive upon
an 80-graiu solution of nitrate of silver.

" Yours, most iruly,

' ' F. Hardwich.

"Ming's College, Dec. 13th."

We conclude from the tenor of the above note that it will be
furthering the wishes of the writer if we insert the process in
this Journal in his own words, copied from the Journal of the
Photographic Society, p. 96.

"toxi.vg by alkalixe chloride of gold.

" This mode of toning is adapted for any kind of sensitive
paper : but its i)eculiar value is seen in the albumenized paper,
which is sometimes difficult to color by the sel-d'or process, and,
even in the ordinary fixing and toning bath of hypo-sulphite of
soda and gold, does not, reach an agreeable tone unless the bath
be kept in a very active condition. Take of —

Solution of chloride of gold 1 fluid drachm.

Sesqui-carbonate of soda 1 drra.

Citric acid 20 grs.

Water 12 fluid ozs.

" The solution of chloride of gold contains 1 grain to each
drachm, and is the same which the writer advises for the ordin-
ary toning-bath and for the sel-d'or process. The carbonate of
soda is of the kind sold by druggists for making effervesing
draughts ; and the water is either distilled or pure rain water,
free from lime salts, which, if present, would be precipitated
white by the carbonate of soda. Pure citric acid, free from tartar-
ic acid, must be obtained

" It is not recommended to keep the solution ready mixed,
since it gradually undergoes a change, becoming colorless, and
toning more slowly. When frequently in use, however, it would
be a simplification to substitute measure for weight, by making
standard solutions of the carbonate of soda and of the citric
acid ; say 1 ounce of the former to 16 ounces of water, and, se-
parately, 160 grains of the latter to a similar quantity, taking
in each case two fluid ounces of the solution, and making up the
bulk to 12 fluid ounces of the distilled water. Solution°of citric
acid, however, when kept for a length of time, decomposes and
becomes mouldy.

" The writer prefers a strongly albumenized paper for this pro-
cess, and especially one which prints rather red in the frame,
since the gold will otherwise be liable to give too blue a color. It
is also important to use a full strength of sensitizing bath, so as
to promote a rich and velvety appearance in the image ; 60 grain
to the ounce will do very well for a paper salted with a 10 grain
salting solution.

" The prints, after removal from the frame, may be kept
for some hours, if desired, but not beyond that time advan-
tageously. Begin by washing them in common water, allowing
two or three changes until the fluid ceases to flow away in a
milky state. Some use a final bath of salt and water to con-
vert the last traces of nitrate into chloride ; but the writer
believes this to be unnecessary, since a trace of nitrate of silver
in this process does not discolor the toning-bath as it does iu
the sel-d'or process, but simply forms insoluble carbonate of sil-
ver, which remains in the print until the fixing solution of hypo-
sulphite is applied. Having prepared a stock of prints, leave
them in the water until a convenient time for toning, which is
done in the following way : —

" The warm liquid is poured out into a flat dish : and the
prints are put into it, two or three at a time. A little discolo-
ration of the toning solution may be disregarded, since it is
caused by a quantity of gold quite microscopic, and will not in-
jure the whites of the proof. Keep the pictures moving, and
watch the changes in color. The first two or three may perhajis
be fully toned in about five minutes ; but afterwards, as the li-
quid cools down, and the quantity of gold decreases, twenty

1858.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

317

minutes or lonpier may be allowed. The quality of the paper,
however, will iiiHueiice this point considerably. Eii;^lish papers
stronijrly albumenized always requirinn^ a loiiii;er action.

" The time in the toning-bath must be re<?uiated according to
the color desired. If the prints are removed as soon as the blue
color of the gold is seen they will usually change in the fi.xing-
bath to a warm shade of brown ; bnt wlien left for two or three
minutes longer in the toning-bath the darker tint is permanent.
Hold them against the light, and when they cease to a})pear
red by transmission they are ready for fixing.

" Over-printed proofs always yield the blackest colors, because
they may be kept for a longer time in the gold vvitliout losing
the hall-tones : and, indeed, the state of the lighter shades of
the proof is a good criterion of the time for removing it, since
the chiorine previously combined with the gold has a bleaching
action.

" Do not attempt to get pure black and white tones on pic-
tures printed from a feeble negative. TJuless there be a percep-
tible amount of bronzing, the deep blacks cannot be obtained on
albumenized paper.

" Eacli irrain of chloride of gold ought to tone six or seven
prints of 5X4, and two or three 10X12, which is rather more
than the number yielded by the same quantity of gold in the sel-
d'or process.

" To fix tht -proofs. — After removal from the gold bath, wash
back and front for au instant under a tap, and fix iu the follow-
ing bath : —

Hypo-sulphite of soda 6 ounces.

Water 1 pint.

Carbonate of soda \ ounce.

The object of the carbonate of soda is to prevent the fixing
solution from gradually acquiring sulphur-toning properties to
an injurious extent. The bath may be kept for many weeks,
and gives a slightly improved color when it has been much used.
Add fresh crystals of hypo-sulphite occasionally. The time of
immersion is from ten to 15 minutes, but the proper guide is the
appearance of the finished prints after washing , if imperfectly
fixed, they will show mealy spots in the substance of the paper
when held against the light.

" Wash in the usual way ; but if the water contain lime-salts
in any considerable quantity, change it quickly at first, lest a
white deposit should be produced by the carbonate of soda re-
maining in the paper. N.B. — These pictures will stand hot
water , but it is not required so far as removing the size is con-
cerned, since this is effected by the alkaline liquids used iu ton-
ing and fixing.

" Failurts. — No fear need be entertained of the whites turn-
ing yellow ; they ought, on the contrary, to be unusually pure
and good. Blisters, appearing in the washing, have been spo-
ken of, but the writer has found that they mostly disappear on
drying. Possibly they may be due to acidity in the size of the
paper, liberating carbonic acid from the carbonate of soda, and
thus inflating the albumen. Their non-occurrence v/hen au acid
solution of chloride of gold is employed in toniug, in place of an
alkaline solution, favours this idea."

The prints sent by Mr. Hardwich are upon a moderately thin
Eno-lish paper, highly albumenized. The whites are absolutely
white, and the blacks intensely vigorous, and of a rich chesnut
black, without the slightest tinge of iiikyness. Nothing could
be more satisfactory, and there is every reason to hope that
they will be at least as permanent as any silver prints by any
process. If then photographers are to accept this process as
the final result of the labors of the Printing Committee, it must
be admitted that their mission has been satisfactorily fulfilled.
We hope soon to have time to try this mode of printing, and
exhibit our results. Although we have strongly advocated Car-
bon-Printing, yet our faith in the permanence of silver prints,
when properly toned and fixed, has never been for a moment
shaken.

We now turn to an improved view-lens, called the Ortho-

scopic Lens, invented by Professor Petzval, and introduced

<18*.

into this country last year by Herr Paul Pretscli, and M.
Voigtlandor.

The chief merits of this new lens have been so alily pointed
out in a paper by Mr. Andrew Ross, in No. 56 of this Journal,
that it is needless for us to go over that ground again. We
shall merely off"r a few i)rief remarks on the history of this in-
vention, and the mode of its introduction into this country.

The facts connected with the invention of the Orthoscopic
lens are stated in the letter from Voigtiander which was pub-
lished in our last number, and they are so well attested as to
leave no doubt of their truth. It appears then that about 17
years ago, shortly after the discovery of Piiotography. I'roi'essor
Petzval calculatel the curves for two different combinations of
lenses, and deposited the fornuilas with M Voigtiander to l)e
carried ont practically. One of the^e combinations is the |ior-
trait lens which has come into general use, — the other is an
Orthoscopic lens in which the 'posterior lens is the same size as the
front lens. This latter combination was not then found to an-
swer, simply for want of a small diaphragm to the back lens,
and it remained on the slielf for 11 years. A year or two ago,
however, Prof. Petzval discovered that by the addition of a
small diaphragm to tlie back lens this combination could be
converted into an excellent view-lens ; he therefore took out a
patent for it, and, having quarrelled with M. Voigtiander some
years before, employed M. Dietzler to manufacture the instru-
ment for sale. But M. Voigtiander having the original drawings
in his possession, and finding the admirable qualities of the lens
for views, when furnished with an appropriate stop, determined
to manufacture them also, notwithstanding M. Petzval's Patent.
This led to a good deal of angry controversy between these gen-
tlemen, with which our readers are familiar. As soon as the
Orthoscopic lens was introduced, a Committee was appointed
by the French Photographic Society to examine and report upon
it, and their report was highly favorable. A Committee ap-
pointed by the Photographic Society of Scotland also examined
and reported favorably of the lens. In the meantime also we
procured one from Messrs. Knight, aud found it to be an im-
provement in one or two important particulars on the view-lens
in common use ; and after the lapse of two or three months,
Mr. Ross pronounced an opinion, and declared that this new
lens afforded " unprecedented means of obtaining a correct pho-
tographic instrument" ; at the same time he contributed a valu-
able paper to this Journal, which we were glad to see was
shortly after copied into the leading Photographic Journal in
America.

Such appears to be the the history of the invention and intro-
duction of the Orthoscopic lens. It is the only important no-
velty iu Photographic apparatus which was brought forward
last year.

Amoug the contributions to the Chemistry of Photography,
the most valuable are the papers read by Mr. Hardwich at the
Meetings of the Photographic Society, — the papers commnni-
cated by Messrs Davanne & Girard to the French Photogra-
phic Society, — the communications of M. Niepce de St. Victor
and M. Becquerel to the French Academy of Sciences, — and
the paper on the Theory of the Daguerreotype process, by Mr.
B. Lefevre, in our last number.

In the Literature of Photography, M. Van Monkhoven has
published a neiv edition of his " Traite General de Photogra-
phic," which is the most comprehensive work on Photography
publislied on the Continent ; and we have ourselves publish.ed
a "Dictionary of Photography" in which an attempt has been
made to include a considerable range of information useful to the
photographer. In addition to these works a few shilling pam-
phlets have been issued by some of the principal Photographic
Firms, and a very nice little work has appeared on Landscape
Photography, by Mr. Joachin Otte. There have also been
published a Stereoscopic Magazine, — a Photographic Art
Journal, — and a Photographic Almanac for 1859.

During the past year the various Photographic Societies
throughout the Kingdom have held periodical Meetings, and by
the discussions and papers read on those occasions, have con-
tributed many useful hints on various points of manipulation

—

1 1

318

THE rUOTOGRAPlIIC AND FIXE ART JOURNAL.

December,

improvements m apparatus, &c. These Societies do a great
deal of good, and deserve to be supported by every inteiiigeut
photographer who lives within range of tlieir head-quarters.

Sueii, tlien, appears to be a brief, resuvie of what has been
done in Pliotogriiphy last year. We will conclude by recalling
to the memory of our readers two or tliree matters which we
have ourselves suggested, and which we think worthy of their
consideration.

One suggestion is for a Panoramic Camera, having a move-
able slide for including a very wide angular hold of view upon
a flat plate. The description of this instrument is given iu No.
4.5, and the optical principle of it is certainly quite correct.
We have no doubt it would answer perfectly.

Another suggestion is for producing stereoscopic works of
imagination ; the method is described iu No. 59. We were
much amused by observing that about a month after the pub-
lication of that article, Mr. Sang, of Rirkaldy, N. B., produced
a scries of stereoscopics from the plates in a work by Mr. Cruik-
shank, entitled "The Bottle," and sent them to the Editor
of the'Ttwes as a great novelty, not describing how Ihey were
done. Mr. Sliadbolt, however, ignoring our article, \yhich per-
haps he did not understand, volunteered to inform his readers
how the marvel of producing stereoscopic effe'it from a flat sur-
face might be accomplished by cutting out the figiures from tht
original ficlure, and tracing their outlines upon a pair of pic-
tures intended to be viewed in the stereoscope; and he ends his
description with the following facetious remarks : —

"If it were possible to apply this operation to a painting,
which we doubt, it would at any rate involve the destruction of
the work, which, though of little consequence as regards a
sin"-le copy of an etching, vvould be a somewhat costly proceed-
inir°in the case of a valuable painting, even if we were to ignore
altogether the barbarism of such a piece of folly." ( \).

If"Mr. Shadbolt will consult the article " Tracing paper" in
our " Dictionary of Photography," he will see that artists can
copy correctly any part of a i)icture without necessarily aUting
it to -pieces. And if any of our readers take an interest in a
matter which will assuredly some day assume considerable im-
portance, they will find in our article in No. 59 the best and
iu fact only proper method tor doing what Mr. Sang has so ia-
o-eniously accomplished in the case of the Bottle.

Another suggestion which we made last year, and to which
we attach importance, is that of Alcoholic Collodion, that is,
collodion made with absolute ether and alcohol, and containing
the minimum quantity of ether, and the ma.ximum quantity of
alcohol. We trust that before long the merits of this new for-
mula will be fully tested by competent operators.

Such then are the principal improvements and novelties in
Photography which have been brought forward iu the year 1858.
Should the present year be equally prolific iu useful discoveries,
which we do not doubt but it will, Photography will advance
at a rate sufP.cient to satisfy all reasonable expectations. It
must be re:neuibered that the way to advance an art is by free
discussions, — unanimity among the Members ot Photographic
Societies, the removal of stumbling blocks from the path of pro-

„,.ess, and the frank and generous acknowledgment of services

reude'red by industrious experimenters and inventors.

[We must not only give credict for this article to " Fhoto-
<rr(ip/uc iVo/eA-," but close it by the remark that for excel-
lence itud impartiality it is superior to any Photographic Jour-
nal in Europe, and we venture to say that if not looked upon as
such now it will eventually be acknowledged the leading periodi-
cal on Photo^^raphic Art matters iu England. — Ed. F. ^ F.
A. Journal.']

An old lady, possessed of a fine fortune and noted for her pen-
chant for using figurative expressions, one day assembled her
o-niud-childeru wiieu the following conversation took place:
" " My children," said the old lady, " I am the root and you
are the branches."

'• Grau-ma," said one. "What, my child ?"
'I was thinking how much better the branches would flourish

From the JVew Turk Daily Times.

BRADY'S GALLERY IN NEW YORK,

if the roots were in the ground."

No feeling is more common everywhere than a desire to see
great or famous people. In Europe, everybody turns out to
see a victorious general ; many will go far to catch a glimpse at
a great statesman or a tamous dancer, and there is a })erfect
mania for a glimpse of the cocked hat or bonnet of a reigning
soverei^rn. In this country we carry the passion a great deal
further, and with more reason. We rush in crowds to see a
man who has distinguished himself on the field of battle or in
the councils of the nation, and we are content to wait an hour
for the satisfaction of taking such an individual by the hand.
The reason is obvious : The popular mind loves the uncommon
and when the uucominon is also admirable, the popular love is
apt to merge into popular adoration — which is that unwise ex-
treme of veneration known as hero-worship, for which Ameri-
cans are said to be peculiarly distinguished. For ourselves, we
do not care to be hero-worshipers. It is an unstal)le and very
variable sort ofpassion, which we would be tiie last to encourage.
But we confess that, in common with all the world and his
estimable brother, we do like to scan the features of men whose
talent has commanded for them a high po.sitiou in the respect
of their countrymen.

It is not, however, always possible to see many great men
together : but as it is quite easy to see their portraits, which
answer the purpose almost as well as the originals, we went to
Brady's Gallery in Broadway a few days ago, expressly to pass
an hour in an inspection ot the features of the unmerous people
of note whom Brady keeps " hung up" in photograph. VVe
found the amusement agreeable. It is pleasant, after reading
what Senator Hale, said to look at the features of the man who
said it. When we hear that Senator Mason has been pitching
into Senator Seward, it is agreeable to inspect the features, iu
a state of placidity, of the two belligerents. So, also, wheu we
learn that the President has beeu doing something tricky and
evasive, it is not bad to have one's surprise immediately removed
by a glance at the corresponding expression of features in the
portrait of that venerable man. For the President is there —
at Brady's — and almost opposite to the master stands the man,
in the person of Jajies Gordon Bennett, whose pleasant fea-
tures excite, in tlie portrait, the same sensations of doubt sug-
gested by the inspection of the original, as to the actual direc-
tion of his visual orbs. Our affectionate Brother Greeley is
also there, the malicious photographer having placed him side
by side with his affectionate Brother Bennett, just mentioned.
Brother Rayjiond is also in the collection, and faithfully render-
ed, to the last hair ot his moustache. We sought in vain for
Brother Webb, who begins to appear in plaster with great fre-
quency as a sign for image makers in the side street ; he sliiues
not at Brady's.

The most striking picture now in the Gallery is that of John
C. Calhoun, a half-length portrait, photographed, life-size,
from a daguerreotype minature, and finished in oil. It is a
beantitul piece of work, and wonderfully life-like. The ragged,
wiry character of the face marking nervous energy, — the over-
hanging brow and broad intellectual development, — all murk
Calhoun at a glance. We found, Mr. Speaker Orr— a right
proper, staid sort of gentleman, with an expression ot Cdunteii-
auce speaking loudly of red tape. Then we have the h\.i:h aud
mighty General Lewis Cass, Secretary of State, &c.,&c., &c.,
with tlie peculiar, " shut up" cast of countenance, which belongs
to tiie high and miglity diplomatist. Mr. Bri^ckenridge, t le
Vice-President, occupies a prominent place in the gallery — gen-
tlemanly but rather disputable face, with a nose somewhat of
the Edwin Forrest pattern. The Hon. IIowell Cobb and the
Hon. HuiiruHEY Marshall may be said to be eminently the
solid men ot the establishment, the Secretary's face being indi-
cative rather of good living than of specific duties, good iiuiiior
than political intrigue — an expression which is heigiiteued per-
haps l)y total absence of whisker. In this last particular, Mr.
Cobb liuds himself iu the same category witli Mr. Marshall,
and Witli Sdators Seward, of New York, I1a.m.mond ol' South

1858.

THE rUOTOGRAPHIC AND FIIsE ART JOURNAL.

319

Carolina, and Hunter of Yirginia, tlie Hon. Mr. Stevens of
Georgia and tLe Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. Senator Hun-
ter, however, suffers from the want of whisker, in the absence
of which he looks more like a great boy than a great man.
Senator Wii.sox, has the genuine and original look of a lively
Yankee, his expression impressing you with the idea that he is
a clever (English clever) man, and that he is fully aware of the
fact. Judger Parker appears on a lower row — with one of the
most intelligent and even powerful set of features in the Gallery.
Governor Wise is also present iu photography, with the de-
cidedly premonce face belonging to the Calhouo class — and near
him is our beloved President^ sunk in his chair — James Buchan-
an, with the " Buck" forehead thrust forward, and his eyes a
long way behind, peering at you from ambush as though it is
not a delight to the old gentleman to look anybody in the face
— the features expressing a strange mixture of obtuse stolidity
and sharp cunning. Judge Kane is also there, looking like
"a fine old English gentleman, one of the olden time," with
Chief Justice Taney near him, a plain scholarly-looking and
lawyer-like, though somewhat hard-featured man. In the front
row, stands the portrait of the Autocrat ot the Breakfast Table,
as quiet and sensible a looking man as you would wish to see
— xt breakfast or anywhere. The great financiers are repre-
sented by Erastus Corning, two of the Messrs. Brown, of Wall
street, and Cornelius Yanderbilt — commonly called by persons
who desire to impress you with their intimacy with the great
" Kurnele Yanderbilt" — whose portrait, by the way, is one of
the best-looking in the gallery : there is an air of aristocracy
about the face which does not altogether accord with " Kurnele's
beginnings, but there is also a shrewdness which is quite in
keeping with the little trifle of $50,000 a month which the
Commodore is said to receive as a bonus for not running his Nica-
ragua steamers. These gentlemen are just below Senator Hale,
of New Hampshire, a sober, quiet face in contrast with Mr.
GiDDiNGS next to him, who looks as if he could eat up every
Southern man in Congress without so much as winking.

Senator Douglas is, of course, present in the canvass, or
paper, or whatever it may be. Nobody fails to pay his frame
a visit and note the somewhat fiery and slightly dogmatical, but
highly intellectual character of what the Cockneys would call
his " fizzog." Senator Crittenden is near " the gentleman from
Illinois."

Senator Toombs, of Gorgia, with what might, in Hibernian
language, be called his bull-headed face, looking obstinacy and
contradiction, stands near that most impressive of " mugs" be-
longing to Ex-President Pierce. The Hon. Edward Everitt is
in corapaay with Judge Daniels and John Cochrane, the last
named of whom looks mild enough, in spite of his moustache
and beard, and not at all like the " Fiend Incarnate "

The clergymen are in the background — or, in other words,'^in
an apartment at the back of the principle gallery. They gather
there, however, in great force ; and it is uleasing to see Arch-
bishop Hughes looking so amiable in the midst of the divines of
the Blue Light sects, and apparently not at all disturbed by the
proximity.

The best portion of the gallery, however, is that which con-
tains the ladies ; and it is in that part where the sight-seers most
do congregate. At the head of a goodly array of beauty is
the portrait of Mrs. Senator Douglas, a fine, tall, elegant wo-
man, with a sweet, intellectual face, of somewhat dark com
plexion. The type of feature is rather French than American ;
and the expression, which is very spirituelle, is marked with a
slight shade of seriousness which has the effect of enhancing its
beauty. Mrs. Douglas is dressed most tastefully, and without
that ostentatious display of jewelry so common at the present
day, and which marks such miserable taste. A bracelet and a
ring are the only articles of jewelry in the picture. The hair,
too, is worn in simple flowing ha-ndts, which are so much more
becoming than the "combed back" style, in which we have seen
tlie original to less advantage than she appears at Brady's Gal-
lery.

Next in order comes Mrs. Crittenden — a matronly face, be-
speaking firmness with good humor, and showing just so much

of the mark of age as to enable you to admire the remarkable
preservation of former beauty.

Miss Lane, the niece of the President, a fine, handsome girl,
with an imperious rather than a winning, a handsome rather
than a loveable style of countenance, is next to Mrs. Crittenden
on the one side, and, on the other, to Madame Le Yert, the
lady wit, authoress, and leading spirit of Southern society. Her
face is more French than American, but the archness which per-
vades the features is decidedly American, and still more de-
cidedly Southern. The features are, indeed, more full of pleasin"-
expression than of striking beauty.

Miss Hale, the daughter of Senator Hale, is next to that of
her mother. Both portraits are specimens of beauty, but the
oliserver who permits himself to imagine from the portrait of
Mrs. Senator Hale how handsome she must have been twenty
years ago, would be apt to assign her even a higher place in the
scale of beauty than that now occupied by her daughter. The
portrait of Lady Gore Ousely exhibits the diplomacy which has
been so effective on the weak-minded person at the head of this
nation. Lady Ouseley's is not a handsome nor a very striking
face, its chiel peculiarity being a sort of hauteur which belongs
rather to the other side of the water than to this. Mrs. Senator
Pugh's portrait is a picture of a happy, mirthful little woman,
with just a little dash of temper in to make the character spicy.
The face is more of the Yankee cast than of that which one sees
most frequently in the middle or Southern States. Mrs. Con-
r.\d's is one of the handsomest portraits in the collection. There
is rare grace and elegance of manner in the figure, while the
expression of the features does not belie the gift of charmino-
conversation for which this lady is famous. Mrs. Postmaster-
General Brown, if one of the stoutest, is by no means one of
the least pleasing faces in the collection.

On the whole, it is a decidedly agreeable thing to look at
these portraits when you cannot see the originals. There are
historical associations awakened by the features of many of the
celebrities whom we have named which are full of retrospective
pleasure, not the less delightful because of the croaking cant of
the day, which seeks to decry the present generation as un-
worthy to share the fame of previous ages. There are livino-
statesmen and jurists now upon the scene of active life whowifl
not be justly appreciated until they shall have been removed
from among us, and whose virtues and ability will then be as
highly lauded as are those of the preceding century. At any
rate, that finer or better women never lived than those who live
to-day, we are fully persuaded, and any gentleman who desires
to question this assertion can find our card on application.

From Photographic Notes.

FRENCH PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.

The French Photographic Society purpose opening an Exhi-
bition of Photographs at Paris, in May next. Works intended
for exhibition must be sent, carriage paid, to M. Laulerie, No
11, Rue Druot, Paris, on or before March 15th. They will be
submitted for approval to a jury to be appoiuted at the next
Meeting of the Society.

M. Bayard described at the last Meeting of the above So-
ciety, a method of

toning albumenized prints.

It is no doubt very good, for M. Bayard is a high authority on
printing. The method is as follows : —

'• In 500 grammes of water, dissolve one gramme of chloride
of gold, and add it, in small quantities at a time, to the follow-
ing; solution : —

Water 500 grammes.

Hypo-sulphite of soda , 5 grammes.

Chloride of ammonium )

or common salt | ^^ grammes,

"The mixture, which is at present orange red, soon becomes
colorless, and is then ready for use.

" Wash the print in water after taking it from the pressure-
frame, and immerse it in the above toning-bath. The tone it
assumes is first red, then violet, then black, and finally blue.

380

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND FINE ART JOURNAL.

December

"To stop the action remove the print and immerse it in a
fresh bath of hypo, strenirth 15 per cent. Leave it there a
quurter-of an-hour, and wash and Qnish it in the usual way.

" The hypo-snlphite affects tlie tone very slightly ; the proofs
shoulO not therefore be printed too deep."

A corresjiondent once facetiously observed that " grammes
are very liable to produce d — rans." For grammes in the above
formula, grains and ounces, or any other unit may be substituted,
and we trust our readers will perform the necessary arithmatic
with good temper.

At the meeting in question M. Rive exhibited a jewel of a
glass dish. It was moulded in one piece, and had a perfectly
flat bottom. A committee appointed to examine it pronounced
it to be the right thing, but too dear. Is there no one in Eng-
land who can manufacture such a dish, and sell it cheap ? Glass
dishes and baths are sadly wanted by photographers. Is there
no one in this age of invention and competition who will supply
this want, and turn an honest penny by so doing ?

We shall shortly have a good deal to say about a new lens
for views, which we have invented. Distortion is totally got
rid of, and in other respects the lens works well, and gives a
field free from curvature. In a few weeks a pamplet on the sub-
ject will be published, and the lens offered for sale. We have
decided not to patent it.

We cannot Qnd space in the present number for M. Niepce
de St. Victor's last conimunicaiiou. It contains some curiosi-
sities but no matter of immediate practical interest, so we defer
it once more without compnnctiou, referring the more carious
among our readers to Lti Lumiere. No. 50 and 52.

From Photographic Notes.

OBITUARY.

In Robert Howlett we have lost a valued friend. In bis pro-
fes.sion he was an excellent manipulator, and a man of consider-
able taste, originality, and meclianieal genius. We have seen
a microscope, the lenses and brasswork of which he made with
his own hands when a mere boy. To the exhibitions of the
Photographic Society he was a constant and a large contribut-
or; he has executed many important commissions for the Queni
and the Prince Consort; and published several very interesting
letters in this Journal and that of the Photographic Society.
He was the son of a clergyman in Norfolk. It is with deep
regret that we record the premature death of this young and
distinguished professional photographer.

From the Photographic Journal.

GOLD TONIXG ON ALBUMEKIZED PAPER.

The journalist has occasionally the sad task of recording the
death of one whose name and works are familiar to his readers.
Within the last two months Mr. Fallon Home, of London, and
Mr. Ivan Szabo, of Edinburgh, have been taken from us. To
these we have now to add the name of Robert Howlett. He
died on the 2d inst., aged 28, from an attack of typhus fever
which followed a severe cold caught by working in a new and
damp operating room ! •

Photography has its perils as well as its pleasures. One day
we have to tell the story of a photogi'apher who enters his labo-
ratory with a lighted candle, a thing v/hich he has foolishly done
a hundred times before ; he cracks a bottle of ether,
and half-an-ounce, not more, is spilled upon the floor; presently
the vapor reaches the light, and in two minutes the whole place
is a raging furnace. But this photographer, after passing
through an imminent danger from the explosion of a pound of
gun cotton, escapes with his life; his career is not suddenly
brought to a close through an act of thoughtlessness. But
shortly after, another, and a far sadder story has to be told.
In the itrime of life, and vigor of health, a photographer re-
turns from a holiday trip, during which he has tried a new lens,
and with it obtained negatives such as he has never taken or
seen before. Full of ardor and professional enthusiasm, he at-
tends a meeting of the Photographic Society, exhibits his re-
sults, and publishes a letter in the Society's Journal, that all
may hear of the success of hi.s experiment and protit by it. A
few days after we hear from a mutual friend that this photo-
grapher has caught a severe cold through working in a new and
damp operating room; then follows the sad tale of typhus fever,
and before the society of which he was a member can publish
its next number, or hold its next meeting, a letter reaches us
announcing his death ! We conjure our readers to take warn-
in"- from these events. Let them be more careful than ever
how they meddle with ether and collodion by candle-light, but
above all let them be careful of working in a damp room, or
dabbling at this season in the wet. When the terrible penalty
of an act of imprudence is exacted to the full, who is to blame
but a man's own self?

Mr. Hardwich has communicated to the Photographic Society
of London some observations on photographic printing, in which
he depreciates, as unjust, the prevalent disposition to decry the
methods of toning and fixing now in use. In skilful hands,
doul)tless, the methods in vogue are fully adequate to secure
permanency, but the host of pictures "fading away" that meet
us on tvery hand, prove too forcibly that some radical defect
exists, if not in the formula at least in the manipulation, it is
better to seek to improve the former than the latter ; therefore
Mr. Hardwich proposes an improved toning by alkaline chloride
of gold This mode of toning is adapted for any kind of sen-
sitive paper, but its peculiar value is seen in the case of albu-
raenized paper, which is sometimes difficult to color by the set
d^or process, and even iu the ordiimry fixing and toning bath
of hyposulphite of soda and gold, does not attain to an agreea-
ble tone, unless the bath be kept iu a very active condition.
Make a solution of chloride of gold, one grain to the ounce of
water; take of this

Solution of chloride of gold 1 fluid drachm.

Sesquicarbonate of soda 1 drachm

Citric acid 20 grains.

Water (pure) 12 fluid ounces.

This solution will not keep when mixed, as it gradually under-
goes a change, becoming colorless, and toning more slowly.
It is not clearly understood what part the citric acid plays in
this mixture; iu a warm alkaline solution of chloride of gold it
throws dowu an indigo blue deposit of metallic gold.

A strongly albumeuized paper is to be preferred for this
method, especially one that prints rather red, otherwise the
gold is liable to yield too blue a color. A rich velvety appear-
ance is promoted by using a sensitizing bath of full strength:
sixty grains of silver to the ounce for a paper salted with a tea
grain suiting solution.

The prints may be kept for a few hours after removal from
the printing frame, but it is best to tone them at once. Wash
them in two or three changes of water until milkiness disappears;
they may be left iu the water until it is convenient to tone them,
which is done as follows —

Mix the ingredients of the formula given above in an evaporat-
ing dish, and when eff'crvesence ceases, place a spirit-lamp be-
neath, and raise the temperature, with constant stirring, to
about 120° F., which is indicated by the steam beginniiig to
rise, and a bluish discoloration, due to commencing reduction,
is seen. The lamp must now be removed, else much of the
gold will be reduced, changing the color of the fluid to an inky
black, after which it will be nearly useless. Filtering is uuue-
cessary.

This warm liquid is poured into a flat dish, and the prints
are put iuto it, two or three at a time. A little discoloration
of the toning solution may be disregarded, since it is caused by
a quantity of gold quite microscopic, and will not injure the
whites of the proof. Keep the prints constantly mov.ng, and
watch the changes of color. The first two or three may per-
hajis be toned in about five minutes ; but as the liquid cools
down, and the quantity of gold decreases, twenty minutes or

Ion:jfer may be allowed. The time, however, is greatly influ-
enced by tlie quality of the paper ; English papers strongly
albunienized requiring a longer action.

If the prints are removed from the toning bath as soon as
the bine color of the gold is seen, they will generally change in
the fixing bath to a warm h"e of brown; but when left for two
or three minutes longer, the deeper tone acquired is permanent.
The proofs are ready for fi.xing when they cease to appear red
by transmitted light. Over-printed proofs yield the blackest
colors, because they may be kept in the gold a longer time
without losing the lialf tones. It is not advisable to attempt
to obtain pure white and black tones on proofs printed from
feeble negatives, for unless there be a perceptible amount of
bronzi ng, the deep blacks cannot be obtained on albumeaized
paper.

Bach grain of chloride of gold ought to tone six or seven
prints, 5 X *r, and two or three of 10 X 12, which is rather
more than the number yielded by the same quantity of gold in
the sel d'or process.

Fixing — The proofs must be rinsed on both sides upon re-
moval from the gold bath, and fixed in the following solution —

Hyposulphite of soda. 6 ounces.

Water 1 pint.

Carbonate of soda ^ ounce.

This solution will keep many weeks, and imparts a slightly
improved color after being much used. Tiie carbonate of soda
is added to prevent the fixing solution from acquiring sulphur-
toning properties to an injurious extent. The time of immeision
is from ten to fifteen minutes, or until no mottling appears in
the proof when held against the light. The proofs are washed
in the usual way,

From Photographic Journal.

PHOTOGRAPHIC PAPERS.

One of the greatest difficulties the photographer has to con
tend with at the present day, is in the papers iLanufactured
expressly for photographic purposes. Of Foreign papers, we
have Papier Saxe, Canson's, and Marion's ; of English, there
are Hollingsworth's, Harrison's, and others. Although the
pulp of the papers of these ditferent makers is in all respect the
same, being composed of linen and cotton rags, yet very different
photographic properties are produced from them, in consequence
of the sizing being different. English papers are, for the most
part, sizid with gelatine, while those of the Continent are sized
with fecala, or starch and resin soup. Now, the sizing greatly
influences the color of the proof ; papers sized with gelatine
give very red hues in the printing-frame, while those sized with
starch are sepia or violet: still the quality of the sizing does
not influence the color of the proofs so much as the quantity ;
for by increasing the quantity of starch in the paper, hues as
red as those from gelatine may be obtained.

Tlie sizing not only makes the proofs more vigorous, but also
makes them sharper and more delicate. A proof taken on un-
sized paper, is dull and leaden in hue, and in every respect re-
pulsive. If but slightly sized with albumen, the unsized paper
is but little improved : strong starch produces bright orange
hue^, and if the unsized paper be immersed in a strong solution
of gelatine (5 per eent.) fine reddish hues are produced.

Tlie quantity of sizing contained in the paper as delivered by
the manufacturer is insufficient for photograjjliic purposes; for
proofs taken on plain paper, although very pleasing and satis-
factory in an artistic point of view, lack transparency in the
shadows, and that general brilliancy of tone which is indispen-
sable to suit the popular taste. However, at the present time,
the extra sizing is carried to excess, and except in stereoscopic
pictures should be avoided. For portraits, landscapes, architec-
tural subjects, &c., paper prepared with a mixture of albumen
and water, in equal parts, has quite sufScieut surface and gloss
to bring out all the detail, and at the same time to secure ade-
quate transparency in the shadows.

In fact, the higher albumenized paper now sold is to be re-

49

garded with suspicion, as the very high glaze is not due to pure
albumen, but to an admixture or adulteration, either dextrine
or gelatine; the presence of the latter is recognised by the cho-
colate red color of the proofs when removed from the pressure
frame; and if the wet proofs are allowed to dry while in con-
tact, they adhere together and are spoiled.

Oxide of silver, in combination with gelatine, and exposed to
light, becomes an insoluble black varnish, which reflects a golden
red hue; but when the combination is first made, the compound
is of a mahogany red color. These facts explain the cause of
the variety o( hues given by papers sized with different materials.
If the paper be unsized, then the salt of silver enters into com-
bination with the fibre of the paper, and the silver tends to de-
compose and reduce itself; or perhaps, as suggested by Schoubein
ozonized oxygen plays a part in this change. But in the case
of sized paper, the particular affinity of the sizing material for
the silver overcomes the disposition of the salt of silver to com-
bine with the paper, or to reduce itself, and forming the com-
pound spoken of, the chemical action is not exercised on or by
the paper itself ; the picture therefore requires both greater
sharpness and the red hue due to the sizing material. What-
ever the kind of sizing employed, or the quantity, it does not
appear to have any influence upon the rapidity of printing ;
other things remaining the same.

Nor does the thickness of the paper appear to have any in-
fluence upon the result, beyond what is due to the greater
abundance of sizing it contains ; but thick paper is easier to
manipulate, although more liable to tear while wet. From
what has been stated, it appears that it is a matter of indif-
ference what paper is used, provided it be not used plain, but
sized with albumen, dextrine, gelatine, or starch. Some atten-
tion must be paid how^-ver to the sizing strength of equal
weights of these materials, as the results will be materially in-
fluenced thereby. Of all the sizing materials, albumen, more or
less diluted with water, is to be preferred.

From Photographic Notes.

STEREOGRAPHY.

Dear Sir— Will you give me your opinion which lens you
consider best for stereoscopic pictures generally — the double one
or the single ?

I should like to be able to take groups and portraits, but I
don't wish to sacrifice the views. I am afraid the portrait com-
bination does not possess sufiicient depth of focus for the latter.

Which camera do you recommend; one with two lenses, or
Latimer Clarke's arrangement ? The latter seems to me the
most correct in principle, but instantaneous views are, with it,
impossible.

Is the black tone one sees in paper portraits obtained from
plain salted paper or from ammonio-nitrate 1

From some cause which I cannot yet detect I have failed to
develop a single negative with iron. They all look like miser-
able positives, and possessing no more density.

I possess a double quarter-plate lens by Chevalier, of Paris,
the focus measured from the middle of the combination, is eleven
inches. What sized plates for views would it cover ? A plate
5 X 4 is covered quite sharp to the edges.

W. Syring.

Worth, near Crawley.
— We think the best arrangement for taking stereoscopic pic-
tures is a twin-lens stereoscopic camera, furnished with a pair of
portrait combinations, having a stop between the lenses not ex-
actly midway between them, but slightly nearer the back lens.
Our reasons are as follow : —

1st. Stereoscopic pictures should always be taken simultane-
ously, because when an interval of time elapse between taking
the first and second picture, figures move, or shadows change,
or the lights vary. This can only be done by using a twin-lens
camel a, or a pair of cameras which can be opened and shut at
the same instant. The latter would be found very troublesome,

1 1

382

TllK rUOTOGKArillC A^D FIXE ATxT JOURNAL

DeceiuLen i

while the former i^ extremely simple, because botli picture are
taken and developed upon the same plate.

2iid. When it is required to see tliin},'S in the stereoscope ex-
actly as we see them iu natural vision, the stations should not
exceed tvvo-and-a-lialf inches apart, and the pictures should be
properly mounted and viewed through whole lenses, the focal
lenj^th of wliicli is equivalent to tliat of the lenses with which
the pictures are taken. The twin-lens camera is therefore suit-
able for taking stereoscopice pictures in which the natural
appearance of thlncs is trulhlully rendered : and the par-
allelism of the axes of the lenses is strictly correct in principle
because the pictures are always mounted upon a plan^ surface
and not upon a cardboard bent in the middle. For the demon-
stration of this statement see Photographic Notes, No. 39, or
the article on the Stereoscope iu our " Dictionary of Photogra-
pliy." On the other hand, when it is required for any special
purpose to represent things in the stereoscope with greater re-
lief than they appear to have in natural vision, the stations mus-
be taken wider apart than the distance between the eyes, and
then the twin-lens camera offers no advantage over Latimer
Clark's, but it labors under no disadvantage because it can be
slid along a board screwed to the tripod stand, and the picture
from the right station taken with the left lens, and vice versa,
v.hich saves the trouble of cutting and transferring the positive
prints. The board should have a raised straight edge, against
which the camera travels.

3 The twin lens camera, furnished with portrait combina-
tions, has this advantage, that it is suitable either for views or
instantaneous pictures or portraits. In portraiture, however,
a little more relief is sometimes required than is obtained in this
way. In views the distance between near and distant objects
varies greatly, while in portraiture it varies but little, therefore
stations are in general taken about five inches ajiart ; but na-
tural truth is in this way sacrificed to effect, a i)i'actice which
sliould not be encouraged.

4th. The stop should be placed a little nearer to the back
lens in order to cure distortion. When the stop is placed near-
est to the front lens the image of a straight line at the margin
of the picture is curved inwards at its extremities ; and when
placed too near to the back lens it is curved outwards at its ex-
tramities. There is a point between the two extremes where
the image remains perfectly straight, and that is the proper
place for the diaphram. It must be found by trial, it lies
nearly midway between the lenses but nearest to the back
lens, because the focal length of this lens is shorter than that
of the front lens. Distortion may be very nearly got rid of in
the portrait combination when the stop is properly placed, but
it cannot be got rid of in the common view lens, and in that in-
strument it exists to a fearful degree.

Observe, however, that the portrait lens with a stop between
the lenses is not suitable for taking ordinary views, for this rea-
son, that the curvature of the image is so great that it does not
satisfactorily cover a field of more than 20° even with a small dia-
phiam. This is angle enough for stereoscopic pictures, but not
enough for photographic views generally.

There is also this serious objection to using the portrait com-
bination for views, viz., that it frequently gives a round spot of
diffused light in the centre of the picture, whether the stop be
placed in front of the front lens or between the lenses. This,
however, may be prevented and the ohjtction removed by past-
ing an annulus of blackened cardboard round the outer face of
the front and back lenses at their circumfeience.

With resjiect to the development of negatives with iron, the
process is quite satisfactory when the collodion is good and the
uitrate bath in proper order ; we have frequently taken dense
and good negatives without adding any silver to the developer,
and the half-tones are beautifully brought out in this way ; but
sometimes the nitrate bath gets incurai)ly out of order for this
process, at the same time that it works well with pyro-gallic
acid. This difficulty is no doubt to be traced to the impurity
of the nitrate of silver.

The quarter-plate Chevalier would not cover a field more than
five inches diameter. [Ed. P. N.]

From Liv. and Man. Photographic Journal.

NEW STEREOSCOPIC CAMERA.

BY MB. W. HI3L0P,

The following is a description of a New Stereoscopic Camera
exhibited by Mr. Hislop at the meeting of the North Loudon
Photographic Association, A])ril 29th, 1858.

The Camera is of any ordinary construction, and is mounted
on a slide moving easily on a straight platform, which may be
made of extra length, and be hinged in the middle for the con-
venience of packing. The camera is affixed to the slide by
means of a belt or screw, in such a manner that it can be placed
at an angle with the platform on which it slides. A small
screw, seen at one end, bears against the side of the camera
towards the front, when it is pushed to the left for the second
picture. At the other end is a bent piece of brass, which can
be placed in a series of holes made along the platform at af-
ferent distances, commencing at 2| inches from the left hand,
the minimum angle for stereoscopic pictures. This bent [)iece
of brass also bears against the side of the camera when brought
up to it, and thus adjusts it to a right angle with the platform.
To adjust for convergence, the camera is first pushed to the
right against the stop. The point of the picture on which the
pencil dots on the focussing glass fall having been noted, the
camera is passed to the left, and the screw is turned until the
dots fall upon the same point again. It is now pushed back to
its first position (the stO[) adjusting it at right angles), and the
first picture is taken. The slide is pushed in, the camera passed
over, and bearing against the screen is forced into exactly the
same amount of convergence for which it had been previously
adjusted, and the second picture is taken.

The advantages of this plan are, — simplicity of manual ad-
justment in the first instance, one operation being sufficient, and
afterwards, its perfect self-adjusting action, as the camera must
be brought to the same bearing if pushed home. Its cheapness
and portability will recommend it to the amateur photographer

From Lio. and Man. Photographic Journal.

APPARATUS FOR PRODUCI.\G TRA\SPARE.\T POSITIVE STEKEilGRAPlIS
On wel Caliodioii, or for Mulliplyiiig Negatives.

BY MR W. HISLOP.

In addition to the camera described above, Mr. Ilislop also
exhibited an ap])aratus for producing transparent positive stereo-
graphs on wet collodion, or for mulUpIying negatives.

It consists of a camera about nine inches long with the or-
dinary back and dark frames for stereoscopic plates. The
camera is clamped upon a board, about two feet long, by a
screw i)assing through a slot, thus enabling the camera to be
placed at a greater or less distance from the negative or picture
to be copied. The latter is placed within grooves on a frame,
screwed at the end of the deal board. The whole is fastened
to an inclined frame, hinged to admit of being placed at any
angle pointing to the sky. The lens may be the ordinary stereo-
scopic view lens or a portrait lens with a small stop. To use
the apparatus, place the slide to be copied with its right hand
picture in the opening in the frame, and the plate being pre-
pared in tiie ordinary way and placed in the dark frame, take
the first picture. Pass the slide from left to right and the dark
frame from right to left, and take the second picture. 1 prel'er
a single lens as perfect uniformity in the picture is thus secured.
The advantages of this method of producing transparencies, or
copying negatives, are its simplicity combined with economy
and exi)idition, the possibility of altering the size of the picture,
and the capability of copying a picture through glass, thus al-
lowing negatives to be protected from injury by covering them
with a plate of glass.

1S58.

TUE rUOTOGRAriUC AND FLVE ART JOURNAL.

383

From Photographic Journal.

PllOTUGRAPIllC E\GRAVI\C OX METAL I'LATES.

BY C. J. BURXETT.

From a paper read before tlie Ediiibiirgli Botanic Society,
March 18a8, given as apparently superior to tiiat of Mr. Fox
Talbot tiien published (and it may possibly be in some respects
fidly equal even to his new one).

1 first describe the process in the simpler state, in which it is
sufficient for copying pen and ink, or pencil line drawings of
plants;, scenery, and other objects, wood-cuts, line-engravings,
and every thing else consisting of lines alone; and next consider
the additional contrivances necessary in etching from true pho-
tographs of plants, scenery, natural objects, architecture, paint-
ings, Indian ink drawings, and every thing in fact not made up
of lines equally translucent. AVliere a drawing is on thin paper,
we may, of course, print from it directly, but generally, of course,
the plan is to take first a negative and then a positive to print
from.

1. Coat your plate of zinc, iron, steel copper, or other metal,
with the sensitive mixture of bichromate of soda, potash, am-
monia, or other bichromate, chromic and uranic, or ferric nitrate,
or other salt, with gelatine, gum, meta-gelatine, or allied sub-
stance.

2. Dry the plate gradually or by the aid of heat.

3. Print iu pressure frame.

4. Connect the plate, metallically, by means of a screw clamp
orjother arrangement, with a plate — say the siime size — of silver,
pbintiMum, platinized silver, or other less oxidable metal, and
coat the hade of the first plate with varnish.

5. Plunge the two plates into a weak solution of sulphuric,
muriatic, nitric, or otlier acid, or etching fluid, watching care-
fully the process, and putting into a weaker or stronger etching
bath if required.

6 Wash off the remaining gelatine mixture.

Instead of coupling the plates in the manner now described,
we may connect the plate (first varnished on the back) with
the wire of one (the oxidizing) pole of a galvanic battery or
cell, and a plate of silver, copper, or other less oxidable metal,
with the wire of the oUier pole, and plunge the two plates,
opposite each other, into the etching bath, containing a solution
of, say, sulphuric, muriatic, nitric, acetic, tartaric, chloric
(oxalic ?) or other acid; or of sulphate of soda, muriate of soda,
niirate of potash, chlorate of potash or of soda, ace-
tate, oxalate, or tartrate of soda or other, salt — the strength
of action being regulated either by the strength of the battery
(which may have its metallic elements raised or depressed in
their cell or trough), or by rhe strength of the etching bath.
If the plates are connected as first described, it is, of course,
by the latter that we regulate it.

X.B. — The oVijpct of the galvanic current connexion which I
have introduced, is to prevent the production of a deposition of
gas-bubbles on the metal plate being etched. It will be evident,
that these bubbles being evolved under the gelatine, would be
apt to cause a separation or blowing up of it at the surface of
the metal. It might be fancied that the washing awny of the
soluble gelatine before etching, generally recommended in such
))rocesses, would re:nove this difficulty; but besides other objec-
tions to such washing, it does not appear that it can. mswer
any such purpose, except in the case of a picture composed en-
tirely of lines, and those lines all of the same depth of blackness.
Any attempt to -emove the gelatine or other mixture, before
etching, is, therefore, it appears not only useless but likely to
interfere seriously with tlie delicacy and uniformity of the etch-
\\\<r. It will be seen at once by any one having the slightest
acquaintance with galvaidc action, that the gas is on this plan
evoked on the less oxidable metal, or at the opposite pole in-
stead of On the metal being etched.

As the plan of applying resin-powder above the gelatine or
other coating before etching would not be likely to answer,* we
may apply it below, as suggested by Mr. Fox 'lalbot or far
rather follow out a plan or plans suggested to mo by the shade
of fine guaze, mentioned by Mr. Talbot as adopted by him in
one of his old processes. I would recommend a .set of fine
crossed or uncrossed lines or dots, photogniphically or otherwise
produced ('we may get very fine lines or dots by piiotographing,
on a smaller, from those accurately drawn on a much larger
scalej ; they may be either on a separate glass, or on the print
itself from which we are prinitng on to the metal, or a li'.tle
charcoal powder, lycopodium, or other fine powder may be
sprinkled on the back or front of the print, or on a seperate
glass to be placed above it. The same set of lines, if on a ser-
rate glass, may answer for printing Irom any number of dili'or-
ent negatives, and we may make glasses or paper for the same
purpose, by photography, from a charcoal or other powder-
sprinkled surface.

This same mode of procuring grain will answer equally as well
for photolithography, or photoxylographic blocks, with gelatine
and bichromate, or any of the allied mixtures already alluded to.

i3ci-soual vC ^xi JiitclUgcnce.

Wtth the present number we close the eleventh volume of
the Pholografhn 4" Pint Art Journal; having carried it
through a year of more than ordinary financial depression, with
much trouble, but with a degree of success beyond, perhiips,
what we had reason to ex[)ect. During the next year we
hope to be better sustained by our friends and patrons, and it
lies in their power, to give us the inducements to sustain its
character as the best Plioto^iraphic Journal published in Ame-
rica^ and to increase its influence. If we have not pre-
sented anything decidedly original we have been instrumental
in introducing all the improvements worthy of note which have
been invented both m Europe and America, and we hope we have
done something towards the elevation and character of the Art
in the United States. If the Photographers of America— mmy
of whom have, not only the time, but the ability to produce
new results and improvements, as well as to commit them to pa-
per and communicate them to us-wiU study more the necessities
of the art in this country, devise improvements, and when made
impart them to their brother artists through our columns, they
will not only be doing a noble work, but ol)tain some pecuniary
remuneration for their time and labor. It is a growing shame
to the whole body of Photographers in the United States that
so few can be found willing to put their thoughts and actions to
paper. The coritrast between Eurepeans and Americans in this
particular is painfully great, and we hope that the year 1859
will effect a decided change for the better, and that hereafter
we will go before the world as thinking, inventive beinfs_
instead of being, as now, considered mere machine artists.
The fact that we can produce a host of unqualifiedly excellent
artists does not milit ite against the assertions, that they are
ii\m\)\y 'photografhic machines, for, from among them all, how
many can be selected who approach perfection — not one. One
may excel in the depth of tone and strength of ini:ige, but is
deficient in all else that goes to make up the truly skilfully
artist. His positions may be good and his manipulations bad.
He may understand fully the method of toning a positive, but
be perfectly incapable of producing a good negative ; or he may
thoroughly understand wlmt belongs to a good negative, and
fail to print from it a good positive. All these are points which
daily meet our eyes, and we constantly find deficiency in some

* Mr. Fox Talbot's new piocpss has shown that I was quite mistaken in
suppo.-sing that there was any impossibility in this, but I li^ave it as writ-
ten, and still it would app ;'.r to m; that some of the plans here specilied
(I'oiinded as £ have nii-ntioned, on another of .Mr. Fox Talbot, to whom
we owe so much) are lilcely to prove more eonv^-nicnt and give equal if
not more, satisfactory results than any aquatint application to the plate.

384

THE PnOTOGRATHIC AND FIXE ART JOURNAL.

December

one of them among all, while few, very few, ore still less capa-
ble of understandius, mucli less practicing the rules that govern
hio'h art. In no branch of Photography is this more evident
thTui in the attempts of our photograi)liers to produce stereos-
copic pictures. The majority of tlie specimens made by Ame-
ricans—and we must also say of those imported from France-
are perfect failures— abortions— and if continued on sale to the
public must eventually produce for tliem disgust in the public
mind. Tiiey indicate that tiic makers of them consider it only
necessary to plant their camera stand, point their double tube
box at an object, secure two pictures on the same glass or pa-
per slide, and put them into market, and all necessary work is
done. Now, it is our, opinion, that no true artist will ever use
a double tube box, because the results obtained by the single are
more perfect in every respect, and we doubt the possibility of pro-
ducing a pair of lenses so completely identical as to give pictures
precisely alike and at the proper angle, to the degree necessary for
the production of natural pictures. In regard to the artistic pro-
duction of photographs nothing has betii published either in Eu-
rope or America, so condusive to improvement in this particular,
as the graceful, piquant and truthful articles which have been com-
municated to this JouTTud by M. A. Root, Esq , and we feel more
pride in those articles than in any other matter we have given
to the public ; and it gives us great pleasure to have it in our
power to state that we have secured Mr. Root as a regular
monthly contributor to our Journal for the future. There are
others connected with the Photographic Art in this country
who could, if they would, do a vast amount of benefit to the art
by following his example, but it appears to be a Herculean task,
not only for them to devote a few hours each year, thus to be
ucfit themselves, but to draw them out.

The decision in regard to the Cutting photographic patents
has produced considerable excitement in the photographic
ranks, and we sincerely trust this excitement will result in the
public good. So far as we have become informed in the matter,
we find that the greatest opposition to the decision comes from
the manufacturers of collodion. Among the artists themselves
nine out of ten with whom we have conversed, express them-
selves satisfied with the result, provided Mr. Cutting carries out
the views he has expressed. The New York patentee, however,
comes in for an extra large share of expletive, in consequence
of the intemperate manner in which he has attempted to pro-
ceed with many of our city photographers. The ready manner
in which the Boston photographers have given in their adhe-
sion to the demands of Mr. Cutting, and the acquiescence of
those with whom we have conversed, would seem to show that
the general opinion was averse to further contention. Some
tluu-e are, however, who bluster and fume, and our friend Seely
has gone 'so far as to issue a circular calling upon the artists of
the United States to combine and send him the means for
further contesting the point at issue, pledging to give half the
proceeds of subscriptions to the "only American Juurnal of
Photography " for the next six mouths to the good cause; and
stran°e to say the opening of this circular confesses the truth
that tlie "p'Uents have been sustained" If the photographers
ot the United States, or any portion of thein, are determined
to pursue the matter further, the plan of Mr. Secley is the only
true and honest one, for it would be unjust to require, or expect,
that any single individual should bear the whole cost ot an ex-
pensive suit for the benefit of the thousands, when he can pro-
cure immunity for the nominal sum of twenty-five dollars (the
amount Mr. Cutting proposes to charge for the rights). As
we said in our last, we cannot go behind this decision of the
Court, no matter how obtained, but must bow to it, and submit
to Mr. Cutting's demands, uaiil it can be reversed, if that is
l)Os.',ible, which attempt at reversion must be obtained by the
means indicated above. We also remarked in our last that it
was for photographers themselves to decide which course they
should pursue. Thus far tiie indications are that they consider
it the wisest to get out of the scrape in the cheapest manner
))ossible. So far as we are concerned, individually, it is of very
litUj interest, and we can only .speak of it in its bearings upon
our friends and patrons. Thinking it wroug, and making asser^

tions without sufficient evidence to bear us out, will not mend
the matter, and although we have re|)eatedly expressed the opin-
ion that these patents were invalid, that opinion was based upon
our sujjposed recollections of data involving the first employ-
ment of the bromides. Now, we must search and labor to d s-
cover how far facts will uphold or disappoint us. But we must
here say our opinion has been still further staggered by the as-
sertions of some, who profess to be well versed in the facts, that
the bromides were used as collodion sensitizers at a date we
know to have been anterior to the introduction of collodion in-
to the Photographic Art Even now the bromides are very lit-
tle, if ever used, out of the United States, if we are to judge
by formulas given by foreign publications.

Our brother editor of the " Photografhic Notes'" in his resume
of Photographic improvements, which will be found in another
page of this number, ignores entirely those of Brother Jonathan,
notwithstanding that in a previous number he had spokeu in
terms of high praise of Mr. Cutting's Photo-lithographic process,
Woodward's Solor Camera, &c. Our readers, by turning to
our November number will find his article on Photographic
Engraving, the carbon process and Mr. Cutting's Photo-litho-
graphs, spoken of in terms they richly deserve, and the compar-
ison drawn between the European photolithographic processes
and that of Mr. Cutting is decidedly in favor of the latter.
Among other American improvements, are the lenses of Mr.
Harrison, the Stereoscopic instruments of Mr, Gordon and Mr.
Churton — the latter being a double tube box and a decided im-
provement, so far as convenience is concerned, on that style of
instrument. We have also improved the camera box in various
ways, as well as the formulas for enlarging portraits &c.

M. Voigtlander has pointed out the following errata which
occur in his letter, commencing on page 353, and which it is im-
portant to correct :

The name of the Professor who signed the document is not
Elhuk but Uhde.

Page

301,

for

8-216

read

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The columns in the document, which are marked in pencil,
are the second and fourth.

We have again to close the year with the regret that no de-
cided move has been made towards the formation of a Photo-
gra]ihic Society. A few amateurs are talking about it ; we
trust that their talking will ere long result in action.

Our Illustrations this month are two photo-lithographs from
Messrs. Cutting & Turner — one exhibiting the applicability of
the process to views, and the other to architectural design.
Mr. Davie is printing four photograi)hs, which will be sent with
this number if completed in time, otherwise with our next, and
which will complete our complement for 1858. We shall also
give an illuminated pictorial title l)age printed by the, so-called
carbon process, to illustrate the formula given in this number'

We have received a spicy communication from Mr. D. D. T.
Davie, in reply to Mr. Parson's letter, published in our last,
which, being too late for this number, will appear in our next.

AVe refer our readers to our advertising pages for a Notice, to
Photograjphers from Mr. Whipple, which is of great iini)ortance
to every one. The subject of photographic patents is becoming
decidedly interesting All writers have conceded to Mr. Whip-
ple priority in the use of gla.ss and albu/nen for negatives.

.*t ..

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