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536 THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. [August 21, 1885. burner, where it can be ignited with safety, and with the production of a very blue flame. The size of this flame depends upon the dimensions of the apparatus. The amount of the mixed gases to be burnt can be regulated by a stopcock placed between the tube B and the Bunsen burner. E. Sell, of Berlin, produced, a few years since, some excellent photographs with this light, which were exposed a shorter time than when using the electric or magnesium light, and were in every way more perfect. Riche and Bardy, of Paris, also made • extensive experiments with this light, and proved it to be twice as powerful as the magnesium, and three times as powerful as the lime light. They further showed that the photo-chemical power of the light was due to the blue flame of the sulphur in the combination. Oxygen may be used instead of nitrous oxide gas, but the latter is recommended as being safer. Photographers interested in the use of artificial light for their science will meet with most valuable hints on the various sources of light in Dr. Stein’s new work on light, vo 1 . i., referred to above ; but I do not think they will find any more worthy of trial, or easier of manipulation, than the nitrous-oxide carbon-di-sulphide mixture. Jotes. Those who admire the four effective little pictures by T. G. Whaite which form our supplementary sheet this week should not fail to turn to p. 530, and read this gentleman’s pleasantly told story of his journey through some of those delightful Belgian holiday resorts where the Britisher has good opportunities of unlearning some of his insular prejudices. According to the latest advices from the sea side, a new method of livelihood is finding favour amongst some of the cadgers who pick up a precarious living by the margin of the “sad sea waves.” It is said that several men are mak ing an appreciable income out of the coppers they receive for not obtruding themselves into the family groups taken in such quantities on the sands by the peripatetic photo grapher at this time of the year. The lazy scamps referred to have learned their power, and now require to be paid, like organ grinders, before they will move on. A photograph plays a very important part in the new play, “ Hood man Blind,” produced with, such success at the Princess’s on Tuesday. The wretched hero, deceived, as he thinks, by his wife, leaves her, but takes with him a cabinet photograph of the woman he so madly loves, and in his softer moments gazes at it, and kisses it with the passion he cannot wholly stifle. It is whilst so gazing at it that another of the characters chances to catch sight of it, and from this incident the discovery that the original of the photograph has a sister so like her that the resem blance has led tier very husband to think her false, directly proceeds. Incidentally the said hero throws the cabinet on the floor, and stamps on it in his hysterical rage ; and it will be at once seen that a considerable portion of the dramatic effect is lost by making the portrait of card rather than a glass one. Had the likeness only been of the old-fashiored kind, the smashing of the glass and the grinding of the fragments beneath the husband’s heel, could not but have been much more impressive than the mere stamping on a piece of cardboard. Perhaps the Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office offers one of the best illustrations of the value of photo-lithography as a means of reproducing sketches in black-and-white. The Gazette is issued weekly, and each number contains nearly five hundred reproductions, some from very complex drawings. With respect to this, B. Butterworth, the U.S. Patent Commissioner, writes in his last annual report: —“ A few years since it cost from $2.50 to $35 to obtain a copy of the drawings of a patent. Under the system of photo lithographing now adopted, the Office can supply copies of patent, with perfect reproductions of the drawings, at nominal cost, viz., twenty-five cents for single copies, or ten cents when twenty or more are ordered. Not only this, but the entire expense of producing these photo lithographic copies is more than paid by the proceeds of the sales.” Should those advertisers who seek publicity in the out side sheets of the PIOTOGRAPIIIC News follow the example of J. A. Bloomfield, refiner, of Park Ridge, Cook County, U.S.A., whose advertisement in Anthony’s Hulletinis accom panied by a woodcut portrait, we may expect our supple mentary sheets to become a sort of poi trait gallery. For an advertiser to publish his portrait as a part of his advertisement is a practice not altogether unknown in this country. We may instance the late “ Professor” Holloway, and allude to the circumstance that many Parliamentary candidates are issuing portraits in large numbers. Doubt less those who make such use of portraits are to some extent follower’s of Lavater, and have come to the con clusion that their countenances are calculated to inspire confidence. If photography is dreaded by the wood engraver, it has proved an immense advantage to the artist, pecuniarily speaking. In the days of wood engraving the artist did little more than make a preliminary sketch before working on the block. Now he makes a finished drawing on card, which is photographed, and sells the drawing. Mr. Du Maurier probably makes more from the sale of his original drawings for Punch than he gets from that periodical, high as his salary must be. The Court Journal, commenting on our suggestion that instantaneous photography should be used to settle the question of unfair bowling, says ;—“ Every ball delivered must, if this idea be carried out, be recorded on a separate plate, and at eighteenpence a plate this would be an item that would not meet the approval of most cricketing clubs, for cricketers are proverbially careful of their coin. ’ Economy is very commendable, and it is refreshing to