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Obviously, nothing could be more beneficial to the “cutting ” photographer, than to have all his brethren banding together to keep up high prices ; he would have everything his own way then. Therefore, photographers, when practicable, should always arrange for gas flames to be outside the dark room ; or, better still, might employ the little electric incandescent lamp which we described some months ago in these columns. The suggestion of one protectionist was to appoint “a committee to establish a uniform scale of prices for the first, second, and third class work for card, cabinet, and panel size.” Fancy a committee attempting to do this, adjudica ting on a photographer’s work, and saying that Mr. Oxalate’s pictures are first-class, while those of Messrs. Pirow and Bromide are only second-class. It is not likely that the last named gentlemen would “ play any more ” after that decision, but would be in favour of appointing another committee. We are glad to see that the Milwaukee Con vention considered the idea impracticable, and many members added further that they did not assemble for the purpose of bewailing their troubles and quarrels about prices. “ I think,” said one member, “ if a man makes good work and asks fair prices for it, he will get them. I have adopted a system which I would like to call the attention of the meeting to, and which Ithink is practical. I make two negatives, two cabinet negatives, for one dollar. I don’t consider the prints at all. If a man comes in and asks how much he can get a picture for, I tell him two cabinet portraits for one dollar, and then I will finish him pictures at any price that he desires.” A new illuminating substance, the invention of Lieuten ant Diek, of the Russian army, is spoken of in scientific journals. Very little has transpired in respect to the nature of the mysterious substance, which is in the form of a powder, and may be produced in three colours, viz., green, yellow, and violet, the last being the most luminous. These powders impart luminosity to any object to which they are applied, water, in a glass vessel, being converted into a luminous fluid by admixture with the compound. The German Government and other authorities have been making experiments with Lieut. Diek's invention, so we can hardly suppose it is our old friend luminous paint in another guise. A Belgian electrician has been studying a thunderstorm through the telephone, and the continuous noise during the height of the storm reached him, he tells us, in the shape of a sound like frying over a fire. After all, the transmission of atmospheric artillery by telegraph is not so wonderful as the fact we recorded at the time of the bombardment of Alexandria, when the firing of heavy guns in Egypt was heard through the telephone at Malta, the observers on the island actually averring that they could distinguish between the stupendous cannon of the Inflexible and other guns in the fleet of less calibre. Those who employ a gas jet in their dark rooms may like to know that, according to Captain Douglas Gordon, it vitiates the air as much as six human beings. It probably will not be long before an important addi tion will be made to the list of officials forming the house hold of distinguished personages. Count Sheremetieff, a Russian nobleman, has set the example. He was married the other day to the Countess Heyden, and the noble couple spent their honeymoon on board a steamer which was hired to take them up the Volga. Numerous wedding guests accompanied the pair, and the party, besides, included a band, twenty singers, a physician, male and female cooks, and—a photographer. An experiment of interest to all who study the action of light has been recently made by Herr Meyer, of Zurich, and is thus described in Les Mondes. A tube nearly forty inches long, and about an inch and a-half in diameter, is enclosed by parallel planes of glass; this apparatus, in a horizontal position, is filled with distilled water, and on looking through it at a black ground in the sunlight it appears of a deep intense blue. If gaslight is employed instead of sunlight, then, curiously enough, the colour is green. M. Monnier, the director of the official gas laboratory in Paris, has been comparing the European standards of light by means of electricity. Many authorities consider that the Carcel lamp, adopted by the French as a standard, is equal to ten standard candles (English) ; but according to M. Monnier, who has compared both standards with the electric light, the Carcel flame is but 8-33 times as brilliant as the candle. Still, it will not do to take M. Monnier’s figures as decisive, as they again disagree with those of German authorities. In any case, however, it is high time we had some definite standard of light, and photography, we hold, would be a useful aid to the attainment of this end. There would be no objection to continuing the standard candle as a unit, only in this case it should be a theoretical candle, and not a real one, in the same way as we still reckon the power of a steam-engine by the “horse,” meaning not the animal, but a definite pressure of steam on the piston. Aatent Entelligence. Applications for Letters Patent. 4152. Eugenio de Zuccato, of Charterhouse Street, in the city of London, for an invention of “An improved method or process of producing prints or transfers of photographic pic tures.”—Dated 28th August, 1883. 4,153. Eugenio de Zuccato, of Charterhouse Street, in the city of London, for an invention of “ An improved method or process of producing prints or transfers of photographic pic tures.”—Dated 28th August, 1883. 4,154. Eugenio de Zuccato, of Charterhouse Street, in the city of London, for an invention of “ An improved method or process of producing prints or transfers of photographic pic tures.”—Dated 28th August, 1883.