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713 Mr. Sprague’s method is now becoming very extensively used for the purposes of book illustration, and we notice that in the case of Mr. Fay’s new book on the South Western Railway, this process has been adopted. graphic stone. In the case of the ink-photo, the grain or stipple is purely automatic, it is the result of the direct action of light; while the photograph of the leopard was translated into dot, line, and stipple by the brain and hand of an artist. Photographic apparatus was the subject of an action in the Brighton County Court last week. A firm of money lenders had entrusted the apparatus to a hair-dresser to sell. The sale was effected; but instead of paying the persons from whom he had received the apparatus, the hair-dresser handed the money to somebody else, who, he contended, was the real owner. The evidence, how ever, showed that the money-lenders were the owners, they having lent money upon it, and the hair-dresser was, in consequence, non-suited. A propos of the carriage of negatives, Mr. A. R. Colquhon, whose volume “ Across Chripe ” is the book of travels of the year, gives many instances of the difficulties he had to encounter, not only in the conveyance of apparatus, but in securing photographs of the people. The Chinese in the country districts he found were very unwilling to be photo graphed, and he considered it was a great triumph when the Prefect of Pe-se consented to sit, it being, says Mr Colquhon, a unique instance of a high official allowing such a dangerous innovation to be brought about as the use of that alarming apparatus, a photographic camera, in his yamen. But innovations quickly spread, and no sooner had the Prefect been photographed than the General of the district desired also to be taken, and astonished the photo grapher considerably when he turned round and said, “ Would you be good enough to take my humble wife’s photograph?” Mr. Colquhon’s negatives, it may be mentioned, were developed in England by Messrs. Murray and Heath. The King of Denmark has conferred the cross of the Danebroge upon Major O. Volkmer, who has so success fully applied photography to map-making at the Geographical Institute in Vienna. The Crystal Palace Company have issued a circular anent the holding of an international exhibition at Syden ham. Fine arts and the graphic arts are to be included ; but, strange to say, not a word appears about the admis sion of photographic work. The tremendous amount of “ inspection ” to which the damaged tunnel on the Underground Railway is being subjected strikes one as a little ridiculous. On the first day wo were told that Captain Cundill, a Government officer, inspected ” the spot; next day came Colonel Ford, another official, and Dr. Dupre, the Government analyst, "ho inspected; ” then arrived Colonel Majendie, ye another Government officer, who it appears is bent on analycing the ballast on the line—rather a lengthy operation, we suspect—and he also “ inspected ; ” while further “inspection” is promised by the Engineer officers attached to the Board of Trade. Yet, strange as it may appear, the vast amount of “inspecting ” has been quite as fruitless as the labours of “ all the King’s horses and all the King’s men,” who failed to get Umpty Dumpty together again. Photographers should beware how they employ foreign assistants who are not familiar with the English language. Only the other day we beard of a gentleman who felt him self insulted in a studio because the assistant took a profile, naively giving as a reason to the customer that he did not like his “ fool face.” Dr. Vogel says that in his recent American tour he noticed that many studios made use of a sort of spray- distributor for retouching big portraits, not eau de Cologne, but very fine pigment powder being expelled from the apparatus. The instrument is held in the hand like a style or pencil, and is connected by a rubber tube with a bellows ; then, by placing your foot upon the bellows, a stream of dust particles is made to issue forth, which adhere to the paper picture. The particles attach themselves very readily to the surface, so that if the mouth of the instru ment is close to the picture a dark spot ensues, while the farther off it is held the lighter and softer is the shading produced. Dr. Vogel himself, although, as he says, no draughts man or retoucher, took the little instrument in hand, and was surprised at the results he produced, which were far more delicate than could have been obtained with crayons applied by hand. Mr. Zimmerman, of St. Paul, who was one of the first to introduce this system of retouching pictures into his studio, avows that a crayon portrait can now be finished in half the time formerly required. Mr. Kurtz, of New York, it appears, also uses a dust process, which is more simple still. He blows finely- powdered pigment into a close box, in which the picture already lies, those portions of the photograph which are to be left untouched being masked. The fine dust that is deposited attaches itself very tenaciously. A short sojourn in the box brings about very fine shading, which grows darker with the duration of time. We presume the surface of the pictures is abraded in some way—say with fine pumice, for instance, as in the Vander Weyde process—so as to permit the pigment dust to attach itself. Photographic apparatus is now sold in the fancy shops. In the first place, we have actually a working outfit for five shillings : lens, camera, slide, packet of plates, and chemicals. It is true that the lens is of the same optical excellence as a spectacle glass, and the resulting pictures are only a little larger than a postage stamp. One can even commence the practice of photography