Volltext Seite (XML)
THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. 735 November 16, 1883.] The next meeting will be held in the Royal College of Science, on Friday, December 14th. North STAFFORDSIIIRT PHOTOGRAPHIC Association. A MIECING was held on Nov. 7th, Mr B. S. Burgess in the chair, when the season’s report was presented, and officers were elected. It was decided that the Association should provide plates for the forthcoming lantern exhibition, and the Secretary was in structed to procure them from the Derby Dry Plate Company. The following report was read ;— “As it is barely a year since this Association was organized, we can scarcely term this an annual meeting ; still it must pass as such, the month of November being practically the end of the photographic year, and also by one of our rules the Society are bound to hold a meeting at Martinmas in each year for the election of officers, the passing of accounts, &c. “ An opinion having been expressed by many of the leading photographers, both professional and amateur, in the district, that an association might advantageously be formed here, it was determined to try the experiment; a preliminary meeting was held at Stok-on-Trent, and rules were drawn up. Invitations to all the known persons who, either as amateurs or professionally, practise photography have been sent to join the Society, and in the majority of cases these invitations have been accepted ; the election of applicants for admission as members being made by ballot. “ Eleven meetings have been held, some at Burslem, others at Stoke-on-Trent and Hanley. Two out-door excursions have been made, one to Dovedale, and the other, by kind permission of His Grace the Duke of Sutherland, to Trentham ; these have in both cases been successful, and productive of much enjoyment and feeling of good fellowship among the members. “ The first president of the Society, Mr. Sexton, having obtained an appointment elsewhere, resigned his post on July 19 th, and one of our worthy vice-presidents, Mr. C. Alfieri, has well and ably filled the temporary vacancy. “ On August 2nd, the very day of our excursion to Dovedale, we lost by death one of our most valued members, Mr. J. Lockett, whose place it will be difficult to fill, he having been one of the oldest amateur photographers in the distriat, and his only fault being his too good nature. It has been decided by ballot that another member should be crossed off the list, making a total loss of three members during the season. Five papers have been read on different subjects, and the thanks of the Society are due to those gentlemen who have contributed to the edification and in one case, great amusement of the members. “ The committee of the Wedgwood Institute, Burslem, having overcharged us for hire of a room, it has been resolved to hold no more meetings there. The temporary Committee, appointed until November, now resign, another Committee to be elected to-night in their place ; you will also be asked to elect a president and two vice-presidents. “ On several occasions during the Society meetings, the question of collodion versus gelatine has formed the subject of much discussion ; on one occasion one of the ardent supporters of collodion even gave a challenge to any gelatine plate worker to try his photographic strength under equal conditions. The challenger not, however, turning up on the day of trial, it must perforce be considered that the gelatine process here, as else where, is in the ascendant, and that we as a society are in no way behind the times. “ Taking into consideration the fact that we are a young society, or rather an old one resuscitated, which is much the same, we have passed our trial stage successfully, and now being established firmly we only require additions to our numerical strength to enable us to compare favourably with older societies. I may add that our numbers increase at almost every meeting ; and several gentlemen of standing in the county have joined, lending their names and assistance as honorary members. And I venture to opine that should we progress as favourably during the coming winter and wet season, and in the same ratio, our county of Stafford will nowhere be photographically behindhand.” The election of officers resulted as follows : — President—Dr. Craig. Vice-presidents—Messrs’ Chas. Alfieri and F. J. Emery. Committee—Messrs. Blacksbaw, Burgess, Hall, Henshall Better, and Kirkby. Secretary and Treasurer— W. B. A'lison, 32, West Street, Stoke-on-Trent. NEWCASTLE-ON-TYXE and Northern Counties’ Photographic Association. The ordinary monthly meeting was held on Tuesday evening, the 13th inst., Prof. BEDSOX in the chair. Mr. Bulman was nominated for membership. The Hon. Secretary read a paper on the “ Carbon Process,” and gave a demonstration which was highly appreciated by those present. Mr. Pike was accorded a hearty vote of thank’. A large number of pictures are promised for the Exhibition ; over three hundred frames will be on view, and these contributed by many of the most eminent photographic artists in the Kingdom. Owing to a slight misunderstanding, it is not yet too late to con tribute pictures ; they will be received at the Central Exchange Art Gallery, Newcastle-on-Tyne, up to Tuesday evening, the 20th inst.; they should be carriage paid, and addressed to Messrs. Barkas and Tweedy, and a notice should be posted to the Hon. Secretary the same day that the goods are despatched, giving name of pictures and other particulars for insertion in the catalogue. Ualk in the Studio. M». Ruskin’s Lectures on Art.—Mr. Ruskin always takes great pains with the illustrations of his Oxford lectures, and on this occasion he exhibited the original drawing of the frontis piece of Punch, besides several enlarged reproductions of Mr. Du Maurier’s drawings, some of them photog-aphed by Miss Kate Greenaway’s brother, and others done “ more faithfully than any photographer could ” by Mr. Macdonald, the Master of the Ruskin Drawing School. These copies, as well as a series of servant maids and flunkeys from some of the earlier numbers of Punch, are to be added to the collection in the School as soon as the University will allow its Professor any room for them.— Truth. Photographic Progress.—In an interesting lecture delivered in the Rochester Workmen’s Literary Club, on Tuesday evening, by Sergt-Major Doyle, R.E., for insertion of which we regret we have no room this week, the lecturer made the following remarks on the Stannotype printing process :—“ I have now to bring to your notice a most delicate and besutiful permanent printing pro cess, the ‘ Stannotype.’ It is the invention of Mr. W. B. Wood bury, a gentleman well known in the photographic world as possessing an ingenious and inventive mind. He has, in the ‘ Stannotype ’ process, given to photographers a simple but effective method of producing an unlimited number of permanent prints quickly, cheaply, and possessing as great delicacy and beauty as silver prints.” Photo-Relief Castings in Brass, Gold, and Steel.—Mr. P. Barry, who is well known as a practical and scientific metal lurgist, has shown us some examples of bis method of casting. His photo-reliefs for ornamental purposes in brass and other hard metals are extrememly fine in detail, and should be appreciated by the public. The most surprising feat of Mr. Barry is, how ever, the re-duplication of some of Mr. Dallas’ tint blocks in brass, and we may mention that among his specimens Mr. Barry showed us a cast from a portrait block printed on page 598 of the present volume. A cast in brass or steel is far more durable as a printing surface than type metal or the usual elec trotype, and Mr. Barry's castings are likely to prove of much value as a means of applying photography to the production of embossing plates for use by the book-binder. Casts of portrait subjects in gold or silver have been also made by Mr. Barry. Dr. Koller, in Centralblatt fiir Textil Industrie, draws attention to the fact that if silk tissues are impregnated with chromate of copper, and then exposed to direct sunshine, various shades of brown may be obtained, and the silks are rendered waterproof. This peculiarity of the chrome salts, especially of the chromates of copper and mercury, was published in the Report of the Cork meeting of the British Association in 1843. Observation on Thermo- and Actino-Electricity of Quartz, by W. HANKEL.—Friedel and Curie do not consider actino-electricity to be a particular phenomenon, but merely to be caused by an irregular heating of the crystal. In the present paper the author describes various forms of experiments made both to confirm his previous results, and to prove that the position of the poles is reversed according as the crystal is left or right handed. He has also extended bis experiments on actino electricity, which is shown to differ from pyro-electricity in that, i firstly, the former causes a polarity of crystallographic axes