The photographic news

• Bandzählung: 12.1868
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1868
• Sprache: Englisch
• Signatur: F 135
• Vorlage: Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Digitalisat: Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Digitalisat: SLUB Dresden
• Rechtehinweis: Public Domain Mark 1.0
• URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-db-id1780948042-186800009
• PURL: http://digital.slub-dresden.de/id1780948042-18680000
• OAI: oai:de:slub-dresden:db:id-1780948042-18680000
• Sammlungen: LDP: Historische Bestände der Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Sammlungen: Fotografie
• Strukturtyp: Band

• Digitalisat: SLUB Dresden
• Strukturtyp: Ausgabe

April 17, 1868.] THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. 185 The washing arrangements are very excellent. After the fixed prints have received three or four rapid changes of water to remove the bulk of the hypo, they are transferred to the washing machine, an invention of Mr, England, and used by him for the past ten years, diagram of which we give. It consists primarily of a large trough 7 feet long, by 4 feet 6 inches wide, and 11 inches deep. Placed in this are two trays with lattice work, made of gutta-percha strips, at the bottom. Just above, supported by a bracket on the wall, is a box containing a water-wheel turned by the stream from a tap just above it. The two trays are connected with this wheel by a rod attached to a crank, and as the wheel re volves the trays are kept in a constantly oscillating motion, which serves the double purpose of preventing the prints from sticking together, and of securing more effectual wash ing than is effected by great soaking. The water which turns the wheel passes through a pipe at the bottom of the wheel-box into the washing trays ; and about once in every hour, the large trough having become full, brings into action a syphon, which empties it in ten minutes, leaving the prints to drain for a time, resting on the gutta-percha lattice work. The washing, thus managed, is found to be very effectual. The prints are removed each morning after a night’s washing, and placed in a straight heap in a screw press, by which all the water is squeezed out of them, which is a more effectual aid to drying than blotting off; and when spread on canvas frames the prints rapidly dry flat and even, with little curling or cockling. It is not necessary here to describe the complete and efficient means of saving and reducing the residues and waste, nor to enter into the details of mounting, printing the mounts, &c., beyond mentioning, in passing, that for the mounting a thick fresh solution of gum arabic is preferred to paste, glue, or india-rubber. We find in the course of conversation that the modifica tion of the collodio-albumen process, by which all the plates for last summer’s campaign were prepared, was so far successful that Mr. England will employ it again this summer with even more hope than before. The negatives produced by it, wo find, on examination, are singularly like those produced by the wet process, possessing even a trace more softness, delicacy, and detail than Mr. England’s usual wot collodion work. They are also, singularly unlike most dry-plate negatives, free from abnormal deposit or fog of any kind, here and there a little bare glass in the deepest shadows giving the images a good deal of positive character. Some of them, we learn, which had been a trifle under-exposed, had the usual plan of development supplemented by the aid of ammonia. One negative, which, after developing some time, appeared hopelessly Under-exposed, scarcely any trace of an image appearing, was finally washed, dried, and put away in a plate-box until after his return to England, when it was subjected to alkaline development, and finally yielded a capital nega tive without any appearance of having been forced in deve lopment in any way. Mr. England’s travelling equipment for the wet process is one of the most convenient we have seen. The knapsack tent, made from his own design, is light and commodious ; but, although it accompanied him, to be ready in case of emergency during last summer's tour, it was never used, the dry plates never having failed. These were prepared at various places en route, some convenient place being selected every now and then to serve as head-quarters for a few weeks, from whence to ramble for a few days, and return to develop the negatives obtained, and prepare more plates. As a rule the plates were developed within a few days of their preparation, but in some cases as much as a month elapsed between the operations. Mr. England is one of the very few veterans of the art who commenced the practical business of life as a profes sional photographer. Upwards of twenty years ago, when ho was a lad of eighteen years old, he undertook the charge of a Daguerreotype portrait establishment. For many years ho has been chiefly devoted, however, to the production of landscapes, especially stereoscopic and instantaneous work. His success in these departments has been most unequivocal, his especial work being unsurpassed by any in the world, and equalled by very few. His views of Niagara, taken under serious disadvantages, upwards of ten years ago, are still the finest views of the grand secenery of the Falls that have been issued. Uis instantaneous views of the streets of Paris have never been surpassed. His views of the Inter national Exhibition of 1862 were perfect, and, by contrast, give a singular point to the failure in the attempt to photo graph the recent exhibition of a similar kind. The Swiss scenery, which for some years has absorbed Mr. England's attention, is executed with a degree of care which leaves nothing to desire. Perhaps the most distinguishing cha racteristic in all Mr. England's operations is their pre eminently practical quality. An earnest experimentalist, with a perfect knowledge of all the capabilities of the art, and a liberal communicator of all the results of his know ledge to his brethren, it is well known to all those who have the advantage of Mr. England's friendship, that when he advises a given course, or when he publishes a process, it is certain to be practical and trustworthy. A cultivated artistic feeling characterizes all his pictures; whilst their photographic manipulation is generally absolutely perfect. A scrupulous and conscientious care to secure in all cases the best possible result is manifest. His equipment of lenses to one camera, and for size of picture, includes about a score of Single, Triple, Wide-Angle, and Rectilinear lenses, vary ing from three inches to fourteen inches in focus, so that every subject may receive such treatment as shall produce absolutely the best result. Mr. England is one of the few who have already intro duced photography to a second generation: his eldest son, a youth of seventeen, has commenced his career as photo grapher, as a dry plate man, having produced some excel lent dry plate negatives, before he has yet produced one by the wet process. PICTORIAL EFFECT IN PHOTOGRAPHY ; BEING Lessons in Composition and CMIAROSCURA for Photographers. BY H. P. ROBINSON. Chapter NIL “ Nothing is more strange in art than the way that chance and materials seem to favour you, when once yon. have thoroughly conquered them. Make yourself quite independent of chance, get your result in spite of it, and from that day foi ward all things will somehow fall as you would have them.” —Ruskin. « It is often said : Study nature ; but nature does not compose ; her beauti ful arrangements are accidental combinations, and none but an educated eye can discover why they are so. Nature does, and ought to, supply the materials for fine pictures ; but to select and reject, to adapt the individual parts to the production of a perfect whole, is the work of the artist, and this it is that stamps the emanations of genius.”—Burnett. The SKY—continued. The doctrine lately set forth by the matter-of-fact "school concerning the impropriety of using any other sky in a pho-