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296 THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. [June 19, 1868. head, and the head alone, that they have succeeded to admi- ration, and attained high reputation by this class of work. They have preferred to succeed by doing a simple style well, rather than a more complex style imperfectly. Some artists prefer to have to make a group of three per sons rather than two. I confess that the more figures I have to deal with in portrait photography, the more difficult I find my task. More than three or four figures should never be attempted in one negative, if it is necessary that every person should be a good portrait. I leave out of consideration here, large out-door groups taken on the hit-or-miss principle. It is impossible to get more into an upright carte-de-visite with out crowding. I have seen a dozen or more figures in a card portrait; but we are speaking of composition here, not of figures thrown together in a heap, with a head appearing here and there just as it gets the opportunity. If more than four figures must be included in the small dimensions of a carte-de-visite, it would be much better to turn the camera on its side, and make a horizontal picture of it. I have seen some most delightful little gems of pictures of this kind by Angerer, in which the interior of a large drawing-room of people—full, without crowding —was represented. I should much like to see pictures of this kind introduced into England, but the large size of the glass room required would, I fear, prevent all but a few attempt ing them. When the picture is larger than a carte-de-visite or cabinet size, it is always better and much easier to produce a group by combination printing. Photographers appear to have been afraid of the difficulties of this method ; but I am glad to see it is coming very much more into use, as photographers obtain a more intimate knowledge of the capabilities of their art. To accomplish this, a sketch should be made of the composition, no matter how roughly done, so that the artist knows what he intended by it, when ho looks at it a second time j or the figures may be placed in position, and a small photograph taken of the arrangement. They should be so grouped that the joinings should come in unimportant places. Although it is possible to make a perfect join, even in such a difficult place as down the line of a delicate profile,* it is better, if possible, to keep the mechanism of the art out of sight. When a sketch or small photograph of the complete arrangement is ob tained, the groups or single figures should be photographed in detail, by preference against a white or very light screen, if a background is also to be put in. If the back- grond is to be an interior, it will be found most convenient to take it with the figures, the accessories being so arranged that the lines of junction will not be seen. . A natural background may be introduced behind a single figure with great effect, and Mr. Edge has lately shown that it may be used with advantage for pictures so small even as a carte-de-visite. PROFESSOR SMYTH’S “ GREAT PYRAMID ” BATH. BY DB. MANN.f TurovaI the kindness of my friend, Professor Smyth, of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, I had the opportunity and pleasure of showing the members of the Society the bath with which the Professor made the miniature photographic pictures in Egypt when preparing his work on the “ Great Pyramid; ” and also to submit to the observation of the Society a small series of the miniatures themselves, and of the enlargements made from them. In order to prevent any misapprehension, it may be right that I should here state what has been distinctly said elsewhere, that Professor Smyth does not claim originality either for making very small photographs, or for the exposure of the plate when in the nitrate of silver bath. * In the presentation print I am now doing for the Photographic Sooiety, I have purposely arranged a join down the outline of a profile, to show that it is possible. The copies are being printed entirely by assistants, and not five per cent, are discarded for defective joining. - t Read before the London Photographic Society, J une 9th. I believe the Professor himself frequently speaks of Mr Skaife as having been before him in the suggestion and making of very small pictures under brief exposure, and of exposure while in the bath having been one of the ideas of an early age of the photographic art. If there had been time and opportunity, I would have made an endeavour to bring Mr. Skaife's proceedings into review in connection with Professor Smyth’s mode of working upon this occa sion. I may possibly find some other occasion to do this. My immediate purpose at this time is simply, as I had recent occasion to allude to the Professor’s mode of working, 1st, to show our London friends the bath which the Professor used in his Egyptian campaign ; and, 2nd, to afford Mr. Dallmeyer, and any others who may feel inter ested with him in that bearing of the question, to examine the optical character of the small pictures. It may be necessary, before drawing attention to the bath and the pictures, here briefly to recapitulate the peculiarities of the process adopted on the occasion of this Egyptian ex cursion by Professor Smyth. The camera used was made of tin, 8 inches long, of which C} inches was composed of a hood or sun-shade. The lens was a kind of locket-lens, a double combination of 18 inch focal length, which was worked with apertures one-tenth and one-twentieth of the focal length. The focus was adjusted, not by the eye, but by the instrumentality of a graduated scale determined beforehand. The light was cut oft' from the picture by a screen of blackened tin, placed, not in front of the lens, but just before the sensitive plate, and so contrived as to qualify the exposure of different parts of the plate and moderate the “ sky-action.” The bath, which I here produce, is made of ebonite, and is externally 4 inches high, 2-5 inches broad, and 1 inch thick. Its internal capacity is 3 inches by 1j inch and § inch. The bottom is so inclined as by its form to keep the plate in contact with two platinum pins provided for its lower end. A third point is so placed above as to enable a wedge inserted behind to bring the picture-plane into its proper position and keep it there. In front of the plate there is a little window 1 inch square, composed of a piece of very carefully prepared glass, having exactly true and parallel sides, and possessing a brass shutter of its own, which is closed when the bath is not in use. The bath has a cover of ebonite, with a ring on the top, by means of which it can be carried upon the little finger when the operator is at work. The Professor’s battery of apparatus consisted of half-a- dozen broad-mouthed bottles, and a pair of steel and of ebonite pliers. The glass upon which the picture was made was simply the microscopic object-slip, measuring 1 inch by 3 inches. This was inserted into the bath and wedged into position, one end downwards, so that the inch square picture ranged transversely across its middle third. The operation consisted mainly in a series of dippings. The plate was first dipped into one of the bottles containing the collodion, then dipped into an ordinary nitrate of silver bath contained in bottle No. 2. It was thence transferred to another por tion of the same solution contained in the exposing-bath, next placed in the camera, and there exposed for a period varying with the aperture from a fraction of a second to twenty seconds. After the exposure there was a third dip ping, in the iron-solution bottle; a fourth dipping, in a water-bottle; and a fifth dipping, in"cyanide-of-potassium solution, followed by a final washing. The difficulties which Professor Smyth turned the flank of, or avoided, by his mode of working were:—(1) the par tial drying of the plate at the edges in temperatures some times as high as 90°, with 25° of difference between the readings of the wet-bulb and dry-bulb thermometers; (2) the dusting of the moist plate with clouds of dust and fine sand otherwise unavoidable in the circumstances in which the Professor worked; and (3) the encumbrance of the more complicated apparatus ordinarily employed in excursion photography.