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7,186 pilling” stures b ifficulty 1 bath ill coming;, aents of’ odels fo hs with I the io baths 1 fective % glass, in’ down iol superior -‘fore a 8, with sR facture " dd prob , anil " its pur? illude to ceased" They’ •ugh it % I again* with » ten uns® and eq) gutta P an spec 1 ; may be’ obable 1 conde”. ice, eitl use, w led tli^ 'or a v g will 1 ,' portant’ dhere 0 ys cam") e the d ss, can® s cons lie pic" any def 3 whel * e used ashing' art of i i. The rapher, ' taking', as to I ey ha^j ncem of ov03 vitho« f In t e desit® IE B} e to n ct and April 17, 1862.] THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. 185 to the society of well behaved and orderly baths, I came upon some very curious results. The bath was.an old one of about fifty ounces, and con tained both nitric and acetic acids. A quantity of carbo nate of soda, as much as could be heaped up on a shilling, was introduced. 'The bath was then filtered and put away for several days. On trying a plate in it, before adding acid to neutralize the alkalinity, I was astonished to find a negative start into being with a speed truly electric. Like a flash of lightning the image made its appearance imme diately after the application of the developer, which was protosulphate of iron, about thirty grains to the ounce, and there was no need of further intensifying, for it was a nega tive perfect in every particular. I tested the bath with litmus paper' and found it decidedly alkaline. This went to confirm a pet theory which I have long entertained, but have never been able to successfully work out, viz., that that which we call fog in an alkaline bath is such an exalted state of sensitiveness as to be with the ordinary methods of manipulation quite unmangeable. Hennah several years ago mentioned in his hand-book some curious and unaccountable results somewhat similar to those I describe, but until lately I have never met with any one who have in the course of their photographic experience stumbled upon such a curious phenomenon as an alkaline hath giving good negatives. Some short time ago the editor of the News described just such a case. A bath was sent to him to tame, for it was pronounced by the owner refractory and incurable. The bath, when made alkaline with carbonate of soda, gave good results, but when acid was added it fogged, and con tinued to do so in an exact proportion to the amount of acid added. This I at once saw was exactly a parallel case to the one I have described, and I determined, therefore, the first moment I could spare, to try and bring about the same results with a new bath. Accordingly, some weeks ago, I made a bath 35 grains of silver to the ounce of water, em ploying the ordinary silver for the purpose. After satura tion with iodide of silver, I filtered it, and then added 12 drops of glacial acetic acid, solid at 50°. I now introduced as much carbonate of soda as 1 could conveniently put on sixpence and after well shaking it, and letting it remain at rest some time, I filtered it. Three weeks afterwards I re turned to my experiments, and succeeded in getting some Very good pictures. But on making up the iron developer to about fifty grains to the ounce, I at once obtained negatives that were so dense as to require in some cases no after treatment, indeed, a few drops of silver in the iron solution proved sufficient at any time to give the re- quisite amount of density. The strking peculiarity about these negatives so obtained is the rapidity with which they Ntart into being, and the vigorous appearance they present to the eye immediately after the application of the de veloper. It is, I believe, absolutely necessary to use a collodion containing a fair amount of bromide in order to produce the best results. There has always been a difference of opinion as to the accelerating influence of acetate of silver in the bath. Some years ago, when pyrogallic acid was invariably used as the developer for negatives, acetate was largely introduced into the bath by many ; but lately, since iron has come so gene rally into use, its employment has been completely aban doned. The result of the experiments I have recorded have proved thus far s0. satisfactory that I am induced to believe that with a collodion containing two grains of bromide to the ounce, and with a developer of iron fifty grains to the ounce, negatives can be produced in a shorter space of time, and possessing more vigour, combined with delicacy of de tail han can be produced by the usual method. lope o lave more to say on this subject shortly. — • ON PHOTOGRAPHIC REPRODUCTIONS. BY ALFRED H. WALL.* We have in photography a discovery which is to art what the printing press was to literature; and of the great masters in art it may be more truly now said than at any other time—“ Their conceptions are no longer pent up in galleries open to but a few: they meet us in our houses, and are the household pleasures of millions. Works designed for emperors, popes, and nobles find their way, in no poor representations, into humble dwellings, and sometimes give a consciousness of kindred powers to the child of poverty.” The,engraver may translate into monochrome every line and tint of a painting accurately enough ; but so surely will his own individualism, his own peculiar “manne)',” find ex pression in his reproduction, that even the finest of such are no less representative of the original painting than of the copyist and engraver. The truth of this seems very widely and generally recognised. The Athenceum remarked not long since, when speaking of the pictures at Hampton Court:—“ Copies multiplied by this—the photographic— process would render more service to students than any lithographs or line engravings now current; and the Times, otherwise no friend to the art-claims of photography, said, not long since:—“A photograph of a drawing in black and white, sepia or gray, is hardly distinguishable from the original: and even when the original is in red chalk, the photographic reproduction, darkened as it is, has a precision and spirit that give it a value beyond the most careful copy that can be made by hand.” Of paintings the same influential authority says :—“ The practice of having their pictures photographed is largely spreading among our painters, and the fact shows, what no man who has the the painter’s feeling needs proof of, that photographs of pictures have qualities that more than make up for their in evitable untruthfulness in rendering certain colours. They render the spirit and expression of the originals with an effect they may well drive the engraver to despair. * * What line engraving can stand beside even the most un satisfactory of these photographs as a representative of the original for those, who love, above all, the essence and spirit of a picture ? ” But without further quotations it will be at once apparent that a branch of art which can reproduce with such extraordinary fidelity, rapidity, and comparative cheapness, the noblest and grandest works of high art—ex tending their influence, multiplying their admirers, and inspiring with their perfections the loftiest art-patron and the lowliest art-stuent—must, sooner or later, exercise re markable power in educating and refining the popular taste in art. The capability of photography as a reproductive art agent being admitted, there is another view of the subject to which I am desirous of next briefly calling attention. In the year 1773 you would have found in all London only two small shops devoted to the print trade. These dealt chiefly in engravings impen-ted from Germany, Elanders, Holland, and France; while the very few inferior English engravers in this country could scarcely preserve themselves and their families from destitution. + So rapidly did the art emerge from this degraded condition that only nine years afterwards it was stated in the House of Lords that, as as articles of export, engravings produced the country £200,000 per annum. This great change was chiefly brought about, we must remember, by the application of engraving to the reproduction in monochrome of paintings and other similar works of art. William Hogarth, our great English painter, was the first to bring the obscure and ignoble art into high esteem and popular favour, by apply ing his skill as an engraver to the reproduction of his own immortal works; and, by thus demonstrating the com mercial, educational, and industrial capabilities of engraving * Head at a meeting of the South London Photographic Society, April 10th, 1862. t Rtoquet.
