Volltext Seite (XML)
862. prepate the few ill fluid we have i-nitnte a every . has, if t is the several irepand re three unce of hat salt ralizing, ditioncf tone, if whether lined by lows - ve; W la, three die con- keep up iosphate little of willing iewhere, irtuesd written rho Call is essay if these rerforus d which ge. Will lance in 1 shiver । of the i, to so rom his ilts, but sivelydf acessat’ nd after toning' we has® but inrse iem in* soakin another bathv s of. havil fwaten nenitt’t until tho y. Tb« ution 10 main 13 up ad" Is of or* distill* 1 io pap’ ninute*. nds, .» raphi. nation 5 a ma JULY 25, 1862.] THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. 359 must turn is hand to everything, so I am a banker from necessity, a soldier from duty, and a photographer from pleasure. Holding a captaincy, I was called suddenly to tho wars, and am in New York on furlough, at present to look to business. . I returned a few days since, and found a stack of "News” in the office for me. Accept my thanks for the copies you send me by mail, I receive them ahead of your agent here, who supplies me with my subscription copy. During the war my letters may be interrupted very fre- gently, in which case please pardon short-comings, for I have discovered lately that war and photography are not akin, that collodion and gunpowder will not mix, that nitrate o silver and blood make different colored stains, and that photographic tent and the mess tent are, in fact, as dif ferent as black is from white. Now for a short talk on peaceful subjects. You see by the last number of the American Journal, that the dry process has come out ahead, in a trial between Mr. Coleman Sellers And myself. But Mr. Sellers was not well that day, and "ispictures were far from his usual excellence, so the “ duel ” 228 hardly a fair one, for I never was in finer trim in my e, A word about tannin plates. Some correspondent •fyours says the picture fades out after exposure and before erelopment. He bases this assertion only on his own Sperience. If he fails to get good pictures on a plate ex- Bsed two weeks or so before development, he says it cannot be Sone. I have been in the habit of taking trips of several Beks in the country, carrying my camera, plate box, and Rtes only, developing the negatives after my return home. y pictures suit my friends pretty well, and therefore I am Jhsfied. I enclose two prints from different negatives of be same subject. You will see by the labels, that both were ^Posed the same time and place; but only one was developed lhesame day, while the other (No. 307) laid two weeks More development. It is very difficult to tell which is the Mt. I have some negatives equally well developed three "eeks after exposure, and I see no reason to expect failures Onder six weeks keeping. I wash my plates thoroughly, by Hing six vertical baths of water, and changing the plate ITom the silver bath to each one in succession, and finally "mersing in a vertical bath of tannin solution, to which Sleast 5 per cent, of alcohol has been added. In this way pa prepare twelve to fifteen plates per hour with ease, and , Case of hurry, more than that number. I cannot explain Rt correspondent’s failure, except on the ground of lack of "iformity in preparing the surface of the plate. J suppose you know our Photographical Society has burned its meetings to the second Monday in September. i,, was principally on account of the absence of some of wPominent members, and its secretary, in the army. This l explain the absence of your copy of the proceedings; t I Hope in a few weeks we will be “ right side up with , " on this side of the ocean. In the meantime, I will “e as often as I can.—Yours repectfully, , F. F. Thompson. Wall Street, New York, July 7, 1802. u ! . specimens enclosed are two views of exactly the same n in the Central Park, New York, the only difference .8 that one negative was developed within 12 hours and g t er in 15 days. They are both excellent photo- 'li„k 8 ' and charming pictures, and there is scarcely the »iat 1 perceptible difference between the two: perhaps an ] eloped within 12 hours is a little more transparent petg etailed in the shadows. The experience of different confo; 8 as to the result of keeping before development is gatio ting. The subject certainly requires further investi- Mvc’ 80 88 to determine, if possible, the causes which at tousme cause deterioration ; the correspondent, who wrote sur, 08 to his experience in the evils of keeping after expo- the ‘mosM r ' Penny, of Cheltenham, unquestionably one of CotntPost able dry plate amateur photographers in the enabl; We hope this sad war will soon be over, and ur correspondent to lay aside the sword and resume the camera, and shall be glad in the mean time to receive such hasty notes as he can find time to send us.—Ev.] INSTANTANEOUS PICTURES IN AUSTRALIA. Sir,—I have been engaged for some time past in a series of experimental researches in photography, having the object in view of discovering some certain process by which the clouds could be photographed in landscapes; and I think I have succeeded in a great measure in solving that difficult problem (yide enclosed stereograms). According to my experience, the most beautiful photographic clouds are to be obtained towards the sun, and by selecting some light coloured object for the foreground (the church for instance), such clouds as you see in specimens marked (1) can be easily obtained by the process I adopt. 1 cannot manage to get satisfactory pictures with foliage in the foreground, when pointing my camera towards the sun. The enclosed specimens I obtained with Ross’s View Lenses —exposure from 30 to 40 seconds in a bright light. My process is therefore applicable to plates of any size, and differs very considerably from any of the processes now used by photographers, and which I hope considerably to improve upon in time. Will you please to acknowledge the receipt of this in your Journal?—Your obedient servant, Jenner ProMLEY. River View, Hunter’s Hill, Sydney, New South Wales, May Wth, 1862. [The letter is accompanied by a series of interesting stereo scopic pictures of Australian scenery, many of which possess very fine clouds. We insert this letter as an interesting illustration of what is going on, in this direction, at the antipodes. We shall have pleasure in hearing further from our correspondent.—Ed.] THE MISSING NAME IN THE JURY AWARDS. Dear Sir,—I was sorry to see a blank in the list of Jury Awards published in your last, where should have been the name of my talented friend, Mr. John Savage, of Kingston, Jamaica, the photographer of the series of fish of that island. He is an old-established artist, and an excellent portraitist. I cannot imagine how his name was omitted, as he informed me in January what he intended to do. Begging the insertion of this note in your valuable space, I am, dear sir, yours, &c., J. Davis Burton. Harborne, Birmingham, July 19, 1862. MORPHINE DRY PROCESS. Dear Sir,—In reply to your correspondent’s questions on the morphine process, I believe the particular age of tho collodion (provided it is a good sample and bromo-iodized) to be of small consequence, and its age may probably range from a few days to a year or two. The plates must be per fectly washed, too much water cannot be applied. I have adopted the proportion of 1 grain of muriate morphine in 8 ounces of bath, but see no reason why 1 grain in 10 ounces should not be equally effective. The edges and corners of the plates have never shown a diminution in sensitiveness in my hands, unless one has inadvertently become too dry before immersion. The bath deposits a minute quantity of matter, but as every manipulator filters his bath before preparing a batch of dry plates, and the bath remaining perfectly unimpaired, I look on this as of little moment. Nitric acid, in the place of acetic acid in the bath, will exert a more decided action in preventing this, but I prefer acetic acid and filtering a little oftener; in procuring muriate of morphine it is within the bounds of possibility that you may receive acetate of morphine, and this will much increase the deposit in rapidity and quantity. There appears to me to be a deep-rooted feeling against the use of organic matter in the bath, whether it is introduced in the collodion or applied directly to the silver solution,
