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May 21, 1869.] THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. 245 similar in appearance to the most delicate copper or steel engravings. The process has already passed through the experimental stage, and M. Marion announces himself as willing to furnish copies of any negatives that may be for warded to him. M. Davanne has published his investigations touching solutions of the bichromates of ammonium and potash ; his results demonstrate how much of these substances a certain quantity of water will take up, and the density of the liquids thus obtained. Dr. Hornig, of Vienna, has been working-in the same direction, and recently delivered a lec ture on the subject before the Vienna Society. A correspondent complains, in the Archiv, of a recently published pamphlet, purporting to contain important reve lations in connection with photography, which is sold for the sum of twelve florins, and which, among other soi-disant secrets, discloses the use of muriatic acid for cleaning glass plates, and the addition of citric acid to the sensitizing bath as a means of enhancing the keeping qualities of albuminized paper. The Correspondenz contains a long report upon Dall- meyer's new aplanatic lens. A visit paid by M. Wallner to Albert’s photographic establishment at Munich is also an interesting item in the same journal. M. Pommer, at the Vienna Society, stated that there are three especial difficulties with which photographers have to contend in the use of collodion paper: the tendency of the prints to roll up during washing, their liability to be insuf ficiently toned, and the separation of the film from the paper. The rolling up may generally be prevented by em ploying a stout paper as a basis for the film. The difficulty in toning is due either to the employment of impure water for the preliminary washing, or to the use of an unsuitable collodion. The separation of the film is neither owing to the employment of an acid toning bath nor strong fixing bath, but to unskilful preparation of the material. M. Pommer has invariably employed collodion paper for a period of eighteen months in the preparation of his positive prints, and is well satisfied with his results. A new photographic journal has just been published at Berlin under the title of the Photographische Zeitung. At the last meeting of the French Photographic Society M. Secretan exhibited to the members a copy of a work published in Paris in 1842, entitled Excursions Dagucrri- ennes. The work is illustrated by engravings taken from Daguerreotypes, and includes three prints produced, in 1841, by Daguerreotype plates engraved direct by M. Fizeau's process. M. Steinbach, well known as a manufacturer of photo graphic papers, died on the 17th March last at Malmcdy. He was in his forty-third year. M. Max Gehmoser, of Munich, claims to have discovered a new method of photo-lithographic printing. In discussing, at the Berlin Society, M. Grasshoff’s pro posal to rub cuttle-fish powder over a varnished negative previously to its being retouched, exception was taken to the recommendation, on the score of risk of injury to the film. M. Milster preferred to retouch with the pencil upon a brilliant surface, and recommended for the purpose the use of Siberian graphite. M. Cristian Grabe, in the Mittheilungcn, urges the speedy adoption of an international system of weights and measures. He points out that in Germany alone there exist three dif ferent kinds of inches; viz., the Hamburg, the Rheinish, and Leipsic inch, and these again differ from the French centimetre. The same confusion exists as regards weights. With these discrepancies it is impossible to adopt photo graphic measurements and proportions alike in all countries. Dr. Vogel, in the same journal, has an article upon the construction and lighting of studios, in which he discusses the validity of certain theories which have recently been advanced upon the subject in Austria and elsewhere. Photographit Arinting in Silber. DODGES, FAILURES, AND REMEDIES. BY W. T. BOVEY. Introductory Chapter.—Dodoes. Without having recourse to the cavilling crotchets of meta physical argumentation, it would prove an uneasy task to dispute the not strictly correct axiom, that “ all things must have a beginning.” I therefore take it as granted that the majority of my readers prefer what is generally received as matter of fact to metaphysical speculation, and will readily grant me the privilege of offering, as a beginning to the new series of articles I purpose writing, a few remarks on the sub ject of photographic dodges. Let it, however, be clearly understood, ere I move beyond the threshhold of my text, that I employ the term “ dodges ” under vehement protest, because I regard the word as one not merely misapplied, but one which is too degrading in its associations to create the impression it is employed to convey. Proof: Lexicographers are pretty well agreed in ranking “ dodges ” among such suspicious characters as hocus-pocus, imposition, jockeyship, quackery, charlatanism, and delusion. If, therefore, we accept these authoritative definitions, and for an instant allow the possession of moral qualities to words, dodges sink to a state of degradation which render them unfit for respectable companionship—certainly unfit for the duty the word is used to imply in photography. Such being the case, it behoves me to enquire whether it would not be more wise to select some more happily suggestive word, that could more honestly represent the photographic end to which the sneak ing term dodges has been so inconsiderately applied. At first sight it might, to some, appear a mere war on words to cavil over a term that has been selected by photographers to represent a contingent adaptation of means to such occa sional demands as are not immediately provided for by the ordinary resources of the art; but 1 think that on more mature deliberation it will readily be admitted that the most politic course would be to prevent, if possible, an erroneous impression from spreading among those of the “ outer world ” who judge words by their legal signification, and not by the somewhat arbitrary rules of technology. Much has been said in language condemnatory, more has been urged by argument commendatory, with reference to the question of dodges ; but, thank Heaven! those legiti- matists who abhor the smallest approach to “ sophistica tion,” as a learned critic once defined the “ dodging process,” are now become an isolated race, whose wayward eccentricities sometimes lead them to practise, on the sly, the means of improvement which they strongly and openly condemn. To my mind it seems as reasonable to expect that a toothless individual should abstain from solid food because mastication, under such circumstances, can be exe cuted only by some artificial contrivance, as it is to raise quibbles over a photographic masterpiece because some portions of its perfections are due to means not immediately provided by the negative. I say, if to dodge is a photo graphic sin, by all means snuff out the higher branches of photography at once. Let no niche of fame be coveted; let the gates that lead to the temple of art be chained, bolted, double-barred; and let us not complain if the Cerberus of art should growl at or tear to pieces any presump tuous photographer who would daringly trespass on the sacred domains of refinement: for I have no hesitation in declaring that but for the valuable—nay, indispensable— aid found in dodges, most of the most famous composi tion photographs known could not have been produced. Painters, both in oil and water colours, dodge to a far- greater and more successful extent than photography can hope to imitate; but they, more happy in the descriptive term selected, may dodge on, and the more skilfully the dodging is applied to their pictures, the more eloquently are the merits of superior “ handling ” recited.
