Volltext Seite (XML)
appears very valuable ; but the presence of the organic salt of silver does not seem favourable to keeping, especially in warm weather. Some valuable articles by Mr. A. Keene, recording experiments with this and cognate processes, and also with a rapid albumen process in which bromide of silver only is employed, appear in our last volume. Mr. England also records in our pages some interesting experi ments with dry resinized plates which yield rapid and excellent results. Printing processes have, as usual, absorbed a large share of attention. Three points in connection with silver print ing divide the interest: economy, excellence, and perman ence. The consideration of the two former has issued in a considerable share of success; the latter, we regret to say, makes but little progress. The subject of weak printing baths has been re-discussed in some quarters without elicit ing much that was new, but has tended, nevertheless, to establish general superiority in economy and excellence of weakly-salted paper and weak baths. The application of alcohol to albumenized paper for the purpose of rendering its surface insoluble has again been recommended by some, with little tendency to establish, however, a practice of doubtful economy, and less than doubtful efficiency. A process of printing, described in our pages by Mr. Arthur Taylor, of Marseilles, as the shellac printing process, possesses much interest, yielding exceedingly fine prints, and having considerable promise of permanency. Some interest has been excited by the announcements of the Lep- tographic Company in Paris, who issue sensitive paper- ready for printing, stated to retain its sensitiveness during some months unimpaired. The prints shown are very fine. It is understood to be an application of our own collodio- chloride process under a new name. The collodio-chloride process has been extensively and successfully practised during the year for printing on opal glass. Camera print ing on collodion, and transfer of the film containing the image to paper, practised for some years in Paris, has during the year been introduced into England, without as yet receiving the attention it deserves. A proposition introduced by Dr. Angus Smith in a letter to the Secretary of the Photographic Society of Scotland, to eliminate the final traces of hyposulphite of soda from prints by submitting them to a weak bath of peroxide of hydrogen, with a view to the conversion of the hyposulphites into sulphates, excited considerable attention for a short time. This plan, however, was found wanting on examina tion ; the cost was considerable, the method troublesome, and the results uncertain. Mr. T. W. Hart also revived a similar proposition, which he had made some years pre viously, to eliminate the final traces of hyposulphite by an analogous operation, using hypochlorite of soda. This plan, although less costly, and attended with less uncertainty, did not come into general use. It is to be feared that any operation involving specific additional trouble or cost in printing will not readily meet with general acceptance amongst photographers, unless the gain be very specific and certain indeed. The most promising and least troublesome of the proposed methods of giving stability to the albumenized silver print is that proposed by Mr. Spiller during the year,, of adding carbonate of ammonia to the fixing bath. This addition has the twofold advantage of decreasing the risk of a sulphuretting action taking place in the bath, and of assisting in removing the traces of the insoluble silver- com pound formed in the albumen. The aid to perfect fixing which this addition, together with very perfect washing, seem to give the nearest approximation, attainable, to permanent silver prints. The final solution of the question of permanent photo graphy we believe to consist in the adoption of a carbon process. Mr. Swan’s process has, during the year, come before the public in a commercial form, and now challenges attention for its beauty, simplicity, and practicability. The first claim cannot be gainsaid; the latter can only be fairly tested by extended trial in other establishments be sides that of its inventor. Our own conviction is that it has no drawback in either practicability or beauty. Mr. Woodbury has progressed in photo-relief printing, but his system has not yet received the commercial develop ment necessary to utilize its real value. The first published specimen of the process, issued in our pages early in the year, received universal admiration. Since then Mr. Woodbury has made progress in excellence, and has de vised a machine by which better results can be produced with greater rapidity. An arrangement has been entered into for the reconciliation of the clashing interests of Mr. Swan and Mr. Woodbury; but, for some cause, a com mercial application of all these advantages, and facilities for rendering them available to the public, seem to linger. Photo-engraving does not appear to have made any practi cal progress. Photolithography has, however, advanced: Messrs. Bullock, Brothers, produced some specimens, very promising indeed as early results ; the first issued example was presented to our readers, who are familiar with its merits. Some of the most perfect examples of this branch of the art, which we have seen, have been produced in France, by the process of Marie, and by the process of Tessie de Motay. Some of the examples leave little to desire. A new style of portraiture has attracted some attention, and may possibly, if photographers are wise enough to manage it, replace, to some extent, the waning demand for card pictures. The cabinet portrait, as the new style is designated, is in style something like the card, but larger, the print being 5} inches by 4 inches, and mounted, like the card, with a narrow margin. The size and shape are good, and the effect pretty. Handsome albums have been made for the new size, and are sold at a moderate price. The movement merely requires judicious encouragement from photographers to enable it to give a new and useful impulse to portraiture. An interesting discussion, initiated by Mr. Claudet in a paper read before the British Association at Nottingham, has attracted some attention, the subject being the impor tance of some equalization of the definition of all the planes of a solid body, so as to secure better pictorial effect. Mr. Claudet proposed to cause the focus of the lens to travel over every plane to be defined during the operation of expo sure. Mr. Dallmeyer had, several months earlier than this, intentionally produced a lens which gave distribution of focus, and was intended to secure the same end sought by Mr. Claudet, namely, depth of definition, and absence of the offensive microscopic definition of wrinkles, freckles, &c. Whilst the discussion was still attracting attention, Mr. Dallmeyer introduced a portrait lens to the public, in which, without sacrifice of other good qualities, diffusion of focus could be introduced at will. It has happened, fortunately for pictorial photography, that the introduction of the new power has happened coincidently with the discussion which has impressed the public mind with the importance and superiority of soft and diffused definition, as compared with that which rendered one plane with painful sharpness, and all others with repulsive fuzziness. Every year seems to give photographers new and im proved optical appliances. Besides the instruments for portraiture to which we have just referred, the appliances for perfect landscape and architectural photography increase rapidly; and the rectilinear and wide-angle single lens of Dallmeyer, and the wide-angle and ordinary angle doublets of Ross, furnish facilities for excellence altogether unknown to the early photographers. Other improvements in process and appliance have taken place, and there is, withal, we believe, a growing higher appreciation of artistic excellence in their work. We have thus reason to believe that photography is steadily striding on to the highest perfection of which it is capable. If every photographer were impressed with his own duty to aid such a consummation, its arrival would he materially hastened.
