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THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. Vol. XXXV. No. 1692.— February 6, 1891. CONTENTS. PAGE Picture Hanging at Exhibitions * 97 Feer’s Diazo Printing Process 98 Subaqueous Photography 98 Lord Monkswell's Copyright Bill. By 0. Fleetwood Pritchard 99 A New Wheel Camera 190 Notes on Portraiture. By H. P. Robinson 101 The International Congress and the Photographic Society 102 Photo-Micrography. By T. 102 Hospital Photography 104 Results Obtained with the Amyl Acetate Lamp. By Dr. J. M. Eder 105 Amateur and Professional 105 Notes 100 PAGE Retouching. By G. L. Hurd. 108 The Enfield Photographic Exhibition 109 The Water-Colours Exhibition at Pall Mall 109 Parliamentary Action in Relation to the Decimal System. By J. Emerson Dowson 110 Patent Intelligence Ill Correspondence.—National Photographic Exhibition—Photo graphic Society of Great Britain—The Photographers’ Assistants Union—Photography and Illustrated Jour nalism 113 Pyrocatechin 114 Proceedings of Societies 114 Answers to Correspondents 116 PICTURE HANGING AT EXHIBITIONS. The welcome disappearance of frost and snow will urge most photographers to hope that “ the winter is past and gone,” and that, with the singing of the birds, the time has come when they must think of the hanging of their pictures at the different exhibitions which will be soon opening their doors. The work entailed upon the organisers of a photographic exhibition is most arduous, and seldom is acknowledged as it should be. First comes the circularising, then the arrival and un packing of pictures, next the most unthankful task of hanging the same, and finally the re-packing, labelling, and returning of the works of art to their respective owners. All this work, with little to show how hard it has been, and how much time it has occupied, has made many a willing but over-burdened secretary exclaim that he will never have anything more to do with an exhibition of photographs. The question arises, “ Can any of this work be dis pensed with, and the business of conducting an exhi bition be made easier and cheaper to all concerned?” We have no hesitation in answering this question in the affirmative, and will now point out how the much- desired reform can be carried out. In the first place, there is no necessity why photo graphs sent in for exhibition should be framed, and when once this part of the reform is agreed to, we clear the ground of a great deal of difficulty. The framing of a picture, the provision of a packing-case for it, and the bother connected with sending it off by rail, are considerations which prevent many lazy persons from exhibiting at all. Others are obliged to consider the expense, and they, too, are often com pelled to keep their pictures at home. Now and then, it is true, we see a portfolio of photographs lying on a table at a photographic exhibition, but few take the trouble to turn over its leaves. The pic tures on the walls prove the greater attraction, and to these the majority of the visitors direct their attention. We must therefore adopt some method of showing the pictures in this popular manner, and the difficulty which presents itself is to do so with out encasing them in ordinary frames, and, at the same time, protect them from dust and other sources of injury. This difficulty has been surmounted by the Bristol Academy, whose winter exhibition of sketches we visited last week; and it stands to reason that a plan which is applicable to sketches in water colour, and which is found to work economically in practice, can be adapted to photographs. To make the matter easy of comprehension, let us suppose that it is intended to exhibit a single line of pictures only. The mounts should be generally of one outside measurement, and a size can easily be adopted which will give a fair margin for all the larger sizes of pictures, the smaller ones being grouped together so as to fill in the same amount of space. Having fixed upon this size, two horizontal laths are nailed against the wall of the exhibition room at such a dis tance apart that the mounting boards will just fit in between them. The pictures, being mounted, are placed in position, and over each mount is fixed a glass of the same size, a couple of brads being driven into the edge of each lath to prevent glass and mount falling out. When the line of pictures is complete from one end of the wall to the other, the laths have tacked upon them a thin slip of wood which is about double the width of the original lath, and which, therefore, overlaps it on either side, thus hiding the holding brads. This wooden slip is painted white, and on it the printed catalogue numbers of the pictures are gummed. For the sake of simplicity, we have supposed that only one line of pictures is in question, but, in practice, there would be at least three, so that the bottom lath which we have described would form the top of another line of pictures underneath, and the top lath would form the base of another line above. In the case of pictures, such as portraits, having their longer diameter vertical, it would be necessary to cut out and raise a portion of the upper lath for their accommodation. But the best plan is that adopted at the Bristol Exhibition already cited, and that is to place, as far as possible, pictures of irregular and odd sizes together on one wall, where, by a little skilful arrangement and cutting of laths, they can be accommodated together.