The photographic news

• Bandzählung: 35.1891
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1891
• Sprache: Englisch
• Signatur: F 135
• Vorlage: Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Digitalisat: Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Digitalisat: SLUB Dresden
• Rechtehinweis: Public Domain Mark 1.0
• URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-db-id1780948042-189100009
• PURL: http://digital.slub-dresden.de/id1780948042-18910000
• OAI: oai:de:slub-dresden:db:id-1780948042-18910000
• Sammlungen: LDP: Historische Bestände der Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Sammlungen: Fotografie
• Strukturtyp: Band

• Digitalisat: SLUB Dresden
• Strukturtyp: Ausgabe

FEBRUARY 6, 1891.] THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. 107 preparation, on account of its inflammability, cannot safely be employed for a dark room lamp. Book binders’ cloth, which forms the basis of the well-known ruby medium, is perhaps the most satisfactory of all. We have lately found a new material in the stained transparent paper which is sold for window decoration, as an imitation of coloured glass. This can be obtained in plain red, and is readily attached to the glass of a window by means of a gelatinous cement sold for the purpose. The colour of specimens which we have seen is a full ruby red, and, when that colour is desired, might be safe if a double thickness were employed. A similar material can be home-made, if preferred, by staining a thin paper with aurine or any suitable dye, and after wards making it transparent with varnish; gum dammar in benzole, which dries in a few minutes after application, would be a good varnish for the purpose. Lamps for dark rooms are infinite in their variety, but, up to the present, cannot be said to be quite perfect. M. Radiguet, a well-known electrician, has called in the assistance of electricity, and in La Nature describes a little apparatus which seems to possess many excellent qualities. The apparatus is formed of a glass jar, containing three bichromated divisions. The zincs are so fixed that it is easy to change them when worn out. The reflector attached to the incan descent lamp is mobile, and turns on an axis sending the light in the direction of the ground, and, by so doing, lighting the sink during the process of deve lopment. The reflector is furnished for photographic operations with a mobile lens of red glass. This lens may be changed for one of another colour, or done away with altogether if the lamp is only required for ordinary use. To obtain illumination, one has simply to dip the plates in the bichromate divisions, and light comes immediately. The light is extinguished, of course, by removing the plates. M. Radiguet has given to this dark room lamp the rather formidable name of “ elec- trophotophore." Photographers, as a rule, are scarcely attentive enough to the nature of the books which they place in the hands of their sitters. A powerful magnifying- glass sometimes makes some curious revelations. For instance, we heard recently of a case of an extremely devout divine who was taken apparently meditating over the tome he was reading. Naturally one would suppose it was some good book like Jeremy Taylor’s “ Holy Living and Dying,” Whiston’s “ Commen taries,” or the writings of the early fathers. The magnifying-glass, however, revealed the unfortunate fact that the book which was engaging the attention of the good man was nothing less than a quarto edition of the plays of Wycherly, Congreve, and Farquhar. Perhaps the best book to have handy is a volume of Punch. It is, at least, more entertaining to the general sitter than Sturm’s «Reflections,” or Harvey’s “Meditations among the Tombs,” samples of a class of book sometimes dedicated to the studio. Apropos, a photograph of President Lincoln, which was highly popular, and was sold by thousands, showed him with a big book on his knee, and with his little son leaning against him and looking at the volume. It now turns out that this book, which was always thought to have been a bible, was nothing more nor less than a photographic album belonging to the photographer. This must have been a rather un pleasant shock to those simple-minded folk of New England who have always regarded the photograph as a sort of semi-religious picture enforcing a moral and an example. The Post Office authorities have been studying the actinic values of various colours. They have discovered that the £1 postage stamp, which was formerly of a chocolate hue, was easily imitated, because the colour offered no difficulty to photography. They have accordingly decided to alter the colour to a bright green, which they believe will defy photography, and put an end to fraudulent attempts in this direction. One would have thought that the demand for £1 stamps was so extremely small as not to be worth the while of any forger to imitate them. Anyway, if there is a distinct market for stamps of this value, no doubt the ingenious forger, who is capable of taking an infinite deal of trouble, will immediately begin to make use of orthochromatic photography. The bungling amateur must be a source of consider able income to the dry plate manufacturer. It would perhaps be difficult to ascertain the exact number of plates spoilt in proportion to the small number of those which succeed, but we fancy we should not be exagger ating when we say that, in all probability, the ratio resembles Falstaff's ha'porth of breath and intolerable quantity of sack. It was said recently that the Duke of Orleans, during a tour of a short time back, was very busy with his camera, and, on his return, he sent 400 plates to a photographer for develop ment. Of these 350 or so were absolutely blanks, and the remainder hardly recognisable as scenes of any kind. The experience of the Duke of Orleans could, perhaps, be paralleled by hosts of amateurs. Photography was one of the subjects for excelling in which prizes were offered at the Woman’s Exhi bition, held last week at the Westminster Town Hall. Considering the excellent work done by ladies in the Pall Mall Exhibition last year, the work was below that which one had a right to expect. The judges certainly had little difficulty in awarding prizes to Miss Mary C. Day for a head (described in the cata logue as two portraits), and for a second study of two heads (described in the catalogue as two groups). Mrs. Arnot was rewarded by honourable mention for two studies from life. We do not know who was responsible for the compilation of the catalogue, but it was marked by frequent eccentricities, of which the above are two examples.