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

516 THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. [July 17, 1891. ledge of the French language, I can assert with sufficient probability of correctness that if English be spoken in the Brussels Congress it will be perfectly understood. I know that many, even endowed with clear and inde pendent appreciation of things, are apathetically awaiting the sanction by Act of Parliament of an alteration of the impossible habits and rules made by our forefathers. I am sorry to say that study of the spirit of the House of Parliament will soon persuade any careful and indepen dent observer that sanction by the Act of Parliament of the alterations so urgently demanded is unobtainable. Here is one example : Every year influential deputations, including all Chambers of Commerce of the Kingdom and other bodies, approach Parliament asking for the adoption of the metrical system of weights, measures, &c. Here is an extract from the Times, May 9th, 1891, of the last attempt:— Mr. S. Montagu, M.P., Sir William Thompson, Mr. J. E. Dowson, and Mr. Alexander Smith, on behalf of the Decimal Association, then spoke in favour of the introduction of the decimal system, especially as regards weights and measures. Mr. Goschen, in reply, said that was not a new subject to him, as they were aware, and if he were a young and active politician he might share in the movement with some faith that it might be of advantage to the country if carried out. But such experience as he had had was that they could not undertake a more difficult and complicated task, or one in which they would be baffled more at every step, than to undertake the revision of our currency, which touched every body in this country, or the weights, which touched such an enormous class. He could perfectly understand that they might persuade people of the advantages of it, but to change the weights, for instance, must interfere with, and confuse for a time, the transactions of almost everybody in the country, and all those would be satisfied who gained by the change ; while, on the other hand, an enormous body who would lose something would be dissatisfied. He did not wish to discourage them, but, if Mr. Montagu could induce the House of Commons to appoint a select committee to inquire into the subject, he would have no objection, though he could not see his way to recommend the Government to appoint a Royal commission. To carry out the change would affect everybody’s transac tions, and the innate conservatism of the English people — with regard to their habits, he meant, and not politically— would make it an extremely difficult task to carry out. It would be a task which could be undertaken only when there was no other work to be done, when there was general, pro found political peace, and when everybody would be prepared to look with the most friendly eye upon every change which might be made. Everybody would have to learn the new weights and measures, and the more ignorant would go to the wall, so that it was highly probable that the trades man, being more educated than most of his customers, would gain an advantage. He admitted that he was not arguing the question on high grounds, but on practical grounds. He ven tured to think that the country was not ripe for a revolution which would affect all their transactions, and he could hold out no hope that the Government would take the initiative in the matter. He would watch the progress of public opinion on the question, for he admitted it to be a reform which would be accompanied by great advantages, but it could not be done unless the country were satisfied, for the sake of ultimate advantage, to go through very great present incon veniences. In the same issue of the Times we find the reason why the question affecting the science cannot obtain the hearing of the legislators. The Earl of Meath, in the course of a speech in the House of Lords on May 8th last, pleaded for the necessity of introducing some instructive lectures in connection with museums, picture galleries, &c. In the course of his speech he says : “ These art collections were purchased by our ancestors at a time when this country was, to a large extent, governed by the cultivated classes. Every day, however, England was becoming more and more governed by those who were less cultivated.” It is in the memory of everybody that a few years ago, when Sir Charles Dilke was approached by the advocates of the decimal system, the argument used by that stateman, which upset most logical pleading in favour of the system, was that the diameter of the halfpenny coin being exactly equal to one inch, it was impossible to make alteration. From what was said, I conclude that, having no chance during the present generation of obtaining that Act of Parliament, we must count on our own forces, and intro duce alterations recognised as necessary. This we can do without interfering with law. That was done by the scientist, and we are of the number. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN PRINTING PROCESSES* BY C. H. BOTHAMLEY, F.C.S. LATER developments of printing processes have proceeded along certain well-marked lines, the one common aim being to render the use of albumen unnecessary, and, in view of the want of permanency that characterises albumen prints, it will be admitted that the attainment of this result is much to be desired. For some time the development was all in the direction of the production of prints with a black or even blue-black colour, and we were affected with one of those attacks of artistic cant from which photography suffers now and again. It was urged that, quite apart from any advantage of greater permanency, the new prints are much more artistic, simply because they are black. The preachers of this faith seem to have forgotten that etchings and mezzotints, to say nothing of photogravures, are very rarely printed in black, and that some of the most famous etchers and mezzotint engravers have printed in very warm browns and, at times, in red-browns. NoweI, for one, decline to admit that a black print is necessarily more artistic than a brown print simply because the one is brown and the other is black, and I welcome the still later tendency towards the production of prints with warmer colours, provided always that the prints are permanent. Methods for the production of prints with warm colours —such as gelatino-chloride paper, alpha paper, and Lyonel Clark’s platinum toning—are too familiar to require more than passing mention, and I propose to speak in detail of only two or three methods which are based either on novel principles, or on principles that have not hitherto been successfully applied in practice. Platinotype has long been regarded as the first of the black printing processes; but the present very high price of platinum has stimulated investigation in the direction of replacing the platinum by some cheaper metal that will produce prints of the same character, and, as far as possible, with the same degree of permanence. So far, the only important outcome is the process that is known as kallitype, which in principle is precisely similar to the platinum process, except that the image is formed of metallic silver instead of metallic platinum. Kallitype is based upon the old observations of Herschel and of Hunt, that when ferric tartrate, citrate, or oxalate is exposed to light, and thus reduced to a ferrous salt, and the ferrous salt is treated with a solution of silver nitrate, metallic silver is precipitated in quantity dependent on the quantity of ferrous salt that has been formed on each * Read at the Photographic Convention.