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46 THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. [JANUARY 16, 1891. Hotes. Nature, a journal which has considerable influence in the world of science, is now rendering good service to the general public by calling attention to the filthy air of i ondon, the dirt in which consists chiefly of unburnt and wasted fuel. One correspondent suggests that the different scientific societies of London should take up the subject, and bring their influence to bear either upon the Government or the County Council, in the endeavour to get them to take steps to abolish the nuisance. Photographers are more affected than others by the dirt in the air, because of the large amount of daylight it cuts off. The inert masses of the public are slow to move in the abolition of old-established nuisances, which, by force of long familiarity, almost come to be looked upon as valuable property, so initiatory steps in the direction of improvement are more likely to come from above than from below. Probably commercial profit could be made by a public company which would supply and fix rational household grates in place of the ignorantly devised grates put into houses by jerry-builders, and would arrange with the householder that they shall be paid for gradually out of the money they will save in the consumption of coal. At present about three-quarters of the heat produced in common household grates escapes up the chimney, and it is probably safe to assume that in London more than twice as much coal is burnt for house-warming purposes than would be necessary with an intelligent system of consumption. This month the Swiss Revue de P'hotographie has entered upon the third year of its existence; it is an excellent periodical. The January number contains some good illustrations, one of them a photo-mechanical print by Messrs. Thevoz & Co., of Geneva, a compara tively young firm, but one which has made rapid pro gress in the quality of its productions. A chromo phototype by Mr. J. Brunner, of Winterthur, is pretty, representing a little girl playing with a bird; some grass in the picture is of rather too gaudy a green to appear quite natural. From the Revue we learn that the Geneva Photographic Society hasseventy-eight mem bers, and that, during the past year, a rule was altered in order to admit ladies. The same journal quotes some particulars about the diazotype processes from our pages; it also suggests that a general meeting of Swiss photographers shall take place in Lausanne in March or April next. Photographic exhibitions are multiplying abroad as well as at home. One under the auspices of the Photo graphic Society of Nantes will open at the Preaubert Gallery, rue Le Kain, in that city, on the 25th of this month, and will close on the 25th February; it will be devoted chiefly, if not entirely, to the artistic side of photography. A French exhibition will open in Moscow on the 15th of October next, and in it Class VI. will be devoted to photography. An International Exhibition will be open in Bordeaux from May 1st next to November 5th. The first group, Class III., includes photographs and photographic apparatus. Those aggressively healthy persons who despise great coats, who break the ice before entering their morning bath, and who for years have been complaining that we never have an “ old-fashioned Christmas now,” have had, this year, we think, enough and to spare of discomforting weather. For many weeks Jack Frost has now had undisputed sway, and, in London at least, has been helped to make things generally disagreeable by the smoke-fog fiend. Photographers especially have suffered in their business from this dreadful partner ship, and complaints are heard from all sides of the utter impossibility of doing any kind of work. One large firm of carbon printers, who depend upon solar light, tell us that for fifteen days their hands were idle. Others are stopped for want of clients, for even the electric light will not charm sitters out of doors in this dreadful weather. Burst water-pipes represent another minor inconvenience that affects photographers more than other folk, and make them fancy that January is certainly not “the happiest month of all the glad new year.” While most persons have been abusing the snow, and the vestries for not carting it away from our thoroughfares, one lady of scientific proclivities writes to the Times, and calls attention to its beauty. She sings of snow falling “ in stellar forms of infinite and indescribable beauty,” and quotes Tyndall as follows : “ In the polar regions these exquisite forms were observed by Dr. Scoresby, who gave numerous draw ings of them. I have observed them in mid-winter filling the air, and loading the slopes of the Alps ; but in England they are also to be seen, and no words of mine could convey so vivid an impression of their beauty as the annexed drawings of a few of them executed at Greenwich by Mr. Glaisher." This mention of a well-known phenomenon will doubtless excite the energy of some enthusiastic photo grapher, who will endeavour to fix with his camera these beauteous forms. We must own that we have tried to do so, but have failed. We employed a half-inch microscopic objective attached to the camera front, and a bed of black velvet to catch the falling snow flakes. It is true that we caught several, but they all seemed determined to stick up edgeways, and it was impossible to get any one of them to lie flat enough for our purpose. They also insisted upon partially melting before we had done with them. We shall be glad to hear from any of our readers who have had better success than we have. So far as we are aware, the beautiful six-rayed stars of which snow flakes are made up have never yet been successfully photographed. The French paper I'Illustration publishes some pic tures descriptive of a scheme which has been revived