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640 THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. [September 11, 1891. Hotes. When writers who are not photographers give advice upon matters photographic, it is astonishing into what absurdities they are apt to lead their unfortunate readers. In a New York paper we find the suggestion that photographers who have a difficulty in determining how a view will look when photographed should carry with them a number of ferrotype plates, so as to use one in such a case and thus save weight of glass for trial plates. We fancy that for the average photographer the working of one process is quite sufficient, without the encumbrance involved in the necessary impedimenta for two. The writer in question has evidently never heard of films or roll-holders, else he would know that the ferrotype is not the lightest thing which a photographer can carry. It is a curious but useful feature of photographic literature that the old processes are now and again trotted out and their virtues extolled, presumably for the benefit of those who came in with gelatine. We have lately noted several enquiries and notes with regard to the old collodio- albumen process, not, of course, for negative work, but for the production of lantern slides. . We are not sorry to see this, for the old process is one of the best that can be adopted for that particular purpose. Any amount of density can be obtained, the lights are as clear as the clearest glass, and the image in so hard and permanent that no varnishing is necessary, and hardly anything can injure it. Its one disadvantage is that the slides must be made by contact, for it is far too slow for camera work. There are one or two professional workers—and we believe only one or two—who still hold to this method of pro ducing slides, and they always are busy. A contemporary gives a long list of methods by which a glass stopper which has become fixed in the neck of a bottle may be loosened, but strangely enough the best way of all—at least, so we have found it in our own practice—is omitted. The plan we refer to is to wet a cloth in very hot water, hastily wring it, and to wind it quickly round the neck of the bottle. After allowing the heat sufficient time to expand the glass, the stopper is quickly wrenched round, and will generally come away with ease. Every laboratory should possess a block of hard wood in which are slots of varying size to fit stoppers of different gauge, such block to be used as a wrench. But all trouble with stoppers is obviated by taking care that each is lightly touched with a little vaseline when its bottle is first brought into use. According to the Photographic Times, a certain ingenious worker at Chicago keeps in his studio a supply of beauti fully proportioned dummy feet for the use of those ladies whose pedal attachments are not by nature of the Chinese pattern. He anticipates a brisk business by this innova tion, but we sincerely trust that he will be disappointed, for we have no wish to see photographic falsehood encouraged. At the late Buffalo Convention there was exhibited in the apparatus section a tubular revolving show-case, which, we are told, consists of a narrow, tall glass frame, divided into panels for holding photographs, the entire arrangement being cylindrical and driven by clockwork. | The object of the contrivance is to show the entire con tents of the frame at one revolution. A quick printing machine for emulsion paper was also shown. By the motion of a crank the paper is unreeled from a spool, exposed, and cut off ready for development. It will be remembered that this is no new idea, for Messrs. Marion were showing a machine of the same kind about six years ago. The art critic of a Sunday paper, in contending that artists who produce big pictures have a difficulty in selling them because they are beyond the capacity of the middle class home, uses a curious argument. He says: “ To this neglect of the conditions of the home of all but the wealthy few, is greatly to be attributed the preference for line engravings and for photographs, which artists agree to deplore.” Is this really the reason why engravings and photographs are purchased, and do artists “agree to deplore ” the “ preference ” in this direction ? We fancy any print publisher will say that persons buy copies, rather than original pictures, simply because the latter are utterly beyond their means. The “ conditions of the home ” have nothing to do with the matter. It is the condition of the purse which determines whether a man can buy an original or a copy. As for the agreement of artists to “deplore” the preference for engravings or photographs, we doubt whether an artist is to be found who will agree with this supposed argument, seeing that the sale of the copyright for purposes of repro duction is a material gain to his pocket, and adds to the value of his picture by making it popular. The only persons who “ deplore ” the “preference” of photographs are—or used to be—for some occult reasons of their own, the publishers of engravings. But photography has, in these days, run engraving so closely that publishers have found themselves compelled to adapt the former to the manners and customers of the latter. A notice attached to photographic copies of pictures, to the effect that only a certain number will be printed, and the negative will then be destroyed, is now occasionally to be seen in the shops of the print-sellers and picture-dealers. The scientific traveller is now expected to be a skilled photographer. Nothing in the present day is taken on trust. In the course of Mr. Fawcett’s description of pre historic remains in South India given at the Congress of Orientalists, he mentioned that near Bellary he found “ pictures” incised upon the rock. These pictures, says the Standard, seem likely to prove of inestimable value, but, adds our contemporary, “no photographs were shown apparently, and the Congress has decided to appoint a small committee, which shall make a thorough investiga tion.” That photographs were anticipated is very clear. The artificial asphalt described by Industrie seems worthy of investigation at the hands of scientific photo graphers. It is formed by heating resin with sulphur to about 250° C., when sulphuretted hydrogen is given off, leading to the formation of a black, pitchy substance, resembling Syrian asphalt in appearance and properties. It is insoluble in alcohol, but dissolves readily in chloro form, benzine, and other liquids. More important than all, it is sensitive to light.