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FEBRUARY 27, 1880.J THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. 97 Uhe Photogruphi Ulths, ffebrnary 27, 1880. PHOTOGRAPH! IN AND OUT OF THE STUDIO. The Government Grant for Science—Van MoxcKHOVEN on the FADING of PLATNorYPES — Photographs in Natural Colours. The Government Grant for Science.—It will be in the recol lection of our readers that more than once in these columns we called attention to the apportionment to different individuals of the Governmentgrant by thecommittee of the Royal Society, aided in their deliberations by the presidents of various other learned bodies. The sum of £4,000 a year was guaranteed by the Government to be put in the annual estimates for five years, making in all a total of £20,000 for the encouragement of research. The five years has now nearly expired, and it will be of interest to see if it has stimulated research to the extent that it was supposed it would do; and when we say stimulated, we mean whether it has encouraged those who could not have made researches without its aid. If we turn to the proceed ings of the Royal Society, and note to whom the money has been allotted, we cannot but see that there is hardly a name to be found among the recipients which was not known before the existence of this aid to research ; in fact, no new blood—or next to none—has been introduced by its means into the ranks of the “ Corps Scientifique." Here, then, we have distinct evidence that the grant, as a means of bringing out latent talent, has been a failure. £4,000 a year is not very much for England to expend in the cause of science, but we have no doubt that it might be turned to much better account than by endowing those who without it would do excellent work. How, then, it could be better employed is a very pertinent question ; and to this a very pertinent answer, it seems, might be given. If we cross the water, and get to Brussels, we find a Govern ment institution which is supported by a less sum than £4,000 a year. If we turn £4,000 into francs it reads as a bigger figure ; and 100,000 francs could well support free laboratories for research in England as it does in the Muse Royale at Brussels. If we had a chemical and physical labo ratory supplied with the needful apparatus, of which any one who was gifted with the spirit of research, and on proper re commendation, could be allowed free use, many of the latent “ talents,” no doubt, would be brought to the sur face, and a distinct benefit conferred. There is between this plan and the other at present adopted a distinct difference: in the one case there is no money endowment for research, and in the other there is. At the Musee at Brussels any one n.J „ right to use the laboratories, and, to a certain extent, the privilege is taken advantage of by the class of people for whom such a benefit is intended. The plan of pecuniarily endowing a person for a particular re search cannot by any possibility answer in England as well as it does in Germany. Suppose the research takes five years, the endowed person, we will say, has a modus vivendi for that period, and afterwards is turned adrift, since it is against human nature to give all the good things of this life to one deserving aspirant, no matter how excellent his work, when perhaps a hundred others are waiting for some of the plums. What is he to do afterwards? Starve, perhaps, in England ; whereas in Germany, if he has shown himself capable of good work, one of the many Government professorial posts would be open to him, such as we have not in England. At present, then, we feel inclined to say : Don’t endow an individual, but give him facilities for re search by means of free laboratories. Van Monckhoven on the Fading of Platinotypes.—Mr. Spiller’s experiments with the platinotype prints were apparently carried out with the greatest care, and it might almost be imagined that he had a prescience of what Dr. Van Monckhoven was going to write. The old proverb about “glass houses” and “stones” is rather applicable to the Doctor and his—may wecallit ?—diatribe against the platinotypes. Not very long ago he sent a paper to the Photographic Society about carbon printing and ferric oxide as a colourant for the gelatine. Now, of all materials which would be subject to change from sulphur and chlorine, perhaps this ferric oxide is the most liable, and platinum the least. Lord Beaconsfield has told us of the “ magic of patience” in politics; “ silence ” is often magic in other mundane affairs. Photographs in Natural Colours.—When we called atten tion to this subject last week, we perhaps were “ carried away ” by the wonderful announcement made by the Theatre, and that put out of our mind something that we had heard before on the same subject; and, after all, it may be that the Theatre is a little behind the times. More than six months ago, when we were at Paris, we saw a similar announcement made, and with what trembling expectation did we go to the source of these wonders, and procure four or five francs’ worth. Yes, they were really photographs in colours, but scarcely in natural ones. They were decidedly effective, however. We determined to know the secret of their production, and by simple means readily discovered it. The prints were mounted on cards, and one we placed in alcohol, to see what effect that had on the natural (!) colour. It had none. Then we placed in ammonia, and gradually the albumenized surface dissolved away, and still the colours remained nearly intact. But the secret was out. On drying it we found that beneath the albumen surface was a coloured photo graph on plain paper, the photograph itself faint, but the colouring strong. The mode of production was easy enough to explain then. A very faint print had been taken on plain salted paper in the ordinary manner. This had been hand-coloured in a rough manner, no attempt at shading being made, but broad washes corres ponding to the scarves, the hair, the dress, &c., being laid on ; and the eyes—well, they were not artistically coloured up. This print was albumenized with salted albumen, and the surface sensitized again ; after that the same negative originally used was placed beneath it, and by an easy process of registration a second print was taken over the first. In some attempts of our own we got very fair results, the shadows, of course, appearing over the local colouring, and giving a most pleasing effect, and one which certainly would have been better had we been more in practice in the “ dodging.” The difficulty with us, of course, was to get pigments which were insoluble; but as, in all probability, aniline dyes were used, this would be easily surmounted by the use of albumen, or by using a proper mordant. Some little time ago the author of this discovery brought the matter before the Photographic Society of France, and a “ commission ” was appointed to investigate the matter, and from the wonderful la ng ege in which this new process was clothed by the author, such an august tribunal was apparently quite necessary. Denuding it, however, of all superfluous verbiage • the system adopted seemed to be excessively like that we hav • given above. It, too, is the subject of an English patent, we believe, and the specification, no doubt, will bear out our views on the matter. A City friend of ours lately rushed post haste up to us, and showing us some of these productions, asked if they were really photographs in natural colours. The answer we gave dashed his hopes to the ground, for that very morning he had promoted a limited company to purchase the patent right. Despond ently he said, “ We should have made half-a-million by it if it had been true.” And so they would. The “ business arrangements ” in that case would have been decidedly satisfactory.