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JUNE 18, 1880.] Iides. Mr. Swan holds in his hand, apparently, the solution of the problem of lighting our rooms with electricity. Last week, at Newcastle, we passed several hours in a drawing room delightfully lit up by a tiny lamp of Mr. Swan’s, lie has succeeded in preparing a carbon thread, or wire, and a loop of this material, maintained incandescent by the electric current in a vacuum tube, supplies an exquisitely soft and steady light. Mr. H. P. Robinson writes in an enthusiastic manner upon the subject of gelatine plates for landscape work. “I had half an hour on Rusthall Common with 1G by 13 plates a few days ago. The results convince me that the dry process is better than the wet for landscapes. A flock of sheep is just wonderful! You can see their eyelashes.” Large direct portraits will once more come to the fore with our rapid gelatine plates. What would the late Mr. Crawshay have said, had he heard that an eight-inch face could be secured in the studio with an exposure of a few seconds ? Tourists who travel with sensitive plates, take warning by this. “ I had great difficulty in getting my plates through the German Custom-house; the fellows wanted to look inside the packets, and I could not make them understand that the films would be spoilt if once they saw daylight. Unfortunately, too, the paper was sealed, and that made them all the more suspicious. I won’t have any sealing-wax in future. Luckily, the chief was a very good fellow, and when sent for he only laughed and said, ‘ Ah, ah ! photographique ! ’ and he passed me." So writes a correspondent on his way to Dresden. In Mr. Mendelssohn’s studio at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the other day, we saw a very useful and practical accessory. It was simply the trunk of a slender tree placed upright, againt which the model, lady or gentleman, could lean. A simple and graceful pose is thus easily secured, com bined with the utmost steadiness. Mr. Mendelssohn has produced some charming pictures of ladies by employing this simple accessory, and exercising into the bargain the art knowledge he knows so well how to apply. In his studio, we may mention, there was not a square inch of bare glass. Although Mr. Mendelsohn permits at times a flood of light to sweep over the model, the illumination appears always soft and subdued. Ue has few curtains, but covers the whole surface of his glass with tissue paper. This he prefers to the employment of ground glass, which is apt to get yellow and dirty in towns or cities, and then disputes the passage of the light. A lad in an hour, says Mr. Mendelssohn, will cover the studio windows with tissue paper applied with starch, and it does not take much longer to wash down the old material. 295 We recently described the way io which photography at the Kew Observatory is made to record the movements of the mercury column, and thus write down the meteoro logical changes of the earth. Our readers may remember that the same principle is employed in reading the human puke. A flexible bag containing mercury is put near the region of the heart, the mercury rising from the bag into a glass tube. Every beat of the heart consequently moves the mercury column. A sensitive plate is kept moving along behind the head of the column, and the rising and falling of the mercury makes a wave-line upon the sensitive plate. If the action of the heart is very fast, the zigzag marks are very frequent; and if the action is energetic, the zigzags are very high. An accurate judgment of the patient’s state of health may thus be secured by photo graphy. We have seen a series of these pulse photographs executed by a clever French doctor. They were pictures secured at all ages. In the child the wave lines or zigzags are sharp and rapid ; in the case of manhood the zigzags are fewer and more vigorous; and in old age the marks are zigzags no longer, but rounded curves. In the case of a man of ninety, whose pulse was written down by photo graphy in this manner, the result was nothing but a softly undulating line, painfully indicative of the passing away of energy and life. It will be remembered that it was by means of a pulse photograph that Dr. Ozanam clearly demonstratad di- crohism, or double action of the heart, a phenomenon about the existence of which there had been considerable doubt. Instead of the mercury column making one leap at every pulsation, he found that it made a double or even treble leap in order to reach its maximum height at each beat of the heart. A Roman photographer, M. II. Le Lieure, has hit upon a happy idea. With some care he has collected a series of historic costumes of the past centuries, invoking the aid of artist and antiquarian in securing correctness of design where the original vestments failed him. Models well-chosen, and duly clothed and accoutred, were then photographed; the result is a fine series of pictures of the olden time, which perhaps convey a better idea of the appearance of our forefathers than could be secured in any other way. The choice of models in this case reminds us of the plan adopted by the well-known firm of Braun, of Dornach, in securing their series of Swiss national costumes. They might, of course, have sent round a photographer to select a model in each canton, attired in her peculiar garb. But they conceived a better plan than that. A costume was ordered, correct in all its details, from the different capitals, and suitable for young women already at Dornach who were not only comely in person, but trained as models. The result is a most pleasing series of costume portraits, over which many an artist has marvelled, THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS.