Manchester.
_Photography in the Open Air; Improved Camera._--In your Number 172, p.
163., there is a Note of mine in reference to the use to which thin sheet
India rubber might be applied. I there alluded to the difficulties
attending a single "portable camera," in which all the coating, developing,
&c. of your plates is to be done; and for those gentlemen who have the
means of carrying about with them a second box, I have devised a
modification of Archer's camera, which I think, will prove very useful. It
is one which I am about to make for myself. This second box is one in
which, when travelling, I can pack my camera, frames, glasses, and
chemicals. Having arranged your camera, you proceed to arrange the second
box, or "laboratory." This laboratory has three short legs, which screw, or
fasten by any simple contrivance, to it, so that it may stand a sufficient
height from the ground to allow the bath, which fits in like the one in
Archer's camera, to hang beneath it, and also that when working you may do
so with ease. It is lighted by either yellow glass or India rubber. There
are sleeves of India rubber for your arms, and the holes in the sides of
the box traverse nearly the whole of the sides, for the purpose of moving
your hands freely from one end of the box to the other; there is also an
opening for the head. The bottom of the box is divided: about two-thirds of
it, and the nearest to you, has a gutta percha tray, with the four sides,
three inches high, fitting it quite tight; and in one corner a tube a few
inches long, also of gutta percha, fixed to it, and passing through the
bottom of the box, to allow the refuse washings to run off. In the middle
of this tray a developing stand of gutta percha is fixed to the bottom, on
which to lay the glass plates. The other one-third of the bottom of the
laboratory is fitted thus:--There is a slit across the box, immediately
before the wall of the tray, for the nitrate of silver bath to slip in.
Immediately beyond the edge of the bath is a small fillet of wood running
across the box parallel with the bath, and so placed that if the bottom of
the dark frame to contain the glass plate is rested against it, and the top
of the frame rested against the end of the laboratory, the frame will slope
at about an angle of forty-five degrees. Let there be a button, or similar
contrivance, on the underside of the lid of the box, that the lid of the
dark frame may be fastened to it when open. Bottles of collodion,
developing fluid, hypo-soda, or solution of salt, &c., may be arranged in
various convenient ways within reach. The proceeding then is very easy.
Place the bath-frame and bottles in their places; rear the glass plate in
the frame; shut the laboratory lid; place your hands in the sleeves and
your head in the hood; fix the door of dark frame to the top; coat the
plate; place it in the bath with collodion side from you (it will then be
in convenient position when you draw it out of bath to place at once in the
frame); fasten the frame door; open the box lid; remove to camera; after
taking picture, return frame to its place in camera; bring the plate to
developing stand; develop; pour solution of salt over; remove from box;
finish outside with hyposulphite of soda.
I have been thus explicit to render the matter as plain and intelligible as
possible without aid of diagrams. But I shall be happy to give any {267}
one any further information, either privately, or through "N. & Q." It
seems to me that by this contrivance you simplify the process as much as is
almost possible; you keep separate the different processes, and run little
or no risk of mixing your chemicals, a misfortune which would spoil several
hours' work, as well as entail a considerable loss of materials. The box
would be no expensive article; any one possessing a little mechanical skill
could construct it for himself, and its use as a packing-case for your
apparatus would repay the cost.
I have for some time been using a developing fluid, which appears to have
some desirable qualifications for it is simple, inexpensive, and keeps
good, as far as I have tried it, for a very long period. I have worked with
it when it has been made ten weeks; it slightly changes colour, but it
throws down no deposit, and does not ever stain the film; when first made,
it is colourless as water. DR. DIAMOND has kindly undertaken to test its
value, and if he pronounces it worthy of being made known, the readers of
"N. & Q." shall shortly have the benefit of it.