reunion, but, according to the only rational interpretation of the word,
a time of good will towards men, and peace upon earth. Photographers,
like other men, have had their little differences of opinion, which have
produced partial estrangements during a portion of the year which will
so soon expire; but let the approaching season, which is held in
commemoration of the birth of the greatest Peacemaker that ever came
among men, be looked upon by all as the fittest time to forget and
forgive all slights, injuries, or insults, real or imaginary; and let
not the great festival of our common faith be clouded or eclipsed by an
angry thought, nor the immeasurable charity of true Christianity be
dimmed by one unforgiving feeling. The light of the Christian faith is a
light that should penetrate to the dark cells of our hearts, and dispel
all the gloomy and corrosive accumulations of controversy that may have
lodged there, and unconsciously eaten away any part of our better
nature. Few of us--none but the most presumptuous--can lay his hand upon
his heart and say, "Mine is immaculate!" None of us are without sin, and
charity and forgiveness are the greatest of the Christian virtues; and
they should be the more carefully studied and practised by all who live
in and by the Light of the world.
_December 15th, 1868._
PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE IMMURED POMPEIIANS.
Everyone must be sensible of the many and varied applications of
photography. Even photographers themselves, familiar as they are with
the capabilities of the art they practise, must necessarily have their
wonder excited occasionally at the scope of their art-science,
especially when they consider that the process, as practised at the
present day, is not more than seventeen years old. That it should be the
historian of the life and manners of the present period more fully and
faithfully than any written account, is not so much a matter of
surprise. Appealing, as it does, to the vanity and affections of the
people, it is at once a recorder of the changes of fashion, a registrar
of marriages, births, and deaths, and a truthful illustrator of the
times in which we live; but that it should be brought to bear upon the
past, and make the inhabitants of the world in the nineteenth century
familiar with the forms, fashions, manners, life, and death of the
people of the first century of the Christian Era, is something to be
marvelled at, and at first seems an impossibility. Yet such is the fact;
and photography has been made the cheap and easy means of informing the
present generation of the manner in which the ancients behaved,
suffered, and died in the midst of one of the most appalling
catastrophes that ever overtook the inhabitants of any part of the
world, ancient or modern, as vividly and undeniably as if the calamity
had occurred but yesterday.
The foregoing reflections were excited by seeing very recently some
photographs from plaster casts of the forms of human beings as they had
fallen and died when Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed by the first
known and terrible eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The photographs alluded
to reveal with a fearful fidelity the dreadful agonies of some of those
who perished at Pompeii, and, while looking at the pictures, it is very
difficult to divest the mind of the idea that they are not the works of
some ancient photographer who plied his lens and camera immediately
after the eruption had ceased, so forcibly do they carry the mind back
to the time and place of the awful immurement of both a town and its
people.
That these photographs were not obtained from the lifeless forms of the
Pompeiians the reader will readily understand, for their bodies have not
been preserved entire from that day to this. The question then naturally
arises, "How could plaster casts be obtained from which the photographs
were produced?" To answer that question I must briefly explain that
Pompeii was not, as is generally understood, destroyed by an overflow of
red hot lava, which would have burnt up every particle of human flesh
with which it came in contact almost instantly, without leaving a mould
or impress of the form which it surrounded. The _black mud_ which flowed
from Vesuvius into the doomed town of Pompeii entombed the houses and
inhabitants--covered them up and formed a thick crust over them, which
gradually hardened, and as the bodies crumbled away to dust a mould or
matrix was left, from which plaster casts of great beauty and finish
might have been obtained of almost everything that was destroyed.
Unfortunately, this was not discovered until very recently, after many
of the beautiful moulds had been destroyed by the process of hurried,
thoughtless, and unsystematic excavation. It was only a short time
ago, since Naples was united to Italy, that careful and intelligent
excavation secured to future generations impressions from those matrices
made by the most terrible process of natural mould making.
Sig. Fiorelli, who was appointed superintendent of excavations at
Pompeii, happily thought of obtaining casts from these natural moulds by
pouring in soft plaster of Paris, and thus secure more useful mementos
than by preserving the moulds themselves. Amongst the first casts thus
obtained were the forms of four human beings, described as follows in
the _Quarterly Review_ for 1864:--
"These four persons had perished in the streets. Driven from their
homes, they sought to flee when it was too late. These victims of the
eruption were not found together, and they do not appear to have
belonged to the same family or household. The most interesting of the
casts is that of two women, probably mother and daughter, lying feet to
feet; they appear from their garb to have been people of poor condition.
The elder seems to lie tranquilly on her side, overcome by the noxious
gases. She probably fell and died without a struggle. Her limbs are
extended, and her left arm drops loosely. On one finger is still seen
her coarse iron ring. Her child was a girl of fifteen; she seems,
poor thing, to have struggled hard for life. Her legs are drawn up
convulsively. Her little hands are clenched in agony. In one she holds
her veil, or part of her dress with which she had covered her head,
burying her face in her arms to shield herself from the falling ashes
and from the foul, sulphurous smoke. The form of her head is perfectly
preserved. The texture of her coarse linen garments may be traced, and
even the fashion of her dress, with its long sleeves reaching to her
wrists. Here and there it is torn, and the smooth young skin appears in
the plaster like polished marble. On her tiny feet may still be seen her
embroidered sandals. At some distance from this group lay a third woman,
apparently about the age of twenty-five, and belonging to a better
class. Silver rings were on her fingers. She lay on her side, and had
died in great agony. Her garments had been gathered up on one side,
leaving exposed a limb of the most beautiful form. She had fled with her
little treasure, two silver cups, a few jewels, and some silver coins,
and her keys, like a careful matron. The fourth cast is that of a man of
the people, perhaps a common soldier. He is almost of colossal size. He
lies on his back, his arms extended by his side, and his feet stretched
out, as if, finding escape impossible, he had laid himself down to meet
death like a brave man. His dress consists of a short coat or jerkin,
and tight-fitting breeches of some coarse stuff, perhaps leather; heavy
sandals, with soles studded with nails, are laced tightly round his
ankles. On one finger is seen his iron ring. His features are strongly
marked, his mouth open, as in death. Some of his teeth still remain, and
even part of the moustache adheres to the plaster."
Such is the description of the plaster casts; and the photographs which
I possess of those casts convey to the mind at one glance all that is
there written. Wonderful photography! How eloquent in their silence are
thy pictures! To what more dignified and sublime uses could any art be
put? Only a few can look upon those casts of the dead Pompeiians in the
Museum of Naples, but the whole world may view the photographs taken
from them, and look upon the Pompeiians in their forms and habits as
they died, and read a page from the unwritten histories of those
terrible death-struggles, when the strong man, the tender, placid
mother, and the young and delicate maiden were all entombed in that
fearful sea of mud, amidst darkness and horrors that can never be
adequately described.
Such an awful catastrophe will never cease to interest the student of
ancient history, and photography will now be the means of deepening his
interest, and revealing to his mind with greater force and lucidity many
scenes that actually occurred at the very moment of the appalling
destruction of Pompeii, on the 24th of August, A.D. 79.
A SIMPLE MODE OF INTENSIFYING NEGATIVES.
Undoubtedly the best possible practice of photography is that which
requires no after intensification in the production of a first-class
negative. This, however, though a "consummation devoutly to be wished,"
is not always attained, even by the most experienced photographer. Every
operator knows that there is sometimes a condition of things that
renders a simple and efficient process of intensifying afterwards
indispensable.
Of all the modes of intensifying--and their name is legion--I think the
readiest and most generally useful has been much neglected. The
persulphate of uranium and ferridcyanide of potassium process gave
wonderfully charming results. But what of that? It was completely
impracticable, and a failure, in consequence of its tendency to go on
increasing in intensity in the hands of the printer.
The bichloride of mercury and iodine processes, unlimited in number,
also went on increasing in an unlimited degree, and no amount of
"roasting" could reduce the negatives so treated to the desirable degree
of transparency that would enable any printer to obtain good
impressions. There is, however, one of the bichloride of mercury
processes, published some years ago, which I modified so as to give the
most satisfactory results. It rendered the negative sufficiently
intense, and preserved the most exquisite modelling, without changing
afterwards; but the process was very troublesome, and not very
agreeable.
The simplest, cheapest, and most reliable process of intensifying
negatives that I know of is with sulphuret of potassium (liver of
sulphur) used in the following manner:--
Make a very dilute solution of sulphuret of potassium, put it into any
old gutta-percha or porcelain bath; and, after the negative is developed
as far as is desirable with the ordinary iron developer, fixed, and
washed in the usual way, immerse the plate in that state at once into
the solution of sulphuret of potassium, in the same manner as in
sensitising the plate in the nitrate bath, by using a dipper, and leave
it there until sufficiently intense, which is generally in about the
time required for coating and sensitising another plate, so that, if the
operator be working single-handed, very little, if any, time is lost in
the process of intensifying.
The solution may also be flooded over the plate in the same manner as
the developer, after fixing and washing as before.
When sufficiently intense, rinse the plate with water, dry, and varnish
in the ordinary way. But it is best to use the intensifier in the manner
first described, which is by far the most cleanly and economical plan,
both in the saving of time and solution. By using it with the "bath and
dipper," it is not offensive, on account of its extreme dilution, and
not being disturbed so much, or immediately under the olfactory nerves
of the operator, it may be worked in the ordinary dark room with the
greatest safety and convenience.
A STRING OF OLD BEADS.
He is a rash man who announces "something new" in these days. I believe
there is nothing new under the sun, and in photography especially. If
any man be rash enough to rush into print with what he considers a new
idea, some other man rushes into print also and says the idea is old,
exploded, useless, worthless, or worse.
I lay no claim to originality. I have lived so long in the atmosphere of
photography, I don't know where or how I picked up my knowledge--such as
it is. Some of it I may have stumbled on, some of it I may have found,
and some of it I may have stolen. If the latter, I forget from whom,
when, or where, and in all such cases a bad memory is a good and
convenient thing. But I will endeavour to atone for such sins by
publicly restoring all I may have filched from other men's brains for
the benefit of all whom it may concern. I shall not count the beads;
that would be like running over a rosary, and I object to sub rosa
revelations; neither shall I attend to the order of stringing the beads,
but will put them on record just as they come to hand; and the first
is--
_How to Make Vignette Papers._--Take a piece of sensitised paper, lay it
under a piece of glass and let it blacken. Then take a camels'-hair
pencil dipped in a weak solution of cyanide of potassium, and paint the
extreme size and shape of the desired aperture. Let it dry, and with a
little stronger solution of cyanide paint _within_ the size and shape,
and then with a stronger solution paint the centre, which will be
perfectly white and semi-transparent. The object of using the three
strengths of solution and painting three separate times is to obtain
gradation, and the edges will be yellow and softened like a vignette
glass. These vignette papers can be attached to the back of the negative
or to the outside of the printing-press, and can be used either in shade
or sunshine without materially prolonging the time of printing. The
cost of production is trifling, as any waste piece of paper and spare
time can be employed in making them, and they do not occupy much time in
making; in fact, one can be made in less time than will be spent in
reading this description. I need not expatiate on the advantages of
being able to make a special vignette quickly. Every photographer must
have experienced the difficulty of purchasing a special size and shape
to suit a particular subject.
_How to Point a Pencil._--Rub the pencil to a point in the groove of a
corundum file. This is a better and cheaper pointer than a Yankee
pencil-sharpener, and it puts a finer point to a blacklead pencil than
anything else I know. Retouchers, try it.
_How to Ease a Tight Stopper._--There is nothing more annoying in the
practice of photography than to take up a bottle and find the stopper
_fixed_. In many instances the bottle is broken and time wasted in
trying to remove the fixed stopper. When such an obstinate stopper gets
into your hands, run a little glycerine round the top of the bottle. Set
the bottle down, and in a few minutes the stopper will be free.
Prevention is better than cure. Keep a little glycerine on all your
stoppers. Glycerine agrees with every chemical in photographic use, and
prevents stoppers and bottles coming to grief. In a thousand and one
ways a little glycerine is beyond all price.
_How to Prepare Albumenized Prints for Colouring._--Pour over them a
little matt varnish. This removes the greasiness, and gives a fine tooth
and ivory-like surface for the artist to work upon.
_How to Remove Silver Stains from the White Ground of a
Vignette._--Touch it with a solution of cyanide of potassium, and wash
off immediately. The other parts of the picture will not be injured.
_How to Stipple a Window White or Yellow._--For white, mix a little
dextrine and kaolin in water. Dab the mixture on the glass with a piece
of cotton. For the purpose of obscuration that is quite enough; but if
sightliness be essential, finish by stippling with the ends of a
hog's-hair brush. For yellow, mix a little dextrine and deep orange
chrome in powder together in water, and apply it to the window in the
same manner. Dabbing once or twice with a piece of cotton will exclude
white light and make a luminous dark room. The same mixture makes an
excellent backing for dry plates to prevent halation.
LIGHTS AND LIGHTING.
A great deal has been written and said about lights and lighting--a
great deal too much; yet more must be said and written.
Light is to the photographer what the sickle is to the shearer--a good
reaper can cut well with an indifferent sickle, but an indifferent
reaper never gets a good sickle in his hand. A good photographer, who
also understands light and shade, can produce good pictures in an
ordinary studio. It is the indifferent photographer who runs after
"fancy lights," and is, like a benighted traveller in pursuit of a
will-o'-the-wisp, eventually left floundering in a bog. It is folly to
construct powerful concentrators if powerful reflectors have to be
employed to counteract their defects. If a limited amount of diffused
light be absolutely necessary it is best to retain it and use it in its
simplest and least expensive form.
When I commenced photography glass houses were scarcer in England than
comets in the heavens, and the few that were in existence were all
constructed on false principles. It was not until I visited America that
I saw a _properly_-constructed studio. The Americans were, and are,
prone to give stupid names to sensible things; and the names they gave
to their studios were no exceptions. This, that, and the other
photographer advertised his "mammoth skylight." I went to sit, see, and
be satisfied that their mode of lighting was very superior to ours. I
was convinced _instanter_ that the perpendicular sides and sloping
roofs of our miserable little hothouses were mistakes and things to be
abhorred, while their spacious rooms and "mammoth skylights" were things
to be admired and adopted.
In one of these rooms, and almost without blinds or reflectors, the
sitter could be "worked" on a semi-circle or half oval, and "lighted"
either in front or on either side at pleasure, and with the greatest
facility. I determined, there and then, to build my next studio on
similar principles; but until recently I have had no opportunity of
carrying out my intentions. To get what I required and to make the best
of my situation I had to "fence and fiddle" the district surveyor: but I
gained my point, and the victory was worth the foils and the
fiddlestick.
My studio can be lighted from either side; but the "light of lights" is
the north one, and that is a large fixed window 11 by 9 feet with a
single slope of two and a half feet in the height; that is, two and
a half feet out of the perpendicular at the top, with no other top light
and no perpendicular side light. With this light I do all ordinary work.
I can work round the light from one side of the room to the other, as
under a mammoth skylight, without using either blind or reflector. If I
want Rembrandt effects I have only to open a shutter on the south side,
and let in subdued sunlight. That at once becomes the dominant light,
and the north light illumines the shadows. The bottom of the north light
is three feet from the floor.
The advantages of this form of studio are these. It is cool, because no
more light is admitted than is absolutely necessary. It is neat, because
no rag-like curtains are hanging about. It is clean, because there is
nothing to collect dirt. It is dry, because the pitch of the roof
renders leakage impossible. It is pleasant to the sitter, because of
these desirabilities, and that the light is not distressing. It is
agreeable to the operator, because the work is easy and everything is
comfortable.
Printed by Piper & Carter, 5, Furnival Street, Holborn, London, E.C.
SEVEN NEW SIZES,
ALL WITH
TRANSPARENT
FILM.
[Illustration: Kodak Film Camera]
No apparatus connected with Photography has ever excited so much
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THE KODAK.
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No. 3, Regular, 3-1/4 x 4-1/4, Square Picture, two finders.
No. 3, Junior, "
No, 4, Regular, 4 x 5,
No. 4, Junior, "
No. 4, Folding, "
No. 5, " 5 x 7, " " "
_Send for the New KODAK PRIMER, fully describing all sizes and styles._
THE EASTMAN PHOTOGRAPHIC MATERIALS COMPANY, Limited,
115, Oxford Street, London, W.
IT IS ADMITTED by Every Competent Authority THAT WRATTEN'S 'LONDON'
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Messrs. Wratten & Wainwright's Complete Illustrated Catalogue contains
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WRATTEN & WAINWRIGHT,
PHOTOGRAPHIC CHEMISTS AND APPARATUS MAKERS,
AND
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"London" Dry Plates,
38, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LONG ACRE,
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THE AUTOTYPE COMPANY
MANUFACTURES
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THE AUTOTYPE COMPANY, LONDON.
Offices: 74, New Oxford Street, w. c. -- Works: Ealing Dene, Middlesex.
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ROSS' LENSES AND APPARATUS.
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SQUARE CAMERA.
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[Illustration: Bellows Cameras]