Edingthorpe Rectory.
_On some Difficulties in Photographic Practice._--Being desirous to have
a glass bath for the silver, I was glad to find you had given (in
"Notices to Correspondents") directions for making one, viz. two parts
best red sealing-wax to one part of Jeffries' marine glue. I tried this,
but found the application of it to the glass impossible, as it set
immediately. Now, can you afford room for the means by which this may be
remedied; as my wish to substitute glass for gutta percha remains?
Now I am addressing you, may I offer one or two hints which may be of
service to beginners? If, after what has been considered a sufficient
washing of the glass, after the hypo., during the drying, crystals from
hypo. remaining appear, and which would most certainly destroy the
picture, I have found that by _breathing well_ over these parts, and
immediately repeating the washing, all ill effects are thoroughly
prevented. To substitute hot water instead of breathing does not destroy
the hyposulphite, and therefore will not do.
When the plate shall be dry after the washing process, if a leaden, dim,
grey appearance occurs, I have found that by tenderly rubbing it with
fine cotton, and applying with a good-sized camel's hair pencil a
varnish of about 8-10ths spirits of turpentine and 2-10ths mastic
varnish, and then, before this gets dry, putting on the black varnish,
the grey effect will have been removed.
I have found the protonitrate of iron, as also the protosulphate, and
not seldom the pyrogallic, so difficult of application, that I have
stained and spoiled very good pictures. I have therefore used, and with
perfect success, a tray of gutta percha a little longer than the glass
(say one-fourth of an inch), and one-fourth of an inch deep; sliding
from one end the glass into the tray (supplied immediately before using
it), by which means the glass is all covered at once.
I think the REV. MR. SISSON'S suggestion, viz. to send you some of our
specimens with collodion, {364} a very proper one, if not declined on
your own part, and shall, for one, feel great pleasure in acting in
accordance with it.
You will, I trust, pardon any foregoing hints for beginners, as I well
know that I have lost several pictures by hypo-crystals, and very many
by the difficulty in developing.