7. Wash the plate and set it in the rack to dry. When perfectly dry,
coat the plate over with negative varnish, and have that coating dry and
hard. Now it may be touched by the fingers.
=Making Prints from Negatives.= At this point the work ceases to be one
of faith, as the results are now to appear. An outfit of printing
requisites comprises a printing frame, a porcelain pan, a vulcanite
tray, some ready sensitized paper, a bottle of French azotate, a bottle
of chloride of gold, a glass graduate, some hyposulphite of soda, a
glass form, a Robinson trimmer, some sheets of fine card-board, a jar of
parlor paste, and a bristle brush.
=Sensitized Paper Prints.= In the morning prepare a toning bath
sufficient for the prints to be toned that day. Put 7½ grains of
chloride of gold into 7½ ounces of water. Label the bottle “Chloride of
Gold Solution.” Take 1 ounce of French azotate, 1½ ounces of the
chloride of gold solution, and add 6 ounces of water, and you have a
toning bath which keeps well. Where the prints do not give the required
tone, the bath must be strengthened by adding to it some new solution.
Place the glossy side of a sheet of sensitized paper upon the film side
of the negative in the printing frame. _Do this in a very dim light._
The printing has gone far enough when the print looks a little darker
than you wish the finished picture to appear. Make as many prints from
the negative as you desire. Wash the prints in several changes of water.
Take seven ounces of the toning solution and change the prints to the
pan containing it, where the prints should be turned over and over to
make the toning even. The toning process should go on until the dark
part of the pictures have a very faint purplish tint and the white
portion is clear. Wash the picture, but preserve the toning solution.
The pictures should now be left for twenty minutes in a solution
composed of 4 ounces of hyposulphite of soda, 1 ounce of common salt, ½
ounce of washing soda, and 32 ounces of water. This solution should also
be prepared a day or two in advance. Give the pictures a final and
effectual washing. After they are dried, lay them out one by one and,
using the Robinson trimmer, cut them to the desired size. Now spread
over the back of each in turn some parlor paste, and lay them down with
the center on the sheets of card-board. This operation is called
“Mounting Pictures.” Press with a paper cutter upon the pictures and
toward their edges until you are satisfied that they will lay flat.
DRAUGHTSMEN’S SENSITIVE PAPER,
FOR COPYING DRAWINGS.
[Illustration]
Procure a printing frame, such as photographers use; lay the tracing,
face down, upon the glass, upon which place the sensitive paper,
prepared side down, then several thicknesses of cotton flannel for a pad
to equalize the pressure, and cause the sensitive paper and tracing to
lay in close contact, and then close in the back. If, on turning the
frame over, any wrinkles appear, that side of the hinged back may be
opened and a piece of paper laid in just above the spot, when all will
come smooth on closing the frame, (this should be done in a dimly
lighted room), then expose to direct sunlight, care being taken that the
whole frame comes under the light, without shadows; let the exposure be
from five to ten minutes, according to the brightness of the day. Remove
again to darkened room, examine by opening one of the hinged backs; if
the lines have slightly turned in color, it has been highly exposed; it
can be removed and washed in clear water, with two or three changes,
then hang up to dry. You will have an exact copy of the original, with
white lines on a blue ground, at a cost of about one tenth that of
tracing, with absolutely no error. The paper must be kept in perfect
darkness until used.
THE NEW
WOOD PAINTING.
[Illustration]