The Optical Magic Lantern Journal (June 1889)

4 Tho Optical Magio Lantern Journal and Photographio Enlarger, readily by the oil lamp than by thelimelight. The one drawback to perfect enjoyment—the fly in the ointment—is the offensive smell not unfrequently given off by the paraffin oil or petroleum; and yet it is not at all difficult to so minimise this evil as to cause its practical annihilation. It is not the oil in the reservoir that emits the smell, nor is it that which rises by the capillary attraction of the wick and becomes converted into flame, but it is that, and that alone, which in some inscrutable manner insinuates itself out from the wick when the lamp is cold, and which spreads with scarcely a palpable moisture over the surface of the reservoir or the burner. The means of preventing this are very simple, and consist in pouring out the oil from the reservoir into a bottle at the close of each entertainment and carefully wiping the surface of the lamp before placing it away. Ifthe lamp is then kept dry and is only charged with oil before being used next time, no smell will arise, as this is caused by the vaporization of the oil as already described. It is also of importance to remove the wick from the lamp and dry it. It need scarcely be said that wicks should be trimmed very carefully so as toleave no tags on the surface which give rise to spurts of flame and seriously interfere with the quality and power of illumination; but the trimming of the wick is not a subject requiring consideration in this article, which has only to do with the smell. If the simple directions which I have given are followed, and if, in addition, the lamp is not brought into the parlour until after it has been lighted for a few minutes, there will be no further cause for complaint. C. ——e— Enlarging on Permanent Bromide Paper. By G. D. MıLzurn. ik process of making bromide enlargements from small negatives is very simple. To the professional photographer it is a source of profit, and to the amateur a great pleasure; from a very small negative you can produce as fine a large picture as the finest engraving, and it is now well known that when a bromide print is properly made it is permanent in the full sense of the word. An easy way to construct a bromide enlarging apparatus, out of apparatus on hand, is to take your front focussing view camera ; place your negative in a proper size plate-holder, and adjust the negative so as to be upside down inside of the ground glass—that is, negative and film of negative next the lens. Place the camera on a small table, and move the table and back of camera against the window in an ordinary small room. Shut out all the white light in the room, except that which enters through the ground glass of camera. A magic lantern, with oil-burner, can be used instead of day-light apparatus described above. Extra quick bromide paper can be had for that purpose. Use any good lens that is capable of covering the size plate you intend to enlarge from. Then you want an upright easel to suspend your bromide paper on, which is easily constructed out of two uprights, a flat board and a box of suitable size to serve asa base. The face of the easel should be covered with white paper. Place your easel squarely in front ofthe camera. The size of the enlargement will depend on the focus of the lens and the distance that the easel is ° set from the negative. Move the easel back and forward until you have the required size. Then proceed to focus the enlarged image sharp. Now put the cap on the lens. At this stage of the operation it is necessary tohavea ruby lamp in the room. Another method of improvising an apparatus is to construct a shutter for the window, and cut a hole in the shutter two sizeslarger than the largest negative to be enlarged from. Fit into the opening a frame about two or three inches deep, glazed on the outside with a sheet of ground glass. On the inside edges of the frame, top and bottom, arrange grooves in which to slide the negative. Nowona table or shelf, adjusted in front of the negative box, place an ordinary camera, having the ground glass removed. Point the lens toward the negative, and connect thelens and negative box by means ofa bag of opaque cloth, open at both ends, and provided with elastic band to close it tight around the lens and negative box. This will prevent any light coming into the dark room. If there are other windows in the room, they can be darkened with curtains. Take a sheet of bromide paper, pin it on the