The Optical Magic Lantern Journal (January 1891)

74 The Optical Magio Lantern Journal and Photographic Enlarger. watches his chance he can buy the back part of a camera with a dark slide for a fewshillings. Focussing can then be done much better, as it is done on the ground glass ; you are not bothered with pins to pin your paper on a board, and you have not to work in the dark ; and, lastly, you are able to double print without fogging your paper. When the sky negative has been exposed put in the slide of the dark back before drawing up the camera to replace the view negative. I make a point in calling attention to working this way—that is, having an ordinary dark back for holding the bromide paper—for reasons stated above, and feel sure every one should adopt this way for holding the paper, whether the enlarging is done by daylight or artificial light. Those who pin their bromide paper on the easel, must make a cap with a piece of thin yellow glass in to use in place of the ordinary cap, which will enable them to see exactly where to pin the paper. I have, I think, fully explained the two ways of working or making enlargements by daylight, and will leave the rest of my hints for another chapter. “0: To Obtain the Best Light from Oil Lamps. By ALFRED WATKINS. Or the general convenience of the two, threé, and four-wick paraffin lamps for lantern use, there can be no doubt, but most users of this means of illumination have had experience of the inconveniences which arise with their use. The four-wick burners are usually extremely sensitive as to height of flame, and if they are set to burn to give the best light they are apt to commence to smoke in a few minutes. This fault is often aggravated by a too contracted hood at the top of the chimney. I have seen great improvements made in lamps given to smoking, by bending the hood so as to obstruct the draught less ; or, better still. by removing the hood altogether, although in the latter case a patch of! light will be somewhat prominent on the ceiling of room. Most workers now know how to keep the lamp free from smell—the metal-work should be carefully wiped just before using ; but I have recently seen a case in which, despite of all care, a horrible stench resulted when lighting up came. This was finally traced to a deposit of odorous soot inside the metal chimney, and when this part was carefully wiped out, all was well again. Another defect usual with two or four-wick lamps is the dark line down the centre of the light circle on the screen, which of caurse is the image of the dark space between the wicks. I was recently consulted by a photographer in a difficulty. He had rigged up the parts of a sciapticon (2-wick) lantern for enlarging, the condenser being placed in a partition which closed in his dark room, the negative close against it, and the lamp on a little shelf outside. The arrangement was quite satisfactory with the exception of the dark line, which (tuite spoiled his enlargements. Various kinds of remedies were tried without success ; but fortunately the lamp on the shelf was free to be moved in any direction, and I finally discovered that by placing the lamp at a considerable angle (about 35 degrees) to the optical line of the arrangement, the dark space between the wicks was no longer presented to the condenser, and the screen was evenly illuminated. Makers should see to this, and buyers should refuse to purchase lamps in which the wicks are at right angles to the condenser. 20: How | Became a Lanternist.—l. BY THE VICE-CHAIRMAN OF THE LANTERN SOCIETY. I AM nota particularly good one at telling a yarn—a much better one at listening. [ enjoy little tales, especially when spiced with fun in them ; but I generally notice that when I retail them, they require some explanation after my interpretation. My early experiences with the lantern were not romantic, not strikingly funny ; not far reaching or profound ; in fact they were not anything in particular. It was some time in the fiftiesthat I attended an exhibition which created great excitement in that most singular of all villages, viz., Wixhall, in Shropshire, where the marvellous and astonishing feat of a man swallowing rats was to be shown under the patronage of the gentry of the neighbourhood; and Hodge and Tommy Atkins, who was on furlough, and all the school children of the place were there. ' Wixhallis a village or township of which the late Rev. W. F. Calloway used to say that a stranger on entering it would lose his way twice for finding it once. There are hundreds of miles of lanes in it, though onlv a little parish about four miles wide and about two miles long. Now this is very singular, is it not, that a thing should be wider than it is long. I will explain it. [ learnt in those days from our village schoolmaster in speaking of everything pertaining to the map of England that the top and bottom was its length, and I have never | been able to unlearn that notion that if a county went | from one side of England to the other, that would still | be its width if it were only a mile from south to north. But, perhaps, this is a superstition that needs uprooting. Well, that entertainment came off. Such a crowd. All the blankets and bed quilts in the neighbourhood were used in darkening the innumerable windows of the school room, which was a very large one, capable of holding some hundreds. The falling snow, Babes in the Wood, all these things paled before the final climax— the man swallowing the rats. With the other boys I began counting, but I shall never muster up courage to tell yourreaders how many rats that man ate. It was very wonderful. I always had a curiosity about a lantern after that day. About a dozen Christmases since, somebody was recommended to me. Of course the somebody in question was hard up. I have noticed that the people who get recommendations to one are very often hard up, So this party said that he had a lantern. lamp, lens, and many boxes of slides, all to sell cheap. These slides were not your insignificant unmounted 3}in. x 3qin. mere tame dark photographs ; nothing so insig