The Optical Magic Lantern Journal (November 1900)

The Optical Magic Lantern Journal and Photographic Enlarger. 143 placed at the back of the lantern; arrange the slides in close proximity to the lantern. With everything at hand and in the right order, plain sailing is a foregone conclusion. Always make friends with schoolmasters, who are invariably splendid fellows. Treat them with courtesy and you will get the same | in return. They are valuable people to lanternists in many ways; their recommendations to other schoolmasters as to capabilities and virtues means the paper is usually discharged by the schoolmaster, your | utmost : respect being shown you all along the line. The . duty of local reporter to the county news and one or two good puffs in the local will © help one—financially speaking—through any | district. Never gas or strut about a village as if were somebody in particular. a person more speedily in the rustic mind than vulgar airs. Strange as it may appear, the dwellers in our villages are excellent judges of human nature, and will weigh a person up | much quicker than can a townsman. Some village inns are excellent places at which to stay, others are not; and it is much the better plan for any quiet unassuming fellow to get private lodgings. By communicating with the schoolmaster or mistress a few days previous to the proposed visit, they will in all probability arrange this necessary business for you. Obtain if possible testimonials from the clergy when they honour the entertainment with their presence. These will stand you in good stead wherever you may go. Have three or four of such printed at the foot of bills or circulars. Some schoolrooms are very inconveniently built, and it takes a little thinking to know where to place the lantern to best advantage. This difficulty can usually be overcome by placing the lantern at the side of the room. Of course, the pictures appear somewhat distorted when shown thus, but this is but little noticed by the uninitiated. . Prices of admission should not be high. Front seats, 6d.; back seats, 3d.; school children, 2d. is sufticient. It means a big item for a labouring man, whose wages may be about 11s. weekly, with four or five children to keep, to find say about ls. 6d. for a night’s enjoyment. Always commence at 7.30—not earlier or later—and conclude by 9.15; beyond that time it gets monotonous to village folk. It is always essential to have one or two you | Nothing lowers | strong schoolboys to assist in moving the desks and performing several small services. Always reimburse them with a few coppers for their trouble, and admit them to the entertainment free of any charge. A small sum, about Is. or Is. 6d., should always be given to the school cleaner for the extra trouble involved the following morning in ridding the schoolroom of the previous night’s dirt. It sometimes happens that a small charge is made for the use of the schoolroom, in which case the parson or managers of the school pay the cleaner. desea SOU om Rough and Ready Enlarging. By THE NOMAD. AM not the fortunate possessor of an enlarging lantern with a big condenser and every convenience ; in fact, I only possess an ordinary projection lantern with 4 inch condenser (not a very good one either), yet I have managed to make some very nice enlargements from bits of 1-plate negatives, pocket Kodak films, etc. My first attempt was with a small portion of a i-plate negative. The size of the enlarge ment, as an experiment, was 4-plate. My difficulties began at once. I had nothing | in the way of light but my three-wick lamp, as I had just emptied my oxygen cylinder. The lantern was anything but light-tight, but by using a curtain on the back, and tucking it round well, I stopped most of the light. Then I got a big piece of card, cut a hole in it to allow the lens to go through, and put it resting against the lantern front. This shielded the paper from any stray rays of ligtt, and the resulting pictures were quite free from anything like fog. To hold the negative in its place I used one of the new kind of printing frames, closed all round. The springs were taken off, and velvet glued on the edges, back and front. No light escaped when the frame was put in the lantern in the place of the carrier, and the velvet is no hindrance to the ordinary use of the frame. The negatives are held in by a couple of pins. The negative should be put close up to the condenser, and a mask of opaque paper cut out and put against it to stop out all the picture but the portion required. If this is not done fogged paper will result. The next thing to find was an easel to hold the paper. A box laid on its side, bottom