The Optical Magic Lantern Journal (November 1900)

146 The Optical Magic Lantern J ournal and Photographic Enlarger. seemed to take place, but after about five minutes’ immersion the process of reduction showed sigrs of commencing, and then proceeded somewhat rapidly ; the finer deposit was not affected, but the clogged up shadows were | gradually cleared, details hitherto buried appeared, and in about 10 minutes even the most unpromising transparencies were converted into nice soft slides; all these manipulations were carried on in daylight. When I considered the slides sufficiently reduced, I took them out, swilled them under a tap, and then put them into a bath containing a saturated solution of sulpbite of soda, where they remained for a quarter of an kour, then they had a good washing in several changes of water, and then were dried and finished in the usual way. I found that the reducer in tiose cases, where considerable reduction was required, rather cooled the tone of the slides, but left no deposit or veiling. The reducer after use must be thrown away, the sulphite of soda may be used over and over again. I used this to stop the reduction, as I had been told by someone who had tried the persulphate reducer on some negatives, that, though he had succeeded in | reducing the negatives to the desired density, | yet he found that the action still went on in the washing water, and his negatives after a few | hours had become veritable ghosts of their former selves, The action of persulphate of ammonia differs much from that of Howard Farmer's reducer, made by putting a few drops of a saturated solution of ferridcyanide of potassium into a ounce of the ordinary hyposulphite of soda fixing bath ; for this tends to reduce the thinner parts of the negative or transparency first ; by this the contrasts in a slide may be increased, preferably before it is dried, the persulphate reducer only after the plate has been well : Washed. i Perey Lund & Humphries. I have used. while the persulphate reducer renders a slide in | which the contrasts are too great softer. If a quick action is required, and some portion only of a slide needs reducing, the ferridcyanide solution is very useful, as it can be applied with a tuft of cotton wool, rolled up if necessary, into the form of a stump. Great care, however, is needed to prevent this solution running over other parts of the plate; the reduction should always be done in close vicinity to a running tap of water, so that the plate can be instantly and constantly swilled. This reducer is the best one to use when the high lights of a slide are veiled, as they often are when carbonate of | ammonium is added to the developer to get warm tones. The Howard Farmer reducer may be used as soon as the plate is fixed, and When binding slides, I used formerly to use the binding slips without cutting them, turning the plate round as one side was done after another. I now find it easier to cut from the strip four pieces, each 32 inches long, and bind each side separately. If this method is adopted, there is no need to snip off the superfluous folds at the corners, and there is no danger of tearing the paper, a thing which happens if the long strips are used, if they happen to be of that make which requires them to be plunged into hot water, such as those I am now using, supplied by Messrs. These hot water binding strips adhere better than any other kind I have recently had a box of masks supplied by the same makers, containing a most useful assortment, with apertures varying from 22 square to 22 by 13, all with rectangular corners ; thus providing shapes suitable for all subjects, whether made by contact or reduction. -=Be. Slotted Catch for Lantern Body. By RICHARD PECKETT. Reka is an unfortunate fact, but fact it is, that the lantern operator is still open to mishap, still open to accident, still open to be made the laughing stock of an audience, sometimes through his own carelessness, sometimes through his shortsightedness in not making proper arrangements and making perfect his apparatus before commencing the show. Sometimes, however, what happens is not entirely his fault, but the lecturer’s, who not infrequently turns up late, leaving too little time for setting up the lantern by his assistant, whom—as is often the case—he has never seen before. Perhaps one of the most outrageous of these errors is the tilting up of the lantern. This is a thing that never ought to occur, and never would occur if purchasers insisted upon some mechanical contrivance, by which the body of the lantern can be tilted from its plinth or baseboard to the required angle. The absence of such an attachment has disturbed the mind of many an entertainer in the past, and it may be safe to prophecy will do so again.