Fig. 58a. a home-made enlarging apparatus
The lamp set in the top of the illuminating box.
Cut a hole out of the front board 3¹⁄₂ x 4¹⁄₂ inches and fasten a sheet of ground glass[55] or, better, of opal glass[56] over the opening. Get a sheet of bright tin 6 inches wide and 10 inches long, bend it into a semi-circle and set it in the box so that it will reflect the light from the lamp in front of it through the ground glass screen as shown at [B].
[55] Ground glass can be bought at a glazier’s or you can make it as [explained] in [Chapter IX].
[56] Opal glass.
Next make a stand for holding the bromide paper[57] which is to be used for the enlargement. About the easiest way to do this is to take a 1 inch thick board 6 inches wide and saw off a piece 12 inches long. Fasten your drawing board to it with a couple of angle blocks as shown at [D], and you are ready to make an enlargement.
[57] Bromide paper is a paper sensitized with a compound of silver and bromine.
How to Make an Enlargement.
—When you have the apparatus ready set the camera and the illuminator, as the box with the light in it is called, on another table. Put the negative between two plain sheets of glass and then fasten them to the camera with a couple of large rubber bands; set the illuminator with the ground-glass screen close up against the negative in the back of the camera, as shown at [C].
Now set the drawing board stand about 4 feet away from the lens of the camera to make an 8 × 10 enlargement. Open the shutter, turn on the light and focus the camera, that is, move the stand to and from the camera until the enlarged picture is sharp. When you get it so, close the shutter and cover up the cracks where the light leaks through with a dark cloth.
Make the room perfectly dark except for your dark-room light and then put a sheet of bromide paper on the drawing board with thumb tacks. Open the shutter of the lens and expose the paper to the light passing through the negative and then close it again. The bromide paper is developed and fixed just like a dry plate when your enlargement is done.