The Necessary Equipment for a dark-room is not large, about all you require besides your chemicals being a ruby lantern, printing frame, three trays,—one for developing, another for fixing, and a third for toning,—a two-inch camel's-hair brush for dusting plates, a drying-rack, glass graduate, funnel, set of scales, bottles for solutions, and a cabinet in which to keep your apparatus and supplies.
A Dark-room is not a necessity, although it is a great convenience, especially if you are doing much work. With the shades pulled down, you will find that your bedroom serves the purpose very well in the evening, and many boys do their work in this way.
Fig. 168. A Handy Dark-Room.
Fig. 172. A Washing Box and Drying Rack.
[Figure 168] illustrates how developing is carried on in a bedroom of an old-style house, where the wash-stands are set in recesses in the wall. Here a shelf made up of several boards fastened together with battens is set upon the marble slabs around the basin. In this shelf an opening four by six inches is made as shown in [Fig. 170], the edges of the opening being rabbeted to receive a five-by-seven camera plate. This arrangement is very complete, for the developing is performed on the shelf, the fixing on the stand below, and the washing in the basin, while light from the lantern is projected through the glass in the shelf, making it light underneath.
This scheme can be used for any wash-stand, by nailing the shelf to two pieces of board twelve inches long by the width of the shelf, these pieces being set firmly upon the wash-stand.