This tray was made to hold two dozen plates, but may be made smaller if you wish.
The box should be just large enough for the tray to fit in. Fill all the cracks and joints with white-lead and give the box several coats of paint to make it perfectly water tight. Then make a hole in the side near the bottom to let the water out, and procure a cork to fit it ([Fig. 174]).
Fig. 174.—The Washing-box.
Before developing, cork up the washing-box, fill it with water, and set it in one end of the sink where the plates can be set in it after being taken from the fixing bath. When you are through developing, place the box and plates in the wash-basin or the bath-tub; remove the cork from the box and allow the water to run in at the top and out through the hole near the bottom. When the negatives have been thoroughly washed, the tray can be removed from the washing-box and used as
A Drying-rack.
Another scheme for a drying-rack easily made is shown in [Fig. 175]. For the construction, two pieces of wood twelve inches long by four inches wide will be needed (A and B in [Fig. 175]), also two blocks (C and D) four inches square. Mitre one edge of A and B, and cut a right-angled bird's-mouth in C and D to receive A and B. With the pieces prepared, fasten them together as in the illustration. Then procure some corrugated straw-board, such as is used for packing glass-ware, etc., cut two pieces four by twelve inches, and tack them to A and B in such a way that the corrugations on one strip coincide with those on the other. For a simple rack this cannot be surpassed.