If you use the oxalate developer, proceed upon the same plan; oxalate in the place of pyro, iron in the place of alkali, but always add the iron to the oxalate, not the reverse.
Do not be persuaded that the bromide is only a restrainer; it is that and more too; it may greatly affect the quality of the negative, making it much finer in grain and clearer in the shadows.
Under-exposed plates at best make but poor negatives, and it is preferable to err, if at all, on the other side, but with the rapid plates now made exposures are very seldom too short.
When the plate has been developed it must be washed and then placed in the hypo solution to fix.
The most effective strength of hypo solution is half saturated. Make a saturated solution of hypo and dilute it with an equal bulk of water. The plate should lie in this solution until it appears perfectly clear, and about five or ten minutes longer, then it should be p179 taken out and well washed. It should then be put in the
CLEARING SOLUTION.
| Water, | ½ gal. |
| Alum, | ¼ lb. |
| Citric acid, | 2 oz. |
Allow the plate to remain in this solution a few minutes and it will be found to have been greatly improved, having lost the color and cleared the shadows. This solution, besides clearing the negative, decomposes the hypo remaining in the film, and a short wash after being taken from it is sufficient.
EASTMAN'S IMPROVED NEGATIVE PAPER.
The Eastman Dry Plate and Film Co., of Rochester, N. Y., exhibited at the P. A. of A. Exhibition, at Buffalo, N. Y., in July, 1885, a very remarkable display of photographs, the negatives of which were made on gelatinized paper and called the Eastman flexible negative support. They gave a demonstration of their process at the same time, and also explained the working of their new holder for a continuous web or band of paper.