If one does not know how to make transparencies, almost the same effect may be produced by applying a print to plain glass, using the cover glasses made for lantern slides, and then removing the paper, leaving the film only on the glass. Directions for this process may be found in No. 878. If one has used landscape negatives, a piece of pale blue paper placed over the sky part, and a piece of green back of the landscape, will have the effect of a colored transparency when the tiny lantern inside is lighted. A small alcohol-lamp serves for the lighting, and will burn for several hours. If one has a sunset view showing fine clouds, place a faint rose-color or violet-tinted paper back of the sky, and when the lantern is lighted the colors are like those of a real sunset, the shadows and high lights in the clouds, making the different tones and shades of color. Of course if viewed in a strong light this way of coloring would be too crude, but in the faint light of the lamp it is not noticed.
In selecting pictures for the lantern, choose those which will be familiar to the one for whom the gift is designed, as half the value of a photograph is in its being a picture of some well-known place or object.
Blue transparencies show off well in a lantern of this description. Directions for making them were given some time ago, but we print another formula for the benefit of those who have not a copy of the number containing the first, and who might wish to make a lantern with blue transparencies.
No. 1.
| Red prussiate of potassium | ¼ oz. |
| Water | 4 oz. |
No. 2.
| Hyposulphite of soda | ¼ oz. |
| Water | 4 oz. |
Take old or fogged plates, and soak them in a solution made up of equal parts of No. 1 and No. 2 until the gelatine is perfectly clear. Wash thoroughly, and while wet place the plate, gelatine side up, in a clean tray, and flow over it a solution made of
| Citrate of iron and ammonia | ½ oz. |
| Water | 2 oz. |
Allow it to remain in this solution one minute, drain, and stand away to dry in a dark room. Print in the sun till shadows are slightly bronzed, about as they appear in a blue print. Remove from the frame, place in a developing-tray, and flow with a solution made of