Harper's Round Table, July 2, 1895

by Various

Any questions in regard to photograph matters will be willingly answered by the editor of this column, and we should be glad to hear from any of our club who can make helpful suggestions.

PAPERS FOR BEGINNERS, No. 7.

THE DARK-ROOM.

For the amateur who has not that luxury of the photographer, running water, the arranging of the dark-room may be made to suit his own convenience, and not that of the water-tap. In the room devoted to photography, the developing-table should be placed on the side of the room opposite the window. This table or shelf should be low enough so that the operator may sit down while at work. A convenient size for all processes of ordinary amateur photography is a table 2-1/2 feet long by 1-1/2 feet wide.

One often sees directions for arranging tanks with faucets, and sinks with removable drains, to supply the want of running water, but these elaborate and often ineffectual contrivances are not at all necessary, as the photographic editor has proved by experiment. Two ordinary wooden pails filled two-thirds full of water, the one for rinsing the plate after development and before placing in the hypo, and the other in which to place the plates after they are taken from the hypo, answer every purpose, and are much less trouble to manage than the complicated substitutes for running water.

At each end of the table have a wooden box on which to set the pails of water when developing plates. The pail at the right hand can be used to rinse the developer from the plate, and the one at the left to place them in after they are developed, until all are finished.

One should have a negative washing-rack, which can be made according to directions given in Papers for Beginners, No. 4; for after the plates are all developed they can be lifted out of the pail, and the water changed without danger of breaking the plates or scratching the soft films.

It is a good idea to have a small shelf about three inches above the table, just large enough to hold the lantern.

At the right hand of the table should be shelves for the chemicals, developing-trays, glass graduates, and all things used in developing. On the upper shelf place the bottles containing the chemicals used in developing plates and in sensitizing paper. Every bottle should be labelled in large, clear letters. A set of labels on which are printed the names of all the chemicals in general use in the dark-room may be bought for ten cents. The bottles must be carefully wiped after using. To prevent the chemicals running down the outside of the bottles and staining the labels, coat the rim of the bottle with melted paraffine wax, which can be applied with a brush.

At the end of the shelf holding the chemicals cut two deep square notches in which slip the glass graduates when not in use, turning them bottom side up, in the same way chemists do in their laboratories.