Sir Knight J. K. Hunter asks if the "C" Daylight Kodak, with glass plate attachment, is a good camera for beginners, and what outfit is needed for developing and printing. The Daylight camera is a very good camera, and easily managed. The outfit needed for developing and printing consists of a dark-room lantern, a 4 by 5 celluloid or rubber developing-tray, an amber-colored glass tray for the hypo or fixing bath, a 4 by 5 printing-frame, and a toning-tray. Directions for making a dark-room lantern were given in No. 781. You can refer to this if you wish to make your lantern instead of buying it.
Lady Charlotte B. Taylor, 1727 Q Street, Washington, D.C., has a pocket Kodak which she wishes to sell. Any Knight or Lady wishing to purchase is requested to write to Lady Charlotte.
Samuel H. Gottschalk, 1810 Columbus Avenue, Philadelphia, Charles H. Woods, Carlinville, Ill., Ralph H. Weand, 718 DeKalb Street, Norristown, Pa., and James D. Waite, 101 West Eighty-fifth Street, New York city, wish to be enrolled as members of the Camera Club. We are receiving many new members for the club, and hope that we shall see some very fine work in the coming contest, rules for which will appear later.
Sir Knight P. Conn wishes to know the best tray for the dark-room, the best for a toning-tray, and the best kind of plates to use. A celluloid or gutta-percha tray is a good one for developing solution, and an amber-glass tray for the hypo. If one uses a glass tray for hypo he never mistakes the hypo for the developing-tray. A white porcelain tray is a good one for a toning-tray. There are so many kinds of plates, or rather brands of plates, made that there is little choice between those made by reliable manufacturers. No one plate can be used for all kinds of work. Some subjects require a slow plate, some a very quick plate. A medium rapid plate is the better plate for general use in all-round work. A very rapid plate is needed for instantaneous. If our correspondent has trouble with his plates, please write to the editor.
G. I. J. asks how the tint first obtained on the paper in printing can be preserved, if the toning-bath that tones the florograph-paper can be used for other papers, and if a picture can be easily over-developed. The reddish tone of the picture may be preserved by simply fixing the print in a solution of hypo without previous toning, or it may be slightly toned and then fixed. The toning-bath mentioned can be used for other papers. If the developer is very strong and works quickly, it is very easy to over-develop a plate. To find out when the development has been carried far enough, take the plate out of the solution and look through it toward the red light. If the picture is clearly defined, and detail well out in the shadows, the plate is developed enough.
Sir Knight Ralph Weand encloses two prints and asks what is the matter with them. The reason why the pictures are so indistinct is that the plate was not exposed long enough, causing the shadows to appear as black patches instead of showing detail. A little longer exposure would correct this defect. A formula for plain paper is desired. This formula will be found in Nos. 706 and 803. It was also reprinted in the circular issued last fall.
Sir Knight Fred Taylor asks the reason of the spots on the finished prints. Spots are caused by black spots in the negative, from imperfections in the paper, and from imperfect toning-bath. Stains on the print are caused from careless handling in the toning-bath. The face of the print should never be touched, but the prints lifted by the edges. Hypo will cause spots, if any comes in contact with the face of the print. Care should be taken that the hands are perfectly clean when toning and fixing pictures. Sir Knight Fred sends the following directions for making a vignetting mask, which he hopes will be of benefit to the members of the club. Take a box cover that fits the printing-frame and cut a hole in it as large as the plate. Over it paste a piece of opaque paper, and make an opening any shape desired for the vignette—either pear-shaped, oval, round, etc. Cut little slits all round the edge of this, and over it paste a sheet of tissue-paper. Place the cover over the printing-frame and print. If the cover is attached to the frame the progress of the print can be examined without changing the shape of the vignette. Sir Fred asks for some hints on retouching. Directions for retouching will be printed in an early number of the Round Table.
QUICK WORK AGAIN.
So much interest was taken by readers of the Round Table in the stories printed not very long ago about the rapid manufacture of a coat and a suit of clothes, that this little anecdote from Sweden, which is of a similar nature, may prove of interest. Some men, who worked in a wood-pulp factory at Elfvethal, got into a discussion about how fast wood could be made into pulp and then into paper. The result of the discussion was an experiment, or trial of speed, in which these men performed the feat of cutting down three trees, chopping them up, making them into pulp, then into paper, on which the evening newspapers of the place were printed—and it took them just two hours and a half from the time the first tree was hewn until the first copy of the evening paper was sold.
A fine complexion is too rare
To run the risk of losing;
But everyone who takes good care
(All other kinds refusing)
To get pure Ivory, grows more fair
With every day of using.
Copyright, 1896, by The Procter & Gamble Co., Cin'ti.