"Hujus si quæris dominum cognoscere libri,
Nomen subscriptum perlege quæso meum."
Philobiblion.
PHOTOGRAPHIC NOTES AND QUERIES.
Head-rests.—The difficulty I have experienced in getting my children to sit for their portraits in a steady position, with the ordinary head-rests, has led me to design one which I think may serve others as well as myself; and I therefore will describe it as well as I can without diagrams, for the benefit of the readers of "N. & Q." It is fixed to the ordinary shifting upright piece of wood which in the ordinary rest carries the semicircular brass against which the head rests. It is simply a large oval ring of brass, about an inch and a half broad, and sloping inwards, which of the following size I find fits the back of the head of all persons from young children upwards:—five inches in the highest part in front, and about four inches at the back. It must be lined with velvet, or thin vulcanised India rubber, which is much better, repelling grease, and fitting quite close to the ring. This is carried forward by a piece of semicircular brass, like the usual rest, and fixes with a screw as usual. About half the height of the ring is a steel clip at each side, like those on spectacles, but much stronger, about half an inch broad, which moving on a screw or rivet, after the sitter's head is placed in the ring, are drawn down, so as to clip the head just above the ears. A diagram would explain the whole, which has, at any rate, simplicity in its favour. I find it admirable. Ladies' hair passing through the ring does not prevent steadiness, and with children the steel clips are perfect. I shall be happy to send a rough diagram to any one, manufacturers or amateurs.
J. L. Sisson.
Edingthorpe Rectory.
Sir W. Newton's Explanations of his Process.—In reply to Mr. John Stewart's Queries, I beg to state,
First, That I have hitherto used a paper made by Whatman in 1847, of which I have a large quantity; it is not, however, to be procured now, so that I do not know what paper to recommend; but I get a very good paper at Woolley's, Holborn, opposite to Southampton Street, for positives, at two shillings a quire, and, indeed, it might do for negatives.