Trade in Obscene Photographs.—A man named Benjamin Smith, alias Martin Stanley, living at Oil Mill Folds, or Alma-place, Westgate, Rotherham, was charged at Rotherham, on Thursday, the 25th ult., with publishing and selling photographs of a kind to debase and scandalise human nature. The West Riding constabulary received information from various sources that photographs of a most disgusting character were being circulated throughout the United Kingdom, and even in other countries, by a man living at Rotherham, who had inserted an advertisement in several London and provincial papers, in the name of Smith and Stanley, stating that he was prepared on receipt of postage stamps to forward portraits of French girls of a highly novel and exciting nature. A trap to catch the prisoner was accordingly laid by the Rotherham police, an inspector sending to him letters signed with an assumed name, and purporting to come from a place some distance from Rotherham. Stamps were enclosed, and in return a number of photographs of a most filthy and disgusting nature were obtained. At length some postage stamps, bearing a private mark, were sent in a letter to the prisoner, and the inspector of police watched the postman deliver it. He then entered the house, and found his own letter containing the marked stamps, together with a number of other letters, in possession of the prisoner. On the house being searched another beastly photograph was found, whereupon the prisoner told the officer that he would find no more there, as he kept them at a house he mentioned at Sheffield. This house was accordingly searched by two officers of the Sheffield police force, and there they found a number of most filthy photographs, together with printed lists describing what the prisoner had for sale. The prisoner was apprehended on the 14th of January, and since that time nearly a hundred letters from all parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland have arrived at the Rotherham post office directed to him. The police obtained the permission of Her Majesty’s Secretary of State and of the Postmaster-General to receive and open these letters, and they found, on doing so, that great numbers of postage stamps were enclosed, and some filthy photographs and books. The prisoner was committed for trial, and on application being made the magistrates intimated that they should require the prisoner to be bound in the sum of £200, and two sureties of £100 each to be found.
Camphor in the Printing Bath.—Mr. John R. Clemons gives in Mosaics some of his experience with camphor in the printing press. He says:—After the positive printing bath has been used some time it becomes more or less charged with albumen. If, when the solution is poured from the dish into the filter, frothy bubbles appear on the surface, it is in the condition named, and is unfit for use in sensitising albumen paper. The reason is obvious. When an albumen sheet is floated upon a silver solution thus charged with albumen, a secondary film of albumen, or albumenate of silver, is imparted to it, which deprives it of its lustre, and it is impossible to secure a good tone upon it. The difference will be readily seen by floating one-half of a sheet of paper on the used solution, and the other half on a fresh solution, and comparing the results. The effect of silvering on such a solution is similar to that of using doubly-albumenised paper. In both cases the silver will penetrate both films, even if silvered on the back, and very good prints apparently may be made on paper so treated; but when you proceed to tone them, you will find that the double film of albumen resists the action of the gold, and renders it impossible to get rich tones. I have already recommended the addition of alcohol to a bath thus charged with albumen, and then burning it out, in order to cleanse the bath, but since have sought for a less expensive method, and have found camphor to be just what is needed. Besides being less expensive, it is also more expeditious; for in five minutes an eighty-ounce bath can be cleansed of all impurities by its use, as directed below. Make a saturated solution of camphor, viz.:—
| Camphor | 1 ounce. |
| Alcohol | 6 ounces. |
To cleanse a bath which is considerably fouled by the albumen, add two and a-half ounces of this camphor solution. A greasy appearance will be presented on the surface of the bath. Shake well, when the greasiness will disappear. Then filter, never using the same filter twice. If, after filtration, the solution turns dark, add a couple of drops of permanganate of potash, and it will immediately clear. This turning dark is owing to long usage of the silver solution. It is a fact that the bath is daily impregnated more or less with the albumen, therefore a slight addition of camphor daily is recommended. This will avoid the addition of the permanganate, which rather decreases the sensitiveness. As a quick and ready corrective agent, camphor will be found of great advantage. It will impart a camphory smell to the solution, but in no way deteriorates the quality of the prints.
To Copy Oil Portraits.—Mr. B. Frank Saylor, in Photographic Mosaics, says on this subject:—As I have never seen anything from which I have derived any material aid in the copying of oil portraits, and especially old ones, I propose simply to give our modus operandi, feeling confident that those who do not proceed in like manner may successfully copy oil paintings, and especially old portraits. We first, with a clean sponge and water, partially wash the old portrait, and then pour perhaps an ounce of glycerine on it, and with the same sponge brush the glycerine crosswise over the entire picture until it presents a uniform surface; or, should a greasy appearance be presented, something like a negative plate when partially coated, rub gently with the palm of the hand crosswise, and it is ready for copying. We copy under the skylight, about where we should place the sitter for the same lighted picture, directing the camera to about the centre of the picture, and as nearly level as may be. On our camera we use a quarter-size tube inverted—that is, turn it end for end—with a diaphragm of about six-eighths of an inch aperture, placing the picture square to the front of the camera. After making the necessary adjustments as to size, &c., we coat the plate with the same collodion which we use for our regular portrait negatives, and when it is properly coated expose fully—that is, neither over- nor under-expose. The success, however, depends on the manipulation during the exposure. We take a piece of backboard, say six inches wide and about three feet long, and with it shade all the top of the portrait above the head, standing by the side of the portrait and holding the backboard in the hand, moving it up and down as though it were hinged on the top of the portrait, but not allowing its shadow to come down over the forehead or face, except those parts should be improved thereby. We produce the same effect on the sides of the portrait by occasionally moving our body at the same time over portions of the background, taking care not to remain perfectly still or too long in the same place, nor yet to allow any shadow from our person or anything else to cover any portion of the figure. Thus, with a little care and attention, a very satisfactory background is obtained, even admitting of desirable variation, thereby avoiding the necessity of a double-printed background and the like, and producing from a single negative and printing duplicates to equal, if not to surpass, the original, and every print alike. Lastly: we develope with the usual iron developer, using six ounces of iron to sixty-four of water; this, however, we again dilute with water, adding alcohol, more or less acetic acid, according to the detail and density we wish to obtain.
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THE BRITISH JOURNAL PHOTOGRAPHIC ALMANAC AND PHOTOGRAPHER’S DAILY COMPANION FOR 1872. Edited by J. T. Taylor.—The volume embraces every subject that can be of any use to the Amateur and Professional Photographer. The Editor has been assisted by numerous collaborateurs, embracing nearly all the leading writers connected with the Art-Science of Photography. Some idea may be formed of the large body of interesting and important information brought together within the compass of this Volume from the fact that upwards of Sixty practical workers in Photography have contributed original articles to this issue of The British Journal Photographic Almanac.
London: Henry Greenwood, publisher, 2, York-street, Covent-garden, W.C.