The films that are removed from the glass plates must not be thrown away, but should be carefully collected, dried, and sent to a refiner with the other silver waste; a good plan for saving these films, and at the same time keeping the acid and soda solutions clear of them, is to filter each solution occasionally through an old felt hat suspended conveniently over the tanks, using one for each of the tanks.
The polishing of the glass plate must not be done in the dark-room, or the crop of comets, spots, etc., upon the negatives will be exasperating in the extreme; let this operation be conducted in a clean, quiet corner of the studio, where no other operation will disturb, and where the fluff from dusters and leathers will not interfere with anything else.
CHAPTER III. PHOTOGRAPHIC MANIPULATIONS.
The chemicals being prepared, they must be placed in the dark-room; the collodion bottle should be placed on a convenient shelf close to the door, and on a handy peg hang a broad camel’s-or badger-hair brush, for dusting the clean plate just previous to coating it with collodion; the brush must not be used for anything else upon any pretence whatever. The silver bath must be kept, both in use and out of use, in some convenient corner, where there is no risk of getting any other chemical splashed into it. For a bath holder a deep 15 by 12 porcelain or papier maché dish, with a wooden or stout cardboard lid, should be provided, and this dish must always be thoroughly washed, and wiped dry with a clean damp leather (kept for the purpose), both before use and after pouring the silver solution back into its bottle or jug. Or, if the upright form be preferred, be sure and have it large enough.
The developer should be placed on a shelf, on the right of the sink, the developing cup close by.
The fixing or clearing solution should be kept in an upright bath of glass, porcelain, or ebonite.
The intensifier No. 1 may be kept in a flat dish, or in an upright holder, at discretion; but if in a flat dish, the solution should be poured back into its bottle, after each day’s work.
Keep the intensifier No. 2 in a stoppered bottle close to the sink.
The water varnish also is kept in a bottle or jug.
On a shelf close to the collodion, the polished or albumenized plates may be stacked, with the clean or prepared side facing the wall.