Quite recently Mr. Jas. Leadbeater has favored us with some account of his beautiful work in this fascinating branch of photography, some samples of which are here given. He first makes his windows perfectly clear and waits for a keen frost. The camera is inside the room and a dark cloth-covered board is placed on the outside, leaning against a low balcony of wood. The exposure varies with the thickness of the crystals, from two to ten seconds, principally with a very small stop. Two reproductions of his pictures will be found on pp. 76-77.
[PHOTOGRAPHING INK CRYSTALS.]
The study of crystallization is undoubtedly an interesting and fascinating one, and photography may be made to play an important part in securing permanent records of these curious formations. If a drop of water containing a salt be allowed to drop upon a glass plate, it will, upon evaporation, deposite crystals of various kinds. In a recent article in La Nature, by Dr. E. Trouessart, a description is given of the beautiful crystallic forms deposited by a drop of ink on evaporation. The article is translated in the Literary Digest, from which we make extracts:
"Take a sheet of glass, deposit on it a drop of ink and spread the drop a little, uniformly; let it dry for a few minutes; then examine with a microscope, magnifying from 50 to 200 diameters, and you will be able to see the flowers of ink in process of formation under your eyes; that is to say, regular white crystal particles which detach themselves from the black or violet medium, and arrange themselves so as to form regular figures.
"If you are pressed for time, this beautiful result will easily be obtained by passing the sheet of glass over a spirit lamp or a candle to evaporate the moisture. The crystals will then be smaller and more numerous, presenting the appearance of a dark firmament densely sprinkled with bright silvery stars. But if you have patience to wait for evaporation without heat, you will obtain larger crystals of more varied forms, arranging themselves as crosses, flowers, etc.
"These crystals may be varied indefinitely by modifying the compositions of evaporation, adding more ink, etc. But it is quite possible that different inks will give different results. The inks I use, like all the other inks in use, have a basis of sulphate of iron and gallic acid.
From "The Literary Digest."
FIG. 67.—INK-CRYSTALS, AS SEEN THROUGH A MICROSCOPE.