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Most people have experienced the annoyance of groping in an obscure corner of the darkroom for some elusive and urgently-needed article, and have perhaps knocked over and broken bottles or measures in the process. course, we are told that if our dark-rooms were properly illuminated there would be no dark corners. But where this happy state of affairs does not exist, an electric pocket flashlamp is a great convenience. In order that it can be used without fogging sensitive material that may be exposed, a non-actinic filter is needed. This may easily be made by taking a piece of undeveloped film (the unexposed end of a roll will do), fixing and washing it, and then soaking in saturated solution of potassium bichromate until stained deep yellow; then brush over both sides with red ink and allow to dry. This will give a transparent film of a deep orange tint. Cut a suitable sized piece and place it inside the lid of the flashlamp, between the bulb and the bull's-eye. This will give a safe light, so long as it is not allowed to fall on the plates themselves, and will enable one to examine the labels of bottles on a shelf, and so on, with ease. I have also found it convenient for observing the time by a watch when exposing enlargements. And, by the way, the stained film can also be used to make an excellent yellow cap for an enlarging lantern; the orange light passed by it has no appreciable effect on bromide paper.

WASHING AND DRYING NEGATIVES AND PRINTS

As everyone knows, this operation must be properly performed, if permanency is desired. The hypo in the interior of the Ifim and paper has to diffuse gradually out into the surrounding water. As hypo solution is heavier than pure water, this will evidently take place much more easily if the plate or print is at the top of the water than if it is lying at the bottom. This can be managed in the case of plates by the following easily made device: Cut a piece of wood the same length as the plate and half an inch wider. To each of the longer sides

PHOTOGRAPHER'S WEEKLY

nail a strip of tin of the same length and wide enough to project about three-quarters of an inch on one side. Bend these pieces of tin inwards at an angle of about 45 degrees, and you will find that you can slide a plate in film downwards, and it will be suspended without the film touching anything. If the whole affair is now placed in a tub of water, it will float, and the plate will evidently be in the very best position for the heavy hypo solution to sink out of the film. It is best to make it large enough to hold two plates side by side. Roll film can be managed even more easily. Obtain a strip of wood about one and a half to two inches shorter than the film, and pin one end of the film to each end of the wood, emulsion side away from the wood. If the arrangement is now placed in a tub of water it will float with the film hanging in a loop from the wood.

These methods have the additional advantage that nothing can come in contact with the film during washing and cause scratches, etc.

For prints the same principle is applied in a different way. Some spring clothes-pegs are obtained, and in order to make them buoyant enough, a good-sized cork is attached to each by a piece of thin galvanized wire passing round the cork and through the middle of the coiled spring on the peg. If a print is gripped by the corner with such a clip and placed in a tub of water, the clip will float on the surface, and the print will hang suspended in the water. This removes the defect in most print washers, namely, the tendency of the prints to settle one on another, thus making proper washing impossible. Prints larger than 5x7 should have two clips at adjacent corners.

If negatives and prints are given a good rinsing in several changes of water and then suspended in a tub of water, as described above, for forty-five minutes, they can be considered to be properly washed. Of course one can arrange to pass a stream of running water through the tub, but if there is a good volume of water, this does not seem necessary. At any rate, I have negatives and prints made ten years ago, and treated in this way, which show no sign of insufficient washing.

From washing one naturally comes to the subject of drying. This also can be done in a right and wrong way. The chief objects to be attained are rapid drying and the avoidance of dust settling on the film while moist. To attain this, the place chosen for drying should be dry and fairly warm, and free from drafts. A draft no doubt helps to carry moisture away, but it also carries more or less dust, some of which is bound to settle on the film. The best place, in my experience, is on the mantelpiece of a room where a fire is burning. If the negative is placed on the mantel

PHOTOGRAPHER'S WEEKLY

piece, leaning up against the chimney, the warmth radiated will dry it in an hour or two. The film should be inwards, thus making it impossible for dust to fall on it. It might be thought that the warmth would melt the gelatine, but I have not found it to do so, except in very hot weather, when the film is already very soft. A formalin bath before drying is then advisable. In drying films it must be remembered that both sides are coated with gelatine, which will catch dust while damp. At one time I was greatly troubled with this happening, but it can be completely avoided in the following way. The film is pinned to a shelf, etc., by one end and a spring peg clipped on the other to prevent curling, in a warm dry room. All doors and windows are then closed, and the room left quite undisturbed until the film is dry. Thus no dust is stirred up, and there are no air-currents to carry it to the film. I have dried films quite free from dust in this way in an extremely dusty room. Little need be said about drying prints. They dry most rapidly if hung by one corner, so that both sides are exposed to the air. If prints are wanted dry in a hurry, pin them to the edge of the mantelpiece in a room where the fire or stove is alight, after first blotting off the surplus water with a clean cloth. In this way prints dry in a few minutes, and even postcards in half an hour.

MAKING UP SOLUTIONS

The task of making up solutions is hardly one which even the most enthusiastic photographer looks forward to with delight. However, it is unavoidable, but can be made much easier by employing the most suitable means. In weighing out chemicals with the cheaper varieties of photographic scales, much annoyance often results from the scale-pans being too small to hold more than a few grains properly. Half of a celluloid soapbox, such as are sold by druggists, placed in one pan makes a splendid container for the substance being weighed, and will hold quite a large amount. It should be counterbalanced by a piece of sheet lead in the other pan, cut down until it exactly balances. Two other very useful tools are a glass spoon and a glass pestle and mortar. The former is useful for removing small quantities of chemicals from bottles; the handle end can be used when the neck of the bottle is too small to admit the bowl. The latter comes in handy when chemicals are to be powdered for more rapid solution. course, this can be effected by pounding with the family rolling-pin or a flat-iron on a piece of paper, or some other makeshift arrangements, but a proper pestle and mortar will repay its cost many times over in convenience. Of course both spoon and mortar must be well washed after use or when used afterwards for

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a different chemical they will contaminate it. The wrong way to dissolve a substance is to drop it into a vessel of water and allow it to lie in a mass at the bottom. A layer of saturated solution soon forms over the chemical and thereupon solution practically comes to a standstill until this is dissipated by shaking or stirring. If the amount to be dissolved is more than a few grains, this constant stirring or shaking is a nuisance and a waste of time. The substance should therefore be hung just below the surface of the water, tied up in a piece of clean muslin. In this position the strong solution, being heavy, continually sinks away from it, its place being taken by weaker solution and this goes on automatically until all is dissolved. Several squares of muslin about 9 in. across should be kept for this purpose, being well washed after each time of use and kept in a clean place.

Two useful tips may be given here. When making up hypo solution, the hypo need not be weighed, but can be measured like water, for if a measure is filled to the 1 oz. mark with hypo crystals, an ounce weight of hypo is obtained, quite accurately enough for the purpose. The second tip relates to the "dried" sodium sulphite. If this is thrown into water and at once shaken or stirred very vigorously for about 20-30 seconds, it will dissolve instantly. But if allowed to lie in a lump in the water, even for a few seconds, it becomes caked into a hard mass, and there is much more difficulty to dissolve. The same is true to a great extent of "dried" sodium carbonate.

THE SMALL FINDER

When using a small finder, one should be careful to see that everything of any importance that is to figure in the picture is not merely on, but well on. No finder, except that on a reflex, can always be accurate; and many are not as accurate as they might be. It is provoking to find the top of the sitter's hat, the stem or the bows of the steamer, or the

particular bit of foreground foliage on which we are relying for effect, half off the plate, or what is pictorially quite as bad, only just on. Hence it is wise always to allow a good margin.