History and Practice of the Art of Photography, Henry Hunt Snelling [best fiction novels to read .TXT] 📗

applied. (A brush sufficiently large--and they may be easily obtained--will, in a measure, prevent this difficulty.--Amer Au.) I have stated that the paper should be placed wet in the camera; the same paper may be used dry, which often is a great convenience. When in the dry state a little longer exposure is required; and instead of taking a picture in four or five seconds, two or three minutes are necessary."

The durability of daguerreotypes has been, and is still, doubted by many, but experiment has proved that they are more permanent than oil paintings or engravings.

ETCHING DAGUERREOTYPES.--There are several methods of accomplishing this object; discovered and applied by different individuals.

The first process was published at Vienna by Dr. Berres, and consisted in covering the plate with the mucilage of gum arabic, and then immersing the plate in nitric acid of different strengths.

Mr. Figeau, of whom I have already spoken, likewise discovered a process for the engraving of Daguerreotypes; and founded on the belief that the lights of a Daguerreotype plate consists of unaltered silver, while the dark or shadows consists of mercury or an amalgam of mercury with silver. He finds that a compound acid, consisting of a mixture of nitric, nitrous, and muriatic acids, or of nitric mixed with nitrate of potass and common salt, has the property of attaching the silver in presence of the mercury without acting upon the latter. Bi-chloride of copper answers the purpose also, but less completely.

"When the clean surface of a Daguerreotype plate is exposed to the action of this menstruum, particularly if warm, the white parts, or lights are not altered, but the dark parts are attacked, and chloride of silver is formed, of which an insoluble coating is soon deposited, and the action of the acid soon ceases. This coat of chloride of silver is removed by a solution of ammonia, and then the acid applied again, and so on, until the depth of biting in is sufficient. However, it is not possible, by repeating this process, to get a sufficient force of impression; a second operation is required, in order to obtain such a depth as will hold the ink, to give a dark impression; for this purpose the whole plate is covered with drying oil; this is cleared off with the hand, exactly in the way a copper plate printer cleans his plate. The oil is thus left in the sinkings, or dark bitten in parts only. The whole plate is now placed in a suitable apparatus, and the lights or prominent parts of the face are gilt by the electrotype process. The whole surface is now touched with what the French engravers call the "Resin Grain," (grain de resine), a species of partial stopping out, and it is at once bitten in to a sufficient depth with nitric acid, the gilding preserving the lights from all action of the acid. The resin grain gives a surface to the corroded parts suitable for holding the ink, and the plate is now finished and fit to give impressions resembling aquatint. But as silver is so soft a metal that the surface of the plate might be expected to wear rapidly, the discoverer proposes to shield it by depositing over its whole surface a very thin coat of copper by the electrotype process; which when worn may be removed at pleasure down to the surface of the noble metal beneath, and again a fresh coat of copper deposited; and so an unlimited number of impressions obtained without injuring the plate itself."

If, as has been asserted, steel may be rendered sufficiently sensitive, to take photographic impressions, to what a revolution will the art of engraving be subject by the discovery of this process.

CHAP. VIII. PHOTOGENIC DRAWING ON PAPER.

We shall now proceed to describe the various processes for Photogenic drawing on paper; first, however, impressing on the mind of the experimenter, the necessity which exists for extreme care in every stage of the manipulation. In this portion of my work I am entirely indebted to the works of Professors Hunt, Fisher and others.

I. APPARATUS AND MATERIALS.--Paper.--The principal difficulty to be contended with in using paper, is the different power of imbibition which we often find possessed in the same sheet, owing to trifling inequalities in its texture. This is, to a certain extent, to be overcome by a careful examination of each sheet, by the light of a candle or lamp at night, or in the dark. By extending each sheet between the light and the eye, and slowly moving it up and down, and from left to right, the variations in its texture will be seen by the different quantities of light which pass through it in different parts; and it is always the safest course to reject every sheet in which inequalities exist. Paper sometimes contains minute portions of thread, black or brown specks, and other imperfections, all of which materially interfere with the process. Some paper has an artificial substance given to it by sulphate of lime (Plaster of Paris); this defect only exists, however, in the cheaper sorts of demy, and therefore can be easily avoided. In all cases such paper should be rejected, as no really sensitive material can be obtained with it. Paper-makers, as is well known, often affix their name to one half the sheet; this moiety should also be placed aside, as the letters must frequently come out with annoying distinctness. Well sized paper is by no means objectionable, indeed, is rather to be preferred, since the size tends to exalt the sensitive powers of the silver. The principal thing to be avoided, is the absorption of the sensitive solution into the pores; and it must be evident that this desideratum cannot be obtained by unsized paper. Taking all things into consideration, the paper known as satin post would appear to be preferable, although the precautions already recommended should be taken in its selection.

Brushes.--The necessary solutions are to be laid upon the paper by brushes. Some persons pass the paper over the surface of the solutions, thus licking up, as it were, a portion of the fluid; but this method is apt to give an uneven surface; it also rapidly spoils the solutions. At all events, the brush is the most ready and the most effectual means.

Distilled Water.--All the water used, both for mixing the solutions, washing the paper, or cleaning the brushes, must be distilled, to obtain good results, for reasons before specified.

Blotting Paper.--In many instances, the prepared paper requires to be lightly dried with bibulous paper. The best description is the white sort. In each stage of the preparation distinct portions of bibulous paper must be used. If these be kept seperate and marked, they can be again employed for the same stage; but it would not do, for example, to dry the finished picture in the same folds in which the sensitive paper had been pressed. A very convenient method is to have two or three quarto size books of bibulous paper, one for each seperate process.

Nitrate of Silver.--In the practice of the photographic art, much depends on the nitrate of silver. Care should be taken to procure the best; the crystalized salt is most suitable for the purpose. While in the form of crystal it is not injured by exposure to light, but the bottles containing the solutions of this salt should at all times be kept wrapped in dark paper, and excluded from daylight.

II. DIFFERENT METHODS OF PREPARING THE PAPER.--Preparation of the Paper.--Dip the paper to be prepared into a weak solution of common salt. The solution should not be saturated, but six or eight times diluted with water. When perfectly moistened, wipe it dry with a towel, or press it between bibulous paper, by which operation the salt is uniformly dispersed through its substance. Then brush over it, on one side only, a solution of nitrate of silver. The strength of this solution must vary according to the color and sensitiveness required. Mr. Talbot recommends about fifty grains of the salt to an ounce of distilled water. Some advise twenty grains only, while others say eighty grains to the ounce. When dried in a dark room, the paper is fit for use. To render this paper still more sensitive, it must again be washed with salt and water, and afterwards with the same solution of nitrate of silver, drying it between times. This paper, if carefully made, is very useful for all ordinary photographic purposes. For example, nothing can be more perfect than the images it gives of leaves and flowers, especially with a summer's sun; the light, passing through the leaves, delineates every ramification of their fibres. In conducting this operation, however, it will be found that the results are sometimes more and sometimes less satisfactory, in consequence of small and accidental variations in the proportions employed. It happens sometimes that the chloride of silver formed on the surface of the paper is disposed to blacken of itself, without any exposure to light. This shows that the attempt to give it sensibility has been carried too far. The object is, to approach as nearly to this condition as possible without reaching it; so that the preparation may be in a state ready to yield to the slightest extraneous force, such as the feeblest effect of light.

Cooper's Method.--Soak the paper in a boiling hot solution of chlorate of potash (the strength matters not) for a few minutes; then take it out, dry it, and wet it with a brush, on one side only, dipped in a solution of nitrate of silver, sixty grains to an ounce of distilled water, or, if not required to be so sensitive, thirty grains to the ounce will do. This paper possesses a great advantage over any other, for the image can be fixed by mere washing. It is, however, very apt to become discolored even in the washing, or shortly afterwards, and is, besides, not so sensitive, nor does it become so dark as that made according to Mr. Talbot's method.

Daguerre's Method.--Immerse the paper in hydrochloric (or as it is more commonly called, muriatic) ether, which has been kept sufficiently long to become acid; the paper is then carefully and completely dried, as this is essential to its proper preparation. It is then dipped into a solution of nitrate of silver, and dried without artificial heat in a room from which every ray of light is carefully excluded. By this process it acquires a very remarkable facility in being blackened on a very slight exposure to light, even when the latter is by no means intense. The paper, however, rapidly loses its extreme sensitiveness to light, and finally becomes no more impressionable by the solar beams than common nitrate paper.

Bromide Paper.--Of all common photographic paper, the best, because the least troublesome in making, and the most satisfactory in result, is that which is termed bromine paper, and which is thus prepared:--Dissolve one hundred grains of bromide of potassium in one ounce of distilled water, and soak the paper in this solution. Take off the superfluous moisture, by means of your bibulous paper, and when nearly dry, brush it over on one side only, with a solution of one hundred grains of nitrate of silver to an ounce of distilled water. The paper should then be dried in a dark room, and, if required to be very sensitive, should a second time be brushed over with the nitrate of silver solution.

In preparing the papers mentioned above, there are two circumstances which require particular attention. In the first place, it is necessary to mark the paper on the side spread with the solutions of nitrate of silver, near one of the extreme corners. This answers two purposes: in the first place it serves to inform the experimentalist of the sensitive surface; and secondly, it will be a guide as to which portion of the papers has been handled during the application