A Manual of Photographic Chemistry, Including the Practice of the Collodion ProcessHardwich, T. Frederick
Science
A Manual of Photographic Chemistry, Including the Practice of the Collodion Process
Hardwich, T. Frederick
Photographic chemistry; Photography
Nelson's patent Gelatine 128 grains.
Distilled water 14 ounces.
Alcohol 2-1/2 ounces.
Put the Gelatine in the cold water, and allow it a quarter of an hour
to soften and swell; it will then readily dissolve on applying a gentle
heat. This may be done in a glazed saucepan or a pipkin of earthenware,
taking care not to scorch the bottom part by too strong a heat. Next
clarify the solution by adding to it, whilst barely warm, a tea-spoonful
of white of egg (previously beaten up with a silver fork), and afterwards
heating nearly to the boiling point. The Alcohol must now be added, to
facilitate the coagulation of the Albumen. When this takes place and the
liquid becomes clear, filter through a clean piece of cambric folded
three or four times. If a hot water filtering apparatus can be obtained,
the solution may be made to pass through _paper_; but as it tends to
gelatinize on cooling, the ordinary mode of filtration commonly fails.
The quantity of Alcohol in the above formula is greater than is usually
recommended, allowance having been made for a partial evaporation of the
spirit.
The filtered liquid may be poured into a flat porcelain dish, or a
vertical trough, but in either case it will be necessary to stand the
vessel in warm water, in order to prevent gelatinization.
The Collodion plate, thoroughly washed, is to be immersed in this solution
and moved up and down for two or three minutes. It is then removed,
drained on blotting-paper, and dried. The use of artificial heat in drying
will be found a great advantage; it prevents the gelatine from settling
unequally upon the plate. Those who possess an apparatus made purposely
for drying plates by hot air, will experience no difficulty, but an
ordinary deal trunk may be made to answer, with a little management. Cover
the bottom of the box with blotting-paper, and having heated one or two
"flat irons," place them in the centre: then range the glasses side by
side, with the coated surface looking inwards; in a quarter of an hour,
or from that to twenty minutes, the desiccation will be complete. If the
Collodion plates are prepared in a room containing a fire, they may be
reared up side by side at a distance of two or three feet, and in that
way may be safely dried without fear of injury, provided white light be
excluded.
When dry they can be stowed away in a box; all the precautions given at
page 293 being observed. The sensibility remains good for many days,
possibly for weeks or months in cold weather.
_Exposure in the Camera._--Allow from four to eight times the exposure
of the most sensitive moist Collodion. On a clear summer's day, a sun-lit
view may require one minute or a minute and a half, with a short focus
Stereoscopic lens, having a diaphragm of a quarter of an inch diameter.
The average time however with the same lens would be about twice as much,
viz. three minutes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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