For getting the exposed plates to the photo section, messengers, on
motorcycles if possible, are employed. In some cases, where hangars and
photographic hut are forced to be widely separated, recourse has been
had to parachutes (Fig. 112), a device also employed to distribute
prints to infantry during an advance.
[Illustration:
FIG. 112.—Receiving pictures from plane by parachute.]
For warfare of movement, especially in sparsely settled or devastated
country, where cellars are unavailable, the dark room must be taken
along. _Motor trucks and trailers_ (Figs. 113, 114, 115), the former for
hauling supplies and electric light generating plant, the latter fitted
as a complete developing and printing laboratory, form the headquarters
of each photographic section in the field. Usually altogether too small
for the amount of work required, they were extended by tents and
lean-to's, or ingeniously used as a nucleus for the organization of the
favored stable or cellar.
[Illustration:
FIG. 113.—Mobile photographic laboratory.]
=Methods of Plate Development.=—Where speed is not required the simplest
and commonest mode of developing plates is in the tray, one plate at a
time. Common practice is to examine the plate at intervals during
development, and discontinue the operation on the basis of its
appearance. This is only possible if the plates used are insensitive to
some light by which the eye can see. Deep red light is suitable for
ordinary and most orthochromatic plates. A faint blue-green may be used
with some panchromatic plates. The best practice, however, is to develop
by time in total darkness, whereby all chance of dark room fog is
avoided. Development time for plates of the average exposure of the one
to be developed is either known from previous experience, or is found by
trial on the first one. Development by time results in negatives of
densities varying with the exposures, but, as was brought out in the
discussion of sensitometry, this difference can be compensated for by
the choice of the paper used for printing, and by its treatment.
[Illustration:
FIG. 114.—Interior of photographic trailer, developing room.]
Where larger quantities of plates are to be handled _tank development_
is adopted. In ordinary tank development the plates are placed in
grooved tanks, into which is poured first the developer, next the
rinsing water, and then the hypo. It has been customary in tank
development as practiced for peace-time work to use dilute developer,
requiring from ten to thirty minutes, but speed requirements in war-time
aerial photography dictate the use of full-strength quick-acting
developer. An improvement on the simple grooved tank is provided by
metal cages or racks, each holding a dozen or more plates, which may be
introduced or removed from the tank as a unit (Fig. 116).
[Illustration:
FIG. 115.—Interior of photographic trailer. Enlarging camera and
printer.]
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