=Enlarging.=—In the French service contact printing was the rule during
the war. The English practice, on the other hand, was to take small
negatives—4 × 5 inches, with 8 to 12 inch lenses—and enlarge them,
usually to 6½ × 8½ inches. For this purpose a regular part of the
English photo section equipment was the _enlarging camera_ (Fig. 115).
This may be briefly described as a short focus camera in which the
subject to be photographed is a negative, illuminated by transmitted
light, whose image is thrown by the camera lens on the paper or other
sensitive surface. By making the distance between negative and lens less
than that between lens and paper, the resulting print is an enlargement,
and _vice versa_. The scale of enlargement or of reduction is varied
over limits set only by the length of the camera and the amount of light
available.
The lens employed must of course possess sufficiently high quality to
preserve all the sharpness of the negative, and focussing must be done
with accuracy. Next to the lens the most important element is the light
source. This may be of the point form, such as a concentrated filament
electric lamp, an oxy-acetylene lime light, or an acetylene flame. The
latter was extensively used in the English service, while acetylene
generators for emergency purposes formed part of each American photo
truck equipment. With point light sources we must use _condensers_ to
focus the light into the projecting lens. Much less efficient, but the
only recourse where large condensers are not available, is a diffusing
glass behind the negative, illuminated either by a bank of electric
lamps with mirrors or by a U tube mercury vapor lamp, where proper
current can be got.
The device for holding the printing paper must permit quick changing,
but insure good contact. We may use either a spring plate to hold the
paper against plate glass from behind, or else a weight acting on a
lever arm of sufficient length.
The need for some automatic means of focussing an enlarging camera has
been very generally felt. An illustration of such an enlarging camera is
that put out by Williams, Brown & Earle, of Philadelphia, known as the
“Semperfocal” (Fig. 121). In this camera the movements of the lens,
paper easel and negative are so inter-related and actuated with respect
to each other that the correct focus of the instrument is maintained for
any degree of enlargement or reduction. This feature is a great help in
making up mosaic maps, where prints of continuously varying scale
ordinarily occasion serious delay for individual focussing.
[Illustration:
FIG. 121.—“Semperfocal” enlarging camera, with mechanism for holding
image in focus at any enlargement.]
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