Nov. 18. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



411 



swimming? and, finalh', whether it would bear a pro- 

 longed exposure in the camera, in order to get the greens 

 of vegetation, and the deep shades in a landscape, better 

 impressed, without that risk of solarisation which the 

 ordinary iodized papers are so liable to ? 



BUOMO-IODIDE. 



Preserving sensitized Collodion Plates. — Mr. Shad- 

 bolt's paper (Vol. x., p. 372.) induces me to send you a 

 leaf out of my note-book on the same subject, giving the 

 modification of his original method, which I have followed 

 with success for the last few months. I began b}' carry- 

 ing out his directions (^Photographic Journal, No. 20.) 

 verbatim, but with very indifferent results. I then made 

 a regular series of experiments, resulting in the process I 

 here give, which, with an occasional drawback to 6e pre- 

 sently stated, answers perfectly. 



1. Clean the glass thoroughly (this is very essential) 

 with muriatic or nitric acid, rubbing it well in with a 

 stick ; wash, put into a solution of common caustic soda ; 

 wash, polish with a silk handkerchief. Before pouring on 

 the collodion, dust the surface lightly with an old cambric 

 handkerchief. 2. Four on the collodion as evenly as pos- 

 sible, so as to get an unribbed film. 3. Immerse for two 

 minutes in a thirtj'-five-grain nitrate-of-silver bath, well 

 iodized. I use a flat bath, immersing the plate, collodion 

 ■up, and waving ; twelve ounces in this way is enough for 

 plates 8|x6-^. Take out the plate, and rest the lower 

 edge and angles on blotting-paper. 4. Pour on the syrup 

 (half-and-half honej' and distilled water, filtered, adding 

 one drachm of alcohol to each ounce) three times ; leave 

 it on the first time for two minutes, second time three 

 minutes, third time four minutes, with waving ; use fresh 

 syrup each time, throwing away the old. Blot up the 

 lower edge well, oscillating the plate from angle to angle, 

 to get rid of the excess of syrup, and obtain a perfectly 

 mirrored surface. Store away in a box, or dark slide. 

 The plate will probably be still good at the end of a 

 month ; I never, however, had patience to keep it over a 

 week. Be careful not to give too long time in the ca- 

 mera, — certainly this is not longer than with fresh plates ; 

 develope at your leisure. On exit from the slide pour 

 very gently over the plate distilled water, to remove the 

 syrup (rain-water, carefully collected on a calm day, does 

 just as well) ; repeat the washing three times, allowing 

 tlie plate to soak, on the levelling-stand, for some minutes 

 each time. Blot the edge and lower angles of the plate ; 

 pour on, very gently, a ten -grain solution of nitrate of sil- 

 ver, saturated with iodide ; leave it on, with waving mo- 

 tion, thirty seconds ; pour off about twenty minims in a 

 glass vessel, and throw away the rest ; pour on the usual 

 one-grain pyro. solution. Sometimes the picture deve- 

 lopes fully under this alone. If the image is faint, after 

 thirty seconds, pour off the pyro. into the glass containing 

 the nitrate of silver ex plate, and immediately pour it 

 over the plate; the image rapidly comes out. Clear 

 with hypo., &c. This plan, nine times out of ten, suc- 

 ceeds perfectly with plates under 6x5; and it has the 

 advantage of dispensing with a secondary bath. With 

 larger plates I prefer washing off the syrup in a bath, 

 leaving them in for ten or fifteen minutes. Without this 

 it is difficult to obtain an even picture. I then immerse 

 them for thirty seconds in a ten-grain nitrate-of-silver 

 bath saturated with iodide. 



I have tried washing the plates in distilled water, after 

 iodizing, before using the syrup, to economise it, giving 

 them only one syruping as Mr. Shadbolt advises, but I 

 have always got speckled negatives. Perhaps the addi- 

 tion of one grain of nitrate of silver to each ounce of the 

 bath may prevent this. The honey should be as little 

 acid as possible ; still the best I have had reddens litmus 

 claret colour. The negatives are exquisite, transparent 



lights and intense blacks, the carbon of the syrup aiding 

 the reduction of the silver. But there is one drawback to 

 this process (in mj' hands at least) which must in fairness, 

 be stated, that is, unevenness of development, arising 

 from the syrup adhering unequally. Wherever it is in 

 excess it reduces the silver so intensely, under the pjTO., 

 as to produce black blotches, in ribbed films. Black lines 

 appear, and the margins of the plate are, generally, from 

 this cause too black. On the other hand, if the plate is 

 too much washed, some parts will be too weak ; in fact, 

 with me, washing the syrup off the plate is the only diffi.- 

 culty, that is, with large plates: under 6x5 I am rarely 

 so teased. The longer the plate has been kept, the more 

 difficult is the removal of the syrup, and the greater the 

 risk of unequal development. I shall feel much obliged 

 to Mr. Shadbolt if he will tell me how to avoid this 

 annoyance, which being got rid of, this process would be 

 the most certain, rapid, and least troublesome method of 

 taking sun-pictures we know of. 



I take this opportunity to mention that I now work 

 with a small lens made by Slater. It is only 1| inch dia- 

 meter, 17 inches focal length, and with a half-inch stop, 

 gives a picture ll^xgi inches, perfectly defined and illu- 

 minated at the margins and angles, and it works one- 

 fourth quicker than a3^-inch lens I had of the same focal 

 length. I have long been surprised that, while so much, 

 attention has been given by photographers to make the 

 camera light and portable, none has been directed to the 

 lenses, which, when large, are really the most lumbering 

 part of the Avhole apparatus. I am expecting two small 

 lenses of still greater focal length, for very large pictures^ 

 and shall be happy to give you the results, if you think 

 they will be interesting to your readers. 



Thos. L. Mansell. 



Guernsey. 



^epllti to :9atnor dRutviti. 



Harlot (Vol. x., p. 207.). — On the derivation 

 of this word I would observe that, according to 

 Tooke, the term harlot is merely " horelet," the 

 diminutive of " hore," which is the past participle 

 of the verb hyran^ to hire. The word therefore 

 implied a hireling, or one who received wages, and 

 in former times was commonly applied to males. 

 I have seen a deposition of the date of 1584, in 

 which a man is stated to have called another 

 "false harlott." So also in Chaucer's Sompners 

 Tale: 



" A sturdy harlot went him aye behind, 

 That was her hostes man and bare a sacke." * 



Hence also is derived the term "varlet." The 

 family name " Hore," so common in the west of 

 England, arose in all probability from the appli- 

 cation of the term in the sense above mentioned. 



J. D. S. 



Taref (Vol. vii., p. 528.). — Tyro asks what 

 small insect is called the taret f I know of no- 



[* That this word was formerlj' applied to males ap- 

 pears from the following entry in the Records of the 

 Goldsmiths' Company, book i. fol. 45., a document of 

 20 Hen. VI., 1442 : — " And while that y^ was doynge y" 

 seid fals harlot stole away owt of the place, or elles he 

 hadde be sette in y® stokkis."] 



