634 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 187. 



of chloride of silver ; which must be squeezed up 

 between the fingers to facilitate its solution and 

 separate the lumps, which, in their dry state, are 

 tough, and not easily pulverised. The whole is 

 then to be set aside for a week or two in a warm 



Elace. The solution, at first colourless, becomes 

 rown, and ultimately quite opaque ; in this state 

 it is fit for use, and the longer kept the better it 

 becomes. 1 generally use French paper for this 

 process, and, according to the time of immersion, 

 obtain fine sepia or black tints ; the hitter requir- 

 ing long over-exposure to the light, and propor- 

 tionately long exposure to the action of the liquid ; 

 which however will be found, particularly when 

 old, to have a more rapid action than most other 

 setting liquids, and has the merit of always afford- 

 ing fine tints, whatever the paper used. I imagine 

 the pyrogallic acid to possess a reducing influence 

 on the salts of silver employed ; but this effect is 

 only produced by its combination with the hypo- 

 sulphite of soda and chloride of silver. I may 

 add, that in any case the pictures should be much 

 overdone before immersion, as the liquid exerts a 

 rapid bleaching action on them ; and when the 

 liquid becomes saturated, a few crystals of fresh 

 hyposulphite will renew its action. 



F. Maxwell Lttb. 

 Florian, Torquay. 



P. S. — In answer to a Country Pkactitionek, 

 he will find great assistance in choosing his lens 

 by laying it on a sheet of blue wove post paper, 

 when he will immediately perceive the slightest 

 yellow tinge in the glass, this being the fault which 

 frequently affects many well-ground and well- 

 made lenses. Of course, for sharpness of outline 

 he must be guided entirely by experiment in the 

 camera; but where weakness of action exists, it 

 most frequently arises from this yellow colour- 

 ation, and which the manufacturers say Is very 

 dISicult to avoid. 



[Mr. Lyte having sent with his communication a 

 positive prepared in the manner described, we are 

 enabled to corroborate all he says as to the richness and 

 beauty of its tints.] 



Cheap Portable Tent. — M. F. M. inquires for 

 a cheap and portable tent for working collodion 

 out of doors. I have been using one lately con- 

 structed on the principle of Francis's camera 

 stand. It has a good size table, made like the 

 rolling patent shutters ; and it is not necessary to 

 stoop, or sit down at your work, which is a great 

 consideration on a hot day : you may get them of 

 any respectable dealer in photographic apparatus ; 

 it is called Francis's Collodion Tent. 



H. D. Francis. 



Rev. Mr. Sisson's New Developing Fluid (Vol. vii ., 

 p. 462.). — The Rev. Mr. Sisson's developing fluid 

 for collodion positives, the formula for which was 



published in the last Number of " N. & Q.," is 

 merely a weak solution of the protonitrate and 

 protosulphate of iron. It does not, as he seems 

 to think, contain any lead ; for the whole of the 

 latter is precipitated as sulphate, whicli the acetic 

 acid does not dissolve even to the smallest extent : 

 and Mb. Sisson will find that an equivalent pro- 

 portion of the nitrate of baryta will answer equally 

 as well as the nitrate of lead. 



I have myself for a long time been in the habit 

 of using a weak solution of the protonitrate of 

 Iron In conjunction with acetic acid for positive 

 pictures ; for, although I do not consider it so 

 good a developer as that made according to the 

 formula of Dr. Diamond, it produces very good 

 pictures ; occupies very little time In preparing^ 

 and will moreover keep good for a much longer 

 time than a more concentrated solution would. 



J. Leachman. 



20. Compton Terrace, Islington. 



2tlevlte^ to jMtitor cauert'e^. 



Vanes (Vol. v., p. 490.). — Taking up by acci- 

 dent the other day your fifth volume, I saw what 

 I believe is a still unanswered Query respecting- 

 the earliest notice of vanes as Indicators of the 

 wind ; and turning to my notes I found the fol- 

 lowing extract from Beckman's Inventions, Sfc. : 



"In Ugbelli Italia Sacra, Roma 1652, fol. iv. 

 p. 735., we find the following inscription on a wea- 

 thercock then existing at Brixen ; ^ Dominus Rampertus 

 Episc. gallum hunc fieri pracepit an. 820.'" 



L. A. M. 



Loselerius Villerius (Vol. vii., p. 454.). — I beg- 

 to inform S. A. S. that his copy of the New Testa- 

 ment, which wants the title-page, was printed by 

 Henry Stephens the second, at Geneva, in the 

 year 1580. As to It being " valuable," I should 

 not consider him unfortunate if he could exchange 

 it for a shilling. 



Loselerius Villerius was Pierre I'Oyseleur de 

 VlUiers, a pi-ofessor of Genevan divinity, who came 

 over to London, and there published Beza's Latin 

 version of the New Testament, In 1574. He was 

 not, however, as your correspondent supposed hira 

 to be, the editor of the decapitated volume In 

 question ; but Beza transferred his notes to au 

 Impression completed by himself. 



S. A. S. has, in the next place, Inquired for any" 

 satisfactory " list of editions of the Bible." It 

 appears that, so far as he Is concerned, Le Long, 

 Boerner, Masch, and Cotton have lived and 

 laboured In vain. 



The folio Bible lastly described by your corre- 

 spondent is not "so great a curiosity" as family 

 tradition maintained. The annotations " placed in 

 due order" are merely the Genevan notes. — See 



