Aug. 20. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



181 



PHOTOGEAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



Washing or not ■washing Collodion Pictures after 

 developing, previous to fixing. — Since the question 

 has been mooted I have tried both ways, and have 

 come to the conclusion that there is very litde 

 difference in the resulting appearance of the pic- 

 ture. The hypo, is certainly deteriorated when 

 no washing is adopted. I think it is best to pour 

 off the first quantity applied into a cup kept for 

 the purpose ; this is discoloured : I then pour on 

 more clean hypo., and let it remain till the picture 

 clears, and pour this into another cup or bottle for 

 future use. What was poured into the first cup 

 may, when a sufficient quantity is obtained, be 

 filtered, and by adding more of the salt is not use- 

 less. I pour on merely enough at first to wash off 

 the developing fluid, and pour it off at once. The 

 picture is cleared much sooner if the saturated 

 hypo, solution is warmed, which I do by plunging 

 the bottle into a pewter pint pot filled with hot 

 water. W. M. F. 



Stereoscopic Angles (Yol. viii., pp. 109. 157.). — 

 I perfectly agree with your correspondent Mr. T. 

 L. Merritt (p. 109.) respecting " stereoscopic 

 angles," having ai-rived at tlie same conclusion 

 some months since, while at Hastings, where I 

 produced stereoscopic pictures by moving the 

 camera only two inches : having in one, seven 

 houses and five bathing-machines ; and in the 

 other, j'Jce houses and eight bathing-machines. If 

 I had separated the two pictures more, I should 

 have had all bathing-machines in one and all houses 

 in the other ; which convinced me that nothing 

 more is required than the width of the two eyes 

 for all distances, or, slightly to exaggerate it, to 

 three inches, which will produce a pleasing and 

 natural effect : for it is quite certain that our eyes 

 do not become wider apart as we recede from an 

 object, and that the intention is to give a true 

 representation of nature as seen by one person. 

 Now, most stereoscopic pictures represent nature 

 as it never could be seen by any one person, from 

 the same point of view ; and I feel confident that 

 all photographers, who condescend to make stereo- 

 scopic pictures, will arrive at the same conclusion 

 before the end of this season. 



If this be correct, all difficulty is removed ; for 

 it is always advisable to take two pictui-es of the 

 same prospect, in case one should not be good : 

 and two very indifferent negatives will combine 

 into one very good positive, when viewed by the 

 stereoscope : thus proving the old saying, that two 

 negatives make an affirmative. 



Henry Wilkinson. 

 ■ Brompton. 



Sissons Developing Solution. — In answer to 

 S. B.'s inquiry, I beg to say, that I have not tried 

 the above solution as a bath. I have always poured 



it on, believing that it was easier to observe the 

 progress of the picture by that mode. If S. B. 

 will forward me his address, I shall be happy to 

 enter more minutely into my mode of operating 

 with it than I can through the medium of " N. 

 & Q." I have received other favourable testi- 

 mony as to the value of my developing fluid for 

 glass positives. 



While I am writing, will you allow me to ask 

 your photographic correspondents whether any of 

 them have tried Mr. !Muller's paper process re- 

 ferred to by Mr. Delamotte at p. 145. of his work? 

 It was first announced in the Athenceum of Nov. 2, 

 1851. When I first commenced photography 

 (June, 1 852), I tried the process ; and from what 

 I did with it, when I was almost entirely ignorant 

 of the manipulation, I am inclined to think it a 

 valuable process. The sharpness of the tracery in 

 my church windows, in a picture I took by the 

 process, is remarkable. Mr. Delamotte truly says : 

 "This is a most striking discovery, as it super- 

 sedes the necessity of any developing agent after 

 the light has acted on the paper." Mr. Muller 

 says, that simple washing in water seems to be 

 sufiicient to fix the picture. This is also a striking 

 discovery, and totally unlike any other very sensi- 

 tive process that I am acquainted with ; and more 

 striking still, that the process should not have been 

 more practised. J. Lawson Sisson. 



Edingthorpe Rectory. 



Robert Drury (Vol. v., p. 533. ; Vol. vil., p. 485. ; 

 Vol. viii., p. 104.). — I believe the Journal of Ro- 

 bert Drury to be a genuine book of travels and 

 adventures, and here Is my voucher : 



" The best and most authentic account ever given 

 of Madagascar was published in 1729, by Robert 

 Drury, who being shipwrecked in the Degrave East 

 India'man, on the south side of that island, in 1702, 

 being then a boy, lived there as a slave fifteen years, 

 and after his return to England, among those who 

 knew him (and he was known to many, being a porter 

 at the East India House), had the character of a down- 

 right honest man, without any appearance of fraud or 

 imposture." — John Buncombe, JM. A., one of the six 

 preachers in Christ Church, Canterbury, 1773. 



Mr. Duncombe quotes several statements from 

 Drury which coincide with those of the Reverend 

 William Hirst, the astronomer, who touched at 

 Madagascar, on his voyage to India, in 1759. Tea 

 years afterwards Mr. Hirst perished In the Aurora, 

 and with him the author of The Shipwrech. 



Bolton Cornet. 



Beal Signatures versus Pseudo-Names (Vol. vi., 

 p. 310. ; Vol. viii., p. 94.). —There is no doubt 

 that the straightforwardness of open and undis- 

 guised communications to your excellent miscel- 



