1&2 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 280. 



long openings the width of the box, corresponding to 

 grooves inside it; so that little light wooden frames, 

 ■which slide in them and carry the plates, can, when let 

 go, drop out through them, and pass into corresponding 

 grooves in the back of the camera— just as the dark 

 slide drops into its place in an ordinary camera. This 

 box has a false top and a false bottom ; the former with 

 holes in it through which strings are passed, by means of 

 which the plate may be drawn up again into its former 

 position ; and the latter with a slit in it, and sliding across 

 the bottom of the box, so that this slit may be brought, 

 by sliding it across, to correspond with any one of those 

 in the bottom of the box. This slider has stamped on it 

 the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ; so that when the line cor- 

 responding to any one of these numbers is brought to the 

 edge of the box, the slit will correspond to the slit in the 

 bottom of the box, and the plate may be let to pass out. 

 I have seven little bolts in the side of the box which I 

 draw out so as to let the plate go. Having a small board 

 on the top of the camera, cushioned with black velvet so 

 M to prevent light entering, I first place the box on it, 

 80 that No. 1., which is a frame containing a ground glass, 

 shall fall into the camera; having unhooked the little 

 string from the frame, it drops into the camera, and I 

 open the door at the back, and put on a black focussing- 

 cloth, and put to the focus. I then draw up this plate into 

 its place by means of the string ; and having brought the 

 slider in the bottom of the box to correspond with No. 2., 

 •which is a prepared plate, I let that plate fall into the 

 camera — having of course previously shut the back 

 slider. In due course, this plate also is drawn up, and 

 the same process is repeated as often as needed. The 

 whole of this apparatus does not weigh more than fifteen 

 pounds, and the camera packs very conveniently into a 

 soldier's knapsack, and the box is carried in the hand : 

 in short, the instrument is most portable, and by no 

 means as clumsy as my description. 



The frames to contain the prepared plates are made of 

 wood, and have a corner of silver wire to support the 

 plates and little bolts of the same at the back, to keep 

 the plate in its place, four in number, one on each side. 



I think I can give Dr. Diamond a little valuable in- 

 formation on the subject of printing positives ; but as I 

 am extremely hurried to-day, must put off doing so till 

 next week. F. Maxwell Lyte. 



Pau. 



Camera for Saccharized Plates, and Perambulating Stand 

 for Field Purposes. — In answer to Mr. Elliott's Query 

 as to the kind of arrangement to be used for plates pre- 

 pared by Mr. Lyte's or Shadbolt's processes, I beg to 

 communicate the method I have adopted. The camera, 

 &c., is a slight modification of that of Newton : under 

 the sliding-rod in the top of the camera, an aperture the 

 width of the plates is cut through the bottom, beneath 

 which slides a box having grooved slides, into which the 

 prepared plates are dropped ; the top of this stock-box is 

 closed by a sliding lid. When the view has been focussed 

 on the ground glass, all but yellow light is excluded from 

 the interior of the camera, the lid of the plate-box is with- 

 drawn, the rod pushed down and clamped to the upper 

 edge of the plate farthest from the operator, then drawn 

 up into focus, and the view taken ; the plate is then re- 

 placed in its groove, the lid of the plate-box shut, and so 

 on with as many plates as the box contains. I may 

 farther mention that I have mounted my camera on a 

 piston-rod working through an axle, canying a pair of 

 light wheels, about four feet in diameter; the handle, 

 which is hinged on to the axle, can be clamped at any 

 angle, and, together with the wheels, forms a tripod 

 stand, which offers every motion desired. The chemical 



and plate boxes are suspended on spring supports beneath 

 the axle : the whole runs so lightly that a child might 

 manage it, and thus renders one totally independent of 

 the aid of country louts, who are great friends to appa- 

 ratus dealers. This arrangement was privately suggested 

 about this time last year for the use of the photographer.? 

 to be emploj'ed at the seat of war, and was described in 

 the chemical section at the meeting of the British Asso- 

 ciation at Liverpool. I shall take an early opportunity of 

 bringing the instrument before the notice of the Photo- 

 graphic Society, as I think it will be found useful during 

 the summer months. Samuel Highlby. 



IXtpXlti t0 Minor dSiutvlti, 



Templars, Suppression of (Vol. x,, p. 462.). — 

 Is Enivri acquainted with the following ? 



"Traitez concernant I'Histoire de France, scavoir la 

 Condemnation des Templiers, avec quelques actes, &c., 

 par Dupuy, Paris, 1700, 12mo." 



J, B. James. 



Greek and Roman Churches (Vol, xi., p. 146.). 

 — I Know Not will find examples of mutual 

 recognition, if not of positive intercommunion, 

 between the Christians of the East and West 

 during the twelfth century, in Leo Allatius De 

 perpetua Consensione Ecdesice Occidentalis et 

 Orientalis, pp. 624. sq. : although it must be con- 

 ceded that the general state of religious feeling in 

 both communities was strongly adverse to re- 

 union, and that in the thirteenth and following 

 centuries the breach was continually widened. 

 Peter the Venerable, abbot of Clugny, was one of 

 the most distinguished exceptions to this rule. 

 See his letters to the Eastern Emperor, and also 

 to the patriarch of Constantinople, whom he styles 

 a " venerable and exalted priest of God." {Episty 

 lib. iv. pp. 39, 40.). C. Hard wick. 



Custom olserved in drinking at public Feasts 

 (Vol. xi., p. 25.).— The same fashion of drinking, 

 as that described by T. G. L. as taking place at 

 Lichfield, prevails at Jesus College, Cambridge ; 

 and the object is the same, viz. to prevent injury 

 to the person who drinks. M. P. 



^^Pereant illi qui, ante nos, nostra dixerunt P^ 

 (Vol. X., p. 464.). — Tliis quotation, the subject 

 of Mr. Temple's Query, is from Donatus or 

 Donat, a Latin grammarian of the fourth century. 

 St. Jerome was one of his pupils. 



Henry H. Breeit. 



St. Lucia. 



Clay Tobacco-pipes (Vol. xi., p. 37.). — In the 

 ruins of an old castle, a few miles south-east of 

 Bath, I once dug up some old tobacco-pipes (now 

 in my possession) which exactly answer the de- 

 scription given by some of your correspondents 

 upon this subject. The smallest, and apparently 

 the oldest, of them bear, on a flat heel, the name 



