406 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



by the reflected image ; the material may be retained in the proper 

 position against the frame by a small spring, /, pressing against the 

 material on the back ; and between the spring and the frame, e, the 

 prepared surface is slid. A small door is made on the top of the 

 box for the purpose of observing the focal image, and the frame is 

 glided till properly adjusted to the focus. The box, a, should be 

 placed on a table or other support, at such height that the centre of 

 the reflector may be about as high as that part of the person which is 

 intended to be in the middle of the picture. When the reflecting 

 apparatus is to be used, the person whose likeness is to be taken 

 should be placed in a chair, to which some suitable support for the 

 head is attached, to enable him to remain perfectly still, and the 

 reflecting aparatus should then be placed with the open end imme- 

 diately opposite to the person. A trial surface is then to be put 

 against the frame to receive the reflected image, by which means its 

 correct placing will readily be judged of by looking through the hole in 

 the box, a, and the focus will be adjusted by sliding the piece, e ; the 

 trial surface is then to be removed, and the prepared surface is to be 

 placed in the frame and allowed to remain as long as required to form 

 the image, and a little practice will readily enable the operator to 

 judge when the required effect is obtained. The size of the reflecting 

 apparatus I use, is as follows : the box, a, inside fifteen inches long, 

 eight and a half inches high, and eight inches wide, and the interior 

 is black ; reflector seven inches clear diameter, and twelve inches 

 focus ; the prepared surface on to which the picture is to be formed 

 is two and a half inches long, by two inches wide, but these dimen- 

 sions may be varied. In using the apparatus above described, when 

 the daylight is very bright, I prefer that the inclined glass roof, a, 

 of the room should be glazed with blue glass, or otherwise to soften 

 the bright rays of light, in order that the person sitting to have a 

 likeness taken may be as near as possible to the glass roof ; but when 

 there is a bright sunshine, I use a large looking-glass or reflector. 

 I prefer to use a large concave reflector to collect the rays of light 

 from the sun and throw it on the person sitting. 



I place the reflecting apparatus out of the centre of the large re- 

 flector, b, generally behind the large reflector, by having a hole 

 through such large reflector towards the outer edge thereof ; and in 

 making such large reflector, b, I find that it may be done by forming 

 a frame of wood to the figure or shape required, and then covering the 

 surface with small squares of looking-glass of five or six inches 

 square ; this is a cheap and convenient way of making such a re- 

 flector on a large size for the purpose, but I do not confine myself 

 thereto, the object being to obtain a large reflector to collect the 

 light and direct it strongly on a person or other object, from 

 which it is desired to obtain a likeness or image on to a prepared 

 surface. In preparing plates with silver surfaces to render them more 

 suitable for receiving impressions or images thereon, and then have 

 the surface protected from change, I take sheets of copper with a 

 surface of silver, such as is now commonly used according to the 

 process known as Daguerreotype, and place two such plates together, 

 with their silver surfaces touching, those surfaces having been care- 



