570 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[No. 242. 



second contains the sacred subjects, hymns, &c, 

 written chiefly by a relation, and formerly collected 

 under the title of Florilegium Sanctce Aspirationis. The 

 third consists merely of a small collection of Latin 

 verses selected by some student, with occasional notes 

 from the rest, and called Fragments from North and 

 South : they have, many at least, been printed before." 



It is impossible to give an idea of this extraordi- 

 nary Olla ; we have in it pieces of Porson, Gray, 

 and Byron, &c., Cowper's John Gilpin, and Cole- 

 ridge's DeviVs Walk ; at p. 19. we have " Spring 

 Impromptu, found among some old papers," with 

 the signature " N." attached, which turns out to 

 be Gray on the "Pleasures of Vicissitude." I re- 

 gret to say that this volume contains much that is 

 coarse and offensive, which is the less excusable, 

 and the more surprising, as coming from the author 

 of the very beautiful and devotional pieces pub- 

 lished in the Circle of the Seasons. 



The Florilegium and the Anthologia of the Circle 

 have little in common with their namesakes in 

 the Harmonia, which latter contain poems by 

 Southwell, Byron, Gray, Hogg, Porson, Jortin, 

 &c., but none of Forster's prose pieces, which form 

 so large a portion of the other Florilegium and 

 Anthologia. Dr. Forster's life would make a very 

 entertaining biography, and I should be glad to 

 know more about him, whether he be yet alive, 

 what books he printed at Bruges, &c* 



In concluding this matter, I beg to return my 

 best thanks to Mb. Pinkerton for the valuable 

 information he so freely imparted to me, and the 

 handsome manner in which he placed it at my dis- 

 posal. 



PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



Mr. Lyte's New Instantaneous Process. — I beg to 

 communicate to you a new process in photography, 

 ■which is by far the most rapid I believe yet discovered, 

 and combines at the same time great stability. It has 

 been the result of a great many experiments on my 

 part, and even now I am hardly prepared to say that 

 it is brought to its fullest perfection ; but it suffices to 

 say that it is sufficiently rapid to give pictures of the 

 waves of the sea in motion with perfect sharpness, and 



* Dr. Forster was born in London in 1789, of an 

 ancient Catholic family ; he was himself a Protestant 

 until the year 1835, when it appears that he became a 

 convert to the Church of Rome : at the same time he 

 received the additional names of Ignatius Maria. It 

 is most probable that he is yet alive and in Belgium, 

 where he has resided for many years. The Editor of 

 " N. & Q." has kindly sent me a list from the Cata- 

 logue of the British Museum, of some four and thirty 

 works by Dr. Forster. There is, however, another 

 book by Dr. Forster not contained in the Museum 

 list, Onthophilos, ou Les Dernier* Entretiens d'un Phi- 

 losophe Catholique (Brussels?), 1836. 



ships sailing at ten knots an hour, and puttling up 

 and down at the same time, and all with a landscape 

 lens. By it also, and by the same lens, we may take 

 instantaneous portraits. The process is as follows : — 

 After the plate, prepared with the collodion and sen- 

 sitised with the nitrate bath, as I have described in 

 one of your former Numbers, is taken from the bath, 

 I pour over it a solution composed as follows : 



1. Take— 



Nitrate of silver . - - 200 grains. 



Distilled water ... 6 ounces. 



Iodide of silver, as much as will dissolve. 

 Mix and filter. 



2. Take — 



Grape sugar or honey 8 ounces. 



"Water .... q ounces. 



Alcohol 1 ounce. 

 Mix, dissolve, and filter. 



And when required for use, mix equal parts of these 

 solutions, and pour them over the plate. The plate is 

 to be allowed to drain ; and then, when placed in the 

 frame, is ready for the camera, and is easily impressed 

 as a deep negative by a Ross's landscape lens instan- 

 taneously. To develop, I use always the same agents 

 as I have before specified. One or two cautions are 

 to be observed in this process. First, the grape-sugar 

 or honey must be quite pure, and free from any strong 

 acid re-action ; and, secondly, these substances are much 

 improved by a long exposure to the air, by which the 

 oxidation of them is commenced, and the result made 

 much more certain and effective. However, I find 

 that the addition of the least possible quantity of 

 nitric acid has the same effect; but nothing is so good 

 as long exposure of the sugar or honey, so as to be- 

 come completely candied before mixing. The sugar 

 may as conveniently of course be mixed in the' collo- 

 dion as in the bath, but in that case the keeping pro- 

 perties are lost, as the plate is not thus kept longer 

 moist than usual. If, however, the former process be 

 used and well conducted, the plate when sensitised 

 may be kept for four hours at least without injury. 



The grape sugar should be made with oxalic, and 

 the acid removed by lime as usual, and not with sul- 

 phuric acid, as is often done ; as in the latter case 

 sulpho-saccharic acid is formed, which much injures the 

 result. 



I have been trying numerous experiments in this 

 line, and I think I have almost hit upon another and 

 quite new and instantaneous process ; but as it is only 

 in embryo, I will not give it to you till perfect. 

 There are of course many other substances to be yet 

 mixed in the bath or the collodion, e.g. all the alkaloids, 

 or indeed any of the deoxidating agents known, and 

 probably with good results. I am still continuing my 

 experiments on this head, and if I make any farther 

 improvements I will lose no time in communicating 

 them to you. Some negatives taken by this means 

 were exhibited on Friday evening at the Royal In- 

 stitution, and were much admired. 



F. Maxwetx Lyte. 



[By Mr. Lyte's kindness, who has shown us a 

 number of the pictures taken by this new process, we 



