THE BOOK OF THE LANTERN. 207 



these were all printed as lantern transparencies, and he is 

 now able to entertain his friends with an account of his 

 wanderings, and to illustrate his remarks in a very pleasant 

 and novel manner. If the same negatives had been merely 

 printed on paper in the usual manner, and shown in an 

 album, they would, by reason of their smallness, have met 

 with but scant appreciation. 



I may instance another way in which the lantern can be 

 utilised without the necessity of taking original negatives. 

 Most travellers abroad collect photographs of any place they 

 may visit, and an enormous trade is now done in such 

 pictures. These are brought home in due course, mounted 

 in an album, and too often, alas ! gradually fade into sickly 

 yellow ghosts of their former selves. Now, if these pictures 

 were copied by a small quarter-plate camera, the negatives 

 thus obtained could in their turn furnish positives on glass 

 for use in the lantern. Transparencies so produced are 

 never, it is true, so good as those from original negatives, 

 for the texture and the gloss of the paper prints will gene- 

 rally to some extent show themselves in the reproduced 

 negative, but still it is wonderful what good results can be 

 obtained in this way. Indeed, I may say that it requires a 

 critical eye to detect that a second negative has been em- 

 ployed. I have already detailed the best method of pro- 

 ducing these negatives from paper prints, and have given 

 some useful hints by which the disadvantages to which they 

 are subject can be reduced to a minimum (see page 121). 



Paper prints naturally remind one of those portrait 

 albums which are found in every house. Why should not 

 these pictures also be adapted to the lantern? What a 



