238 THE BOOK OF THE LANTERN. 



into a jug. The first plate was pat into a dish, and the 

 whole jugful swished over it. The image flashed out at once. 

 This is always the case with my chloride plates, so that it 

 did not surprise me. Keeping the developer moving over 

 the plate, I lifted up the glass at intervals so as to watch 

 its progress. In about four minutes it had attained 

 sufficient density. I then emptied the developer back into 

 the jug, for I knew it would serve for several plates in 

 succession. The negative in the dish was now thoroughly 

 washed with about a gallon of water, and transferred to 

 the fixing-bath. The remaining plates were then treated 

 in exactly the same way, and without a single failure. 



There was at first some difficulty in thoroughly washing 

 such large plates, but I solved it by making use of the 

 bath-room. The bath was filled with water, and the 

 plates were placed along the sides, film-side down. In less 

 than an hour they were thoroughly freed of the fixing salt. 



These negatives were all that could be desired. Some 

 of them were purposely reversed for printing by the 

 carbon process, this reversal being brought about by the 

 simple expedient of causing the film-side of the little 

 positive to face the light in the lantern. Their perfection 

 of detail may be gauged by the following : In one case the 

 little positive had become rather dusty previously to 

 exposure, and I took it out of the lantern, and rubbed its 

 varnished surface with my handkerchief. This caused 

 some tiny scratches upon it, which were at the time quite 

 unnoticed ; but the scratches were clearly visible on the 

 enlarged negatives. They were, certainly, not thicker 

 than the finest spider's web, but still, there they were. 



