30 



WILLATS'S ENERGETIC FLUID, 



FOR PRODUCING INSTANTANEOUS PICTURES \VITHOUT THE 

 AID OF IODINE OR BROMINE. 



THIS Fluid, perhaps the most active of the various preparations 

 ever offered to the public as accelerating agents, is used as a single 

 solution ; and with due precaution in polishing the plate, and 

 observing the colours, is almost invariable in its results. The 

 mixture, consisting of 1^ drachms of the fluid in 2 ounces water, 

 should be poured into a shallow trough to about a quarter inch 

 of the top. The plate will generally assume the proper colour 

 in from four to six minutes ; if not, the mixture is too weak, and 

 more of the fluid must be added. The brown, or deep rose 

 colour gives the most rapid picture, aud the blue the softest ; 

 intermediate tints should be carefully avoided. With a double 

 lens, a portrait or view may be taken instantaneously in the sun, or 

 in from one to five seconds in the shade, according to the degree 

 of light. With a single lens, it will require one second in the 

 sun, and from five to ten seconds in the shade. A longer exposure 

 will only injure the strength and beauty of the picture. It is not 

 generally understood that a sensitive plate, exposed to the action 

 of light in the camera, is rapidly impressed with a picture, which 

 strengthens up to a certain point, when it begins to fade, and is 

 almost entirely effaced, when a negative picture forms, and at 

 length becomes permanent. These changes have not yet been 

 accurately observed, but there is reason to believe that the process 

 alluded to is gone through several times in one minute. This 

 fact, which may be easily proved by experiment, may account for 

 the failures which some persons have experienced in using the 

 Energetic Fluid. Having exposed the plate too long, until the 

 picture has passed the proper stage, and commenced to darken, 

 they conclude that it has not been sufficiently exposed, and acting 

 under this erroneous impression, they increase the time, until every 

 proof becoming worse than the preceding, the use of the Fluid 

 is abandoned. 



PREPARED AND SOLD BY T. & R. WILLATS, 



98, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON, 

 In Bottles, with Directions, Price 5s. each. 



