126 THE A B C OF PHOTO MICROGRAPHY 



alarmed, fearing the entire plate will be 

 equally blackened throughout and com- 

 pletely ruined. He thereupon removes it 

 from the developing bath, washes hurriedly 

 and places in the hypo solution quickly as 

 possible, in order to prevent this dreaded 

 result, only to find after fixation, that the 

 negative is full of detail but so utterly lack- 

 ing in density or contrasts as to be quite 

 unprintable. The plate, however, is not neces- 

 sarily wasted, nor need another exposure be 

 made in most cases, as required in under- 

 timing. Unless the negative is hopelessly 

 over-exposed, very thin and flat, intensification 

 will usually put it into shape for producing 

 good prints. There are many ways of doing 

 this, to be found in all books on photography, 

 and I shall give but two here which I know 

 to be good and reliable. The first has had 

 nearly twenty years of continual use in my 

 hands without a failure, hence I recommend 

 it without any hesitation or reservation. I am 

 indebted for it to an article in an old number 

 of The British Journal of Photography's 

 Almanac under the heading of " Cyanide of 

 Silver Intensifier." Every one, of course, is 

 familiar with the old method of intensification 

 by first bleaching with a mercurial solution 



