IS45.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



127 



METROl'OI.ITAX CHURCHES. 



MODE OF COLOURING DAGUERREOTYPE PICTURES. 

 (By C. G. Page, Prof. Chem., Columbia College, U.S.) 

 In the month of Deccml)er, 1842, I instituted a course of experiments to 

 determine the effects of oxidation upon the surface of Daguerreotype pic- 

 tures ; and arrived at some beautiful results in fixing, strengthening, and 

 colouring these impressions. Numerous and arduous duties of a public nature 

 have prevented me from investigating the subject as I wished ; and I there- 

 fore present the facts, for otber» to adopt as the basis of what promises to be 

 a most interesting course of study and e.\perimeul. First, a mode of fixing 

 and strengthening pictures by oxidation : — The impression being obtained 

 upon a highly polished plate, and made to receive, by galvanic agency, a very 

 slight deposit of copper from the cupreous cyanide of potassia, (the deposit 

 of copper being just enough to change the colour of the plate in the slightest 

 degree.) is washed very carefully with distilled water, and then heated over 

 a spirit-lamp, until the light part assumes a pearly transparent appearance. 

 The whitening and cleaning up of the picture, by this process, is far more 

 beautiful than by the ordinary method of fixation by a deposit of gold. A 

 small portrait fixed in this way, more tlian a year since, remains unchanged. 

 As copper assumes various colours, according to the depth of oxidation upon 

 its'turface, it follows that if a thicker coaling than the first mentioned can 

 he put upon the plate without impairing the impression, various colours may 

 be obtained during the fixation. It is impossible for me to give any definite 

 rules concerning this last process ; but 1 will state, in a general way, that my 

 best results >»ere obtained by giving the plate such a coating of copper as to 

 change the tone of the picture, — that is, give it a coppery colour, and then 

 heating it over a spirit lamp until it assumes the colour desireil. I have now 

 an exposed picture treated in this way at the same time with the two above 

 mentioned ; and it remains unchanged. It is of a beautiful green colour, and 

 the impression has not suO'ered in the least by the oxiilation. For pure land- 

 scapes, it has a jileasing effect; and by adopting some of the recent inven- 

 tions for stopping out the deposit of copper, the green colour may be had 

 wherever desired. In some pictures a curious vari,ity of colours is obtained, 

 owing to the varying thickness of the deposit of copper, which is governed by 

 the thickness of the deposil of mercury formingthe picture. In one instance, 

 a clear and beautiful ruby colour was produced, limited in a well defined 



manner to the drapery, while all other parts were grccn. To succeed well 

 in the first process, viz., that for fixation and the production of the pearly 

 appearance, the impression should he carried as far as possible without so- 

 lari/.ation, the solution of the hyposulphate of soda should be pure and free 

 from the traces of sulphur, the plate should be carefidly washed with dis- 

 tilled water, both before and after it receives the deposit of copper, — in fact, 

 the whole experiment should be neatly performed, to prevent what the French 

 significantly call laches upon the plate, wlien the copper comes to be oxidized. 

 — Silliman's Journal. 



RAILWAY FROM BOMBAY TO THE GHAUTS. 



It is vvilli great pleasure that we find that the spirit of commercial 

 cnl TprisH which is now so generally diiected towards Railway specu- 

 lations is about to be extended to India, as advocated by us some time 

 since. This, of all our colonial possessions is that in which the con- 

 struction of railways may he expected to have the most beiieliciul 

 ti'nilency botli in a commercial and political point of view. The den- 

 sity of the popnhilion, the form of the country (iresenting enormous 

 inland districts far remote from tlie sea, the limited extent of fresh 

 water commiinicatioii — for the rivers of iheDeccan are comparativelv 

 few and unnavigable — the difficulties in trav.>lling which arise from 

 the excessive heat of the climate, all concur in demonstrating tlie im- 

 mense advantage of railway communication in India. The labours of 

 those who inalie India the field of pecuniary speculation have hitherto 

 been directed almost solely by a desire of aggrandisement, and scarcely 

 at all by any v\ish to permanenily benefit the country of their tem- 

 porary residence. "It is our protection that destroys India," says 

 Burke, "our conquest there, after twenty years, is as crude as it was 

 the first day. The natives scarcely know what it is to .see the grey 

 head of an Englishman. Young men (hoys almost) govern there, 

 without society, and without sympathy with the natives. They have 

 no more social habits with the people than if they still resided in 

 England ; nor indeed any species of intercourse but that which is ne- 

 cessary to make a sudden fortune, with a view to a remote settlement. 

 Animated with all the avarice of age and all the impetuusifv of youth, 

 tliey roll in, one after another, wave after wave, and there is nothing 

 before the eyes of the natives but an endless, hopeless, prospect of new 

 flights of birds of prey and passage, with appetites continually re- 

 newing for a food that is constantly wasting. Every rupee of profit 

 made by an Englishman is for ever lost to India. With us are no 

 retributary superstitions by which a foundation of charity compensates 

 through ages to the poor for the rapine and injustice of a day. With 

 us no pride erects stately monuments which repair the mischief wliicli 

 pride has produced, and which adorn a country out of its own spoils. 

 England has erected no churches, no hospitals, no palaces, no schools. 

 England has built no bridges, made no high roads, cut no navigations, 

 dug out no reservoirs. Every other conqueror of every other de- 

 scription has left some monument either of state or of beneficence be- 

 iiind him. Were we to be driven out of India this day, nothing would 

 remain to tell that it liad been possessed by any thing better than 

 the our.in-oulang or the tiger.'' 



The severity of truth contained in this eloquent passnge is much 

 diminished in our own times. Still however the mercenary spirit of 

 English adventure is but too apparent even now, and every effort to 

 render our domination beneficial by the construction of great public 

 works, must be considered for a long time to come not so much the 

 conferring of a favour as the reparation of an injury. 



We have been led to these remarks, which are perhaps almost too 

 speculative for the nature of our subject, by the receipt from a cor- 

 respondent in India, of a supplem iit to the Bombay (joveriinient 

 Gazette, containing the report of a Committee appointed by the In- 

 dian Government in Council, to examine the scheme of a projected 

 railway between Bombay and the Thull and Bhore Ghaut Roails, laid 

 down by Mr. G. T. Clark, C.E. We extract the following part of the 

 report, which gives a correct idea of the route of the line. 



It is proposed to recover from the sea beach between Warree and CJJilncIi 

 Bunders, a space of 1,800 feet long and 300 feet wide, for the Bombay ter- 

 minus. From this spot the line commences on the level of the ailjoining 

 roads, and crossing the Warree Bunder-road passes through the large field 

 used for stacking timber, it then crosses the Mazagon-road near the entrance 

 to the Police-office, Nesbit-lanc, near Mrs. Nesbit's chapel, and the Parell 

 road near the three miles stone, whence, passing on to the flats to the north 

 of the Byculla Tank, it skirls the private lands adjoining the Parell-road, and 

 crossing the Malum and Dhaiavee roads, joins the Sion Causeway, near its 

 south-western extremity. It then crossis twice tlie cnuseway, and three 

 times the present line of the Tannah road, nearly following its course to 

 within a short distance of Koorla, where leaving it to the west, it passes near 

 the villages of Neopara, Ghat-Knoper, Ircooly and Bhandoop, and rejoins the 

 Tannah road near the 20 miles stone ; Mr. Clark has not yet determined on 



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