A Model Darkroom 



The average bathroom may be made to serve the purpose for the amateur 

 By Wheeler P. Davey 



AVERY small town has few accom- 

 modations for helping the amateur 

 with his developing and printing. 

 The tendency of the American people is 

 to have their work done rather than to do 

 it themselves, and this is one reason for 

 the existence of the professional film- 

 developer. Another is a lack of ade- 

 quate darkroom facilities on the part of 

 the amateur photographer. 



It is the purpose of this article to give 

 the principles which govern the ar- 

 rangement of a good darkroom and to 

 illustrate those principles by a detailed 

 description of two darkrooms which 

 have proved satisfactory enough to 

 be called "model" darkrooms. 



In planning a darkroom, space must 

 be provided for the stock developer 

 solution, developing shelf, sink, hypo 

 bath, wash-tank, drying-rack, shelf for 

 plate-holders and printing-frames, 

 ventilating-fan, necessary lights and 

 switches. 



In addition to the foregoing it is 

 usually desirable to provide room for a 

 moderate supply of plates, films, printing 

 paper and chemicals. 



The room should be planned so as to 

 make everything as compact as possible. 

 The less one is compelled to walk about 

 in the dark the more attention can be 

 paid to the actual work of loading,, 

 developing and printing, thus reducing 

 the tendency to make annoying errors. 

 If possible the room should be so 

 arranged that everything can be reached 

 by taking not more than one step. If, 

 because of the shape of the room, this 

 proves impossible, then everything 

 should be arranged so that it is necessary 

 only to walk along a straight line. 



It is absolutely essential that the 

 developer should be kept free from hypo. 

 Hypo usually finds its way into developer 

 in one or more of the following ways: 

 Hypo solution when spilled on the floor, 

 dries, and is distributed about the room 

 like ordinary dust; the hands wet with 

 hypo and handling the bottles of de- 

 veloper leave traces of hypo; electric 

 lights are turned on while the hands are 



still wet with hypo, the hypo dries and 

 is distributed as before; the fixing tray 

 is used by mistake as a developing tray. 

 This is especially likely to happen when 

 the hypo tray is kept underneath the 

 developing-shelf. With such an arrange- 

 ment, the plate or film cannot be taken 

 from the fixing-bath to be washed with- 

 out dripping hypo on the floor. This 

 source of trouble disappears when the 

 fixing-bath is on the same level as the 

 developing-shelf. The plate or film is 

 thus taken out of the developer, rinsed 

 over the sink, fixed, and washed either 

 in a wash-box or in the sink without 

 ever being held over the floor. By 

 having the sink between the developing 

 tray and the hypo, the hands may be 

 easily rinsed off before commencing to 

 develop the next plate or film. 



To prevent hypo being transferred to 

 switches these may be turned on and off 

 with foot treadles. These treadles are 

 connected by stout woven cords to pull- 

 switches such as can be obtained from 

 any electrical dealer. 



In professional and semi-professional 

 work, where plates are used to the 

 exclusion of films, it will be found of 

 advantage to use nickel-plated metal 

 frames for fixing, washing and drying the 

 plates. As soon as the plate comes 

 from the developer it is put in a frame, 

 washed in the sink and at once put in 

 the hypo- tank. After fixing, it is washed 

 in the wash-tank and hung on the rack 

 to dry. The use of the frames will be 

 found to keep the gelatin from being 

 marred by finger-prints. In case films of 

 fairly large size are used, these frames 

 should be replaced by those sold for the 

 purpose. 



Plans are given of two darkrooms. 

 By slight modifications of one plan or 

 the other the average bathroom may be 

 made into a serviceable and up-to-date 

 amateur darkroom. 



The darkroom shown in Fig. i to 7 is 

 designed for use with films and plates up 

 to 10 by 12 in. in size. The developing- 

 shelf should be covered with a sheet of 

 galvanized iron so as to prevent water 



