4 66 



RECREATION 



(/■I win ones. (This sounds vague, but I could 

 show you in a minute what I mean if you were 

 with me in my workroom.) Moreover, the deli- 

 cacy of the detail, if not the actual quantity of 

 the detail, is greater in the Glycin negatives. 

 Even when the detail in the two types of nega- 

 tives is about equal, that of the Glycin negative 

 prints more softly and pleasantly — at any rate 

 o\\ printing out paper — than the grimy detail 

 of the Pyro Metol negatives. 



"But I haven't a tank suitable for stand 

 development," some one says. Never mind. 

 Although I have a tank, and use it often, I 

 developed these particular negatives in a dish. 

 I made up the Glycin solution of the same 

 strength at which I use it for tank development, 

 only much less of it in all. (My concentrated 

 Glycin needs dilution with eighty times its bulk 

 of water; but the formula varies, and yours may 

 need less water.) Then I put a plate in an 

 ordinary dish, flooded it with the excessively 

 dilute Glycin, set it on one side with a cover over 

 it to keep the light out— and went on with my 

 other work. There you have one of the chief 

 advantages of Glycin. The dish needs no rock- 

 ing, no attention. Once I had put one of the 

 plates into it, I could leave it and start develop- 

 ing some others with the Pyro Metol in the usual 

 way. My Pyro Metol negatives each took about 

 a quarter of an hour to develop. By the time I 

 had finished four, the Glycin negative was just 

 about done. 



You have to take a peep at your Glycin nega- 

 tive from time to time, of course — say every 

 quarter of an hour or so — to see how it's pro- 

 gressing. But if you overdevelop it, no harm's 

 done; you can easily reduce it. The danger 

 rather is underdevelopment. Glycin behaves 

 somewhat differently to the old-fashioned 

 developers. Detail comes up all over simul- 

 taneously, and only slowly gains density. 

 Moreover, a stand-developed negative has a 

 trick of looking denser than it really is, before 

 fixation. But you soon get accustomed to that. 

 Another point: A little sediment is apt to settle 

 on the plate when immersed for very long in its 

 dish of Glycin. Be sure and give a thorough 

 rinse before washing, to clear this off. 



containing a fresh supply of water. Again turn 

 them several times in the new tray of water, and 

 then again stransfer them singly to the other 

 tray, which, in the meantime, has been refilled 

 with fresh water. About eight changes of five 

 or six minutes each should be sufficient to thor- 

 oughly wash them. 



To Wash Bromide Enlargements 



J. P. G. asks: Would you please give me a 

 good way for washing enlargements up to 

 8 by 10 ? I have plenty of water. 



The best way for washing enlargements is to 

 place them in a large tray of clean water and 

 turn them over therein three or four times; then 

 transfer them (one by one) to a similar tray, 



To Remove a Print from Its Mount 



N .F. B. sends in the following question: The 

 mount of the enclosed old-fashioned print has 

 been broken across, but you will notice that the 

 print itself is not broken, although there is a 

 distinct mark of the fracture. It is a rather 

 valued portrait, and I wish to remove it and 

 remount it. Can this be done by soaking it in 

 water ? 



The print is on albumenized paper and will 

 therefore stand any amount of immersion in hot 

 or cold water. You will note, however, that the 

 eyes of the standing figure have been put in with 

 Indian ink, as has also part of the hair. This 

 will, of course, be washed away in treatment, 

 and you will have to put them in again after 

 remounting the print. The only way to proceed 

 is to tear away the mount as carefully as possi- 

 ble from the back; that is, break the mount 

 with a knife at the edge and tear it away by 

 pulling towards the back, placing the photo- 

 graph face downwards meanwhile on a per- 

 fectly flat surface, such as a piece of plate glass. 

 Do not on any account attempt to pull the print 

 from the mount, but always remove the mount 

 from the print. As soon as you have removed 

 as much as you can (it will come off in thinnish 

 layers of board), put the print face downwards 

 in a porcelain tray and pour hot water upon the 

 mount. It will be advisable, of course, to heat 

 the tray gradually before attempting to use very 

 hot water, otherwise it may break. If you have 

 an enameled tray, it will be preferable to use 

 that, as you could then have the water actually 

 boiling. Allow the print to stay in this until the 

 water is quite cold, and then hold the print to 

 the bottom of the dish with the fingers of the 

 left hand, while you take the edge of the mount 

 between the thumb and fingers of the right hand 

 and gradually pull it towards you, keeping the 

 fingers of the left hand as near as possible to the 

 raised part held in the right. If there is any 

 inclination to stick, or if the mount does not 

 come away easily, you must pour off the cold 

 water and again treat it with boiling water, and 

 allow it to become cool. When the print is 

 removed, wipe it over with cotton wool to re- 

 move all traces of mountant, and remount in the 

 ordinary way. 



