444 
FOREST AND STREAM 
August, 1920 
AN EFFICIENT PRINT DRYER 
THAT THE AMATEUR PHOTO- 
GRAPHER CAN CONSTRUCT 
A PRINT dryer that will handle a 
few or a great many prints at the 
same time, automatically adjusting it- 
self to accommodate the number that 
happen to be ready for drying, may be 
readily constructed by the amateur pho- 
tographer. This device will do the work 
rapidly and will leave the prints perfect- 
ly flat when the moisture has been re- 
moved. Best of all it may be made from 
simple materials that can be brought to- 
gether by anyone. The essentials neces- 
sary for constructing this machine will 
be a box of half-inch lumber, some 
strawboard, blotting paper and muslin, 
as well as an electric fan. 
On the drawing the complete drying 
machine is shown at No. 1. It consists 
of a box body mounted on legs to ele- 
vate it to the height of the air current 
sent from the fan. The size of this 
body may be constructed according to 
the needs of the photographer, the 
larger the box the more prints the dry- 
ing machine will handle. If but few 
prints are to be dryed at a time the 
device will only need a small box for the 
body. For the average amateur pho- 
tographer who will develop from a dozen 
to a hundred prints at one time the box 
for the purpose should be twelve inches 
square at the ends and twenty-four inch- 
es long. Of course if the size of the 
negative from which the prints are made 
is a large one that will necessarily make 
the size of the body larger. These di- 
mensions are for the average size print, 
say 4 x 5 or the postcard size camera. 
This box for the body of the drying ma- 
chine may be made from half-inch lum- 
ber to the size desired or perhaps you 
can find one ready made at the store 
l/f/'E are depending upon the 
rr friends and admirers of our 
old correspondent Nessmuk to make 
this department worthy of his 
name. No man knew the woods 
better than Nessmuk or wrote of 
them with quainter charm. Many 
of his practical ideas on camping 
and “ going light ” have been 
adopted by the United States Army ; 
his canoe has been preserved in the 
Smithsonian Institution; and we 
hope that all good woodsmen will 
contribute to this department their 
Hints and Kinks and trail-tested 
contrivances. — [Editors.] 
that will just fill the purpose. In any 
case it should be made from boards that 
are planed both sides so that it will not 
scratch the wet and soft faces of the 
prints should they come in contact with 
the sides of the body when the device is 
being loaded for taking the moisture 
from the prints. 
To make a suitable box ready for be- 
coming the body to this dryer it should 
have a hole, Y, cut in one end. For the 
box of the size given, this opening in the 
end should be eleven inches wide by ten 
inches high. It should be carefully cut 
in the end so that the wood is not split 
and may be accomplished easily by first 
boring with an inch bit at the four cor- 
ners, marking out with a pencil, and then 
sawing from one hole bored to another 
until the whole four sides have been 
sawed out. The four legs should be cut 
from lumber two inches wide, eight 
inches long, and half an inch thick. Se- 
cure the legs to the four corners of the 
body by means of small screws, each leg 
being six inches high below the base of 
the box. That is, the legs elevate the 
body six inches from the floor to accom- 
modate the height of the ordinary fan. 
The position of the electric fan in con- 
nection with this drying device is 
marked, E, on the sketch in Figure one. 
On the drawing at No. 1, the side is 
shown cut away in order to show clearly 
the internal consti’uction of the drying 
machine. The part, H, is a half-inch 
board eleven inches wide by twenty 
inches long and has nailed to one end 
the upright panel K. This panel, K, is 
eleven inches wide and ten inches high. 
When these two boards are in position, 
as shown in the drawing, the panel, K, 
always covers whatever of the opening, 
Y, is not taken up by the pile of drying 
prints, blotting paper, and strawboard 
located at A. The part H, also acts as 
a light weight over the contents of the 
box, A, and keeps the drying prints 
firmly in place in the dryer. Just how 
these two pieces, K, and H, appear is 
shown more clearly at the drawing 
shown at No. 2. Notice that the up- 
right part, K, is nailed in place half an 
inch from the end of the horizontal 
board H. If it were not for this part of 
the dryer the breeze from the fan might 
blow the contents of the machine out 
of place and spoil its operation, or at 
least a part of the air current would 
be lost through the opening Y. 
The sketch at No. 3 gives a detailed 
constructional view of the inside of the 
drying apparatus. The opening in the 
end is indicated by the dotted lines at 
Y, and the direction of the air current 
from the fan is shown by the line of 
arrows from R, the position of the fan, 
to S, where the currents are released 
from the rear of the body of the ma- 
chine. If there was a hole in the rear 
of the dryer similar to the one in the 
front the air would pass too rapidly 
through the corrugations of the straw- 
board to effectively dry the prints. The 
position of the panel, K, and its hori- 
zontal part, H, is clearly indicated on 
this sketch, which gives a side view of 
the dryer. 
To load this drying device when com- 
pleted a number of pieces of straw- 
