468 Hope street, 
Providence, B.I. 
Jan. 30, 1911 
Pear Fernald:- 
Thank you for the check which reached me this morning. 
Your disposition of the remaining Gaspe plants is perfectly satis-" 
factory to me. 
In regard to the enlargements;- At present I have no apparatus 
hy which I could make an enlargement greater than 8 X 10.'" I doubt 
if I could rig up anything to do the work and make the prints at 
the price you mention except at an actual loss. Undoubtedly the 
firm you mention has every appliance for rapid work, and they would 
probably use a cheaper g 2 *ade paper than I would, or'would care to 
experiment with sufficiently to be able to use it profitably. 
However, I would prefer to do the work even at a loss, iif this were 
not too great) , rather than let. the negatives go out of my hands. 
I say this because I have had several negatives badly disfigured, 
and some rendered absolutely useless for"the purposes for which I had 
gone to considerable expense to get them, through loaning them. 
Upon inquiry of others I learn that this is a common experience 
where negatives have been loaned to professionals (even to those 
who have the reputation of being careful workers). Several times 
I have been told that professionals have no regard for negatives 
other than their own, especially those of amateurs. My own experience 
would seem to bear out this statement (or these statements) also. 
Have you considered the relative cost of these enlargements 
as compared with a lantern slide equipment? If not you may be interest 
ed in what follows, a matter which I have had occasion to look into 
considerably within the past few years. 
Suppose you should get 200 enlargements such as you mention. 
They would cost $100.00 for pictures 12 x 14 inches". Contrast this 
with the cost of a lantern and slides. Assuming that you have no 
available lantern. A new A. I. Thompson "Educational Lantern" 
with a 100 candle power incandescent lamp costs #40.00, not counting 
the electrical connections to the lantern. In addition you would 
want some sort of a screen. The very best screen that I* ever saw, 
aside from the expensive "Luminaire Opaque", was a wall painted white. 
As I recall your laboratory there is a wall that coul$ easily be 
painted white for a space of 6 feet square. If this is not' correct 
then an ordinary screen could be obtained for $5.00, or, better, an 
opaque white screen, 8x8 feet, for $8.00. This would make a total 
of $48.00 for everything except electrical connections, window cur¬ 
tains, and slides. For $50.00 you could probably get from 130 to 
150 lantern slides, or even more in quantity. You would then have 
an apparatus which ought easily to throw a picture 5 feet square, 
at a distance of from 10 to 12 feet from the screen. This 100 
candle power lamp mentioned above is advertised to cover a screen 
8 to 10 feet square at a distance of 15 to 40 feet (probably depend¬ 
ing on the lens used). I would advise getting the lantern closer 
to the screen (10 to 12 feet) and getting a brighter, though smaller, 
picture (say 4 or 5 feet Square). That would be larger than would 
actually be necessary for a class the size you mention. Then if 
