We come now to the light. If you depend on the eye entirely in judging
the quality of the light, it will sometimes play you tricks. The rays
which are most active on the plates are those which have the least effect
on the eye. We can, however, by chemical means arrive at an exact
estimate of the active power, and for this purpose an actinometer is
used. This is simply an arrangement whereby a piece of sensitized paper
is exposed and allowed to darken to a standard tint, and by the time it
takes to reach that tint the value of the light is judged. Capt. Abney
has, however, pointed out that ordinary sensitized paper is not suitable
for bromide plates, since there are conditions of light in which the
plates will be fairly rapid while the paper will be very slow. He gives a
formula for a bromide paper, which is treated with tannin in order to
absorb the bromine set free during exposure, otherwise the darkening
would be very slight. I used this paper for a while, but found it rather
slow. The tannin also turned brown on keeping for a week or so. I then
made some more, substituting for tannin potassium _nitrite_ (not
nitrate), which is colorless. This was an improvement, but still it was
just slow enough.
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