However, noticing in Capt. Abney's article the statement that the bromide
of silver should be as nearly as possible in the same state in the paper
as in the plate, I thought "Why not Morgan's paper?" This, of course, is
just bromide emulsion on paper, and if, as I suspect from its color, it
contains a trace of iodide, why, so do most commercial plates. A sheet of
this paper cut into strips, soaked for ten minutes in a fifteen-grain
solution of potassium nitrite, and dried, gives a sensitive paper which
darkens with great rapidity to a good deep tint, and keeps indefinitely.
Here is some prepared last summer, which is still quite good. To use this
paper make a little box so that a little roll of it can be stored in one
end, and drawn forward as required beneath a piece of glass.
Bearing in mind that your table of exposures is calculated for the best
spring light, go to the country some bright day next month with
note-book, actinometer, and the necessary appliances for exposing a few
plates. Select, say, an open landscape, and use your smallest stop. When
all ready to expose, get out your actinometer and expose it to the
reflected light of the sky for ten seconds (if the sun is shining, turn
your back to it, and keep the actinometer in your own shadow); then put
it in your pocket, expose a plate according to your table, and in case
the light or plate should not be just in accordance with the conditions
under which the table was prepared, expose other two plates, one a little
less and one a little more than that first exposed.
Pages:
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73