The Art and Practice of Silver Printing

r white for a much longer period than where the silver nitrate is allowed to dry on the surface. It may not be out of place to call attention to the action of silver nitrate on the pap

an is adopted for washing the paper:-The paper, after floating, is drawn twice rapidly through a dish of rain or distilled water, and, unless some other substance which can absorb chlorine be added to the last wash water, care should be taken not to soak out all the free nitrate, as then the paper would produce flat prints. It is then hung up to dry as before. Immediately before use it must be fumed with ammonia, in order that the prints may be "plucky," and free from that peculiar speckiness of surface which is known to the silver printer as "measles." We can readily trace the "measles" to their source. Suppose all free silver nitrate is washed away, and the paper be then exposed to light, the chl

of ammonia is that recommended by Colonel Wortley. This is to place overnight the pads of the printing-frame, if they be of felt, into a closed box in which is placed a saucer containing a couple of drachms of liquor ammoni

table size for it, which, when shut, will totally exclude all light. Make a false bottom in this about six inches, or so, from the real one, and perforate it with holes of about the same size that a gimlet would make. The

as Hearn directs, we prefer to soak half-a-dozen sheets of blotting-paper in ammonium chloride solution, about 20 grains to the ounce, and the same number

ended from laths about three inches apart, and it is not a bad plan to fasten a lath on to their bottom edge by the same means, to do away with their curling. To fume a single piece of paper it may be pinned up to the inside of the top of the lid of a box, and a drachm of ammonia sprinkled on cotton wool distributed at the bottom. The point to be attended to is that the

s fumed than if it be of a weak nature, since the action of ammonia is to cause rapid darkening in the deep shadows. In hot weather the fuming should be shorter than in cold, si

d to the printing bath, which is effective owing to the fact given at page 32

itrate 5

c aci

r 1

n sheets of pure blotting-paper. It will keep in its pristine state for months, if excluded from th

time if, when dry, it is placed between sheets of blotting-p

improved in sensitiveness by f

acid 20

um nitr

r 1

when dried, in

for 1880 Mr. A. Borland recomm

d surface dry, blots off any drops that may remain at the edges, and then f

of sod

d water

mus paper (the blue specimen), which should be slightly reddened by it. After this solution has been mixed about ten minutes, it is fil