A CHEAP FUNNEL.

solid surface and using the ruler as a guide for the cutter, make a cut coinciding with one of the pencil lines; then turn the glass over and repeat the operation coinciding with the cut showing through from the other side. The first cut on film side is mainly to insure the film being cut through. If the glass is not entirely cut after the second operation it can be broken along the cut line by a bending pressure with the hands. The use of the glass cutter on old bits of glass until perfectly sure it is understood, is advisable before attempting any negative; otherwise the negative may be broken. BURR MCMILLEN.

܀ ܀

this is to take an ordinary envelope and cut off the part shown by the dotted lines. Then clip a little off the point; open out, and you have a funnel that will not give you any more trouble. It is cheap and can be thrown away when dirty, thereby saving time and washing.

WALTER J. ORBISON.

No doubt many amateurs have negatives given them by some friend higher up in the art; and would very much like to make prints from these negatives but cannot on account of their size, say 4 x5, while their own camera and printing frame is only 34 x 44 or smaller.

First procure a ten cent wheel glass cutter, then taking one of the 4x5 negatives with a ruler and lead pencil on the film side draw a rectangle 34 x 44 about that part of the negative from which you wish to obtain a print. This cutting can nearly always be done without spoiling the picture, especially in case of a central object containing the whole interest. Then place the negative film side up on a perfectly plane

PATCHING A FIXING BOX

Some years ago my composition fixing box was accidentally cracked down one side so badly that it leaked. Buying another just then was out of the question, and I set to work mending the crack with material at hand. I had a good sized piece of rubber mending tissue such as tailors use. A strip of this one and a half inches wide and a little longer than the crack was cut, then a firm piece of white cotton the same size as the mending tissue. Turning the box so that the crack was on top, the tissue and cotton were adjusted and pressed into place with a warm flatiron. Then a strip of mending tissue and a strip of cotton as wide as the box from top to bottom and long enough to cover the four sides with a good margin for a lap. When these were pressed smoothly all around the box it was as good as new and is still in constant use. The mending tissue may be purchased for a few cents at a tailor shop and is most useful for sticking on a cloth patch where there is any chance to apply heat with a flatiron.

E. M. HowLETT.

PHOTOGRAPHIC MYSTERIES.

Most amateur photographers of any experience have been confronted at some time or other with a photographic mystery, observes London Science. The result seemed to baffle all attempts at explanation, being set down, as often as not, either to supernatural intervention or to a shortcoming on the part of a manufacturer. In photographic materials, plates and films more especially, we have a product which has been prepared from first to last with a view to confer upon it the very utmost sensitiveness to the most feeble external impulses. It is coated with a preparation designed to respond instantly to the gentlest and most momentary touch of the delicate finger of light itself.

"The insensitiveness of photographic materials is as remarkable as their sensitiveness. A plate which has its composition profoundly altered by the impact of a faint light for a fraction of a second may be subjected to most violent experiences with other forms of energy and emerge unscathed. It may be heated or cooled, jarred, strained, electrified, and still be unharmed. But it is not wholly irresponsive to other agencies than light, and now and again these reach it and leave their impress to puzzle the photographer. Besides these there are unsuspected ways by which light itself may reach the sensitive surface.

"The x, alpha, beta, and other rays share with light the responsivity of the photographic emulsion. A bottle of an uranium salt left standing near a box of plates will leave its trace upon them. So will an incandescent gas mantle and other radio-active substances. No matter may appear to pass; the packet may be completely impervious to light; but the plates are affected. A few years ago such a result would have been baffling, It was

a

mystery which defied solution. Now we look upon it as a commonplace.

"Those who like to try an experiment should take two unexposed plates, face to face as they are left by the makers, wrap them in enough black paper to be perfectly sure that there is no risk whatever of light getting to them, and place in the outside of the packet some piece of metal of well-defined shape, a coin or piece of perforated zinc for example. On top of this may be put a piece of paper on which is a little heap of the fragments of an incandescent gas mantle; one that is worn out will do. The whole may be left undisturbed for two or three weeks; and then, if at the end of that time the plates are developed, they will be found to show the outline of the metal, which has been impressed on them through all the black paper and through the glass of the plates themselves."

This is a case of radiation; but chemical emanations may play tricks of a very similar kind on the photographer. If we take the perforated zinc, give it a rub with a piece of glass-paper so as to leave the metal bright, and leave it, not in contact with the film of the plate, but very near it, separated, say, by the thickness of a visning card, it will impress its pattern on the film in a few hours, as is scen when the plate is developed. Aluminum does the same. This is due to material emanations from the bright metal, which can be stopped by interposing a sheet of glass. A film of oxide on the metal is a protection, and cleaning it was therefore suggested.

"Many a photographic mystery has had its origin in this action. Both aluminum and zine have been used for the shutters of dark slides; the former is still popular for the purpose and answers very well. But if the side next the plate is rubbed or scratched so as to leave the metal bare,

there may be trouble. Quite recently an amateur photographer was puzzled by two straight black lines which appeared in the same position every time on a certain proportion of his negatives. The subject was investigated, and it was found that all the plates so marked had been exposed in one particular dark slide and in the same half of it; and on looking at the aluminum shutter two straight bright scratches were found on its inner surface exactly corresponding with the marks on the negatives. Something in the top of the slide made the scratches, as the shutter was put in and out, and had kept them bright; and as soon as this was remedied the trouble vanished. Metal sheaths may act in the same way.

"Every photographer knows that if he wraps up a plate with its sensitive surface in contact with printed matter, the print will set off and show in development. But it is not so generally known that this will take place even if the prints is not in actual contact with the surface of the plate. If there is a film of air, or even if a clean piece of paper is interposed between the print and the plate, given time enough—a few days is generally sufficient-the plate will be affected. This action is a chemical one and closely related to that of the metal just mentioned. The interposition of a sheet of glass between print and plate stops it absolutely.

"Yet in spite of this a pair of plates, face to face, have been wrapped in printed paper, and the print has shown on development, its image having been impressed on the film through the glass from the back. Here was a mystery, indeed; but its solution was found."

The paper was an "art," or coated paper; its coating was found to contain calcium sulphide, akin to luminous paint, and although its luminosity was too feeble to be perceived by the eye, it was patent enough to the plate, except where the printing ink obscured it. This therefore was not a case of radiation nor of emanation, but of actual light-action itself.

"A photographer went to photograph a Royal party leaving a big public building. He got a number of other views and kept his final plate for the party. At the last moment their plans were altered, they

left by another door; and his wait of half an hour or so was wasted. However, he put all his plates, including the unexposed one, into a dish and developed them, and on the unexposed plate he got a good negative of the door by which they should have left. He was certain he had made no exposure, yet there was the picture. The solution of this was found to be that his shutter had not quite closed, and all the time he was waiting with his slide drawn, he was, unknown to himself, exposing with what amounted to a small stop on the building.

"The most prolific source of mysterious images is to be found in pinholes in the camera or bellows. A pinhole acts as a lens. It requires a long exposure, it is true; but it gives a fairly sharp image at any camera extension, and it is a welldefined image that attracts the photographer's attention. The vast majority of the results of these subtle agencies go unnoticed because they take the form of more or less general fog; but when he gets on his plate not only the thing he was photographing but an unmistakable picture of something else which he has not knowingly photographed, he realizes that there is something going on beyond his control. Some of the images due to pinholes in the camera have been very remarkable in their clearness and definition, although they are the simplest of photographic mysteries. For example, a number of otherwise successful photographs taken during an exploration in Central Asia were marked by the constant presence of figures which were not before the camera at the time; and some of these figures were recognized as those of members of the party. They were traced to a hole in the camera front which had been made by the extreme point of a screw that had subsequently dropped out."-Current Literature.

LUMINOUS PHOTOGRAPHS.

It is not difficult even for a non-professional photographer to make prints of his pictures having the peculiarity of a phosphorescent luminosity. The process is somewhat circumstantial, but with reasonable skill should not present many difficul

gun, but the barrel is four inches in diameter, and is covered with leather. At the breech is a square box, to which several small levers are attached. The weapon is levelled upon a flying bird or any moving object, the trigger is pulled, a shutter is sprung, and the object is transfixed upon the film. Twelve shots may be taken with it, and it is reloaded in much the same manner as the ordinary camera. -Harper's Weekly.

*

ties. The luminous substance employed is the white sulphide of calcium, that glows in the dark if previously exposed to the light. As the substance is rapidly transformed into the bichromate of potash, the period of handling must be curtailed as much as possible. According to a suggestion in the Photorevue, a solution of 30 parts of gelatine, with ten times the volume by weight, of water, is made moderately warm and three parts of bichromate of potash and 12 parts of phosphorescent sulphide of calcium stirred in. With this mass, a piece of common celluloid film is coated, the coating allowed to dry, and it is then exposed in a printing frame under the positive to the light, the non-coated side of the celluloid being in contact with the positive. The duration of exposure should be about the same as for a carbon print and the development is likewise effected with the aid of warm water.-Scientific American.

THE FRENCH GUN CAMERA.

A camera that has been invented in France has a stock like that of an ordinary

WHY HE CURSES.

There is one man, so the story goes, who curses long and loudly the cinematograph. In his amiable, husbandly way he took his wife to see the "cin" (new abbreviation), and in the Sunday afternoon discmbarkation scene his better half saw what she believed to be her husband coming ashore with another lady. To be the more convinced, she saw the tableau fully half a dozen times with the aid of opera glasses. The accused male indignantly denies everything, but as he cannot prove a complete alibi for that particular Sunday afternoon, and his wife won't entertain the idea of an "extraordinary likeness," there is a big storm in the once happy home.

-Photographic Dealer

PHOTOGRAPHIC DETECTIVE.

A scientific organization in France has employed an ingenious device to test the alleged power of a young woman to tell the contents of unopened boxes. The committee, appointed by the organization to make the test, took a photographic plate, and exposed it in a camera as for an ordinary picture. Then the plate was cut in two, and one half of it, carefully protected from the light, was enclosed with other objects in a sealed box. After the young woman had described the contents of the box the committee developed the two halves of the plate. That which was in the box was "fogged," showing that it had been exposed to light, while the other half developed a perfectly clear picture. -Photographic Dealer.

CHICACO CAMERA CLUB, CHICAGO, ILL. The annual meeting of this club, held at the club rooms, June 2, about twenty-five members being present, the following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President, Geo. C. McKee; Vice-President, C. B. Hale; Secretary-Treasurer, H. A. Langston, (re-elected); Directors, E. F. Oyster, H. H. Hyde, F. M. Tuckerman, W. F. Willis.

The position of Assistant SecretaryTreasurer was also created and Mr. G. Sohn appointed to fill same.

The annual report of the SecretaryTreasurer showed the affairs of the club to be in prosperous condition.

A number of improvements have recently been made, among them being the installation of an autochrom room and a CooperHewitt light for portraiture. During the summer months a school of photography wil be established, with competent instructors, and nothing will be left undone to stimulate interest in the advancement of the art.

H. A. LANGSTON, Secretary.

The Album for July, 1910, was issued June 16, 1910. It contains 31 prints.

At latest advices the Albums now en route were located as follows: Album for March, 1910, at N. Y. City; Album for April, 1910, at Boston: Album for May, 1910, at Burlington, Vt.; Album for June, 1910, at Elmira, N. Y.

Awards of certificates for prize winning prints are announced, viz.: to Mr. C. F. Clarke, of Springfield, Mass., for print No. 30, entitled "Mrs. C., Sr.," Album for December, 1909, Artistic Merit No. 1, and for print No. II, entitled "My Winter Girl,"

Album for January, 1910, Technical Merit No. I.

To Mr. Lewis J. Fitler, of Sayre, Pa., for print No. 25, entitled "A Flower of the Fields," Album for December, 1909, Technical Merit No. 1.

To Mr. C. S. Luitwieler, of Newton Highlands, Mass., for print No. 1, entitled "An October Sunset," Album for January, 1910, Artistic Merit No. 1.

Please forward the Albums promptly. In no case should they be retained for a longer period than three days. It is of the highest importance that all the Albums now en route (including the July Album) should be in the hands of the Secretary before October 1st. It is contemplated to make a change in the route list, commencing with the Album for October, and unless all the Albums en route are home before the date mentioned, it will not be practicable to effect the change until the lapse of a year. In any case where there is a probability that a member will be absent from home when Albums are due to arrive, timely provision should be made for forwarding the Albums without loss of time (see By-laws, No. 9).

The Secretary hopes to have the pleasure of greeting a large number of his associates at Athens during the "Meet" commencing July 16, 1910.

G. A. BRANDT, Secretary.