Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-09-23 00:00:00

PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.

The opening meeting of the fifth session of this society
was held last night in the Royal Institution, Colquitt-street,
Mr. Corey, president in the chair. • •
The chief business of the meeting, was the
PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS..
He commenced by congratulating the society on its
prosperous condition, and then slightly glanced at the
progress of photography in those days.._ He impressed on
the members the importance of still farther developing
the art, and of giving ,to' the •sosiety each sessions the
result of their vacation labours. He then continued :
It may be expected I shall carry out my old precept,
and set the example, by narrating nay orn ob +(nye-
tions losing oueresess. These, from the pressure of more
important eng Igemento, have neither been so important
nor so nurne-ons as I could desire, but they have bsen
chiefly directed to the quality and c ondition of baths
both positive and negative, and I am boll enough to say,
hints based upon actual experiment will be werh attention
on this fundamental principle of all good pictures. A
pod working collodion is of most material importance,
doubtless, bat its place mat be supplied by albumen ; not
so a defective bath ; nothing will avail yon if this be
wrong ; nor do I attach that importance to any infallible
form of a devel -ping agent,. such as two subtle dispu-
tants of the pres-nt day are waging amicable war about
just now. I have too high a value for both of them to yen-
, use an opinion in behasf of either I will only invoke your
dmiration of the consummate skill displayed in the special
pleadings on both sides, and return to the matter in hand.
The primary strength is too generally supposed to Ontinus
so long. toe nearly so long, as the liquid remains in available
quantity; for it is believed that it the silver be abstracted
by repeated immersion of plates, a proportionate. bulk of
water hangs to those plates. Hence the balance of
strength remains mach the same, though the v Aurae is
dineinisheJ, 'and this error I have seen confirmel by the
use of the hydrometer ; for the experimenter has
triumphaudY pointed to the scele as exhibiting the
roper standard of Argentine salts in it. True, but
what have those salts become ? Look at the hue of
the liqu7d, and say what is the cease of that yellow
tinge ? Why, the redundancy of iodide that has
become generated by repeated immersion. Tine far-
ther ; it is the iodide that forms the nascent
image, bat it is only by a prepon erance of nitrate, which,
after a. tims, can herdly be said to exist; it is thee inevi-
table that the bath mu --t be strengthened, and much of
that iodide removed. How? Thu.: determioe how much
more of the crystallized (not fined) nitrate y 'intend to
add; put just so much water into your bath as would
requisite to dissolve that much at the rate of 39 grains
the ounce ; the iodide that was soluble in the bath, of
previous strength, is no longer so, and the solution becomes
turbid; leave this a whole night, and it will be found preci-
piteed at the. bottom of the vessel ; pour off the clear
liquid in the morning ; dissolve in it the nitrate of silver
previously resolved on; add about as many drops of nitric
acid as you have superadded ounces of water (more may
probably be necessary for reasons beyond the limit of this
paper to describe) and you will find your bath in all its
pristine efficacy. Now, as we have seen that the acidity
of the positive bath is a fact of primary importance,
so the utter absence .of that acidity is of equal consequence
in the negative bath. While . out with two of our most
esteemed members during the hot:est. day f this summer,
I coul.l not, with all m 7 best enieavaurs, get intense
negatives, "wh;le these geUtlemen. with the use of the same
Chemicals, had no such difficulty ; they woes working with
plates of stereoscopic size, while mine were twelve inches
square. On examining my bath, on my return, I found it
to be. powerfully acid. In their small plates. this had not
mattered so much, but the aggregate quantity had been
faial in the immense surface of mine. I eiaporated the
whole eighty ounces to dryne7s, tog Id on the heat till I
saw fumes of nitrous gas evolve I dissolved egain, and
have since had no such difficulty. Before concluding I
would again urge upOe the met/eh:Ts the exoediency of
raising the digeity ni the art beyond the mare toy of the
fancy ore the xecreetion of the laituse hour. The known
fiielity of pho ography has Causal it to be received,
ere now, as evidense in a court of justice. Why,
then, should we not exercise its faculties to record
ail great events, such as those that teem with good to the
rising generation, like the laying of the s:ono of the
f itu-e library, or to chronicle the vast changes that a-e
continually being made to i nprovs this thriving town,
,Already have we lived to regret that there is nothing
extant to remind us cf the quaint old edifices that, while
they encumbered the thoroughfares, yet gave a picturesque
interest to the strets and lanes, many of which there
may be an urgent necessity hereaices to recall. I before
insisted on this, while having the honour to preside over
your meetings. I again press this on gal/. notice. I also
urged you.to use it as a means of representing the physical
necaliarities of the Lumen species, of which so endless a
veriety_ace daily to be sera crowding this busy port. Tv
the ethuolOgioe, this waall present a velum@ of the most
undying tute,rest, bur lika—gtauf" other and n:blar
"enterprises of great pith and moment, its carreat"
is turned "awry," wed it has lost " the name of action."
(A.p slause.)
several beautiful photographs were exhibitel, and Mr.
Newcombe exhibited his portable collodion camera, or
knapsack. . It elicited general admiration, and thanks
were voted to the exhibitor.

I.ret:STZ IN LINI'R'CK. —Ott Tuns ley role o' t 'ore insect;
t'le first secs oar locility, flew into the 0' 13 -id:ze
the.ctnal, 'in I wss captire I. by lir. R. 11.
II irris, ..vko hts preserved alive. In S:Z3 it measures
three irches, and is pronoanee lan In in species.
. Locusts ix Cosx.-=-This morning a lotust woe taken
near the Cor.c Seam Ship Company's works. This insect
has been compared with drawings and presuved apecimens,
and ,here is no do:ib: that it is a specimoi of '.ho true locust
or wlrse'slovsstations we have se often heard.—Examiner.

A. SPIRTED OFFER.—Two gentlemen of Sheffield,
nienihera of- the t cm-he'd, Mr: Eitrvey and Mr.
Briilbeaf, hove offered to raise 500 men in the town
within a month, to serve Et the army, them elves paying
the preliminary expenses, and h:.•nling the men over to the
zovernment without any i3onditinn whatever. Lord
Patimure, thankinz, them on•behall of himself and e illeagnes
for their g-al and piblic'sditit; has accepted the off2r. The
.Governmeni, however, will pay the i•xnens s usual on each
occasions—that .£2 per m to bounty and a free kit,—
Spreafor.
THE DUE,. cr Manznonouo.t ON A Crtuarin
QuEs!tox,—A corresponthent Writes :—The 1 u ,iag copy
of a leVer addressed t', the v .rious ratepayers or Wood-
stock will shop to what ex ea the iir!abliants of that
borough are allowed to vote in accordance with the
opinions they may injor.—'S.etvar ,'s Office, 13'enheim
Palace, Angus: 19, 1357 —Sir, His Grace the Duke of
MirlbJtongh having unde.stoo-i that a ves2ty will he held
in Woodstock' ;n Tueviay next, the 20 h inatant, fur the
putp 'B9 of willing a chu-chrate, his gracee is in the hope
tha- you will supp-,rt the Kate.--1 am, sir, yours respect-
fully, WILLIAM 'MEIN." •
A. CURIOUS C tee or TIME IN Till LAPSING of A LEGACY.
case came before the S trrogitie's Court of New York,
on the 7ch incta ,t, in which the point was a singular one.
Mr 111iLnsk;•,y, n• gentleman worth some 150,000 dollars,
dying in P.iris, 1, t 9,000 dollars to a c:'in Daboque,
lowa. • The heic? er legatee.died on th; same day as the-
testator. If the hour of death preceded his, the legacy
lapsed ; if it succeeded his, the legacy is v,ested ia her:
of their deeea e Was E 0 nearly ilen'ical that it is
•su,owed it will hale to be det-rmitied by the difference
betWee.l s Oar and true time, the legacy th,ereby depondiag
upon a gurstion of longitude.

A "Henn TURNED" BY Goon FORTUNE.—A legatee
of the late Mr. Ferguson of Irvine—a legatee to the tune
of £20,000 —has gone demented in toristq ,ene cf his go ol
fortnie, and his friends, as the phrase goes, have to look
after him. • The legatee belongs to Glasgow. but from
prudential motives we withhold names. The first serious
symptom of aberration of intellect cceurred a few daya
ago at Stirling, to which place the newly-exalted man had
wanfiered, and having his pockets splendidly replenished
with ..yellow G:-ordies," he bethought himsklf of making
a purchase of two of the best carriage horses that Stirling
ciuld protium The horses wire got and paid for. A
superb cirriage was the next iavestment, the, cost of which
was also paid on. the spot. To make matters eomalete,
a coachman was engaged for ihe year at a liberal salary..
All being ready for a new start in life, our legatee, with
comniendahle directed his horses' footsteps towards
Alto where the br..ti new equipage safely arrived, and
where al concerned partook of refre:hment. So far, every-
thilg may appear to hive ben rational enough. Bat forth-
with the friend of the departed millioriaire drove to the
ancient city of D toren-041e, and ,there ent-Jeing a hair-
dre.iser's shop, he purchased aid paid for a large qe.litity
of toys and trinket., These,being thrown in the carriage
oar legatee, retraced la's steps, met a man driving a fine
"milch cow, and la's animal he there and then bugained for
and bought. He next prop Ind to fast( n the cow with a
,cord to the b ick of the carriage, and in that way proceed to
Alloa. But the propos:el was jadiziously overruled—the
more so that it was' k ly the cow would give b'rth to a calf
hecore arriving at the end of its journcy—and the animal
was leisureiy led to Alloa by the per on from whom it was
bought As it was now becoming evident that the legatee's
head was tune I, his rela ives were communicated with,
and from them the circumstanc, s was ascertained that since
coming into pt sses:ion of the twenty thousand pound
legacy b quAlted to him by ;he late Mr. Ferguson, their
friend bad become quite erratic in his movements, but
it was now arrange I to have Lim placed temporarily
in an asylum, and is au asylum he now remains.—.4llos
Advert!'etr. . ,