Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-04-14
A FORTUNE IN WASTE.
How an Old Photographer Earns His
Money-SOme "Reminiscences.

From, the Macon tGd) TelsgraDR.
For some time past, Mr.. j, A. Pugh, the
well-known photographer, has had en-
ployed in his studio man whose expert
ences have been wonderfully interesting.
This man, Mr.. G. II. Kinds, is native
of Schenectady, n. Y. Heis so years old.
In form he is tall and remarkably erect.
In feature he is not handsome. Indeed, it
would be impossible to describe his rug
ged face. His manner is ViyaoiOus, and
his speech rapid and pointed
Mr.. Kinds is an old photographer. He
has taken pictures during each successive
stage of his art, and is thoroughly CONVEX
SAINT with the changes that have taken
place in it. For many years he has been
engaged IN the business OF extracting the
silver from the waste that always accu-
initiates in photographers studios, AS
far as known, he was the first to do this.
His plan is to travel from city to city and
purchase the waste from photographers.
The waste, which is nothing more than
the clippings from the paper used in max
ing photographs. contains silver. He
first reduces 1t by burning and then places
it in a crucible containing a certain guam
tity of bi-carbonate OF soda and boraX and
melts it. When taken out of the crucible
the oliver is in metallic form. He then
reduces the silver to the form OF nitrate
of silver, which commands Il good price.
In an interview with Dir. Kinds yester-
day reporter obtained a number of in
teresting "reminiscences. In speaking of
the Ian gest amount of silver he ever OBJ
tanned at one melting, he said:
''It was in Springfield, ILL.,, during the
war times. had more than bushel and
a half OF the ashes of the waste and when
it was melted | obtained 23i5 pounds of
silver. l remember that Gen. John A.
Logan and old Abe Lincoln came to see
the!ashes melted. They were much inter-
ested in the process"
just before the war ended Mr.. Kinds
was in New York. One day while passing
the establishment of the AppletOn's, the
famous publishers, he noticed that the
firm was moving into another building.
During the war the AppletOns had a photo
graphic department, in which the battle
fields and maps were photographed for il
lustrations. Mr.. Kinds noticed that
the old table, which had been
used for silvering the paper for
the maps, etc, was about to he dis
carded for a new one, and he sought one
Of the firm and asked what it could be
bought for. Mr.. Appleton told him to
take it away-that it was worthless. Mr..
Kinds took the old table to his boarding
house, knocked il to pieces and burned it
in his stove. Then from the ashes he
gathered two pounds Of silver, which at
that time was quoted at $40 pound.
In Macon MIR. Kinds obtained about
ten pounds of silver from the waste from
the studios, AS it is quoted at about $ll
pound, he will make snug little sum
out OF a few days stay.
Speaking of his life in Schenectady, Mr..
Kinds said:
81 worked a long time with Prof. S. f.
Is. Morse, the inventor OF tee electric tele-
graph. He was a photographer. He
went to New York and opened a studio
ard | went with him. All the time he
was engaged in the photographers bust
ness he was trying to perfect his tele-
graph. l remember that IN making eX-
periments in photography we would often
fail. He would say: We'll, boys, you
must try again. When | would see him
work day after day on his telegraph in
struments and then pile them away in
corner, would know tnat he had made a
failure of his experiment, and | would
say: 'Wen, Professor, suppose you'll be
trying again. And that's what he did
did it until he triumphed, as all the world
knows"
Mr.. Kinds has Travelled all over the
world. He is especially familiar with his
own country. Speaking Of his travels, he
said:
II saw the first steam engine that ever
ran on railroad IN New 1Ork STATE. IL
was a funny little thing, called the
Johnny Bull 1t ran on the Central rail-
road from Albany to Buffalo. ! wanted
once to go from point on the Hudson
river to Buffalo. When l arrived at the
depot the agent told me that the train had
gone, although much ahead OF It's adver-
fused leaving time. ] asked why it had
gone of in such hurry. on he said,
the car was full and there was no use
waltlng' The johnny Bulp hauled but
one car at time, and that had
seats for but twelve passengers. | told
the agent that | was very sorry that |
| had missed the train. because l was anX-
ious to take a certain boat at Buffalo,
He said that if / would pay for nine pas
senger fares be would send out an extra
| found another man who was anxious to
90 to Buffalo. and between us we paid for
the fares. When the extra appeared it
was nothing but little car drawn by
horse. Nevertheless, before we had trav-
eled quite eight miles we overlook Johnny
BulP and its car. That little engine is
SIN preserved at schenectady"
MIR. Kinds LETT last night for Augusta.
Yesterday afternoon Mr.. Pugh took a fine
photograph OF him on a homemade dry
Dlatp