The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1897-09-18
PHOTOGRAPHERS AND DUST.
How 1t Affects Their Plates and What
They Do TO Escnpe II.


Among the many evils which are at
tributed to the all-pervading, never-to-
be escaped city dust, there is one which
constitutes a grievance peculiar to pho
tographers alone. 1t is the injury
which the flying particles, sitting into
the room through every aperture, cause
to the delicate films and sensitive plates,
All films are made of preparations of
gelatin, and a large proportion of the
glass plates now used are also coated
with this substance, which, because of
its soft, sticky nature, is particularly
likely to attract every atom Of dust in
the surrounding air, The particles,
however small, leave their impress in
the form of opaque spots upon the SEN
sitive surface and seriously mar its per-
lection. To remove the damage great
amount of retouching is necessary,
which is not only labOrious and tire
some, but which cannot always be sat
isfactorily accomplished if the dust is
very thick. What is known as the car
bon process" in photography is prob
ably more easily injured by dust than
any other. because an extremely deli
cate film of gelatin is used. Chiefly on
account of this drawback the carbon
process is seldom employed in this coun-
try, although photographs are made
which resemble the real carbon pic
lures so closely in color that they are
carbon types" In England, where the
carbon process is more common, 1t has
become customary for London pho
tographers to send their developing
work out of town to be done, in order
to escape the dust and smoke of the city,
but this practice has not gained much
ground here.
The photographers in this city, as a
rule, perform their operations in the
same building in which their studios
are situated, and for the sake of thus
keeping the developing process at home,
they are obliged to be at great trouble
in protecting it. Some of the methods
employed for this purpose were men
toned to a Tribune reporter the other
day by II well-known Broadway artist.
In the first place" he said, 1--WE not
only keep onr dark room itself, but the
whole top floor in which it is situated,
spotlessly clean. The floors are all
oiled until there is not crack in their
surface to harbor dust, and they are
thoroughly washed every morning be-
fore we begin our days work. All the
tables, trays, and everything we use are
kept equally clean. The windows, in
stead of being in the side walls, where
the wind would strike them and bear
he dust in with it, are in the roof, anC
very little dust can come in that way
All the cracks in the doors or around the
window frames are stopped up, and We
keep the dark room tightly closed as
much of the time as possible. Will
these precautions we manage to get
along pretty well, but certain quaint
" of dust seems bound to creep in, anC
it causes us a good many hours of extra
work in retouching."
Practically the same struggle agains
dust is the experience of every photog
rapher in the city. One remedy which
has been tried occasionally with success
consists in filling the room in which thu
plates are kept with steam for few mo
ments each morning. This usually sut
fees to lay the dust for the entire day
N Y. Tribune.