The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1897-08-28
PHOTOGRAPHERS AND DUST.

How 1T Affects Their Plates, and What
They Do to Escape It.
Among the many evils which are at
tributed to the all-perVading, neyer-to-
be-escaped city dust, there is one which
constitutes q grievance peculiar to
photo graphers alone. It is the injury
which the flying particles, sitting into
the room through every possible aper.
ture, cause to the delicate films and
sensitive plates. All films are made
of preparations of gelatine, and large
proportion of the glass plates now used
are also coated with this substance,
which. because of it's soft, sticky ma
ture, is particularly likely to attract
every atom of dust in the surround
ing Dir. The particles, however small,
leave their impress in the form of
opaque spots upon the sensitive surface
and seriously mar its perfection. To
remove the damage a great amount of
retonching is necessary, which is not
only laborious and tiresome, but which
cannot always be satisfactorily accom-
plished if the dust is very thick. What
lis known as the carbon process" in
photography is probably more easily
injured by dust than any other, be.
cause an extremely delicate film OF
;gelatinc is used. Chiefly on account OF
this drawback the carbon process is
seldom employed in this country, al.
though photographs are made which
resemble the real carbon pictures SO
closely in color that they are called
"carbontypes." In England, where the
carbon process is more common, it has
become customary for London photog-
raphers to send their developing work
out of town to be done, in order to es.
cape the dust and smoke Of the city
but this practice has not gained much
ground here.
The photographers in this city, as
rule, perform all their operations il
the same~building in which their stu
dios are situated, and, for the sake Of
thus keeping the developing process al
home, they are obliged to be at great
deal of trouble in protecting it. Some
of the methods employed for this pur
pose were mentioned to reporter the
other day by a Well-known Broadway
artist.
In the first place. he said, 1--WE
not only keep our dark room itsel.
but the whole top floor in which it il
situated spotlessly clean. The floor.
are all oiled until there is not cracl
in their surface to harbor dust, anc
they are thoroughly washed every
morning before we begin our day.
work All the tables, trays and every
thing we use are kept equally clean
The windows, instead Of being in tn,
side walls, where the wind would stril,
them and bear the dust in with it, ar,
in the roof, and very little dust car
come in that way. All cracks in thu
doors or around the window frames ar,
stopped up, and we keep the dark room
tightly closed as much Of the time a,
possible. With these precautions W,
manage to get along pretty well, bn
q certain quantity Of dust seems boune
to creep in and it causes us 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 sue
4 cess, consists IN filing the room ii
which the plates are kept with steam
Tor o few moments each morning. Thi
usually snfices to lay the dust for til,
entire day y. x. Tribune.
*