Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1898-02-10
PHOTOGRAPHERS AND DUST,
How 1t Affects Their Plates and What
They Do to Escape 1t.

How 1t Affects Their Plates and What
They Do to Escape 1t.
Among the many evils which are
attributed to the all pervading,
never to be escaped city dust there
is one which constitutes grievance
peculiar to photographers alone. It
is the injury which the flying par
ticles, sitting into the room through
every possible aperture, cause to
the delicate films and sensitive
plates. All films are made of prep
aratiops of gelatin, and a large
proportion of the glass plates now
used are also coated with this sub
stance, which, because of it's 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 sensitive surface and seriously
mar its perfection. To remove the
damage, a great amount of retouch-
ing is necessary, which is not only
laborious and tiresome, but which
cannot always be satisfactorily &C.
complished if the dust is very thick.
What is known as the carbon proc.
ess'' in photography is probably
more easily injured by dust than
any other, because an extremely
delicate film of gelatin is used.
Chiefly on account of this drawback
the carbon process is seldom en-
ployed in this country, although
photographs are made which resem-
BILE the real carbon pictures SO close:
ly in color that they are called "car-i
bontypes. In England, where thei
carbon process is more common, it'll
has become customary for London
photographers to send their devel-
oping 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
rule, perform all 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 mentioned to
reporter the other day by we'll
known Broadway artist.
In the first place. he said, "we
not only keep our darkroom 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 before we
begin our days work. ALI the ia
bles, trays and everything we use
are kept equally clean. The win
dows, instead of being in the side
walls, where the wind would strike
them and bear the dust in with it,
are in the roof, and very little dust
can come in that way. All cracks
in the doors or around the window
frames are stopped up and we keep
the darkroom tightly closed as
much of the time as possible. With
these precautions, we manage to get
along pretty well, but a certain
quantity of dust seems bound to
creep in, and it causes us a good
many hours of extra work in re-
touching
Practically the same struggle
against dust is the experience of
every photographer in the city. One
remedy which has been tried occa-
sionally with success consists in fill
ing the room in which the plates
are Kept with steam for a few mo-
ments each morning. This usually
suffices to lay the dust for the entire
day.-New York Tribune.