** Making Proofs before the Negative Dries [33]
A correspondent of Camera Craft makes proofs from his developed, but unfixed, negatives, by squeezing a sheet of wet bromide paper into contact with the wet film and giving an exposure several times longer than would be required under ordinary conditions, using the paper dry. If the developer is well rinsed out of the film, the exposure to artificial light necessary to make a print will have no injurious effect upon the negative, which is, of course, later fixed and washed as usual.
A very useful stand for flower pots can be made of a piece of board supported by four clothes hooks. The top may be of any size suitable for the flower pot. The hooks which serve as legs are fastened to the under side of the board in the same manner as fastening the hook to a wall. --Contributed by Oliver S. Sprout, Harrisburg, Pa.
As an apparatus capable of exciting interest, probably nothing so easily constructed surpasses the harmonograph. Your attention will be completely absorbed in the ever changing, graceful sweep of the long pendulum, the gyrations of which are faithfully recorded in the resulting harmonogram.
A careless impetus given to the pendulum may result in a very beautiful harmonogram, but you may try innumerable times to duplicate this chance record without success. No two hamonograms are exactly alike. The harmonograph, while its pendulum swings in accordance with well known natural laws, is exceedingly erratic when it comes to obeying any preconceived calculations of its operator. In this uncertainty lies the charm. If time hangs heavily or a person is slightly nervous or uneasy, a harmonograph is a good prescription.
The prime essential in a well working harmonograph is a properly constructed universal joint. Where such a joint is made with pivots for its bearings, one pair of pivots are very liable to have more friction than the other, which retards the movement and causes the harmonograph to undergo a continuous change of axis. To obviate this difficulty, the joint should be made similar to those used on scales. The general appearance of such a joint is shown in the first illustration, Fig. 1. Stirrups A and B are made of 7/8 by 1/4-in. metal. Holes are drilled in each end of these stirrups and filed out as shown at C. The two holes shown in the center of the stirrup A are drilled to fasten the apparatus to the ceiling. Two corresponding holes are drilled in B to fasten the long pendulum F to the joint. The cross of the joint D has the ends shaped as shown at E. The rounded shoulder on E is to prevent the cross from becoming displaced by a jar or accident. The ends of the cross are inserted through the holes C of the stirrups, then slipped back so the knife edges engage in the V-shaped holes of the stirrups. The cross must be so made that the knife edges will be in the same plane. This can be determined by placing two of the knife edges on the jaws of a vise and then laying two rules across the other two edges. The rules should just touch the jaws of the vise and the two knife edges of the cross. This makes a universal joint almost free from friction and, what is most important, prevents the pendulum from twisting on its own axis.