THE “LUXOGRAPH.”

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5656, 16 May 1879, Page 3

THE “LUXOGRAPH.”

(From the North, Jh'itish Mail, Feb. 11; ■ The; invention of this instrument or apparatus, | a specimen of which has just been fitted up and is now in, Operation in Glasgow, forms “ a new departure,” as the fashionable phrase goes, in the development, of photographic portraiture.' There lies before us as we write a photographic portrait, of the size known as “ cabinet,” which no one,' whether layman merely or “expert,”' would ever imagine had not been taken under the most favorable conditions of clear daylight—and it would ; be generally pronounced a very successful picture “ at that.” ' Such, however, is not the case. We were eyewitnesses to the fact of the negative having been taken within the studio of Messrs. Turnbull, Jamaica-street, the other evening.between seven and eight o’clock, when the fiosty air over the city was filled with fog and smoke. On entering the special room devoted'toits use, the apparatus stands at once revealed to'the visitor, and a very short inspection, accompanied, by a few explanatory words 1 from the demonstrator, show that its construction is as simple as its operation has been proved tp.be, effectual.and.satisfactory. It' consists, outwardly, of a , large metal cylinder, slightly. conical, rpunded off and closed, at the narrow end, of back, arid nearly 6ft. in diameter, at ; thp other, the wide end or mouth, the latter being closed by a screen stretched tightly over it, composed..of what seemed to be ordinary thin tracing paper, but 'is jn reality a material .called papier minerale, manufactured‘in Paris, and owing its peculiar semi-transparency to a certain mineral preparation, as its name implies. This screen i "called 1 the r “dispersing screen," its use being’ 'to disperse 1 the rays of. light which pass through It, as we shall see,presently, and which, with-, ‘out such arrangement; would, asih the case of the electric light, 1 thfdw ’shadows; of preternatural intensity on the picture they produced. If the reader will only imagine a huge kettle-drum tilted up on its side, and fixed m such position with the head facing 1 the seat whereon the -sitter for his or her'portrait is placed, he ivill -have a notion about as nearly accurate as mere words can convey of the exterior appear-' -anoe (of the apparatus. The interidf of the] ,cone is lined throughout with some'hundreds ’of email mirrors, slips of silverised plate-glass,

thus constituting it an immensely powerful reflector. At the bade of it, and in the centre, is a square lantern of blue glass, open at the top, inside of which is placed an iron saucer or deflagrating dish, and access to which is had by a little furnace door at the back of the cone. The poising of the sitter, the “ focussing” and general arrangement of the camera, having been made by ordinary gas light, the modus opzrandi of the Luxograph is the simplest thing possible. An assistant takes out the deflagrating dish, puts therein from four to six ounces of a particular yellowish-looking powder, and then returns it to its place within the lantern. Having got the word from the op'erator at the camera that all is right, he strikes a match and sets fire to the powder in question, shutting close the furnace door again the moment he has done so. The ignited powder at once begins to burn with increasing intensity ; and when the combustion has reached its acme, the face and figure of the sitter is flooded, and Ihe room filled, with a beautiful soft violet light, which we can only compare to that of a fine summer day when the sun is slightly ; obscured by light fleecy clouds. It has long been known to men of science that it was possible to dispense with daylight for photographic purposes, and the lime light, magnesium -light, and electric light have all been tried, with a certain degree of success. It has been no' niorb than this, however ; and judging 'by results, it would seem that the process of-taking portraits by artificial light, which should be as entirely satisfactory as those ta’sen by daylight, remained to be and is at length achieved by the “Luxograph.” To Messrs. Turnbull belongs the merit of having been first in the field with its introduction to Scotland ; but that its general adoption can be only a matter of very short time hardly adniits of question. It need hardly be pointed out, in 'a concluding sentence, the advantage accruing also to sitters from such an invention. Weather is now no object, perhaps we might say no objection; while as for the time of day, provided they can come to an agreement with the photographer, that is as little.- ■ Both parties being agreeable, the sitter can be taken as satisfactorily at midnight as at high noon.