The valve system, controlling the water supply, is so arranged that the pressure can be regulated at will by the operator, and the circulation of the water is so designed that, instead of the fumes being given out from the bath, a gentle current of fresh air is constantly drawn into the different compartments, and the excess of water not required is led by a pipe to the outer air. In operation, the plate is clamped to the plate carrier by an extremely simple and quick-acting device, and is moved into the

SECTIONAL VIEW OF THE LEVY ACID BLAST MACHINE FOR ETCHING.

acid compartment, where it is engaged in hook connected with the oscillating device, and the air pressure turned into the etching compartment.

The first bite on any job is completed in from thirty to sixty seconds; twenty seconds gives abundant depths for a 133 line half-tone, and sixty seconds for a coarse half-tone. The plate, after receiving the first etch, is removed from the etching to the washing compartment where it is sprayed with water and thoroughly cleansed. After powdering, it is given a second bite of usually about two minutes, and a third bite of from four to six minutes completes the etching to the usual depths.

One of the most interesting features of this apparatus is the quality of the resulting work. By its means half-tones can be etched on zinc, having the same character as the very finest that can be produced on copper. The accompanying prints are photographs enlarged fifty diameters from plates made from the same negative by means of the acid blast and in the usual way. The difference in character is so apparent as to require no comment. The results already obtained by this method of etching, and the economy effected thereby, indicate very clearly that the old method of etching by means of rocking a plate in a tub is destined to be entirely superseded by mechanical and more modern methods of procedure.

While the Etching Machine was undergoing development, Mr. Levy perfected a machine for powdering the plates and preparing them for the etching. This machine has been tested out for some years in several newspaper plants, and its performance, both as to quality and speed, amply confirms the conviction that the powdering of a plate is a mechanical process, which can be better done by mechanical means than by hand. This machine lays on the powder, brushes the plate, heats it and cools it, all automatically, and is a continuous operation, the time consumed for a plate 20 x 24, or two smaller plate's, being but little over one minute for each powdering from the time the plate goes into the machine until it is ready for the next operation.

This machine is also undoubtedly destined to aid the etching machine in promoting the entire process of etching to a more modern basis.

Explanation of Plate en Opposite Page.

Figs. 1, 2 and 3 show the plate as etched in the tub in. two bites occupying seventeen minutes.

Figs. 4, 5 and 6 show a plate from the same negative etched in the machine in one bite of sixty seconds.

FIG. 6

FIG. 3 MICRO-PHOTOGRAPHIC ENLARGEMENTS OF HALF-TONES ON ZINC.

THE ABUSE OF THE HAND CAMERA.

N

By FREDERIC G. P. BENSON.

O piece of apparatus ever introduced for the practice of photography has probably been more misused than the self contained camera, intended primarily for use in the hand.

Its apparent simplicity is very misleading, and so far from being the easiest method of commencing photography, it is really a difficult form of the art, and should not be adopted until the worker has had considerable practice with a stand camera and become thoroughly conversant with the various processes involved in producing a photographic pic

It is an undoubted fact that where the practice of photography is begun with a stand camera, in most instances in course of time pictures having some degree of merit are produced, whilst on the other hand where a hand camera is the instrument chosen to commence with, it is only a few exceptional individuals who ever attain even a moderate degree of success.

The facility of use inherent in the hand camera (which is such an attraction to some people), is the very thing which is the cause of this failure, and it is mainly because the proper functions of a hand camera are not fully realized that disappointment so frequently results.

Now what do we find usually happens? After a hand camera has been in use for a season or two, the only result is a heterogeneous collection of snap shots possessing neither technical merit, pictorial value, or personal interest. It is only in the rarest instances that pictures are obtained combining all these features-even with the most skilful handling, and the one thing the hand camera worker should strive for is to get the utmost personal interest in his pictures, and if they possess this, although they may be of little artistic value and only poor technically, they will be a valued possession both to the producer and his friends.

A hand camera is of most service on those little jaunts with

a party of friends, when photography is, so to speak, only a side show and to use a stand camera would involve delay and interference with the progress of the party. On days like these, a hand camera with its ready availability and its capacity for getting unconventional pictures, has a distinct value.

In order to obtain the utmost value out of these little views, they should be arranged in the order in which they were taken, and bound in a special portfolio (which need be of the most simple description) with a brief account of the outing.

A series of these records will in after years be a valued possession, and be treasured, where the same pictures stuck haphazard in an album or worse still, thrown loose into the nearest drawer, would not be worth the paper they were printed