Having said so much about making up the size, let me add a few words as
to other preparations that are sometimes necessary. In a good lantern
transparency, it is, of all things, indispensable that the high lights be
represented by pure glass, absolutely clean in the sense of its being
free from any fog or deposit, to even the slightest degree; it is also
necessary that it be free from everything of heaviness of smudginess in
the details. To obtain these results, I generally have recourse to the
strengthening of the high lights of my negatives, and this I do with a
camel's hair brush and India ink, working on the glass side.

I nearly always block out my skies, and so strengthen the other parts of
my negatives, that I can rely on a full exposure without fear of
heaviness or smudginess. This blocking out is easily done.

Haying said so much about the preparation of the negative, let me now
describe the apparatus I use. I have here an ordinary flat board, and
here my usual camera; it is the one I use both for outside and inside
work. It is a whole-plate one, very strongly made, and has a draw of
twenty-three inches when fully extended; but this is not an unusual
feature, as nearly all modern cameras have their draw made as long as
this one. The lens I use is a Ross rapid symmetrical on five inches
focus, and here I have a broken-down printing frame with the springs
taken off, and here a sheet of ground glass. This is all that is
required. I mention this because I find it generally believed that a
special camera is required for this work, such as to exclude all light
between the negative and the lens; in my practice I have found this
unnecessary. There is nothing to hinder the use of ordinary cameras,
provided the draw is long enough, and the lens a short focus one.

Now let me describe how to go to work. I take the negative and place it