Читать книгу: «Notes and Queries, Number 188, June 4, 1853», страница 5
PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE
Test for a good Lens.—The generality of purchasers of photographic lenses can content themselves with merely the following rules when they buy. It ought to be achromatic, i. e. consisting of the usual two pieces of crown and flint glass, that its curves are the most recommended, and that it is free from bubbles: to ascertain the latter, hold the lens between the finger and thumb of the right hand, much as an egg-merchant examines an egg before a strong gas flame, and a little to the right of it; this reveals every bubble, however small, and another kind of texture like minute gossamer threads. If these are too abundant, it should not be chosen; although the best lenses are never altogether free from these defects, it is on the whole better to have one or two good-sized bubbles than any density of texture; because it follows, that every inequality will refract pencils of light out of the direction they ought to go; and as bubbles do the same thing, but as they do not refract away so much light, they are not of much consequence.
I believe if a lens is made as thin as it safely can be, it will be quicker than a thicker one. I have two precisely the same focus, and one thinner than the other; the thinner is much the quicker of the two. An apparently indifferent lens should be tried with several kinds of apertures, till it will take sharp pictures; but if no size of aperture can make it, or a small aperture takes a very long time, it is a bad lens. M. Claudet, whose long experience in the art has given him the requisite judgment, changes the diameter of his lenses often during the day; and tries occasionally, in his excellent plan, the places of the chemical focus: by this his time is always nearly the same, and the results steady. As he is always free in communicating his knowledge, he will, I think, always explain his method when he is applied to. The inexperienced photographer is often too prone to blame his lens when the failure proceeds more from the above causes. The variation of the chemical focus during a day's work is often the cause of disappointment: though it does not affect the landscape so much as the portrait operator.
If any one has a lens, the chemical and visual focus being different, his only remedy is M. Claudet's method. And this method will also prove better than any other way at present known of ascertaining whether a lens will take a sharp picture or not. If, however, any plan could be devised for making the solar spectrum visible upon a sheet of paper inside the camera, it would reduce the question of taking sharp pictures at once into a matter of certainty.
All lenses, however, should be tried by the opticians who sell them; and if they presented a specimen of their powers to a buyer, he could see in a moment what their capabilities were.
Weld Taylor.
Bayswater.
Photography and the Microscope (Vol. vii., p. 507.).—I beg to inform your correspondents R. I. F. and J., that in Number 3. of the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science (Highley, Fleet Street) they will find three papers containing more or less information on the subject of their Query; and a plate, exhibiting two positive photographs from collodion negatives, in the same number, will give a good idea of what they may expect to attain in this branch of the art.
Practically, I know nothing of photography; but, from my acquaintance with the modern achromatic microscope, I venture to say that photography applied to this instrument will be of no farther use than as an assistant to the draughtsman. A reference to the plates alluded to will show how incompetent it is to produce pictures of microscopic objects: any one who has seen these objects under a good instrument will acknowledge that these specimens give but a very faint idea of what the microscope actually exhibits.
It is unfortunately the case, that the more perfect the instrument, the less adapted it is for producing photographic pictures; for, in those of the latest construction, the aperture of the object-glasses is carried to such an extreme, that the observer is obliged to keep his hand continually on the fine adjustment, in order to accommodate the focus to the different planes in which different parts of the object lie. This is the case even with so low a power as the half-inch object-glasses, those of Messrs. Powell and Lealand being of the enormous aperture of 65°; and if this is the case while looking through the instrument when this disadvantage is somewhat counteracted by the power which the eye has, to a certain degree, of adjusting itself to the object under observation, how much more inconvenient will it be found in endeavouring to focus the whole object at once on the ground glass plate, where such an accommodating power no longer exists. The smaller the aperture of the object-glasses, in reason, the better they will be adapted for photographic purposes.
Again, another peculiarity of the object-glasses of the achromatic microscope gives rise to a farther difficulty; they are over-corrected for colour, the spectrum is reversed, or the violet rays are projected beyond the red: this is in order to meet the requirements of the eye-piece. But with the photographic apparatus the eye-piece is not used, so that, after the object has been brought visually into focus in the camera, a farther adjustment is necessary, in order to focus for the actinic rays, which reside in the violet end of the spectrum. This is effected by withdrawing the object-glass a little from the object, in which operation there is no guide but experience; moreover, the amount of withdrawal differs with each object-glass.
However, the inconvenience caused by this over-chromatic correction may, I think, be remedied by the use of the achromatic condenser in the place of an object-glass; that kind of condenser, at least, which is supplied by the first microscopic makers. I cannot help thinking that this substitution will prove of some service; for, in the first place, the power of the condenser is generally equal to that of a quarter of an inch object-glass, which is perhaps the most generally useful of all the powers; and again, its aperture is, I think, not usually so great as that which an object-glass of the same power would have; and, moreover, as to correction, though it is slightly spherically under-corrected to accommodate the plate-glass under the object, yet the chromatic correction is perfect. The condenser is easily detached from its "fittings," and its application to the camera would be as simple as that of an ordinary object-glass.
However, my conviction remains that, in spite of all that perseverance and science can accomplish, it never will be in the power of the photographer to produce a picture of an object under the microscope, equally distinct in all its parts; and unless his art can effect this, I need scarcely say that his best productions can be but useful auxiliaries to the draughtsman.
I see by an advertisement that the Messrs. Highley supply everything that is necessary for the application of photography to the microscope.
H. C. K.
—– Rectory, Hereford.
In reply to your correspondent J., I would ask if he has any photographic apparatus? if so, the answer to his question "What extra apparatus is required to a first-rate microscope in order to obtain photographic microscopic pictures?" would be None; but if not, he would require a camera, or else a wooden conical body, with plate-holder, &c., besides the ordinary photographic outfit. Part III. of the Microscopical Journal, published by Highley & Son, Fleet Street, will give him all the information he requires.
φ. (p. 506.) may find a solution of his difficulties regarding the production of stereoscopic pictures, in the following considerations. The object of having two pictures is to present to each eye an image of what it sees in nature; but as the angle subtended by a line, of which the pupils of the eyes form the extremities, must differ for every distance, and for objects of varying sizes, it follows there is no absolute rule that can be laid down as the only correct one. For distant views there is in nature scarcely any stereoscopic effect; and in a photographic stereoscopic view the effect produced is not really a representation to the eye of the view itself, but of a model of such view; and the apparent size of the model will vary with the angle of incidence of the two pictures, being smaller and nearer as the angle increases. I believe Professor Wheatstone recommends for landscapes 1 in 25, or about half an inch to every foot.
Geo. Shadbolt.
Cement for Glass Baths.—In reply to numerous inquiries which have appeared in "N. & Q." relative to a good cement for making glass baths for photographic purposes, I send a recipe which I copied a year or two ago from some newspaper, and which seems likely to answer the purpose: I have not tried it myself, not being a photographer.
Caoutchouc 15 grains, chloroform 2 ounces, mastic ½ an ounce. The two first-named ingredients are to be mixed first, and after the gum is dissolved, the mastic is to be added, and the whole allowed to macerate for a week. When great elasticity is desirable, more caoutchouc may be added. This cement is perfectly transparent, and is to be applied with a brush cold.
H. C. K.
—– Rectory, Hereford.
Mr. Lyte's Mode of Printing.—All persons who have experienced disappointment in the printing of their positive pictures will feel obliged by Mr. Lyte's suggestion as to the bath; but as the preparation of the positive paper has also a great deal to say to the ultimate result, Mr. Lyte would confer an additional obligation if he gave the treatment he adopts for this.
I have observed that the negative collodion picture exercises a good deal of influence on the ultimate colour of the positive, and that different collodion negatives will give different results in this respect, when the paper and treatment with each has been precisely the same. Does this correspond with other persons' experience?
C. E. F.
Replies to Minor Queries
Eulenspiegel or Ulenspiegel (Vol. vii., pp. 357. 416. 507.).—Mr. Thoms's suggestion, and his quotation in proof thereof from the Chronicler, are farther verified by the following inscription and verses which I transcribe from an engraved portrait of the famous jester:
"Ulenspiegel
"Ligt Begraben zu Dom in Flandern in der grosen Kirch, auf dem Grabister also Likend abgebildet. Starb Ao. 1301."
These lines are above the portrait, and beneath it are the verses next following:
"Tchau Ulenspiegeln hier. Das Bildniss macht dich lachen:
Was wurdst du thun siehst du jhn selber Possen machen?
Zwar Thÿle ist ein Bild und Spiegel dieser Welt,
Viel Bruder er verliess; Wir treiben Narretheÿen,
In dem uns dunckt, dass wir die grosten Weysen seÿen,
Drum lache deiner selbst; diss Blat dich dir vorstellt."
The portrait, evidently that of a man of large intellect, is very life-like, and full of animation. He seems to be some fifty years of age or so; he has a cap, ornamented by large feather, on his head. He is seated in a chair, has a book in his hand, and is attired in a kind of magisterial robe bordered with fur. There is a good-humoured roguish twinkle in his eyes; and I should be inclined to call him, judging from the portrait before me, an epigrammatist rather than mere vulgar jester. The engraving is beautifully executed: it has neither date nor place of publication, but its age may perhaps be determined by the names of the painter (Paulus Furst) and engraver (P. Troschel). The orthography is by no means of recent date. I cannot translate the verses to my own satisfaction; and should feel much obliged if you, Mr. Editor, or Mr. Thoms, would favour the readers of "N. & Q." with an English version thereof.
Henry Campkin.
Reform Club.
Lawyers' Bags (Vol. vii., pp. 85. 144.).—Colonel Landman is doubtless correct in his statement as to the colour of barristers' bags; but from the evidence of A Templar and Causidicus, we must place the change from green to red at some period anterior to the trial of Queen Caroline. In Queen Anne's time they were green.
"I am told, Cousin Diego, you are one of those that have undertaken to manage me, and that you have said you will carry a green bag yourself, rather than we shall make an end of our lawsuit: I'll teach them and you too to manage."—The History of John Bull, by Dr. Arbuthnot, Part I. ch. xv.
T. H. Kersley, B. A.
Audlem, Cheshire.
"Nine Tailors make a Man" (Vol. vi., pp. 390. 563.; Vol. vii., p. 165.).—The origin of this saying is to be sought for elsewhere than in England only. Le Conte de la Villemarqué, in his interesting collection of Breton ballads, Barzas-Breiz, vol. i. p. 35., has the following passage:
"Les tailleurs, cette classe vouée au ridicule, en Bretagne, comme dans le pays de Galles, en Irlande, en Ecosse, en Allemagne et ailleurs, et qui l'était jadis chez toutes les nations guerrières, dont la vie agitée et errante s'accordait mal avec une existence casanière et paisible. Le peuple dit encore de nos jours en Bretagne, qu'il faut neuf tailleurs pour faire un homme, et jamais il ne prononce leur nom, sans ôter son chapeau, et sans dire: 'Sauf votre respect.'"
The saying is current also in Normandy, at least in those parts which border on Britany. Perhaps some of the readers of "N. & Q." may be able to say whether it is to be found in other parts of Europe.
Honoré de Mareville.
Guernsey.
"Time and I" (Vol. vii., pp. 182. 247.).—Arbuthnot calls it a Spanish proverb. In the History of John Bull, we read among the titles of other imaginary chapters in the "Postscript," that of—
"Ch. XVI. Commentary upon the Spanish Proverb, Time and I against any Two; or Advice to Dogmatical Politicians, exemplified in some New Affairs between John Bull and Lewis Baboon."
T. H. Kersley, B. A.
Audlem, Cheshire.
Carr Pedigree (Vol. vii., pp. 408. 512.).—W. St. says that William Carr married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Sing, Bishop of Cork. The name is Synge, not Sing. The family name was originally Millington, and was changed to Synge by Henry VIII. or Queen Elizabeth, on account of the sweetness of the voice of one of the family, who was a clergyman, and the ancestor of George Synge, Bishop of Cloyne; Edward Synge, Bishop of Ross; Edward Synge, Archbishop of Tuam; Edward Synge, Bishop of Leighlin and Ferns; Nicholas Synge, Bishop of Killaloe; the late Sir Samuel Synge Hutchinson, Archdeacon of Killala; and of the present Sir Edward Synge.
I cannot find that any of these church dignitaries had a daughter married to Wm. Carr. Nicholas Synge, Bishop of Killaloe, left a daughter, Elizabeth, who died unmarried in 1834, aged ninety-nine; but I cannot discover that either of the other bishops of that family had a daughter Elizabeth.
Gulielmus.
Campvere, Privileges of (Vol. vii., pp. 262. 440.).—What were these privileges, and whence was the term derived?
"Veria, quæ et Canfera, vel Campoveria potius dicitur, alterum est inter oppida hujus insulæ, muro et mœnibus clausa, situ quidem ad aquilonem obversa, et in ipso oceani littore: fossam habet, quæ Middelburgum usque extenditur, à quâ urbe leucæ tantum unius, etc.
"Estque oppidulum satis concinnum, et mercimoniis florens, maxime propter commercia navium Scoticarum, quæ in isto potissimum portu stare adsueverunt.
"Scotorum denique, superioribus annis, frequentatione celebris et Scoticarum mercium, præcipue vellerum ovillorum, stapula, ut vocant, et emporium esse cœpit."—L. Guicciardini, Belgium (1646), vol. ii. pp. 67, 68.
Will J. D. S. be so good as to say where he found the "Campvere privileges" referred to?
E.
Haulf-naked (Vol. vii., p. 432.).—The conjecture that Half-naked was a manor in co. Sussex is verified by entries in Cal. Rot. Pat., 11 Edw. I., m. 15.; and 13 Edw. I., m. 18. Also in Abbreviatio Rot. Orig., 21 Edw. III., Rot. 21.; in which latter it is spelt Halnaked.
J. W. S. R.
St. Ives, Hunts.
Old Picture of the Spanish Armada (Vol. vii., p. 454.).—Although perhaps this may not be reckoned an answer to J. S. A.'s Query on this head, I have to inform you that in the steeple part of Gaywood Church near this town, is a fine old painting of Queen Elizabeth reviewing the forces at Tilbury Fort, and the Spanish fleet in the distance. It is framed, and sadly wants cleaning.
J. N. C.
King's Lynn.
Parochial Libraries (Vol. vi., p. 432., &c.).—We have in St. Margaret's parish a parochial library, which is kept in a room fitted up near the vestry of the church in this town.
J. N. C.
King's Lynn.
To the list of places where there are parochial libraries may be added Bewdley, in Worcestershire. There is a small library in the Grammar School of that place, consisting, if I recollect aright, mainly of old divinity, under the care of the master: though it is true, for some years, there has been no master.
S. S. S.
In the preface to the Life of Lord Keeper Guilford, by Roger North, it appears that Dudleys youngest daughter of Charles, and granddaughter of Dudley Lord North, dying,—
"Her library, consisting of a choice collection of Oriental books, by the present Lord North and Grey, her only surviving brother, was given to the parochial library of Rougham in Norfolk, where it now remains."
This library then existed in 1742, the date of the first edition of the work.
Furvus.
St. James's.
How to stain Deal (Vol. vii., p. 356.).—Your correspondent C. will find that a solution of asphaltum in boiling turpentine is a very good stain to dye deal to imitate oak. This must be applied when cold with a brush to the timbers: allowed to get dry, then size and varnish it.
The dye, however, which I always use, is a compound of raw umber and a small portion of blue-black diluted to the shade required with strong size in solution: this must be used hot. It is evident that this will not require the preparatory sizing before the application of the varnish. Common coal, ground in water, and used the same as any other colour, I have found to be an excellent stain for roof timbers.
W. H. Cullingford.
Cromhall, Gloucestershire.
Roger Outlawe (Vol. vii., p. 332.).—Of this person, who was Lord Deputy of Ireland for many years of the reign of Edward III., some particulars will be found in the notes to the Proceedings against Dame Alice Kyteler, edited for the Camden Society by Mr. Wright, p. 49. There is evidently more than one misreading in the date of the extract communicated by the Rev. H. T. Ellacombe: "die pasche in viiij mense anno B. Etii post ultimum conquestum hibernia quarto." I cannot interpret "in viiij mense;" but the rest should evidently be "anno Regis Edwardi tertii post ultimum conquestum Hiberniæ quarto."
May I ask whether this "last conquest of Ireland" has been noticed by palæographers in other instances?
Anon.
Tennyson (Vol. vii., p. 84.).—Will not the following account by Lord Bacon, in his History of Henry VII., of the marriage by proxy between Maximilian, King of the Romans, and the Princess Anne of Britany, illustrate for your correspondent H. J. J. his last quotation from Tennyson?
"She to me
Was proxy-wedded with a bootless calf,
At eight years old."
"Maximilian so far forth prevailed, both with the young lady and with the principal persons about her, as the marriage was consummated by proxy, with a ceremony at that time in these parts new. For she was not only publicly contracted, but stated, as a bride, and solemnly bedded; and after she was laid, there came in Maximilian's ambassador with letters of procuration, and in the presence of sundry noble personages, men and women, put his leg, stripped naked to the knee, between the espousal sheets," &c.
Tyro.
Dublin.
Old Fogie (Vol. vii., p. 354.).—Mr. Keightley supposes the term of old fogie, as applied to "mature old warriors," to be "of pure Irish origin," or "rather of Dublin birth." In this he is certainly mistaken, for the word fogie, as applied to old soldiers, is as well known, and was once as familiarly used in Scotland, as it ever was or could have been in Ireland. The race was extinct before my day, but I understand that formerly the permanent garrisons of Edinburgh, and I believe also of Stirling, Castles, consisted of veteran companies; and I remember, when I first came to Edinburgh, of people who had seen them, still talking of "the Castle fogies."
Dr. Jamieson, in his Scottish Dictionary, defines the word "foggie or fogie," to be first, "an invalid, or garrison soldier," secondly, "a person advanced in life" and derives it from "Su. G. fogde, formerly one who had the charge of a garrison."
This seems to me a more satisfactory derivation than Mr. Keightley's, who considers it a corruption or diminutive of old folks.
J. L.
City Chambers, Edinburgh.
Errata corrigenda.—Vol. ii., p. 356. col. 2., near the bottom, for Sir William Jardine, read Sir Henry Jardine. Sir William and Sir Henry were very different persons, though the former was probably the more generally known. Sir H. was the author of the report referred to.
Vol. vii., p. 441. col. 1. line 15, for Lenier read Ferrier.
J. L.
City Chambers, Edinburgh.
Anecdote of Dutens (Vol. vii., pp. 26. 390.).—
"Lord Lansdowne at breakfast mentioned of Dutens, who wrote Mémoires d'un Voyageur qui se repose, and was a great antiquarian, that, on his describing once his good luck in having found (what he fancied to be) a tooth of Scipio's in Italy, some one asked him what he had done with it, upon which he answered briskly: 'What have I done with it? Le voici,' pointing to his mouth; where he had made it supplemental to a lost one of his own."—Moore's Journal, vol. iv. p. 271.
E. H. A.
Gloves at Fairs (Vol. vii., p. 455.).—In Hone's Every-day Book (vol. ii. p. 1059.) is the following paragraph:—
"Exeter Lammas Fair.—The charter for this fair is perpetuated by a glove of immense size, stuffed and carried through the city on a very long pole, decorated with ribbons, flowers, &c., and attended with music, parish beadles, and the mobility. It is afterwards placed on the top of the Guildhall, and then the fair commences: on the taking down of the glove, the fair terminates.—P."
As to Crolditch, alias Lammas Fair, at Exeter, see Izacke's Remarkable Antiquities of the City of Exeter, pp. 19, 20.
C. H. Cooper.
Cambridge.
At Macclesfield, in Cheshire, a large glove was, perhaps is, always suspended from the outside of the window of the town-hall during the holding of a fair; and as long as the glove was so suspended, every one was free from arrest within the township, and, I have heard, while going and returning to and from the fair.
Edward Hawkins.
At Free Mart, at Portsmouth, a glove used to be hung out of the town-hall window, and no one could be arrested during the fortnight that the fair lasted.
F. O. Martin.
Arms—Battle-axe (Vol. vii., p. 407.).—The families which bore three Dane-axes or battle-axes in their coats armorial were very numerous in ancient times. It may chance to be of service to your Querist A.C. to be informed, that those of Devonshire which displayed these bearings were the following: Dennys, Batten, Gibbes, Ledenry, Wike, Wykes, and Urey.
J. D. S.
Enough (Vol. vii., p. 455.).—In Staffordshire, and I believe in the other midland counties, this word is usually pronounced enoo, and written enow. In Richardson's Dictionary it will be found "enough or enow;" and the etymology is evidently from the German genug, from the verb genugen, to suffice, to be enough, to content, to satisfy. The Anglo-Saxon is genog. I remember the burden of an old song which I frequently heard in my boyish days:
