" WASHING PRINTS. The following mode of washing prints appears to be the best that has yet been devised. The acootmt of it was given by the author in Photographic Notes, No. 21.
" After a print has been fixed in hypo it is of the utmost impor tance to remove every trace of hypo from the paper, for if any be left it will cause the print to fade. In order to remove the hypo, the print is generally washed in water changed several times, and allowed to remain in water several hours. But when a great number of prints are to be washed at the same time, a separate dish cannot • be provided for each, so it is customary to put a number of prints together in the same vessel of water. 'When this is done they soon settle to the bottom, and lie there so closely packed that the water cannot easily get between them and soak out the hypo. It is only when the water is agitated by being changed at intervals, and for a few minutes after each change that it gets fairly between them and acts to advantage. It is desirable therefore to keep the water in a state of constant agitation, so that the prints may not lie together ; srid this is more particularly desirable since it is found that damp favours the action of hypo in causing a print to fade. The ob ject is therefore to remove the hypo as quickly and effectually as possible.
" Various plans have been proposed for accomplishing this end ; and when a constant supply of water is obtainable, as it is in most large towns, it has been a common practice to leave a tap constantly run ning into the vessel which contains the prints, the overflow passing into a sink beneath. But the following plan is a great improvement
on this, because the prints are caused to circulate freely round the vessel without sticking together, so long as the tap is kept run ning " The vessel is made as in the figure, with sides slightly inclined outwards, like a washing tray. It should be square, and not too riPPn nr fnn lawn, fnr annnlIr urh;oh is to run into it. The jet of water from the tap is directed obliquely against the fluffier side of it near the left-hand corner ; it is then reflected to the adjoining side, and thus a ro Iatory motion of the fluid in the direc tion of the arrows is established and maintained. The vessel is of course tuways ntu, anti tile surplus runs over the edge, as shown in the figure. The prints immersed are in this way kept in a state of constant rotation, not en mane, but each print following its own particular course, without adhering to its neighbour. In order to insure the change of the water at the bottom of the vessel it may be well to make a little hole about the size of a cribbage peg, as shown in the figure.
" This method of washing paper proofs is extremely simple and effective."