Before proceeding to tone the prints, put all dishes, chemicals, etc., used in developing out of the way, and wipe down the table, for the least contact with foreign matter will ruin the prints.
Take one of the large, deep porcelain dishes, fill it with clean water, and put in the prints one by one, allowing the water to run slowly upon them from the tap. The object of this washing is to remove the unaltered nitrate of silver, which is represented by the white or lighter portions of the print ; during this operation, the yellow ta.mmy should be hung in front of the window. The washing water will at first have a very milky appearance, due to the dissolved silver, but in a short time this will disappear. While the prints are washing, the toning bath can be got ready. The dish which we reserved for this operation should be placed upon the table, and half filled with the toning solution, the mode of preparing which was described in the chapter upon chemicals. The amount necessary to tone two sheets of paper will be about 16 oz., in which there should be about 2 drm. of the gold solution—equal to 2 gr. of chloride of gold—one grain of gold being usually sufficient to tone a sheet of paper. The prints having been sufficiently washed, denoted by the water ceasing to present a milky appearance, are placed one by one, face downwards, in the toning solution. Not more than four or five at a time should be toned at first, or it will be found difficult to stop the toning action at the right moment. The prints must not be allowed to remain stationary, or they will tone un evenly, but must be lifted and carefully turned over and over, those at the bottom being placed at the top. Their colour when removed from the washing water was a bright, foxy red, but immersion in the toiling bath will gradually turn them through brownish red to purple ; when the latter colour is reached, they should be removed from the toning bath and placed in a dish of clean water. When all the prints have been toned, the glass funnel with a filter paper inside is placed in the neck of the bottle which holds the solution, which is allowed to filter back into it. The requisite quantity of gold solution to make up to its original strength (in this case 2 drm.) should then be added, and the bottle put away for future use. It should be kept in a dark place, as light causes its decom position by precipitating the gold.
The next operation is fixing, but before attempting this make it an invariable rule to wash out and put away the dish used for toning, for it is only by adopting such measures that immunity from stains can be ensured.
The fixing bath consists of a solution of hyposulphite of soda; but in this case it should be freshly mixed, and not made from the stock solution. To prepare it, put 3 oz. of hyposulphite crystals in a clean dish—not that used for fixing negatives—and pour thereon a pint of warm water, adding about 10 drops of liquor ammonia. By the time the crystals have dissolved the solution will be cold, It should not be used warm, or blisters may be caused in the prints, which should be immersed in the solution one by one. Directly they come in contact with the bath they will lose their beautiful colour, and assume a sickly, unpleasant yellowish-red colour. This, however, will pass off as the prints become fixed, and ultimately they will almost regain their original appearance. They should be allowed to remain
in the fixing bath for about 12 minutes, being turned over once or twice during that time. The fixing bath may then be poured away, and the dish filled up with water from the tap. Now, silver prints have, not undeservedly, it must be confessed, when we look at the contents of an album, acquired a very bad reputation on account of their fugitive character ; but this is in a large degree due to imperfect fixation and insufficient washing after fixation. It is, therefore, absolutely essential in the first place to allow sufficient time in the fixing bath to properly fix the prints, and then to thoroughly free them from the least trace of hyposulphite of soda, and only thorough washing will effect this. If it can be afforded, a " print washer" should be purchased. There are many different patterns to choose from, some of which do their work better than others. Wood's washer is thoroughly efficient and cheap ; so also is Tylar's " Whirlpool " washer. It is, however, quite possible to get rid of the hypo. in the prints without resorting to the use of an expensive washer. After pouring away the fixing solution, the dish should he filled up with water, and the prints carefully turned over and over, the dish being then emptied, and the process repeated several times. A brown earthenware pan, about 14 inches in diameter, should be placed on the grid underneath the tap, and filled with water. The prints are transferred from the dish to the pan, and a piece of coarse netting, such as is used for a tennis-net, strained across the top ; a piece of india-rubber tube long enough to reach to the bottom of the pan should then be attached to the ta.p and the water turned on. The water coming in at the bottom will keep the prints in gentle motion, and will prevent them from settling at the bottom of the pan. A couple of hours of such washing will be found sufficient to remove all the hypo.
Minute blisters sometimes occur ; these are more fre quently found on what is called "double " albumenised paper, which has a more glossy surface than the ordinary. The latter is easier to work, and has quite enough surface for most subjects. As a preventative put a. handful of common salt in the first -washing water after toning. The washing water and the solutions should all be at the same temperature ; it is for this reason that I recommend the hypo. to be dissolved in tepid water, as the salt in dissolving considerably lowers the temperature of the water in which it is dissolved. Sorc.etimes changing the print suddenly from the fixing bath to pure water will cause blisters. When this occurs the fixing bath should not be poured away, but water from the tap allowed to run on tho prints while they remain in the bath, so as to allow the solution to gradually weaken.
When the prints have been sufficiently washed they should be removed from the washing water and placed on a pad of clean blotting-paper, another pad of paper being ut on the top, on which more prints may be placed, so that layers of prints a,re alternated with layers of blotting paper. A piece of board and some heavy books should then be placed on the top, and the whole left undisturbed for a few hours, when the prints will dry quite fiat. The subsequent operations of trimming and mounting will form the subject matter of another chapter.