THE DARK-ROOM METHOD.
The first essential is a dark-room. By a dark-room is meant one that is wholly dark—not a ray of light in it. Such a room can easily be secured at night almost anywhere. The reason a dark-room is required is that the film is extremely sensitive to white light, either daylight or lamplight, and would be sloilca' zf c_iiposed 10 11 even for a fraction of a second.
If possible have running water, hut if this is not available provide a pitcher of cold water (ice water in summer), a shelf or table on which to work and (for use with film) a pair of shears.
Also provide a Developing and Printing Outfit which should contain : Dark-Room Lamp, Package Developer Powders, 4 Developing Trays, i lb. Kodak Acid Fixing Powders, Glass Beaker, r Package Bromide Potas:•ium, Stirring Rod, Such an outfit need not cost more than one or two dollars and will be sufficiently elaborate for your first work.
Film is handled in much the same manner as plates except, of course, that it must be cut up before printing.
For all Kodak cartridge rolls, shorter than 4 x 5, 12 exposure, we recommend that development be done in the strip, as this method removes the possibility of cutting through the negatives. The same method may be used with the larger sizes, but owing to their length is, perhaps, not quite so convenient as to cut up the film before development is started, as described on page 84.
Having shut out all extraneous light from your dark-room and lighted the dark-room lamp.
a. Unroll the film and detach the entire strip from the black paper b. Pass the film through a tray of clean, cold water, as shown in the cut, holding one end in each hand. Pass through the water several times, that there may be no bubbles remaining on the film. When it is thoroughly wet, with no air bubbles, place the strip of film in a tray of water, immersing it fully but not folding tightly so as to crack it.
c. Prepare the developer as described on page S3.
d. Now pass the film through the developer in the same manner as described for wetting it, and shown in cut. Keep it constantly in motion,
and in about one minute the high lights will begin to darken and you will readily be able to distinguish the unexposed between the negatives, and in about two minutes will be able to distinguish objeas in the picture. Complete development in the strip, giving sufficient length of development to bring out what detail you can in the thinnest negatives.
Keep the strip which is being developed constantly in motion, allowing the developer to act five to ten minutes. The progress of development may be watched by holding the negatives up to the lamp from time to time.
When developing Eastman's N. C. Film, care must be taken not to hold it close to the lamp for any length of time. These films are very rapid and are orthochromatic, therefore liable to fog unless handled very carefully in the dark-room or developed in the Kodak Developing Machine or Tank.
e. After completing development, cut the negatives apart with a pair of shears, transfer to the third tray, and rinse two or three times with clear, cold water. Now proceed according to paragraph 6, page 83.
This method must always be followed with the Cartridge Roll Holder rolls, but they may first be cut in two at point where perforations occur in the middle of strip.
1. Unroll the film and cut the ex posures apart as shown in Fig. I.
In unrolling the film preparatory to development, care must be taken that the end be not allowed to roll up over the paper. The exposures should be cut apart with the PAPER ON TOP.
Fig. II shows a cartridge unrolled with the film on top. To correct this, simply turn back the film as indicated by the dotted lines, thus bringing the film under the paper.
2. Fill one of the trays nearly full of water, and put into it the expos ures, one by one, face down; put them in edgewise, to avoid air bells, and immerse them fully.
Cover the tray with a bit of brown paper to keep out the light from the lamp.