Beginners often wrap exposed, but not developed, plates in printed paper, with the result that, in development, the letters appear on the negative, often to such an extent as to spoil the plate completely. It is impossible to remove these marks, but there is no reason why any such failure should occur, as plates, if packed face to face, with nothing whatever between them, and merely wrapped up in the brown paper as used by the manufacturers, will suffer no harm and will remain in perfect condition for a considerable time. To pass on now to the development, perhaps the commonest failure of the beginner is his inability to produce a negative clean and " fog "-less. Now, it is useless for him to blame the plates for this, as the plates of the present day are remarkably free from "fog," provided that they receive reasonably correct and careful treatment. The causes which may contribute to this " fog " are over-exposure to white light before or during development, an unsafe dark-room light, ex-cess of alkali in the developer, and overheating of the dark room. The dark-room light should be tested by placing a plate, half of which is covered by an opaque card, at the spot usually occupied by the developing-dish for ten minutes or so; if, on development, any difference can be seen between the two halves of the plate the light is not safe, and must be screened by an extra thickness of non-actinic medium. Again, alkali is often added in large quantities to the developer for the purpose of forcing out detail on an under-exposed plate, and this is a frequent cause of fog. The developers recommended in the makers' instructions are usually rather too concentrated and include rather too much alkali than is advisable for general use by a beginner; most of these formulae would be improved by the use of twice as much water and half as much alkali as is advised in the directions. When caustic soda is the accelerator employed, the addition of water and reduction of accelerator is particularly necessary, in order to avoid a harsh negative or a ruinous amount of fog. Overheating of the dark room is most likely to occur when development is carried out in a badly ventilated room, with an ill-kept oil lamp or a powerful gas jet. With regard to density, it is an open question whether more negatives are spoiled by being thin and ghostly or by being harsh and over-contrasty. The chief causes of thin negatives are overexposure, under-development, too weak a developer, or slight excess of alkali, while harsh negatives are generally the result of the exact opposite of these faults. Our aim must be, when we have found out in which direction we are erring, to strike the happy medium, and to do this we shall do well to use the same brand of plate and the same developer time after time, blaming ourselves, and not our materials, for our want of success, and striving to master the peculiarities of one plate and one developer before turning to others which are probably no better and about which we know absolutely nothing.

The system of time-development introduced by Mr. Watkins has much to recommend it, and its adoption by beginners would lead to regularity and absence of that uncertainty which is, unfortunately, so characteristic of their work. Another common fault is the disfigurement .of negatives by markings or patches, generally caused by uneven flowing of the developer over the plate, sometimes by the use of an insufficient quantity of developer to cover it fully. The best way to pour on the developer is to hold the dish, with the plate in it, in the left hand, and the measure of developer in the right, and then to pour the liquid gently but quickly along one edge of the dish, starting from the farthest right-hand corner, tilting the dish so that the developer flows over the plate in one sweep.

Air-bells, too, are very annoying, since, where they form, the plate is not acted on by the developer, and, when fixed, shows transparent holes, which print out out as black spots; they can be avoided by passing a broad camel-hair brush lightly across the plate as soon as the developer is turned on. Wetting the plate before pouring on the developer is almost certain to give rise to air-bells. These are but a few of the errors which can be made by the inexperienced; but if these points are attended to much waste of plates, time and trouble will be avoided.

"The Photo American."