Chapter 5

Major Whistler married for his first wife Mary, daughter of Dr. Foster Swift of the U.S. Army, and Deborah, daughter of Capt. Thomas Delano of Nantucket. By her he had three children: Deborah, his only daughter, who married Seymour Haden of London, a surgeon, but later and better known for his skill in etching; George William, who became an engineer and railway manager, and who went to Russia, and finally died at Brighton, in England, Dec. 24, 1869; Joseph Swift, born at New London, Aug. 12, 1825, and who died at Stonington, Jan. 1, 1840. His first wife died Dec. 9, 1827, at the early age of 23 years, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, in the shade of the monument erected to the memory of her husband by the loving hands of his professional brethren. For his second wife he married Anna Matilda, daughter of Dr. Charles Donald McNeill of Wilmington, N.C., and sister of his friend and associate, William Gibbs McNeill. By her he had five sons: James Abbot McNeill, the noted artist, and William Gibbs McNeill, a well known physician, both now living in London; Kirk Boott, born in Stonington, July 16, 1838, and who died at Springfield, July 10, 1842; Charles Donald, born in Springfield, Aug. 27, 1841, and who died in Russia, Sept. 24, 1843; and John Bouttattz, who was born and who died at St. Petersburg, having lived but little more than a year. His second wife, who outlived him, returned to America, and remained here during the education of her children, after which she moved to England. She died Jan. 31, 1881, at the age of 76 years, and was buried at Hastings.

At a meeting held in the office of the Panama Railroad Company in New York, August 27, 1849, for the purpose of suggesting measures expressive of their respect for the memory of Major Whistler, Wm. H. Sidell being chairman and A.W. Craven secretary, it was resolved that a monument in Greenwood Cemetery would be a suitable mode of expressing the feelings of the profession in this respect, and that an association be formed to collect funds and take all necessary steps to carry out the work. At this meeting Capt. William H. Swift was appointed president, Major T.S. Brown treasurer, and A.W. Craven secretary, and Messrs. Horatio Allen, W.C. Young, J.W. Adams, and A.W. Craven were appointed a committee to procure designs and estimates, and to select a suitable piece of ground. The design was made by Mr. Adams, and the ground was given by Mr. Kirkwood. The monument is a beautiful structure of red standstone, about 15 feet high, and stands in "Twilight Dell." Upon the several faces are the following inscriptions:

_Upon the Front_.

IN MEMORY OF GEORGE WASHINGTON WHISTLER, CIVIL ENGINEER, BORN AT FORT WAYNE, INDIANA, MAY, 1800, DIED AT ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA, APRIL, 1849.

_Upon the Right Side_.

EDUCATED AT THE U.S. MILITARY ACADEMY. HE RETIRED FROM THE ARMY IN 1833 AND BECAME ASSOCIATED WITH WILLIAM GIBBS M'NEILL. THEY WERE IN THEIR TIME ACKNOWLEDGED TO BE AT THE HEAD OF THEIR PROFESSION IN THIS COUNTRY.

_Upon the Back_.

HE WAS DISTINGUISHED FOR THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL ABILITY, COUPLED WITH SOUND JUDGMENT AND GREAT INTEGRITY. IN 1842 HE WAS INVITED TO RUSSIA BY THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS, AND DIED THERE WHILE CONSTRUCTING THE ST. PETERSBURG & MOSCOW RAILROAD.

_Upon the Left Side_.

THIS CENOTAPH IS A MONUMENT OF THE ESTEEM AND AFFECTION OF HIS FRIENDS AND COMPANIONS.

While the monument thus raised to the memory of the great engineer stands in that most delightful of the cities of the dead, his worn-out body rests in the quaint old town of Stonington. It was here that his several children had been buried, and he had frequently expressed a desire that when he should die he might be placed by their side. A deputation of engineers who had been in their early years associated with him attended the simple service which was held over his grave, and all felt as they turned away that they had bid farewell to such a man as the world has not often seen.

In person Major Whistler was of medium size and well made. His face showed the finest type of manly beauty, combined with a delicacy almost feminine. In private life he was greatly prized for his natural qualities of heart and mind, his regard for the feelings of others, and his unvarying kindness, especially toward his inferiors and his young assistants. His duties and his travels in this and in other countries brought him in contact with men of every rank; and it is safe to say that the more competent those who knew him were to judge, the more highly was he valued by them. A close observer, with a keen sense of humor and unfailing tact, fond of personal anecdote, and with a mind stored with recollections from association with every grade of society, he was a most engaging companion. The charm of his manner was not conventional, nor due to intercourse with refined society, but came from a sense of delicacy and a refinement of feeling which was innate, and which showed itself in him under all circumstances. He was in the widest and best sense of the word a gentleman; and he was a gentleman outwardly because he was a gentleman at heart.

As an engineer, Whistler's works speak for him. He was eminently a practical man, remarkable for steadiness of judgment and for sound business sense. Whatever he did was so well done that he was naturally followed as a model by those who were seeking a high standard. Others may have excelled in extraordinary boldness or in some remarkable specialty, but in all that rounds out the perfect engineer, whether natural characteristics, professional training, or the well digested results of long and valuable experience, we look in vain for his superior, and those who knew him best will hesitate to acknowledge his equal.--_Journal of the Association of Engineering Societies_.

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PRINTING LANTERN PICTURES BY ARTIFICIAL LIGHT ON BROMIDE PLATES FROM VARIOUS SIZES.

By A. PUMPHREY.

[Footnote: Read before the Birmingham Photographic Society. Reported in the _Photo. News_.]

There can be no question that there is no plan that is so simple for producing transparencies as contact printing, but in this, as in other photographic matters, one method of work will not answer all needs. Reproduction in the camera, using daylight to illuminate the negative, enables the operator to reduce or enlarge in every direction, but the lantern is a winter instrument, and comes in for demand and use during the short days. When even the professional photographer has not enough light to get through his orders, how can the amateur get the needed daylight if photography be only the pursuit in spare time? Besides, there are days in our large towns when what daylight there is is so yellow from smoke or fog as to have little actinic power. These considerations and needs have led me to experiment and test what can be done with artificial light, and I think I have made the way clear for actual work without further experiment. I have not been able by any arrangement of reflected light to get power enough to print negatives of the ordinary density, and have only succeeded by causing the light to be equally dispersed over the negative by a lens as used in the optical lantern, but the arrangements required are somewhat different to that of the enlarging lantern.

The following is the plan by which I have succeeded best in the production of transparencies:

B is a lamp with a circular wick, which burns petroleum and gives a good body of light.

C is a frame for holding the negative, on the opposite side of which is a double convex lens facing the light.

D is the camera and lens.

All these must be placed in a line, so that the best part of the light, the center of the condenser, and the lens are of equal height.

The method of working is as follows: The lamp, B, is placed at such a distance from the condenser that the rays come to a focus and enter the lens; the negative is then placed in the frame, the focus obtained, and the size of reduction adjusted by moving the camera nearer to or further from the condenser and negative. In doing this no attention need be paid to the light properly covering the field, as that cannot be adjusted while the negative is in its place. When the size and focus are obtained, remove the negative, and carefully move the lamp till it illuminates the ground glass equally all over, by a disk of light free from color.

The negative can then be replaced, and no further adjustment will be needed for any further reproduction of the same size.

There is one point that requires attention: The lens used in the camera should be a doublet of about 6 inch focus (in reproducing 8½ × 6½ or smaller sizes), and the stop used must not be a very small one, not less than ½ inch diameter. If a smaller stop is used, an even disk of light is not obtained, but ample definition is obtainable with the size stop mentioned.

In the arrangement described, a single lens is used for the condenser, not because it is better than a double one, as is general for such purposes, but because it is quite sufficient for the purpose. Of course, a large condenser is both expensive and cumbersome. There is, therefore, no advantage in using a combination if a single lens will answer.

In reproducing lantern pictures from half-plate negatives, the time required on my lantern plates is from two to four minutes, using 6 inch condenser. For whole plate negatives, from two to six minutes with a 9 inch condenser. In working in this way it is easy to be developing one picture while exposing another.

The condenser must be of such a size that it will cover the plate from corner to corner. The best part of an 8½ × 6½ negative will be covered by a 9 inch condenser, and a 6½ × 4¾ by a 6 inch condenser.

With this arrangement it will be easy to reproduce from half or whole plate negatives or any intermediate sizes quite independently of daylight.

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EXPERIMENTS IN TONING GELATINO-CHLORIDE PAPER.

From the _Photographic News_ we take the following: The use of paper coated with a gelatino-citro-chloride emulsion in place of albumenized paper appears to be becoming daily more common. Successful toning has generally been the difficulty with such paper, the alkaline baths commonly in use with albumenized having proved unsuitable for toning this paper. On the whole, the bath that has given the best results is one containing, in addition to gold, a small quantity of hypo and a considerable quantity of sulphocyanide of ammonium. Such a bath tones very rapidly, and gives most pleasing colors. It appears, moreover, to be impossible to overtone the citro-chloro emulsion paper with it in the sense that it is possible to overtone prints on albumenized paper with the ordinary alkaline bath. That is to say, it is impossible to produce a slaty gray image. The result of prolonged toning is merely an image of an engraving black color. Of this, however, we shall say more hereafter. We wish first of all to refer to an elaborate series of experiments by Lionel Clark on the effects of various toning baths used with the gelatino-citro-chloride paper.

The results of these experiments we have before us at the time of writing, and we may at once say that, from the manner in which the experiments have been carried out and in which the results have been tabulated, Lionel Clark's work forms a very useful contribution to our photographic knowledge, and a contribution that will become more and more useful, the longer the results of the experiments are kept. A number of small prints have been prepared. Of these several--in most cases, three--have been toned by a certain bath, and each print has been torn in two. One-half has been treated with bichloride of mercury, so as to bleach such portion of the image as is of silver, and finally the prints--the two halves of each being brought close together--have been mounted in groups, each group containing all the prints toned by a certain formula, with full information tabulated.

The only improvement we could suggest in the arrangement is that all the prints should have been from the same negative, or from only three negatives, so that we should have prints from the same negatives in every group, and should the better be able to compare the results of the toning baths. Probably, however, the indifferent light of the present season of the year made it difficult to get a sufficiency of prints from one negative.

The following is a description of the toning baths used and of the appearance of the prints. We refer, in the mean time, only to those halves that have not been treated with bichloride of mercury.

1.--Gold chloride (AuCl_{3})........... 1 gr. Sulphocyanide of potassium......... 10 gr. Hyposulphite of soda............... ½ gr. Water.............................. 2 oz.

The prints are of a brilliant purple or violet color.

2.--Gold chloride...................... 1 gr. Sulphocyanide of potassium......... 10 gr. Hyposulphite of soda............... ½ gr. Water.............................. 4 oz.

There is only one print, which is of a brown color, and in every way inferior to those toned with the first bath.

3.--Gold chloride...................... 1 gr. Sulphocyanide of potassium......... 12 gr. Hyposulphite of soda............... ½ gr. Water.............................. 2 oz.

The prints toned by this bath are, in our opinion, the finest of the whole. The tone is a purple of the most brilliant and pleasing shade.

4.--Gold chloride...................... 1 gr. Sulphocyanide of potassium......... 20 gr. Hyposulphite of soda............... 5 gr. Water.............................. 2 oz.

There is only one print, but it is from the same negative as one of the No. 3 group. It is very inferior to that in No. 3, the color less pleasant, and the appearance generally as if the details of the lights had been bleached by the large quantity either of hypo or of sulphocyanide of potassium.

5.--Gold chloride...................... 1 gr. Sulphocyanide of potassium......... 50 gr. Hyposulphite of soda............... ½ gr. Water.............................. 2 oz.

Opposite to this description of formula there are no prints, but the following is written: "These prints were completely destroyed, the sulphocyanide of potassium (probably) dissolving off the gelatine."

6.--Gold chloride...................... 1 gr. Sulphocyanide of potassium......... 20 gr. Hypo............................... 5 gr. Carbonate of soda.................. 10 gr. Water.............................. 2 oz.

This it will be seen is the same as 4, but that the solution is rendered alkaline with carbonate of soda. The result of the alkalinity certainly appears to be good, the color is more pleasing than that produced by No. 4, and there is less appearance of bleaching. It must be borne in mind in this connection that the paper itself is strongly acid, and that, unless special means be taken to prevent it, the toning bath is sure to be more or less acid.

7.--Gold chloride...................... 1 gr. Acetate of soda.................... 30 gr. Water.............................. 2 oz.

The color of the prints toned by this bath is not exceedingly pleasing. It is a brown tending to purple, but is not very pure or bright. The results show, however, the possibility of toning the gelatino-chloro-citrate paper with the ordinary acetate bath if it be only made concentrated enough.

8.--Gold chloride...................... 1 gr. Carbonate of soda.................. 3 gr. Water.............................. 2 oz.

Very much the same may be said of the prints toned by this bath as of those toned by No. 7. The color is not very good, nor is the toning quite even. This last remark applies to No. 7 batch as well as No. 8.

9.--Gold chloride...................... 1 gr. Phosphate of soda.................. 20 gr. Water.............................. 2 oz.

The results of this bath can best be described as purplish in color. They are decidedly more pleasing than those of 7 or 8, but are not as good as the best by the sulphocyanide bath.

10.--Gold chloride..................... 1 gr. Hyposulphite of soda.............. ½ oz. Water............................. 2 oz.

The result of this bath is a brilliant brown color, what might indeed, perhaps, be best described as a red. Two out of the three prints are much too dark, indicating, perhaps, that this toning bath did not have any tendency to reduce the intensity of the image.

The general lesson taught by Clark's experiments is that the sulphocyanide bath gives better results than any other. A certain proportion of the ingredients--namely, that of bath No. 3--gives better results than any other proportions tried, and about as good as any that could be hoped for. Any of the ordinary alkaline toning baths may be used, but they all give results inferior to those got by the sulphocyanide bath. The best of the ordinary baths is, however, the phosphate of soda.

And now a word as to those parts of the prints which have been treated with bichloride of mercury. The thing that strikes us as remarkable in connection with them is that in them the image has scarcely suffered any reduction of intensity at all. In most cases there has been a disagreeable change of color, but it is almost entirely confined to the whites and lighter tints, which are turned to a more or less dirty yellow. Even in the case of the prints toned by bath No. 10, where the image is quite red, it has suffered no appreciable reduction of intensity.

This would indicate that an unusually large proportion of the toned image consists of gold, and this idea is confirmed by the fact that to tone a sheet of gelatino-chloro-citrate paper requires several times as much gold as to tone a sheet of albumenized paper. Indeed, we believe that, with the emulsion paper, it is possible to replace the whole of the silver of the image with gold, thereby producing a permanent print. We have already said that the print may be left for any reasonable length of time in the toning bath without the destruction of its appearance, and we cannot but suppose that a very long immersion results in a complete substitution of gold for silver.

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THE "SENSIM" PREPARING BOX.

Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of the machine, Fig. 2 a sectional elevation, and Fig. 3 a plan. In the ordinary screw gill box, the screws which traverse the gills are uniform in their pitch, so that a draught is only obtained between the feed rollers and the first gill, between the last gill of the first set and the first of the second, and between the last gill of the second set and the delivery roller. As thus arranged, the gills are really not active workers after their first draw during the remainder of their traverse, but simply carriers of the wool to the next set. It is somewhat remarkable, as may indeed be said of every invention, that this fact has only been just observed, and suggested an improvement. There is no reason why each gill should not be continuously working to the end of the traverse, and only cease during its return to its first position. The perception of this has led to several attempts to realize this improvement. The inventor in the present case seems to have solved the problem in a very perfect manner by the introduction of gill screws of a gradually increasing pitch, by which the progress of the gills, B, through the box is constantly undergoing acceleration to the end, as will be obvious from the construction of the screws, A and A¹, until they are passed down in the usual manner, and returned by the screws, C and C¹, which are, as usual, of uniform pitch. The two sets of screws are so adjusted as to almost meet in the middle, so that the gills of the first set finish their forward movement close to the point where the second commence. The bottom screws, C, of the first set of gills, B, are actuated by bevel wheels on a cross shaft engaging with bevel wheels on their outer extremity, the cross shaft being geared to the main shaft. The screws, C¹, of the second set of gills from two longitudinal shafts are connected by bevel gearing to the main shaft. Intermediate wheels communicate motion from change wheels on the longitudinal shafts to the wheels on the screw, C¹, traversing the second set of gills.

The feed and delivery rollers, D and E, are operated by gearing connected to worms on longitudinal shafts. These worms engage with worm wheels on cross shafts, which are provided at their outer ends with change wheels engaging with other change wheels on the arbors of the bottom feed and delivery rollers, D and E.

The speeds are so adjusted that the fibers are delivered to the first set of gills at a speed approximately equal to the speed at which these start their traverse. The gills in the second set begin their journey at a pace which slightly exceeds that at which those of the first finish their traverse. These paces are of course regulated by the class and nature of the fibers under operation. The delivery rollers, E, take off the fibers at a rate slightly exceeding that of the gills delivering it to them.

In the ordinary gill box, the feed and delivery rollers are fluted, in order the better to retain in the first instance their grip upon the wool passing through, and in the second to enable them to overcome any resistance that might be offered to drawing the material. It thus often happens in this class of machines that a large percentage of the fibers are broken, and thus much waste is made. The substitution of plain rollers in both these positions obviates most of this mischief, while in combination with the other parts of the arrangement it is almost precluded altogether.

It will be obvious from what we have said that the special features of this machine, which may be summarized as, first, the use of a screw thread of graduated pitch; second, an increased length of screw action and an additional number of fallers; and third, the use of light plain rollers in place of heavy fluted back and front rollers, enable the inventor to justly claim the acquisition of a number of advantages, which may be enumerated as follows: