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THE LATE COLONEL RUSSELL'S
exposed, and then developed as soon as possible after removal from
the camera. In field work the dark tent had to be dragged about
as a part of the necessary paraphernalia, and in addition to this and
the camera, the photographer was obliged to carry with him a stock
of chemicals, such as bath solution, developer, fixing solution, &c., to
say nothing of sometimes finding himself driven to extremities for
want of a supply of clean water. The amateur of the present time
lives in a golden age of photographic facilities; he knows nothing of
the agony of learning to coat a glass plate with collodion with
perfect uniformity and smoothness, using only a minimum of the
viscid solution, performing the operation with the greatest possible
speed, and returning the excess to the bottle without pouring it up
his sleeve or 6ver his boots. Who that has had to manipulate the
collodion process under a tropical sun will forget the anxiety con-
sequent upon the transport of bottles of ether into temperatures of
something over 100° F. in the shade? I have vivid recollections of
the Eclipse Expedition of 1875, to the island of Camorta, in the Bay
of Bengal, somewhere about 8° from the equator. Our observa-
tions were to have been chiefly photographic, and we were well
equipped with photographic materials. But the experience gained at
home went only a little way towards helping us to manipulate collo-
dion in a temperature at which the ether evaporated almost as soon
as the film was spread over the plate. The tents had to be kept
wetted with water, and the dark slide was brought out of the tent and
fixed in its telescope-camera swaddled in wet cloths to prevent the
too rapid drying of the sensitive film.
These and other difficulties are now experiences of the past. At
the present time a complete photographic equipment, weighing only
a few pounds, can be taken into the field, and the plates or films
developed at leisure any time after exposure.3 The sensitiveness of
modern dry plates so far transcends that of the old collodion process
that instantaneous effects can be secured by any amateur possessed
of ordinary skill. It is desirable that Essex people should know
what a large share the late Col. Russell had in bringing about this
state of affairs.
The most obvious way of getting rid of the difficulties of working
the wet collodion process out of doors is, of course, to coat the plate
with a dry sensitive film, which can be prepared some time before
3 "Dark rooms" are becoming necessary adjuncts in all hotels frequented by tourists, and such
accommodations for photographers are duly indicated in the Handbook of English and Irish
Hotels issued by the Cyclists' Touring Club.