The Magic Wand in Photography

Photography:
Suppose we coat one side of a glass plate with silver chloride, just as we might put a coat of varnish on a chair. We must be very careful to coat the plate in the dark room, otherwise the sunlight will separate the silver chloride and spoil our plan. Then lay a horseshoe on the plate for good luck, and carry the plate out into the light for a second. The light will separate the silver chloride into chlorine and silver, the latter of which will remain on the plate as a thin film. All of the plate was affected by the sun except the portion protected by the horseshoe which, because it is opaque, would not allow light to pass through and reach the plate. If now the plate is carried back to the dark room and the horseshoe is removed, one would expect to see on the plate an impression of the horseshoe, because the portion protected by the horseshoe would be covered by silver chloride and the exposed unprotected portion would be covered by metallic silver. But we are much disappointed because the plate, when examined ever so carefully, shows not the slightest change in appearance. The change is there, but the unaided eye cannot detect the change. Some chemical, the so-called "developer," must be used to bring out the hidden change and to reveal the image to our unseeing eyes. There are many different developers in use, any one of which will effect the necessary transformation. When the plate has been in the developer for a few seconds, the silver coating gradually darkens, and slowly but surely the image printed by the sun's rays appears. But we must not take this picture into the light, because the silver chloride which was protected by the horseshoe is still present, and would be strongly affected by the first glimmer of light, and, as a result, our entire plate would become similar in character and there would be no contrast to give an image of the horseshoe on the plate.

But a photograph on glass, which must be carefully shielded from the light and admired only in the dark room, would be neither pleasurable nor practical. If there were some way by which the hitherto unaffected silver chloride could be totally removed, it would be possible to take the plate into any light without fear. To accomplish this, the unchanged silver chloride is got rid of by the process technically called "fixing"; that is, by washing off the unreduced silver chloride with a solution such as sodium thiosulphite, commonly known as hypo. After a bath in the hypo the plate is cleansed in clear running water and left to dry. Such a process gives a clear and permanent picture on the plate.