Harper's Round Table, July 2, 1895 Part 14

The _Interscholastic Sport_ Department of HARPER'S ROUND TABLE will be as full of matter interesting to its present readers during the summer months as it is now. Many will go to distant summer resorts where there may be no newsdealer. To insure the prompt receipt of the paper each week, send the accompanying coupon bearing your name and address with 50 cents for 13 weeks, or $2.00 for one year.

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[Ill.u.s.tration: BICYCLING]

This Department is conducted in the interest of Bicyclers, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on the subject. Our maps and tours contain much valuable data kindly supplied from the official maps and road-books of the League of American Wheelmen.

Recognizing the value of the work being done by the L. A. W., the Editor will be pleased to furnish subscribers with membership blanks and information so far as possible.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Copyright, 1895, by Harper & Brothers.]

The course this week to be described is the third stage from New York to Albany on a reasonably slow plan of movement. The first two trips, which have already been described in the ROUND TABLE, are from New York to Tarrytown, and from Tarrytown to Poughkeepsie. The third stage then continues from Poughkeepsie to Hudson, a distance of somewhat over forty miles. Starting from the Nelson House, at Poughkeepsie, at the top of the hill running up from the river, the rider runs out of Poughkeepsie on the Albany Post Road to Albany, following the telegraph wires six miles to Hyde Park. From this point the run up to Blue Stores, altogether twenty-six or twenty-seven miles, the road cannot be mistaken, and over these twenty-seven miles it is as fine a stretch of bicycling journey as one could well desire. There are almost no hills, with the exception of a small stretch, which is rolling country and not difficult. The Madeline House at Red Hook is a good resting-place, and the rider on the journey pa.s.ses through Staatsburg, Rhinebeck, Red Hook, Upper Red Hook, Cleremont, and thence, after a two-mile run, enters Blue Stores. From this point on to Hudson, a distance of eleven or twelve miles, there are more hills, though no very bad ones, and the road is not so good. It is six and three-quarter miles to McKinstryville. On leaving Blue Stores the rider should keep to the left around the hotel, and the road is then direct to McKinstryville. The road-bed is of clay, and is rather poor, though it improves as you approach McKinstryville.

Out of McKinstryville the road runs direct to Hudson, about five miles away. It is sandy, with occasional bits of loam, and is by no means as good riding as from Poughkeepsie to Blue Stores.

It will be noticed by looking at the map that the best bicycle route, which is, of course, the Albany Post Road, keeps on the higher ground, somewhat back from the river, after leaving Staatsburg. This is the road that is, on the whole, wiser for the wheelman to take. It is, however, possible, and to one who is anxious to see the country and the places of historic interest, it would perhaps be more pleasant to turn to the left about two and a half to three miles out of Staatsburg, and run down to the river on the road marked as a fair bicycle road. This route can be followed without description by carefully studying the map. It keeps the Hudson in view most of the time, pa.s.ses through Rhinecliffe, Barrytown, Annandale, Tivoli, East Camp, Germantown, North Germantown, Burden, Catskill Station, and runs into Hudson near the two best hotels in the town--the Worth House and the Hotel Lincoln. Furthermore, if the rider is making a trip to Albany by much slower stages, and thus giving himself time to make somewhat extended detours, he can stop along this road at Rhinecliffe, at Tivoli, and at Catskill Station, and make short trips across the river and into the country on the other side. Indeed, if the time is at his disposal, this is much the most interesting method to follow, and any wheelman who plans to take the Albany trip is vigorously urged to make it a matter of a week rather than of two or three days. There are good hotels at Tivoli; the Blue Stores Hotel at Blue Stores is a reasonably comfortable stopping-place. The points of especial interest along the way are Va.s.sar College (1); Hudson River State Hospital (2); St. Stephens College (3); North Bay, where the first steamboat was built by Fulton and Livingston (4); New York State Reformatory for Women (5).

NOTE.--Map of New York city asphalted streets in No. 809. Map of route from New York to Tarrytown in No. 810. New York to Stamford, Connecticut, in No. 811. New York to Staten Island in No. 812. New Jersey from Hoboken to Pine Brook in No. 813. Brooklyn in No. 814.

Brooklyn to Babylon in No. 815. Brooklyn to Northport in No. 816.

Tarrytown to Poughkeepsie in No. 817.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CAMERA CLUB]

Any questions in regard to photograph matters will be willingly answered by the editor of this column, and we should be glad to hear from any of our club who can make helpful suggestions.

PAPERS FOR BEGINNERS, No. 7.

THE DARK-ROOM.

For the amateur who has not that luxury of the photographer, running water, the arranging of the dark-room may be made to suit his own convenience, and not that of the water-tap. In the room devoted to photography, the developing-table should be placed on the side of the room opposite the window. This table or shelf should be low enough so that the operator may sit down while at work. A convenient size for all processes of ordinary amateur photography is a table 2-1/2 feet long by 1-1/2 feet wide.

One often sees directions for arranging tanks with faucets, and sinks with removable drains, to supply the want of running water, but these elaborate and often ineffectual contrivances are not at all necessary, as the photographic editor has proved by experiment. Two ordinary wooden pails filled two-thirds full of water, the one for rinsing the plate after development and before placing in the hypo, and the other in which to place the plates after they are taken from the hypo, answer every purpose, and are much less trouble to manage than the complicated subst.i.tutes for running water.

At each end of the table have a wooden box on which to set the pails of water when developing plates. The pail at the right hand can be used to rinse the developer from the plate, and the one at the left to place them in after they are developed, until all are finished.

One should have a negative washing-rack, which can be made according to directions given in Papers for Beginners, No. 4; for after the plates are all developed they can be lifted out of the pail, and the water changed without danger of breaking the plates or scratching the soft films.

It is a good idea to have a small shelf about three inches above the table, just large enough to hold the lantern.

At the right hand of the table should be shelves for the chemicals, developing-trays, gla.s.s graduates, and all things used in developing. On the upper shelf place the bottles containing the chemicals used in developing plates and in sensitizing paper. Every bottle should be labelled in large, clear letters. A set of labels on which are printed the names of all the chemicals in general use in the dark-room may be bought for ten cents. The bottles must be carefully wiped after using.

To prevent the chemicals running down the outside of the bottles and staining the labels, coat the rim of the bottle with melted paraffine wax, which can be applied with a brush.

At the end of the shelf holding the chemicals cut two deep square notches in which slip the gla.s.s graduates when not in use, turning them bottom side up, in the same way chemists do in their laboratories.

The shelf below the chemicals can be used for the trays, which must be rinsed and wiped each time after using, and turned bottom side up to keep out dust.

On the opposite side of the room have the shelves for dry plates, printing-paper, printing-frames, toning-solutions, and pigeon-holes for negatives. The pigeon-holes, which are easily made, should be 4-1/2 inches square by 5-1/2 inches deep. This size pigeon-hole will hold twenty-five negatives. As soon as one has made a good negative it should be placed in a stout manilla envelope, numbered, named, and any notes in regard to it which one wishes to remember, all written on the outside.

The negatives should be stored in order in the pigeon-holes, and each one marked with the numbers of the negatives which it contains, thus: 1 to 25; 26 to 50.

The number and name of every negative should be recorded in a small blank-book, which is the negative catalogue. Tie a string in this book, and hang it on a nail or hook at one end of the pigeon-holes, and have the string long enough so that the book can be used without taking it from the hook. The marking and storing of negatives in this way save hours of time spent in searching for some particular negative.

A drawer in the table is very convenient for holding little articles, and several pegs or hooks are needed on which to hang up those articles which can be hung up. Keep your dark-room in such good order that it will be a pleasure to work in it.

Negative envelopes printed on the outside: No. ----, Name ----, Notes ----, can be bought for twenty-five cents a hundred.

SIR KNIGHT EDWARD DAVIDS asks if a yellow light is a safe light for a dark room. A yellow light is much more agreeable and less injurious to the eyes than a red light, and if the gla.s.s is a deep orange the light will be quite safe. It is best, when developing, not to expose the plate to the direct rays of the lantern till development is well started.

LADY EMMA GRACE wishes to know how blisters in prints may be avoided. If the prints are put, after toning and before washing, in a washbowl of salt and water for five minutes they will not blister.

F. E. W., JUN., asks for a formula for making sensitive paper. "In Nos. 795 and 803 will be found directions for preparing plain paper, and in No. 797, 'answers to queries,' will be found a formula for preparing 'blue prints.'"

SIR KNIGHT OCTAVE DE MAURICE asks for a formula for a glycin developer. Take glycin, 6 grains; carbonate of pota.s.sium, 48 grains; water, 4 ounces. This is said to be an excellent developer, giving soft negatives full of detail, but requiring more time than other developing agents.

AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION

is cheaper than any quant.i.ty of cure. Don't give children narcotics or sedatives. They are unnecessary when the infant is properly nourished, as it will be if brought up on the Gail Borden Eagle Brand Condensed Milk--[_Adv._]

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