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First Steps in Microphotography
BUT first, "Should there be any steps?" asks an average-sized college library. Well, in England it is a small college up near the Scotch border that holds leadership in this subject at present, and the first important inquiry over there was set going by a professor of American history. FILM CAN SAVE PAPERS AND SPACEThat is a good phrase to start with over here, too. You have professors of American history. How they would love to put Time in reverse and with their classes watch again the event under study. Museum people are doing the like by substituting habitat groups for single specimens. Similarly, you can sense Washington's time, for example, by evoking the newspapers he read, for film will now give them to you for two or three cents a page. And speaking of newspapers, remember that our own are crumbling on the shelves and take a lot of room besides. Film can save both papers and space. You doubtless borrow many periodical volumes in the course of a year. Why not possess the desired articles by having them filmed at less than transportation cost? This leads to hobbies. How about a specialty, particularly one indigenous to your region? Let the camera gather up every kind of record pertaining to the area, whether of scenic, scientific, or archival character. You may be creating a national shrine. The college community thus begins to take on an air of adventure. A newcomer steps off the train with a suitcase carrying the whole journal record of a subject and there maintains his mastery. We are more and more reversing the medieval order by escaping to the country at night, though taking the best of the city with us. The miniature camera joins motion pictures and radio to give us agreeable companions in assembly and about the hearth. WHERE TO STARTStep 1. Buy a copy of Microphotography for Libraries, 1936 and 1937, and subscribe for their sequel, the new Journal of Documentary Reproduction--all issued by the American Library Association. These are pioneering volumes and permanently valuable. 2. Purchase a reading machine. Your opportunity has apparently come at last and rather suddenly. The International Research Corporation promises for March delivery a reader at $75, good for wall projection also, and the pulling of paper prints if desired. It is being marketed initially by Science Service, 2101 Constitution Avenue, Washington, D.C. There are special and more general instruments, at greater cost, which will later challenge your attention. If you have a shadowy corner where a small screen could be set up on a table, you could get by with a $32.50 Argus projector secured from the Society for Visual Education, Incorporated, 327 South La Salle Street, Chicago. At this point you may pause, but not for long. GET A PHOTORECORD IF POSSIBLE3. Get a camera. If possible, buy a Photorecord at $265 from the Folmer Graflex Corporation, Rochester, New York. This is the first factory instrument specifically designed for textual copying. It knocks down into an indispensable case, the whole weighing about 45 pounds. Here is the maximum of mechanization consistent with portability. In penalty for these advantages, it must be operated standing, because actuated by a pedal requiring 20 pounds of pressure. But the company is about ready to offer a motor compressor, which should certainly be purchased in laboratory installations. If the weight in this case is objectionable, you may ask Messrs. Ludwig and Ott, of Yale University, to build you one of their hand-made and manually operated Microrecord cameras at $255. This instrument may be gathered into a handbag with a diagonal of 23 inches and weighs 19 pounds exclusive of any case. It possesses neither the mechanization nor the versatility of the Photorecord, but it is easy to transport and set up, and its shutter is particularly sturdy. Both these cameras accommodate 100 feet of film, or enough for 1,600 ordinary pages. If the library's major use of the miniature camera is in scenic work of various kinds and only to a minor extent in copying of texts, then a Leica will suffice, though it is slow and has but 42 feet of film. However, a new model carrying 33 feet is now available, but this costs $84 more. The Leica commands a great variety of accessories. Equipped for textual work, the combination runs to about $250 but has no carrying case. This popular instrument is wasteful of film because confined to double frame use: that is, it clicks off ~} inches at a time regardless. CHEAPER CAMERAS AVAILABLECheaper cameras can be had and for initial practice they might be bought, though you would have to rig up your own stand and lights. Undoubtedly your college machine shop could do this job for you at small cost (say, $8). Thus for $15, plus 50 cents for a tripod screw attachment, you can get from the International Research Corporation, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, an Argus camera which focuses down to 15 inches. The magazine carries only 4 1/2 feet of film, but with as low a priced instrument one of the physicists at the University of Chicago is filming all the journal articles in his specialty. Here you would certainly pause for breath before taking the next step, for that involves: 4. A dark room, in which to process the film, that is, develop, fix, and dry it. Needless to say, all sorts of money can be spent on this unit. You may well decide to send your rolls out at first. But when you do start up for yourself, these are the minimum requirements, as set down by Mr. Herman H. Fussler, of the Chicago laboratory:
FLOOR PLAN OBTAINABLEThe trays are for developing film in the reel as well as prints. The drying arrangement may be a tin drum covered with lintless cloth or any rectangular wooden rack you may build for the purpose. A sample floor plan can be had of the Eastman Kodak Company. Though not recommended, this expense may be cut in half by substituting in the above table (1) a developing tank good for 4 1/2 feet of film ($7.50) for the reel and trays, and (2) a half dozen clothespins for the rack or drum. This cheaper alternative would be the retinue of an Argus camera or the like. In either case, provide running water, and get the powders which are commercially prepared for developing and fixing, as required, plus miscellaneous bottles and stoppers, leaving for a later stage the mixing of your own chemicals. 5. But there is something else a dark room can do besides steadying the nerves of sensitive film. You can and will pull paper enlargements. This is not a photostatic operation, that is, a direct paper copy, but a projection print--the film's shadow--yet for some reason which the experts do not disclose they charge less for the latter than the former despite the double operation. Thus Bibliofilm Service offers 6 by 8 inch prints for ten cents. Needless to say there are many uses of such paper prints, and, besides, the Photorecord camera promises in time to provide miniature photostats 2 inches high at the price of film 1 inch high. That is something to mull over. Of enlargers there are a number of makes. Chicago's was supplied by Graflex at $87.50 (list price). Instruments cheaper and less versatile may be had, though not advisable in permanent set-ups. Thus: Argus stand, $12.50, and 3 trays 8 by 10 inches for developing prints, $2.25. A TICKLISH BUSINESS6. Finally, comes the making of film duplicates. These are produced by contact with the negatives. Here's ticklish business for no printer well suited to the reproduction of textual films is yet in the market. Best contract out for the time. Such are the first steps. If you take them, it's the last we shall see of you for a long time. You are gone. The inquiring reporter's thanks are due experts Charles Z. Case, of the Eastman Kodak Company; Jack Holloway, of the Holloway Company; and especially Vernon D. Tate, of the National Archives, in addition to Chicago's own Fussler as indicated. Which leads to a final counsel: Many steps will be saved by starting with the appointment of a good technician, for films flourish best in rich chemical soil.
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