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Noting my puzzled expression, Fred explains Further along the bench another bare electric
that the glass is used to focus the negative globe hangs over a 10" x 8" printing frames.
image from the enlarger - or in this case the Ah! The simple magic of contact printing.
reducer. As the Department normally used 10" Under the bench a rack holds a number of
x 8" or whole plate (8½" x 6½") negatives for smaller printing frames. A small vertical parti-
their "still" photography the images had to be tion shields a plate loading area. Neat stacks of
reduced down to 3¼" square to make -of double dark plate holders of various sizes line
course- lantern slides! (Fred and Henry made the wall. Then a large rack of shelves loaded
hundreds of lantern slides for magic lantern with dozens of unopened boxes of glass plates,
lectures, to be used all over the State, and they lantern slides and printing paper, all with the
th
were also sent to England to promote migra- exotic labels of the late 19 century - a
tion to Queensland. collector's dream.
PROCESSING
Fred pulls a switch cord and two beautiful
antique safelights recently converted from gas The end of the 50 ft roll is pinned to a slat and
lamps to electric light emit a bright ruby glow. the drum is lifted across to the developing tank
Fred is anxious to get started. He clears the wet where it is again supported by two short
bench and places vertical arms just long enough to allow the
a shallow developing film to enter the developer without touching
tank about a metre long the bottom of the tank. Fred starts rotating the
on to the duckboard. It's drum through the developer.
like a cylinder cut in
half longways. Fred calls Hang on! There's been no time or temperature
it a "horse trough" - a check. "Time and temperature check?" said
good description. He Fred. "What for?" He explained that all he has
pours the developer into to do is to watch the image coming up on the
the trough. The chemistry film, "you can see it clearly in the safe light,
is made up exactly to the and that's the way we develop our
Lumiere's formula. On the dry bench opposite still negatives too". He twisted the film to view
is placed a "squirrel cage" drum with solid the image through the base. "When you can
wood ends joined lengthwise by a series of see the image clearly through the back it's had
wooden slats or laths. A wooden dowel forms enough development." It was as simple as that.
an axle that protrudes from each end of the
drum allowing it to rotate on a wooden A few more turns of the drum and another
supporting frame. The white light clicks check through the base, then he opens a tap in
off, and in the ruby glow of the safe light Fred the bottom and the developer flows out
removes a small roll of film from its
can - one of the rolls he exposed at
Allora on the Darling Downs.
He pins the film to one end of the
drum with the emulsion facing out-
wards. He starts rotating the drum
carefully laying the film tightly on
the slats in a spiral fashion along the
length of the drum, making sure that
each successive strand does not
touch or overlap the previous one.

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