In further development of these most interesting processes Sir John Herschel says:—" The varieties of cyanotype processes seem to be innumerable, but that which I shall now describe deserves particular notice, not only for its pre-eminent beauty while in progress, but as illustrating the peculiar power of the ammoniacal and other persalts of iron above-mentioned to receive a latent picture, susceptible of development by a great variety of stimuli. This process consists in simply passing over the ammonia-citrated paper on which such a latent picture has been impressed, very sparingly and evenly, a wash of the solution of the common yellow ferrocyanate (prussiate) of potash. The latent picture, if not so faint as to be quite invisible (and for this purpose it should not be so), is negative. As soon as the liquid is applied, which cannot be in too thin a film, the negative picture vanishes, and by very slow degrees is replaced by a positive one of a violet-blue colour on a greenish-yellow ground, which at a certain moment possesses a high degree of sharpness, and singular beauty and delicacy of tint. If at this instant it be thrown into water, it passes immediately to Prussian blue, losing at the same time, however, much of its sharpness, and sometimes indeed becoming quite blotty and confused. But if this be delayed, the picture, after attaining a certain maximum of distinctness, grows rapidly confused, especially if the quantity of liquid applied be more than the paper can easily and completely absorb, or if the brush in applying it be allowed to rest on, or to be passed twice over any part. The effect then becomes that of a coarse and ill-printed woodcut, all the strong shades being run together, and a total absence prevailing of half lights.

" To prevent this confusion, gum-arabic may be added to the prussiated solution, by which it is hindered from spreading un-Lanageably within the pores of the paper, and the precipitated Prussian blue allowed time to agglomerate and fix itself on the fibres. By the use of this ingredient also, a much thinner and more equable film may be spread over the surface ; and when perfectly dry, if not sufficiently developed, the application may be repeated. By operating thus I have occasionally (though rarely) succeeded in producing pictures of great beauty and richness of effect, which they retain (if not thrown into water) between the leaves of a portfolio, and have even a certain degree of fixity— fading in a strong light, and recovering their tone in the dark.

The manipulations of this process are, however, delicate, and complete success is comparatively rare.

" If sulphocyanate of potash be added to the ammonio-citrate or ammonio-tartrate of iron, the peculiar red colour which that test induces on persalts of the metal is not produced, but it appears at once on adding a drop or two of dilute sulphuric or nitric acid. This circumstance, joined to the perfect neutrality of these salts, and their power, in such neutral solution, of enduring, undecomposed, a boiling heat, contrary to the usual habitudes of the peroxide of iron, together with their singular transformation by the action of light to proto-salts, in apparent opposition to a very strong affinity, has, I confess, inclined me to speculate on the possibility of their ferruginous base existing in them, not in the ordinary form of peroxide, but in one isomeric with it. The non-formation of Prussian blue, when their solutions are mixed with prussiate of potash, and the formation in its place of a deep violet-coloured liquid of singular instability under the action of light, seems to favour this idea. Nor is it altogether impossible that the peculiar "prepared" state superficially assumed by iron under the influence of nitric acid, first noticed by Keir, and since made the subject of experiment by M. Scöhnbein and myself, may depend on a change superficially operated on the iron itself into a new metallic body isomeric with iron, unoxidable by nitric acid, and which may be considered as the radical of that peroxide which exists in the salts in question, and possibly also of an isomeric protoxide. A combination of the common protoxide with the isomeric peroxide, rather than with the same metal in a simply higher stage of oxidation, would afford a not implausible notion of the chemical nature of that peculiar intermediate oxide to which the name of ' Ferroso-ferric' has been given by Berzelius. If (to render my meaning more clear) we for a moment consent to designate such an isomeric form of iron by the name siderium, the oxide in question might be regarded as a sideriate of iron. Both phosphorus and arsenic (bodies remarkable for sesqui-combinations) admit isomeric forms in their oxides and acids. But to return from this digression.

"If to a mixture of ammonio-citrate of iron and sulphocyanate of potash, a small dose of nitric acid be added, the resulting red liquid, spread on paper, spontaneously whitens in the dark. If more acid be added till the point is attained when the discoloration begins to relax, and the paper when dry retains a considerable degree of colour, it is powerfully affected by light, and receives a positive picture with great rapidity, which appears at the back of the paper with even more distinctness than on its face. The impression, however, is pallid, fades on keeping, nor am I acquainted at present with any mode of fixing it.

"If paper be washed with a mixture of the solutions of ammonio-citrate of iron and ferrosesquicyanate of potash, so as to contain the two salts in about equal proportions, and being then impressed with a picture, be thrown into water and dried, a negative blue image will be produced. This picture I have found to be susceptible of a very curious transformation, preceded by total obliteration. To effect this it must be washed with solution of proto-nitrate of mercury, which in a little time entirely discharges it. The nitrate being thoroughly washed out and the picture dried, a smooth iron is to be passed over it, somewhat hotter than is used for ironing linen, but not sufficiently so to scorch or injure the paper. The obliterated picture immediately reappears, not blue, but brown. If kept for some weeks in this state between the leaves of a portfolio, in complete darkness, it fades, and at length almost entirely disappears. But what is very singular, a fresh application of the heat revives and restores it to its full intensity.

" This curious transformation is instructive in another way. It is not operated by light, at least not by light alone. A certain temperature must be attained, and that temperature suffices in total darkness. Nevertheless, I find that on exposing to a very concentrated spectrum (collected by a lens of short focus) a slip of paper duly prepared as above (that is to say, by washing with the mixed solutions, exposure to sunshine, washing, and discharging the uniform blue colour so induced as in the last article), its whiteness is changed to brown over the whole region of the red and orange rays, but not beyond the luminous spectrum. Three conclusions seem unavoidable :—1st, that it is the heat of these rays, not their light, which operates the change ; 2ndly, that this heat possesses a peculiar chemical quality which is not possessed by the purely calorific rays outside of the visible spectrum, though far more intense; and, 3rdly, that the heat radiated from obscurely hot iron abounds especially in rays analogous to those of the region of the spectrum above indicated".

Sir John Herschel then proceeds to show that whatever be the state of the iron in the double salts in question, its reduction by blue light to the state of protoxide is indicated by many other reagents. Thus, for example, if a slip of paper prepared with the ammonio-citrate of iron be exposed partially to sunshine, and then washed with the bichromate of potash, the bichromate is deoxidised, and precipitated upon the sunned portion, just as it would be if directly exposed to the sun's rays.

I have proved this fact with a great number of preparations of cobalt, nickel, bismuth, platinum, and other salts which have been thought hitherto to be insensible to solar agency; but if they are partially sunned, and then washed with nitrate of silver, and put aside in the dark, the metallic silver is slowly reduced upon the sunned portion. In many instances days were required to produce the visible picture; and in one case, paper, being washed with neutral chloride of platinum, was sunned, and then washed in the dark with nitrate of silver: it was some weeks before the image made its appearance, but it was eventually perfectly developed. This specimen has been kept for several years, and continues constantly to improve in clearness and definition.