Few men have done more for photography than M. Fizeau, and in nearly all his suggestions he has been exceedingly happy: the bromine water thus prepared is used with the best effect by our most eminent daguerreotype artists.

Bromide of iodine is best prepared by the method of M. de Valicours, which is as follows:—" Into a bottle of the capacity of about two ounces, pour thirty or forty drops of bromine, the precise quantity not being of importance. Then add, grain by grain, as much iodine as the bromine will dissolve till quite saturated. This point is ascertained when some grains of the iodine remain undissolved. They may remain in the bottle, as they will not interfere with the success of the preparation.

" The bromide of iodine thus prepared, from its occupying so small a space, can very easily be carried, but in this state it is much too concentrated to be used. When it is to be employed, pour a small quantity, say fifteen drops, by means of a drop-ping-tube, into a bottle containing about half an ounce of filtered river water. It will easily be understood that the bromide of iodine can be used with a greater or less quantity of water, without altering the proportion which exists between the bromine and iodine".

Mr. Goddard, on December 12, 1840, published a letter in the Literary Gazette on the use of bromide of iodine as an accelerating agent, but chloride of iodine was first employed by M. Clau-det in 1841, and is prepared by merely placing iodine in an atmosphere of chlorine. Chloride of bromine is made by mixing two drachms of a saturated solution of bromine with fifteen drops of strong muriatic acid and about nine or ten ounces of water. The Hungarian mixture appears to be a similar compound to this.

For the following exceedingly convenient preparations we are indebted to Mr. E. J. Bingham, who has for some time, with much success, devoted his attention to the improvement of photographic processes. The following extracts are from the Philosophical Magazine for October, 1846 :—

An Improvement In The Daguerreotype Process By The Application Of Some New Compounds Of Bromine, Chlorine, And Iodine, With Lime

All persons who have practised the daguerreotype must have remarked that in warm weather a considerable deposition of moisture takes place upon the glass or slate cover used to confine the vapour in the bromine or accelerating pan. This moisture must also necessarily condense upon the cold metallic surface of the plate during the time it is exposed to the bromine vapour. In fact, I have been informed by a number of professional daguerreotypists (and I have experienced the difficulty myself), that they were unable to obtain perfect pictures during the excessive heat of the late season; and a very clever and enterprising operator, who last year made a tour on the Continent, and brought home some of the finest proofs I have ever seen, entirely failed this season in obtaining clear and perfect pictures, from the constant appearance of a mist or cloud over the prepared surface. This appears to be caused by the deposition of moisture upon the plate, arising from the water in which the bromine is dissolved. To obviate this, some have recommended the pan to be kept at a low temperature in a freezing mixture; and M. Daguerre, in a communication to the French Academy of Sciences, recommends the plate to be heated : but in practice both these are found to be unsuccessful. (See Lerebours' Traité de Photographie).

" It appeared to me, that if we could avoid the use of water altogether in the accelerating mixture, not only would the difficulty I have mentioned be avoided, but a much more sensitive surface would be obtained on the plate. With this view I endeavoured to combine bromine with lime, so as to form a compound analogous to bleaching powder. In this I was successful, and find that bromine, chloride of iodine, and iodine, may be united with lime, forming compounds having properties similar to the so-called chloride of lime.

" The bromide of lime* may be produced by allowing bromine vapour to act upon hydrate of lime for some hours : the most convenient method of doing this is to place some of the hydrate at the bottom of a flask, and then put some bromine into a glass capsule supported a little above the lime. As heat is developed during the combination, it is better to place the lower part of the flask in water at the temperature of about 50° Fah.: the lime gradually assumes a beautiful scarlet colour, and acquires an appearance very similar to that of the red iodide of mercury. The chloro-iodide of lime may be formed in the same manner : it has a deep brown colour. Both these compounds, when the vapour arising from them is not too intense, have an odour analogous to that of bleaching powder, and quite distinguishable from chlorine, bromine, or iodine alone.

" Those daguerreotypists who use chlorine in combination with bromine, as in Woolcott's American mixture, or M. Guérin's Hungarian solution, which is a compound of bromine, chlorine, and iodine, may obtain similar substances in the solid state, which may be used with great advantage. By passing chlorine over bromine, and condensing the vapours into a liquid, and then allowing the vapour of this to act upon lime, a solid may be obtained having all the properties of the American accelerator; or by combining the chloro-iodide of lime with a little of the bromide, a mixture similar to that of M. Guérin's may be produced : but I greatly prefer, and would recommend, the pure bromide of lime, it being, as I believe, the quickest accelerating substance at present known. By slightly colouring the plate with the chloro-iodide, and then exposing it for a proper time over the bromide, proofs may be obtained in a fraction of a second, even late in the afternoon. A yellow colour should be given by the use of the first substance; and the proper time over the bromide is readily obtained by one or two trials.* With about a drachm of the substance in a shallow pan, I give the plate ten seconds the whole of the first day of using the preparation, and add about three seconds for every succeeding one. The compound should be evenly strewed over the bottom of the pan, and will last, with care, about a fortnight.