priority in favour of Thomas Wedgwood for the honour of having made
photographs on silver plates, and negatives on paper, and examples of
such alleged early works were submitted to the inspection of members of
the Photographic Society, but it was most satisfactorily determined that
the photographs on the silver plates were weak Daguerreotypes of a
posterior date, and that the photographic prints, on paper, of a
breakfast table were from a calotype negative taken by Fox Talbot.
Messrs. Henneman and Dr. Diamond proved this most conclusively. Other
prints then exhibited, and alleged to be photographs, were nothing but
prints from metal plates, produced by some process of engraving,
probably Aquatint. I saw some of the examples at the time, and, as
recently as Nov. 1st, 1889, I have seen some of them again, and I think
the "Breakfast Table" and a view of "Wedgwood's Pottery" are silver
prints, though very much faded, from calotype negatives. The other
prints, such as the "Piper" and "A Vase," are from engraved plates. No
one can desire to lessen Thomas Wedgwood's claims to pre-eminence among
the early experimentalists with chloride of silver, but there cannot now
be any denial to the claims of the Rev. J. B. Reade in 1837, and Fox
Talbot in 1840, of being the earliest producers of photographic
negatives on paper, from which numerous prints could be obtained.
The Wothlytype printing process was introduced to the notice of
photographers and the public this year: first, by a blatant article in
the _Times_, which was both inaccurate and misleading, for it stated
that both nitrate of silver and hyposulphite of soda were dispensed
within the process; secondly, by the issue of advertisements and
prospectuses for the formation of a Limited Liability Company. I went
to the Patent Office and examined the specification, and found that
both nitrate of silver and hyposulphite of soda were essential to the
practice of the process, and that there was no greater guarantee of
permanency in the use of the Wothlytype than in ordinary silver
printing.
On March 14th, 1865, George Wharton Simpson, editor and proprietor of
the _Photographic News_, read a paper at a meeting of the Photographic
Society on a new printing process with collodio-chloride of silver on
paper. Many beautiful examples were exhibited, but the method never
became popular, chiefly on account of the troubles of toning with
sulpho-cyanide of ammonium. The same or a similar process, substituting
gelatine for collodion, is known and practised now under the name of
Aristotype, but not very extensively, because of the same defects and
difficulties attending the Simpsontype. Another new method of positive
printing was introduced this year by Mr. John M. Burgess, of Norwich,
which he called "Eburneum." It was not in reality a new mode of
printing, but an ingenious application of the collodion transfer, or
stripping process. The back of the collodion positive print was coated
with a mixture of gelatine and oxide of zinc, and when dry stripped from
the glass. The finished picture resembled a print on very fine ivory,
and possessed both delicate half-tones and brilliant shadows. I possess
some of them now, and they are as beautiful as they were at first, after
a lapse of nearly quarter of a century. It was a very troublesome and
tedious process, and I don't think many people practised it. Certainly I
don't know any one that does so at the present time.
This was the year of the Dublin International Exhibition. I went to see
it and report thereon, and my opinions and criticisms of the
photographic and other departments will be found and may be perused in
"Contributions to Photographic Literature." On the whole, it was a very
excellent exhibition, and I thoroughly enjoyed the trip.
A new carbon process by M. Carey Lea was published this year. The
ingredients were similar to those employed by Swan and others, but
differently handled. No pigment was mixed with the gelatine before
exposure, but it was rubbed on after exposure and washing, and with care
any colour or number of colours might be applied, and so produce a
polychromatic picture, but I don't know any one that ever did so. I
think it could easily be applied to making photographic transfers to
blocks for the use of wood engravers.
December 5th, 1865, Mr. Walter Woodbury demonstrated and exhibited
examples of the beautiful mechanical process that bears his name to the
members of the Photographic Society. The process was not entirely
photographic. The province of photography ceased on the production of
the gelatine relief. All that followed was strictly mechanical. It is
somewhat singular that a majority of the inventions and modifications of
processes that were introduced this year related to carbon and
permanency.
Thursday, January 11th, 1866, I read, at the South London Photographic
Society, a paper on "Errors in Pictorial Backgrounds." As the paper, as
well as the discussion thereon, is published _in extenso_ in the
journals of the period, it is not necessary for me to repeat it here,
but I may as well state briefly my reasons for reading the paper. At
that time pictorial backgrounds and crowded accessories were greatly in
use, and it was seldom, if ever, that the horizontal line of the painted
background, and the horizontal line indicated by the position of the
camera, coincided. Consequently the photographic pictures obtained under
such conditions invariably exhibited this incongruity, and it was with
the hope of removing these defects, or violations of art rules and
optical laws, that I ventured to call attention to the subject and
suggest a remedy. A little later, I wrote an article, "Notes on Pictures
in the National Gallery," which was published in the _Photographic News_
of March 29th, in support of the arguments already adduced in my paper
on "Errors in Pictorial Backgrounds," and I recommend every portrait
photographer to study those pictures.
February 13th I was elected a member of the Photographic Society of
London.
Quite a sensation was created in the Spring of this year by the
introduction of what were termed "Magic Photographs." Some one was
impudent enough to patent the process, although it was nothing but a
resurrection of what was published in 1840 by Sir John Herschel, which
consisted of bleaching an ordinary silver print to invisibility with
bichloride of mercury, and restoring it by an application of
hyposulphite of soda. I introduced another form of magic photograph, in
various monochromatic colours, similar to Sir John Herschel's
cyanotype, and I have several of these pictures in my possession now,
both blue, purple, and red, dated 1866, as bright and beautiful as they
were the day they were made. But the demand for these magic photographs
was suddenly stopped by someone introducing indecent pictures. In all
probability these objectionable pictures came from abroad, and the most
scrupulous of the home producers suffered in consequence, as none of the
purchasers could possibly know what would appear when the developer or
redeveloper was applied.
On June 14th Mr. F. W. Hart read a paper, and demonstrated before the
South London Photographic Society, on his method of rendering silver
prints permanent. "A consummation devoutly to be wished," but
unfortunately some prints in my possession that were treated to a bath
of his eliminator show unmistakable signs of fading. In my opinion,
there is nothing so efficacious as warm water washing, and some prints
that I toned, fixed, and washed myself over thirty years ago, are
perfect.
The "cabinet" form of portrait was introduced this year by Mr. F. R.
Window, and it eventually became the fashionable size, and almost wiped
out the carte-de-visite. The latter, however, had held its position for
about nine years, and the time for change had arrived. Beyond the
introduction of the cabinet portrait, nothing very novel or ingenious
had been introduced, but a very good review of photography up to date
appeared in the October issue of the _British Quarterly Review_. This
was a very ably written article from the pen of my old friend, Mr.
George Wharton Simpson.
No radical improvement or advance in photography was made in 1867, but
M. Adam-Salomon created a little sensation by exhibiting some very fine
samples of his work in the Paris Exhibition. They were remarkable
chiefly for their pose, lighting, retouching, and tone. A few of them
were afterwards seen in London, and that of Dr. Diamond was probably the
most satisfactory. M. Salomon was a sculptor in Paris, and his art
training and feeling in that branch of the Fine Arts naturally assisted
him in photography.
The Duc de Luynes's prize of 8,000 francs for the best mechanical
printing process was this year awarded to M. Poitevin. In making the
award, the Commission gave a very excellent resume of all that had
previously been done in that direction, and endeavoured to show why they
thought M. Poitevin entitled to the prize; but for all that I think it
will be difficult to prove that any of M. Poitevin's mechanical
processes ever came into use.
On June 13th, in the absence of Mr. Jabez Hughes, I read his paper,
"About Leptographic Printing," before the South London Photographic
Society. This Leptographic paper was claimed to be the invention of two
photographers in Madrid, but it was evidently only a modification of Mr.
Simpson's collodio-chloride of silver process.
About this period I got into a controversy--on very different subjects,
it is true--but it made me determine to abandon for the future the
practice of writing critical notices under the cover of a _nom de
plume_. I had, under the _nom de plume_ of "Union Jack," written in
favour of a union of _all_ the photographic societies then in London.
This brought Mr. A. H. Wall down on me, but that did not affect me very
much, nor was I personally distressed about the other, but I thought it
best to abandon a dangerous practice. Under the _nom de plume_ of "Lux
Graphicus" I had contributed a great many articles to the _Photographic
News_, and, in a review of the Society's exhibition, published Nov.
22nd, 1867, I expressed an honest opinion on Mr. Robinson's picture
entitled "Sleep." It was not so favourable and flattering, perhaps, as
he would have liked, but it was an honest criticism, and written without
any intention of giving pain or offence.
The close of this year was marked by a very sad catastrophe intimately
associated with photography, by the death of Mr. Mawson at
Newcastle-on-Tyne; he was killed by an explosion of nitro-glycerine.
Mr. Mawson, in conjunction with Mr. J. W. Swan, was one of the earliest
and most successful manufacturers of collodion, and, as early as 1852, I
made negatives with that medium, though I did not employ collodion
solely until 1857, when I abandoned for ever the beautiful and
fascinating Daguerreotype.
On Friday, December 27th, Antoine Jean Francois Claudet, F.R.S., &c.,
&c., died suddenly in the 71st year of his age. He was one of the
earliest workers and improvers of the Daguerreotype process in this
country, and one of the last to relinquish its practice in London. Mr.
Claudet bought a share of the English patent of Mr. Berry, the agent,
while he was a partner in the firm of Claudet and Houghton in 1840, and
commenced business as a professional Daguerreotypist soon afterwards.
Before the introduction of bromine as an accelerator by Mr. Goddard, Mr.
Claudet had discovered that chloride of iodine increased the
sensitiveness of the Daguerreotype plate, and he read a paper on that
subject before the Royal Society in 1841. He was a member of the council
of the Photographic Society for many years, and a copious contributor to
its proceedings, as well as to photographic literature. In his
intercourse with his _confreres_ he was always courteous, and when I
called upon him in 1851 he received me most kindly, I met him again in
Glasgow, and many times in London, and always considered him the best
specimen of a Frenchman I had ever met. Towards his clients he was firm,
respectful, and sometimes generous, as the following characteristic
anecdote will show. He had taken a portrait of a child, which, for some
reason or other, was not liked, and demurred at. He said, "Ah! well, the
matter is easily settled. I'll keep the picture, and return your money";
and so he thought the case was ended; but by-and-by the picture was
asked for, and he refused to give it up. Proceedings were taken to
compel him to surrender it, which he defended. In stating the case, the
counsel remarked that the child was dead. Mr. Claudet immediately
stopped the counsel and the case by exclaiming, "Ah! they did not tell
me that before. Now, I make the parents a present of the portrait." I am
happy to say that I possess a good portrait of Mr. Claudet, taken in
November, 1867, with his _Topaz lens_, 5/8-inch aperture. Strangely
enough, Mr. Claudet's studio in Regent Street was seriously damaged by
fire within a month of his death, and all his valuable Daguerreotypes,
negatives, pictures, and papers destroyed.
On April 9th, 1868, I exhibited, at the South London Photographic
Society, examples of nearly all the types of photography then known,
amongst them a Daguerreotype by Daguerre, many of which are now in the
Science Department of the South Kensington Museum, and were presented by
me to form the nucleus of a national exhibition of the rise and progress
of photography, for which I received the "thanks of the Lords of the
Council on Education," dated April 22nd, 1886.
There was nothing very remarkable done in 1868 to forward the interests
or development of photography, yet that year narrowly escaped being made
memorable, for Mr. W. H. Harrison, now editor of the _Photographic
News_, actually prepared, exposed, and developed a gelatino-bromide
dry plate, but did not pursue the matter further. 1869 also passed
without adding much to the advancement of photography, and I fear the
same may be said of 1870, with the exception of the publication, by
Thos. Sutton, of Gaudin's gelatino-iodide process.
On February 21st, 1870, Robert J. Bingham died in Brussels. When the
Daguerreotype process was first introduced to this country, Mr. Bingham
was chemical assistant to Prof. Faraday at the Royal Institution. He
took an immediate interest in the wonderful discovery, and made an
improvement in the application of bromine vapour, which entitled him to
the gratitude of all Daguerreotypists. When Mr. Goddard applied bromine
to the process, he employed "bromine water," but, in very hot weather,
the aqueous vapour condensed upon the surface of the plate, and
interrupted the sensitising process. Mr. Bingham obviated this evil by
charging hydrate of lime with bromine vapour, which not only removed the
trouble of condensation, but increased the sensitiveness of the prepared
plate. This was a great boon to all Daguerreotypists, and many a time I
thanked him mentally long before I had the pleasure of meeting him in
London. Mr. Bingham also wrote a valuable manual on the Daguerreotype
and other photographic processes, which was published by Geo. Knight and
Sons, Foster Lane, Cheapside. Some years before his death, Mr. Bingham
settled in Paris, and became a professional photographer, but chiefly as
a publisher of photographic copies of paintings and drawings.
Abel Niepce de St. Victor, best known without the Abel, died suddenly on
April 6th, 1870. Born at St. Cyr, July 26th, 1805. After passing through
his studies at the Military School of Saumur, he became an officer in a
cavalry regiment. Being studious and fond of chemistry, he was fortunate
enough to effect some saving to the Government in the dyeing of fabrics
employed in making certain military uniforms, for which he received
compensation and promotion. His photographic fame rests upon two
achievements: firstly, his application of iodized albumen to glass for
negative purposes in 1848, a process considerably in advance of Talbot's
paper negatives, but it was quickly superseded by collodion; secondly,
his researches on "heliochromy," or photography in natural colours.
Niepce de St. Victor, like others before and since, was only partially
successful in obtaining some colour reproductions, but totally
unsuccessful in rendering those colours permanent. In proof of both
these statements I will quote from the Juror's Report, on the subject,
of the International Exhibition, 1862:--"The obtaining of fixed natural
colours by means of photography still remains, as was before remarked,
to be accomplished; but the jurors have pleasure in recording that some
very striking results of experiments in this direction were forwarded
for their inspection by a veteran in photographic research and
discovery, M. Niepce de St. Victor. These, about a dozen in number, 3-1/2
by 2-1/2 inches, consisted of reproductions of prints of figures with
parti-coloured draperies. Each tint in the pictures exhibited, they were
assured, was a faithful reproduction of the original. Amongst the
colours were blues, yellows, reds, greens, &c., all very vivid. Some of
the tints gradually faded and disappeared in the light whilst under
examination, and a few remained permanent for some hours. The
possibility of producing natural colour thus established is a fact most
interesting and important, and too much praise cannot be awarded to the
skilful research which has been to this extent crowned with success. The
jury record their obligations to their chairman, Baron Gross, at whose
personal solicitation they were enabled to obtain a sight of these
remarkable pictures." Such was the condition of photography in natural
colours towards the close of 1862, and so it is now after a lapse of
twenty-eight years. In 1870 several examples of Niepce de St. Victor's
heliochromy were sent to the Photographic Society of London, and I had
them in my hands and examined them carefully in gas-light; they could
not be looked at in daylight at all. I certainly saw _faint_ traces of
colour, but whether I saw them in their original vigour, or after they
had faded, I cannot say. All I can say is that the tints were very
feeble, and that they had not been obtained _through the lens_. They
were, at their best, only contact impressions of coloured prints
obtained after many hours of exposure. The examples had been sent to the
Photographic Society with the hope of selling them for the benefit of
the widow, but the Society was too wise to invest in such evanescent
property. However, a subscription was raised both in England and France
for the benefit of the widow and orphans of Niepce de St. Victor.
December, 1870, was marked by the death of one of the eminent pioneers
of photography. On the 12th, the Rev. J. B. Reade passed away at
Bishopsbourne Rectory, Canterbury, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. I
have already, I think, established Mr. Reade's claim to the honour of
being the first to produce a photographic negative on paper developed
with gallic acid, and I regret that I am unable to trace the existence
of those two negatives alluded to in Mr. Reade's published letter. Mr.
Reade told me himself that he gave those two historic negatives to Dr.
Diamond, when Secretary to the Photographic Society, to be lodged with
that body for safety, proof, and reference; but they are not now in the
possession of the Photographic Society, and what became of them no one
knows. Several years ago I caused enquiries to be made, and Dr. Diamond
was written to by Mr. H. Baden Pritchard, then Secretary, but Dr.
Diamond's reply was to the effect that he had no recollection of them,
and that Mr. Reade was given to hallucinations. Considering the
positions that Mr. Reade held, both in the world and various learned and
scientific societies, I don't think that he could ever have been
afflicted with such a mental weakness. He was a clergyman in the Church
of England, an amateur astronomer and microscopist, one of the fathers
of photography, and a member of Council of the Photographic Society, and
President of the Microscopical Society at the time of his death. I had
many a conversation with him years ago, and I never detected either
weakness or wandering in his mind; therefore I could not doubt the truth
of his statement relative to the custodianship of the first paper
negative that was taken through the lens of a solar microscope. Mr.
Reade was a kind and affable man; and, though a great sufferer on his
last bed of sickness, he wrote loving, grateful, and Christian like
letters to many of his friends, some of which I have seen, and I have
photographed his signature to one of them to attach to his portrait,
which I happily possess.
In 1871 the coming revolution in photography was faintly heralded by Dr.
R. L. Maddox, publishing in the _British Journal of Photography_, "An
Experiment with Gelatino-Bromide." Successful as the experiment was it
did not lead to any extensive adoption of the process at the time, but
it did most unquestionably exhibit the capabilities of gelatino-bromide.
As that communication to the _British Journal of Photography_ contained
and first made public the working details of a process that was destined
to supersede collodion, I will here insert a copy of Dr. Maddox's letter
_in extenso_.
"An Experiment with Gelatino-Bromide.
"The collodio-bromide processes have for some time held a considerable
place in the pages of the _British Journal of Photography_, and obtained
such a prominent chance of being eventually the process of the day in
the dry way, that a few remarks upon the application of another medium
may perhaps not be uninteresting to the readers of the journal, though
little more can be stated than the result of somewhat careless
experiments tried at first on an exceedingly dull afternoon. It is not
for a moment supposed to be new, for the chances of novelty in
photography are small, seeing the legion of ardent workers, and the
ground already trodden by its devotees, so that for outsiders little
remains except to take the result of labours so industriously and
largely circulated through these pages, and be thankful.
"Gelatine, which forms the medium of so many printing processes, and
which doubtless is yet to form the base of many more, was tried in the
place of collodion in this manner:--Thirty grains of Nelson's gelatine
were washed in cold water, then left to swell for several hours, when
all the water was poured off, and the gelatine set in a wide-mouthed
bottle, with the addition of four drachms of pure water, and two small
drops of _aqua regia_, and then placed in a basin of hot water for
solution. Eight grains of bromide of cadmium dissolved in half a drachm
of pure water were now added, and the solution stirred gently. Fifteen
grains of nitrate of silver were next dissolved in half a drachm of
water in a test tube, and the whole taken into the dark room, when the
latter was added to the former slowly, stirring the mixture the whole
time. This gave a fine milky emulsion, and was left for a little while
to settle. A few plates of glass well cleaned were next levelled on a
metal plate put over a small lamp; they were, when fully warmed, coated
by the emulsion spread to the edges by a glass rod, then returned to
their places, and left to dry. When dry, the plates had a thin
opalescent appearance, and the deposit of bromide seemed to be very
evenly spread in the substance of the substratum.
"These plates were printed from, in succession, from different
negatives, one of which had been taken years since on albumen with
oxgall and diluted phosphoric acid, sensitised in an acid nitrate, and
developed with pyrogallic acid, furnishing a beautiful warm brown tint.
"The exposure varied from the first plate thirty seconds to a minute and
a half, as the light was very poor. No vestige of an outline appeared on
removal from the printing-frame. The plates were dipped in water to the
surface, and over them was poured a plain solution of pyrogallic acid,
four grains to the ounce of water. Soon a faint but clean image was
seen, which gradually intensified up to a certain point, then browned
all over; hence, the development in the others was stopped at an early
stage, the plate washed, and the development continued with fresh pyro,
with one drop of a ten-grain solution of nitrate of silver, then
re-washed and cleared by a solution of hyposulphite of soda.
"The resulting tints were very delicate in detail, of a colour varying
between a bistre and olive tint, and after washing dried with a
brilliant surface. The colour of the print varied greatly according to
the exposure. From the colour and delicacy it struck me that with care
to strain the gelatine, or use only the clearest portion, such a process
might be utilised for transparencies for the lantern, and the sensitive
plates be readily prepared.