several modes of constructing a pinhole camera were published; but I
remember seeing a wonderful picture by a _keyhole_ camera long before I
became a photographer. I had called to see an old lady who lived
opposite a mill and farm. It was a bright, sunny afternoon, and, when I
was leaving, I was astonished to see a beautiful picture of the mill and
farm on the wall of the hall. "Ah!" said the old lady; "that's my
camera-obscura. When the sun shines on the mill at this time of day, I
am sure to have a picture of the mill brought through the keyhole." It
was something like this that suggested the camera-obscura to Roger Bacon
and Baptista Porta. So it is not necessary to have such a small hole to
obtain a picture, but it is necessary to have the smallest hole possible
to obtain the _sharpest_ picture.
Pizzighelli's visible platinotype printing paper was introduced this
year, and I welcomed it as a boon, for the double reasons of its
simplicity and permanency. I had been longing for years for such a
process, for I, like Roger Fenton, had come to the conclusion that there
was no future for photography, in consequence of the instability of
silver prints. They would be much more durable than they are if they
were only washed in several changes of warm water, but few people will
be at the trouble to do that, some because they don't know the efficacy
of warm water, and others because it lowers the tone. An eminent
photographer once asked me how to render silver prints permanent; but
when I told him there was nothing equal to warm water washing, he
exclaimed, "Oh! but that spoils the tone." When a photographer
sacrifices durability to tone, he is scarcely acting honestly towards
his customers. Admitted that there is nothing so beautiful in
photography as a good silver print when it has its first bloom on it,
neither is there anything so grievously disappointing as a silver print
in its last stage of decay. It is quite time that the _durability_ of a
photograph should be the first consideration of every photographer, as
well as the amateur. Years ago I proposed and published a plan of
raising a fund to induce chemists and scientists to consider the
subject, but not a single photographer responded by subscribing his
guinea.
A very simple and interesting means of making photographs at night was
introduced this year by Dr. Piffard, an amateur photographer of New
York, and the extreme simplicity and efficacy of his method was
surprising. For good portraiture it is not equal to the electric light,
but for family groups, at home occupations or amusements, it is
superior, and I have taken such groups with Piffard's magnesium
flash-light, which no other means of lighting would have enabled me to
produce. I have taken groups of people playing at cards, billiards, and
other games in their own homes with the simplest of apparatus, the
ordinary lens and camera, plus an old tea tray--but to obtain the best
results, the quickest lens and the quickest dry plates should be
employed, and I have always found the best position for the light to be
on the top of the camera.
1888 is chiefly remarkable for the attempted revival of the stereoscope,
and Mr. W. F. Donkin read an interesting and instructive paper on the
subject, in which he endeavoured to account for its disappearance,
explain its principles, and give an historical account of its early
construction, and modern or subsequent improvements. As to its immense
popularity thirty to thirty-five years ago, that was due to its novelty,
and the marvellous effect of solidity the pictures assumed when viewed
in the stereoscope; but it soon ceased to be popular when the views
became stale, and people grew tired of looking at them; to keep up the
interest they had to be continually buying fresh ones, and of this they
soon got tired also; and when hosts saw that their guests were bored
with sights so often seen, they put them out of sight altogether, and I
fear that nothing will, for the same reasons, bring about a revival of
the revolving or any other form of stereoscopes, for views. It is
becoming much the same now with lantern slides--possessors and their
friends grow weary of the subjects seen so frequently, and hiring
instead of buying slides is becoming the practice of those who own an
optical lantern.
With stereoscopic portraits it was not so, for there was always a
personal and family interest attached to them, and I made a great many
stereoscopic portraits by the Daguerreotype process; but even they were
somewhat ruthlessly and precipitately displaced when the carte-de-visite
mania took possession of the public mind. However, I see no reason why
stereoscopic portraiture should not be revived if good pictures were
produced on ivoryine, and it appears to me that substance is most
suitable for the purpose, as the pictures can be examined either by
reflected or transmitted light. Everyone interested in stereoscopic
photography should "read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest," the late
Mr. Donkin's able and instructive paper on "Stereoscopes and Binocular
Vision," published in the journal of the Photographic Society, January
27th, 1888. This was unhappily the last paper that Mr. Donkin read at
the Photographic Society, for he was unfortunately lost in the Caucasus
the following autumn. W. F. Donkin, M.A., F.C.S., F.I.C., was for
several years Honorary Secretary of the Photographic Society and of the
Alpine Club, and, at the November meeting of the Photographic Society,
the President, James Glaisher, F.R.S., made the following remarks on the
melancholy event:--"There is, I am sure, but one feeling in regard to
the fact that the gentleman who usually sits on my right is not here
to-night. Our Secretary, W. F. Donkin, is, I fear, irretrievably lost in
the Caucasus. The feeling of every member of this Society is one of
respect and esteem towards him. During the time he held the post of
Secretary, his uniform courtesy won him the respect of all. I fear we
shall see him no more." This fear was afterwards confirmed by the search
party, which was headed by Mr. C. T. Dent, President of the Alpine Club.
The late Mr. Donkin was both an expert Alpine climber and photographer,
and many of his photographs of Alpine scenery have been published and
admired.
Every year compels me to record the death of some old and experienced
photographer, or some artist associated with photography from its
earliest introduction. Among the latter was Norman Macbeth, R.S.A., an
eminent portrait painter, who was quick to see and ready to avail
himself of the invaluable services of a new art, or means of improving
art, both in drawing and detail, and make the newly-discovered power a
help in his own labours, and an economiser of the time of his sitters.
The first time I had the pleasure of meeting him was in Glasgow in 1855,
when he brought one of his sitters to me to be Daguerreotyped, and he
preferred a Daguerreotype as long as he could get one, on account of its
extreme delicacy and details in the shadows; but he could not obtain any
more Daguerreotypes after 1857, for at that time I abandoned the
Daguerreotype for ever, and was the last to practise the process in
Glasgow, and probably throughout Great Britain.
From the time that Mr. Macbeth commenced taking photographs himself, he
took a keen interest in photography to the last, and only about a month
before he died, he read an able, instructive, and interesting paper on
the "Construction and Requirements of Portrait Art" before the members
of the London and Provincial Photographic Association; and that paper
should be in the possession, and frequent perusal, of every student of
photographic portraiture. Although an artist in feeling and by
profession, Mr. Macbeth was no niggard in his praises of artistic
photography, and I have frequently heard him expatiate lovingly on the
artistic productions of Rejlander, Robinson, and Hubbard; but, like all
artists, he abominated retouching, and denounced it in the strongest
terms, and regretted its prevalence and practice as destructive of
truth, and "truth in photography," he used to say, "was its greatest
recommendation."
The annals of 1889--the jubilee year of published and commercial
photography--commence with the record of death. On the 21st of January,
Mr. John Robert Sawyer died at Naples in the 61st year of his age. Mr.
Sawyer had been for many years a member of the Autotype Company, and his
foresight and indefatigability were largely instrumental in making that
Company a commercial success. It was anything but a success from the
time that it was commenced by the late Mr. Winsor and Mr. J. R. Johnson,
but from the moment that Mr. J. R. Sawyer became "director of works,"
the company rapidly became a flourishing concern, and possesses now a
world-wide reputation. Mr. Sawyer was one of the early workers in
photography, and for several years conducted a photographic business in
the city of Norwich. It was there that circumstances induced him to give
his attention to some form of permanent photography with the view of
employing it to illustrate a work on the carving and sculpture in
Norwich Cathedral, particularly the fine work in the roof of the nave.
Mr. Sawyer naturally turned his attention, in the first place, to the
autotype process, but it was then in its infancy, and the price
prohibitory. The collotype process then became his hope and refuge, but
that also was in its infancy, and not practised in England. Mr. Sawyer
therefore started for Berlin early in 1869, and there met a certain Herr
Ghemoser, a clever expert in the collotype process, from whom he
obtained valuable information and working instructions. On his return
home, Mr. Sawyer laboured at the collotype process until he overcame
most of its difficulties, and on January 1st, 1871, he entered into
partnership with Mr. Walter Bird, and removed to London with the
intention of making the collotype process a feature in the business.
Messrs. Sawyer and Bird commenced their London experiences in Regent
Street, but on January 1st, 1872, they entered into an agreement with
the Autotype Fine Art Company to work the collotype process as a branch
of their business. Meanwhile, another partner, Mr. John Spencer, had
joined the firm, and at the end of that year Messrs. Spencer, Sawyer,
Bird and Co. purchased the Autotype patents, plant, and stock at Ealing
Dene, and all its interest in the wholesale trade; and, in 1874, they
bought up the whole of the Fine Art business, including the stock in
Rathbone Place, and became the Autotype Company.
The great photographic feature of this year was the Convention held on
August 19th in St. James's Hall, Regent Street, London, in celebration
of the jubilee of practical photography, which was inaugurated by the
delivery of an address by the president, Mr. Andrew Pringle. The address
was a fairly good resume of all that had been done for the advancement
of photography during the past fifty years.
The exhibition of photographs was somewhat of a failure; little was
shown that possessed any historical interest, and that little was
contributed by myself. There was a considerable display of apparatus of
almost every description, but there was nothing that had not been seen,
or could have been seen, in the shops of the exhibitors.
The papers that were read were of considerable interest, and imparted no
small amount of information, especially Mr. Thos. R. Dallmeyer's on
"False Rendering of Photographic Images by the Misapplication of
Lenses"; Mr. C. H. Bothamley's on "Orthochromatic Photography with
Gelatine Plates"; Mr. Thomas Bolas's on "The Photo-mechanical Printing
Methods as employed in the Jubilee Year of Photography"; but by far the
most popular, wonderful, and instructive, was Professor E. Muybridge's
lecture, with illustrations, on "The Movements of Animals." The sight of
the formidable batteries of lenses was startling enough, but when the
actions of the horse, and other animals, were shown in the
"Zoopraxiscope," the effect on the sense of sight was both astounding
and convincing, and I began to marvel how artists could have lived and
laboured in the wrong direction for so many years, especially when the
lecturer showed that a prehistoric artist had scratched on a bone a rude
but truthful representation of an animal in motion. Both the sight and
intelligence of that prehistoric artist must have been keener than the
senses of animal painters of the nineteenth century.
Taking it all in all, the Jubilee Convention was an immense success, and
brought photographers and amateurs to London from the most distant parts
of the country. Looking round the Hall on the opening night, and
scanning the features of those present, I was coming to the conclusion
that I was the oldest photographer present, when I espied Mr. Baynham
Jones, a man of eighty-three winters, and certainly the oldest amateur
photographer living; so I willingly ceded the honour of seniority to
him, and as soon as he espied me he clambered over the rails to come and
sit at my side and talk over the past, and quite unknown to many
present, aspects and difficulties of photography. Mr. Baynham Jones was
an enthusiastic photographer from the very first, for in 1839, as soon
as Daguerre's process was published, he made himself a camera out of a
cigar-box and the lens of his opera-glass, and, being unable to obtain a
Daguerreotype plate in the country, he cut up a silver salver and worked
away on a solid silver plate until he succeeded in making a
Daguerreotype picture. Mr. Baynham Jones was not the first photographer
in this country, for the Rev. J. B. Reade preceded him by about two
years; but I have not the slightest doubt of his being the first
_Daguerreotypist_ in England, and in that jubilee year of 1889 he was
working with gelatine plates and films, and enthusiastic enough to come
all the way from Cheltenham to London to attend the meetings of the
Jubilee Convention of Photography.
With this brief allusion to the doings and attractions of the Jubilee
Convention, I fear I must bring my reminiscences of photography to a
close; but before doing so I feel it incumbent on me to call attention
to the fact that _two years_ after celebrating the jubilee of
photography we should, paradoxical as it may appear, celebrate its
centenary, for in 1791 the first photographic _picture_ that ever was
made, seen, or heard tell of, was produced by Thomas Wedgwood, and
though he was unable to fix it and enable us to look upon _that_ wonder
_to-day_, the honour of being the first photographer, in its truest
sense, is unquestionably due to an Englishman. Thomas Wedgwood made
photographic pictures on paper, and there they remained until light or
time obliterated them; whereas J. H. Schulze, a German physician, only
obtained impressions of letters on a semi-liquid chloride of silver in a
bottle, and at every shake of the hand the meagre impression was
instantly destroyed. If we consider such men as Niepce, Reade, Daguerre,
and Fox Talbot the fathers of photography, we cannot but look upon
Thomas Wedgwood as the Grand Father, and the centenary of his first
achievement should be celebrated with becoming honour as the English
centenary of photography.
CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD
OF
INVENTIONS, DISCOVERIES, PUBLICATIONS, AND APPLIANCES, FORMING
FACTORS IN THE INCEPTION, DISCOVERY, AND DEVELOPMENT OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
1432 B.C. Iron said to have been first discovered.
424 B.C. Lenses made and used by the Greeks. And a lens has been found
in the ruins of Nineveh.
79 A.D. Glass known and used by the Romans.
697. Glass brought to England.
1100. Alcohol first obtained by the alchemist, Abucasis.
1287. Nitric acid first obtained by Raymond Lully. Present properties
made known by Dr. Priestley, 1785.
1297. Camera-obscura constructed by Roger Bacon.
1400. Chloride of gold solution known to Basil Valentine.
1500. Camera-obscura improved by Baptista Porta.
1555. Chloride of silver blackening by the action of light. Doubtless it
was the knowledge of this that induced Thomas Wedgwood and Sir Humphry
Davy to make their experiments.
1590. Paper first made in England, at Dartford, Kent, by Sir John
Speilman. It is said that the Chinese made paper 170 years B.C.
1646. Magic lantern invented by Athanasius Kircher.
1666. Sir Isaac Newton divided a sunbeam into its seven component parts,
and re-constructed the camera-obscura.
1670. Salt mines of Staffordshire discovered.
1727. J. H. Schulze, a German physician, observed that light blackened
chalk impregnated with nitrate of silver solution and gold chloride.
1737. Solution of nitrate of silver applied to paper, by Hellot.
1739. Chloride of mercury made by K. Neumann.
1741. Platinum first known in Europe: M. H. St. Claire Deville's new
method of obtaining it from the ore, 1859.
1750. J. Dolland, London, first made double achromatic compound lenses.
1757. Chloride of silver made by J. B. Beccarius.
1774. Dr. Priestly discovered ammonia to be composed of nitrogen and
hydrogen; but ammonia is as old as the first decomposition of organic
matter.
1777. Charles William Scheele observed that the violet end of the
spectrum blackened chloride of silver more rapidly than the red end.
Chlorine discovered.
1779. Oxalate of silver made by Bergmann.
1789. Uranium obtained from pitch-blende by Klaproth.
1791. Thomas Wedgwood commenced experiments with a solution of nitrate
of silver spread upon paper and white leather, and obtained impressions
of semi-transparent objects and cast shadows. Sir Humphry Davy joined
him later.
1797. Nitrate of silver on silk by Fulhame.
1799. Hyposulphite of soda discovered by M. Chaussier.
1800. John William Ritter, of Samitz, in Silesia, observed that chloride
of silver blackened beyond the violet end of the spectrum, thus
discovering the action of the ultra violet ray.
1801. Potassium discovered by Sir Humphry Davy.
1802. Examples of Heliotypes, by Wedgwood and Davy, exhibited at the
Royal Institution, and process published.
1803. Palladium discovered in platinum by Dr. Wollaston.
1808. Strontium obtained from carbonate of strontia by Sir Humphry Davy.
1812. Iodine discovered by M. D. Curtois, of Paris.
-- Nitrate of silver and albumen employed by D. Fischer.
1813. Ditto investigated by M. Clement.
1814. Joseph Nicephore de Niepce commenced experiments with the hope of
securing the pictures as seen in the camera-obscura.
-- Iodide of silver made by Sir H. Davy.
1819. Sir John Herschel published the fact that hyposulphite of soda
dissolved chloride and other salts of silver.
1824. Niepce obtained pictures in the camera-obscura upon metal plates
coated with asphaltum, or bitumen of Judea.
-- L. G. M. Daguerre commenced his researches.
-- Permanganate of potash. Fromenkerz.
1826. Bromine discovered in sea-water by M. Balard.
-- Bromine of silver made.
1827. Niepce exhibited his pictures in England, and left one or more,
now in the British Museum.
1829. Niepce and Daguerre entered into an alliance to pursue their
researches mutually.
1832. Evidence of Daguerre employing iodine.
1837. Rev. J. B. Reade, of Clapham, London, obtained a photograph in the
solar microscope, and employed tannin as an accelerator and hyposulphite
of soda as a fixer for the first time in photography.
1838. Reflecting stereoscope exhibited by Charles Wheatstone.
-- Mungo Ponton observed that light altered and hardened bichromate of
potash, and produced yellow photographs with that material. This
discovery led to the invention of the Autotype, Woodburytype, Collotype,
and other methods of photo-mechanical printing.
1839. Daguerre's success communicated to the Academy of Science, Paris,
by M. Arago, January 7th.
-- Electrotype process announced.
-- Professor Faraday described Fox Talbot's new method of photogenic
drawing to the members of the Royal Institution, January 25th.
-- Fox Talbot read a paper, giving a full description of his process,
before the Royal Society, January 31st.
-- Sir John Herschel introduced hyposulphite of soda as a fixing agent,
February 14th.
-- Dr. Alfred Swaine Taylor employed ammonia nitrate of silver in
preference to chloride of silver for making photogenic drawings, and
employed hyposulphite of lime in preference to hyposulphite of soda for
fixing.
-- Daguerre's process published in August, and patent, for England,
granted to Mr. Beard, London, August 14th.
-- "History and Practice of Photogenic Drawing"; L. S. M. Daguerre.
Published September.
-- First photographic portrait taken on a Daguerreotype plate by
Professor. J. W. Draper, New York, U.S., in the autumn of this year.
1840. "On the Art of Photogenic Drawing," by Alfred S. Taylor, lecturer
on chemistry, &c., at Guy's Hospital. Published by Jeffrey, George Yard,
Lombard Street, London.
-- "The Handbook of Heliography, or the Art of Writing or Drawing by the
Effect of Sunlight, with the Art of Dioramic Painting, as practised by
M. Daguerre." Anon.
-- Wolcott's reflecting camera brought from America to England and
secured by Mr. Beard, patentee of the Daguerreotype process.
-- The moon photographed for the first time by Dr. J. W. Draper, of New
York, on a Daguerreotype plate.
-- John Frederick Goddard, of London, inventor of the polariscope and
lecturer on chemistry, employed chlorine added to iodine, and
afterwards bromine, as accelerators in the Daguerreotype process.
1840. Antoine F. J. Claudet, F.R.S., of London, employed chlorine for
the same purpose.
-- M. Fizeau, of Paris, deposited a film of gold over the Daguerreotype
picture after the removal of the iodine, which imparted increased
brilliancy and permanency.
-- Chloride of platinum employed by Herschel.
-- Fox Talbot's developer published September 20th.
1841. Calotype process patented by Fox Talbot, September 20th.
-- First photographic compound portrait lens made by Andrew Ross,
London.
-- Towson, of Liverpool, noted that chemical and visual foci did not
coincide. Defect corrected by J. Petzval, of Vienna, for Voightlander.
-- "A Popular Treatise on the Art of Photography, including
Daguerreotype and all the New Methods of Producing Pictures by the
Chemical Agency of Light," by Robert Hunt, published by R. Griffin,
Glasgow.
-- Daguerre announced an instantaneous process, but it was not
successful.
1842. Sir John Herschel exhibited blue, red, and purple photographs at
the Royal Institution.
-- "Photography Familiarly Explained," by W. R. Baxter, London.
1843. "Photogenic Manipulation," by G. T. Fisher Knight, Foster Lane.
-- Treatise on Photography by N. P. Lerebours, translated by J. Egerton.
1844. Fox Talbot issued "The Pencil of Nature," a book of silver prints
from calotype negatives.
-- C. Cundell, of London, employed and published the use of bromide of
potassium in the calotype process.
1844. "Researches on Light and its Chemical Relations," by Robert Hunt.
First edition; second ditto, 1854.
-- Robert Hunt recommended proto-sulphate of iron as a developer for
Talbot's calotype negatives; also oxalate of iron and acetate of lead
for other purposes.
-- A. F. J. Claudet patented a red light for "dark room," but at that
date a red light was not necessary, so the old photographers continued
the use of yellow lights.
1845. "Photogenic Manipulations:" Part 1, Calotype, &c.; Part 2,
Daguerreotype. By George Thomas Fisher, jun. Published by George Knight
and Sons, London.
-- "Manual of Photography," including Daguerreotype, Calotype, &c., by
Jabez Hogg. First edition. Second ditto, including Archer's collodion
process, bichloride of mercury bleaching and intensifying, and
gutta-percha transfer process, 1856.
1845. "Practical Hints on the Daguerreotype; Willats's Scientific
Manuals."
-- "Plain Directions for Obtaining Photographic Pictures by the Calotype
and other processes, on paper; Willats's Scientific Manuals." Published
by Willats, 98, Cheapside; and Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper, Paternoster
Row.
1846. Gun-cotton made known by Professor Schoenbein, of Basel.
1847. Collodion made by dissolving gun-cotton in ether and alcohol, by
Mr. Maynard, of Boston, U.S.
1848. "Photogenic Manipulation:" Part II., Daguerreotype, by Robert
Bingham. Published by George Knight and Sons, London.
-- Albumen on glass plates first employed for making negatives by M.
Niepce de Saint Victor. Process published June 13th.