British Journal of Photography Almanac Annual Summary of Photographic Inventions and Events in Photographic History/1866
From George Eastman House : Notes On Photographs
Edited by J. Traill Taylor
During the year 1865 progress of the most satisfactory nature has been made
in the various departments of photography- in its chemical, optical mechanical,
artistic, and manipulative relations. As so many details in connection with these
branches will be found throughout this work, no excuse need here be offered for
making the present Summary a mere glance at some of the many interesting
features brought under the notice of photographers during the past twelve
months.
Among the chief chemical features of interest may be adducted a method of
conferring density on negatives by “dyeing” the image a scarlet colour by means
of Shipper’s salt. This method of intensification has been tried by us with much
advantage, particularly for densifying negatives of engravings, also for
photolithographic and similar purposes. For this as well as for a new developer
in which an organic substance is combined with protosulphate of iron, we are
indebted to Mr. M Carey Lea, the talented American correspondent of the British
Journal of Photography. This developer possesses important advantages for
those who, by means of their ordinary chemicals, are unable to obtain negatives
of the density requisite for the production of vigorous prints. Oxygen is largely
made use of by photographers, not only for exhibiting their views by means of the
magic lantern, but more particularly in connection with the lime light, now so
generally employed in the production of enlarged photographs. Some explosions
which have occurred in the process of its manufacture have been traced to the
oxide of manganese being contaminated with carbon. The knowledge of the
source of the evil at once indicates the cure. Magnesium has been much used in
the production of portraits by artificial light. The excellent lamps at present
employed for its combustion are about to encounter a rival in which the metal is
used in the form of filings mixed with sand. This mixture escapes through a
regulated orifice, and, being ignited when falling from the end of an inclined tube,
it continues to burn as long as the supply is kept up. The rectified wood of
naphtha of Mr. Eschwege, of Battersea, has been found to be a solvent of
properly-prepared pyroxyline to a degree not inferior to sulphuric ether, it may
reasonably be expected to prove advantageous to photographers, if the Excise
restrictions which at present fetter its manufacture be removed. Of late, the
mixing of sensitive substances with collodion and gelatin has received much
attention. The amount of success which has attended this method of practice
has been considerable. Printing by means of the nitrates of uranium and silver in
a collodion vehicle (Wothlytype) has been brought to aright state of perfection,
and so have the somewhat similar processes of mixing chlorine of silver with
collodion and gelatine, more especially for the printing on opal glass. The use of
gelatine as a medium for the reception of the chlorine has been introduced during
the past year; and, in the same direction, Mr. Palmer has succeeded in mixing
gelatine with the nitrate of silver bath employed in ordinary printing operations,
brilliant prints being produced by weak silver solutions when in combination with
gelatine.
Several important features of novelty have been introduced during the year in
connection with systems of printing which are not dependent on the salts of
silver. A method do aniline printing has been discovered and perfected by Mr.
Willis. In this process a thirty-grain solution of bichromate of ammonia, to which
has been added a drachm (more of less) of phosphoric acid, is brushed over the
paper, which is exposed under a transparency for about one-fourth of the time
required in silver printing. The print is developed by exposing it to the vapour
arising for a solution of commercial aniline in benzole (one drachm of the former
in tow ounces of the latter). When developed, washing in plain water acidulated
with sulphuric acid, followed by rinsing, completes the process. The important
processes of Messrs. Woodbury and Swan, in which the finest gradation is
obtained for a metal plate, are likely to revolutionize photographic printing as
applied to book illustration, or the production of photographs in quantity. The
large carbon prints, which have during the year been produced by Mr. Swan,
show that he has so far perfected his carbon process as to compete successfully
with silver prints of the finest quality and of the largest size. A simple method of
producing very delicate and beautiful prints has been introduced by Mr. Burgess
under the designation of “eburneum” attentions to the working details of which (to
be found in another page) will amply repay the experimentalist. The colodiobromide
process of Messrs. Sayce and Bolton has had its capabilities so fully
developed, and its conditions of success so well investigated, by these
gentlemen as to leave no doubt that, during the ensuing summer, it will be much
used. Our own success, both with a specimen of the collodio-bromide received
from Mr. Sayce and Bolton has had its capabilities so fully developed, and its
conditions of success so well investigated, by these gentlemen as to leave no
double that, during the ensuing summer it will be much used. Our own success,
both with a specimen of the collodio-bromide received from Mr. Sayce and from
some, which we have made for a formula by Mr. Golton, has been most marked
and gratifying. Successful negatives may now be obtained with out a nitrate
bath.
The glowing desire of photographs to increase the angle of view in their
pictures has been met with a decided response on the part of the opticians, who
are not construction lenses with more than former attention to the transmission of
extremely oblique pencils. The British journal of Photography contains full
descriptions of the several optical productions which have conducted which have
conduced to so great an extent in conferring value upon many of the
photographs of the past year. Lenses of the highest excellence for portraits,
groups, architecture, copying, and general landscapes are now easily attainable.
We may allude, in passing, to the high degree of success which has attended to
the pantascopic camera, by means of which views in panoramic projection are
now obtained rivaling in sharpness of delineation those by a stationary lens. Any
glance at the optical pregress of the year would be incomplete were we to omit
all allusion to the valuable chapters on the stereoscope and on photographic
optics which have been contributed by Mr. R.H. Bow, of Edinburgh, who has
shown such intimacy with even the most abstruse branches of this subject as to
constitute him one of the highest authorities in optical science.
The honourable rivalry and spirit of competition which exist among our
camera-makers form, perhaps, the surest guarantee that the interests of
photographers are quite safe in their hands, and that in the future, as in time
past, they will still maintain their proud position of being pre-eminent over all
similar craftsmen in the world.
With the best apparatus and chemicals, combined with even the highest
manipulative still, artistic pictures cannot be produced without refined taste. It
augurs well for the future of our art-science that many photographers are actively
bestirring themselves to acquire a sound knowledge of the correct principles of
art; and one society (the South London Photographic Society) has inaugurated a
movement which we hope to see generally followed by others, viz., the
establishment of an art-library, so that its members may aim at being not merely
photographers but photographic artists.
The preceding are but few of the many indication of photographic progress
during the past year, which we hope are an earnest of even greater advances to
be made during the year on which w are now entering.