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1 Voigtländer, Peter Wilhelm Friedrich
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 1812 Vienna, Austria d. 1878[br]Austrian manufacturer of the first purpose-designed photographic objective; key member of a dynasty of optical instrument makers.[br]Educated at the Polytechnic Institute in Vienna, Voigtländer travelled widely before taking over the family business in 1837. The business had been founded by Voigtländer's grandfather in 1756, and was continued by his father, Johann Friedrich, the inventor of the opera glass, and by the 1830s enjoyed one of the highest reputations in Europe. When Petzval made the calculations for the first purpose-designed photographic objective in 1840, it was inevitable that he should go to Peter Voigtländer for advice. The business went on to manufacture Petzval's lens, which was also fitted to an all-metal camera of totally original design by Voigtländer.The Petzval lens was an extraordinary commercial success and Voigtländer sold specimens all over the world. Unfortunately Petzval had no formal agreement with Voigtländer and made little financial gain from his design, a fact which was to lead to dispute and separation; the Voigtländer concern continued to prosper, however. To meet the increasing demand for his products, Peter Voigtländer built a new factory in Brunswick and closed the business in Vienna. The closure is seen by at least one commentator as the death blow to Vienna's optical industry, a field in which it was once preeminent. The Voigtländer dynasty continued long after Peter's death and the name enjoyed a reputation for high-quality photographic equipment well into the twentieth century.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsHereditary Peerage bestowed by the Emperor of Austria 1868.Further ReadingL.W.Sipley, 1965, Photography's Great Inventors, Philadelphia (a brief biography). J.M.Eder, 1945, History of Photography, trans. E.Epstean, New York.JWBiographical history of technology > Voigtländer, Peter Wilhelm Friedrich
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2 Petzval, Josef Max
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 1807 Spisska-Beila, Hungaryd. 17 September 1891 Vienna, Austria[br]Hungarian mathematician and photographic-lens designer, inventor of the first "rapid" portrait lens.[br]Although born in Hungary, Petzval was the son of German schoolteacher. He studied engineering at the University of Budapest and after graduation was appointed to the staff as a lecturer. In 1835 he became the University's Professor of Higher Mathematics. Within a year he was offered a similar position at the more prestigious University of Vienna, a chair he was to occupy until 1884.The earliest photographic cameras were fitted with lenses originally designed for other optical instruments. All were characterized by small apertures, and the long exposures required by the early process were in part due to the "slow" lenses. As early as 1839, Petzval began calculations with the idea of producing a fast achromatic objective for photographic work. For technical advice he turned to the Viennese optician Peter Voigtländer, who went on to make the first Petzval portrait lens in 1840. It had a short focal length but an extremely large aperture for the day, enabling exposure times to be reduced to at least one tenth of that required with other contemporary lenses. The Petzval portrait lens was to become the basic design for years to come and was probably the single most important development in making portrait photography possible; by capturing public imagination, portrait photography was to drive photographic innovation during the early years.Petzval later fell out with Voigtländer and severed his connection with the company in 1845. When Petzval was encouraged to design a landscape lens in the 1850s, the work was entrusted to another Viennese optician, Dietzler. Using some early calculations by Petzval, Voigtländer was able to produce a similar lens, which he marketed in competition, and an acrimonious dispute ensued. Petzval, embittered by the quarrel and depressed by a burglary which destroyed years of records of his optical work, abandoned optics completely in 1862 and devoted himself to acoustics. He retired from his professorship on his seventieth birthday, respected by his colleagues but unloved, and lived the life of a recluse until his death.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsMember of the Hungarian Academy of Science 1873.Further ReadingJ.M.Eder, 1945, History of Photography, trans. E. Epstean, New York (provides details of Petzval's life and work; Eder claims he was introduced to Petzval by mutual friends and succeeded in obtaining personal data).Rudolf Kingslake, 1989, A History of the Photographic Lens, Boston (brief biographical details).L.W.Sipley, 1965, Photography's Great Inventors, Philadelphia (brief biographical details).JW -
3 Chevalier, Charles-Louis
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 18 April 1804 Franced. 21 November 1859 Paris, France[br]French instrument maker and optician.[br]The son of a distinguished Parisian instrument maker, Charles Chevalier supplied equipment to all the major photographic pioneers of the period. He sold a camera obscura to Niepce de St Victor as early as 1826 and was largely responsible for bringing Niepce de St Victor and Daguerre together. Chevalier was one of the first opticians to design lenses specifically for photographic use; the first photographic camera to be offered for sale to the public, the Giroux daguerreotype camera of 1839, was in fact fitted with a Chevalier achromatic lens. Chevalier also supplied lenses, equipment and examples of daguerreotypes to Talbot in England. In 1841 Chevalier was awarded first prize in a competition for the improvement of photographic lenses, sponsored by the Société d'Encouragement of Paris. Contemporary opinion, however, favoured the runner-up, the Petzval Portrait lens by Voigtländer of Vienna, and Chevalier subsequently became embroiled in an acrimonious dispute which did him little credit. It did not stop him designing lenses, and he went on to become an extremely successful supplier of quality daguerreotype equipment. He was a founder member of the Société Héliographique in 1851.[br]Further ReadingPavillon de Photographie du Parc Naturel Régional de Brotonne, 1974, Charles-Louis Chevalier (an authoritative account of Chevalier's life and work).H.Gernsheim and A.Gernsheim, 1969, The History of Photography, rev. edn, London.JWBiographical history of technology > Chevalier, Charles-Louis
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4 Photography, film and optics
See also: INDEX BY SUBJECT AREA[br]Ding HuanGabor, DennisKlic, KarolLippershey, HansMarton, LadislausTournachon, Gaspard FélixBiographical history of technology > Photography, film and optics
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5 Waterhouse, Major-General James
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 1841d. 28 September 1922[br]English military man and photographer.[br]Waterhouse spent most of his career in the Indian Army. In 1861–2 he was commissioned to photograph the tribes of central India, and over the next few years visited many parts of the subcontinent. In November 1866, after working for five months in the Great Trigonometrical Survey learning the process of photozincography (an early photomechanical process used chiefly for map making), he took charge of photographic operations at the Surveyor-General's office in Calcutta, a post he held until retiring in 1897. During this time he developed many improvements in the photomechanical methods used for reproduction in his office. He also experimented with methods of colour-sensitizing photographic materials, experimenting with eosine dye and publishing in 1875 the fact that this made silver halide salts sensitive to yellow light. He also discovered that gelatine dry plates could be made sensitive to red and infra-red illumination by treatment with alizarine blue solution.He continued his researches upon his retirement and return to England in 1897, and made a special study of the early history of the photographic process. His work on dye sensitizing brought him the Progress Medal of the Royal Photographic Society, and the Vienna Photographic Society awarded him the Voigtländer Medal for researches in scientific photography. One invention often erroneously attributed to him is the Waterhouse stop, the use of a series of perforated plates as a means of adjusting the aperture of a photographic lens. This was described in 1858 by a John Waterhouse, being his only contribution to photography.BCBiographical history of technology > Waterhouse, Major-General James
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