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1 Poitevin, Alphonse Louise
[br]b. 1819 Conflans, Franced. 1882 Conflans, France[br]French chemical engineer who established the essential principles of photolithography, carbon printing and collotype printing.[br]Poitevin graduated as a chemical engineer from the Ecole Centrale in Paris in 1843. He was appointed as a chemist with the Salines National de l'Est, a post which allowed him time for research, and he soon became interested in the recent invention of photography. He conducted a series of electrolytic experiments on daguerreotype plates in 1847 and 1848 which led him to propose a method of photochemical engraving on plates coated with silver or gold. In 1850 he joined the firm of Periere in Lyons, and the same year travelled to Paris. During the 1850s, Poitevin conducted a series of far-reaching experiments on the reactions of chromates with light, and in 1855 he took out two important patents which exploited the light sensitivity of bichromated gelatine. Poitevin's work during this period is generally recognized as having established the essential principles of photolithography, carbon printing and collotype printing, key steps in the development of modern photomechanical printing. His contribution to the advancement of photography was widely recognized and honours were showered upon him. Particularly welcome was the greater part of the 10,000 franc prize awarded by the Duke of Lynes, a wealthy art lover, for the discovery of permanent photographic printing processes. This sum was not sufficient to allow Poitevin to stop working, however, and in 1869 he resumed his career as a chemical engineer, first managing a glass works and then travelling to Africa to work in silver mines. Upon the death of his father he returned to his home town, where he remained until his own death in 1882.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsChevalier de la Légion d'honneur 1865. Paris Exposition Internationale Gold Medal for Services to Photography, 1878.BibliographyDecember 1855, British patent nos 2,815, 2,816.Further ReadingG.Tissandiers, 1876, A History and Handbook of Photography, trans. J.Thomson. J.M.Eder, 1945, History of Photography, trans. E.Epstean, New York.H.Gernsheim and A.Gernsheim, 1969, The History of Photography, rev. edn, London.JWBiographical history of technology > Poitevin, Alphonse Louise
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2 Steinheil, Carl August von
[br]b. 1801 Roppoltsweiler, Alsaced. 1870 Munich, Germany[br]German physicist, founder of electromagnetic telegraphy in Austria, and photographic innovator and lens designer.[br]Steinheil studied under Gauss at Göttingen and Bessel at Königsberg before jointing his parents at Munich. There he concentrated on optics before being appointed Professor of Physics and Mathematics at the University of Munich in 1832. Immediately after the announcement of the first practicable photographic processes in 1839, he began experiments on photography in association with another professor at the University, Franz von Kobell. Steinheil is reputed to have made the first daguerreotypes in Germany; he certainly constructed several cameras of original design and suggested minor improvements to the daguerreotype process. In 1849 he was employed by the Austrian Government as Head of the Department of Telegraphy in the Ministry of Commerce. Electromagnetic telegraphy was an area in which Steinheil had worked for several years previously, and he was now appointed to supervise the installation of a working telegraphic system for the Austrian monarchy. He is considered to be the founder of electromagnetic telegraphy in Austria and went on to perform a similar role in Switzerland.Steinheil's son, Hugo Adolph, was educated in Munich and Augsburg but moved to Austria to be with his parents in 1850. Adolph completed his studies in Vienna and was appointed to the Telegraph Department, headed by his father, in 1851. Adolph returned to Munich in 1852, however, to concentrate on the study of optics. In 1855 the father and son established the optical workshop which was later to become the distinguished lens-manufacturing company C.A. Steinheil Söhne. At first the business confined itself almost entirely to astronomical optics, but in 1865 the two men took out a joint patent for a wide-angle photographic lens claimed to be free of distortion. The lens, called the "periscopic", was not in fact free from flare and not achromatic, although it enjoyed some reputation at the time. Much more important was the achromatic development of this lens that was introduced in 1866 and called the "Aplanet"; almost simultaneously a similar lens, the "Rapid Rentilinear", was introduced by Dallmeyer in England, and for many years lenses of this type were fitted as the standard objective on most photographic cameras. During 1866 the elder Steinheil relinquished his interest in lens manufacturing, and control of the business passed to Adolph, with administrative and financial affairs being looked after by another son, Edward. After Carl Steinheil's death Adolph continued to design and market a series of high-quality photographic lenses until his own death.[br]Further ReadingJ.M.Eder, 1945, History of Photography, trans. E.Epstean, New York (a general account of the Steinheils's work).Most accounts of photographic lens history will give details of the Steinheils's more important work. See, for example, Chapman Jones, 1904, Science and Practice of Photography, 4th edn, London: and Rudolf Kingslake, 1989, A History of the Photographic Lens, Boston.JWBiographical history of technology > Steinheil, Carl August von
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3 Maddox, Richard Leach
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 1816 Bath, Englandd. 1902 Southampton, England[br]English physician, amateur photographer and photomicrographer, inventor of the first practicable gelatine silver halide emulsion.[br]Maddox studied medicine, but dogged by ill health he travelled widely, eventually settling in Constantinople (now Istanbul), where he married in 1849. After further migrations, Maddox returned to England in the 1870s. He had become interested in photography and was awarded medals for his photomicrographs. Searching for a substitute for collodion to hold the sensitive silver salts, Maddox devised a gelatine bromide emulsion that gave acceptable results, and he published details in 1871. Gelatine had been tried by earlier experimenters, but the results were poor; the plates made by Maddox were slow and lacked density, but they pointed the way to the modern gelatine halide emulsions which continued to form the basis of photographic emulsions in the 1990s.[br]Bibliography1871, British Journal of Photography 8 (September):422–3 (first published details of Mad-dox's emulsion).Further ReadingJ.M.Eder, 1945, History of Photography, trans E. Epstean, New York.H.Gernsheim and A, Gernsheim, 1969, The History of Photography, rev. edn, London: Phandon.JW -
4 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 -
5 Pretsch, Paul
[br]b. 1808 Vienna, Austriad. 1873 Vienna, Austria[br]Austrian printer and inventor of photogalvanography, one of the earliest commercial photomechanical printing processes.[br]The son of a goldsmith, Pretsch learned the printing trade in Vienna, where he worked until 1831. He then took up a series of posts in Germany, Belgium and Holland before returning to Vienna, where in 1842 he joined the Imperial State Printing Office. The office was equipped with a photographic studio, and Pretsch was encouraged to explore applications of photography to printing and the graphic arts. In 1851 he was sent to London to take responsibility for the Austrian printing exhibits of the Great Exhibition. This event proved to be a significant international show case for photography and Pretsch saw a great number of recent innovations and made many useful contacts. On returning to Vienna, he began to develop a process for producing printing plates from photographs. Using Talbot's discovery that bichromated gelatine swells in water after exposure to light, he electrotyped the relief image obtained. In 1854 Pretsch resigned from his post in Vienna and travelled back to London, where he patented his process, calling it photogalvanography. He went on to form a business, the Photo-Galvano-Graphic Company, to print and market his pictures.The Photographic Manager of the company was the celebrated photographer Roger Fenton, recently returned from his exploits on the battlefields of the Crimea. In 1856 the company issued a large serial work, Photographic Art Treasures, illustrated with Pretsch's pictures, which created considerable interest. The venture did not prove a commercial success, however, and although further plates were made and issued, Fenton found other interests to pursue and Pretsch was left to try to apply some of his ideas to lithography. This too had no successful outcome, and in 1863 Pretsch returned to Vienna. He was reappointed to a post at the Imperial State Printing Office, but his health failed and he made no further progress with his processes.[br]Bibliography9 November 1854, British patent no. 2,373. 11 August 1855, British patent no. 1,824.Further ReadingJ.M.Eder, 1945, History of Photography, trans. E. Epstean, New York.H.Gernsheim and A.Gernsheim, 1969, The History of Photography, rev. edn, London. H.J.P.Arnold, 1977, William Henry Fox Talbot, London (an account of the relationship with Talbot's process).JW -
6 Tournachon, Gaspard Félix (Nadar)
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 1820d. 1910 Paris, France[br]French photographer and photographic innovator, pioneer of balloon photography.[br]He began his photographic career as a daguerreotypist and at an early date called himself "Nadar", the name by which he was known for the rest of his life. Between 1855 and 1858 he made captive balloon ascents with the idea of producing a topographic map of Paris from aerial photographs. Nadar was also one of the first photographers to take successful photographs with the aid of artificial illuminants; using Bunsen batteries to power electric arc lamps, he was able to take views of the underground catacombs in Paris during 1861 and 1862. This exercise captured the imagination of the Paris public, and Nadar's work was widely acclaimed. In December 1863 he exhibited portraits taken by electric light, and later used magnesium illuminants to photograph underground canal construction. For many years Nadar practised as a photographer with his son Paul, a relationship that was sometimes stormy. Paul eventually took the name Nadar for himself and was, in turn, to become one of France's most celebrated photographers.[br]Bibliography29 October 1858, British patent no. 2,425 (balloon photography).Further ReadingJ.M.Eder, 1945, History of Photography, trans. E.Epstean, New York.H.Gernsheim and A.Gernsheim, 1969, The History of Photography, rev. edn, London.JWBiographical history of technology > Tournachon, Gaspard Félix (Nadar)
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7 Woodbury, Walter Bentley
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 1834 Manchester, Englandd. 1885 Margate, Kent, England[br]English photographer, inventor of the Woodburytype process.[br]Having been apprenticed to be an engineer, Woodbury left England in 1851 to seek his fortune in the Australian gold-fields. Like many others, he failed, and after a series of transient jobs found a post as Draughtsman at the Melbourne Waterworks. He then went on to Java, where he practised wet-collodion photography before returning to England finally in 1863. Woodbury settled in Birmingham, where like most contemporary photographers he was concerned to find a solution to the troublesome problem of fading prints. He began working the carbon process, and in 1866 and 1867 took out a series of patents which were to lead to the development of the process that took his name. Woodburytypes were continuous-tone prints of high quality that could be mass produced more cheaply than the traditional silver print. This was an important innovation and Woodburytypes were extensively used for quality book illustrations until the introduction of more versatile photomechanical processes in the 1890s. In all, Woodbury took out twenty patents between 1864 and 1884, some relating to a wide range of photographic devices. He was still working to simplify the Woodburytype process when he died from an overdose of laudanum.[br]BibliographyWoodbury took out a series of patents on his process, the most significant being: 23 September 1864, British patent no. 2,338; 12 January 1866, British patent no. 105; 11 February 1866, British patent no. 505; 8 May 1866, British patent no. 1,315; 24 July 1866, British patent no. 1,918.Further ReadingG.Tissandier, 1876, A History and Handbook of Photography, trans. J.Thomson.B.E.Jones (ed.), 1911, Cassell's Cyclopaedia of Photography, London (a brief biography).J.M.Eder, 1945, History of Photography, trans. E. Epstean, New York.JWBiographical history of technology > Woodbury, Walter Bentley
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8 Talbot, William Henry Fox
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 11 February 1800 Melbury, Englandd. 17 September 1877 Lacock, Wiltshire, England[br]English scientist, inventor of negative—positive photography and practicable photo engraving.[br]Educated at Harrow, where he first showed an interest in science, and at Cambridge, Talbot was an outstanding scholar and a formidable mathematician. He published over fifty scientific papers and took out twelve English patents. His interests outside the field of science were also wide and included Assyriology, etymology and the classics. He was briefly a Member of Parliament, but did not pursue a parliamentary career.Talbot's invention of photography arose out of his frustrating attempts to produce acceptable pencil sketches using popular artist's aids, the camera discura and camera lucida. From his experiments with the former he conceived the idea of placing on the screen a paper coated with silver salts so that the image would be captured chemically. During the spring of 1834 he made outline images of subjects such as leaves and flowers by placing them on sheets of sensitized paper and exposing them to sunlight. No camera was involved and the first images produced using an optical system were made with a solar microscope. It was only when he had devised a more sensitive paper that Talbot was able to make camera pictures; the earliest surviving camera negative dates from August 1835. From the beginning, Talbot noticed that the lights and shades of his images were reversed. During 1834 or 1835 he discovered that by placing this reversed image on another sheet of sensitized paper and again exposing it to sunlight, a picture was produced with lights and shades in the correct disposition. Talbot had discovered the basis of modern photography, the photographic negative, from which could be produced an unlimited number of positives. He did little further work until the announcement of Daguerre's process in 1839 prompted him to publish an account of his negative-positive process. Aware that his photogenic drawing process had many imperfections, Talbot plunged into further experiments and in September 1840, using a mixture incorporating a solution of gallic acid, discovered an invisible latent image that could be made visible by development. This improved calotype process dramatically shortened exposure times and allowed Talbot to take portraits. In 1841 he patented the process, an exercise that was later to cause controversy, and between 1844 and 1846 produced The Pencil of Nature, the world's first commercial photographically illustrated book.Concerned that some of his photographs were prone to fading, Talbot later began experiments to combine photography with printing and engraving. Using bichromated gelatine, he devised the first practicable method of photo engraving, which was patented as Photoglyphic engraving in October 1852. He later went on to use screens of gauze, muslin and finely powdered gum to break up the image into lines and dots, thus anticipating modern photomechanical processes.Talbot was described by contemporaries as the "Father of Photography" primarily in recognition of his discovery of the negative-positive process, but he also produced the first photomicrographs, took the first high-speed photographs with the aid of a spark from a Leyden jar, and is credited with proposing infra-red photography. He was a shy man and his misguided attempts to enforce his calotype patent made him many enemies. It was perhaps for this reason that he never received the formal recognition from the British nation that his family felt he deserved.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS March 1831. Royal Society Rumford Medal 1842. Grand Médaille d'Honneur, L'Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1855. Honorary Doctorate of Laws, Edinburgh University, 1863.Bibliography1839, "Some account of the art of photographic drawing", Royal Society Proceedings 4:120–1; Phil. Mag., XIV, 1839, pp. 19–21.8 February 1841, British patent no. 8842 (calotype process).1844–6, The Pencil of Nature, 6 parts, London (Talbot'a account of his invention can be found in the introduction; there is a facsimile edn, with an intro. by Beamont Newhall, New York, 1968.Further ReadingH.J.P.Arnold, 1977, William Henry Fox Talbot, London.D.B.Thomas, 1964, The First Negatives, London (a lucid concise account of Talbot's photograph work).J.Ward and S.Stevenson, 1986, Printed Light, Edinburgh (an essay on Talbot's invention and its reception).H.Gernsheim and A.Gernsheim, 1977, The History of Photography, London (a wider picture of Talbot, based primarily on secondary sources).JWBiographical history of technology > Talbot, William Henry Fox
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9 Daguerre, Louis Jacques Mandé
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 18 November 1787 Carmeilles-en-Parisis, Franced. 10 July 1851 Petit-Bry-sur-Marne, France[br]French inventor of the first practicable photographic process.[br]The son of a minor official in a magistrate's court, Daguerre showed an early aptitude for drawing. He was first apprenticed to an architect, but in 1804 he moved to Paris to learn the art of stage design. He was particularly interested in perspective and lighting, and later showed great ingenuity in lighting stage sets. Fascinated by a popular form of entertainment of the period, the panorama, he went on to create a variant of it called the diorama. It is assumed that he used a camera obscura for perspective drawings and, by purchasing it from the optician Chevalier, he made contact with Joseph Nicéphore Niepce. In 1829 Niepce and Daguerre entered into a formal partnership to perfect Niepce's heliographic process, but the partnership was dissolved when Niepce died in 1833, when only limited progress had been made. Daguerre continued experimenting alone, however, using iodine and silver plates; by 1837 he had discovered that images formed in the camera obscura could be developed by mercury vapour and fixed with a hot salt solution. After unsuccessfully attempting to sell his process, Daguerre approached F.J.D. Arago, of the Académie des Sciences, who announced the discovery in 1839. Details of Daguerre's work were not published until August of that year when the process was presented free to the world, except England. With considerable business acumen, Daguerre had quietly patented the process through an agent, Miles Berry, in London a few days earlier. He also granted a monopoly to make and sell his camera to a Monsieur Giroux, a stationer by trade who happened to be a relation of Daguerre's wife. The daguerreotype process caused a sensation when announced. Daguerre was granted a pension by a grateful government and honours were showered upon him all over the world. It was a direct positive process on silvered copper plates and, in fact, proved to be a technological dead end. The future was to lie with negative-positive photography devised by Daguerre's British contemporary, W.H.F. Talbot, although Daguerre's was the first practicable photographic process to be announced. It captured the public's imagination and in an improved form was to dominate professional photographic practice for more than a decade.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsOfficier de la Légion d'honneur 1839. Honorary FRS 1839. Honorary Fellow of the National Academy of Design, New York, 1839. Honorary Fellow of the Vienna Academy 1843. Pour le Mérite, bestowed by Frederick William IV of Prussia, 1843.Bibliography14 August 1839, British patent no. 8,194 (daguerrotype photographic process).The announcement and details of Daguerre's invention were published in both serious and popular English journals. See, for example, 1839 publications of Athenaeum, Literary Gazette, Magazine of Science and Mechanics Magazine.Further ReadingH.Gernsheim and A.Gernsheim, 1956, L.J.M. Daguerre (the standard account of Daguerre's work).—1969, The History of Photography, rev. edn, London (a very full account).J.M.Eder, 1945, History of Photography, trans. E. Epstean, New York (a very full account).JWBiographical history of technology > Daguerre, Louis Jacques Mandé
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10 Pouncy, John
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 1820 Englandd. 1894 Dorchester (?), Dorset, England[br]English photographer and pioneer of the gum bichromate permanent printing process.[br]A professional photographer working from a studio in Dorchester, Pouncy had a long interest in "permanent" photographs. In 1857 he published two volumes of photolithographed views of Dorset. He was later to devise a number of variations of the photolithographic process.Pouncy is best remembered for his pigment process, patented in 1858, using vegetable carbon, gum arabic and potassium bichromate. His prints exhibited at the London Photographic Society the same year were greatly admired. However, Pouncy's gum bichromate process was, in fact, covered by earlier patents filed by Poitevin, but this did not deter Pouncy from submitting his prints to the Duke of Lyne's competition for permanent photographs in 1859. For the excellence of his work, Pouncy was awarded the lesser part of the major prize won by Poitevin. Although Pouncy's work was not original, he pioneered the carbon process in England and can be considered the practical founder of the different technique of gum bichromate printing.[br]Bibliography10 April 1858, British patent no. 780 (gum bichromate permanent printing process).Further ReadingJohn Werge, 1890, The Evolution of Photography, London (an interesting contemporary account of Pouncy's work).J.M.Eder, 1945, History of Photography, trans. E. Epstean, New York.H.Gernshiem and A.Gernsheim, 1969, The History of Photography, rev. edn, London. G.Wakeman, 1973, Victorian Book Illustration, Great Britain (a good popular account of Pouncy's work).JW -
11 Niepce, Joseph Nicéphore
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 1765 Franced. 5 July 1833 Chalon, France[br]French inventor who was the first to produce permanent photographic images with the aid of a camera.[br]Coming from a prosperous family, Niepce was educated in a Catholic seminary and destined for the priesthood. The French Revolution intervened and Niepce became an officer in an infantry regiment. An attack of typhoid fever in Italy ended his military career, and he returned to France and was married. Returning to his paternal home in Chalon in 1801, he joined with his brother Claude to construct an ingenious engine called the pyréolophore, which they patented in 1807. The French Government also encouraged the brothers in their attempts to produce large quantities of indigo-blue dye from wood, a venture that was ultimately unsuccessful.Nicéphore began to experiment with lithography, which led him to take an interest in the properties of light-sensitive materials. He pursued this interest after Claude moved to Paris in 1816 and is reported to have made negative images in a camera obscura using paper soaked in silver chloride. Niepce went on to experiment with bitumen of judea, a substance that hardened on exposure to light. In 1822, using bitumen of judea on glass, he produced a heliograph from an engraving. The first images from nature may have been made as early as 1824, but the world's earliest surviving photographic image was made in 1826. A view of the courtyard of Niepce's home in Chalon was captured on a pewter plate coated with bitumen of judea; an exposure of several hours was required, the softer parts of the bitumen being dissolved away by a solvent to reveal the image.In 1827 he took examples of his work to London where he met Francis Bauer, Secretary of the Royal Society. Nothing came of this meeting, but on returning to France Niepce continued his work and in 1829 entered into a formal partnership with L.J.M. Daguerre with a view to developing their mutual interest in capturing images formed by the camera obscura. However, the partnership made only limited progress and was terminated by Niepce's death in 1833. It was another six years before the announcement of the first practicable photographic processes was made.[br]Bibliography1973. Joseph Nicéphore Niepce lettres 1816–7, Pavillon de Photographie du Parc Naturel, Régional de Brotonne.1974, Joseph Nicéphore Niepce correspondences 1825–1829, Pavillon de Photographie du Parc Naturel, Régional de Brotonne.Further ReadingJ.M.Eder, 1945, History of Photography, trans. E. Epstean, New York (provides a full account of Niepce's life and work).H.Gernsheim and A.Gernsheim, 1969, The History of Photography, rev. edn, London (provides a full account of Niepce's life and work).JWBiographical history of technology > Niepce, Joseph Nicéphore
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12 Ponton, Mungo
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 1801 Balgreen, Scotlandd. 1880 Clifton, England[br]Scottish discoverer of the light sensitivity of potassium bichromate.[br]Employed as Secretary of the Bank of Scotland, Ponton was an amateur photographer and described details of experiments on the effect of light on potassium bichromate in May 1839, only months after the announcement of the first practicable photographic processes. In a paper communicated to the Society of Arts for Scotland (of which he was Vice-President), Ponton suggested that paper soaked in a solution of potassium bichromate could be used as a cheap substitute for paper coated with silver salts. Although Ponton's descriptions were received with interest, potassium bichromate was not widely employed at the time; his work was to be exploited later, however, in the development of permanent photographic and photomechanical printing processes.[br]BibliographyFor the original announcement of Ponton's work, see Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal 1839, p. 169.Further ReadingJ.M.Eder, 1945, History of Photography, trans. E.Epstean, New York.H.Gernsheim and A.Gernsheim, 1969, The History of Photography, rev. edn, London.JW -
13 Ross, Andrew
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 1798 London, England d. 1859[br]English optical-instrument maker, founder of a photographic-lens making dynasty.[br]Apprenticed to the optical-instrument maker Gilbert at the age of 14, Ross rose to become Manager of the factory before leaving to found his own business in 1830. He soon earned a reputation for fine craftsmanship and was the first optician in England to produce achromatic microscope objectives. He had an early involvement with photography, perhaps before the public announcements in 1839, for he supplied lenses and instruments to Talbot. On hearing of Petzval's portrait lens, he made a highaperture portrait lens to his own design for the first professional calotypist, Henry Collan. It was unsuccessful, however, and Ross did little more photographic work of note, although his son Thomas and his son-in-law and one-time apprentice, John Henry Dallmeyer, made significant contributions to English photographic optics. Both Thomas and Dallmeyer were left large sums of money on Andrew's death, and independently they established successful businesses; they were to become the two most important suppliers of photographic lenses in England.[br]Further ReadingRudolf Kingslake, 1989, A History of the Photographic Lens, Boston (a brief biography of Ross).J.M.Eder, 1945, History of Photography, trans. E.Epstean, New York.H.J.P.Arnold, 1977, William Henry Fox Talbot, London.JW -
14 Zeiss, Carl
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 11 September 1816 Weimar, Thuringia, Germanyd. 3 December 1888 Jena, Saxony, Germany[br]German lens manufacturer who introduced scientific method to the production of compound microscopes and made possible the production of the first anastigmatic photographic objectives.[br]After completing his early education in Weimar, Zeiss became an apprentice to the engineer Dr Frederick Koerner. As part of his training, Zeiss was required to travel widely and he visited Vienna, Berlin, Stuttgart and Darmstadt to study his trade. In 1846 he set up a business of his own, an optical workshop in Jena, where he began manufacturing magnifying glasses and microscopes. Much of his work was naturally for the university there and he had the co-operation of some of the University staff in the development of precision instruments. By 1858 he was seeking to make more expensive compound microscopes, but he found the current techniques primitive and laborious. He decided that it was necessary to introduce scientific method to the design of the optics, and in 1866 he sought the advice of a professor of physics at the University of Jena, Ernst Abbe (1840–1905). It took Zeiss until 1869 to persuade Abbe to join his company, and two difficult years were spent working on the calculations before success was achieved. Within a few more years the Zeiss microscope had earned a worldwide reputation for quality. Abbe became a full partner in the Zeiss business in 1875. In 1880 Abbe began an association with Friedrich Otte Schott that was to lead to the establishment of the famous Jena glass works in 1884. With the support of the German government, Jena was to become the centre of world production of new optical glasses for photographic objectives.In 1886 the distinguished mathematician and optician Paul Rudolph joined Zeiss at Jena. After Zeiss's death, Rudolph went on to use the characteristics of the new glass to calculate the first anastigmatic lenses. Immediately successful and widely imitated, the anastigmats were also the first of a long series of Zeiss photographic objectives that were to be at the forefront of lens design for years to come. Abbe took over the management of the company and developed it into an internationally famous organization.[br]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.K.J.Hume, 1980, A History of Engineering Metrology, London, 122–32 (includes a short account of Carl Zeiss and his company).JW / RTS -
15 Abney, William de Wiveleslie
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 24 July 1843 Englandd. 2 December 1920 England[br]English photographic scientist, inventor and author.[br]Abney began his career as an officer in the Army and was an instructor in chemistry in the Royal Engineers at Chatham, where he made substantial use of photography as a working tool. He retired from the Army in 1877 and joined the Science and Art Department at South Kensington. It was at Abney's suggestion that a collection of photographic equipment and processes was established in the South Kensington Museum (later to become the Science Museum Photography Collection).Abney undertook significant researches into the nature of gelatine silver halide emulsions at a time when they were being widely adopted by photographers. Perhaps his most important practical innovations were the introduction of hydroquinone as a developing agent in 1880 and silver gelatine citrochloride emulsions for printing-out paper (POP) in 1882. However, Abney was at the forefront of many aspects of photographic research during a period of great innovation and change in photography. He devised new techniques of photomechanical printing and conducted significant researches in the fields of photochemistry and spectral analysis. Abney published throughout his career for both the specialist scientist and the more general photographic practitioner.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKCB 1900. FRS 1877. Served at different times as President of the Royal Astronomical, Royal Photographic and Physical Societies. Chairman, Royal Society of Arts.Further ReadingObituary, 1921, Proceedings of the Royal Society (Series A) 99. J.M.Eder, 1945, History of Photography, trans. E.Epstein, New York.JWBiographical history of technology > Abney, William de Wiveleslie
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16 Archer, Frederick Scott
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 1813 Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, Englandd. May 1857 London, England[br]English photographer, inventor of the wet-collodion process, the dominant photographic process between 1851 and c.1880.[br]Apprenticed to a silversmith in London, Archer's interest in coin design and sculpture led to his taking up photography in 1847. Archer began experiments to improve Talbot's calotype process and by 1848 he was investigating the properties of a newly discovered material, collodion, a solution of gun-cotton in ether. In 1851 Archer published details of a process using collodion on glass plates as a carrier for silver salts. The process combined the virtues of both the calotype and the daguerreotype processes, then widely practised, and soon displaced them from favour. Collodion plates were only sensitive when moist and it was therefore essential to use them immediately after they had been prepared. Popularly known as "wet plate" photography, it became the dominant photographic process for thirty years.Archer introduced other minor photographic innovations and in 1855 patented a collodion stripping film. He had not patented the wet-plate process, however, and made no financial gain from his photographic work. He died in poverty in 1857, a matter of some embarrassment to his contemporaries. A subscription fund was raised, to which the Government was subsequently persuaded to add an annual pension.[br]Bibliography1851, Chemist (March) (announced Archer's process).Further ReadingJ.Werge, 1890, The Evolution of Photography.H.Gernsheim and A.Gernsheim, 1969, The History of "Photography", rev. edn, London.JWBiographical history of technology > Archer, Frederick Scott
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17 Le Gray, Gustave
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 1820 Villiers-le-Bel, Franced. 1882 Cairo, Egypt[br]French painter and photographic innovator.[br]Le Gray studied painting, and to supplement his income as an artist he took up photography in the mid-1840s. He showed remarkable aptitude, and for a time he was at the forefront of innovation in France and pioneered a number of minor improvements. In 1847 he began gold-toning positive-paper prints, a practice widely adopted later. In 1850 independently of Archer in England, he experimented with collodion on glass as a carrying medium for silver salts. It was also in 1850 that Le Gray introduced his waxed-paper process, an improvement of Talbot's calotype process which was favoured by many travelling photographers in the 1850s and 1860s. Le Gray published instruction manuals in photography that were well received. He travelled to Egypt to teach drawing in 1865, but his health deteriorated after a riding accident and he made no further significant contributions to photography.[br]Bibliography1850, Traité pratique de photographier sur papier et sur verre, Paris 1851, 2nd edn, London: T. \& R.Willats (his most significant publication).Further ReadingJ.M.Eder, 1945, History of Photography, trans. E.Epstean, New York.JW -
18 Monckhoven, Désiré Charles Emanuel van
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 1834 Ghent, Belgium d. 1882[br]Belgian chemist, photographic researcher, inventor and author.[br]Born in Belgium of German stock, Monckhoven spoke German and French with equal fluency. He originally studied chemistry, but devoted the greater part of his working life to photography. His improved solar enlarger of 1864 was seen by his contemporaries as one of the significant innovations of the day. In 1867 he moved to Vienna, where he became involved in portrait photography, but returned to Ghent in 1870. In 1871 he announced his discovery of a practicable collodion dry-plate process, and later in the decade he conducted research into the carbon printing process. In 1879 Monckhoven constructed a comprehensively equipped laboratory where he commenced a series of experiments on gelatine dry-plate emulsions, including some which yielded the discovery that the ripening of silver bromide was greatly accelerated by ammonia; this allowed the production of emulsions of much greater sensitivity. He was a prolific author, and his 1852 book on photography, Traité général de photographie, published when he was only 18, became one of the standard texts of his day.[br]Bibliography1852, Traité général de photographie, Paris.Further ReadingJ.M.Eder, 1945, History of Photography, trans. E.Epstean, New York.JWBiographical history of technology > Monckhoven, Désiré Charles Emanuel van
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19 Niepce de St Victor, Claude Félix Abel
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 1805 Saint-Cyr, Franced. 1870 France[br]French soldier and photographic scientist, inventor of the first practicable glass negative process.[br]A cousin of the photographic pioneer J.N. Niepce, he attended the military school of Saumur, graduating in 1827. Niepce de St Victor had wide scientific interests, but came to photography indirectly from experiments he made on fading dyes in military uniforms. He was transferred to the Paris Municipal Guard in 1845 and was able to set up a chemical laboratory to conduct research. From photographic experiments performed in his spare time, Niepce de St Victor devised the first practicable photographic process on glass in 1847. Using albumen derived from the white of eggs as a carrier for silver iodide, he prepared finely detailed negatives which produced positive prints far sharper than those made with the paper negatives of Talbot's calotype process. Exposure times were rather long, however, and the albumen-negative process was soon displaced by the wet-collodion process introduced in 1851, although albumen positives on glass continued to be used for high-quality stereoscopic views and lantern slides. In 1851 Niepce de St Victor described a photographic colour process, and between 1853 and 1855 he developed his famous cousin's bitumen process into a practicable means of producing photographically derived printing plates. He then went on to investigate the use of uranium salts in photography. He presented twenty-six papers to the Académie des Sciences between 1847 and 1862.[br]Bibliography1847, Comptes Rendus 25(25 October):586 (describes his albumen-on-glass process).Further ReadingJ.M.Eder, 1945, History of Photography, trans. E.Epstean, New York (provides details of his contributions to photography).JWBiographical history of technology > Niepce de St Victor, Claude Félix Abel
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20 Bennett, Charles Harper
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 1840 Clapham, London, Englandd. 1927 Sydney, Australia[br]English inventor of the "ripening" technique for increasing the sensitivity of gelatine silver halide emulsions.[br]The son of a hatter, Bennett studied medicine and was interested in mechanical devices, chemistry and later photography. An interior view shown at a South London Photographic Society meeting in March 1878 prompted requests for details of Bennett's procedure, and these were published almost immediately. It involved heating gelatine silver bromide for extremely long periods with an excess of silver bromide. The resulting emulsion had greatly enhanced sensitivity. This "ripening" process proved to be a major advance in the development of modern photographic emulsions. It was not patented and was soon widely adopted. Bennett's process became a key factor in the establishment of a new industry, the mass production of gelatine dry plates.[br]Bibliography1878, British Journal of Photography (29 March): 146; and 21 March 1879:71 (first published details of Bennett's process).Further ReadingH.Gernsheim and A.Gernsheim, 1969, The History of Photography, rev. edn, London.JWBiographical history of technology > Bennett, Charles Harper
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