Great Inventions and DiscoveriesPiercy, Willis Duff
History
Great Inventions and Discoveries
Piercy, Willis Duff
Inventions
The predecessor of the modern photograph was the daguerreotype. It was
named for its inventor, Louis Daguerre, a French scene-painter, who was
born in 1789. In 1829 he formed a partnership with Niepce, and together
they labored to advance the art of photography. The discovery of the
daguerreotyping process was announced in January, 1839. The process of
Daguerre consisted in "exposing a metal plate covered with iodide of
silver for a suitable time in a photographic camera, the plate being
afterwards transferred to a dark room, and exposed to the vapor of
mercury, which develops the latent image, it being afterwards fixed.
Although this process has become almost obsolete, it was really the
first which was of any practical value, and experts all agree that no
other known process reproduces some subjects--for example, the human
face--with such fidelity and beauty."
A little while before the daguerreotyping process was announced, Fox
Talbot, a British investigator, discovered a method of making pictures
by means of the action of light on chemically prepared paper instead
of metal, as in the case of Daguerre. Talbot originated the terms
_negative_ and _positive_ which are still used in photography.
Daguerre in France and Talbot in Great Britain had independently
achieved success in producing pictures, but neither had discovered a
way to make photographs permanent. In the course of time the pictures
faded. In 1839 Sir John Herschel of England found a chemical process
for making photographs permanent, by removing the cause for their
fading. The first sunlight photograph of a human face was that of Miss
Dorothy Catherine Draper, made by her brother, Prof. John William
Draper, of the University of the City of New York, early in 1840.
Various chemical discoveries for improving photographs have been made
by different persons from time to time, until the art of photography
has now reached a high state of development. An important improvement
is in the lessening of the time of exposure to light necessary for
producing a photograph. Formerly hours were required, but under
improved conditions only the shortest instant of time is requisite.
In 1906 a photographic paper for producing prints in color from an
ordinary negative was placed on the market. This paper is coated with
three layers of pigmented gelatin, colored respectively red, yellow,
and blue. After being exposed to the daylight in the usual way, the
paper is placed in hot water, where the image is developed. The grays
and blacks of the negative are translated into the colors they
represent in the object.
The brothers Lumière of Paris have found a method of producing a
photograph on a sensitive plate which, viewed as a transparency, shows
the object in its original colors. No prints can be taken from this
plate, and the picture cannot be viewed by reflected light, but the
colors are true and brilliant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account