Scientific American Supplement, No. 492, June 6, 1885 — John Shaqi
Scientific American Supplement, No. 492, June 6, 1885Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 492, June 6, 1885
Various
Science -- Periodicals
In order to illustrate the value of this process, I made two photographs
of a highly-colored chromo-lithograph, representing a lady with a bright
scarlet hat and purple feather, a yellow-brown cape and a dark-blue
dress. One, by the ordinary process, represents the blue as lighter than
the yellow-brown, the bright scarlet hat as black, and the purple feather
as nearly white. The other, by the chlorophyl process, reproduces all
colors in nearly the true proportion of their brightness, but with a
slight exaggeration of contrast produced purposely by using a too-strong
color solution in the small tank.
I also made two landscape photographs, one by the ordinary process, and
the other by the chlorophyl process, exposing them simultaneously. In the
ordinary photograph, distant hills are lost through overexposure, yet the
foreground seems underexposed, and yellow straw-stacks and bright autumn
leaves appear black. In the chlorophyl photograph, the distant hills are
not overexposed, nor is the foreground underexposed; the yellow
straw-stacks appear nearly white, and bright autumn leaves contrast
strongly with the dark green about them.
To test the relative color-sensitiveness of plain emulsion plates, plates
stained with eosine, and plates stained with the blue-myrtle chlorophyl,
I exposed one of each kind through the same yellow screen, giving each
five minutes exposure, on the same piece of copy, which was the
chromo-lithograph already described. The plain emulsion plate showed only
the high lights of the picture, after prolonged development. The eosine
plate was underexposed, but brought up everything fairly well except the
scarlet hat, which came up like black. The chlorophyl plate was
overexposed, brought out all colors better than the eosine plate, and
gave full value to the bright scarlet of the hat, the detail in which was
beautifully rendered.
Dr. Vogel advanced the theory that silver-bromide is insensitive to
yellow and red, because it reflects or transmits those colors; and that
it becomes sensitive when stained, because of the optical properties of
the dyes. He afterward admitted that only such dyes as are capable of
entering into chemical combination with the silver-bromide proved capable
of increasing its sensitiveness to color, but he held to the theory that
the optical properties of the compound were the cause of its
color-sensitiveness.
I have shown that the color-sensitiveness can be produced by treatment
with an organic compound which has none of the optical properties
characteristic of dyes; and that chlorophyl, which absorbs only red
light, greatly increases the sensitiveness also to yellow and green.
There is, therefore, good reason to doubt if the color-sensitiveness is
ever due to the optical properties of the dye or combination.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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