The Evolution of Photography: With a Chronological Record of Discoveries, Inventions, Etc., Contributions to Photographic Literature, and Personal Reminescences Extending over Forty YearsWerge, John, active 1854-1890
History
The Evolution of Photography: With a Chronological Record of Discoveries, Inventions, Etc., Contributions to Photographic Literature, and Personal Reminescences Extending over Forty Years
Werge, John, active 1854-1890
Photography -- History
Amongst the landscape photographs are to be found some of Bedford's
finest views of Egypt and Jerusalem, Devonshire and Warwickshire, the
beauties of which are so well-known to everyone interested in
photography. Some of the local views by local artists are very fine; W.
P. Glaisby's views of York Minster are capital, especially the
interiors. Messrs. Jackson Brothers, of Oldham, exhibit some very fine
views, and show what atmospheric effects the camera is capable of
rendering. That view of "Birstall Church" is a perfect master-piece of
photo-aerial perspective. There are also a considerable number of
photographic productions from the South Kensington Museum. Mr. Gregson,
of Halifax, exhibits some excellent photographs of machinery. In
apparatus there is nothing novel or striking, there being but one case
of cameras, &c., exhibited by a London maker. There is a "water
agitator" in the machinery "annexe," for washing photographic prints,
but the invention is more ingenious than effective, for the water is not
agitated sufficiently, except in the immediate neighbourhood of the fan
or "agitator," which moves backwards and forwards in the water, in a
manner somewhat similar to the motion of the pendulum of a clock, and so
laves the water to and fro; but the force is not sufficient to prevent
the prints from lying close together at the extremities of the trough,
and imperfect washing is sure to be the result. The motion is given to
the "agitator" by the water falling on a small wheel, something like
"Williams's revolving print washing machine."
To describe the Exhibition itself: It is rather like a "compound
mixture" of the church, the shop, and the show. The "Great Hall" is
something like the nave of a wooden cathedral, with galleries running
all round, and a grand organ at the end, peeling forth, at intervals,
solemn strains of long measure. Over the organ, in white letters on a
red ground, is the quotation, "He hath made all things beautiful in his
time."
The show cases on the floor of the Grand Hall are arranged as
indiscriminately as the shops in Oxford Street. In one case there are
exhibited samples of Colman's mustard, in that next to it samples of
"Elkington and Co.'s plated goods," and in another close by are samples
of saddlery, which give the place more the business aspect of a bazaar
than the desirable and advantageous classification of an exhibition.
Then you are reminded of the show by the frequent ringing of a loud
bell, and cries of "This way to the fairy fountain, just going to begin,
only twopence." Such things jar on the ears and nerves of quiet
visitors, and are only expected in such a place as the Polytechnic in
London.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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