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
I have previously stated that Daguerre introduced and left his process
in an imperfect and uncommercial condition, and that it was John
Frederick Goddard, then lecturer at the Adelaide Gallery, London, and
inventor of the polariscope, who discovered the accelerating properties
of bromine, and by which, with iodine, he obtained a bromo-iodide of
silver on the surface of the silvered plate employed in the
Daguerreotype process, thereby reducing the time of exposure from twenty
minutes to twenty seconds, and making the process available for
portraiture with an ordinary double combination lens. Somehow or other,
this worthy gentleman had fallen into adverse circumstances, and was
obliged to eat the bread of charity in his old age. The facts of this
sad case coming to the knowledge of Mr. Hughes and others, an appeal,
written by Mr. Hughes, was published in the Photographic News, December
11th, 1863. As Mr. Hughes and myself had benefitted by Mr. Goddard's
improvement in the practice of the Daguerreotype, we took an active
interest in the matter, and, by canvassing friends and customers,
succeeded in obtaining a considerable proportion of the sum total
subscribed for the relief of Mr. Goddard. Enough was obtained to make
him independent and comfortable for the remainder of his life. Mr. T. R.
Williams was appointed almoner by the committee, but his office was not
for long, as Mr. Goddard died Dec. 28th, 1866.
On the 5th of April, 1864, I attended a meeting of the Photographic
Society at King's College, and heard Mr. J. W. Swan read a paper on his
new patent carbon process. It was a crowded meeting, and an intense
interest pervaded the minds of both members and visitors. The examples
exhibited were very beautiful, but at that early stage they began to
show a weakness, which clung to the collodion support as long as it was
employed. Some of the specimens which I obtained at the time left the
mounting boards, and the films were torn asunder by opposing forces, and
the pictures completely destroyed. I have one in my possession now in
that unsatisfactory condition. Mr. Swan's process was undoubtedly an
advance in the right direction, but it was still imperfect, and required
further improvement. Many of the members failed to see where the patent
rights came in, and Mr. Swan himself appeared to have qualms of
conscience on the subject, for he rather apologetically announced in his
paper, that he had obtained a patent, though his first intention was to
allow it to be practised without any restriction. I think myself it
would have been wiser to have adhered to his original intention;
however, it was left to others to do more to advance the carbon process
than he did.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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