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
Dr. Taylor was a man of remarkable energy and versatility. He was a
prolific writer and an admirable artist. On his walls were numerous
beautiful drawings, and his windows were filled with charmingly illusive
transparencies, all the work of his own hands; and once, when expressing
my wonder that he could find time to do so many things, he remarked that
"a man could always find time to do anything he wished if his heart was
with his work." Doubtless it is so, and his life and what he did in it
were proofs of the truth and wisdom of his observation.
Hydroquinone as a developer was introduced this year by Eder and Toth,
but it did not make much progress at first. It is more in use now, but I
do not consider it equal to oxalate of iron.
A considerable fillip was, this year, given to printing on
gelatino-bromide paper by the issue of "The Argentic Gelatino-Bromide
Worker's Guide," published by W. T. Morgan and Co. The work was written
by John Burgess, who made and sold a bromide emulsion some years
before, and it contained some excellent working instructions. In the
book is a modification and simplification of J. M. Burgess's Eburneum
Process, though that process was the invention of Mr. J. Burgess, of
Norwich; but a recent application of the gelatino-bromide emulsion to
celluloid slabs by Mr. Fitch has made the Ivorytype process as simple
and certain as the exposure and development of gelatino-bromide paper.
On January 30th, 1881, died Mr. J. R. Johnson, of pantascopic celebrity.
Mr. Johnson was the inventor of many useful things, both photographic
and otherwise. He was the chief promoter of the Autotype Company, in
which the late Mr. Winsor was so deeply interested; and his double
transfer process, published in 1869, contributed greatly to the
successful development and practice of the Carbon process. The invention
of the Pantascopic Camera, and what he did to forward the formation of
the Autotype Company and simplify carbon printing, may be considered the
sum total of his claim to photographic recognition.
The chief photographic novelty of 1881 was Mr. Woodbury's Stannotype
process, a modification and simplification of what is best known as the
Woodburytype. Instead of forcing the gelatine relief into a block of
type-metal by immense pressure to make the matrix, he "faced" a reversed
relief with tin-foil, thus obtaining a printing matrix in less time and
at less expense. I have seen some very beautiful examples of this
process, but somehow or other it is not much employed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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