Photography

by Henry H. Snelling

The expressed juice, alcoholic, or watery infusion of flowers, or vegetable substances, may be made the media of photogenic action. This fact was first discovered by Sir John Herschel. We have already given a few examples of this in the third chapter.

New York, January 27, 1849. E. ANTHONY, ESQ.

This process is a discovery of Sir John Herschel and receives its name from the fact that both negative and positive photographs can be produced by one process. The positive pictures obtained by it have a perfect resemblance to impressions of engravings with common printer's ink. The process, although not yet fully carried out, promises to be of vast utility.

As in all cases of great and valuable inventions in science and art the English lay claim to the honor of having first discovered that of Photogenic drawing. But we shall see in the progress of this history, that like many other assumptions of their authors, priority in this is no more due them, then the invention of steamboats, or the cotton gin.

This claim is founded upon the fact that in 1802 Mr. Wedgwood recorded an experiment in the Journal of the Royal Institution of the following nature.

"The improvement to which you refer is denominated "The Crayon Daguerreotype." This invention made by Mr. J. A. Whipple, is the only improvement in Daguerreotyping, I believe, for which Letters Patent for the United States were ever issued. The pictures produced by this process--which is of the simplest description imaginable--have the appearance and effect of very fine "Crayon Drawings," from which the improvement takes its name. Some of our most distinguished artists have given it their unqualified admiration.

I am indebted to Mr. J. H. Fitzgibbons for the following process, which he employed in producing the excellent specimens he exhibited at the Crystal Palace:

An article so extensively used in the practice of the Daguerreotypic art as Bromine, is deserving of especial attention, and accordingly every person should endeavor to make himself familiar with its properties and applications.

This process is patented in the United States, by J. A. Whipple, of Boston, and of course no honorable person will use it for his own benefit without purchasing a right.

History of Iodine.--This is one of the simple chemical bodies which was discovered in 1812 by M. Courtois, of Paris, a manufacturer of saltpetre, who found it in the mother-water of that salt. Its properties were first studied into by M. Gay Lussac. It partakes much of the nature of chlorine and bromine. Its affinity for other substances is so powerful as to prevent it from existing in an isolated state. It occurs combined with potassium and sodium in many mineral waters, such as the brine spring of Ashby-de-la-Zouche, and other strongly saline springs.