the brown band, . . . which was produced in the violet, the silver
chloride was coloured a grey-violet for a distance of several inches.
In proportion as the distance from the violet increased, the tint
became lighter. Beyond the red, on the contrary, the chloride
took a feeble red tint for a considerable distance. When moist
chloride of silver, having received the action of light for a time,
is exposed to the spectrum, the blue and violet behave as above.
In the yellow and red regions, on the other hand, it is found
that the silver chloride becomes paler; . . . the parts acted upon
by the red rays and by those beyond take a light coloration.”
This has been brought forward by J. M. Eder as being the first record we have of photographic action lending itself to production of natural colours. This observation of Seebeck was allowed to lie fallow for many years, until it was again taken up and published as a novelty.
The first to found a process of photography which gave pictures that were subsequently unaffected by light was Nicéphore de Niepce. His process, which he called provisionally “héliographie, dessins, et gravures,” consists in coating the surface of a metallic plate with a solution of asphaltum in oil of lavender and exposing it to a camera image. He recommends that the asphaltum be powdered and the oil of lavender dropped upon it in a wine-glass, and that it be then gently heated. A polished plate is covered with this varnish, and, when dried, is ready for employment in the camera. After requisite exposure, which is very long indeed, a very faint image, requiring development, is seen. Development is effected by diluting oil of lavender with ten parts by volume of white petroleum. After this mixture has been allowed to stand two or three days it becomes clear and is ready to be used. The plate is placed in a dish and covered with the solvent. By degrees the parts unaffected by light dissolve away, and the picture, formed of modified asphaltum, is developed. The plate is then lifted from the dish, allowed to drain, and finally freed from the remaining solvents by washing in water. Subsequently, instead of using oil of lavender as the asphaltum solvent, Niepce employed an animal oil, which gave a, deeper colour and more tenacity to the surface-film.
Later, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre (1789–1851) and Niepce used as a solvent the brittle residue obtained from evaporating the oil of lavender dissolved in ether or alcohol—a transparent solution of a lemon-yellow colour being formed. This solution was used for covering glass or silver plates, which, when dried, could be used in the camera. The time of exposure varied somewhat in length. Daguerre remarked that “the time required to procure a photographic copy of a landscape is from seven to eight hours, but single monuments, when strongly lighted by the sun, or which are themselves very bright, can be taken in about three hours.” Perhaps there is no sentence that illustrates more forcibly the advance made in photography from the days when this process was described. The ratio of three hours to 1250 of a second is a fair estimate of the progress made since Niepce. The development was conducted by means of petroleum-vapour, which dissolved the parts not acted upon by light. As a rule silver plates seem to have been used, and occasionally glass; but it does not appear whether the latter material was chosen because an image would be projected through it or whether simply for the sake of effect. Viewed in the light of present knowledge, a more perfectly develop able image in half-tone would be obtained by exposing the film through the back of the glass. The action of light on most organic matter is apparently one of oxidation. In the case of asphaltum or bitumen of Judaea the oxidation causes a hardening of the material and an insolubility in the usual solvents. Hence that surface of the film is generally hardened first which first feels the influence of light. Where half-tones exist, as in a landscape picture, the film remote from the surface first receiving the image is not acted upon at all, and remains soluble in the solvent. It is thus readily seen that, in the case of half-tone pictures, or even in copying engravings, if the action were not continued sufficiently long when the surface of the film farthest from the glass was first acted upon, the layer next the glass would in some places remain soluble, and on development would be dissolved away, carrying the top layer of hardened resinous matter with it, and thus give rise to imperfect pictures. In carbon-printing development from the back of the exposed film is absolutely essential, since it depends on the same principles as does heliography, and in this the same mode of procedure is advisable.
It would appear that Niepce began his researches as early as 1814, but it was not till 1827 that he had any success worth recounting. At that date he communicated a paper to Dr Bauer of Kew, the secretary of the Royal Society of London, with a view to its presentation to that society. Its publication, however, was prevented because the process, of which examples were shown, was a secret one. In an authentic MS. copy of Niepce's “Mémoire," dated “Kew, le 8 Décembre 1827,” he says that “in his framed drawings made on tin the tone is too feeble, but that by the use of chemical agents the tone may be darkened.” This shows that Niepce was familiar with the idea of using some darkening medium even with his photographs taken on tin plates.
Daguerreotype.—We have noticed in the joint process of Daguerre and Niepce that polished silver plates were used, and we know from the latter that amongst the chemical agents tried iodine suggested itself. Iodine vapour or solution applied to a. silvered plate would cause the formation of silver iodide on those parts not acted upon by light. The removal of the resinous picture would leave an image formed of metallic silver, whilst the black parts of the original would be represented by the darker silver iodide. This was probably the origin of the daguerreotype process. Such observers as Niepce and Daguerre, who had formed a partnership for prosecuting their researches, would not have thus formed silver iodide without noticing that it changed in colour when exposed to the light. What parts respectively Daguerre and Niepce played in the development of the daguerreotype will probably never be known with absolute accuracy, but in a letter from Dr Bauer to Dr J. J. Bennett. F.R.S., dated the 7th of May 1839, the former says:—
“I received a very interesting letter from Mons. Isidore Niepce, dated 12th March [about a month after the publication of the daguerreotype process], and that letter fully confirms what I suspected of Daguerre’s manœuvres with poor Nicéphore, but Mr. Isidore observes that for the present that letter might be considered confidential.”
Dr Bauer evidently knew more of “poor Nicéphore’s” work than most people, and at that early period he clearly thought that an injustice had been done to Niepce at the hands of Daguerre. It should be remarked that Nicéphore de Niepce died in 1833, and a new agreement was entered into between his son Isidore de Niepce and Daguerre to continue the prosecution of their researches. It appears further that Niepce communicated his process to Daguerre on the 5th of December 1829. At his death some letters from Daguerre and others were left by him in which iodine, sulphur, phosphorus, &c., are mentioned as having been used on the metal plates, and their sensitiveness to light, when thus treated, commented upon. We are thus led to believe that a great part of the success in producing the daguerreotype is due to the elder Niepce; and indeed it must have been thought so at the time, since, on the publication of the process, life-pensions of 6000 francs and 4000 francs were given to Daguerre and to Isidore Niepce respectively. In point of chronology the publication of the discovery of the daguerreotype process Was made subsequently to the Talbot-type process. It will, however, be convenient to continue the history of the daguerreotype, premising that it was published on the 6th of February 1839, whilst Talbot’s process was given to the world on the 25th of January of the same year.
Daguerreotype pictures were originally taken on silver-plated copper, and even now the silvered surface thus prepared serves better than electro-deposited silver of any thickness. An outline of the operations is as follows. A brightly-Polished silver slate is cleaned by finely-powdered pumice and olive oil, and then by dilute nitric acid, and a soft buff is employed to give it a brilliant polish, the slightest trace of foreign matter or stain being fatal to the production of a perfect picture. The plate, thus prepared, is ready for the iodizing operation. Small fragments of iodine are scattered over a saucer, covered with gauze. Over this the plate is placed, face downwards, resting on supports, and the vapour from the iodine is allowed to form upon it a surface of silver iodide. It is essential to note the colour of the surface-formed iodide at its several stages, the varying colours being due to interference colours
