PHOTOGRAPHY

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 149, 27 June 1925, Page 9

PHOTOGRAPHY

IiNGLAND'S SHARE IN ITS HISTORY.

The sequence of discoveries in' photography, and their application :.', to various .was dealt ..with in.an addross to the Wellington Amateur Photographic Society :on Thursday, night by Mr. W. van der Yelden, of the Kodak .staff. Pnntingon paper: by the use of silver^ nitrate,- said the speaker, dated back as far as 1802. when Thomas . Wedgewopd,: in England, first printed them in sunlight, but he c had no means ; of fixing the: imago', and 'it was not till 11839 that Daguerre -made photography a usable; commercial, process. . : "- ' For so farreaching an agency photography was young,, only 26 years hay- :.'. ing: elapsed since Daguerre published his .process. Simultaneously with Daguerre, Sir John < Herschel, - the distinguished English astronomer and chemist, made prints by using chlqrid^ of silver, and first introduced the terms 'photography," "positive," and "negative." To ihim' ■belongs the credit also of having first made "hypo" in 1819; although he did i not have any .practical application for ! this substance; and he discovered just .! twenty: years after preparing the salt that it could bo used for the permanent "fixing" of photographs. Tlieu followed Scott-Archer with; the wet collodion proj coss, Btill_usad to-day I>y pi-occsa engravers for: the malcing of printing- blocks, and in'lß7l—just over 60 years ago—Dr. "U. L. Maddox mado tho first gelatine "dry plates, •■which two -yoars aftenvardo ■were'introduced as a commercial com- : modity.,. : After- that, many scientists -were ;: constantly^.workiixg along the lines -of pholographio investigation, and among ; tjiese, one of: the . most prominent was Sir William Abney, who in 1879 made each .radical changes in the preparation of photographic plrftee. as to establish their manufacturo on a levy firm footing. Thirty-seven years ago the first roll film was by George Eastman working in America. ■- -

Qnestiohs;and votes of thanks ended an ■■ instructive lecture.