The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-04-28
The Progress of Photography.

A correspondent of the New York Eve
ming Post records highly interesting dis
covery in photography, which is termed the
carbon process, aud by means Of which all
the natural colors can be reproduced upon
Photographic plate. The same results
had, indeed, been attained by the distin-
guished French scientist, NJ. DE ST. VICTOR,
but this gentleman was unable to fix the
colors so that they would endure strong
light, or last beyond few weeks or months
in o subdued light. The beautiful e1posi-
tion pictures of NJ. DE ST.. VICTOR were ex-
hibited under faint, artificial and non
actinic light.
The new process is the invention Of Mr..
Jos. W. SWAN, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, Eng
land, from whom the present proprietor, NJ.
BRAUN, of Dornach, has purchased the
patent right. The latter, at an extensive
establishment erected for this purpose, is
reproducing in splendid style the drawings
of the old masters.
The description of the process is as fol-
lows:
Gelatine, in combine ion with salt of chro-
MUM, becomes insC lie in water after short
exposure to sunlight. This one fact is the
basis Of rhe entire process. Float i'll dark
room sheet of plain Photographic paper
(popier sare) upon n solution Of bichromated
gelatine having q pigment mixed with It; ex-
pose this sensitized paper under an ordinary
Photographic negative or "c.tche," and then IN
warm or tepld water wash away those portions
not affected by the light The exposed parts
having become insoluble, remain attached to
| the paper and so produce picture:
It will be readily seen that an infinite varle-
ty Of tints or colors can be produced from the
same negative by change in the pigment
used. In copies Of ink drawings. engravlnSs,
&C., India ink, either alone or mixed with
indigo and carmine, is ordinarily used. If q
red, yellow, or blue chalk or crayon drawing !s
TO be copied, Photographic negative IS made
in the usual manner, pigment selected OF the
exact shade of the picture to be COPIED, mixed
with the bi-chromate solution. and the paper
prepared aud printed in the same manner
already described. An aetual Jac snnt!e is the
result.
The mixture of gelatine consists of one part
of a solution Of bi-chromate Of ammonia (con-
tanning one part of the salt in three of water
ore part OF sugar, two parts gelatine, and eight
parts Of water. After the prints have been
made thev. are plunged into saturated solu-
| ton OF alum. which secures the highest possl-
bic certainty, simply Of permanency but
of immunity from injury by damp, the one
cause from which 6 'iatine might be supposed
to suffer deterioration.
| The above is substantially the process. II
making the finest specimens OF this class OF
Photographic pictures, q series OF nlanpula-
| lions in transferring, pressing and retransfer-
ring have to be gone through with, the details
OF which would occupy too much space.
Those of our readers who are familiar
with the technical terms and practical meth
DDS of photography, will no doubt find this
extract sufficiently full and distinct 20 ena-
BILE them to comprehend the method by
which already some five hundred sheets
from the Louvre Museum have been mag
ni6cently reproduced
1t is pleasant to observe how rapidly this
interesting art IS progressing. for it is trib-
utary, more perhaps than any other, to the
tastes aud affections, and thus to the hap
piness Of domestic life. Men are prone to
denounce as dreamer one who devotes his
life to the pursuits Of abstract science, for
getting that every principle thus discovered
is developed into the forms of practical arr.
The fundamental properties Of light, dis
covered by NEWTON in the seventeenth CEN
tury, and so reclaimed from nature by the
human understanding, We transform, two
hundred years after, into pictures of those
whom we love, and draugats from the preci-
Gus cartoons of genius The sun first
paints the sweet faces and living landscapes,
which the artist catches when the finest