The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1871-09-29
Nothing New Under the Sun.

Photography only adds another in.
stance to the many records which
prove the truth of Solomon's saying
"The thing that hath been is that
which shall be, and there Is no new
thing under the sum-"
Humbolt, in his Cosmos, states that
the Chinese had magnetic carriages
with which to guide themselves across
the great plains of Tartary, 1000 years
before our era, on the principle Of the
compass. The prototype of the steam
engine has been traced to the coli
pyle of Hero of Alexangria. The Ro.
mans used movable types to mark
their pottery and indorse their books.
Mr.. Layard found in Nineveh q mag
nifying lens of rock crystal, which
Sir D. Brewster considers true Opti-
cal lens, and the origin of the micro
scrOpe. The principal of the stereos-
cope, invented by Professor Wheat.
stone, was known to Euclid, describ.
ed by Galen l 800 years ago, and more
fully in 1899, A. b., in the works of
Baptista Porta. The Thames tunnel,
thought such q novelty, was an
ticipated by that under the Euphrates
at Babylon; and the ancient Egypti-
ans had a Suez canal. Such examples
might be indefinitely multiplied, but
we turn to photography. NJ. Jobard,
in his NOuvelles Invention aux Expo
sitions Universities, 1857, says trans
latiOn from German was discovered in
Russia, 800 years old, which contains
a clear explanation of photography.
The old alchemists understood the
properties of chloride of silver in leila
ton to light, and its Photographic ac-
ton is explained by Fabricius in De
Rebus Metallicis, 1856. The daguer-
reotype process was anticipated by
De la Roche in his Giphantic, 1850,
though it was only the statement of
a dreamer.
In DIR. Hooper's Rational Recrea-
tions, IVA, is the following method of
writing on glass by the rays of the
sun. dissolve chalk in aquafortis to
the consistencs of milk, and add to
that strong dissolution of silver.
Keep this liquor in glass decanter,
well stopped. Then cut out from q
paper the letters You would have ap-
pear, and paste the paper on the de-
canter, which you are to place In the
sun, in such manner that its rays
may pass through the spaces cut out
of the paper, and .all on the surface of
the liz uor. The part of the glass
through which the rays pass will turn
black, and that under the paper will
remain white"
In 1902, Thomas Wedgwood and
Sir Humphrey Davy contributed to
the Journal of the Royal Institution
paper on Gan Account of Method of
Coping Paintings upon Glass, and
of making Pro1iles by the Agency of
Light upon Nitrate of Silver" Let
us take an extract or two from this
paper, first reminding our readers that
Daguerre did not announce his inven-
ton till 1889. "White paper or white
leather" says the memoir, "moisten-
ed with solution of nitrate of silver,
undergoes no change when kept in a
dark place; but, on being exposed to
the daylight, it speedily changes color
and, after passing through different
shades of gray and brown, becomes,
at length nearly black. The altera-
tiOns of color take place more speedily
in proportion as the light is intense.
When the shadow of any figure is
thrown upon the prepared surface, the
part concealed by it remains white,
and the other parts speedily become
dark. For copying paintings on glass,
the solution should be applied on
leather; and in this case it is more
readily acted on than when paper is
used. The copy of a painting, or
the DrOfile immediafalv after no.
ing taken, must be kept in any OBJ
scure place." The instruments Wedg-
wood and Davy used were the camera
Obscura and the solar microscope; the
images produced, however, by the
former were "fOund too faint to pro-
duce in any moderate time an effect
upon the nitrate of silver" Davy
says: Nothing but a method of pre-
venting the unshaded parts of the
delinea tions from being colored by ex-
pOsure to the day is wanting, to render
this process as useful as it Is elegant