The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1889-07-21
AN ARTISTIC EVOLUTION.
THE SUNBEAM HARNeSSeO TO THE
PRINTING PRESS.

NaScd Paper Negstives-1hs Father Of
Modern Practical Photography 49, wet
eran" Roche. Typical Inventor-Photo-
Mechanical Printing.
e.
Special Correspondence
NEW YORK, July 1s.-The great defect
of VI. Dagucrre's invention was that the
images produced by it could not be multi
piled except by repetition, as many times
as copies were desired, Of the costly and
tedious original process. The fact was
clearly apprehended by scientific and
practical men that he had but opened the
way TO a field Of infinite possibilities. il
was not set enough that the sunbeam
should be imprisoned in the camera; il
must be hamesscd to the printing press.
4 croditable attempt in that direction
was made by Sir w. II. Grove. who. not
long after the invention Of the daguer-
rcotypc, discovered a means Of etching
it i'm the plate, with acid. 10 a sufficient
depth 20 enable-with very delicate ma
nipulati0n-pinting from it, but his
process was merely an ingenious and ex.
pensiye curiosity, a failure for all prac-
teal purposes. The steps were slow by
which the present perfection Of the art
was reached
Mungo Patton, in 1880, discovered the
scnsitiyeness Of bi-chromate of potash TO
light In isil, Fox-Talbot, Of England,
did the first real photography by what
he dcnominated the "calotype" process.
but i'm what would now seem a very
crude way He made his negatives upon
paper, which was subsequently waxed
and rubbed with hot iron to render il
scmi-transparcnt Then he made his
posiuyes upon paper over which had
been ilOated albumen charged with
i0dide of silver. That process, or a very
close approximation 10 it, by the way, Is
stillin use in Paris for the making Of
magic lantern "slides, an art in which
we now excel.
Louis Alphonse Pointcvin in 1855
made the great improvement Of employ
ing for negatives plates Of glass coated
with "gelatino or other organic matter
i'm combination with the bi-chromate Of
potash or Of ammonia" From this point
really have sprung all the many ingen-
ious, and for their respective uses
enormously valuable, processes Of pre-
lucing photo-relief, photo-lithographic
and other plates for various sorts Of
printing. Volumes would be required
To- recapitulate the improvements and
variations that have been made since
pointevin's time-in all civilized coun-
tries, but principally in the United States
but AN rest directly upon his invention
as a base. and Pointoyin as the father Of
modern photography is hardly less
worthy of honor in remembrance than
Daguorrc. it is true that in 1917 Niepce
dc st. Victor used iOdizcd albumen on
glass sonsitizcd with nitrate Of silver
with fairly good results; also that Scott
Archer, of England, IN 1851 brought col
lolion-whieh had then recently been
invented for surgical uses by lie Grey
into use, but neither of them reached the
point of practically attained 10y Pointe-
sim with gclatinc. NJ. Pierre Ignace
Alexis Gaudin i'm 1853 introduced a col
iodion emulsion the formula Of which
did not get into general use, but served
as the basis for number of improve
mcnts q little later and was employed
for several years thereafter. In 1861 he
madoa eclatine emulsion and called il
'phoi0gcuc.
Not long after Pointevin's discovery
Paul proisch. Of Vienna, found that if
he coated plate Of glass with bichro-
matizcl gClatine TO "a thickness three or
four times as great as that employed by
Pomtcviu, and when it was dry exposed
it i'm contact with Photographic live
negative, the golatine where the light
acted upon 10 was rendered insolublc and
hard. while from the other parts, whore
the light bad nos acted, the bi-chromate
could readily be washed out, and the
gclatno there would absorb water and
swell mp just in proportion as it had been
protected from the light, giving a per
feet matrix from which plaster casts OF
clccrotypcs could be made. So delicate
but sure was the action Of the light that
half tones were preserved and thercpro.
duction of accurate printed copies OF the
original seemed to be, theoretically at
least. merely matter Of color and i'm
preston In practice, however, II was
found that there was a great deal Of i'm
nroycment still necessary before the pro
cess could be made commercially yalua
blc one Of the moderately successful
methods tried was that Of coating metal
.latcs with asphaltum, which hardened
under the light and could be removed
readily by solvents from the unexpOsed
parts, thus presenting a surface for etch
ing. Lined and stipplcd work could be
well reproduced in that way, but The
usefulness of the process was limited.
Pointoyin produced some good work
by coating his glass plates thinly with
cclatmc and printing from them as from
liihographic stones, the parts exposed &c
light taking ink, while those not exposed
would absorb waterand so repel the ink.
That method was greatly improved 10y
AIIIlL Oh MNillNlif NANNY AZ NiAS A'nr
and rollers hc employed, however, and
his procoss-named after hints still
the most perfect for exceedingly fine
photo-mechanical work. but with the
drawback that it is slow and costly
Oberuetter and Edwards also made i'm
provements.
When news Of what was doing in this
direction abroad reached New York,
Mr.. II. G.. Roche-lamiliarly, admiringly
and anectionately known to nearly every
photographer in the United States and
pretty much all over the world as "the
Veteran" and Daddy Roche" set to
work experimenting. He tried 10 get
some such ink as was used abroad, and
the price demanded for it was S4S per
pound. quite beyond his means. When
he recovered his breath he went away
and began at the beginning by making
his own ink.
After a long series OF experiments he
settled upon copper plates as the best for
tic work, and at the next convention OF
phs'ographors exhibited a Pile Of photo
a..