Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-04-05

velop tail and finally to escape from the
shell, together with thousands of its infant
companions, ready to be planted q few days
later in the water Of the Potomac and other
rivers.
One of the most wonderful uses Of pho
Biography recently devised is that by which
whole edition of book is turned out au-
Dramatically by the camera. A single page
is reproduced at time, clockwork device
being SO arranged that, by the shifting of a
continuous strip of paper, the negative Of
the page prints copy after copy, each blank
being exposed for Just the necessary time.
In this way simple pendulum contrivance
is made 10 run off perhaps q thousand pages
just alike, without the Interference Of
hands. A separate negative, OF course, IS
adjusted for each page, and so the whole
volume is printed piecemeal,
SANS INK OR BOTHER.
A curious sort Of composite photography
has recently been tried with human skulls,
of which it was attempted in this way to
obtain representative types for scientific
purposes. For example, composite was
made of number of murdererS' skulls, in
order to see if there was anything typical
in their development. The same thing was
tried with the skulls OF savages, as well as
with those of people of certain professions,
the idea being 10 lind out whether the moral
nature or mental training of the man pro-
duced any definite cranial modification. SO
far as is known nothing was aScertiined
very decisive.
The lighthouse board also has employed
photography lately for the purpose of find
ing out what sorts of lamps gave the great
est amount OF light Pictures were taken
of the flames in order to determine the
question. Copies OF these are to be sent 10
lighthouse keepers, TO show them what
IS
the cutting OF the wick, is most desirable.
For some time past the microscope has
been utilized in very interesting ways for
greatly charging small objects by phOtog-
raphy. The end of the instrument to which
the eye is ordinarily applied is introduced
into the cameras dark chamber, while a
strong ray of light is thrown by a small
lamp at the other end through the object
glass, on which the thing to be pictured is
placed, ana through the tube of the micro
scope, thus casting the image of the object
upon the sensitive plate at the back of the
camera. which stands exactly in the rela-
ton of the retinG in the eye of an observer.
In this manner small sections of rock, cut
SO thin a. to be transparent, are photo.
graphed SO as to show the material of
which they are made up. BY the same prog
cess the finest silks and linens are depicted
on greatly magnified scale so that they
are made to look like so much coarse mat
ting. their warp and wool being Is plainly
disceruible as if they were
SO MUCH STRAW PLATING.
Perhaps the most extraordinary applica-
ton of photography that it is possible to
mention is found in the multiform me-
chanical processes used at the present day
for the reproduction of pictures. In the il
Illustrating of magazines the art of wood
cutting has been almost entirely super
seeded by photo engraving in one shape or
another. Until recently 1t was thought i'm
possible TO reproduce in this way anything
but drawing composed of lines; but now
even painting can be copied Off-hand in
the shape of Il cut by the simple device of
placing gauze screen between the picture
and the camera, the network of the gauze
breaking up the solid lights and shadows so
as to make them reprOducible. a much
better way of accomplishing this, however,
has been lately invented, by cutting cross
lines on the glass negative itself. Thus
you find in the newspapers Of to-day most
beautiful engravings of actual works Of art
done within few hours, which would have
taken the hand work nan not long ago
months to turn out, Art photography is
making rapid strides ali lad The more ad-
vanCed workers in this line are producing
results, shown at exhibitions year by year,
which vie with the painters best execution.
Some of them even form actual photo
graphic compositions, by combining in one
picture background with a suitable fore
ground from another negative, figures from
still another accessories from yet another;
and so on. q
Expert Photographer Smile of the nAFS
tional museum, who knows more about this
branch Of art than any other man in the
United States, is getting together an ex-
hibit which will include picture by every
Photographic process ever devised, with
the apparatus for making 1t.
In the latter half of the Sixteenth century
Giovanni Baptiste Porta, a Neopolitan ply
sician, invented the camera obscura, which
may be said to have been
THE ORIGIN OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
It was simply dark chamber through
small hole in which the rays of sunlight
projected upon screen within picture of
whatever was in front The use originally
made of it was to copy pictures, which,
being thrown upon q screen Of canvas
within closet where the artist sat, were
readily gone over with paint and brush,
the very colors being reproduced in the in
verified image. This was almost the first
application of mechanical processes to art.
In 1850 fantastic writer named De la
Roche, a Frenchman, published an imag-
mary interview with devils, which, I'M
known to himself, was a marvellous proph-
ecy. He related how he was caught up in a
hurricane and deposited in the domain of
INC gem. VIII iHlILdlSu uIul iulO tue ST.
crets of nature. One genius he quotes as
saying: You know that rays of
light reflected from bodies form pic
lures upon polished surfaces-for ex-
ample on the retina of the eye, on water
and on glass. The spirits have sought TO
fix these fieeting images. They have made
q subtle matter by means of which picture
is formed in the twinking of an eye. They
coat a piece of canvas with this substance
and place it in front of the object to be
taken. By means of its yiscous nature, the
canvas retains q fac-simile Of
the image instantaneously. Finally, the
canvas is deposited in q dark press, and,
when it is dry, there is q picture SO perfect
that no art can initiate its truthfulness"
In III Scheller, the great Swedish chem
list. who had studied the action Of light
upon chloride of silver, made 4 photograph,
the first ever produced, of the solar
spectrum by projecting the latter upon a
sheet OF paper busted with silver chloride.
Twenty-Five years later, Davy and Wedg-
wood in England obtained an impression of
the solar spectrum upon paper prepared
with salts of silver, but were unable 10
make II permanent. In 1924 Joseph Niepce
made the first permanent photograph with
a plate coated with aSphaltum, resinous
matter extracted from petroleum and much
used at the present day for pavements
Two years later NicpCe went into partner
ship with Daguerre, and they continued
the experiments which resulted in the
Among the apparatus Illus
,rative of Photographic history to be shown
at the National museum before long ~ the
first camera ever made in the United States.
which was constructed here By friend OF
L..