New-York tribune., 1891-03-06
PHOTOGRAPHING COLORS.

Ono of the most notable features OF recent
scientific progress has been the development ana
popnlarzation of the Photographic art WIN the
invention Of dry plates, the operation OF making
pictures by actnsm was so simplllied as to pace
il within the power Of every one who had le"
dollars and n few hours to spare and moderate
amount of artistic intelligence. Since then there
has been vast multiplication of cameras and out
fits and processes and corresponding increase OF
popular knowledge of the principles of optics and
chemistry as we'll as of art, involved in the COM
plex science Of photography. There has been also
a great quickcning Of the inventive faculty. until
now not only professional photographers, Dut
amateurs as we'll. are producing pictures which.
excepting in respect appear to be as perfect as
human skill can hope ever to make them
Excepting in one respect; and TO abolish that
execution has been and is the dream of thousands.
There is probably scarcely one true amateur OF
photography who has not often sighed, as he ad-
ustcd the focus of his camera and observed the
miniature scene glowing in its many-tinted beauty
upon the ground-glaSs screen. "Oh! If only l
could fix the coors as well as the forms!' Some
artists have devoted their lives to seeking to do
this Others have regarded it as impossible, like
perpetual motion in mechanics. And. indeed, this
latter view has come TO be widely accepted
and its correctness has been demonstrated with
scientific completeness by great authorities; IN
spite of which some perverse photographers have
kent on experimenting, remembering that great
authority once proved with scientific completeness
the impossibility of a steamship ever crossing the
Atlantic Ocean.
Word now comes from Paris that one of these
oyperiihentcrs has achieved success. Professor
Lippmann. who fills the chair of Physics at the
Sorbonne, announces that by means of new
process discovered by him. he can photograph the
whole solar spectrum with absolute chromatlc
accuracy Not only the three primary coors are
reproduced in his negatives. but all the hues Of the
rainbow, with their gradations and blendlngs.
even TO the nfra-ed and supra-vioet. This
startling result is achieved, he says in n sur
prsingly simple way. Ordinary plates are used in
an ordinary camera. and they are developed in an
ordinary bath Therc is simply mirror. so fixed
as TO cause ntcrfcrcnces in the lines Of light that
pass through the sensitizcd emulsion the plate
that is all
Photographers everywhere will regard Professor
Lippmanns announcement with much interest.
Perhaps there will he not little ncredulity. But
doubtless many will be prompted TO take up his
experiments. to resume their own with added
zeal until the problem Of orthochromatc
photography is fully solved. There is yet much
to hear from Professor Lippmann: whether the
colors on his plates permanent; whether they
appcar only on the surface or looking through
the plates; whether they can be transferred 10
scnstizcd paper. and many otLcr details. There
is already, however, excellent reason 70 believe
that important and substantial progress has been
made by him toward the much-sousht goal.