Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-04-04

| 900 pages just alike without the interference
OF hands. separate negative, of course, is
adjusted fo- each page. and so the whole vol
ufne Is printed piccemeal. sans ink or bother.
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, a composite was made OF num-
Der of murderers skulls in order to see il there
was anything typical in their development.
The same thing was tried with the skulls of
savaScS. as well as with those of people Of GER
tain professions. the idea being to find out
whether the moral nature or mental training of
the man produced any definite cranial modif-
cation. SO far as is known nothing was ascer-
! tanned very decisive.
The light house board also hes employed pho
Biography lately for the purpose of finding out
what sorts Of lamps gave the greatest amount
OF light Pictures were taken of the flames in
order to determine the question. Copies of
these are to be sent TO light house keepers to
show them what shape OF flame. naturally de-
pending upon the cutting of the wick, is most
desirable.
THE MICROSCOPE AND TIE CAMERA.
For some time past the microscope has been
utilized in very interesting ways for greatly en-
iarging email objects by photography. The
end OF the instrument to which the eye il ord-
narily applied is introduced into the camera 8
dark chamber, while strong ray Of light is
thrown by small lamp at the other end through
the object glass, on which the thing to be pic
tured IL placed. and through the tube of the
microscope, thus casting the image of the OBJ
ject upon the sensitive plate at the back of the
camera. which stands exactly in the relation of
the retina in the eye of an observer. In this
manner small sections of rock, cut SO thin as to
be transparent. are photographed So as to show
the material OF which they are made up. By
the same process the finest silks and linens are
aepicted on greatly maSnifed SCALE so that
they are made to look like SO much coarse mat
ting. their warp and wool being as plainly dis
cernible as II they were so much straw plating
Perhaps the most extraordinary application
OF photography that II Is possible to mention
Is found in the multiform mechanical pro-
cesses used at the present day for the repro
ducton OF pictures. In the illustrating of
magazines the art of wood cutting has been
almost entirely superseded by photo-engrav-
ing IN one shape or another. Until recently it
was thought impossible to reproduce in this
way anything but drawing composed Of
lines, but now even painting can be copied
finland IN the shape of cut by the simple
device OF placing gsuze screen between the
picture and the camera, the network of the
gauze breaking up the solid lights and shad-
ows so as to make them reproducibie. A much
better way of accomplishing this however
has been lately invented by cutting cross
nnes on the glass negative itself. Thus you
md in the newspapers of today most beautiful
engravings of actual works of art. done within
few hours, which would have taken the hand
workman not long ago months to turn out
Art photography Is making rapid strides
ahead. The more advanced workers in this
line are producing results. shown at e1hibi-
tions year by year, which vie with the painters
best execution. Some of them even form
actual Photographic compositions by combin-
ing IN one picture background with q euita-
Bile foreground from another negative, figures
from suA another, accessories from yet
another. and so on.
Expert Photographer Smillie of the National
Museum, who knows more about this branch of
art than any other man in the United States is
getting together an exhibit which viii include
picture Dy every Photographic process ever
devised, with the apparatus for making it.
THE ORIGIN OF PHOTOGRAPHY
In the latter half Of the sixteenth century
Giovanni Baptiste Ports, "a NeopOlitan physician,
invented the camera obscura, which NAV be
said to have been the origin OF photography
1t was simply dark chamber, through a small
hole In which the rays of sunlight projected
upon a screen within a picture of whatever was
In front. The use originally made of il was to
copy pictures, which being thrown upon q
screen OF canvas within q closet where the
artist sat were readily gole over with paint and
brush. the very colors being reproduced in the
inverted image. This was Amos: the first ap-
plication Of mechanical processes TO art In
lI6O fantastic writer named De Ia Roche, a
with devils. which unknown to himself was a
marvellous prophecy. He related how he was
caught UP IN hurricane and deposited in the
domain OF the genii, who initiated him into the
secrets OF nature. One geniu5 ne quotes as
saying: You know that rave of light reflected
from bodies form pictures upon polished sur
faees-for example. on the retina of the eye, on
water and on glass. The spirits have sought to
nix these tieeting images. They have made a
subtle matter by means of which picture is
Anr NaI H. L r.
piece Of canvas with this substance and place
1t in front of the object to be taken. BY means
OF Its vlscous nature the prepared canvas re-
talns fac simlle OF the image instanlaneously
Finally the canvas Is deposited in a dark press
and when it Is dry there is a picture SO perfect
that no art can initiate its trutbfulness.'
THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPH OF THE SOLAR SPECTRUM
In III Scheller, the great Swedish chemist
who had studied the action of light upon chic
ride Of silver, made photograph, the first
ever produced of the solar spectrum, by pro-
jecting the latter upon a sheet Of paper busted
with silver chloride. Twenty-Five years later
Davy and WedgwooG in England obtained an
impression OF the solar spectrum upon paper
prepared with salts of silver. but were unable
TO make II permanent. In 1924 Joseph Niepce
made the first permanent photograph with a
plate coated with asphaltum a resinous matter
extracted from petroleum and much used at
the present day for pavements. Two years
later Nlepce went into partnership with
Daguerre and they continued the experiments
which resulted in the daguerrotvpe Among
the apparatus illustrative OF Photographic his
tory 10 be shown at the National Museum be-
fore long Is the first camera ever made in the
United States. which was constructed here by a
friend OF Daguerres, under the directions Of
the latter, before his process was made public.
Accompanying this are two boxes of the origi-
nal silver plates made for the purpose, un-
used.
ROPES OF HUMAN HAIR.