Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-04-16
Mistellanous Rfading.
MODERN FEATs OF CAMERA.
A Far Cry From Dasuerre's Art to
Today's.

Today's.
II old Nine. Daguerre had been a
quick to act as she was to suspect
Louis Jacques Daguerre might hav
died In an insane asylum, and tn
world might have waited a centur.
longer for a means Of preserving fam
lily likenesses on bits Of paper o
glass. Up to the early '30s M. De
!, guerre had behaved as any we'll bal
anced decorator and scene painte
should have behaved, and then he be-
gan to experiment with liquids ant
attempted to fasten sun shadows OF
glass or copper sheets. He talked o
q wonderful day when he could make
portraits Of his friends without either
brush or pencil.
In great trepidation Nine. Daguerrt
hurried to a doctor, and weeking, TOLD
these symptoms. To the doctors minc
they spelled nothing else than tnsan'
ity, and in 1888 they set about prepar-
ing M. Daguerre for a visit to the
asylum at Bicetre. But just then the
unsuspecting victim Of this plot suc-
ceeded in fastening the shadow on the
copper plate and the art Of photog-
raphy was born.
It Is a far cry from Daguerre, with
his cumbersome camera propped or
the ground taking a landscape that re-
quired a brilliant sun and seven ol
eight hours exposure, to the amateur
Of today who carries complete outfit
in a square box under one arm and
Iswinging 1t at will, can photograph
anything from an exploding battleshir
to sparrow feeding a nice fuzzy worm
to her brood. Only the man Of means
could have a daguerreotype or an am
brotype made years ago. Today not
only the nan Of moderate income, but
all his children may have kodaks, and
at the expenditure Of few cents can
preserve indefinitely a family group or
a bit of landscape.
When Daguerre and the men Of his
day took pictures it was momentous
occasion, one to be entered into with
great solemnity. With head held fast
between two rigid iron fingers and
with eyes fixed on the upper right
hand corner of some object, the VIC
tim had to sit for twenty minutes while
science, new to this work, was trans
ferring his reflection to the sensitive
plate hidden back Of that cyclops eye.
!. No wonder these quaint old time
folk look so sternly out Of the little
leather frames. No wonder the faces
are set in such firm lines and the eyes
gaze so sombrely into futurity. The
ordeal was enough to produce such
effects in even the most lovable and
winsome faces.
Now photography reveals effects in
light and shadow and in facial express
sion hitherto believed to be possible
cnly to painters. Child life has fur
nished many artistic poses that old
| time daguerreotypes and even painters
were unable to catch and preserve.
Special photographers have arisen In
this branch of the work and women
have proved the most successful.
Many unusual feats Of photography
have been achieved in the last few
years There are now lenses fast
enough to take the finish Of a mile a
minute automobile races, athletes In
the act Of pole vaulting and fast mail
trains in motion.
c. B. Schillings, a German hunter
and traveller has added much to the
knowledge Of animal life by photo
graphing big game by flashlight far
back in the jungles Of Africa Herds
of wild elephants, groups Of lions, ze-
bras, hippopotamuses, crocodiles, ga
zelles and smaller animals have all
been followed to their native heath
and photographed.
Mrs. Gene Stratton- Porter's studies
of birds have made her famous. When
she goes to photograph a nest OF eggs
or birds she first gets acquainted with
| the mother bird, sometimes taking
weeks to do 1t, but finally holds the
little creature in her hands and han
dies the eggs without fear Of the fam
lily being broken up.
| To get a picture Of certain shy
swamp bird she drove a distance of
fourteen miles every day for a week,
wading through a deep marsh and
carrying her heavy camera until the
desired pose of the bird was obtained.
She has secured excellent pictures of
eagles and owls in their own particu-
lar haunts. and spent many weeks In
a neighborhood getting acquainted
with a colony Of vultures.
Astronomy owes a great debt to
photography. At various places
throughout the world there are obser-
vatories erected by governments or
colleges where pictures Of the heavens
are made each night, to be carefully
developed and forwarded to headquar-
ters. There they are labelled and put
away for reference.
When the next consignment OF
plates comes in these are taken out
and a comparison made to show any
changes in the celestial geography
Important discoveries have been made
by this means
| In a measure all the scientific world
has made some contribution to the
perfection Of the art Of photography
The discovery of iodine in 1872, OF
hypo-S -Sulphate Of soda in 1919, and the
use Of collodion in 1850 all made the
art Of today a possibility. So did the
work Of ]. Holland, London optician
of the middle eighteenth century, who
first constructed the double achromat-
ic combination Of lenses.
Daguerre made his pictures on cop
per. In 1889 Fox Talbot Of England
found that he could print the likeness
on paper and he patented the process
In 1850 Scott Archer Of England found
that by using a film Of collodion the
shapes could be fixed on glass and pic
lures on paper printed from this. Thus
the negatives came into use.
The man who came to us long age
and with his big magic lantern show
H.