San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-11-29

NVER in London they have been cele-
brating the hundredth birthday of
the invention of photography with
a great exposition, at which the finest
obtainable specimens of the art were
shown.
Photography is one of the inventions
that have revolutionized human life, in
creased our happiness and increased our
knowledge of the world enormously.
1t is not many years since photography
was invented. There are plenty of peo-
pie now living whose fathers saw the in
PRODUCTION of photography, and living
persons themselves can remember when
photographs were usually a ridiculous
caricature of themselves or their friends.
As a matter of fact, many persons were
concerned in the invention of photog-
raphy. A number of scientists were
working on the early attempts at the art,
just as happened in the case of waeless
telegraphy. The English have shown that
Tom Wedgwood, son of the famous pot
ter, first took sun pictures at the end of
the eighteenth century.
The French assert that Nicephore
Niepce, a French scientist, was the real
inventor of photography, as he carried
previous experiments to a practical form
in 1925. From Niepce the invention was
taken up by Louis DagUerTe, who first
made photographs a commercial cOmmod-
ity in the form of "daguereotypes.'
The first professional portrait photog-
rapher in London was Claudet, who
opened shop in Bond street in 1910.
One of the curiosities at the present ex-
position of the Professional PhotOgra-
pliers Association Is one of Claudet's da-
guerreotypes, faded to a silvery indis
tinctness, with the morocco leather case
i'm which it was then fashionable to keep
your picture.
Claudet's advertisement contains the
measuring sentence: Ladies have the
attendance of a respectable female"
Strange TO say, these early photographs
had an artistic quality that was entirely
lost a few years later. That was before
the photographers commanded their Gus
toners TO "look pleasant" put on artificial
scenery and used an iron harness to hold
people still. When they thought they
knew more about their trade, the soft
ness and naturalness Of the early pictures
were lost.
The photographs Of the late King Ed
ward taken in the sixties and seventies,
excite much interest and considerable
amusement. They are fine examples Of
the days when a man put on his best
clothes to be photographed tried to look
ike a wooden image and carried a cigar
to register gayety.
"Here is the late King Edward in his
r'orious youth, whiskered and sumptuous
king, with a cigar between his fingers"
s.ys a commentator. "Here he is as a
striking little boy, with his mother and
the Prince Consort, and here is a mid
Victorian country scene, with a crinO-
lined lady and top-hatted, broadclothed
husband at the door of a highly rural
cottage, with a dogcart TO match
BY way Of contrast to the old daguerre-
otypes they show the latest triumph of
scienee-a ''telephotograph" in three col
ors recently wired from Chicago TO New
York in seven and a half minutes.
Another novelty is the sculpture pho
tograph, of which a number of speci-
mems are exhibited. The excellence Of a
portrait medallion of the present Prince
Of Wales excites general comment. 1t il
explained that the method Of procedure
is, first, TO make a photograph Of the