Evening star., 1939-03-12
Invention of Camera
Celebrated Abroad
By Frederic J. Hdskin.

been made with processes for the capture
of light but 1889 seems to have been the
year when two practical methods were
brought into fairly general use. 1t was
in that year that Daguerre, in France,
published a detailed description of his
method and it was also in that year that
Henry Fox Talbot, in England, gave an
account Of his method to the Royal So
ciety. 1t is related that Michael Faraday,
who had been familiar with the expert
ments which Fox Talbot had been carry
ing on for some years, heard of Daguerres
forthcoming announcement and induced
Talbot to make his own discoveries
known so that France could not claim
priority.
AS so many people in so many coun-
tries have worked on the problem per-
haps the idea of priority is unimportant.
Yet always there is rivalry in the scien-
tific world as elsewhere. We find that
France has erected a monument at
which bears an inscription claiming that
he invented photography in 1922. Sir
Isaac Newton had written his work, "Op-
ticks," half a century earlier, and Wedg-
wood. son of Josiah Wedgwood the
famous potter, had taken pictures with
a clumsy camera obscura as early as
1902
So it is rather thankless task to
measure rivalries as to the priority and,
so far as practical application is con-
cerned, France and England appear to
have run a neck-and neck race, both
passing the post in 1889. Because the
daguerreotype was more fully eXplSited
and especially because it became popular
in America to the practical exclusion of
any other form of photography, the
French system was far better known
here. Indeed, it was not until the SOS
that the daguerreotype began to give
place to the English method and this
supplanting was due largely to the great
success met by Brady, the adventurous
war correspondent whose photographs of
Civil War battlefields of great figures of
the two armies of men like Lincoln as
well as other leaders, brought to Ameri-
cans new sense of the importance Of
photography.
X
In this day when the candid camera
craWls out of the woodwork at every
function, public or private. when little
children are scarcely caught out of the
house without their cameras, when every
newspaper runs prize competitions and
when entire newspapers and magazines
are given over to the publication of pic
lures, some of which have been radioed
half way around the world, the work Of
century ago may seem crude. On careful
study, however, it must also seem mag
nificent in the sense of achievement.
Niepce, for instance, had made his first
camera out of jewel case and had
taken his lens from a microscope. Fox
Talbot was man of some means and
had devoted his life to scientific pursuits
Of various kinds He was born in 1900
and, at the age of 13 had finished Har-
row, school comparable in studies to
American high schools At 81 he was
admitted to the Royal Society in recog-
milton of his work in mathematics. At
an early age he was sheriff of Wiltshire
and member of Parliament. He lived
until 1877.
At his spacious mansion, Laycock Alb
bey in Wiltshire, he started his expert
ments with photography. making various
kinds Of cameras. In 1885 his wife
quite probably annoyed as wives Of sci
entists frequently are by their putterings
referred to his~ boxes as mousetraps
Just what started Fox Talbot on this
line is not precisely clear. He seems not
to have been so much interested in the
artistic possibilities of photography as
other inventors. 1t was the behavior of
light and the behavior of chemically
treated paper which attracted him
chiefly Now in Daguerre's case all
artistic urge was foremost. He was dis
appointed with his attempts to sketch
from nature 1t appears that he was not
very good at drawing so he resorted to
cheating by taking an impression through
a glass, just as today an ambitious
youngster will use tracing paper to give
himself the satisfaction of thinking he
has produced a creditable drawing.
Fox Talbot was not lost to the CONNER
cial importance of his invention. He
patented it promptly. He issued a series
of pictures made by what he termed the
calotype process and, in 1874, Longman
published volume of his photographs.
This was the first book with photo
graphic illustrations. 1t was called THE
Pencil of Nature"
Some fascinating public reactions were
noticeable. Amateurs sprang up in
many countries (although for some OBJ
scure reason the King of Naples de-
clared the practice subversive and illegal
in his kingdom) and the Occident, at
least, was flooded with photographs, most
of them weird looking things, but many
of them real works of art. When Da-
queries process was made known ano
his pictures began to appear, Delaroche,
the celebrated French painter, uttered
the despairing note: From today paint
ing is dead" A saner view seems to
have been that of LIE Gray, who de-
clared: THE immediate effect of pho
Biography will be the destruction of me-
diocrities and the coming to the fore of
artists of ability"
1t seemed true-as we now know 1t is
not-that photography gave a more
faithful representation than freehand
drawing or painting and that, therefore,
the old-fashioned artists work would be
outmoded. When one thinks of Picasso