AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR PRODUCING PHOTOGRAPHIC PICTURES, WHICH HE INTENDS TO DENOMINATE Sombra Dam
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Arsène Louis Garnier, of the Island of Guernsey,
Photographic Artist, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR
PRODUCING PHOTOGRAPHIC PICTURES, WHICH HE INTENDS TO DENOMINATE
Sombra Dam
"
Sealed the 24th August 1855, and dated the 5th March 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Arsène <Louis Garnier
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
5th March 1855.
I, ARSENE LOUIS GARNIER, of the Island of Guernsey, Photographic Artist,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED PROCESS
POR PRODUCING PHOTOGRAPHIC PICTURES, WHICH I INTEND TO DENOMINATE 'SYSTÈME
GARNIER DE PHOTOCHEROGRAPHIE COLORIÉE" to be as follows:-
My Invention of an improved process for producing photographic pictures
includes several improvements upon the ordinary means of producing photo-.
graphic pictures, and consists in employing a textile or woven fabric instead
of paper as the surface on which the picture is to be produced. This tissue
or woven fabric must be prepared to receive the ordinary chemical agents used
in photographic operations, and it will be found that this material possesses

page_text: many advantages over paper. For instance, a most even surface may be
obtained, and the liability to tear or become injured while being subjected to
the liquid chemical agents is much diminished. This material may also be
folded or crumpled up without injury. Having found by experience that
photographic pictures are liable to fade away, and that this defect arises from
the presence of certain salts or matters in the fabric employed to receive the
picture, I propose to subject the fabric to the operation of boiling water, which
will neutralize, destroy, or remove the deleterious or injurious matters, and
prevent them from operating on the chemical substances employed in the
photographic process.
The tissue or woven fabric intended to be employed for photographic
purposes is submitted to the operation of boiling water,.which will remove any
alcohol, potass, or other chemical matter that may be found in the fabric.
This operation having been performed, I prepare the surface of the tissue
or fabric so as to give it a body and a finely polished surface, which may be
rendered more or less transparent, according to the nature of the picture
or the effect intended to be produced. This may.be done by. means of white
wax or some essential oil prepared for the purpose.
The chemical agent having been applied. to the surface, and the picture
obtained, developed, and fixed by any of the well-known or any other suitable
process, I take the picture, and to the back thereof, at the proper places, I
apply suitable colors, according to the nature of the picture, which being
transparent, or partially so, will show the effect of the colors on the surface
without obscuring or hiding any part of the picture. When the required
effect has been obtained, the picture must be mounted on paper or cardboard
by means of some adhesive material, and the surface varnished with mastic
or other suitable varnish, after which it may be framed and glazed. A picture
produced in this manner will never deteriorate by keeping, if ordinary care be
used to protect it from injury.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed 30
by the said Arsène Louis Garnier in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 5th September 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ARSÈNE
LOUIS GARNIER, of the Island of Guernsey, Photographic Artist, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Arsene Louis Garnier, Her special licence that I, the said Arsène Louis
Garnier, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Arsène Louis Garnier, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IM-
PROVED PROCESS FOR PRODUCING PHOTOGRAPHIC PICTURES, WHICH I INTEND TO
DENOMINATE SYSTÈME GARNIER DE PHOTOCHÉROGRAPHIE COLORIÉE,"
upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Arsène Louis Garnier, by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what mannerthe same was to
be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Arsene Louis Garnier, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement (that is to say) :-
My Invention of an improved process for producing photographic pictures
includes several improvements upon the ordinary means of producing photo-
graphic pictures, and consists,―
First, in employing a textile or woven fabric instead of paper as the surface
on which the picture is to be produced. This tissue or woven fabric must be
prepared to receive the ordinary chemical agents used in photographic opera-
tions, and it will be found that this material possesses many advantages over
paper. For instance, a more even surface may be obtained than when paper
is employed, and the liability to tear or become injured while being subjected
to the liquid chemical agents is much diminished. This material may also be
folded or crumpled up without injury. Having found by experience that
photographic pictures are liable to fade away, and that this defect arises
from the presence of certain salts or matters in the fabric employed to receive
the picture, I propose, secondly; to subject the fabric to the operation of
boiling water, which will neutralize, destroy, or remove the deleterious or

page_text: injurious matters, and prevent them from operating on the chemical substances
employed in the photographic process.
The tissue or woven fabric intended to be employed for photographic
purposes I submit to the operation of boiling water, of alcohol, & potass, for
the purpose of removing the chemical matters that may be found in the fabric.
This operation having been performed, I next prepare the surface of the tissue
or fabric, so as to give it a body and a finely polished surface, which may
be rendered more or less transparent, according to the nature of the picture or
the effect intended to be produced. This may be done by means of white wax
or some essential oil prepared for the purpose.
The chemical agent having been applied to the surface of the textile fabric
so as to render it sensitive to light, and the picture having been obtained
thereon, and afterwards developed and fixed by any of the well-known or any
other suitable process, the next operation is to take the picture, and to apply
to the back thereof at the proper places suitable colours according to the
nature of the picture; and the prepared textile material, being transparent or
partly so, will shew the effect of the colours on the front surface without
obscuring or hiding any part of the picture. When the required effect has
been obtained, the picture must be mounted on paper or cardboard by means
of some adhesive material, and the face varnished with mastic or other suitable
varnish, after which it may be framed and glazed. A picture produced in this
manner will never deteriorate by keeping, if ordinary care be used to protect
it from injury.
Having briefly explained the nature and object of my Invention, I will now
proceed to describe the manner in which I carry out my Invention.
In operating upon fine linen cloth or any other kind of fabric which is
capable of being rendered transparent, I first cut the fabric into pieces of
suitable size, and well coat them with a paste made of rice flour, which must be
allowed to dry perfectly before submitting the fabric to the subsequent opera-
tion. I then take about six parts of virgin wax, two parts of Venice turpentine,
and two parts of the best linseed oil. I first melt the wax in a vessel coated
inside with silver, and afterwards add thereto the turpentine and oil, taking
care to incorporate these substances well together. I then immerse the fabric
in this mixture, which I maintain at a moderate temperature. I also employ
with great advantage gelatine, rendered insoluble in fixative baths. I then
obtain the required positive photographic pictures in the ordinary manner, and
fix them in baths of ammoniacal hyposulphites, according to the effect which
I desire to obtain, which will be found to produce very advantageous results.

page_text: In order to remove any alkaline salts which may remain after the ordinary
washings, and would be injurious to the durability of the picture, I immerse
it for about ten minutes in a vessel containing pure alcohol, which possesses
the property of depriving it of any injurious matters, and after being washed
in hot water the picture is then ready for the reception of color, as hereafter
described.
I also obtain excellent results by applying my process to ordinary photo-
graphic pictures (that is to say):-Having obtained a positive upon a sheet of
paper rendered sensitive by nitrate of silver, and perfectly fixed it by means of
baths of ammoniacal hyposulphites, I treat it with boiling water, alcohol, and
a solution of potass, for the purpose of neutralizing or removing any chemical
or other impurities which may have been introduced in the sizing of the
paper, and which would affect the durability of the picture. I then treat the
paper with starch of greater or less consistency, according to the degree of
transparency which I desire to obtain, and pass it through a vessel coated
with silver, and containing melted white virgin wax or purified mutton fat. I
afterwards remove the excess of wax or fat by placing the picture between
sheets of blotting paper, and passing a hot iron over it. The pictures having
been thus prepared and rendered transparent, I proceed to apply suitable
colors thereto by hand, in the usual way of coloring portraits or pictures,
with this difference, that I apply them to the back of the transparent
fabric. The colors applied should be oil colors of superior quality. When
the colors are dry, I glue or otherwise firmly attach the picture to a flat and
even surface. If it be desired to give greater brightness and effect to the
picture, I apply to its surface mastic varnish or suitable purified gelatine.
By the above-described process a very superior picture will be produced,
combining the truthfulness of photography with the artistic effect of a
painting.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the best means with
which I am acquainted for carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be
understood that I do not intend to claim the application to photographic
pictures obtained on paper of coloring matters, the fabric having been
previously rendered transparent, so that the colors may be applied at the back
thereof, as I am aware that an operation somewhat similar to this has been
hitherto known and practised; but that which I consider to be new, and
therefore desire to secure under the herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent, is,―
Firstly, the employment of a linen cloth or other similar fabric or tissue
for the production of colored photographic pictures, as above described.

page_text: Secondly, the process above described for neutralizing any alkaline salts, and
for removing any impurities or injurious matters contained in the fabric or
paper employed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Arsene Louis Garnier, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twenty-ninth day of August, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
ARSÈNE LOUIS GARNIER, (L.B.)
Photokérographic Artist.