Improvements in Photography and Photographic Reproduction.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Mar., 1887
Specification Accepted, 5th Apr., 1887.
[Communicated from abroad by ALBERT SICHEL, of New York, United States of
America, Merchant.]
Improvements in Photography and Photographic Reproduction.
I, ALFRED JULIUS BOULT of 323 High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex,
M.I.M.E., do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
This invention relates to photography and photographic reproduction.
The object is to produce photographs in a new and efficient manner; the object is
also, in a novel, expeditious and effective manner, to produce upon a hard surface, such
as that of glass, porcelain, metal a lithographic stone, or the like, a representation, view,
picture, image, or ornament, so that the surface will itself present a representation,
view, picture, image, or ornament or that impressions of such can be taken therefrom
by known printing methods.
The invention consists in the employment, for the purposes of photography, of
resinates especially those not readily soluble in water, such as the resinates of certain
metals and organic bases; the invention also consists in preparing glass, porcelain,
metals, lithographic stones, or other appropriate surfaces, for production or reproduction,
by the application thereto of a solution of a resinate, suitably strengthened, which,
after drying, after having portions of it exposed to light, and after being treated with
a substance or with substances that will attack the portions which have been exposed
to light, or will affect them, without attacking or affecting the portions which have not
been exposed to light, or with attack or action upon these in a less degree, or after
being treated with a substance or with substances which will affect, attack, or remove
the portions which have not been exposed to light, without affecting, attacking, or
removing the portions which have been exposed to light, or with influence upon these
in less degree, will present a representation, view, picture, image or ornament, or a
printing surface thereof; the invention also consists in an object having its surfaces so
prepared.
My correspondent finds that the resinates of metals and organic bases, by

page_text: exposure to light, change their properties as to solubility and to resistance to
bleaching and oxidizing agents and acids, different resinates differing in degree of
such change.
Before exposure to light, the resinates not readily soluble in water are soluble
in benzole and various other hydro-carbons, in ether, chloroform and bisulphide of
carbon, and are almost indifferent to the action of bleaching agents such as hypo-chlorite
of sodium; but, after exposure to light, my correspondent finds that they become
more or less insoluble in the above named solvents, and are affected by these bleaching
agents.
He has particularly employed the resinates of alumina, zine, magnesia, silver, and of
quinine.
The resinates may be employed uncoloured, or they may be coloured as by a color
in solution, such as an aniline colour or by a pigment, finely divided, such as ultra
marine, or by both.
For the purposes of this invention he prefers to use the resinate of magnesia, and
this coloured with an aniline colour.
As an illustration of how to carry out this invention, I will give the following
example:
I first prepare the resinate of magnesia, and, by preference, in the following
manner:
a
I take a neutral resin-soap-solution, add to the same carefully a solution of a salt of
magnesia, such as the sulphate or chloride, and wash and dry the resulting precipitate,
resinate of magnesia. I produce this precipitate coloured, either by adding
solution of the desired colour to the resin-soap-solution or to the magnesia-salt-solution,
before precipitation, or by passing an aqueous or alcoholic solution of the color through
the dry precipitate.
'I then, after drying, dissolve the resinate in benzole, ether, chloroform, bisulphide of
carbon, or other suitable solvent.
I then coat the surface upon which I wish to produce the photograph with the
solution, and then expose it to the action of light in the usual manner, that is,
either in a photographic camera or under the picture, drawing or other matter which
I wish to reproduce, if this be upon a transparent or translucent material.
When I wish to produce the negative of an object I subject the prepared surface
after suitable exposure to the action of benzole, ether, bisulphide of carbon, chloroform,
or similar solvent which will affect or remove those parts which have not been exposed
to the action of light, without materially affecting the parts which have been so
exposed.
When I wish to produce the positive of an object, I subject the prepared surface,
after suitable exposure to light, to the action of hypo-chloride of sodium, oxidizing
agents, alkalies, or acids which will affect those parts or the color on those
parts of the surface which have been exposed to the light, without materially
affecting the parts or the color of the parts which have not been exposed to
light.
Photographs can be so produced upon any surface which is not liable to injury by
the action of the above named chemicals.
My correspondent has found that the photographs can be made more durable
by the addition of a caoutchouc, gutta-percha, or India-rubber-solution, or the
solution in benzole, etc., of other suitable bodies, to the solution of the colored
resinate, before the same is applied to the surface on which the photograph is to be
produced.
My correspondent has also found that the different colors differ in degree in their
resistance to light, and therefore if he uses a resinate colored with a mixture of two or
more colors of different powers of resistance, the photograph obtained will show
'different colors and shades.
My correspondent has also found that he can use, in place of the salts of the acid or
acids contained in resin, that is to say, in place of the pure or simple resinate, the salts

page_text: of the chlorine, bromine, or iodine-substitution-products of such acids, intending.
hereby to claim the use, for instance, of salts of bi-bromo-, or bi-iodo-abietic acid,
instead of the pure acid of the resins.
When a surface suitable for etching, coated by a resinate dissolved in benzole,
bisulphide of carbon, etc., to which has been added a solution of gutta-percha,
caoutchouc, rubber, or gums, etc., has been exposed in parts to light my correspondent
has found that either the portions which have not been exposed to light, or
those which have been exposed to light, may be etched without materially affecting
the others.
My correspondent finds when, with the addition of caoutchouc, or the like, he applies
the method above described for producing a negative, that the parts which have
not been exposed to light, will be more affected by etching agents than those which
have been so exposed and, when, with similar addition, he applies the method
above described to produce a positive, the parts which have been exposed to light will
be more sensitive to the action of etching agents than those which have not been so
exposed.
To prepare a suitable surface on glass, porcelain, or other similar substance, the
methods which I prefer to employ are as follows:
By one method a benzole solution of a suitable resinate, by preference the resinato
of magnesia is made, add to it a solution of gutta-percha or rubber, then coat the
surface of the substance employed with the mixture, expose it in parts to light, as
desired, then subject it to the action of hypo-chlorite of sodium which affects or
removes the resinate where exposed to light, and then to the action of hydro-fluoric
acid, which thus more readily etches the parts which have been exposed to light than
the others.
I can also etch on glass, porcelain, or the like, by following the method just described,
omitting the use of hypo-chlorite of sodium; but the former procedure is preferable, as
by the latter the etching may not be so perfect.
By another method, the surface is coated and exposed as above, then subjected to the
action of any solvent of the resinate and rubber, such as a mixture of benzine and
benzole, which affects or removes the portion of the coat which has not been exposed
to light, and then to the action of the acid which thus more readily etches those parts
which have not been exposed to light than the others.
Of course other surfaces, such as metals, lithographic stones, etc., can be etched in
the same manner by using the appropriate acids.
The solution which my correspondent has found best adapted for coating the
surfaces, is as follows:-
1 per cent of caoutchouc.
benzole.
15 per cent of resinate of magnesia. 84 per cent of
In some instances he may prepare a printing surface, without etching.
To do this my correspondent finds the following method preferable: He applies the
coating of resinate and caoutchouc or the like, and expose to light, as already described,
and then subject the surface to the action of a solvent, by preference a mixture of
benzole and benzine. The photograph obtained may then be reproduced upon the
application of fatty inks.
Of course all the surfaces so produced, be they in intaglio or in relief, are
susceptible of reproduction for multiplication by galvano-plastic or other well-known
processes.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said invention,
as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, 1 declare that what I claim is
1. The new process of photography, which consists in coating a suitable surface,
upon which it is desired to produce a photograph, with a solution of a resinate of a
metal or of an organic base, subjecting the prepared surface then to the action of light,
as described, and then to the action of a suitable agent to obtain a negative or a positive
of an object, as desired, substantially as set forth.

page_text: 2. In the art of photography, the employment of a resinate as the essential sensitizing
medium, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.
3. As a
described.
new article of manufacture, a resinate photograph, substantially as
4. The process of preparing a hard surface in suitable condition to be etched,
or for use to yield an impression without being etched, which consists in coating
the surface with a solution of a suitable resinate strengthened by caoutchouc or
the like, subjecting it in parts then to the action of light, and then to the action of an
agent which will affect some parts of the coating more than others, substantially as
described.
5. The new process of etching, which consists in coating an appropriate surface with
a suitable resinate strengthened by caoutchouc, or the like, subjecting it then, in
parts, to the action of light, then to the action of an agent which will affect some parts
of the coating more than others, and then to the action of an etching substance,
substantially as described.
6. The new process of etching, which consists in coating an appropriate surface with
a suitable resinate strengthened by caoutchouc or the like, subjecting it in parts to the
action of light and then directly to the action of an etching substance, substantially as
described.
7. A reproducing surface composed of a suitable resinate and caoutchouc, or the like,
substantially as set forth.