NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 181 



committee to visit him and investigate the alleged discovery. They 

 report, " that not only has Mr. Hill deluded many professors in the 

 daguerrian art, but that he has deluded himself thoroughly and com- 

 pletely that the origin of the discovery was a delusion that the 

 assumed progress and improvement of it was a delusion and that the 

 only thought respecting it, in Avhich there is no delusion, is for every 

 one to abandon any possible faith in Mr. Hill's abilities to produce 

 natural colors in daguerreotypes of which the whole history has been 

 aa unmitigated delusion." 



IMPROVEMENTS IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 



Enamel for Daguerreotypes. A plan has been invented and per- 

 fected by Mr. Beard, of London, for coating the surface of the daguer- 

 reotype with a kind of transparent enamel, which effectually excludes 

 the air, renders a glass unnecessary, and permits, moreover, the applica- 

 tion of color more effectually than by any mode previously attempted. 



Photography on Glass. A new process has been discovered by M. 

 Martens, of Paris, by which photographic negatives may be taken on 

 glass, and afterwards transferred to paper on an increased scale, by 

 means of a lens. The value of this process is enhanced by the capac- 

 ity to enlarge, by the application of a magnifying power, the dimen- 

 sions of the image produced on the negative plate. In this way, 

 without creating to the traveller the embarrassment of extra luggage, 

 he may make his negatives on as small a scale as may be convenient, 

 reserving to himself the choice of producing, at a future time, pos- 

 itives of such dimensions as he may desire. For topography and for 

 the transcription of the peculiarities and minute details of architecture 

 and costume, this discovery will prove of great value. 



A writer in the London Athenaeum, speaking of the pictures pro- 

 duced by this process, says, " There are in the impressions resulting 

 from this process a clearness and a sharpness of definition in the archi- 

 tectural subjects such as we have never before seen. In a view of the 

 portico of the Madaleine, as seen from the Rue Royale, the details of 

 the tympanum, the frieze, the capitals, the bases, the shafts, the in- 

 scriptions, and the bas-reliefs, seen through a magnifying glass at our 

 side, are extraordinary. The rendering of the bas-relief in the pedi- 

 ment is most perfect. Two views of the Salle de la Convention are 

 marvellous to the naked eye : through the lens they reveal details which 

 will provoke the admiration of the architect. The artist may throw 

 down his brush in despair. No human eye or hand could trace 

 from the objects themselves, within any moderate degree of accuracy, 

 such details." 



Instantaneous Photographic Images. Mr. Fox Talbot, well known 

 for his discoveries in photography, writes to the Royal Society, June, 

 as follows : " Having recently met with a photographic process of 

 great sensibility, I was desirous of trying whether it were possible to 

 obtain a truly instantaneous representation of an object in motion. 

 The experiment was conducted in the following manner : A printed 

 paper was fixed upon a circular disc, which was then made to revolve 



