H 



NATURE 



[May 5, i: 



PHOTOGRAPHY AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 



PHOTOGRAPHY as a practical art of interest to 

 others than a few investigators dates from 1839, 

 when the Daguerreotype was introduced. Its develop- 

 ment and applications were well illustrated at the Great 

 Exhibition of 185 1, but since that time there have been 

 very few attempts, and none altogether successful, to 

 show its further progress. The Royal Photographic 

 Society has held more than forty annual exhibitions, but 

 as each of these has dealt with its current year only, the 

 Council of the Society considered it desirable to arrange 

 an exhibition that should demonstrate, not only the last 

 year's advances, but the present position of photography 

 and its applications as well as the history of its develop- 

 ment. 



The exhibition that was opened last week by the Prince 

 of Wales is the result of the Society's endeavours. It 

 must be regarded as eminently satisfactory, for it is 

 not possible to call to mind many individuals or firms 

 intimately connected with photography that have not con- 

 tributed characteristic and interesting exhibits. The 

 large areas of the north and south naves of the Crystal 

 Palace, and of many of the courts, are well filled. The 

 catalogue, which is published by the Society, will form an 

 important historical work of reference, because of the 

 numerous descriptive notes, references to original 

 literature, dates, and examples of work that it contains. 

 It is particularly fortunate that such an exhibition as this 

 should have been inaugurated now rather than ten or 

 twenty years later, as those of the older g'feneration who 

 are best able to speak of some of the older processes that 

 are obsolete, and the introduction of the methods of to- 

 day, are fast disappearing from our midst. There are, 

 for example, but few left who are skilled enough in the 

 Daguerreotype process to work it with a fair average of 

 certainty, but Messrs. Negretti and Zambra have 

 arranged a studio for taking Daguerreotypes of any who 

 may desire it while the exhibition remains open. This is 

 an opportunity that in all probability will never occur 

 again. 



The exhibition is divided into seven sections, namely : 

 (i) the historical collection, (2) pictorial photography, (3) 

 apparatus and material, (4) scientific and industrial appli- 

 cations, (5) photography in colours, (6) photography as a 

 science, and (7) general technical photography. The 

 Society's collection of portraits of eminent workers in 

 connection with photography has been largely reinforced 

 by loans from private individuals, and the series includes 

 the elder and the younger Niepce, Fox Talbot, five of 

 Daguerre, Andrew Ross, Sir David Brewster, Baron 

 Pollock, Sir John Herschell, Mungo Ponton, W. B. 

 Woodbury, F. von Voigtlander, Dr. Draper, and many 

 others ; and in the catalogue there is a short biographical 

 notice of each. Among the works of the elder Niepce 

 there are exhibited the first camera photograph, taken in 

 1824, and some of the specimens that he submitted to 

 the Royal Society in 1827. The Daguerreotype process 

 is well represented. Daguerre's history and description 

 of the process, dated 1839, and a translation of it into 

 English published in the same year, are on view. The 

 collection of Daguerreotypes and apparatus for pro- 

 ducing them dates from 1842. Fox Talbot's callotype 

 process, which was also made public in 1839, is even 

 better represented ; but space forbids further reference to 

 these, and the various collodion and gelatine processes. 

 The first methods and the developments of carbon print- 

 ing are fully illustrated, including the gum-bichromate 

 process, which, after being nearly forgotten, has lately 

 been reintroduced and extolled. 



After the examples of early work in the production of 

 photo-etched plates and photo-typographic blocks, there 

 follows the optical section. This is certainly the most 

 -complete collection of lenses ever got together. Examples 



NO. 1488, VOL. 58] 



of nearly ninety different kinds are shown, ranging from 

 the early form of single lens by Chevalier and the first 

 lens made in England for portraiture (in 1841, by Andrew 

 Ross) to the stigmatics of Dallmeyer and Zeiss' planars. 

 Sectional drawings of nearly fifty different kinds of lenses 

 are given in the catalogue, and also a print from a photo- 

 graph taken for the purpose with Sutton's panoramic 

 water lens and his camera carrying curved plates. 



Passing a very fine loan collection of photographs,, 

 which includes many examples by deceased workers,^ 

 particularly Mrs. Cameron, D. O. Hill, O. G. Rejlander, 

 B. B. Turner, and Colonel Stuart Wortley, and also the 

 whole section of present-day apparatus and materials 

 for photographic and photo-mechanical processes, there 

 follows the section of the scientific and industrial appli- 

 cations of photography. The importance of photographic 

 methods of observation was never more lully realised 

 than it is at present. From almost the earliest days of 

 photography the "recording science" has been applied 

 in scientific investigations with the result not only of 

 greater accuracy, but of the discovery of many facts that 

 could never have been known by the use of the eye alone. 

 Astronomy was one of the first of the sciences to derive 

 benefit from photography ; and in the delineation of the 

 forms and features of celestial bodies, as well as in 

 the spectroscopic analysis of their constitution, photo- 

 graphic processes have now almost entirely replaced 

 the old method of drawing by hand what it was thought 

 the eye could see. In many other domains of science 

 photography is daily becoming more important, and it 

 must continue to do so, especially as the scientific in- 

 vestigation of photography itself progresses. This 

 important and universal method of work does not yet 

 receive the attention and encouragf:ment that it deserves 

 in our teaching colleges ; but this is due doubtless to the 

 fact that, although it has done so much, it is still in its 

 infancy so far as years are concerned. At the next ex- 

 hibition of this kind there will without doubt be a far 

 richer harvest of results to show, though this section, as 

 it is here represented, well indicates not merely the 

 directions in which future work is possible, but the 

 very fine results that have already been accom- 

 plished, some of which it is difficult to believe car^ 

 ever be surpassed. The Royal Observatory, Green- 

 wich, contributes many exhibits, including some 12 x lo- 

 prints of photographs of the recent solar eclipse, taken 

 with the Thompson coronograph. Numerous other 

 astronomical photographs are shown by the Royal 

 Astronomical Society, Colonel Waterhouse, Dr. Common 

 and Dr. Gill. Messrs. R. and J. Beck show twelve of 

 De La Rue's original negatives of the moon. Photography 

 as applied to spectroscopy, geology (including forty-one 

 specimens from the B.A. Geological Photographs Com- 

 mittee), meteorology, zoology, botany, and Rontgen-ray 

 work is well illustrated. In connection with the last,, 

 six large stereoscopic " skiagrams," by Dr. Mackenzie 

 Davidson, mounted in reflecting stereoscopes, are 

 strikingly good. The Kew Observatory Committee of 

 the Royal Society sends photographs of various photo- 

 graphic recording apparatus, lens-testing apparatus, and 

 other examples. 



The section illustrating military photographs is of 

 especial interest just now. The examples date from the 

 Crimean war, and include balloon apparatus and photo- 

 graphs, the pigeon-post film used in the siege of Paris 

 in 1 87 1, and various examples from the School of 

 Military Engineering at Chatham. But probably what 

 will strike photographers as the most wonderful exhibits 

 in this section is the telephotographic work contributed 

 by the Italian Minister of War. The magnifications are 

 far greater than we have been accustomed to, ranging 

 up to one hundred diameters. Photo-micrography forms 

 a large section, and includes a " complete photo-micro- 

 graphic apparatus " by Zeiss, an apparatus that would 



