SCIENCE IN THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD 



ing like satisfactory prints could be made, and as no 

 means of "fixing" the prints had been discovered, 

 Wedgwood's discovery was looked upon as valuable 

 simply as a scientific demonstration. 



TENTATIVE EFFORTS 



But the possibilities of this discovery, and similar 

 ones that might result from it, stimulated scientists, and 

 guided the trend of thought along channels leading to 

 photography. Within the next decade these efforts bore 

 good fruit. By 1814, a Frenchman, Nicephore deNiepce, 

 had discovered a method of making permanent pho- 

 tographs by a crude and complicated process. He 

 coated the surface of a metal plate with a solution of 

 oil of lavender, which, after being allowed to dry, was 

 exposed to an image made in a crude camera. After 

 such an exposure lasting several hours a faint image 

 appeared on the plate which could be intensified and 

 strengthened by a complicated process of development 

 with more oil of lavender and bitumen. But even at 

 best only a very faint image could be thus reproduced, 

 although these first pictures of Niepce are very properly 

 regarded as the first photographic pictures ever made. 



The process of actually making these sun-prints was 

 not revealed for some time by Niepce, who recog- 

 nized the possible commercial value of his process if 

 perfected, and made his experiments secretly. His 

 task proved an arduous one, however, and it was 

 another full decade before he had accomplished any- 

 thing like practical results. Then, having perfected 



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