PHOTOGRAPHY, SCIENTIFIC ASPECTS 



a process of actual color reproduction as is mentioned 

 above), "while the second is entirely indirect in that 

 it does not aim at producing color at all, but only at 

 automatically locating suitable dyes or inks." l 



Thus, we must understand from the outset that the 

 term "photography of color" is entirely a misnomer. 

 Color never has been, and perhaps never will be, 

 photographed. Nevertheless, extremely interesting and 

 valuable results have been obtained by means of the 

 above-mentioned "compromise," and as the recent 

 perfection of processes has brought color photography 

 well within the amateur's field of activity, the subject 

 is worth some detailed consideration. 



Alexandre Edmond Becquerel, a French physicist 

 noted for his researches on light, seems to have been 

 the first to take up specifically the matter of color 

 photography. He began in 1838, although he did 

 not give the world any account of his achievements 

 until ten years later. Becquerel took a silver plate and 

 produced on its surface, by chemical and electrolytic 

 means, a layer of silver chloride. With the plates 

 thus treated he succeeded in reproducing "with a con- 

 siderable measure of success the colors of brightly 

 dressed dolls and highly colored designs besides the 

 solar and electric -arc spectra," but the colors were not 

 permanent, and the investigator could find no means 

 of "fixing" them satisfactorily. 



What was the nature of these colors were they 

 actual pigmentary matter due to a change in the sur- 

 face coating, or were they "interference" colors pro- 

 duced by "standing" light waves? Before answering 



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