4 
Seip ae) i 
POA ee 
 Fuly 21, 
1870 | 
NATURE 
the most approved data, and according to theories worked 
out with mathematical accuracy, but a large section of our 
soldiers are educated in such a manner as fully to appre- 
ciate the value of their resources, and so to overcome 
difficulties which years ago would have been regarded as 
impossibilities. No instance demonstrates this more 
satisfactorily than the recent Abyssinian expedition,which, 
whatever may be said of it as a campaign, cannot but be 
regarded as one of the most wonderful feats of engineer- 
ing accomplished in modern times. The nearer warfare 
approaches perfection, the more decisive, and therefore 
less cruel it necessarily becomes, as witness the brief 
duration of the wars of late years on the Continent ; and 
for this reason the improvements in warfare effected by 
science cannot by any means be regarded as a misappli- 
cation of knowledge. 
Our present remarks bear reference to the applications 
made of a very modest branch of science, if science, in- 
deed, it can be called, our object being to demonstrate 
the many uses made by the War Department of Photo- 
graphy. In the special application of this art-science to 
military matters, our government, is certainly in advance 
of others, if we except, perhaps, that of France. No less 
than three establishments have been organised in con- 
nection with the army in which photography is extensively 
practised, the most important of them being the General 
Establishment at Woolwich ; but besides these, there are 
again many Royal Engineer Stations, both at home and 
abroad, which are furnished with photographic requisites 
and employ the camera for divers purposes. At Chatham, 
the photographic establishment assumes the character 
of a school of instruction, at Southampton it forms an 
adjunct to the Ordnance Survey Office, while at Wool- 
wich, of which department we desire more particularly to 
speak, the duties performed by aid of the camera are as 
various as they are numerous. For registering patterns, 
recording experimental results, imparting military in- 
struction, and for other purposes too multifarious to 
enumerate, photography is extensively used, the faithful 
accuracy of sun pictures, as likewise the facility with 
which they are produced, causing the art to be eagerly 
employed in any way where it can be made available. 
As an example of the value of photography in instruc- 
tion, we would cite an interesting series of pictures taken 
to illustrate ordnance drill. This series comprises up- 
wards of one hundred views, and demonstrates the 
practical working of the various kinds of guns, mortars, 
rockets, &c., in the service. One picture, for instance, will 
illustrate the command “ Prepare for action” ; a gun will 
be shown surrounded by a group of artillerymen in the 
positions they have been instructed to occupy on the 
issue of that order, each man having his respective 
number attached to his cap as a distinguishing mark. 
The next illustration in the series is probably that of 
“Load,” and the next again “ Fire,” both of which will re- 
present the change in position ofthe men, as one operation 
succeeds another, and the various duties performed in 
turn by each gunner or number, for it must be remem- 
bered that in gun-drill every manis told off to a particular 
number and entrusted with a separate and distinct duty. 
Thus, on the promulgation of any new system of drill, or 
of any modification in the method of working, it is merely 
necessary for the military authorities to forward pictures 
of this kind to the different instructors, who cannot fail 
at once thoroughly to understand the new exercise ; and 
even the rawest recruit who had assigned to him a certain 
number at a gun would see at a glance the exact position 
he is to occupy by a reference to the photographs. 
Another not less striking instance of the importance of 
photography in this connection may be given. At the 
outset of the Abyssinian campaign it will be remembered 
that several thousands of packsaddles were required for 
transporting war wza¢érie/ into the interior. These pack- 
saddles were made in and sent direct from England to 
237 
Annesley Bay, so that the troops coming from Bombay 
knew nothing of their construction, nor of the method in 
which they were to be packed. This ignorance in the 
hurry of affairs would have been of serious consequence 
(for a military packsaddle of the present pattern is a 
somewhat complicated contrivance) had not the authori- 
ties at home been fully alive to the subject and foreseen the 
threatening difficulty. A mule at Woolwich was harnessed 
and packed, after some experience had been acquired in 
the matter, in the most suitable and approved manner, 
and the animal then carefully depicted by the aid of the 
camera ; the disposal of the harness and trappings and 
the correct way in which the packages were.to be carried, 
were thus clearly shown in a photograph, numerous copies 
of which were immediately sent out to Annesley Bay and 
distributed among the officers of the Quarter-Master- 
General’s department. 
In recording experimental results photography again 
fulfils a duty which could not be discharged so rapidly and 
impartially by any other means. The stout iron-cased 
shields and armoured targets built up of metal plates of 
different thicknesses, and then fired at with shot and shell 
of all descriptions, are carefully photographed after each 
decisive experiment, anda record of indisputable accuracy 
thus obtained. With a picture before us of a target, con- 
structed to represent the side of an armour-plated vessel 
which has been experimented on, we can at once form an 
accurate estimate of the impressions made upon the iron 
wall by shot of different calibres, while rear and side 
views of the structure will show plainly the amount of 
damage which the backing or skin of the shield has 
suffered. As may be imagined these prints form im- 
portant illustrations to the written reports made from 
time to time to the War Office authorities. 
The photographing of newly adopted government pat- 
terns, whether in the shape of guns, carriages, waggons, 
mantelets, tents, &c., is also an important section of the 
work undertaken at Woolwich, as likewise that of pro- 
ducing pictures relating to army equipment, such, for in- 
stance, as demonstrate the setting up of cooking apparatus, 
disposal of ambulances, refitting of ordnance in the field, 
&c. There is, moreover, the pursuit of photo-lithography 
to be mentioned, by means of which designs and sketches 
are copied and transferred to stone for printing off in the 
ordinary manner. 
The subject of working photography in the field is a 
matter to which much attention has been given at the 
general establishment, for it will be readily conceived that 
the simplest and most effective methods of working, as 
likewise the different uses to which the camera may be 
put during warfare are questions for very serious study. 
The photographic copies, many thousands of which are 
annually produced and distributed over all parts of Her 
Majesty’s dominions, are not now printed upon silver 
paper in the ordinary way, but by the so-called carbon or 
autotype process, a method which produces prints of an 
absolutely permanent character. Ordinary silver prints 
are always liable to become faded and stained after the 
lapse of a few.years, owing to the presence in the paper 
itself, or in the atmosphere with which it comes into con- 
tact, of sulphur compounds which attack the metallic 
silver composing the image. In the carbon pictures, 
however, no silver at all is present, the composition of 
the image being a mineral pigment in combination with 
an insoluble chromium. 
Our description of the General Photographic Establish- 
ment at Woolwich has been very brief indeed, but 
enough has been said to show to what an important ex- 
tent the art is employed in connection with the War 
Office ; the department which we have described is a 
branch of the chemical establishment of the War depart- 
ment, which was first organised, in 1854, by Mr. Abel, and 
has gradually become intimately and indispensably con- 
nected with every branch of the military service. 
