THE BEai]SnNriNC4S OB^ PHOTOGRAPHY. 361 



they went; and had he not done so, it is doul)tful whether tnere would 

 have been any record of them at all, and Wedgwood would have lost 

 all the credit that has always been considered justly due to him of 

 being- the first to apply the well-known reduction of salts of silver by 

 light to the reproduction of pictures and natural objects either b}' con- 

 tact or in the camera. Like so many other discoverers, he was before 

 his time, and it must be agreed that there is an immense gap between 

 these imperfect and unsuccessful trials and the brilliant practical 

 results achieved some years later by Daguerre, Reade, and Talbot, 

 with the more sensitive iodide of silver, the use of which, it nmst be 

 recollected, was rendered possible b}" Davy's investigation of Cburtois's 

 discovery of iodine, and Herschel's, of an efficient and suitable fixing 

 salt. To this ultimate success Wedgwood's early trials with the camera 

 no doubt contributed as embod3'ing the first idea of practical photog- 

 raphy of natural objects and demonstrating its possibility. 



At this point I must conclude my sketch. Although during the 

 intermediate period, V)etween Wedgwood, in 1802, and Daguerre and 

 Talbot, in 1839, no marked progress was made in practical photogra- 

 phy, immense strides were made in the chemistry and optics connected 

 with it, so that it was gradually being made possible and practicable. 

 A record of these advances would appropriately form another chapter 

 in this historv. 



