666 



NA 'JURE 



[OcTUllliK 31, 1907 



THE ROMANCE OF I'llOTOaiiM'HY.' 



ALL |)lici)oiiicna arc woiiclc rful in Ihi; measure tliat 

 \vc are unaccuslomi-d lo ihcni, and if quite 

 straiiji^c lo us Ihey are incredible. 'I'h<- roinanlic cliar- 

 acter of (he details of. any subject is therefore an in- 

 dividual matter, but the author in this ))articular case 

 assumes no exact, and very little (jfeneral, Unowledfje 

 on (he part of his readers, and so he is justified 

 in his repeated asseverations of the iiiarvellous char- 

 acter of the various details of thf- discovery and 

 achievements of photography. We lake it that the 

 duty of the writer of such n volume is very larfjely to 

 rob his subject of its atmosjjhere of romance by showinji; 

 its j^radual dev<:lopment and the reasonableness of 

 its results. In this the author is successful. He gives 

 no " instructions," Ijul merely tells his story in a 

 readable form and illustrates it well, for every one 

 of the sixty or more illustrations has a definite and 

 sufficient reason for its presence. He treats it in an 

 e;isy and sometimes, perhaps, rather loo disiiirsi\e 



paratively shallow lank Ihal contained the developer, 

 and find details of many other cases in which gnrat 

 dilllculties were suciessf'ully overcome. 'I'he number 

 of examples given of extraordinary methods of work 

 is considerable, and they cover so wide a field that 

 probably no one who reads the book will fail to find 

 something new to him. 



When an author sets out with the avowed purpose 

 of dealing with the romantic side of such a subject, 

 the critic naturally looks for a little exaggeration here 

 and there, and when so many branches of the sub- 

 ject are dealt with he expects lo discover a few in- 

 .accuracies. It may be true to a certain extent to 

 say that kinemalogr.iphy will enable our descendants 

 to see the incidents in our great battles, but it is a 

 mistake to stale, cutuerning a pictun- of a groui) of 

 men in the act of diving, that " the whole detail of 

 I his living scene was recorded by the great artist, 

 Light, in one fiv<-hundredlh part of a second " by 

 means of a foc.-il-plane shutter, as the narrow slit in 

 ihe ^liiiiier probably look thirty or forty times as 

 long as this to pass over 

 .ind so expose the surface 

 of the plate. It is also in- 

 L'orrect to state that a Lipp- 

 mann photograph " must 

 have its mercury back- 

 ground " to view it properly. 

 But the slips of this kind 

 are not very serious, and 

 Ihey are very few. 



C. J. 



W. 



R' 



cicgraphcd I'liotographs, 

 Icft-tiarid portrait is 

 From " The K 



These pliotograpli<; are just as they were received by llle electric telegraph. The 

 :iat of the Crown Prince of Germany, and the other is a portrait of Pr'jf Korn. 

 of Modern Photography." 



manner, giving many apt analogies of the develop- 

 ment of photography and of its applications in instan- 

 taneous work and kinematography, the making of book 

 illustrations, the photography of the invisible as by 

 means of Riintgen rays or the ultra-violet of the 

 spectrum, and the reproduction of colour. 



One of the most interesting chapters deals with the I of the Conseil des Observatoires 



detection of crime and the identification of criminals, for 

 it is seldom that those who are not engaged in the 

 work itself have the opportunity of seeing examples 

 of photographs taken for these purposes. There is 

 also a chapter on telegraphic photograf)hy, described 

 in Natuke of August 19 (p. 445). The accompanying 

 illustration from this chapter is reproduced by the 

 courtesy of the publishers. In another chapter we 

 learn how " the largest photograph in the world," 



MAURICE LOEWY. 

 W.S ne saurait ex- 

 primer la consterna- 

 tion et I'afniction que la 

 mort foudroyante de Tisser- 

 nnd a repandues aulour 

 d<; lui, car l'amiti<5, I'estime 

 el I'admir.-ition entouraient 

 comme d'une aureole 

 I'illustre astronome qui s'est 

 eteint dans la nuit de mardi." 

 These words, which .M. 

 Loewy spoke at the grave- 

 side of his friend and pre- 

 decessor, Tisserand. may 

 very well be remembered 

 when expressing our sense 

 of the loss which France 

 and science suffer in tli' 

 sudden removal of the director of the National Obser- 

 vatory of Paris. Kven the painful suddenness, which 

 added an increased bitterness to the grief we expe- 

 rienced in the loss of Tisserand, is repeated again 

 with depressing emphasis, for we understand that M. 

 Loewy was struck down while attending a meeting 

 ~ Ironomiques. 



The director of a great National Observatory does 

 not usually enjoy unfettered discretion in the selection 

 of the lines of investigation to tx- pursued. In such 

 institutions large pieces of work are not unfrequently 

 undertaken, for the conduct of which both ample 

 time and funds are needed. Too often he who plam 

 does not see the full fruition of his work, and loyal 

 to the reputation of predecessors and the influences 

 tradition alike n-strict the direction along whicW 



i 



40 feet long by 5 feet wide, was developed by mount- activity is possible. The long connection of M 



ing it face outwards on the periphery of a large broad Loewy with the Paris Observatory, previous to his 



w-heel made for the purpose, and rotating it in a com- occupancy of the director's chair, would make him 



1 "The Romance of Modem Photography." Ky Charles R. Gitaon. Particularly anxious to complete, if possible, certainly 



Pp. 34S. (tendon : Seeley and Co., Ltd., 1908.) Price 51. to forward, two very heavy legacies of work be- 

 NO. 1983, VOL. 76] 



I 



