HAMILTON SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION. 75 



The Progress of Photography 



(Abstract of Paper Compiled and Read 'By Jas, Gadshy, President 

 of the Camera Section, 



March 22, 1906. 



In reviewing the progress of photograph}^ before the officers 

 of this Scientific Association and the friends assembled, I would 

 perhaps be only following precedents applicable to its tenets were I 

 to wade back thousands of years in an endeavor to show, either 

 directly or indirectly, that photography in some form or other was 

 known to the peoples of prehistoric ages. But this would not 

 serve the purposes of this worthy Association or our kind friends 

 assembled, who in concert with the tendencies of the times demand 

 that themes and theories relative to the sciences, to art, and to 

 literature, when expounded, should be brief, practical and explicit. 

 When the subject of this paper was suggested at a meeting of the 

 Association Executive, it did appear that it could be attempted 

 without fear of trespassing upon the first essential, brevity ; but ere 

 I had gone far with the subject I saw at once that to cite within 

 these limits the whole story of the evolution of photography and 

 the incidents relative to the great mass of concurrent theories ad- 

 vanced and developed whereby it has come to be universally con- 

 ceded to rank foremost in those of the practical sciences from 

 which the great masses of civilized people benefit, would tax the 

 time and ability of one more adapted to the task than an humble 

 bookbinder. 



The qualities of mirrors have always been recognized as due 

 to the action of light. It was the function of the imagination to 

 supply the idea of some substance that when used as a mirror 

 would retain the image, or when applied to an ordinary reflecting 

 surface would retain it. Thus there are to be found in Chinese 



