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SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



PHOTOGRAPHY IN 1901. 



By B. Fgulkes-Winks, M.R.P.S. 



By the time this number of Science-Gossip is in 

 the hands of our readers, the year 1901 will be 

 well-nigh numbered with the past, and remembered 

 in the photographic world only by the advance 

 made in that particular Art-Science. 



The greatest amount of progress has undoubtedly 

 been made in the direction of photography in 

 colours, or more strictly speaking, trichromatic- 

 photography. The advance that has been made in 

 this country is largely due to that earnest worker, 

 Mr. Sanger Shepherd, and the gentleman with 

 whom he is prosecuting his researches. Only a 

 few days ago we had an opportunity of examining 

 some large natural-colour transparencies made by 

 the Sanger-Shepherd process. They consisted of 

 two plates of colour pictures in which all the 

 original tints were most faithfully rendered. They 

 were indeed the most beautiful examples of " three- 

 colour " work ever submitted for our inspection, 

 marking distinct progress in this direction. Much 

 has also been accomplished by Messrs Lumiere, of 

 Lyons, who have produced some remarkable ex- 

 amples of natural-colour work. With the idea of 

 bringing this section of photography well within 

 the reach of all, they are about to introduce to 

 England, with working instructions, a complete 

 set of chemicals, dyes, plates, and screens, at a 

 very moderate price, so as to enable any photo- 

 grapher to make experiments in three-colour work 

 with his ordinary apparatus. We may, therefore, 

 hope to see much improvement in this section of 

 photography during the coming year. 



We cannot record any startling invention or 

 discovery for the year 1901, but we are pleased to 

 note a steady advance in all sections of photo- 

 graphy ; especially the increasing tendency of 

 both amateurs and professional operators to finish 

 their work in one of the permanent processes, 

 such as carbon, platinotype, . etc. There is an 

 evident desire among our foremost artists to study 

 and to introduce into their work a truer art- 

 feeling, also to combine with photographic excel- 

 lence a really artistic rendering of the subject, 

 treated in their pictures. 



Many minor advances have been made in the 

 construction of hand-cameras, and we understand 

 that there is shortly to be introduced to the public 

 an entirely new plate-changing apparatus, that 

 will give those using a hand-camera a power far 

 beyond anything yet attained. The operator will 

 be able to carry any number of plates, and, when- 

 ever desired, can expose, develop, and fix his plate 

 in the field. To attain this, he will not have to 

 carry any more weight or bulk than at present. 

 If it were permissible for us to make this system 

 public, we could then, indeed, record a great in- 

 vention and a distinct advance for L901. 



POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE. 



rTIHIS being the first year of a new century is 

 -*~ particularly appropriate for the publication 

 of works dealing with the probable lines of de- 

 velopment of various branches of science. The 

 term "science" in its widest sense properly includes 

 the study of all the actual facts of life, whether 

 physical or moral. We use the word "facts "in 

 this instance in contradistinction to "sentiments." 

 Speculations with regard to future possibilities 

 have always been a favourite field for novelists, 

 but it is not often the subject is treated in the 

 strictly scientific manner adopted by Mr. H. G. 

 Wells in his recently published work entitled 

 "Anticipations." (') 



The author has endeavoured, by careful analysis 

 of the causes that have led to the present position 

 of civilised communities, to deduce the lines upon 

 which future development will probably travel. 

 For instance, with regard to locomotion in the 

 twentieth century, he reminds us that railways, 

 were built in the present form as merely roads 

 with rails, along which travel carriages very little 

 wider than stage-coaches, because at the time 

 railroads were first made the chief means of com- 

 munication from one place to another was by 

 stage-coach. Men's minds, therefore, could not 

 conceive of any mode of progression that was not 

 essentially similar to stage-coach travelling, though 

 drawn by steam-engines instead of horses. Con- 

 tinuing this method of reasoning, Mr. Wells 

 concludes that as motor cars and carriages are 

 now rapidly coming into favour, and are better 

 suited, in many ways, for comfortable locomotion 

 than steam-engines, the twentieth century will 

 probably see companies formed, having the power 

 to make private roads of a new sort, along which 

 motor cars will be free to travel at their highest- 

 possible speed, instead of being limited, as at pre- 

 sent, by the exigencies of pedestrian and other 

 vehicular traffic. We note the author is of opinion 

 that aeronautics will not become of much serious 

 use as a means of transport, though he fully believes 

 in its final practicability. " Man," he says, " is not 

 an albatross, but a land biped, with a considerable 

 disposition towards being made sick and giddy by 

 unusual motions ; and however he soars he must 

 come to earth to live." 



In his chapter on the " Probable Diffusion of 

 Great Cities," Mr. Wells points out, that the 

 question of overcrowding is largely governed by 

 facilities or difficulties in the means of transit to 

 the great centres of work and business. In the 

 early part of the eighteenth century, for instance, 

 when the only means of transport was by animal 

 power, it would be impossible for a busy merchant 

 to live further than eight miles from his office. 

 The working day remains about the same number 



(1) Anticipations, by H. G. Wells, B.Sc. 318 pp., 7| in. x 5\ in. 

 (London : Chapman & Hall. 1902.) Is. C</. 



