THE QUARTERLY 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 



JULY, 1871. 



I. THE DAWN OF LIGHT PRINTING. 



<^ 



tF the question were asked — Who discovered photography ? 

 — in very few instances, do we think, would the reply 

 be a correct one. It would not, of course, be just, as 

 we all know very well, to attribute to any one individual the 

 invention of the art as practised at the present moment, 

 for many minds and many hands had to be engaged on the 

 subject before the methods we are to-day so well acquainted 

 with were elaborated ; and obviously, therefore, to no one 

 of the illustrious names connected with the early history of 

 photography can the undivided honour of being sole dis- 

 coverer be assigned. Wedgwood and Davy were undoubtedly 

 among the very first to show that prints could be obtained 

 by the action of light, and to demonstrate how the solar 

 camera might be employed to secure images in this manner. 

 Niepce, Fox Talbot, and Daguerre followed these philosphers, 

 and with the further aid of Sir John Herschel, Archer, and 

 others, established photography as a practical art such as 

 we now know it. 



Of these names it has usually been the fashion to select 

 those of Daguerre and Fox Talbot as being the most entitled 

 to rank as the discoverers of photography ; in many popular 

 works, however, and especially those of foreign origin, 

 Daguerre receives the lion's share of the honour for having 

 in 1839 brought forward Daguerreotype, a process at once 

 practical and efficient. Some have gone even further and 

 have stated that Daguerreotype was the true germ of 

 photography, and that before Daguerre made his important 

 discovery no reliable results at all of light-printing had been 

 obtained. Now, we do not for one instant wish to detract 

 from the merits of Daguerreotype, which was, and indeed 

 still is, one of the most beautiful and delicate methods we 

 possess of reproducing images in the camera ; but at the 

 same time we must heartily protest against the same being 

 considered the first step in photography. Fox Talbot's in- 

 ventions, which date from the same period as that of 

 Daguerre, although by no means so finished and complete 



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