Ixxxv 



Antoine Francois Jean Claudet was born at Lyons in 1797. He 

 received a good commercial and classical education in his own country, and 

 at the age of 21 he entered the office of his uncle, M. Vital Roux, an emi- 

 nent banker, who a few years after placed him at the glass-works of Choisy- 

 le-Roi, as director, in conjunction with M. G. Bontemps, the well-known 

 glass-manufacturer. Eventually M. Claudet came to London to introduce the 

 productions of Choisy. In 1 833 be invented the machine now generally used 

 for cutting cylindrical glass. For this invention he received the medal of 

 the Society of Arts in 1853. But all this while he was a student of science 

 training and waiting for the object to which his true life was to be devoted. 

 The path was opened to him by the discovery of M. Daguerre. 



In January 1839 that discovery was first announced to the world, and 

 specimens of the results were exhibited, the modus operandi being still pre- 

 served secret. The French Government at once entertained the project of 

 rewarding the discoverer, and in the following June assigned to M. Da- 

 guerre a pension of 6000 francs annually, and to M. Niepce, jun., a 

 pension of 4000 francs annually, that the new art might be presented a 

 gift to the world. 



In the month of August 1839 the new discovery was published to the 

 world. It was received with enthusiasm, and rapidly adopted as a means 

 of delineation, portraiture being its most early and extensive application. 

 England aione failed to partake freely of this "gift to the world," M. 

 Daguerre having entered into negotiations which secured a patent in this 

 country whilst the question of his claims was under the attention of the 

 French Government. M. Claudet became the possessor of a part of this 

 patent, and commenced in 1840 the practice of portraiture in the Adelaide 

 Gallery, where his studio remained for many years. There, as a zealous 

 worker, he devoted himself to the improvement and development of pho- 

 tography, perfecting known processes and inventing new ones. His earliest 

 contribution to the art was a mode of obtaining vastly increased sensitive- 

 ness by using chloride of iodine instead of iodine alone. His paper on this 

 subject was read before the Royal Society in June 1841 ; and, by a curious 

 coincidence, it followed Mr. Fox Talbot's description of his own photogra- 

 phic process, the calotype. From this period till his death his contribu- 

 tions to photographic literature were copious and interesting, the idio- 

 matic excellence and elegance of his English being remarkable. 



In 1847, discussing the properties of solar radiation modified by co- 

 loured glass media, he made a bold attempt to lay the foundation of a 

 more complete theory of the photographic phenomena, and he was re- 

 warded by the publication of his paper in the Philosophical Transactions, 

 and by his subsequent election (in 1853) as a Fellow of the Royal Society. 

 At this time the collodion process had supplanted the method of Daguerre ; 

 and Claudet was one of the first to appreciate and adopt it. 



The marvellous phenomenon of objects in relief was now brought before 

 him in the stereoscope, and seemed to him a greater charm than the ex- 



VOL. XVII. h 



