24 
A FEW NOTES FROM PARTS. 
tain from the light,—the rase is kept closed and folded in a black cloth, and 
the eye-pieces of the stereoscope are covered with caps. The courteous 
attendant will, almost without asking, show their contents,—M. Niepce’s 
latest and most successful results in the field in which he has so long laboured, 
the production of photographs in the natural colours of the objects. Before 
measuring the accomplishment, let the observer realize to himself the diffi¬ 
culties which were to be overcome, and he will be ready to congratulate the 
French savant in no measured terms on the degree of success which he has 
attained. There are but tw r o specimens, one taken from a flat surface coloured 
in a diaper-pattern, the other a stereoscopic portrait of a child with a bright 
plaid dress. It is not easy to say how far the colours obtained are the same 
as those of the objects photographed, but there is no reason to doubt their 
identity ; they are well defined and tolerably bright, and the chief remaining 
desideratum is a means of rendering them permanent in daylight. Whilst 
M. Niepce de St. Victor lives to continue the researches whereby he has 
accomplished so much, it would be folly to despair of seeing the process per¬ 
fected. 
Another, and practically a most important application of chemistry, is the 
process of photo-engraving. Few modern inventions would seem to promise 
so great a future, though only as yet emerging from the uncertainties of its 
first steps. We recollect seeing, some eight or ten years ago, specimens of 
the early attempts to utilize photography in this manner by Herr Paul Pretsch 
and others. These results were regarded as scientific curiosities rather than 
as having any practical value, but they paved the way for the improved pro¬ 
cesses which are now attracting so much attention. The specimens exhibited 
by M. Placet are little short of perfection : anything more clear and sharp, 
even in the minutest details, it is scarcely possible to imagine, and the prints 
are guaranteed “ d'apres nature sans retouche .” 
We could learn no particulars of the precise mode of working followed in 
this “ Heliographie,” as it is termed by the inventor, further than that the 
sensitive medium employed is bichromated gelatine, and, in so far, is similar 
to the process employed by Mr. Swan in this country. The production of 
copperplates b} r purely chemical means must offer great advantages in point 
of cost, over those attained by the laborious process of engraving; and 
though no chemical or mechanical invention will ever supply the mental 
qualities necessary to the successful reproduction of a work of high art, a 
great revolution may, and we believe will, be effected in the quality of our 
book illustrations by their introduction.* 
One word more on photography, and we have done. Having said so much, 
t would be wrong to omit mentioning the “ Carbon prints,” exhibited by 
Mr. Swan, and those of his Continental correspondent, M. Braun, of Dornach. 
They mark an era in photographic art, and merit more than the hasty 
notice our time and space permits. We hope at some future period to revert 
to the subject, and to give an outline of the means by which they are pro¬ 
duced. It is surely a fine achievement to have discovered a mode of obtain¬ 
ing imperishable photographs of any desired tone or colour, and with all the 
delicacy of silver prints. To have dispensed with the use of nitrate of silver, 
hitherto regarded as a practical necessity, without in any way reducing the 
sensitiveness of the prepared surface, is not the least remarkable accomplish¬ 
ment, and this alone must be sufficient to command a favourable considera¬ 
tion of the merits of the process. 
* Since this was written, partial details of the process have been communicated by Mr. 
Fowler, of Paris, to the ‘British Journal of Photography,’ for June 21st. 
