MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE AND ART. 
99 
bit. We are aware that it has been manu¬ 
factured in the colony. We hope to see 
some specimens on another occasion. 
But we will not enlarge on the ungrate¬ 
ful topic of our short comings, we would 
rather endeavour to trace the causes of the 
evident apathy that exists, and to suggest 
a stimulant. Just at this moment, when 
we are elated with the victory gained by 
our fellow colonists on the turf of Victoria, 
, the thought suggests itself, whether it would 
be possible or advantageous to invite two 
or three competent agriculturists or flori¬ 
culturists from the sister colony to assist 
as judges at our periodical exhibitions. 
Not that we woqjd throw the slightest 
doubt on the decisions of our own elected 
judges, but we have some hope that the 
desire to astonish our neighbours, and to 
maintain the honour of New South Wales, 
would urge all possible exhibitors to exert 
themselves to elevate their own colony in 
the eyes of the strangers. Perhaps then 
we should see an exhibition worthy of New 
South Wales. 
PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF NEW 
. SOUTH WALES. 
At the meeting of the Philosophical So¬ 
ciety of New South Wales, held Wednes¬ 
day, 16th September, the following paper 
was read by Frank IIaes, Esq. 
ON THE WAXED PAPER PROCESS OF 
PHOTOGRAPH Y. 
I purpose in this paper to give you, firstly, a rapid 
sketch ot the history of Photography, and then explain 
in detail a process which I think has not been received 
in this country with the favour it deserves. I allude to 
the Waxed Paper process. 
The earliest notice which seems to have been taken 
of the agency of light on chemicals was by the Alchy- ' 
mists, who observed that liorn silver blackened by expo¬ 
sure to light. Srheele, in, L777, noticed that some of 
the coloured rays of light produced a greater change 
than others on the salts of silver. Wedge wood, who 
did so much to improve tho English potteries, about the 
year 1802, tried to use salts of silver for copying solid 
objects, in which he succeeded to a certain extent; but 
not being able to remove the unchanged silver salt, the i 
pictures required to be kept in the dark, and never t 
shewn in white light Sir Humphry Davy also tried \ 
similar experiments, hut without, I believe, making any j 
improvements. The art at this period made no further p 
progress for twelve years, in consequence of the dilii- r 
culty before mentioned. In tho year 1814, M. Niepce, t 
of Chalons, directed his attention to the production of v 
pictures by light; after ten years labour, not aceompa- a 
nied by very great success, M. Ni6pcemetM Daguerre, ii 
and these two gentlemen commenced a series of mutual 
investigations. M. Niepce’s pictures were taken on t 
glass, or silvered copper-plates ; the substance used was t 
asphaltuin, and although a sufficient amount of sensi- i« 
tiveness was produced, to enable him to take the image C 
reflected in a camera, still a process requiring an expo- v 
sure of from six to eight hours left much to be desired ; o: 
the quickest picture M Nidpce succeeded in taking was 
in about three hours. M. Daguerre, at this period, con¬ 
tinued his investigations by himself, and a few years 
ave to the world that beautiful process which has since 
yen called bv his name, the Daguerreotype ; the prin- 
. tuple of which is; that a latent picture impressed on a 
1 plate having a surface of iodide of silver, can bo deve- 
; loped by the vapour of mercury. 
k Almost simultaneous with this discovery, was that of 
tho Datatype* since called after the discoverer, the Tal- 
t botype, which was discovered iu tho year 1831) by Mr. 
* H. Fox Talbot. This process was, ft om the flrst, a more 
rapid one than the Daguerreotype, and possessed tho 
’ great advantage of being able to produce many copies 
1 from one original. Sir John Herschel made public, 
) prior to Mr. Talbot’s announcement, several curious 
photographic experiments ; paper was always the me¬ 
dium used to receive the chvtmcals. The principal of 
t the processes discovered at this time by Herschel, Hunt, 
and others, are the Bichromate of Potash, the Cvano- 
‘ type, the Chrvsotype, the Ferro-tartrate of silver, the 
' Proto-nitrate of ineftury, and the Catalvsotype. Fur- 
[ ther investigations of Hemchel’s on the colouring juices 
, of flowers produced very wonderful results ; and he 
proved that all of these juices are more or less affected 
by the actinic rays of the sun. We also owe to this 
philosopher the suggestion of tho Hyposulphite of soda 
as a means of removing the unaffected iodide of silver, 
in any process where this forms the sensitrang surface. 
Mr. Talbot continued to make various improvements in 
the Talbotype process, for which he took out a patent in 
the year 1840, arriving gradually at increased sensibi¬ 
lity of surface, till in 1851, at the Royal Institution, in 
Albemarle street, London, lie publicly exliibited an 
instantaneous process. 
In the year 1848, XL Niepce de Saint Victor, nephew 
of M. Niepce, published the albumen on glass process, 
which possesses the great advantage of being kept sensi¬ 
tive for days, even weeks, and for fidelity of detail is, 
. perhaps, unequalled. 
About 1840, M. Le Gray produced a modification of 
the Talbotvpe on waxed paper; in 1S50 Mr. Archer in¬ 
troduced the greatest improvement which the art has 
received since the original discovery of Mr. Talbot—I 
allude to the Collodion process, which is, I am sure, 
more or less known to all present; the science has since 
that time made rapid strides, and it is difficult to place 
a limit upon its ultimate results. The invention of this 
present year is Photogalvanography, invented by Herr 
Pretsch, in which the picture is taken by Photography, 
and engraved by electricity. 
I extract from the Quarterly He view the following 
account of the process :—“A glass tablet is coated with 
gelatine, diluted till it forms a jelly, and containing 
bichromate of potash, nitrate of silver, and iodide of 
potassium. Upon this, when dry, is placed, face down¬ 
wards, a paper positive, through which the light being 
allowed to fall, leaves upon the gelatine a representation 
of the print. It is then soaked in water, and while the 
parts acted upon by the light are comparatively unaf¬ 
fected by the fluid, the remainder of the jelly swells, 
and rising above the general smface gives a picture in 
relief, resembling an ordinary engraving on wood. Of 
this intaglio a cast is now taken in gntta perelia, to 
which the electro process in copper being applied, a 
plate or matrix is produced, bearing on it an exact re¬ 
petition of the original positive picture. All that now- 
remains to he done is to repeat the electro process, and 
the result is a copper plate, in the necessary reliovo of 
which nature furnishes the materials, and science the 
artist, the inferior workman being only needed to roll 
it through the press.” 
The May number of the Photographic Journal con¬ 
tains a short account of the application of Photography 
to Lunacy, as an accessory in the cure of lunatics. It 
is found by Mr. Bnishfield, Superintendent of the 
County Lunatic Asylum, Chester, that patients are 
very much gratified at seeing their own portraits hung 
on the walls of tho wards, and lie mention* that in the 
