TIP #257 - A BLINDED COUNTRY - THE BIRTHING OF PHOTOGRAPHY Did you ever stop to think that before the year 1839 our whole world was blind? No instamatic cameras to snap a picture of the latest band of settlers heading out into the wilderness. No snapshot of the new baby. Nary a photographer to cover the big fire on the square. Total blindness. Yes, the world was entirely dependent upon an artist to capture the weary lines in the tired mother's face, the regal posed and non-smiling face of the President or the Governor - and most of the early citizens could ill afford the services of an artist. The world learned, after months likely to waiting, of a report to come out in the weekly or monthly newspaper of Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre of France who had exhibited a strange magic ... shiny copper plates. And, on these plates were images, pictures! He had been working on the process for seemingly forever under a grant from the French government and these magic plates soon came to be known as "daguerreotypes". The process of producing these daguerreotypes was simply stated as: "The designs are executed upon thin plates of silver, plated on copper. Although the copper serves principally to support the silver foil, the combination of two metals tends to the perfection of the effect. The silver must be the purest that can be procured. As to the copper, its thickness ought to be sufficient to maintain the perfect smoothness and flatness of the plate, so that the images may not be distorted by the warping of the tables; but unnecessary thickness beyond this is to be avoided on account of the weight. The thickness of the two metals united, ought not to exceed that of a stout card. The process is divided into five operations. 1. The first consists in polishing and cleaning the plate, in order to prepare it for receiving the sensitive coating, upon which the light traces the design. 2. The second is to apply this coating. 3. The third is the placing the prepared plate property in the camera obscura to the action of light, for the purpose of receiving the image of nature. 4. The fourth brings out the image, which at first is not visible on the plate being withdrawn from the camera obscura. 5. The fifth and last operation has for its object to remove the sensitive coating on which the design is first impressed, because this coating would continue to be affected by the rays of light, a property which would necessarily and quickly destroy the picture." (American Repertory of Arts, Sciences, and Manufacturers, March 1840.) Calotypes were invented in 1841, and were popular for about a decade. Sheets of paper were brushed with salt solution, dried, and then brushed with a silver nitrate solution. After being dried again, the paper was used in the camera. Unlike the daguerreotype, the calotype could be used to produce multiple copies of any image. The calotype required long exposure times, and produced less detail than the competing daguerreotype. Because the calotype process was primarily used in England and Scotland, few photographs were made in the United States using the process. However, the negative/positive process introduced by the calotype was the real road to our present system of photography, rather than the daguerreotype. Collodion. In 1851 photography underwent a major change with the invention of the collodion process. Photographers had been experimenting with a process that would combine the sharp detail of the daguerreotype with the multiple copies possible with the calotype. With the new collodion or "wet plate" process, glass plates were used as negatives, and chemicals were washed over the glass plates immediately before the picture was taken. The photograph had to be developed immediately afterwards. The resulting negative produced great clarity of detail, and unlimited numbers of paper prints could be made. Because the negatives had to be processed when taken, most outdoor photographs were taken near rivers and streams so a water supply was available! Enlargements weren't possible, so large prints required large cameras. The Ambrotype process was invented in the 1850's, when photographers discovered that an underexposed collodion glass negative looked like a photograph when backed with black material, such as velvet, paint, or paper, and placed in a case. Each image was made one-at-a-time in the camera, and was therefore unique. While not as capable of fine detail as the daguerreotype, the ambrotype had a less reflective surface and was easier to view. Moreover, the price of an ambrotype was much less than an expensive daguerreotype, and made portraits available to the middle classes. Tintypes are also known as ferrotypes. These were introduced around 1855. They were the most commonly used by itinerant, wandering or "beach" photographers. The plates were lighter and less fragile than glass plates. Ferrotypes continued to be a cheap form for portrait photographs, particularly outdoors, until the 1930s. The ferrotype is a direct positive photograph: like a Polaroid photograph, or a daguerreotype, it has no negative. The sensitised metal plates were coated with wet collodion, exposed, processed in a portable darktent, and handed to customers in a little over a minute. After the introduction of dry ferrotype plates in 1891, photographers used ferrotype cameras with built-in processing facilities. Some ferrotypes were mounted in a stamped metal overmatte with a cover glass, or in light paper or card mounts. Sometimes the images were hand-colored. The main problem with tintypes is that the metal plate rusts, causing the metal to blister and the lacquer and photographic emulsion to lift from the base. Once damaged, they cannot be repaired but you can prevent further damage by placing the ferrotype in a cool, stable and fairly dry environment. It may be displayed, however, do not expose it to high levels of daylight or artificial light, not near a fireplace, radiator or other intermittent heat source. For storage, ferrotypes should be wrapped in tissue paper or a clean cotton cloth and placed in a small box to prevent physical damage and pressure to the edges and surface. The Unusual! Other types of photographs during the 19th century included the stereoscopic photograph, which was produced with a double camera with two lenses about 2 inches apart. First produced in the 1850's on albumen coated paper or glass, these photographs were bought by families as a form of entertainment, and were viewed on handheld or cabinet stereoscope viewers. Visiting relatives would be sure to view the latest addition to one's picture collection. The carte-de-visite (visiting card) photographs were small prints that could be pasted on visiting cards. In the 1860's, the novelty became a craze, and the public began buying cards with pictures of celebrities, in addition to collecting pictures of friends and relatives. Stores carried catalogs of cards, and royalty, actresses, and other various sorts of well-known people were featured. The craze had died out by 1870. Dry Plate Photography: In the 1870's, manufacturers discovered that gelatin was much better than collodion at binding light-sensitive materials to glass. Using chemical processing with gelatin, plates could be manufactured that could be stored and used by photographers at any time. At last, photographers could leave the technology of photography in the hands of manufacturers and focus on taking good pictures. The new process meant that the dry plates could be bought in shops. Because of the superiority of the process, cameras could be simplified, and handheld cameras could be used by ordinary people, rather than by specialists with knowledge of chemistry. In 1888, George Eastman, an amateur photographer who manufactured dry plates, presented the first Kodak camera to the world. Rather than glass plates, the camera used a roll of material long enough to take 100 circular pictures. The roll of film was loaded in the camera, and the user sent the camera back to the factory to have the pictures developed. By 1891, Eastman had developed a camera that accepted rolls of film loaded by the user. It was Eastman who really made the camera useable by just about anybody. His company enjoyed immediate popularity, and by early in the 20th century Kodak cameras were available for as little as $1. His slogan was true: "You press the button, we do the rest." (c) Copyright 19 August 1999, Sandra K.Gorin, All Rights Reserved. sgorin@glasgow-ky.com Colonel Sandi Gorin 205 Clements,Glasgow, KY 42141 (270) 651-9114 or E-fax (707)222-1210 Member Glasgow-Barren County Chamber of Commerce Gorin Genealogical Publishing: http://members.delphi.com/gorin1/index.html TIPS: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/Ky/Tips KYBIOS: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/Ky/Bios ARCHIVES: http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl