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in informing our readers that it will shortly appear in an English dress, with the same copious illustrations. Messrs Horne and Thornthwaite will, we believe, publish it. We defer therefore a detailed notice for the English edition. We may add here that some original articles from M. Van Monckhoven’s pen will appear in our pages shortly. INSTANTANEOUS STEREOSCOPIC VIEWS, taken on Dr. Hill Norris’s Dry Plates, by H. Sampson, Southport. However much faith we may have in a process, we like to see tangible results. Descriptions may be very accurate, but they are always the results of other peoples’ impressions. In relation to instantaneous pictures, this is especially true: when no further guide can be obtained than is supplied by a narrator’s impressions, an instantaneous exposure may mean anything from a tenth of a second to one or more seconds, whilst the result which may be called a picture, is possibly nothing beyond a silhouette without detail. With results before us, there need be no mistake on the latter point, whilst as regards the former, some data is generally supplied by the amount of definition or blurring in moving figures. We have before us something like a couple of dozen stereoscopic slides of marine views, with shipping and steamers at full speed, and street scenes, with moving figures. As the results of dry plates, they are truly marvellous, and we may state at the outset, without any derogation from their excellence, that whilst they are not equal to the best of Wil son’s, England’s, or Blanchard’s pictures by the wet process, the majority of them equal and surpass much that is called instantaneous photography. The subjects chosen are very daring, and involve great contrasts : here a stormy sea, with shipping in the distance, with a boat landing through the surf in the immediate foreground. Here a view of the new iron pier at Southport, with a gay assemblage of not less than a hundred persons ; and another “ On the Shore ” at Southport, with a motley crew of many scores of persons. It is somewhat singular that these views are best in which we should most readily have expected failure. The pier just referred to is one of the best exposed and best defined pic tures in the series; clouds, water, figures, foreground, all being good. The scene on the shore is also very good, as are various street scenes in Liverpool. Most of the pictures have natural clouds. In some of the marine views there is under-exposure, and in some a want of instantaneity; but there is enough in all to prove that more may be done. We have no particulars as to the lens or aperture; but we are disposed to believe that something better might be effected. In the printing also, Mr. Sampson has scarcely done himself justice ; the tones being too black and heavy for the subjects, a warmer tone would have relieved the appearance of under exposure, which some of the pictures possess. On the whole, we are highly gratified by the series, as giving high promise of what may be done with instantaneous dry plates. We con gratulate Dr. Hill Norris on the result, for whilst we have ourselves produced instantaneous pictures on his plates, and heard of others doing so, this is the first commercial scries which we have seen issued. Proceedings of Societies. South London PHOTOGRAPITO Society. The usual monthly meeting was held in the City of London College, Leadenhall Street, on the evening of Thursday, March 13th. Mr. G. Wharton Simpson in the chair. The minutes of the previous meeting having been read, the following gentlemen were elected members of the society:— Messrs. C. T. Newcombe, T. Lloyd, T. Mills, S. Cawston, E. Buck, and F. Fitch. The SECRETARY then read the address and regulations for exhibitors at the Crystal Palace, which appeared in our last. Mr. Noel E. Fitch read a paper entitled “ The Experiences of an Amateur in Portraiture,” (see p. 127.) Mr. Fitch exhi bited an exceedingly fine selection of his productions as an 1862. JTEDI PO CH! Dr. Ales Wica of a mi b hand ching tli the saw' 'hey iveii tlf bros lures in return I followis ad in b Chimet • was ho 1 igs of t ent. Tit ly to 0 ;ly on sceeded 1 ef. W not he ad a ■ to pj ferring, that* , any o‘ e of*'. 1 the dif d be ! r equi tereosco/ mmun, for obt", I wrote J adem) raph‘, e told' en 01 , s eng< nsort," ecs oi the Pri f the p March 21, 1862.] THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. tograph of the stereoscopic picture, and explaining the high interest which attached to it as a great fact in the history of binocular vision and the stereoscope. In answer to this application, I learned that though the Prince had not the slightest wish to confine these photographs to himself, yet His Royal Highness did not think that he had any power to give permission for additional copies to be taken, though he certainly had no objection to this being done. When I received this letter, I was writing the article “Stereoscope” for the Encydopoedia Britannica, and I in serted in it the remarkable discovery made by Dr. Crum Brown. I had previously shown, in my “ Treatise on the Stereoscope,” that Galen had, 1500 years ago, proved that in looking at solid bodies the pictures given by each eye were dissimilar, and that with both eyes we saw these two Pictures combined. In illustrating these views of Galen, Baptista Porta gives a figure, in which we not only see the Principle of the stereoscope, but a virtual representation of the binocular slide by three circles, two of them indicating the right- and left-eye pictures, and the middle one the other two united by the eyes and producing the figure in relief which we actually see. The work of Baptista Porta, containing this diagram, Was published in 1593, and Jacopo Chimenti lived 47 years after its publication. It was therefore probable, as I stated, that in executing the stereoscopic picture Chimenti was illustrating the binocular diagram of the Neapolitan philosopher, and was the true inventor of the ocular stereo scope, that is, of the method of obtaining a solid representa tion of any object by uniting right- and left-eye pictures of it by converging the optic axes to a point nearer the observer than the pictures. This was founded on the supposition that Chimenti’s figures were truly stereoscopic; and as I knew that Dr. Crum Brown was thoroughly acquainted with the subject of binocular vision and the theory of the stereoscope, I had no doubt that he had seen a figure in perfect relief by uniting the two plane pictures of it. Having failed in procuring a copy of these pictures, I had to means of testing the accuracy of Dr. Brown’s experi- ment; but it appears that in June 1860, Mr. Wheatstone applied applied to Prof. Kuhlman, of Lille, and obtained from him a photograph of Chimenti’s drawings. In the letter which accompanied it Prof. Kuhlmann states “ that the copy has been taken of such a size as to be suitable for oxamination in the stereoscope," and he adds “ that, at the first sight of it, and without the aid of any instrument, it would be seen that the two pictures were not stereoscopic.” The photograph, thus described, was accordingly placed in the stereoscope by Mr. Wheatstone and his friends in Loudon, and they all found it not to he stereoscopic. (To be continued.) Ctitical Zlotces. TRAITE/ POPULAIRE DE PHOTOGRAPHIE SUR COLLODION ; contenant le procd negatif et positif, h collodion sec, le stereoscope, les epreuves positives sur Papier, &c., Par D. Van MoNCKIIOVEN. Paris: LEIBEE. , I'!’ is one of the best elementary works on photography ' " c 'i has yet reached our hands ; popular, explicit, and complete; and above all illustrated with a series of en- graving s , numbering upwards of a hundred, which make Clear to the uninitiated better than any amount of letter- press description, the exact character of the various mani pulations to be effected. We have delayed our notice of this excellent little work, Which we received at the beginning the year, because at one tune we contemplated translating and editing it for English leaders, the author having kindly some months ago made application to us for that purpose. Although our own time i not permit us to undertake that duty, we have pleasure 139
