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211 in the new art. He was a man possessing mechanical genius. The outcome of the existence of this general meeting place was the formation of the first Liverpool Photographic Society. Mr. J. T. Foard did great work in the Society by supplying it with papers of high-class merit. Mr. John Glover, another member, was an indefatigable experimentalist, but, being of a weak constitution, he fell a victim to his own ardour. The Society subscribed £275, and appointed trustees to see it laid out in the education of his children. Mr. Thomas Higgin has devoted his efforts to the department of microscopic photography, and produced works of high merit. No member reached such a high state of perfection in the art as Mr. Osmond R. Green ; his pictures were large—some of them 24 inches by 18 inches—and, although taken about twenty years ago by the collodio-bromide process, they command ad miration at the present day. Frank Howard, an artist of considerable celebrity, was also an active member. Mr. John M’Innes, the first and most successful discoverer of the mode of coating ships’ bottoms with material to pre vent plants and barnacles adhering to the iron, rendered service to the Society on many occasions. Mr. James Newlands, the borough engineer, took interest in the Society’s welfare. He was president for some time, and, along with Mr. Christopher Bell and Mr. Forrest, became joint proprietors of the Liverpool Photographic Journal, the copyright of which was sold to Mr. Henry Greenwood for £56. This sum was handed over to the treasurer to pay the Society’s debts. Mr. Charles Cory was the editor. Mr. G. R. Berry, chemist, furnished some valuable papers, especially relating to the evolution of dry-plate photo graphy. Mr. Sheridan, another member, was a lover of nature : he had extensive property in South America, and he was home in this country for some years, during which time he visited various places of note in England. He be came a thorough adept in photography, and, with his energy and large means, pushed the Society to the front in every way. In returning to hisadopted country, the steamer on which he was a passenger took fire ; to avoid a rush for the boats, he strapped a lifebelt around him and jumped into the sea. The occupants of one of the boats searched for him and found him floating, but his spirit had fled. He was a gifted Irishman, greatly respected by every member of the Society. Dissensions about the question of professional versus amateur broke up the old society, and another was started, the “Liverpool Amateur Photographic Association”; the old society also gave birth to a vigorous offshoot in the Birkenhead Photographic Association. To judge of the value of a society, you must get at the percentage of working members, for in every society there are some “ drones,” who appear at monthly meetings, question everything, and do nothing. To establish an improvement in this respect, and enable members to estimate their relative skill in manipulation and artistic treatment of subject, the Birkenhead Society holds com petitions under equal conditions at out-door meetings. Mr. Isaac Roberts, of Maghull, is a Liverpool man, who is now engaged in astronomical photography. The old Liverpool society laid the foundation of this work, and the following extracts will show this:—Dr. Edwards, in 1854, read a paper on “ Collodion Photographs of the Moon’s Surface.” He said that the Liverpool Photographic Society, recognising the importance of this subject, and the interest felt in it by the British Association at its last meeting, requested Mr. J. A. Forrest, its secretary, and Mr. J. Hartnup, of the Liverpool Observatory, and him self, to act as a committee for obtaining photographs of the moon by the Liverpool telescope, and to lay them before the present meeting. This committee had pro duced a large number of pictures with variable success, and some of the most perfect copies were then presented. The telescope is furnished with an excellent equatorial mounting, and clock-work motion of great firmness and steadiness. The object glass has a focal length of about 12} feet, and a small camera box being substituted for the eye-piece, the image is received upon the ground glass or prepared plate in the ordinary manner. After much fruitless labour, the chemical focus was discovered to be about eight-tenths of an inch beyond that of the visual one, the glass being over-corrected to that extent in respect to its actinic focus. The focus once accu rately obtained of course answered for all subsequent experiments, but it was at first difficult to decide whether the want of sharpness of outline observed was due to the motion of the object, or to imperfect focussing. The best specimens were obtained by the continuous motion of Mr. Hartnup’s steady hand, in addition to the clockwork movement, while his eye was kept on the finder with an achromatic eye-piece of good power, by which he could maintain the position of a given point in the field. When the moon is off the meridian, her rate being variable, this seems the only mode of follow ing her motion accurately. Such were the mechanical arrangements, and the chemicals which produced the pictures were collodion containing iodide and bromide of potassium, a neutral or slightly acid silver bath (thirty grains to the ounce), and a developing solution of sul phate of iron with acetic or formic acids. The fixing agent was cyanide of potassium. Collodions were em ployed, containing respectively iodides of ammonium, cadmium, calcium, or zinc, without obtaining any advan tage in result; and, indeed, no marked advantage followed the use of very sensitive collodions, which seldom gave both the mapping and the detail on the dark limit with equal distinctness. Mr. M’Innes was successful in copying and enlarging these pictures for the lantern, and the effect of the illuminated images proved interesting at the soiree, when Professor Phillips lectured to the members of the British Association, of which he was one of the founders, in St. George’s Hall, Liverpool. The entire image was shown on a screen fifty-six feet in diameter. He said nothing that others had attempted could at all compare with the results which had been obtained by the voluntary exer tions of the photographers of the Liverpool Society. The Abbe Moigno, who was present, said that the general impression of his countrymen present was that the Liverpool Society had got farther into the skies than the French photographers had. Strange to say, Gaston Tissandier, in his History of Photography, published in 1878, entirely ignored what had been so ably accomplished by the Liverpool Photographic Society, and gave the credit to Padre Secchi, of Rome ; Dr. Warren De La Rue, of London; Mr. Rutherfurd, and Mr. Grubb; none of whom commenced their operations until two years after the successful display at Liverpool in 1854. Arago had said that photography was one of the most remarkable conquests of genius, and might rank with the telescope and the electric battery; but what would he have said to the following, which occurred at a meeting of
