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The photographic news
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- 35.1891
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- 1891
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- Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
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- Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
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- Bandzählung
- No. 1699, March 27, 1891
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The photographic news
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242 THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. [March 27, 1891. AN INTERESTING LETTER BY SIR DAVID BREWSTER. BY WM. LANG, JUN., F.C.S. When in Edinburgh recently, I secured a relic of early photographic days in the shape of a letter by Sir David Brewster, which is sufficiently interesting, I think, to bring before the readers of the Photographic News. The contents of the letter are devoted to an account of an accelerator to be used in connection with Niepce de St. Victor's albumen process. As is well known, one of the principal drawbacks inherent to the Frenchman’s pro cess was the long exposure required in the camera. There is no Christian name attached to the Mr. Ross to whom Brewster had been writing; we are, therefore, only able to surmise as to the actual recipient of the communica tion. From the fact that Messrs. Ross and Thompson, of Edinburgh, were at that time engaged in working the albumen process, it may be a safe assumption to go upon that the Mr. Ross of the firm indicated was the individual to whom the letter was addressed. Without farther pre face the letter may here be given :— St. Leonard’s College, Sept. 10th, 1850. Dear Sir,—I have just received an account of the new method of M. Niepce de St. Victor for accelerating the process in albumen. It consists in adding 3 or 4 grammes of honey to one white of an egg along with 30 or 40 centigrammes (or 3 or 4 grammes) of iodide of potash. The albumen, when dry, is immersed for ten minutes, at the utmost, in a solution of— Nitrate of silver ... ... ... 6 grammes Combustible acetic acid ... ... 12 ,, Distilled water ... ... ... 60 ,, A white ground is placed behind the plate of albumen in the camera, and the picture is brought out with hot gallic acid, the best pictures being those that remain several hours in the acid. The albumen of old eggs is more apt to peel from the glass than that of fresh eggs, and to prevent this the albumen, after the picture is upon it, and quite dry, may be covered with a thin layer of gelatine or picture varnish. The time for a landscape in diffused light is two or three seconds, the time for a portrait from five to six seconds. The time is shortened by using a thicker plate of albumen, by using old eggs, and the longer the aceto-nitrate solution has been used the quicker is the process, which is also accelerated by a more thorough washing of the plate of albumen. The albumen of a duck’s egg peels less from the glass than that of a fowl; the albumen from blood is very accelerating, but it does not adhere well to the glass unless it is previously coagulated with azotic acid. Syrup and the serum of milk (whey) answer as well nearly as honey.—I am, dear sir, ever most truly yours, D. Brewster. The year 1850, in which the foregoing had been penned, was one of varied experiences to Brewster. In the first month of the year he had the misfortune to lose his wife, a daughter of the famous Macpherson, known generally as Ossian Macpherson. In the spring, Brewster, along with his daughter, visited Paris, where he renewed his acquaintance with Arago, the famous astronomer, a tie of friendship which had first been formed in the year 1814. Other celebrities no less famous in their own particular walk were at this visit thrown into Brewster’s company; notably, Guizot, the historian, Leverrier, the astronomer, and De la Rive, the electrician. A week or two having been spent in London, Brewster and his daughter after wards visited Fox Talbot at Windermere, who, during the summer, repaired to his residence there. We can well understand how congenial would the company of these two philosophers be to each other, and that among many other topics of scientific interest, the possibilities of photography would be by no means overlooked. It may be here stated that the two scientists had—if not before—formed a friendship in 1836, for on the occasion of the sixth meeting of the British Association, which was held in Bristol, we find Brewster spending the previous week at Lacock Abbey, the ancestral home of Talbot. Brewster may be said to have been one of the chief promoters of the British Association. It was, therefore, peculiarly appropriate that when this body visited Edin burgh for the second time, in 1850, Sir David Brewster should have been elected president. It was the twentieth meeting of the Association, and the opening took place on July 23rd. Enough has been said to indicate that the year in which the letter we have brought before our readers was written was one of the most eventful in the whole of Brewster’s career. It will be noted that the address heading the letter to Mr. Ross is that of St. Leonard’s. Brewster, at the time of writing, was still principal of the United College of St. Salvator and St. Leonard in the university of St. Andrew’s, an appointment bestowed on him in 1838, and which was held by him for twenty-three years. In 1860 he was made principal of the Edinburgh University, and his con nection therewith was only severed by his death in 1868, having reached the advanced age of eighty-six years. In the memoirs of Sir David Brewster, published by his daughter, Mrs. Gordon, in 1869, under the title of "The Home Life of Sir David Brewster,” we find the following:—“ My father’s connection with photography and photographers might well furnish a chapter of his life in competent hands. A large correspondence was kept up with Mr. Fox Talbot, M. Claudet, Mr. Buckle, Paul Pretsch, Messrs. Ross and Thompson, and other eminent photographers.” Could these past memorials not be yet gathered together, and a compilation made ? One of the last acts of Brewster’s life was to bear testimony to the scientific worth of a former friend of his—M. Claudet, the eminent London photographer. Brewster was the first president of the Photographic Society of Scotland, a society founded in 1856. In connection with the stereo scope, Brewster’s name is generally put forward as the inventor, but this he always disclaimed. It was only a modification of the original idea which he sought to get credit for, viz., the lenticular stereoscope, but, all the same, it was this particular form which popularised the instrument. There is one optical appliance of Brewster’s, however, and one which seems to be now-a-days over looked altogether, regarding which there can be no dubiety as to the author. I refer to the kaleidoscope. Many other optical arrangements were devised by this philosopher, but it would be beyond the limits of this communication to enter upon these. Brewster had a facile pen, and his works remain testifying to a beauty of expression com bined with intellectual gifts of the very highest order. His “More Worlds than One,” “Life of Newton,” and many others, are well worth being perused by those to whom Brewster is little more than a name. Cool as a Cucumber.—“The coolest man I ever knew in my life,” said a Congressional arrival, “ was a native of Kan sas. A cyclone had set him down, with his entire family and a portion of his furniture, within twenty feet of my house. I said to him : ‘ Hello, Sam ! what are you doing over here ? ’ ‘Oh,’ he replied, as he dumped a handful of tobacco into his pipe, ‘ I just took a snap-shot, and now I want to get a time- exposure before the next gust comes on,’"
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