HF The History of Photography 600pág

170 The early years of photography
been exposed in contact with a plan, for example, it only needs to be washed in cold
water. Herschel used to make cyanotypes when he required copies of intricate
calculations and other memoranda which he was unwilling to entrust to other hands
on account of the danger of inaccuracies in copying, and this is the first record we
have of photography undertaking the duties of copying-clerk.
The three volumes of Photographs of British Algae : Cyanotype Impressions which
MRS ANN A ATKINS distributed among a small circle of people interested in botany
and photography are a unique and early application of this process. Mrs Atkins had
an important collection of British seaweeds which she bequeathed to the British
Museum, and these volumes, which were issued in parts over the period l 843 to
l 8 53, contain 4II plates illustrating the entire series of British seaweeds, copied on
the sensitive paper by superposition.24 The title, preface, and descriptions are 'blueprinted'
from the author's handwriting.
Apart from Sir John Herschel's and Mrs Atkins's applications, the cyanotype
remained dormant until about 1881, when Marion & Co., photographic publishers,
reintroduced it under the name 'ferro-prussiate or blue process'. They sold prepared
paper to amateurs to imprint leaf patterns, and to government departments, shipbuilders,
railway companies, engineers, contractors, architects, etc., for the quick and
cheap reproduction of drawings, patterns, and plans, and this process remained in
favour as the 'blueprint', the picture being in white lines on a Prussian-blue ground.
An historical application of Herschel's method occurred during the Boer War,
when the defenders of Mafeking ran short of money and stamps. Having no other
means at his disposal but to issue them himself, Lieut.-Colonel Baden-Powell turned
to an amateur photographer, E. J. Ross, who, unable to make albumen paper because
there were no eggs, used this simple photographic method. Five negatives were made
from Baden-Powell's design of a pound note, and 100 prints copied from each. The
'Mint' was a dugout, and Ross succeeded in turning out twenty pound notes a day.25
As a safeguard against counterfeit each note bore two actual signatures. For stamps,
two different designs were used, for the values of 1d. and 3d., the latter with a portrait
of 'B.-P.'. Both bear the inscription 'Siege of Mafeking'.26
PROPAGANDA FOR THE CALOTYPE
As there were no more than about a dozen users of the calotype in the early and midi
84os, Talbot made special efforts to popularize it. He sold 'Sun Pictures' of English
and Irish scenery and copies of works of art through printsellers and stationers all
over Britain, and brought out several publications illustrated with actual talbotypes
to demonstrate the' chief advantage of his process over the daguerreotype, which did
not lend itself to multiplication and publication.
In order to produce the thousands of prints necessary for these publications Talbot
needed a printing establishment. It was obvious that such a commercial undertaking
could not be suitably carried on at his grand country seat, and Reading was chosen
as a convenient place lying on the newly opened Great Western Railway almost
halfway between Lacock Abbey and London. Here Talbot set up his former valet and
photographic collaborator NIKOLAAS HENNEMAN in the autumn of 1843. Henneman
worked in a house which had formerly been used as a school, containing a large
room which was always kept locked; this circumstance, and the mysterious deliveries
of paper and chemicals, led prying neighbours to the conclusion that Henneman,
who spoke broken English (he was Dutch by birth), was engaged in forging banknotes,
or some such nefarious pursuit.