HF The History of Photography 600pág

90 The invention of photography
Pl 38
make photographs on paper. On receiving the necessary information from Gerber,
he succeeded in producing copies of ferns, grasses, and flowers, which he pasted in
an album, entitling it 'Le premier livre imprime par le soleil'. This was in 183 9.
When passing through Paris at the beginning of 1840, he showed this album to
Arago, who informed him that Talbot had made known such a process some time
ago, and this stopped Ibbetson from pursuing the matter farther. He exhibited his
album at the Society of Arts photographic exhibition in 1852, and whether or not
he had intended to forestall his former teacher by calling his album 'The first book
printed by the sun', it is only an album, not a published book illustrated with photographs
such as Gerber had in mind, and Talbot produced for the first time in 1844.
However, the importance of Ibbetson's account6 lies in the fact that it testifies to the
practical nature of Gerber's process.
An American claim to the production of photographs on paper in 1828 was put
forward by Henry H. Snelling in 18517 on behalf of James M. Wattles. A young art
student at the time, Wattles frequently made landscape sketches with the camera
obscura, and like Talbot, Daguerre, and many others, wished that he could fix the
images. Though only sixteen, and lacking any knowledge of chemistry, he was of
so persevering a nature that after many failures he eventually obtained photographic
landscapes by soaking paper in what he called 'a weak solution of caustic' (silver
nitrate), then in a solution of potassium, followed by a further dipping in a stronger
solution of the first. Wattles obtained pictures in about 45 minutes, and fixed them
with a strong solution of common salt. No proof of this claim was produced, but
Snelling expressed confidence in Wattles's integrity, and the story is quite probable.
The REV. JOSEPH BANCROFT READE, F.R.S., was a distinguished amateur scientist
in the best British tradition : a founder-member and later President of the Microscopical
Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society.
Successive incumbencies did not preclude his devoting much time to scientific
pursuits.
The published statements of Reade concerning his pioneer work in photography
made fifteen to twenty years after the event conflict with the facts given to his
brother in a recently discovered letter of 1 April 1839, which renders necessary a
re-assessment of his claims. The letter was published in full by Arthur T. Gill8 and
we reprint only the relevant passages:
..... You will perhaps be surprised to hear that the exquisite images of microscopic
objects which I produce by means of my solar microscope can now be fixed
permanently on the paper which receives them by a certain chemical process. I
discovered it on Tuesday last [26 March] at twelve o'clock, and I had one hour of
sunshine to put my process to the test . ....
It is probable that you already know that this art of Photogenic Drawing has
made some stir in London, and all that I lay claim to is the discovery of a prepared
paper sufficiently sensitive to be readily acted upon by solar light after it has been
greatly attenuated by passing through a double French combination Achromat . ...
I put the same paper into my camera and in the course of an hour I present you
with a facsimile of the country.
In the light of this new information all later claims made by Reade have to be
post-dated two years. His discovery of a very sensitive paper through the use of
gallic acid in conjunction with silver nitrate-which was to form an essential element
in Talbot's calotype process-was not made in 1837 as hitherto believed, but evidently
on 26 March 1839. Reade's contention to have been the first to employ sodium