Short history of the genesis of photography
1826:
Creation of the oldest known picture
(Heliograph) by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce
(1765-1833).
1839: Begin
of the photography as a usable technique in France as well as in
England. In France it was Louis-Jacques-Mandé
Daguerre (1789-1851), who developed a
technique at which a polished brass plate covered with silver, or
in rare cases a silverplate, was made
photosensitive by iodine fume. After
lighting the silverplates were developed with fumes of heated
mercury silver. A rather dangerous process with a splendid result
that was called the “daguerreotype”
(1839-ca.1855).
1841:
William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877)
developed in England a similar technique. Talbot didn't use
silverplates but very strong writing paper. The paper was
immersed in a solution of kitchen salt and afterwards coated with
silvernitrate. That simpel chemical reaction produces
silverchloride, a photosensitive matter. Talbot called his first
pictures “photogenic drawings” and his technique is
also called “talbotype”
or “kalotype”.
1850: Louis-Désiré
Blanquart-Evrard (1802-1872)covered
a fine smooth paper with a coating of albumen, just before he
made the paper photosensitive. The result was a smooth half
glossy printing paper, which kept all the aspects of the original
negative. This process has been used till c.1890 and was
well-known as “albumine print”.
1851:
The “wet collodium process”
was developed by Frederick Scott Archer
(1813-1857). A glass plate was covered with
a small quantity of collodium, enriched with iodide of potassium.
When the volatile material in the collodium solution nearly was
evaporated, the glass plate was handled with a solution of
sivernitrate. The now photosensitive plate could be exposed in
the camera.
1854:
Shortly after the discovery of the "wet collodium process"
a new technique was developed. An underexposed negative (not
suitable for normal prints) created a positive image on a dark
background. A suitable image for the process was created by
adding nitric acid to the developer and to expose and develop the
negative very briefly. The pictures were known in England as “collodium
positives on glass”, in Amerika as “ambrotypes”
and on the European continent as “amphitypes”.
1855: The
Frenchman “Alphonse Louis Poitevin”(1819-1882)
takes a patent on an ink process based on using a printplate with
a structure in relief.
1856:
The first real “dry collodium plates”
were developed by “dr. Hill Norris”
from Birmingham. The plates were covered
with a solution of arabic gum or with gelatine. Afterwards the
plates were dryed and packed.
1858: “John
Pouncy”(1820-1894) made the first “carbon
print”. As solvent for the pigment he
used gum and hot gelatine.
1864: Silvernitrate was
added to the emulsion of collodium, that
contained cadmium bromide, to create a photosensitive emulsion
more based on silver bromide than on silver iodide. The silver
bromide was in the emulsion in a floating condition. This
process, invented by Poitevin, was applied by “Walter
Bently Woodbury”(1834-1885) for his “woodburytype”
and by “Joseph Wilson
Swann”(1828-1914) for his “carbonprintprocess”.
1871: Invention
of the “dry gelatine plate” by
the English doctor Richard Lee Maddox
(1816-1902).
1873: “Hermann Wilhelm
Vogel”(1834-1898), a German professor
in photochemistry in Berlin, discovered the process to make
collodium emulsion plates photosensitive for colours by treating
the plates with specific aniline paints. The first step to
"colour photography" was made.
1888: Creation
of the first “roll-film”
and the belonging camera, the “Kodak”.
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