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EdinPhoto - Home Page      Please send me an e-mail ...  with your questions, comments, suggestions or news.      At any time, you can search for a word  -  perhaps a photographer's name or a photographic topic.  The search will produce a list of pages on the EdinPhoto web site where this word appears.            At any time, you can search for a word  -  perhaps a photographer's name or a photographic topic.  The search will produce a list of pages on the EdinPhoto web site where this word appears.

Photographs and Other Images  -  These include portraits of photographers  -  photographic outings -  Princes Street views  -  Newhaven Fishwives  -  etc.  Early Photography in Edinburgh  -  Talbot, Brewster, Hill & Adamson, Early Professional Photographers in Princes Street, etc.  Professional Photographers in Edinburgh  -  1840 to 1940  -  Their names, dates of business and studio addresses.  The Photographic Society of Scotland  -  1856 to 1873  -  Lectures, Exhibitions, Outings, etc.  The History of Edinburgh Photographic Society  -  1861 to date  -  Lectures, Exhibitions, Outings, Poems, etc.  EPS Publications - EPS Handwritten Records  -  Photographic Journals  -  Trade Directories  -  Books  -  etc.  Thanks to all who have encouraged and supported me in creating the EdinPhoto web site  -  including descendants of photogrpahers  -  researchers  -  providers of photographs and other material  Background notes on the research thal led up to the creation of this site  -   together with lists of new material added to the site since its launch.  Brief comments on how this site might be used  -  Just browsing?  -  Seeking specific information?  Please add your questions, suggestions or other comments to the Guest Book.  Links to other web sites  -  Photographic Societies  -  Photographic History  -  Family History  -  etc.  Click here to find the link to the Edinburgh Photogrpahic Society web site.  Details of who owns the copyright of photographs and other mateiral on this web site.

A selection of my photographs, many from Edinburgh throughout the year.   Also photos from Scotland, London, Iceland, Italy, Hong Kong and elsewhere    Many old maps of Edinburgh (Old Town, New Town, while City), Leith and Newhaven.  Includes several old transport maps and a comparison of old maps with recent aerial photos.   Old engravings, mailly of Edinburgh scenes.  Some from the 1820s, some from the 1890s,  some others - includes many hand-coloured examples from the 1820s.   News from Edinburgh today  -  Events, Collections, Buildings and Gardens, Transport   This site includes     1. Post card portraits taken in studios in Edinburgh:    2. Post card views either takeen/published by Ediburgh photographers or views of Edinburgh, or both.y Edinburgh    Views of Edinburgh, grouped into three sections:     1. Street views:    2. Buildings:    3. Around Edinburgh   Views of transport around Edinburgh  -  Horse drawn trams and buses, cable cars, electric trams, buses and a few railway photos.  Also several maps of Edinburgh's bus and tram routes.   Summary of the updates added to this site each month since the site was launched   Frequently Asked Questions

 

 

Early Photography

Before 1839

Until recently (early 2000s) 1839 has generally been regarded as the year that photography, as we know it, commenced.

However, there had been earlier experiments by earlier pioneers, two of whom I mention below.

 

1.

Thomas Wedgewood

Background

Thomas Wedgwood (1771-1805) from Staffordshire, England, was born into a line of pottery manufacturers.  He was son of the potter, Joseph Wedgwood.

He had an interest in education, and attempted to create permanent pictures by the use of light, as he thought these could become a useful educational tool.

Photographic Experiments

In the early-1790s, Thomas Wedgwood experimented with silver nitrate in his attempts to create permanent pictures on various materials, including ceramic, glass, paper and white leather.

He had some success, particularly on the white leather, but to preserve the image, it had to be kept in a dark room, as on exposure to light, the image would soon disappear.

Publication

Chemist, Humphry Davy (1778-1829) wrote up Wedgewood's experiments in a paper published by the Royal Institution in London in 1802, titled:

"An Account of a Method of Copying Paintings upon Glass, and of Making Profiles, by the Agency of Light upon Nitrate of Silver.

Invented by T Wedgwood, Esq."

David Brewster (who went on to become the President of the Photographic Society of Scotland, based in Edinburgh in 1856) published  an account of this paper in the Edinburgh Magazine in December 1802.

Permanent Images?

In his paper, commenting on Wedgewood process, Humphry Davy wrote:

"Immediately after being taken, [the picture] must be kept in some obscure place. It may indeed be examined in the shade, but in this case the exposure should be only for a few minutes; by the light of candles and lamps, as commonly employed, it is not sensibly affected."

However, some historians, including Dr Larry J Schaaf, have suggested that Wedgwood may in fact have been successful in 'fixing' some of his images so that they would not fade.  If so, this would give him a far more prominent status in the history of photography.

Most of the details above have been taken from the Wikipedia page for Thomas Wedgwood

 

2.

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce

Background

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833) was son of a wealthy lawyer.  He served in the French army under Napoleon, then became the Administrator of the district of Nice.  In 1795, he resigned this post in order to pursue scientific research with his brother Claude.

The brothers invented, built and developed what was probably the world's first internal combustion engine.  This was installed on a boat that ran on the river Saône.  They patented the engine in 1807.

In 1818, Niépce also took an interest in the bicycle.  He built himself a model and called it the vélocipède (fast foot).

Incidentally, one of the lectures given to Edinburgh Photographic Society about fifty years later was titled:

"The Velocipede as an Adjunct to Landscape Photography".

Early Photographic Experiments

Niépce experimented with 'heliographic engraving' (photographic etching) making his first print in1822.  The earliest of his prints to survive  dates from 1825.  It is a copy of a C17 Flemish engraving.  The image is ink on paper, made from a metal plate on which the image was created by sunlight.

The earliest surviving photograph of a scene from nature is his

"View from  the window at Le Gras",

an 8-hour exposure in a camera obscura, dating from 1826.

After experimenting with silver chloride, Niépce decided to use pewter coated with bitumen disolved in lavender oil for this exposure.  Following the exposure, the remaining unexposed bitumen was washed off with lavender oil.

Further Experiments

Niépce continued experimenting to improve his process, corroborating with Daguerre  from 1829.  Following Niépce's death in 1833, Daguerre went on to discover a quite different process, using a copper sheet coated with silver then silver halide and sensitised with iodine, exposed then developed in mercury vapour.  

He named it the Daguerreotype and sold it to the French Government in 1839.  The French Government paid Daguerre a pension of 6,000 Franks pa, and also paid 4,000 Franks pa to the estate of Niépce in recognition of his work.

The details above have been taken from the Wikipedia page for Thomas Wedgwood

 

1839

Early Photography  - Other Pages 

 

 

Links to Other Pages

EdinPhoto - Home Page      Please send me an e-mail ...  with your questions, comments, suggestions or news.      At any time, you can search for a word  -  perhaps a photographer's name or a photographic topic.  The search will produce a list of pages on the EdinPhoto web site where this word appears.            At any time, you can search for a word  -  perhaps a photographer's name or a photographic topic.  The search will produce a list of pages on the EdinPhoto web site where this word appears.

Photographs and Other Images  -  These include portraits of photographers  -  photographic outings -  Princes Street views  -  Newhaven Fishwives  -  etc.  Early Photography in Edinburgh  -  Talbot, Brewster, Hill & Adamson, Early Professional Photographers in Princes Street, etc.  Professional Photographers in Edinburgh  -  1840 to 1940  -  Their names, dates of business and studio addresses.  The Photographic Society of Scotland  -  1856 to 1873  -  Lectures, Exhibitions, Outings, etc.  The History of Edinburgh Photographic Society  -  1861 to date  -  Lectures, Exhibitions, Outings, Poems, etc.  EPS Publications - EPS Handwritten Records  -  Photographic Journals  -  Trade Directories  -  Books  -  etc.  Thanks to all who have encouraged and supported me in creating the EdinPhoto web site  -  including descendants of photogrpahers  -  researchers  -  providers of photographs and other material  Background notes on the research thal led up to the creation of this site  -   together with lists of new material added to the site since its launch.  Brief comments on how this site might be used  -  Just browsing?  -  Seeking specific information?  Please add your questions, suggestions or other comments to the Guest Book.  Links to other web sites  -  Photographic Societies  -  Photographic History  -  Family History  -  etc.  Click here to find the link to the Edinburgh Photogrpahic Society web site.  Details of who owns the copyright of photographs and other mateiral on this web site.

A selection of my photographs, many from Edinburgh throughout the year.   Also photos from Scotland, London, Iceland, Italy, Hong Kong and elsewhere    Many old maps of Edinburgh (Old Town, New Town, while City), Leith and Newhaven.  Includes several old transport maps and a comparison of old maps with recent aerial photos.   Old engravings, mailly of Edinburgh scenes.  Some from the 1820s, some from the 1890s,  some others - includes many hand-coloured examples from the 1820s.   News from Edinburgh today  -  Events, Collections, Buildings and Gardens, Transport   This site includes     1. Post card portraits taken in studios in Edinburgh:    2. Post card views either takeen/published by Ediburgh photographers or views of Edinburgh, or both.y Edinburgh    Views of Edinburgh, grouped into three sections:     1. Street views:    2. Buildings:    3. Around Edinburgh   Views of transport around Edinburgh  -  Horse drawn trams and buses, cable cars, electric trams, buses and a few railway photos.  Also several maps of Edinburgh's bus and tram routes.   Summary of the updates added to this site each month since the site was launched   Frequently Asked Questions

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