Note: The following series of articles appeared in the Ithaca Journal beginning 26 June 1850. Unfortunately, issues containing installments 2 and 3 were missing from the microfilm, which is located at the Olin Library, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. The author of the articles identified himself only as "W. T." My best guess is "W. T." may be William A. Tomlinson, a daguerreotypist operating in Troy, NY at this time.
An artist of experience has handed us some papers upon Photography, the first of which we insert below. They are written in a candid spirit, and contain, we are assured, all the mysteries of the art, and may be relied upon as truth. We hope the perusal of them will gratify our reader:
PHOTOGRAPHY - No. l
The present century, so fruitful in scientific discoveries, has perhaps introduced nothing that has taken so great a hold on the public attention as the Daguerreotype; at once so mysterious, and so simple; so certain in its results, and yet so extremely precarious, wanting only one thing, color.
Photography has been long sought after, the greatest chemists have, for more than fifty years kept it in view, Sir H. Davy & Wedgewood made drawings on paper by means of Nitrate of Silver and gallic acid, but their drawings soon vanished for want of something to fix them. Iodine was not known until about 15 years ago, and Bromine was unknown 12 years ago.
The Talbotype (pictures on paper,) is but Davy's plan improved by Iodine of potassium, and fixed with Bromide of potassium. Daguerre's discovery was no accident, but a laborious pursuit after that identical object. Iodine was soon discovered to possess a strong affinity for silver, and to be very sensitive to light, in the form of an iodide of silver. The affinity of mercury for silver has been known many centuries. Daguerre in his first attempt, raised his mercury to a great heat, and (as every poor operator knows,) of course failed; but one day his lamp went out, and his mercury ran down, the consequence was something of a picture; nothing now remained but to fix the proper temperature of the mercury - he coated his plate with simple iodine, its action is slow, requiring ten times as long as the present process, but for taking outdoor pictures it is the very best. Nearly all the improvements are only accelerators. Chlorine gas, and Chloride of Iodine were first introduced, Bromine was added, and of all accelerators it is the most powerful. Sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and muriatic acid, were added to hold down the spirits of Bromine, and keep it in solution. Some operators use Chloriform, and some, very few use Fluoric acid. The use of a second coating-box with accelerators, constitutes what is called "the London process" which is now universal. Perhaps the best accelerator or "quick stuff'" is that used by Mr. Evans - we give the receipt. Make lime water (rain water) of fresh unslacked lime one quart, filter, add bromine one ounce, chloride of Iodine one ounce, chloride of calcium six drachms, nitric acid two drachms, shake it up from time to time; when there remains nothing at the bottom of the phial but a white deposit like sugar, the union is complete; the cost is about two dollars, and it will last any good operator four years. For use it is diluted with two or three times its bulk of rain water; from one to two ounces of the diluted liquid will charge a battery, and when it grows weak recruit with about ten drops, once in two or three days.
Many use Bromine dry in cold weather made thus: Slake new lime, dry, and sift it fine, to about a pint in a glass stoppered phial, add bromine one drachm, shake it up until it is of one color, it is fit for use in six hours. We shall give other compounds in another paper, but there is no real advantage to be gained by them. We shall follow up the whole process in our future numbers and give our readers the whole truth, without reserve, feeling assured that our readers are possessed of too much good sense to become Daguerreans.
PHOTOGRAPHY - No. 2
(Issue missing)
PHOTOGRAPHY - No. 3
(Issue missing)
PHOTOGRAPHY - No. 4
Our former papers may be apt to lead our reader to think the art of Daguerreotyping an easy thing; but, simple as is plate cleaning, some considerable practice is necessary to attain it, for if it is slovenly performed, the buffs will soon become foul, and no good proofs will be obtained; dirty buffs will leave streaks upon the plate, like scratches. It is of the utmost importance that the buffs be kept dry and warm. Buffs may be cleaned with sand paper, or washed with a lye of sal soda; but washing makes them hard. If a plate is not well cleaned, after taking a picture, that picture will come out again, by burning, or over the mercury.
Some operators, especially beginners, are often in great trouble; they cannot do anything, and they wonder what the matter is. The first that has to bear the blame, is the quick-stuff; that of all things it is most innocent; the room may be damp, or cold, (a daguerrean room should be about 70) plates may be dirty, or commonly the buffs are damp or foul; some filter the mercury often, but many experienced operators prefer not to filter it. Many times the room after working some time, becomes filled with vapours of bromine and iodine, which obliterate the effects of the light; ammonia must then be sprinkled about to neutralize the bromic vapours. Vapours of mercury in the coating room are hurtful, that trouble should be avoided by keeping the mercury bottle at a distance. The iodine may be damp, and consequently make blue pictures; the iodine box is kept dry by keeping in it a small paper box of chloride of calcium, and burning it every two days, to dryness on an old plate. Chloride of calcium is made by dissolving in muriatic acid as much white marble clippings as the acid will carry; when all effervessance ceases, sift out the lumps, and evaporate to dryness; keep it in a close vial; when wanted burn to a dry mass, and put it in a pill box within the iodine box. In warm weather the iodic vapours rise so fast that it is necessary to set the box open a few minutes, and use ammonia plentifully.
The greatest trouble is in coating over the iodine; more than nine in ten never can learn to coat a plate. Once in a long while they make a good picture, but they know not how it is done, nor can they make another; they examine the coating, but forget that it changes color in the camera. Some have no eye for color; the advice to such is, go to work at anything else. Many have heartily repented their taking up the trade, and some have regretted having furnished the money. Good operators are very scarce - not one in a county. Botches have tramped all the comers, settlements, and villages, distributing their trash, lying, boasting, and detracting their predecessors. Many dub themselves Doctors or Professors; it would be some gratification to know what body gives professors' diplomas to daguerreans. We add some more recipes. A quick has been largely sold in Geneva made thus: Water one quart, filtered thro' chloride of lime, bromine one ounce, dry iodine six drams, muriatic acid and nitric acid each twelve drops. Another: Lime water one quart, bromine one ounce, chloride of iodine half an ounce, nitric acid half an ounce, chloriform 20 drops. Another, by Evans: Hydriodate of potassia 30 grains, chloride of calcium 30 scruples, bromine one ounce, water one pint, sulphuric acid forty drops. Our next will tell what Photography can do, and what it cannot do.
PHOTOGRAPHY - No. 5
We promised our readers that we would speak of the capabilities of Photography. That it can do, and has done wonders, no one doubts, but still, its powers are limited by the fixed laws of nature. Optics has its laws. The laws of the telescope and of the camera are under the same law as the human eye. One of its most obvious laws, is this. The distance of the lens from the retina, is in reverse proportion to the distance of the lens from the object seen. Let anyone look through a small spy glass, and he will discover that in order to view more distant objects the slide must be pressed in, and for nearer objects drawn out. The daguerreotype will give all within the range of its focus, and everything short of, or beyond that distance will be imperfect. Witness the difficulty of getting good hands. Let a young lady sit with bare arms, and her arm from the elbow advanced in front, the result will be a slim arm, and the fore arm enlarged, while the hand resembles the knot of a huge club, verily the art cannot foreshorten a limb. Nature has denied the power of transmitting color, or what is worse, she has given some colors more power over light than others. Red, green, and yellow give black; while blue, purple, and pink mark white. Blue and white take a inverse order; light blue marks white, and white marks blue, and this is not the worst of it; let a lady lay her hand upon her white dress, and she will have a dingy thumb, and four sad smutty fingers; the drapery absorbs all the light. Ladies should never sit in blue, purple, or white. For taking landscapes the same trouble attends - black trees and white skies. So much for color.
The daguerreotype can give the true expression of a rigid, frozen, tight screwed countenance; lips that want moistening, and evidently are longing for liberty, eyes that have stared themselves out of countenance, and are glimmering with rheum and agony, and muscles that long for relaxation. Compare the prints of our great men, engraved after daguerreotypes, with those after paintings. In the last, the painter gives the man with fire of genius and the glow of conscious power impressed upon his countenance. The daguerrean has stiffened him down into a mere lump of common clay.
A smile is an evanescent thing, the play of the moment; now dimpling, now filling and re-dimpling; hold it fast, freeze it on, keep it there forty seconds, and it is the grin of an idiot. An artist may catch it in its flight, and fix it on the canvas, but consummate skill only can hold it there, and yet let reason hold her seat upon the brow. The daguerreotype can take a corpse to perfection. We have nothing to condemn in those whose love of departed friends is so ardent, that they will rather have the sacred relics hoisted into an arm chair; or propped up against a board with a jacket buttoned around, or a shawl and cap, than forego an unnatural and heart sickening shadow of mortality. Not one in twenty times do we find the light and other circumstances for an operation. The daguerreotype has no soul, no life, no poetry, no invention, it can copy but it cannot originate; rigid, limited matter-of-fact imitation is its almost scope.
Its coming was hailed as a blessing, we looked upon its baby efforts with delight; but its full manhood sickened us with its perfection. Once its professors were men of science, but now what are they, but ignorant, lazy, half mechanics? The market is glutted, the thing is too common for gentry and plain, common working people cannot afford it. People begin to blush at showing their pictures, as if there was any good reason to be ashamed.
We shall next speak of the calling in a pecuniary point of view.
PHOTOGRAPHY - No. 6
A few words upon the pecuniary prospects of a daguerrean, must close the subject of Photography. There was a time, and there is now a time, when a daguerrean office and a land office might, and may claim the same proverb - each has been a crowd and a desert. It was no uncommon thing for a man to make $50 per week. They had good business and large profits. Common size plates then cost $4 per dozen, and cases the same; pictures sold at $4. Now plates are $2 for mediums, $3,25 for quarters, $3 half size, $12 whole size; common medium cases $1,75 and velvet cases $3,50; so that the cost of a medium is about 30 cents, and a quarter 60 cents. Our readers may think $1,50 too much for a picture, but there are losses in plates worn out, expense in furnishing rooms, travelling about with heavy baggage, expensive boarding and room-rent. An operator, (artist is an arrogation) cannot travel and practice for less than $250 per annum. The plain truth is this, the country is overstocked with lazy, tramping picture-makers, and the people are disgusted at the picture makers, and totally indifferent to the pictures. In Rochester the price is down to 50 cents, complete in case, or 25 cents with paper border and glass, and good pictures too. One of the best operators in the State, (McAllaster of Penn Yan) charges but $1. Many cannot make a living. The writer has sunk $100 in fifteen months, and could name another who has sunk as much in one third of the time. The motive in writing these papers is to warn the uninitiated, and to recall others from so poor a speculation. Many bright young men have built their aerial castles upon photography, have been lulled into dreams of money-making, by some lying operator, whose object was to fleece them out of $20 or $30 in exchange for the golden secret.
Young men of weak constitution should not embark in it. Buffing plates is hard labor, much too heavy for females. Vapors of mercury, highly corrosive acids, iodine and bromine, are very injurious to people of weak lungs. A good daguerrean must be a man of an industrious, indomitable spirit; one not easily discouraged, for he will have need of patience. His visitors have but little conscience, and he must not be surprised if he labors half a day and is then told by his patients, that they only wanted to see how they looked. Some few are honest enough to tell him at first that they have no other object. It is very common to have pictures brought back in consequence of some trifling ribbon, lace, breast pin, chain, &c. An operator must retake his ladies, every time they have a new dress, without looking for any fee. The ladies, dear creatures, intend no imposition; they have no idea of the labor or cost, it looks like nothing but fun to them. Another source of sorrow to a gentlemen is the fact, that he must entertain any number of boys and loafers; he must suffer his carpet and stove to be dappled with mud, tobacco juice, quids and stumps of cigars, and so must they who furnish him a room nice enough to entertain gentler society. A daguerrean has no privacy, and but little control in his room; visitors very often spoil his best works by wiping them, when his back is turned.
In conclusion, the trade is full of hearttroubles, disappointments, labor, idleness and weary watching. A good painting is a lasting honor to an artist, and the world admits it; but photography reflects no honor on its professors; it is a hobby that will breakdown with its rider, and land him in a vale of poverty. A young man will contract habits of idleness, and will become, like an old soldier, fit for nothing but to tend bar, black boots, or porter about a tavern stable.
W. T.