1049
paratus of his uncle. This apparatus includes a lens of
15 cm focus, turning on itself. The sensitive glass plate
must follow the lens in its movement while being main-
tained constantly in relation to him and equal distance.
Instead of the lens alone, all the camera turns around
the pivot fi xed under the axis of the objective thanks
to a mechanism of casters. The frame carries the glass
plate in a carriage to casters and turns too. The plate
presents thus successively all the parts of its surface at
the narrow slit. The rotating movement can be regulated
by means of a mechanism or be directed by hand, which
makes it possible to prolong or decrease the installation
according to the light. The apparatus can thus carry out
a whole review; very clear iamges are obtained. The
disadvantages of this apparatus are the slowness of the
preparation of the glass plates, their weight and their
brittleness.
In 1858, Garella improved his fi rst apparatus, re-
sulting in a type close to that of Martens Schuller. The
same year, Ross manufactured in London an apparatus
designed by Sutton, for curved plates and provided with
an angular large objective of 120°. In the 1860s, the in-
ventions multiplied. In 1862 the patent of the pantoscope
of Johnson and Harrison in London was registered, for
plates with collodion; to the exposition of the Société
française de photographie of 1865, Brandon exhibited a
panorama taken on top of the Saint-Jacob Tower in Paris,
with this apparatus. In 1865, Martens, who continued
to improve his invention, obtained a view on only one
negative, of a great clarity. In 1867, the Abbé Rolin
presented at the SFP a panoramic apparatus allowing
the creation of several partial shots forming a panorama,
on the same plate.
In these fi rst three categories of images the principal
photographers of the years 1850–1870 illustrated them-
selves, who saw in the panorama a technical challenge;
one could see many examples of them in the exposures
(panoramas of cities, of mountains) signed Baldus,
Bisson, Braun, Gray (scene of Châlons), Marville for
France, Hill and Adamson for the United Kingdom.
In addition to insistence on the effect of the illusion
produced, criticisms generally commented on the ho-
mogeneity of the tone and the connection between the
prints. The World Fairs, which emphasized the wonders
of nature and the richness of the colonial empires, and
which resorted to the new medium, exhibited many
panoramas. In 1851, Martens was distinguished at the
Great Exhibition in London for his panoramic images onPANORAMIC PHOTOGRAPHY
Langenheim, William; Frederick Langenheim. Panorama of the Falls of Niagara.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005 (2005.100.495) Image © The
Metropolitan Museum of Art.