1257
by observing temperature change, and he forecast the
likelihood of detecting energy in the “lavender” region
of the spectrum (i.e., ultra violet radiation.). When the
ultra violet spectrum was eventually recorded in 1864, it
was the precursor for twentieth-century studies in atomic
structure ... and later, in 1935, ultra violet radiation
was supplanted by the electron beam and a new style of
microscopy evolved.
In 1851, Talbot demonstrated “an instantaneous pho-
togenic image” to the members of the Royal Institution
by exposing a page of The Times (which was fastened
to a rotating drum) to the light from an electric spark.
The relationship between photography and time now
developed in different ways. High-speed photography
had its derivation in the pistol camera of Thomas Skaife
who made modifi cations that allowed him to capture
what he termed the “epochs of time, inappreciable to
our natural unaided organ of vision ...”
Advances to the dry plate fulfi lled the specifi ca-
tion for recording shock waves. In 1888, Ernst Mach
adapted August Töpler’s schlieren layout and succeeded
in preserving the distinctive patterns of currents that
surrounded a bullet in fl ight. In 1893, CV Boys was
engaged in studies intended to demonstrate the effects
of a projectile (bullets) striking different materials, such
as glass and metal. Photography was now providing a
range of ideas on which to base experiments, to record
sequences, and to compare results, all with certainty
and confi dence.
Photography offered other ways of capturing time.
Experiments, which preceded the development of cin-
ematography, exploited the ability to capture movement,
and Eadweard Muybridge used photography when he set
up a series of cameras in 1872 to study the motion of a
horse. Success encouraged him to reduce exposure times
and thus eliminate blur, by improving his chemistry and
equipment. By 1878, he had secured sequences of horses
walking, trotting, and galloping, men running and leap-
ing, women dancing, doves in fl ight, water splashing and
suffi cient experience to synthesise his multiple images
into an apparent single moving picture.
In France, Etienne Jules Marey, a physiologist,
improved the idea and designed cameras for recording
sequences on a single plate. His “chronophotography”
was applied to many motion studies—locomotion, aero-
dynamics, vibration, blood circulation and heartbeats.
When the Englishmen, William Frieze Greene, modifi ed
a magic lantern around 1886, he introduced a rotating
shutter and four lenses to capture images, which gave
the impression of movement.
Subsequent improvements to emulsions, to lighting
and to timing equipment provided the basis of scientifi c
techniques that continued into the heart of the next
century, but some nineteenth-century investigators
struck out in a different direction. They had realised
the merits of using sensitised photographic material as
a “self-recording” method, which would automatically
indicate changes to the quality of light and other phe-
nomena. Captain William de Wiveleslie Abney equipped
a “sunshine recorder” with a discrete hole through which
sunlight smeared its image on slowly-moving piece
sensitive paper. To analyse the quality of daylight, Vero
Charles Driffi eld modifi ed the actinometer patented
by his colleague, Dr. Ferdinand Hurter, and collected
“daily diagrams of light” for twelve months during 1885
and 1886. From the mass of data, now accumulated on
bromide paper, the two men designed the Actinograph
exposure calculator.
Anxious to explore the solar spectrum (and improve
the characteristics of dry plates for solar photography),
Abney registered evidence of infrared radiation by
directing sunshine, via the spectroscope, onto his pho-
tographic plate (1880). He had been confi dent “there are
some faint rays which lie below the limit of the red.”
Eventually (1930), special plates were sensitised for
infrared photography.SCIENTIFIC PHOTOGRAPHY
Duchenne, Guillaume-Benjamin. Mechanisme de la
Physionomie Humaine ou Analyse Electro-Physiologique de
l’Expression des Passions.
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles © The J. Paul Getty
Museum.