152
1908, Knight of the Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazare
of Italy; 1913, Commander of the Order of St. Maurice
and St. Lazare of Italy; 1913, Commander of the Order
of Isabella the Catholic of Spain. He also received the
Drummond Castle medal. Following a long battle with
pernicious anemia, Bertillon died on 13 February 1914.
He was buried with national honors in the family vault
in the cemetery at Père-Lachaise.
Further Reading
Bertillon, Alphonse. Instructions for Taking Descriptions for
the Identifi cation of Criminals and Others. New York: rpt.
AMS Press, 1977.
Bertillon, Alphonse. Signaletic Instructions Including the Theory
and Practice of Anthropometrical Identifi cation. Chicago:
The Werner Co., 1896.
Cole, Simon A. Suspect Identities: A History of Fingerprinting
and Criminal Identifi cation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Uni-
versity Press, 2001.
Rhodes, Henry T. F. Alphonse Bertillon: Father of Scientifi c
Detection. New York: Abeland-Schuman, 1956.
BERTSCH, AUGUSTE NICOLAS
(1813–1870)
French amateur photographer and civil engineer
Auguste Bertsch became a well known fi gure in photog-
raphy. Bertsch invested little time in the daguerreotype
during the 1840s, but that interest became more focused
in 1851 during the second era of his photographic ca-
reer, which spanned nearly twenty years. A few months
after the dissemination of Englishman Frederick Scott
Archer’s negative process on glass, Bertsch put on sale
a more sensitive collodion, which attempted instanta-
neous photography. The columns in the newspaper La
Lumière created enthusiasm and controversy which
centered around Bertsch’s process but it was not long
before he published the instructions of his process. In
1852 he submitted a patent application for a clever,
but still imperfect shutter. This shutter included a
mechanical and rotary system which was improved
during the 1880s.
Nadar made great use of Bertsch’s collodion from
- At that time Bertsch’s associate Camille d’
Arnaud, former newspaper writer, artist and friend of
Nadar’s as well, tried photography. Both Bertsch and d’
Arnaud presented some images at Société française de
photographie (SFP) in 1857, those of which included
a few of the actress Adélaïde Ristori and the zoologist
Henri Milne-Edwards.
Appreciated for their general clarity, and their sharp
and soft lighting, their images did not promise, a long
career in the fi eld. Their workshop, established in 1855
in a laboratory located above Bertsch’s apartment, which
was unfortunately close to Pigalle’s, did not have the
acclaim of the other studios on the grand boulevards
which catered to the Parisian middle-class. From 1854
to 1857, Bertsch’s collaboration with d’ Arnaud was
rather profi table with successes such as the portrait
of the Félicité priest on Lamennais on his deathbed,
in 1854 in the Historical Musée of the town of Paris;
of their instantaneous photography, like the image of
pedestrians infront of the Blanche place, 1855, SFP;
and of reproduction of engravings, and scientifi c pho-
tography (SFP).
Additionally, they attempted twice to produce im-
ages of an eclipse. They used the new glasses of Porro
to photograph the moon eclipse on October 13th, 1856.
The moon eclipsed itself little by little, and proved to be
another occasion which illustrated the great sensitivity
of Bertsch’s collodion. On July 18 1860 they tried to
photograph the multiple phases of a total lunar eclipse
in Paris.
In addition to their interest with lunar photography,
the microscopic world too was often under their me-
ticulous observation. Several images are stamped dat-
ing to their collaboration, however, photomicrography
was Bertsch’s fi eld which from 1851 to 1870, he most
favored. Focused on optics and natural science, his
advanced techniques enabled him to acheive results
which exceeded what had been currently attempted at
the time. He used the wet collodion process on glass
with great dexterity, and reached exposure times of a
tenth of a second according to his records. Moreover,
the transparency of the glass, which combined reproduc-
ibility and smoothness of the image, adapted better to
the photography of the infi nitely small than that of the
single plate daguerreotype (Foucault) or the less distinct
calotype (Talbot).
The clarity of his stereotypes was also due to the
quality of his solar microscopes, which used achromatic
lenses which reduced spherical aberration, and they were
sometimes fi tted with a polarizer. Bertsch built these
between 1852 and 1861, in conjuction with professor
Hartnack’s knowledge and aid in1857. Capable of prov-
ing undeniable evidence in the microscopic fi eld, these
photographs were, for Bertsch, the means of improving
the scientifi c community. Now photographic proof of
observations under the microscope could support or
discredit theories. Scientifi c discredits were often the
result of exaggerated and whimsical conclusions of
certain negligent scientists. Acarina, the apparatus caus-
ing the phosphorescent glow of the glow-worm, cuts of
wood, red globules, diatoms, and crystals were many
subjects which when maginifi ed from 50 to 500 times,
illuminated under direct, oblique, monochromatic or