170
as a scientifi c journalist across several different fi elds.
He coined the term ‘detective camera,’ demonstrating
his own design in 1879 and edited several important
photographic periodicals during the 1880s and 1890s
and authored a number of popular photographic books.
He died in Wimbledon on 1 March 1932.
Thomas Bolas was born in 1848 and in 1862 he
entered the laboratory of the Medical School of Char-
ing Cross Hospital working under Charles W Heaton
who had just been appointed professor of chemistry. He
remained at the hospital until 1876 becoming a member
of the teaching staff and spending much of his time
between 1865 and 1872 in the laboratory of Dr John
Stenhouse FRS where he also worked alongside Raphael
Meldola, a later photographic chemist and author.
From 1872 Bolas was primarily involved in private
chemical practice and scientifi c journalism in particular
in the fi elds of photography, printing, glues, rubber and
railways. He was a regular contributor the Journal of the
Chemical Society, Chemical News, the Journal of the
Photographic Society, Photographic News, and other
technical journals as well as a frequent lecturer across
all these subjects. He delivered the Cantor Lectures to
the Society of Arts on Photography in 1878, on India
Rubber (1880), Industrial Uses of Calcium Compounds
(1881), Photo-Mechanical Printing (1884) and Stereo-
typing (1890). He was a Fellow of both the Institute of
Chemistry and Chemical Society. He was the author of
an article on Indiarubber (sic) for the ninth edition of
the Encyclopaedia Britannica and produced a handbook
on glass blowing, an area in which he was particularly
skilled, in 1898.
Photography seems to have been a particular interest
to Bolas at a time when it was still possible for individu-
als to make contributions to photographic chemistry
and theory outside of a formal academic or commercial
laboratory. He joined the Photographic Society in 1875
and played a prominent role in the Society’s activities
for many years.
Bolas constructed and demonstrated a hand or ‘detec-
tive’ camera at the Photographic Society in late 1880
which he had designed to make use of the newly intro-
duced and more sensitive gelatino-bromide plates. The
design which was reported in the Journal of the Photo-
graphic Society on January 21 1881 described a camera
with separate viewing and taking lenses (essentially a
twin lens refl ex camera) enclosed within a wood box
with room for thirteen double dark slides. The camera
measured 12 inches square by 5 inches deep and Bolas
showed photographs of London street life taken with
it. The camera’s design ensured that it could be used
without being detected by the subject and the design was
taken up by the Criminal Investigation Department of
Scotland Yard. The camera was further refi ned by Bolas
who introduced a cylindrical shutter to the camera which
was the subject of a provisional British patent number
4823 of 3 November 1881. The term ‘detective camera’
coined by Bolas was quickly adopted by other makers
of box form hand cameras and was widely used until the
late 1890s. Bolas’s own design does not appear to have
been produced commercially and other similar designs,
notably the Schmidt Detective camera patented in the
United States in 1883 and numerous British designs
quickly achieved popularity.
Bolas experimented at an early date with using burning
aluminium leaf metal in oxygen in 1893 although little
was to come of this for widespread photographic fl ash
lighting until 1925. In conjunction with a lecture-demon-
stration on ‘The Physics and Chemistry of Development’
given by him at the Cordwainer’s Hall on 11 March 1895
to the Photographic Society and published in the Journal
on 30 April1895 Bolas made the fi rst Hertzian or wireless
signal transmission in the City of London.
Bolas edited the Photographic News from 1884, after
Henry Baden Pritchard’s death until 1891 during which
time he gave the journal a greater emphasis on the sci-
ence of photography. He edited the associated Year Book
of Photography from 1885 until 1893. He also published
his own journal The Photographic Review from 6 July
1889 until 18 January 1890 to provide ‘a weekly com-
mentary on photographic progress.’ Publication resumed
from February 1890 with a new editor and publisher. He
edited the seventh and eighth editions of Wall’s Diction-
ary of Photography and wrote two popular books for the
large photographic retailer and manufacturer Marion &
Co.: The Photographic Studio. A Guide to its construc-
tion, design and the Selection of a Locality (1895) and
A Handbook of Photography in Colours (1900). He also
wrote other photographic books.
Bolas was described by the British Journal Photo-
graphic Almanac as ‘a most original character with an
immense fund of knowledge and whimsical humour’
with an encyclopaedic knowledge of photographic and
photo-mechanical work.
He ceased to be a member of the Royal Photographic
Society several years before his death and made few con-
tributions to photography in the twentieth century. He
died in Wimbledon on 1 March 1932 aged 85 years.
Michael PritchardBOLDYRJEV, IVAN VASILJEVICH
(c. 1848–1898)
Amateur photographer, inventor
Ivan Vasiljevich Boldyrjev was born into the family of
a Don kazak. In the sources one can fi nd various dates
of birth, from 1848 to 1850. When he was 18 years
old he moved to Novocherkssk and became apprentice
photographer at a studio.