445
Further Reading
Coppens, Jan, Laurent Roosens and Karel Van Deuren, “Door
de enkele werking van het licht”: introductie en integratie
van de fotografi e in België en Nederland [“By the sole ac-
tion of light”: Introduction and Integration of Photography in
Belgium and The Netherlands], Antwerp: Gemeentekrediet,
1989.
Joseph, Steven F., and Tristan Schwilden, Le Chevalier L.P.T.
Dubois de Nehaut (1799–1872): sa vie et son oeuvre [Le
Chevalier L.P.T. Dubois de Nehaut (1799–1872): his life and
work], Brussels: Crédit Communal, 1987.
Joseph, Steven F., Tristan Schwilden and Marie-Christine Claes,
Directory of Photographers in Belgium 1839–1905, Antwerp
and Rotterdam: Uitgeverij C. de Vries-Brouwers, 1997.
Sosson, Jean-Pierre, “Les primitifs fl amands de Bruges et les
premiers albums de reproduction photographiques” [Flem-
ish primitives in Bruges and the fi rst albums of photographic
copies], Bulletin de l’Institut royal du patrimoine artistique,
8 (1965): 223–231.
Van Goethem, Herman, Photography and Realism in the 19th
Century. Antwerp: the Oldest Photographs 1847–1880, Ant-
werp: Ronny Van de Velde, 1999.
Vercheval, Georges (editor), Pour une histoire de la photographie
en Belgique [Contributions to a History of Photography in
Belgium], Charleroi: Musée de la Photographie, 1993.
DUBOSCQ, LOUIS JULES (1817–1886)
French optical and photographic equipment manu-
facturer. Born at Villennes, northern France in 1817,
Jules Duboscq was apprenticed in May 1834 to the
Parisian optician Jean-Baptiste François Soleil, who
had inherited the business from his father François. In
1839 Duboscq married one of J.B.F. Soleil’s daughters.
Soleil’s workshops were at 30 rue Monsieur-le-Prince.
The public store was at 35 (later 21) rue de l’Odeon,
and stock included lantern slides, anorthoscopes (instru-
ments for displaying image distortion effects), as well
as oxy-hydrogen limelight, and electrical illuminants.
When J.B.F. Soleil retired in 1849, Duboscq took over
the instrument workshop; the workshop for lenses was
run by Soleil’s son Henri.
From 1849 Duboscq produced optical effects—sun-
rise, a rainbow—at the Paris Opera, by means of an
electrical arc lamp. At a time when screen projection
was taking on considerable signifi cance in scientifi c and
lecturing circles, with the introduction of photographic
slides and projection of scientifi c experiments, Duboscq
was producing important projection apparatus. The
‘Lanterne Photogénique’ of 1850 featured a carbon arc
with electrical regulator, designed by Léon Foucault
and improved by Duboscq. This was a very early use of
electricity as an optical lantern illuminant, which was
chiefl y used for microscopic projection, demonstrations
of polarisation and of the spectrum.
Duboscq made and offered for sale a number of dif-
ferent models of projecting phenakistiscopes, with short
cyclic motion sequences featuring images based on de-
signs used with the familiar viewing device for opaque
cardboard discs. With Duboscq’s novel mechanism
placed in front of an optical lantern the color sequences,
painted in translucent colors on glass, could now be seen
in motion on the screen.
Following Charles Wheatstone’s invention of the
stereoscope David Brewster devised a box-form version,
but was unable to interest any of the British instrument
makers in manufacturing stereoscopes to his design. In
1850 while visiting Paris, Brewster was introduced to
Duboscq by the Abbé Moigno, an advocate for educa-
tional uses of new optical methods. Brewster showed
the instrument to Duboscq, and the fi rm began manu-
facturing the stereoscope, developing several models
incorporating improvements.
Duboscq also provided daguerreotype views for these
stereoscopes, initially taking two exposures sequentially
with a single camera moved horizontally between ex-
posures. The stereoscope became immensely popular
following the Great Exhibition of 1851 at the Crystal
Palace in London, where Queen Victoria reportedly
enjoyed the device and, according to some sources,
was presented with a Duboscq stereoscope. He was
soon able to offer stereoviews on daguerreotype plates,
glass, and paper. Lists included busts of notable public
fi gures, statues, and natural history. A small number of
outdoor views by Claude Marie Ferrier comprise the
earliest stereoscopic images of Paris. Duboscq patented
the device in February 1852, French patent no. 13,069;
with no mention of Wheatstone or Brewster. (But with
an 1857 lawsuit, Duboscq lost his monopoly for the
stereosope). Historian Paolo Brenni considers that
Duboscq is today “considered a real master of early
photographic still life.”
In an addition to the stereoscope patent, Duboscq
mentioned the Stereo-Fantascope or Bioscope, a
viewer for showing animated stereoscopic photographs.
Twelve or more pairs of photographic images were
placed around a cardboard disc, the images of each
pair arranged one above the other. The pictures could
be viewed through two small angled mirrors. Duboscq
advertised several models of his ‘Bioscope’ device, but
the fact that no example is known to exist indicates very
limited sales. The only known example of a surviving
Bioscope disc came to light in the 1990s, and is in the
Museum of the History of Science, University of Ghent,
Belgium. It features sequential albumen photographs of
a steam engine. The prominent French physicist Jules
Antoine Lissajous stated: ‘This apparatus which is par-
ticularly remarkable because it represents the solution
to a diffi cult problem has, unfortunately, no chance of
being sold in quantity, since the number of the pictures
needed is very considerable: not less than 32 pictures
[actually 24] are required.’ Ironically, the eventual suc-
cess of sequential motion pictures would, of course,