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require many hundreds of photographs to achieve even
a monoscopic result.
Duboscq’s 1853 book Règles pratiques pour la photog-
raphie [Practical Rules for Photography[ includes details
of his various types of apparatus. In July 1854 he gave a
lantern demonstration at the famous Royal Polytechnic
Institution in London, well-known as a venue for public
demonstrations of new developments in the image projec-
tion fi eld. Duboscq devised an early version of the vertical
projector—known today as the overhead projector—for
the projection of objects which could only be placed in
a horizontal position. Duboscq’s prismatic model was
demonstrated in the 1860s, and took the form of a separate
attachment to be used with any lantern.
Other photographic advances included improvements
to collodion plates, and an 1861 idea, the polychrono-
graph camera attachment for producing a large number
of small pictures on a single plate. Duboscq also made
René Dagron’s equipment for producing and project-
ing microphotographs, including early ‘microfilm’
(gelatine-based microphotographs) used during the
1870 Seige of Paris.
In July 1879 Duboscq, with his nephew and son-in-
law Albert Alexis Duboscq, formed the business into a
short-lived company. In July 1885 he formed another
company with engineer Philibért-François Pellin. Du-
boscq died in 1886. Pellin and his son Félix Marie
continued the tradition of high quality optical work well
into the 20th century.
Stephen Herbert
Biography
Louis Jules Duboscq was born at Villennes (Seine-et-
Oise), northern France, March 5, 1817. His father was
a cobbler. After marrying (in 1839) Rosalie Jeanne
Josephine Soleil, one of the daughters of his employer
J.B.F. Soleil, Louis Jules Duboscq became an integral
part of the fi rm, and eventually took over a major part
of the business. Certainly one of the most talented and
respected optical instrument makers of the 19th century,
Duboscq’s instruments were to be found in laboratories
and cabinets throughout Europe. His brother Theodore
was for many years the fi rm’s technical director. An Of-
fi cer of the Legion of Honour, Duboscq died September
24, 1886. A photographic portrait, and a useful Soleil-
Duboscq family tree, appear in the comprehensive ar-
ticle 19th Century French Scientifi c Instrument Makers.
XIII: Soleil, Duboscq, and Their Successors.
See also: Wheatstone, Charles; Brewster, Sir David;
Stereoscopy; Great Exhibition of the Works of
Industry of All Nations, Crystal Palace, Hyde Park
(1851); and Leon, Moyse & Levy, Issac, Ferrier,
Claude-Marie, and Charles Soulier; and Moigno,
Abbe.
Further Reading
Brenni, Paolo, “19th Century French Scientifi c Instrument Mak-
ers. XIII: Soleil, Duboscq, and Their Successors,” in: Bulletin
of the Scientifi c Instrument Society, .o. 51, 1996.
Dorikens, Maurice, Joseph Plateau 1801–1883. Living between
Art and Science. Belgium: Provincie Oost-Vlaanderen 2001.
Gosser, H. Mark, Selected attempts at stereoscopic moving
pictures and their relationship to the development of motion
picture technology, 1852–1903. New York: Arno 1977.
Hecht, Hermann, Pre-Cinema History. An Encyclopaedia and
Annotated Bibliography of the Moving Image Before 1896,
Ann Hecht, ed. London: British Film Institute / Bowker Saur
1993.
Mannoni, Laurent, “Duboscq, Louis Jules,” in: Encyclopaedia of
the Magic Lantern, London: Magic Lantern Society 2001.
Mannoni, Laurent (Trans. Richard Crangle), The Great Art of
Light and Shadow: Archaeology of the Cinema. Exeter: Uni-
versity of Exeter Press 2000.
Reynaud, Françoise, Paris in 3D. From stereoscopy to virtual
reality 1850–2000, Catherine Tambrun, Kim Timby (Eds.).
Paris: Booth-Clibborn Editions / Musée Carnavelet, Museum
of the History of Paris 2000.DUCHENNE, GUILLAUME-BENJAMIN-
AMANT (1806–1875)
French electrophysiologistThe great achievement of Guillaume-Benjamin-Armand
Duchenne was to bring together three of the most impor-
tant developments of the nineteenth century: electricity,
physiology, and photography. Duchenne’s photography
also embraced medicine and neurology, evolution,
physiognomic typology, and the education of artists.
Descended from generations of seafarers, Duchenne
took up medical studies in Paris in 1836, practiced
in his natal town Boulogne-sur-Mer from 1831, and
returned to Paris in 1842. An outstanding neurologist
and diagnostician who specialized in the application
of electricity to the body as a method of neurological
investigation and therapy, Duchenne had no offi cial
hospital position. Yet he was welcome at the important
Paris hospitals, his experiments eagerly followed by
the most important practitioners of the time including
J.-M. Charcot, founder in 1878 of the fi rst photographic
laboratory at the Salpêtrière hospital where Duchenne
did much of his work.
Duchenne was the inventor and master of localized
faradization: the use of an induction current applied to
the body with an electrode so skillfully that he could
stimulate a single muscle at a time without piercing
the skin. His results were signifi cant: they included the
location of the origin of certain muscular diseases; the
identifi cation of one of these affl ictions, “Duchenne’s
myopathy,” a form of muscular dystrophy; the individu-
ation of the facial muscles and the contribution each
made to facial expression. By expanding the use of
electricity from a painful instrument of medical remedy