491
J.F. Campbell’s 1865 enlarger was the fi rst vertical
design, built into the studio roof and gathering day-
light from above. The vertical enlarger, illuminated by
artifi cal light, would not become commonplace until
the 1890s.
Alphonse Liébert’s enlarging apparatus was intro-
duced at about the same time, and was used by fellow
photographer Nadar to create his fi rst enlargements that
same year. Liébert’s design eschewed refl ected light
in favour of direct solar illumination, while retaining
a geared drive system—hand-cranked—to keep the
condenser lens pointing directly towards the sun. This
direct illumination system signifi cantly reduced expo-
sure times.
Gaston Tissandier, writing in the second edition of
his History and Handbook of Photography, translated by
John Thomson, noted that “enlargements, it is true, offer
certain inconveniences; the details of the enlarged proof
have often a disagreeable effect; they are exaggerated
and seem as though seen under a magnifying glass. It
would, however, be unjust, in spite of these defects, to
underrate the importance of the results obtained.
Perhaps because of these ‘defects’—presumably
grain and imperfections in the collodion coating of
the negative—solar enlargements, on to either paper
or canvas, were often over-painted by studio artists,
creating a combination of photography and painting
which was sometimes highly successful, but often
rather less so!
In the 1870s, numerous photographers advertised
this service—offering enlargements from carte-de-visite
prints and daguerreotypes as well as existing negatives.
Typically, prices in London ranged from two shillings
for a 10 × 8 print, up to three pounds for a life size
bust “fi nished in oils.” In 1878, R. L. Elliot & Co., of
London’s King’s Road advertised that they could pro-
duce prints up to 25" × 20" from quarter plate negatives.
Elliot’s particular boast was that his enlargements were
made using limelight – an illuminant fi rst suggested by
John Benjamin Dancer.
The combination of the relatively fast bromide
and chloride papers as a replacement for albumen in
the 1880s, and more effi cient light sources, spurred
a number of developments in enlarger design. Early
artifi cial light enlargers were horizontal, looking much
like lantern slide projectors, with the image projected on
to an easel. With light sources such as limelight, gas or
kerosene, the equipment was fi tted with complex light
baffl es and a tall chimney to vent the noxious fumes out
of the darkroom.
As the new century dawned, electric lighting was
starting to make inroads into daily life and electrically
powered enlargers became available, albeit at a very high
price compared with their oil or gas-fi red alternatives.
John HannavySee also: Bedford, Francis; Dancer, John Benjamin;
Liébert, Alphonse J.; Nadar (Gaspard-Félix
Tournachon); Quinet, Achille; Stanhopes; and
Tissandier, Gaston.Further Reading
Gernsheim, Helmut, The Rise of Photography 1850–1880, Lon-
don: Thames & Hudson, 1988.
Jones, Bernard E, Encyclopedia of Photography, London: Cas-
sell, 1911.
Reprinted New York: Arno Press, 1974.
Scott, Jean Stanhopes A Closer View—A History And Handbook
For Collectors Of Microphotographic Novelties, Greenlight
Publishing, 2002.
Tissandier, Gaston (translated by John Thomson), History and
Handbook of Photography, London: Sampson, Low, Mar-
ston, Searle & Rivington, 1878, reprinted New York: Arno
Press, 1973.
Van Monckhoven, Desiré, Photographic Optics, London: Robert
Hardwicke, 1867, reprinted New York, Arno Press, 1979.
Wall, E.J., Dictionary of Photography, London: Hazel, Watson
& Viney, 1897.ENSLEN, JOHANN CARL (1759–1848)
When Johann Carl Enslen took up photography at the
beginning of 1839 at the age of 80, and became the fi rst
person to make photographic paper prints in Germany,
he had already retired—twice—from a career as one
of the most remarkable showmen of his generation.
His earlier career(s) exemplifi ed the same curiosity
and skilled craftsmanship that he brought late in life
to photography. At the age of 22 and seemingly with-
out prior experience, he built a montgolfi ère 80 feet
high, in which his fi nancier François Xavier Adorne
made the 11th successful manned baloon fl ight from
the Finkmatt in Strasbourg on 15 May 1784. Between
1785 and 1800 he travelled throughout Europe with
an astonishing collection of fl ying sculptures, intricate
aerostatic fi gures in life-size and over-life-size made
from gold-beaters’ skins that were a pinnacle of rococo
design and were exhibited hung from threads in large
halls with the circulation of an admiring public below
causing just enough of a draft that they swayed gently
in the air. If the circumstances were right, meaning that
tickets could be controlled or underwriters be found,
Enslen released his fi gures in “air hunts” across the
city: one performance in Berlin in 1796 attracted some
80,000 of the town’s 121,000 inhabitants, and equally
extraordinarly crowds were found in London, Vienna,
and other cities for his air chases involving a wild boar
chased by two dogs, and a stag chased by another dog
with a man on horseback behind. His fi gures, some 30
of which fi tted neatly into a hand satchel, also included
Mercury, an Aerial Nymph, and Cupid, with the goddess
Diana seated in a Roman coach led by two stags hisENSLEN, JOHANN CARL
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