1054
than drawing and was the fi rst to demonstrate the use
of photography in archaeology and to use magnesium
lighting for photography by artifi cial light. From 1866
onwards he commissioned the Italian photographers,
Giovan Battista Colamedici, Carlo Baldassarre Simelli,
Francesco Sidoli, Filippo Lias, De Bonis and Filippo
Spina as well as the Canadian, Charles Smeaton, to
document the ‘Antiquities of Rome from the Classical
Age to 1600.’ In 1869 his catalogue had 1500 images
and by 1879 boasted 3391 which he published in re-
productions, issued in 12 parts from 1874–1878 as The
Archaeology of Rome. A set of actual photographs was
offered in 1879 as A Catalogue of Three Thousand Three
Hundred Photographs of Antiquities in Rome and Italy.
The majority of the plates however were lost in a fi re
in 1893 and there are only three nearly complete sets
of the photographic prints known, one is at the British
School at Rome.
Alistair Crawford
PARKES, ALEXANDER (1813–1890)
English inventor
Alexander Parkes, the originator of over eighty patents
during his career, covering a range of inventions in
metallurgy, rubber, vulcanisation, and plastics, was born
in Birmingham, the fourth of eight children, and would
eventually have twenty children of his own—eight by
his fi rst wife, twelve by his second.
Parkesine, the invention for which bears his name, was
the fi rst plastic material based on cellulose nitrate, and
was introduced during the 1862 International Exhibition
in London. As such, it predated and predicted the massive
plastic industry which has emerged subsequently. Indeed,
Parkes anticipated many of the uses to which cellulose-
based plastics might eventually be applied.
Four years later, in 1866, he established The Parke-
sine Company to market the material, and an alternative
to rubber, or the gutta-percha and shellac-based thermo-
plastics which were then in vogue. The company was
based in Hackney Wick in London.
Despite the great expectations Parkes had for his new
material, The Parkesine Company ceased manufacture
after only two years, and closed with signifi cant debts.
Parkes had anticipated being able to market the mate-
rial at a price of less than a shilling per pound, a target
which proved unachievable.
His work, however, laid the foundation for the mod-
ern plastics industry. The American John Wesley Hyatt
introduced the most signifi cant product based on cel-
lulose nitrate, with the development in 1863 of celluloid
on which photography for so long depended.
John Hannavy
PATENTS: BRITAIN AND EUROPE
Britain’s first patent relating to photography was
granted to the patent agent Miles Berry on behalf of
Louis Jacques Maude [sic] Daguerre and Joseph Isidore
Niepce, junior, on 14 August 1839 for the daguerreotype
process. Richard Beard, who had licensed Daguerre’s
process, was granted the next in June 1840 for an im-
proved camera with internal mirror and improvement to
operating the process. The third was granted to William
Henry Fox Talbot for his calotype process. The 1840s
saw only eleven photographic patents being granted.
The Great Exhibition of 1851 acted as a catalyst for
reformed patent law as manufacturers and patentees
sought greater protection and attempted to meet in-
creasing competition from the United States, although
the resulting Act only partially met their demands. In
comparison with the American system Britain’s pat-
ent process left much to be desired for patentees. The
Patent Law Amendment Act of 1852 reduced the cost
of a single patent for the United Kingdom to £25 (plus
renewal fees) from a previous minimum of £310 and
the application process was simplifi ed. The number
of photography patents increased. The 1850s saw 185
classifi ed by the Patent Offi ce as photography, the 1860s
273 and the 1870s 213. The 1883 Patents, Designs and
Trade Marks Act further reduced the cost of a patent
and simplifi ed the application procedure and during the
1880s 750 photography patents were recorded with the
next decade, the 1890s showing 1778. The Patent Of-
fi ce photography classifi cation included some subjects
that were not strictly photographic such as emulsions
and stands and some patents that might be seen as pho-
tography were included in other classifi cations such as
advertising and printing.
Unlike the American system, under the British patent
system there was no requirement for the applicant to
show novelty and many patents were simply variants on
existing designs rather than novel designs of apparatus,
chemical processes or applications of photography.
The two Patent Acts of the nineteenth century each
coincided with signifi cant changes to photographic
technology which led to signifi cant increases in the
number of patents being applied for and in the areas in
which patentees were applying for patents. The 1860s,
for example, saw a signifi cant number of patents relating
to photographic printing and photo-mechanical printing
processes and the latter remained strongly represented
until the 1890s. In the 1880s and 1890s patents for roll
holders were widespread, as were those for shutters
and studio and fl ash illumination. In the 1890s as new
technology began to coalesce into practical applications
kinematography patents started to appear regularly and
from 1896 Röntgen, or X-ray photography, was repre-
sented for the fi rst time.