1476
Further Reading
Black, Charles E. D., A Memoir on the India Surveys 1875–1890,
London: Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for India in Coun-
cil, 1891.
Falconer, John, “‘A Pure Labor of Love’: A Publishing History of
The People of India.” In Hight, (eds.), Colonialist Photogra-
phy: Imag(in)ing Race and Place, edited by Eleanor M., and
Gary D. Sampson. London: Routledge, 2002, 51–83.
Ryan, James R., Picturing Empire: Photography and the Visu-
alization of the British Empire. Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press, 1997.
Waterhouse, J. Report on the Cartographic Applications of Pho-
tography as used in the Topographical Departments of the
Principal States in Central Europe, with Notes on the Euro-
pean and Indian Surveys, Calcutta: Offi ce of Superintendent
of Government Print, 1870.
Waterhouse, J., “On Reversed Photographs of the Solar Spectrum
beyond the Red, obtained on a Collodion Plate” Proceed-
ings of the Royal Society of London, vol. 24 (1875–1876):
186–189.
——, The Application of Photography to the Reproduction of
Maps and Plans; by the Photomechanical and Other Pro-
cesses, Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1878.
——, “On Alizarine Blue.” The Photographic Journal, vol.13
(1889): 81–82.
——, Practical Notes on the Preparation of Drawings for Photo-
graphic Reproduction. With a Sketch of the Principal Photo-
Mechanical Printing Processes, London: K. Paul, 1890.
——, “Note on Some Curious Cases of Reversal of the Pho-
tographic Image in Solar Photographs.”The Photographic
Journal, vol. 22 (1898): 307–314.
——, “Teachings of Daguerreotype.” The Photographic Journal,
vol. 24 (1899): 60–76.
——, “The Sensitiveness of Silver and of some other Metals to
Light.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, vol. 66
(1899–1900): 490–504.
——, “Notes on the Early History of the Camera Obscura.” The
Photographic Journal, vol. 25 (1901): 270–290.
——, The Beginnings of Photography: A Chapter in the History
of the Development of Photography with the Salts of Silver,
Washington DC: Smithsonian Report for 1903, Government
Printing Offi ce, 1904, 333–361.
WATKINS, ALFRED (1855–1935)
Following practical experience with the wet-plate
process in the 1870s, Alfred Watkins welcomed the
arrival of the dry plate, and within a few years, his accu-
mulated skills encouraged him to address some of the
perceived complications of photography. In the 1880s,
he worked as a commercial traveller in Hereford, and
annexed an out-building to set up the Watkins Meter
Company, where he devised instruments to control
bakery processes, as well as meters to simplify pho-
tographic tasks. His background knowledge allowed
him to compress a number of associated factors into
one single function.
On the death of his father in 1889, Watkins declined
to join the family fi rm, but concentrated on local history
and photography. In 1890, he addressed the Society of
Chemical Industry to launch his Standard Exposure
Meter, which combined an actinometer and calculator,
in a tubular form. By analogy, the actinometer related
the time to darken a sensitised paper, to camera expo-
sure. A chain served as a pendulum for counting the
actinometric record (that is, the strength of the ambient
light) as well as timing seconds (for the chosen plate),
and the calculator expressed fi ve variable factors as
the exposure recommendation. By dispensing with
his “subject factor,” Watkins introduced the simpler
Junior Meter in 1895, along with the New Standard
Exposure Meter, which was “absolutely complete for
all problems,” including copying, enlarging and contact
printing. The compact Watch Exposure Meter followed
and the pendulum survived, but the movements were
simplifi ed to a single scale. Watkins’ ideas on photom-
etry kept pace with improvements in photography, and
in 1902, the design of the Watkins Bee Meter anticipated
interchangeable printed discs at a later date to cope
with cinematography, colour and studio conditions.
(The Queen Bee Meters of 1903 and 1908 were de-luxe
versions in a silver case and complete with a ball and
chain pendulum.) Other meters included the Focal Plane
(1907), the Colour Plate (1909), the Hand Camera and
the Chronograph (1910), the Indoor (1911), and in 1920,
the Watkins Snipe Meter, a simple meter for avoiding
under-exposed snapshots.
All designs were supported by practical tests and
Watkins’ fi ve axioms (“the standard truths”), identifi ed
the essentials of exposure, from which he determined a
protocol to determine emulsion speed. That is, “an object
of average colour twenty-fi ve feet from lens” became
the “standard” for two seconds of’ exposure to mid-day
June sunlight in England; his basic plate speed (1). Us-
ing this criterion, he issued annual lists of speeds, until
he was able to derive his required values from speeds
determined by the Hurter and Driffi eld method. In 1894,
he promoted a simple system for correct development,
which applied a factor (the Watkins Factor) to the ap-
pearance of the negative image.
In 1910, Watkins received The Royal Photographic
Society’s Progress Medal for his “methods and applica-
tions” relating to exposure and development. In spite of
his photographic achievements, in many circles Alfred
Watkins was better known as an antiquarian, who sur-
veyed churches, pigeon-houses and standing crosses,
prior to announcing controversial studies of ancient
track ways, and founding the Old Straight Track Club
in the 1920s.
Ron Callender
See also: Royal Photographic Society.Further Reading
Hallett, M, Watkins, A True Amateur, The British Journal of
Photography, 12 (August 4, 1988).