762
thus gave dots of ink of varying size on the surface of the
cast. The light and shade of the image was reproduced
and the cast photographed.
Ives invented also the fi rst cross-line halftone screen,
composed of two plates with fi nely ruled parallel lines
cemented face-to-face, with the rule patterns running at
right angles to one another. The resulting dot pattern could
capture fi ner image details than the inks, papers and the
printing pressures at that time could reproduce.
Ives got interested in color photography and by 1892
he had developed an additive three-color photographic
technique (composite heliochromy). By the aid of a
special photochromoscope camera, fi tted with an arrange-
ment of mirrors, prisms and light fi lters, three images of
the object or scene were recorded in succession on three
sensitized plates. On image was recorded through a red
fi lter, a second image through a green fi lter and the third
one, through a blue fi lter. After the negatives have been
developed, three positive plates are recorded by contact
printing the three negatives. These three transparencies,
though themselves of no color, contain information about
the color content of the recorded object or scene. The
positive plates are mounted and inserted in the viewing
device, the Chromoscope, in which the plate containing
the red information is illuminated with red-fi ltered light,
the green plate, with green-fi ltered light, and the blue one
with blue-fi ltered light. When the three plates are correctly
superimposed in the instrument, a color image is visible.
Ives chose the name KRÕMSKÕP for his various additive
color systems and his type of color photographs is known
as Kromograms.
In 1893, Ives was also able to make a stereo KRÕM-
SKÕP, in which pairs of red, green and blue negatives
were recorded through color fi lters in the same way as
for the two-dimensional color images. In the viewing in-
strument, the color photographs were observed with both
eyes, and the color picture consequently seen in 3D.
In 1895 Ives constructed a projector, the Projection
KRÕMSKÕP, in which the three transparencies could be
illuminated with fi ltered light and projected superimposed
on a screen. Ives made both a Diffraction Chromoscope
as well as a camera which could record the three color-
separated plates in one shot. Louis Ducos du Huron in
France had also introduced a similar one-shot color pho-
tochromscope camera, the Mélanochromoscope.
The color images recorded with Ives’ technique are of
high archival stability and the colors will never fade since
the color information is encoded in the three black-and-
white transparencies. Only when correctly illuminated
and superimposed, the color image is synthesized and
possible to see.
In Ives’ company in Philadelphia, educational Kro-
mograms were produced, such as prepared medical
specimens. Beginning in 1898, the KRÕMSKÕP and
Kromograms, including also stereo pairs, could be obtainfrom the Photochromoscope Syndicate Ltd, 121 Shaftes-
bury Avenue, in London.
In the 1920s, Ives was working on ideas for the sub-
tractive synthesis of color, trying to fi nd dyes and suitable
materials for the process. During the 1930s, Ives experi-
mented with the Hi-Pro color process and the two-color
Polychrome process, but the results could not equal those
achieved with three-color photographic materials or four-
color photomechanical reproduction.
Among some other of Ives’ inventions is the parallax
panoramagram patented in 1903. This was a concept for
a look-around multiview 3D image based on the raster-
barrier principle. Ives invented also, for example, a single
objective binocular microscope.
The Optical Society of America (OSA) highest award
is the Frederic Ives Medal. It was endowed in 1928 by
Ives’ son Herbert E. Ives to honor his father and his
important contributions to photoengraving and color
photography.
Some of Ives’ early prints are preserved in the Smith-
sonian Institution.
Hans I. BjelkhagenBiography
Frederic(k) Eugene Ives was born in Litchfi eld, Con-
necticut, 1856, the son of a farmer. At thirteen, he left
the family farm to become a printer’s apprentice at the
Litchfi eld Enquirer newspaper and later an apprentice
at the Itacha printer Andrus & McChain. In 1874, at
the age of eighteen, he applied for a position of photo-
graphic technician at Cornell University. Professor W.
A. Anthony reluctantly hired him thinking he was too
young and inexperienced. The next year he became the
director of the university’s fi rst photographic laboratory.
He remained at Cornell until 1878. During his four years
at Cornell he invented the halftone printing process.
By twenty-fi ve, he moved to Philadelphia where he ac-
cepted a contract with the wood-engraving fi rm Crosscup
& West, to further develop and commercially produce his
halftone screens. Already in 1884 he was able to make
high-quality orthochromatic plates for photomechanical
applications. In 1887 he moved to Philadelphia and started
a photogravure printing company there. The same year
Ives was granted a patent for halftone printing. Ives in-
vented also a halftone screening process In the late 1880’s
he started his work on three-color photography. In 1892
he made his fi rst Chromographoscope, the KRÕMSKÕP,
with an improved version introduced in 1895. In 1898
Ives started a company called the Photochromoscope
Syndicate Ltd in London.
During his lifetime he received a total of 70 patents.
Ives’ son Herbert E. Ives (1882–1951) was also a recog-
nized photo scientist, working on color photography and
a pioneer of photo-transmission of images. Frederic(k)IVES, FREDERIC(K) EUGENE
Hannavy_RT72353_C009.indd 762 7/5/2007 11:33:46 AM