870
In 1893 he constructed a camera for pictures 7 × 7
cm on plates 24 × 30 and he lectured on photography
at the Arts et Métiers in Paris. In 1895 with the advent
of Röntgen’s X, he began creating the fi rst radiography
and radioscopy laboratory for Parisian hospitals.
The beginning of 1900 he began experimenting with
several ways to photograph using artifi cial lighting. He
experimented with neon, but the results were not suc-
cessful. He showed them, however to the Club Nautique
in Nice. In 1904 he resigned as active member from
the Société française de photographie in Paris. Londe
continued experimenting with artifi cial light and used
magnesium, which caused a short explosion, giving off
a burst of light.
Around 1908 he made a chamber based on his experi-
ments and plan of his chrono-photographic machine,
which used artificial light. He discovered also the
possibilities of creating duplicate images. Because of
these two contributions to photography he was made an
honorary member.
Londe’s interest in the Autochrome process grew in
the last years of his life. The autochrome was a positive
colour transparency process, patented in June 1906 by
Auguste and Louis Lumiére in Lyon, France. Like other
techniques at the time, it employed the additive method,
recording a scene as separate black and white images
representing red, green and blue, and then reconstituting
color with the help of fi lters. To do this on a single plate,
the Lumiéres dusted it with millions of microscopic
(avg. size 10 to 15 microns) transparent grains of potato
starch that they had dyed red (orange), green and blue
(violet). This screen of grains worked as a light fi lter
to interpret the scene when the light passed through
them exposing a panchromatic black & white emulsion.
The exposed plate was then reverse processed which
resulted in a transparency. The fi rst time he lectured at
l’Academie des sciences his presentation was on this
fi rst industrial color method. In front of many specialists
and professionals, he successfully tested with the plates,
which later came onto the commercial market in 1907.
He published in two years 12 texts concerning this topic.
However none of its experiments was publicly shown.
In 1908, his experimentation abruptly ended when his
wife died, but he started again with his experiments in
- Finally in 1914, he showed his photographs to
the Photo-Club of Nice.
He left his collection of works, equipment and docu-
ments to the Société française de photographie (S.F.P.)
in Paris.
He died September 11, 1917, at the Château de Bréau
at Rueil, near La Ferté-sous-Jouarre in France.
Johan Swinnen
See also: France, Chronophotography, Medical
Photography; X-ray Photography;
Instantaneous Photography; Société Française de
Photographie; and Lumière, August, and Louis.Further Reading
Auer, Michel, and Michèle Auer, Encyclopédie internationale des
photographes des débuts à nos jours, CD-Rom, Neuchâtel,
Éd. Ides et Calendes, diffusion Hazan, 1997.
Bernard, Denis, La lumière pèsée. Albert Londe et la photo-
graphie de l’éclair magnésique, 1888–1915, Etudes pho-
togaphiques, no. 6, Mai 1999, Paris: Société française de
photographie, 1999.
Boom, Mattie (ed.), A New Art. Photography in the 19th Century,
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1996.
Boulouch, Nathalie, Albert Londe, positions autochromistes, Etu-
des photogaphiques, no. 6, Mai 1999, Paris: Société française
de photographie, 1999.
Frizot, Michel (ed.), Nouvelle Histoire de la Photographie, Paris:
Bordas, 1994.
Gautier, A., Un Pionnier méconnu de la photographie médicale,
Albert Londe.
Gernsheim, Helmut, and Alison Gernsheim, The origins of pho-
tography, London: Thames and Hudson, 1982.
Heilbrun, Françoise (ed.), L’invention d’un regard (1839–1918),
Paris: Musée d’Orsay/Bibliothèque nationale, 1989.
Lemagny Jean-Claude, Sayag, Alain, L’invention d’un art, Paris:
Centre Georges Pompidou, 1989.
Londe, Albert, La photographie médicale. Application aux scien-
ces médicales et physiologiques, par, Paris: Gauthier-Villars,
1893, x, 220 p. illus., 19 plates. 24.5 cm.
Londe, Albert, Traité pratique de radiographie et de radioscopie:
Technique et applications medicals, Paris: Gauthier-Villars et
fi ls, 1898, Thèse Med. Caen. 1984, no. 1248.
Witkin, Lee D. (ed.), The photograph collector’s guide, London:
Secker & Warburg, 1979.LONDON STEREOSCOPIC COMPANY
(c. 1854–1922)
When stereographs were demonstrated to the public at
the Great Exhibition of 1851 they started a collecting
craze that was to last for the next twenty years. The
principle of using binocular vision to create the illu-
sion of space had been known for some time but the
introduction of photography meant its potential could
fi nally be realised and the stereoscope, developed by
Charles Wheatstone and Sir David Brewster, allowed
photographs to be viewed in “solid” three dimensions.
The London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company,
as its name suggests, furnished the Victorian mania for
stereographs and by 1854 the company had sold over
half a million viewers, proclaiming in their advertising
that “no home is complete without a stereoscope.”
Shopkeeper George Swan Nottage (1823–1885)
founded the company with his associate Howard Ken-
nard in the early 1850s. Nottage went on to make his
fortune, and was later elected Alderman and then Lord
Mayor of London (1884–1885.) London Stereoscopic
was soon the largest photographer and manufacturer of