On the action of the rays of the solar spectrum on vegetable colours, and on some new photographic processes

HERSCHEL, John Frederick William, Sir

Published by R. & J. E. Taylor, London, 1842

INSCRIBED BY HERSCHEL TO CHEVREUL. First edition, extremely rare offprint, of this seminal early work of photography, the invention of the world s first photocopying process, cyanotype, later called blue-printing ; this remained by far the most important reprographic process for more than a century after the publication of Herschel s paper. This is an extraordinary presentation copy, inscribed by Herschel to the great French colour theorist Michel-Eugène Chevreul. "Photography in Prussian blue was discovered in 1842 by Sir John Herschel just three years after Louis Daguerre and Henry Talbot had announced their independent inventions of photography in silver, using metal and paper substrates, respectively. Their successes in finally securing silver photographs represented the fruition of an idea that had been gestating for more than a century in the minds and laboratories of many noted natural philosophers. In contrast, the birth of cyanotype came, literally and metaphorically, out of the blue , to a single parent … As one of the leading physical scientists of his day, Herschel was driven by the urge to understand photochemical phenomena, and to harness them as tools for probing the electromagnetic spectrum beyond the narrow optical limits imposed by human vision. Using light-sensitive coatings on paper, he sought to venture below the shortwave end of the visible spectrum, into the region of the ultra-violet or actinic rays discovered in 1801 by Johann Ritter; and above the longwave visible limit, into the region of the infra-red or thermic rays, which had been discovered in 1800 by his father, Sir William Herschel … There is no compelling evidence to suggest that he was in pursuit of commercially useful methods of reprography, unlike Talbot, whose clear aim was to multiply his photographic images in printer s ink. It is therefore a happy irony that Herschel should have been responsible for inventing the first process for photocopying" (Ware, Cyanotype: the history, science and art of photographic printing in Prussian blue (1999), p. 11). "Only in 1872, one year after Herschel died, was the cyanotype revived, when the Paris-based Marion and Company renamed his invention ferro-prussiate paper and began marketing it for the replication of architectural plans. (Previously, they had been copied by hand, which was expensive and prone to human error.) At the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, the process reached American shores, where it finally met success as the blueprint, the first inexpensive means of duplicating documents. All that was required was a drawing traced on translucent paper. Pressed against a second sheet coated with Herschel s chemical under glass, the drawing was exposed to sunlight, then washed in water. The blueprint paper recorded the drawing in reverse, black lines appearing white against a cyan background" (Keats, The Blueprint, Scientific American 301 (2009), p. 90. ABPC/RBH list only a copy offered by Goldschmidt in 1936 (not a presentation copy). We have located only one other copy in commerce, offered by Ernst Weil in his Catalogue 7 (ca. 1946). Provenance: Michel-Eugène Chevreul (inscribed by Herschel on title M. Chevreul with the authors respects and on original front wrapper M. Chevreul Membre de l Inst[itut] &c &c. Paris ). "As a scientist Sir John Herschel was naturally more interested in the theory of photography than in its practice. Photography is indebted to him for a wealth of ideas, but those who developed them often neglected to acknowledge their originator. Herschel was of a retiring disposition and never pushed forward his claims; indeed, we marvel at the restraint with which he bore the incorrect behaviour of Talbot who, thwarted in his desire for public acclaim, hastened to the Patent Office with more than one idea which Herschel had freely published. "Herschel s photographic researches are concentrated within the first few years after the discovery of photography, and. Seller Inventory # 4782

Bibliographic Details

Title: On the action of the rays of the solar ...
Publisher: R. & J. E. Taylor, London
Publication Date: 1842
Binding: Hardcover
Edition: First edition.