Journal of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Vol 3 (third series) vol 33 overall, January-June 1842, with text illustrations, folding charts, one engraved plate. 430 pp. Half-calf, with raised bands. Ex-library, with some scuffing on the spine and leather cover tips; front joint sprung though binding still tight; also a few stamps on the title page. The front board unfortunately is almost entirely detached, held on by two tie at top and bottom joint. In solid GOOD condition. $1500
(Talbot, H.F.) “Calotype." This is a very early printing in the U.S. of the new process, introducing the major improvement of the paper negative. This printing seems to be done in the same year or is slightly earlier than what is possible the first Calotypes made in the United States (between 1842-4), according to G. Smith in "The First American Calotypes?" in History of Photography, vol 6/4, 1982. “Calotype, also called talbotype, early photographic technique invented by William Henry Fox Talboto f Great Britain in the 1830s. In this technique, a sheet of paper coated with silver chloride was exposed to light in a camera obscura; those areas hit by light became dark in tone, yielding a negative image. The revolutionary aspect of the process lay in Talbot’s discovery of a chemical (gallic acid) that could be used to “develop” the image on the paper—i.e., accelerate the silver chloride’s chemical reaction to the light it had been exposed to. The developing process permitted much shorter exposure times in the camera, down from one hour to one minute. The developed image on the paper was fixed with sodium hyposulfite. The “negative,” as Talbot called it, could yield any number of positive images by simple contact printing upon another piece of sensitized paper. Talbot’s process was superior in this respect to the daguerreotype, which yielded a single positive image on metal that could not be duplicated. Talbot patented his process in 1841.”----Ency Britannica
Some of the other articles of interest:
“Baldwin's Geared Truck Locomotive Engine”, pp 208-209 (with a lovely full page elevation of the Baldwin machine).
Louis Daguerre, “New Photographic Discoveries”, translated from the French by Prod. F. Frazer (a half-page article on pg 109.
Ellwood Morris, “On the Force of the Wind and Sea...”pp10-21;
John Herapath, “Facts and Observations on Four and Six-Wheel Engines”, pp 244-249; W.A. Provis, “Effect of Wind on the Menai Suspension Bridge”, pp 210-214;
T.R. Robinson, “History of the Reflecting Telescope”, pp392-398
Comments