JF Ptak Science Books // Blog Bookstore

Lange's "Migrant Mother", 1936

Dorothea Lange. The Migrant Mother. Photo for Farm Security Administration, originally printed in 1936. Modern print from a large file, 47x38", printed on archival photo rag paper. New. Beautiful image and production. $395 [FSA images are not copyrighted.] 

On of the great innovations in a sea of great things accomplished during the Franklin Roosevelt administrations was the formation of the Farm Security Administration, a division of the government established to help farmers through the devastating Dust Bowl and Great Depression.  A subset of the FSA was a photographic unit which was set up to document the progress made by the FSA (and provide, I am sure, for some much-needed good news, a hearts-and-minds campaign).  This division was headed by Roy Emerson Stryker, who wound up hiring a collection of dream-team photographers unlike any ever assembled for a single purpose.  Esther Bubley, Marjory Collins, Mary Post Wolcott, Arthur Rothstein, Walker Evans, Russell Lee, Jack Delano, Gordon Parks, Charlotte Brooks, John Vachon, Carl Mydans, Dorothea Lange and Ben Shahn were sent out all across the country and wound up with the greatest and most beautiful photographic history ever assembled.  There were about 77,000 images made, and I recall reading (somewhere) that the total budget for the Stryker group for the years 1936-19421 was about $100,000, meaning that each completed image cost just over a dollar apiece.  

One of the most compelling of all of these images was from a series made by the new-hire Dorothea Lange (1895-1965)  in 1936.  On the tail end of a month-long road trip she was nearing the end of her day when she spotted a hand-lettered sign reading “Pea-Pickers Camp” by the side of the road near Nipomo, California.  She briefly considered stopping but went ahead, and for the next 20 miles of hard road continuously questioned her decision.  Unable to shake her better judgment, she turned around and drove back to the turn-off for the camp.  Lange drove down the dirt road and found a ramshackle assembly of tents, one of which contained an exhausted mother sitting forlornly with her children, sheltered in a tent fashioned to the rear of the woman’s tireless car.  Lange spent only 10 minutes with the woman, making five exposures.  She learned that “the crops had frozen, and the woman and children were living on vegetables scavenged from the fields, and the few birds that the children managed to catch.  The mother could not leave; she had sold the tires from her car". 

Her photograph created an American Madonna in her Migrant Mother.

George P. Elliott, writing in the introduction for the Lange retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (New York), grasped the essence of the image:

"For an artist like Dorothea Lange who does not primarily aim to make photographs that are ends in themselves, the making of a great, perfect, anonymous photograph is a trick of grace, about which she can do little beyond making herself available for that gift of grace".

Lange describes her encounter as follows:

"I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean- to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it". (From: Popular Photography, Feb. 1960).  Lange's field notes of the images read: "Seven hungry children. Father is native Californian. Destitute in pea pickers’ camp … because of failure of the early pea crop. These people had just sold their tires to buy food."

Roy Emerson Stryker, who was in charge of the photography project (History Section) for the FSA said of this image:

"When Dorothea took that picture, that was the ultimate. She never surpassed it.  To me it was the picture of Farm Security. She has all the suffering of mankind in her, but all the perseverance too.  A restraint and a strange courage".

 NOTES

1. The photographic history unit of the FSA morphed into a propaganda arm for the Office of War Information (OWI) in late 1942.
2. Florence OwensThompson(1903-1983)  is the real name of the Migrant Mother.
3. The Library of Congress files for the series of photos

Seeing a Criminal's Face Before the Crime (1878)

 Francis Galton, "Composite Portraits" (Nature, May 23, 1878) with several text illustrations. Detached from a larger bound volume, but accompanied by its original wrappers (totaling 11pp of ads).  Very Good condition. $300

Francis Galton's work came early on in the prehistory of cognitive and computational aspects of face recognition, though more like an analog development in a later digital environment. In this paper he discusses his attempts to see the face of criminality before crime was committed. Galton uses a collection of photographs of criminals convicted of murder, manslaughter, and crimes of violence, creating amalgams of portraits, and stating that the "special irregularities" of each individual criminal face "disappeared and the common humanity that underlies them prevailed", and so the images represent not the criminal "but the man who is likely to fall into crime".  

Galton (1822-1911), who was similar to Alphonse Bertillon who came somewhat after him, was working on a predictive manner of crime detection, with Bertillon (1853-1914) using body measurements and Galton facial characteristics. Both made significant contributions to police and forensic science, Galton doing groundbreaking work in fingerprints (1869) which proved a definitive means for identifying criminals once they had entered a justice system, and Bertillon in numerous other areas (including galvaniplastic molds for footprints and such, ballistics, and a number of different aspects of crime detection.

See for long background:  George Pavlich, “The Subject of Criminal Identification”, in Punishment and Society, Vol 11 (2), 171-190. There are many articles referencing this early work by Galton.

Breakthrough Papers in Color Photography (1891-1906), Gabriel Lippmann (Nobel for this work in 1908)

LIPPMANN, Gabriel. A suite of papers on breakthrough research establishing color photograpy, 1891-1906, all published in the Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences.

Lippmann was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for this accomplishment (“"for his method of reproducing colours photographically based on the phenomenon of interference") in 1908 (the only Nobel awarded for work in photography).

• (1) “La photographie des couleurs" in Comptes Rendus , Vol. 112, No. 5, February 2, 1891, pp. 274-275;
• (2)"Sur  la photographie des couleurs [deuxième note]" in CR Vol. 114, No. 17, April 25, 1892, pp. 961-962;
• (3) "Photographies colorées du spectre sur albumine et sur gélatine bichromatées" in CR Vol. 115, No. 17 October 24, 1892, p. 575;
• (4) "Sur la theorie de la photographie des couleurs simples et composees par la methode interferentielle" in CR Vol. 118, No. 3, January 15, 1894, pp. 92-102
• (5)“De divers principes sur lesquels on peut fonder la photographie direct des couleurs...” in CR Vol 130, 1900, pp 278 (this being a very brief one-paragraph note);
• (6) “Remarques generales sur la photographie interferentielles des coulleurs”, in CR Vol 143, No. 5, July 30 1906, pp 273-4.

Of the 80+ papers Lippmann published in the CR for the 1885-1910 period this is the extent of his publications there on color photography, save for one short note that appears in volume 140--unfortunately that one is the very next article in the issue bearing the famous Poincare “relativity” paper of 1905.

All six are offered in their complete weekly issues, all extracted from larger bound volumes of the CR. The issues from volumes 112, 115, and 143 are offered with their original wrappers. GOOD copies.  $950

“Gabriel Lippmann, professor of mathematical physics at the Sorbonne invented, demonstrated and mathematically formulated the process of interference colour photography, also known as interferential photography, or Lippmann photography, in the years 1891-1894...Few photographers today are familiar with the name Gabriel Lippmann (1845-1921), even fewer have seen a Lippmann colour photograph. Lippmann was awarded the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physics for his invention of Interference Photography, an early colour technique exploiting the phenomenon of optical standing waves. Lippmann’s prize represents the only time this prestigious award has been given for a photographic invention “--”Lippmann Colour Photography”, Dr. Hans I. Bjelkhagen, alternativephotography.com

“In 1891, Professor Gabriel Lippmann demonstrated to the French Académie des Sciences interference colour photographs of the spectrum and of stained glass windows, taken by a modification of Wiener’s method. An exceedingly fine grained, virtually transparent emulsion of silver bromide in an albumen coating on a glass plate was exposed in contact with a film of mercury, with the glass plate towards the lens. The mercury, in optical contact with the emulsion, reflected light which had passed through the emulsion back on itself, producing the standing waves and layered exposure predicted by Zenker. The developed plate appeared to be a conventional negative by transmitted light, but when viewed at a suitable angle, by reflected light the image appeared as a brilliantly coloured positive.”--(Coe, Brian (1978): Colour Photography – The first hundred years 1840-1940.

“One of our most distinguished physicists, M. Gabriel Lippmann, Member of the Institute and Professor in the Faculty of Sciences, has accomplished a memorable experiment in photographing the solar spectrum. At the meeting of the Academy of Sciences M. Lippmann presented to his, colleagues several photographs, of the solar spectrum, with the colors fixed upon the sensitized plate with their exact sheadings and brilliancy... The way so brilliantly opened by M. Lippmann must lead to important work, and the first results of the discoverer, which we are happy to be able to present here, assure a brilliant future to the art of photography in color. “-­ Photography in Colors. In: The American Journal of Photography, 12, pp. 180-183, translated from La Nature, February 14, 1891, which appeared 12 days after the CR printing.

Earlier work in this area was carried out by Seebeck (1810), Herschel (1839), Ed. Becquerel (1848) and others though “...the process was never of practical value”...”In 1891 G. Lippmann of Paris succeeded in carrying through these suggestions with an albumen emulsion of exceedingly fine grains.”--  Evans, Ralph Merrill; Hanson, W.T., Jr.; Brewer, W. Lyle (1953): Principles of Color Photography. New York: Wiley, pp. 275-278.

On "Instantaneous Photography" in 1851.

Henry Fox Talbot, "Sur la Production des images photographiques instantanees", in Comptes rendus, volume 33 no. 22, 1 December 1851, with the Fox Talbot contribution on pp  pp 623-627 in the weekly issue of pp (589)-632.  This issue is removed from a larger bound volume and still intact, fresh and crisp. Very Good copy.  $250  William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877) was among the earliest of the photographic pioneers, or pre-pioneers, as he asserted priority of his photographic method for 1835 when Daguerre revealed his own (very different) method in 1839. Talbot (or Fox Talbot)  was also a practitioner of the art, publishing a stone-cold and revolutionary work of photographically illustrated books, The Pencil of Nature.

Well. The whole idea of the "instantaneous" photograph is a bit tricky and involved, and it all depends on how the word "instantaneous" is defined. This was happily done in the mid 1840's as an image made in 12 to 15 minutes. Later of course it would mean different things, but when Fox Talbot was writing on the topic of fast exposure the term meant being able to capture say the rustling of cloth in wind, moving trains, clouds, and other similar motions--these though were somewhat ahead of the technology, though that issue would be turned around by the time Marey and Muybridge began their work in pre-cinema instant photography in the 1870s and 1880s.  

That said, Talbot is seen in places as the first among equals in the creation of high speed photography. So writes  Lincoln L. Endelman in his "A Brief History of High Speed Photography 1851-1930" and which is available on the web https://people.rit.edu/andpph/text-hs-history.html who says: 

"The beginning of high speed photography might be considered to be William Henry Fox Talbot's experiment in 1851. He attached a page of the London Times newspaper to a wheel, which was rotated in front of his wet plate camera in a darkened room. As the wheel rotated, Talbot exposed a few square inches of the newspaper page for about 1/2000th of a second, using spark illumination from Leyden jars. This experiment resulted in a readable image. Considering the extremely low sensitivity of a wet plate, called "amphyitypes", which were glass plates coated with a mixture of albumen, silver nitrate, and water (approximate ASA less than 4), and the lenses that were available (probably about f/32), this photograph was a remarkable achievement."

Actually the idea of what "instantly" means over time seems like it would be an interesting bit of research.  

See: Time Stands Still: Muybridge and the Instantaneous Photography Movement, by Phillip Prodger, Tom Gunning, Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University.

Also with a paper by Jacques Babinet, "Calculs relatifs au Scintillometre de M. Arago".

The Invention of the Waxed-Paper Process in Photography (1851)

 

Jean-Baptiste-Gustave Le Gray. “Note sur un nouveau mode de préparation du papier photographique négatif”, in Comptes Rendus... 8 December 1851, Vol. 33, No 23, with LeGray's contribution on pp. 643-4 in the weekly issue of pp (631)-648. This issue was removed from a larger bound volume, though it is intact and in crisp and bright condition. Very Good. $300

LeGray “was among the first of the French painters to recognize the aesthetic potentials of the calotype. This process involved the use of paper for the negative, which was then waxed on the back side after development to make it more transparent and printed by chemical means. As an alternative to the glass plates used in the wet-collodion process, the dry wax-paper negative was more practical for travelers. It could be prepared days in advance and could be developed days after the photograph was taken. It also allowed for differing colorations and produced a softer, more aesthetically pleasing result than did the glass negative.”--Encyclopedia Britannica

“One of the problems of the calotype process was that as one had to print through the paper negative, the imperfections of the paper would also show. Care was taken to ensure that the right kind of paper was used. However, the more transparent the paper, the greater the definition. It was quite a common practice to wax the calotype negative after it had been developed and fixed. However, Gustave Le Gray introduced, in 1851, a process whereby waxing was part of the process prior to exposure and development. Le Gray's process also enabled the paper to be kept a week or so before use. However, though it showed a definite improvement in definition, it was also slower than the calotype process; sometimes exposures of up to fifteen minutes in sunshine were sometimes required. It was for this reason that most of the subjects using this process were inanimate.”--A History of Photography, by Robert Leggat, via M. Pritchard's History of Photography site

A Significant Paper in the History of Photography by Blanquart-Evrard

Blanquart-Evrard, "Procedes employes pour obtenir les epreuves de photographie sur papier, in Comptes Rendus hebdomadaires des Seances de l'Academie des Sciences, vol XXIV/4, 25 January 1847, occupying pp 117-123 in the issue of pp 85-125. Extracted from a larger bound volume, and offered with the original front wrapper (detached).  Good copy. 

Offered with:

Blanquart-Evrard, "Supplement a une precedente communication concernant la photographie sur papier", in Comptes Rendus....(as above), Vol XXIV/15, 12 April 1847, is being a short note on p. 653 in the issue of 639-659pp.  Extracted from a larger bound volume, and offered with the original front wrapper (detached).  Good copy. 

The two papers: $750

“In 1847 Blanquart-Evrard became the first to publish the procedure for the calotype negative/positive paper process in France...In December 1846, he accepted an invitation from the Academie des Sciences to present his research findings, and submitted several of the prints he made to an enthusiastic audience. He never publicly acknowledged the similarities between his and Mr. Talbot's processes, but Mr. Blanquart-Evrard's improvements are undeniable. He floated the paper into a silver solution instead of brushing it on, which sensitized the paper and produced better quality prints. He also learned that adding only gallic acid as a developing agent after exposure, not only was the exposure time reduced, but a much clearer print was produced. Mr. Blanquart-Evrard received a patent for his process in 1847, and two years later he revealed his perfected version of Joseph Niepce de St. Victor's negative-on-glass process.” http://www.historiccamera.com

 

Helmut Gernsheim (History of Photography) notes that this publication by Blancquart-Evrard (along with his 1851 paper "Photographie sur papier" in 1851 "marked the beginning of a new era of photography" by introducing a "very considerable improvement of Talbot's calotype process". The calotype process offered very contrasty images and were lacking in half-tone sensibilities; "the paper ("wet process") approach by Blancquart-Evrard, which provided a (paper) surface impregnated with silver nitrate (and therefore much more light-sensitive), was much more able to reveal tone and detail.”

Two Significant Papers in the History of Photography (1850)

Blanquart-Evrard, "Photographie sur papier. Moyen d'obtenir l'image a la chambre noire sur paper sec, pp 663-665. Offered in the weekly issue of the "Comptes Rendus" for 27 May 1850, pp 647-652 in the issue of pp 637-672. Offered with the original front wrapper, detached.

Helmut Gernsheim (History of Photography) notes that this publication by Blancquart-Evrard (along with his 1851 paper "Photographie sur papier" in 1851 "marked the beginning of a new era of photography" by introducing a "very considerable improvement of Talbot's calotype process". The calotype process offered very contrasty images and were lacking in half-tone sensibilities; "the paper ("wet process") approach by Blancquart-Evrard, which provided a (paper) surface impregnated with silver nitrate (and therefore much more light-sensitive), was much more able to reveal tone and detail.”

Also offered, another highly significant paper in the history of photography:

Alphonse Louis Poitevin, "Photographie sur gelatine, moyen d'obtenir des spreuves negatives tres-nettes et tres-transparentes, pouvant etre reportees, un grand nombre de fois sur le papier photographique ordinaire." [Title translated roughly as ""Photograph on gelatine, a means of obtaining very transparent and very transparent negatives, which can be carried over a great number of times on ordinary photographic paper."] Offered in the weekly issue of the "Comptes Rendus" for 27 May 1850, pp 647-652 in the issue of pp 637-672. Offered with the original front wrapper, detached. “Alphonse Louis Poitevin (1819 –1882) was a French chemist, photographer and civil engineer who discovered the light–sensitive properties of bichromated gelatin and invented both the photolithography and collotype processes. He has been described as "one of the great unheralded figures in photography". In the 1850s he discovered that gelatin in combination with either potassium or ammonium bichromate hardens in proportion to the amount of light that falls on it. This discovery, significant for its capacity to facilitate the mass production of photographs, was later used by numerous figures such as Josef Albert, Joseph Wilson Swan, Paul Pretsch and Charles Nègre to develop subsequent photographic printing processes such as heliogravure, photogravure, collotype, autotype and carbon print. – see Martin Parr and Gerry Badger. The Photobook: A History, Volume I. p. 19. Overall quote: wikipedia.

The issue: $750. 

 

Three Very Early Papers on Photography, April & October 1839

JF Ptak Science Books   

The following three papers offered in two volumes of the Annalen der Physik:

• [Arago/Daguerre] "Phosphorescenz des gegluehten Schwerspaths: (Eine Mittheilung des Hrn. Arago  an die Pariser Academie -- Comt. rend. t. VIII p. 243)", found in Annalen der Physik, pp 612-617, offered in the entire volume Series II volume 46, "viertes stueck", 1839;  xii, 674pp, five folding plates (one of which is detached but present). This is the fourth section of 12 issued every month and presented in three bound volumes of the Annalen, meaning that this issue of the journal was published in the fourth m-nth/April; 1839. Bound (ca. 1945-50) in back cloth and tips, with dark green/light green marbled boards.  Ex-libris Deutsche Akademie der Luftfahrtforschung, then Wright Patterson Field Library (USAF), then Library of Congress.  Library markings:  small gilt-stamped "Akademie der Luftfahrtforschung" on spine bottom; rubber stamped "Property of U.S." on contents page; Library of Congress "Surplus/Duplicate" rubber stamp on rear free endpaper; and then page edges stamped "Wright Field LIbrary/Dayton, Ohio" on top and bottom. That said, this is a very nice copy, crisp in a strong binding.  $500

This may be the first German translation of this very early work by Arago reporting on the researches of Daguerre. (The article referenced in the sub-title was "Phosphorescence du sulfate de baryte calciné ; communication de M. Arago sur quelques expériences de M. Daguerre." In Comptes Rendus...,  volume 8, 1839, p 283 which begins "M. Arago sur quelques expériences de M. Daguerre. Dans l'innombrable série d'essais auxquels M. Daguerre s'était livré avant de découvrir le procédé qui lui sert aujourd'hui à conserver avec une si admirable précision les images de la chambre obscure, il avait un moment dirigé ses idées sur les substances phosphorescentes. .D'après tout ceque cet ingénieux artiste nous a rapporté, il ne semble guère douteux que son moyen de rendre le sulfate de baryte lumineux, ne soit supérieur à ceux dont on a lait usage jusqu'ici, particulièrement à Bologne. Les physiciens nous saurontdonc quelque gré de leur faire connaître le nouveau procédé. Le voici tel qu'il était textuellement consigné dans les notes de M. Daguerre..." ( WHich traslates roughly to "M. Arago on some experiments of M. Daguerre. In the innumerable series of tests to which Mr. Daguerre had devoted himself...Before discovering the process which it now uses to preserve with the images of the obscure room, he had a moment directed his ideas on phosphorescent substances.  According to all that this ingenious artist has told us...")

According to the Catalogue of Scientific Papers (1800-1900): ser. 1 , 1800-1867  (Royal Society (Great Britain), Henry White, Herbert McLeod, Henry Forster Morley) this seems to be the second publication regarding Daguerre and communicated by Arago published in 1839 in scientific periodicals--the first, in January, being the iconic report on the invention of the Daguerre process.  The current paper was published first in the Comptes Rendus and then second in the Annalen.

 

ALSO, the following two papers in one volume:

• [Arago/Daguerre.] "Der Daguerreotyp. (Bei allgeinen und man kann wohl himzusetzen, uebertriebenen Interesse, welches die Anzeige von Hrn. Daguerre's Entdeckung im Publicum gefunden hat, glauben wir den Lesern einen Dienst zu erweisen, wenn wir hier Hrn. Arago's Bericht uber dieselbe.. "  Pp 193-216

• [Arago/Daguerre.]  "Daguerre's Vorschrift zur Bereitung eines gegen Lichtairkungen empfindlichen Papiers. (Nach einer Note von Biot in den Compt. ren. T VIII p.246...)" Pp 217-221. 

Both offered in Series II, volume 49, No. 9 [September], 1839,  of the Annalen der Physik., 619pp.   Ex-libris Deutsche Akademie der Luftfahrtforschung, then Wright Patterson Field Library (USAF), then Library of Congress.  Library markings:  small gilt-stamped "Akademie der Luftfahrtforschung" on spine bottom; rubber stamped "Property of U.S." on contents page; Library of Congress "Surplus/Duplicate" rubber stamp on rear free endpaper; and then page edges stamped "Wright Field LIbrary/Dayton, Ohio" on top and bottom. That said, this is a very nice copy, crisp in a strong binding.   $500.00

One of the first publications in a German scientific journal on the newly announced discovery of photography by Louis Daguerre made in the Comptes Rendus in 15 January 1839 and the technical report made by him and reported by Francois Arago on 13 August, 1839.

Includes a significant paper in the establishment of Agricultural Chemistry by Justus von Liebig. "Ueber die Erscheinung der Gährung, Fäulniss und Verwesung, und ihre Ursachen",  45pp.

Early Papers by Photographic Pioneers (1836), Among Other Papers of Note

The London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, printed in London for Richard Taylor, 1836, third series, offering the full Volume IX, (July-Decenber, 1836, vii, 552pp, 4 engraved plates, including one double-page and one folding. Bound in full calf, with raised bands, red and black spine labels; with the oval gilt stamped arms of the Society of Writers to the Signet on front and rear covers; nice copy. Very Good.  $750

There are many interesting papers in this volume, including the Baden Powell (continued from Volume VIII which is also available for sale on this website) and Golding Bird, which is interesting in a pre-paper-photographic photography aspect. Also I should point out that one of the founders of photography, W. Henry Fox Talbot, contributes two papers on optics in volume IX (listed below), which are the continuations of two papers in volume IV, which I am also selling, separately.

Dr. Golding Bird (1814-1854) is best remembered today for his very early work in photography, perhaps the most significant being  "A Treatise on Photogenic Drawing."  which was five papers in a series found and bound in the London-published journal, The Mirror,  appearing in issues from April 20-May 25, 1839, and which includes "A treatise on photogenic drawing",  (pp. 241-44);  and also  "The new art - photography",  (pp. 261-2, 281-3, 317-18, 333-335). It is here where Golding Bird furnishes the first image of a photograph--granted, this was a heliographic image in the original, and Golding Bird reproduces it as a woodcut, which makes it also the first non-photographic representation of a photograph.  In the paper in this volume Golding Bird writes on albumen, which would not only be of interest to him as a physician with a specialty in the kidneys (he also invented a flexible stethoscope) but also later in the history of photography, when in 1848 Blanquart-Evrard (1802-1872) would introduce the revolutionary printing images on paper, which was made possible by incorporating albumen in the process. Golding Bird was expert in several fields and accomplished a great deal given his 40 years on the Earth.

William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877) was among the earliest of the photographic pioneers, or pre-pioneers, as he asserted priority of his photographic method for 1835 when Daguerre revealed his own (very different) method in 1839. Talbot (or Fox Talbot)  was also a practitioner of the art, publishing a stone-cold and revolutionary work of photographically illustrated books, The Pencil of Nature.

And so:

• BIRD, Golding (1814-1854, and only 22 when this publication appeared),   “Mr. G. Bird on certain new Combinations of Albumen, with an Account of some curious Properties peculiar to that Substance”, pp 109-116;
• TALBOT, William Henry Fox, (1800-1877). “Mr. H. F. Talbot's Facts relating to Optical Science, No. III”, pp 1-4; AND “Mr. H. F. Talbot's Facts relating to Optical Science. No. IV”, pp 401-406; AND WITH Talbot, W. Henry Fox. “Mr. H. F. Talbot on the repulsive Power of Heat”, 189-191.  William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877), writing on the meaning of the lines in spectroscopy, assert[ing] that the dark lines observed by David Brewster in the spectrum of light shining through nitrous acid vapors are caused by the absoprtion of light by those vapors...Talbot also distinguishes lithium from strontium  through spectroscopy"--Claire Parkinson, Breakthroughs, a Chronology of Great Achievements in Science and Mathematics, pg 300. 
• BADEN POWELL, “Rev. Baden Powell's Remarks on the Formula for the Dispersion of Light (concluded)”, pp 116-12 ;
• HAMILTON, William Rowan (1805-1865), “Sir W. R. Hamilton's Second Theorem of Algebraic Elimination, connected with the Question of the Possibility of resolving, in finite Terms, Equations of the Fifth Degree”, pp 28-32. [I have no idea how Hamilton produced his staggering amount of work and publications int his relatively not-long lifespan.]
• SCHOENBEIN, Christian Friedrich. (1799-1868) “Prof. Schoenbein of Hale on a peculiar Voltaic Condition of Iron; in a Letter to Mr. Faraday: with further Experiments on the same Subject, by Mr. Faraday ; communicated in a Letter to Mr. Phillips”, pp 53-65;
• FARADAY, Michael (1791-1867).  “Letter from Mr. Faraday to Mr. Brayley on some former Researches relative to the peculiar Voltaic Condition of Iron re-observed by Professor Schoenbein, supplementary to a Letter to .Mr. Phillips, in the lust Number” pp 122-125;

• MULLINS, F.W. “Mr. F. W. Mullins's Observations on the Construction of Voltaic Batteries; with a Description of a Battery exhibited at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, June 3, 1836, in which an uniform and powerful current is sustained for any period required”, pp 283-286;
• HENRY, Joseph (1797-1878) . “Dr. Henry's Experiments on Gaseous Interference”, pp 324-333;
• DALTON, John (1766-1844, and the old man of this group and perhaps the most accomplished of this and any other lot),  “Dr. Dalton's Observations on certain Liquids obtained from Caoutchouc by Distillation 479-481;
• AND “Dr. Dalton's Observations on certain Liquids obtained from Caoutchouc by Distillation”, pp 481

 

A Great Leap Forward in the Development of the Motion Picture (1834)

The London, Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, London, printed by Richard Taylor, volume IV, January-June 1834. The entire volume offered: 8vo, vii, 432pp. Bound in full calf, with raised bands, and with red and black spine labels; the covers are impressed in gilt with the arms of the "Society of Writers to the Signet".  Very nice copy. Very Good condition. $350 

W.G. Horner, "On the Properties of the Daedaleum, a New Instrument of Optical Illusion", pp 36-41. "In 1834, William George Horner proposed a more convenient device based on Plateau’s Phenakistoscope which eliminated the need for a mirror and allowed several people to view the device at one time. Horner’s idea was to take shape in the form of drum with an open top into which was placed a hand drawn sequence of pictures on a strip of paper. The pictures were placed around the inside of the edge of the drum and could be viewed through slots in the outside of the drum. The images gave the illusion of movement as the drum was spun. Horner referred to his device as his Daedalum. Strangely the Dadalum was almost forgotten for over thirty years until 1887, at which point it was patented almost simultaneously by William F. Lincoln in America who gave it the name Zoetrope, and in England by M. Bradley."--Oldcinema dot com

William Henry Fox Talbot, “Facts relating to Optical Science. No. I. Communicated by  Mr. H. F. Talbot",   on pp 112-115. Of great interest here is the article by one of the early and great leaders in the history of photography, William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877), writing on the meaning of the lines in spectroscopy, assert[ing] that the dark lines observed by David Brewster in the spectrum of light shining through nitrous acid vapors are caused by the absoprtion of light by those vapors,,,Talbot also distinguishes lithium from strontium  through spectroscopy"--Claire Parkinson, Breakthroughs, a Chronology of Great Achievements in Science and Mathematics, pg 300. 

“The early nineteenth century witnessed the adoption and modification of new theoretical frameworks in chemistry and optics. The discovery of many new substances stimulated increasing concern with chemical composition and structure, while the wave theory of light posed problems with dispersion, absorption, photochemical reaction, and other forms of light-matter interaction. Although Talbot counted Wheatstone, Brewster, and Babbage among his scientific friends, he most closely followed the ideas of his friend John Herschel on light. Adopting the wave theory of light and a kinetic interpretation of light, heat, and matter, he pursued the problem of light-matter interaction through the study of optics, crystallography, and spectra. Intrigued by the similar optical characteristics of light and radiant heat as demonstrated by Melloni and Forbes, he sought to show the unity of the chemical rays with visible rays and heat rays. He also sought to use light and optical properties as analytical tools in order to determine the nature and structure of matter and to develop methods of chemical identification. Utilizing the vibratory theory of molecular behavior in gases, he suggested in 1835 a connection between spectral lines and chemical composition.”--Dictionary of Scientific Biography

Other papers of interest in this volume include:

“Rev.W. Whewell's Remarks on a recent Statement by Berzelius respecting the Use of Chemical Formulae” 9-11;

“Rev. W. Ritchie on the Reduction of Mr. Faraday's Discoveries in Magneto-Electric Induction to a general Law. ...” 11-13

"Mr. T. Graham's Reply to Mr. R. Phillips's Observations on  the Use of Chemical Symbols”, 106-107;

“Sir David Brewster's Observations on the supposed Vision of  the Blood-vessels of the Eye”, 115-120;

“Sir David Brewster on the Influence of successive Impulses of Light upon the Retina”, 241-245;

“M. Cauchy on the Undulatory Theory of Light”, 396-7.