I Have a Dream

bmattock

bmattock

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Taken from the very dawn of photography, via the magic of Google Books:

The Photographic News - 1860

BY SIR J. F. W. HERSCHEL.

What I have to propose may appear a dream; but it has at least the merit of being a possible, and, perhaps, a realisable one—realisable, that is to say, by an adequate sacrifice of time, trouble, mechanism, and outlay. It is the stereoscopic representation of scenes in action—the vivid and lifelike reproduction and handing down to the latest posterity of any transaction in real life—a battle, a debate, a public solemnity, a pugilistic conflict, a harvest home, a launch— anything, in short, where any matter of interest is enacted within a reasonably short time, which may be seen from a single point of view.

I take for granted nothing more than, 1st, what photography has already realised, or we may be sure it will realise within some very limited lapse of time from the present date —viz., the possibility of taking a photograph, as it were, by a snap-shot—of securing a picture in a tenth of a second of time; and, 2ndly, that a mechanism is possible (no matter how complex and costly—and perhaps it need not be either the one or the other) by which a prepared plate may be presented, focussed, impressed, displaced, numbered, secured in the dark, and replaced by another within two or three-tenths of a second. In fact, the dismounting and replacing need only be performed within this interval; the other items of the process, however numerous, following these up in succession, and collectively spreading over as long a time as may be needful. These postulates being granted, the artist will have nothing to do but to set up a stereoscopic camera or cameras in the point of sight selected, each provided with its appropriate mechanism, arranged so as to be strictly -simultaneous in its action for both ; to feed them with plates uniformly prepared and sensitised, so long as the action or his supply shall continue; and develop and fix them at leisure.

There is a pretty optical apparatus, called a phenakisti- scope, which presents a succession of pictures to the eye, by placing them on a wheel behind a screen, and bringing each in succession to an opening like a picture frame in the screen, of the size of the picture, and so allowing it to be seen; while the eye is in like manner covered by a dark revolving screen, having narrow linear openings in it, which allow glimpses through them precisely at (and only at) the moments when the pictures are in the act of transiting the frame, and, sensibly, in the middle of its area. By this arrangement it has been found possible to exhibit figures in action—as dancers pirouetting, wheels revolving, &c., by having prepared a set of figures taken from one model presented on various angles to the visual ray. Coarse as the representations so made have been, the apparent reality of the movements has been very striking. The persistence of the impression on the retina and its gradual fading obliterates or glosses over the hiatus in a way which, a priori, would hardly be thought credible. Now, there is nothing in the law of periodicity, as regards the movement of the model, to influence the result; and we have only to substitute for such a periodically recurrent set of pictures imperfectly drawn by hand, and presented to one eye, perfect stereoscopic and simultaneous pairs of photographs duly presented to both eyes, in their natural order of succession, to produce a stereoscope in action.

Should photography accomplish the problem of representing objects in their natural colours, the illusion would be perfect. In regard to this problem, allow me to make a few remarks. And, first: There is no hope of its realisation if the non-luminous rays (those beyond the visible spectrum, or even those in it, which are what may be called iu excess of colour) be not cut off. This may be done by quinine. Secondly: The whole of the colorific rays, from red to violet, must be made effective. Thirdly: We must recollect that we have to work up to a coloured positive through the intermedium of a negative; and it is by no means to be taken for granted that this negative —the immediate product of the photographic processes employed—should be coloured either as the objects are, or even with their complementary colours. Should we ever succeed in making the spectrum impress its own colours ever so vividly on paper or on collodion, the colours so impressed will assuredly be of the nature of absorptive media, and it is by no means a matter of necessity that they should transmit either their own apparent hues or their precise complements. In a word, it will be as if porcelain or enamel painting, where the colour burnt in has no obvious connection with, or traceable relation to, the colour laid on. All experiments towards this end must keep this condition strictly in view, unless, indeed, a positive photography should arise equally perfect with our present negative.

I fully believe that this problem will one day be solved. Already we have a certain approach to it. I possess photographs in which the green of foliage is unmistakably distinguished as green from the sepia tint in the other parts of the 'picture. In particular, a photograph of my former residence, in which certain magnolias, trained against the brick building, and some other shrubs, have a fulness and decision of colour which renders it difficult to imagine that they have not been gone over with the brush, while the use of a magnifier shows that most certainly such has not been the case. In another, a stereoscope of the Assembly Hall, Edinburgh, from Princes Street, the nearer trees present (to my eye, at least) differences of' hue, in some of which the green clement is very perceptible.

Collinywood, May 7, 1860.
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By the way, Sir Herschel was the inventor of fixer, as used today.
 
visionary fellow

visionary fellow

...quite a visionary, sir herschel.

not sure, but I read somewhere that col. theodore roosevelt used the term (around/during/after the spanish-american war) "snapshot" to describe a horse-mounted soldier that could quickly shoulder a rifle (or more probably a cavalry carbine) and shoot without taking precise aim and hit their target. someone else may have actually coined the experession...but the energetic and popular col. roosevelt seems to have brought it to the public.

apologies to OP for the thread drift:)

kenneth
 
smiling gecko said:
...quite a visionary, sir herschel.

not sure, but I read somewhere that col. theodore roosevelt used the term (around/during/after the spanish-american war) "snapshot" to describe a horse-mounted soldier that could quickly shoulder a rifle (or more probably a cavalry carbine) and shoot without taking precise aim and hit their target. someone else may have actually coined the experession...but the energetic and popular col. roosevelt seems to have brought it to the public.

apologies to OP for the thread drift:)

kenneth
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Not a problem, I find these things fascinating! The earliest record I found in Google Books (minus some erroneous-dated entries) was a reference to 'snap-shots' as employed by a 'fowling piece' (shotgun, I presume) to be used in training the English Spaniel, dated 1814. This predates TR's birth by some 50 years, so I must assume the term was around before TR used it. However, fascinating stuff nonetheless.

A PRACTICAL ESSAY ON BREAKING OR TRAINING THE English Spaniel or Pointer.

This however I will say, from perfect recollection, that the best shots I have ever made in my life, have been when, from a state of previous control under the thumb at half bent, the cock has been raised only as the bird was ascending to mark: and appealing; once more to the above rate of calculating time froni the instant of spring, there is more than enough, in the most rapid snapshot that ever was made, for a well-practised hand to bring up the cock of his piece where he wants it: and if a man is go much fluttered as to risk remaining half-cocked upon the present, unless he sees that he is cocked beforehand, I can only say, he must utterly conquer this flutter before he will be a shot; and I will make him do so before I have done with him.
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smiling gecko said:
not sure, but I read somewhere that col. theodore roosevelt used the term (around/during/after the spanish-american war) "snapshot" to describe a horse-mounted soldier that could quickly shoulder a rifle (or more probably a cavalry carbine) and shoot without taking precise aim and hit their target. someone else may have actually coined the experession...but the energetic and popular col. roosevelt seems to have brought it to the public.
Click to expand...

"snap-shot" as a shooting (or hunting) term was used as early as in 1808 by a Col. Peter Hawker in his diary. Once more according to the OED...
 
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