The useful applications of the art have been numerous and varied. Portrait making is probably the largest field. This was first successfully accomplished in 1839 by Professor Morse, of telegraph fame, working with Prof. John W. Draper, of the University of New York.
Celestial Photography began with Prof. Draper’s photograph of the moon in March, 1840, and Prof. Bond, of Cambridge, Mass., in 1851. In 1872 Prof. Draper photographed the spectra of the stars, and in 1880-81 the nebulæ of Orion, and in 1887 the Photographic Congress of Astronomers of the World, organized in Paris, began the work of photographing the entire heavens. In late years notable work has been done at the Lick Observatory by Prof. Holden. In 1861 Mr. Thompson, of Weymouth, photographed the bottom of the sea, and Prof. O. N. Rood, of Troy, N. Y., the same year described his application of it to the microscope. In 1871 criminals were ordered to be photographed in England, and in America the Rogues’ Gallery became an institution in New York as early as 1857, ambrotypes being first used. In 1876 the Adams Cabinet for holding and displaying the photos was invented. To-day the New York collection amounts to nearly 30,000, while that of the National Bureau of Identification at Chicago approximates 100,000. It is a striking illustration of the law of compensation that the counterfeiter who invokes the aid of photography to copy a bank note is, by the same agency of his photo in the Rogues’ Gallery, identified and convicted.
Photography in Colors has been the goal of artists and scientists in this field for many years. Robt. Hunt, in England, in 1843, and Edmond Becquerel, in France, in 1848, made evanescent photographs in colors, but little progress was made until about the last decade of the Nineteenth Century. Franz Veress in 1890, F. E. Ives (United States patent No. 432,530, July 22, 1890), W. Kurtz (United States patent No. 498,396, May 30, 1893), Gabriel Lippmann in 1892 and 1896, Ives in 1892, M. Lumière in 1893, Dr. Joly in 1895, M. Villedien Chassagne, and Dr. Adrien, M. Dansac and M. Bennetto, all in 1897, represent active workers in this field.
FIG. 207.—PANORAM-KODAK.
Among recent developments of the camera may be mentioned the wide angle lens, which permits larger images to be made on the plate from small near-by objects, and the telephotographic camera, which gives a large image of remote objects, such as an enemy’s fort, and the panorama camera, which is designed to cover a broad field. For this purpose the lens is movably mounted for a semi-circular swing, and the image is flashed across a curved film in the case. The Eastman Panoram-Kodak, seen in [Fig. 207], is an external illustration of this type, and in [Fig. 207]A is shown a sectional view of another make of panorama camera which clearly shows the internal construction.
FIG. 207A.—SECTIONAL PLAN OF PANORAMIC CAMERA.