ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INVISIBLE IMAGE BY MEANS OF A REDUCING AGENT.
It has been shown in the previous Chapter that the majority of the Salts of Silver, both organic and inorganic, are darkened in colour on exposure to light, and, by the loss of Oxygen, Chlorine, etc., become reduced to the condition of Subsalts.
Many of the same compounds are also susceptible of a change under the influence of light, which is even more remarkable. This change takes place after a comparatively short exposure, and as it does not affect the appearance of the sensitive layer, for some time it escaped notice: but it was afterwards discovered that an impression, before invisible, might be brought out by treating the plate with certain chemical agents which are without effect on the original unchanged salt, but quickly blacken it after exposure.
It is a remarkable fact that the Silver compounds most readily affected by light alone, are not the most sensitive to the reception of the invisible image. Thus, of Photographic papers prepared with Chloride, Bromide, or Iodide of Silver, the former assume the deepest shade of colour under the influence of the sun's rays, but if all be exposed momentarily, and then removed, the greatest amount of effect will be developed upon the Iodide paper. Iodide of Silver therefore is the salt commonly used when sensibility is an object, but it should be noted that images nearly or quite latent can be impressed upon many other of the compounds of Silver, including those belonging to the animal and vegetable kingdoms.
Experiments illustrating the Formation of an Invisible Image.—Take a sheet of sensitive paper, prepared with Iodide of Silver by the method given in the fourth Chapter of Part II., and having divided it into two parts, expose one of them to the luminous rays for a few seconds. No visible decomposition takes place, but on removing the pieces to a room dimly illuminated, and brushing with a solution of Gallic Acid, a manifest difference will be observed; the one being unaffected, whilst the other darkens gradually until it becomes black.
Experiment II.—A prepared sheet is shielded in certain parts by an opaque substance, and then after the requisite exposure, which is easily ascertained by a few trials, treated with the Gallic Acid as before; in this case the protected part remains white, whilst the other darkens to a greater or less extent.
In the same way, copies of leaves, engravings, etc. may be made, very correct in the shading and much resembling those produced by the prolonged action of light alone upon the Chloride of Silver.
The object of employing a substance like Gallic Acid to develope or bring out to view an invisible image, in preference to forming the picture by the direct action of light, unassisted by a developer, is the economy of time thereby effected. This is well shown in the results of some experiments conducted by M. Claudet in the Daguerreotype process: he found that with a sensitive layer of Bromo-Iodide of Silver, an intensity of light three thousand times greater was required if the use of a developer was omitted, and the exposure continued until the picture became visible upon the plate.
To increase the sensitiveness of Photographic preparations is a point of great consequence; and indeed, when the Camera is used, from the low intensity of the luminous image formed in that instrument, no other plan than the one above described would be practicable. Hence the advancement, and indeed the very origin, of the Photographic Art, may be dated from the first discovery of a process for bringing out to view an invisible image by means of a reducing agent.