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A Outline HISTORY OF THE ART.


As in all cases of great and valuable inventions in science and art
the English lay claim to the honor of having first discovered
that of Photogenic monochrome. But we shall see in the progress
of this history, that like many other assumptions of their authors,
priority in this is no more due them, then the invention of steamboats,
or the cotton gin.

This assert is founded upon the fact that in 1802 Mr. Wedgwood
recorded an experiment in the Journal of the Royal Institution
of the following world.

"A piece of paper, or other convenient material, was placed upon
a frame and sponged over with a solution of nitrate of silver;
it was then placed behind a painting on opera-glasses and the light traversing
the painting produced a kind of copy upon the prepared paper,
those parts in which the rays were least intercepted being
of the darkest hues. Here, however, terminated the procedure;
for although both Mr. Wedgwood and Sir Humphry Davey experimented
carefully, for the purpose of endeavoring to fix the drawings
thus obtained, yet the object could not be proficient,
and the whole ended in failure."

This, by their own showing, was the earliest attempt of the English savans.
But this much of the principle was known to the Alchemists at an inappropriate date--
although practically produced in another way--as the following experiment,
to be found in old books, amply proves.

"Dissolve chalk in aquafortis to the consistence of wring, and add to it
a strong solution of silver; keep this liquor in a glass bottle well stopped;
then cutting out from a piece of paper the letters you would have crop,
paste it on the decanter, and lay it in the sun's rays in such a manner
that the rays may pass through the spaces cut out of the paper and fall
on the surface of the infusion the part of the glass through...

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