Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1904 (Heft 7))

truth it seems to have been forgotten, and time is but sparingly given to,
money but grudgingly granted for, the study of its mysteries and possibilities.
The senior professor of physics at one of our leading Western univer-
sities rejoices in a salary of $7,500 a year. He has at his disposal a
laboratory on which has been spent thousands of dollars; he gives all of his
time to experimental work. He is at the head of and helped by a whole
staff of assistant professors, the junior of whom gets $1,800 salary. In
the departments of chemistry, natural history, philosophy, arts, etc., etc.,
the same conditions prevail, the salaries ranging from about $3,000 down
to $1,800. Yet no provision whatever has been forthcoming for a
laboratory devoted to photographic research. Tentative efforts to obtain
an endowment fund for such a one proved fruitless. At last, after repeated
attempts, a small laboratory was promised, such laboratory to be an annex to
the department of chemistry or of physics; as in the opinion of the powers
that be photography did not warrant a more important establishment.
After much discussion the liberality of the university was touched to the
tune of an $800 annual appropriation for salary. Not quite the wages
of a New York policeman. What kind of man could be expected at that
price? Is it surprising, then, that the chair (!) be still vacant ?
These conditions, however, are typical, and are to be found everywhere
in the United States. Abroad, the outlook is, happily, far different. Once
more the light comes from the East. As far back as the early sixties a chair
of photography was created at Berlin for Dr. H. W. Vogel. There the
Politechnicum has a regular laboratory of photographic research, and the
department as a whole comprises a most elaborate organization and embraces
a whole staff of attendants. In Vienna, the K. K. Lehr-undVersuch-Anstalt,
under the direction of Professor Eder, has a whole department exclusively
devoted to photographic research work and to the teaching of that science
in all its branches. In France and Switzerland similar conditions prevail.
The most important universities have photographic departments and courses.
In England, thanks to the repeated efforts of Sir W. J. W. Abney and a
group of energetic coworkers, a chair of scientific research work has been
recently created which is shortly to be inaugurated. Examples could be mul-
tiplied, but enough has been said, we trust, to make all sincere lovers of
photography feel keenly the indifference and apathy displayed by our scientific
institutions toward an established science. Poor photography! She plays
at the hearth of learning the rôle of the needy relative whose help is very
much appreciated, but whose company is not desired—she is relegated to
the kitchen but forbidden entrance in the drawing-room.
Oh, for a Carnegie or a Rockefeller to set matters aright!
A. K. Boursault.

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