Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1907 (Heft 20))

THE NEW COLOR PHOTOG-
RAPHY.—A BIT OF HISTORY.
COLOR photography is an accomplished fact. The seemingly
everlasting question whether color would ever be within the reach
of the photographer has been definitely answered. This answer
the Lumières, of France, have supplied. For fourteen years, it is
related, they have been seeking it. Thanks to their science, perseverance,
and patience, practical application and unlimited means, these men have finally
achieved what many of us had looked upon practically as unachievable.
Prof. Lippmann, of the Sorbonne at Paris, had a few years ago actually
obtained scientifically correct color photographs, but his methods were so
difficult and uncertain as to make each success very costly. In consequence
his invention is only of scientific value. But the Autochrome Plate, as the
plate invented and made by the Lumières has been named, permits every
photographer to obtain color photographs with an ordinary camera and with
the greatest ease and quickness. The Lumières evolved their plate from the
theories of others, but the practical solution is entirely theirs. They have
given the world a process which in history will rank with the startling and
wonderful inventions of those two other Frenchmen, Daguerre and Nièpce.
We venture to predict that in all likelihood what the Daguerreotype has been
to modern monochrome photography, the Autochromotype will be to the
future color photography. We believe the capitalist, who has for obvious
reasons fought shy of color “ fanatics,” will now, in view of the beautiful and
readily obtained practical results with the Autochrome plate, untie his purse-
strings and support the color experimenters whose numbers are already
legion. The latter will thus receive a fair opportunity to work out their
innumerable theories and countless patents. Who can predict what may yet
be in store for us from these sources? In the meantime we rejoice in what
we have. It will be hard to beat.
The Autochrome Plate photographs color automatically. A transparent
support (glass) is covered with an adhesive matter which receives a coating
of potato-starch grains dyed blue-violet, green, and red-orange. After
isolating this with a waterproof varnish (zapon, we believe) it is coated with
a panchromatic (collodion) emulsion. The exposure is made in the usual
way, but with the glass side of the plate facing the lens, so that the light
passes through the colored grains and only then reaches the emulsion.
The lens is fitted with a special yellow filter made by the Lumières for
the plate. The plate is developed and then, without fixing, is treated
in broad daylight with an acid permanganate reducer, rinsed and re-
developed. The result is a positive print in natural colors. If the
exposure has been correct—and correct exposure is the essential for ultimate
success — the results are uncommonly realistic. Thus far only one picture
can result from each exposure. It is a transparency which can only be
seen properly by transmitted white light or, if small enough to put into
the lantern, on the screen. The Lumières, as well as others, are now at