PREFACE ΤΟ FIRST EDITION. THE accumulation of facts in that department of science which immediately considers the chemical changes produced by the solar rays, has been so great, that the necessity of collecting and collating them, has been felt by all who were in the least degree interested in the progress of the inquiry. Whether I have executed this task satisfactorily or otherwise, is for the public to decide. I have endeavoured, as this is the first History of Photography which has been published, to give to every one his full share in these discoveries, which have accelerated the advancement of that art; and although in many cases my interpretation of phenomena may differ from that given by the observers themselves; in all, I have been most careful to adhere to their own expression of the facts. I have, throughout the principal portion of this Work, laboured under the difficulty of being obliged to speak of photographic phenomena as resulting from the agency of LIGHT, being at the same time fully satisfied that they were to be referred to a principle which possessed none of the characters of LIGHT or HEAT, but which was intimately mixed with these elements in the solar rays. This subject is fully discussed in the third division of the Volume; but I refer to it now, for the purpose of explaining, that the implied contradiction is only a submission to the generally received idea, for the purpose of rendering the inquiry intelligible to every reader. It is due from me, that I acknowledge the kind and generous assistance which, through every stage of these experimental inquiries, I have received from Sir J. F. W. Herschel. The readiness with which that philosopher has communicated his discoveries, and the free and candid manner in which he has favoured me with his views, claims this expression of my feelings, as the only way in which I can sufficiently show the value at which I estimate his liberal endeavours to assist a very humble experimentalist, in a path of inquiry in which, by his own laborious and ingenious researches, he has established his high pre eminence. To Professor Wheatstone I am also indebted for some valuable matter connected with the early history of Photography. Falmouth, March 11. 1844. ROBERT HUNT. |