A TREATISE
ON
IELIOCHRO Y;
OR,
le   robatrctiom   of Virtres,
BY MEANS OF LIGHT,
IN  NA -TIURAL COLO ORSo
EMBRACING
f alXl, vlali and vnursZrYeb pairpflotl
OF THE PROCESS KNOWN AS
THEEE lI-E!LILOTYiPE,
INCLUDING THE AUTHOR S NEWLY DISCOVERED
COLLODIO-CHR3OME,
Oft NATURAL COLORS ON  COLLODIONIZED  GLASS.
TOGETHER WITH
ON PAPER, VELVET, PARCHMENT, SILK, MUSLIN, PORCELAIN,
WOOD, &c.,
AND ELABORATE ESSAYS
ON THE THEORY OF LIGHT AND COLORS, THE CHEMISTRY OF HELLOCHROMY, AND THE ENTIRE RANGE OF THE AUTHOR'S NINE
YEARS' EXPERIENCE IN SUN COLORING.
BY L. L. HILL.
OF WESTKILL, GREENE CO., 1. o.
PUBLISHED BY ROBINSON & CASWELL7
57 CHAMBERS STREET, N. Y.




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by
ROBINSON & CASWELL,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern
District of New York.
Printed by R. CRAIGnEAD,
03 Vesey street. 




PREFACE.
A Preface should be brief. It is not in good taste for
an author to puff his own book; and prefaces, as generally
written, are most egregious laudations of the author's
production.
I will not indulge in so unpalatable an imposition on the
reader's good sense; but I will be bold enough to say, that
this book, with all its imperfections, is about as well got
up as could be expected. The theme is original, and of
course, I have had very little help from other writers.
Alone, almost without chart or compass, I have discovered
and explored a new and beautiful art region. For long
years I have traversed this bewitching clime, this magic
land, this "Beulah" of Photography; and if, after all my
exciting revels, I have given a correct description of the
" beauties of the place," I beg pardon of all the unmerciful
critics, when I say that I have a claim on their kind forbearance.




Vi                   PREFACE.
Success and immortal honor to the next adventurer,
whoever he may be, who shall go where I have been, and
who, perhaps, shall dive into regions beyond, and bring
back garlands of exceeding and unfading beauty. Henceforth may the progress of the Heliochrome be onward, and
may the time be near when it shall crown with an ambrosial diadem every other branch of the Photographic Art.
L. L. HILL.
WESTKILL, GREENE CO., N. Y.,
June 19th, 1856.




AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR.
CHAPTER I. ]
Place of his Birth-His Parents —Murder of his Father-Apprentice at Printing-McNaughton, the Scotch Artist-Christian Experience, and call to
the Ministry-Works for Horace Greeley-Remarks on Greeley-Studies
for the Ministry-Becomes Pastor at, New Baltimore-Courtship and Marriage-The Mountain Girl-Ministry at Westki]l-Antinomianism-AntiRent War-Plain Preaching-Becomes Publisher-Removes to Saugerties
-Attacked with the Bronchitis-Quits Preaching-Goes to Daguerrreotyping-Early Lessons in the Art —The Blues, the Fog, the Blacks.-Travelling Daguerreotypist-Good Success-Durand the Artist-Called HomeThe Hurricane-Views of Medicine-Begins Experimenting for the Natural Colors-Treatise on Daguerreotype-The Magic Buff-Photographic
Researches-Pupils-Pecuniary Affairs....................... 1..... 1
CHAPTER II.
Experimenting-Difficulties in the Way-Groping in Darkness-Friends
Laugh-The Philosophers —Wife Aids-Laughable Experiments-Wife has
the Consumption-A peculiar mode of Treatment, by which her life was
greatly prolonged, briefly detailed-Poisons-Explosions-Friendly Cautions-The first Picture in Colors-Excitement of Mind-Second Picture in
Colors-The Announcement-Effect on the Public Mind —Injury to the
Daguerreotype Business-Eight thousand Letters-Visitors-Speculators
-Offers of large sums of Money-The Press-Course of the Photographic
Journals-The "Infernal Committee"-Life Threatened-My RevolverIts Amnusing History-Col. Pratt's Dog-The Midnight Alarm-Narrow




1iii                        CONTENTS.
Escape of the Enemy-Westkill Police-Watchman's Rattle —Friends-M.
A. Root, Wm. M. Marshall, Prof. Morse, and others-Visitors and Visitations-Glass Silvering —-5,000 turning on a piece of India-rubber ClothReflectors for Cameras-The Pantotype —Beautiful method of making
Daguerreotype Plates-The Chromatint, fully detailed —My Second Marriage-A piece of unlooked for Experience.-That "foulest whelp of sin,"'
Slander-Human Nature in its blackest apparel...................  22
TREATISE ON HELIOCHIROMY.
I CHAPTER I.
Light-Various theories-Atomic and Wave Theories-Properties of LightActinic Principle in Light-The Photogenic Ray..................... 39
CHAPTER II.
Chromatics-Light a compound of Colored Rays-Proof by the Prism —Iridescence-Coloring Matter and the Chromatic Rays-Porosity of MatterCurious Properties of Various Bodies-Mica-Mother of Pearl-Iodide of
Mercury —The Soap Buibble-Coating of the Daguerreotype Plate-Iodine
Rings-Metallo-Chromes-Potatoe growing above Ground-Plants grown
in Darkness-Autumnal Leaves-Varnish on Water-Chlorophyle-These
instances partly Mechanical and Chemical-Can a Surface be prepared on
which Light itself will produce similar changes.........-............   46
CHAPTER III.
Heliochrome  possible-Opinions of Philosophers-Biot, Daguerre, Nicephore Niepce, Sir John Herschel, Sir Robert Hunt-Vulgar OpinionsArgument d priori-Chemical Compounds, Decomposition, and Reduction
caused or assisted by light................................. 56
CHAPTER IV.
Antiquity —The Jugglers of Ancient India-The Alchemists-Chloride of Silver-Scheele-M. Berard-Seebeck-Berthol]et —Sir William HerschelWollaston's Experiments on Gum Guiacum-Sir HIumphrey Davy-Oxyde
of Lead-The Action of the Colored Rays-Wedgewood and Davy's First




CONTENTS.                             ix
Pictures-Daguerre and Niepce's First Experiments-Their Copartnership
-The Bitumen Process-Discovery of the Daguerreotype-Action of the
French Government-Talbot and his Process-The First Portrait from
Life-Prof. Morse-Daguerre, Niepee, Talbot, Sir John Herschel, and Sir
Robert Hunt, work for the Colors-Iridescence-Complementary Colors —
Becquerel-Niepce de St. Victor —My claim to Priority fully ExaminedThe United States Senate-My Early Pictures-The " Infernal Committee"
-Certificates................. 61
CHAPTER  V.
Various Processes-Sir John Herschel's Anthotype-Robert Hunt's Processes —Ferrocyanide paper-Bi-Chromate of Potash-Hydriodatedl Paper-Copying a green Leaf-M. Edmund Becquerel's process-M. Niepce
de Saint Victor's process-These processes fully and fairly detailed...93
CHAPTER VI.
CHEMISTRY OF HELIOCHROMIY.
NATURAL COLORIFIC AGENTS. —ESCUlelt Vegetables. -Carrots —Beets —Onions
-Radishes-Squash- Pumpkin-Watermelon-Tomatoes-Lettuce —Cabbage-Red Peppers-Asparagus —Rhubarb-Sage. Fruits.-Peach —Cherry
-Apple-Strawberry-Blackberry-Raspberry-Sumac Bobs-Currants
-Grapes-Bittersweet —Sunflower Seeds —Poketerries —ElderberriesWhortleberries-Squawberries. Flowers-Red Rose-Peony-Poppy-Dal.
lia-Marigold-Violet-Tiger Lily-Tulips-Peach  Blows-Sky Rocket
-Lilac —Dandelions-Daisies-St. John's Wort.  Grasses and Leaves.Red-top Clover-Ribbon Grass-Leaves of Willow-Sugar Maple-Peach
-Butternut.
ARTIFICIAL COLORIFIC AGENTS.-The Metals.-Gold-Silver-Copper —Platinn
— Iron -- Zinc-Lead-Antimony-ArseIlic-Osmium -Iridium- Cobalt -
Selenium-Mercury- Tin- Bismuth-Nickel -Potassium-Sodium-Alulminum-Their Alloys. Thie Salts of Metals.-Nitrate, Chloride, Bromide,
Iodide, Fluoride, Ammoniuret, Fulminate, Citrate, Silvate, Cyanide, Hyposulphite, Phosphate, Carbonate, Borate, Chromate, and Alumin0a of Silver
-Chlorides of Gold, Copper, Zinc, Lead, Iridium, Cobalt, &c.-Iodide and
Bromide of Gold, Silver, Lead, &c.
THE ACIDS. —Nitric, Sulphuric, Sulphurous, Hydrochloric, Hydrofluoric,
Citric, Iodic, Bromic, Tartaric, Uric, Gallic, Pyro-Gallic, Nitrous, Acetic,
&c.
THE ALKALIES.-Soda, Baryta, Lime, and Strontia, and their combinations.
THE GASES AND VAPORS.-Chlorine, Hydrogen, Selenium, Phosphorous Vapor,
Phosphuretted Hydrogen, Oxygen, Oxyde, Nitrous Oxyde, Hyponitric
Acid Vapor...................................................  100




~X                    (:1~~CONTENTS
CHAPTER VIL.
EXPERIMENTS ON THE DAGUERREOTYPE PLATEc
Colors produced on the rotative principle.-The iodized, bromo-iodized, anod
clhloro-iodized plate, each give these colors. —Mercury, at various tempera-,
tures-impinging at angles —alloyed. —The electrotyped, blanched, oxydized, grained, and greased plate.-New Developers.-Vapors of Zinc, Tin,
Bismuth, Antimony7 Arsenic, Molybdenum, Gold, Silver, Copper, Platina,
Iridium, and Iron.-The Oxy-hydrogen Blowpipe.-Eliopole Lamp —Voltaic flame.-Screens of Platina Gauze.-The Gases —Sulphuric, Nitric,..
Phosphuretted Hydrogen, Sulphuretted Hydrogen, Hydrogen, &c.-The:reversed Daguerreotype procesas-Undercoatings, with Bromine, Chlorine,.
Per-fluoride of Chrome, Chlorochromic Acid, Carbonaceous Glaze.-Iodized
Mtercury Surface, developed with the vapor -of Silver.-Colored Light for
D)eveloping............. 129
CHAPTER VIII.
iEXPERIMENTS WITH VARIOUS METALS.
Tin, iodized and  chloridated.-Copper, iodized, and  colors developed
with a gas.-Pictures in colors on Brass. —Singular behavior of Brass
to the vapor of Mercury.-Lead —Its iodide rendered heliochromic.Iron and Steel, their *extraordinary colorific susceptibility.-Zinc, employment of its vapor.-Nickel, Bismuth, and Antimony.-German Silver,
Prince's MBetal, and Britannia.-Thrilling experiments with their alloys. —
The Alloy Plate.-V-ipor of Arsenic.-Iridium..................... 135
CHAPTER IX.
EXPEItlMENTS WITH THE SALTS OF THE METALS.
INatrate of Silver.-Great variety of processes by its means.-White Chloride of Silver.-Colored by the red ray-V-iolet Chloride of Silver.Its  remarkable  properties.-Chloro-Chromate  of  Silver —for  IIeliochromes on Paper,-How developed.-Colors strengthened by Hyposulphite of Gold.-Chromate of Copper-for Heliochromes in Red, Orange,
Yellow, and Green.-Singular mode of developement.-Per-Manganate of
Potash. —A " Chameleon" under Colored Light. —Chloride of Bariumits extraordinary Colorific effects.-Process with Silica.-Fluoride of Calcium and Precipitated Silver....................  138




CONTE'NTSMe.
CHAPTER X.
EXPERIMENTS WITH VEGETABLE JUICE.
Red rose,violet, marigold,dandelion, dahlia, poppy, and peony, their coloring
matter imparted to paper, sensitive to their colored rays.-Otto of rose an
accelerator.-Instantaneous colored impressions on collodion, impregnated
with the spirituous extraet of the coloring matter of red poppy, clover
blows, horse-chestnut leaves, etc. —Means of acceleration by sulphuretted
air.-The heliochromy of the autumnal tints imitated.-Xanthophyl.-The
coloring matter of leaves acted upon simultaneously by a freezing mixture
and light-The coloring matters of the blood beet, carrot, and red cabbage,,give pictures in red, blue, yellow, and green.-Interesting results with the
red tomato, strawberries, and collodion -Red top grass. —Potato starch
and poke berries.-Bitter-sweet, blackberries, squawberries, and muriate
of tin.-Alumr as a mordant for vegetable colors................   144'CHAPTERlF    XI.
NATIRAL COLORS ON PAPER.
Several methods of Silvering Paper.-Hydrogen Gas and Chloeridated Paper.
-Chromate of Copper Paper: how developed.-Interesting process with
Chameleon Mineral, Chromate of Potash, Alum, and Nitrate of Silver.Litmus Paper rendered Heliechromie.-Paper Heliochromes intensified...
147
CHAPTER XII.;ISDIOCHRO ES ON TEXTILE  FABXRCS.
Beautiful process on Cotton Cloth, Linen, or Silk, applied to the manufacture
"of Window Shades, and other Transparencies, in Colors.-Silk prepared with
Nitrate of Silver and Per-muriate of Tin, and the picture developed'with a
-ompound of Chromic Acid&... -..................  -150
CHAPTER XIL
NATURAL TCOLORS ON GLSSA
Albuminate of Silver -Blue Collodion -The Chromates and Collodion.-Beautiful Silvering of Collodion by precipitation of the metal.-Splendid Scarlet
Red.-Coating of Collodion bleached by light, and giving colors in great:strength and purity.-Method of developing these Pictures.............152




CONTE1T9 ~
CHAPTER XIV.
THE UTILLOTYPEo.
As a Formula.-The Formula explained.-My mnethodof working the Formula.
CHAPTER'XV.
MISCELLANY.
3Iy Ambrotype Process-My Photographic Process-My Instantaneous Printing Process-My Transparent Process-My Toning Process........... 163
CHAPTER XVI.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS.
The House-The Village-The  Author....................................




AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR.
CHAPTER I.
Place of his Birth-His Parents-Murder of his Father-Apprentice at Printing-McNaughton, the Scotch Artist-Christian Experience, and call to
the Ministry-Works for Horace Greeley-Impressions of Greeley-Studies
for the Ministry-Becomes Pastor at New Baltimore-Courtship and Marriage-The Mountain Girl-Ministry at Westkill-Antinomianism-AntiRent War-Plain Preaching-Becomes Publisher-Removes to Saugerties
-Attacked with the Bronchitis-Quits Preaching-Goes toDaguerrreotyping-Early Lessons in the Art —The Blues, the Fog, the Blacks —Travelling Daguerreotypist-Good Success-Durand the Artist-Called HomeThe Hurricane-Views of Medicine-Begins Experimenting for the Natural Colors-Treatise on Daguerreotype-The Magic Buff-Photographic
Researches-Pupils-Pecuniary Affairs.
I WAS born in the village of Athens, Greene Co., New York, February 26, 1816.  My father, Lee Lawrence Hill, was a Commissary in the Army of 1812-13, and was brought home wounded
by three bullets, two of which he carried in his flesh till he died.
In the month of July, 1828, he was murdered by the hands of
three young men, as we of the family are well satisfied, for the
gratification of a family spite, growing out of some legal difficulties. Thus, at the age of twelve years, I was left under the care
of my mother, and few lads were ever as well cared for as I was
1




2                      HELIOCHROMY.
by her. Wisely, piously, and assiduously, did she fulfil her mission towards a large family of children.
At the age of thirteen years, I was placed an apprentice at
printing, in the office of the Hudson Gazette, to which city our
family had removed previous to my father's death.  There,
under the kind care of Hiram Wilbur, Esq., I soon became an
expert typo, and in his amiable family was, I dare say, as happy
as Ben. Franklin in the palmiest clays of his minority. After remaining with Mr. Wilbur about two years, I became clerk in a
store, but after a few months returned to typography, in the office
of the Rural Repository.  While in the store, I fell acquainted
with James McNaughton, Esq., a Scotch artist of no small distinction. From him I learned the first rudiments of drawing and
painting-miniature painting, particularly.  I remember, distinctly, that on seeing him at work on a miniature of one of my
sisters, I felt that I could willingly part with my left hand, if by
so doing my right hand could be trained to the beautiful art.
lMr. McNaughton afterwards removed to the city of New York,
and after the lapse of a few months I followed him thither, with a
view of placing myself under his care and tuition. Being a
stranger in the great metropolis, I searched for my friend in vain
for many days. The most I could learn about him was that he
had been very sick with inflammatory rheumatism, and was reduced to great poverty. One day in my rambles in Broadway, I
was pushing my inquiries among the artists, and in the studio of
a miniature painter my eye rested upon one of M{cNaughton's
off-hand sketches, upon the merits of which the artist and some
friends were expatiating in terms of high compliment. From
them I learned that the object of my search was in the hospital,
sick with the small-pox. My dread of this horrible disease was
intense; but having been vaccinated, I repaired at once to the
hospital.  After pressing my suit for some time, I was admitted
to his room. He knew me at once, and exclaimed-" Gracious
God! my dear boy, what brought you here!"  "To see you,
and try to comfort you," was my reply.  "Bless, God," said he,




AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR.               3
" out of all my acquaintances this side of the great ocean, I have
one friend."  He then told me that he was going to die, and
directed me where to find a miniature of himself, his easel, his
paints, his brushes, all which he gave me as his last legacy.  I
visited him several times after this, gave him twenty dollars in
money (nearly all I had), and when I called the last time, I
learned that he was dead and buried. Were it possible to recall
our friends from the dead, James McNaughton, the friend of my
early days, the man who first developed in my soul a passion
for delineation in color, would be one of the first I should
summon.
Soon after this, our family having removed to the village of
Kingston, I entered the office of the Ulster Plebeian, where I remained over a year.  The family of the amiable editor, John
Tappan, Esq., were a second Wilbur family to me, and I shall
never forget their old-fashioned Dutch intelligence and kindness.
During my stay with Mr. Tappan I occupied most of my leisure
hours in study. The method I pursued was somewhat novel,
and exceedingly profitable to me. Whatever subjects of interest
I put in type through the day, I investigated at night.  Thus,
my daily toils formed a portion of my studies.  For exampledid I " set up " an anecdote of Franklin?-I read his life that
night; an article on the " Variations of the Compass?"-that
night I turned navigator; was the subject Murder-Matrimony-Potatoes-Zoology-Sugar Candy-Mexico-TecumsehConchology-Peaches-Political Economy —Prussian  BlueSealing-Wax —I swallowed my supper, and made for the Encyclopaedia.
To tell the whole truth, I had, at this time, an associate of
rather dissipated habits. He was possessed of a most brilliant
intellect, and might have been a star in our nation; but he died
of the delirizum tremens. The talents of this young man (who
shall be nameless here) were of an extraordinary character. He
would frequently, after a hard day's work, write a " Tale" for
some Magazine, which would be thankfully accepted, and he




4                     HIELIOCOROMY.
would then go to bed drunk, in sight of the morning star, work
ten hours next day, and write a poem at night.  A poem which
he wrote, under the title of " The Carriers' Address," was pronounced by good judges, equal to Byron's best. It was composed of some two hundred lines, and I am witness to the fact,
that he composed it within the space of four hours, for I put it
into type. Twenty years have passed since my acquaintance
with this young man, and I shall never cease to regret that, for
a short time, I was too much influenced by the bad part of his
example.
Soon after these events, I became associated with a circle of
young men and women who were in the habit of attending Baptist prayer meetings. I had about this time frequented the
Methodist church, where I was much interested, and somewhat
impressed, by the preaching of the Rev. Mlr. Foss, a minister of
fervent piety and peculiar eloquence. Now a powerful revival
commenced among my young friends, and I was induced, by
their urgent entreaties, to go and see what the Lord was doing.
The meetings were held at private houses, and at the very first
I attended I felt that God was in the place. My companions, it
seemed to me, were of the elect, and the Lord was now separating them unto himself, while I was to be left behind. Conviction for sin rolled upon my mind like a mighty wave, but I
could see no hope.  Despair-withering, blighting despairseized my inmost soul, and I felt myself sinking to the deeps of
hell. Long years ago I had promised my Maker to seek his
face-but I had broken my vows; and now a voice seemed to
say: " He is joined to his idols; let him alone." Once, in particular, while I resided in the city of Hudson, I was brought
very low, and the Lord heard my cry. It was on the Sabbath
day, and, contrary to the express injunction of my mother, I
was skating on the frozen river, and was plunged into an airhole. I suffered all the pangs of drowning, but was rescued;
and after two hours' diligent effort, by the hands of strangers, I
was restored. While in the water, I felt as any sinner would




AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THIE AUTHOR. 
be likely to feel under similar circumstances.  I vowed most
earnestly, that if the Lord would deliver me I would serve him
all the days of my life. This vow I had broken, and now, after
the lapse of years, it weighed heavy upon my soul. For four
days and nights I could neither eat nor sleep-pleasure lost its
charms and the world its beauty, and wherever I went creation
itself seemed frowning and howling upon the reprobate.  But
the Spirit of God did not leave me; I was sweetly led out of
this " iron cage of despair" into a "large place."  Young converts and aged saints took me by the hand and led me to Jesus;
and I saw the loving Lamb of God by the eye of faith, and he
did not frown, but accepted the " weapons of my rebellion," and
filled my soul with "peace in believing, and joy in the Holy
Spirit."  Blessed and adored be his holy name! —that "glad
hour" was to me the beginning of "joys that cannot be expressed." It may seem odd to some of my brother daguerreotypists, that I should tell my experience in a book on Heliochromy; but this simple tale will hurt nobody, while the record
of it, in this very volume, relieves my own conscience. I am an
imperfect man; but God only knows how utterly unendurable
my late labors and trials would have been, had I not felt that I
had a God to go to.
Having united with the Baptist Church in Kingston, I found
myself most pleasantly employed in publishing the glad news of
salvation to all I met. In the conference meetings especially, I
was at home; and I can truly say that those were the happiest
days of my life. A few months after my union with the church,
I was licensed to preach the gospel, and I at once repaired to
the Literary and Theological Seminary (now Madison University) at Hamilton, Madison Co., N. Y., to study for the work.
There I remained between four and five years; and then, with
a view of raising funds to support myself in theological studies
two years longer, I went to work at my trade in the city of New
York, where I remained about one year. The star of Horace
Greeley was then rising in brilliancy, and I for a short time




G                     HELIOCHROnMY.
immortalized some of his editorials for the " New Yorker.2' My
acquaintance with him was not intimate, but I formed a profound
estimate of his genius and amiability. I also worked on the
"G Courier and Inquirer," and other morning papers, where I
formed the abominable habit of keeping late hours; and to this
day, my time for getting sleepy is between 11 o'clock P.M. and
1 o'clock A.M. While at Hamilton I supported myself mainly
by my earnings during the vacations. I received some assistance, however, from members of the Kingston Church, among
whom I may mention Daniel L. Wells, Reuben Nichols, John
Newhouse, and Harvey Otis —men who have "purchased to
themselves a good degree" by their long years of devotion to
the Christian cause. I was also aided by the Baptist Church at
Sing Sing, which I supplied for several Sabbaths. With these
limited resources, I was compelled to live very economically.
For nearly two years I united with my room-mate in keeping
bachelors' hall. -The average cost of this enterprise was three
shillings per week each. Still, our fortunate acquaintance with
several good housewives in the village added not a little to our
stock of eatables, and we would occasionally vary the bill of fare
from the waters of a crystal lake in the neighborhood. All told,
our fare was good enough for students, and I have no doubt that
if all mankind were to live as we did then, dyspepsia and hypochondria would be unknown.
While I was at work in New York I received a visit from a
committee of the Baptist Church in New Baltimore, inviting me
to become their pastor.  I had been gradually reasoning myself
into the belief that, the best way to study theology is for a man
to take his Bible, and a few good books, and to preach as fast as
he learns, and I at once accepted their call. This was in the
old Merchants' Exchange, alongside of the statue of Alexander
Hamilton, who, as I told the brethren, was good enough witness
to our contract. The next Sabbath found me at my post, where
I was welcomed by a large congregation. After remaining with
that church a few months, I was ordained to the work of the




AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF TI-E AUTHIIO.             7
ministry, by an Ecclesiastical Council, composed of delegates
from several neighboring churches.
Some time previous to these events, I had visited my old
friend, Rev. Isaac Moore, at Westkill. He gave out an appointment for me to preach in the evening. While discoursing
on things divine, my eyes involuntarily rested on a bright-eyed
mountain girl, just in front of the pulpit.  From the first glance
it seemed to me that I could preach better when I was looking
that way.  To tell the honest truth, I fell in love witfi this girl,
and the next day I casually saw her again at her father's house,
which only strengthened the sacred passion. Here was " love at
first sight," in good earnest. I had seen, and been acquainted with
many scores of beautiful young women, but never till then had I
felt that peculiar and happy pang which Cupid gives, when he
sends his arrow through and through the heart. After this I
visited Westkill quite frequently. I became quite suddenly, but
no less permanently, a complete enthusiast in my admiration of
mountain scenery, and an ardent disciple of the renowned Isaac
Walton (who treats so handsomely on trout-fishing), and a great
lover of evening visits, particularly at the house of Philo Bushnell, Esq., who was father of the young lady referred to —1Miss
Emeline Bushnell.
I have always tried hard to be a practical man, and to avoid
the adoption of visionary and useless theories and sentimentalities. The idea of loving a lady without marrying her, I, at the
above period especially, regarded as a piece of great nonsense.
Therefore, being most pleasantly situated at New Baltimoreenjoying the favor of the people-having a model boarding-place
-and so snugly ensconced in a neat little sanctum, where I sometimes got lonely-I " popped the question," and, on the 10th of
April, 1836, married the " mountain girl."  Since then, I have
often heard it from her own lips that Cupid paid her a visit
simultaneously with his capers with me. However this may be,
I have never regretted my choice, and I am not joking when I
recommend this method of getting a wife. The plan adopted by




8                     IELIOCHROMIY.
many young men, of searching, and scrutinizing, and courting,
and considering, among all the girls in the nation, with a direct
view of ascertaining if they can possibly love this, that, or the
other one, is most unnatural-for true, and pure, and real
" matches " are " made in heaven;" and were I a young lady,
and had a thousand hearts to give, not one of them should go to
the young gallant who required six months to determine whether
he loved me. In one word, matrimony should be an affair of the
affections; not a mathematical problem, and much less a matter
of dollars and cents. The man who dodges the spirit and design
of this holy alliance, by marrying for money, is a wretch, who
deserves to be miserable the rest of his days.
Well, blessed with the smiles and counsels of my young bride,
I was very happy at New Baltimore. After remaining there a
few months longer, I felt it my duty to accept a call from the
church at Westkill. Here I continued, as pastor, for nine years,
during which time I experienced much of the " Suhnny Side," as
well as the " Shady Side," of that relation.  Ml[y preaching was
direct and plain, and designed to cut its way with conscience.
Ever since I have been disabled from preaching, it has been a
great consolation to me to reflect that I never " sewed pillows to
arm-holes," or " handled the word of God deceitfully." I literally " cried aloud, and spared not," as many can testify, and as
my poor throat has been testifying for the last seven years.
Had I been as moderate as many of our sleepy sing-songs of the
present day, I might have been doling out the Gospel to this
day-or I might have been accursed in an early grave, for my
indolence, and for my solemn mockeries of the awful themes-I
really do not know which. How a man, with vital [piety at
heart, and a commission from the Great I AM in his hands, and
the awful realities of Sin, Death, Hell, Heaven, and a Judgment
Day for his themes, and a concourse of eternity-bound immortals
before him, can say over the Gospel, as a dull boy would say a
lesson, is a problem which some of our doctors of divinity would
do well to solve.




AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF TIHE AUTHOR.                 9
During my labors in Westkill, the church enjoyed several
mighty outpourings of the Holy Spirit.  Connected with these,
and with my pastorate in general, were many incidents of an interesting character. Most of them  I will pass over; the few
more particularly connected with the leading events of my history, I may be pardoned for recording.
My salary was very small, never exceeding three hundred
dollars; and " donation visits" were not at first in vogue, in this
then hot-bed of antinomianism —an ism, which, of all others, is
perhaps least inclined to liberality. This led me to labor with
my own hands" —no great condescension, verily, in a minister
of the gospel, seeing Paul did the same. I procured printing
materials, a good supply of type, and an old " Ramage Press,"
and commenced the publication of a little semi-monthly, called
the " Christian Repository."  I obtained a fair circulation, and
realized about $500 profit during its one-year life. Then I
abandoned the first publication ever issued among the Catskill
Mountains, and sent forth the first number of the " Baptist
Library," a reprint of standard Baptist works, such as those of
Bunyan, Keath, Carson, Hall, and Fuller.  This idea met with
universal sympathy throughout our churches. The first men in
the denomination gave me their influence, and at the end of one
year I had seven thousand subscribers at $1.50 each. My labors
between its semi-monthly issues, were about as follows:Composition of 16 large pages of type, in which I was aided by wife.
Press-work every fortnight of 7,000 sheets.
Folding, pressing, covering, and mailing 7,000 periodicals every fortnight.
Keeping the books.
Preaching from four to eight sermons.
Attending weddings, funerals, &c.
All told, this was rather hard work, and required full sixteen
hours per day. This course made the first inroad on my constitution, and I now regret it most bitterly. I soon found it




10                    HELIOCHROMY.
necessary to enlarge my facilities, when I formed a co-partnership with my brother, R. H. Hill, and we removed our quarters
to the delightful village of Prattsville.  The Hon. Zadock
Pratt, founder of that fine village (justly pronounced the "gem
of the mountains")-a gentleman  well known and highly
esteemed throughout the country-became our generous patron,
and afforded us the large monied facilities required by our
enlarging our operations, in the addition of some twelve workmen,
a well appointed stereotype foundry, and an extensive book and
stationery store. He also furnished us a large building for our
business, and each of us a good house for our families.  At
the close, of the business there-about three years in all —he
utterly refused to take any rent. It is not a little to his credit
that just such instances of liberality were ever common to him.
I remained in Prattsville only about a year, having sold out to
my brother, who continued the business some two years after I
left. On leaving there, I was resolved to bid adieu to the
mountains, and with this view visited Danbury, Conn., Stamford, Conn., and some churches in New Jersey, and returned
home to consider and decide on the merits of these several
locations. The Westkill church urged me to return, and I did
so. After three or four years the famous anti-rent troubles
commenced. In this section several clergymen lectured for, and
otherwise encouraged the Calico Indians.  I was accused of
being an " up-renter," and was threatened with a' "donation"
suit of "tar and feathers."  One day a gang of some eighty of
these rowdies passed my house, and while I stood in the door
they pointed their muskets at me, but did not fire. Perhaps
they were in jest; but even such an outrage no friend of good
order would be found guilty of. A sermon in which I plainly
exposed the rottenness of the whole system of disguise, and the
hypocrisy of those professors of religion who countenanced the
practice, gave great offence to a few in the church; and being
determined not to stay in a church where even a few wished me
gone, I left, and settled in the Baptist church in the thriving




AUTOBIOGRAPIY OF THE AUTHOR.              11
village of Saugerties, on the banks of the Hudson river. There
I remained two years and a half, and I must say in justice to
the church and the people generally, that my situation was
exceedingly pleasant.  Indeed I felt as if I could stay in that
community "6 all the days of my life."  Alas! it was otherwise
ordered.  I was severely attacked with that scourge of the
ministry, bronchitis. At one period of the disease I entirely
lost my voice, and such was the aggravated character of the
complaint, that skilful physicians pronounced me on the very
brink of the consumptive's grave. By the blessing of God, in
the free use of "Jayne's Expectorant," I almost entirely recovered, and again entered the pulpit. A few sermons were
sufficient to bring back the malady in a chronicform, and from
this I have never entirely recovered. The large quantities of
iodine and bromine, especially the latter, which I was led to use
in the practice of daguerreotype, and in manufacturing chemicals, have tended greatly to modify the disease, and to render
life endurable. Bromine, deadly poison as it is, inhaled by the
lungs, in a state of moderate dilution with atmospheric air,
appears to act as a tremendous irritant, and for several hours,
and even days, the pulmonary subject will feel much worse; but
these symptoms are sure to be followed by a very decided
improvement. A continuous exposure, however, to even a very
weak atmosphere of this poison, is extremely debilitating and
injurious. Three years ago the present winter, I had a violent
return of my complaint; and about that time I had occasion to
make a large quantity of bromide of Time. At several different
times I inhaled it largely, which caused a very great aggravation
of the cough, sore throat, expectoration, stricture, &c., but in a
few days the volatile poison left the system, and with it went all
the principal symptoms of the disease, and I felt nearly well for
several months. A good way to use this potent medicine, is to
place one drop of pure bromine in a three-gallon jug, and after
suffering it to remain corked tight for an hour, in a warm room,
to carefully inhale from the mouth of the jug, till you feel a




12                     HELIOOIROMY.
decided action of it through the throat and lungs, and then to
breathe freely out-door air, the colder the better. The latter
direction may seem singular and dangerous, but it is not. No
danger of " taking cold" need be apprehended. The lungs are
not then in a condition for it. They are under a ten-fold excitement, in the effort to throw off the poison, and will, therefore,
resist the cold air, while the latter will at once dilute the gas.
To return to the thread of my narrative. After becoming
satisfied that my disease was of a character to forbid my regular
exercise of the ministry, I at once turned my attention to daguerreotyping. From Daguerre's first published account of this
wonderful art, I became enamored with it; and I well remember my emotions on seeing some of the first daguerreotypes made
in New York by Prof. Morse (the immortal inventor of the magnetic telegraph), Prof. Wolcott, Mr. Van Loon, and others. I
paid one of these gentlemen (Mr. Van Loon, I think) $10 for
two medium daguerreotypes of myself and wife. My own, having been kept from strong light, remains on the plate, but in a
miserable state of decay; the other has long since entirely disappeared.
My first lessons in daguerreotype were from a friend, who
was a novice in the art. Of course I did not succeed. I then
repaired to Meade & Brothers' Gallery, in Albany, where I
gathered the main principles of the business. Afterwards I
spent some time with It. E. Churchill, Esq., in Broadway, New
York, much to my improvement. In those days instructions
were very imperfectly given; many of the best artists, in fact,
found it hard work to keep their own equilibrium, so little was
understood of the true principles of the art. After all these
valuable aids, I was still in a most woful "fog."  My lights had," the blues," and the face of beauty would come out black as
charcoal; and that, too, after a sitting of fifteen minutes. Indeed, I thought myself fortunate to make a white man look a
few degrees lighter than Jim Crow. To those who have passed
through these troubles (and who of the old daguerreotypists have




AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR.              13
not?), I need not describe their vexations and horrors.  The
pecuniary embarrassment, likewise, to those who depend on the
business for the support of their families, as I did, is no small
item. Many-yes, the great majority —who took instructions in
those days, were wilfully misled, and not only cheated out of
their money, but sent out among strangers without the ability to
earn their bread.  Let me say here, that certain parties who
have been most forward in denouncing me as a cheat, like themselves, were among the notorious in those naughty times, when
cider was sold for " quick stuf," red chalk for colcothar, Indian
meal for chloride of gold, and plunSbago for iodine. I have the
documents to prove this assertion, and I can bring dozens of
men who will swear, on the Holy Book, that, in their opinion,
the mercenary traducers referred to are among the meanest and
most contemptible villains on the footstool. Not a few of these
rare spirits I could point out by name, and prove their rascality
to their teeth; but I will let these remarks suffice, promising,
if they ever renew their base attacks, to bring to light some
things which will not be very pleasing.
In the course of my struggles to gain a mastery of the art, I
was one day visited by Mr. Francis Norwood, of Schoharie Co.
It was very uncommon in those times to meet with an operator
at all communicative; every man had some great secret, and that
was locked up in his own narrow bosom, and the key hid away.
You could scarcely visit a daguerreotype room, but you would
see on the door of the operating department-" No Admittance,"
" Positively no Admittance," " Strictly Private," " Peremptorily
no Admittance," &c. If you desired a piece of information-a
recipe for making or mixing " chloride of gold" for example,
from $5 to $50 was the price, the seller reserving the trifling
privilege of giving you the wrong recipe if he saw fit.  I once
sent for $5 worth of chloride of gold to a very popular house in
Broadway, with a respectful request for information how to mix
it.  The gold (and plenty of nice yellow corn, ground fine)
arrived, and with it a message —" Ask Mr. Hill if he thinks I




14                    HELIOCHROMY.
am a d —-d fool?"  This creature is still on Broadway; but
people have found him out, and the glory of his once gorgeous
daguerreian palace has departed. I am glad that a race of men
have taken his place.
3Mr. Norwood was of a different stamp. He carried the " key
of knowledge" in a loose hand; and he cheerfully " put me on
the track." I learned from him, in twenty minutes, that which
enabled me to produce very good pictures with some certainty.
As a result, I profited to the amount of about four hundred
dollars in Saugerties alone, in the space of three or four monohs.
This enabled me to pay all my little debts, contracted while
"groping in the dark," and to return to my home in Westkill
with a few spare dollars.
Soon after this, accompanied by my wife and boy, I commenced as travelling daguerreotypist. I went first of all to the
flourishing town of North East, Dutchess Co., where I spent a
winter very pleasantly in the house of the Rev. IH. L. Gross.
While there, I made and sold some two hundred pictures. On
my return home, I operated for a short time in my native village,
Athens. A month or two afterwards I returned to Athens, and
had all I could do there for several weeks. Then I went down
the river to Poughkeepsie, and thence to Dover Plains, Dutchess
Co., where I was fortunate in forming an extensive acquaintance
with most excellent people, and in making and selling nearly
three hundred pictures. While there, I enjoyed a visit with
Durand, the artist. I naturally supposed that the man who
produced the fine painting of -Dover Plains, could show me how
to color a daguerreotype. But he laughed at the idea, remarking, " reproduce, by means of light, the beautiful colored image on
the ground glass of your camera, and you will be ahead of all the
painters." This remark was, perhaps, what first suggested to
me the idea of making an effort towards that grand object.
From Dover Plains I went to the pleasant village of Amenia,
in the same county, and there, also, I succeeded admirably for a
couple of months. I became acquainted while there with the




ATUOBIOGRAPIIY OF TIE AUTHOR.              15
professors in the Methodist Seminary-especially Professors
Hazen and Winchell. With them I had many pleasant interviews, the conversation generally turning on the Philosophy of
the Daguerreotype.  In this they were well versed; but the
practical part they could not master. The camera, &c., belonging to their Philosophical Department I purchased at a low
price, and paid in light and shadow.
In the month of November I returned to North East, where I
designed to spend the winter; but, in the midst of a most successful career, we were unexpectedly called home by the
dangerous illness of a dear sister. We arrived at Oakhill,
opposite Catskill, on our way homeward, after dark the first day.
The river had just closed, but the crossing not being safe, we
went up to Hudson, and crossed there, piloted by two little boys,
and arrived at Catskill at midnight. The next morning, at daybreak, we were on our way to the mountains. It was one of the
coldest days I ever knew, and in crossing the mountain, just
below the " Mountain House," the wind blew a perfect hurricane.
The air was literally filled with'snow, leaves, limbs of trees, and
an occasional sprinkling of rails and boards from the fences, and
several times we heard the crash of tall maples and hemlocks,
as they yielded to the fury of the gale.  Majesty rode on the
blast that day. I name -this incident, because it formed a sort
of era in my life, and to show what woman can endure, when on
a mission of affection.  Several times we were plunged into
deep snow drifts, when my wife, our little boy, and myself had
to release the prancing and infuriated steeds, right up the sleigh,
or tumble it over a stone wall, and play vigilance committee over
the stupid acts of an affrighted negro driver.
Arrived safely home, we found our young friend, to all
appearance, in the last agonies of a complication of diseases, of
which Scrofula was chief.  She had been given up by several
physicians, and had been lying for some days in a comatose state.
We were aware that she had taken the usual remedies of the
Allopathic school, and having reached the end of their mnedical




1_6                   HELIOCIROMY.
education, it was considered that any new prescription, not exactly conforming to these principles, would kill her at once.
However we, in theory and practice, were Thompsonians-the
mention of which fact here needs no apology-for the theory of
Dr. Samuel Thompson never has, and never can be refuted,
though the course of some of his followers has been utterly
absurd. Accordingly, by consent of the entire family, we made
a trial of botanic remedies. Small doses of Thompson's Third
Preparation, to get up the "internal heat," and nauseate the stonmach, were.often repeated, aided by a careful and persevering
use of the vapor bath. The effect was almost magical. Signs of
life began to appear, and ere long she was in great pain. As soon
as we thought it safe we gave, to relieve these pains, the same medicine, in emetic doses. Nature, thus aided, gained strength to
renew the conflict with disease; and the advantage was followed
up by a continued use of the same medicine, in connexion with
vegetable alteratives, till the patient recovered. She is still living
in the enjoyment of fair health.
I have said that the journey through the hurricane was a sort
of era in my life. How and why I so regard it I will now state.
Had we been one day later our friend, I doubt not, would have
died, and we would have returned to our migrations. As it was,
duty retained me at home, and having no regular employment 1
began experimentingfor the natural colors. These experiments I
have continued till very recently-a period of over five yearsand had it not been for the heroic fortitude of a woman, in braving
the storm, the following pages would never have seen the light.
I will not omit, in this place, the mention of some unpleasant
circumstances which happened about this time. The then Pastor
of the Westkill church had been guilty of most shamefully slandering one of the most amiable young ladies in the place. Unfortunately for me he had made me a witness to the fact, and
though I deemed it prudent to conceal my knowledge of his character, supposing that there was no other proof, the whole thing
leaked out, and it was proved against him by the most irrefragable




AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR.              17
testimony. He was tried by a council of delegates from ten or
twelve neighboring churches, excluded from  the church, and
silenced from preaching by the unanimous finding of the council.
During the progress of the matter this man tried hard to injure
me, and to effect his purpose set on foot a shameful lie. This I
at once traced out, and in a few days caused to be read in public
two libels, signed by the parties implicated; and thus the matter
ended until some of my spiteful gnatural color friends repeated the
story. These friends, made malicious by their failure to browbeat me into a compliance with their wishes in regard to my discovery, had the pleasure, for a short time, of being believed.
Several, to my knowledge, on visiting Westkill and making the
most diligent inquiry, both here and on the road, were quite thunderstruck to find that not even a shadow of suspicion existed
against me. This is the first time I ever named the subject in
print, and I do it now as a matter of history, without feeling any
interest in the matter, or any special concern about the opinions
of the very kind friends referred to.
When I commenced working for the colors I had a little, and
but a little, faith. As I progressed I noticed things that greatly
increased my confidence in the practicability of what I regarded
as the true chromatic theory. Not that I produced any colors,
but I found that ordinary Daguerreotyping and Calotyping, with
slight variations, were capable of giving very great diversity of
tone; and I found, also, that other agents besides the usual ones
would give singular and sometimes beautiful results. This led
me on from day to day, and gave me great encouragement to
believe that I would one day find an opening that would lead me
into the Land of the Beautiful. The great difilculty was to find
a clue to some mode of operating direct for the colors. This
secured, the next difficulty was in procuring suitable chemicals.
I found, on personal inquiry at the best Laboratories in the United
States, that many of my supplies would have to come from Europe. Then I began to open my eyes to the fact that experi2




1 8                    HELIOCHROMa Y,
menting was very costly,-, and that my means would soon be
gone.
At this time no book on the Daguerreotype Art had ever been
published in this country, and I had long been collecting materials
for such a work. I had paid out several hundred dollars for
recipes, &c., and at length, with fear and trembling, I issued
proposals for my" Treatise on Daguerreotype."  The circular was
inadvertently dated the First of April, and I soon had several
letters inquiring if I meant to April-fool the fraternity. One of
these letters was from a distinguished operator in Philadelphia,
with whom I have sinee had many a laugh over the subject. He
could not believe that a proposal to publish a Book on Daguerreotype could be less than an April-fooling. Imperfect as my
first work certainly was, it met with a ready sale at $5 per copy,
and it was thought quite cheap enough at that price, inasmuch as
it contained, in addition to a full system of operating, many
recipes which had frequently sold for from $10 to $50 each, and
much other valuable information. I realized a few hundred dollars profits from the sale of this work, which made me feel quite
rich, and enabled me to push my experiments.
In the meantime I took daguerreotypes for all who called, and
occasionally had a pupil. -M y price for teaching a pupil was $50,
which some persons, who never do itfor less, have charged upon
me as a piece of extortion. The truth is just this: I always
spent from one to two months with a pupil, and carefully taught
him every branch of the art; and I have never yet had one
leave my rooms who was not qualified to make money out of the
business. All of them, as far as I know, have done well; and
many of them are now among the best and most successful
operators in the country. Not one of them ever grumbled at my
treatment, and all of them are, to this day, among my warmest
friends. These remarks I design to apply to all the pupils I
ever had, and the reader may judge from them how far I am
* To this date I have spent over ten thousand dollars in these experiments.




AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR.               19
guilty of depredating upon their credulity. I would not refer to
this subject, were it not that many unkind insinuations have been
thrown out concerning it, as if it was a great privilege for me to
labor like a slave in teaching my scholars,for the very purpose
of purchasing the boon of working for that which could but
benefit the whole fraternity.  Every dollar ever received from
pupils, books, the sale of chemicals, &c., has been spent, long
since, in the pursuit of my experiments. Any persons who may
feel sufficient interest in my private affairs (for such they certainly are) will be referred to my many former pupils by name,
to many persons of distinction who are acquainted with my
affairs, and to any of my neighbors within ten or twenty miles of
my house.
I would state, further, that I have published, besides the present volume,four works on Photography:
1. My original Treatise on Daguerreotype.
2. A revised and enclarged edition of the same.
3. A Treatise on the " Magic Buff;" &c.
4. "Ptotographic Researches and Mlanipulations.
The " Treatise on the Magic Buff" was a pamphlet merely,
and sold for five dollars to all who saw fit to buy it. This speculation brought down upon me a tirade of abuse in a certain city
paper, written by a man who has since not hesitated to attack one
of the most venerable institutions in our country-the Franklin
Institute.
At the time I projected that pampchlt "L Magic Bzlf" were
selling for twenty dollars per pair. They were simply two pieces
of buckskin tacked to pine sticks, one strip of the buckskin having
a little grease spread over its surface. As respectable parties as
the Scovill Manufacturing Co., W. & W. 11. Lewis, J. Gurney,
and others, were in the speculation; and there was no unfairness
in it-for, by the use of these Buffs the Daguerreotype plate was
quickened one haf; thus enabling operators to take children and
other difficult subjects with great facility. I purchased three sets
of the Buffs, and there being no patent on them, I had wit enough




20                    HIELIOCOROMY,
to analyse one of them. Those who sold the pieces of leather and
the pine sticks for twenty dollars did not give t)he secret. Mry logic
was as follows: Two pine sticks covered with buckskin strips, one
of them greased, are worth twenty dollars-therefore, the grand
modus of preparing the said buckskin, &c., is worth five dollars.
My subscribers, as far as I know, agreed with me that I hit logic's
nail on the head that time. I had the lion's share of the profits
— some $500 —and the gratification also of somewhat out-generaling my New York friends fairly, handsomely, and in a nice business way. The information becoming general, buckskin fell in
price, and Dr. Cyrus (the reputed inventor) was relieved of all
danger of being burned for witchcraft. So much for the famous
" Magic Buff."
My other publications (a thousand thanks to the great mass of
my brother artists) went off at a profit, especially the "Photographic Researches," which sold freely throughout the United
States, in the Canadas, and to some extent in Europe. I wrote
the book as over-work, at midnight hours-at a time, too, when
my mind was on the pinnacle of excitement about the natural
eolors. At midnight hours also I wrote and mailed my Prospectus; and having thus, by my own efforts, secured the kind
patronage of the fraternity, I think I was, and am, justly entitled
to commendation instead of blame, especially as I spent all the
money in pursuit of the grandest theme of Photography, and especially as I can show one thousand letters from actual subscribers,
{expressing their high appreciation of the work. A few weeks
ago I sold, for a liberal price, the copy-right of this work to one
of the first stock dealers in the country-Myron Shew, Esq., of
Philadelphia.
My reader is now made aware of pretty much the whole story
concerning the manner in which I have sustained my family, and
my experiments for the last five years. I would add, however,
that I have realized moderate profits from the sale of Daguerreo-,type and Calotype chemicals of my own make, and Daguerreoitype stock. After earning and spending over ten thousand dol



AUTOBIOGRAPIHY OF THE AUTIOR.              21
lars, and at the end of five years of the severest toils, brain-racking investigations, and bitter trials, I find myself a few hundred
dollars worse than a poor man. I am aware that the impression
is abroad that I have amassed an immense fortune. One writer
has taken pains to figure up my gains, and he made out about
forty thousand dollars. But the whole truth is given in the foregoing statements, with the exception of the fact that the very
house I live in, and of which I hold a deed, has been under mortgage for three years past. The money for which the mortgage
was given was, every dollar of it, expended in my experiments.
My neighbors are perfectly familiar with these facts, and I consider them as a full vindication against all insinuations to the
contrary.




22                       HELIOCHROMY.
CHAPTER II.
Experimenting-Difficulties in the Way-Groping in Darkness-Friends
Laugh-The Philosophers-Wife Aids-Laughable Experiments-Wife has
the Consumption-A peculiar mode of Treatment, by which her life was
greatly prolonged, briefly detailed-Poisons-Explosions —Friendly Cautions-The first Picture in Colors-Excitement of Mind-Second Picture in
Colors-The Announcement —Effect on the Public Mind-Injury to the
Daguerreotype Business-Eight thousand Letters-Visitors-Speculators
— Offers of large sums of Money-The Press-Course of the Photographic
Journals-The "Infernal Committee" —Life Threatened-My RevolverIts Amusing History-Col. Pratt's Dog-The Midnight Alarm-Narrow
Escape of the Enemy —Westkill Police-Watchman's Rattle-Friends-M.
A. Root, Wm. M. Marshall, Prof. Morse, and others-Visitors and Visitations-Glass Silvering —,5,000 turning on a piece of India-rubber ClothReflectors for Cameras-The Pantotype —Beautiful method of making
Daguerreotype Plates —The Chromatint, fully detailed —My Second Marriage-A piece of unlooked for Experience-That "foulest whelp of sin,"
Slander-Human Nature in its blackest apparel.
IN the midst of toils of which the foregoing chapter gives but a
meagre account, I pursued my grand theme-my one thought, so
to speak-and never, for a wakeful hour, whatever else might
be on my hands, did I cease to think into it. It was like studying arithmetic on a battle field-like balancing on the tight-rope
in a tornado-like anything but the usual method of scientific
pursuit.  Say it was like Thomas Scott, writing a commentary,
with a cross baby on his knee. That will do-a tolerable figure
of the plight I was in.
Atfirst I was alone-all alone-a sort of human owl, grubbing
about, with great blurry eyes, after a glow-worm.  MBy acquaintances-my best friends-brothers, sisters, wife-all laughed
at me. To them, doubtless, I seemed like one fishing for pearls
in a thunder cloud.  My scheme was ranked with "perpetual




AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR.               23
motion" hunting. In one word, I was a visionary, a builder of
air-castles.'This, as you may readily imagine, was not very
encouraging.  I referred them  to facts, phenomena, chromatic
theory, and the like; but it was of no use, like the rest of mankind they had set the thing down among the impossibilities. I
should tell a lie to say that this conduct on their part did not
mortify my pride exceedingly. However, I will give them all
credit of having refrained froim harshness. It was a sort of
stationary theme in the family for cracking jokes over. I would
try to smile and laugh in a natural way —but I was like the frogs
in the fable-the boys' fun in stoning them, was their agony.
This utter u nbelief in the possibility of solving the great
problem, was not confined to my family. It was, as far as men
thought on the subject, a well-settled public sentiment. I do not
think I could have found a man or woman who would have
ventured five dollars on my success. The scientific minds of
this country and Europe, with a few brilliant exceptions, even
went so far as to take it for granted that photography and the
natural colors were separated by an impassable gulf. The old
philosophers had never had their giant minds enlisted in the
subject. Hence I had no help from the books.
Another great impediment was my lack of chemical knowledge.
True, I had read the science in school, and I. could recite its outlines; but I had never studied it. To study chemistry in the
true sense, is to practise it. In my attempts to make my own
chemicals, I found myself wofully deficient.  In following
the plainest formulas I frequently failed.  Of apparatuts I had
none. Even now, after years of practice, I have very little in
this line but what I have made myself.  They answer my
purpose. My methods of forming and compounding are mostly
my own. The formulas in this work are not all given in true
chemical technicality; but I have tried hard to' be plain and
correct.
After a few months my wife became a convert to my views,
and entered heartily into my spirit and plans. We worked




24                    HELIOCHROINY.
together with untiring perseverance. Every variety of experiment that our anxious thoughts suggested, was tried in every
form, and repeated, over and over again, until we were satisfied
that it did not contain our sought-for gem. Knowing as I now
do, the almost impossibility of avoiding, in such a research,
certain absurd acts, and queer juxtapositions, I am yet amused
in looking back at some of our experiments.  True, we had a
sort of system, and usually confined ourselves to one head of the
series at a time. Under the head of " Mordants," for example,
we one day applied alum water to a plate, and then coated it in
the usual way with iodine, thinking that in some way the alumina, which has a great affinity to coloring matter, might lay hold
of the colored rays. This was absurd enough, truly; but, as it
cost but little time, there was no harm done, and it led in the end
to the employment of aluminate of silver, as you will see further
on. Indeed, out of the many thousand experiments I have
tried, I do not remember a single one from which I derived no
benefit.
Mly wife's devotion to the pursuit lasted several months.
Many of her ideas and manipulations were excellent-suqh as
only woman could originate. Household duties called her away
from the work, and I afterwards enjoyed her aid only occasionally. Her exertions in this work, and exposure to noxious chemicals, I fear had a share in hastening the development of her
present hereditary disease. At the time of this writing, she lies
low under the hand of that fell destroyer-consumption. My
own health has suffered greatly, from the ardor of my labors,
and from the many deadly poisons which have been, as it were,
my playthings for years.  Such inhalants as prussic acid, phosphorus, sulphuretted hydrogen, cyanogen, nitrous oxide, chlorine,
bromine, red hot arsenic, antimony, &ec., are not exactly suited to
the frail net-work of the human lungs. Once in particular, after
the continued use of hydrofluoric acid, I had a severe attack of
hemorrhage of the lungs, and was very singularly handled. I
have also had many hair-breadth escapes from explosions. Having




AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE AU-THOT.              25
occasion one day to prepare some fulninate of silver, an explosion took place which shook the whole premises, and though I
was within five feet of the vile stuff, not a hair of my head was
injured. At another time I was knocked over, as if with a club,
by the fumes of prussic acid, which I was heroically heating on a
plate, with, as I thought, requisite precautions. MIore than once
I have been etherealized, iodized, bromidized, oxydized, chloroformed, and, in various other ways, transformed from the natural
to a most unnatural state. These injuries were most of them
temporary; worse ones have arisen from continued exposure to
volatile poisons, lack of out-door exercise, late hours, over exertion of the physical and mental powers, and a tremendous and
lengthened excitement of the mind. May future experimenters
who read these lines take warning from my example. Let me,say to those who galvanize their plates, beware of your cyanide
of silver-its fume contains a poison subtle as, and almost identical with,, that of the rattle-snake. Keep it in a distant corner,
and give it ventilation. When not in use, let it be well covered.
Beware, also, of your bromine-the very rottenness of death is
in it. Ventilate your mercury-its fume is loaded with. rheumatism, sciatica, lumbago, tooth-ache, neuralgia, and decrepitude.
Beware of air-tight rooms, close confinement, standing, sitting,
stooping too much, reading too much, too much eating, too little
sleep, too much abstraction of mind, and too much of any bad
habit whatever. Let King Philip's motto be posted on all your
employments-" Remember thou art mortal."  Lost health is not
easily regained. Receive this friendly admonition from one who
knows, by bitter experience, the fruits of violating the laws of
physiology and hygiene.
It was in the spring of 1847 that I commenced these experiments. For three entire years I obtained no really encouraging
result. True, I occasionally saw some remarkable change in the
tone of ordinary daguerreotype and calotype pictures, as I varied
these processes-some striking freak in the chemical or actinic
action-for example, the red figures in a dress or building, or




2 6                   HELIOCHIIROMY.
tints of green in a landscape dimly showing themselves. The
same phenomenon was early noticed by Daguerre, and has been
frequently observed by others. Sometimes I would obtain an
iridescent play of colors, such as we see in thin plates of mica,
mother-of-pearl, the soap-bubble, &c.; but these I knew were
due to a cause foreign to that I was striving to bring into action,
that is, they were not the result of actinic power.
My first really good result was obtained in 1850. It was a
copy of a large colored lithograph of the village of Prattsville.
Never, before or since, did I experience such overpowering
mental excitement as when I saw this result. Wearied and
worn with the toils of three long years, I was, as it were, suddenly ushered into a place of repose and beauty. M1y brain
reeled and staggered under the mighty fact that I had reached
the goal of my hopes, and I shouted, like a M3ethodist-Eureka!
Eureka! It seemed to me that the house was too small to hold
my suddenly expanded thoughts, and I made my way to a clump
of " willows," near a running brook, where, Ophelia-like, I soliloquized all manner of sentimentalism, and employed myself for an
hour or two, in the important business of picking up, and tossing
about the pebbles on the water's edge. To my entranced gaze,
every stone, and leaf, and even each of my hands, had a beliochrome upon it. Indeed, I was, for the only time in my life, on
the verge of insanity. Suddenly, the thought struck me that I
must make a desperate effort to remember how I had secured that
picture. Having used no definite proportions in my compounds,
I found it necessary to make a desperate effort to remember the
quantities of each material employed, by calling up to my mind,
by a sort of mnemonics, the form and bulk of the articles. I accordingly locked myself in my room, and went to work deliberately to construct a formula. In the nature of the case this effort
was the keystone of my future success.
I succeeded in producing a second picture in natural colors.
To me, and to my wife, this was a thrilling event. Then it was
that we signed and made oath to a pledge, which afterwards gave




AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR.                27
me much trouble. This pledge we designed for our own security,
and its binding obligation formed the reason for my refusal to
show my pictures, " except for security or protection."  This refusal led many to suspect that the whole thing was a pretence; but
never in my life have I acted more conscientiously than I did in
religiously adhering to this pledge.
Having made so great a discovery, was it not natural, and
reasonable, and proper, for me to announce it? For so doing I
have been severely censured; inasmuch as the excitement which
followed greatly injured the daguerreotype business-a result I
had little dreamed of. In making that announcement I did no
more than to act out of the natural impulsiveness of my own nature. Its effect I did not foresee. This effect was most unexpected to me. None will deny that it exceeded any parallel case
in this country. The news spread like wild-fire. Every newspaper in the land contained glowing accounts of the mattereverybody talked about it-and the Daguerreotype business received a mighty blow. No person ever regretted this more than
I have; but it was not wrong in mne, under the circumstances, to
nmake thzat announcement. The Editors of our own Photograpfhic
Journa7s, who first announced (all very right), and then, in a way
of provoking, unfair, and long-spun controversy, denounced my
discovery, and most unrighteously, and with a sort of " borderruffian" spirit, abused and vilified me, are the men who inflicted
the "unkindest cut of all" on the bleeding body of Daguerreanism. To them the Press at large naturally looked for information,
and their editorials,for and against, were eagerly copied. Justice to myself compelled me to counteract their unmanly scandals,
by means of " certificates" from men of note to whom I exhibited
the proofs of my own integrity. Is a man blameworthy for defending himself from the attacks of scribbling, literary bloodhounds? If so, then have I offended.
I, of all others, have been the greatest sufferer from that an-nouncement.  One result -was the reception of over eight thousand
letters. No small affliction for a man employed.  Another result




28                    I-IELIOCHROMY.
was a " great multitude" of visitors, and not a few "visitations."
No less an affliction was the officious intermeddling of a certain
class of sharpers and speculators, who left no effort untried to get
me involved in their expert clutches. Some of them, when at
length they found out I was not quite a fool, fell back on the
tricks of old traitor Judas, and circulated all manner of lies, to
my hurt.
The " Committee" of the miserable apology for a " New York
State Daguerrean Association," who visited me during this
stage of the proceedings, well illustrated, in their course, the character of that justice which I received. The whole history of this
"Infernal Committee" affair may be told in a few words.  It is
this:-Three men —D. D. T. Davy, "Phot." of Utica, Clark
of New York, and Tomlinson of Troy-came to my house,
under orders from the mighty compact referred to-the " N. Y.
State Daguerrean Association" —whose mandate issued from a
meeting of said august body, in a Daguerrean Gallery in New
York, which meeting was composed of a tremendous gathering of
no less than seven members-yea, verily, and no more than seven.
This " Committee" (in justice to Tomlinson and Clark, I would
say) was made up, de facto, of the notorious Davy. He was chief
speaker-the two others being evidently ashamed of their connexion with so mean and dastardly a spirit as that exhibited by their
chairman. This Davy, after a liberal effusion of flattery, and
after a kind reception from me, proceeded to threaten me with
exposure as a humbug, and more than intimated that a banditti
of ruffians, like himself, would visit this quiet valley with the
laudable purpose of breaking into my laboratory.  Surely, no
two threats could be more contradictory. One supposed I had
no pictures, and the other implied that I held the key to a gem
worthy of the arts and efforts of freebooters.'I could have had
the chivalrous " Phot." arrested for threatening my life; but I
thought the best thing I could do for my neighbors was to let
him vamose the valley as quickly as possible.
I candidly confess that I was afraid of the threatened attack.




AUTOBIOGRAPIIY OF THE AUTHOR.            29
Davy's whole mainer was that of a desperado, and his subsequent
history proves that my estimate of his character proves correct.
He has since been adjudged by a Court of Arbitration, guilty of
perjury and arson, in the matter of the burning of his Daguerrean
Rooms.
I have ever been a man of peace-but I felt that a deep and
deadly malice lurked in the dark bosoms of the Davy party, and
I accordingly prepared for war. My first step was to procure a
Revolver; secondly, Col. Pratt sent me one of his watch-dogs;
and thirdly, my neighbors organized what I have called the
" Westkill Police."  The latter consisted of neighboring farmers,
and otlhers, who held themselves ready, at a moment's warning,
to come to the rescue. The understanding was, that in case of
an attack we were to sound a " watchman's rattle," which was
kindly furnished me by a Philadelphia friend. All told, we had
quite a formidable arrangement,- and the Bully Davy and his
cowardly satellites would have acquired some experience in the': least refrangible" of the " natural colors," had they ventured
an attempt at executing their threat. In other words-the dog
would have inserted his ivory daggers into their veins, the
revolver would have enlarged the openings, and our mountain
boys would have well acted their part in the play of " catching
a Tartar." The threat made by Davy had produced a feeling of
indignation throughout this whole community; and I say, in all
seriousness, that it is well the redoubtable " Phot" chose the
"better part of valor."
One dark night we were alarmed by the terrific barking of the
faithful dog. I immediately arose from bed, and after listening*
for a few moments at one of the doors, I became satisfied that the
enemy was around. There was a tramping, and a strange crawling noise, and a sort of harsh, grazing sound, as if hoarse voices
were plotting for a deed " without a name."  I felt sure that the
villains were about commencing their work, and such was my
indignation that I forgot all about the " rattle," and the thought
of summoning the " Police" did not enter my mind. The dog




30                    HIELIOCHXROMIY.
put in his high notes, after a fashion I had never heard in dog
before. I was well paid for my fright and excitement by what I
learned that night of the nature of the canine race. ~ Such yelping,
barking, and howling, such tiger fierceness, and savage ferocity,
and such an uncontrollable anxiety to get at his prey, was
surely never surpassed by dog before. As the noise out of doors
did not abate, notwithstanding the terrors of that dog's voice, I
really began to have quite an exalted idea of " Phot's" bravery.
Gentle reader, have patience, and I will tell you the sequel. I
am aware that in reading stories of great battles, the reader is
naturally anxious to come to that point where the bugle sounds
the charge, and he can hear the booming thunder of the cannon,
and the crash of arms, and see the tide of battle set in and decide
the contest. Therefore, to keep you no longer from this thrilling point in my story, I will state the interesting fact, that, with
no other soldier but the dog, I opened the door, and rushed upon
the enemy-when, lo and behold, instead of meeting the chivalrous " Phot" and his ruffian army —instead of having a chance to
display our valor, and to spit out the fire of our patriot souls-we
encountered our old cow —which discovery the dog and I both
made at once. It is quite unnecessary for me to waste words in
informing the reader that I felt " sold," and that the dog returned
to his station with his tail pointed downwards towards the Chinese
Empire.
Lightly as I have treated this item in my history, I assure the
reader that I was seriously afflicted by this shameful affair. It
formed one link in a chain of annoyances-not a very short chain,
either. One of the keenest inflictions a sensitive nature can
endure, is to feel that a complication of cruel and unjust proceedings are gathering, like storm-clouds, around our pathway. This,
I could easily show, was my situation; but I will draw a curtain
on the dark scene, and let my enemies, and their nefarious ideas of
right and wrong, sink into that broad immensity of contempt
where all such things go. Amid all these trials I had a large
circle of friends. My neighbors were very kind to me, and the




AUTOBIOGRIAPIHY OF THE AUTHOI.            31
number of warm friends I found in the photographic circle would
have to be counted by hundreds and thousands. Among the latter class, who were early by my side, and who have stood by me
through " evil and good report," I will mention Marcus A. Root,
Esq., and Wm. MI. MIarshall, Esq., Philadelphia, C. C. Harrison,
optician, New York, and Prof. S. F. B. Morse, inventor of the
magnetic telegraph. From these gentlemen, who have been familiar with my experiments, I have received invaluable counsel and
encouragement. Their names, with those of many others, are
graven upon my heart's best affections.
During my long years of incarceration within the walls of my
laboratory I have brought out several other inventions. Among
the number I will name the following:
I. A GLASS SILVERING PROCESS.
This is now in the hands of the "American Glass Silvering
Co.," New York. It is a process for depositing pure silver on
glass, and is justly ranked among the gems of art. This invention I sold for the inappropriate sum of $5,000. It is worth today, $500,000. The adaptation of India rubber cloth to this
process, for the purpose of holding the glass articles to be silvered,
was its salvation. lMy $5,000, inadequate as it was, turned on a
piece of Vulcanized Rubber. Without this, the process could not
be used for unequal or large surfaces. Among the applications of
the process, the fabrication of Camera Reflectors is not the least.
No other reflector half as good as these was ever made.
II. THE PANTOTYPE;
A method of securing a universal focus. By its means a portrait can be taken with a landscape background, and groups of
any number may be produced with perfect sharpness. I have




32                    HELIOClIROIOY.
greatly simplified this process, of late, entirely dispensing with
the use of the expensive concave mirror.
III. A BEAUTIFUL METHOD OF MAKING DAGUERREOTYPE PLATES.
I silver a plate glass, by means of the process above named,
and thicken this by precipitating copper upon it by the electrotype, and then detach the plate from the glass.  The process is
simple and certain, and the plates of very superior quality.
IV. THE CHROMATINT.
This is a method of coloring Engravings and Photographs.
The effect is magnificent, and any person of common skill can
work the process.  The engraving is rendered transparent by
means of a varnish, made by dissolving Gum Damar in turpentine. It is then colored in oil on its back by a system of daubing.
The effect on the face of the picture is really beautiful. The
varnish is easily made, by dissolving Ilb. of Gum Damar in one
quart of Spirits of Turpentine, by the aid of heat. A little Camphor Gum added to it renders it less liable to crack.  It is first
rubbed into the back of the picture, and then floated on its face
until the paper is rendered transparent. The colors used are the
common oil colors.
V. THE ALCOHOL PROCESS.
By means of which I procure alcohol direct from its gaseous
elements.  The cost of manufacture will not exceed ten cents per
gallon.  I shall bring this discovery before the public at an early
day.




AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR.               33
VI. A NEW LIGHTFar exceeding in brilliancy the ordinary gas-light-perfectly
safe and simple, and cheaper than tallow candles. This is my
latest invention, and I am now busy in preparing it for public
inspection and sale.'All who have seen it agree that it will
supersede the ordinary gas-light at once, and that no other plan
for a " Portable Light " will at all compare with it. The light is
perfectly white, from its base up, emits no smell or smoke, is soft
and pleasing to the eye, and yields much more light than any
other device. The trouble of keeping it in working order is no
more per day than that of trimming'one oil lamp. It entirely
does away with all the terrors of cam2phene, vaporized hydro-carbons, and "noisome" odor of the ordinary gas-light, with the
impositions and cheats of gas companies, and is beautifully adapted:
to family use, hotels,factories, churches, street lights, stores, shopsi
&c. &c.
I now return to a subject of most painful interest to my feelings-viz. the sickness and death of the companion of my youth.
For two entire years she writhed under the agonies of that terrific malady-the consumption.  In the circular I promised to
give a "peculiar method of treatment by which her life was
greatly prolonged," and, I may add, her pathway to the cold
grave greatly smoothed, and freed from the pangs and horrors of'
that thorny way. The method consisted of four parts.  1. The
warm bath, as often as every other day, and sponging off with cold
alcohol, and friction with a crash'towel. 2. A drink of'the tea of
black alder bark, yellow dock, prince's pine, the twigs of white pine,
burdock root and sarsaparilla. These articles were infused in warm,
not hot water-the tea strained and cooled-and used constantly,
without any other drink. 3.'Inhalants-not Hunter's iodide ofethyle
(this she tried to her sorrow),but tepid infusions of herbs and roots.
In the selection of the articles I was guided by her symptoms.
If her cough was dry I used hoarhound, boneset, lobelia, liquorice,
3




34                     HIELIOCHROMY.
Iceland moss, and other expectorants and demulcents. If there
was too free expectoration, I used elecampane, red raspberry
leaves, witch hazel bark, bayberry bark, and other astringents.
For anodyne effect, I used poppies, wild lettuce, valerian, &c. 4.
Particular attention was paid to the extremities. If they became
cold I used bottles of hot water, applied to the feet, hands, and
spine. By keeping the bottles on that portion of the spine opposite the distress in the lungs, I generally succeeded in producing
a lull of the pain, and great relief to the constricted state of the
chest, which was an invariable attendant of cold extremities.
The relief afforded by these simple means was an astonishment
to neighbors and physicians who were familiar with the case. I
will further remark, that these, or any other means, are useless
unless persevered in. Being simple and harmless in themselves,
they may be freely and continuously applied without the slightest harm. If these statements shall lead to the use of this simple
plan, by even one poor consumptive, I shall be amply repaid for
the risk I run of being charged with a palpable digression.
Alas! Alas! after all my pains, and my two years' hard toil,
by night and by day, I was doomed to see the final triumph of
the relentless malady.  My agony, and that of my children, in
that hour when remedies lost their virtue, when the yearnings of
natural affection became vain, and when the pallor of death overspread those loved features, I will not attempt to depict. Neither will I refer to the gloom, and loneliness, and withering
blight of every earthly joy, which followed this affliction. Those
only who experience, can realize the feelings of a family thus
bereaved!
The following notice of this sad event appeared in the New
York Chronicle. It was written by her pastor and mine, Rev.
A. E. Clark.
"EMELUNE B. HILL. Died, at Westkill, Greene Co., New York, March 23,
Mrs. Emeline B. Hill, the beloved wife of Rev. L. L. Hill, aged thirty-eight
years,




AUTTOBIOGRAPIY OF THE AIJTHORe.                  35
"At an early period of her life, Sister Hill became the subject of soulsaving religious impressions, put on Christ by immersion, and became attached to the Baptist Church, of which she remained a member, till summoned to join the triumphant ranks of the general assembly and church of
the first-born before the throne.
" Her last sickness was severe and protracted. For many months she was
pining and wasting away, and all the streams of vitality within her gradually
failing, under the relentless influence of deadly consumption, in its worst,
its most inveterate form. When she became fully conscious of her situation,
and felt herself within the grasp of a disease which would never relax its
hold upon her frame till it had brought her to the house appointed for all
the living, she bowed in submission to the will of heaven, commended her
family to the care of a covenant-keeping God, and calmly and peacefully
awaited the final issue, assured that death would be her eternal gain, and
that when absent from the body she should be present with the Lord. When
the hour of her departure arrived, she was fully prepared to welcome the
King of Terrors with a smile; and with the unclouded eye of faith could see
the pearly gates unfolded, and the heavenly charioteers who waited to waft
her emancipated spirit to its home in the skies. Resting with implicit confidence upon the atoning sacrifice of Christ, and upon the promises of the
gospel, death, to her, was bereft of its sting, and her end unalloyed peace.
"It must be gratifying to all connected with our departed sister, to know
that everything that human and Christian affection could do to alleviate her
sufferings, soothe her mind, and soften her dying pillow, was cheerfully and
assiduously done.  Our bereaved brother, moved by the promptings of
warm affection and deep sympathy towards a suffering and dying wife,
suspended experiments which possessed an interest of the deepest intensity
to his mind, arising from the discoveries which he had made, and the pursuit
of which had almost become an indispensable necessity of his nature, and for
long months of deep anxiety devoted himself unremittingly as a minister to
her wants and wishes. A large circle of relatives and friends also stood
ready at all times, by offices of kindness, to give practical and palpable
evidence of the sympathies of their hearts.
"The Baptist Church in Westkill mourn another sad breach made in their
ranks; but rejoice in the confidence that their loss has added to the number
of those who compose the family above."                   A. E. C.
The wearisome months that followed this heavy blow, I will
pass over in silence.  Suffice it to say, that after a period of suffering which pen cannot describe, I resolved on availing myself




36                    HELIOHIROMY.
of the beneficent provisions of nature, as an antidote to my griefs.
God himself hath said, "It is not good for man to be alone." My
eminently social nature required a place to repose itself-my
affections needed a "place of habitation "-and I committed the
xcrime of a second marriage. On the 28th of November, 1855, I
married Miss Ellen Webber, daughter of Henry Webber, Esq.,
Greenville, Greene Co., New York. Had; I not thought her to be
"the fairest among women," as King: Solomon expresses it, I
would have looked farther.  To''reveal the whole truth-I
adopted the old-fashioned plan of marrying for love, and not for
policy, and I acted on the awful assumption, that I had a perfect
right to marry whom and when I pleased, albeit the; officious intermeddling and " match-making" propensities of my acquaintances.'" This was the head and front of my offending."  But
for this, my unparalleled impudence, I have been subjected to
a "course of treatment" quite sufficient to medicate any one
mind with a full knowledge of "human nature in its blackest
apparel."
I used to think I understood human nature; but I was quite
mistaken. I never graduated in the science until the past winter.
Now I have my diploma, and though I would not be egotistical,
I will say, that I consider myself fully qualified to diagnose a
Judas neighbor, a hypocritical friend, a gossiping, gabbling circle
of mischief-makng. women, and the charms of that state of society
in' which large numbers are skilled in the highly respectable art
of'attending to everybody's business but their own, and wofully
deficient in that occupation whose poetry is"Trouble your head with your own affairs."
Nothing is more provoking than to be made the subject of unfounded gossip, unless it is to witness the perfidy and hollowheartedness of those we have regarded as confidential friends, in
becoming one of the parties to scandal; for it is an old and true
saying-" It takes two to make a slander: one to tell it, and one




AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR.              37
to listen to it." These things are still more aggravating when
they exist in those who are indebted to us for important services.
And when, after the tattling race-course has had its run, to have
those self-same traitors come marching around, for a renewal of
intercourse, with the lie on their lips that they meant no harm,
is rather too much for a man who knows what truth, decency,
law, and gospel are.  I have had some "unlooked for" experience in these things; but thank God, I have been blessed with
the counsels and smiles of one who is to me as a "guardian
angel," and I have been kept from resentment when I had it in
my power to punish severely.
On the whole, I can say with another, " Why should a living
man complain."  Notwithstanding the ills of this world, I love
to live in it. It is a place of beauty; it is filled with delights;
it has ten thousand sources of enjoyment; and none of them,
perhaps, aside from religion itself, are superior to those joys
which grow on the tree of science. And now, after nine years
devoted application to the pursuit of "hidden things," I cannot
say that I look back on my course with a single regret, except
what arises from my own deficiencies.
Kind reader-may you and I be found filling our stations and
improving our talents for the good of our race; may it be said
of us that we lived in the world without hurting it; and when
death shall summon us to eternal scenes, may we have an abiding
hope in the Redeemer of sinners, and go to dwell in the " house
not made with hands," eternal in the heavens.
L. L. HILL.
Westkill, Greene Co., New York, June 15, 1856.








TREATISE ON HELIOCHROMIY.
CHtAPTER I.
Light —Various Theories-Atomic and Wave Theories-Properties of Light
-Actinic Principle in Light-The Photogenic Ray.
SEVERAL theories have been advanced respecting the nature and
propagation of light; but as only two of them have commanded
the general attention of philosophical minds, I will confine my
remarks to these.
1. The Corpuscular View. This supposes that light is composed of particles, of excessive minuteness, projected from the
luminous body with a velocity equal to nearly 200,000 miles in a
second. This was Sir Isaac Newton's hypothesis. Till recently, it has been agreed to by the great majority of opticians.
2. The ]Wave or Undulating Tkeory regards light as an ethereal fluid of great elasticity; propagated from luminous bodies
with inconceivable rapidity. The manner of propagation is supposed to be by a sort of tremor or undulation. The motion of a
wave over the surface of water partially illustrates this view.
The ripple caused by casting a stone into water, in the celerity,
uniformity, and rapidity with which it spreads in every direction,




40                     HELIOCIHROMY.
is a very striking expression of the wave theory of light. Equally to the point, is the conveyance of sound through the atmosphere. In this we do not so readily perceive the action, but we
can often hear it in the reverberations caused by projecting
points, and in the vibrations sound itself, caused in passing over a
tight string, as a fiddle string, or any frail elastic substance, as a
thin tube of glass, a drum-head, a sheet of metal, &c.
Both of these hypotheses appear probable, though they widely
differ.  Both afford an explanation of many phenomena: but
they are both beset by difficulties of a grave character.  If, for
example, light is made up of particles of ponderable matter, however small these particles may be, would they not, with a motion
of 200,000 miles a second, possess, in an eminent, an irresistible
degree, the power of impact-one of the most tremendous forces
in nature? See what the slight tap of a hammer will do. It
will impress and indent bodies to an extent which it would require tons of pressure to produce.  Even a tallow candle, projected from  a gun at the rate of only 1,000 feet per second,
will pass through an inch board. Would not those little things,
luminous particles of light, so small indeed that millions of themn
collected by a lens, are imperceptible through the strongest microscope-so small that they must be sharper than the finest
point of which we have any knowledge —would they not, I say,
penetrate everything-not only the tender coats of the eye, but
the hardest and most, opaque bodies?.Would they not, like
other projectiles, destroy everything mortal? And would not
iron, and brass, and marble, and wood, lose all reflective power,
and become as transparent as glass. With objections to the
atomic theory thus weighty, must we not infer that light is something far different from ponderable matter?
If so, are we to settle down upon the ethereal view?  By so
doing, we will have to encounter another class of objections,
arising from the fact itself of imponderability.  Is it possible that
there exists a fluid, or gas, so inconceivably thin as to pass
through the gaseous elements, the liquids, &c., and in so few in



LIGHT.                         41
stances have its properties altered?  If light is a fluid, or gas, is
it not possessed of chemical properties? and if so, how can it mingle so freely with so many chemical agents, and, as it were,
"run the gauntlet" untouched and uninjured?  These and
many other objections to both of these views, are of a grave
character. Still, I do not say they are unanswerable. The
whole subject of the nature of light, not only in my mind, but in
the minds of the most profound philosophers, is involved in much
obscurity.  The properties of light are better understood.
One property of light is that it is propagated from luminous
bodies in all directions: This is true not only of the sun's light,
but of the electric spark, phosphorescence, a red hot iron, or the
flame of a candle.  The sun illumines, not only the earth, but
the planets, comets, and all bodies in the firmament.  A  simple
demonstration of this proposition, is by placing a lamp, or
candle, in the centre' of a room, and observing it from different
points.'
A second property of light is, that in a homogeneous medium,
it always moves in straight lines.  Light will not travel through
a bent tube, but it passes freely through a straight tube. Again,
if three cards, or plates of metal,' each pierced with a small hole,
are placed in such a position as that the holes are exactly opposite to each other, the light will pass freely through them, but if
the holes are not in a straight line the light will not pass.
A third property of light is, that it requires time for its propagation. Within any terrestrial distance its passage may be regarded as instantaneous. ~ Astronomy furnishes the means, not
only of detecting its actual propagation, but of measuring its
velocity with great precision. The eclipses and emersions of
Jupiter's satellites become visible about 16 minutes 26 seconds
earlier when the earth is at its least distance from Jupiter, than
when it is at its greatest. It requires, therefore, about fifteen
minutes for light to travel through the earth's orbit.  Now, the
sun's distance from the earth being about 95,000,000 of miles, it
follows that light travels with the prodigious velocity of nearly




42                    ]HELIOCHROMY.
200,000 miles in a second. At this rate it would encircle the
earth in the eighth part of a second. This calculation appears
incredible, but no result of science is more certain.
Another property of light is reflection. When it falls on a
smooth polished surface, it does not stay there, and is not ab.
sorbed as when it encounters other bodies, such as black velvet,
but it is returned from the surface at an angle equal to the angle
of incidence, and continues the new direction in a straight line,
as before the reflection. The quantity of light thus reflected depends on the nature and polish of the surface, and on the angle
of incidence, being greatest when that angle is small. None of
the ordinary reflectors, as tin, silver plate, mercury, speculummetal, &c., reflect more than three-fourths of the incident light.
But a properly constructed reflector, made of the best French
plate-glass, and silvered by my silvering process,* reflects nearly
all the light. A piece of one of my mirrors, placed at an angle
in front of a camera lens, will give a picture almost, if not quite
as quickly as the lenses alone. I have a plan, recently devised,
by which I can form a reflector for the telescope of any required
dimensions-say within twelve feet diameter. It will be made
on glass, and yet have no one objection arising from the inequalities of structure which exist in all glass. The plan consists in
silvering a large and very perfect glass, backing up the silver by
a novel, but easy method, and then detaching it from the glass.
The objection of " double reflection," one from the silver, and
one from the surface of the glass, and of distortion, occasioned by
the inequalities of the glass, would be completely obviated.  At
the same time, the reflector would be far more level than metal
can be made in any other way, and the polish is an incomparable
distance ahead of what can be obtained in any other way.
A fifth property of light is refraction; that is, its susceptibility of being bent or turned from its course on its entering
a* Now owned, and most successfully worked, by the "American Glass
Silvering Company," New York.




ACTINIC PRINCIPLE IN LIGHT.             43
certain media. The angle of refraction depends on the nature of
the medium. In the liquids, and most of the uncrystallized substances, the refraction is all in one direction. In most crystallized media, part of the refracted light follows one course, and
part of it a different one. In this case the refraction is said to be
double.
The last property of light which I shall mention here, is its
relations to actinism and heat. It was long thought that the
chemical changes induced through the agency of light are owing
to its heat, and it is still a commonly received opinion that these
changes are wrought by luminosity. With Sir Robert Hunt, Sir
John Herschel, Edmund Becquerel, and other philosophers, I
think that it is demonstrable that both of these views are incorrect. Neither heat nor luminosity has much, if anything, to do
with these changes. A photograph is the result of the actinic
power or property residing in light.  A few simple experiments
will determine the truth of this view, thus:
1. In each of the seven colors of the spectrum place a thermometer. The one in the red ray will indicate the greatest heat,
and so on up to the violet ray, where the heat will be least.
2. Remove the thermometers, and place in the spectrum a sensitive surface, as chloride of silver paper, and you will find that
the violet ray, which produced the least heat, will induce the
greatest darkening of the paper.
3. Place in the spectrum a strip of white paper, and you will
find it most illuminated under the yellow ray-one of the rays
which produced so little darkening of the paper. Under the
violet ray, where the actinic effect was greatest, the illumination
will be very slight.
The same effects may be produced, though not so perfectly,
with seven colored glasses, or with bottles filled with colored
liquids. In this case the colored media should interpose between
the thermometers, the photographic paper, and the plain paper,
and the direct rays of the sun.
The lack of photogenic power in the illuminating rays, and the




44_                   HEwLIOCHROMY.
superiority of the non-illuminating rays, as the blue and violet,
may also be shown as follows: Prepare a piece of photographic
paper, and over one part of it place a yellow glass, and over the
other part of it a blue or violet glass, and expose them to the
sun equal lengths of time-say three or four minutes. The portion under -the yellow glass will be but slightly darkened, while
that'under the blue, or violet, will be nearly or quite black.  A
similar difference will be observed in the use of the Daguerreotype plate.
These simple experiments will amply, demonstrate the proposition, that the powers of light are distinct from and independent
of each other. At the same time they act in perfect harmony,
though most intimately blended and compounded together.
What I have written above is true of Daguerreotype,'Calotype,
Ambrotype, Chromatype, Cyanotype, Chiysotype, Energialtype,
and the whole category'of types'in' which only light and shade
are concerned. I now: have to repeat a statement, the first publicationi of which, about six years ago, in my announcement of
the discovery of natural colors, created much surprise, and not a
little incredulity in the minds of scientific men'. It is this:
That the whole philosophy of types, as represented above, in regard to Actinism, or Ray Power, is found to be inapplicable to
my Heliochromic processes, excepting, indeed, the relations of
heat.  In all the results I have attained in natural colors, whether on plates, paper, or collodion, I have found the yellow ray
most powerful, the orange next, the light green next, the red
next, the indigo next, the blue' next, and the violet'least.' I have
also been tormented with the anomaly of the dark green sometimes acting slowly, and frequently not at all, while at other
times it works with great energy.
I merely state facts, without feeling any obligation to account
for them. Indeed, I can give but one solution of the problem,
which is, that mine is a colorific, while the other types are reducing processes. These all reduce the sensitive agents employed to certain conditions of oxide,' or to the' metallic state,




THE PHOTOGENIC RAY.                 45
while the heliochrome leaves its surfaces at a great remove from
the metallic state, and brings about certain forms of matter productive of color.
It would be interesting to continue this essay on the nature
and properties of light; but I have so much to write about which
is more immediately connected with the main subject of this
volume, that I will forbear.  Thus far, I have given no more
than a cursory glance at the principal rudiments which lie at the
foundation of my grand theme. The next chapter will embrace
my views of light as a composition of colored rays, and as the
source of all color.




46                      HELIOCOHROMY.
C H AP TER  II.
Chromatics —Light a compound of Colored Rays-Proof by the Prism —ridescence-Coloring Matter and the Chromatic Rays-Porosity of MatterCurious Properties of Various Bodies —Mica-Mother of Pearl-Iodide of
Mercury-The Soap Bubble-Coating of the Daguerreotype Plate-Iodine
Rings-Metallo-Chromes-Potatoe growing above Ground-Plants grown
in Darkness-Autumnal Leaves-Varnish on Water-Chlorophyle-These
instances partly Mechanical and Chemical —Can a Surface be prepared on
which Light itself will produce similar Changes 
WHAT is light in respect to its ingredients? What is the character
of its component parts?  To the eye it appears white.  A  skilful colorist, with the primary colors on his palette, will compound
a tolerable white.  The All-wise One, with a few primary
colored rays, illuminates our eyes with a pure, soft, perfect white
light.  Presently I will come to the proof of this fact.  For the
present I will dwell on the fact itself.  Look at a candle blaze.
It is white, barring a slight tinge of yellow. The latter is referable to impurities in the tallow. The same is true of oil. Spermaceti is a purer hydro-carbon-so is camphene, or "burningfluid"-hence their more brilliant light.  Olefiant gas is freed
from many of its impurities in the manufacture-hence the greater
purity of its light.  The "Argand Lamp," by giving the blaze
an abundance of oxygen, and thus consuming the excess of
carbon, affords a very white light. The " Drummond light," by
the intense heat of the oxy-hydrogen blaze, strongly ignites a
small globe of lime, and gives a light of surprising intensity and
clearness.  The "Voltaic light" is another instance of the
triumph of heat over the impurities which dim the " Holy Thing"
called light.  But all these instances are but glow-worms com



CHROMATICS.                      47
pared with that great source of light, the Sun.  The emanations
from that luminary are perfectly white.  True, we never fully
see this to be the case-but this is owing to our looking at it, as
it were, " through a glass, darkly.". That glass is our atmosphere, and the regions of ether beyond. But when we consider
that between us and old Sol lies a stratum of air and ether, ninetysix million miles thick, and that the dimness and discoloration
occasioned thereby is very slight, may we not say with an inspired writer, " Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God
Almighty."
It is well that the whiteness of light is not perfectly apparent.
It would be too much of a stimulus to the visual organs, and
would become tedious from its own monotony. As it is, both of
these objections are obviated. Not only is the eye constantly
bathing in a healthy element, but there is an amazing variety in
the softening tints-just enough to give a pleasing diversity, and
seldom  extending to  extremes of contrast.  This beautiful
arrangement is of the first importance to Photography.  If this
variation in the whiteness of light was as great as we can imagine
it might be-if it was as marked as the changes in the weather,
the difficulty of " timing " Camera pictures would be increased
to almost an impossibility.
It is now conceded by all respectable opticians, that this colorless white light incloses in its gossamer folds, and may be made
to disclose, the most gorgeous and magnificent colors. A simple
proof of this is by means of the prism. This contrivance enables
us to decompose and examine-than which there is no surer road
to certain knowledge. If you pass a ray of sun-light through a
piece of flat glass, it will give a white dot on a dark screen.
Now, take a triangular glass-in other words, a glass rod ground
to three sides, and polished. This is a prism. An icicle, of the
same shape, is a prism-so is a three square phial filled with
water. The pendants of a parlor lamp, or girandole, though not
perfectly triangular, answer very well for prisms. They may be
called prismoids. Pass a ray of sun-light through one of these




48                     HELIOCIlROMY.
prisms, and you will find on the screen beautiful bands of colors.
These colors are seven in number —namely, red, orange, yellow,
green, blue, indigo,'and violet; and they melt into each other by
insensible gradations.' It seems impossible to define the limits at
which one color ends and another begins. Nothing could be
more beautiful than these colors. This is called the solar spectrum.  It is a rainbow, in another shape, and of a reduced size;
but the colors of a well defined spectrum are- far more brilliant
than those of the rainbow.  I have said that the spectrum  is
composed of seven colors. Three of these, red, blue, and yellow,
may be regarded as primaries; the other four, I believe, are
secondary'colors, compounded from the primaries.  Blue and
yellow form green; red and blue form violet; red and yellow
form orange; and as for the indigo ray, I think it is blue, intermingled' with some of the dark lines of the spectrum, of which
there are about 600, or with violet.
There are many other instances of the prismatic decomposition of white light.  The colors on mother of pearl, mica, and
other striated and grooved surfaces, are referable to this cause,
though the modus of the phenomenon is very diffcult to explain.
The iridescence, or play of colors, produced by thin films of matter, is another result of the same law.  Sprinkle a little spirit
varnish on the surface of water, and you will have the effect perfectly.  You may'even lift out the delicate interminglings on a
sheet of paper, and they will remain permanent.  They cannot
fade unless the material which fornms the film is photogenic, for
the color depends on the form and relative degrees of tenuity of
the matter.
We now arrive at a most vital part of our theory. What is
coloring matter? or, what is colored matter? or, is there any
such thing as colored matter. That is, is there a specific coloring principle in matter, irrespective of the colored rays of light?
I hold that there ismnot.  Practical lHeliochromy teaches me, at
every step, that all color is due to light; the nature of the color
of any piece of matter is governed by the form of that matter;




COLORING MATTER.                   49
and the way the form of bodies governs their colors is on the principle of absorption and refraction. What I mean is this: a given
body, for example gold, will absorb all the colors but one; that
one colored ray (in the case of gold it is yellow) will remain
unabsorbed on the surface, and be refracted to the eye as a certain color,: and strike the senses as if the body was colored specifically by some inherent coloring principle. All bodies- are porous,
In other words, matter is filled with holes. These holes, or
pores, vary in size and shape. The ultimate particles of light,
also, we may suppose, vary in size and shape. Of course a given
form of matter will absorb certain rays, and retain on its surface,
and refract other rays.  A piece of carmine will absorb all the
rays but the red; indigo all but the blue; chrome yellow all but
the yellow. This, these substances will do even in thin strata.
Other substances will retain on their surfaces two of the primaries at once-hence the formation of green, violet, orange, and
their innumerable tints. - Change the form of the matter, and thecolor changes at once without the intervention of any specific
coloring principle. Even gold in a certain form is a dark mahogany brown, instead of yellow. This is the case where gold is
precipitated from its: solution by sulphate of iron.  Gold in- this
form is very pure. Melt the dark powder in a crucible, and
presto, change, you again have the yellow metal. Some bodies
change with great facility, and with every change of form is a
different color. Take for an example, the soap-bubble.  As it
enlarges or contracts you will observe a constant change of
colors. The coating of a Daguerreotype plate with the: vapor of
iodine is another case to the point. The iodine is grey-its
vapor is violet-but as the coating progresses you have yellow,
orange, red, blue, green.  In thickening the film of iodide of
silver you constantly change the form or structure of this compound, and as constantly have a change of color. Expose this
plate to light for a prolonged period, and it will again pass through
a series of beautiful colors. Expose it a very short time to light
and, it acquires an affinity for mercurial vapor.  The amalgam
4




50                     HELIOCHIRO.~.
formed by this vapor is white. All colorific effects, with an occasional exception, are destroyed by this process.  The exceptions referred to are quite remarkable. The Illuminated Daguerreotype, invented and patented by Mr. Ilsley, of New York, is a
striking illustration of my theory. The plate, after exposure in
the camera, is placed over a mat opening, at the distance of the
thirty-seconcl part of an inch, and mercurialized. The mercury
in creeping around the edge of the mat produces rings of rainbow
colors.  The mercury, doubtless, goes on irregularly, producing
a striated surface, similar to that of mother of pearl, and hence
the colors. Daguerreotypists have occasionally been amazed by
the formation of some one color on their plates. Mir. Becker, of
iew York, obtained a good brick red in a street view, which he
took one day on a waste plate.  He sent the result to Voightlaender, of Germany. Mr. Becker tried repeatedly to get a similar effect, but utterly failed. About three years ago MIr. Bodo
England, of Philadelphia, then working in my brother's room in
Kingston, Yew York, obtained the distant Catskills in good blue,
and the fields of the foreground in faint green. This he did on
several plates, but afterwards completely failed.  I saw the
results, and at once referred them to some freak in the refractive
action of the light, aided by some peculiarity in the coating of
the plate. tHe told me that his coating had an excess of bromine,
and from the appearance.of the pictures I am sure the plates had
on them a thin layer of organic matter.
Now, before proceeding to other illustrations of this subject, let
us reason for a moment on what I have written. Here are facts
in regard to the Daguerreotype plate, with which every operator
is familiar. How are we to account for them? Certainly not on
the principle of specific coloring matter. The color of the iodine
vapor, with which this succession of beautiful tints is produced, is
violet-only violet.  Hence it could not produce anything more
than its own color if we regard it as a pigment.  The color of
mercurial vapor is white; and, as a pigment, would give only
white. The color of the brick-house in Mr. Becker's street view,




CURIOUS PROPERTIES OF VARIOUS BODIES.         51
and the hues of the mountains and fields in Mr. England's
results, were favorable to the pigmentary view; but how, on this
principle, did they ever get to the plate unless we suppose that
the actual coloring matter left the brick-house, and travelled into
Becker's window, and that the blue of the Catskills, and the
green of the Kingston meadows, journeyed through the air, and
through the lenses of England's camera, and painted themselves
on the plates. Absurd as these suppositions appear, they afford
the only explanation of these phenomena aside from the theory
I have here advanced.
I will not omit to mention here the Metallo-chromes as an
illustration of the same.law. In a shallow dish, place a saturated
solution of acetate of lead.  In the bottom of it place a polished
steel plate, connected with the terminating wire of the positive
pole of a pair of Grove's batteries; then bring the point of the
negative wire into contact with the solution of lead, and there
will be produced on the steel-plate a series of colored rings of the
most gorgeous beauty. Let the wire terminate with a level plate,
cut into figures, and you will have a corresponding effect on the
steel. To account for this curious effect, we may suppose that'thin, but unequal layers of metallic lead are deposited, and that
these are oxydized. The colors and their fine blendings, depend
upon the law of absorption and refraction, as in the other cases
cited. Another elegant form of the Metallo-chrome may be produced thus: On a polished silver plate place a small crystal of
iodine, and gently heat the plate.  A series of colored rings are
at once formed.  They are very beautiful, and depend upon the
unequal thickness, or rather unequal thinness, of the circular
coatings formed. This experiment is easily tried.  Let any intelligent person who may make the trial, as he gazes upon the
charming result-the miniature rainbow-pause and inquire, how
were these colors formed? and I wager that his conclusions will
be-they resulted from the production of certain forms of matter,
and from the property acquired by the matter of absorbing some
of the colored rays and refracting others.., To make the matter




52                    IHELIOCHIROMY.
still plainer, we will suppose this series of rings to be a sieve.
One circle of meshes may be supposed to be of one degree of
fineness, the next of another, and so on through the series. Suppose we place in this sieve several colored powders of different
degrees of fineness, and of certain relative shapes. Evidently
each powder, on shaking the sieve, will be retained in its appropriate circle, and bands of color will be the result. So with the
rings of coating formed on the silver plate. One circle has a degree and character of porosity which will absorb, or sift through,
all the colored rays save one, or more, and the result is, that that
colored ray or rays will be retained on the surface of that ring,
and hence the color.  So with the whole series.  The ocular,
though not the chemical property of one ring, will be the same
as that of carmine, of another the same as indigo, of another the
same as chromate of lead, while others will be, in different degrees, of the same ocular character as the compound pigments
or dye-stuffs.
Many of the metallic salts afford very striking illustrations of
our theme. We might select almost at random. Say we take
iodide of mercury. Its crystals are sometimes red, sometimes
yellow. The red may be changed to yellow, and the yellow to
red, by the simple contact of a sharp point. The change in the
form of the matter is by molecular movement. The red crystals
are quadratic, the yellow right rhombic. Change the quadratic
to the right rhombic and it becomes yellow, and vice versa. The
salts of chrome, manganese, copper, nickel, cobalt, iridium, &c.,
are equally remarkable for the number and beauty of their colors.
In a state of combustion, many of these salts present very curious
colorific properties. Chloride of copper burns with a fine green
blaze; strontid, red baryta, yellow chromium green; boron, zinc,.&c., all burn with a characteristic color.
The vegetable world is equally fruitful in proofs of the theory
here advanced. It is well known that plants grown in the dark
are colorless. A bulbous root, grown partly in the light and partly
in the dark, will be half colored and half colorless. Observing a




CHLOROPHYL.                       53
potato, growing partly out of ground, the portion above ground
being green, was one of the first lessons nature taught me in
Heliochromy.  I reason thus:-the effect could not be due to
oxygen, for the portion under ground was so near the surface
that it had free access to the oxygen of the air-it could not be
owing to the heat of the sun, for I have seen the phenomenon in
a shaded place-it is, therefore, the effect of light.
Chlorophyl affords another striking proof of the theory which
lies at the foundation of leliochromy. This singular substance
forms the green coloring matter of leaves, grass, &c. " It may be
obtained," says Booth, " by treating grass with boiling water,
then with alcohol or ether, evaporating or mixing with water, and
distilling. It is a green, waxy substance, but we know not
whether it be a fat, resin, &c. Its color appears to be easily
changed to a yellow." This is all I could ever learn from the
books in respect to chlorophyl, excepting a remark of Berzelius,
that in the seared leaves of autumn the chlorophyl is displaced
by a yellow coloring matter, which he calls Xanthophyl. But I
have experimented largely with chlorophyl, of which a full account will be found in the subsequent pages. These experiments
will be found very interesting, and afford strong evidence of the
correctness of our theory.  In this place I will merely dwell
briefly on the curious workings of this substance in the great
laboratory of nature. Who has not observed and admired the
first inception of the green tint in the tender leaf of spring, its
gradual increase to a decided green, and the truly grand and magnificent intermingling of red, scarlet, brown russet, crimson,
orange, yellow, and remains of green, which these leaves present
in that sober season, the autumnal time?  No portion of nature's
works are more full of beauty, brightness, and divinity. With
truth has it been said, that " God dwells not only in the Palace
he made for angels, but in every blade of grass, and in every leaf
that trembles in the breeze." Poets of the highest order have
attuned their songs to the " sweet spring time," when the "tender buds" appear, and nature weaves for herself a robe of green,




54                    IIHELIOCHROMY.
and no less sweetly and pathetically have they sung the mellow
cadence of brown October and rueful November. Well, all this
is pretty-it is delicious-it is even enravishing;-but there is a
"land of Beulah,"' to use Bunyan's phrase, back of all this. In
the heliochromic view there is utility as well as delight. It
teaches us to regard these phenomena as a grand system  of
"natural colors," and points the way to scientific investigation,
and to the possibility of a practical dive into this grand arcanum
of nature. So, at least, it taught me, in my first attentions to
this subject. I observed that the young leaf is but slightly green.
As it thickens and solidifies, its green tint increases; for the
reason, doubtless, that it thereby acquires a greater amount, and
more perfectly concentrates this quantity of chlorophyl, and
therefore more perfectly obstructs the passage of the green
rays. At a certain age, and especially under the influence of
frost, the coloring matter undergoes a change, and, so to speak,
is tumbled into great diversities of molecular form, and the
foliage takes on the variegated hues we so much admire. Then
the colored rays, as it were, hold a general convocation, and
dance a jubilee of a few weeks on the mountain sides, and
through the lowly vales, till Jack Frost gives the foliage another
and more bitter nip, and the forest is disorganized in a night.
The instances above cited, in which matter assumes forms productive of the absorption and refraction of the colored rays, are
partly due to chemical and mechanical causes. Can a surface be
prepared on which light itself will produce similar changes'   I
will reserve the discussion of this question to the next chapter.
The foregoing views are my own-not a mere compilation
from authors. Years ago I read Newton, La Place, Euler,
Brewster. But as soon as I turned my thoughts to the natural
colors, I found it necessary to renounce the controlling influence
of other men's theories, and to follow the bent of my own mind,
and the suggestions of nature at every step.  From that day to
this I have thought, and studied, and toiled, in a way of my own.
Now that I am preparing my views for the public, my great




THEORY AND PRACTICE.                  55
anxiety is, that they may be tested, and not rejected by any
because they do not agree with their theories. Our own mere
philosophizings, and those of the wisest savants, are frequently
skittish things, and kick hard against practice and facts.




6  HELTOCROMY.
-    CHAPTER III.
Heliochrome possible-Opinions of Philosophers-Biot, Daguerre, Nicephore Niepce, Sir John Herschel, Sir Robert Hunt-Vulgar OpinionsArgument d priori-Chemical Compounds, Decomposition, and Reduction
caused or assisted by light.
"' DOCTORS differ" on the question "Is lHeliochrome possible t'"
And this difference in the theorizings of philosophers has ever
been an antecedent of great discoveries. The discoverer of
printing was considered a witch and a devil; Copernicus, who
established the doctrine of the earth's motion, was bitterly
opposed by the whole religious world; the spinsters and weavers
were down upon Arkwright and Whitney; our own Fulton, the
inventor of steamboats, was the butt of ridicule in legislative
halls, courts, bar-rooms, and other places where blackguards and
rowdies form a part of the company; and Professor Samuel F.
B. Morse, now immortal, as the inventor of the Magnetic Telegraph, was once a beggar at the doors of Congress; Daguerre,
for believing in the possibility of fixing the images of the
camera, was regarded by the public as a fool and a humbug.
Even his own wife inquired of an eminent philosopher if he
thought her husband could be a sane man. All these things
seemed impossible. That the same feeling should exist in regard,
to the natural colors is not surprising.
The learned Biot uses the following language: —" Substances
of the same tint may present, in the quantity or the nature of
the radiations which they reflect, as many diversities, or diversities of the same order, as substances of a different tint; inversely, they may be similar in their property of reflecting




OPrNIONS. 
chemical radiations when they are dissimilar to the eye; so that
the difference of tint which they present to the eye may entirely
disappear in the chemical picture.  These are the difficulties inherent in the formation of photographic pictures, and they show,
I think, evidently, the illusion of the experimenters who hope to
reconcile, not only the intensity, but the tints of the chemical
impressions, produced by radiation with the colors of the objects
from which these rays emanate."  Sir John Herschel, as long
ago as 1840, speaking of some faint tintings of color he procured on paper; says:-" I am not prepared to say that this will
prove an available process for colored photographs, though it
brings the hope nearer."  "Here," says Sir Robert Hunt, "we
have the speculations of one philosopher representing the production of such pictures as hopeless, while the experiments of
another prove them to be within the range of probabilities."
Daguerre, himself, has said that frequently, when he has been
copying any red, brick, or painted building, the photograph has
assumed a tint of that character; and he labored considerably
for the attainment of the colors.  So did Nicephore Niepce, his
partner, labor to the same end with his bitumen-coated tablets;
and the report, though false, went all over Earope that he had
actually made the grand discovery.  Sir Robert Hunt, already
referred to, has advanced quite a lengthy argument on "the
possibility of producing photographs in their natural colors."
He boldly takes the affirmative, and supports it in his usually
able manner. In concluding, he says, " These facts will, I think,
prove that the possibility of our being enabled to produce colored
photographs is decided, and the probability of it is brought infinitely nearer." M. Edmund Becquerel, one of the profoundest
philosophers of Europe, is another advocate of this doctrine.
But as I am not going to fill this chapter with mere opinions, I
will come directly to some of the chemical changes wrought by
light, especially those resulting in the formation of color. I will
start with the flowers of the Cichorium intibus; they are white,
or blue, according to the intensity of the day-light. This is a




58                     HELIOCIHROMY.
well established fact, and I may justly claim it in support of my
theory. Of a similar character is the fact that the rosy and
colored aspect of many kinds of fruit is on the side towards the
sun. We see this in the apple, peach, strawberry, several varieties
of cherry, pear, apricot, &c.
In the animal creation, the influence of light in producing color
is equally evident. The tints of polar and subterranean animals
are dll and dingy, while those in the tropical regions are bright
and gaudy. As a general thing, too, the colored parts of animals
are those most exposed to light. Even serpents are no exception to this law; the beautiful colors displayed by many of them
being mostly on their backs. The plumage of many of the tropical birds is magnificent.  The birds and fowl of northern
climates are robed in a more sober guise. Our fine birds, as the
yellow bird, the robin, the pigeon, the goose, duck, &c., will bear
no comparison with the fine birds of the sunny South, as the ostrich,
the flamingo, the ibis, &c. Our peacocks, roosters, &c., are no
exception, for they gain their plumes by inheritance from a foreign
ancestry, and will not compare with their brethren in the bright
regions of the South.
These instances, in connexion with the vast resources of
chemistry, would seem sufficient to establish the probability, at
least, that art can prepare a surface on which light itself will
produce the molecular forms, or modifications of matter essential
to the phenomena of color. Let us, however, advert to some of
the operations of the laboratory. Take, for example, the art of
calico-printing. The bulk of all these colored fabrics fade; that
is to say, they are photogenic-yea, verily, they are Heliochromic; for as they pass to the colorless state they go through a
great diversity of tints. What is orange now will soon be yellow; the yellow will soon descend to a straw color; the red runs
down to pink, and even to various dingy tints of brown and russet-; the deep blue degenerates to a mere azure blush; the
bright emerald green fades away to a pea-green, &c. &c.  All
this comes to pass in and out door, in a dry or humid atmosphere,




CHEMICAL COMIPOUNDS.                  59
and is plainly the effect of light.  In fact the whole operation is
a sort of Heliochrome iii an inverted order.
The same may be said of oil and water-color paintings. They
fade, slowly, it is true; but in fading they pass through the descending chromatic scale. But few colors are permanent, as the
term is. The works of a few of the old masters of painting which
have retained their brilliancy for hundreds of years, are the
astonishment and envy of modern art.  It would be just as proper to say that most colors are Heliochromic.  Such a remark is
as far from being visionary as that of Sir John Herschel, namely,
that " nearly all the substances in nature are photogenic."
But it is the chemist, more than all others, who has occasion to
observe these remarkable effects of light. Many of his compounds must be kept excluded from light, or both their properties and color will change. Others require light for their perfect
formation-while a third class are so, sensitive to light at the
moment of, or during the process of formation, that they are
much more perfectly formed in some countries than others.
The best French process for making carmine, for example, could
not be successfully worked under the foggy skies of England;
and it is probably owing, in a great degree, to the same cause
that the Chinese and French vermillion is superior to that made
in other countries. Many of the salts of silver may be named as
an example of the other class of compounds alluded to. The
chloride of silver, for example, is soon changed to a sub-chloride
if exposed to light. In the process of changing it passes through
several tints of color.  Gallo-nitrate of silver is very rapidly decomposed by light, and turns a dark brown by a few minutes
exposure: aceto-nitrate of silver is similarly, though not so
quickly affected. Iodide of starch cannot be formed pure in the
light, but on the instant of its formation passes to a dark subiodide. In these and many similar changes we have a great
variety of colors. In some cases the compound is influenced
only by a certain class of rays. Herschel noticed that lime-water
added to solution of chloride of platinum only afforded a precipi



60                     HELIOCHROMY.
tate in white or violet, and not in yellow or red light.  Etherial
solution of perchloride of iron is changed into proto-chloride, behind white and blue, but not red glass. Etherial solution of
corrosive sublimate affords calomel under the influence of white
and blue, but not of red light. Solution of peroxalate of iron is
decomposed by white, violet, and blue light, into carbonic acid
and protoxalate; but red light fails of this effect. Iodide of
starch, which is blue, is bleached under white, green, and yellow
light; red and blue light affect it but little; violet not at all.
Chloride of silver, by a prolonged exposure to the red ray, is
slightly tinted with the natural color of the ray; under yellow,
orange, and green, it is eventually darkened, though slowly;
under the blue and violet it is rapidly changed to a blue, purple,
sepia, black, and at last, to a bronze-like, coppery green.
In the illustration drawn from calico-printing, it will be noticed
that the colors which occur in the fading process were on the descending chromatic scale. In many of the above instances the
reverse is true. The formation of color begins with the faintest
tint, and ascends to the maximum of colorific effect. The former
is not, therefore, so perfect as a heliochromic phenomenon as the
latter; but it will scarcely be denied by any logician, that from
these two classes of phenomenon we have constructed a good
& priori argument in support of the possibility of heliochromy.
Much more might be written under this head, but it would be
foreign to my purpose to even mention, in tabular form, the vast
number of facts similar to the above, which the science of
chemistry affords. Besides, I will not anticipate what will more
appropriately come under the head of " EXPERIMENTS."




ANTIQITTY.                            61
CHAPTER IV.
Antiqluity-The Jugglers of Ancient India-The Alchemists-Chloride of Silver-Scheele-M. Berard-Seebeck-Berthollet —Sir William Herschel —
Wollaston's Experinients on Gumn Guiacum —Sir Humphrey Davy-Oxyde
of Lead-The Action of the Colored Rays —Wedgewood and Davy's First
Pictures-Daguerre and Niepce's First Experiments-Their Copartnership
-The Bitumen Process —Discovery of the Daguerreotype-Action of the
French Government-Talbot and his Process —The First Portrait from
Life-Prof. Morse-Daguerre, Niepce, Talbot, Sir John Herschel, and Sir
Robert Hunt, work for the Colors-Iridescence-Complementary ColorsBecquerel-Niepce de St. Victor-My claim to Priority fully ExaminedThe United States Senate-My Early Pictures-The " Infernal Committee"
-Certificates.
" The progress of discovery is ordinarily a slow process, and it often happens that a great
fact is allowed to lie dormant for years or for ages, which, when eventually revived, is found
to render a fine interpretation of some of Nature's harmonious phenomena, and to minister
to the wants or pleasures of existence."-RoBERT IluNT. Treat. on Photogracphy, p. 1.
IT would seem essential to the proper elucidation of this part of
my subject, that I should give at least a running outline of the
history of Photography in the common acceptation of that term,
as embracing the whole family of light and shade pictures.
If we go back to antiquity we shall find but little to write
about. Although the artisans of olden times had a very perfect
knowledge of some beautiful processes, we have no evidence that
they knew  anything whatever of practical photography.  The
statement that the Jugglers of Ancient India could " copy the
profile of any individual by the action of light," appears to be of
a piece with many other extravagant assertions of their skill.
At least they are ignorant of any such process at present.




62                    HELIOCihnOMY.
The Alchemists, in searching, by a great multiplicity of manipulations, for the philosopher's stone and the elixir vitae, hit
upon horn silver, as they called the fused chloride of silver, and
observed and recorded the fact, that it was blackened by light.
They did not even think, as far as'we can learn, of applying the
fact to photographic use; but stupidly used it as an argument to
prove the doctrine that " silver only differed from gold in being
mercury interpenetrated by the sulphurous principle of the sun's
rays."  We should give them credit, however, for leaving a record of the blackening.
To that profound scholar and philosopher, Scheele, are we indebted for the first scientific examination of this remarkable phenomenon. His experiments resulted in proving the "' dissimilar
powers of the different rays of light in effecting this change."  In
the year 1801, Ritter demonstrated that rays existed beyond the
visible spectrum, which had the property of " speedily blackening
chloride of silver." These researches commanded the attention
of such men as M. Berard, Seebeck, Berthollet, Sir William
Herschell, Sir Henry Englefield. Their investigations led to
much information in regard to the luminous, heating, and chemical powers of the colored rays. Dr. Wollaston pursued and
published some most interesting experiments on the effects of
light on gum guaiacum. He found that "paper washed with a
solution of this gum in spirits of wine, had its yellow  color
rapidly changed to green by the violet rays, while the red rays
had the property of restoring the yellow hue." Sir Humphrey
Davy observed that the puce-colored oxyde of lead was reddened under the red ray, and blackened under the violet ray;
that hydrogen and  chlorine entered into combination more
rapidly in the red than in the violet rays, and that the green
oxyde of mercury, although not changed by the most refrangible
rays, speedily became red in the least refrangible.
None of these discoveries were applied to picture making,
though we look back upon them with pleasure, as they laid the
foundation for the splendid superstructure which has since been




DISCOVERY OF THE DAGUERREOTYPE.            63
reared. The first attempts at fixing images by light were published in the Journal of the Royal Institution of Great Britain,
in June, 1802.  These were by those eminent philosophers,
Wedgewood and Davy. The former, as far back as the year
1800, devised the following " pretty experiment."  He stretched
a piece of paper, or other convenient material, upon a frame,
and sponged it over with a solution of nitrate of silver; he then
placed it behind a painting on glass, and exposed the arrangement to light. A " kind of copy of it" was produced upon the
prepared paper. This experiment may be regarded as the origin
of the art of photography. From the fact of Wedgewood employing a painting instead of a print, I feel almost authorized to
set him down as the man who first attempted to discover heliochromy.
Neither Wedgewood nor Davy succeeded in rendering their
preparations sufficiently sensitive for the camera.  By means of
the solar microscope the latter procured a faint image; but he
could not fix or fasten the impression, and the grand theme was
abandoned in despair.
In 1814, M. Niepce and M. Daguerre took up the subject. In
1829 they entered into co-partnership. In 1827 M. Niepce presented specimens of lis heliographs, as he called them, and a
statement to the Royal Society of London, but they were
rejected (most illiberally, I think), on the ground that he did not
give his'process. This, as it has since appeared, consisted in
coating a tablet of glass, silver, or tin, with resin or asphaltum,
dissolved in essential oil, as lavender, or in alcohol, exposing to
the luminous influence for one or more days, and washing away
the parts unacted upon by light, with the solvent. Paper impregnated with the nitrate or chloride of silver, was the material
first used by Daguerre. His first attempts were scarcely more
encouraging than those of Wedgewood. The discovery of the
daguerreotype was reported to the world in January, 1839.
The process was made known in the following July, after the
passage of an act by the French government securing to Da



64                     HELIOCHROOMY.
guerre an annuity of 6,000 francs, and to M. Isidore Niepce, the
son of Daguerre's partner, an annuity of 4,000 francs, with one
half in reversion for their widows.
In January, 1839, six months previous to the publication of
Daguerre's process, Mr. Fox Talbot, an Englishman, made known
to the Royal Society his discovery, and the next month published
his process on paper-the Talbot-type. Mr. Talbot secured himself by patent, for which he has been most bitterly and unjustly
censured. From his process has grown the beautiful paper Photography, as now practised, and the still more beautiful process
for Positives on glass.  I am not alone in the rapidly growing
opinion, that Talbot's laurels will yet be brighter than Daguerre's.
From the periods referred to the progress of Photography has
been rapid. At first the Daguerreotype was used only for still
objects, as landscapes, architecture, &c.; but it was not long before the ever-progressive Yankees applied it to portraits from
life. Had it remained in the hands of Daguerre, he might never
have improved it so far. Inventors seldom perfect their own
processes.
I have taken much pains to ascertain who was the first person
who took a Daguerreotype from life. Dr. Draper, and Professors Wolcott and: Morse, were among the first who attempted the
achievement in the city of New York. Prof. Morse's first attempt
was on the roof of a house in Broadway. The subject was his
own daughter. She sat heroically for twentyminutes in brilliant
sunshine, with her eyes closed, of course. Success crowned the
effort in the development of a very fair picture. I will not say
that this was the first portrait from life by the Daguerreotype,
but I am strongly inclined to think it was. Prof. Morse, to whom
I put the question, was too modest to answer it decidedly.
About half a century has now elapsed since Wedgewood took
the first step in Photography. It is forty years since Daguerre,
Niepce, and Talbot, commenced their investigations. It is about
seventeen years since their discoveries were made public.




SIR JOHN HERSCHEL.                  65
About ten years ago the Daguerreotype in a few skilful hands,
began to show the maximum of its capabilities. Now, both Daguerreotyping and Talbotyping, and  the kindred processes
which have grown out of them, have attained a degree of perfection truly surprising.
During all these labors for the discovery and improvement of
these arts, it is safe to assert, that a latent wish has been almost
universally felt for the attainment of Heliochromy. Indeed, it is
quite probable that with most experimenters there has been an
ardent longing, a good deal of hoping, and some effort. We
have proof that Daguerre considered the object attainable.  He
theorized much, and sometimes well, on this subject; and he
tried many experiments-many, no doubt, for which the world is
no wiser.  This great man, to whom  the world is so much
indebted, was a quiet, unassuming gentleman, with large bumps
of secretiveness and caution. In his account of his "instantaneous process," as it was called, he exhibits a familiar acquaintance with the laws governing the molecular arrangement of matter, and proves himself an acute reasoner, alive to the whole subject of actinism, or ray power; more so, indeed, than we could
expect from the partial mind of an inventor.
Niepce, as we stated in a previous chapter, did not hesitate to
let it be known that he was seeking after the colors, and the report went far and near that he had found them. Talbot, as it
would appear from many things in his writings, has had the same
rosy dreams, and gone through similar efforts in his seekings
after this precious gem.
Sir John Herschel, the eminent astronomer and philosopher,
has had much of his attention directed this way. Several years
ago he actually succeeded in procuring, upon photographic paper,
impregnated with the colored juice of flowers, a faint-colored
image of the solar spectrum. Afterwards he wrote —" I have got
specimens of paper, long kept, which give a considerably better
representation of the spectrum in its natural colors than I had
5




66                   HIIELIOCHIROMY.
obtained at the date of my paper (February, 1840), and that
light on a dark ground."
Now, from this, and corroborating testimony, it appears that
Herschel did discover a method of producing natural colors in
the year of our Lord 1840. Justice requires me to record this
as a fact. Neither would I twist my pen to abate, the honor
which is his due. But the same justice (to myself) requires me
to state, that his pictures were on paper, while mine (the early
ones) are on silver plates; his required several days for their formation, while mine are often produced in as many seconds; his
were very faint, mere tintings, while my pictures are more
decided, plain, bold, and brilliant than any other class of sundrawn pictures.  In a word, Herschel himself ignores all claim
to an " available process," and only claims for his process that
"it brings the hope nearer."
Sir Robert Hunt, a most indefatigable experimenter, a man of
science, and very able writer on photography, says in his treatise
" My own experiments have, in many instances, given me
colored pictures of the prismatic spectrum, dark upon a light
ground; but the most beautiful I have yet obtained has been
upon the daguerreotype iodidated tablets, on which the colors
have, at the same time, had a peculiar softness and brilliancy."'
In the Philosophical Magazine for April, 1840, is an able paper
from Mr. H:Eunt, entitled, "Experiments and Observations on
Light which has permeated Colored Media." In this he describes some "curious results" on " some of those photographs
which are prepared with the hydriodic salts, exposed to luminous
influence with colored fluids superimposed."  The violet, blue,
green, yellow, and red rays produced, not their natural, but their
complementary colors. Some pieces of paper which Mr. Hunt
prepared with the bi-chromate of potash and a very weak solution
of nitrate of soda, were exposed under colored glasses for two
dull days in a window having a southern aspect, and gave.
"tintings" of blue, green, and red.




SIR ROBERT HUNT.                   67
It will not be claimed either by Mr. Hunt or his friends, that
producing " complementary" colors is heliochromy.  Nor that
the "tintings" on the chromated paper could entitle him to the
claim of having discovered the natural colors in the broad meaning of the words. His results on the " iodidated tablets," deserve
a few remarks. Such a tablet-in other words, a prepared
daguerreotype plate-will give all Mr. Hunt claims; but how,
and in how long a time?  I answer (for I am familiar with the
experiment), that the iodized plate will turn all manner of colors,
when exposed to the colored rays, and will, in the course of these
changes, assume the colors of the image impinging on it, and
that too (not always, however), in their proper localities. In
order to secure proof of this effect' it is essential to " watch it
close," and to stop the action the lucky moment you happen to
discover the rose on the right bush.  Evidently there is no
specific, direct formation of natural colors by this process. I
have found from actual and repeated trial, that if, instead of the
spectrum, you direct the camera to seven dark bands of different
degrees of shading, and these well blended, you will get the
same results as those produced by Mr. Hunt; that is, the plate,
under the reducing action of the light, as it goes through its
transformation or metamorphoses, so to speak, will be so affected
by the relative strengths of the light, as to present the phenomenon in question.
In my process there is evidently a specific action of the colored
rays, which form, or produce, the natural colors, and no others,
either before or after the proper time of exposure to light.  Remove one of my plates from the camera before it has had sufficient light to produce a full development of the colors, and
where it should be red, blue, or yellow, it will begin to show
those colors. Over-expose a plate and the colors are still there,
though weakened. This is true, not only of the few primaries,
as bright red, blue, and yellow, but with a well prepared plate
the same thing holds good with every possible tint and combination of color I have ever attempted to copy. I once counted, by




68                    HELIOCHROMY.
the aid of several practised eyes, the number of tints on 50 of
my plates. They amounted to over four hundred.
These remarks are not meant as a disparagement of Mr. Hunt.
I am in the most friendly relations with him. About a year
ago a friend of mine wrote to Mr. Hunt and Sir John Herschel,
giving a carefully drawn up account of the character of my discovery. In reply Mr. Hunt wrote a long and friendly letter, in
behalf of himself and Sir John, offering their good offices towards
the introduction of the process in Europe, and manifesting the
utmost interest in my discovery.
M. Edmund Becquerel, in experiments made in 1849-50, succeeded in producing, on metallic plates, the colors of the spectrum, and copied some colored prints. His process was as follows: Into a jar of muriatic acid, diluted with from 1 to 2 parts
of water, he placed a silver plate, having previously connected it
with the positive pole of a galvanic battery, the negative pole of
which was terminated by a strip of platinum.  The silver and
platinum plates were kept about one inch apart until the former
became coated with the nascent chlorine to a violet hue. It was
then rinsed and dried, and exposed to the colored rays. After
an exposure of from  one to two days a colored image was
formed. It was but seldom he obtained more than one or two
colors at once.  These were usually not brilliant, and were
always evanescent. He abandoned the process long since.
During the year 1851, M. Niepce  de St. Victor, a nephew of
Daguerre's partner, appeared before the world in the usual mystic and swelling style of the French school, as the discoverer of
Heliochromy. It was distinctly stated by his organ, La Lumerie, that M. Niepce made his announcement at that particular
time in consequence of a " publication abroad."  This " publication abroad," gentle reader, was no less than the letters of your
humble servant, L. L. Hill, which appeared in the Photographic
Journal and the Daguerrean Journal, in which I distinctly
claimed to have discovered a process for copying the colors of
nature on silver plates. These letters were published several




THE UNITED STATES SENATE.                69
months prior to St. Victor's announcement. Besides, the fact of
my having arrived at the discovery was published some four
months previous to my letters in the Journals; thus placing me
nearly a year ahead of my transatlantic contemporary.
I do not pretend that Niepce made no discovery independently
of his knowledge of mine. This I-freely concede; also, that his
process has enabled him and others to copy colors.  I am perfectly willing that he should have all the credit which belongs to
him; but I am not willing that he, or his advocates, should rob
me of mine. M. Niepce, viewed merely in the light of a claimant, has had many advantages over me in the backing up line.
The French savans, than whom there is not a class of intelligent men on earth so much given to fuss and parade and
bombast, have backed him. Louis Napoleon has backed him, by
giving him an idle office in the "Von Grand Army;" and my
enemies in this country (certain Daguerfeotypists, I refer to, who
hated because they could not govern me), have made the best
use they could of this foreigner's Memoirs, to invalidate my claim
to this grand discovery, worked out in the Catskill mountains,
within the very hearing of the wolf's howl and the panther's
screech; and, what is worse, amid poverty and sickness.
This whole matter —my early and later pictures —my chemical
coatings-the dates of my announcements-and the dates of all
other claims-I, in person, laid before the SENATE OF THE
UNITED STATES; and the following is their report. I give it
entire, italicizing and capitalizing those portions of which I feel
especially proud. It is a document upon which I place higher
value than I would upon a laurel crown from the hand of a
Coesar.
From the National Intelligencer.
THE HILLOTYPE.
"The subject of the subjoined report was made on the 3d instant, by one
of the committees of the Senate. Being of interest to the general reader, as
well as to the scientific class, we insert it in full.




70                         HELIOCHROMY.
"Mr. JAMES made the following report, which was ordered to be printed:
"The Committee on Patents and the Patent Office, to whom was referred
the memorial of Levi L. Hill, in reference to his alleged discovery in Heliochrome, or sun painting, so denominated by said Hill, ask leave to submit
the following report:
"Mr. Hill having been before the committee, and explained to them the
history and principles of his invention, and submitted to their inspection
numerous specimens of the production of his art or invention: the committee have formed the opinion that those specimens afforded sufcient
proofs that the inventor has solved the problem, of photographic coloration.
The committee had in their hands the plates, unprotected by glass or any
other covering, and saw them freely rubbed and otherwise tested, confirming
in their minds the fact of the invention, and the durability of the pictures.
It is believed that most of the philosophers, both in Europe and America,
long since gave up as hopeless the search after this branch of science, which
has been discovered by one of our own citizens, in one of the wild valleys of
the Catskill mountains, far removed from the schools of art. The committee
learn that Mr. Hill has arrived at this discovery, by which the works of
nature may be copied in their original hues, through three years of persevering toil.  The committee is informed by Mr. Hill, that his discovery has
not as yet been perfected in its practical details, which is not surprising, it
being but little more than two years since he obtained his first result.  But
the beauty of the results to which the process has already attained, would
seem to afford evidence that it will be perfected at no distant (lay.
"The prospective utility and importance of this invention, are very important in its application to portraits, landscapes, botany, morbid anatomy,
mineralogy, or conchology, aboriginal history, the reproduction of valuable
paintings, and to various other ornamental purposes.  The committee are
satisfied of Mr. Hill's claim to ORIGINALITY and PRIORITY of invention, and
deem it just and right that he should be suitably protected and encouraged;
and they deem it more particularly so, seeing that a rival claim has been set
up in France since the announcement of his discovery was unade.  The means
by which this process is carried out being strictly chemical, it would seem
that the existing patent laws would not afford to the inventor the security
required.  Owing, however, to the short period remaining of the present
session of Congress, and the press of business, the committee have been
unable to devise any better or more efficient mode by which to recognise
the claims of Mr. Hill, than by recommending that his memorial, together
with this report, be placed on the records of the Senate."
I shall now proceed to give a condensed account of other testi



MY EARLY PICTURES.                  71
mony, by which I hope to satisfy every unprejudiced reader, of
the justness of my claim to this grand discovery, and of my
PRIORITY in it.
1. In the first place, M. Niepce's discovery was announced
several months after mine, and it was made long after I obtained
my first results.
2. I was perfectly familiar with the very process he claims,
long before he pretends to have made the discovery.  Long before his announcement, I exhibited results obtained by chloridating a silver plate, by means of a solution of chloride of copper,
mixed with hydro-chloric acid. My first experiments consisted
in heating the solution upon a Daguerreotype portrait and view.
This gave me several colors all over the pictures, and ended with
a fine ruby red, under which the pictures were but slightly obscured. I then coated a naked plate in the same way, and exposed it to light, with a colored engraving superimposed.  The
result was just such natural colors as those described by Niepce.
Like his they very soon began to fade; but unlike those of his
which he exhibited in the Crystal Palace in London, they did
not fade out; for I put them in a dark place, and they remain to
this day. I then continued experimenting until I arrived at a
process by which I took a view of my nearest neighbor's house.
At that time (which was a year previous to Niepce's publication),
the north end of said house had one window less than it had
three months before the date of Niepee's announcement.  That
picture I have shown to a great number of persons, and it demonstrates my priority over Niepce, as the circumstances in respect
to the windowless picture could not have existed on any other
supposition.
3. I did exhibit specimens in natural colors several months
previous to Niepee's claim. This I could easily show by the
affidavits of highly respectable persons, if it were necessary.
The reason I did not make a public exhibition may be found
in my bump of caution. I was afraid it would endanger my
secret.




72                        HELIOCHROMY.
4. As soon as my claimn  and my truth and veracity were
seriously called in question, I began to collect certificates. I
was too much engaged in my labors to make a short job of this
by going abroad with my pictures. I merely obtained the voluntary statements of some of those who chanced to visit me, excepting in the case of Prof. Morse, whom I sent for during
a severe attack of bleeding at the lungs, which led me to fear my
life was drawing to a close.  Soon after his visit he favored me
with the following certificate, which, with many others, was published in the New  York Daily Times of Oct. 26, 1852.
POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y., Oct. 6, 1852.
Rev. L. L. HILL-MY DEAR SIR:-It gives me great pleasure to testify,
from ocular demonstration, to the reality of your discovery of a process for
fixing the colors of the camera obscura image. The results you showed me,
especially one of a bird of varied plumage, taken in two seconds, showed
conclusively that the blues, yellows, and reds were distinctly given and fixed.
That there should be imperfections in the manipulation of a new process,
and that you should therefore desire to be so familiar with it as to bring it
before the public in a perfect form, are circumstances natural and to be expected. But the reality of your discovery is beyond question; you have
laid the foundation on which will be built a splendid structure. Every
stone, and the finish of each, or of the whole building, it may not be in your
power, from your feeble health, to give; but whoever builds must build on
your foundation. The astonishing tenacity of the colors upon your plates,
yielding neither to rubbing nor ordinary exposure, is a distinct feature of the
greatest importance.  So also is the quickness of the process, which, when
more exactness of manipulation is attained, will enable you to fix at will the
more fleeting hues of nature, particularly in the atmospheric tints, and the
expressive colors of the complexion of a portrait. The beauty of the flesh
tints in the two female heads from nature, which you showed me, and those
also in the full length of your little daughter, fully verified this.
M. Becquerel, one of the most indefatigable and illustrious savans of
Europe, has had his great mind, with all its garnishments of scientific facts,
directed to the solution of the problem fixing the colors of the Camera
image, and the result, if report is true, is failure: "he was never able to
fasten the colors."  M. St. Victor has also obtained results ingenious and
beautiful, but I learn that they are equally evanescent.  But even if they




CERTIFICATES.                        73
were permanent, the length of time required to fix the image is fatal for all
the varied practical purposes to'which yours is applicable. Portraits cannot
be taken by a process requiring " two hours," or even " fifteen minutes."
Your discovery, so far as I am yet apprised of the labors of scientific men,
is unequal, and yet the only one which promises in its perfected state, the
great ends desired.
With respect, your friend and servant,
SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.
I also subjoin the following, with the remarks of the New
York Evening Post, because it forms an essential part of this
history, and because it is an outspoken document from a source
which every reasonable man will respect.   The cutting remark
of the professor concerning " some who are not only a disgrace
to their profession, but to human nature itself," refers more particularly to the so-called " committee" of the so-called "New
York State Daguerrean Association," who after visiting my house,
and after my refusal to show them my pictures, reported the
whole thing as an "unmitigated delusion."'  I will add that his
words have been verified in the subsequent conduct of the chairman of said " committee," who has been found guilty by a legal
tribunal of perjury and arson, and has fled to Europe. Another
member of the committee, Mr. Tomlinson, then of Troy, N. Y.,
has amply atoned to me by letter, for the part he took in this
nefarious affair.
From the New York Evening Post, October 19,1852.
PHOTOGRAPHIC COLORS.
The following communication from Professor Morse, one of the eminent
painters of our country, who held for nineteen years the Presidency of the
National Academy of the Art of Design, and whose reputation as a man of
science is world-wide, appears in the National Intelligencer, and will be read
with pleasure by all whose love of country is gratified by every new
achievement among us in science, skill, and art:
GENTLEMEN-I have just read in a letter of your Paris correspondent some
remarks on the subject of "Colored Daguerreotypes," in which allusion is
made to Mr. Hill, of Westkill, New York, and in which it is stated that Mr.




r74                        HELIOCIIROMY.
Hill has yet exhibited no specimens of his discovery, while " M. Niepee St.
Victor, nephew of the celebrated discoverer of photography in France, has
made the grand discovery, and showed his pictures to the world." It was
also stated, that " M. Becquerel had produced colored pictures, but he was
never able to fasten the colors." On this subject, allow me a few remarks in
justice to the American discoverer of colored photographs. I received a letter
from Mir. Hill a few days since, desiring to see me. He was under the apprehension that he could not live long, having suffered from a violent hemorrhage, which he supposed was from the lungs, and brought on by his untiring
devotion to the perfection of his discovery. On the 1st instant I visited him,
some sixty miles from this place. I found him so far recovered as to be again
able to renew his labors, and, I am happy to say, to induce the belief that
the hemorrhage was not from the lungs.
On a previous visit a year since, he showed me no specimens of his discovery; but from the character of the man, and his manner, I believed him
to be strictly truthful and honest, and I was satisfied either that he had made
the discovery which he had claimed, or was under an honest delusion in
respect to it; but I could not then testify to its actuality from personal
knowledge. On the evening of the 1st and morning of the 2d instant, however, all doubt of the substantial fact that a great discovery in photography
had been made by Mr. Hill was dispelled, by his showing me some twenty
specimens of his results. The most of them were, like all those of M. St.
Victor, "copies of colored engravings." They were taken by the camera, and
not, as has been reported, "mere transfers of colored prints;" but all were
not "copies of colored engravings." Two were exquisitely beautiful portrait
heads from life, and one a full-length of a child from life. One a landscape
view from nature, principally buildings, which, although imperfect in parts,
served from that very circumstance to verify to me the genuineness of the
discovery. The conclusions to which I came from what I saw are these:
First. Mr. Hill ha's made the discovery of a process for fixing the colors of
the camera image, and, although not so perfected in all its complicated parts
as to be equally true in the color in the various objects, is sufficiently developed in its results to give assurance of its ultimate perfection.
Second. Mr. Hill, in delaying hitherto to impart to the public a discovery
of such importance, while he has any hope of making it more perfect, has
acted with a wisdom and propriety which will be appreciated by the public,
and by none more than the most distinguished and honorable of the daguerreotype professors.
Third. None but the most skilful and taste-endowed practitioners of the
present photography may expect to succeed in developing the full excellence
of Mr. Hill's discovery. It must be in the hands of no ordinary man, but




CERTIFICATES.'75
will require for the production of a perfect picture, the taste, the skill, the
feeling of thorough and accomplished artists.
Fourth. Mr. Hill's process cannot be like M. Becquerel's, for it is stated that
AM. Becquerel "was never able to fix the colors," while the colors in Mr.
Hill's process are so fixed that the most severe rubbing with a buffer only
increases their brilliancy; and no exposure to light has as yet been found to
impair their brightness. Nor can it be like M. Niepce St. Victor's; for
"fifteen minutes," it seems, is the least time in which some of his results
were obtained, while ordinarily, "it takes two hours of exposure" to produce them. Mr. Hill's, on the contrary, are produced in twenty seconds at
most, and the most brilliant and most beautiful specimens he showed me
were produced in two seconds. I also learn the specimens exhibited by M.
Niepee, at the Great Exhibition, were so evanescent, that they perished
before the exhibition was closed.'
Fifth. I could not but reflect on the different positions of those who are
engaged in Europe and America in unfolding this great scientific mystery.
The experimenters of Europe have around them, and at command, all the
appliances of art, all the compounds, the products of the chemical labors of
the world's best scientific minds, ample pecuniary means to pursue their
researches; they are further encouraged by the sympathy of the world of
art, and national patriotism further rallies to the protection of their country's
claims, to the honor of such a discovery.
But how is it with the American experimenter? Shut up in the sequestered
valley of the Catskill Mountains, with no appliances of art at his command,
and purchasing and transporting at an expense almost ruinous to him the
scanty stock of chemicals with which he is to operate; with comparatively
few about him to sympathize with him in his labors but a devoted wife,
willingly sharing in his privations; with feeble health and limited means, he
untiringly pursues his researches at the hazard of all he has in the world,
even of life itself, that he may give to the world his perfected discovery.
But at least such a man has the sympathy of those to whom his discovery
will be of the deepest interest? The professors of the daguerreotype art will
hail with delight, and award to the discoverer the highest meed of honor?
Americans, too, will feel a pride in sustaining their country's claim to the
discovery? What shall I say in answer to these questions?   Yes, it is true,
the most skilful, the most honorable of the daguerreotype professors do hail
Mr. Hill's discovery with enthusiasm, and honor the discoverer. But, alas!
it is also true that there are in the daguerreotype profession, some who are
not only a disgrace to their profession, but to human nature itself.  Some of
these have been the most prominent in intruding on his privacy, in throwing
before the public insulting inuendoes as well as positive falsehoods, harassing




76                        HELIOCHROMIIY.
him with diabolical threats, &c. But I forbear at present. There is a chapter
in the history of this discovery which, for the honor of humanity, I will
hope may not be required to be given, but, if necessary, shall be given, for
the purpose at least of showing the nature of the trials to which our American discoverer has been subjected. Mr. Hill has made a great discovery. It is
not perfected. There is much yet to be done to make it perfect, but he is in
advance of all others, and has within the year successfully overcome two of
his difficulties. Both yellow and white were defective in quality and truth
a year ago; both are now  comparatively obtained.  There are other
colors which, in order to make them so true as to satisfy an artist's mind will
require yet further experimenting. Is not this reason enough for not at
present giving his process to the public? Who has a right to demand him to
reveal it to the public now?  Who, indeed, has a right to demand it at any
time? I trust his life may be spared not only to perfect his process, but that
he may reap some reward, both in honor and in profit, for his labors before
death shall take him from us.
With respect, gentlemen, your most obedient servant,
SAM'L F. B. MORSE.
Poughkeepsie, New York, Oct. 4, 1852.
In addition to the foregoing, I have been favored with more
than fifty similar statements from persons of the first standing in
society. Of many of these I present abstracts. As their republication forms a part of the legitimate history of Heliochromy, I
trust they will be read with interest.
The following extracts from a letter of P. 0. White, Esq,,
published in the Cincinnati Daily Times, of August 25, show the
opinion of a portrait painter of high standing:You ask me why I do not return to Cincinnati. The time has not yet
come. Suffice it to say for the present, that I have been out to see the
Hillotype, or photograph in natural colors, discovered by L. L. Hill, and that
until it comes out, I shall not feel disposed to leave New York. I have seen
several pictures taken by the camera.
These pictures are enameled-cannot be rubbed out-can be seen from
any point of view —as easily taken as daguerreotypes-not any more expensive-have most of the charms of natural color-will prove a great auxiliary
to art-and are a contribution of wondrous beauty to the science of the age.
The colors are a discovery-the process of taking them an invention, destined




CERITIFICATES.                         77
by the science of our time to advance and popularize esthetic study beyond
all former precedent.
This is an American contribution to science for the next World's Fair, to
which European schools of art will be more indebted than they have been to
Greece.  Now, in this democracy of science-the true vicegerent of the
Divine Master, infallible and superhuman-we have a reliable master, not of
fabulous descent from Jupiter, but of demonstrable descent from the Father
of Light, revealing and verifying the true, exposing the false, and suggesting
that spiritual ideal that ravishes the true student of nature.
Nor are its utilitarian aspects to be overlooked; for Mr. Hill is a public
benefactor, deserving riches and immortality.  He has furnished to the
widow and the fatherless, and those that have no help, a truly feminine and
reliable profession; and to the traveller, the man of science, the botanist,
florist, &c., a most valuable assistance.
WESTKILL, Greene Co., N. Y., -Dec. 12, 1851.
I take great pleasure in stating that Mr. L. L. Hill has been well known in
this community for many years; that for eight or nine years he served the
church of which I am pastor, in the same sacred capacity-and that his
character for moral honesty and integrity stands far above suspicion; so
much so, that no one who is intimately acquainted with him would believe
him capable of practising deception upon the public by professing to have
made a great and important discovery which he did not know, beyond the
possibility of "a delusion" or mistake, he could at the proper time prove, to
the conviction of the most skeptical.
I know from personal inspection, that his avowed discovery is " an unmitigated " reality, having repeatedly examined many of his pictures heliotyped
in natural colors, upon burnished silver plates, chemically coated; and which
present, in a beautiful and brilliant form, the various shades and tints of red,
blue, violet, green, yellow, orange, and all the colors of the spectrum.
The specimens which I have examined consist not only of copies of
colored prints, but flowers, views, and likenesses of persons whom I know,
taken from life, and surpassing, in a degree far beyond expression, the finest
miniature paintings I have ever seen.
I have no personal interest to subserve in making this avowal, but do it
from the purest motives, and with a sincere desire to aid in vindicating the
character of Mr. Hill from the many invidious attacks made upon it, by persons who seem to be ignorant of his high moral worth, as well as of the.




T8                         HELIOCHROMY.
reality and transcendent character of his discovery —assured, that, so soon as
he is able to perfect the subordinate details to the satisfaction of his own
mind, and so as to render his process simple and intelligible to the practitioners of the Daguerrean art, he will submit the brilliant results to the scrutinizing inspection of an intelligent public.
A. E. CLARK,
Pastor of the Baptist Church, Westkill.
From  S. S. Harding, Esq., portrait painter, and brother of the
celebrated artist Chester Harding, Boston.  S. S. Harding is
well known in many parts of the United States as a gentleman
eminent in his profession.
ALBION, N. Y. NOV. 21, 1851.
REV. Mr. HILL-DEAR SIR: —Your letter of the 17th has just this moment
been received, and I hasten cheerfully to comply with your request.  How
any one could be malicious enough to say that such pictures' as you were
kind enough to show us were transferred, is past my comprehension; and
base must be the man who could throw any obstacle in the way of your progress in this wonderful discovery.
S. S. HARDING.
I fully concur in the above.
S. M. HARVEY,
-Daguerreotypist, Albion.
CATSIKILL, Greene Co., N. Y., Jan. 27, 1851.
To TIE PUBLIc:-This certifies that I have been privileged to be a witness to the discovery of L. L. Hill, and I take great pleasure in stating, in the
most positive terms, that having seen a large number of his specimens, they
are better by far, than he has ever represented them, being far superior to
the best Daguerreotypes or Paintings. His views possess a charm, which no
pencil or brush can equal, and which nature alone can excel.  His portraits
from life, in natural colors, are perfectly exquisite.  The tints of the various
complexions are beautifully natural, soft, and harmonious; the rosy hues of
the cheeks and lips, the color of the eyes, hair, and the various tints of red,




CERTIFICATES.                            79
blue, green, orange, violet, buff, &c., in the drapery, greatly surpass the
utmost I have ever conceived from the published accounts. A chief beauty
of these pictures is in the blue, green, fawn, and other colored grounds;
these presenting a sort of mellow, illuminated appearance, which causes the
portrait to set out with a surprising relief and life-like aspect.  In a word, I
cheerfully lend my name to the assertion that Mr. Hill's claim is true, to the
fullest extent.
GEORGE W. IIALCOTT,
Sherti of Greene Co., N. Y.
ROCHESTER, Monroe C(o., MIay 14, 1852.
This certifies that I have seen great numbers of the results of L. L. Hill's
process for photographing in natural colors, and I take great pleasure in
affirming most positively that they are all, and more than he ever represented them. They are natural colors in every possible variety, including
red, blue, yellow, orange, buff, fawn, brown, green, &c., embracing the
minutest middle tints of every hue. The portraits from life are marvellous
productions, and no man of taste can see them without feeling that a great
light has arisen in the mountain wilds of Westkill. Mr. IIill has made a
wonderful discovery, one that will supersede every other form of coloration.
The beautiful lights and shades of Daguerreotypes will now give way to
these more beautiful blendings of the prismatic rays. I cannot speak too
highly of the portraits from life, which, Mr. Hill was kind enough to show
me. One, of a person with whose features I am well acquainted, I must
say, baffles description. It exhibits the fresh tints, the color of the cheeks,
lips, hair, and drapery, with a softness and glossy brilliancy beyond conception, and yet this transcript of life itself, standing out on a soft, colored
ground, is most remarkable for its perfectresemblance to life. May God
speed the pleasing wonder I
JAMES HEATH, Daguerreotypist,
55 Emporium Block, Main street, Rochester.
NEw YoRE, Dec. 20, 1851.
This certifies that Mr. Hill has kindly shown me several specimens of
his pictures in natural colors. In justice to him I take great pleasure in
expressing my admiration of these wonderful works of light, and in stating
that they afford the most pleasing and conclusive evidence that Mr. Hill's




80             EELIOCHROMY.
claim to his magnificent discovery is a just one. He showed to me, among
other specimens, copies of paintings, smaller than the originals, which I saw,
proving them to have been taken in a Camera; also, a rose bush, a wreath of
roses, and various other specimens of this truly surprising discovery, in all of
which the colors were well defined and properly located. I also saw a portrait from life, on a half size plate, which was strikingly beautiful. As one
whose whole soul is in the photographic art, I feel a just pride in stating that
the above picture is all sufficient and glorious proof of the great importance
of Mr. Hill's discovery, and a complete vindication of the truth of his pretensions from the first.
Mr. Hill has confidentially explained to me, as an operator, some of his
reasons for not publicly exhibiting his pictures. These reasons are perfectly
satisfactory, and lead him to act as any man would who regarded the safety
of his discovery.
SAMlUEL ROOT, Daguerrean Artist,
363 Broadway, New York.
PHILADELPMHIA, Jan. 6, 1852.
I have seen Mr. L. L. Hill's finished pictures, portraits from life, taken
with the Camera, upon silver surfaces, or usual Daguerreotype plates, and
must say, in reference to their perfect exactness of transcription from their
originals, and their exquisite, their transcendent beauty, as works of art, I
can not only endorse all he has said of them, but would speak even more
strongly, if stronger language could be found.
I have also seen numerous specimens of Mr. Hill's " experiments," produced
by the action of light, such as copies of prints, flowers, &c., with a view of
developing the various shades, or tints of colors, many of which were truly
beautiful and interesting.
His portraits from life, I am happy to say, are all that the most enthusiastic Daguerrean Artist can desire, and much more beautiful than our
scientific men and the public have been led to suppose. The time will come
when all generous minds will award to Mr. Iill due credit for having guarded
so faithfully, thus far, the wonderful discovery which it has been his good
fortune to bring before the world.
M. A. ROOT, Daguerreotypist,
140 Chestnut street, Philadelphia.




CERTIFICATES.                           81
NEW YORX, June 12, 1852.
This is to certify that I have just visited Mr. L. L. Hill, at his residence,
and that he gratified me with a sightt of his pictures in natural colors. I say
most cheerfully, and as an act of justice to Mr. Hill, that I am perfectly satisfied of the truth of his claim in the broadest and fullest sense. These pictures
are really exquisite and beautiful, differing essentially from any other style
of picture. They present every possible variety of color and tint, in a most
brilliant form-the whites are peculiarly bright and glossy-and the aspect
of the pictures is one of astonishing boldness and relief. The flesh tints of the
pictures from life, the color of the hair, drapery, background, &c., are fine
beyond description; and I unhesitatingly pronounce the invention a wonderful one, and shall hail with joy the day when I shall be allowed to work it.
J. GURNEY,
189 Broadway, N. Y.
NEw YORK, July 5, 1852.
I cheerfully concur in the foregoing, and would add stronger language, if
stronger could be found, in support of the entire, and most gratifying truth
of Mr. Hill's discovery. From actual inspection of his results-among them
portraits from life-I am amazed and delighted beyond my power to
express.
C. C. HARRISON, Camera MrVanufacturer,
85 Duane street, N. Y.
Mr. Harrison is one of the oldest and best iDaguerreotypists
in the country; and as a practical optician, has gained a worldwide fame in the manufacture of Cameras.
BosToN, August 30, 1252.
This is to certify that I have examined with astonishment, several Daguerreotypes, in which were faithfully copied all the colors of nature, by L. L.
Hill, among them a portrait from life, and upwards of thirty different copies
of colored engravings; and I am fully convinced that he has discovered a
chemical process by which he can take Daguerreotypes with all the natural
colors. Many of those shown me were copies of birds of paradise; the subjects being a capital test for his newly discovered art; in the copies is repre6




83                         H~~ELIOCIZOIIMY.
sented upon the silver plates, every shade and tint of color imaginable; the
impression is more readily seen than in the common Daguerreotype, and
appears imbedded in the silver, instead of being upon the surface; and the
higher the plate is polished, after the impression is taken, the more brilliant
are the colors thrown out.
JOHN A. WHIPPLE, Daguerreotypist,
96 Washington street, Boston.
ST. Louis, Mo., Sept. 15, 1852.
Fr;iend,Whipple, in the above, has told the truth; for I have seen the
sa:me..
E. LONG,
S. E. corner 4th and Market street.
OTSEGO, N. Y., March 10, 1852.
HIaving examined a number of Mr. Hill's specimens, I hereby certify, that
his daily experiments show rapid and marked advancement in the art, which
betoken a speedy consummation. Having also examined some of his portraits, from life, in natural colors, I certify that my best anticipations were
more than realized. According to my judgment, they far surpass in beauty,
truthfulness, and finish, any engraving or painting ever examined by me,
leaving nothing more to be desired in the way of portrait taking.
ERASTUS WESTCOTT,
Pastor Baptist Church.
PnaarsvILLE, N. Y., Aug. 19, 1852..'This certifies that I have seen L. L. Hill's portraits from life, and other spe-:cimens in natural colors, and they are beautiful beyond the power of language to describe. They afford the most positive proof of the truth of his
assertions respecting the greatness and utility of his discovery. I also certify,
to the country and the world at large, that I have known Mr. Hill many
years, and his integrity is as natural and real as the glowing colors on his
plates.                                      JOHN LARAWAY,
Former Sheriff' of Greene Co.




CERTIIOATFES.                            83
LEXINGTON, May 25, 1862.
This certifies that I have seen numerous specimens of the results of Mr. L
L. Hill's process of photographing in colors. Incredible as it may seem, it is
strictly true that these pictures, and especially the portraits of living persons,
are all, and more than language has ever described them. His process gives
not only every color, but the minutest tint of every color, and that with a
brilliant, enameled appearance, truly charming and exquisitely soft and beautiful. I could not speak too strongly of these wonderful pictures, and especially would my words be inadequate to describe the charm of the flesh color
and carnation tint of the portraits from life.
D. LYlMAN,
Minister of the Gospel, Methodist Fp. CtaUrch.
LExNGTON, N. Y., Jan. 2, 1851.: In the portraits and views there is all that Mir. Hill has represented to the
public; and I may add, a truthfulness to the colors of the complexion, hair,
eyes, drapery, back-ground, &c., and a certain peculiar appearance, as of life
itself, which no man's language can adequately represent.
HEZEKIAH PETTIT,
Pastor of the Baptist Church in Le xgton for fifty years past.
NEw YORE, Gurney's Gallery, 189 Broadway, May 24, I852.
I have seen Mr. L. L. Hill's pictures in natural colors, and examined them
with the closest scrutiny in broad daylight; and I unhesitatingly certify to
the existence of the discovery in a most desirable shape. I can conceive of
nothing more perfect than these pictures, and the process will most certainly
supersede all others the instant it is introduced. I have the honor of being
the first person that visited Mr. Hill in reference to his discovery —have frequently visited Westlill, and must say, that though I do not know anything
of a perfect man, I never knew a man who enjoyed the love and confidence of
his neighbors more than the slandered L. L. Hill.
CALEB HUNT, Daguerreotypist.
GRANDYvmaE, O., Sept. i, 1852.
I hereby certify that I have seen and carefully examined Mr. L, L. Hill's
pictures taken in natural colors, and that they far exceed in richness, depth,




84                         nxcImOHROMo
boldness, relief, and mellowness of tone, the finest daguerreotype or oil painting, and at the same time display all the tints of every variety of color. If
the fraternity do not trouble him too much with visits and propositions, he
will soon introduce the process in a very desirable and practical shapea
Yours truly,           W. I. WEEKS, Daguerreotypist.
For three years with M. A. Root, Philadelphia.
ASHLAND, N. Y., Nov. 12, 1851.
Some months since I saw several specimens of L. L. Hill's photography in
natural colors, and would say, with pleasure, that they bear no marks of
being transfers, but are the true colors of the objects from which they were
taken by the action of light, through the medium of the Camera Obscura.
MORRIS BAILEY, Daguerreotypist.
Now of 88 Merrimac street, Lowell, Mass.
CATSKILL, Dec. 2, 1851.
We, the undersigned, being well acquainted with Mr. Morris Bailey, would
say that we believe him to be a man of strict honor and integrity, and that
any statement that he has made, or shall make, may be relied upon by the
public.                                 GEORGE W. HALCOTT,
fSheriff of Greene County, N. Y.
J. VAN ORDEN, Clerk of Do.
NEWBURG, N. Y., Nov. 27, 1851.
I certify that I have seen many of L. L. Hill's pictures in natural colors. I
have spent much time at his house, and repeatedly seen him produce, by
means of the Camera, copies of colored prints and paintings which were exceedingly accurate representations of the originals. I have also seen his portraits from life, which are exceedingly beautiful; and in two instances I saw
him take portraits of living persons, with very short sittings (only a few
seconds), in which all the colors of the complexion and dress were beautifully rendered.
WM. SCHERMERHORN, Daguerreotypist.
From the Newburgh Gazette, Oct. 20,1852.
THE WONDERS OF THE HILLOTYPE.
We have been shown by Mr. Hill, the inventor of the " Hillotype," a variety
of the beautiful creations of his genius. He has really invented a process of




CERTIFICATES.                           85
transferring to his plates all the natural colors. The freshness of life is imparted to his pictures, which are not excelled in their resemblance of nature,
even by the gorgeous tints of the rainbow. Red, and Blue, and Yellow, the
principal primary colors, are copied with wonderful facility by his truly marvellous invention, and with them are mingled, with perfect exactness, all the
various hues and tints, and combinations of colors of the solar spectrum. We
could scarcely believe that a "' consummation so devoutly to be wished," had
been reached, until we beheld it, as we have had the happiness of doing, with
our own eyes. Now that we have seen it, like "unbelieving Thomas," we
are entirely satisfied of its actuality.
But we have not the space at present to particularize the merits of this
invention. Mr. Hill is about making arrangements to perfect his discovery, and
give the world the benefit of its extraordinary capabilities. The public, we
are sure, will hail the day, which is fast approaching, when their curiosity,
equally with their wants, can be gratified with the inspection as well as the
possession of his exact and beautiful imitations of the prismatic colors.
KINGSTON, N. Y., Dec. 27, 1851.
This certifies, that some months ago, I was kindly favored by my old and
well-tried friend, Mr. L. L. Hill, with a sight of several specimens of his pictures in natural colors. Those I saw were evidently a great improvement in
the art-exhibiting as they did, in a clear, distinct, and brilliant manner, the
several colors and tints of the solar spectrum. Of the copies of colored prints
I saw, I examined the originals, and found them much larger than the copies,
settling the matter conclusively that these specimens of Mr. Hill's matchless
discovery were produced in the Camera.
Mr. Hill has also shown me some pictures from life, in which the colors
are rendered with a truthfulness truly surprising.
DANIEL BRADBURY,
Formerly Publisher of the Rondout Freeman.
KINGSTON, N. Y., ZDec. 27, 1851.
This certifies that we are well acquainted with Mr. Daniel Bradbury, and
that his character for moral worth, truth, and integrity, is fully established
in our minds, and in this community.
WM. H. ROMEYN, P. M.
J. D. L. MONTAYNE, Clerk of Ulster Co.
WILLIAM  MASTEN, Surrogate.
THOS. CLARK, County Treasurer.




J8 ELIOCOMROlMY
KINGSTON, N. Y. Nov. 24, 1851.
This certifies that I have witnessed several of Mr. L. L. Hill's experiments
in natural colors. I saw him produce, photogenically, beautiful copies of
colored objects, by an exposure of three or four seconds to diffuse light.  I
saw the originals, and state positively, that they were copied true to the tints
of color, including various shades of green, red, blue, orange, and yellow.
Having through this medium my imagination fired in relation to the beauty
of his chief productions, I must say that it was totally submerged in the
reality that was exhibited to my view in the portraits from life.
JOSEPH W. KERR.
In the truth and integrity of Joseph W. Kerr, we have full confidence.
C. S. CLAY, Druggist.
JAS. S. SMITH, Pres. Kingston Bank.
M. SCHOONMAKER, A tt'y at Law.
R. N. BALDWIN, 2Merchant.
The subjoined article, from the Rondont Examiner, written by
the talented editor of that paper, Robert Gosman, Esq., I give
entire, for the reason that Mr. Gosman has said for me what I
could not so well express myself.
From the Rondout Examiner of June 8, 1852.
THE  HILLOTYPE-ITS DISCOVERY, PROGRESS, AND POSITION.
Some eighteen months ago the world was pleasantly surprised by the
announcement that the Rev. L. L. Hill, of Westkill, Greene County, New
York, had mastered a secret which had baffled all inquisitive science up to
that time, viz. the art of " Daguerreotyping in colors." It was stated in a
communication by Mr. Hill to a journal specially devoted to Daguerrean art,
that the only material obstacle to full success seemed to be in the inability to
reproduce the yellow tints of the original. Of course so near an approach to
complete discovery, which hundreds in this country and Europe had been
seeking without achieving anything, made quite a sensation.; It is proper to say here that the " Hillotype" was the name given to the
production of Mr. Hill's process, by a journal devoted to Daguerrean information. And it is but justice to say, too, that Mr. Hill's discovery was not
a stumble upon an unsought art, but that he had been earnestly engaged
some two years in pursuit of the secret, which burst upon him when he least
looked for the revelation.




CE/RTIFICATES.                           87
MIr. Hill, on the announcement as above, was an object of general attention,
and especially so to the Daguerreotypists generally. His secluded abode was
overrun by visitors, and he was as suddenly overwhelmed by letters. There
were some visitors and inquirers who had a rational curiosity to satisfy, but
the major part were persons exercising the Daguerrean art mechanically, and
anxious to gain the process for the pecuniary gains which certainly would
follow its first exercise.  The consequence was, that Mr. Hill was almost deprived of the time to pursue his labors for the completion of his art, and
annoyed beyond endurance by some of his sordid and prying visitors, who
stood upon no considerations of delicacy in pursuing their purpose. There
were those, it is true, among visitors and correspondents, who were of a different mould, and who showed their sympathy by proffers of aid in any desired shape.  But Mr. Hill had a very natural and honorable desire to complete his discovery alone, and hence he was compelled to decline many kind
offices of this class, though sensible of their worth.
His position at this time (one year ago) was peculiar.  He labored alone.
His means of support, as well as the funds for his large outlay for materials,
were derived from the sale of a treatise on the Daguerrean art, forming a
manual for the operator, added to something derived from the tuition of
pupils. This was certainly not the most agreeable situation for an enthusiastic pursuit, but Mr. Hill was satisfied. He pursued his studies with intensity,
scarcely allowing himself time for sleep.  He was compelled to fix stringent
rules as to visitants, and warned by some very flagrant inquisitions, he was
also forced to deny ordinary visitants a sight of his results.
At this time (the summer of 1851), Mr. Hill was sanguine of the completion
of his discovery in a few weeks. Obstacles, however, prevented this, but his
progress was such as to give him strong hope from day to day of final success.  In November, 1851, Westkill was invaded by a self-styled Convention
from a " State Daguerrean Association," whose proceedings may, possibly, be
the subject of another notice.  It is enough now to say, that the conduct of
the master-spirit of the three inquisitors was such that Mr. Hill declined
showing them his plates, or giving them that satisfaction which was demanded
as a right. This "Committee" published a report in a New York paper,
signed'by five names, though but three persons were at Mr. Hill's residence.
The gist of the report was, that Mr. Hill had not only deluded others, but
himself, and that the whole history of his alleged discovery, "has been an
unmitigated delusion."  The "Committee," however, very contradictorily
charged Mr. Hill with making a profit of his alleged pretense-a charge
which, it is plain, would rather militate against the after admission of his
"delusion." They averred in fact, that from the sale of his books and tuition




88 8{ELIOCHRlOM[Y.
of pupils attracted by the fame of his discovery, he "realized a handsome income," and that this was the real object of Mr. Hill's annoumcement.
This report-characterless, and bearing on its face the most sordid and
narrow motives-did injure Mr. Hill materially. Where he was personally
known it could do him no harm. But the first announcement of his discovery had injured the Daguerrean business sensibly, and operators eagerly
seized and circulated a denial which might avail their interests.  The result
was, Mr. Hill's treatise was no longer a source of revenue to him, and he was
compelled, in self-vindication, to dismiss his pupils. But the worst effect was
the sore blow given to a sensitive, nervous man, not very well hardened at
best by contact with this bustling world, and unstrung by intense solitary
labor and seclusion. Conscious of his rectitude of purpose, and the validity
of his discovery, he was hurt by imputations of this sordid cast. He did, however, sustained by personal friends knowing his integrity, and by artists able
to certify to the truth of his productions, interpose a defence against this
assault. But the mischief had been done in begetting a skepticism which
those interested in it knew how to turn to account. And though among those
who came to the rescue he might include Professor Morse, and other adepts
in sciences, and of the most unquestioned integrity, yet the world looked on
with indifference for the time, whilst Mr. Hill pursued his solitary struggles
towards success.
During the whole of the pendency of Mr. Hill's discovery, the writer of this
article has had the firmest faith in its actuality, based on a knowledge of Mr.
I-Hill's science years ago, and the reports of reliable witnesses who had verified
his pretences by sight.
The "Committee report " was too transparent and common a newspaper
"speculation" to impose upon any one experienced in the doublings of journalism, and it would have been a weak part indeed to have been imposed
upon by such a mass of discrepancies.
Having a natural curiosity to see a " Hillotype," the writer would probably
have visited Westkill a year ago, but for the impression that it would only
retard Mr. Hill's progress, and infringe upon a time already too much trespassed upon by the curious. But circumstances allowing a visit, divested of
its intrusive character, the writer a few days ago had the privilege of visiting Mr. Hill's studio, and will state what he saw there.
A VISIT TO WESTKILL-MR. HILL AND HIS tIlLLOTYPES.
On the morning of the 24th of May, the writer with a friend, visited Mr.
Hill's studio at Westkill.  After some conversation M r. Hill exhibited some




CERTIFICATES.                            89
dozen or more " Hillotypes " on large sized plates.  They were the copies of
elaborately colored French engravings. In these, the most diversified and
delicate hues and tints were rendered with the most beautiful distinctness.
It was especially noted by the writer that all shades of yellow (Mr. Hill had
been puzzled by this color at his outset) running through all gradations fiom
the richest aureole to the faintest tint in a complexion, were freely and transparently rendered. These specimens (indiscriminately taken from Mr. Hill's
more recent experiments) showed every conceivable combination of the
original colors, many of the prints being colored solely with reference to the
exhibitions of contrasts, combinations, and shades.
Besides these, the writer saw four Hillotypes from life, preserving all the
colors of nature. One of the cameo size was a fine female head, with the
hair in Jenny Lind style, and the other, the same head in a green silk bonnet,
the most minute colors in the dress being given to the life. These two
portraitures were exquisitely natural in color, and the subject was a fine
looking specimen of the mountain girl, in all the bloom of vigorous youth.
But the lack of knowledge of the original which to these was a drawback to
a full appreciation, as well as that of a fine portrait of an elderly woman,
could not be pleaded as to the fourth, which was a Hillotype, on a larger
plate, of the artist's daughter, a child of some two years old.
This latter, the writer regarded as an ample vindication of Mr. Hill's
claims in their widest sense. In want of a subject one morning, Mr. H.
requested the mother to bring in the child. A variegated table-cover was
hastily thrown over a trunk, and the child, taking an easy recumbent
position, in a few seconds was depicted upon the plate with all the force of
nature. By fortunate accident all the more vivid tints of red, green, and
blue, were included in' the dress and accessories, and scanning the portrait
beside the child, left the writer no ground for skepticism as to the consummation of the discovery. The complexion, the very peculiar tint of the hair,
the color of the eyes, nay, the faint pink of the finger tips, were all there,
mirrored in all the freshness of breathing life.
The writer will add, that the uncovered plates were put in his hands for
the most rigid examination, by the full light of an unclouded summer day.
And one which had not been burnished, was put to that process in his presence, when it took, in an instant, the rich enamel-like surface, which distinctly marks the Hillotype from the Daguerreotype. The fact is (as we saw
from experiment), the Hillotype is very difficult to remove from the plate as
compared with the Daguerreotype, nor is it sensitive to the effect of
atmosphere like the latter.
This statement is sufficient, we presume, so far as the evidence of a witness can establish a fact of this kind. Other corroborative and explanatory




90                        IELIOCEHOMY.
statements might be made, but the writer has no idea of imperilling Mr.
Hill's secret in the most remote degree, by stating anything beyond the line
of effects to which he could testify without hesitation on;any. score.
The writer closes this statement with the hope that Mr. Hill will be one
of the exceptions to the rule, that inventors do not reap the reward of their
genius. He has met the most discouraging obstacles in his labors, and has
overcome them with heroism. That he can pronounce his work well nigh
accomplished, and that it will soon be given to the world, the writer believes.
And it ought to be remembered, to the praise of the inventor too, that he
~has carried on all his operations alone; every process down to the merest
mechanical operations, having been accomplished single-handed
I append the following, because it will show the opinion of
my neighbors.
From the Prattsville Advocate, Jan. 17,1852.
THE HILLOTYPE.
On Tuesday last, we, in company with a friend, availed ourselves of the
pleasure of visiting the Rev. Mr. Hill, at his residence in Westkill, in this
county, for the double purpose of seeing his specimens, and satisfying ourselves whether his discovery was intruth such as would stand the scrutinizing
test of time, or whether it was emphatically a humbug-and, reader, here
permit us to say, that we acknowledge that we had been assured by good
authority, that in truth his discovery was all that he claimed it to be-but
these statements fell far short of the reality. If we ever had any misgivings
on the subject, they have for ever passed from our mind; for what we saw
with our own eyes, we must believe. Of Mr. Hill, all who have the pleasure of an acquaintance with him, will agree with us in saying, that humbuggery forms no part of his character-that on his countenance are plainly
seen the marks of ingenuousness-that he is far above playing the contemptible
game of catchpenny. He has a mass of evidence in his possession which will
soon be given to the world, from eminent Daguerreian artists and scientific
men, establishing his right to the discovery-and from men who have spent
years and years in attempting to find out the grand secret whereby he can,
in a life-like manner, present to the eye of the astonished beholder, colors
true to nature; for instance, a blackberry bush, with every leaf fresh, as if
now grown in its native soil, the stalk, the blossom, the green and ripe fruit,
all perfect in color-all blended as harmoniously as the peerless art of
Nature itself reveals them to our eye. We hazard nothing in saying that his




CERTIFICATES.                         91
discovery will be the crowning effort of the Daguerrean Art, and his fame
is destined to outlive the noisy swarm of "little fry," who now pour out
their anathemas upon him for accomplishing that which their genius can
never attain, much less exsel. While their names and acts shall be sunk in
the muddy pool of oblivion, his will be classed with that of Franklin,
Fulton, and other benefactors of mankind.
His natural pictures, or rather his copies from nature, bear a more perfect
resemblance to the original, than anything ever yet emanating from the pencil
of the most accomplished artist.  This is also emphatically true of the portraits of living persons taken by Mr. Hill, many of which we recognised.
Every lineament of the face was clearly defined; there was a truthfulness
and beauty in them which the most world-renowned artist has never as yet
been able to produce. No sane person will attempt to controvert the position
that daguerreotypes are (or have been) the most perfect likenesses it is
possible to obtain of the "human face divine," the process by which they
are obtained admitting of not the slightest variation, but the crowning glory
of the Hillotype consists in the truthfulness of feature and expression, a softness, a brilliancy of tone, and nicety of shading hitherto unparalleled.
These portraits are not easily defaced; and our attempt to mar their beauty
only served to brighten them, and to more clearly portray their matchless
elegance.
We are not surprised that there are skeptics in regard to this matter-it is
matter of wonder that there are not more-but we are none of them.  Our
eyes have seen, and we cannot do otherwise than believe. May a kind Providence grant him health and strength to complete (to his entire satisfaction,
not ours, for we confess we thought them perfect) his glorious art.
In addition to the foregoing, I could present at least five hundred similar statements.  I have shown my results to more than
one thousand persons, never to my knowledge without exciting
admiration. For years my house has been almost literally overrun with visitors from various parts of the world; and although
I have been thereby greatly hindered, their words of cheer as
they gazed upon my pictures, have been no slight incentive to
perseverance.  Among the vast number who have inspected my
results, I have never known one case of dissatisfaction.  Those
who  have spent much time in my house, and have seen for
themselves the working of the process, have cdntinued to this
day my warmest friends.




92                   HIELIOCHROMY.
It would be exceedingly gratifying to my own feelings to
enter more largely into this subject; but I must not forget that
I am writing a " Treatise on Heliochromy," and that I am to
"stick to my text."  It shall be my aim throughout this work
tojustify the title I have given it. A proper understanding of the
subject, as well as justice to myself, seemed to require the above
rather lengthy argument in support of my claim.  For the present I will dismiss M. Niepce de St. Victor, promising to give a
full and fair exposition of his process in a future chapter.




SIR JOS     ERSCIIEL S ANTHOTYPE.           93
CHAPTER V.
Various Processes-Sir John Herschel's Anthotype-Robert Hunt's Processes-Ferrocyanide paper-Bi.-Chromate of Potash-Hydriodated Paper-Copying a green Leaf-M. Edmund Becquerel's process-M. Niepee
de Saint Victor's process-These processes fully and fairly detailed.
I.-SIR JOHN HERSCHEL'S ANTHOTYPE.
THE interesting facts brought out by this great man's experiments demand a further investigation. A very few words, however, will give an idea of his processes. He operated on the
colored juices of flowers and grapes. The Corchorus Japonica,
the Ten Week Stocks, Papaver Orientale, Viola Odorata, Red
Poppy, and Senecio Splendens, were the principal flowers he
employed. "Such parts of these flowers as possessed a uniform
tint, were crushed to a pulp in a marble mortar, either alone, or
with addition of alcohol, and the juice expressed by squeezing
the pulp in a clean linen or cotton cloth. It was then spread on
paper and gently dried. Under a superimposed engraving these
papers were exposed to the light, for a period ranging from half
an hour to one month." There is a difficulty in respect to the
alcohol, since, in many cases, if it is not employed the color of
the juice is irrecoverably destroyed, and the employment of it
retards the action of the light. The alcohol effects a temporary
destruction of the color, in many cases, but the color re-appears
on drying the paper.
The above brief account of Herschel's method of operating
will enable any ingenious person to pursue this line of research.
But, although Sir John did obtain some tintings of color in the




9a                    YE3[MLIOCIIROMYo
use of these vegetable juices, I have described otller methods of
using them which give far better results.
II.-SIR ROBERT HUNT'S PROCESSES.
PROCESS No. 1. Wash highly glazed paper with a solution of
nitrate of silver of the strength of one drachm of the salt to one
oz. water. Dry quickly, and repeat the wash. Dry as before,
and place the paper for a minute in a solution of iodide of potash-i drachm to 3 oz. water. Wash gently with water. To sensitize, wash the paper with a solution of ferrocyanate of potash —1 drachm to 3 oz. water. Expose wet.
On such paper Mr. Hunt obtained, once, a tolerably good colored image of the solar spectrum.
PRocEsS No. 2. A tolerably strong solution of bi-chromate of
potash is the first wash for the paper. Dry and wash with a
very weak solution of nitrate of silver. Exposed under colored
glasses for two days, it became tinted a blue, a green, and a
red.
PROCESS No. 3. Soak the paper a few minutes in a muriated
wash-say common salt (muriate of soda) and dry. Wash this
with a solution of nitrate of silver-say 60 grains to 1 oz. water,
and instantly expose to sunshine, until it darkens as much as it
will. Repeat the wash, and expose to the sun until it comes to
a fine chocolate brown. A hyldriodate of potash, soda, ammonia,
manganese, or baryta —say 30 grains to 1 oz. water-is now
washed over the darkened paper. The paper is to be used wet.
With colored fluids superimposed Mr. Hunt obtained the complementary colors of violet, blue, green, yellow, and red.
PROCESS No. 4. Place a green leaf on a polished Daguerreotype plate, and hold it down by a piece of glass. Pour upon it,
so that the plate may be covered, a solution of the hydriodate of




YARIOUS PROCESSES.                  95
potash, containing a little free iodine: then expose the whole to
sunshine. In about half an hour a copy is obtained. This
results from the action of the yellow rays producing their complementary color-green; which is evident from the solution
being yellow, and not, therefore, permitting the passage of the
green rays.
III.-M. EDMUND BECQUEREL'S PROCESS.
Terminate the copper pole of a Daniels battery with a plate
of platina. To the terminating wire of the zinc pole attach a
plate of silver, or daguerreotype plate, and immerse both in a
jar of muriatic acid, diluted one half with water. When the
plate arrives at a violet color, the second time rinse with water
and dry. This process gives by a very prolonged exposure
some colors, but fails to produce more than one or two at once,
and these not brilliant, Besides, they fade even in diffuse light.
IV.-M. NIEPCE DE SAINT VICTOR'S PROCESS.
I give this process entire, for several reasons, the most important of which is that my reader may compare it with my diary,
given in a subsequent chapter, in which it will be seen that long
before M. Niepce's discovery, I used the chlorides, and obtained
colors, but gave up the process as impracticable and insufficient; and yet, that these very experiments led on to the discovery of many other processes, and to the process upon which I
finally settled, and which I announced to the world.
The memoir of M. Niepce, before the French Academy, is
entitled, "The relation existing between the colors of certain
colored flames, with the Heliographic images colored by light."
When a plate of silver is plunged into a solution of sulphate
of copper and chloride of sodium at the same time that it is rendered electro-positive by means of the voltaic battery, the chloride
formed becomes susceptible of coloration, when, having been




96                    HmIT OCHRO1nY.
withdrawn from the bath, it receives the influence of light.
This was the discovery of Becquerel. M. Niepce had been led
to think that a relation existed between the color communicated
by a body to a flame, and the color developed upon a plate of
silver, which should have been chloridated with the body which
colors this flame. The bath in which the plate of silver was
plunged, was formed of water saturated with chlorine, to which
was added a chloride possessing the property of coloring flame.
It is well known that strontia gives a purple color to flames
in general, and to that of alcohol in particular. If we prepare
a plate of silver and pass it into water saturated with chlorine, to
which is added some chloride of strontia, and when thus prepared we place it upon a colored design, of red and other colors,
and then expose it to the sunshine, after six or seven minutes we shall perceive that the colors. of the image are reproduced upon the plate, but the reds much more decidedly than
the others. When we would produce successfully the other rays
of the solar spectrum, we operate in the same manner we have
indicated for the red ray, employing for the orange the chloride
of calcium, or that of uranium for the yellow, or hypochlorite of
soda, or the chloride of sodium and potassium. If we plunge a
plate of silver in the chlorine liquid, or if we expose the plate to
the vapor, we obtain all the colors by the light, but the yellow
only with any degree of veracity. Very fine yellows have been
obtained with a bath composed of water slightly acidulated with
hydrochloric acid with a salt of copper. The green rays are
obtained with boracic acid, or the chloride of nickel; also with
all the salts of copper. The blue rays are obtained with the
double chloride of copper and ammonia. Indigo rays are
obtained with the same. The violet rays are obtained with the
chloride of strontia and the sulphate of copper.
All the substances which give colored flames, give also colored
images by the light. If we take any of the substances which do
not give color to the flame, we do not obtain colored images by
the light; we produce upon the plate a negative image, composed




VARIOUS PROCESSES.
merely of black and white, as in the ordinary photographs.
Those substances which give white flames, as the chlorides of
antimony, lead, and zinc, yield no color by luminous action. All
the colors of the picture have been produced by preparing a bath
composed of the deuto-chloride of copper; this salt thrown into
burning alcohol produces a variegated flame, according to the
intensity of the fire; and it is nearly the same with all the salts
of copper mixed with chlorine. If we put a salt of copper in
chlorine liquid, we obtain a very sensitive surface by a single
immersion; but the result of this mixture is seldom good. i
prefer taking the deuto-chloride of copper, to which I add three
or four pounds of water: this bath gives good results. A mixture of equal parts of chloride of copper and chloride of iron, with
three or four parts of water, is, however, the best.  The chloride
of iron has, like that of copper, the property of being impressed
on the plate of silver, and of producing many colors; but they
are infinitely more feeble, and the yellow always predominates;
this agrees with the yellow color produced in flame by chloride
of iron. If we form a bath composed of all the substances which
separately give a dominant color, we obtain very lively colors;
but the great difficulty is the mixing in proper proportions, for it
happens, nearly always, that some colors are found excluded by
others. By care, however, we ought to arrive at the reproduction of all the colors. There exist many difficulties, more indeed
than in any of the ordinary processes of photography.  We cannot always depend upon obtaining the same results with the
same materials, owing principally to the difficulty of preserving
the solution at a uniform strength. Liquid chlorine is necessary;
the application of dry chlorine will not produce the same result.
The action of heat upon these prepared plates is, in some respects,
analogous to the effects of light. By warming a plate over a
spirit-lamp, we produce successively the following tints: brown
red, a cerise red, scarlet, and red having a whitish tint. Numerous experiments have been made by M. Niepce to produce the
colors upon the salts of silver and copper spread on paper, but




98                    ~IELIOCGROMY.
hitherto without success; a metallic plate of silver-the plated
copper answers —must be employed. Iodine and bromine, and
their salts, have been tried, but they will not produce a surface
capable of developing colors. Chlorine, in the state of chlorates
or chlorides, is the only substance which possesses the property
of being colored by light, when chemically combined with
metallic silver.
"The plate being very highly polished, which is best effected by
Tripoli powder and ammonia, is connected with the battery, and
then plunged into the bath, and kept there for some minutes; it
is then taken from the bath, washed in a large quantity of water,
and dried over a spirit-lamp}  The surface thus produced is a
dull neutral tint, often almost black, and, upon exposing it to the
light, the colors are produced by removing the blackness; the
surface is, in fact, eaten out in colors. The sensibility of the plate
appears to be increased by the action of heat, and when brought
by the spirit-lamp to the cerise red color, it is in its most sensitive state. At present, however, the plate cannot be rendered
very sensitive, two or three hours being required to produce a
decided effect in the camera-obscura. It is, however, already
found that the fluoride of sodium will very much accelerate the
operation.
"' The fixation of the colored image is, however, still a point of
considerable difficulty, and, although a certain degree of permanence has been recovered, the colors fade out by exposure, and
eventually pass away. A kind of lacquer appears to have been
applied to the plates we have seen, and ordinary diffused light
does not seem to produce much change upon them."-London
Athen&eum.
Thus I have given all the processes of which we have any published account; and I have done it the more cheerfully, because
it places my discovery in its true light, and because a treatise
like this would be incomplete without it. The reader may
Judge how far M. Niepce is entitled to credit fuir originality.
After all the fuss that has been made about his great discovery,




VARIOUS PROCESSES,                   99
I, for one, can see but one original idea in it, namely, the imaginary relation between-the action of the colored rays and the
colors of certain flames. The idea itself of chloridizing a silver
plate he borrowed from  Becquerel.  Hle  owns this in his
"Memoir."  What then has he originated?  Here is the indisputable answer:-he has originated the use of various chlorides, for doing what Becquerel did with a few chlorides. I defy
any man of sense to make any more than this out of his famous
"Memoir."  Yet this document has been paraded before the
public in the natural colors which usually embellish envy and
spite, with a view to depreciate an American invention. This
has been done by men who became my enemies because I would
not become their bosom friend, and let them have a bite at the
"loaves and fishes."  I could easily show up this account in
items; but it would be too personal a thing for a work like this;
and, what is more, the persons or creatures who have instigated
and kept alive the flame of opposition against me, are not worthy
of so much notice, and I prefer to leave them to sink into that
J" obscurity" they have wished for me.




100                        HELOmHIROMYo
CHAPTER VI.
CHEMISTRY OF HELIOCHROMY.
NATURAL COLORIFIC  AGENTS.-EscUlelt Vegetables.-Carrots-Beets- Onions
-Radishes-Squash- Pumplin-Watermelon-Tomatoes-Lettuce —Cabbage-Red Peppers —Asparagus —Rhubarb —Sage. Fruits. —Peach —Cherry
-Apple-Strawberry-Blackberry-Raspberry-Sumac Bobs-Currants
-Grapes-Bittersweet-Sunflower Seeds —-Pokeberrlies —ElderberriesWhortleberries-Squawberries. F'lowers-Red Rose —Peony-Poppy-Dahlia-Marigold-Violet-Tiger Lily-Tulips-Peach  Blows-Sky Roclket
-Lilac-Dandelions —Daisies-St. John's Wort.  Grasses and Leaves.Red-top Clover-Ribbon Grass-Leaves of Willow —Sugar Mlaple-Peach
-Butternut.:ANrIFIcIAL COLORIFIc AGENTS. —T/he K~etals. —Gold-Silver-Copper-Platina
-Iron —- Zin c-Lead-Antimony-Arsenic-Osmium -Iridium- Cobalt -
Selenium-Mercury- Tin- Bismuth-N- ickel -Potassium-Sodium-Alu -:minum-Their Alloys.  The Salts of MIetals.-Nitrate,Chloride, Bromide,'Iodide, Fluoride, Ammoniuret, Fulminate, Citrate, Silvate, Cyanide, Hy-posulphite, Phosphate, Carbonate, Borate, Chromate, and Alumina of Silver
-Chlorides of Gold, Copper, Zinc, Lead, Iridium, Cobalt, &c.-Iodide and'Bromide of Gold, Silver, Lead, &c.
TaE AcIDs.-Nitric, Sulphuric, Sulphurous, Hydrochloric, Hydrofluoric,
Citiic, Iodic, Bromic, Tartaric, Uric, Gallic, Pyro-Gallic, Nitrous, Acetic,
&c.
TiE ALKALIES.-Soda, Baryta, Lime, and Strontia, and their combinations.
THE GASES AND VAroas.-Chlorine, Hydrogen, Selenium, Phosphorous Vapor,
Phosphuretted Hydrogen, Oxygen, Oxyde, Nitrous Oxyde, Hyponitric
Acid Vapor.
IN this chapter I shall treat, first, of Natural Colorific Agents;
viz., Esculent Vegetables, Fruits, Flowers, Leaves and Grasses.
It is an interesting fact, that many of the esculent vegetables
are rich in heliochromic properties.  The juices of many of them
applied to paper, give, on exposure to light, some very curious
results.'Most of:them:coutain coloring principles, which are




NATURAL COLORIFIC AGENTS.              101
acted upon in a powerful and singular manner by the solar
spectrum.  It is sufficient, in most eases, to press out the juice
of the more colored parts, as the skin of the radish, the pulp of
the tomato and watermelon, &c.  If the liquid is to be preserved a length of time, it should be mixed with a little alcohol,
and to every four ounces of the same you may add one drop of
creosote.  This will effectually preserve the liquid, and not
injure, but rather exalt its heliochromic properties, by quickening
the action of light upon it.  This fact led me, as will be seen
in the next chapter, to carbonize these juices, and also those of
flowers and the grasses, by which means I procured the full extent of the ray action almost instantaneously.  An alcoholic
tincture of red peppers, properly carbonized, and spread upon
paper, will give a picture in colors in one second.  The impression is latent, and is promptly developed by immersion in warm
amtmonio-nitrate of silver, slightly perfumed with the essence of
lavender, cassia, and cloves. Indeed, these experiments may be
varied almost infinitely. For example, these vegetables contain
glucose, or grape sugar. This, it is known, will reduce several
salts to their metallic state. In the course of this reduction, the
colorific principle of the particular vegetable employed may'be
supposed to modify the action so as to produce colors. So at
least it turns out on actual experiment. INow, governed by this,
in one sense assumed hypothesis, I would proceed in a given case
as follows:
I would thoroughly soak a piece of paper with the juice of the
vegetable, whose behavior, under light, comported with the
behavior, under light, of the chemical agents I wished to com-.
bine with the vegetable constituents. Thus, the juice of the
common carrot is bleached by light, and gives a yellow picture,
on a white ground; the juice of strawberries is also bleached,.
and gives a red picture, on a white ground; the juice of violets
is also bleached, and gives a blue picture on a white ground.
Very good; now unite this combination with Mr. Hunt's hydriodate process, detailed in the preceding chapter, using the most




102                    HEITOCIROMY.
colorific salt —hydriodate of baryta-and you have two bleaching processes united in one, and the result will be natural
colors —depending, of course, for their strength and truthfulness
on the degree of impregnation of your paper, and on certain
niceties of manipulation. The operation is on the descending
chromatic scale, and the degree of color obtained will never surpass the degree of impregnation. By alternately dipping and
drying the paper a great number of times, your final result will
be quite a strong picture. In the same manner, indicated above,
you may unite these juices, whether of roots, fruit, flowers or
grasses, with a great number of the metallic salts.
The above is written to give a general idea of the colorific
properties of these vegetables, and of the manner of using them.
Under the head of "Experiments" I have detailed a great numher of processes for their use. I shall now dwell more at length
on the character of these agents, with a special view to their
chemical and heliochromic properties.
i-ESCULENT VEGETABLES, FRUITS, FLOWERS, AND GRASSES,
CHEMICALLY CONSIDERED.
The inquiry into the cause of vegetable colors is most certainly
a chemical one. The laws of chemistry hold sway over the
molecular form of these coloring principles, governing this form,
or structure, in an infinite variety of methods. These colors, in
other words, have a definite chemical constitution. The well
known law of chemistry, termed the! law of definite proportions:-that is, that every compound body has a particular number of elements, and a definite number of each element-holds
good in the case of vegetable colors. The true method of studying the nature and cause of vegetable colors, is by the ultimate
analysis of vegetables themselves, in all the stages of their existence. Until this method was adopted, chemists could only conjecture and hypothecate. This led to many whimsical theories.
One was, that the iron contained in vegetables was the cause of




-NATURAL COLORIFIC AGENTS.               103
their color; but since the doctrines of direct analysis have
obtained, it has been demonstrated that the quantity of iron in
any vegetable is totally inadequate to produce the splendid colors
which vegetation assumes.
Now, the principal elements of vegetable substances are oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and a trace of nitrogen.  The latter,
according to Liebig, the great agricultural chemist, is always
present, though in very minute quantity.  There is also a variety of earthy substances in vegetables, such as lime, iron, magnesia, soda, potash, etc.; but all these never exist in one vegetable. The three elements, oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, form
from 95 to 99 per cent. of the entire vegetable.  The -great
mass of all vegetables is composed of woody fibre, gum, starch,
and sugar. The composition of these is as follows:
CARBON.      OXYGEN.       HIY])ROGEN.
Woody fibre,       15.   1       10             10
Gum,.....  12                  11             11
Starch,...         12           10             10
Sugar  e....        12           11              1
Observe, in the above analysis, that the oxygen and hydrogen
are in the same proportion as that in which they unite to form
water. As a general rule, you will find all saccharine and
mucilaginous vegetables will bear out the same proportions.
But when you find a vegetable with the proportion of carbon
below the above standard, it is oily or resinous. The subjoined
analysis of vegetable substances shows this to be the case~CARBON.      HYDROGEN.,OXYGEN.
Oil of Turpentine. 10          8              0
Oil of Potatoes,.. 5            6             1
Oil of Cloves,.   23             14             5
Gamboge,.....  20                14             5
Caoutchou.c4,...                 4             0
Beeswax,.-..  87             39             2
Again, when the hydrogen is deficient, the vegetable generally




104                    IEMLIOCUROMY.
has an acid character. Green fruit is eminently of this character-hence its deleterious effects when eaten. As the fruit ripens
it assimilates more hydrogen, and becomes more saccharine.
The following table will show the low rate of hydrogen in the
principal vegetable acids:CARBONS      OXYGEN.       HYDROGEN.
Acetic Acid,. 4             3               3
Citric Acid,..   4           4               2
Tartaric Acid,      4            6'              2
Gallic Acid,...          3
Tannic Acid,. 18            12               8
In analyzing a vegetable we operate on the whole mass-its
fibre, gum, starch, sugar, and coloring  matter.  So in the
employment of its coloring matter for heliochromic purposes we
cannot insulate it; that is, we cannot entirely detach it fiom its
mixture with the organic constituents of the vegetable. Hence
you will see the utility of the above tables. If, for example,-you
wish to employ the juice of the peel of peaches, or apples, or
strawberries, you should bear in mind that they contain citric
acid, which has a low equivalent of hydrogen; but they also
contain sugar, with its high equivalent of hydrogen; and both of
these.substances have a large amount of carbon.  Therefore, in
operating with them you may safely employ oxydizing agents,
but should guard against the too free use of carbon and
hydrogen.
The above are general principles for the guidance of the amateur. They should be employed as we would use an arithmetical
table; and by constantly bearing them in mind we will save
ourselves many useless experiments, and a world of unnecessary
trouble. I now pass to the consideration of
2. The Heliochromic relations of these Agents.
In Gilroy's " Treatise on Dyeing and Calico Printing," occurs
a passage so much to the point in this place that I extract a
great portion of it. This able writer comes so near to my own
views, that I feel a special gratification in borrowing his language.




NATURAL COLORIFIO AGENTS.              105
"Speaking of vegetable green, Berthollet says,' the green of
plants is undoubtedly produced by a homogeneous substance, in
the same way as the greater number of hues which exist in
nature. This color owes, then, its origin sometimes to simple
rays, and sometimes to the union of different rays; and some
other colors are in the same predicament. We-e the green of
plants due to two substances, one of which is yellow and the
other blue, it would be extraordinary if we could not separate
them, or at least change their proportions by some solvent.'
The idea of Berthollet, that the green of plants is a distinct substance, existing in the plant, has been since verified. It is
obtained by bruising green leaves into a pulp with water, pressing out all the liquid, and boiling the dry pulp in alcohol; when the
alcohol is evaporated, there remains a deep green matter, which
by digesting in water, dissolves, and frees it from a little brown
coloring matter with which it was mixed. This substance has
been named chlorophyl. The formation of chlorophyl seems to
depend entirely upon the action of the solar rays. It is known
that the function of the leaves and, other green parts of plants is
to absorb carbonic acid, and with the aid of light and moisture to
appropriate its carbon. These processes are continually in operation: they commence with the formation of the leaves, and do
not cease with their perfect development. But when light is
absent, or, during the night, the decomposition of carbonic acid
does not proceed; nay, carbonic acid is emitted, and oxygen gas
absorbed; it is evident then that a plant kept always e.cluded
from  the lig/ht must have a dikffoeqce in its composition.  No
one can have failed to observe the difference between vegetables thriving in the full enjoyment of light, and those which
grow in obscure situations, or which are entirely deprived of
its agency; the former are of brilliant tints, the latter dingy and
white.
"From these facts we see that the green color of vegetables is
owing to a peculiar approximate element existing in the vegetable, not invariably, nor altogether essential to the plant, but




106                  HIELIOCIHROM]Y.
depending upon circumstances; these circumstances being at the
same time the best for the health and existence of the plant.
This color differs from the other colors of vegetables in the time
of its appearing. Flowers of plants do not appear till the plant
has reached a certain state of maturity; but whenever a plant
rises above the soil, it immediately begins to assume the green
hue, and this hue is continued till the object of the leaves is completed. When a chemical-change takes place, the green passes
away, and another color, reddish-yellow, takes its place. These
changes are effected in different degrees, and in different lengths
of time, just according as the leaves have the property of absorbing oxygen gas. Those leaves which continue longest green
absorb oxygen slowest. The leaves of the holly will only absorb
a small fraction of oxygen, in the same time that the leaves of
the poplar and beech will absorb eight or nine times their bulk.
These last are remarkable for the rapidity and ease with which
the color of their leaves changes. That leaves do absorb oxygen
gas when they change color at antumn, and that it is owing to
the absorption of this gas, may be verified by placing some green
leaves of the poplar, the beech, and the holly, under the receiver
of an air-pump, and drying them thoroughly, keeping them excluded from light; when taken out, wet them with water,
and place them immediately under a glass globe, full of oxygen
gas, they will change color; and it will be found that each will
change color just in proportion to the quantity of oxygen it absorbs. The consequence of this absorption is the formation of an
acid. This acid changes the chlorophyllite, or green principle,
from green to yellow, and then to a reddish hue. If we treat
green leaves with an acid, the same changes of color take place,
and if we macerate a red leaf in potash it becomes green.
"The various and beautiful colors of flowers are produced by
a somewhat different process from that of the green of the leaves,
in so far as they do not appear until the plant has attained a certain
state of maturity.' The leaves of the plant being fully developed, they take in more nourishment from the atmosphere than




NATURAL COLORIFIC AGENTS.              107
what is necessary for the existence of the plant. This extra
nourishment takes a new direction; a peculiar transformation
takes place; new compounds are formed, which furnish constituents of the blossoms, fruit, and seed.' "
"It is very probable thatl all the colors of flowers depend upon
only a few approximate elements formed in the vegetable, in the
manner already described, and that their various hues are the
consequence of the presence of acids affecting more or less this
coloring substance. This is the most probable hypothesis that
has been formed, and with which we must rest satisfied till more
accurate experiments verify its truth, or give us a better. The
following summary of experiments will give some idea of the
views held upon this subject: —' The expressed juice of most
red flowers is blue; hence it is probable that the coloring matter
in the flower is reddened by an acid, which makes its escape when
the juice is exposed to the air. The. violet is well known to be
colored by a blue matter, which acids change to red; and alkalies
and their carbonates, first to green, and then to yellow. The
coloring matter of the violet exists in the petals of red clover, the
red tips of the common daisy of the field, of the blue hyacinth,
the hollyhock, lavender, in the inner leaves of the artichoke, and
numerous other flowers. The same substance made red by an
acid, colors the skins of several kinds of plums; probably, also,
gives the red color to the petals of the scarlet geranium, and of
the pomegranate tree. The leaves of the red cabbage, and the
rind of the long radish, are also colored by this principle. It is
remarkable that these, on being merely bruised, become blue,
and give a blue infusion with water. It is probable that the reddening acid in these cases is the carbonic, which, on the rupture
of the vessel which incloses it (being a gas), escapes into the
atmosphere. If the petals of the red rose be triturated with a
little water and chalk, a blue liquid is obtained. Alkalies render
this blue liquid green, and acids restore its red color.'"
* Liebig's Agricultural Chemistry.




108                    HELIOCHIROME.
The identity of the coloring principle of flowers, with that of
radish and red cabbage, referred to by Mr. Gilroy, I can verify
from  my experiments.  The juice of flowers, and that of the
cabbage and radish, have always comported alike, with similar
treatment, under the influence of the colored rays of light.  Carrots, beets, onions, squashes, pumpkins, watermelons, tomatoes,
lettuce, asparagus, rhubarb, and sage, act differently, in union
with re-agents; though I have no doubt that, in most respects,
all the various colors, whether in vegetable or flower, depend
upon a very similar origin, and are variegated by similar causes.
Our knowledge of this intricate subject is limited, of course;
but I take great pleasure in recording my own mite of information. I have found, from experiment, that the blue matter which
colors the violet is changed to red by acids, adcl first to green,
and then to yellow by alkalies. The green at first formed results from the mixture of blue and yellow. -Red rose leaves,
when triturated with a little chalk and water, yield a blue liquor,
which is rendered green by alkalies, and restored to red by acids.
This is true, also, of most of the red flowers, such as the peony,
dahlia, poppy, peach blows, sky rocket, lilac, and red-clover
blows.  The color of yellow flowers, I have observed, is generally more permanent than that of blue or red. It is usually,
but not always, rendered paler by acids, and deeper by alkalies.
That of the tiger lily, marigold, dandelion, nasturtium, daisies,
and St. John's wort, is readily soluble in water, and in solution
of potassa, communicating a browinish-yellow color; this is turned
to cherry-red by the acids, to greenish-blue by carbonate of soda,
and to yellow and red by several metallic salts. I have also
found that most of the coloring matter of flowers is readily
bleached by sulphurous acid. A paper prepared with a combination of different colors, will give a latent image, which is bleached
in the ratio of the action of the different colored rays; and in
this way weak sulphurous acid, or the vapor of burning sulphur,
may be used as a developer.  WVhen the vegetable wash is followed by one of nitrate of silver, the picture may be developed




NATUBAL COLORIFIC AGENTS.                109
by sulphuretted hydrogen, or by exposure over a tray of bydrosulphuiret of ammonia.
As a general thing, the coloring matter of flowers may be extracted by macerating with dilute alcohol. It is better to use it
at once; but it may be preserved with a little creosote, as already stated. The extract should be made and kept in total
darkness.  It should be applied to the paper, in a dark room,
with the light of a candle only. Success is impossible, if the
precautions are not observed.
The coloring matter of flowers which can be extracted by
strong alcohol and ether, may be used in collodion, and in this
menstruum it is acted upon more rapidly by the light. It may
also be used in albumen, where water alone is employed to -obtain the extract, or'where you simply press out the juice. In
this case you may dilute the white of eggs nearly one half with
the vegetable juice, or infusion, and coat the glass, as with col.
lodion. The film  should be dried by a gentle heat. Then, if
you wish to impregnate with other chemicals, you may do this
by immersion. There are many other points of great interest
connected with floral heliochromy, if I may use the term, but they
will come more appropriately under the head of "experiments."
Thus far I have treated mostly of flowers.  I need not dwell
here particularly on the coloring matter of fruit. Suffice it to
say, that this may be extracted and used in the same way as that
of flowers. The peach, cherry, apple, strawberry, blackberry,
raspberry, whortleberry, sumac bobs, currants, grapes, bittersweet,
sun-flower seeds, pokeberries, elderberries, and squawberries,
are the principal fruits upon which I have experimented. I will
mention here, however, that I sh;all detail a great number of experiments with other vegetable coloring matter-such as cochineal, madder, annatto, gamboge, logwood, brazilwood, turmeric,
golden seal, fustic, safflower, seed lac, gniacum, litmus, red
sanders, and quercitron.  Some of these experiments will be
found to possess a surpassing interest; but the substances here
referred to are too well known to require minute description.




110                    11ELIOCHROMY.
I shall now pass to the consideration of the coloring matter of
leaves and grasses; and what I have to offer here will be under
three heads:
1. Chlorophyl.-This is the substance from which leaves and
the grasses derive their green color. It was first obtained in its
pure state by Berzelius.  It is procured by digesting leaves in
renewed portions of ether.  This tincture is then evaporated on
a water-bath, and the deposit separated, dried, and treated with
alcohol as long as green soluble matter is abstracted. The alcoholic solution is evaporated to dryness, and the residue digested
in strong muriatic acid. The green acid solution is filtered, and
mixed with water, by which the chlorophyl is precipitated;
this precipitate is boiled in water, and afterwards dissolved in a
strong solution of caustic potash, which is then diluted, filtered,
and precipitated by acetic acid. The precipitate, washed and
dried, is pure chlorophyl. In mass it is a dark green, but grassgreen when reduced to powder. It is insoluble in water, but
somewhat soluble in alcohol and ether. Alcohol, ether, and the
essential oils dissolve it, when they are charged with a portion
of potash. Pure potash and its carbonates dissolve it completely.
A good way to fasten it upon paper is to wash the paper with
the potash  solution, and then  soak the paper in a large
quantity of solution of alum. This washes out the excess of
potash, and strikes a fine green color; or you may soak a glass,
coated with plain collodion, in the potash solution, and then in
alum water; or you may evaporate the potash solution, and it
will deposit chlorophyllate of potassa, which is soluble in water,
with a fine green tint.
2. Xanthophyl is the coloring matter extracted from the yellow leaves of autumn. It is rapidly bleached by light, especially
by the violet, blue, and red rays. I have obtained it as follows:
Digest the leaves in a bottle, entirely filled with alcohol of sp.
gr. 0'833, and well stopped, to exclude the air, else they will
change firom yellow to brown. Distil off most of the alcohol,
and allow the residue to cool slowly, when the xanthophyl is




NATURAL COLORIFIO AGENTS.                111
deposited, together with a little resinous and fatty matter.
These impurities, I have found, are no detriment to its use in
heliochromy. Xanthophyl is insoluble in water, and very sparingly soluble in alcohol and potash water, but readily dissolves
in ether,  An ethereal solution, therefore, may be used for either
paper or collodion; indeed, I have found it very effective to
simply bruise the leaves in ether, and to wash paper, nor change
collodion with the filtered liquid. You will find a very curious
experiment further on, in which I used neither paper or collodion, but a leaf itself, and produced a very good picture.
3. E'rytlropAyl.-All trees and shrubs, the leaves of which
redden in autumn, bear red fruit. This is true of cherry, currant, mountain ash, sumac, and other trees and shrubs. - This red
coloring matter is obtained by digesting the red leaves in alcohol,
and distilling the red tincture. It is purified by adding water to
the residue, and filtering, to separate precipitated fat and resin.
Solution of acetate of lead is then added' to the clear filtrate as
long as brown precipitate is formed, which is washed and decomposed by sulphuretted hydrogen. The sulphuret of lead formed
is separated on a filter, and the filtrate evaporated to dryness:
the erythrophyl remains in the form of a red extract. Its combinations with bases are of a grass-green color. Digested in
alkalies, or their carbonates, the resulting solution is green; but
acids reproduce the red color.
The alcoholic tincture first named may be used, without further preparation, in paper or collodion. The grass called red-top,
mixed with clover leaves and blows, and ribbon-grass, and
digested in alcohol a few days, gave me an extraordinary combination. It was used in paper, and the wet paper frozen between
two plates of glass, by artificial means, simultaneously with the
exposure of the paper in the camera. The exposure was but for
a few seconds, and no picture was visible after the paper was
withdrawn from the camera; but on submitting the paper to very
weak sulphuretted hydrogen for about two hours, the picture
was developed.  The red, blue, yellow, violet, green, and russet




112                     rnILtOcROMY.
were beautifully defined. Unfortunately, tlis picture faded out
in a few days. I afterwards found that soaking one in a weak
and perfectly neutral solution of nitrate of silver, for a few
seconds, then, after a slight rinsing with water, immersing it
for a moment in hyposulphate of soda, and rinsing copiously
with water, the picture became fixed.
The leaves of the common pussy willow possess many
remarkable qualities; an ethereal solution of them spread on
paper, and exposed to actinic influence for a few seconds, is very
curiously modified. If after the paper is withdrawn from the
camera, and spontaneously dried, it is washed over with a solution of neutral chloride of gold, and- then exposed over a jar
containing an alcoholic or ethereal solution of phosphorus, the
gold will not be reduced on the portions acted upon by the light,
but is freely reduced on the other portions; thus giving a picture
in which the lights are white paper and the shades gold.  Impressions of fern and other leaves, and figured lace, obtained in
this way by superposition, are very beautiful; and the process
might, by such applications, be applied to purposes of ornament.
The color of the ground may be varied at pleasure, by the
simple act of dyeing. The leaves of the butternut tree act in a
similar manner; those of sugar maple, peach, pear, plum, apple,
beech, birch, ash, iron wood, walnut, and chestnut, will not produce this effect; but they each have other peculiarities.
I now come to the second general head of this chapter, viz.II.-ARTIFICIAL COLORIFIC AGENTS.
Under this head I shall include the metals (they being assayed
by artificial means, and used in the arts), the salts of the metals,
the acids, and the alkalies.
1. The Metals. The king of metals is gold; but as an actinic
medium it is far inferior to some other metals. Alloyed with
silver it assumes an importance which does not belong to it




ARTIFICIAL COLORIFIC AGENTS.            113
in its purity. By melting together one part of gold and ten of
silver, and rolling it into a plate, I obtained a surface which gave
a peculiar richness to my-Heliochromes. I arrived at the same
result by amalgamating these proportions of the two metals with
mercury, rubbing the amalgam on a copper plate, and driving
off the mercury by heat. I have varied this method of forming
plates, by adding one tenth of zinc.  This I did by means of
the electrotype process, that is, by precipitating on a copper
plate the three metals from a mixture of their cyanides. I
prefer these to any other plates. As they will be referred to
hereafter, I will now designate them as the alloy plates.
Silver is the most important metal in its relations to light.
This metal and its combinations,:lie at the base of every valuable
actinic process thus far discovered. That other beautiful and
practical processes will yet be discovered in which silver, and, perhaps, all other metals will play no part, I do not doubt. Vegetable colors, the resins, and even animal products, contain the
germs of many such a process. But I speak now of the present
state of our science. As far as we know, nothing can replace
this precious metal. For the reproduction of natural colors, no
other substance, out of the great number I have tried, will bear
comparison with silver. A plate of perfectly pure silver will
give my Hieliochromes in great perfection; but when it is alloyed
with zinc and gold, as I have -mentioned above, the tone of the
pictures is improved, and the ray action is greatly accelerated.
The following is a ready method of preparing an alloy plate.
Polish a common daguerreotype plate, and rub it with a tuft of
cotton dipped into dilute sulphuric acid, and then into an
amalgam of one part gold and one part zinc, with the smallest
practicable amount of mercury. Apply heat to drive off the
mercury, and when the plate is cold, float its surface with a
strong solution of bi-chromate of potash, slightly acidulated with
oil of vitriol. This leaves the silver blanched, in which state it
is readily polished; or it may be used without polishing, in which
case the resulting picture will be without gloss.
S




114                    EIELIOCnROMY.
For ordinary experiments, I have been in the habit of using
the Scovill and the star plate. The former work best when galvanized. The copper in the Scovill plate is injurious; but when
galvanized, these plates are unequalled.
Copper, as a tablet for heliochromes, is possessed of some singular properties.  Coated heavily with iodine, or, better still,
chloride of iodine, and exposed to a colored image, in a camera
box through which is diffused a weak vapor of sulphuretted
hydrogen, it gives a sort of mongrel picture-part natural colors,
and part iridescence. Copper alone, or alloyed, in the usual
way, with silver, has given me no perfect results; but under
certain treatment, detailed hereafter, it acts in a most interesting
manner.  Platina, deposited on silver, by the battery, in an
exceedingly thin layer, affords a tablet of some interest. A thin
plate of iron, or steel, highly polished, and thinly silvered, gives
rise to another interesting process. Some peculiar uses of zinc,
lead, antimony, arsenic, osmium, iridium, cobalt, selenium, mercury, tin, bismuth, nickel, potassium, sodium, and aluminum, will
be detailed in a future chapter.
The alloys of some of the metals are worthy of special attention. "When we remember," says an able writer, 1" that out of
eleven metals there are formed some thirty or more alloys, what
may we not hope for when this subject shall have received its
due attention at the hands of the chemist!" The following table
of alloys will enable any ingenious person to form his own tablets
for experimenting. A good Hessian crucible, and a charcoal
furnace, with a pair of handbellows, will enable the amateur to
form  some interesting compounds.  A plate of polished steel
forms a very good mould, by means of which you may procure
a fair surface. In making an alloy, you must melt the least
fusible metal first. In the case of volatile metals, as mercury or
zinc, the alloy may be formed by exposure to the fumes. For
example, you may form a plate with a brass surface, by holding
a copper plate over burning zinc; and this brass plate acts,
heliochromically, as if it was a separate metal.  So with gold




ARTIFCIIAL COLORIFIC AGE'NTS.               115
or silver;-they may be amalgamated, with a powdery surface, by exposure to the vapor of mercury.  This surface may
be rendered bright by rubbing with a piece of buckskin.
The following are the principal alloys I have used in my
experiments:
Copper. Zinc.  Tin.  Lead. Bismuth. Nickel. Brass.   Name of Alloy.
18  15..........                           Tombac.
75    25..........................     Prince's Metal.
60    25...............   25..   German Silver.
85......' {14...........               Egyptian Sword.
66'5......   33'5.................... Speculum Metal....... 50    50 S....   Spurious Silver Leaf.
e.......... 19   31       50............. Fusible Metal.
Antimony.
~~~........ 75     9'           8'....  Queen's Metal.
2. The Salts of the Metals.-First in the list, as the base of
many operations, is nitrate of silver.  It is made thus:-Dissolve
silver coin in nitric acid, diluted with half water, by the aid of
heat.  Dilute plentifully with water, and stir in solution of common salt (chloride soda) till all the silver is precipitated in the
form of a curdy white mass (chloride of silver); wash with water
till the taste of salt and acid is gone; drain off all the water save
enough to cover it, and add to this about one-fourth part sulphuric
acid, and some lumps of zinc. The rule is to add enough acid
to create a lively effervescence. Set it aside for twenty-four
hours, or until the chloride is all reduced to a dark powder,
which is metallic silver. Take out the pieces of zinc remaining,
and add a little more sulphuric acid, and let it stand an hour.
This will completely dissolve all the remaining particles of zinc.
Wash thoroughly with water, and redissolve in nitric acid, dilute
one half with water as before. Filter and evaporate to crystallization. Drain the crystals, and spread them on paper to dry.
This is pure nitrate of silver, if the process has been properly
managed.  If it is not pure white, or does not give a clear solu.
tion in water, redissolve in water, filter, and again crystallize.




116                    HELIOCHROrMY.
These crystals are soluble in one part cold, in half a part
boiling water, in four parts boiling alcohol, insoluble in pure
nitric acid. Nitrate of silver fuses readily, and congeals to a
white fibrous mass. It does not blacken by light, unless organic
matter be present. United to almost any vegetable or animal
matter, it is readily acted upon by light. Even the bony substances, as ivory, horn, gum, &c., give it this property, A tablet
of wood, in this respect, forms a photographic material. You
can take a picture on your own skin, or finger nail, by soaking
the part in warm solution of a chloride, as common salt, for half
an hour, wiping off the liquid, and holding the part in ammoniojaitrate of silver for a few minutes in the dark. Then fasten on
the part a transparent engraving, by means of pasting the
corners, and be around in the light. Fix in hyposulphate of
soda, and rinse with water.
Chloride of Silver is formed by mingling solutions of the nitrate
and chloride of soda (common salt), or any other chloride, or
hydrochloric acid. It is cleansed from acid and salt by washing
in water. Chloride of silver, when pure, is beautifully white,
but darkens rapidly in the light. Under the red ray it is tinted
red. By the other rays it is blackened, and converted into subchloride of silver. It may also be reduced to sub-chloride by the
action of chlorides of copper and mercury and per-chloride of
iron, and may be formed directly by the action of muriatic acid
and sub-oxide of silver. Sub-chloride of silver is a brownish or
black powder.  It is an important agent in heliochromy. The
white chloride fuses at 500~ to a clear yellow liquid. It congeals
to a transparent, colorless solid, so soft as to receive the impression of the finger nail. In this fact lies a beautiful process, for
the first preparation of heliochromic tablets.
Iodide and Bromide of silver are formed by mutual decomposition, like the chloride. Iodide or bromide of potassium are the
salts generally used to mingle with the nitrate. These salts
both fuse to a red liquid, and congeal to a yellow mass. They
are useful, but not essential, in my collodiochrome.




ARTIFICIAL COLORIFIC AGENTS.             117
_Fluoride of Silver is formed by the action of hydrofluoric acid
on carbonate of silver. When dry it is fusible, like the chloride.
It is soluble in water, and mingles freely with the other silver
salts, in which way I make use of it.
Ammonio-nitrate, or Ammoniuret of Silver, is formed by adding
aqua ammonia to solution of nitrate of silver, until the precipitate at first formed is exactly re-dissolved. A little nitrate solution should then be added, to prevent the least excess of ammonia.
Or, you may dissolve nitrate of silver in aqua ammonise, and
obtain ammoniuret in crystals.
Fulminate of Silver.-This very singular and dangerous compound is prepared as follows: 100 grains of fused and finely powdered nitrate of silver are added to 1 oz. warm  alcohol, and
the mixture stirred in a large basin. An ounce of fuming nitric
acid is then added. A violent effervescence follows, and a white
powder falls. Cold water is added, and the powder is immediately collected on a filter, and dried at 100~. The contact of
a hard body causes this substance to explode with great violence.
It is unsafe to make more than the product of a sixpence at once,
though I once made a half dollar into this fulminate, and had
the pleasure of standing within three feet of it when it exploded.
As a wonder of mercy, I escaped unhurt; but if the reader
doubts my assertion that it made somewhat of a racket, let him
try the experiment. I was deaf as an adder for a week.
Citrate of Silver.-This is formed by adding a citrate, as
citrate of soda, to a soluble salt of silver, as the nitrate. It is a
brilliant white powder. Paper, or collodion, impregnated with a
citrate, and then dipped into nitrate of silver, will furnish the
citrate of silver in a form for experimenting. Joined, with iron,.
in the form of ammonio-citrate of iron, it affords a curious actinic
agent.
Silvate of Silver.-This important salt is made thus:-M- ix
alcoholic solutions of nitrate of silver and silvic acid, and add
ammonia. A white precipitate falls, which must be caught on a
filter. It is soluble in ether.




118                    HELIOCHOMY.
The Cyanide, Hyposulphite, Carbonate, PhospLate, Borate,
Chromate, and Aluminate of Silver are formed  by mutual
decomposition, by means of mingling solutions of cyanide,
hyposulphite, &c., of potassa or soda with nitrate of silver. Some
of these salts will be referred to again.
I shall now pass to the copsideration of some of the Salts of
Gold. Those of zinc, lead, iridium, cobalt, &c., will receive all
necessary attention in a more appropriate place.
Chloride of Gold, in great purity, is made thus:-Dissolve gold
coin in nitro-muriatic acid, by the aid of a water-bath heat. The
acid should be made by mixing one part nitric, and two parts
muriatic acids. Dilute the solution with about fuur parts water,
and stir into it an excess of strong, well-filtered solution of sulphate of iron. Let it stand twenty-four hours, when all the gold
in the coin will be precipitated as a dark chocolate-colored powder.
Wash this several times in water, and re-dissolve in the smallest
possible quantity of nitro-muriatic acid. Evaporate over a waterbath until the chloride, on cooling, will concrete into a waxy
mass.  Bottle immediately, as it is very deliquescent in the
air.
Hyposulphite of Gold, or Sel d' Or.-I have a very neat process for making this beautiful salt. It is this. —Dissolve one part
chloride of gold in the smallest possible amount of water, and
filter. Dissolve three parts hyposulphite of soda in the least possible quantity of water. Add the gold to the soda solution, drop
by drop, with constant agitation, and let the mixture stand until
it will filter clear. Add this to five or six times its bulk of ninetyfive per cent. alcohol-shake, and let it stand a few hours-when
the sel d'or will be precipitated as fine brilliant needles. Throw
into a filter, catch and dry the crystals. I have given this process in detail, on account of the importance of this salt in heliochromy.
Iodide of Gold.-Add solution of chloride of gold to solution
of iodide of potassium till a dark green precipitate forms, and
until this precipitate becomes permanent, for the first portion




ARTIFICIAL COLORiFIC AGENTS     T        119
formed is re-dissolved on agitation. It is soluble in hydriodic
acid, in which state I use it.
Bromide of Gold.-Dissolve gold leaf in pure bromine. On
evaporation it leaves a dark grey mass, soluble in water, from
which it may be obtained in dark red crystals. This salt is so
intense a color, that it gives a tinge to 5,000 parts of water.
Chloride of Gold, and Hydrofluoric Acid, or Fluoride of Potassium, form a mixture, which, added to other compounds, holds
an important place in some of my processes.
The Purple of Cassius.-When protochloride of tin is added
to a dilute solution of chloride of gold, a dirty purple precipitate
is formed, which is purple of Cassius, so called after the name of
the chemist who discovered it. A better colored precipitate is
formed when the protochloride of tin is added to a solution of
perchloride of iron till the color of the liquid has a shade of
green, and adding this liquid drop by drop, to a solution of perchloride of gold, very dilute; after twenty-four hours a brown
powder is deposited which is slightly transparent and purple red
by transmitted light. When dried and powdered it is a dull blue
color. This powder is used in porcelain painting, and for tinging
glass of a fine red color.
Cyanide qf Gold.-Dissolve from fifty to one hundred grains
chloride of gold in one pint of water. Dissolve one ounce cyanide
of potassium in a little water, and add this, with stirring, to the
gold solution. Or you may dissolve one ounce cyanide in a little
water, saturate it with chloride of gold, and then add a small lump
of cyanide to insure an excess. Dilute this to one pint. I use this
in many ways. For gilding with it attach to the article to be
gilt a piece of bright zinc, of nearly its size, and immerse both
in the solution. Two or three drops of bi-sulphuret of carbon
added to the above solution cause the gold to be deposited in a
more brilliant form. This is also a valuable addition to cyanide
of silver.
Sulpho-cyanide of Gold is a flesh-colored powder, which falls
when solution of sulpho-cyanide of potassium  is mixed with




120                    flELIOCHBlOMY.
chloride of gold.  It is soluble in the precipitant, and in ammonia.
Polyckrome Gold. —I have coined this name as expressive of a
union of polychrome with gold. Polychrome I prepare very
readily as follows:-I digest horse-chestnut-bark in alcohol for
two or three days, concentrate the liquor to the consistence of a
syrup by distillation in a common retort, and set this aside for
some weeks to crystallize. These crystals I wash with ice-water,
to free them from extractive matter, and dissolve them in a boiling
mixture of five parts ninety-five per cent. alcohol with one of
sulphuric ether, from which, by cooling, the polychrome separates,
perfectly colorless, and usually as a light powder, like magnesia
alba. It dissolves in 672 parts of water at 50~, and in 13 parts
at 212~. The solution is colorless by transmitted, but slightly
blue by reflected light; acids destroy this property, but it is
restored by a few drops of any alkali. It does not precipitate
any of the metallic salts; but its mixture with salts of gold has
extraordinary properties. The powder dissolves abundantly in
alkaline liquors, and the solutions give a magnificent play of
colors with reflected light. In a reflected spectrum  they are
perfectly gorgeous and dazzling. The polychrome-gold I prepare
by neutralizing sel d'or with a very little carbonate of potash,
and adding it (fifty grains of sel d'or) to four ounces solution of
polychrome, containing one hundred grains polychrome and one
drachm liquid ammonia. I keep this in a bottle perfectly covered
with black paint, and never open it to the daylight.
Protochloride of Tin, so much used as a mordant in dyeing,
is obtained by dissolving tin in strong muriatic acid until it is
saturated, and evaporating. The salt crystallizes in long prisms.
They are soluble in water; for a very dilute solution a few
drops of muriatic acid should be added to the water, else it is
decomposed into a basic salt.
The Nitrate, Sullphate, and Chloride of Copper, can be cheaply
purchased, of a pure quality, fiom a chemist. So with the salts
of lead, bismuth, iron, zinc, &c.; and I recommend this method




ARTIFICIAL COLORIFIO AGENTS.             121
of obtaining the limited quantity required by the subsequent
processes.
IL. —THE ACIDS.
These  should  be purchased  of a pure quality.   The
principal' acids I employ are the nitric, sulphuric, sulphurous, hydrochloric, hydrofluoric, citric, boracic, iodic, bromic,
tartaric, uric, gallic, pyro-gallic, nitrous, acetic, and oxalic. A
few of these agents which it is difficult to purchase pure, and
which must be made in a certain way, I will notice in detail.
1. Chloracetic Acid.-Introduce into bottles about full of
dry chlorine, a small quantity of concentrated acetic acid, and
expose to direct sunshine. On hot days explosion sometimes
occurs, but never immediately on exposure. The best way is to
expose the bottles at a safe distance, and not to meddle with them
until the next morning, when the chlorine will be gone, and the
interior of the bottles lined with a crystalline deposit, consisting
chiefly of chloracetic acid. Pour in each bottle a small quantity
of water, which will give a strong chloracetic solution. Collect
these into one bottle, and expose it in vacuo by the side of a vessel
containing pieces of caustic potash and another containing sulphuric acid. The oxalic acid in the solution will first crystallize,
and then.the chloracetic acid, in rhombohedric crystals.  Place
these crystals on bibulous paper, which will partially free them
from adhering acetic acid. The vapor of this acid is dangerously
irritating. Boil a solution of this salt with excess of potassa, and
the liquor deposits, on cooling, an abundant crop of crystals of
chloride of potassium, and the mother liquor acts powerfully
upon a solution of nitrate of silver, reducing it to the metallic
state.
2. Ur'ic Acid.-This is extracted from guano, and is found in the
excrements of the parrot, the silkworm, and the boa-constrictor. It
is readily extracted from the latter as follows:-Dry the excrements, reduce to powder, boil, first in alcohol, then in water: then
digest in dilute hydrochloric acid, wash in water, and digest in




122                   IHELIOCHROMY.
a hot solution of caustic potassa, filter, concentrate, press out the
resulting pasty mass, and wash with water. Dissolve this in
boiling water, and pour the hot solution into hydrochloric acid,
when a white gelatinous precipitate falls, which is to be washed
and dried.  This is pure uric acid. Dissolve this in a weak
solution of potassa, and evaporate, and urate of potassa separates
as a dense crystalline powder. Slightly acidulate solution of this
salt, and mix an excess with solution of nitrate of silver; urate
of silver is the result, which blackens with a little heat.
3. C/loroc/hromic Acid.-Melt in a crucible a mixture of ten
parts of common salt, and seventeen parts of bi-chromate of potash.
Pour the melted mass on a slab to cool, break into small pieces,
and fill a tubulated retort with the same. After attaching condensing receiver, pour forty parts of sulphuric acid on the mass.
In a few minutes all the product distils over without the aid of
heat. This singular acid is a blood red liquid, and fumes on
exposure to the air; its vapor is red.
4. flydroJoluoric Acid.-This acid it is better to buy than to
make. It comes in lead bottles; it is a dangerous poison, and
should never be opened in a close room. I came near losing
my life by working over the fumes of this acid. It produced
bleeding at the lungs, and an entire prostration of my nervous
system, accompanied by neuralgic pains of great severity. My
whole system became charged with it; as a remedy I took
minute doses of nitrate of silver, often repeated, with a view to
the formation of fluoride of silver. The importance of this acid
in heliochromy cannot be overrated.
IV.-THE ALKALIES.
Potash, soda, ammonia, baryta, lime, and strontia, and some
of theiir salts, will occupy our attention in the present section.
Ammonia is the volatile alkali; potash and soda the fixed alkalies;
and lime, baryta, and strontia, the alkaline earths.  Caustic
potash and soda, and their carbonates, are indispensable. Those




ARTIFICIAL COLORIFIC AGENTS.             123
alkaline salts which are useful in heliochromy, I will notice in
detail.
1. Iodide of Potash. —Dissolve iodine in potash solution, until
the latter is completely neutralized. Evaporate to dryness, and
heat the mass to redness, keeping it so as long as bubbles of
oxygen gas are liberated. The residual mass is iodide of potash.
Let it get cold, and dissolve it in its weight of boiling water.
Let it crystallize very slowly. This salt is convenient for forming other iodides.
2. Bromide of Potash, prepared exactly as the above, with the
exception of substituting bromine for iodine.  If before the
fusion of either of these salts, a little charcoal is added, the
result is better, as it entirely frees them from iodates.
3. Fluoride of Potassilum is formed by saturating hydrofluorie
acid with the potash, and evaporating to dryness. This salt
bears an intense heat without change.
Iodide, bromide, and fluoride of silver and of other metals,
are formed with these salts by mutual decomposition. The solution of fluoride of potash corrodes glass. It is decomposed by
chlorine. A solution of a chloride with this fluoride, will give
fluorine, in a nascent state, on the -immersion of a plate of silver.
All three of these salts are soluble in water; but slightly so in
alcohol. On addition of sulphuric acid to their solutions, they
evolve their respective vapors.
4. Nitrate of Potash. Nitre.  Saltpetre.-This salt is an
abundant natural product, lixiviated from certain soils in the East
Indies. In France and Germany it is artificially produced in
what are termed nitre beds. Nitre, to be fit for photographic
use, should be refined, which is done by recrystallizing; and
always while it is recrystallizing it should be stirred, so that the
crystals may be small. The crystals should then be washed and
completely dried. It should also be dried again after pulverizing,
before it is used for making gun cotton, as even a little water
may create an undue heat, on the addition of the sulphuric acid.
This should never be neglected.




124.      ELIOCHROMY.
5. Cyanide of PotasA.-Formed by saturating a concentrated
solution of caustic potash with hydrocyanic acid. It is a deadly
poison; and should be purchased by the amateur, and used with
care. For electrotyping, and as a fixing agent in the collodion
process, it is invaluable. It is abundantly soluble in water. An
electrotype solution of excellent quality may be formed by saturating a given quantity of water with cyanide, of potash, and
saturating this solution with chloride of silver, and then adding
a little cyanide to give an excess. This solution is to be diluted
with water to the working point.
6. Chromate and Bi-chromate of Potash. —Both these salts are
extensively used in calico printing; and in connexion with the
salts of lead, &c., produce some very brilliant tints. A paper
washed with a mixture of two drachms saturated solution of the
bi-chromate, and a solution of two drachms of sulphate of iron
in ounce of water, exposed under a super-imposed engraving for
from five to twenty minutes in strong sunshine, and then washed
with a solution of nitrate of silver, gives a yellow picture. The
picture shows faintly on coming from the frame; and if parts of
it are then touched with a solution of ferro-cyanide of iron, these
will be blue. By touching parts of the picture with solution of
nitrate of silver of different strengths, you can obtain a range of
colors from a bright yellow to a strong orange red.  After the
picture is fixed by soaking it in water, it may be rendered transparent by rubbing it with Dammar varnish, and other (oil) colors
put on the back, with pleasing effect.
7. tiyposul7phite of Soda.- This salt is now extensively manufactured in great purity. It is too well known among photographers to require description. It is an essential article in my
processes.
8. CUlorite of Soda. Labarraque's liquid. —Prepared by passing the chlorine from 9 lbs. common salt, 7 lbs. manganese,
9 lbs. oil of vitriol, 7 lbs. water, into a solution 39 lbs. cryst.
soda in 19} galls. water. Or decompose a solution of chloride of
lime by a solution of carbonate of soda, as long as carbonate of




ARTIFICIAL COLORIFIC AGENTS.           125
lime precipitates, and add a little excess of alkali. This is a
bleaching liquid.
9. Biborate of Soda. Borax.-Before using the borax of commerce, it should be dissolved in water, filtered, and evaporated to
crystallization.
10. Iodide of Baryta.-Add a saturated alcoholic solution of
iodine to a solution of proto-sulphuret of barium, as long as any
sulphur separates, filter, evaporate almost to dryness, re-dissolve
in a small portion of water, and boil it down in a flask to dryness. This salt has very singular colorific properties.
11. Chloride of Lime. —Agood article of this salt can be purchased at the drug stores. It may be employed for several purposes in picture-making. A saturated solution in water, well
settled and decanted, or filtered, may be used for mutual decomposition, for forming various metallic chlorides. Or the same
solution may be made to give out chlorine gas, by adding sulphuric acid to it. In this way very exact quantities of the gas
may be evolved, by simply regulating the amount of acid, and
by dilution. To rid a room of sulphuretted hydrogen, and many
other noxious gases, it may be used as above.
12. Chloride of Strontia. —Procurable in purity only from
chemists. Soluble in water and alcohol. It imparts a brilliant-,red color to alcohol flame.
V.-THE GASES AND VAPORS.
1. Chlorine. — Mix one part binoxide of manganese with two
to three parts of concentrated hydrochloric acid, in a retort, and
apply a gentle heat.' Chlorine gas is abundantly evolved. By
using a bent tube, and having the bent end reach nearly to the
bottom of a bottle, the bottle will fill with the gas, by the displacement of the air. Or, you may conduct the gas into water, and
thus form chlorine water. Chlorine is a yellowish green gas, of
an astringent taste, and a suffocating odor. Even when diluted




126                   HELIOCTHROMY.
with air, it excites spasm and irritation of the glottis. This gas
has a strong affinity for hydrogen, uniting with it explosively, in
sunshine. It unites readily with several metallic surfaces, especially silver, but it is difficult to procure as good a coating as with
iodine. As it works better in presence of moisture, I succeeded
in procuring beautiful coatings by first thinly covering the plate
with a moist substance, as glue, honey, molasses, &c., and, after
the coating forms, washing away this layer.  A more ready
method of chloridizing a silver plate is to immerse it in a chloride.
Chloride of iron, formed by dissolving red oxyde of iron (rouge)
in muriatic acid, gives a beautiful coating to a silver plate. Sulphate of copper dissolved in water, and the solution charged
with muriatic acid, will do the same. Paper imbued with solution of nitrate of silver, and exposed to chlorine gas, may be
charged with chloride of silver.
2. lHydrogen.-A convenient way to procure this gas is to
place in a flask some sulphuric acid diluted with four parts of
water, and add pieces of zinc. By attaching a tube to the flask
you may collect the gas in a bell-glass over water. It may be
employed in the camera, between the plate and lens, by simply
placing some dilute sulphuric acid and zinc in a small bottle, and
placing the bottle uncorked in the camera box. When it is required for developing, or reduction, a tight wooden box or a common coating jar answers well, always observing the precaution
to interpose a muslin screen between the bottom of the jar and
the plate, to prevent the water carried up by the gas from spattering the plate. Other gases may be used in the same way.
3. Sulphluretted Hydrogen.-Obtained by acting on sulphuret
of antimony-one part-by muriatic acid —four parts-by the
aid of heat. It is more conveniently made by acting on sulphuret of iron by dilute sulphuric acid. To purify it, pass it
through an intermediate bottle of water at 80~, or through
salt water. It is a gas of very unpleasant odor. Whoever has
been to Sharon Springs, or, what is equivalent, had his nose in
the neighborhood of rotten eggs, knows all about the smell of




ARBTIFCIAL COLORIFING AGENS.            127
this abominably fetid gas. A paper dipped in solution of nitrate
of silver becomes beautifully iridescent on exposure to this gas;
the silver is reduced to the metallic state. An argento-collodion,
or albumen coating, is still more beautifully affected. The gas
may be used in its nascent state, by simply immersing the article
to be acted upon in the liquid where the gas is forming. Chlorine
is a disinfectant of this gas.
4. Selenium. —This metal is extracted, by a lengthy process,
from the reddish deposit formed in the manufacture of oil of vitriol
from iron pyrites. It liquifies a little above 212~, and boils below
a red heat, giving a darker yellow gas than chlorine.
5. Sulphur.-At 8220 this well known substance boils and
rises in a dark orange-colored vapor, which deposits flowers of
sulphur on a cold body. By dipping pith, or other porous and
inflammable bodies into melted sulphur, and setting fire to it, you
may coat a glass or other surface with a layer of sulphur, and
this surface, after iodizing or bromidizing, will give a picture
which developes itself in the dark.
6. Phosphorus. —A convenient way to use the vapor of this
singular substance, is to dissolve some of it in ether or alcohol,
and place the solution in a coating jar. The plate, paper, or
collodionized glass to be acted upon may be placed over it. In
this way gold and silver may be reduced from their solutions to
the metallic state. A fine coat of gold may thus be given to
paper, leaves, laces, and other ornamented articles. The article
must first be impregnated, or covered, with a solution of chloride
of gold, of moderate strength, 10 grs. to the oz. of water. Gum
water may be used for dissolving the chloride, where the article
will only admit of a wash.
7. Phosphuretted Hydrogen. —Heat phosphorus in a solution
of potash in dilute alcohol. It may be caught over mercury, or
overboiled salt water. There are many other methods of making it;
but the above simple method is the one I prefer, as the gas thus
made is but little explosive. Its uses will be detailed hereafter.
8. Oxygen.-Heat chlorate of potash in a glass retort. It




128                   MELIOCHROMY.
gives off all its oxygen. A portion of peroxide of manganese, or
of oxyde of copper, facilitates the reaction. In small quantities,
and for immediate use, it may be collected in the pneumatic
trough, in bell-glasses. This gas has a much greater influence in
photographic operations than most persons imagine.
9. Nitrous Oxyde. —Heat nitrate of ammonia in a retort, and a
colorless, inodorous gas is evolved, which induces intoxication
when inhaled, and hence called " laughing gas."
10. Nitric Oxyde.-Generated by acting on copper filings by
nitric acid. On mixing with air it becomes red. It gives a
splendid coating to a plate of silver. The effects of light upon it
are singular in the extreme.
11. iHyponitric Acid Vapor.-This vapor is deep red. The acid
is prepared by the dry distillation of nitrate of lead, powdered
and thoroughly desiccated.
12. Iodine and Bromine give off their vapors at common temperatures. That of the former is violet.; that of the latter red.
A gentle heat disengages them in great abundance.




EXPERIMENTS.                       129
CHAPTE R VII.
EXPERIMENTS ON THE DAGUERREOTYPE PLATE.
Colors produced on the rotative principle.-The iodized, bromo-iodized, and
chloro-iodized plate, each give these colors.-Mercury, at various temperatures-i-mpinging at angles —alloyed.-The electrotyped, blanched, oxydized, grained, and greased plate.-New Developers.-Vapors of Zinc, Tl'in,
Bismuth, Antimony, Arsenic, Molybdenum, Gold, Silver, Copper, Platina,
Iridium, and Iron.-The Oxy-hydrogen Blowpipe.-Eliopole Lamp. —Voltaic flame.-Screens of Platina Gauze.-The Gases-Sulphuric, Nitric,
Fhosphuretted Hydrogen, Sulphuretted Hydrogen, Hydrogen, &c -The
reversed Daguerreotype process.-Undercoatings, with Bromine, Chlorine,
Per-fluoride of Chrome, Chlorochromic Acid, Carbonaceous Glaze.-Iodized
Mercury Surface, developed with the vapor of Silver.-Colored Light for
Developing.
IT may not be known to the generality of my readers that a
common Daguerreotype, or iodized silver plate, may be impressed
with the solar spectrum; but the fact has been tested by several
experimentalists.  Robert Hunt attributes the effect to iridescence. In other words, he accounts for it on the principle of
Newton's rings. The colors, he contends, are produced by the
infinitesimal and relative tenuity of the coating, as produced by
the relative intensity of the action of the different colored rays of
light. As shown in another chapter, this effect is not produced
on the iodized plate, except on the principle of rotation; that is
to say, at one period of the exposure what should be green will
be yellow, the yellow will presently be blue, and the blue wtill at
length come to green. Hence, if you can watch close enough to
catch the effect at the right time, you will have the colors properly located.
9




130                    HrELoOCROMrY.
The fact, however, is an interesting one; and it led me into
many experiments. These I will endeavor to describe as correctly and concisely as possible.
Experiment 1.-Iodize a plate to a bright cherry, or violet,
superpose a colored print, or place it in the Camera, focussed on
a colored object. The effect is as stated above; but it requires
several hours of bright sunshine.
Experimrnent 2.-Iodize the plate as above. Then, before exposure to light, place it in chlorine gas, until it blackens. This
plate under white light very speedily whitens. Exposed as in
Ex. 1, it is affected like the iodized plate.
Experiment 3.-After iodizing the plate, bromidize it, as for a
Daguerreotype, and relteat the experiment as in No. 1. The
action of light is thus much accelerated and the effect as to coloration the same as above, only there is greater harmony, and
the impression is more soft and silky.
Experiment 4.-Remove a plate, prepared by either of the
above methods, fiom the light, at ally period of its exposure, and
place it over the mercury box, and the result is a picture in light
and shade. I tried the mercury at many different temperatures,
and the result was invariably light and shade. I also tried exposing the plate to the mercury at different angles; but the effect
was the same. I thought it possible that the molecules of mercury might be induced to attach themselves, by impinging on the
plate at an angle, in some peculiar manner productive of the desired phenomena. Alas! these experiments failed by the hundred.
I can imagine no form of these experiments but what I tried. I
used the mercury at a low temperature, and from that up to the
boiling point; I tried large and small quantities, from a pound
down to the smallest globule; I alloyed it with other metals; I
even tried immersing the plate in cold, warm, and hot mercury;
I tried rubbing the mercury on the plate; and I tried rubbing
very many alloys of mercury, such as gold, silver, copper, lead, tin,
bismuth, platina, iridium, zinc, &c., and that, too, in various proportions, but all to no purpose. Then I varied the condition of




EXPERIMINTS.                    131
the silver surface, by blanching it, electrotyping it to a blue and
a white, oxydizing it, roughening, or graining it, amalgamating
it, greasing it. &c.; and, though the results were often quite
curious and surprising, the colors would not come.
Experiment 5. —After working andl twisting the above idea
until my brain felt like India rubber, I struck off on a new track.
Determined to get the colors from the iodized or bromo-iodized
plate, it occurred to me to try new developers. The vapors of
various metals were tried first. The more volatile metals, as
zinc, lead, tin, bismuth, antimony, molybdenum, &c., were first
in the crucible. The yellow tint of bismuth gave a sort of flesh
color to the whites; but beyond this, 4nd some peculiar effects of
lead, I met with entire failure. By my carelessness in using the
vapor of boiling arsenic I jeopardized my life. Then came the
more refractory metals, such as gold, silver, copper, platina, and
iron. How to vaporize them was the question. I tried the oxyhydrogen blowpipe, the eliopole lamp, and finally succeeded with
the voltaic blaze, produced by 100 pairs of galvanic batteries.
These, and similar contrivances, I made myself, right here among
the mountains, with no mechanics to aid me but a blacksmith and
a house-carpenter. By both of these lights I took pictures, and
I took them quickly; but after all, these luminaries are not like
the strong, full, diffuse light of the sun. My method of using the
vapor of-these metals was to support the plate at such a distance
above the heat that the latter would not injure the chemical
coating. Here I met with a serious difficulty. The light of both
these intense flames destroyed the effect of light in the camera.
To remedy this, I interposed a veil of yellow or black cloth,
which would intercept the light, and at the same time admit the
passage of the metallic vapor. Out of this plan grew another
difficulty:-the cloths would burn up. To remedy this, I tried
to make them fire-proof, by various means, such as repeated
soakings in alum-water. At length I found that three or four
screens of platina wire gauze, placed about half an inch apart,
answered the purpose perfectly. I placed the first gauze screen




132                   IELIOCHRO~MY.
about four inches above the focus of the blaze. This became redhot, but the succeeding ones were not so, and the arrangement
answered well when the relative distances were kept up; for,
otherwise, the vapor would condense upon the gauze.
The above course of experiments cost me six months hard
labor. No colors were obtained; but it will be seen further on,
that it was not lost labor.
Experiment 6.-I next tried the gases, and first of all, oxydizing agents, such as those of sulphuric and nitric acid. These
gave no picture. I then had recourse to phosphuretted hydrogen.
This would develope the picture in all the glory of iridescence.
It would glow in all the colors of the rainbow; but the witching
hues were not in place. I would often soliloquize, just to keep
my courage up, by way of a little pleasantry:-" Oh, you naughty
red, you sky-born blue, you green-as-grass green, you refiractory
yellow-why must you always be after getting into the wrong
places! If I could teach you to know your places, it would be a
fine lesson for all of ye; but instead thereof ye delight in getting
as far from the mark as possible." Even while thus amusing
myself, and taming my own impatience, these colors, like fairies in
a dance, would change, and interchange places, in the face of my
remonstrances, and in the very light where I held them. Well,
well, thought I, the gem I seek after is somewhere in this crowd
of wonders. So I would repeat the experiment in many varied
forms; and I would obtain results truly marvellous, and very encouraging-when, lo! —away goes my apparatus-blown up, not
sky-high, but slam-bang against the whitewashed wall, and every
hair of my head pointing towards the wreck. Then I tried the
less explosive kind of this gas; but this did not work so well;
besides that, too, will sometimes explode, when you little dream
of it. After a long time, I reluctantly gave up these thrilling
experiments-not altogether because the gas was dangerous, but I
began to get new light, in respect to the true nature of chemical
re-actions, and fixed my mind and my hopes on other agents..Experiment 7.-Still pursuing the gas idea, I next tried




EXPERIMENTS.                    133
developing with common hydrogen. The results were similar,
but far less beautiful than those with phosphuretted hydrogen.
Sulphuretted hydrogen  succeeded well, but though, like its
neighbor, the phosphuret, it would give a play of colors, I could
not work the process into the natural colors. The idea of the
simultaneous action of a gas with the light, was easily executed
by generating the gas in the camera, or conducting it into the
camera, while the plate was being exposed to light. With a plate
coated to a green with chloride of iodine, and thus exposed to a
very dilute gas (sulphuretted hydrogen), I obtained very fair reds
and blues several times, in their proper localities. It required an
exposure of several hours.  Thus I went through the entire
range of gases. It cost much time and money, and was seriously
detrimental to health.
Experiment 8.-The idea of giving the iodide of silver an
undercoating, occurred to me. I tried a reversed daguerreotype
coating-the bromine first, and then the iodine; the chlorine first,
and then the iodine. Then came bromine alone, and chlorine
alone. I next undercoated with fluorine, per-fluoride of chrome,
chlorochromic acid gas, &c. I pre-coated the plate with a sort
of carbonaceous glaze, which I produced by greasing, and then
strongly heating the plate; and this surface I exposed to iodine,
bromine, and chlorine. -ULndercoating with mercury, and exceedingly slight deposits of gold, copper, and other metals, was also
tried. All and each of these and other variations of' the idea,
were tried in connexion with the developers before named, but
no colors appeared. The reader may think this was di> couraging, bhuit it was not; for the many curious, and often beautiful,
resultgs I obtain ed, were props to my hopes, and spurs to my industry. While thus reversing the order of the daguerreotype
eoatings, it accurred to me to reverse the entire process. So, I
faced a silver plate with mercury, by rubbing a heavy coating
of mercury on it. This I iodized, &c., and tried to develope
colors o:rer the vapor of silver, as obtained by the voltaic flame,




134                    IELIOCHROMY.
I could produce no picture. Then I tried the same process, with
mercury for a developer, but with no better success.
Experiment 9.-All the above coatings I tried with colored
light for a developer. Becquerel discovered that yellow and red
light would develope the daguerrean image. I used yellow, red,
green, and orange colored glasses; and some of the results were
magically beautiful:-but-ohll! that but-the images formed
were mostly identical with the daguerreotype, but often more
delicate, and of various peculiarities of tone.
In these, and many other experiments with the daguerreotype
plate, I utterly failed of my object. I am now fully convinced
that there are no colors in the process, excepting those which
are due to the principle of iridescence,- or to oxydationO




lXPERINmlENTS.                     135
CHAPTER VIII.
EXPERIMENTS WITH VARIOUS METALS.
Tin, iodized and chloridated.-Copper, iodized, and colors developed
with a gas.-Pictures in colors on Brass.-Singular behavior of Brass
to the vapor of Mercury.-Lead.-Its iodide rendered heliochromic.Iron and Steel, their extraordinary colorific susceptibility.-Zinc, employment of its vapor.-Nickel, Bismuth, and Antimony.-German Silver,
Prince's AMetal, and Britannia.-Thrilling experiments with their alloys.The Alloy Plate.-Vapor of Arsenic. —Iridium.
EXPERIMENT  I.-I first tried tin.  This I cut out of a new
tin pan, and polished.  It requires heat to coat this metal with
iodine. By heating the tin plate in a close tin or earthen jar,
with a little iodine inclosed, I obtained a brownish-red coating,
sensitive to light, but not susceptible of coloration. A chloridated tin-surface is more sensitive than the above; and I had
great hopes of this, from the fact of the chloride of tin being a
mordant. After repeating the whole round of experimentation,
I was again doomed to failure.
EXPERIMENT 2.-Copper.  I coated a well polished copper
plate with iodine, exposed it to a colored image, and developed
a colored picture, with sulphuretted hydrogen.  Some of the
colors were properly located; but this, as I afterwards found,
after many hundred experiments, was due to chance. Oxydation
and iridescence constitute the whole of this process. A very
slight amalgamation of the surface of the copper, with a weak
solution of nitrate of mercury, heightened the effect.
EXPERIMENT 3.-Brass.  An iodized surface of brass is sensitive to light; but the parts on which the light acts are not




136                    HELIOCHROMY.
acted upon by mercury-the very reverse of the daguerreotype
pl te. Hence a picture on brass has its shadows white, and its
lights yellow. The gases, particularly the sulphuretted hydrogen, develope a picture somewhat like that on copper, as described
in Ex. 2. A brass plate made by holding a plate of copper over
burning zinc, is far the most sensitive.
EXPERIMENT 4.-Lead. I polished a tablet of sheet lead, and
iodized it, in the usual way, to a deep yellow. I then exposed
it to chlorine, until it assumed a blue. This plate gave a mingling of natural colors and iridescence.
EXPERIMENT1 5.-Iron andc Steel, polished, and iodized, by
immersion in a solution of iodide of potassium, to which a little
free iodine is added, will give very brilliant colors, by an exposure of several days. The process is quickened by mingling
muriatic acid with the iodide. The results are singularly beautiful, the tone being of a furzy, velvety aspect. My best result
was on a razor blade, which I attributed to the high polish.
I hope for time to follow out this process. These pictures are
greatly improved by exposure to the vapor of zinc.
EXPERIMENT 6.-Nickel, Bismuth, and Antimony. On each of
these metals I obtained colors-but from the difficulty of procuring good surfaces of these metals, my experiments were limited. The method I employed was coating the metals with
sulphuretted hydrogen, and then with bromine.
EXPERIMENT 7.-German. Silver, Prince's Metal, andBritannia.
Surfaces of these metals, in- their purity, gave but indifferent
results; but by alloying them with mercury-then with a solution of chloride of platinum —then with a weak solution of cyanide of silver-a compound was induced which gave some very
startling results. With some plates thus prepared I obtained
very brilliant colors instantaneously —but I found it exceedingly
difficult to prepare the surfaces uniformly.
EXPERIMENT 8.-The Alloy Plate. The last experiment led
me to devise an alloy plate, as follows;-I take a common
daguerreotype plate, and polish the copper side of it. This side




EXPERIMENTS.                    137
I give an exceedingly light coating of silver, by means of the
electrotype-just enough to give it a whitish blush. I then pour
on it a very weak solution of nitrate of mercury, and let it rest a
minute or two. Next I rinse the plate in water, and immerse it
in a solution of cyanide of gold, made by dissolving 100 grains
chloride of gold in 1 pint of water, in which has been previously
dissolved 1 oz. cyanide of potash. I next expose the plate for
some hours in a jar of chlorine gas, with a view of completely
penetrating the superposed metals. Then I give the plate
another light coat of silver in the same, way as at first, after
which I polish with a buckskin buff, and proceed to coat it with
the vapor of iodine to a cherry red, and then over a jar of chloride of bromine to a bright green. This coating, I finish over the
vapor of nitric oxyde, by keeping the plate over the gas from
5 to 0tO seconds. A  singular picture is produced by these
means.
EXPERIMENT 9.-A plate prepared as in Ex. 8, will give a
latent image, which is sometimes developed with very fine colors
by exposure over the vapor of arsenic. This vapor may be
generated by heating white arsenic in a tube of Bohemian glass.
The tube must be short-not over three inches long. The vapor
may be conducted into a shallow jar, and the plate placed on the
open top of the jar.
EXPERIIMENT 10. —Iridium. This singular metal forms an alloy
with copper and gold. In this state I used a plate of it, as follows; I first rubbed it with a very little amalgam of silver and
mercury. Then I coated it with chlorine gas to a dark green.
This plate I exposed a few seconds to a colored image, and no
apparent change appeared; but on a subsequent exposure over
phosphuretted hydrogen, mixed with an atmosphere of vaporized sulphur, I obtained colors in great variety, but could never
get a well defined and strong impression. The experiment is
worth repeating-only, however, as a matter of scientific interest,
as the rarity of the metal-Iridium-would prevent an extensive
practical application of the process.




138                      HELIOCIROMY.
CHAPTER IX.
EXPERIMENTS WITH THE SALTS OF THE METALS.
Nitrate of Silver.-Great variety of processes by its means.-White Chloride of Silver.-Colored by the red ray.-Violet Chloride of Silver.Its remarkable properties.-Chloro-Chromate  of Silver-for  Heliochromes on Paper.-H-ow developed.-Colors strengthened by Hyposulphite of Gold.-Chromate of Copper-for Heliochromes in Red, Orange,
Yellow, and Green.-Singular mode of developement. —Per-Manganate of
Potash —A "Chameleon" under Colored Light.-Chloride of Bariumits extraordinary Colorific effects.-Process with Silica.-Fluoride of Calcium and Precipitated Silver.
SECTION 1. —Among the "salts of the metals," nitrate of silver stands at the head of the list, for its utility as the foundation
of a great number of processes. In forming outher compounds of
the metal, by mutual decomposition; in producing oxydized and
silver surfaces, by reduction; and as a direct wash for paper, and
other-substances, as well as for its usefulness when in a state of
excess, there is no question of its indispensable character.  The
particular facts which established this view of the great importance of this salt are abundant in the course of this volume.
SECTION 2. —C(/loride of Silver.  There are several varieties
of this salt. I will first notice the. white chloride, formed by
mixing a solution of nitrate of silver and a chloride, as common
salt, which is a chloride of soda. On exposing this to the colored rays, we are at once struck with the invariable fact that the
red ray tints it its own color.  The fact was known -long time
ago-but of this I was not aware when it turned up in the course
of my experiments. Any person can test this fact in a very simple
way. Soak for two or three minutes, a piece of paper in a sol] u



EXPERIMENTS.                     139
tion of chloride of soda 10 grs. to 1 oz. water, and dry. Then
float it for five or ten minutes on a solution of nitrate of silver, 50
or 60 grs. to 2 oz. water.  Cover a portion of this with a red
glass-or a piece of white glass, covered with some transparent
red fluid, as carmine dissolved in ammonia; and leave the other
portions exposed to the action of the white light for several
hours. The latter portion of the paper will be blackened, while
the former portion of it will be reddened.  It cannot be doubted
that this is a very remarkable fact, and is the natural color, if not
the natural colors.
Io,n Silver is another variety of the chloride. It is made
by simply melting the chloride. In this state it may be formed
into a beautiful tablet, by pouring a layer of it on a polished surface, as glass. This tablet, exposed to the colored spectrum, is
reddened much more strongly than the white chloride. Besides,
it is tinted blue by the blue ray, and sometimes yellow and green,
by yellow and green light.
The Violet Chloride of Silver is a still more remarkable substance. This may be produced by immersing a silver plate in a
chloride, as that of copper, iron, or nickel, to the solution of
which has been added some hydrochloric acid. Or, the white
chloride may be converted into this by immersing it in the above
acid, warmed slightly, for several hours. This violet chloride of
silver, properly managed, will give all the colors of the spectrum. I discovered this fact long before AM. Niepce de Saint Victor
announced his discovery. The way I arrived at the discovery
was as follows:  For the purpose of experiment merely, I covered a daguerreotype with a solution of chloride of copper, and
applied heat.  The result was a beautiful ruby red coating over
the daguerreotype, but so transparent that it did not dim the
picture to any great extent. This picture was afterwards exposed in a window, and turned white. I took the hint-that is, I
noted that the surface was photogenic, but I did not dream -of
its being heliochromic.  I superposed upon another plate, prepared in the same way, an engraving (and it happened to be a




140                    IE LIOCeIROMY.
colored one), and having exposed the arrangement to light I obtained acolored picture.  The best way to conduct this experiment is to coat a plate as for taking a daguerreotype.  Expose
in a camera pointed to a white sheet, as long as you would to
obtain a daguerreotype, mercurialize, and gild as usual. Then
immerse the plate in the chloride, until it turns a dark maroon
color, rinse in plenty of water, and heat the plate until the coating assumes a bright ruby red. Several of the daguerreotypes
originally treated as above are still in my possession. The colb
ors thus obtained are much better than those obtained by tile afterwards discovered method of St. Victor. A thorough investigation of this matter would satisfy any reasonable person of my
claim to priority in this matter of chloridizing a silver plate.  St.
Victor's originality, as far,as I am concerned, I freely concede,
but I totally deny his priority. To show the sincerity of this
assertion, I have made oath to it, as the subjoined will indicate.
STATE OF NEWT  YORK,
Tozwn t:f Lexington,   S
Greene County,
Before me, one of the Justices of the Peace of the County of
Greene, personally appeared Levi L. Hill, and being duly sworn,
says that he made thie above discovery of a metlod of chloridizing a silver plate several months previous to the publication of
AL. Niepce de St. Victor's process of chloridizing a silver plate.
LEVI L. HILL.
Sworn to this 6th day of Mlay, 1856,
ADAM MONTROSS, Justice of the Peace.
SECTION  3. —Cloro-Chromate of Silver.  Dissolve 20 grs.
commonl salt and 30 grs. of bi-chromate of potash in I oz. of
water.  Wash one side of paper with this solution, and let it dry.
Then float one side of the sheet for a few seconds on a bath of
nitrate of silver of the strength of three grains to the ounce of
water. Float for a few seconds only, and dry in a dark




EXPERIMENTS.                     141
room. Now repeat the washing with the saline solution, omitting
the bi-chromate of potash. Dry, and float on a bath of nitrate
of silver, 60 grs. to the oz. of water, for five minutes. Dry. All
these operations, excepting the first washing, must be done by
the light of a distant candle. After exposure to a colored image,
for a, few seconds, apply, by the light of a candle, a wash made
as follows:1 oz. walnut shucks, dried and pulverized, and macerated 48
hours in 8 oz. water.
Add to this
2 grs. pyro-gallic acid,' oz. acetic acid-crlystallizable,
4 drops oil of cloves, and 4 drops oil of cassia, dissolved
in _, oz. alcohol.
After the picture is developed, it should be washed in water,
and then soaked in the following bath until a decided strengthening of the colors results:
Sel d'or, 20 grs.
Water, 1 pint.
I3uriatic acid, 1 drachm.
To fix these pictures a brief immersion in very weak ammonia,
and subsequent washing in water, is all that is necessary.
SECTION  4.-Chromate of Copper. Dissolve 1 drachm sulphate of copper in 1 oz. of water.  Add to this half an oz. of a
saturated solution of bi-chromate of potash. Float one side of
paper on this solution, and dry in the dark. Expose to a colored
image until a strong negative picture is formed. Then the parts
in red are to be touched with a camel's hair brush wet with a
strong solution of nitrate of silver-say 100 grains to the oz. of
water. The parts in orange and yellow are to be touched with
weaker solutions of the nitrate. The greens are brought out by
several washes of the part with warm  ammonia. With a little
practice and dexterity very fine results may be obtained by this
process. To fix these pictures, soaking in water is sufficient.
SECTION 5.-PermanganateofPotash.  Dissolve 100 grs. ofthis




142                    HELIOCHROMY.
curious salt in 4 oz. water. Apply a wash of it to paper previously
dipped in a strong solution of fish glue and dried. Dry rapidly, by
holding it before a fire. Then wash the paper with a solution of 10
grs. nitrate of silver in 1 oz. water, to which has been added 1
drop of liquid ammonia, and 2 drops strong solution of bitumen
of Judea in oil of lavender. This last wash should be applied, and
the paper dried in a candle-lighted room. The paper in this state
will remain good a long time if kept in darkness. When required
for use apply a second wash of the above described silver solution, dry, and expose to a colored image until the picture is
formed. In this process the glue, singular as the fact may appear,
plays an important part, for, on ordinary paper, the same chemicals will not give coloration. The compound of the alkaline
silver solution, the bitumen, the essential oil, and the glue, is somehow productive of a molecular arrangement favorable to coloration; and the manganese salt used (sometimes called " chameleon mineral," owing to the variety of colors afforded by its
solutions), is in some way I cannot explain essential to the effect.
SECTION 6.-Chloride of Bariutn.  This is another of those
metallic salts which have peculiar colorific properties. It has
long been noticed that the tone of common photographs is singularly enriched by salting the paper with chloride of barium. The
following process has given me some beautiful results. I float
paper a few minutes on a solution of chloride of barium-40 grs.
to 1 oz. of water and 1 oz. of strong solution of gelatin. I
then dry the paper until the gelatin surface becomes tacky, or
until dry, and float it five or six minutes on a solution of nitrate
of silver —100 grains to 1 oz. water. This paper is quite sensitive if used wet, and will give red, blue, and sometimes yellow
and green. It requires a long time in the camera.  For this
purpose it may be kept wet by placing it between two plates of
glass. Another way to obtain coloration on this paper, is to
blacken the whole sheet in sun-light, bleach out the blackening
in a solution of chloride of copper (observing to do the latter
in a shaded room), and exposing to a colored image while




EXPERIMENTS.                    143
the paper is still wet. Or if this paper is dried and then wet
with essence of cloves, it will work very quick and give better
results.
SECTION 7.-Silica, Fluoride of Calcium, and Precipitated Silver. If these are mixed in about equal bulks, and about one-half
their whole weight of sulphuric acid added, there results a combination of singular colorific properties. The mixture should be
intimately blended with wheat flour paste, and spread on paper
or glass. After a protracted exposure to a colored image, a
picture tinted in natural colors is produced.  But if the latent
colored image, formed by a much shorter exposure, is developed,
by immersion in a very dilute solution of ammonio-chloride of
copper, a much better picture results.




144                       HELIOCHROMY.
C HI AP TER X.
EXPERIMENTS WITH VEGETABLE JUICES.
Red rose,violet, marigold,dandelion, dahlia, poppy, and peony, their coloring
matter imparted to paper, sensitive to their colored rays. —Otto of rose an
accelerator.-Instantaneous colored impressions on collodion, impregnated
with the spirituous extract of the coloring matter of red poppy, clover
blows, horse-chestnut leaves, etc.-Means of acceleration by sulphuretted
air.-The heliochromy of the autumnal tints imitated.-Xanthophyl.-The
coloring matter of leaves acted upon simultaneously by a freezing mixture
and light.-The coloring matters of the blood beet, carrot, and red cabbage,
give pictures in red, blue, yellow, and green.-Interesting results with the
red tomato, strawberries, and'collodion -Red top grass. —Potato starch
and poke berries.-Bitter-sweet, blackberries, squawberries, and muriate
of tin.-Alumr as a mordant for vegetable colors.
SECTION  1.-Take a small handful of the leaves of the red
rose, violet, marigold, dandelion, dahlia, poppy, and peony, and
mash them in an earthen mortar with about half a pint of alcohol.
Do this by the light of a candle only. Strain off the colored
liquid, and keep it well corked in a glass bottle, in a dark and
cool place.  In this way it may be kept good for months.  To
use it, spread one side of paper with it, let the paper dry, and
then spread it with alcoholic tincture of otto of rose-say one
drop of the pure otto to half an ounce of alcohol. Let the paper
dry spontaneously, and it is ready for use. It requires a prolonged exposure to the colored rays, but the resulting pictures
are strikingly delicate and beautiful.
SECTION 2.-Take equal parts of red poppy, clover blows,
horse-chestnut leaves, or the flowers named in the preceding
section, and make an alcoholic tincture of their coloring matter,




EXPERMTENTS.                     145
as directed above. Add a few drops of this to plain collodion,
coat a glass in the usual way, instantly expose to a colored
image for a second or two, and develope by immersing the glass
in an alcoholic tincture of gallic acid, to which enough ammonia
has been added to slightly redden the solution. This process is
uncertain, but it is well worth further experiment.
Both of the above processes are quickened, by the addition to the first wash of a little otto of rose, or by sulphuretting the air of the camera box by means of a few drops of sulphurous acid, or, what is equally good, sulphuretted hydrogen.
A small vial of hydrosulphuret of ammonia, left open in the
camera box, answers very well.
SECTION 3.-The heliochromy of the autumnal tints may be
imitated by impregnating paper with the expressed juice of
leaves, grasses, &c. (See Xanthophyl.).The best way is to
expose the wet paper to light and a powerful freezing mixture,
simultaneously, a mixture of salt and ice answers well. The
paper may be laid between two plates of glass, and the freezing
mixture held against the back glass, while the front glass is exposed to a colored image. Or, the back glass may be subjected
to a continuous stream  of sulphuric ether, which will cause the
chlorophyl to freeze. If the process is conducted expertly, and
the two actions are simultaneous, you will frequently succeed in
producing remarkable evidence of colorific action,
SECTION'4.-A mixture of the coloring matter of blood beet,
carrot, and red cabbage, imparted to paper, gives pictures in red,
blue, yellow, and green; but the process is slow, and the results
not very good.
SECTION 5.-The juice of red tomato, or that of strawberries,
gives remarkable results when mixed in suitable proportions with
plain collodion, slightly tinctured with iodide of silver.  The
coloring matter should be extracted by alcohol, without much
bruising of the fruit, as, in the latter case, you get so much
water as to spoil the collodion.
SECTION 6. —Red Top Grass. The alcoholic tincture of the
10




1406                  mELIOCHROYr.
red tops of this grass, imparted to paper, will give good red and
blue, and sometimes all the colors. So, also, a mixture of freshly
prepared potato starch and pokeberry juice, will sometimes
give good results; but both processes are very slow, and I could
never quicken them.
SECTION 7.-Bittersweet, blackberries, and squawberries, form
a remarkable compound. Equal parts of their juices mixed, and
imparted to paper previously soaked in dilute muriate of tin,
have given me very brilliant colors.
SECTION 8.-I have found, in all these processes, great improvement by a' first soaking of the paper in weak alum water.
It seems almost to act as a mordant.




SILVERING PAP'ER.                    147
CHAPTER XI.
NATURAL COLORS ON PAPER.
Several methods of Silvering Paper.- Hydrogen Gas and Chloridated Paper.
-Chromate of Copper Paper: how developed.-Interesting process with
Chameleon Mineral, Chromate of Potash, Alum, and Nitrate of Silver.Litmus Paper rendered Heliochromic.-Paper Heliochromes intensified.
1. Silvering Paper.-Soak paper in a solution of nitrate of
silver, of the strength of 100 grains to 1 oz. of water.  While
moist, expose it in a jar of hydrogen gas or of phosphuretted
ether, until the silver is reduced. If well done the paper will
have a soft, silvery aspect, universally spread over its surface.
A  second soaking and exposure to the gas may be necessary.
Another method is to soak paper in the above solution of nitrate
of silver, and expose it while wet to direct sunshine, until the
reducing process is effected.  Or you may soak paper in iodide
of potassa, five or ten grains to the ounce of water, dry, and soak
in, or wash with the solution of nitrate of silver. Expose this
for a second to diffuse light, and reduce the surface to the
metallic state by soaking in a solution of proto-sulphate of iron,
twenty grains to one ounce of water. In all the above processes
the effect is better if the paper is previously glazed with a strong
solution of fish glue.  And strange as it may seem, the glue
has a powerful influence upon the subsequent coloration.
2. Papers prepared as above, may be submitted wet to chlorine
gas, in the jar containing a few drops of hydrofluoric acid.  Or
it may be soaked in a well filtered solution of chloride of lime,
to which some solution of blue vitriol and a little muriatic acid




148                     IELIOCROMY.r.
has been added. The soaking should be very brief, and the
paper rinsed in abundance of water, and dried.
3. Hydrogen Gas and Clhoridated Paper.-If after a sheet of
paper is impregnated with chloride of silver, by washing with
solution of common salt or other chloride, and then after drying
with nitrate of silver, it is exposed to hydrogen gas, it acquires
the property of being tinted by the colored rays. It is very
curious that this effect is greatly heightened and accelerated by
placing over the jar of hydrogen a deep red glass, and exposing
the arrangement to sunlight,  A  good method is to wet the
paper, and lay it on the under side of the glass. In this way
red sunlight will strike every part of the paper.
4. Chromate of Copper Paper. —Mix 1 oz. of a saturated solution of bi-chromate of potash with 2 drs. of sulphate of copper,
dissolved in 1 oz. of water. After shaking, filter the solution,
and wash paper with the same. Dry and expose to a colored
image, until a negative image appears, and develope by means of
washing different parts with solutions of nitrate of silver of
different strengths.'In this way you will produce a great range
of colors, from  light yellow to a deep red.  This process is
decidedly pretty, and really beautiful pictures may be obtained
by taking some pains.
5. The " Chameleon process."-Soak paper in a weak solution
of " Chameleon mineral," dry; soak in a half saturated solution
of bi-chromate of potash; dry; soak in a strong solution of
alum; dry; soak in a solution of nitrate of silver-one grain to
an ounce of water-and dry. This paper, if the proportions
are proper, affords interesting effects.  The process is very
slow.
5. The common blue litmus paper gives evidence of colorific
properties, after treatment, first, with muriatic acid, and then
with nitrate of silver. After the picture is formed, a characteristic effect is produced by touching parts of the image with a
solution of carbonate of soda. The effect may be varied by




PAPER HELIOCHROMES INTENSIFIED.           149
using a variety of alkalies, as potash, hyposulphite of soda,
ammonia, &c.
I have invariably found that these pictures may be greatly intensified by immersion in a bath of sel d'or (hyposulphite of
gold), after which, long soaking in water fixes the images.




150 E(mLOCHIOMST.
C IAPTE R XII.
HELIOCHROMES ON TEXTILE FABRICS.
Beautiful process on Cotton Cloth, Linen, or Silk, applied to the manufacture
of Window Shades, and other Transparencies, in Colors.-Silk prepared with
Nitrate of Silver and Per-muriate of Tin, and the picture developed with a
compound of Chromic Acid.
1. Notuing can exceed in beauty some results I have obtained
on cotton cToth, linen, silk, velvet, wood, and ivory. I proceed
substantiallTy as follows, viz:-I first imbue the substance with
hot fish glue, and dry.  Then I immerse it in a solution of sal
ammoniae —ten grains to one ounce of water, and dry. It is then
ready for the nitrate of silver bath, which should be of the
strength of 100 grs. to 1 oz. of water.  It is better to soak the
article in this solution gently warmed. While wet, expose for
one or two seconds to diffuse light, and then immerse in a solution
of proto-sulphate of iron, 40 grs. to 1 oz. of water.  Rinse in
water, and soak for a few minutes in a solution of cyanide of
potash-5 grs. to I oz. of water. Rinse, dry, and immerse for a
few seconds only, in a solution of 1 oz. of sulphate of copper,
and dry.  Then immerse in muriatic acid, diluted with five parts
of water, rinse, dry, and heat the article until it takes on a reddish brown hue. It is then ready to receive a superposed colored
picture, which must be pressed closely upon it by a plate of glass,
and exposed to direct sunshine for a period ranging from  five
minutes to half an hour.  Soaking in water, to which a very
little ammonia is added, is all that is necessary to fix the pictures.
2. White silk, sensitized with muriate of tin and nitrate of




IELIOCHROlM ON TEXTILE FABRICS.           151
silver, is susceptible of lively coloration, by a much shorter
exposure to light.
3. The chromate of copper process described in the preceding
chapter, may be turned to good account in its application to
window shades, and other transparencies. After the picture is
finished, the cloth may be rendered transparent by saturating it
with a solution of equal parts of gum arabic, gum tragacauth,
and white sugar.
The chromate of copper preparation described in the preceding
chapter, is beautifully applicable to the same purpose.




152                     LEELTOCm0 MYo
CHAPTE-R XIII.
NATURAL COLORS ON GLASS.
Albuminate of Silver. — 3lue Collodion — The Chromates and Collodion. —Beautiful Silvering of Collodion by precipitation of the metal.-Splendid Scarlet
Red.-Coating of Collodion bleached by light, and giving colors in great
strength and purity.-Method of developing these Pictures.
1. Allnbminate of Silver. —Beat up to a froth the whites of 12
fresh hens' eggs mixed with one-fourth their bulk of water.  Let
this settle for 24 hours-decant the clear liquor-dissolve in it 60
grains chloride of baryta, and 20 grains of chloride of soda
(common salt), and strain through fine muslin.  Coat a clean glass
with this mixture in the same way as you would with collodion.
After it has drained a few minutes, heat the glass over a spirit
lamp about as hot as you can bear your band upon it. Let it
cool, and immerse it in a bath of nitrate of silver, made il the
following proportions:Nitrate of silver, 60 grains.
Water, 1 ounce.
Acetic acid, 1 drachm.
Hydrofluoric acid, 5 drops.
Keep the glass in this solution until the albumen appears a fine
milk white. Expose this to diffuse light for about a minutecover the plate with a solution made thus:
Saturated solution-of gallic acid, I oz.
Nitrate of silver solution, 10 grains to I oz. water,
20 or 30 drops.
This will produce an intense blackness over the entire coating.




NATURAL COLORS ON GLASS.               15i3
Rinse the glass, soak a few minutes in a solution of hyposulphite
of soda-1 oz. to 3 oz. of wat'er-rinse, dry, and immerse the
glass a few minutes in a bath made thus:Black oxyde of copper 1 oz.
Mfuriatic acid 4 ounces.
Dissolve the oxyde by the aid of heat.
Dilute the solution with 6 ounces of water, and
filter.
After immersion in this bath, and rinsing, dry and heat the glass
until it takes a pink hue.
This process gives very fine pictures; but it works slow, and
I have not attained certainty with it.
2. Blue Collodion.-The ordinary collodion may be blued by
impregnating it with chlorine gas. It should be done by injecting chlorine gas into a bottle of collodion. This collodion should
be kept closely corked. A slight amount of bi-chromate of potash
should be added to it-say half a grain of the salt dissolved in
the least possible quantity of water-to every 5 ounces of the
collodion. Coat a glass with this in the usual way, and immerse
it in a bath of nitrate of silver, 50 grains to loz. of water. When
the greasy look disappears from the glass, let it drain about one
minute, and cover its surface with a solution of fish glue, and
expose to a colored image.
3. Silvered Coliodion.-Sensitize ordinary collodion, by adding
to each ounce, 12 grains of iodide of potash, dissolved in the least
possible quantity of water. Let it settle, after the addition of
one drop of muriatic acid, and thorough shaking. Dip this in
the above-described silver bath, for five minutes; expose to light
a few minutes, place it on a level support, and cover it with a
solution of alnmonio-nitrate of silver, made as follows:Nitrate of silver, 25 grs., dissolved in water, 1 oz.
Add ammonia, until a precipitate is formed and just redissolved, and then add 5 grains more of nitrate of
silver to secure an excess.




154                   HELIOCUROMY.
Tothis mixture, add three drops oil.of lavender, 2 drops
oil of cassia, dissolved in 1 drachm of alcohol.
After covering the glass with this solution, drop upon it a
few drops oil of cloves, dissolved in a little alcohol. Apply a
gentle heat, and in a few minutes the collodion will be saturated
with a coating of pure silver. Rinse and dry. Pour over it a
solution of sulphate of copper, 40 grains to one oz. water, to
which is added 50 drops of muriatic acid. Rinse and dry.
4. Scarlet Collodion. —Submit the plate just described to an
oven heat of about 200~ Fahr., until it acquires a brown hue.
Then expose it under a ruby-red glass, to direct sunlight, until
it has a scarlet color. It is then ready for the camera, or for a
superposed colored picture. By a sufficiently long exposure, you
will obtain a brilliant coloration, almost equal to what may be
produced on plates.
By soaking the glass in weak ammonia, nearly saturated with
iodide of silver, you may develope a picture after a very brief
exposure.
I have worked the above process but little. It is new. But
I have no doubt that this, or a modification of this process, will
yet be the "ne pl2s ultra" of Heliochromy. It is yet a germbut in skilful hands it will grow up a tree of mighty branchesa plant of renown and heaftty, that will spread itself over the
whole earth.




THE IHILLOTYPE.                 155
CHAPTER XIV.
THE HILLOTYPE.
As a Formula.-The Formula explained.-My method of working the Formula.
THIS name —" The Hillotype "-was first given to my process
by S. D. Humphrey, Esq., editor of the Daguerrean Journal. He
did so on his own responsibility. I called it, from the first, " The
Heliochrome."  Mlr. Humphrey's godfather-ship has, however,
been universally adopted by the public. I am now to detail the
process known by Mr. Humphrey's cognomen, and will do so.
I. —AS A FORMULA.
1. Thoroughly clean a good daguerreotype plate, by means
of rotten stone and alcohol. Polish with buckskin and calcined
lampblack. Rouge is detrimental. For ordinary experimenting,
you may omit the polishing.              )
2. Electrotype the plate till its surface assumes a deep blue.
The ordinary cyanide of silver solution is far inferior to the fol.
lowing: —3ix solutions of the cyanides of silver, copper, and
zinc, in the proportion of 8 parts of silver, 2 of copper, and 1 of
zinc. Use two pair of Daniels batteries, and proceed in every other
respect as for electrotyping an ordinary daguerreotype plate.
3. Rinse and dry the plate. If you use artificial heat to dry
the plate, let the latter get cold before the next operation.
4. Place the plate on a level support, and cover it with a well
filtered solution of nitrate of mercury —1 grain )of the salt to 20




1506                  IIELIOCHRIOMY.
oz. of water. Let this remain on about half a minute. Pour it
off and thoroughly rinse the plate, then cover it with a solution
of sel d'or (hyposulphite of gold), 20 grains to one quart water,
and let this remain on the plate about one minute. Rinse and
dry, and again place the plate in the silver solution until it is
slightly changed-say from one to five minutes-according to the
strength of the solution. Rinse and dry, and buff to a polish,
using calcined lampblack instead of rouge.
5. Now coat the plate over a jar of chloride of iodine —1 oz.
chloride to 8 oz, water, until it assumes a bright pink color. Expose the plate a moment to diffuse light, or place it in a camera
directed to a white screen as long -as you would for a portrait,
and then place the plate over mercury, heat to 170~ Fah., for
about three minutes. Wash with hyposulphite of soda-or, what
is better, cyanide of potash, as you would for a Daguerreotype
picture; rinse with water, and gild in the usual way with chloride
of gold, or sel d'or. Rinse and dry. If you have exposed long
enough to light, your plate will now have a bluish light cast, or
solarization, similar to overdone linen in a Daguerreotype.
The whole of the above process will occupy but little more
time than is required for producing and finishing'an ordinary
daguerreotype picture.
6. Expose the plate, prepared as above, in a jar of chlorine
gas, until it takes on a faint yellow the second time. Keep the
plate in this state,in total darkness, until wanted for use. It
greatly improves by keeping. The chlorine for fthe above coating
I conveniently procure as follows, viz: —I wet several folds of
cotton cloth with dilute sulphuric acid, and place them in the
bottom of a deep jar. On these I spread one thickness of cotton
flannel, dry, and over that I sprinkle about a teaspoonful of dry
chloride of lime, and immediately close the jar. In a few minutes
a sufficiency of chlorine gas will be evolved to coat the plate.
The action will be mild and uniform.
7. Prepare the following "singular compound:" —In a quart
bottle place 4 oz. of common salt, 4 oz. of blue vitriol, each well




THE HILLOTYPE.                   15T
pulverized, and add 16 oz. of water heated to 122~ to 140~ Fah.
Shake well for five minutes, with the bottle well stopped. Set it
aside to cool. When perfectly cold there should be a deposit of
sulphate of soda. If there is not, place the mixture in an
evaporating dish, and by means of a water bath, slowly evapo'
rate, until, on cooling, a deposit of sulphate of soda takes
place. Then decant the clear liquid into a clean bottle with a
wide mouth. Fit into the mouth of the bottle the beak of a lead
retort. In the retort place 2 oz. of fluoride of calcium, and 4 oz.
of sulphuric acid, and apply a very gentle heat. The beak of the
lead retort must dip into the liquid in the bottle, and the stem
passed tightly through a well fitted cork. In a few minutes the
liquid in the bottle will become saturated with fluo-hydric acid.
The fumes of this acid are intensely poisonous, and the operation
should be conducted with extreme caution. When the operation
is over, let the retort cool, and immediately wash it with abundance of water. To preserve the liquid, it should be transferred
to a gutta percha bottle. After the transfer, add to the liquid 4
oz. of pure muriatic acid, and 2 oz. black oxyde of copper. Cork
tight, and let it stand at least 48 hours, with occasional shaking.
Now mix, in an evaporating dish, 1 oz. of peroxyde of iron,
(common rouge), 5 oz. of pure muriatic acid, and ~ oz. of yellow
ochre, and apply heat until a deep yellow liquid is formed. Filter into a glass bottle, and add - oz. of boracic acid, 60 grains of
phosphate of soda, 30 grains of per-manganate of potash, 2 oz. of
the fuming liquid of Libavius (made by saturating nitro-muriatic
acid with tin by the aid of heat), 5 drops of pure bromine, and 3
grains of iodine. Agitate the mixture for about ten minutes, and
add it to the other bottle. Shale well and filter. Place the
clear liquid in a large earthen glass, or gutta percha platter, and
keep it in sunlight until the watery portion is evaporated. The
bottom of the dish will be covered with clusters of brilliant, green,
needleform crystals. Collect, and keep these in a well stopped
bottle. When you wish to form a bath for coating plates, dissolve 2 oz. of these crystals in 4 oz. of water, and add 1 oz. of




158                   -[ELIoCLHOiOMY.
pure muriatic acid, 1 grain of bi-chromate of potash, 3 grains of
sel d'or, and - oz. of hydrofluoric acid. Shake well, and filter.
Place this in an earthen glass, or gutta percha platter-tilt the
platter.so as to gather the liquid in one end of the dish-lay the
plate prepared as in sec. 6, on the bottom of the platter, and
lower the latter in such a way as to secure an even, flow of the
chemical over the plate. Suffer the plate to remain from 3 to 10
minutes, or until it appears nearly black. This should be done
by the light of a candle only. Now rinse the plate freely with
water, and dry it off with a spirit lamp, as you would finish a
daguerreotype. In this state the plate will reproduce the colors,
by a prolonged exposure to light, as you will see by pressing
upon it a colored engraving by means of a plate of glass, and
placing it in sunlight. Many of my experiments were performed
in this stage of the process.
8. To render a plate, prepared as above, exquisitely sensitive,
you have only to immerse it a few seconds in the following preparation, rinse, and dry. In 1 oz. of aqua ammonia dissolve 6
grains of gallic acid, add to this 1 drachm hydrosulphuret of ammonia, ~ oz. common salt, 1 drachm each of strong essence of lavender,
cassia, and cloves, 2 drachms of grape sugar, 50 grains of fluoride
of potash, 10 grains hyposulphite of copper, and a quart of
water. This preparation may be used in a platter like the preceding. When not in use, it should be kept well corked. Its
use gave me a great step in advance. It not only quickens the
process, but adds greatly to the strength and truthfulness of the
coloration.
9. A further great improvement in the strength and brilliancy
of the pictures results from modifying the coating of the plate, as
above prepared, by the application of heat, or by the action of
the orange rays of light, or by both combined. If the plate is
heated until it assumes a red, it gives the colors more brilliantly,
and the whites are always good. A plate which would not give
yellow and green, will give both after being exposed under a
deep orange glass, in the sun, for a few seconds.




THE HILLOTYPE.                  159
10. In forming a colored image on these plates direct, without
a developer, a prolonged exposure is required-from five minutes
to half an hour, in sunlight. Your true way will be to use the
process thus, by means of superposing colored engravings, or
other transparent objects, until you have thoroughly tested your
chemicals, and mastered the process of coating. Then you may
proceed to the work of developing the latent colored images,
which you will soon be convinced, are formed almost instantaneously. Phosphuretted and sulphuretted hydrogen, and especially a mixture of carburetted hydrogen, phosphuretted ether,
and ammoniacal gas, have the property of developing these
images. So, also, with hot aqua ammonia, nearly saturated with
hyposulphite of silver, and the combined vapors of burning copper, zinc, lead, and antimony. I make an alloy of these metals,
and vaporize this alloy in a mercury bath, heat over a small
charcoal furnace having a blast. The plate should be raised
about 18 inches from the bottom of the bath. My apparatus for
heating is an upright furnace, 10 inches in diameter. Attached
to one side is a two foot balance wheel over which passes a band
which turns a small shaft, and gives a rapid motion to a fan wheel
8 inches in diameter. The wheel is in a hollow disc having an
opening in its sides to let in air. This disc discharges the blast
through a tube entering the furnace. A common bellows, of
good size, will answer.
The ammonio-hyposulphite of silver, named above, I use in a
platter; placed over heat. It must be used at the temperature of
150~ to 1600 Fahr. The plate should be immersed in the liquid
for a few minutes only. In this way I have produced some very
fine results.
I use the mixed gases, above named, as follows. In a deep
jar I place a few sticks of phosphorus, and cover them with sulphuric ether. The fume arising from it is phosphuretted ether.
In the same jar I place a small bottle of aqua ammonia, and
into the lower part of the jar I inject a small stream of carburetted hydrogen, made by mixing in a retort 4 parts of oil of vitriol




160                     EELIOCHmOMY.
with one part of alcohol, and applying a gentle heat. The plate
should be held over this mixture for a period ranging from five
minutes to half an hour. You may observe the progress by the
light of a candle, screened by yellow glass or paper.
Phosphuretted and sulphuretted hydrogen (for the process of
making which see chapter on chemicals), I employ in a similar
manner, only the exposure need not be so long.
11. The final fixing and finish is given to these pictures as follows:
Dissolve in 1 quart water,
30 grs. hyposulphite of gold,
15 grs. chloride of zinc,
20 grs. sulphate of soda,
1 oz. sulphuric acid-pure.
Immerse the picture for a few minutes, or until a slight change
is apparent. Then rinse the picture, dry, and rub it with a buckskin buff. A little sweet oil will heighten the polish. If you
wish a dead surface, you have only to observe extreme cleanliness
in the whole process, and omit the final polish.
II.-THE FORMULA EXPLAINED.
1. The first preparation of the plate has for its object the production of a peculiar molecular arrangement in the particles composing the surface. On this one thing-molecular arrangementthe-whole phenomenon of coloration depends. Those who work
the process, are urged to keep in view the fact that this preliminary method greatly conduces to the final grand result.
2. The "Singular Compound," described above I will not
attempt to explain chemically. I will simply urge the absolute
necessity of a strict adherence to the formula, both as regards
manipulating, and the character of the chemicals. Lengthy as
the process may seem, it is very simple.




THE HILLOTYPE,                   106'1
3. The action of heat and of red light, in modifying the surface,
is, I think, to disintegrate the coating, and to give it a different
molecular structure. The result is an increase of sensitiveness;
and this alone would seem to account for the superiority of the
results, as to strength and brilliancy, and for the more certain
re-production of yellow and green.
4. The quickening agents I have named may be greatly varied.
The object of their use is to aid in reducing the silver compound
formed to that condition at which colors are formed. It is difficult to tell what the compound on the plate is, but it is a peculiar
compound of silver. Anything that will tend to reduce this salt
to the state, or to the point where color forms, will quicken the
process. Aldehide is one of the substances which deserve a tho,
rough trial.
5. The action of the developers may be explained in a similar
manner. I do not suppose that they produce color, but that they
continue the molecular transformation of the surface commenced
by the colored rays.
6. The fixing agent acts by way of deoxydizing the chemical surface. It also effects a partial decomposition of the surface,
and those combined chemical agents, such as Chlorine, Fluorine, &c., which would otherwise re-act upon the picture, and. destroy. All the pictures which I have treated thoroughly have
remained fadeless. Those which have been carelessly done, I-ave
faded very much, and some of them have deteriorated in darkness.
III.-MY METHOD OF WORKING THE FORMULA.
1. In the choice of chemicals I am scrupulously nice. I set
it down as a rule not to use a single chemical unless I am sure of
its good quality.
2. I am very particular as to the clearness of bottles, dishes,.
&c., used in making and mixing chemicals. A little neglect here
will defeat every other precaution. This is a hint of the utmost
importance. It cannot be neglected with impunity.
11



162                   IIELIOHIROMY.
3. I am equally particular in cleaning the plates. The polish
is not of so much consequence; but an absolutely clean surface
is indispensable. What I mean by a clean plate, is one free
from such impurities as will injure the chemical effect. I have
found no materials better than pure alcohol, good rotten stone, and
clean cotton wool. If' at any time you find a plate which has
become stained in such a way, as that scouring will not clean it,
heat it over a spirit lamp, until it whitens, and then scour it.
4. The chemicals I make in quantity-exactly in accordance
with the formula, as I have given for them.
5. I avoid haphazard experiments. I make up my mind at
night what experiment to try next day, and I stick to it till I
have found the bottom of the idea; or till I am obliged to abandon it. No progress can be made in any other way.
6. I adopt, as a thing of no small importance, the principle"creep before you walk."  Hence I begin to work in the direct
way —viz.-by superposing a colored print, and exposing until I
get a picture without a developer. In this way I learn whether
my chemical coating will give colors. This ascertained, I can
pass to the developer, the quickening process, &c.
7. Perseverance, I have found, is a cardinal virtue in an experimenter.  The moment we get discouraged, all progress is at an
end. I have persevered for about nine years in the face of difficulties sufficient'to appal stouter minds than mine, and all my success has depended upon my fixed purpose not to be foiled.
The foregoing statement of my formula, its explanation, and
my method of working the formula, I have given in such a way
as to avoid confusion, and at the same time to impart all necessary instruction. I have the fullest confidence in the success of
all who bring to the process the aid of skill, industry, and perseyerante.




MISCELLANY.                      163
CHAPTER XV.
MISCELLANY.
MIy Ambrotype Process-My Photographic Process-My Instantaneous Printing Process-My Transparency Process-My Toning Process.
THE Ambrotype process here detailed is my own. I invented
it in my own laboratory, before I heard of Mr. Cutting's success.
It in no way interferes with his patent. Others have invented
similar processes. Mir. Cutting doubtless invented his own. But
to say that he has priority over his fellow artists, is nonsense.
The more his claim is examined, the more absurd it appears. At
least, I will guarantee my process not to infringe his alleged
rights-and I will warrant it to work as good, if not better
than his.
MY AMBROTYPE PROCESS.
Chemicals and Fixtures.-I purchase all my chemicals of
Edwin Kent, 106 John Street, New York. Probably the stock
dealers generally can supply the required materials. The importance of perfectly pure chemicals cannot be over-stated.
One impure article will effectually prevent all success. The
necessity of great cleanliness follows, of course. A slovenly
manner of cleansing the bottles, dishes, etc., is equally fatal.
The water used must be pure and soft. Good rain or spring
water answers well.
Should any of my friends prefer to favor me with their orders,
I will supply them on the following terms. The articles, includ



164                    HELIOCHTROMYI
ing a complete outfit, in quantities sufficient for a good start in the
business, will be sent by express to any part of the country, on
the receipt of $15.  All articles sent, warranted to be of the
VERY BEST QUALITY. The following is a catalogue of said
materials:
Prepared cotton-Daguerreotype cotton aqswers.
Sulphuric acid-Chemically true.
Nitrate potash —Refined.
Sulphuric ether-Concentrated.
Alcohol-95 per cent.
Iodide potash.
Bromide potash.
Nitrate silver.
Nitric acid.
Acetic acid.
Proto-sulphate of iron.
Cyanide potash.
Bi-chloride of mercury.
Chloride of ammonium.
Enamel —for backing.
Black varnish.
Nitrate of silver bath-Gutta percha.
Dipping rod-           do.   do.
Litmus paper.
The above articles are what I furnish. In addition you will
require,
3 glass funnels.
I porcelain mortar and pestle.
3 or 4 earthen platters-large enough for your largest
size glass.
Half a dozen glass bottles-holding a quart each —with
narrow mouths-and 2 or 3 with wide mouths.
1 graduated glass.
To make the Collodion.-Pulverize very fine, in your mortar,
3 oz. nitrate potash. To this add 2~ fluid oz. sulphuric acid. Stir




IMISCELLANY.                    165
it well, and after a minute or two, add 90 grains cotton. Mash
this thoroughly for about 6 minutes. This should be done outdoors to avoid the fumes. Now take it out, with a strip of glass,
and place it in a large earthen bowl of water. Stir it about, and
keep changing the water, until a piece of litmus paper squeezed
between the cotton is not reddened. Then place the cotton in
the folds of a clean towel, and wring out the water.  Next soak
it in ether for a few minutes, and again wring. Repeat this two
or three times with fresh ether. Cutting uses alcohol. Or, you
may spread the cotton on clean paper, and dry it in the sun, or
near (but not too near) a fire.
NOTE.-Wash the acid out of the cotton as quickly as possible;
but be sure and get it all out, or you will fail in producing good
effects.
To Dissolve the Gun Cotton.-Mix in a perfectly clean bottle
(fluid measure,) 95 per cent. 6 oz. alcohol and 8 oz. sulphuric ether.
Also 10 oz. of ether, and 5 oz. alcohol, forms a good mixture.
Pull the cotton into shreds, add it to the mixture, and shake until
solution takes place. This is collodion. Let it settle a day or
two, and carefully decant for
lodizing.-In a deep bottle, (clean and dry,) place 40 drops of
pure soft water. Dissolve thoroughly in this, 20 grains bromide
of potash. Then dissolve in this 20 grains iodide of potash. If
the liquid turns milky, add water (by the single drop) until it is
clear, and the iodide perfectly dissolved. Add 8 oz. collodion,
and shake thoroughly. Let this settle about one day, and it is
fit for use.
Or, mix 2 oz. ether and 2 oz. 95 per cent. alcohol-add to this
equal weights of bromide of potash and iodide of potash, in quantity more than will dissolve.  Shake a long time —say one hour
— or until the liquid is saturated. Add the clear liquor to your
collo-dion, until the glass will coat, by subsequent dipping in the
silver bath, to a soft, creamy (not chalky) whiteness. This plan
leaves your collodion clear, and ready for use. Perhaps, however, the first is the best plan for a beginner. The collodion,




16 6                   I-IELIOCIoRoMY.
thus iodized, will turn red, from the effects of free iodine.  To
prevent this, or to restore it when reddened, keep a strip of
sheet zinc, well cleansed, in the bottle-say half an inch wide
and four or five inches long. In this way it will retain its working propensities for several months.
To quicken the collodion so that it will work instantaneous,
add to each oz. of it, after iodizing, I drop of iodide of iron, prepared thus:-In a 4 oz. bottle place 2 drachms ofiodine, 3 drachms
iron filings, or some clean iron wire, and 2 oz. of a half and half
mixture of alcohol and water.  Shake frequently for a day or
two, or until the liquid acquires a green tinge.  If the iron
should all dissolve, add more, so as to keep an excess of iron.
To Prepare the Silver Bath.-Measure off, in your graduated
glass, the number of ounces of water necessary to fill your bath
nearly full. Place this in a large bottle or pitcher, and dissolve
in it pure nitrate of silver, in the proportion of 30 grains to 1 oz.
water.  Saturate this with iodide of silver, made thus: —Dissolve
30 grains nitrate of silver in one or two oz. water; dissolve 40
grains iodide of potash in the same quantity of water. Mix, and
wash the precipitate in several waters. Decant the water, and
add the precipitate to your silver solution. Agitate for an hour
or two, filter (through clean paper, or cotton wool, previously
wet, and pressed loosely into your funnel), and add to each 2 oz.
of solution 1 drop of nitric acid. Your bath is now ready, and
will work well, if you add, once in a week or two, a few drops
of nitric acid. You can always test the acidity of your bath, by
dipping into it a piece of litmus paper. It should produce a decided reddening of the paper.
Filter your bath every three or four days. Keep it o'ut of the
light, as much as convenient, and never suffer a dirty glass, or
other impurity, to enter it.
Thle lDeveloper.-Provide a clean pint bottle, with a wide
mouth, and place in it 1I oz. grains proto-sulphate of iron, pulverized, and 14 oz. water. Shake till the salt is dissolved. Then
add 20 drops nitric acid, I oz. alcohol, and 3 oz. of acetic acid,




MIISCELLANY.                   167
and shake. Filter thoroughly through cotton or paper.  hVlen
this works weak, add a few grains proto-sulphate of iron. An
increase of the nitric acid gives more brilliant tones, but an excess of it produces fogging. - The developer improves by use.
The Fixing Bath.-In one quart of water dissolve 1 oz. cyanide of potash. In this dissolve 10 grains nitrate of silver and
3 grains chloride of gold.  Filter and keep in a platter (earthen
or gutta percha) for use.  It should fix the picture in 10 to 20
seconds. Occasionally add a small lump of cyanide of potash,
but do not use the, bath too strong. Or you may add strong
hyposulphite of soda solution.
Taking thePictures. —1. Cleanse and dry your glass thoroughly.
Nitric acid and a little rotten stone make the best cleaning and
scouring materials. MAix the two into a paste, and apply with a
swab. Rinse with water, and dry with a clean towel, kept for
the purpose. The best way is to clean and rinse a large number
at once. Let them drain and dry, and when you wish to use a
glass, rub it with a dry towel-frequently breathing on it, to
assist in detaching any remaining scurf. Dust it with a large
camel-hair brush.
2. Now seize the glass by one corner, between the thumb and
finger of the left hand, and, holding it level, pour upon the centre
a quantity of iodized collodion sufficient to spread over the whole
surface. Tilt the glass so as to spread the collodion to each corner. Then pour the excess back into the bottle, from the corner
opposite the thumb and finger. As the corner rests in the mouth
of the bottle, give it a tilting motion, to prevent the collodion
drying in lines. Hold the glass in the air for a minute or two, or
until the collodion appears neither wet nor dry, when it will have
some solidity, as you will perceive by pressing one corner of it
with your finger. It is -now ready for the silver bath.
3. Coating the glass may be done in the light, but in sensitizing
in the silver bath all daylight should be excluded. Place the
collodionized glass in your dipping rod, and immerse it with a
steady plunge in the silver bath. Leave it there about a minute,




1638                   IELIOCIIHRMY.
and examine it by the light of a candle or lamp. If it looks
greasy, return it to the bath, and move it up and down until the
greasy look is gone, and the coating assumes a bluish white,
creamy appearance. Then, or not long after, place it in the plate
frame, collodion side down, and cover the whole opening with a
clean black cloth (to shut out light from  the edges of the
glass) and then button it down with the cap. It is now ready
for the camera. Keep your plate frame, cap, and the cloth perfectly clean, otherwise it will soil the back of the glass, and soon
spoil your developer.
NOTE.-Nothing is. so good for the final cleaning of the glass
as a solution of cyanide of potash-say 10 grains to 1 oz. of water.
Rub it over the glass, and work it off with a clean towel, or good
tissue paper.
Developing.-Hold the glass over a platter, and pour the developer on one corner, in such a manner as to flow over tlhe surface
at once; or immerse it in the developer, and keep the platter
tilting, to prevent specks from settling. One or two minutes, and
a much shorter time where the glass has a very full exposure, is
a sufficient time to bring out the image in perfection. Sometimes
the developing solution will get out of order, without any apparent cause. In this case you had better make a fresh supply.
Always filter your developer for every glass.
IFixing Solution. —Lay the glass in this solution (which is best
used in a platter), and let the liquid flow over it, back and forth,
until the picture is cleared. The milky cloud which shows itself
under the operation of the solution, is your guide. When this is
all gone the operation is complete. Before immersing the glass
in this bath, and after taking it from the developer, rinse it well
with water. After fixing rinse again very thoroughly, and stand
up to dry, or dry with a spirit lamp.
Backing.-Pour upon the collodion side of the picture a quantity of mastic or other quick drying varnish, in the same way you
collodionize a glass. Let this dry, and repeat the operation with




MISCELLANY.                     169
black Japan varnish. You can then place the glass in a case, and
cover it with a mat.
Note.-Before applying the white varnish the glass should be
well warmed. In place of the black varnish, you may hold the
side having on the white varnish over burning turpentine. This
will strike into the white varnish and form a beautiful black
enamel. It has the advantage of never cracking.
MY PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESS.
I. For taking superb Negatives you have only to vary the
Ambrotype as follows:
1. Use a thicker collodion. This is secured by using less ether
and alcohol in dissolving the gun cotton-say 6 oz. of ether and
4 oz. of alcohol.
3. Time longer-say twice or three times longer —than for
Ambrotypes.
4. Leave on the developer much longer, as long as there is any
increase of strength to the picture, and then much longer-say
two or three minutes-that the picture may bear the action of the
fixing agent.
II. For printing paper Positives, proceed as follows:
1. Select the best Photographic paper.
2. Pass it two or three times through the salting solution and
hang it up to dry. No better salting solution can be made than
5 grains of common salt to 1 oz. of water. A quantity of this
solution-say 1 or 2 quarts-may be placed in an earthen platter
and the paper dipped a few times through it.
3. The silver solution is made thus: Dissolve 2 oz. nitrate of
silver in 16 oz. water; place one ounce of the solution in a separate vessel; add aqua ammonia to the 15 oz. till a precipitate
is formed and just re-dissolved, then add the other ounce of solution and shake; filter and place it in an earthen or guttapercha
platter. Float the best side of a sheet of salted paper on this
solution for five minutes and hang it up to dry. In placing the




170                     IIELIOCHROMY.
sheet on the solution hold it by two opposite corners, lower the
middle first and press down until the sheet lies flat; in this way
you will avoid air-bubbles.
4. Place the sheet of paper after it is well dried, the silvered
side up, on your printing frame,* lay your negative on it, collodion side down, and apply the springs to the side of the glass;
then place the arrangement in the sun, or in a strong light, and
examine it occasionally. When it is a little deeper than you
desire it to finish, remove it and it is ready for
MY TONING PROCESS.
1. Soak the picture five minutes in water, then rinse in fresh
water.
2. Place in a bath of 1 quart of water and 2 dms. aqua ammonia; watch it close, and as soon as it turns to a brick red tint,
and before it is weakened, place it in fresh water for a minute.
3. Remove it to a bath of 1 quart of water, 1 bottle of sel d'or,
and 2 dms. pure muriatic acid.
4. As soon as it acquires the desired tone place it in a solution
of hyposulphite of soda, 8 oz. to 1 quart of water.
5. In five or ten minutes place it in water, and keep renewing
the water for at least half an hour. Dry.
6. If you wish a glaze on the finished picture float it on a
strong, clear solution of fish glue, and hang it up to dry.
MY INSTANTANEOUS PRINTING PROCESS.
Carefully prepare the following solutions, and label them Nos.
1, 2, 3, 4.
No. 1. Water 16 oz., iodide of potash 80 grains. Float the
marked side of the sheet on this solution for two minutes, Dry.
No. 2. Water 16 oz., nitrate of silver 100 grains.; Printing Frames can be bought of the stock dealers.




MISCELLANY.                    171
No. 3. Water 16 oz., gallic acid as much as the water will
dissolve by long shaking. Mix a small quantity of these two
together, and float the paper on it two or three minutes. Do this
by the light of a distant candle, carefully excluding all other
light. Dry. In this state the paper will keep in the dark for a
long time. It will be of a light yellow color.
No. 4. Water 8 oz., nitrate of silver 300 grains, acetic acid
half an ounce. Float the paper on this a few minutes-from 2 to
5; dry it off between several changes of blotting paper, or let it
dry spontaneously. It is now ready for the printing frame.
Expose to light from one second to one minute, and proceed to
develope by floating the paper on or washing with either No. 5
or No. 6.
No. 5. Saturated solution of gallic acid 1 oz., aceto-nitrate of
silver (No. 4), 2 drachms. Mix, and use immediately.
No. 6. Water 16 oz., proto-sulphate of iron 300 grains, acetic
acid 1 oz., alcohol 1 oz., nitric acid 50 drops.
As soon as the picture is sufficiently developed place it in water
for a few minutes, and then in a solution of hyposulphite of soda
-10 oz. of the salt to 20 oz. of water. Let it remain in this for
10 minutes or half an hour. Remove it to a dish of water, and
change the water repeatedly for an hour. Dry and finish as
usual.
MY TRANSPARENCY PROCESS.
These pictures are very beautiful and may be used for a variety of purposes. They are best seen by transparency, in other
words by holding them up to the light and looking through them.
With a black ground under the glass they show as negatives, but
a white ground makes them positive.
These pictures are the best magic lantern sliders ever used.
A landscape view, magnified by a lantern and thrown upon
a screen, has all the appearance of nature. The pictures can
be readily colored by the use of the transparent colors, and




172                  IHELIOCHROMY.
then they are an infinite advance on the old daubs commonly
used for phantasmagoria.
The following is my method of producing these gems. Collodionize a glass as for a negative photograph-that is, proceed in
every respect as directed under the Ambrotype process, only use
thick collodion. On this glass procure a good negative of the
object you wish in transparency-say a landscape or living person.
Now prepare another glass in the same way. Have your negative placed upright in a strong light-say in a window so you
can look through it. Place your quarter camera tube on your
whole size box, and focus the negative on the ground glass the
size you wish the picture, and insert your collodionized glass in
the usual way. Expose a sufficient time to cause the picture to
develope almost instantly.
The developer I use is prepared thus:
Water 1 oz.,
Pyro-gallic acid 2 or 3 grains,
Acetic acid 1 drachm.
Or you may use the proto-sulphate of iron as directed for Ambrotypes; but the pyro-gallic acid is much the best.
The fixing is done in the way directed for Ambrotypes. Then,
after rinsing the picture, if you pour upon it a solution of sel d'or,
1 bottle to 25 oz. of water, and let this remain on a few minutes,
you will. find an astonishing improvement in the strength and
tone of the picture.
This is the whole process. Nothing can be more simple, and
as for the results they will speak for themselves.
I have referred to the use of these pictures for magic lantern
sliders. Without any doubt a collection of views, portraits,
insects, animals, birds, fish, microscopic objects, &c. &c., could
be got together with but little expense, and form an exhibition of the most interesting character, which would be a fortune
to any enterprising person who would go through the country
with it.




MISCELLANY.                    173
I will name another application of the process. What could
be more excquisitely beautiful than these pictures taken on large
glass and used in windows, in place of the clumsily wrought
devices we often seel They would sell extensively for'this
purpose.




174                    HELIOCHROMY.
CHAPTER XVI.
DESCRIPTION OF TIIE PHOTOGRAPHS.
The House-The Village-The Author.
1. The lHouse.-What shall I say of the house? I have lived in
it twenty-one years. " Of course," says the reader, " you must
have liked it." That's true-and I do still, not because of its
fine model, however; that, be it observed, is not exactly auf.ait.
I will tell you how it came to be modelled after this fashion.
The house originally consisted of a story and a half and a wing.
The other main part was built in another part of the lot, and I
occupied it as a printing office. Little did I then dream, as I
pursued my daily toil at " type-sticking," that I would afterwards stick natural colors on silver plates in the same building.
Well, having no more use for it as a printing office I " made a
bee," and had it moved to where you now see it; the skylight
I added afterwards. All told, this is a very convenient domicile.
I shall soon leave it for another home; and I part with it as I
would with an old friend. It has sheltered me and mine from
many a summer solstice and many a wintry blast, and I love it
for what it has done for me; and I, at least, admire this picture
of it.
2. The VTilage.-The photograph presents a view of the village from the mouth of the remarkable mountain pass called the
" big hollow."  Those who have visited Westkill, will at once
recognise the view here presented. Westkill is truly " inclosed
around about" by mountains; these mountains are branches of the




DESCRIPTION OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS.           175
Catskill. Our village lies about 20 miles south-west of the
" Mountain House." For true romantic beauty it cannot be surpassed. In the summer it is not only beautiful but remarkably
healthy; in winter the climate is severe and changeable, and the
whole aspect of the place is that of extreme dreariness. I can
speak of the society as being, on the whole, remarkably good.
3. T]he Portrait.-The most I can say of this is that it is a
pretty good fac-simile of the author's face. I cannot call it a very
good-looking phiz; still, if you could add life to this photograph
you would see it is not so bad.
THE END.