Journal of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects

Call Number
N 720.6 ROY
Created/Published
Melbourne : R.V.I.A., 1929-1942
Issue
Vol. 33, No. 4 (September 1935)
Images
16
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Text

JOURNAL  

OF THE ROYAL VICTORIAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS  

Vol. XXXIII  

Melbourne, September, 1935  

No.  

NEW PREMISES  

FOR KODAK (AUSTRALASIA) PTY. LTD.  

252 COLLINS STREET, MELBOURNE  

these enlightened days, so much is taken for granted,  

that it is small wonder that we have no time to  

pause and examine the more interesting products of  

our civilization. little thought will convince us  

that inventions are being introduced every day, that to  

the eyes of our grand-parents, would have appeared  

astonishing indeed. They would have seemed miracles!  

The story of the romance of photography —a twentieth  

century marvel—reads like fairy tale. Little more;  

than half century ago, many landscape photographers  

had to use vehicles to transport their outfits. Those  

who practised the art professionally, had, usually, cum-  

bersome cameras which were set up on tripods; light-  

proof tents and complete outfits of chemicals and uten-  

sils for the conducting of the necessary operations. Many  

of the enthusiastic amateurs of those times had also to  

carry an alarming array of appliances. Now-a-days,  

when almost every family includes at least one photo-  

grapher, and when many miles of photographic material  

are exposed in Victoria during every holiday season, the  

complete outfit is so portable as to be capable of being  

carried in one’s pocket or in woman’s vanity case!  

The magic wand which has made this phenomenal  

change possible, was the introduction of "emulsion  

photography.’’ In the earliest years of the photographic  

art, the "daguerreotype” and "talbotype” processes (the  

former of which utilised silver-plated sheet of copper,  

and the latter, piece of paper coated with iodide of  

silver) were the recognised means used, but revolu-  

tion was brought about by the introduction of the wet  

colodion process which rendered it possible to greatly  

reduce the time necessary for the production of photo-  

graph; this was the sheet anchor of the professional  

photographer for about 30 years. It was used practically  

exclusively by professional photographers.  

Among amateurs, however, many substitutes were  

adopted. Nearly the whole of these consisted of an  

ordinary wet collodion plate which, up to the point of  

using it in the camera, was prepared exactly as before,  

but at that stage, the free silver nitrate solution which  

remained upon it after withdrawal from the sensitising  

solution, was washed off, the plate coated with pre-  

servative (coffee, tea, tannin and other like materials),  

dried and used in the dry state. The sensitive plates  

prepared thus, were much less sensitive to light than  

when used in the original wet state but their great  

convenience commended them to the amateur and much  

beautiful work was done upon them. Another step  

forward was taken when in the year 1864 B. J. Sayce  

and W. B. Bolton, members of the Liverpool Amateur  

Photographic Association, introduced at meeting of  

the Society, an entirely new system, They shewed work  

done on plates which had been coated with collodio-  

bromide of silver emulsion, which were seen to be so  

great an improvement that the use of them became  

almost general among amateurs and eventually, the  

gelatino-bromide of silver emulsion was evolved. That,  

however, was in the hands of only few, until one  

day, at photographic society meeting, Mr. Chas. Ben-  

nett, of London (an amateur), astonished everyone by  

the exhibition of photographic negatives which had  

manifestly received such brief exposures in the camera,  

that those who were present hardly believed their eyes.  

Mr. Bennett generously gave full description of the  

means which he had adopted in order to produce these  

remarkable results, and gelatino-bromide of silver at  

once leaped into prominence. For few years (in the  

late 70’s and early 80’s of last century) accomplished  

amateurs and technical chemists did an enormous  

amount of work in the development of the process and  

as the preparation of the material was gradually ren-  

dered fairly easy then, the professional chemist took  

the place of the investigating amateur and the dry-plate  

factory appeared. (It may be mentioned that there  

are, in Melbourne and in other parts of the world,  

to-day, practitioners who not only prepared the present-  

Cite

Citation options:
Work identifier

http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-405731761

APA citation

Royal Institute of British Architects & Royal Victorian Institute of Architects. (1929). Journal of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects Retrieved April 12, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-405731761

MLA citation

Royal Institute of British Architects and Royal Victorian Institute of Architects. Journal of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects Melbourne: R.V.I.A, 1929. Web. 12 April 2025 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-405731761>

Harvard/Australian citation

Royal Institute of British Architects & Royal Victorian Institute of Architects. 1929, Journal of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects R.V.I.A, Melbourne viewed 12 April 2025 http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-405731761

Wikipedia citation

{{Citation
  | author1=Royal Institute of British Architects.
  | author2=Royal Victorian Institute of Architects.
  | title=Journal of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects.
  | year=1929
  | section=13 v. : ill. ; 28 cm.
  | issue=Vol. 33, No. 4 (September 1935)
  | location=Melbourne
  | publisher=R.V.I.A
  | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-405731761
  | id=nla.obj-405731761
  | access-date=12 April 2025
  | via=Trove
}}

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