Victorian Observing Practices,Printing Technology,and Representations of the Solar Corona,(2): The Age of Photomechanical Reproduction

Archives cited:

CAY: Charles Augustusa Young Papers, Dartmouth College Library.

JNL: J. Norman Lockyer Papers, Rare Book Room, Exeter University Library.

RAS: Library of the Royal Astronomical Society, London.

ROE: Library of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.

RSL: Library of the Royal Society, London.

Daston Lorraine and Galison Peter , “The image of objectivity”, Representations, xl (1992), 81–128.

For contemporary expressions of the new gulf between photography and drawing, see Common Andrew , “Note on a photograph of the great nebula in Orion and some new stars near φ Orionis”, Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society [hereafter: MNRAS], xliii (1883), 255–7; Gill David , “The application of photography in astronomy”, The observatory, x (1887), 267–72, 283–94; “Astronomical photography”, Edinburgh review, vii (1888), 138–53, 181–91. See also Gingerich Owen (ed.), The general history of astronomy, iv: Astrophysics and twentieth-century astronomy to 1950, Part A (Cambridge, 1984), part I; Lankford John , “Amateurs and astrophysics: A neglected aspect in the development of a scientific specialty”, Social studies of science, xi (1981), 275–303; Schaffer Simon , “Astronomers mark time: Discipline and the personal equation”, Science in context, ii (1988), 115–45. For the American case, see Rothenberg Marc , “Organization and control: Professionals and amateurs in American astronomy, 1899–1918”, Social studies of science, xi (1981), 305–25.

Foster Michael to Foster Michael , 19 March 1894; Foster to Foster , 28 April 1894, copied in Solar Eclipse Committee Minutes, 2 May 1894 (RAS 54.1).

Seven JPEC members were past or future RAS presidents, four were Gold Medal winners, and six were treasurers or secretaries; five were also members of the Royal Society's Government Grants Committee (Board B), which evaluated research proposals in experimental physics, astronomy, and meteorology. For RAS officers and medal winners, see Dreyer J. L. E. and Turner H.H. (eds), History of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1820–1920 (1923; repr. London, 1987), 250–53; on the Government Grants Committee, “Government Grant Committee Minutes” (RSL, CBM.66.C) and “Government Grant Committee Minutes, Board B” (RSL, CBM. 1336–1); MacLeod Roy , “The Royal Society and the Government Grant: Notes on the administration of scientific research, 1849–1914”, Historical journal, xiv (1971), 323–58.

Turner to Turner , 28 February 1894, copied in Solar Eclipse Committee Minutes, 2 May 1894 (RAS 54.1).

Copeland Ralph , “Total solar eclipse of January 22, 1898”, MNRAS, app. to vol. lviii (1898), 21–26; Curtis Heber D. , “The U.S. Naval Observatory eclipse expedition to Sumatra”, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, xiii (1901), 205–13; Eddy John , “The Schaeberle 40-foot eclipse camera of Lick Observatory”, Journal for the history of astronomy, ii (1971), 1–22.

The cameras and their use are described in Lockyer N. , “Eclipse notes”, Nature, 20 April 1882, 577; Darwin L. Schuster Arthur , and Maunder Walter E. , “On the total solar eclipse of August 29, 1886”, Philosophical transactions, ser. A, clxxx (1889), 291–350, pp. 302, 311, 342, 345; Turner H. H. , “Report of the Eclipse Committee of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1889 October 3”, MNRAS, I (1889), 2–8; Christie William H. M. and Turner H. H. , “Report on the expedition to Sahdol”, MNRAS, app. to vol. lviii (1898), 1–21, pp. 10, 14; Hills Edmond H. and Newall Hugh F. , “Total solar eclipse of 1898, January 22: Preliminary report on the observations made at Pulgaon, India”, ibid., 43–61, pp. 48–50; Ball Stawell Robert Sir , In the high heavens (London, 1901), 84–87, 91.

Christie W. H. M. Turner H. H. , and Hills E. H. , “The total solar eclipse of 1896, August 9”, MNRAS, lvii (1897), 95–111, pp. 105–6; Christie and Turner , “Report on the eclipse expedition to Sahdol” (ref. 7), 5–9. The instrument was a gift to the Royal Observatory from Sir Henry Thompson, a distinguished surgeon who was a major supporter of astrophysical research at Greenwich: See Meadows A. J. , Greenwich Observatory, ii; Recent history (1836–1975) (London, 1975), 13.

Copeland to JPEC, 14 May 1898 (ROE 34.257, Letterbook 1896–1911).

On the design and use of coelostats, see Turner , “Some notes on the use and adjustment of the coelostat”, MNRAS, lvi (1896), 408–23; Plummer H. C. , “Notes on the coelostat and siderostat”, MNRAS, lxv (1905), 485–501.

On the place (or absence) of visual observation in eclipse plans, see Eclipse Committee minutes, 9 July 1885, 15 April 1886 (RSL, CMB.2, “Miscellaneous Committees 1869–1884”); Turner , “Report of the Eclipse Committee of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1889 October 3” (ref. 7), 3–5; Common A. A. , “Report of the Joint Solar Eclipse Committee … for the observation of the solar eclipse of 1893 April 16”, MNRAS, 1 (1894), 404–8. Streamer observations are discussed in “The total solar eclipse of 1886”, Nature, 23 September 1886, 497–9; “The recent solar eclipse”, Nature, 11 May 1893, 40–42, p. 41; “The approaching solar eclipse”, The observatory, xix (1896), 293–8, p. 294; Lockyer N. , “The total solar eclipse of August 9, 1896: Report on the expedition to Kiö Island”, Philosophical transactions, ser. A, cxc (1900), 1–21, p. 14–16; idem, “What the ‘Meipomenes’ did at Viziadrug”, Journal of the Royal United Service Institution, 15 August 1899, 861–77, espec. pp. 864–7.

Eddy , “The Schaeberle 40-foot eclipse camera of Lick Observatory” (ref. 6), 7.

Turner to Turner , 4 September 1898 (JNL, “Lockyer Letters”, File T); Copeland R. , “The total solar eclipse of 21 January 1898, with some account of solar observations generally”, handwritten ms. of lecture, n.d. (ROE, 36.300), 19.

For the absence of emotion during totality see de William W. Abney Captain , “Total eclipse of the Sun observed at Caroline Island, on 6th May 1883”, Philosophical transactions, ser. A, clxxx (1889), 119–35; Darwin Schuster , and Maunder , “On the total solar eclipse of August 29, 1886” (ref. 7); Lockyer , “Total eclipse of the Sun, May 28, 1900”, Philosophical transactions, ser. A, cxcviii (1902), 375–415; Newall Hugh , “Total solar eclipse of 1901, May 17–18”, Royal Society proceedings, cxix (1902), 209–34; Dyson Frank , “Total eclipse of the Sun, 1901, May 18”, ibid., 235–46; Maunder Edward , “Total eclipse of the Sun, 1901, May 18”, ibid., 247–61; Maunder Anne , “Preliminary note on observations of the total eclipse of the Sun, 1901, May 18”, ibid., 261–6. Volunteer observers who accepted positions that prevented them from seeing the eclipse were praised for their dedication to science: See Campbell Wallace William , “A general account of the Lick Observatory-Crocker eclipse expedition to India”, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, x (1898), 127–40, pp. 138–9.

This argument is inspired by Daston and Galison , “The image of objectivity” (ref. 1), 103–4, 117–23.

Maunder Walter E. , (ed.), The Indian eclipse 1898 (London, 1899), 87–88.

Moore Keatley H. , in ibid., 9, 91–93, 153–4; quote on p. 93.

The BAA's program was imitated by other parties: See for example Burton Alfred E. , “The MIT eclipse expedition to Washington, Ga.”, Technology review, July 1900, 193–213, pp. 203–5.

The importance of recognizing the difference between the impact of photography in making observations, and its impact in reproduction, has been established by Blum Shelby Ann , Picturing nature: American nineteenth-century zoological illustration (Princeton, N.J., 1993), esp. chap. 7.

Cronenberg Wilhelm , Half-tone on the American basis (transl. by Gamble William ) (London, 1896), 49; for opinions of dry plates in Edinburgh printers, see Smyth to Charles A. Young, 10 August 1887 (CAY, Box 7, File 116, “Smyth, Charles Piazzi”).

Jenkins H. , A manual of photoengraving: Containing practical instructions for producing photoengraved plates in relief-line and half-tone (Chicago, 1902), 55–57.

Cronenberg , Half-tone on the American basis (ref. 20), 112–15; Jenkins , A manual of photoengraving (ref. 21), chap. 9.

Jenkins , A manual of photoengraving (ref. 21), 86–89; Elson Walter Alfred , “The reproductive processes of the graphic arts”, Part IV of his Lectures on printing (Cambridge, Mass., 1912), p. 30.

Jussim Estelle , Visual communication and the graphic arts (New York, 1983), 133, 140; see also Gascoigne Bamber , How to identify prints: A complete guide to manual and mechanical processes from woodcut to ink-jet (New York, 1986), sec. 37–39.

Edwards Ernest , “The art of making photo-gravures”, Anthony's photographic bulletin, 25 March 1887, 367–70; 1 April 1887, 400–3; and 8 April 1887, 430–2, pp. 430, 431.

The first were copies of silver positives of the Pleidaes and Andromeda made by E. E. Barnard, and were printed by the Direct Photo Engraving Co., a London firm that produced photoengravings and photolithographs. Barnard E. E. , “On some celestial photographs made with a large portrait lens at the Lick Observatory”, MNRAS, 1 (1890), 310–14, plate 3. On the Direct Photo Engraving Co., see Kelly's directory of stationers, printers, booksellers, publishers, papermakers, &c. of England, Scotland, and Wales… , 13th edn (London, 1919), 680–2. For photomechanical reproductions of drawings, see MNRAS, liv (1893–94), plates 6, 10; lvi (1895–96), plate 9; lviii (1897–98), plate 5; lix (1898–99), plate 10; lx (1899–1900), plates 3, 12.

Abney William , “Total eclipse of the Sun observed at Caroline Island, on 6th May, 1883”, Philosophical transactions, ser. A, clxxx (1889), 119–35, p. 122; plates 1, 2, 10.

Maunder , (ed.), The Indian eclipse 1898 (ref. 16), 115; Hills to Maunder, 20 November 1898 (RAS 55.2); Copeland to Wesley, 5 April 1899 (ROE, 34.257, Letterbook 1896–1911).

My thinking on the question of the ‘meaning’ of photomechanical technology is guided by Wiebe Bijker E. , “The social construction of bakelite: Toward a theory of invention”, in Bijker W. E. Hughes Thomas P. and Pinch Trevor (eds), The social construction of technological systems (Cambridge, Mass., 1987), 159–87.

Boeddicker Otto , The Milky Way from the North Pole to 100° of south declination drawn at the Earl of Rosse's observatory at Birr Castle (London, 1892), preface.

The frontispiece for the 1898 JPEC reports shows all of these flaws: Royal Society proceedings, lxiv (1898), plate 1.

For example, the plate accompanying the official reports of the JPEC expeditions of 1898 was “a reproduction of one of the best photographs”: Hills and Newall , “Total solar eclipse of 1898, January 22” (ref. 7), 52.

A photograph of the corona in 1900, for example, carried the caption, “The spot with cross rays on the right-hand side is a defect in the photographic plate”: Christie and Dyson , “Total eclipse of the Sun, 1900, May 28: Preliminary account of the observations made at Ovar, Portugal”, MNRAS, lx (1900), 392–402, quote on plate 22. Another article from 1900 told readers, “Owing to the difficulty of reproducing the prominences and coronal extensions on the same plate, two plates have been made from negative B…. Plate I gives a good general idea of the photograph … although of course the finest details are lost, and there is less extension than on the negative.” Joly C. J. , “The total solar eclipse of 1900”, Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, sec. A, xxxii (1903), 271–98, p. 276.

Joly , “The total solar eclipse of 1900” (ref. 33), plates 1, 2.

Shaiken Harley , Work transformed: Automation and labor in the computer age (Lexington, Mass., 1984); Noble David , The forces of production: A social history of industrial automation (Oxford, 1984), esp. chap. 11.

Nemethy Carl , “Photo-etching and printing”, American art printer, November 1891, 99–100.

Jenkins , A manual of photoengraving (ref. 21), 49, chap. 11; Cronenberg , Half-tone on the American basis (ref. 20), 41–44, 76, 151–4; Elson , “The reproductive processes of the graphic arts” (ref. 23), 30; Ourdan J. P. , The art of retouching (New York, 1880).

Edwards , “The art of making photo-gravures” (ref. 25), 430–1.

Cronenberg , Half-tone on the American basis (ref. 20), 77.