A STORY ABOUT THE BIRTH OF PHOTOGRAPHY

An exempt from Solly’s Journey

chapter 13

Ichabod Worthington

‘Come and I’ll show you how to make pictures,’ Ichabod suggested.

‘Yes. I’d like to see how the magic’s created.’

Ichabod led Solly up the steps and into the confined spaces of the cart. It had a low cot, just inside the door, a workbench down one side and shelves stacked with various equipment on the other. There were labelled bottles of chemicals with strange names printed on them. Ichabod dragged a metal trunk from beneath the bench and Solly noticed that there were two others there.

‘These are the raw photographic plates,’ Ichabod said as he opened the trunk. There were hundreds of black bags inside and Ichabod took one out and quickly closed the lid.

He placed the plate on the bench and took it from the black bag. The plate is just a sheet of glass,’ he said, holding it by the edges. ‘Just plain glass,’ Ichabod added as he removed the plate from the black bag and began to clean it with a small cloth. He rubbed away at it for some time, then held it to the light and cleaned it again. Then he took a bottle from the shelf.

‘This process is called the collodion process. It was invented by one of your countrymen, a fellow named Frederick Archer, just about two years ago. This bottle contains the collodion, which I use to wet the plate all over one side, and then I collect any spills in this glass tray. I can use that again next time.’ As he spoke, he tipped the glass this way and that, making sure the coating was even.

‘Now close the door, Sol,’ he said.

When Solomon closed the door they were in complete darkness. There were no windows and the cart was completely sealed from light.

‘I wanted to show you that the cart is quite lightproof. It’s called a darkroom. Now, I’ll open this flap,’ Icky said, and Solly could hear him fiddling around in the darkness, then a window in the roof opened and light flooded in. Dim, orange light. The opening was covered in orange canvas.

‘The chemicals on the plates are sensitive to blue light. The orange light has no effect and allows us to see a bit. Now, I immerse the plate in a silver nitrate sensitising bath. That takes about five minutes.’ Solly waited as Ichabod performed the operation and they quietly waited as the minutes ticked away.

‘Lastly I put it in this plate holder with a dark slide to keep the light away from the surface,’ Ichabod said, as he held it up. ‘Now it’s ready for the camera. Let’s take a picture. You can open the door, now.’

Ichabod went to the camera, which stood on its tripod beside the wagon. ‘Why don’t you bring Brave Heart over and the two of you can stand over there, with the trees behind,’ he said as he pulled up the black cloth that covered the camera and climbed underneath it, pulling it tight around his waist.

‘This will take an exposure of about a minute,’ Ichabod shouted. ‘Stand up straight and smile. You will have to hold your pose until I say you can move.

‘All right,’ Solly shouted back.

‘Taking it… now!’ Ichabod called.

The minute was almost up when Brave Heart put his head down to graze. Solly held his stiff pose until Ichabod told him he could move. ‘Now I have to retrieve the plate from the camera and we go back in the cart and develop it.'

Back in the orange light of the cart, Ichabod poured chemicals into two trays, took the plate from its black bag and immersed it in the nearest chemical. ‘This is what we call the developer. The image after we take it is what we call latent. It’s in the collodion but it’s barely visible until we develop it with ferrous sulphate. Look, you can see the image emerging.’ Solly watched as the picture appeared. Brave Heart’s head was a blur, but Solly was in clear focus. Ichabod watched the picture develop until the moment was right.

‘Right, Sol. That’s enough,’ Ichabod said, then plucked the picture from the developer and immersed it in the second tray. ‘This tray contains fixer. It stops the chemical process and we have our picture. Now all we need do is to give it a rinse, let it dry, then a bit later I’ll varnish it with a special clear varnish to protect it. That’s all there is to it. It’s a pity the horse moved, or it would have been a great picture.’

Solly looked at the picture, but something was wrong. Ichabod noticed his puzzled look and laughed at his friend’s confusion.

‘The collodion process creates a negative. Watch what happens when I slide a black backing behind it,’ he explained. He slipped a black card behind the glass and suddenly the picture looked right.

‘The best thing about making a negative is that I can make many positive copies of the picture on paper.’ Ichabod explained. ‘Let me show you.’

He took what looked like a sheet of plain white paper. ‘This paper has been soaked in strong salt water then given a light sensitive coating of silver nitrate,’ he said. As he talked, he mounted the paper in the pictureframe, making sure glass and paper were in close contact.

‘Now we take it out for a walk in the sun,’ Ichabod said and opened the door. Ichabod watched carefully as the picture developed in the sun. When he was satisfied, he quickly climbed into the cart and washed it in the fixing solution.

‘There it is, Sol. Your picture on paper. You can have that as a memento. I can produce as many copies as I want. That’s how I intend to make my fortune. I take one picture and create hundreds of copies. Even thousands at a dollar each! At present, these positives aren’t permanent, but we’re working on that. Then, I get rich!’