Microphotograph

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A 1 mm diameter microphotograph, c. 1858 Mental hospital Philadelphia PA micrograph by Langenheim & Co. ca. 1858.jpg
A 1 mm diameter microphotograph, c.1858

Microphotographs are photographs shrunk to microscopic scale. [2] Microphotography is the art of making such images. Applications of microphotography include espionage such as in the Hollow Nickel Case, where they are known as microfilm.

Using the daguerreotype process, John Benjamin Dancer was one of the first to produce microphotographs, in 1839. [3] He achieved a reduction ratio of 160:1. Dancer perfected his reduction procedures with Frederick Scott Archer’s wet collodion process, developed in 1850–51, but he dismissed his decades-long work on microphotographs as a personal hobby, and did not document his procedures. The idea that microphotography could be no more than a novelty was an opinion shared by the 1858 Dictionary of Photography, which called the process "somewhat trifling and childish." [4]

Novelty viewing devices such as Stanhopes were once a popular way to carry and view microphotographs. [2]

An important application of microphotography is in microforms.

See also

Related Research Articles

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René Prudent Patrice Dagron was a French photographer and inventor. He was born in Aillières-Beauvoir, Sarthe, France. On 21 June 1859, Dagron was granted the first microfilm patent in history. Dagron is also considered the inventor of the miniature photographic jewels known as Stanhopes because a modified Stanhope lens is used to view the microscopic picture attached to the lens. He is buried at Ivry Cemetery, Ivry-sur-Seine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanhope (optical bijou)</span> Optical instrument

Stanhopes or Stanho-scopes are optical devices that enable the viewing of microphotographs without using a microscope. They were invented by René Dagron in 1857. Dagron bypassed the need for an expensive microscope to view the microscopic photographs by attaching the microphotograph at the end of a modified Stanhope lens. He called the devices bijoux photo-microscopiques or microscopic photo-jewelry.

A microfilm reader is a device used in projecting and magnifying images stored in microform to readable proportions. Microform includes flat film, microfilm, aperture cards, microfiche, and ultra fiche. Using open reels or cassettes, microfilm is often used as a way to store many documents in a small space. It has become increasingly prevalent in the development of films, as well as storage of archived newspapers. With the invention of microfilm, microfilm readers soon developed. With the increasing popularity of computers, microform has decreased in use. However, many library archives still remain in microform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Hill Norris</span> British physiologist, spiritualist and photographer

Professor Richard Hill Norris FRSE FRSGS (1830-1916) was a British physiologist, spiritualist and photographer. From the 1880s he began microscopic photography of blood corpuscles and was a pioneer of microphotography. In 1856 he invented the dry collodion photographic plate.

References

  1. Kristi Finefield (June 13th, 2012), "Caught Our Eyes: On the Head of a Pin", Picture This: Library of Congress Prints and Photos
  2. 1 2 Focal encyclopedia of photography By Michael R. Peres Focal Press, 2007 ISBN   9780240807409, 846 pages
  3. Lance Day and Ian McNeil (1998). Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology. Taylor & Francis. pp. 333–334. ISBN   9780415193993.
  4. Sutton, Thomas (1976). "Microphotography". In Veaner, Allen B. (ed.). Studies in micropublishing, 1853–1976: documentary sources. Westport, Conn: Microform Review Inc. p. 88. ISBN   0-913672-07-6. Originally published in Dictionary of Photography (1858).