Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 20. 1980 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1983)

Közlemények – Mitteilungen - Karlovits Károly – Beke László: The beginnings of Photography in Hungary. p. 249–267. t. LXXXIII–CIV.

silhouettes of the first half of the 19

th century. This typical middle class art form remained popular long after the invention of photography. Tarczy Lajos, professor of the Calvinist College in Pápa published his physics book in 1838. This work unambiguously shows that the laws of geometrical optics were well known in Hungary. If adequate photochemical procedures had been invented at that time, the first photographic cameras might well have been constructed. This innovation did actually follow within one or two years. The light sensivity of certain materials has been known since the first half of the 18

th century. In 1727 J. H. Schulze, a physicist in Halle, discovered that silver salts are sensitive to light. During that century J. B. Beccaria, C. W. Scheele, A. Hegemann and L. N. Vanquelin carried out further research and thus added to our understanding of such photochemical processes. Finally, T. Wedgwood published the results of his experiments in 1802. He succeeded in transferring a silhouette on to a piece of paper prepared with silver chloride. The process required some two to three hours of strong sunshine. Although this method is the predecessor of positive-negative techniques, Wedgwood was not able to permanently fix his picture. Some people consider Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (1765—1833) the inventor of photography. As a lithographer, he experimented with various copying methodologies. In order to obtain a graphic printing surface he successfully copied an etching onto the lightsensitive bitumen layer. Before the procedure the paper of the etching was made transparent using oil. Five years later in 1827 he turned to the camera obscura; he projected the view from his window on a bitumen covered tin plate. The disadvantage of this technique was that because of the low sensitivity of bitumen the time of exposure took up to eight hours. This procedure proved impossible to use from a practical point of view. In order to improve this method Niépce signed a contract with a painter, Louis Jacques Daguerre (1787—1851) on December 14, 1829. Unfortunately, Niépce died in 1833, before any major results of the cooperation were achieved. Daguerre kept on experimenting alone, and in 1837 he solved the problem of chemical fixation of pictures obtained within the camera obscura by optical projection. Instead of bitumen however, a silver-coated plate was used which was made sensitive by iodine evaporation. Thus, the daguerreotype was invented, a single-picture, positive photographic method, where a reflected sight, a mirror image is obtained. The innovation was announced on January 7, 1839. By the June 14 of the same year the French state had purchased the licence from him and the successors of Niépce for annual royalties. On the 19

th of August Arago presented the photochemical process to the French Academy of Sciences. With this step photography irrevocably became a public province. The history of representation however, had objectively reached an important turning point as well. This is shown by the fact that independently from Daguerre's innovation but almost simultaneously, William Henry Fox Talbot reported to the London Royal Society that after five years of experimenting he had invented a new method of photography (January 26 and 31, 1839). This technique was called "calotype" (talbotype.) He first made a negative picture on a paper prepared with silver iodide. Using this negative any number of positive copies could be produced. Talbot licensed his procedure in 1841. The beginnings of photography in Hungary The history of Hungarian photography begins with the name of Daguerre. The following sentences occurred in the journal "Hasznos Mulatságok" (Useful Entertainments) on the 2

nd of February 1839: "A member of the Academy in Paris who saw almost all the representations made by Daguerre announced that having seen these representations he felt inexpressable feelings rising in his breast. He explained his emotions this way: 'If we chance to gaze at some paintings or other modes of representation we instanly perceive that the object is removed from reality, and may be said reliable only under certain conditions.

.. It is quite other with the representations of Daguerre. Here nature reflects itself. And to see it in so small a version is so astonishing as to exercise a beneficial influence long, long after the experience'." In the spring of 1839 Daguerre made a series of pictures. One of them was sent to Emperor Ferdinand the fifth, and another to High Chancellor Metternich. A third picture was sent to the Emperor's ambassador in Paris Apponyi Antal, with the following dedication from the inventor: "A picture to testify to the invention of daguerreotype, which is offered to Count Apponyi by his most devoted and faithful servant—Daguerre." On September 2, Ferdinand signed a memo concerning rewards to Daguerre. He wrote : "I have received an experimental picture of Daguerre's invention by the mediation of my Embassy in France which preserves the effect of light on camera obscura.

.. My Highest Chancellor, Prince Metternich was also informed about this invention

—Ferdinand." Apponyi presented the Emperor's reward to Daguerre, and at the same time, wrote a letter to Metternich that A. von Ettingshausen, a Vienna professor of physics, had advanced in his studies in Daguerre's workshop. Professor Ettingshausen had already been present at Arago's lecture on August 19, and later he also inspired Petzvál József to carry out optical research. The "arche-photograph" presented to Apponyi shows a detail of Daguerre's studio. Today however, only special ways of reproduction allow us to enjoy the picture which is owned by the National Technical Museum and forms a precious part of this exhibition. In the beginning of photographic work, simple achromatic objectives were used with a relative opening of around 1:16. This means that several minutes exposition time was required. In order to avoid distortions around the edge of the picture the aperture of the diaphragm was very small as well. This problem was solved by Petzvál József (Szepesbéla 1807 —Vienna 1981), a Hungarian engineer and professor at the Vienna University. He began to work with photographic optical systems in 1840. His revolutionary discovery was the so-called Petzvál law, which became the basis of mathematical optics. This theory however, was only widely acknowledged in planning optical devices in the 1880's. During the course of his work, Petzvál also designed a powerful 1:3 portrait objective (1840) which shortened the time of exposure to a few seconds. (This achievement however, was made possible only by the introduction of the more sensitive silver bromide in photography in place of silver iodide.) Cameras constructed with the Petzvál lenses were distributed by the Voigtländer firm in Vienna. In the 1840's the Department of Geodesy of the Vienna University carried out investigations to find a foundry glass which would satisfy the requirements of Petzvál's law. Efforts were also made to determine the refraction index of such a glass. Aside from S. Stampfer the head of the department, Kruspér István (1818—1905) the Hungarian physicist played a chief role in the work as well, especially during Stampfer 's absence of two years. He worked out various calculations and also designed an achromatic objective (1846). In Hungary, photography was already practiced by 1840. The year before, the journal "Hasznos Mulatságok" (Useful Entertainments) gave a detailed description of the method in its September 4 issue. Daguerre's book written in 1839 was published in Hungary in the spring of 1840 translated by Zimmermann Jakab, a professor in physics (Daguerre képei elkészítési módjának leírása — The description of Daguerre's method for making pictures). There was news that Novakovics had taken pictures in Zagreb at the beginning of 1840 as well. On April 10 of the same year newspapers reported on another case. S к о 1 n i к Károly, an Arad bookbinder born in Győr, made a hole camera without objective for taking daguerreotypes. He followed the descriptions of Daguerre's and Netto's books, and then sold his camera made of carboard with detailed instructions for operation. In June the Pest Exhibition of Fine Arts presented three daguerreotypes, probably of foreign origin. At the August 20 session of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Váll as Antal showed two pictures. He then took a third picture on the bank of the Danube in front of all participants at the session. The first professional photographer in Hungary was M a r a s toni Jakab (1804—1860), a painter of Venetian origin, who had settled in Pest in 1836 and opened his photographic studio in June 1841. At that time he advertised that he worked with an exposure time of two minutes. By July, the exposure time had been cut down to eight seconds. The price of his pictures also decreased and some months later he sold pictures, 251