Single slant light with blind control as advocated by Inglis
Toronto. In issue 22-5, Part 1 of Dr Reichstein’s article on James Inglis appeared. Issue 23-1 continues the story with Part 2.
Part 2 begins, “The decade of the eighties [1880s] was to be one of extraordinary activity for Inglis. It marked his move to Rochester, N.Y., the rise and fall of his career in manufacturing and was the decade in which he achieved wide public prominence.
“The basis for the frenetic activity of this period was his interest in the manufacture of dry plates. Throughout the period of the 1870’s there was a great deal of experimentation, mainly in England, to replace the cumbersome wet plate process for producing negatives, which involved coating a glass plate with collodion, sensitizing then exposing and developing it while wet, with a more convenient and portable dry plate process.
“It was a turning point in photographic history. Todd’s obituary of 1904, speaking of Inglis’ last period in Montreal, describes Inglis becoming interested in dry plates in the early eighties: “…he entered upon the experimental stage with his usual whole-souled energy, and, like many more of that time with disastrous financial results”.
“It is clear that by the time Inglis arrived in Rochester, probably early in 1883, he was relatively accomplished in the technology.” …
Members could read all of Irwin Reichstein’s illustrated and foot-noted article in the relevant pdf file on the free members-only DVD (a thumb drive as of April 2025). See MEMBERSHIP above or Membership at right to join. Send Lilianne an email with any questions or suggestions at member@phsc.ca.
