Abstract
THE purpose of the lecture was to show that certain metals and certain organic bodies can act on a photographic plate in such a manner that, on treating it exactly as if it had been acted on by light, a picture is developed. When carrying on some experiments with photographic plates, a piece of perforated zinc was found not to act as a screen and give a picture of the holes, but to give a picture of the metallic part; and further, it was found that a bright piece of zinc, when coated with copal varnish, with the object of stopping any emanation of vapour from it, became more, not less, active; these were the accidental observations which gave rise to the present investigation. With regard to the action of the organic bodies: their activity is greater than that of the metals, and the experiments with them are more easily carried out, hence it was advisable to investigate to a considerable extent their action before undertaking the more intricate and, probably, more important action of the metals.
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References
Journal de Physique, 1886, p. 354.
Phil. Mag., vol. xxxvii. p. 509, 1894.
Enc. Brit., Art. "Wave Theory," 1888; Phil. Mag., vol. xxvii. p. 461, 1889.
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The Bakerian Lecture4. Nature 57, 607–609 (1898). https://doi.org/10.1038/057607b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/057607b0