A Few Notes on History of Infrared Photography [not yet complete]

[Andrea B.]

Introduction

I do not know how he discovered this, but my Cousin Perry gave me a copy of a Master's Thesis entitled Infra-red Photography by Raymond Sanford Seward. The Thesis was written by Mr. Seward when studying for a degree of Master of Arts in Physics at the University of California (UC). He had graduated from Pomona College in 1912. The Thesis was "deposited in the University Library" on 15 April 1921. In those days UC consisted of only UC-Berkeley and UC-Los Angeles. 

 

Seward's Thesis describes an experiment with 3 dyes used to increase the sensitivity of dry gelatin photographic plates to Infrared light:

• alizarin blue S
• pinacyanol
• dicyanine

 

There were 150 plates used in the dye experiment manufactured by Seed Dry Plates, Cramer's Spectrum Plates, Wratten & Wainwrights Panchromatic Plates.

 

Dry plate photography:  A glass plate is coated with an emulsion of gelatin and light-sensitive silver halides and dried at 32°C before use. The plate is exposed in the camera to make a latent image.^*  The latent image is brought out by exposure to some chemical which increases the size of the silver grains. The image is then fixed (prevented from further development) by washing away the developer and any unwanted byproducts.

 

^*Chemistry Note: Take for example, making a latent image using a plate coated with a silver iodide emulsion, AgI₂. A photon hits the negative anion I^- and frees an electron which combines with a positive silver ion Ag⁺ to make dark gray, metallic silver Ag⁰ grains and iodine I₂. (Basic equation:  2AgI -> 2Ag + I₂) 

 

Basic problem:  Any photo plates, wet or dry, made with silver halides or a mixture of silver halides is very sensitive to the UV/violet/blue end of the spectrum and not very sensitive to the yellow/orange/red end of the spectrum, much less to the longer IR wavelengths. The lack of red sensitivity wreaks havoc with the relative tonal values of a scene, even in black & white. Blue skies become white. Yellows and reds become black. There was lots of research about how to extend the sensitivity of photo plates to cover the entire visible spectrum and eventually the problem was solved in various ways. Mr. Seward's Thesis documents his experiments in extending the sensitivity of photo plates even further into the Infrared.

 

Reading this Master's Thesis got me interested in looking up information about dry plate photography. And it also got me curious about the history if IR photography. This curiosity of course led me down a rabbit hole for sure. I'd look up something and then find I had to look up something more. And so on!! This is great fun if one has the time (which I mostly do when it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere).

 

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Bits of History (relevant to silver halides, but by no means exhaustive)

 

Albertus Magnus [1200-1280, German Dominican friar, scientist and later, Catholic saint]

[?] Experimented with photosensitive chemicals such as silver nitrate, AgNO₃. And also discovered arsenic.

 

Georg Fabricus [1516-1571, German alchemist]

[1565] Discovers that luna cornea (silver chloride) darkens in sunlight.

 

Angelo Sala [1576-1637, Italian physician]

[Early 1600s] Observed that powdered silver nitrate is blackened by exposure to sunlight. This was thought to have no practical application at the time. 

 

Johann Heinrich Schulze [1687-1744, German chemist]

[1717] Proved silver halide darkening was due to the agency of light. His experiments were confirmed by Scheele (next). Schulze made "photograms" by filling a bottle with powdered silver nitrate, applying word stencils to the bottle and leaving it in the sunlight until the word appeared in black letters.

 

Carl Wilhelm Scheele [1742-1786, German-Swedish pharmaceutical chemist]

[1777] Observed that the blackening of silver nitrate occurs most rapidly in violet light.

 

Jean Senebier [1742-1809, Swiss Calvinist pastor and naturalist]

[1782] Repeated Scheele's experiment and observed that 15 seconds under violet rays blackened silver chloride, AgCl, as much as red rays would darken it in 20 minutes. 

 

William Herschel [1738-1822, German composer and astronomer. He wrote symphonies!]

[1800] Discovered Infrared radiation. The discovery was initially referred to as "radiant heat".The term "infrared" did not enter scientific vocabulary until the 1880s.

Here is a deeper discussion of Herschel's experiments and discovery: Herschel and the Puzzle of Infrared, by Jack R. White. NASA's write-up [PDF] of Herschel's discovery includes a version of Hershel's experiment which can be done by students. Or anyone else.

 

Edmond Becquerel [1820-1891, French physicist]

[1840?] Daguerreotypes are made on a mirror-polished silver-plated copper plate which has been bathed in iodine fumes to create a silver iodide photo-sensitive surface. Becquerel discovered that using red light for development of the daguerreotype latent image was a good idea. It had to be considering that the standard method of daguerreotype development was bathing the plate in mercury vapour!

I can't find a good explanation of why the red light technique worked. Will keep looking.

Becquerel's method did not become widely used because daguerreotypes were soon to be abandoned in favor of photography which used collodion and gelatin plates. With this method Becquerel and his colleagues were able to capture all parts of the spectrum and even some Infrared, not all regions were captured equally however. 

 

Chemistry Note: Why were daguerreotypes developed in mercury vapors? The mercury formed an amalgam with the silver particles in the exposed plate thus increasing the size of the original silver clusters to bring out the latent image. Amalgam is pronounced uhMALgum. An Amalgam is an alloy of mercury, Hg, with other metals which is formed via metal bonding to create a crystal lattice structure.

 

Hermann Vogel [1834-1898, German photochemist and photographer]

[1873] The first of many to extend the spectral sensitivity of photo plates by adding small amounts of certain dyes to the emulsion. Vogel's plates extended sensitivity into the green and yellow portions of the spectrum There were problems with dye instability, fogging and unequal color sensitivities.

 

Abney

 

Lumière Brothers [Auguste 1862-1954. Louis 1864-1948. French inventors and manufacturers of photo and motion picture equipment]

[1894] Extended the sensitivity of photo plates into the red region with their Lumière Panchromatic Plate. A few problems remained with uneven color sensitivities. 

[Note:  The Panchromatic Plates were before the amazing Lumière Autochrome Plates which will remind you that Bayer filters are really nothing new. 

 

Robert W. Wood [1868-1955, American physicist]

[1903] Developed Wood's glass. Wood's glass is transparent to UV (between 320-400 nm) and IR while blocking most visible light. It is a deep violet-blue, barium-sodium-silicate glass with some added nickel. Addition of the dye uranine created a UV-pass only filter.

[1910]  He was the first to publish IR and UV photos. A quartz lens coated with silver was used for the UV photos. In these photos, Wood observed, amongst other things, the IR reflection of chlorophyll and bright UV skies versus dark IR skies. The invited lecture presenting these photos was made to the Royal Photography Society in London on 17 Sep 1910. It was recorded in the RSP Photographic Journal.

"Photography by Invisible Rays", by Professor R. W. Wood. Photographic Journal, Volume 50, Oct 1910, page 329. [The lecture is quite interesting. Then prowl through the journal to see the old ads for photo gear.]

 

Raymond Sanford Seward [1889-1978, American professor of physics]

[1921] In his Master's Thesis, Infra-red Photography, Seward investigates the use of three dyes to extend the sensitivity of silver halide photographic plates into the Infrared region. The Thesis contains 6 photos of the infrared spectrum and 2 IR landscape photos

 

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I am stopping my little history investigation here. I simply wanted to put Seward's Master's thesis into a proper historical context.

 

Please see the IR photography history overview on Andy Finney's cool website Invisible Light to read about what happened after Wood's work.

 

See also the interesting Pioneers of Invisible Radiation Photography by R. Williams and G. Williams. 

 

[Andrea B.]

Seward's Experiment:  Extend dry plate spectral sensitivity into the Infrared region using dyes.

 

This is a simplified high-level outline of the experiment with many details omitted.

 

Seward's thesis describes an experiment with three dyes used to increase the sensitivity of dry gelatin photographic plates into the Infrared region. The dyes used were:

 

• alizarin blue S
• pinacyanol
• dicyanine

 

There were 150 dry gelatin plates used in the dye experiment. The plates were manufactured by Seed Dry Plates, Cramer's Spectrum Plates, Wratten & Wainwrights Panchromatic Plates, and others.

 

The dyes were sourced from Eastmann Kodak Company and from the US Department of Agriculture.

 

The dyes were dissolved in a mixture of ethyl alcohol and distilled water. The photo plates were bathed in the dye solution long enough that the dyes colored the silver halide particles as well as the gelatin. For some plates, ammonia was added to the Dicyanin dye solution and to the Alizarin S solution.  [There is no detailed correlation of plate type to dye solution used.]

 

Please note here that some of the photographs and diagrams included in the reproduction of Seward's thesis are difficult to read. Any errors in this summary are mine.

 

The sensitivities of typical gelatin photo plates were measured.

• Silver bromide, AgBr: sensitivity ends around 550 nm.
• Silver iodide, AgI:  sensitivity ends around 480 nm.
• Silver chloride, AgCl:  sensitivity ends around 450 nm.

 

The sensitivities of the dyed photo plates were measured.

The three dyes did increase the sensitivity of plates to IR. Photos from all dyed plates showed the A-line at about 760 nm.

• Dicyanin: sensitivity to IR increased past the A-line to include the Z-line.
• Dicyanin + ammonia: sensitivity increased past the Z-line to about 900 nm.
  Dicyanin treatment carried the sensitivity the farthest, but the plates were more subject to fog and did not keep as well [prior to use].
• Alizarin S + ammonia: sensitivity increased only slightly past the A-line.
• Alizarin S + ammonia + 5 drops of silver nitrate: sensitivity increased to almost reach the Z-line.The blue alizarin dye was the least expensive and easiest to obtain. The landscape photos made with these plates had the best contrasts.
• Pinacyanol:  sensitivity increased only slightly past the A-line.
  Pinacyanol pushed the sensitivity the least, but the [prepared] plates kept well and were not subject to much fog.

 

As a control [my guess] commercial plates such as Wratten and Wainwright's panchromatic plates were also used. Photos from the freshly prepared dyed photo plates showed a greater sensitivity in the IR region and a heavier deposit of silver than did the photos from untreated commercial plates in which the A-line can just barely be seen.

 

How was the sensitivity of the un-dyed and dyed photo plates determined?

Seward used a heliostat apparatus to project the Infrared portion of the solar spectrum onto the plates. A Wratten 88 IR-pass filter was used. The exposed plates were then developed in the usual way with pyro or hydroquinone developer. Prints were made and the presence of Fraunhofer lines in the image was noted. The A-line, at 760 nm, showed on all photos from dyed plates. Many of the photos also showed the Z-line at 820 nm.

 

BIBLIIOGRAPHY

 

Abney, Photographic Methods of Mapping the Least Refrangible End of the Solar Spectrum. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 171, 2, 1880, p.256. Map of the solar spectrum from 718-1000 nm prepared from photos made on a blue emulsion.

 

Abney, Treatise on Photography, London, 1893, p.94, 315.

 

Waterhouse, On Reversed Photographs of the Solar Spectrum Beyond the Red. Royal Society of London Proceedings, 1876, pp.186-189. Analine blue dye. Photo of the solar spectrum which contained a few lines beyond A.

 

J.C.B. Burbank, Photography in Infra Red. Philosophical Magazine, V26, Oct. 1888, p.391. Photos of the IR spectrum by the direct action of light and the use of dyes alone as the sensitizing agent.

 

Seyewtz, Dyes in Photography. Scientific American Supplement, V87, p.6, 4 Jan 1919.

 

G. Michaud and J.F. Tristian, Air Transparency for Infra Red Rays. Scientific American, 111, Dec 1914, p.521-531. Plates sensitized with alizarin blue S were used to make IR photos.

 

Stratton, Color Sensitive Photographic Plates. Circular of the Buteau of Standards, 6 Nov 1919.

 

Hunt, History of Photography. Smithsonian Report, 1904, p.287. 1905, p.163.

 

Roebuck, The Science and Practice of Photography. 

 

Lockyear, Studies in Spectrum Analysis. New York, 1878, p.84.

 

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R.W. Wood, Science Abstracts, A, 223, 1911. IR landscape photos.

 

Millichan, Comptes Rendus, 142, pp.1407, 1906. Pre-exposed plates are dipped in alcohol/dye solution and then exposed to IR to give a positive picture.

 

W. F. Meggars, Bureau of Standards, Scientific Papers, No. 312, 1918.

Photographing the IR arc spectra of several metals using dicyanine sensitized plates.

 

Bureau of Standards, Scientific Papers, 1919.

Description of manufacture of color sensitive plates by the incorporation of dyes in the emulsion. Sensitizing dry plates using dye solutions. Rendering commercial color sensitive plates more sensitive by bathing in ammonia solution.

 

 

 

[Adrian]

This is a bit later, but I have a book from 1943: "Infra-Red Photography" (3rd edition) S.O. Rawling. Black & Son Ltd, which has a fairly extensive bibliography of papers and books relating to IR sensitising dyes if you would like to see it?

Also, another book by Walter Clark: "Photography by Infrared", Wiley, (2nd edition) which has a good chapter on Photographic Sensitising for the IR. There is quite a lot about Vogel, Becquerel and other, going into the 1900's. 

Fascinating topic!

[Andrea B.]

Hello Adrian --

Thank You for the references !! 

 

I have found the Walter Clark book online at this link:  LINKIE

The Rawling book does not seem to be available online. Although I see several copies for sale. A photo of Rawling's bibliography would be great to have.  (When you have some free time, no hurry on this!)

 

I became somewhat fascinated by all this because of that old Master's Thesis which came my way. And so decided to try to learn more. I posted my notes here because why not share them? Somebody else might be at least a little bit interested in History of Infrared Photography. 

 

I was initially stumped trying to read one of Bequerel's original papers because there was an ever-so-slightly different use of vocabulary. Example:  refrangible == refractable. I was not actively familiar with the word "refrangible". But it's all part of the fun.

 

It might be interesting or useful to create a Bibliography on both IR and UV photography. And some kind of timeline.

 

I note that it's difficult to stay within the bounds of "history and IR" without veering off into a thousand side journeys because it is all so interesting.

 

 

 

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[Andrea B.]

Brief Biography of Raymond Sanford Seward [1889-1978]

 

 

Raymond Sanford Seward was the son of the Rev. Arthur L. and Sarah L. (Smith) Seward. Rev. Seward worked with the American Home Missionary Society which sent ministers to locations around the US to establish congregations or to support to existing congregations which could not afford to pay a minister. Thus the four Seward children were each born in a different location: Laura 1884 in Nebraska, Arthur 1886 in Utah, Raymond 1889 in Iowa and Frances 1896 in Washington.

 

Eventually the family arrived in California where Raymond graduated from Long Beach High School in 1908. He then gained a Bachelor of Science degree from the prestigious Pomona College in 1912. Raymond's World War I draft registration in 1917 indicates that he was a high school teacher in Lindsay, California. It is not known whether Raymond actually served in the Army. The US Federal Census of 1920 shows him as a teacher at Hitchcock Military Academy in San Rafael. (Perhaps that was some kind of alternate service?)

 

At some point Raymond returned to the University of California-Berkeley to pursue graduate degrees in Physics. His Master's Thesis Infrared Photography, discussed above, was written in 1921. It is not known when his Ph.D. was granted. By 1930, he is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at Stanford University where, as yet unmarried, Raymond lives on-campus in Union Dormitory. Next, we find him in the state of Washington in 1932 when at age 42 he married Olive Brown, age 35. Raymond had joined the Department of Physics of the University of Puget Sound, a private liberal arts college in Tacoma. He was a Physics professor and department chair there until 1955. His wife Olive also worked at the college as an administrative assistant to the president of the UPS. Room 164 in Thompson Hall, the science and mathematics building, is named the R.S. Seward Seminar room. Seward Hall, a residence hall in the South Quad of the campus was dedicated to both Raymond and Olive in 1972.

 

Raymond Sanford Seward died at age 89 of a heart attack on 27 December 1978. Olive Brown Seward lived until 9 December 1989. They had no children.

 

Professor Raymond Sanford Seward

 

 

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I have to wonder whether Raymond Sanford Seward ever made any more IR photos?

All biographical details were taken from publicly available data on Ancestry.com, accessed 25 Jan 2024.

 

[Andrea B.]

Save this space for bibliography

 

William Herschel's Experiment

• Barr, E. S. 1960. Historical survey of the early development of the infrared spectral region. American Journal of Physics 28:42.
• Chester, T. 1999. Reconciling the Herschel Experiment. http://tchester.org/znet/calculations/herschel/index.html
• Englefield, H. 1802. Experiments on the Separation of Light and Heat by Refraction. In a Letter from Sir H. C. Englefield, Bart. F.R.S. to Thomas Young, M.D. F.R.S. Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and the Arts: by William Nicholson. London: G. G. and J. Robinson. Vol. III pp. 125–130. http://books.google.com/books?id=6iTPAAAAMAAJ
• Herschel, W. 1800. Investigation of the Powers of the Prismatic Colours to Heat and Illuminate Objects; With Remarks, That Prove the Different Refrangibility of Radiant Heat. To Which is Added, an Inquiry into the Method of Viewing the Sun Advantageously, with Telescopes of Large Apertures and High Magnifying Powers. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society90:255–283.
• Herschel, W. 1800. Experiments on the Refrangibility of the Invisible Rays of the Sun. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 90:284–292.
• Herschel, W. 1800. Experiments on the Solar, and on the Terrestrial Rays that Occasion Heat; With a Comparative View of the Laws Which Occasion Them, Are Subject, in Order to Determine Whether They Are the Same, or Different. Part I and Part II. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 90: 293–326 and 437–538.
• Herschel, W., and J. L. E. Dreyer. 1912. The Scientific Papers of Sir William Herschel, Volume I. London: The Royal Society and The Royal Astronomical Society, and Dulau & Co., Ltd.
• Holden, E. S. 1881. Sir William Herschel, His Life and Works . London: W. H. Allen. http://books.google.com/books?id=GIwBAAAAQAAJ
• Leslie, J. 1801. Observations and Experiments on Light and Heat, with some Remarks on the Enquiries of Dr. Herschel, Respecting those Objects. Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and the Arts: by William Nicholson. London: G. G. and J. Robinson. Vol. IV pp. 345. http://books.google.com/books?id=tItEAAAAcAAJ
• Lovell, D. J. 1968. Herschel’s dilemma in the interpretation of thermal radiation. Isis 59:196.
• Newton, I. 1730.  Opticks: Or a Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light . London: William Innys. http://books.google.com/books?id=GnAFAAAAQAAJ
• Young, T. 1802. The Bakerian Lecture: On the theory of light and colours. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 92:12–48.

[lonesome_dave]

I have the third edition of that book Adrian mentioned: Walter Clark: "Photography by Infrared", Wiley, from 1978. It is significantly rewritten from the 1939 edition available in your links. It includes dozens of B&W photos and a few color IR photos that were also used in Kodak publications in the 1970s. But-- the 1970s may be too recent for the history you're looking for ...

 

 

[Adrian]

Here's the Bibliography and cover  from the Rawling book

[Andrea B.]

Dave, thank you for the head's up about Clark's book having newer editions. 

For now, I'm thinking that I will just go up to the 1920s (the time of Wood's experiments). 

 

Adrian, thank you for the Bibliography from Rawling's book. I see a couple of things there which I would like to pursue.

 

 

 

[StephanN]

Would it be worth updating the stickies with a bibliography of sorts? This topic here doesn't have a lot of books listed:

?

 

I have a list of some 20 or 30 books about IR and UV, many of them looooong out of print (and many in German), which I could contribute.

[Andrea B.]

This would so interesting, Stephan. I will go begin a topic entitled UV/IR Photography books where you can add your lists. And I will add anything I find as well as the few books I have already posted about in our Reference section. Eventually I will consolidate everything into one reference list as time permits.