blue glass, for instance, would not be covered by the disk at all,
while opposite the white square the disk would have an aperture
of an angle of 18° When a plate is exposed behind the row of
glass squares, with the light passing through the rotating disk,
having the appropriate apertures for each glass, the negative
obtained would under ordinary conditions, show square patches
of very different opacity. A light-filter of some transparent
colour, if placed in the path of the light, will alter the opacities,
and eventually one can be found which will only allow such
coloured light to be transmitted as will cause all the opacities
in the negative to be the same. As the luminosities of the white
light passing through the glasses are made equal, and as the
photographic deposits are also rendered equal, this light-filter,
if used in front of the camera lens, will render all coloured objects
in correct monochrome luminosity. Another plan, based on the
same principles, is to place segments of annuluses of vermilion,
chrome yellow, emerald green, French blue and white on a disk,
and to complete the annuluses with black segments, the amount
of black depending on the luminosity of the pigments, which can
be readily measured. When the disk is rotated, rings of colour,
modified in brightness by black, are seen, and each ring will be
of the same luminosity. As before, a screen (light-filter) to be
used in front of the lens must be found which will cause the
developed images of all the rings to appear of equal opacity.
It must be remembered that the light in which the object is
to be photographed must be the same as that in which the
luminosity of the glasses or pigments is measured.
Action of the Spectrum on Chromic Salts.—The salts most usually employed in photography are the bichromates of the alkalis. The result of spectrum action is confined to its own most refrangible end, commencing in the ultra-violet and reaching as far as in the solar spectrum. Fig. 2 shows the relative action of the various parts of the spectrum on potassium bichromate. If other bichromates are employed, the action will be found to be tolerably well represented by the figures. No. 1 is the effect of a long exposure, No. 2 of a shorter one. It should be noticed that the solution of potassium bichromate absorbs those rays alone which are effective in altering the bichromate. This change is only possible in the presence of organic matter of some kind, such as gelatin or albumen.
Fig. 2—The top letters have reference to the Fraunhofer lines;
the bottom letters are the initials of the colours. The relative
sensitiveness is shown by the height of the curve above the base-line.
Action of the Spectrum on Asphaltum.—This seems to be continued into and below the red, the blue rays, however, are the most effective. The action of light on this body is to render it less soluble in its usual solvents.
Action of the Spectrum on Salts of Iron.—The commonest ferric salt in use is the oxalate, by which the beautiful platinotype prints are produced. We give this as a representation (fig. 3) of the spectra obtained on ferric salts in general.
Fig. 3.—Same description as for fig. 2.
Here, again, we have an example of the law that exists as to the correlation between absorption and chemical action. One of the most remarkable compounds of iron is that experimented upon by Sir J. Herschel and later by Lord Rayleigh, viz ferrocyanide of potassium and ferric chloride. If these two be brushed over paper, and the paper be then exposed to a bright solar spectrum, action is exhibited into the infra-red region. This is one of the few instances in which these light-waves of low refrangibility are capable of producing any effect. The colour of this solution is a muddy green, and analysis shows that it cuts off these rays as well as generally absorbs those of higher refrangibility.
Action of Light on Uranium.—The salts of uranium are affected by light in the presence of organic matter, and they too are only acted upon by those rays which they absorb. Thus nitrate of uranium, which shows, too, absorption-bands in the green blue, is affected more where these occur than in any other portion of the spectrum.
Some salts of mercury, gold, copper, lead, manganese, molybdenum, platinum, vanadium, are affected by light, but in a less degree than those which we have discussed. In the organic world there are very few substances which do not change by the continuous action of light, and it will be found that as a rule they are affected by the blue end of the spectrum rather than by the red end (see Photochemistry).
The following table gives the names of the observers of the action of light on different substances, with the date of publication of the several observations. It is nearly identical with one given by Dr Eder in his Geschichte der Photo-Chemie.
| Substance. | Observer. | Date. | |
| Silver | |||
| Nitrate solution mixed with chalk, gives in sunshine copies of writing |
J. H. Schulze | 1727 | |
| Nitrate solution on paper | Hellot | 1737 | |
| Nitrate photographically used | Wedgwood and Davy. | 1802 | |
| Nitrate on silk | Fulhame | 1797 | |
| Rumford | 1798 | ||
| Nitrate with white of egg | B. Fischer | 1812 | |
| Nitrate with lead salts | Herschel | 1839 | |
| Chloride | J. B. Beccarius | 1757 | |
| Chloride in the spectrum | Scheele | 1777 | |
| Chloride photographically used | Wedgwood | 1802 | |
| Chloride lackened | Lassaigne | 1839 | |
| Iodide | Davy | 1814 | |
| Iodide by action of iodine (on metallic silver) | Daguerre | 1839 | |
| Iodide photographically used | Herschel | 1840 | |
| Iodide with gallic acid | Talbot | 1841 | |
| Iodide with ferrous sulphate | Hunt | 1844 | |
| Chloride and iodide by chlorine and iodine (on metallic silver) | Claudet | 1840 | |
| Bromide | Balard | 1826 | |
| Bromide by action of bromine (on metallic silver). | Goddard | 1840 | |
| Sulpho-cyanide | Grotthus | 1818 | |
| Nitrite | Hess | 1828 | |
| Oxide with ammonia | Mitscherlich | 1827 | |
| Sulphate | Bergmann | 1779 | |
| Chromate | Vauquelin | 1798 | |
| Carbonate | Buchholz | 1800 | |
| Oxalate | Bergmann | 1779 | |
| Benzoate | Trommsdorf | 1793 | |
| Citrate | Vauquelin | 1798 | |
| Kinate | Henry and Plisson | 1829 | |
| Borate | Rose | 1830 | |
| Pyrophosphate | Stromeyer | 1830 | |
| Lactate | Pelouze and Gay-Lussac | 1833 | |
| Formiates | Hunt | 1844 | |
| Fulminates | Hunt | 1844 | |
| Sulphide by vapour of sulphur (on metallic silver) | Niepce | 1820 | |
| Phosphide by vapour of phosphorus (on metallic silver) | Niepce | 1820 | |
| Gold. | |||
| Oxide | Scheele | 1777 | |
| Chloride on paper | Hellot | 1737 | |
| Chloride on silk | Fulhame | 1794 | |
| Chloride in ethereal solution | Rumford | 1793 | |
| Chloride with ferrocyanide and ferricyanide of potassium. | Hunt | 1844 | |
| Chloride and oxalic acid | Döbereiner | 1831 | |
| Chromate | Hunt | 1844 | |
| Plate of gold and iodine vapour | Goddard | 1842 | |
