Pioneers of Photography: Their Achievements in Science and Technology ed. by Eugene Ostroff

Abstract

340 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE lications and patents; and the beginning and termination of research projects. Many of these topics remind us that analyzing R&D within the corporate context is not the only way to write studies relating tech­ nology to its surrounding culture. The account of the discovery of nylon and neoprene suggests the continuing need for systematic stud­ ies of the processes of discovery and innovation. The discussions of Du Pont’s relations with I. G. Farben and, more significantly, with England’s Imperial Chemical Industries remind us ofthe international dimensions of technology. Du Pont’s concern with achieving a pro­ prietary position in a field suggests the continuing importance of systematic studies of the patent system. And, as a final example, Du­ Pont’s experience with tetraethyl lead in the 1920s and a fine chapter on toxicology suggest some of the potential for linking the history of technology with environmental history. But to repeat, Hounshell and Smith provide us with a superb example of the history of industrial research analyzed within a corporate framework. Their research is broad, their analysis shrewd, their judgments evenhanded. The prose is always clear, usually crisp, occasionally enlivened with the apt quotation or anecdote. The book is eminently readable (some elementary background in organic chem­ istry is helpful). Congratulations are in order. Kendall Birr Dr. Birr is professor of history at the State University of New York at Albany. He is the author of Pioneering in Industrial Research: The Story of the General Electric Research Laboratory (1957), the first book-length study of R&D in an individual American corporation. Pioneers of Photography: Their Achievements in Science ancl Technology. Edited by Eugene Ostroff. Boston: Northeastern University Press for Society for Imaging Science and Technology, 1987. Pp. 285; illustrations, references. $65.00. Pioneers of Photography emerged from the first meeting of the Society for Imaging Science and Technology, held in 1986 at the George Eastman House with support from virtually all the major European, Japanese, and American corporations involved in image making. Predictably, many papers are technical, some presented by the inventor of a particular process. Thus Edwin Land describes “The Universe of One-Step Photography,” making its invention sound easy, and Harold E. Edgerton briefly describes his work in perfecting “flashing lights in photography.” Twenty-six papers are reproduced, with good illustrations on high-quality paper. Most of the contributors are resident scientists at Kodak, Ilford, Fuji, Polaroid, and Xerox. They divide the history of photography into the histories of gelatin, TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 341 paper, picture-taking supports, toning, sensitizing silver halide, photo­ finishing, and so forth. Some of the articles are so technical as to be of interest only to the specialist wishing to know how sensitometric exposure modulators were invented or how to make color daguerre­ otypes. Unfortunately for those interested in reading about a partic­ ular photographic pioneer or early process mentioned in several articles, the book contains no index. For readers of this journal concerned with the relations between photography and society, the scientists’ essays are disappointing, often leaving fascinating details undeveloped. For example, Jack Coote mentions a photographic printing service operating in Lille, France, in 1851, where forty “girls” divided their time between photography and agriculture, according to pressure of work (p. 79), but says nothing more about them. In most of the contributions, workers scarcely exist, and historical events play little part in the history of technology. Edith Weyde’s paper on how she pioneered the diffusiontransfer -reversal process in Germany during the 1930s does not mention politics, and World War Il’s only role is to slow down commercial development (p. 217). If most of the contributors ignore social, political, and intellectual history, four essays do make serious attempts to address the relations of photographic technology and culture. Eugene Ostroff’s “Anatomy of Photographic Darkrooms” is the longest contribution to the volume (thirty-four pages) and presents a wealth of material on 19th-century practices during the period before 1880, when darkroom work had to be done immediately before and after exposure. The many helpful illustrations show the increasing inventiveness of photographers as they improved their studios, devised mobile darkrooms in wagons, boats, and railway...