Four Photographs (Albumen Prints, Photomicrographs) of Experiments Relating to the Structure of Lepidoptera Scales, by R. L. Maddox, 1871

Stiff paper with four small albumen prints and a pencil drawing mounted on it, figures 27-31 in a series of microscopical drawings (this is the only sheet with photographs); with tissue protector. The photographs show images giving the effect of beads, produced by artificial means. The photographer initials and dates the sheet, and gives full captions on the back. The series illustrates Maddox's paper "Remarks on the General and Particular Construction of the Scales of some of the Lepidoptera, as bearing on the Structure of the "Test Scale" of Lepidocyrtus curvicollis", given to the RMS on May 3, 1871, and subsequently published in The Monthly Microscopical Journal, volume 5, 1871, pp.247-266 and 3 plates. Figures 27-32 were not however published, though the captions were, an editorial note reading: 'The remaining figures refer to some exquisite photographs and figures which have been placed by Dr. Maddox in the Society's Collection.'. The taking of the photographs is described pp.265-6.

Richard Leach Maddox (1816-1902), a physician and microscopist, is celebrated in the annals of photography as the inventor of gelatine dry plate negatives, which he first proposed in the same year, 1871, though these photographs were taken on collodion plates. The difficulty he had with the wet collodion process, described in his article, was what inspired his invention. See also 12100.