JOHN HERSHEL

John Hersel was born on the 7^th March on 1792 in Buckinghamshire, England. He was an Astronomer, Mathematician and a Photographer, as an astronomer he is remembered as the discoverer of many moons of Saturn. Hershel had most of his education at Eton and was even under the tuition of a private tutor until he was of age 17 where than he was sent to study at St. John’s College, Cambridge. In 1813 Hershel graduated as a senior wrangler and won the highest academical distinction from his year.

He was the inventor of the photography process known as the Cyanotype process, or better known as the blue print; this technique was still in use for the printing of buildings plans just until a few decades ago. The Cyanotype process involved the use of hyposulphite of soda to fix the pictures, iron salts was used to coat the paper and prepare it for contact printing, finally the process needed the washing of the paper with water to obtain a white image onto a deep blue background. John Hershel is also renowned as the man that gave the word of photography as we know it nowadays and also the words negative and positive where from his creation.

An experimental cyanotype of an engraving of a lady with a harp, by Sir John Herschel

An example of a building plan blue print

Hershel had a very positive personal life; he was always ready to lend a helping hand to who ever needed his experience in scientific studies, where he always encouraged people much lower than his level. He died on the 11^th of May 1871.

NNDB tracking the entire world, 2013. John Hershel. [online]

Available at: < http://www.nndb.com/people/054/000086793/ > [Accessed 22 October 2013].

Alternative Photography, 2000. Cyanotype history – John Herschel’s invention. [online]
Available at: < http://www.alternativephotography.com/wp/history/cyanotype-history-john-herschels-invention > [Accessed 22 October 2013].