SIR JOHN FREDERICK WILLIAM HERSCHEL

SIR JOHN FREDERICK
WILLIAM HERSCHEL
(1792 - 1871)

He alone could have offered all that was needed for the invention of photography but this multi talented scientist needed it much less than all the others. He had many talents including drawing very well. In 1819 he had already discovered the ability that “hypo” had to fix the photographic images and he is the one who solved the “fixing” problem of pictures that his friend Talbot had. He was the one who first used the terms “photography” “negative” “positive” and “snapshot”. He was the first to photograph glass negatives and in the end he discovered a different photographic method called cyanotype. His contact with other important scientists of his time in Europe and his new ideas in many scientific fields made him without a doubt the leading figure in the English scientific community.