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TECHNOLOGY IN AC TION™
Science and
Engineering Projects
Using the Arduino
and Raspberry Pi
Explore STEM Concepts with
Microcomputers
—
Paul Bradt
David Bradt
Science and
Engineering Projects
Using the Arduino
and Raspberry Pi
Explore STEM Concepts
with Microcomputers
Paul Bradt
David Bradt
Science and Engineering Projects Using the Arduino and Raspberry Pi:
Explore STEM Concepts with Microcomputers
Paul Bradt David Bradt
Houston, TX, USA Houston, USA
v
Table of Contents
vi
Table of Contents
Mass�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������78
Velocity and Acceleration������������������������������������������������������������������������������������78
Inertia������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������81
Momentum����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������81
Friction����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������81
More Advanced Aspects of Calculus�������������������������������������������������������������������83
Summary������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������84
vii
Table of Contents
viii
Table of Contents
ix
Table of Contents
Astronomy Terms����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������228
Specifications of the Meade ETX-60AT�������������������������������������������������������������229
Setup, Updates, and Repairs�����������������������������������������������������������������������231
Helpful Books����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������232
Index�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������233
x
About the Authors
Paul Bradt has a BS in Computer Science
from the University of Houston–Clear
Lake. He currently owns a small business
and writes books, develops code, and does
IT support work. He has experimented
with the Arduino and Raspberry Pi system
and believes them to be excellent tools for
developing an understanding of electronic
components and hardware interaction in
integrated systems. He believes they are very
useful as a teaching aid in learning computer
programming, science, and engineering. He likes to perform sophisticated
troubleshooting of computer problems and has found that online
resources can be a great help for novice users to get their experiments
operating quickly and effectively.
xi
About the Technical Reviewer
Sri Manikanta Palakollu is an undergraduate student pursuing his
bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering at SICET under
JNTUH. He is a founder of the OpenStack Developer Community in his
college. He started his journey as a competitive programmer. He always
loves to solve problems that are related to the data science field. His
interests include data science, app development, web development,
cybersecurity, and technical writing. He has published many articles
on data science, machine learning, programming, and cybersecurity in
publications like Hacker Noon, freeCodeCamp, Noteworthy, and DDI
through the Medium platform.
xiii
Acknowledgments
This book would not be possible without the authors’ gaining early
technical insight regarding the Raspberry Pi and Arduino from others.
Jared Brank and Dennis Pate provided a lot of basic information, key
insights, and Arduino hardware early in the process. The authors thank
the following individuals who listened to them on many occasions and
provided help, insight, and inspiration with their own experiences with
the Raspberry Pi and other projects: Jeff Dunehew, Todd Franke, and Fitz
Walker. Additionally, significant assistance with 3D printing was provided
by Mitch Long and David Thoerig.
Producing this book would not have been possible without the
excellent help and guidance regarding scope and early editorial reviews
by Joanna Opaskar and Ed Weisblatt. The authors also utilized many
ideas from Andrew Bradt and Laura Brank’s science fair experience. Most
important was the support and advice from Andrea Bradt.
xv
Introduction
The authors’ journey developing this book started in 2013 when they
discovered the Arduino microcontroller. It is interesting how something big
really starts with one step as they found the Arduino incredibly powerful.
Users are able to program it with computer code, and then it executes its
instructions for as long as it has power. The authors started evaluating
various applications of the Arduino around the house and in their hobby
endeavors. In 2017, they started experimenting with the Raspberry Pi
minicomputer which enables users to take projects to a whole new level
with a low-cost computer that interfaces with sensors. Since a Raspberry
Pi is very affordable, a real computer can now be dedicated to operating a
system permanently. While requiring some technical steps to set up, both
of these tools can be used to gather data, automate tasks, and provide a
lot of fun. The authors found it very satisfying to watch a device do several
tasks, especially when they set it up. This book chronicles some science
and engineering projects the authors developed over the past few years
and provides helpful hints, along with a few things to avoid.
There are two primary areas of focus or goals of this book. The first goal
is to help the reader explore the Arduino and Raspberry Pi. The second
goal is exploring science and engineering in interesting and fun ways.
The projects and concepts in this book are meant to accomplish
the first goal by providing information to get an Arduino or Raspberry
Pi system set up, running, and ready to capture data. The text provides
enough detail for users with average assembly or electrical skills to
complete them. Additionally, the goals of learning are to gain knowledge
and skills. When the reader engages in a project that requires them to
try new things, it reinforces how they learn and gain confidence and
encourages them to try even more complex tools and techniques.
xvii
Introduction
What Is STEM?
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) is a program
based on educating students in science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics in an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to learning.
School systems today strive to improve education in STEM. This goal is
an area where educators can use outside help developing and improving
students’ knowledge when they actively contribute, design, and build
hands-on projects. In many ways, the young mind is excited and motivated
building projects. They develop an in-depth understanding of what is
required and how it works. The authors believe this is the best way to learn
and remember these concepts, which results in a solid STEM foundation
for students.
A question not often understood is how the scientific method is different
from an engineering approach. Understanding the difference between
science and engineering can be seen in the original Star Trek series.
xviii
Introduction
Mr. Spock was the science officer, and Montgomery Scott (Scotty) was
the chief engineer. Their jobs and how they approached new scenarios
or problems really provide a great explanation about the differences
and similarities between science and engineering. Let’s examine some
examples.
Mr. Spock used the term fascinating when describing a new event
or phenomenon. The role of science is to expand knowledge and
investigate new events. This fascination with new and unique areas is
key for a scientist. Scotty, the engineer, on the other hand always had to
fix the warp engines, the transporter, or some other critical system. The
normal role of an engineer is to develop and implement solutions to
problems. In one of the episodes, Scotty indicated he would rather read
his engineering journals to learn about how others solved problems
than go on shore leave!
Science
Researchers use the scientific method as a tool to understand questions
in their area of interest. Based on the information they have initially,
they develop a hypothesis and then methods to test the validity of the
hypothesis. When sufficient test data are gathered and analyzed, the
researcher either accepts or rejects the hypothesis. In many cases, positive
or negative results point to the next step or direction of exploration and
contribute to the general body of scientific and engineering knowledge.
Engineering
The primary goal of engineering is to evaluate alternatives and choose
the optimal solution to minimize or eliminate specific problems or issues.
Solutions are not necessarily new, but may be repurposed concepts
applied to different problem areas. Other aspects of engineering include
xix
Introduction
xx
Introduction
Both Mr. Spock and Scotty realized they needed each other (science
and engineering) to accomplish the goals of exploration and keep
the Enterprise flying safely through space. In today’s complex world,
integrating science and engineering is key to researching problems and
developing solutions.
In the following chapters, the authors will demonstrate all of the
components of STEM needed to research scientific questions, use new
technology (Arduino and Raspberry Pi), employ engineering techniques,
and use mathematics to quantify the scientific data. As Star Trek boldly
went forth to explore new worlds, the authors hope the students of today
do the same!
xxi
CHAPTER 1
A
rduino Basics
The Arduino is a powerful microcontroller that is ready to program and
acts as an intermediary device between a personal computer and various
sensors. It is relatively new technology that is a great tool for gaining
insight into physical properties and other scientific parameters.
The Arduino board was first developed in Italy in 2004 as a tool to help
train students in programming. It is an open source tool and as such has
developed a large base of helpful web sites and user groups. It represents
a breakthrough as an easy-to-use, relatively inexpensive, programmable
interface between a computer and various sensors. The software
development package and all of the online resources help make this an
ideal data logging tool for science fair/college projects.
The Arduino, Adafruit, SparkFun, Hacktronics, and other web sites are
great places to start. There are also several introductory books to help the
researcher get started using this device. Getting started with Arduino by
Banzi is a very good beginner’s book on Arduino.
Other sources of information for the Arduino novice are maker faires
and user group activities.
© Paul Bradt and David Bradt 2020 1
P. Bradt and D. Bradt, Science and Engineering Projects Using the Arduino and Raspberry Pi,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-5811-8_1
Chapter 1 Key Technology Tools
There are several versions and sizes, but for the projects in this book,
the Arduino Uno and the Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
version 1.89 were utilized. Figure 1-1 shows an example of the Arduino
Uno. The authors recommend for the person unfamiliar with Arduinos
to use an official version and not a clone. The authors have never
experienced a problem with an official Arduino, but there are many clones,
and the authors have experienced problems with one of them.
A
rduino Setup
Setting up an Arduino is relatively straightforward; the reader should
follow these basic steps to get the device running:
These steps sound basic, and after the reader completes these steps a few
times, they will see how easy it is to connect and run an Arduino. In many cases,
2
Chapter 1 Key Technology Tools
the challenges occur with the code. If the reader is copying code from a source,
it is important to type it in exactly as it looks. Even then there could be errors, but
that is part of the adventure, and it’s very rewarding when the code runs.
P
orts and Interfaces
Figure 1-3 shows the main ports of the Arduino Uno.
3
Chapter 1 Key Technology Tools
There are five primary port groupings that are used to connect to the
Arduino:
4
Chapter 1 Key Technology Tools
There are other components and hardware that can be used with the
Arduino:
5
Chapter 1 Key Technology Tools
6
Chapter 1 Key Technology Tools
7
Chapter 1 Key Technology Tools
Raspberry Pi Basics
The Raspberry Pi 3 is a powerful minicomputer. This piece of technology
comes with a lot of features like any other modern computer. It is an
experimental/hobbyist device developed around 2011 in the United
Kingdom to teach programming. For its low cost, it has many capabilities
and allows the user to configure it in many ways. There are several models
on the market. For this book, the authors choose the Raspberry Pi 3
Model B V1.2 (Figures 1-4 and 1-5). There is a new Raspberry Pi 4 that
was recently released that has more features. The authors researched the
setup and use of the Raspberry Pi 4, and it appears to be the same as the
Raspberry Pi 3. We believe these projects will work the same if you have a
Raspberry Pi 4.
8
Chapter 1 Key Technology Tools
9
Chapter 1 Key Technology Tools
Raspberry Pi Setup
These are the general steps to set up the Pi:
1. Insert the SD card.
2. Plug in the monitor.
3. Plug in the keyboard.
4. Plug in the mouse.
10
Chapter 1 Key Technology Tools
For the purposes of this book, the authors will focus primarily on how
to connect sensors to the Raspberry Pi and get data out of them. There are
many other uses for the Raspberry Pi that will not be covered in this text.
Figure 1-7 shows the General-Purpose Input/Output or GPIO pins,
although it may not be easy to determine the pin number on the Raspberry Pi.
A ribbon cable is also shown that connects to a nice interface board made
by MCM. This interface board has pin numbers and makes it a lot easier to
connect sensors to the Raspberry Pi. More about this in the next chapter.
11
Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
indeed to be endless; but a mere statement of even the more
interesting of these would lead us beyond our limits, and
descriptions of the details of manipulation are out of our province
altogether. But a few of the more recent applications and
developments of the art scarcely or not at all alluded to in the
foregoing pages should receive some attention.
The extraordinary sensitiveness of the gelatine-bromide film which
makes it possible to impress on it a photographic image in the
merest fraction of a second of time, enables us to take pictures of
objects in rapid motion. Express trains at their highest speed have
been successfully photographed, and so has almost every moving
object in nature. The photographs that have been taken of men, of
birds, horses, and other animals in every phase of their most rapid
actions, have solved many disputed and perplexing problems as to
the nature of their movements, and sometimes the solutions have
been of a very unexpected kind. Taking a photographic “shot” at a
bird has become almost more than a figure of speech; for there are
contrivances by which a bird on the wing may be aimed at with the
lens, and hit off on the sensitive plate with a certainty surpassing
that of the fowling-piece. There are also photographic repeaters by
which six or more successive photographs of the bird, etc., can be
taken in a single second. Mr. Muybridge has published a number of
such photographs of the horse, and by projection of the different
images on a screen from a magic lantern, in rapid succession, he has
been able to reproduce the visual appearance of horses trotting,
leaping, galloping, etc., on the principle of the zoetrope (page 399).
Photography has afforded wonderfully delicate observations in many
departments of science, by recording phenomena too rapid for the
eye to seize, or too recondite for direct perception. A few examples
may be mentioned. First, the advantage of photographing the lines
of spectra, such as those described in our article on the
spectroscope, will at once suggest themselves, and accordingly this
method of recording spectra has been largely used, and in the hands
of Mr. Lockyer, Dr. Draper, and others has been successfully applied
to the study of the solar and stellar spectra. But more than this, it is
the sensitive photographic plate that has enabled us to explore the
region of the solar spectrum lying far beyond its visible limits in the
red and in the violet rays. The ultra-violet portion of the spectrum is
shown photographically to be occupied by multitudes of the thin
insensitive spaces—breaks in the continuity of the active rays—which
are impressed on the photographic print as black lines, similar in
every respect to the lines mapped out in the visible spectrum by
Fraunhofer. It is known by these that the ultra-violet spectrum,
produced by glass prisms, extends to a distance beyond the last
visible rays of nearly double the space occupied by the colour
spectrum. The principal lines, or rather the greater groups of lines in
the invisible spectrum, are distinguished by the capital letters of the
alphabet, in continuation of Fraunhofer’s method, beginning from H
and nearly exhausting the letters of the alphabet to designate them.
These are photographed in the dark; for all the solar beams that are
allowed to enter the stereoscope are first passed through blue glass
of such a depth that every kind of emanation capable of affecting
the human eye is intercepted.
Another extremely interesting example of the application of the art
to scientific research is celestial photography. An image of the sun
may be impressed on a sensitive plate in an ordinary camera, in an
amazingly short space of time, but such image is much too small to
show any of the markings on the disc of our luminary, even when
the image is magnified, for its diameter is only about ⅒ th of an
inch for each 12 inches of the focal length of the lens. In order to
obtain an image of 4 inches diameter, a lens of 40 feet focal length
must therefore be used. The first attempts in solar photography
appear to have been made in France, in 1845, and the solar
prominences were daguerrotyped in 1851; but it was not until 1860,
that Mr. De La Rue succeeded in obtaining some beautiful negatives
of the phenomena presented in an eclipse of the sun, and was thus
enabled to determine a great astronomical problem, by showing that
the red flames, or prominences, really belonged to the sun itself. At
the present time, photographs of parts of the sun’s disc are regularly
taken at Kew, and other observatories, without the very long and
heavy telescopes, which introduced many mechanical difficulties into
the operation; for, by means of Foucault’s siderostat, the great lens
and the photographic apparatus can be used in one fixed position.
The siderostat is an instrument on which a flat mirror, made of glass
worked to a perfect plane and silvered externally, is caused by
clockwork to follow the motion of the sun, so that the reflected
beams can be projected in any required direction unchangeably, and,
therefore the image of the sun (or other heavenly bodies) viewed in
the mirror, is absolutely stationary. The lens, carried in a short tube,
has its axis directed to this image, just as it would be pointed at the
luminary itself. In solar photography, the exposure is made through
a very narrow slit in an opaque screen, which is caused to move
rapidly in front of the image. Very fair photographic images of the
sun, of several inches diameter, can, however, be obtained with an
ordinary telescope of five feet or so focal length, by substituting a
small photographic lens and camera in the eye-piece, and by
enlarging the image in printing.
As early as 1840, Dr. Draper succeeded in daguerrotyping the moon,
but it was not until 1851, that lunar photographs, obtained by
Professor Bond, another American astronomer, were first exhibited in
England. Many other distinguished experimenters have since
successfully turned their attention to this subject, such as Dancer, of
Manchester, Secchi, Crookes, Huggins, Phillips, and De La Rue. The
latter, and also Mr. Fry, by photographing the moon, at different
periods of her libration, have obtained very beautiful and interesting
stereoscopic prints of our satellite, in which she presents to the eye
the roundness and solidity of a cannon ball. Mr. Rutherford, in
America, had an object glass of 11¼ inches diameter, made
expressly with correction for the chemical rays, and with this
instrument he has produced some of the finest photographs of the
moon that have yet been taken. Reflecting telescopes, which have
the advantage of uniting all the rays in one focus, have been used
with excellent results, and it is said that some taken with the great
reflector at Melbourne, where also the atmospheric conditions are
very favourable, are almost perfect.
Excellent photographs of the planets have also been taken by Mr.
Common and others; but they are of course small, and have
contributed so far, much less to our astronomical knowledge than
those already mentioned. Very different are the results obtained in
what, a short time ago, appeared a less promising field. The image
of a so-called fixed star, in even the most powerful telescopes,
presents itself as a mere luminous point, and this is the case
whether the star is one of the brightest or one of the least
conspicuous. The telescopic appearance is simply a more or less
brilliant point. The various degrees of brightness which distinguish
one star from another (stella enim a stellâ differt in claritate), and
which the unassisted eye attributes to difference of size, led, long
before the invention of telescopes, to a classification of them
accordingly. The brightest stars are said to be of the 1st
“magnitude,” those of the next inferior degree of brilliancy, of the
2nd “magnitude,” and so on, down to the 6th, which includes the
faintest star discernible by an acute eye under favourable
circumstances. But stars too faint to be thus seen came into view in
the field of the telescope, and therefore those of the 7th magnitude,
and beyond, are termed telescopic stars, and each additional power
given to the instrument brings others in view that previously were
invisible. The classification has been carried down to the 18th or
20th magnitude, which expresses the limit of visibility with the most
powerful telescopes yet constructed. In the methods hitherto
employed for this classification, there is necessarily much that is
arbitrary and vague, and it is quite common to find a different
magnitude assigned to the same star by different authorities. Now
the photographic plate enables the astronomer to determine the
relative brightness of stars quite definitely. Everyone knows that the
time required to impress an image on the sensitive plate is longer, as
that image is less luminous. Hence, by finding the time required for
the images of different stars to be impressed, we have a measure of
their relative luminosities. Suppose the image of a group of stars is
allowed to act on a plate for, say, 5 seconds, we should find only the
brightest stars represented. If a second plate have double the
exposure given, it would be impressed by the images of not only the
brightest stars of the group, but also by those of the next degree of
brilliancy; and a third plate exposed for 20 seconds would show
more stars than the two former exposures. So that plate after plate
might be exposed under the same group for successively longer and
longer intervals indefinitely. Exposures extending over hours have
been made, notably by Mr. Common in England, and by Mr. Gill at
the Cape of Good Hope, showing not only how magnitude may be
determined to any extent, and the heavens most accurately mapped
out, but with this very remarkable result:—thousands of stars,
invisible even in the most powerful telescopes, are portrayed in the
photographs. Let us consider for a moment the significance of this
fact with regard to the new space-exploring powers it has placed in
the hands of science. The number of stars visible to the unassisted
eye in the whole expanse of the heavens has been variously
estimated, but the figures usually given lie between 3,000 and
4,000, and the highest estimate for the most acute eyesight, under
the most favourable atmospheric conditions, places the limit at
5,000. The brightest star in the heavens is Sirius, and Sir. J. Herschel
ascertained that its light is about 324, that of an average star of the
6th magnitude. Taking the average luminosities of stars of the first
six magnitudes, Sir W. Herschel, from his own observations,
represents their relative brightness by the following figures: 100; 25;
12; 6; 2; 1. The different degrees of brightness seen is, probably,
due to the following three causes, combined in various proportions:
(1) the different sizes of these luminaries themselves; (2) differences
in their intrinsic luminosity; and, (3) differences in their distances
from us. And it is also extremely probable that the last is generally
by far the largest factor of the three. It has been found by
photometrical experiments, that the light we receive from the sun is
20,000,000,000 (twenty thousand million) times more than that of
Sirius. If we suppose Sirius to be in reality only as large and as
bright as our sun, it follows that its distance from us must be no less
than 13,433,000,000,000 miles. The distance of stars of the 16th
magnitude has been estimated to be such that their light—travelling
at the rate of 185,000 miles per second—takes between five and six
thousand years to reach us. For a long time no sensible parallax
could be discovered in any of the fixed stars; that is, no change in
their positions was discernible when viewed from points 183,000,000
miles apart, namely from the extremities of a diameter of the earth’s
orbit. In other words, if we suppose the line of the length just
mentioned to form the base of a triangle, having a star at its vertex,
the angle formed by the sides is so small that the most refined
instruments failed to measure it. In recent times, however, the
parallax of a few stars—about a dozen or so—has been detected and
approximately measured. The greatest observed parallax belongs to
in α the constellation of the Centaur, a star of the first magnitude,
30° from the south pole of the heavens, and of this the parallax
amounts to but a little more than nine-tenths of a second of angular
measurement, corresponding with a distance of nearly
20,000,000,000,000 miles, a space which takes light 3½ years to
pass over. This star is, therefore, believed to be the nearest of any to
our system. The smallest parallax that has been measured in any of
these few stars is a fraction of a second of angle corresponding with
a distance twenty times greater than the other, and requiring
seventy years for light to traverse it. Now, as the photographic plate
shows us stars of magnitudes indefinitely smaller even than the
telescopic sixteenth, we cannot but marvel at the manner in which
the light travelling from these suns in the immeasurable depths of
space, and taking untold thousands (nay, millions, it may be) of
years in its journey is yet able so to agitate the atoms of our silver
compounds that images of things that will themselves, probably,
never be seen by mortal eyes are presented to our view. A
circumstance requiring explanation will occur to the reader’s mind in
connection with stellar photography; and that is, how does it happen
that, if the image of a star is a mere point, it nevertheless impresses
the plate as a visible dot? It is probably because the point is a centre
whence the photographic influence radiates laterally on the plate to
a small but yet sensible distance.
Among the cosmic objects presented to our observation there are
none more fully charged with interest and instruction than the
Nebulæ. These are faintly luminous patches, in some few cases
visible to the naked eye, but for the most part telescopic. The milky
way, which extends round the celestial sphere, is a very conspicuous
phenomenon of the same kind. A few other hazy, cloudlike patches
are seen in various parts of the heavens, visible on a clear moonless
night when the eye is directed towards the proper quarter. The well
known group of the Pleiades sometimes presents this appearance,
but most persons are able by the unassisted vision to discern in it a
group of six stars at least, and an opera-glass or ordinary hand
telescope easily resolves the object into a cluster of 20 or 30 distinct
stars. Telescopes of higher powers bring more stars into view, and
as many as 118 have been counted in the group. There are several
other groups of this kind perceptible to the naked eyes merely as
diffused patches of light, but resolvable by the telescope into thickly
clustered groups of minute stars; but in many of the resolvable
nebulæ the separate stars appear spread on a back-ground of
diffused luminosity. Again, there are other nebulæ which telescopes
of the highest powers we possess fail to resolve at all. Not only has
the photographic method shown stellar components of some of
these last, but it has depicted the form of nebulæ never seen at all,
and whose existence was previously unknown and unsuspected. For
example, the photograph has revealed the existence of a back-
ground of nebulous patches to the stars of the Pleiades—a thing that
had never before been suspected, although the group has been
repeatedly observed by the most powerful telescopes. Those who
are at all acquainted with astronomy, will understand the significance
of this discovery for the science. The results already obtained afford
a marvellous support to the famous speculation known as the
nebular hypothesis. And as the forms of these objects are accurately
shown for us by their own light, changes in their appearance may
thus be detected as time goes on which may serve to lift the above
named theory into the region of demonstrated truth. The nebulæ
which neither telescope nor camera can resolve are such as the
spectroscope proves to be masses of glowing gas or vapour.
It has been already mentioned that the light from these
immeasurably distant stars and nebulæ is so faint that the most
sensitive photographic plates have to be exposed for hours. This
would be a matter of no difficulty if the clockwork mechanism by
which the apparatus is made to follow the apparent motion of the
heavens could be constructed with absolute perfection. But as this is
not obtainable, even with the most careful workmanship, and the
smallest jar or irregularity would distort and confuse the images, this
source of disturbance is eliminated in the following manner:
attached to the photographing apparatus and driven with it is a
telescope, provided with cross wires, and through this an observer
views some star during the whole period of the exposure, his
business being to keep the image of the star accurately on the cross
wire, which he is enabled to do by having the means of slightly
modifying the movement of the clockwork. In the Paris Exhibition of
1889 were shown many very fine large photographic prints of
nebulæ (notably of great nebula in Orion), which have recently been
obtained in this manner, and those nebulæ that had been
photographically resolved had the stellar components marked with
wonderful distinctness. Comets and meteorites have been
photographed, and even the aurora borealis and the lightning’s path
have been brought within the camera’s ken.
Space would fail us to describe the many applications now found for
photography in microscopy, in medicine and surgery, in
anthropology, in commerce, and in the arts. It is obvious also from
the improvements that are continually made, that many of these
applications have not yet received their full developments.
Photography has been enlisted into the service of the army and
navy, and regular courses of instruction in the art are given in their
training schools. A well equipped photographic waggon now
accompanies every army corps, and in almost every ship of war,
some proficient operator is to be found. By an ingenious combination
of photography, aerostatics and electricity, it is possible to obtain
with perfect safety accurate information of the disposition of an
enemy’s forces and fortifications. A small captive balloon is sent up,
to which is attached a camera. At a height of a few hundred yards,
the balloon is practically safe from any projectiles, and in its cable
are interwoven two electric wires by which currents are conveyed to
electro-magnets, which produce all the movements required for any
number of exposures. Jurisprudence has found its account in
recognizing the art, for the photograph is received in evidence for
proving identity, etc. The administration of the criminal law takes
advantage of the art to secure the likeness of prisoners for future
identification, and the modern instantaneous process renders
unnecessary the subjects’ concurrence with the operation. Again, if
the “hue and cry” has to be raised for an individual “wanted” for any
offence, and a photographic likeness of him is procurable, thousands
of copies can be made of it in a few hours, by night as easily as by
day, and distributed to every police station in the whole country.
Modern processes now enable us to obtain prints from negatives in
as many seconds as a few years ago hours were required, and this
by artificial light. A process of printing lately introduced and yielding
artistic results which deserve to find more general favour, is that
called the platinotype. Instead of the ordinary print produced on
lightly glazed paper by the reduction of silver compounds, and of
questionable permanency, the image is formed in the paper by
metallic platinum, the most changeless of all possible substances
under ordinary influences. The pictures are of a rich velvety black,
with soft gradations, and the surface is without glaze or glare. The
print has, in fact, the appearance and all the best qualities of the
most highly finished mezzotint engraving, combined with the minute
fidelity characteristic of the photograph. The problem of producing a
photograph in colours, permanently showing nature’s tints in all their
gradations, has still a great fascination for some experimenters, and
startling announcements are made from time to time of some
discovery in this direction. It does not appear, however, that any
success has really been arrived at, beyond the results long ago
obtained by Becquerel as described on page 614; and, indeed, as
our knowledge of the science of the subject increases, the less likely
does the possibility of photographing colours appear. It is, however,
never safe to lay down the limits of discovery in science.[14] Note that
precisely in the matter of rendering colour even in its due gradation
of tone or luminous intensity, the photograph is quite untruthful.
Everybody has noticed how unnaturally dark and heavy the foliage
of trees appears in the prints; if we suppose a lady in a blue dress,
with yellow trimmings, to sit for her portrait, the photograph will
show her in a white dress with black trimmings; a sitter with light
yellow or auburn hair will appear of quite a dark complexion; if you
photograph a lemon and a plum together, the latter will probably
come out lighter than the former; or if a daffodil be the subject, the
flower will be drawn in tones much darker than the leaves. This
incorrectness of tone relations can, however, be greatly lessened by
the device of reducing the quantity of the blue rays, by interposing a
piece of optically plane yellow-tinted glass, by using the sensitive
plates tinted with certain coal-tar dyes, which are now prepared and
sold under the name of “ortho-chromatic plates,” or by both
methods combined.
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