Pioneer Scientists and the Early History of Reprography

John Benjamin Dancer is considered the pioneer of microphotography. In his everyday life in Liverpool, Dancer was an optician and scientific instrument maker. In 1839, he began to experiment with concepts put out by photographic pioneers Louis Daguerre and Fox Talbot. By 1840, Dancer had developed a method of taking photographs of microscopic objects using silver plates. In the 1850’s, Dancer adopted the wet collodion process developed by Frederick Scott Archer. By 1859, Dancer was able to present microscopic slides of portraits and whole pages of books (“Dancer, John Benjamin” 2016).

Black and White Portrait of John Benjamin Dancer,
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/imgoct10/J.B.Dancer.jpg

Rene Dagron utilized the procedures developed by Dancer to begin the first commercial microfilm enterprise. During the Franco-Prussian War, specifically the Siege of France of 1870, Dagron used microfilm messages attached to carrier pigeons to carry messages across the German lines (Lahood and Sullivan 1975, 4-8; Daavid 2005). The first business use of microfilm was in the 1920s by a banker, George McCarthy. Eastman Kodak bought McCarthy’s invention and marketed it under Kodak’s Recordak Division into the 1930s. 1938 saw the use of microforms for the purpose of archival preservation, namely Harvard University Library began its Foreign Newspaper Project. In this same year, Eugene Power founded University Microfilms, Inc. (Heritage Archives 2015).

Portrait of Rene Dagron, 

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/imgoct10/Dagron.jpg

During WWII, the need to preserve documents, archives, and collections saw a flurry of microfilming by all nations. In the years following the World War, microforms alongside photocopies became active information sources in libraries. In the 1970s, microforms were entered as an alternative to more expensive print materials. Shortly after, Kodak introduced polyester-based microfilm as an alternative to the old “Kodak Safety Film” which had an acetate base and was quickly succumbing to vinegar syndrome. This new film is said to accurately preserve images for over 500 years. Because of this, microforms are now considered a long-term-use media (Heritage Archives 2015).

Bibliography:

Dancer, John Benjamin. (2016). In The Hutchinson unabridged encyclopedia with atlas and weather guide online. Retrieved from http://lynx.lib.usm.edu/login?url=http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/heliconhe/dancer_john_benjamin/0.

Daavid, J. (March 10, 2005 [last modified]). The history of microfilm: 1839 to the present, a virtual exhibit. The University of California Southern Regional Library Facility. Retrieved from http://www.srlf.ucla.edu/exhibit/html/.

Heritage Archives. (2015). Brief History of Microfilm. Retrieved from http://heritagearchives.org/history.html.

LaHood, C.G. and Sullivan, R.C. (1975). Reprographic services in libraries: Organization and administration. Chicago: American Library Association.