On this day in History September 9th 1850 ...

I would be remiss in my duties as a Professional Photographer not to mention Sir John Herschel. He not only was a Mathemetician, Astronomer, Chemist, and experimental photographer, he also invented the blue print and was the first to discover the stunningly beautiful "Cyanotype Process" on this day, September 9th 1839. This discovery allowed him to make the first photograph on a glass plate. Like the name implies, cyanide was a key component to early photographic work which would lead to photography becoming one of the deadliest professions of the mid 1800s. It was also used in the creation of blue prints. Even today, Black and White photographic processes use Potassium Ferricyanide in the fixing process of film and images, and it was used as an oxidizing agent to remove the silver from color negatives and positives. This process was known as bleaching. The photographic industry used to be the worlds number one buyer and user of silver. At one point 80% of the worlds silver was used for photography. Is it a wonder that both processes were invented by the same man? Potasium Ferricyanide was discovered in 1822 by Leopold Gmelin, and was initially used in the production of ultramarine dyes, Hence the colour blue in "Blue Prints." It was also the same colour die used in the printing of Stamps. You know there had to be a tie-in in there somewhere.

One should read up on John Herschel if you are able as it was his father William Herschel that discovered Uranus and was the pre-eminent authorities on sound. Even though it was Charles Wheatstone who had performed experiments which connected natural phenomena with musical instruments, no one came to understand the limits of scientific authority within the practice of music quite like John Herschel. He was probably the most celebrated gentleman of science in early-Victorian Britain.

Sound has undergone a series of scientific analysis and rebranding over the past one and a half centuries, however new leaps and bounds in phonics have been perfected with the creation of brain wave compatible music and natural harmonics. More on this on another day and another writing.