William de Wiveleslie AbneyJuly 24th, 1843 to December 3rd, 1920
Wikipedia...
Abney was born in Derby, England, the son of Edward Abney (1811-1892) vicar of St Alkmund's Derby. He attended Rossall School, the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and joined the Royal Engineers in 1861, with whom he served in India for several years. Thereafter, and to further his knowledge in photography, he became a chemical assistant at the Chatham School of Military Engineering.
Abney was a pioneer of several technical aspects of photography. His father had been an early photographic experimenter and friend of Richard Keene an early Derby photographer. Keene became a close friend of William and his brother Charles Edward Abney (1850-1914). Both Abney sons subsequently became founder members of the Derby Photographic Society in June 1884. His endeavors in the chemistry of photography produced useful photographic products and also developments in astronomy. He wrote many books on photography that were considered standard texts at the time, although he was doubtful that his improvements would have a great impact on the subject.
Abney investigated the blackening of a negative to incidental light. In 1874, Abney developed a dry photographic emulsion, which replaced "wet" emulsions. He used this emulsion in an Egyptian expedition to photograph the transit of Venus across the sun. In 1880, he introduced hydroquinone. Abney also introduced new and useful types of photographic paper, including in 1882 a formula for gelatin silver chloride paper.
Abney conducted early research into the field of spectroscopy, developing a red-sensitive emulsion which was used for the infrared spectra of organic molecules. He was also a pioneer in photographing the infrared solar spectrum (1887), as well as researching sunlight in the medium of the atmosphere.
He became assistant secretary to the Board of Education in 1899 and advisor to that body in 1903.
Abney invented the "Topographic Abney Level", a combined clinometer and spirit level, used by surveyors to measure slopes and angles.
He died in Folkestone, England.
A Treatise On Photography
ASIN: B000KFSO3A
Colour Measurement and Mixture
ISBN-10: 1151454044
ISBN-13: 978-1151454041
Colour Vision
ISBN-10: 1151346675
ISBN-13: 978-1151346674
Colour Vision, Being the Tyndall Lectures Delivered in 1894 at the Royal Institution
ISBN-10: 115198812X
ISBN-13: 978-1151988126
Evening Talks at the Camera Club on the Action of Light in Photography
ISBN-10: 1152505130
ISBN-13: 978-1152505131
Photography With Emulsions
ISBN-10: 1112506950
ISBN-13: 978-1112506956
Science Lectures at South Kensington
ISBN-10: 1154180905
ISBN-13: 978-1154180909
Textbooks of Science Photography
ASIN: B0013YF7TG
The Barnet Book of Photography; A Collection of Practical Articles
ISBN-10: 1150980850
ISBN-13: 978-1150980855
Or, some of his [and co-authored] books online...
A Treatise on Photography
Cantor Lectures on Photography and the Spectroscope
Colour Measurement and Mixture
Colour Vision: Being the Tyndall Lectures Delivered in 1894 at the Royal Institution
Evening Talks at the Camera Club on the Action of Light in Photography
Instruction in photography
Photography with Emulsions: A Treatise on the Theory and Practical Working of the Collodion and Gelatine Emulsion Processes
Platinotype: Its Preparation and Manipulation
Researches in Colour Vision and the Trichromatic Theory
Science Lectures at South Kensington
The Art and Practice of Silver Printing
The Chemical Effect of the Spectrum
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