Ever since the invention of the microscope, humanity has gained access to the world of the incredibly small. Scientists discovered that creatures never known to exist before are alive in an uncountable number in spaces as small as the head of a pin. But the microscope unlocked some interesting forms of art as well. Not only could people view and photograph small objects with them, but in the mid-nineteenth century, various artists and scientists used them to shrink photographs themselves down into the world of the microscopic. This article goes into depth on how one man from this era invented the art form known as microphotography.
Compared to photomicroscopy, which uses a microscope or other similar optical device to take normal-sized photographs of incredibly small things, microphotography takes the reverse approach of taking pictures of normal-sized things and shrinking them down to small sizes. [John Benjamin Dancer] was the inventor of this method, which used optics to shrink an image to a small size. The pictures were developed onto photosensitive media just like normal-sized photographs. Not only were these unique pieces of art, which developed — no pun intended — into a large fad, but they also had plenty of other uses as well. For example, since the photographs weren’t at all obvious without a microscope, they found plenty of uses in espionage and erotica.
Although the uses for microphotography have declined in today’s digital world, there are still plenty of unique pieces of art around with these minuscule photographs, as well as a bustling collector culture around preserving some of the antique and historical microphotographs from before the turn of the century. There is also similar technology, like microfilm and microfiche, that were generally used to preserve data instead of creating art, although plenty of these are being converted to digital information storage now.
Make a microphotograph on silicon.
Add some acid.
Boom, you just made a CPU.
I’m astounded it took people so long to build a computer. We had all the stuff already in XIX century but everyone was self-absorbed by their desire to be a perfect-looking gentleman instead of working on revolutionary inventions.
That is a bit of a dumb comment. And I must assume you know it.
So shape up and stop being silly.
just take a look at that thing they fished out of the ocean. we could have been on the moon a few centuries ago, had the guy who built it, not drowned…
Hi NerdWorld,
I’ve just came back from a time traveling trip (I’ve been in the year 2525), the people from then were astounded it took people so long for the 21st century people to solve all their problems. We seem to have all the stuff already but everyone was self-absorbed by making selfies and silly comments pretending to be perfect-looking instead of working on revolutionary inventions.
There was also the victorian rage for Stanhope viewers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanhope_(optical_bijou) micro photos incorporated into jewellery and things like bone pins, that appear on antique shows on tv.
Photomicrography: Taking pictures of small things.
Microphotography: Taking small pictures of things.
Nanocameratography”, imagining a world where microscopic creatures or robots wield cameras.
Every new technology ever invented gets used for erotica in some way or another. I’ve seen comments on Hackernews about using porn industry adoption as the ultimate hype-free benchmark of whether a technology is going to take off or not.
I have one of those, with the entire Bible on a transparency the size of a postage stamp. Was made to be projected using a slide projector.
“Although the uses for microphotography have declined in today’s digital world”
Forgot about the integrated circuits you used to write the article 🤷♂️