Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • Nada

    Uploaded by

    DanielHernándezGuzmán
    3 views30 pages
    fotografía

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document
    fotografía

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    3 views30 pages

    Nada

    Uploaded by

    DanielHernándezGuzmán
    fotografía

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 30
    When I Was a Photographer Félix Nadar EDUARDO CADAVA ano LIANA THEODORATOU An etoow ANTS a Photographer Balzac and the Daguerreotyp hen the word spread that twa inventors had just succeeded in fixing every image presented in front of them onto silver plates, there was a universal stupefaetion that we cannot Imagine, £0 we we, after 20 many years now, to photographs dt its popularization” There were some who stubbornly refused to believe that it was possible, A usual phenomenon, since by nature we are hostile to everything that disconcerts our received ideas and disturbs our habits. Suspicion, hateful irony, the “eagerne ‘il a6 our friend Sand used to say’ arise immediatel Wasn't it jut yeeterday, the furious protest of that member of aph? With what indignation did the distinguished “professor refuse to waste one more second with this “ventriloquist hoax, and what a scene he made as he stormed out, swearing that the impertinent charlatsn would have to deal with him How!” Gustave Doré—a clear and free mind if the that you don understand the enjoyment one in discovering the chink in the armor ofa masterpiece As the “Sublime always produces th far so the unknown strikes us with vertigo, and shocks us like ‘nsolee The appearance ofthe Daguerreotype—which more lei imately should be called the Niépeetype' therefore could not fail to provoke considerable emotion, Exploding wmnexpect Is totally unexpectedly, surpnesing all possible expectation diverting eversthing that we though we knew ad even wh could be hypothesized, the new discovery indood appeared as, and ails, the most extraordinary in the constellation of invention that already have made our sil unfinished century in the absence of other virtwer—ehe greatest ofthe scientific ‘Such isin fct the glorious haste of photographs birth that the proliferation of germinating ideas seems to ren- der incubation superfluous: the hypothesis comes out of the ‘human brain in full armor, fully formed, and the fist induc tion immediately bacomes the finished work. The idea runs to the fact. Seaesly has steam reduced distance, when lec tricity abolishes it, While Bourseul*—a Frenchman, the first, humble employee of the Post Ofice—points to the telephone and while the poet Charlee Cros! dreams of the phonograph, Lissajous.” with hie sound waves, makes us ee the sound that Ader transmits beyond our range, and that Baison recorded for us for alltime; Pasteur, simply by examining more closely the helminths intuited by Raspail, imposes a new diagnostic that throws away our old eadex; Chareat opens the mysterious door ofthe hyperphysical word, intuited by Mesmer, and all ‘our secular ideas of criminality collapse; Marey, who had just, Stolen the secret of rational aronautis held down by weights from birds, reveals to man inthe immencities of tho ether the new domsin that will be hs from tomorrow on—and, © sim: ple fact of pure physiology, ancsthesia elevates tell, with aa "Almost divine aspiration, to the mere that lite physical pain, Which is heneeforth abolished from himenity . And its this, indeed, allthis, that the good Me Brunetire calls: “the failure of Science"? Here we are well beyond the remarkable accomplish ments of Foureoy, at that supreme hour when the genius fof a nation in danger would order discoveries, beyond even those of Laplace, Montgolfer, Lavoisier, Chappe, Conté, and ofall the other, co well beyond that, inthe face of this set of vents, of almost simultaneous explosions of Seienco in our nineteenth century, its eymboliem alto must be transformed: the Hereules of antiquity was 8 man with the fll free of his age, with powerful and large muscles: the modern Hercules is ‘child loaning ona lever"* But all these new wonders, have they net been erased by ‘the most astonishing and disturbing one ofa: the one which finally seems to give man the power to create, he, too, im is turn, by materializing the impalpable specter that vanishes as soon asi is porcuved, without leaving even a shadow on tho crystal of the mirror, ora ripple in the water ina basin? ‘Was it not possible for man to believe then that he actually was crating, since he seied, apprehended, fixed the intang! ble, preserving the fleeting vision, the flash, engraved by hia today in the hardest bronze? ce were wise to have waited to be born The Church always has shown itself to be more than cold toward innovators—when it was aot to warm toward them—, and the discovery of 1842 soemed mostly sus pect." This mystery smelled devilishly ike a spell and reeked af heresy the celestial rotisserie had been heated up fo less, [Everything that unhinges the mind was gathered together there: hydrosoops bewitchment, conjurstion, apparitions, Night, so doar to every thaurmaturge, reigned supreme inthe gloomy recesaes of the darkroom, making it the ideal home for the Prince of Darkness It would not have taken much to eansform ‘our tars into philters. Itisnot surprising, then, if at fst, even admiration seemed “uncertain; it remained unsettled, as if bewildered, Time was needed for tho Universal Animal to make up hie mind and ‘approach the Monster Infront ofthe Daguerreotype, things went “rom thelowest to the highest,” as the popular saying goes, and the ignorant and the illiterate were not the only ones t have this defiant, almost superstitious, hesitation. More than one of the most ‘beautiful minds suffered the contagion ofthis first recoil." ‘To mention only one from among the very highest, Balzac fale uneasy before the new marvel: he could not detend him: self against a vague apprehension sbout th Daguerreian operation He had found his own explanation, for whatever it was worth atthe moment, returning somewhat to fantastic hypoth ses 4 la Cardan," I think I remember well having seen his particular theory explained by him in detail in a earner some: ‘where in the immensity of his work. do not have the time to research it, but my recollection is very clear and precise ‘beosse of the prox account that he gave me in one of our meetings and which he repeated to me another time, since he seemed ta be obsessed with the idea, in the litle violet apart mont that he ceupied atthe corner of rue Richelieu and bow: levard Richeiew: this building, famous as a gambling house during the Restoration, still was called st that time the Hotel Frascati ‘Therefore, according to Balzac, each body in nature is compoted of serie of specters, in infinitely superimposed layers, foliated into infnitosimal pelicules, in all directions in which the optic prcoives this body ‘Since man is unable to creste—that is, to constitute from ‘an apparition, from the impalpable, a solid thing, or to make ‘thing out of nothing, every Daguerreisn operation would fateh, detach, and retain, by fixing onto itself one ofthe lay 75 af the photographed body Te follows that for that body, and with every repeated oper ation, there was an evident lose of one ofits specers, which is to a0, of « pat ofits constitutive estence. ‘Was there an absolute, definitive loss, or would this partial loss repair iteelf consecutively in the mystery of a more oF leas instantanoous rebirth of the spectral material? I suppose thet Baleae, once he began, was not the kind of man to stop along the way and that he would walk until the end of his hypoth fs, But this second point was never brought up between ws Balzac’ terror before the Daguerreotype, was it sincere or simulated? I it was sincere, Blzae had only to gain from his loss, since his abdominal abundances, and ethers, perm: ted him to squander his “specter” without counting, In any ‘ase, it id nat prevent him from posing atleast once for that unique Daguerreotypo that T owned after Gavarni and Silvy, ‘and ie now inthe possesion of Mr. Spoeberg de Lovenjoul.” To claim that it was simulated would be rather tricky, without forgetting, howover, thatthe desire to shock had been for @ long time the most fashionable sin of our elite minds, These originals, so veal, of such genuine frankness, een 10 enjoy so thoroughly the pleasure of preventing themselves paradoxically in front of us that we hd to invent a name for this disease of tho brain, “the pose,” the pose that, with thoir moribund look, the hunched, consumptive Romantics hhave transmitted perfecty in the same way, first under the nalve and brutal allure ofthe naturalist realists then up to the present rigidity, the fixed and thrice locked posture of our current idiographie and self-centered dacadents the ious themselves more annoying than all the others together, ‘ternal token of the imperishablty of Cathos and Madelon* Bo that as it may, Balzac didnot have to go far to find two disciples for his now parish. Among his closest friends, Goa inhis prudence, immediately got out ofthe was; but good ad Gautir and the no lose excellent Gérard de Nerval immed ately followed suit to the “Spectera.” Any theeis beyond vert. similitude could only agree with the “impeccable” The," the precious and charming poot, floating in the vagueness of his ‘oriental somnolence: the image of man is prohibited, after all, in the counties of the rising sun. As for the west Gérard, fr fever mounted on the Chimera, he was already predisposed: for ‘tho initiate of Isis, an intimate friend ofthe Queen of Sheba and of the Duchesse de Longueville, every dream would arrive in the form of a friend... but talking of specters, both the fone and the other, and without any qualms, were among the very frst o pass before our lens rc oun 7 Teould not say for how long this eabalist tio resisted the entirely scientife explanation of the Daguerreian myster ‘which soon passed tothe domain ofthe banal Tt can be assumed that our Sanhedrin had the same end as everything else and that, after a frst very lively agitation, swe very quickly finished up not speaking about it As they bed ome, tothe “Specters" had to leave ‘Never again did they como wp in any other meeting or vist ofthe two friends to my studio 3azebon Avenged plus the canceled Imperial seal, was the following postal addres: Monsieur NADAR, Rue SeintLacare, 12 "Pari. | had read and reread this curious lettar—which I repre duce hare word for word, with its spelling and punctuation, ‘admiring equally the guliility of Gazebon and the knavery of, perfdious Maule. Having “been somewhat occupied with the Daguerreotipe fora time” bad left me thinking ‘And, ina vague memory that slowly was becoming precise, 1 managed to find again these two names ofthe naive café proprietor from Pau and of the mischievous comedian. Some two yours before I had received from the same Garebon, under the instigation and auspices of the very tame Mavelere—already then “in transit in our eity"—a frst ‘sensational epistle Te concerned an atrocious clk in gilded copper, a master: piece of Restoration bed taste: entitled Malek Adel on His (Charger. Tis ubiquitous Malek Adel—one could see him every ‘where—had beon reduced to seeing himself being refused ‘eylum by even the meanest secondhand deelers, This Mauclrc“in transit te,” nosing about the ea, a coming across this last souvenir ofthe books of Mrs. Cotin,! the insidious Mauiclere exclaimed, swesring to the innocent Gazsbon that he had there in his posession a treasure af the frst order in upseale curiosities, listed by all the connoisseurs, and of which the one and only other copy in the world was in ‘iy hands. In such a way, he had thus easly ineited his chosen victim to write to me and to come to an understanding with ‘mein order to keep the prices high Thad abstained from responding an, since thi iret effort bby Manclere had no effet, at last afar us Twas concerned, be charged again, pushing his Gazcbon on me a second time ‘So much for Gnaebon, who “receives] everyday the best ety, and even a lange numberof Englishmen”; bat why me, wy this obstinacy, this obsession to choose me specifically tnd to pursue me se their chosen vest, to impose on me the ‘complicity of such misdeeds? Maucler, “dramatic ari, in transit in our ety" what do you want from me? ‘Without allowing myself to be touchod by his so-marked preference for my collaboration, a preference that 1 want to belive is flatering on the part of this Mauclere, I didn't find myself in the mond even this second time to give him aa left Mauclere to turn sround and witnest his scheme explode all by himself, and the heroic Gazcbon to await his portrait "taken in color and, i possible, while he is seated in his billiards room’—in the plural. ‘Bot this letter bogged to be kept as @ specimen, and, a3 @ collector ins «rare buterly, I gave it place in especial box Its not unpleasant and even justified, in the last days of 4 long and rather fll carver, to have received and to reread leeters like this one. "Except thet, who would have tol me that fifteen or twenty years later the good old Gazebon would have found his avenger snd that But lots not get ahead of ourselves. Can you imagine anything more satisfying than those moments of reat before the evening meal, after along days work? Driven from bed before dawn by the preoccupations of work, the man hesn't stopped acting and thinking. He has tiven everything he ean, without counting, strugpling against fatigue that becomes more and more oppressive 1 wil fall night like a slaughtered ox and itis only at sundown, when the time of liberation rings, the time for everyone to stop, that, the main door of the house finally closed, he gives himself grace, granting a truce, until tomorrow, to his over-exhatsted limbs and bran It this sweet hour par excellence, when, rewarded for his vwork—our great human advantage—by his work itself, and Testored to himoelf at last, he stretches himself with delight in the char of his choice, recapitulating the fruit of his day's labor ‘Yes, but, even though our main door is closed, the back {oor always vemsins helfopon, and if our good luck isto be perfect today, he will come to us for some good, intimate, com forting banter, where detestable discustion would never take it upon itelf to interfere, he one of those whom we love more than anybody lee and who loves us—one af thove whom our thought always follows, since thei thought is always with perfect agroements, cemented communions until beyand the Inst hour, made possible by long years of affetion and ectoom Exactly that aterncon, one of the most beloved and best came to see me, the highest soul withthe most alert and clear. feat spit, one ofthe most briliant fils cited in Parisian con ‘ersation, my excellant Hérald de Pages and what anice and intimate chat we were having, leaving fatigue and all the rest {far behind! until a visitor i announced to us Tm not here! Leave mein peaco! But this one has already come three times without find ing you, and he just told us that, if you could not receive him now, he would come back; he absolutely needs to talk to you. ‘Who is he? don't know: avery young man who looks like a worker, bareheaded and with a white shirt, Let him come up intervenes the good Heérald, who has slready senced (1 know him something interesting All ght. Let him come up. The young man appears wearing a white shirt and bare heeded He begins by apologising for being in work clothes: having been occupied all day, he had not been able, afraid that he vould never find me again, to return to che home of his mother, with whom he lived on the heights of Climancour, to change He was about twenty years old at most, a direct and clear look, his hearing reserved, modest yet self assured. He spoke with remarkable ense, and had none ofthe drawn-out accent af the Parisian lowlifes. Altogether a very pleasant young ‘man: atypicel example ofthe good French worker: intelligent, Auiek,retoureefal ‘After is apologies and thanks, be explained that, despite his absolute need to see me, he perhaps till would have he inated to bother me if there were not already some familiar territory between us: his mother, whose name he says and repeats to me, had been in my mother's service in Lyon and had very happy memories of her in addition, he himself had ‘worked for almost two years for Léopold Leclanehé, the son of An old friend of mine, the translator of Celli‘ Mémoire. —.. the one, si, you had nicknamed Farouchot (he was laughing heartily as he was telling ue the story) and whom ‘we had the misfortune of losing before his son: a great loss this one, too, in, for me and for everyone, since Mr. Leopold still had many inventions in front of him, perhaps even more precious than his electri battery, and he was kind enough to show an intrest in me, a great interest. Lave lost alot with his death, You are an electrician then? Yes, sir. Ive always liked my trade, and anything related to it physics, chemistry, caleulus.Iatend community courses ‘every evening or I read books and special reviews: this is my great, my only pleasure, I know nothing of almost nothing, but keep up with what others know. Taleo like going t all the shops where I can learn something: that io why, aftr having worked for eighteen monthe at the Maison Breguet, I left: there is only manufacturing there, and itis the labora tory that attracts me. Iwas employed at Mr Trouvss in the rue de Valois, while he was working on his dal-motor electric ‘olocipede, I workedI wanted to know i al, eit all—at Me Froment’ on his clocks, at Mr, Marcel Deprezs on generators and on eneray tranemiasion—a grest thing of which we have not yot heard the last word, sir!—then with Mr. Ader on his telephone? "Ab! You know Mr Ader, 00? —Oh! Ys, sir: very fine gentleman, who knows a lot and who will have a lotto tll us some day! And despite this, mod a, too modest! Indeed, — You know him, too? et it tru, sin, that Fm not mis taken? Finally, Iwas even lucky enowgh to be accepted by Mr. Caselli to help with his research on autgraphic telegraph. tis there especially But just how old are you? Well, sir, im almost twenty = You do not even look that old. But, lot's see: you are tan electrician, you are studious, certainly intelligent, yo know my friend "Farouchot” and my friend Ader; you've been round fine! But surely tht ian all you've come to tell me Here, a moment of silence. The young man is hesitant, timid embarrassed. Finally, after a visible efor: —Mr Nadar, Twon't permit myself to tll you the reasons ‘why its to you that I have come, why its to you, to you alone, that hed to come, and why T would have come again fT had not been abe to reach you: I find nothing worse than flattery and I would not want to appear a latterer to you T must have frowned at that point, and he must have noted First and foremost, sir, bog you not to take me for an srrogant person which Thave no reason to be; but what [have ‘come to revel to you isso... extraordinary, so beyond, even {or you, what is recognized as ecepted, classified, catalogued that I first must make an appeal to you: to kindly agree not to judge me right away as crazy or impudent, to listen to me, to ‘hear me without erving out "Go ahead! —And I must also ask you, gentlemen, not to do me the honor of taking me for an inventor. Iam only a young ma, very ignorant, and it ix not a alls discovery that 1 clsim to bring to you. It is only acimpe find, echance, a coincidence in the laboratory. Moreover, you would he surprised at the sim: plicty atthe banality ofthe thing: Iam speaking of my find by iteelf, from a aientife point of view, notin regard to its con sequences, I wae led there naturally by the latest published experiments on photophony. I said to myself the results obtained by Mr. Graham Bell and Mr. Summer Tsinter have established that all bodies ean emit sound under the action of light, why would we refuse to accept from light itself what light can offer us? sand? Hore, another silence: then, with resslution, looking at me even more directly — Sir, would you edmit, only for a moment, a4 « hypoth is, that, if, by some impossibility (out itis not for me to remind you, especially you, that, pure mathematics aside, the sreat Arago would not accept the word: impossibility if chen, ‘ model, any aubject whatsoever, were in this room where we find ourselves right now, for example, and on the other side, your camera man with his lens were in his laboratory, either ‘on this floor, or on any other floor above or below us, that is absolutely separated, isolated from this mode of which he is unaware, which he cannot see, which he has not even seen— tnd which he has no need to ee—would you admit that fa photograph could be taken here, infront of you, under these strict conditions of segregation, the eperation thus executed, cover such & short distance would have eome chance of being reproduced over greater distances? DoPages jumped upasifthe young electrician had touched him with is lve wire Autor mea ietle sunned, asyoucen imagine, was exam- ining my interocto. hi clear gaze, that of god young man, remained direetiy fixed on mine nism 20, st, [have como to you to ask you a favor—a favor that i nothing to you, and everything to me: only and. mpl be kind enough tallow me to havea photograph taken in your stdin, in front of you, by one of your teehnicians— Under the indicated conditions of isolation or conditions that You wil indicate yourself, with any model you wish to choose, ‘photograph, no more than one Photograph, which wil su fice to demonateate whether what I suggest is posible or not Obviously. I myeelf have nether the equipment nor the photo tvaphie materials, and, in any cose, this side of things is not ‘This pall had to ask you, sie, and you see that the incon venience that [have como to request of you is not very great. Ie for my part in thi, twill ot inconvenience you much more 7 donot take up much space an Iwill not bein your way’ with tne sloven hundred grate that my little Grisoom motor on my ‘knees weighs*—and which is all T need. ‘ind wil be very grateful to you, since it willbe a great hoor to me to have heen headin a house like yours, I'm not talking about the result from the point of view of financial profits which concern me lest than the rest. With my eyes lowed, There put myseiin your hands—whic T know ‘hadnt even finched My friend De Pages, excited, was socking my eyes a6 ongorly az I was avoiding his, making numerous signals to ihe thae T didnt wish to see, Very clone, he thought T was somewhat cold, Unable to hold back any longer, he intervened: nNSo, you sey thot, across all distances and beyond your feld of vision, you hope to take photographs? “i donot hope to take them, sr: take thom. But wouldnt now how to say it again to you and you will see it anyway Tm not an inventor 1 Raven's invented anything; I have only encountered, [ean take only a small eredit there itt all that tof removing the cbstecles, Do you remember, Mr. Nadar, what ou wrote abou the frst cogwheal of Stephenson's Iooomative “The frst obstacle in most of the new manifestations of the Tmuman spirit is that we proceed almost constantly from the complex to che simple"? wwAnd he cites his classic! .. De Pages tells me, laughing. Pe simplified, tha’ all Only. onl gentlemen, Lowe sion. Ay duty ia tall ou =. to warn you that I have already attempted a first ‘exyeriment, an experiment that, ater your kind reception today, I must regret, singe it was public I should even have ‘the newspaper that reviewed it on me. He put his hand into ie pocket, ehen, witha growing agi tation, he searched successively his other pockets: oo! My God! I must have lef it in the workshop! ‘Then, all happy = Nol Here ite! He unfolded and handed the page to me—some Co ocother or an Echo de fa banlieue. 'At the heed of the °Newe tems” eslumn we read—De ages, transfixed, with his shoulder against mine: One ofthe most curious experiments took place yesterday ‘Sunday, at two o'ck inthe afternoon, inthe town hall of ‘Montmartre, A very young man, almost a child, Mr. M hd obtained from the office ofthe Mayor the necessary authorization for his fist public experiments of electrical Dhotogrephy across all distances, chat i, with the model beyond the practitioner's field of vision. The inventor had asserted that, from Montmarte, he would take photo graphs of Deu, near Montmorency. His Honor the Mayor of Montmartre, ond several Council members, were present atthe experiment, ax well as some residents of Devil, who were to indicate the points to be reproduced. Several photographs wre obtained one aftr th other, produced immediately on demand, and everyone recognized the sites reproduced. Houses, trees, poople were standing out with perfect clarity. Poople warmly congratulated the young inventor, who was trying to escape the great enthusiagm of the erowd ‘vith a modesty that increased even moro the public inter: ‘st in this truly romarkable discovery, the consequences of which already appear o be ineaeulable Wo reread again this extraordinary account We were dumbfounded, nd we would have been eo with less In fat, the very day before, we were coming out of the Exhibition of Electricity, fully dezzled, even blinded by its miracle, trovbled by thie mysterious power we now have domesticated and which rushes to our eall even before our call—even better, summoning itself for our slightest needs or ‘whims, always there invisible and present, like some diabal- ical servant Wie had just seen it, the one we cannot see, accomplish all ‘duties, perform ll offices, realize all the desires of our imagi nation, a8 soon as they are formulated or only conceived, wait ing, subdued and ready for our commands to come. Tis agent, both omnipotent and impeccable, this servant unrivaled in all ite liveries and al ita names telograph, polyscope, phonophone, phonograph, phonutograph, tolelogue, telephone, topophone, spectrophone, microphone, sphygmograph, pyrophone, ete ste, we have seon i iting and transporting our burdens for ts, propelling our sips, our easriages,eatrying our vice from region to region and keeping, ne warietur, the sound upto ite least perceptible modulations, writing, drawing far beyond the reach of our hand, a ll distances, chiselng, andblating, siding, silver plating feeling our pug and eeting ov cee, calling the fremen before we even soothe fie and the diggers before the rising ofthe water level, fighting in our place either by Keeping watch like sentinel, or by regulating the epeod of our missiles or by blowing up the enemy’ forts, indice ing tothe surgeon the bullet lodged in our body, stopping our Tnunched horses or or locomotives dead in their tacks, and also arresting thieves, plowing our soil, winnowing our wheat, improving and aging our wine, and shooting game for us, mor itoring our cashiers while guarding our eashbores, snd pre venting even our good representatives from cheating when ‘they vote until we obtain the blessed machine which at last will manufacture representatives who will not defraud us in anything a first-class worker, in all arts and professions, and f jackobaltrades, one at atime or all st one, if you wish, market porter, postman, lamp man, engraver, farmer, phy cian, artillery man, bookkeeper, archivist, carpenter, subst tute soldier, tenor and pole officer In fac, why not photographer, thie universal Jackof al: ‘trades, and even long-diatance photographer? ‘And good old Hérald, born to be credulous always, with all his epirit so fine, so charp (ike our good Latour Sant: YYoars, gone before ws .),? Héreld was reproaching me, he was returning my silent resistance with his gaze illaminated before all the infinite prospects ofthis new path which was opening before us Eh! Yee ofcourse, I gave in, I would have given jn ton times already if. —if Thad not been forcibly arrested by a singular hallucination [As in phantasmagorial phenomena and with the oboes sion that attends certain cases of double vision, it seemed to tne thatthe fonturee of my noble Hérald and the honest face tf the young worker were merging, blending into a kind of Mephistophelean mask from which appeared a disquieting fig ture that I had never aeen before but recognized immediately: Mavelere, deceitful Mauser, “in transi in ou ity” mockinely handing me his electric image, from the country of Henry IV. "And seemed, myself, tobe Gazebon, yes, Gazabon himelf, Gazebon “the Gullible”.. and I would see myselfin my Ca dtu Grand:Téste in Pa, awaiting, from Nadar in Paris, my portrait “by the electric process” and, inthe meantime, to Ii time, cerving a beer t “the best Society, even to Englishmen, ‘seated, f possible, in my billirds room.” And "taken in color”! And wile the good young man was waiting silently for an answer, his eyes alway fixed on mine, fery De Pages contin ‘ued to sparkle "— Wel, Nadar, you say nothing? What do you want me to aay? But what do you have to loss? And why do you care bout one more or ene less photograph? Inthe end, what is he faking from you? Here, the young man, with a resigned sadnoss in his half mile, aid Oh! No, it’s not that! I understand very well what stops ‘Mr. Nedar.. Yet, when he will have deen, soon with his own eyes that this phantom is nothing, less than nothing = Suppose that Ido not stop: how will you arrange your ucting wiros here? “You wil recoil even more this time, sit And yet, Ieannot, in conscience, tell you what is not eo. Sir, "have no need of wines Wat do you mean! — No, sir, Tm not an original, for its not since yesterday but since 189, think, thae Steinellalady hed replaced his wire withthe ground itselfas a conductor, and Bourbouze hed Observed tallurian eurrente with a galvanometer® But, n any ‘ase, the way had log been indicated bythe iret experiments ofthe Royal Society of London, when Watson, Cavendish, and third whose name escapes me (ah! Martin Folkes) used the Thames as conductor, not along ita current, but across and when they even increased the path by adding tothe width ofthe rivera stretch of land: an experiment that was repeated later with voltaic current.” But isn air itself recognized today fas a conductor? Why then would se doubt today what has been Known since 1747, for more than a century, and why woul we be such enemies to ouralves as to resist using thie knowledge? Finally. the photo-phone, cis mirror that vibrates cross al distances under the ation ofthe word, this miracle, wasnt it obtained without a wire? It ie true that the selenium that produced it for us has been waiting since 1817, when Bervelius discovered it, for us to want to take the trouble 29 accept it.” But is always as you have said: "the human sprit proceeds from the complex to tho simple ." Sineo the wires were useless to me, sr, I dispensed with wires From dumbfounded, I went to being absolutely stunned But the match had been won, and our young man had Already elif, since in order tbe absolutely eure that he bad tron ehe city by planting hie flag, he added, more familiarly land with the smile ofa good boy ‘And now will you permit me, Mr. Nadar, to express iy surprise at having encountered such resistance in a man Jknown for so many diverse initiatives, in @ man who—the fiet!—thity years before anyone else dreamt of i, predicted, explained, and even baptized the Phonograph? For it was indeed in'1856, in an article in the Musce frangais-anglais, that you —Ok, ok. Enough! ‘you Who took the Brat underground photograph by artfcial lights and also the first photograph from the basket fof an aerostat; you who in 1863 Were so instrumental in the Chimera of balloons pretending to be dirgibles and you who have proclaimed sinee then the exclusive principle, accepted by everyone today, of heavierthaa-air machinos for aerial navigation... you who A vlave mercy! .. Come whenever you like An! Thank you, sie! —And when will you come? De Pages asks, hav reached Doing point. Sir ifite not inconvenient willcome on the sixteenth of this month, a¢ he time that Mr. Nadar would lke to designate ‘But Hal "The sixtwentht but today is only the fourth! Why lose these twelve days? Why not earlier? tomorrow? even today? “Tram ootry, sr; cannot before the sixteenth — why? But the young man is already moving toward the door, bowing o take his leave. [De Pages grabs him by the sleeve of his shirt But why such a delay? — Brcuse me, sin if eannot give you an answer: Ihave personal ressons, of no interest whatsoever. il ome on the sixteenth, ww But what possible reasons could you have to delay by twelve daye a demonstration of such great importance to you? —"Tean only repeat to you, sits ite personal matter and ‘there iano need for anyone to intervene. But De Pages isnot one to be beaten and will not let go He pushes, he presses with such vigor that the young man, crushed beyond his ast defenses, begins to give in .. De Pages flames his arguments persuasively "Come on, fromm you to us really between us, what's the batacle? — My Ged, sir, you insist so much that it would be bad form of me to refuse such benevolence further. Since you Wish toknow, Iwill tll you that is only the fourth and T must wait ‘until tho fifteenth to be paid at the workshop For? — "For one or two emall purchases of products needed for my experiment: lat Sunday at Montmartre, [used up the last, of my very few supplies. It isan insignificant cost, barely forty francs: but you understand-—T'm sure you understand —that I feel vry strongly about providing them myself “Here we are!"T thought It is I, this time, who suarches for De Pages’s gaze. But nothing escapes the one who watches the young worker turns again toward Herold and, choking, with a teat trembling at the corner of his eyelashes: ‘There. You se, sit. Iwas sure! Mr, Nadar thinks ‘Mot me! .. Yet he himself is mv witness that I did not want to say anything about what concerned me alone; but yu insisted 0 much that I gave in and now Tam taken fora echemer, 8 miserable beget Its necessary to calm him, to console him, to reassure him help Hérald inthis and finaly the young man leaves with This two louis, ut how much we had to beg isn! He will return tomorrow mo atten elo, There he went. i, at ton olock, exactly As Tm saving nothing Well? Hérald asks me — So much for your tw lous! ‘What? Do you believe that this was nothing but a game, ‘hat this boy is liar, that e will at come back tomorrow? — and it wasn't very expensive afterall! Notice to what gree our young artist was correct in his entire presentation: hh entrance, modest, rserved, his attire standard; allthis porfect; the use of sentimental opening lines, the evocation ‘of the two old mothers (which never fails ee Dennery! See Coppée!.. the ingratiating exordium drawn from the char. acter ofthe orator; the voluble list of facts and dates, dificult to verify on the spot, swirling to dazzlo us like the bells ofa juseler, the compliments, abit exaggerated, but this always hhappens: and in order to achieve this perfect whole, ehinke ofall the preparation, of all the training! And hes still so young! Believe me, thee is in him « future minister for our hhorse-trading, and even conservative, Republic. “But the names of friends he mentioned? Random information, obtained very easly from the fst person who happens toe next to me for ten minutes or from fanyone who knows me, And the newspaper article? — How iit, my dear Hérald, that itis you, who has known to much about newspapers, you, who were the rel, the in tial founder of the Pett Journal, with it four million readers today it you who i taken in bya news item slipped intone ofthe two Bist and last issues of some short-lived tabloid by the complaceney om—ho knows?—the complicity ofa journal ist comrade? You believe in newspapers, you who have created several of them! Despite your intllgence, you have remained ‘trusting ment. But no all cis means nothing or very lite fand what we should admire inet of ale much las the intel. ligence spent om allthis pecudo-sientifc knowledge than the way he used its skilfully laying it out and manipulating ton the tapestry of prestdigitation! We encounter here afist-rate porformer and I am very happy to have made the acquaintance ‘ofthis strong man. He will go far. Yos—and I am difficult ‘this ea god job, since youve nen me consent to lt melt be bitten, Her, then, is Gazebon avenged! On me! And by me! Are you happy, Mauclere! You and your hideous smile — But, my friend, how do you secount for so many prepa rations, fr allthis efor, to achieve what? the puny result of tilt loi? = Excuse me, excuse me! You're right here about that number two. We were worth more than that and he could have taken ws for atleast fve: which is proof that even the bost horse stumbles. But can you imagine that it was for me, for me alone, for this one and only presentation, that he set up this theatrical performance that must have required the ‘work of to many studies and rehearsale! Tht could hardly be ‘compensated. No: what this pleasant boy has served us here, the will dliver, depending on the location, all the photogra phers ofthe world, in Paris, in the suburbs, in the provinces abroad, seasoning the sauce of his entrée and of his eweet-talk according to the situation, the taste, and the stomach of exch, Since there wil be no one too humble for histo cook fr. And since none of the chosen, none of the privileged ones whom hh favors, one after the other, with this very special honor of ‘ie confidence and with the unexpected promise of limitless profita to be shared, since no one will dare to announce to his ‘neighbor that he has been tricked, each one Keeping the secret of his complicity the mine is inexhaustible: now that is really what practical people call a racket.” And atthe eame time, it has all the philocophy of adventure. ‘Aer a silence ‘The question remains, De Pages seid again. To sum up, you who so complacently (which I find reprehensible) let the avert aying of ou very charsing but detestable rend G Everything is posible, even God” be repeated infront of yo, you refuse abscluely to ever admit the porsibiity of photo traphing @ mode beyond our Reld of vision? —Ivwouldfindit aa rash to deny the possibilty as to aim it remain Hosting, exactly like my old friend Babinet, escap ing the dispute that Biot was pushing on him. The atheist denied this God, of which you have just spoken, with euch furibund insistence that Babinet, in order to close the diecus sion, said: "Then you are absolutely certain that God does not exist? Wel, my fiend, you aro even more superstitious than sme, I really know nothing at all about it.” And my opinion being only of very relative worth here, Iwill conclude by hold ing onto, in fll innocence, this other saying of the same Biot, sa profind, so essential, the eternal word There ie no twas done yeste nothing more dificult than what willbe done tomorrow P.8, — When we wrote these words, we scarcely imagined thatthe technical question raised so imaginatively here would soon be taken up in setuel fact by our eminent eorrespondont and trend Doctor Bd, Liesogang,of Vienna. See, regarding this aubject, the very intoresting article tranelated in the British Journal of Photograph, which nally discredits Mauclere tothe greatest glory of Gaaebon, who is hereby rehabilitated .. Hang yourself, Nadat! PPS. — ind fom tie wory morning, with the sucess witelestelagraphy of Marcon, what ean we not dream of The Blind Princess ‘es, sir, but this is not Mrs, Retaz 3 Prin 1 Solme, sister ofthe King of Hanover, Her son and daughte ame themselves to make the appointment: the to find you aid that their famil that they themselves almost came to kno In the past, indeed that everyone can play a they wish—I, Hie a arth, dd no fal to give myself over to Several ab wich, by alittle fresh wind tay wicker baaket ry quick TT cant simply stop my balloon under this insignis breeas, where the slightest increase in speed angles my anchor tears my cables, and drags me through everything, chen my claim to steer it against the currents would be more than impertinent” From ths so simple first observation, a whole logical chain of other observations, no less decisive, had determined my conelson “The aerostat (and this name that it recived at its baptiom seemed to define its unique destiny), the serostat could never ‘bem ship. Born a bos, it wil die buoy. To direc balloons is chimera, On tho other hand, I was nevertheless thinking that man ‘haa the right to yin the ar at his wil since animals ly there, Teame to think then that birds and fying insects direct ‘themselves in the ai omly under the fundamental, sboolue con dition that they are precisely unlike balloons in fac, they donot ris, Ike tho ballon, because of a simple difference in specific sravity and, contrary tothe balloon, where air presses on the ballon, they press on the air. Without which they would not ‘Those excllent professors, from the moment I paid atte tion to them, quickly taught me thet Sigh, strictly speaking, aerial self propulsion, ean only be dynamic, mechanical, fagroement with other components, static, ee Finally clearing aveay the false starts on which, despite the lamentable and ridiculous series of endless discover the man repestedly returned to the sublime but misleading discovery of Montgolfc; it was necessary, therefore, ax home: pathy had done vis-a-vis allopaths, to reverse the proposition inorder to extract the problem an finaly to pose tin ite true, absolute exclusive term: ‘TO BE DENSER—HEAVIER THAN AIR—IN ORDER TO MASTER THE AIR—that is to say, 98 everywhere and in al, things! —To be the strongest in order no to be defeated. 1 wac comething: it was nothing. [Nothing but a formula: who would develop it? Certainly not I, who has none ofthe virtues ofthe engi reer, who has never been able to digest logarithms, by nature resstant to exprestions like A+ B, and who bes always been reproached shove all for barely knowing how to count ‘But who will explain the great unknown tous, which one ‘of us wil et in motion this colossal revolution that will over: turn from top to bottom (think about that for a moment al, the conditions of our present existence, and before which all, the discoveries of which humanity isso proud wil be erased? ‘On the other hand, wouldn't this superhuman glory be too heavy for one person alone? In the face of such a complex thesis, in which all our knowledge participates, wouldnt be necessary to eal upon, all researchers all believers? So, sith adear friend, whom Thavesince lot, the Excellent [La Landelle, and Ponton d’Amecour, struck by an analogous madnese (capientem stulttiam), I founded « Society for the Encouragement of Aerial Navigation by Exclusively HEAVIER. THAN-AIR Machines—and with the same stroke, no longer counting, Tereated our specialized journal The Aeronaut They came from everywhore, inventors, mechanics, alge braits, physcits,chemiata, and others—feom the Corps of| Engineers and of the Navy, from the Department of Mining from the prestigious, specialized Grandes Beols, ete. Almost immediately there were six hundred of ws, and each Friday evening these faithful souls gathered to discuse and prevent theories and plans But there again, to discuss was not enough: experiments were needed, experiments ad infisitum, in this science of em thesis, which had to be crested from scratch, Money was needed, a lot of money Where to find it? Thad never had aay source of income other than my work, sand from the government at that tie, I didn't want to accept absolutely anything despite a good will thet I should acknow! ‘edge today, a good will remarkably insistent in the face of nay recoil Tn urinary, I und myself alone encouraging my Society {for Encouregement. It was not enough. I then had the idea of asking for the treasure that we needed, precisely at that aerostation that T wanted to exclude: I con ‘structed at great expense an aeostat of provinualy unheard-of

    You might also like