"In the year 1869, when I was sixteen years old, I came across Cuthbert Bede's book, entitled 'Photographic Pleasures.' It is an amusing book, giving an account of the rise and progress of photography, and at the same time having a good-natured laugh at it. I read the book carefully, and took up photography as an amusement, using some apparatus which belonged to my father, who had at one time dabbled in the art. I was soon able to take fair photographs. I then decided to try photography as a business. Iwas apprenticed to a photographer, and spent four years with him--one year at Northallerton, and three at Darlington. When my employer removed to Darlington, I joined the School of Art there.
"Having read an account of the experiments of M. E. Becquerel, a French savant, on photographing in the colours of nature, my curiosity was awakened. I carefully repeated his experiments, and convinced myself that he was correct. I continued my experiments in heliochromy for a period of about two years, during which time I made many photographs in colours, and discovered a method of developing the coloured image, which enabled me to shorten the exposure to one-fortieth of the previously-required time. During these experiments, I came upon some curious results, which, I think, might puzzle our scientific men to account for. For instance, I proved the existence of black light, or rays of such a nature as to turn the rose-coloured surface of the sensitive-plate black--that is, rays reflected from the black paint of drapery, produced black in the picture, and not the effect of darkness. I was, like Becquerel, unable to fix the coloured image without destroying the colours;though the plates would keep a long while in the dark, and could be examined in a subdued, though not in a strong light. The coloured image was faint, but the colours came out with great truth and delicacy.
"I began to attend the School of Art at Darlington on the 6th of March, 1872. I found, on attempting to draw, that I had naturally a correct eye and hand; and I made such progress, that when the students' drawings were examined, previously to sending them up to South Kensington, all my work was approved. I was then set to draw from the cast in chalk, although I had only been at the school for a month. I tried for all the four subjects at the May examination, and was fortunate enough to pass three of them, and obtained as a prize Packett's 'Sciography.' I worked hard during the next year, and sent up seventeen works; for one of these, the 'Venus de Milo,' I gained a studentship.
"I then commenced the study of human anatomy, and began water-colour painting, reading all the works upon art on which Icould lay my hand. At the May examination of 1873, I completed my second-grade certificate, and at the end of the year of my studentship, I accepted the office of teacher in the School of Art. This art-training created in me a sort of disgust for photography, as I saw that the science of photography had really very little genuine art in it, and was more allied to a mechanical pursuit than to an artistic one. Now, when I look back on my past ideas, I clearly see that a great deal of this disgust was due to my ignorance and self-conceit.
"In 1874, I commenced painting in tempora, and then in oil, copying the pictures lent to the school from the South Kensington Art Library. I worked also from still life, and began sketching from nature in oil and water-colours, sometimes selling my work to help me to buy materials for art-work and scientific experiments. I was, however, able to do very little in the following year, as I was at home suffering from sciatica. For nine months I could not stand erect, but had to hobble about with a stick. This illness caused me to give up my teachership.
"Early in 1876 I returned to Darlington. I went on with my art studies and the science of chemistry; though I went no further in heliochromy. I pushed forward with anatomy. I sent about fifteen works to South Kensington, and gained as my third-grade prize in list A the 'Dictionary of Terms used in Art' by Thomas Fairholt, which I found a very useful work. Towards the end of the year, my father, whose health was declining, sent for me home to assist him in the school. I now commenced the study of Algebra and Euclid in good earnest, but found it tough work. My father, though a fair mathematician, was unable to give me any instruction; for he had been seized with paralysis, from which he never recovered. Before he died, he recommended me to try for a schoolmaster's certificate; and I promised him that I would. Iobtained a situation as master of a small village school, not under Government inspection; and I studied during the year, and obtained a second class certificate at the Durham Diocesan College at Christmas, 1877. Early in the following year, the school was placed under Government inspection, and became a little more remunerative.
"I now went on with chemical analysis, making my own apparatus.
Requiring an intense heat on a small scale, I invented a furnace that burnt petroleum oil. It was blown by compressed air. After many failures, I eventually succeeded in bringing it to such perfection that in 7 1/2 minutes it would bring four ounces of steel into a perfectly liquefied state. I next commenced the study of electricity and magnetism; and then acoustics, light, and heat. I constructed all my apparatus myself, and acquired the art of glass-blowing, in order to make my own chemical apparatus, and thus save expense.
