Review: Infra-Red for Everyone
| Published date | 01 October 1940 |
| Date | 01 October 1940 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X4001300413 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
REVIEW
INFRA-RED
FOR
EVERYONE. By H. W.
GREENWOOD.
(London.
The
Fountain Press.) No date,
but
1940. Size 10 X71.
94 pages. Illustrated. Price 12S.6d. net.
LET
it be said at once that this is a good book.
It
is lucid, concise, very
interesting, and well illustrated.
It
tells the amateur who has not yet
taken up this latest branch of photography all that he needs to know
about it.
The
book is essentiallypractical, and justsufficientlytheoretical
to enable the reader to grasp the why and the wherefore.
Yet even when one has grasped the why and the
wherefore-the
invisible light which extends far beyond the infra-red end of the solar
spectrum, the range of wave-lengths (which have been explored photo-
graphically from 7,600 Angstrom
units-which
is the beginning of the
infra-red-to
20,000), the discovery of sensitising dyes which have
enabled the men of science to achieve these wonders-infra-red photo-
graphy remains a mysterious thing. By its means you can photograph
the inside of a horny-cased beetle, the writing beneath the censor's ink,
the oil-painting covered by blackened varnish, the cathedral shrouded
in mist and smoke.
It
is a very
simple-and
inexpensive-matter. You use an ordinary
metal camera; you buy specially sensitised plates or films; you
put
a
filter over your lens. But you must take extra precautions against day-
light reaching your plates. Wood and ebonite are both more or less
transparent to infra-red;
so-if
you use
plates-your
dark-slides must
be made of metal.
The
illustrations in this book are sufficient and striking.
Mr.
Greenwood addresses himself to the amateur, and for those who wish
to become masters of the
art
his volume is an admirable stepping-stone
to
Dr.
Clark's big book on the subject, published a few months ago.
For policemen, Mr. Greenwood's book is sufficient by itself. There is
an interesting chapter on " Infra-red in Criminology."
The
book is very nicely produced, and we cordially recommend it.
48ο
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