Farnham Maxwell-Lyte
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Farnham Maxwell-Lyte FRSC (sometimes Farnham Maxwell Lyte) (10 January 1828 – 4 March 1906) was an English
chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...
and the pioneer of a number of techniques in
photographic processing Photographic processing or photographic development is the chemical means by which photographic film or paper is treated after photographic exposure to produce a negative or positive image. Photographic processing transforms the latent image in ...
. As a photographer he is known for his views of the
French Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to C ...
.


Early life

Maxwell-Lyte was born on 10 January 1828 in Brixham, Devon, the fifth and last child of
Henry Francis Lyte Henry Francis Lyte (1 June 1793 – 20 November 1847) was an Anglican divine, hymnodist, and poet. Biography Youth and education Henry Francis Lyte was the second son of Thomas and Anna Maria (née Oliver) Lyte, whose family came originally fr ...
(the author of " Abide with Me") and Anne Maxwell.The Lyte family
ocotilloroad.com, accessed 23 December 2009
In 1851, he married Eleanora Julia Bolton (1828–1896), daughter of Cornelius H. Bolton, of Faithlegg, Co. Waterford, with whom he had five children. His son Cecil Henry Maxwell-Lyte married Hon. Mary Lucy Agnes Stourton, daughter of Alfred Joseph Stourton, 24th Baron Segrave and Mary Margaret Corbally, on 4 October 1894. Maxwell-Lyte was 16 when he first came across photography, hearing the news of
William Henry Fox Talbot William Henry Fox Talbot FRS FRSE Royal Astronomical Society, FRAS (; 11 February 180017 September 1877) was an English scientist, inventor, and photography pioneer who invented the Salt print, salted paper and calotype processes, precursors t ...
's invention of the calotype.F. Maxwell Lyte fonds
gallery.ca, accessed 24 December 2009
In 1846, he entered Christ's College,
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
, where he graduated BA in chemical engineering in 1851 and MA in 1863. On leaving Cambridge he became a mining engineer and was an Associate of the Society of Civil Engineers and a Fellow of the
Chemical Society The Chemical Society was a scientific society formed in 1841 (then named the Chemical Society of London) by 77 scientists as a result of increased interest in scientific matters. Chemist Robert Warington was the driving force behind its creation. ...
.


Photography

In 1853, he travelled to
Luz-Saint-Sauveur Luz-Saint-Sauveur (; oc, Lus e Sent Sauvaire) is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Occitania region of south-western France. It lies on the river Bastan, a tributary of the Gave de Pau. Locals simply call it Luz, the city ...
in the Pyrenees on account of his bad health and in 1856 his family joined him. He settled in Pau, and frequented an English circle where he met a group of photographers including John Stewart, Jean-Jacques Heilmann, Pierre Langlumé and
Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard (2 August 1802 – 28 April 1872) was a French inventor, photographer and photo publisher. Being a cloth merchant by trade, in the 1840s he developed interest in photography and focused on technical and economical ...
, who were known as the "Group of Pau". He lived in France from 1853 until 1880. In 1854, he was one of the founders of the ''
Société française de photographie The Société française de photographie (SFP) is an association, founded on 15 November 1854, devoted to the history of photography. It has a large collection of photographs and old cameras. Among the founding members were Olympe Aguado, Hippoly ...
'' and he was also an Honorary Fellow of the
Royal Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...
.


Processing

As both a chemist and a photographer, Maxwell-Lyte made many improvements to the technique of photographic processing, working with
collodion Collodion is a flammable, syrupy solution of nitrocellulose in ether and alcohol. There are two basic types: flexible and non-flexible. The flexible type is often used as a surgical dressing or to hold dressings in place. When painted on the skin, ...
and wax paper, and introducing a process of his own invention which he called ''métagélatine''; this process was adopted by several photographers and is described, as the "Metagelatine Dry Process", in Wilson's ''Cyclopedic Photography''.''Cyclopedic Photography'' (1894)
archive.org, accessed 24 December 2009
In 1854 he wrote up the results of his investigations into what became known as the "honey" process. This was "a method of improving the wet-collodion process by extending the longevity of the sensitized plate" As its name suggests, in this process
honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...
was used both as the preservative solution and in the dusting-in (the 17 June 1854 issue of ''
Notes and Queries ''Notes and Queries'', also styled ''Notes & Queries'', is a long-running quarterly scholarly journal that publishes short articles related to " English language and literature, lexicography, history, and scholarly antiquarianism".From the inne ...
'' contains his description and analysis of his experiments with the process). Maxwell-Lyte's letter appeared a fortnight after George Shadbolt, former editor of the ''British Photographic Journal'', had independently contacted the Photographic Society (now the Royal Photographic Society), giving his description of an identical experiment with honey.''BJP'' Annual Summary of Photographic Inventions and Events in Photographic History, 1907
, notesonphotographs.eastmanhouse.org, accessed 28 December 2009
He was one of the pioneers of inserting an imported sky into a landscape photograph to mitigate the problems of sensitivity of the collodion plates, a process that he justified in a letter of 6 November 1861 to the journal ''Moniteur de la photographie''. In the April 1862 issue of the ''British Journal of Photography'' he published his findings on the presence of "anti-chlors" in photographic paper, a substance that jeopardised the stability of silver prints. He introduced
borax Borax is a salt ( ionic compound), a hydrated borate of sodium, with chemical formula often written . It is a colorless crystalline solid, that dissolves in water to make a basic solution. It is commonly available in powder or granular for ...
and
phosphate In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid . The phosphate or orthophosphate ion is derived from phospho ...
toning baths that are still used today, as well as pioneering the use of
iodide An iodide ion is the ion I−. Compounds with iodine in formal oxidation state −1 are called iodides. In everyday life, iodide is most commonly encountered as a component of iodized salt, which many governments mandate. Worldwide, iodine defic ...
.


Landscape photography

Maxwell-Lyte took scenic photographs in the period just before commercial photographers started to take and market mass-produced views in the 1860s.Exhibition at Kenyon College
, kenyon.edu, accessed 28 December 2009
According to Dan Younger (in notes for an exhibition of antique photographs at Kenyon College): Maxwell-Lyte photographed the mountains, villages, waterfalls and bridges of the Pyrenees, often exhibiting his photographs under the auspices of the ''
Société française de photographie The Société française de photographie (SFP) is an association, founded on 15 November 1854, devoted to the history of photography. It has a large collection of photographs and old cameras. Among the founding members were Olympe Aguado, Hippoly ...
''. He showed them almost every year from 1855 to 1865 in cities such as London, Glasgow,
Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
and Paris, and received several international prizes: he won the silver medal at 1855 Exposition Universelle in Paris,Photographic Society of Scotland 4th Exhibition December 1859
edinphoto.org.uk, accessed 26 December 2009
and his ''Pyrenean landscapes'' gained him a gold medal in
Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...
in 1859. He also regularly submitted photographs to the Photographic Society of Scotland's annual exhibition in
Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
, sending his entries from his home in Pau and winning silver medals at the 5th exhibition (for ''Pierrefith'') and 7th exhibition (for ''Lac d'Oo'').Photographic Society of Scotland Exhibitors and Medals
edinphoto.org.uk, accessed 26 December 2009
Despite the thoroughness of his instructions for the transport of his fragile prints from Pau to Scotland, the ''Daily Scotsman'' of 26 December 1859 wrote: Several of his photographs were included in an 1858 volume of Pyrenean views entitled ''Vues, costumes et monuments des Pyrénées, copies de grands maîtres''.


''Société Ramond''

In 1864 Maxwell-Lyte was among the founders of the '' Société Ramond'', a learned society devoted to the ethnographic and scientific study of the Pyrenees. Although he did not take part in the initial meeting at the ''hôtel des Voyageurs'' in Gavarnie attended by Henry Russell,
Charles Packe Charles Packe (22 August 1826 – 16 July 1896) was an English lawyer and explorer who is noted for his travels in and writing about the Pyrenees. Family Packe was born in 1826, the oldest son of Edmund Packe, a captain in the Royal Horse Guard ...
, and Émilien Frossard and his two sons,History of the observatory on the Pic du Midi de Bigorre
, ramond-societe.com, accessed 22 December 2009
he attended the second meeting at Frossard's house in Bagnères-de-Bigorre. At this meeting the rules for admittance were laid down, the society was given its name, and executive positions were decided upon; Maxwell-Lyte was chosen as the society's first vice-president. It was on the initiative of the ''Société Ramond'' that the observatory on the
Pic du Midi de Bigorre The Pic du Midi de Bigorre or simply the Pic du Midi (elevation ) is a mountain in the French Pyrenees. It is the site of the Pic du Midi Observatory. Pic du Midi Observatory The Pic du Midi Observatory (french: Observatoire du Pic du Midi ...
was built. Before its construction, Maxwell-Lyte had carried out observations with a large telescope, and made photographs of the
eclipse An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ce ...
of the sun of 18 July 1860. He also made meteorological readings, determining the average temperature of Bagnères-de-Bigorre over two years of recordings.


Later years

Maxwell-Lyte gave up photography when he moved with his family to
Dax Dax or DAX may refer to: Business and organizations * DAX, stock market index of the top 40 German companies ** DAX 100, an expanded index of 100 stocks, superseded by the HDAX ** TecDAX, stock index of the top 30 German technology firms * Dax ...
. Returning to his original profession as a mining engineer, he bought the sulphur springs of Moudang and a salt mine in Dax, but these were failures. He died suddenly in 1906 at his residence at 60 Finborough Road,
South Kensington South Kensington, nicknamed Little Paris, is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with ...
, London, and was buried at
St Mary The Boltons St Mary The Boltons is an Anglican church in The Boltons, Brompton, London. It is a Grade II listed building. History The Boltons, a street in Brompton, was farmland until the middle of the 19th century. As part of westward expansion of Lo ...
,
Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...
. In its review of the year 1906, the ''British Journal of Photography'' noted his death and offered the following estimation of his contribution to photographic processing:


References


Bibliography

* Henri Beraldi, ''Cent ans aux Pyrénées'', Paris, 1898–1904, 7 volumes in octavo. Republished by Les Amis du Livre Pyrénéen, Pau, 1977; then by Librairie des Pyrénées et de Gascogne, Pau, 2001 * Paul Mironeau, Christine Juliat, Lucie Abadia, ''Pyrénées en images. De l'œil à l'objectif''. 1820–1860 (cat. exp.), musée national du Château de Pau, 1996, 128 pp * Hélène Saule-Sorbé, ''Les Pyrénées photographiées de Farnham Maxwell Lyte, extrait du Bulletin de la Société Ramond'', 2004 * Obituary, ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'', 6 March 1906


External links

F. Maxwell Lyte fonds
at the
National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the ...
, Ottawa, Ontario {{DEFAULTSORT:Maxwell-Lyte, Farnham 1828 births 1906 deaths 19th-century English photographers Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Members of the Société Ramond British mining engineers Landscape photographers Nature photographers Photography in France Pioneers of photography Pyrénéistes People from Brixham Fellows of the Chemical Society Photographers from Devon