Mungo Ponton FRS

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

(20 November 1801 – 3 August 1880) was a Scottish inventor who in 1839 created a method of permanent photography based on

potassium dichromate Potassium dichromate, , is a common inorganic chemical reagent, most commonly used as an oxidizing agent in various laboratory and industrial applications. As with all hexavalent chromium compounds, it is acutely and chronically harmful to health ...

Life and family

Ponton was born in the

Balgreen Balgreen ( or ) (Scottish Gaelic: ''Baile Griain)'' is a suburb of Edinburgh, located approximately two miles west of the city centre, most commonly known for its primary school, Balgreen Primary. It is located to the west of Murrayfield and ...

district of west

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 ...

, the son of John Ponton, a farmer. He was named after the explorer Mungo Park, then a new Scottish hero. In 1815 he was apprenticed as a lawyer to James Balfour WS (of

Pilrig Pilrig is an area of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. The name probably derives from the long field (rig) on which a peel tower (pil/peel) stood. There is evidence of a peel tower situated on an area of higher ground above the Water of ...

House), working at chambers at 17 Broughton Street in the eastern New Town of Edinburgh. He finished his apprenticeship at GL Finlay WS at 18 Queen Street. He was created a

Writer to the Signet The Society of Writers to His Majesty's Signet is a private society of Scottish solicitors, dating back to 1594 and part of the College of Justice. Writers to the Signet originally had special privileges in relation to the drawing up of document ...

on 8 December 1825. He then went into partnership with AW Goldie to create Goldie & Ponton WS based at 58 India Street in the western New Town. He married Helen Scott Campbell on 24 June 1830 and together they had seven children. In the 1830s Ponton was listed as living at 30 Melville Street, a large new terraced townhouse in Edinburgh's west end, presumably the family's home. From 1838 he became the Resident Law Officer and Secretary to the

National Bank of Scotland The National Bank of Scotland was founded as a joint stock bank in 1825. Based in Edinburgh, it had established a network of 137 branches at the end of its first hundred years. In 1918 the bank was bought by Lloyds Bank, although it continued ...

at 42 St Andrew Square. His first wife died on 7 August 1842 and on 7 November 1843 he married his second wife, Margaret Ponton (possibly related), with whom he had a son. They continued to live at 30 Melville Street. Ponton suffered a breakdown around 1845 and moved to

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, England for its milder climate. He married his third wife, Jean McLean, on 1 August 1871. Ponton died at his home in

Clifton, Bristol Clifton is both a suburb of Bristol, England, and the name of one of the city's thirty-five council wards. The Clifton ward also includes the areas of Cliftonwood and Hotwells. The eastern part of the suburb lies within the ward of Clifton Do ...

on 3 August 1880.

Inventor

Ponton's fame predates his photographic discoveries, even if he is mainly remembered for his contributions to photography. On 20 June 1834, Ponton became a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. His proposers were John Shank More, James Nairne,

Thomas Stewart Traill Thomas Stewart Traill (29 October 1781 – 30 July 1862) was a British physician, chemist, meteorologist, zoologist and scholar of medical jurisprudence. He was the grandfather of the physicist, meteorologist and geologist Robert Traill Omon ...

, David Boswall Reid, Robert Allan and

James Finlay Weir Johnston James Finlay Weir Johnston, FRS FRSE (13 September 1796 – 18 September 1855) was a Scottish agricultural chemist and mineralogist. Life Born in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Johnston was educated at University of Glasgow, where he studied T ...

. In 1838, the Scottish Society of Arts awarded Ponton the silver medal for his contributions to the development of the

electrical telegraph Electrical telegraphs were point-to-point text messaging systems, primarily used from the 1840s until the late 20th century. It was the first electrical telecommunications system and the most widely used of a number of early messaging systems ...

. In 1839, while experimenting with an early photographic process published that year by

Henry Fox Talbot William Henry Fox Talbot FRS FRSE FRAS (; 11 February 180017 September 1877) was an English scientist, inventor, and photography pioneer who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later ...

, Ponton discovered the light-sensitising effect of potassium dichromate. He presented his findings to the Scottish Society of Arts on 29 May. Ponton did not attempt to patent his photographic process and published his findings in the ''

Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal The ''Edinburgh Philosophical Journal'' was founded by its editors Robert Jameson and David Brewster in 1819 as a scientific journal to publish articles on the latest science of the day. In 1826 the two editors fell out, and Jameson continued publ ...

''. Others experimented with his discovery, including Talbot, Edmond Becquerel, Alphonse Poitevin, and John Pouncey, some of whom patented their photographic techniques. Dichromate sensitisation provided the basis for the carbon print and

gum bichromate Gum bichromate is a 19th-century photographic printing process based on the light sensitivity of dichromates. It is capable of rendering painterly images from photographic negatives. Gum printing is traditionally a multi-layered printing process, ...

photographic processes, as well as some

photoresist A photoresist (also known simply as a resist) is a light-sensitive material used in several processes, such as photolithography and photoengraving, to form a patterned coating on a surface. This process is crucial in the electronic industry. T ...

s used in the printing industry and other industrial applications. Ponton continued to work on photography and in 1845 the Society again awarded him a silver medal for his process for measuring the hourly variation in temperature on photographic paper. That year he also developed a variation on the

calotype Calotype or talbotype is an early photographic process introduced in 1841 by William Henry Fox Talbot, using paper coated with silver iodide. Paper texture effects in calotype photography limit the ability of this early process to record low co ...

process to allow shorter exposure times.

Publications

*''The Great Architect; as Manifested in the Material Universe'' (1866) *''Earthquakes and Volcanoes: Their History, Phenomena, and Probable Causes'' (1868) *''The Beginning: Its When and Its How'' (1871) *''Glimpses of the Future Life'' (1873) *''Songs of the Soul: Philosophical Moral and Devotional'' (1877)

References

External sources

Mungo Ponton, The Online Books Page, University of Pennsylvania
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ponton, Mungo 1801 births 1880 deaths Scientists from Edinburgh Scottish lawyers Scottish inventors Pioneers of photography Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Society