Herbert B. Berkeley and the Sulphited Developer

Abstract

Sulphite is an essential component of the conventional photographic system. Its discovery, early production and availability in the 19th century are reviewed to show that it was available about 15 years before Berkeley added it to the alkaline, pyrogallol developer for gelatin emulsions. On leaving school, Herbert Bowyer Berkeley worked at home, at Cotheridge Court, Worcester, on gelatin emulsions and made some contributions to emulsion technology including the first gelatino-chloride emulsion. His use of Samman’s hydrosulphite developer led to the discovery in 1880 that sulphite would protect pyrogallol from aerial oxidation and allow the full development of gelatin plates that was desirable for the Plalinotype process with which he became associated on joining William Willis in London. Berkeley's sulphited pyrogallol formula became the first proprietary developer, made up and sold by the Platinotype Company as "Sulpho-pyrogallol". Berkeley, who was also a competent landscape photographer, suffered poor health and died in Algiers in 1890, aged 39, before the full value of his invention became apparent in the later developer systems.