John C. Moss
Encyclopedia
John Calvin Moss was an American inventor credited with developing the first practicable photo-engraving
process in 1863. His work, and that of others such as William Leggo
in Canada led to a revolution in printing and eventually to the mass marketing around the world of newspapers and magazines and books which combined photographs with traditional text.
, in 1838. At age 17 he became an apprentice to a Philadelphia printer. At 19, he married Mary A. Bryant who would become his partner in developing a workable photo-engraving method. Moss attributed Mary’s help to much of his success.
In 1858 Moss became a photographer and began experiments in photographic chemistry. Being both a practical photographer and a professional printer helped put him in the forefront of inventors who were striving to perfect a photo-engraving process.
At age 54, in 1892 he died at his home in Brooklyn, leaving behind his wife Mary and one son.
(1765–1833), a French doctor who produced the world’s first photograph in 1826. He also mastered the technique of L.J.M Daguerre
, a Frenchman who joined with Niepce to produce, in 1835, what became known as the first daguerreotype
photograph, and which was followed by the worldwide commercial success of daguerreotypes.
A daguerreotype was made by exposing a polished silvered copper plate to an iodine vapor, which left a thin coat of light sensitive silver iodide on the copper. The plate was then placed over heated mercury, and the vapor combined with the silver particles to create an image. Sodium thiosulphate fixed the image.
The weakness in the process came from the fact that the finished photograph had to be framed behind sealed glass to prevent oxidation of the silver, which would cause the photograph to deteriorate. Each image was unique and no copy could be made. This was largely why the daguerreotype became obsolete within 20 years of its invention.
Another inventor, William Henry Fox Talbot
, an Englishman, took the development a step further by inventing the world’s first multi-copy photographic process in 1841. He also used material sensitized with silver iodide. More progress was made by others, and in 1852 Fox Talbot patented a prototype of photo-engraving.
But finding a workable solution for the mass production of photographs and text printed on an ordinary printing press remained out of reach. This failure of technology became of particular interest as photography itself made great advances—illustrated by Mathew Brady’s
work during the 1860s, in the American Civil War.
After another inventor tried but failed to etch a daguerreotype plate with electricity, Moss made a galvanic
battery and began experiments that led in 1863 to the discovery of his photo-engraving process. It had taken him five years of relentless work.
This was Moss’ eureka! moment
, although there were still problems to be resolved. Realizing the value of his invention, he and Mary moved in 1863 to New Jersey and then to New York City with dreams of making their fortune.
According to Benson J. Lossing
“His wife stood by him with willing hands and an unswerving faith, while all his relatives tried to persuade him to abandon his hopeless and impoverishing quest.”
It was Mary who persisted in repeating an experiment one night after Moss gave up and fell into bed with exhaustion. “Had not that experiment succeeded,” Moss wrote Lossing, “the Moss process might never had been heard of.”
In 1875, Scientific American
described what happened to Moss and his wife for the next eight years: "There are some inventions which, though of great value, are slow in winning their way to public favor. This proved to be one of them. There existed in the minds of many publishers a strong prejudice against process engraving because several processes had been introduced, of which they had made trial with very unsatisfactory results. Time was required to prove that Moss’ process was not like the others.
Perhaps an even greater obstacle arose from the opposition of wood engravers and the reluctance of artists to change their style of drawing to fit this new art. The wood engravers feared—quite rightly, as it turned out—that Moss’ invention would decimate their profession. The artists did not favor Moss because they were accustomed to sketching their drawings quickly with pencil and brush, leaving the finished work to be done by the slow and tedious toil of the wood engraver. Moss’ process required that they spend enough time to complete their drawings, which would then be photographed.
In the face of active opposition by wood engravers and the yawning indifference of publishers, Moss and his wife struggled in their home-workshop under penurious circumstances for eight years, attracting few clients, until they finally found several backers willing to invest in a new company devoted to photo-engraving.
Duignan urged the Actinic Company to make its national debut by publishing the first photo-engraved copy of the American Declaration of Independence
. Facsimiles of the Declaration of Independence had been popular from the 1820s until the 1850s and the outbreak of the Civil War. One in eight American families had a Declaration framed on the wall of their homes. The most famous facsimiles were produced by two competing entrepreneurs, John Binns and Benjamin Tyler.
Duignan obtained the John Binns facsimile of an ornamental Declaration of Independence, published in 1819, and gave it to Moss to be photo-engraved. Duignan deleted John Binns' name from the original dedication which appears at the bottom of the document and inserted his own name. He also deleted Binns' notice of copyright: "Entered according to Act of Congress the 4th of November 1818 by John Binns of the State of Pennsylvania." Thus, Duignan falsely filed for a copyright in his own name and the copyright was granted.
In June 1872, two months later, Moss dissolved the Actinic Engraving Company and started over without Duignan. Moss later claimed rights to the improved photo-engraving process he developed in May 1872 but he made no mention of the facsimile of the Declaration of Independence he created during that period.
and other periodicals gave him contracts that paved the way for success. He invented new machinery and techniques to speed up the process of photo-engraving.
By the early 1880s, according to Lossing, his 200 employees were annually turning out an amount of work that would have required at least 2,000 wood engravers. Moss photo-engraved original work, but a large part of his business consisted of reproducing woodcut and lithographic prints for mass production.
Thanks to Moss, America became the leader in the world for mass producing periodicals and books that contained actual photographs instead of wood-engraved drawings.
’ invention in 1886 of half-tone engraving
for newspaper photographs. His legacy appears today on everything from postcards to coffee table book
s. For 400 years before Moss’ invention, publications used wood engraving
s for illustrations, a labor-intensive process done by hand that did not lend itself to mass production.
Moss turned out to be an extraordinary inventor but a hard-luck businessman with not much talent for self-promotion. He received little recognition for his invention during his lifetime, except from colleagues in the printing and publishing industry.
Moss was rediscovered in 2009 by two art experts, Willis Van Devanter and Will Stapp when they were asked to examine an unknown facsimile of the Declaration of Independence which Moss had created in 1872 with his new photo-engraving process. The document, which was found in a Paris antique shop, was thought to be possibly the only remaining copy in existence.
Then it is followed material taken from the Binns Declaration and concludes at the end with: “Engraved by Actinic Engraving Co, 113 Liberty Street, New York. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by M.G. Duignan, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Printed by GEO Wheat & Co. 8 Spruce Street, New York.
Photoengraving
Photoengraving also known as photo-chemical milling is a process of engraving using photographic processing techniques. The full form of photoengraving is photo mechanical process in the graphic arts, used principally for reproducing illustrations. The subject is photographed, and the image is...
process in 1863. His work, and that of others such as William Leggo
William Leggo
William Augustus Leggo was a Canadian inventor, engraver and businessperson. He is noted for co-inventing the half-tone engraver with George-Édouard Desbarats. He had several patents to his name, including leggotyping and granulated photography.-References:...
in Canada led to a revolution in printing and eventually to the mass marketing around the world of newspapers and magazines and books which combined photographs with traditional text.
Life
John Moss was born in Washington County, PennsylvaniaWashington County, Pennsylvania
-Government and politics:As of November 2008, there are 152,534 registered voters in Washington County .* Democratic: 89,027 * Republican: 49,025 * Other Parties: 14,482...
, in 1838. At age 17 he became an apprentice to a Philadelphia printer. At 19, he married Mary A. Bryant who would become his partner in developing a workable photo-engraving method. Moss attributed Mary’s help to much of his success.
In 1858 Moss became a photographer and began experiments in photographic chemistry. Being both a practical photographer and a professional printer helped put him in the forefront of inventors who were striving to perfect a photo-engraving process.
At age 54, in 1892 he died at his home in Brooklyn, leaving behind his wife Mary and one son.
Invention and career
Moss studied the work of Nicéphore NiepceNicéphore Niépce
Nicéphore Niépce March 7, 1765 – July 5, 1833) was a French inventor, most noted as one of the inventors of photography and a pioneer in the field.He is most noted for producing the world's first known photograph in 1825...
(1765–1833), a French doctor who produced the world’s first photograph in 1826. He also mastered the technique of L.J.M Daguerre
Louis Daguerre
Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was a French artist and physicist, recognized for his invention of the daguerreotype process of photography.- Biography :...
, a Frenchman who joined with Niepce to produce, in 1835, what became known as the first daguerreotype
Daguerreotype
The daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process. The image is a direct positive made in the camera on a silvered copper plate....
photograph, and which was followed by the worldwide commercial success of daguerreotypes.
A daguerreotype was made by exposing a polished silvered copper plate to an iodine vapor, which left a thin coat of light sensitive silver iodide on the copper. The plate was then placed over heated mercury, and the vapor combined with the silver particles to create an image. Sodium thiosulphate fixed the image.
The weakness in the process came from the fact that the finished photograph had to be framed behind sealed glass to prevent oxidation of the silver, which would cause the photograph to deteriorate. Each image was unique and no copy could be made. This was largely why the daguerreotype became obsolete within 20 years of its invention.
Another inventor, William Henry Fox Talbot
William Fox Talbot
William Henry Fox Talbot was a British inventor and a pioneer of photography. He was the inventor of calotype process, the precursor to most photographic processes of the 19th and 20th centuries. He was also a noted photographer who made major contributions to the development of photography as an...
, an Englishman, took the development a step further by inventing the world’s first multi-copy photographic process in 1841. He also used material sensitized with silver iodide. More progress was made by others, and in 1852 Fox Talbot patented a prototype of photo-engraving.
But finding a workable solution for the mass production of photographs and text printed on an ordinary printing press remained out of reach. This failure of technology became of particular interest as photography itself made great advances—illustrated by Mathew Brady’s
Mathew Brady
Mathew B. Brady was one of the most celebrated 19th century American photographers, best known for his portraits of celebrities and his documentation of the American Civil War...
work during the 1860s, in the American Civil War.
After another inventor tried but failed to etch a daguerreotype plate with electricity, Moss made a galvanic
Galvanization
Galvanization is the process of applying a protective zinc coating to steel or iron, in order to prevent rusting. The term is derived from the name of Italian scientist Luigi Galvani....
battery and began experiments that led in 1863 to the discovery of his photo-engraving process. It had taken him five years of relentless work.
This was Moss’ eureka! moment
Eureka effect
The eureka effect is any sudden unexpected discovery, or the sudden realization of the solution to a problem, resulting in a eureka moment , also dubbed as "breakthrough thinking"...
, although there were still problems to be resolved. Realizing the value of his invention, he and Mary moved in 1863 to New Jersey and then to New York City with dreams of making their fortune.
According to Benson J. Lossing
Benson John Lossing
Benson John Lossing was a prolific and popular American historian, known best for his illustrated books on the American Revolution and American Civil War and features in Harper's Magazine. He was a charter trustee of Vassar College.-Biography:Lossing was born February 12, 1813 in Beekman, New York...
“His wife stood by him with willing hands and an unswerving faith, while all his relatives tried to persuade him to abandon his hopeless and impoverishing quest.”
It was Mary who persisted in repeating an experiment one night after Moss gave up and fell into bed with exhaustion. “Had not that experiment succeeded,” Moss wrote Lossing, “the Moss process might never had been heard of.”
In 1875, Scientific American
Scientific American
Scientific American is a popular science magazine. It is notable for its long history of presenting science monthly to an educated but not necessarily scientific public, through its careful attention to the clarity of its text as well as the quality of its specially commissioned color graphics...
described what happened to Moss and his wife for the next eight years: "There are some inventions which, though of great value, are slow in winning their way to public favor. This proved to be one of them. There existed in the minds of many publishers a strong prejudice against process engraving because several processes had been introduced, of which they had made trial with very unsatisfactory results. Time was required to prove that Moss’ process was not like the others.
Perhaps an even greater obstacle arose from the opposition of wood engravers and the reluctance of artists to change their style of drawing to fit this new art. The wood engravers feared—quite rightly, as it turned out—that Moss’ invention would decimate their profession. The artists did not favor Moss because they were accustomed to sketching their drawings quickly with pencil and brush, leaving the finished work to be done by the slow and tedious toil of the wood engraver. Moss’ process required that they spend enough time to complete their drawings, which would then be photographed.
In the face of active opposition by wood engravers and the yawning indifference of publishers, Moss and his wife struggled in their home-workshop under penurious circumstances for eight years, attracting few clients, until they finally found several backers willing to invest in a new company devoted to photo-engraving.
Commercialization
Actinic Engraving Company
The Actinic Engraving Company was formed in 1871 in New York City. Michael George Duignan, who was one of Moss’ first backers, had published a massive work of a quarter million words in 1862, entitled Positive Facts without a Shadow of Doubt, which showed him to be an eccentric visionary with theories ranging from religion to philosophy to international affairs. One chapter of his book was—perhaps facetiously—titled “How to Torment Your Wife.”Duignan urged the Actinic Company to make its national debut by publishing the first photo-engraved copy of the American Declaration of Independence
Declaration of independence
A declaration of independence is an assertion of the independence of an aspiring state or states. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another nation or failed nation, or are breakaway territories from within the larger state...
. Facsimiles of the Declaration of Independence had been popular from the 1820s until the 1850s and the outbreak of the Civil War. One in eight American families had a Declaration framed on the wall of their homes. The most famous facsimiles were produced by two competing entrepreneurs, John Binns and Benjamin Tyler.
Duignan obtained the John Binns facsimile of an ornamental Declaration of Independence, published in 1819, and gave it to Moss to be photo-engraved. Duignan deleted John Binns' name from the original dedication which appears at the bottom of the document and inserted his own name. He also deleted Binns' notice of copyright: "Entered according to Act of Congress the 4th of November 1818 by John Binns of the State of Pennsylvania." Thus, Duignan falsely filed for a copyright in his own name and the copyright was granted.
In June 1872, two months later, Moss dissolved the Actinic Engraving Company and started over without Duignan. Moss later claimed rights to the improved photo-engraving process he developed in May 1872 but he made no mention of the facsimile of the Declaration of Independence he created during that period.
Moss Photo-Engraving Company
Moss found a more amenable investor and in 1873 founded the Moss Photo-Engraving Company. Scientific American and PuckPuck
-Fictional characters:* Puck , a folklore character* Puck , a Shakespeare character** Puck, a Faeries character** Puck, a Gargoyles character** Puck, a Puck of Pook's Hill character...
and other periodicals gave him contracts that paved the way for success. He invented new machinery and techniques to speed up the process of photo-engraving.
By the early 1880s, according to Lossing, his 200 employees were annually turning out an amount of work that would have required at least 2,000 wood engravers. Moss photo-engraved original work, but a large part of his business consisted of reproducing woodcut and lithographic prints for mass production.
Thanks to Moss, America became the leader in the world for mass producing periodicals and books that contained actual photographs instead of wood-engraved drawings.
Moss Engraving Company
Desiring to be, finally, the sole master of his own company and inventions, Moss left the Photo-Engraving Company in 1880 and established the Moss Engraving Company, which was also a success. He died twelve years later.Rediscovery
Moss’ process was enhanced over the years by continuing innovations such as Frederick E. IvesFrederic Eugene Ives
Frederic Eugene Ives was a U.S. inventor, born at Litchfield, Connecticut. In 1874–78 he had charge of the photographic laboratory at Cornell University. He moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where in 1885 he was one of the founding members of the Photographic Society of Philadelphia...
’ invention in 1886 of half-tone engraving
Engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...
for newspaper photographs. His legacy appears today on everything from postcards to coffee table book
Coffee table book
A coffee table book is a hardcover book that is intended to sit on a coffee table or similar surface in an area where guests sit and are entertained, thus inspiring conversation or alleviating boredom. They tend to be oversized and of heavy construction, since there is no pressing need for...
s. For 400 years before Moss’ invention, publications used wood engraving
Wood engraving
Wood engraving is a technique in printmaking where the "matrix" worked by the artist is a block of wood. It is a variety of woodcut and so a relief printing technique, where ink is applied to the face of the block and printed by using relatively low pressure. A normal engraving, like an etching,...
s for illustrations, a labor-intensive process done by hand that did not lend itself to mass production.
Moss turned out to be an extraordinary inventor but a hard-luck businessman with not much talent for self-promotion. He received little recognition for his invention during his lifetime, except from colleagues in the printing and publishing industry.
Moss was rediscovered in 2009 by two art experts, Willis Van Devanter and Will Stapp when they were asked to examine an unknown facsimile of the Declaration of Independence which Moss had created in 1872 with his new photo-engraving process. The document, which was found in a Paris antique shop, was thought to be possibly the only remaining copy in existence.
Then it is followed material taken from the Binns Declaration and concludes at the end with: “Engraved by Actinic Engraving Co, 113 Liberty Street, New York. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by M.G. Duignan, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Printed by GEO Wheat & Co. 8 Spruce Street, New York.