The photographic efficiency of heterogeneous light

Abstract

There are some sources of illumination which are much more active photographically than others, and one of the most active of all artificial sources is the mercury vapour lamp. The energy of the radiation from this lamp is concentrated in a comparatively few spectral lines, and most of these are in that region of the spectrum which is the region of greatest absorption by the silver halide grains of which the photographic emulsion is composed. This, in itself, may be the complete explanation of the intense photographic activity of this particular illuminant, but the question arises as to whether the explanation is, in part, merely the fact that the light is concentrated into a few wave-lengths, apart altogether from any consideration of the absorption coefficient. In other words, a given quantity of radiant energy absorbed in the grains may give a greater photographic effect when it is all of one frequency than when it is a complex radiation such as white light. The object of the present paper is to discuss this question in the light of recent researches on the photographic plate.