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![]() Photograph from http://www.annales.com/archives/x/cayeux.html |
Plate (right) from Les Roches Sédimentaires de France
showing radial calcite ooids with sparry cement. To fully appreciate these
images it's important for the modern reader to consider the technical challenges
that Cayeux faced as he captured these beautiful images on film using a
microscope that probably did not come up to current standards for optics and
illumination. The clarity of these images fully rivals and in many cases
exceeds that produced today by digital photomicrography. Look closely
at the crispness of the cement crystal boundaries in the two right-side images
on the plate. The key difference in photomicrography then and now, of course, is
in the amount of effort required: then one had to load the film, determine the
exposure time, get the image focused onto the film plane, keep detailed notes
linking image to content (no immediate file names!), develop the film, print
each individual frame, and ultimately compose the plates for the printer.
Working in this manner the microscopist wouldn't know if the image succeeded in
capturing the desired information until the film-development or even the
printing stage. Going back to try again was not unusual. Composing an atlas
today is a lot of work; at the time of Lucien Cayeux it was an immense
undertaking.