This is photography made on a vastly reduced scale, to be observed using a microscope or projected using a "magic lantern." Though George Shadbolt is credited with being the inventor of micro-photography, the first known example of micro-photography was by John Benjamin Dancer, in 1839, when he produced photographs 15mm in diameter.

Thomas Sutton, in his 1858 Dictionary of Photography, had little time for this kind of work, which he dismissed as "of little or no practical utility" and "somewhat childish and trivial."

However, Sir David Brewster, a prominent physicist and Principal of Edinburgh University, was most enthusiastic about Dancer's work, and predicted that micro-photographs might one day be used to send secret messages in the event of war. In the 1857 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica he wrote:

"Microscopic copies of despatches and valuable papers and plans might be placed in spaces not larger than a full stop of a small blot of ink."

Brewster also took some of Dancer's work on a tour in Europe. It was probably as a result of this tour that several opticians in France began producing micro-photographs. Among these was Rene Dagron, who produced curios, placing microphotographs in penholders, signet rings and other objects. At one stage Dargon employed over a hundred in this flourishing trade.

Only a few years later, in the Siege of Paris in 1870, Brewster's prediction came true. Many people were able to escape from Paris by balloon, but because of the prevailing wind a journey to Paris was not possible. To maintain communication with Paris, Dargon and his assistant escaped from the city by balloon, and when they reached the unoccupied zone, he set about preparing a pigeon post service. Messages were printed in microphotographic form, and then were attached to the tails of carrier pigeons. The messages were subsequently enlarged by projection. It is also said that during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, spies used to smuggle secret reports in micro-photographic form.

The term should not be (but often is!) confused with photo-micrography; the micro-photographic process is taken to mean a substantial reduction of the "real thing" either for archival, portability or, as shown above, clandestine purposes.


By Dr. Robert Leggat