©Werner Hammerstingl, 1999
Stereoscopic, or 3D photography, works because it is able to recreate the illusion of depth. Human eyes are set about seven to eight centimeters apart, so each eye sees an image slightly differently.
If one takes two separate photographs that same distance apart, with a suitable viewer it is possible to recreate that illusion of depth. The idea of stereoscopy actually preceded photography. Though most associate Brewster with the invention, it was Sir Charles Wheatstone who, in June 1838, gave an address to the Royal Scottish Society of Arts on the phenomena of binocular vision. In describing the equipment, he said:
"I...propose that it be called a Stereoscope, to indicate its property of representing solid figures."
Wheatstone's actual stereoscope is preserved at the Science Museum in London. It was eleven years later before Sir David Brewster described a binocular camera, and the first stereoscopic photographs began to be produced.
Early workers in this field include Fenton, who took photographs in Russia, when he visited there in 1852, and Jules Duboscq, who made stereoscopes and stereoscopic daguerreotypes. Duboscq in turn caused Antoine Claudet to become interested in stereoscopy; indeed, it was Claudet who patented stereoscopes in 1853.
The stereoscope took off in a big way when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert observed one at the exhibition at the Crystal Palace, and Brewster presented her with a stereoscope made by Duboscq. This signalled the beginning of a huge trade in stereoscopes and images; it is estimated that by the mid nineteen-fifties over a million homes owned one.
One of the most successful salesmen of stereoscopic cards was George Nottage, later Lord Mayor of London, his catalogues listing over one hundred thousand views. The most common process for making stereoscopic cards was the Albumen one, daguerreotype images being very rare. A variety of viewers became available, from the simple Holmes viewer to cabinet-type viewers which could store fifty or so positives. The London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company came into being in 1850 and continued for some seventy years. The Stereoscopic Society was founded in 1893, and is one of two societies operating in Britain which continue to promote this form of photography.