Cleopatra & Bitumen of Judea
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
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| Jennifer Lines as Cleopatra - iPhone3G |
Bitumen of Judea
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bitumen of Judea, or Syrian asphalt, is a naturally
occurring asphalt that has been put to many uses since ancient times.[vague] It
is a light-sensitive material in what is accepted to be the first complete
photographic process, i.e., one capable of producing durable light-fast
results. The technique was developed by French scientist and inventor Nicéphore
Niépce in the 1820s. In 1826 or 1827, he applied a thin coating of the tar-like
material to a pewter plate and took a picture of parts of the buildings and
surrounding countryside of his estate, producing what is usually described as
the first photograph. It is considered to be the oldest known surviving
photograph made in a camera. The plate was exposed in the camera for at least
eight hours.
The bitumen, initially soluble in spirits and oils, was
hardened and made insoluble (probably polymerized) in the brightest areas of
the image. The unhardened part was then rinsed away with a solvent
Niépce's primary objective was not a photoengraving or
photolithography process, but rather a photo-etching process since engraving
requires the intervention of a physical rather than chemical process and
lithography involves a grease and water resistance process. However, the famous
image of the Cardinal was produced first by photo-etching and then
"improved" by hand engraving. Bitumen, superbly resistant to strong
acids, was in fact later widely used as a photoresist in making printing plates
for mechanical printing processes.[citation needed] The surface of a zinc or
other metal plate was coated, exposed, developed with a solvent that laid bare
the unexposed areas, then etched in an acid bath, producing the required
surface relief.
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| World's first photogaph on Bitumen of Judea by Nicéphore Niépce - Harry Ransom Center, Austin, Texas |
Because I am a photographer of the last century I know
who Nicéphore Niépce was and how he took what it probably the world’s first
photograph, in 1826 or 1827 from his kitchen window.
In Mexico as a young boy of 15 when I played on the street
my friend and I would break out pieces of tar from the concrete built streets
and chew them like chewing gum. In Mexico it is called chapopote (from náhuatl chiapopotl). We were told by some
elders that the stuff helped keep our teeth white.
I really never made the connection with bitumen of Judea until
more recently.
A few years back (2011) I read Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy
Schiff . In it I found out something most interesting
about the sticky product. Cleopatra was a rich and shrewd woman. She was aware
that the Roman fleets (particularly those of her buddy Marc Antony) used bitumen to caulk the planks and
hulls of their ships. She also knew that most of the bitumen of the time came from
the Roman Province of Judea. There was a problem in that the man in charge in
Judea was Herod the Great. Cleopatra asked Antony to intercede for her so that
Herod would cede the bitumen (of Judea) exploitation rights to her. And so it
was.
With my preoccupation (with my Rosemary) on the affairs
of the world gone Trump mad I have read about Alberta’s bitumen and wonder if
their female Premier doesn’t have a little Cleopatra in her.
There are two extremes to this argument on the fate of
that bitumen. Perhaps some sort of pragmatism will in the end resolve the
problem and no asps will have to be imported.
