John Herschel was the only child of William Herschel, the musician astronomer. Like his father, he showed great talent in playing the flute and the violin, but his interest, also like his father was more deeply fixed in astronomy and other areas of science.
First John thought of pursuing the law, but changed his career and devoted his time to astronomy. He became one of the founding members of the Royal Astronomical Society.
What are his contributions language-wise to be taken up as a topic in this philological blog?
He was the first to coin the word 'positive' and 'negative' in the area of photography.
John Herschel worked closely with William Henry Fox-Talbot, a British scientist, inventor and a photography pioneer. Talbot photographed a window at Lacock Abbey, and from the 'negative', he made the first paper 'positive' print of paper. The printing of the negative was made possible for the discovery by John Herschel of using sodium thiosulphate as fixing agent (salt paper).
Seeing the inverted shades of the two products from photography, John named them 'negative' and 'positive'.
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