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In the mid 19th century a lot of excitement was created by the nascent technology of photography. Exactly who and where it was invented is a somewhat vexed subject, although most would say that Daguerre in France in 1839, ought to be up there are the leading figure.
At any rate the technology was explored in England by particularly the Ordnance Survey, because they wanted a quick and easy way of copying out their maps, rather than having to draw each copy of their maps out by hand. So for example Sir Henry James there took up the cudgels and developed a very early type of colour photocopying. He saw the many interesting applications of this technology and so quite early on they decided to copy some of the great ancient English manuscripts, in particular the Domesday Book. They also reached out to Scotland and did a series of these 'photocopies' of their manuscripts.
In Ireland the cause was taken up by the great John Thomas Gilbert and he set off to copy some of the great Irish Manuscripts and printed copies of them using this Ordnance Survey technology.
The resulting volumes are extremely interesting and maybe even not as well known as they could be. So if anybody would like to see some images from them you can check out the video below:
by Brian Nugent, www.orwellianireland.com
