Coleman Sellers Biography 1827–1907 Page 6

PERSONAL INTEREST IN PHOTOGRAPHY

From those early days of the art until the present time Dr. Sellers has kept in touch with the developments in photography, and has always had in his residence a well-equipped dark-room. About 1873 he delivered before the Franklin Institute three lectures on photography, in one of which he introduced the experiment of taking a photograph by artificial light and developing the negative in the field of a projecting lantern, thus enabling the audience to follow in the screen the entire process, including washing and fixing. He also demonstrated, in an interesting manner, the actinic power of the invisible spectrum beyond the violet rays.

Photography, which became with him an absorbing pastime, was taken up in its direct application to his engineering work, and the same object has frequently led to his interest in other pursuits which have afforded outlets for his tireless energy. Thus it once occurred to him that valuable information might be obtained by a careful microscopic study of the stony deposit or scale, which forms in steam boilers when certain waters are used, and, entering into the investigation with his usual zeal, he prepared a number of interesting specimens by mounting sections which he ground to a transparent thinness for study with polarised light. He familiarised himself in this way with the methods of mounting microscopic specimens both wet and dry, and prepared a number of excellent slides, incidentally devoting particular attention to the diatomaceous earths and fresh-water algae. He also contrived a number of handy appliances for use in connection with this work, and later, as a matter of amusement, applied the microscope to lantern work, providing himself with an oxy-hydrogen outfit, and making his own oxygen, as this gas was not then an article of commerce.

A QUICK LEARNER AND CONSTANT CURIOSITY – STORIES ABOUT COLEMAN SELLERS FROM THE WRITER

In his more recent professional career, as in the earlier period referred to, where questions arise that suggest original investigation, it is still his habit to devote to such study and research those hours one usually gives to rest and recreation. When, for instance, the great tunnel of the Niagara Falls Power Company was under construction, it became necessary to determine what lining material would best resist the abrasive action of the flowing water. As information at hand was very meagre, it occurred to Dr. Sellers that an application of the sand blast might be made to show the relative hardness of the several materials under consideration. Therefore, during spare moments he fitted up at his residence an apparatus by which a definite quantity of sand could be forced at a given pressure against the substances to be tested, and in this way he determined and tabulated the relative abrasion of brick, concrete, cement, etc., measured by the loss of weight due to the blast on the test specimen.

One could cite many similar instances in connection with his work at Niagara Falls in which, by such personal research, requiring frequently the making of ingenious working models or apparatus, Dr. Sellers has determined many important questions, in both engineering and physics, to the advantage of the undertaking.

As the result of personal observation extending over many years and facilitated by the most intimate acquaintance, the writer does not hesitate to say that Dr. Sellers furnishes a most striking illustration of intellectual power unconfined by the limitations of any single subject or class of subjects, but reaching out into countless directions. In great things or little, to whatever subject he turns his attention, he masters it with astonishing rapidity and completeness.

I remember, for example, quite early in my acquaintance with him, he took up the art of telegraphic signalling as a convenience in communicating between the several departments in the extensive establishment of William Sellers & Co., and in the course of a few months he made himself an expert operator, not only signalling, but reading messages by ear, though the average time for the acquisition of this skill is about two years. It was the same with shorthand, in which, becoming interested, he persisted until he acquired considerable skill, although his opportunities for practice were only the occasional leisure moments of a very busy life. [continue]