Frederic Eugene Ives life and biography

Frederic Eugene Ives was an American inventor, born at Litchfield, Connecticut. In 1874-78 he had charge of the photographic laboratory at Cornell University. He moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where in 1885 he was one of the founding members of the Photographic Society of Philadelphia. He was awarded The Franklin Institute's Elliott Cresson Medal in 1893, the Edward Longstreth Medal in 1903, and the John Scott Medal in 1887, 1890, 1904 and 1906. His son Herbert E. Ives was a pioneer of television and telephotography, including color facsimile.

In 1886, photographer Frederic Eugene Ives introduced a halftone process of photoengraving, wherein photographs are broken down to tiny dots of varying size but uniform spacing, creating the illusion of subtle shading. This half-tone process is still used in newspapers, offset copy machines, and laser printers. Ives also invented the photochromoscope camera, which produced a three-color negative, and he did extensive work with color and stereoscopic photography simulating three-dimensional imagery, including several early 3-D motion picture shorts. His son, Herbert E. Ives, was a leading force in the development of color television and facsimile transmission systems.

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