Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/387

Rh process, which received the image produced by the lens on a silver plate, visible by means of mercury, was discovered by Daguerre about 1839. Eight years later, glass negatives coated with albumen were introduced, and collodion in 1851 helped the wet-plate process, though the real revolution in photography did not take place till 1871. So passed the early Victorian period with its new activities, its increased possibilities, its fusion of classes and enormous wealth; but at the same time one cannot but note the decadence of taste and art, the amazing decorations of houses, the heavy adornment of rooms, the inelegance of dust-preserving draperies, the chandeliers and elaborate patterns everywhere—throughout everything there was a want of simplicity and refinement in this age, which has been not inaptly called "twenty years of triumphant vulgarity."