WHIPPLE, John Adams, inventor, born in Grafton, Massachusetts, 10 September, 1822. While a boy he was an ardent student of chemistry, and on the introduction of the daguerreotype process into this country he was the first to manufacture the chemicals that were used in it. His health having become impaired through this work, he devoted his attention exclusively to photography, in connection with which he made many useful inventions and improvements. He prepared his plates and brought out his pictures by steam, invented crayon daguerreotypes, and crystalotypes, or daguerreotypes on glass, and, with the aid of the fifteen-inch equatorial telescope of the Harvard college observatory, under the direction of Professor William C. Bond, took a daguerreotype of the moon's surface, for which he was complimented by the Royal academy of arts and sciences of London, and on 17 July, 1850, photographed Alpha Lyra, which is said to have been the first successful experiment in stellar photography. He received the prize medal at the World's fair, London, and a silver medal at the Crystal palace, New York.