Photography Invented – 3

The discovery which I have made and to which I give the name of ‘heliography,’ consists in producing spontaneously, by the action of light, with gradations of tints from black to white, the images received by the camera-obscura.”

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Time: 1838
Place: France

In December, 1829, Niepce drew up the following important statement:

The discovery which I have made and to which I give the name of ‘heliography,’ consists in producing spontaneously, by the action of light, with gradations of tints from black to white, the images received by the camera-obscura. Light acts chemically upon bodies. It is absorbed; it combines with them and communicates to them new properties. Thus it augments the natural consistency of some of these bodies; it solidifies them, even and renders them more or less insoluble, according to the duration or intensity of its action. The substance which has succeeded best with me is asphaltum dissolved in oil of lavender. A tablet of plated silver is to be highly polished, on which a thin coating of the varnish is to be applied with a light roll of soft skin. The plate when dry may be immediately submitted to the action of light in the focus of the camera. But even after having been thus exposed a length of time sufficient for receiving the impressions of external objects, nothing is apparent to show that these impressions exist. The forms of the future picture remain still invisible. The next operation then is to disengage the shrouded imagery and this is accomplished by a solvent consisting of one part by volume of essential oil of lavender and ten of oil of white petroleum.

Into this liquid the exposed tablet is plunged and the opera tor, observing it by reflected light, begins to perceive the images of the objects, to which it had been exposed, gradually unfolding their forms. The plate is then lifted out, allowed to drain and well washed with water.”

It were however to be desired that, by blackening the metal plate, we could obtain all the gradations of tone from black to white. The substance which I now employ for this purpose is iodine, which possesses the property of evaporating at the ordinary temperature.”

We cannot but admire the graphic description of the phenomena of development here given by Niepce, and, without doubt, it formed the foundation of all the discoveries in photography that followed. It will be noticed that Niepce’s method of development was a physical one only, for it consisted in simply washing away by a suitable solvent the unacted-on and therefore still soluble parts of the bitumen.

The chief objection to the beautiful and ingenious process dis covered by Nicephore Niepce was the great length of time for which the bitumenized plate needed to be exposed in the camera. For an ordinary landscape an exposure of six to eight hours was required. During this time the shadows of objects changed from one side to the other so that the resulting pictures were comparatively flat and spiritless, being devoid of the charming effects resulting from the contrast of light and shade. Another trouble arose from the fact that in the half-tones of the picture the bitumen was only hardened at the surface, the layer beneath remaining soft and soluble. When the developing liquid was applied this lower layer was apt to be dissolved and in the final washing it sometimes carried away with it the hardened upper portion, so producing bare patches or defects.

Most black varnishes are made from asphalt and we can easily imitate Niepce’s process by coating a glass or metal plate with a thin layer of such varnish and exposing it under a negative to bright sunshine. By subsequent washing with petroleum the picture is readily developed.

Nicephore Niepce was a man of a quiet and retiring disposition, a student who was so immersed in his work and so desirous of perfecting it that he hesitated — while as yet he felt it to be incomplete — to publish even the smallest details with regard to it.

But the man with whom Niepce entered into partnership, Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre, was of a very opposite temper ament — bold and energetic, desirous of fame and its accompanying rewards, accustomed to success and to the applause of the public.

Daguerre was born at Cormeilles, a village near Paris, in 1789. Neglected by his parents, his native talents asserted themselves and while still young he became known as a scene painter of great power and originality; while the mechanical effects which he introduced to add to the realism of his stage views were the admiration of all Paris.

In 1822 Daguerre opened a diorama in Paris, for which he executed paintings on a colossal scale for such scenery as the “Village of Goldau,” the “Valley of Sarnem,” etc. By painting on both sides of the canvas and showing the picture first by reflected and then by transmitted light, very remarkable changes and effects could be produced. In the sketches from nature which Daguerre made as a preliminary aid to the execution of these immense pictures, he frequently employed the camera-obscura; and it was the remarkable beauty and perfection of the images produced by this instrument that determined the artist to attempt the discovery of some means by which they could be permanently retained.

Without any scientific education or training this task would have seemed to most persons a hopeless one; but perhaps Daguerre’s very ignorance of the difficulties to be encountered was one cause of his perseverance. The date of his first attempts appears to have been about 1824 and during the next two or three years we hear of his paying frequent visits to the shop of Chevalier, a well-known optician, of whom Daguerre purchased the camera, lenses and other articles necessary to his new pursuit.

Without any scientific education or training this task would have seemed to most persons a hopeless one; but perhaps Daguerre’s very ignorance of the difficulties to be encountered was one cause of his perseverance. The date of his first attempts appears to have been about 1824 and during the next two or three years we hear of his paying frequent visits to the shop of Chevalier, a well-known optician, of whom Daguerre purchased the camera, lenses and other articles necessary to his new pursuit.

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