Photography Invented – 5

Today’s installment concludes Photography Invented,
our selection by William Jerome Harrison.

If you have journeyed through all of the installments of this series, just one more to go and you will have completed a selection from the great works of five thousand words. Congratulations!

Previously in Photography Invented.

Time: 1838
Place: France

It appears that one day Daguerre removed from his camera a plate, which either from the shortness of the exposure or the dullness of the light, showed no sign of an image. He placed this blank plate in a store-cupboard, intending to clean the sur face and use it again. But what must have been our photographer’s surprise when, on taking out this plate the next morning, he found upon its surface a distinct and perfect picture.

Another prepared plate was quickly exposed for an equally short time within the camera and again a sojourn of twenty-four hours within the magic cupboard sufficed to bring out a picture. The next step was to ascertain to which of the numerous chemicals kept within the cupboard this marvelous effect was due. By a process of elimination it was at last traced to a dish full of mercury.

Delighted by this fortunate discovery Dagueire at once proceeded to place his exposed plates over a dish of warm mercury, when the vapor proceeding from the liquid metal was found to settle upon the iodized silver in exact proportion to the intensity of the light by which each part of the plate had been affected. This was, in fact, a process of “development,” an invisible or “latent” image being strengthened and thereby made visible. Some such method of “developing” the originally feeble impressions produced upon sensitive plates by a short exposure to light has been found necessary in every photographic process.

Another advance made by the French artist was the discovery of a fixing agent. This was neither more nor less than a strong solution of common salt, in which the plates were soaked after development and which dissolved and washed away the iodide of silver that had not been acted on by light. But when, almost immediately after the publication of the daguerreotype process in 1839, Sir John Herschel drew attention to the superior qualities of hyposulphite of soda as a solvent of the silver salt, Daguerre immediately adopted it for clearing and fixing his exposed plates. We may mention that this substance, so valuable to every photographer, was discovered by Chaussier, in 1799 and its power of dissolving the haloid salts of silver had been described by Herschel as early as 1819.

The first daguerreotypes were so delicate that the merest touch of the finger was sufficient to mar their beauty and when exposed to the air they rapidly tarnished and deteriorated. This defect was remedied by M. Fizeau, who gilded the image by means of a mixture of chloride of gold and hyposulphite of soda. This solution was poured over the silver plate, which was then heated until the liquid evaporated, leaving a thin coating of gold upon the picture, which was thereby rendered more distinct as well as more permanent.

Another great improvement was introduced by Mr. Goddard, a London science lecturer, in 1840. He exposed the iodized silver plate to the action of bromin vapors, thereby forming a bromide of silver upon the plate in addition to iodide of silver. In 1 841 M. Claudet used chlorin vapors in a like manner. Plates prepared by either of these methods were found to be far more sensitive to light than those which had been simply iodized. In fact, the time required to produce a picture in the camera was thereby reduced to from one to five minutes, or, with a very good light, to less than one minute.

As the three elements referred to above were only discovered, chlorin in 1774, iodine in 1811 and bromin in 1826, we see that photography was hardly possible before the nineteenth century. After the improvements of Goddard and Claudet, which were quickly adopted by Daguerre, the production of portraits by the daguerreotype process became comparatively easy.

In the very first attempts at portraiture, which appear to have been made in America by Draper and Morse, in 1839, the sitter’s face was covered with white powder, the eyes were closed and the exposure, lasting for perhaps half an hour, was made in bright sunshine. To lessen the glare of light, which painfully affected the sitter, Draper caused the sunlight to pass through a large glass tank containing a clear blue liquid — ammonia sulphate of copper — before falling upon the sitter, thus filtering out most of the heat rays, which could well be spared, as they possess little or no actinic value. In 1840 Beard and Claudet opened photographic studios in London; Davidson followed suit in Edinburgh and Shaw in Birmingham and soon daguerreotypy became a trade. For landscapes, etc., the daguerreotype process was but seldom employed, though we read of a fine instantaneous picture of New York harbor being secured by its aid.

The expense of the plates, which were usually of copper plated with silver, was a serious objection to the daguerreotype process. As late as 1854 we find the price of daguerreotypes in England was two and a half guineas each for the quarter-plate size (4 1/2 by 3 1/4 inches); and for half-plate size, four guineas.

The cleansing and polishing of the silver surface on which the picture was to be produced were a most troublesome task, necessitating great care and a vast amount of labor in the production of the “black polish” which was necessary. It must also be remembered that there was practically no power of multiplying a daguerreotype — a fact due to the opacity of the silver plate. It is true that Grove devised a method of etching daguerreotypes with acid, so that they could be used in a printing-press but practically, this method was a failure.

The daguerreotype held sway for about ten years only, from 1839 to 1851. It was more popular in America than in England; indeed, in the latter country, specimens of the art are now quite rare. With all its faults it was an immense advance on anything previously known and entitles Daguerre to rank with the leading inventors of the nineteenth century.

This ends our series of passages on Photography Invented by William Jerome Harrison. This blog features short and lengthy pieces on all aspects of our shared past. Here are selections from the great historians who may be forgotten (and whose work have fallen into public domain) as well as links to the most up-to-date developments in the field of history and of course, original material from yours truly, Jack Le Moine. – A little bit of everything historical is here.

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