Louis Jacques Mande-Daguerre

Louis Jacques Mande-Daguerre

1789-1851

About

Louis Jacques Mande-Daguerre met the quest for the technology to record an image. The invention of the daguerreotype brought the possibility of preserving a period, the memory of a place, or the faces of a family.

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Two years later Daguerre produced the first daguerreotype. Being placed over a container of iodine particles thus forming a silver iodide on the surface sensitized a silver plated sheet of copper. The plate was then exposed in a camera; the silver iodide was reduced to silver in proportion to the density. The exposed plate was then placed over a container of warm mercury; the fumes formed an amalgam with the silver producing an image. The plate was washed with a saline solution to prevent further exposure. Daguerre allowed that his iodized silver plate would remain in his partnership but it would be called a “daguerreotype”, as it was completely Daguerre’s invention. The first successful daguerreotype, a still life, was produced in 1837. The first human image was recorded on a daguerreotype in 1839.

The same year the French Government accepted the daguerreotype process as an acquisition to be shared with the public. Daguerre was given a life long pension of 6000 francs a year. Isidore Niepce received 4000 francs a year for life.

Samuel F. B. Morse met with Daguerre to share his telegraph and to view the daguerreotype. Morse was so impressed he brought the process to America where it was accepted with great enthusiasm.

Daguerre continued to produce the camera he had conceived with the aid of his brother-in-law, Alphonse Giroux and Chevaliers’ lenses.

By Vi Whitmire For IPHF