Photography

The development of photography was conditioned by factor than the demand for cheap portraits: the growth of amateur artists. The accomplished gentleman or gentlewoman of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century was expected to write poetry, play some musical instrument and sketch. Unfortunately not all aristocrats were talented, and consequently they welcomed any mechanical aid.

Photography was definitely created to compete with manual ways of making pictures. Simultaneously and independently two distinct methods were perfected: the daguerreotype (on metal) in France ; the talbotype (on paper) in England . A third method, partaking of both these techniques yet apparently quite independent, was also perfected at this time. All these processes depended, however, on the work of earlier experimenters. To these pioneers we must now turn.

But Niepce knew nothing about the Englishmen's work. Thirteen years later this negative-positive technique, which is the basis of all modern photography, was conceived by Henry Fox Talbot. Niepce wanted to secure pictures directly in the camera, by one operation; so he gave up this preliminary work and experimented with substances which, instead of darkening, bleach white on exposure to light. His experiments were fruitless until he found that a certain type of bitumen, normally soluble in lavender oil, became insoluble on exposure to light. At first, instead of trying to reproduce the infinite shades of light and dark which form the camera's image, he attempted to fix simply the black and white contrast of an engraving.

Then Arago, the famous scientist, heard of the process. Through his interest, the Academy of Sciences , on January 7, 1839, proposed that the French government should purchase the full rights after the value of the process had been proven by thorough investigation. For six months the commission of the Academy of Sciences , headed by Arago, worked with Daguerre in great secrecy. Ill luck befell Daguerre; on March 3 the Diorama burned down, destroying not only the inventor's means of income but his laboratory and much of his pioneer work. Apparently the disaster forced him to agree to a recompense offered by the state: an annuity of 4000 francs ($800) for the publication of his method of photography, and half that sum, 2000 francs ($400), for the disclosure of his invention of the Diorama. The state offered Isidore Niepce the same amount, 4000 francs, in recognition of the part his father had played in making photography possible. Both houses passed the appropriation; Arago was thereupon directed to make public all the technical details on August 19, 1839.

The handbook on the daguerreotype process was so complete that anyone could have the apparatus built by a skilled instrument maker and anticipate some sort of result if he followed the directions carefully. Joachim Bishop, a Philadelphia instrument maker, using the translation of the manual which was published in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia , November, 1839, constructed three cameras in 1839 which follow Daguerre's description in every detail; one of these cameras is now in the Franklin Institute. The spread of photography can, therefore, be partially judged by the translations and editions of Daguerre brochure all dated 1839.