The French physicist created the daguerreotype, a process of transferring photographs onto silver-coated copper plates.
Here’s ten things you should know about Louis Daguerre and his work…
1. Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was born on November 18, 1787 in Cormeilles-en-Parisis, Val-d'Oise, in France.
2. Daguerre was an apprentice of Pierre Prévost, the first French panorama painter. He was incredibly skilled at theatrical illustration and went on to invent the diorama, the miniature replica of a scene.
3. Daguerre partnered with Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, who produced the world’s first permanent photograph. They experimented with a discovery by Johann Heinrich Schultz, which had found that a silver carbonate or silver chloride and chalk mixture darkens under exposure to light. This led to the development of the Daguerreotype.
4. Daguerre knew he was in competition with British inventor William Henry Fox Talbot on the calotype process. To protect his invention, Daguerre obtained the patent in Britain in August 1839 which hindered the development of photography in the country.
5. After years of experimentation, the perfected Daguerreotype was announced in 1839. The French government acquired Daguerre’s patent and, in August of that year, announced that the invention was a gift “free to the world”.
6. The Daguerreotype was created by exposing silver-coated copper plates to iodine, obtaining silver iodide. This was then exposed to light for a few minutes and coated with mercury vapour and fixed with salt water.
7. The plates, which were usually portraits, were exact reproductions of the scenes. The image was laterally reversed, as in a mirror, and could only be viewed at an angle. The plates also needed to be encased in a glass-fronted box to protect the image from the air and fingerprints.
8. Daguerre didn’t need to make money from his invention as he was pensioned by the French government in exchange for sharing the details of the process.
9. The French physicist died on July 10, 1851, aged 63 years old, of a heart attack in Bry-sur-Marne. His grave is marked by a monument in the town.
10. Daguerre’s is one of the 72 names of French scientists, engineers and notable figures engraved on the Eiffel Tower in recognition of their contributions. Daguerre features on the North East side of the tower.
And some images to go with that :)
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