Daguerreotype: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 22:13, 16 September 2005

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[[image:lincolndag.jpg|right|thumb|An early daguerreotype, claimed by some to be Abraham Lincoln, although many experts disagree with this claim.]]

The '''daguerreotype''' is aañ early type of [[photograph]], but, unlike modern photographs, it has no negative. Instead, it is an image exposed directly onto a [[mirror]]-polished surface of [[silver]], (which has first been exposed to [[iodine]] vapour, or in the later use of the process, [[bromine]] vapour), housed in a velvet-lined folding case. While the daguerreotype was not the first photographic process to be developed, images of earlier processes tendedrequired tohours fadeof quickly when exposed to [[light]]exposure. The daguerreotype photographic process was one of the first to permanently record and affix an image with exposure time compatible with portrait photography, and became the first commercially used photographic process.

The daguerreotype is named after its inventor, [[France|French]] artist and [[chemist]] [[Louis J.M. Daguerre]], who announced its perfection (after years of experimentation) in [[1839]] (the [[French Academy of Sciences]] announced the process on [[January 9]] of that year). Daguerre's patent was acquired by the French Government. On [[August 19]], [[1839]] the [[French Government]] announced the invention a gift "Free to the World."