Editing Daguerreotype (section)

=== Development in France ===
[[File:Niepce table.jpg|thumb|19th-century printed reproduction of a [[still life]] believed to be a {{Circa|1832}} Niépce physautotype (glass original accidentally destroyed {{Circa|1900}})<ref>{{cite web |author = Jean-Louis Marignier |url = http://pagesperso.lcp.u-psud.fr/marignier/#La_Table_servie |publisher = Université Paris-Sud |title = Identification of the image called 'La Table Servie' as a physautotype made by Niepce in 1832–1833 |access-date=20 May 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161113183140/http://pagesperso.lcp.u-psud.fr/marignier/#La_Table_servie |archive-date=13 November 2016 |url-status=live |df=dmy-all }}</ref>]]

In 1829 [[France|French]] artist and [[chemist]] Louis Daguerre, when obtaining a camera obscura for his work on theatrical scene painting from the optician Chevalier, was put into contact with [[Nicéphore Niépce]], who had already managed to make a record of an image from a camera obscura using the process he invented: [[heliography]].<ref>[http://www.photo-museum.org/daguerre-invention-photo/ Daguerre and the Invention of Photography ''Maison Nicéphore Niépce'']</ref>

Daguerre met with Niépce and entered into correspondence with him. Niépce had invented an early internal combustion engine, (the [[Pyréolophore]]), together with his brother Claude and made improvements to the velocipede, as well as experimenting with lithography and related processes. Their correspondence reveals that Niépce was at first reluctant to divulge any details of his work with photographic images. To guard against letting any secrets out before the invention had been improved, they used a numerical code for security.<ref>[http://marvinclay.blogspot.se/2012/12/complements-sur-niepce.html Daguerre and Niépce's numerical code]</ref> 15, for example, signified the tanning action of the sun on human skin (''action solaire sur les corps''); 34 – a camera obscura (''chambre noir''); 73 – sulphuric acid.<ref>http://archivesniepce.com/index.php/L-Archive/les-manuscrits {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701183321/http://archivesniepce.com/index.php/L-Archive/les-manuscrits |date=2017-07-01 }} [http://archivesniepce.com/index.php/L-Archive/les-manuscrits Les manuscrits de Niépce (Code secret établi entre Nicéphore Niépce et Daguerre (1829)]</ref>
[[File:Susse Frére Daguerreotype camera 1839.jpg|thumb|Daguerreotype camera built by La Maison [[Susse Frères]] in 1839, with a lens by Charles Chevalier]]

The written contract drawn up between Nicéphore Niépce and Daguerre<ref>{{cite book |last = Eder |first = Josef Maria |translator-last = Epstean |translator-first = Edward |title = History of Photography |edition = 4th |year = 1978 |orig-year = 1945 |publisher = Dover Publications |page=215 |isbn=0-486-23586-6 }}</ref> includes an undertaking by Niépce to release details of the process he had invented – the asphalt process or heliography. Daguerre was sworn to secrecy under penalty of damages and undertook to design a camera and improve the process. The improved process was eventually named the [[physautotype]].

Niépce's early experiments had derived from his interest in lithography and consisted of capturing the image in a camera (then called a camera obscura), resulting in an engraving that could be printed through various lithographic processes.<ref>[http://www.photo-museum.org/niepce-invention-photography/ Niépce and the Invention of Photography]</ref> The asphalt process or heliography required exposures that were so long that Arago said it was not fit for use. Nevertheless, without Niépce's experiments, it is unlikely that Daguerre would have been able to build on them to adapt and improve what turned out to be the daguerreotype process.

After Niépce's death in 1833, his son, Isidore, inherited rights in the contract and a new version was drawn up between Daguerre and Isidore. Isidore signed the document admitting that the old process had been improved to the limits that were possible and that a new process that would bear Daguerre's name alone was 60 to 80 times as rapid as the old asphalt (bitumen) one his father had invented. This was the daguerreotype process that used iodized silvered plates and was developed with mercury fumes.

[[File:Daguerreotype Daguerre Atelier 1837.jpg|thumb|Still life with plaster casts, made by Daguerre in 1837, the earliest reliably dated daguerreotype{{NoteTag |1 = This well-known image, now badly effaced by an attempt to clean it, is in the collection of the [[Société française de photographie]]. That institution's [http://www.sfp.asso.fr/collection/images/pdf/FRSFP_IR_tirages_DAGUERRE_0092.pdf inventory of works by or about Daguerre] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402154103/http://www.sfp.asso.fr/collection/images/pdf/FRSFP_IR_tirages_DAGUERRE_0092.pdf |date=2015-04-02 }} (item 1) gives it the title ''Intérieur d'un cabinet de curiosité'' (Interior of a cabinet of curiosities), describes it as a whole-plate daguerreotype in a contemporary frame, states that it was acquired in 1897, came from the collection of de Cailleux (presumably, the late [[Alphonse de Cailleux]], deputy director and then general director of the Louvre from 1836 to 1848), is annotated "Daguerre 1837" below, and on the back, in Daguerre's handwriting, bears the dedication "Epreuve ayant servi à constater la découverte du Daguerréotype, offerte à Monsieur de Cailleux par son [très] dévoué serviteur" [signed "Daguerre"] (Proof having served to verify the discovery of Daguerreotype, offered to Monsieur de Cailleux by his very devoted servant Daguerre). There is apparently no other documentary basis which might support statements found in many sources that it is the "first" or "first successful" or "first completely processed" daguerreotype, or that it was presented to de Cailleux at the Louvre in 1837 rather than at an unknown location and date after the 1839 unveiling of the process. According to the [https://books.google.com/books?id=_iBFAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA173 1884 catalogue of one French museum], a framed set of three plates presented by Daguerre to [[François Arago]] bore an identically worded dedication. They were among the plates put on display to a French government body in July 1839 when it was deciding on the award of a pension to Daguerre in exchange for the still-secret details of his process.}}]]

To exploit the invention, 400 shares would be on offer for 1,000 francs each; secrecy would be lifted after 100 shares had been sold, or the rights of the process could be bought for 20,000 francs.

Daguerre wrote to Isidore Niepce on 2 January 1839 about his discussion with Arago:

<blockquote>He sees difficulty with this proceeding by subscription; it is almost certain – just as I myself have been convinced ever since looking on my first specimens – that subscription would not serve. Everyone says it is superb: but it will cost us the thousand francs before we learn it [the process] and be able to judge if it could remain secret. M. de Mandelot himself knows several persons who could subscribe but will not do so because they think it [the secret] would be revealed by itself, and now I have proof that many think in this way. I entirely agree with the idea of M. Arago, that is get the government to purchase this discovery, and that he himself would pursue this in the chambre. I have already seen several deputies who are of the same opinion and would give support; this way it seems to me to have the most chance of success; thus, my dear friend, I think it is the best option, and everything makes me think we will not regret it. For a start M. Arago will speak next Monday at the Académie des Sciences&nbsp;...<ref>[http://www.midley.co.uk/Pension/Pension.htm A State Pension for L. J. M. Daguerre for the secret of his daguerreotype technique R. Derek WOOD]</ref></blockquote>

Isidore did not contribute anything to the invention of the Daguerreotype and he was not let in on the details of the invention.<ref name="Isidore Niépce and Daguerre">[http://www.photo-museum.org/isidore-niepce-daguerre/ Isidore Niépce and Daguerre]</ref> Nevertheless, he benefited from the state pension awarded to him together with Daguerre.

Miles Berry, a patent agent acting on Daguerre's and Isidore Niépce's behalf in England, wrote a six-page memorial to the Board of the Treasury in an attempt to repeat the French arrangement in Great Britain, "for the purpose of throwing it open in England for the benefit of the public."

{{quote|
Inform party that Parliament has placed no funds

at the disposal of the Treasury

from which a purchase of this description could be made

(indecipherable signature)}}

The Treasury wrote to Miles Berry on 3 April to inform him of their decision:

{{quote|
(To) Miles Berry Esq 66 Chancery Lane

Sir,

Having laid before the Lords &c your application on behalf of Messrs Daguerre & Niepce, that Government would purchase their Patent Right to the Invention known as the "Daguerreotype" I have it in command to acquaint you that Parliament has placed no Funds at the disposal of their Lordships from which a purchase of this description could be made

3rd April 1840 (signed) A. Gordon

(entry in margin) Application Refused<ref name="midley_dpatent_addenda">[http://www.midley.co.uk/daguerreotype/dpatent_addenda.htm Three unpublished Addenda by R. Derek Wood to his article on "The Daguerreotype Patent, The British Government, and The Royal Society"]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=TyVAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA57 Court of Queen's Bench before Lord Chief Justice Denman. June 25, 1842. BERRY v. CLAUDET]</ref>}}

Without bills being passed by Parliament, as had been arranged in France, Arago having presented a bill in the House of Deputies and Gay-Lussac in the Chamber of Peers, there was no possibility of repeating the French arrangement in England which is why the daguerreotype was given free to the world by the French government with the exception of England and Wales for which Richard Beard controlled the patent rights.

Daguerre patented his process in England, and Richard Beard patented his improvements to the process in Scotland<ref name="johnhannavy_past">{{Cite web |url=http://www.johnhannavy.co.uk/photographic-history/past-projects/ |title=Scottish patent taken out by Richard Beard |access-date=8 December 2016 |archive-date=6 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161206003400/http://www.johnhannavy.co.uk/photographic-history/past-projects/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[http://www.cdags.org/cdags_resources/engdagpatent.pdf text of daguerrotype patent]</ref><ref>[http://www.midley.co.uk/daguerreotype/dpatent_gov_rs.htm Daguerreotype patent]</ref><ref name="midley_dpatent_addenda"/><ref name="johnhannavy_past"/> During this time the astronomer and member of the House of Deputies [[François Arago]] had sought a solution whereby the invention would be given free to the world by the passing of Acts in the French Parliament. Richard Beard, controlled most of the licences in England and Wales with the exception of [[Antoine Claudet]] who had purchased a licence directly from Daguerre.

In the US, Alexander S. Wolcott invented the mirror daguerreotype camera, according to John Johnson's account, in one single day after reading the description of the daguerreotype process published in English translation.<ref name="Humphrey">{{Cite book |last=Humphrey |first=Samuel D. |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/167/167-h/167-h.htm#chap06 |title=American Hand Book of the Daguerreotype: Giving the Most Approved and Convenient Methods for Preparing the Chemicals, and the Combinations Used in the Art |publisher=S. D. Humphrey |year=1858 |publication-place=New York |chapter=An Account of Wolcott and Johnson’s Early Experiments in the Daguerreotype. By John Johnson.}}</ref>

Johnson's father travelled to England with some specimen portraits to patent the camera and met with Richard Beard who bought the patent for the camera, and a year later bought the patent for the daguerreotype outright. Johnson assisted Beard in setting up a portrait studio on the roof of the Regent Street Polytechnic and managed Beard's daguerreotype studio in Derby and then Manchester for some time before returning to the US.<ref>[http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~brett/photos/jjohnson.html John Johnson, photographer by David Simkin]</ref>

Wolcott's Mirror Camera, which gave postage stamp sized miniatures, was in use for about two years before it was replaced by Petzval's Portrait lens, which gave larger and sharper images.

Antoine Claudet<ref>[http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp06792/antoine-claudet Antoine Claudet ''National Portrait Gallery'']</ref> had purchased a licence from Daguerre directly to produce daguerreotypes. His uncle, the banker Vital Roux, arranged that he should head the glass factory at Choisy-le-Roi together with [[Georges Bontemps]] and moved to England to represent the factory with a showroom in High Holborn.<ref>[http://historiccamera.com/cgi-bin/librarium2/pm.cgi?action=app_display&app=datasheet&app_id=1623& Antoine Claudet]</ref> At one stage, Beard sued Claudet with the aim of claiming that he had a monopoly of daguerreotypy in England, but lost.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=TyVAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA58 Miles Berry vs Claudet]</ref> Niépce's aim originally had been to find a method to reproduce prints and drawings for [[lithography]]. He had started out experimenting with light-sensitive materials and had made a contact print from a drawing and then went on to successfully make the first photomechanical record of an image in a camera obscura – the world's first photograph. Niépce's method was to coat a pewter plate with bitumen of Judea (asphalt) and the action of the light differentially hardened the bitumen. The plate was washed with a mixture of oil of lavender and turpentine leaving a relief image. Later, Daguerre's and Niépce's improvement to the heliograph process, the physautotype, reduced the exposure to eight hours.<ref>[http://www.photo-museum.org/niepce-nicephore-daguerre-physautotype/ Niépce, Daguerre, Photomuseum physautotype]</ref>

Early experiments required hours of exposure in the camera to produce visible results. Modern photo-historians consider the stories of Daguerre discovering mercury development by accident because of a bowl of mercury left in a cupboard, or, alternatively, a broken thermometer, to be spurious.<ref>[http://www.daguerreotypearchive.org/dagnews/01-22-96.php Gary W. Ewer. ''Daguerreotype research archive'']</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.fotomuseum.be/content/dam/fomu/pdf%27s/Daguerreotype%20Journal_n%204_Autumn%20isuue%202015.pdf |title=Daguerre's research of the latent image |access-date=14 September 2016 |archive-date=14 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170114002201/http://www.fotomuseum.be/content/dam/fomu/pdf%27s/Daguerreotype%20Journal_n%204_Autumn%20isuue%202015.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Another story of a fortunate accident, which modern photo historians are now doubtful about, and was related by Louis Figuier, of a silver spoon lying on an iodized silver plate which left its design on the plate by light perfectly.<ref>{{harv|Eder|1978|p=223}}</ref> Noticing this, Daguerre supposedly wrote to Niépce on 21 May 1831 suggesting the use of iodized silver plates as a means of obtaining light images in the camera.

Daguerre did not give a clear account of his method of discovery and allowed these legends to become current after the secrecy had been lifted.

Letters from Niépce to Daguerre dated 24 June and 8 November 1831, show that Niépce was unsuccessful in obtaining satisfactory results following Daguerre's suggestion, although he had produced a negative on an iodized silver plate in the camera. Niépce's letters to Daguerre dated 29 January and 3 March 1832 show that the use of iodized silver plates was due to Daguerre and not Niépce.<ref name="eder">{{harv|Eder|1978|p=224}}</ref>

[[Jean-Baptiste Dumas]], who was president of the National Society for the Encouragement of Science ([[Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale]]) and a chemist, put his laboratory at Daguerre's disposal. According to Austrian chemist [[Josef Maria Eder]], Daguerre was not versed in chemistry and it was Dumas who suggested Daguerre use sodium hyposulfite, discovered by Herschel in 1819, as a fixer to dissolve the unexposed silver salts.<ref name="harmant" /><ref name="eder" />