That Which We Obtain Too Cheaply, We Value Too Little
1800 Tho's Wedgwood recorded images using Ag2NO3 on leather but could
not preserve the images in light.
1823 Nie'pce used AgCl on paper to record fixed scenes but long
exposures were not suitable for portrait photography.
1827 Reasonably good photos are being made in Europe.
1839 Daguerre and Nie'pce gave their processes to the French gov't
in exchange for a good pension. Exposures were down to 25 sec.
by 1841. The process spread worldwide.
Plates, first manufactured by silversmiths in sizes that became
internationally standard:
Whole plate 165 x 216 mm 6.50 x 8.5 in.
Half plate 114 x 140 mm 4.50 x 5.5 in.
Quarter plate 83 x 108 mm 3.25 x 4.25 in.
Sixth plate 70 x 83 mm 2.75 x 3.25 in.
Ninth plate 51 x 64 mm 2.00 x 2.5 in.
The daguerreotype is a silver-plated sheet of copper. The silver
side is polished and placed down on crystals of iodine where fumes
make the light sensitive material silver iodide. The plate is
then exposed and passed over a vat of heated mercury where fumes
form an amalgam with the silver producing an image. A bath in a
strong solution of sodium chloride renders insensitive to light
any unexposed silver iodide.
1840 Mar 04 1'st daguerreotype portrait gallery in NY
By the end of 1840, 3 improvements increased the popularity of
daguerrotypes. An improved lens designed by Josef Petzval, f3.6
transmitted 22 times as much light, and was distributed by Peter
Freidrich Voigtlander of Vienna. John Frederick Goddard used
other halogens to increase sensitivity of the silver thereby
speeding the exposures by accelerators or as daguerrotypists
called it "quickstuff." Thirdly, Frenchman Hippolyte Louis Fizeau
enriched the tones of the daguerrotype by adding gold to the
silver increasing the dark tones and improving the mercury
amalgam for brilliant whites.
1841 Mar 1'st daguerreotype portrait gallery in Europe
1841 Caleotypes become popular mostly in Europe. Patented by Talbot
1847 Albumen plates by Claude Felix Abel Niepce de St. Victor did not
last long.
1850 Albumen paper became the most popular for prints. Paper was
coated with albumen mixed with potassium bromide and acetic acid,
dried, floated on a silver nitrate solution and again dried.
Pressed against a negative and exposed to bright sunlight, it was
then toned in gold chloride, fixed in hypo, dried and sometimes
pressed on a smooth drum for a glossy finish.
1851 A new era opened with the invention of collodion by Frederick
Scott Archer. The process reigned supreme in photography until
1880. Collodion is a solution of nitrocellulose mixed with
alcohol and ether. Archer added potassium iodide to the mix and
deposited the viscous solution on glass plates. After dipping
the coated plate in silver nitrate solution the "wet plate" had
to be exposed, and developed in pyrogallic acid before drying.
The collodion then dries becoming a tough waterproof film. Three
collodion processes eventually displaced the daguerreotype.
1854 Carte-de-visite photographic papers patented in France by Andre Adolphe-
Eugene Disderi. This was a collodion process.
1854 Ambrotypes - a collodion process direct print, often having a glass
plate cover attached by balsam.
1855 Jun 01 Massachussetts records 403,626 daguerreotypes to that date.
1856 Hamilton L. Smith assigns his patent for tintypes to William Neff &
his son Peter.
1864 few daguerreotypes in use.
1866 New lenses Aplanat and Rapid Rectilinear markedly corrected for
spherical abberation and astigmatism somewhat.