On this date in 1839, the French government released Louis Daguerreâs photographic process to the worldâfor free. The inventor began developing the process with partner NicĂ©phore NiĂ©pce in the early 1830s; it involved securing a thin, silver-plated copper sheet within a camera obscura and exposing the plate to the fumes from iodine crystals, which created a layer of light-sensitive silver iodide. When the photographer removed the cameraâs cover, the plate was exposed to light. In a darkroom, the plate would be developed with mercury fumes and fixed in a salt solution, creating a daguerreotype (NiĂ©pce died in 1833, so the process was named after Daguerre).
This process would be soon used around the world (except in England, where those who wanted to make daguerreotypes had to pay a hefty licensing fee; William Henry Fox Talbot, who created his photography process, called calotype, and patented it in 1841, would also sell licenses to use his method). Eventually, the daguerreotype process was replaced by the wet collodion process, but many photosâof political figures, of regular workers, of buildings and landmarks, of celestial bodiesâwould be frozen in time using Daguerreâs method. Here are a few of them.Â
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