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Louis Daguerre's inspirational story

Inspirational Story of Louis Daguerre

In the late 1830s, Louis Jacques Mandet Daguerre successfully invented practical photography for the first time.

Daguerre was born in the town of Comey in northern France in 1887. He was an artist when he was young. When he was about thirty-five, he designed a diorama with a special light effects showing panorama. While doing this work, he became interested in a device that automatically reproduces the world without brushes and paints - in other words, a camera.

Daguerre had previously made efforts to invent a usable camera, but failed. In 1827 he met Joseph Nicephore Niépce, who had also been working hard to invent the camera, and to some extent had succeeded. Two years later they became partners. Niépce died in 1833, but Daguerre continued his efforts. In 1837, he successfully invented a practical photography technique called daguerreotype (daguerreotype).

In 1839, Daguerre announced his technology to the world, but did not obtain a patent. However, the French government provided a lifetime endowment to Daguerre and Niepce's son as a reward. The announcement of Daguerre's invention caused a huge stir among the public. Daguerre became a hero of a generation and enjoyed all the glory and wealth. At the same time, Daguerre's photography was quickly used widely. Daguerre himself soon retired, and died in his hometown near Paris in 1851.

Few inventions have as many uses as the Daguerreotype. In fact, it is widely used in every field of scientific research and has many applications in industry and military. It is a serious art form for some and a joyful hobby for millions more. Photographs convey truth (or misinformation) in education, news, advertising, and more, and because they bring the past to life, they are among the most common collectibles and mementos. Of course, cinematography is a supplementary invention, and in addition to being a major means of entertainment, it actually has as many uses as photography in general.

It is rare that an invention is entirely the product of one person's labor. Of course the early labor of many others cleared the way for Daguerre's success. The image projector (a device similar to a lensless camera but without film) had been invented at least eight centuries before Daguerre. An important advance was made in the eighth century by Girolamo Cardano, who placed a lens inside the opening of the projector, making it an interesting prelude to the modern camera; but since the resulting image was not durable at all, it People tend not to think of it as a form of photography. In 1727, John Schulz made another important discovery-silver salt photosensitivity. Although Schulz used his discovery to create some makeshift images, he didn't really seek out the mystery.

The predecessor who was close to Daguerre's achievements was Niepce, who later became Daguerre's collaborator. Around 1820 Niepce discovered that Judean pitch was sensitive to light. By combining this light-sensitive substance with an image projector, Niepce succeeded in producing some of the world's first photographs (one of his photos from 1826 still exists). For this reason, some consider Niepce to be the inventor of photography. But Niepce photography was simply not practical, as it required approximately eight hours of exposure time and produced rather blurry images for the time.

Using the Daguerreotype, images are recorded on flat plates coated with silver iodide. The exposure time takes fifteen minutes. Although this method is troublesome, it has practical value. Less than two years after Daguerre announced his method to the world, someone suggested a slight modification: adding silver bromide to the silver iodide used as a photosensitive material. This small correction had an important effect, greatly reducing the required exposure time, making photography widely practical.

In 1839, shortly after Daguerre announced his invention of photography, a British scientist, William Fox Talbot, announced that he had invented a different form of photography, one that involved first making The method of photographing negatives was basically the same as that used today. It is surprising that Talbot actually produced his first photographs in 1835, two years before daguerreotypes first appeared. Talbot was busy with several other projects and did not immediately complete his photographic experiment. Had he continued making, he might have invented a photographic instrument that would have entered the market and would be considered today as the inventor of photography.

In the years after Daguerre and Talbot, there were many improvements in photography: wet plate method, dry plate method, modern film, color photography, film, Pyrrhoid photography technology and xerography. Although there are many people who contributed to the invention of photography, I think Louis Daguerre's contribution was far more significant than others. There were no practical photographic instruments before Daguerre, but the technology invented by Daguerre was practical and soon became widely used. The official announcement of his invention was a huge impetus to subsequent development.

In fact, the photography we use is very different from Daguerreography, but even one of these later technologies has not been invented, and Daguerreography will provide us with a convenient photography technology.

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