Omaha daily bee., 1896-12-13


art Of "daguorrcotypy." The love for tho
old and ancient is bringing about a demand
for the old-fashioned silver-plated photo
! graph, for such a daguerreotype is, which
was the highest type of the photograph sixty
years age. The art now 10 81 nearly obso-
! letc that Il is forgotten by all but very
| few od-timcrs and by a few amateurs who
| have learned the art because of its interest
/ ing character The daguerrcotype, named
after its inventor, the Frenchman paguerre
was introduced in the first quarter Of the
! present century, and It stands today as one
I of the most notable and important inventions
! Of the nineteenth century. In this country
| the art was first praCtced by Morse, the
| inventor Of the telegraph. and American
| photographers improved upon the French
methods and processes 81 rapidly that in a
short time the American daguerreotypes
were superior to the French.
The daguerrCotype, in short was q pho
tograph upon a slvcr-coated copper plate.
Unlike the present photograph, each dagu5r-
reOtyre was unique for the photograph was
taken and developed upon the plate, some
thing like the lowly tintype 1t was this
feature of the deguerrcotypc which gave 1t
peculiar value, and which is brought to the
front today as an argument to prove that
the art should be revived.
The process WAS simple and quickly learned.
| The plates used were of hard rolled copper,
plated or faced with pure silver. They were
smooth and perfectly fiat but were not pol
ished when brought to the artists studio,
for to polish the plate sUmc time before use
was so much lost time. because the silver
film would be oXidi2ed before 1t was sens-
tzed.
PREPARING THE PLATE.
After the plate had been clipped at the
corners and the rim had been bent down
so that the edge was smooth it was well
spN1 1rpl hN-t tlon Th, nla, hn1l
in a securing block with clips and The block
was mounted on standard in such a way
that 1t could be turned in any direction.
The plate was secured with fine rotten
stone moistened with alcohol. The abrasive
material was applied with piece of canton
flannel, and the plate was secured until it
had a perfectly smooth face. Then it was
"buffed" with a straight hand-buff made
Of board about two feet long and four
inches wide, covered with several thicknesses
of flannel and buCkslin and well coated
with rouge"
The buns were kept dry by being placed
in an oven, which was heated with an al
Cohol lamp AS the quality of The picture
depended upon the smoothness of the plate,
the greatest care was taken by the operators
not to scratch the silver face. In case some
foreign material was accidentally mixed with
the rouge and scratches were made, the
hand-buff was brushed with a stin brush,
and then clean and fresh rouge was put on
and the plate was buffed again until the
scratches had disappeared. Operators be
came so expert in securing and buiiing
plates that they seldom injured one in the
slightest degree.
Handouts were not used all the time, for
a rotary buffer was introduced. After the
plate had been prepared it was taken to the
dark room" and ''sensitized." In the dark
room were two boxes, one for iodine and the
other for bromine. In each box was a
glass jar. generally square in shape, and in
the top of the box was a slide which held
the plate while 1t was being acted upon by
the chemicals. In the bottom of the iodine
jar scales of iodine were thrown, and in the
brOmne jar quicSlime charged with brOminc
was placed The lime was prepared for use
in another jar and the bromine was added
drop by drop until the quicklime was a pink
ish-orange color. When used the bottom Of
the brOmine jar was covered with about an
inch of the bromne-charged quicklime.
The silver-coated copper plate, polished to
mirror-like smoothness. was first placed
in the slide. silver face down, of the iodine
box. The vapor of the iodine quickly changed
the white face to deep straw color. When |
sufficiently treated by the iodine, the plate !
was transferred to the bromine box, where
the fumes of the brOmine gave it a dark |
orange color.
Then it again placed in the slide or |:
the iodine box, ana kept there until the |
plate had brown orange color bordering on !
a purple. This series of manipulatiOns |
placed a thin film of "bromo-iodide" of sill |
yer on the plate. and thus made 1t sensitive (
to light. and it then was ready to be placed |
in the camera and exposed.
TIME OF EXPOSURE.
The exposure was much longer than it re-
qured for the modern dry plate, and for |
that reason the person who was being pho
tCGraDhed was held to the chair with clamps
at the head and back, and sometimes the
arms and feet were rigidly held In clamps.
Amateur photographers, who develop their
own negatives and print their own pictures,
will be Interested in knowing that after
exposure the daguerreotype was developed
by the vapor OF mercury.
1t was held, face down, over an iron vessel
shaped like an inverted cone at the bottom
of which a small quantity OF pure mercury
was placed A spirit lamp maintained
of 100 to 1870 degrees, and the
plate received the full benefit of the mer-
curry fumes for it was placed over the far
ing top of the vessel.
When the picture brought OUT IL
was fixed in a solution Of hypO-sulphite of
soda, which removed all OF the bromO- Iodide
of silver that had not been affected by the
light. Then the plate was washed and
toned"
This was done by pouring on 1t a weak
solution of chloride OF gold, and subjecting
ii to the heat of an alcohol lamp until a
thin film of gold had been laid over the
surface of the plate. The finished picture
was preserved under glass, which
was scaled to the plate by some adhesive
and the well-presgrvcd daguerrec-
types that have come down to the present |
speak well for the methods em-
ployed by the artists OF the first half OF
the century. for, apparently, they are as
clear and distinct as they were when first
ppngntpI N the gold frame