Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-08-22

illustrat ton of the Wedgewood process
and Mr.. Smillie pointed to large en-
craving showing man sitting pa
tcntly in strong beam of light which
Streamed through an aperture into
which it was reflected by mirrors, the
image being projected upon a sheet OF
sensitized paper.
.sThis," said Mr. Smillie, was the
beginning of Photographic portraiture.
Thomas Wedgwood said he obtained
very much better results on white
leather than on paper, and did not
know why. 1t was, of course, the
tannn acting as the developer. 1t is
queer that this did not lead them to
the use of developers in those days.
The most valuable photograph in
the whole collection. and in money
value equal to the whole, is this quaint
eight-by-ten print in the second case.
This is specimen of the first perma-
nent photograph made. 1t is an I'M
preston upon paper from plate Its
inventor was ]. n. Niepce, q French
man. He covered a silver plate with
asphalt dissolved in oil of lavender
This was exposed to the light in the
camera and developed in oil of Law
ender and petroleum. The action of
the light makes asphalt insoluble. so
that the shadows on the plate were
thus etched out. He then cleaned the
remaining asphalt off the plate and
a copy of a painting of Cardinal d Am
boise. and the original plate is pre-
served in the museum at Chalons-sur-
Saone. In 1854 four impressions were
taken and this is one of the four, be-
ing the gift of the director of the
museum at Chalons-sur-Saone to this
museum
Now here is the familiar face of J.
L. NJ. Daguerre, who introduced the
process which gave us the daguerreo-
type. These portraits of the distin-
guished Frenchman were made in his
own studio in Paris by Meade, an
American He made five daguerreo-
types of the inventor of the process.
Three were destroyed in a fire many
years ago, and we have here the ref
naming two. We came into possess
sion of this superior of the two plates
of st. Louis. 1t was brought here for
sale, the price being $500. We had not
the funds to expend upon it. and Mr..
Cramer purchased it and handed it
you do not know. perhaps. that Da-
guerre claimed to have discovered his
process by an accident. He was ex-
posing some plates one afternoon and
had to discontinue his work upon them.
He took them out of the camera and
set them in a closet. Next day when
he opened the closet door he found
pictures on the plates. Looking round
found an open vessel of mercury, and
it was the vapor of the mercury which
developed the latent image. The da-
suerreotype plates are of copper plated
with silver and treated with the vapors
of iodine and bromne. They are then
developed with the vapors of mercury.
"Of course one plate is required for
each copy of a picture, so that the
otype is a beautiful piece of york
In this third case we have the finest
set OF daguerreotypes in the United
States. ] picked them up many years
ago by one of those fortunate chances
that come to us once in a while. l was
walking through the streets of Wash
ington one day and came across this
dozen beautiful dasuerreotypes in the
showcase of local photographer.
81 found that they were purcha sa BILE
and Immediately bought them. 1 also
learned that they were the work of an
Alexandria photographer. but l have
never been able to identify the man.
He was assuredly the leading daguerre
life-size enlargement of the young
woman. Nothing could be finer or ,
clearer, and there was no: a single
line of retouching.
samuel F. B. Morse of telegraph
fame went to Daguerre shortly after
he invented the process. They ex-
changed condolences to some extent and
Daguerre promised that as soon as his
pension bill passed he would send
copy of the process to Mr.. Morse. In
the meantime he gave him instructions
as to the manufacture of the camera,
and told him where to buy lenses: We
have right here the original Morse
da guerreotype camera, the first of it's
kind in the United States"
Mr.. Smillie pointed to a big square
picture box f1anked on either side by
specimens of sensitizing box, mer-
curry developing box. cases of silver
plated copper plates, and the great buff