San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-11-29

sitter while lines are being projected
on his face. The curvature of these
lines of latitude and longitude guides
a carving machine" which proceeds
to do the rest.
A lively discussion as to who was the
real inventor of photography has been
going on between French and English
photographers. 1t is said that Tom
Wedgwood, the son of the great potter,
invented a process for recording OBJ
jects by the action of light on paper
sensitized with silver nitrate, but ar
rived at no method of fixing the inn
pressions received, and that no further
progress was made until Nicephore
Niepce, of Chalons-sur-Seine French
country gentleman of a scientific turn
of mind, who had already attempted
to invent a motor boat, and very nearly
succeeded, commenced experiments
about 1914, with the object of fixing
the objects seen in the camera obscura,
which had long been in use.
About 1925 Niepce actually obtained
pictures in his camera obscura on metal
plates covered with bitumen, and at nearly
the same time Daguerre, in Paris, began
to experiment on the same lines. Niepce's
first success was the reproduction by his
process of an engraving, and as he etched
the impression on his plate he was able
to print a number of impressions.
Daguerre heard of this achievement
and wrote to Niepce to ask him to explain
his process. But the letter was coldly
received, as Niepce was something of an
aristocratic amateur scientist, and Da-
guerre was d Snowman, who was at that
time running a great panorama in popu-
lar quarter of Paris.
Daguerre included in his panorama a
scene of fire in Edinburgh by moon
light, and many of the features of his
exhibition showed scientific ingenuity
But Niepce was not disposed to take Da-
guerre seriously as a scientific expert
menter till the two men met by accident
in a Paris opticians shop, where each was
buving lenses, and this chance meeting
ended in a formal contract TO pursue their
experiments together.
Niepce died before practical results
were reached. and Daguerre alone re-
ccivcd the credit for long time for the
invention of the daguerreOtype, which
was 80 immense and instantaneous a sue
cess in Europe and America.
The perfected daguerreotype consisted
Of copper plate silvered, and covered
by the action of vapor Of iodine, with
thin film of iodide Of silver. By means
of the action of light on this iodide of
silver at the focal point of the camera
obscura, picture Of the object is formed
on the plate. This result was afterward
"developed' by means Of vapOr mercury,
and fixed by treatment in a solution Of
hypOsulphite. In recognition Of the inn
portance Of his discovery, the French
Government awarded to Dagucrre life
pension of 5000 francs.
The daguerrcotype was the original
plate itself, and no prints could be taken
of it, as in the later development of pho
Biography.
The next step was the use Of nitrate Of
silver in combination with the methods of
Daguerre and Niepce. This was first
carried out practically by William Henry
Fox Talbot, an Englishman of ancient
family and scientific tastes, in 1889, a
little later in the same year that Daguerre
made public his Invention.
Talbot succeeded in making camera
pictures of his own house, Lacock Abbey,