Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre

1989/11/01 Azkune Mendia, Iñaki - Elhuyar Fundazioa Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Biografiak

This French artist, known as Cormeilles (near Le Havre), was born two hundred years ago, on November 18, 1789.

Painter by profession and in charge of performing theatrical stage decorations. It obtained optical effects called dioramas, placing real objects in the decorations. Then he replaced the real objects with others and thus the different effects were obtained.

In the field of optical effects, the "dark chamber" was an interesting discovery. The rays of the sun penetrated into the interior of the chamber through a small hole and on an interior screen the exterior image was clearly marked. In 1822, Mr. Joseph Nicephore Niepce obtained a permanent image inside the chamber, but it only took eight hours in the exhibition. Daguerre met with Niepce and tried to improve the system.

He started using copper plates with silver salts. This system allowed an exhibition of between 20 and 30 minutes. The area affected by the light darkened as the gloom persisted. Unaltered salts are dissolved in Sodium Trioxide (VI), obtaining a perennial image, that is, a daguerrotype.

The daguerreotype was not a very fast system, but the idea of a picture painted with exact sunlight without defects immediately gained strength.

Around 1840 this method was used for the photography of the stars of the sky (for example, Secchi) and from then on the daguerreotype had many applications in astronomy.

People believe that Daguerre is the inventor of photography, but the problem is not so clear because little by little there were many people who participated in this invention. W. The English talbot, for example, was one of the most important.

Over time they improved the Daguerre system, but for half a century they were only a few photographers with chemical ability. George Eastman patented the film in 1884 but photography has spread to millions of people.

However, he took the first steps of photography and died in the Bry-sur-Marne, next to Paris, on July 10, 1851, the famous Daguerre with Basque denomination.