transcription of a Video about daguerreotypes

1. Text: Early Photography: Making Daguerreotypes
On Monday afternoon, August 19, 1839, The French Academy of Science, held a
special meeting for public disclose the formula for making Daguerreotypes. The
technique's inventor, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, has sold this formula to the
French Government, that could be made freely available to the public without patent
restrictions. The new medium seized the public imagination. Daguerrotype mania
swept through Paris and across Europe. All who saw daguerreotypes for the first time
were equally impressed. Viewers took them to be completely faithful depictions of
nature. As quickly as railroads and steamships could travel, news of the invention spread
around the world. Nowhere was the daguerreotype more popular than in America, a
young democracy, and a mecca of progress. The Daguerreotype Studio, attracted a
wide range-section of americans. People of all walks of life, could now afford to have
their portraits made and they did.
For all the popularity, producing Daguerreotypes was a labor intensive process,
requiring a lot of equipment and skill:
✦ The Daguerreotype Plate is made of copper faced with silver. To secure it and
make it easier to handle, the plate is placed silver side up, on an adjustable block. In
order to prepare the plate for the exposure, it has to be polished. In this modern
demonstration of the daguerreotype process, the daguerreotypist applies a small
amount of white powder, called rotten stone, to a cloth moistened with dilute alcohol.
The Daguerreotypist applies the alcohol and rotten stone to the surface of the plate
using a consistent motion. The daguerreotypist sprinkles a fine, red powder, that Known
as rouge, on to along a padded stick. The plate is then buffed using the rouge,
polishing the plate in the same direction, improves viewing of the highly reflective
surface. The plate is then buffed in a second time with a clean, padded stick, in order to
increase its reflectivity.
✦ It is now ready to be made light sensitive. In the dark, the daguerreotypist places
the polished plate face down in a sensitizing box, which contains a small amount of
iodine crystals. In about fifteen to forty five seconds fumes from the iodine reacts with
the silver, coating the plate with silver iodide. This process would then be repeated with
fumes from bromine, or quickstuff. From the sensitizing box, the daguerreotypist
removes the plate, now coated with bromoiodide of silver. The plate now is light
sensitive, and ready to use in the camera. The daguerreotypist places the light sensitive
plate in a plate-holder with the coated side down. It is the secured into place. The

2. viewing glasses in now lifted out of the camera and replaced with the loaded plate
holder. The dark sliders is removed to make the plate accessible for the exposure.
✦ To make the exposure, the daguerreotypist removes the lens cap. Early exposure
times were notoriously long. And sometimes uncomfortable. Often taken more than
twenty seconds. To ensure that the sitter did not move during the exposure, an 1840
Boston Newspaper, recommended the following: “His head should be placed on a
semi-circle of iron fitted to the back of the chair, his arms, may be arranged at pleasure.
He should fixed his eyes in a some well-defined object in any direction, which he may
prefer. Now if everything is arrange as it should be, your portrait will often be made in
even in the last than 20 seconds, and in the most satisfactory manner.”
• In the dark, the daguerreotypist develops the plate. A few ounces of liquid
mercury, are very carefully poured into a flaring iron vessel, heated by an alcohol lamp.
The exposed plate is removed from the plate holder, and placed face down to the
mercury chamber, which is heated to approximately 175 degrees Fahrenheit. After the
mercury vapour reacts with the sensitized silver. The daguerreotypist removes the
developed plate. Than fixes the plate, making it safe for viewing in a normal light, by
pouring on it, a solution of hyposulfite of soda. This removes the excess of bromoiodide
soda, not acted upon by light in the camera. After it has been thoroughly washed.
• A gilding stand is used to finished the plate. A weak solution of chloride of gold is
gently heated over the alcohol lamp. This hardens the plate and adds to the beauty and
permanence of the image. After a final cleaning of the plate the daguerreotype is
assembled for safe-keeping and display. The plate is put on a shallow-hinged case, that
includes a decorative mat and preserver both of brass, and a glass cover with taped
edges.
Daguerreotypes Studios presented there wares in a variety of cases, ranging from
simple leather or cloth covered wood, to elaborate examples of inlaid mother of pearl
and molded thermoplastic. Their assembly was an example of industrial age
production, the work was often done by woman and children. As in this factory, one of
the largest of its kind. It is estimated by mid-1850s, in the United States alone,
approximately three million daguerreotypes, were produced annually, representing a
retail industry of seven and a half million dollars.
In 1849 an american author concluded, "In our great cities the daguerreotypist is to
be found in almost every square. It is hard to find the man who has not shadowy faces of
his wife and his children done in morocco and velvet among his household treasures.”
Extracted from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0Ambe4FwQk