A Brief History
On January 9, 1839, the first practical photographic process (Daguerreotype) was revealed by the French Academy of Sciences.
Digging Deeper
Digging deeper, we find many people had been working on the development of practical photography, but Daguerre, a French chemist, was the first to produce a process that was portable, not the size of an entire room, and that resulted in images of reasonable quality.
One of the great discoveries by Daguerre was the ability to use paper coated with concoctions containing silver and other chemicals instead of the image being produced on a metal plate. That sure makes carrying photos of your dog in your wallet easier!
Milestone inventions are usually thought of as being a goldmine for the inventor, but that is not always the case. In this case, Daguerre and the French government both wanted the world to have access to his invention for free! Daguerre made a deal with the government for an annual pension and all the other inventors had legal access to the Daguerre process to improve on it as they could.
Obviously, those improvements were made, and cameras and film have progressed to the point where we now have digital cameras that do not even need to use film. Most cell phones have a camera built in, and many of those can take moving video. Photography has come a long way from having to expose the metal plate covered in various chemicals for several minutes and cameras bigger than a breadbox to tiny cameras that can be pinned on one’s shirt or disguised as a ballpoint pen.
Merci beaucoup, Monsieur Daguerre, merci beaucoup!
Question for students (and subscribers): Is there any particular historic event that happened before the invention of photography and that you wish we had a photograph of? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see:
Gernsheim, Helmut. L. J. M. Daguerre: The History of the Diorama and the Daguerreotype. Dover Publications, 1968.
Pinson, Stephen C. Speculating Daguerre: Art and Enterprise in the Work of L. J. M. Daguerre. University Of Chicago Press, 2012.
Wade, John. From Daguerre to Digital: 150 Years of Classic Cameras. Schiffer, 2012.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="995 http://www.crackedhistory.com/?p=995">28 Comments
It is really interesting when you think about how things have progressed. Not only cameras but everything from cars to farm equipment, to computers. They all started out as something completely different and now have been improved to the point that you couldn’t even recognize the old stuff.
I commend Daguerre for giving the world access to his invention for free so that more progress could be made! Daguerre is a lot different than Colt was with his guns, who held on tight to his patents and did not let anyone try to improve the work he has done. Colt’s sole purpose was to bring in money from his guns, so reading about Daguerre was a nice change.
Photography is one of my passions and reading about it always puts a smile on my face. It is so fascinating how cameras have evolved from complicated machines which were the size of a room to the tiny go pro cameras or cell phone cameras. What I found really interesting in the article was the fact that Daguerre allowed everyone to have access on his inventions for free and improve it in any way they could. This just shows how selfless he was and that his only goal was to create something great for everyone.
I feel like this invention was also important because it created a new way for history to be recorded. In my opinion, the photograph was one of the most important inventions in human history because of its ability to hold images of the past generations for the present. I also really appreciated hearing that Daguerre was willing to share his invention with the world at barely any cost!
We can thank Daguerre for many things we take for granted in our daily lives. I always look through my pictures and am reminded of memories of my past. I am sure that many of those memories would have been forgotten if this invention was never made. It is shocking that the French government wanted the world to have access to this invention for free.
I can’t imagine the process of trying to develop a camera before any such thing existed. I’m not big on science so I really have no idea how daquerre’s camera worked but it sounds complicated to me! I wonder how he would react to the cameras we have today.
Daguerre is a brilliant man and it was a shame that the French government made him give his idea to everyone so they could make it better. It is better for us today but he made no money that could have made him a billionaire if he had that idea in todays society if it had not been invented yet. I thank him because I love take pictures and this would have never been possible without Daguerre.
That was unselfish of Daguerre to allow the world free access to his findings. Him allowing whoever wanted to improve and build on his work opened the door to modern technology involving photography that we use almost everyday! He probably could have made a great fortune had he kept his findings to himself and obtained a patent, but maybe the progression of photography would not have happened so quickly had he done so.
It’s amazing that Daguerre wanted everybody to be able to take advantage of his photographic process. I wonder if he was thinking about the future when he decided this, did he think of how later generations would want to see people of the past? I always wonder how the concept of photography seemed to people of that day. I’m sure many thought it was pointless or something of the devil. Although they did have painted portraits so they understood the concept of pictures.
Finally, we hear of an inventor who wanted to share his invention with the world instead of focusing on the profit of his invention. The unselfishness of Daguerre is admirable because he allowed other inventors to try and improve on his invention as they could.
Considering how many people have cameras, it is amazing that Daguerre shared his invention of portable photographs for free. Although the invention was not as clear and easy to use as the modern day camera is, it was still the first of its kind.
Daguerre seems like a selfless person. He revolutionized photography, making it a portable convenience, and the photographs could be paper coated! His selflessness allowed free access to all people as well as letting others expand on his invention.
I think the reason photography has come as far as it has today is because of Daguerre’s act to give the world access to his invention for free. With everyone having the ability to use the new invention and everyone having the possibility to improve upon Daguerre’s design, this made the process of advancing the technology go much quicker.
Imagine the world without social media, mainly Instagram and Snapchat. Daguerre’s revolution in photography was a stepping stone to what we have in today’s world of photography. Not many people let an invention and/or ideas go for free.
Daguerre was a very selfless person to allow others to improve on his invention for free. Photography may not be what it is today if it was not for the way Daguerre went about it. He probably could have made a great fortune for his findings.
It is amazing to see how far cameras have developed since this time. People in that time period were so excited to have a reasonably portable camera. It should make us all take a step back and realize how good we have it.
Daguerre handled his invention with such grace and consideration. He wanted his invention to benefit everyone, not just him. He also wanted it to continue to grow and extended that opportunity to help to anyone.
Very selfless for Daguerre to give this invention to the public for free. You would think that after making such a great invention you would at least want some of the profits, but not for him. Using your camera is almost an everyday thing, It’s crazy to see how much the cameras have evolved and how different it would be if Daguerre never found a way to produce one.
Daguerre is an incredible man with an incredible technology. Thanks to him allowing his gift to be shared with the world, camera technology has progressed considerably since then. It is something we use daily and life would not be what it is without it.
It is surprising that Daguerre was willing to let anyone do anything to his invention to improve it. One would think that he would want to be the only one to change it or improve it. The deal he made with the government must have been pretty convincing for him to allow this.
Dauguerre gave us the start to such an incredible invention, while also being so willing to let everyone benefit from what he had created, not just himself.
Daguerre and the French government wanted the photography invention to be free! This way everyone had access!
This gave way to so many great inventions for the future. Great to hear it was not kept private too.
Incredible how far this invention has come. Daguerre seems to have been very unselfish for wanting the camera he created to be free and to allow other inventors to access what he had already created so they could improve it. Cool story!
I take for granted most of the devices I have today. I could not tell you how any of these things work either. It’s hard for my mind to grasp it.
Also, it was extremely selfless of Daguerre to share his invention. The man had technological progress as his main priority – not money.
Give this guy a lot of credit for allowing his invention to be used and not be selfish like the majority of people today in this position.
What an honorable guy! We definitely take the camera for granted in our generation. We all remember film cameras growing up and we remember the change to digital. Now, we find cameras in our phones and all kinds of places, all thanks to Daguerre!
It is interesting and satisfying to read about inventors who give their inventions out for free and not try to make a profit.