PHOTOGRAPHY, SCIENTIFIC ASPECTS 



nize the possibilities of the new art. Quite as much inter- 

 est and enthusiasm were shown by the generality of 

 people all over the world, although as yet the process 

 was so complicated as to be quite beyond the grasp of the 

 ordinary operator. But anybody could understand that 

 there was something closely akin to the miraculous in 

 any device, no matter how complicated, whereby a 

 more perfect picture could be made in a few minutes 

 than could have been made hitherto by any known 

 process in days or weeks. 



And yet, as said a moment ago, the process was only 

 a slight modification of the one first discovered by Niepce 

 slight, but of most vital importance. It was simply 

 the discovery that if a silver surface, or a silver-plated 

 one, was acted upon by the fumes of iodine, it became 

 so sensitized that it was acted upon more quickly by 

 light than any substance heretofore discovered. Instead 

 of requiring hours of sunlight exposure to reproduce 

 the camera image, only about three minutes were re- 

 quired by the new process; and even interiors could 

 be taken in half an hour. 



As compared with the older method of Niepce this 

 process seemed rapid indeed ; but it was still very com- 

 plicated and defective in many ways, and it was while 

 endeavoring to simplify and shorten it still more that 

 Daguerre accidentally stumbled upon the discovery 

 that made commercial photography possible. Being in- 

 terrupted in his work one evening, he was obliged to 

 leave some exposed but as yet undeveloped plates until 

 the following day before completing them. For safe- 

 keeping he locked these in a cupboard containing chem- 



VOL. vm. 15 [ 22 5] 



