1 87 1.] The Dawn of Light Printing. 299 



fact that he was confident no such image existed upon the 

 metallic surface at the time of its being experimented with, 

 and that, therefore, to whatever cause the phenomenon 

 was due, it must have occurred subsequent to the plate's 

 entry into the closet. The mystery was hard to unravel, 

 and Daguerre for some time was at a loss for a solution 

 thereof. A second plate, prepared in the same manner and 

 exposed to light in a camera, was put into the mysterious 

 closet, and after a short sojourn therein the same startling 

 result appeared. At last, hidden away in a corner of the 

 cupboard, where it had long remained unheeded and 

 forgotten, was found a bowl of mercury, the vapour of which 

 condensed in a more or less concentrated form upon the 

 isolated plate, and thus developed the latent image. 



This was, perhaps, the first discovery of a photographic 

 latent image ;* but in no sense can it be considered the 

 foundation of photography, and for two reasons; in the first 

 place, as we shall presently see, Daguerre was anticipated 

 by at least twenty years by Niepce in securing a photograph 

 from nature in the camera ; and, secondly, it is not 

 Daguerreotype, but Talbotype, which is, as we have said, 

 the basis of photography now-a-days. Daguerreotype was 

 already a complete art when first made known by its dis- 

 coverer, and could not, therefore, be improved upon to any 

 marked extent, while Talbot's process, less elaborated 

 possibly, was the stepping-stone to further progress. But 

 it is not for the discussion of the relative merits of these 

 two inventions that we have here taken up the pen, but 

 rather to assert the claims of Nicephore Niepce, to whom we 

 shall now turn without further ado. 



M. Victor Fouque, a man well known in France, both in 

 literature and science, has recently collected together and 

 published the letters and papers of Niepce, and with these 

 before us, a very clear estimate of that philosopher's doings 

 may be formed. The letters are of an exceedingly interesting 

 nature, and written for the most part to a brother between 

 whom and the writer there existed a kind of partnership. 

 Nicephore, it seems, had been brought up to the profession 

 of a soldier ; but after serving in the South of France and 

 Sardinia for some years as sub-lieutenant, his health and 

 failing eyesight obliged him to relinquish military life. His 

 elder brother retiring about the same time from the French 



* In all probability the honour of discovering the latent image belongs to 

 the late Rev. J. B. Reade, F.R.S., who as early as 1837 developed by means of 

 gallic acid some images of insects secured by means of the solar camera upon 

 salted and silvered paper. 



