Some Science Behind the Daguerreotype: Nanometer and Sub-micrometer Realities On and Beneath the Surface

The daguerreotype, the first viable imaging process invented and developed by Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre in Paris in 1839 gave birth to photography and started the imaging revolution. This chapter will briefly introduce the daguerreotype, its enthusiastic worldwide acceptance as the first commercially viable form of photography, its short yet productive two decades of existence, and its legacy. The following sections will describe the historical daguerreotype process as practiced today by artists, professional photographers and aficionados. The process has been examined in detail at each of its many steps with scanning and transmission electron microscopies, optical microscopies and vibrational spectroscopies to reveal nanometer and sub-micrometer features at the surface and sub/meso-surface that are involved in and part of the image making process. Knowing more of this wondrous photochemical/physical process increases our appreciation for the object itself and the complexities related to their preservation.