Fixing Fleeting Reflections: open science, 19th centry style
Did you know that photography was an early open science project? On 19 August 1839, the French government made the secret of making daguerrotypes “free to the world” as a gift. Daguerrotypes are specially-treated metal plates that can store an image it’s exposed to. Treating the plates with developing chemicals reveals the picture. Their name comes from their inventor, Monsieur Louis Daguerre. In the early daguerrotype days, you’d need to say cheese for around 10 minutes to give enough time for the image to burn onto the plates so it could be developed, perhaps why Louis looks a little bemused in … More