"One summer day in 1826, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce placed a metal plate
inside a black box in a sunny window at Le Gras, his country estate in
the south of France. After 8 hours, Niépce found that with his
primitive camera, he?d achieved a goal that he?d been striving after for
years: He?d produced a permanent image recorded onto a photosensitive
medium. It was the first successful example of ?fixing permanently the
image from Nature,? Niépce told members of the Royal Society when he
traveled to England in 1827. However, when Niépce presented his
invention, he wouldn?t fully divulge his process, and the society failed
to confirm his discovery.
Today, it?s known that Niépce coated his plate with an asphalt called
bitumen of Judea, which hardened under long exposure to the sun?s rays.
He then washed the unhardened material from the plate with a mixture of
oil of lavender and white petroleum, leaving the faint image of his
courtyard in relief....."
The photo: http://sciencenews.org/20021123/a2691_1943.jpg
Quoted from article in Nov. 23 Science News:
http://sciencenews.org/20021123/bob10.asp
The photo will be on display in Austin, TX at the U of Texas Ransom
Center beginning in March.
Interesting article, check it out.
Mike
--
Latitude 48° 32' North, Longitude 123° 7' West
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