Light Writing: Technology Transfer and Photography to 1845

Abstract

This article reviews the history of photography to 1845 in France, England, and the United States, emphasizing roles of collaboration, legal protection, and training in the development and transfer of the technologies of the heliograph, physautotype, daguerreotype, and calotype. It argues that early innovative work in photography was motivated by plural desires: to photo-illustrate printed publications, to capture scenes from nature, to render human portraiture, and to investigate scientific theories of radiation.Amid narratives of the invention of photography, historians recognize at once the 1839 claims to invention of Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre in France, and the rival claims of William Henry Fox Talbot in England. But other of the earliest work toward successful photography remains less well recognized and understood. In photography, many of the earliest technological innovations were fostered by collaboration, by legal protection, and by training. Amid abundant national and even nationalistic histories of photography, the international development and dissemination of early photo technology remains somewhat obscure. Although the images of Daguerre appeared magical or miraculous to most in 1839, they in fact represented the culmination of more than 20 years of incremental work toward a satisfactory process of photography. Permanent silver-based photo images evolved from a search for a photolithographic process. With improvements that shortened exposure times from days to minutes, photo technology evolved by 1839 to the point where it could render recognizable miniature images directly from nature without conflating the movements of shadows cast by the sun. In the months immediately before and following the publication of Daguerre's (1839/1971) how-to manual Historique et Description des Procédés du Daguerréo Type et du Diorama in August 1839, technical innovation and legal restrictions became prominent, working both as incentives and barriers to international transfer of the technology. As exposure times were shortened further, successful human portraiture and a host TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION QUARTERLY, 15(3),

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