The "Let's Celebrate" Story

It was an ordinary day. Opened up my browser on my computer and instantly Google appears. But wait! It is different today. I know it always is different, but today it is unique. People posing in old time clothes with the word Google making up part of most of their faces. Then I held my pointer on the photo and it told me that today is Louis Daguerre's 224th birthday. May not mean much to you, but it does to me. I taught photography in high school for years and without Louis being born, I may have never taught photography. Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (November 18, 1787 – July 10, 1851) was a French artist and physicist, recognized for his invention of the daguerreotype process of photography. Daguerre, along with Joseph Niepce, was the inventor of the Daguerrotype. Niepce died in 1833, but Daguerre continued with the experimentations that the two of them had started. On January 7, 1839, the French Government announced that the patent that Daguerre had obtained for this invention was a "Gift to the Free World." For his efforts the French Government then gave him a pension for allowing them to share those efforts. Daguerre's name is one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower. Daguerre procedure first exposed silver-coated copper plates to iodine, obtaining silver iodide. Then he exposed them to light for several minutes, coated the plate with mercury vapor heated to 75° Celsius (to amalgamate the mercury with the silver) and finally fixing the image in salt water. These ideas led to the famous Daguerreotype. Over the years I have obtained a few Daguerreotypes. Found most of them at antique dealers, but my favorite one I found in Maryland at a Christmas Shoppe. Stopped on the way back from the Chesapeake along MD Rt. 213 to check the place out, and there in the display case by the cash register were three Daguerrotypes. Stupid me only bought one of them. When I got home I was examining it and found that it opened easily. When I pulled the Daguerrotype from the case, I found a love letter and a lock of hair (I wrote a story about that titled "Molly and Mark" dated 12/08/09). Really neat! I have a small collection of Daguerreotypes. One features a family of three, one features a young woman, one is of a Civil War soldier and of course the photo of Molly. I am glad to celebrate Louis' birthday today and thank him for all the opportunities he gave to me over the years. Think I'll have to go get a donut and some ice cream. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - photo shows the variety of Daguerrotypes I have in my collection.