Samuel Morse über die Daguerreotypie
Nur wenige Personen durften eine Daguerreotypie vor der offiziellen Vorstellung vom August 1839 betrachten. Auszug aus einem oft zitierten Brief von Professor Samuel F. B. Morse, dem Erfinder des Morseapparates, an den Herausgeber des The New York Observer, geschrieben am 9. März 1939 in Paris:
“You have perhaps heard of the Daguerrotipe, so called from the discoverer, M. Daguerro. It is one of the most beautiful discoveries of the age. I don’t know if you recollect some experiments of mine in New Haven, many years ago, when I had my painting room next to professor Silliman’s, experiments to ascertain if it were possible to fix the image of the Camera Obscura. I was able to produce different degrees of shade on paper, dipped into a solution of nitrate of silver, by means of different degrees of light; but finding that light produced dark, an dark light, I presumed the production of a true image to be impracticable, and gave up the attempt. M. Daguerro has realised in the most exquisite manner this idea.
A few days ago I addressed a note to M. D. requesting, as a stranger, to favor to see his results, and inviting him in turn to see my telegraph. I was politely invited to see them under these circumstances, for he had determined not to show them again, until the chambers had passed definitely on a proposition for the government to purchase the secret of the discovery, and make it public. The day before yesterday, the 7th, I called on M. Daguerro, at his rooms in the diorama, to see these admirable results.
They are produced on a mutalic surface, the principal pieces about 7 inches by 5, and they resemble aquatint engravings, for they are in simple chiaro oscuro and not in colors. But the exquisite minuteness of the delineation cannot be conceived. No painting or engraving ever approached it. For example: In a view up the street, a distant sign would be perceived and the eye could just discern that there were lines of letters upon it, but so minute as not to be read with the naked eye. By the assistance of a powerful lense, which magnified fifty times, applied to the delineation, every letter was clearly and distinctly legible, and so also were the minutest breaks and lines in the walls of the buildings, and the pavements of the streets. The effect of the lens upon the picture was in a great degree like that of the telescope in nature.
Objects moving ar not impressed. The Boulevard, so constantly filled with a moving throng of pedestrians and carriages, was perfectly sokitary, except an individual who was having his boots brushed. His feet were compelled, of course, to be stationary for some time, one being in the box of the boot-black, and the other on the ground, consequently bis boots and legs are well definded, but he is without body or head, because these were in motion.
The impressions of interior views are Brembradant perfected. One of Mr. D.’s plates is an impressio of a spider. The spider was not bigger than the head of a large pin, but the image, magnified by the solar microscope to the size of the palm of the hand, having been impressed on the plate, and examined through a lens, was further magnified, and showed a minuteness of organization hitherto not seen to exist. You perceive hot this discovery is, therefore, about to open a new field of research in the depths of microscopic nature. We are soon to see if the minute has discoverable limits. The naturalist is to have a new kingdom to explore, as much beyond the microscope as the microscope is beyond the nakes eye.”
Quelle: Nile’s National Register, Washington City, April 27, 1839
Weitere historische Textzeugnisse über die Erfindung Louis Daguerres finden sich im Textbereich der Daguerreian Society (engl.).
Im Folgenden ein weiterer Text über den Beginn der österreichischen Fotografiegeschichte:
“Am 4. März 1840 trat die »Gesellschaft der Ärzte« in Wien zusammen, die älteste wissenschaftliche Vereinigung der Monarchie. Vier ihrer Mitglieder waren an dem Experiment vor großem Publikom beteiligt. Der Arzt Joseph Berres brachte das nach modernsten Erkenntnissen vorbereitete Pflanzenpräparat mit, der Optiker Simon Plößl stellte das – neu adaptierte – Mikroskop zur Verfügung, der Berliner Physiker Carl Schuh sorgte mit seinem verbesserten Glaslicht für eine bis dahin ungekannte gebündelte Helligkeit, und der ebenfalls anwesende Universitätsprofessor für Chemie Andreas von Ettinghausen hatte Daguerreotypieplatten und das notwendige Wissen dazu in Paris erworben. Gemeinsam schufen sie die erste Mikroaufnahme – und sorgten damit weit über die anwesenden Kollegen hinaus für eine Sensation, über die auch die Tagespresse ausführlich berichtete.”
Quelle: Gröning/Faber, Inkunabeln einer neuen Zeit, Pioniere der Daguerreotpyie in Österreich 1839 – 1850, Verlag Brandstätter, Aus dem Vorwort von Klaus Albrecht Schröder, S. 6f
Die Wiener Albertina präsentiert vom 11. Februar 2009 bis zum 24. Mai 2009 eine Ausstellung über den Einsatz der Fotografie in der Wissenschaft der Jahre 1840 bis 1900. Besonderes Interesse gilt der Darstellung von Phänomenen, die sich dem bloßen Auge entziehen. Die Wissenschaftler benutzen beim Fotografieren Mikroskope, Teleskope und Röntgenapparate. Sie fingen damit Bilder aus den bisher verborgenen Bereichen der Bewegung, des unendlich Kleinen und des unvorstellbar Großen ein.
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