DRAPER, (JOHN) WILLIAM. - THE FIRST DAGUERREOTYPE PORTRAIT.

On the Process of Daguerreotype, and its application to taking Portraits from the Life.

London, Richard and John Taylor, 1840. Contemp. hcalf. A nic to spine at upper hinge. Hinges weakening (not loose). Gilt lettering to spine "Philosophical Magazine" - Vol.XVII. In: "The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science. Conducted by David Brewster et al.". Vol. XVII. A stamp to titlepage and a few other pages. Entire volume offered. VIII,552 pp. Draper'spaper: pp. 217-225.

First printing of the famous paper in which Draper relates how he was able to made the first photographic portrait on a daguerreotype plate, giving an ennormously long exposure. The subject of the portrait, Draper's assistant, powdered his face with flour and sat in front of the camera for a half hour facing the sunlight.

Draper stated that it is possible to make portraits in full sunlight, using mirrors as light reflectors. "But in the reflected sunshine, the eye cannot support the effulgence of the rays. It is therefore necessary to pass them through some blue medium, which shall abstract from them their heat and take away their offensive brilliancy. Ihave used for this purpose blue glass, and also ammoniaco-sulphate of copper, contained in a large trough of plate glass, the interstice being about an inch thick." (p. 217 in the paper offerd).

"Draper first achieved wide celebrity for his pioneering work in photography. As early as 1837, while still in Virginia, he had followed the example of Wedgwood and Davy in making temporary copies of objects by the action of light on sensitized surfaces. When the details of Daguerre’s process for fixing camera images were published in various New York newspapers on 20 September 1839, Draper was ready for the greatest remaining challenge, to take a photographic portrait. A New York mechanic, Alexander S. Wolcott, apparently won the race by 7 October. But if Draper knew of this, he persisted in his own experiments and succeeded in taking a portrait not later than December 1839. His communication to the Philosophical Magazine, dated 31 March 1840, was the first report received in Europe of any photographer’s success in portraiture. The superb likeness of his sister Dorothy Catharine, taken not later than July 1840, with an exposure of sixty-five seconds, seems to be the oldest surviving photographic portrait."(DSB).

The volume contains also Michael Faraday's importent letter to Gay-Lussac on induction in the first English version. "On Magneto-electric induction.", pp. 281-89 a. pp.356-366. (Originally published in French in "Annales de Chimie et Physique" in 1832.

Order-nr.: 46912