Tech Directions - August 2007 - (Page 13) but he feared that others might steal it and, as a result, left little in the form of written material describing it. He and Claude regularly corresponded about their projects. After reading the letters, they destroyed many of them. Niepce’s earliest prints, if there were any, have been lost to history. His chemical work took a turn in July 1822 when he began experimenting with bitumen of Judea, a photosensitive asphalt varnish used in lithography. In 1826, Niepce used it to make the world’s earliest surviving photograph. Niepce coated an 8" × 6-1/2" pewter plate with the asphalt varnish. He positioned the plate in a simple box camera with a lens at one end, aimed it out his window and made an exposure of about eight hours. The coating hardened when exposed to light, making specific areas of the asphalt soluble. Niepce gently washed away the exposed material with an oil of lavender wash, leaving a crude positive image on the pewter plate. After rinsing and drying, he made the image permanent by etching the metal plate with weak nitric acid. The photograph shows an indistinct image of the courtyard of his home. The left side shows the family’s pigeon house and the top of a pear tree. The middle shows the slanting roof of a barn and the far right a wing of a house. It is Niepce’s sole surviving photograph from nature. In 1827, Niepce took examples of his work to the Royal Society in London and to a representative of King George IV. But nothing came of his effort, partly because he would not provide specific technical details. Disappointed by the experience, he eagerly accepted an offer from Louis Daguerre (1787–1851) to enter into a partnership. Niepce Dennis Karwatka is professor emeritus, Department of Industrial and Engineering Technology, Morehead (KY) State University. The first photograph ever made of nature considered the younger Daguerre energetic and optimistic enough to improve his process, and the two signed an agreement in 1829. But Daguerre had no photographic experience and had misrepresented his abilities. Although he worked diligently on the project, Daguerre did not make any notable progress until after Niepce died in 1833. References Day, Lance, & McNeil, Ian (Eds.). (1996). Biographical dictionary of the history of technology. Routledge Press. Gernsheim, Helmut. (1969). The history of photography. Thames and Hudson Publishers. Ostroff, Eugene. (1977). Photography. Smithsonian Institution Press. www.techdirections.com TECHNOLOGY’S PAST 13 http://www.industrialpress.com/en/help/tabid/89/tabid/97/default.aspx http://www.industrialpress.com http://www.industrialpress.com http://www.industrialpress.com http://www.techdirections.com
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