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He continued to experiment with other compounds and was confident that somehow the answer lied in silver. Niepce referred to this process as “heliography”.Įxcited about further experiments, Niepce began corresponding with his good friend and colleague Louis Daguerre more often. Using the wooden camera obscura box he had, he could create a permanent image on this surface, though it was quite blurred. Mixed with pewter, it was found to be the perfect material for Niepce to employ. Nicephore Niepce experimented with a range of other substances before turning towards a “film” made from “Bitumen of Judea.” This “bitumen,” sometimes also known as “Asphalt of Syria,” is a semi-solid form of oil that appears like tar. However, like these men before him, he never found a way to make these changes permanent. Having read the works of Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Johann Heinrich Schulze, he knew that silver salts would darken when exposed to light and would even change properties.
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Nicephore was particularly fascinated with the concept of light and was a fan of early lithographs using the “Camera Obscura” technique. Niepce had left his post as Administrator of Nice in 1795 in order to return to his family’s estate and begin scientific research with his brother, Claude. Who invented the first camera?įrench inventor Nicephore Niepce may have created the first photograph in 1816, but his experiments with camera obscura, an ancient technique for capturing an image using a small hole in the wall of a dark room or box, had been occurring for years.
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However, later experiments using “Bitumen of Judea” produced permanent photos, some of which remain today. Because of how silver chloride works, these images were not permanent. His simple camera used paper coated with silver chloride, which would produce a negative of the image (dark where it should be light). The first camera was invented in 1816 by French inventor Nicephore Niepce.
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