Electrifying Daguerreotypes: On Correlations Between Electricity and Photography around 1840

Abstract

This article considers the daguerreotype and electricity as the key driving forces in the early histories of photography and photomechanical reproduction. Drawing on three examples – daguerreotype electrotypes, galvanically etched daguerreotypes and the etching process developed by Hippolyte Fizeau – the article aims to demonstrate how closely they were connected and how much interest they raised among scientists and photographers in the early 1840s, particularly in France, Britain and the German-speaking countries. The article shows in what ways the three processes were employed and who developed and used them, which institutions and learned societies were involved in their progress and which theoretical concepts and discussions they gave rise to. Although all three were only short-lived technologies and were largely forgotten by the end of the 1850s, they are more than mere curiosities, as they contribute significantly to our better understanding of the earliest histories of photography and photomechanical reproduction.