The mirror with a memory.

(From Irish Independent)

THE DAGUERREOTYPE was invented in 1838 by Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre and was the first practical photographic process.

Also known as 'The mirror with a memory', the daguerreotype method of photography was by mercury vapour development of silver iodide exposed on a copper plate.

The photographs on metal, mostly quite small, are now very collectable and they appear regularly in Ireland.

After an exhibition by Daguerre in 1839 they became very popular. In 1845 half a million plates were sold in Paris alone. And by 1853 in America over three million daguerreotypes were being exposed annually. More than one thousand New Yorkers worked as photographers and 95 per cent …