7 Louis Daguerre 7

affirming Daguerre as the inventor of a new process, “the

daguerreotype.”

On Jan. 9, 1839, a full description of Daguerre’s process

was announced at a meeting of the Academy of Sciences

by the eminent astronomer and physicist François Arago.

On August 19 full working details were published. Daguerre

wrote a booklet describing the process, An Historical and

Descriptive Account of the Various Processes of the Daguerreotype

and the Diorama, which at once became a best seller; 29

editions and translations appeared before the end of 1839.

Also in 1839 Daguerre and the heir of Niépce were assigned

annuities of 6,000 francs and 4,000 francs, respectively,

in return for their photographic process. Daguerre was

appointed an officer of the Legion of Honour.

Samuel F.B. Morse

(b. April 27, 1791, Charlestown, Mass., U.S.—d. April 2, 1872, New

York, N.Y.)

S

amuel Finley Breese Morse was an American painter

and inventor who, independent of similar efforts in

Europe, developed an electric telegraph (1832–35). In 1838

he developed the Morse code.

Morse was the son of Jedidiah Morse, the distinguished

geographer and Congregational clergyman. From Phillips

Academy in Andover, where he had been an unsteady

and eccentric student, his parents sent him to Yale

College. Although an indifferent scholar, his interest was

aroused by lectures on the then little-understood subject

of electricity. To the distress of his austere parents, he also

enjoyed painting miniature portraits.

After graduating from Yale in 1810, Morse became a

clerk for a Boston book publisher. But painting continued

to be his main interest, and in 1811 his parents helped him