rewards offered, was he ever
discovered.

Photography may be said to have been practically born early in this year,
for, on 7 Jan., the French Academy reported on the invention of M.
Daguerre, by which the pictures of the camera lucida were rendered
permanent. All former attempts may be regarded as scientific
dilletanteism and nothing more. The earliest known pictures caused by
light on a sensitive surface were made by Thomas Wedgwood (a son of
Josiah, the famous potter), whose researches were published in 1802 in
the _Journal of the Royal Institution_, under the title: "An account of a
Method of copying Paintings upon Glass, and making Profiles by the agency
of Light upon Nitrate of Silver: with Observations by H. Davy."
Afterwards, came Nicephore Niepce, of Chalon sur Saone, who produced
permanent light pictures in 1814, and he and Daguerre went into
partnership in this matter, in 1829. Fox Talbot was the first to invent
a negative photograph, and he read a paper on "Photogenic Drawings"
before the Royal Society, on 31 Jan., this year; and that scientific
investigation of the new wonder excited the attention, even of amateurs,
is shown by a letter in the _Times_ of 21 Feb.:

"SIR,--Seeing in a newspaper, last week, that a German had found out M.
Daguerre's secret, I was so impressed with that testimony to the
possibility of _seizing a shadow_, that I thought over all the little I
knew of light, colours and chymistry. The next day, I took a piece of
writing paper, hastily prepared by myself, placed it behind the lens of a
_camera obscura_, made on the spur of the moment, and obtained a
satisfactory result; for the trees, in front of my house, were produced,
but not the parts agitated by the wind. Since that, I have obtained,
progressively improving, several landscapes, which may be called, most
appositely, 'lucigraphs.' I mention my humble effort as corroborative of
the reality, or feasibility of M. Daguerre's beautiful discovery; and I
can readily conceive that, in a very short time, the traveller's
portmanteau will not be complete without the very portable means of
procuring a lucigraph at pleasure.--Yours, etc., CLERICUS, Welney,
Wisbeach." This gentleman's prophecy has, long since, been verified, as
the "Kodakers" all over the world can testify. But the first public
experiment in England (if we exclude Wedgwood's) was made, on Sept. 13,
1839, when M. St. Croix exhibited the whole process of Daguerreotype,