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12 THE ADVANCE OF PHOTOGRAPHY
To test the accuracy of this supposition, he again took a plate that had been exposed to light for a short time in the camera obscura, and on which no image was yet visible. He exposed this plate to the vapour of mercury, and, to his intense delight, an image appeared, and the world was enriched by a most valuable discovery.
Compared with the beautiful pictures which it is possible to produce now by means of the prepared sensitized papers, daguerreotypes were but very poor productions. The appearance of these pictures was injured by the ugly mirror-like surface, which prevented a clear view of them. No such objections were felt in the year 1839, when Daguerre's discover}7 was first spread abroad by report. Pictures were said to be produced without a draughtsman by the operation of the sun's raj-s alone. That was of itself wonderful ; but it was still more wonderful that, by the mysterious operation of light, every substance impressed its own image on the plate. How many extravagant hopes, how many evil prognostications, were associated with the report of this mysterious invention ?
It was prophesied that painting would come to an end, and that artists would die of starvation.
Then came sceptics who declared the whole thing impossible. These persons were reduced to silence by the testimony of Humboldt, Biot, and Arago, the three celebrated scientific men to whom Daguerre disclosed his secret in 1838. The excitement grew. Through the influence of Arago an application was made to secure to Daguerre a yearly pension of 6000 francs, provided he made public his discovery. The French Chamber of Deputies agreed ; and, after a long and tiresome delay, the discovery was at length disclosed to the expectant world.
It was at a memorable public stance of the French Academy of Sciences in the Palais Mazarin, on the 19th of August 1839, that Daguerre, in the presence of all the great authorities in art, science, and diplomacy,