The practice of making daguerreotypes in the past makes me surprised that any photographers of the time had any offsprings at all. Developing something with mercury fumes sounds real bad to me.  I do not recommend playing around with this process unless you have a death wish.

Note: the cases made for these images are themselves pieces of art.

The Daguerreotype imaging process is one of the original photographic imaging processes. Developed in 1839 by Daguerre, it was started by plating a copper sheet with silver iodide or silver bromide. It was the carefully washed in Nitric acid, and then in the dark, sensitized with a vapor of iodine.  The silver plated then turned yellow, which indicated it was ready for exposure. The plate was then placed in the camera & then exposed.  Thank goodness for neck supports!  It was then developed in the dark by heating mercury to 160-170 degrees F.  The mercury adhered to areas of more exposure, and adhered less to darker areas. The image is then fixed by dipping in a solution of hydrosulfate of soda, lastly washed thoroughly.

Visit the Daguerreian Society Page dedicated to nothing but Daguerreotypes.

The finished image is very spectacular.  It has a mirror like surface, and when held at different angles, it is a positive, negative or nothing at all. They were displayed in their own beautiful & interesting protective cases.

It sure was a very dangerous process to practice, but the resulting images are becoming very rare & valuable.

This image is the same as the one above, only it was photographed at an angle. This mirror like surface is how the Daguerreotype  is identified.