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The first method of permanently capturing images in a photographic manner was perfected in 1839. The French painter Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre made photographs on silver plates coated with a lightsensitive layer of silver iodide. The method involved a long exposure time and copies could not be made of the image since there was no negative. Although superior photographic methods soon became available, the Daguereotype quickly made its way to Beaver County.
On November 10, 1841 the Beaver Argus reported the first use of Daguereotype photography in this area. DAGUERREOTYPE MINIATURES
"One of the most remarkable inventions or discoveries of the age is that of the Daguerreotype, whereby likenesses of the human form and face are produced, as it were by magic, with a correctness unequalled by the painter's or the engraver's skill, being in fact the most perfect representation of nature, exhibiting the features and the expression of the countenance to the very life. Two of our young friends at New Brighton, Messrs. Charles Hoops and Charles H. Gould, have possessed themselves of this extraordinary discovery, one of them having taken lessons with Professor Plumbe. of Boston, and specimens of their handiwork have been exhibited to us, which show great perfection in the art, and skill in the operators. They have been quite successful in stamping in their polished plates the faces and forms of many friends, which in after times will exhibit them as they were, and be cherished as valued memorials. For a sitting of thirty or fifty seconds, and a comparatively small sum, a perfect likeness is secured, exhibiting the coloring and shadings of nature, almost revealing the working of the mind within. We trust our young friends will have many calls, and receive the encouragement due to such a display of art and science, in which encouragement however, the public will be fully compensated. by pleasing reflections. Call at their rooms, at the New Brighton Hotel. Specimens of their work may be seen at this office, for a day or two."
At least one Beaver County resident over-reacted a bit to the realistic nature of the new photography. On December 1, 1841 the Argus reported the following incident:
"SOMETHING REMARKABLE -- We were informed a few days since, by a gentleman of Brighton, that when trying some experiments, among others, he applied the galvanic battery to one of Messrs. Hoops and Gould's Daguerreotype miniatures, when to the surprise and astonishment of all present, the exclamation "ugh" was distinctly heard to issue from the mouth."
Mssrs. Hoops and Gould cannot in any way account for the phenomenon --it being the first instance of the kind that has come to their knowledge.