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June 24 (UPI) – Scientists have managed to recover images of some of the earliest daguerreotypes, the silver plates used for one of the earliest forms of photography.
At the naked eye, the portraits of a man and a woman are unrecognizable. The daguerreotypes, taken as early as 1850, are too degraded by dulling and wear. But the researchers used fast scan X-ray fluorescence to see past deterioration and recover the first images.
"It's a bit haunting because they're anonymous and yet, it's striking at the same time," said Madalena Kozachuk, PhD student in the Department of Chemistry at Western University. Ontario, in a press release.
The images were analyzed at the National Gallery of Canada's Photographic Research Unit, where the daguerreotypes are stored.
"The picture is totally unexpected because you do not see it at all," Kozachuk said. "It's hidden behind time." But then we see it and we can see such small details: the eyes, the folds of clothing, the detailed embroidered patterns of the tablecloth. "
The tiny laser beam used in image scanning produces more energy sensitive to mercury absorption. Despite the degradation, mercury particles from the original image remain on the silver plates.
"Looking at mercury, we can recover the image in great detail," said Tsun-Kong Sham, a researcher at the University of Western Ontario.
Kozachuk and Sham detailed their efforts in the journal Scientific Reports.
Scientists hope that their current work will shed light on the different ways that daguerreotypes can be degraded and the best ways to clean them.
"The first step of a restorer is to have a complete and complete understanding of the material and its assembly at a microscopic level and even at the nanoscale," said John P. McElhone, former researcher at the Canadian Institute of Photography. "We want to find out how the chemicals are on the surface and this understanding gives us access to theories about how degradation occurs and how that degradation can or can not be reversed."
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