[EARLY PHOTOGRAPHY]. Niles’ National Register. Invention of the daguerreotype. Baltimore: William Ogden Niles, 28 September 1839. Vol. 6, No. 5. 16pp., 4to (305 x 216 mm). THE BIRTH OF PHOTOGRAPHY. The daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process, invented by French photographer and artist Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787-1851) on 7 January 1839. The French government acquired the rights to the daguerreotype process and announced it as a gift to the world on 19 August 1839. The process was made freely available to the public, and the French government provided pensions to Daguerre and his previous partner’s son. The daguerreotype process involved exposing a silver-coated copper plate to iodine vapor to create a light-sensitive surface. The plate was then exposed in a camera and developed using mercury vapor with the resulting image being fixed with a solution of common salt. The daguerreotype marked the beginning of practical photography. Before its invention, photography was a cumbersome and slow process, and the daguerreotype offered a relatively quicker and more accessible method, making photography available to a broader audience.