Mr. Wedgwood's experiments can scarcely be said to be any improvement
on them since he failed to bring them to practical usefulness,
and his countrymen will have to be satisfied with awarding
the honor of its complete adaptation to practical purposes, to MM.
Niepce and Daguerre of France, and to Professors Draper,
and Morse of New-York.

These gentlemen--MM. Niepce and Daguerre--pursued the subject simultaneously,
without either, however being aware of the experiments of his colleague
in science. For several years, each pursued his researches individually
until chance made them acquainted, when they entered into co-partnership,
and conjointly brought the art almost to perfection.

M. Niepce presented his first paper on the subject to the Royal
Society in 1827, naming his discovery Heliography. What led him
to the study of the principles of the art I have no means, at present,
of knowing, but it was probably owing to the facts recorded
by the Alchemists, Mrs. Fulhame and others, already mentioned.
But M. Daguerre, who is a celebrated dioramic painter,
being desirous of employing some of the singularly changeable salts
of silver to produce a peculiar class of effects in his paintings,
was led to pursue an investigation which resulted in the discovery
of the Daguerreotype, or Photogenic drawing on plates of copper
coated with silver.

To this gentleman--to his liberality--are we Americans
indebted for the free use of his invention; and the large
and increasing class of Daguerrean artists of this country
should hold him in the most profound respect for it.
He was not willing that it should be confined to a few