Lightning Man_ The Accursed Life of Samuel F. B. Morse - Kenneth Silverman [96]
Daguerre’s invention competed with Morse’s telegraph not only for public attention but also for government support. His remarkable success had been described to the Académie des Sciences by Arago in January, although in general terms. Daguerre was keeping his process secret, offering to disclose it to the French government in exchange for a pension. The Chamber of Deputies was discussing whether to grant the pension, on the condition that Daguerre’s process would be made public for anyone to use, as a boon to humanity. Morse was well aware of the competition, but supposedly not fazed by it. A Deputy remarked to him, he said, that of the “two great wonders of Paris” the telegraph was of “vastly more importance than the Daguerreotype.”
Anxious to meet Daguerre before leaving France, Morse sent him a note asking to see his images, and inviting him in turn to inspect the telegraph. On March 7 he visited the French inventor for two hours at his rooms in the Diorama, a man with curly blondish hair and small dark mustache. Whatever superiority to Daguerre he may have felt before gave way to wonder when he saw the pictures, on metal plates about seven inches by five.
Morse was startled by the “exquisite minuteness of the delineation,” the inconceivable fidelity to physical reality: “No painting or engraving ever approached it.” The image of a boulevard contained a distant sign, on which the eye could discern letters but not read them. Examined with a powerful magnifying glass, however, every letter became distinct, “and so also were the minutest breaks and lines in the walls of the buildings and the pavements of the street.” Similar examination of Daguerre’s picture of a spider showed an intricate organization never before seen, opening a new field of research for the naturalist. And the images of interiors were Dutch paintings, “Rembrandt perfected.” As both a painter and an inventor Morse considered the new process “one of the most beautiful discoveries of the age.” He sent a lengthy narrative of his interview with Daguerre to his brothers in New York. Part of it was published in the May 18 issue of the Observer—the earliest firsthand account of photography to appear in America.
Daguerre’s return visit, the following day, ended badly. He spent more than an hour examining Morse’s telegraph. Meanwhile a fire broke out in his Diorama building, during a show. The audience escaped, barely, but his highly inflammable paintings were consumed. Sparks threatened to ignite his nearby house as well. Some neighbors saw the danger and carried off to safety his daguerreotype apparatus. A notebook containing his experiments, at first believed to be lost, turned up ten days later.
Probably a few days after Daguerre’s visit, Morse received a letter that prompted a last-minute change in his travel plans. It came from Lord Elgin, whose famed classical sculptures he had seen when studying in England twenty-five years ago. Elgin had attended Morse’s afternoon exhibitions twice, impressed both by the telegraph and by its inventor being president of the National Academy of Design. He brought along such splendid friends as the young Earl of Lincoln, later one of Queen Victoria’s Privy Council. Morse let his British guests know how coldly the Attorney General had dismissed his application for a patent. Elgin’s letter now informed him, however, that his telegraph had become well known in London, and influence might be used to obtain a patent for him. He urged Morse to return to London: “a short delay in your proceeding to America may secure you this desirable object immediately.”
Morse was reluctant to extend his stay abroad. He was scheduled to depart from Liverpool in only about ten days, and an expected summons from the Czar demanded his presence in New York. He decided to leave Paris immediately and spend as much time as remained in London. The day after