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Joseph Nicéphore Niépce

Born: Chalon-sur-Saône, 7 March 1765
Died: St-Loup-de-Varennes, 5 July 1833
Nationality: French
Background: 

wealthy banking family

Career: 

1792 - enlists in Revolutionary Army

1794 - resigns from army, moves to Nice

1797 - with brother Claude begins experiments to develop internal combustion engine (pyreolophore)

1807 - Pyreolophore patented. Engine successfully powers boat traveling upstream.

1816 - begins experimenting with ways of fixing projected images on the back of a camera obscura.

1818 - achieves a semi-permanent images (3 months)

1822 - develops technique for reproducing drawings on glass plates coated with Judea bitumen; experiments with lithographic stones.

1826 - creates photographic image on a tin plate

1828 - creates image on silver plate by exposing latent image to iodine vapor

1829 - creates partnership with Louis Daguerre, a camera and lens specialist

1832 - with Daguerre creates photographic image in less than 8 hours exposure time using a lavender oil solution as the photosensitive agent (called process physautotype)

Travels

Sardinia (1897)

Web Resources

Niepce House Museum