If truth be told, at a joint meeting of the French Academy of Sciences and the Académie des Beaux Arts held on this day, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre presented his report about his invention, daguerreotype, allowing anyone to put an image onto a light-sensitive plate. The public report meant that the French government had to reveal to the world the secret of making images previously available to the artists only. The report was preceded by numerous discussions in both houses of the parliament regarding the value of the invention and the price the government was willing to pay for it. They agreed on 6,000 francs payable to Daguerre annually and 4,000 francs payable to Isidore Niépce, the heir of Nicéphore Niépce, with whom Daguerre had signed a cooperation agreement, but whose experiments were never put to good use. Daguerre had no pity for the money. He was satisfied with the world fame and glory of the inventor of photography. Although the principles of modern photography are exactly the opposite of Daguerre’s ideas — it just happened.

That same year, when the photography invention was announced, the Daguerreotype hit the shelves in Moscow. Anyone who could not draw could take pictures of views with an amazing precision, as the advertisement promised.