[Daguerre] is said to have found a way to collect, on a plate prepared by him, the image produced by the camera obscura, so that a portrait, a landscape, any view, projected upon this plate by the camera obscura, leaves an imprint on it in light and shadow, and thus presents the most perfect of all the drawings...[a] preparation placed on top of this image, preserves it for an indefinite time...[t]he physical sciences have perhaps never presented a wonder comparable to this.

 

Houssaye, Arsène. “Diorama. La Vallée de Goldau” [1835]