No, not way off: The daguerreotype, invented in 1837 by the French artist Louis Daguerre, was the first practical form of reproduction in photography. A daguerreotype was made on a silver-plated sheet of copper made light-sensitive by prior exposure to vapors that produced silver iodide... Costly and time-consuming, daguerreotypes were, nevertheless, superbly detailed. The process, although popular, was soon replaced. Cheryl Rothwell clrothwell@mindspring.com