Day in the Life of a Library of Congress Chemist

DC-ist Blog has the ‘photo of the day’ from ‘volcanpkw’

…who has pretty much the coolest job ever; she’s a Research Chemist with the LoC and has been working with daguerreotypes for the past few days. She told us she’s trying to figure out:

* What did 19th century photographers use as plate bases for their daugerreotypes?
* Can we tell what the tarnish is on his plates?
* Can we treat the tarnish without destorying the image?
* Do multiple sensitizations change particle size/distribution?
* How can we clean off organics (like bugs) without destroying the image?
* Can we use hyperspectral imaging to re-create what an almost-gone image once looked like by using UV and infrared light?