On this day (March 18) in the year 1843, the following news item appeared in "Niles' National Register" (Vol. 14, No. 3): --------------------------------------------------------------- Daguerreotype. It is stated in a letter read to the National Institute on Monday evening last, from Francis B. Ogden, esq. United States consul at Bristol, that, at the observatory at Rome, they have succeeded so well in combining the powers of the telescope and the Daguerreotype, as to produce a perfect map of the heavens.--The nebulous clouds are transferred to a sheet of paper, every star composing them and every shadow as distinct as seen through the best instruments; the precise position of Jupiter and his moons given at any moment of time, and all the phases of the other planets with the greatest accuracy. The pictures are on a scale that would require a globe the size of the cupola of St. Paul's, London, to place them in proper proportion. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 03-18-96