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Information texts can be presented in many different ways and might include paragraphs, tables, charts, timelines etc. This activity describes the development of photography in the 19th and 20th centuries.

 

early camera

 

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The development of photography

5th - 4th Centuries B.C.

 

Chinese and Greek philosophers describe the basic principles of optics and the camera.

11th Century A.D.

 

The first scientific descriptions of the camera obscura are made by the Iranian scientist Alhazen, but his work is never translated.

1664 - 1666

 

Isaac Newton discovers that white light is composed of different colours.

1727

 

Johann Heinrich Schulze discovers that silver nitrate darkens upon exposure to light.

1794

 

The first Panorama opens, the forerunner of the cinema.

1814

 

Joseph Nicephore Niepce achieves the first photographic image with a camera obscura - however, the image requires eight hours of light exposure and the image fades.

1837

 

Daguerre produces the first daguerreotype - the first fixed image that does not fade and needs under thirty minutes of light exposure.

1840

 

The first American patent in photography is issued to Alexander Wolcott for his camera.

1841

 

William Henry Talbot patents the Calotype process - the first negative-positive process making possible the first multiple copies.

1843

 

The first advertisement with a photograph is produced in Philadelphia.

1851

 

Frederick Scott Archer invents the Collodion process - the images require only two or three seconds of light exposure.

1859

 

The panoramic camera is patented - the Sutton.

1861

 

Oliver Wendell Holmes invents the stereoscope viewer.

1865

 

Photographs and photographic negatives are added to protected works under copyright.

1871

 

Richard Leach Maddox invents the gelatin dry plate silver bromide process - negatives no longer need to be developed immediately.

1880

 

The Eastman Dry Plate Company is founded.

1884

 

George Eastman invents flexible, paper-based photographic film.

1888

 

Eastman patents the Kodak roll-film camera.

1898

 

Reverend Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film.

1900

 

The first mass-marketed camera, the Brownie, is produced.

1913/1914

 

The first 35 mm still camera is developed.

1927

 

General Electric invents the modern flash bulb.

1932

 

The first light meter with photoelectric cell is introduced.

1935

 

Eastman Kodak markets Kodachrome film.

1941

 

Eastman Kodak introduces Kodacolor negative film.

1942

 

Chester Carlson receives a patent for electric photography (xerography).

1948

 

Edwin Land markets the Polaroid camera.

1954

 

Eastman Kodak introduces high speed Tri-X film.

1960

 

EG&G develops an extreme depth underwater camera for the U.S. Navy.

1963

 

Polaroid introduces instant colour film.

1968

 

A photograph of the Earth is taken from the moon.

1973

 

Polaroid introduces one-step instant photography with the SX-70 camera.

1977

 

George Eastman and Edwin Land are inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

1978

 

Konica introduces the first point-and-shoot, autofocus camera.

1980

 

Sony demonstrates the first consumer camcorder.

1984

 

Canon demonstrates the first digital electronic still camera.

1985

 

Pixar introduces a digital imaging processor.

1990

 

Eastman Kodak announces Photo CD as a digital image storage medium.

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