Thehistory of photography began with the discovery of two critical principles: The first iscamera obscura image projection; the second is the discovery that some substances are visibly altered by exposure to light.[1] There are no artifacts or descriptions that indicate any attempt to capture images with light sensitive materials prior to the 18th century.
Around 1717,Johann Heinrich Schulze used a light-sensitiveslurry to capture images of cut-out letters on a bottle. However, he did not pursue making these results permanent. Around 1800,Thomas Wedgwood made the first reliably documented, although unsuccessful attempt at capturing camera images in permanent form. His experiments did produce detailedphotograms, but Wedgwood and his associateHumphry Davy found no way to fix these images.
In 1826,Nicéphore Niépce first managed to fix an image that was captured with a camera, but at least eight hours or even several days of exposure in the camera were required and the earliest results were very crude. Niépce's associateLouis Daguerre went on to develop thedaguerreotype process, the first publicly announced and commercially viable photographic process. The daguerreotype required only minutes of exposure in the camera, and produced clear, finely detailed results. On August 2, 1839 Daguerre demonstrated the details of the process to the Chamber of Peers in Paris. On August 19 the technical details were made public in a meeting of the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Fine Arts in the Palace of Institute (for granting the rights of the inventions to the public, Daguerre and Niépce were awarded generous annuities for life).[2][3][4] When the metal based daguerreotype process was demonstrated formally to the public, the competitor approach of paper-basedcalotypenegative andsalt print processes invented byHenry Fox Talbot was already demonstrated in London (but with less publicity).[4] Subsequent innovations made photography easier and more versatile. New materials reduced the required camera exposure time from minutes to seconds, and eventually to a small fraction of a second; new photographic media were more economical, sensitive or convenient. Since the 1850s, thecollodion process with its glass-basedphotographic plates combined the high quality known from the Daguerreotype with the multiple print options known from the calotype and was commonly used for decades.Roll films popularized casual use by amateurs. In the mid-20th century, developments made it possible for amateurs to take pictures innatural color as well as inblack-and-white.
The commercial introduction of computer-based electronic digital cameras in the 1990s revolutionized photography. During the first decade of the 21st century, traditional film-based photochemical methods were increasingly marginalized as the practical advantages of the new technology became widely appreciated and the image quality of moderately priced digital cameras was continually improved. Especially since cameras became a standard feature on smartphones, taking pictures (and instantly publishing them online) has become a ubiquitous everyday practice around the world.
The coining of the wordphotography is usually attributed toSir John Herschel in 1839. It is based on theGreekφῶς (phōs; genitivephōtos), meaning "light", andγραφή (graphê), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing of light".[5][4]
A natural phenomenon, known ascamera obscura or pinhole image, can project a (reversed) image through a small opening onto an opposite surface. This principle may have been known and used in prehistoric times. The earliest known written record of the camera obscura is to be found in the 4th century BCE, in two different places in parallel: byAristotle[6][7] in Greece and byMozi in China.[8][7]Alhazen (or Ibn al-Haytham) is said to be the first that actually built a camera obscura. Until the 16th century the camera obscura was mainly used to study optics and astronomy, especially to safely watch solar eclipses without damaging the eyes. In the later half of the 16th century some technical improvements were developed: abiconvex lens in the opening (first described byGerolamo Cardano in 1550) and adiaphragm restricting the aperture (Daniel Barbaro in 1568) gave a brighter and sharper image. In 1558Giambattista della Porta was the first to write a description of using the camera obscura as a drawing aid[4] in his popular and influential books. Della Porta's proposal was widely adopted by artists and since the 17th century portable versions of the camera obscura were commonly used—first as a tent, later as boxes.
The box type camera obscura was the basis for photographic cameras, as used in the earliest attempts to capture natural images in light sensitive materials. This was the first step in the path thatWalter Benjamin described inThe Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.[9]
Aphysiognotrace is an instrument used to create a semi-automated portrait.[4][10] It was invented in the 18th century and was abandoned when light-sensitive materials were discovered. It was popular for several decades. The sitter sat in a wooden frame and turned to the side to pose. Apantograph connected to a pencil produced a contour line on a plate within a few minutes.
Acamera lucida is anoptical device used as a drawing aid by artists. Thecamera lucida projects anoptical image of the subject being viewed, on the surface upon which the artist is drawing. The artist sees both scene and drawing surface simultaneously, as in a photographic double exposure. This allows the artist to duplicate key points of the scene on the drawing surface, thus aiding in the accurate rendering of perspective.[4]
Note: In the process discussed here, the "Fixing" step is mentioned. This is a step in the negative development process as well as in the chemical printing process. (Of course not required in digital printing). At this stage, all remaining light-sensitive materials are removed so that the product (film or print) can be exposed to light without the image being further affected by the light.[11][12]
The notion that light can affect various substances—for instance, the sun tanning of skin or fading of textile—must have been around since very early times. Ideas of fixing the images seen in mirrors or other ways of creating images automatically may also have been in people's minds long before anything like photography was developed.[13] However, there seem to be no historical records of any ideas even remotely resembling photography before 1700, despite early knowledge of light-sensitive materials and the camera obscura.[14]
In 1614Angelo Sala noted that[15] sunlight will turn powderedsilver nitrate black, and that paper wrapped around silver nitrate for a year will turn black.[16]
Wilhelm Homberg described how light darkened some chemicals in 1694.[17]
Around 1717,[18] GermanpolymathJohann Heinrich Schulze accidentally discovered that aslurry ofchalk andnitric acid into which somesilver particles had been dissolved was darkened by sunlight. After experiments with threads that had created lines on the bottled substance after he placed it in direct sunlight for a while, he appliedstencils of words to the bottle. The stencils produced copies of the text in dark red, almost violet characters on the surface of the otherwise whitish contents. The impressions persisted until they were erased by shaking the bottle or until overall exposure to light obliterated them. Schulze named the substance "Scotophors" when he published his findings in 1719. He thought the discovery could be applied to detect whether metals or minerals contained any silver and hoped that further experimentation by others would lead to some other useful results.[19][20] Schulze's process resembled laterphotogram techniques and is sometimes regarded as the very first form of photography.[21]
The early science fiction novelGiphantie[22] (1760) by the FrenchmanTiphaigne de la Roche described something quite similar to (color) photography, a process that fixes fleeting images formed by rays of light: "They coat a piece of canvas with this material, and place it in front of the object to capture. The first effect of this cloth is similar to that of a mirror, but by means of its viscous nature the prepared canvas, as is not the case with the mirror, retains a facsimile of the image. The mirror represents images faithfully, but retains none; our canvas reflects them no less faithfully, but retains them all. This impression of the image is instantaneous. The canvas is then removed and deposited in a dark place. An hour later the impression is dry, and you have a picture the more precious in that no art can imitate its truthfulness."[23] De la Roche thus imagined a process that made use of a special substance in combination with the qualities of a mirror, rather than the camera obscura. The dark place in which the pictures dried suggests that he thought about the light sensitivity of the material, but he attributed the effect to its viscous nature.
In 1777, the chemistCarl Wilhelm Scheele was studying the more intrinsically light-sensitivesilver chloride and determined that light darkened it by disintegrating it into microscopic dark particles of metallic silver. Of greater potential usefulness, Scheele found thatammonia dissolved the silver chloride, but not the dark particles. This discovery could have been used to stabilize or "fix" a camera image captured with silver chloride, but was not picked up by the earliest photography experimenters.[24]
Scheele also noted that red light did not have much effect on silver chloride, a phenomenon that would later be applied in photographicdarkrooms as a method of seeing black-and-white prints without harming their development.[25]
Although Thomas Wedgwood felt inspired by Scheele's writings in general, he must have missed or forgotten these experiments; he found no method to fix the photogram and shadow images he managed to capture around 1800 (see below).[25]
Elizabeth Fulhame's bookAn essay on combustion[26] described her experiments of the effects of light on silver salts. She is better known for her discovery of what is now calledcatalysis, but Larry J. Schaaf in his history of photography[27][28] considered her work on silver chemistry to represent a major step in the development of photography.
English photographer and inventorThomas Wedgwood is believed to have been the first person to have thought of creating permanent pictures by capturing camera images on material coated with a light-sensitive chemical. He originally wanted to capture the images of a camera obscura, but found they were too faint to have an effect upon thesilver nitrate solution that was recommended to him as a light-sensitive substance. Wedgwood did manage to copy painted glass plates and captured shadows on white leather, as well as on paper moistened with a silver nitrate solution. Attempts to preserve the results with their "distinct tints of brown or black, sensibly differing in intensity" failed. It is unclear when Wedgwood's experiments took place. He may have started before 1790;James Watt wrote a letter to Thomas Wedgwood's fatherJosiah Wedgwood to thank him "for your instructions as to the Silver Pictures, about which, when at home, I will make some experiments". This letter (now lost) is believed to have been written in 1790, 1791 or 1799. In 1802, an account byHumphry Davy detailing Wedgwood's experiments was published in an early journal of theRoyal Institution with the titleAn Account of a Method of Copying Paintings upon Glass, and of Making Profiles, by the Agency of Light upon Nitrate of Silver. Davy added that the method could be used for objects that are partly opaque and partly transparent to create accurate representations of, for instance, "the woody fibres of leaves and the wings of insects". He also found that solar microscope images of small objects were easily captured on prepared paper. Davy, apparently unaware or forgetful of Scheele's discovery, concluded that substances should be found to eliminate (or deactivate) the unexposed particles in silver nitrate or silver chloride "to render the process as useful as it is elegant".[25] Wedgwood may have prematurely abandoned his experiments because of his frail and failing health. He died at age 34 in 1805.
Davy seems not to have continued the experiments. Although the journal of the nascent Royal Institution probably reached its very small group of members, the article must have been read eventually by many more people. It was reviewed byDavid Brewster in theEdinburgh Magazine in December 1802, appeared in chemistry textbooks as early as 1803, was translated into French and was published in German in 1811. Readers of the article may have been discouraged to find a fixer, because the highly acclaimed scientist Davy had already tried and failed. Apparently the article was not noted by Niépce or Daguerre, and by Talbot only after he had developed his own processes.[25][29]
French balloonist, professor and inventorJacques Charles is believed to have captured fleeting negative photograms ofsilhouettes on light-sensitive paper at the start of the 19th century, prior to Wedgwood. Charles died in 1823 without having documented the process, but purportedly demonstrated it in his lectures at the Louvre. It was not publicized untilFrançois Arago mentioned it at his introduction of the details of the daguerreotype to the world in 1839. He later wrote that the first idea of fixing the images of the camera obscura or the solar microscope with chemical substances belonged to Charles. Later historians probably only built on Arago's information, and, much later, the unsupported year 1780 was attached to it.[30] As Arago indicated the first years of the 19th century and a date prior to the 1802 publication of Wedgwood's process, this would mean that Charles' demonstrations took place in 1800 or 1801, assuming that Arago was this accurate almost 40 years later.
Nicéphore Niépce was a French aristocrat, scientist, and chemist. His family fortune allowed him to engage in inventions and scientific research. In 1816, using paper coated withsilver chloride, he succeeded in photographing the images formed in a small camera, but the photographs werenegatives, darkest where the camera image was lightest and vice versa, and they were not permanent in the sense of being reasonably light-fast; like earlier experimenters, Niépce could find no way to prevent the coating from darkening all over when it was exposed to light for viewing. Disenchanted withsilver salts, he turned his attention to light-sensitive organic substances.[32]
Theoldest surviving photograph of the image formed in a camera was created by Niépce in 1826 or 1827.[2] It was made on a polished sheet ofpewter and the light-sensitive substance was a thin coating ofbitumen, a naturally occurringpetroleum tar, which was dissolved inlavender oil, applied to the surface of the pewter and allowed to dry before use.[33] After a very long exposure in the camera (traditionally said to be eight hours, but now believed to be several days),[34] the bitumen was sufficiently hardened in proportion to its exposure to light that the unhardened part could be removed with a solvent, leaving a positive image with the light areas represented by hardened bitumen and the dark areas by bare pewter.[33] To see the image plainly, the plate had to be lit and viewed in such a way that the bare metal appeared dark and the bitumen relatively light.[32]
In partnership, Niépce inChalon-sur-Saône andLouis Daguerre inParis refined the bitumen process,[35] substituting a more sensitive resin and a very different post-exposure treatment that yielded higher-quality and more easily viewed images. Exposure times in the camera, although substantially reduced, were still measured in hours.[32]
.jpg)
Niépce died suddenly in 1833, leaving his notes to Daguerre. More interested in silver-based processes than Niépce had been, Daguerre experimented with photographing camera images directly onto a mirror-like silver-surfaced plate that had been fumed withiodine vapor, which reacted with the silver to form a coating ofsilver iodide. As with the bitumen process, the result appeared as a positive when it was suitably lit and viewed. Exposure times were still impractically long until Daguerre made the pivotal discovery that an invisibly slight or"latent" image produced on such a plate by a much shorter exposure could be "developed" to full visibility bymercury fumes. This brought the required exposure time down to a few minutes under optimum conditions. A strong hot solution of common salt served to stabilize orfix the image by removing the remaining silver iodide. On 7 January 1839, this first complete practical photographic process was announced at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences,[36] and the news quickly spread.[37] At first, all details of the process were withheld and specimens were shown only at Daguerre's studio, under his close supervision, to Academy members and other distinguished guests.[38] Arrangements were made for the French government to buy the rights in exchange for pensions for Niépce's son and Daguerre and to present the invention to the world (with the exception of Great Britain, where an agent for Daguerrepatented it) as a free gift.[39] Complete instructions were made public on 19 August 1839.[40] Known as thedaguerreotype process, it was the most common commercial process until the late 1850s when it was superseded by thecollodion process.
French-bornHércules Florence developed his own photographic technique in 1832 or 1833 in Brazil, with some help of pharmacist Joaquim Corrêa de Mello (1816–1877). Looking for another method to copy graphic designs he captured their images on paper treated with silver nitrate as contact prints or in a camera obscura device. He did not manage to properly fix his images and abandoned the project after hearing of the Daguerreotype process in 1839[41] and did not properly publish any of his findings. He reportedly referred to the technique as "photographie" (in French) as early as 1833, also helped by a suggestion of De Mello.[42] Some extant photographic contact prints are believed to have been made in circa 1833 and kept in the collection of IMS.
Henry Fox Talbot had already succeeded in creating stabilized photographic negatives on paper in 1835, but worked on perfecting his own process after reading early reports of Daguerre's invention. In early 1839, he acquired a key improvement, an effective fixer, from his friendJohn Herschel, apolymath scientist who had previously shown that hyposulfite of soda (commonly called "hypo" and now known formally assodium thiosulfate) would dissolve silver salts.[43] News of this solvent also benefited Daguerre, who soon adopted it as a more efficient alternative to his original hot salt water method.[44]
In 1837, mineralist-writerFranz von Kobell shot finely detailed salt-paper negatives of different perspectives of theMunich Frauenkirche and other local buildings. Kobell revealed his work in 1839, together withCarl August von Steinheil.[45] The "Steinheil method" produced pictures with a diameter of 4 cm, and negatives were rephotographed to create positive versions.[citation needed]
Talbot's earlysilver chloride "sensitive paper" experiments required camera exposures of an hour or more. In 1841, Talbot invented thecalotype process, which, like Daguerre's process, used the principle of chemical development of a faint or invisible "latent" image to reduce the exposure time to a few minutes. Paper with a coating ofsilver iodide was exposed in the camera and developed into a translucentnegative image. Unlike a daguerreotype, which could only be copied by photographing it with a camera, a calotype negative could be used to make a large number of positive prints by simplecontact printing. The calotype had yet another distinction compared to other early photographic processes, in that the finished product lacked fine clarity due to its translucent paper negative. This was seen as a positive attribute for portraits because it softened the appearance of the human face[citation needed]. Talbot patented this process,[46] which greatly limited its adoption, and spent many years pressing lawsuits against alleged infringers. He attempted to enforce a very broad interpretation of his patent, earning himself the ill will of photographers who were using the related glass-based processes later introduced by other inventors, but he was eventually defeated. Nonetheless, Talbot's developed-out silver halide negative process is the basic technology used by chemical film cameras today.Hippolyte Bayard had also developed a method of photography but delayed announcing it, and so was not recognized as its inventor.
In 1839,John Herschel made the first glass negative, but his process was difficult to reproduce. SloveneJanez Puhar invented a process for making photographs on glass in 1841; it was recognized on June 17, 1852, in Paris by the Académie National Agricole, Manufacturière et Commerciale.[47] In 1847, Nicephore Niépce's cousin, the chemistNiépce St. Victor, published his invention of a process for making glass plates with analbumen emulsion; the Langenheim brothers of Philadelphia and John Whipple and William Breed Jones of Boston also invented workable negative-on-glass processes in the mid-1840s.[48]
In 1851, English sculptorFrederick Scott Archer invented thecollodion process.[49] Photographer and children's authorLewis Carroll used this process. Carroll refers to the process as "Talbotype" in the story "A Photographer's Day Out".[50]
Herbert Bowyer Berkeley discovered that with his own addition ofsulfite, to absorb thesulfur dioxide given off by the chemical dithionite in thedeveloper, dithionite was not required in the developing process. In 1881, he published his discovery. Berkeley's formula contained pyrogallol, sulfite, and citric acid. Ammonia was added just before use to make the formulaalkaline. The new formula was sold by thePlatinotype Company in London as Sulphur-Pyrogallol Developer.[51]
Nineteenth-century experimentation with photographic processes frequently became proprietary. The German-born, New Orleans photographer Theodore Lilienthal successfully sought legal redress in an 1881 infringement case involving his "Lambert Process" in the Eastern District of Louisiana.
The daguerreotype proved popular in response to the demand forportraiture that emerged from the middle classes during theIndustrial Revolution.[54] This demand, which could not be met in volume and in cost by oil painting, added to the push for the development of photography.
Roger Fenton andPhilip Henry Delamotte helped popularize the new way of recording events, the first by hisCrimean War pictures, the second by his record of the disassembly and reconstruction ofThe Crystal Palace inLondon. Other mid-nineteenth-century photographers established the medium as a more precise means than engraving or lithography of making a record of landscapes and architecture: for example,Robert Macpherson's broad range of photographs of Rome, the interior of the Vatican, and the surrounding countryside became a sophisticated tourist's visual record of his own travels.
In 1839,François Arago reported the invention of photography to stunned listeners by displaying the first photo taken in Egypt; that ofRas El Tin Palace.[55] In his report of the invention to theFrench Chamber of Deputies, he emphasized photography's potential for documenting the Middle East, specifically noting the advantages it could have provided for Egyptian expeditions as a means of documentation and reproduction.[56] In the following decades, his recommendations were taken up by many European photographers, making the Middle East an important site for experimentation and training in the early history of photography.[57]
In America, by 1851 a broadsheet by daguerreotypistAugustus Washington was advertising prices ranging from 50 cents to $10.[59] However, daguerreotypes were fragile and difficult to copy. Photographers encouraged chemists to refine the process of making many copies cheaply, which eventually led them back to Talbot's process.
Ultimately, thephotographic process came about from a series of refinements and improvements in the first 20 years. In 1884George Eastman, ofRochester, New York, developed dry gel on paper, orfilm, to replace the photographic plate so that a photographer no longer needed to carry boxes of plates and toxic chemicals around. In July 1888 Eastman'sKodak camera went on the market with the slogan "You press the button, we do the rest".[60] Now anyone could take a photograph and leave the complex parts of the process to others, and photography became available for the mass-market in 1901 with the introduction of theKodak Brownie.
Charles Wheatstone developed his mirror stereoscope around 1832, but did not really publicize his invention until June 1838. He recognized the possibility of a combination with photography soon after Daguerre and Talbot announced their inventions and gotHenry Fox Talbot to produce somecalotype pairs for the stereoscope. He received the first results in October 1840, but was not fully satisfied as the angle between the shots was very big. Between 1841 and 1842Henry Collen made calotypes of statues, buildings and portraits, including a portrait ofCharles Babbage shot in August 1841. Wheatstone also obtained daguerreotype stereograms from Mr. Beard in 1841 and fromHippolyte Fizeau andAntoine Claudet in 1842. None of these have yet been located.[61]
David Brewster developed a stereoscope with lenses and a binocular camera in 1844. He presented two stereoscopic self portraits made byJohn Adamson in March 1849.[62] A stereoscopic portrait of Adamson in the University of St Andrews Library Photographic Archive, dated "circa 1845', may be one of these sets.[61] A stereoscopic daguerreotype portrait ofMichael Faraday in Kingston College's Wheatstone collection and on loan to Bradford National Media Museum, dated "circa 1848", may be older.[63]
A practical means ofcolor photography was sought from the very beginning. Results were demonstrated byEdmond Becquerel as early as the year of 1848, but exposures lasting for hours or days were required and the captured colors were so light-sensitive they would only bear very brief inspection in dim light.
The first color photograph was a set of threeblack-and-white photographs taken throughred, green, and blue colorfilters and shown superimposed by using threeprojectors with similar filters. It was taken byThomas Sutton in 1861 for use in a lecture by theScottish physicistJames Clerk Maxwell, who had proposed the method in 1855.[64] The photographic emulsions then in use were insensitive to most of thespectrum, so the result was very imperfect and the demonstration was soon forgotten. Maxwell's method is now most widely known through the early 20th century work ofSergei Prokudin-Gorskii. It was made practical byHermann Wilhelm Vogel's 1873 discovery of a way to makeemulsions sensitive to the rest of the spectrum, gradually introduced into commercial use beginning in the mid-1880s.
Two French inventors,Louis Ducos du Hauron andCharles Cros, working unknown to each other during the 1860s, famously unveiled their nearly identical ideas on the same day in 1869. Included were methods for viewing a set of three color-filtered black-and-white photographs in color without having to project them, and for using them to make full-color prints on paper.[65]
The first widely used method of color photography was theAutochrome plate, a process inventors and brothersAuguste and Louis Lumière began working on in the 1890s and commercially introduced in 1907.[66] It was based on one of Louis Duclos du Haroun's ideas: instead of taking three separate photographs through color filters, take one through a mosaic of tiny color filters overlaid on the emulsion and view the results through an identical mosaic. If the individual filter elements were small enough, the three primary colors of red, blue, and green would blend together in the eye and produce the same additive color synthesis as the filtered projection of three separate photographs.
Autochrome plates had an integral mosaic filter layer with roughly five million previously dyed potato grains per square inch added to the surface. Then through the use of a rolling press, five tons of pressure were used to flatten the grains, enabling every one of them to capture and absorb color and their microscopic size allowing the illusion that the colors are merged. The final step was adding a coat of the light-capturing substancesilver bromide, after which a color image could be imprinted and developed. In order to see it,reversal processing was used to develop each plate into a transparent positive that could be viewed directly or projected with an ordinary projector. One of the drawbacks of the technology was an exposure time of at least a second in bright daylight, with the time required quickly increasing in poor light. An indoor portrait required several minutes with the subject stationary. This was because the grains absorbed color fairly slowly, and a filter of a yellowish-orange color was required to keep the photograph from coming out excessively blue. Although necessary, the filter had the effect of reducing the amount of light that was absorbed. Another drawback was that the image could only be enlarged so much before the many dots that made up the image would become apparent.[66][67]
Competing screen plate products soon appeared, and film-based versions were eventually made. All were expensive, and until the 1930s none was "fast" enough for hand-held snapshot-taking, so they mostly served a niche market of affluent advanced amateurs.
A new era in color photography began with the introduction ofKodachrome film, available for 16 mm home movies in 1935 and 35 mm slides in 1936. It captured the red, green, and blue color components in three layers of emulsion. A complex processing operation producedcomplementary cyan, magenta, and yellow dye images in those layers, resulting in asubtractive color image. Maxwell's method of taking three separate filtered black-and-white photographs continued to serve special purposes into the 1950s and beyond, andPolachrome, an "instant" slide film that used the Autochrome's additive principle, was available until 2003, but the few color print and slide films still being made in 2015 all use the multilayer emulsion approach pioneered by Kodachrome.
In 1957, a team led byRussell A. Kirsch at the National Institute of Standards and Technology developed abinarydigital version of an existing technology, thewirephoto drum scanner, so that alphanumeric characters, diagrams, photographs and other graphics could be transferred into digitalcomputer memory. One of the first photographs scanned was a picture of Kirsch's infant son Walden. The resolution was 176x176pixels with only onebit per pixel, i.e., stark black and white with no intermediate gray tones, but by combining multiple scans of the photograph done with different black-white threshold settings,grayscale information could also be acquired.[68]
Thecharge-coupled device (CCD) is the image-capturingoptoelectronic component in first-generation digital cameras. It was invented in 1969 byWillard Boyle andGeorge E. Smith at AT&TBell Labs as a memory device. The lab was working on thePicturephone and on the development ofsemiconductor bubble memory. Merging these two initiatives, Boyle and Smith conceived of the design of what they termed "Charge 'Bubble' Devices". The essence of the design was the ability to transfer charge along the surface of a semiconductor. It wasDr. Michael Tompsett fromBell Labs however, who discovered that the CCD could be used as an imaging sensor. The CCD has increasingly been replaced by theactive pixel sensor (APS), commonly used incell phone cameras. These mobile phone cameras are used by billions of people worldwide, dramatically increasing photographic activity and material and also fuelingcitizen journalism.
Theweb has been a popular medium for storing and sharing photos ever since the first photograph was published on the web byTim Berners-Lee in 1992 (an image of theCERN house bandLes Horribles Cernettes). Since then sites and apps such asFacebook,Flickr,Instagram,Picasa (discontinued in 2016),Imgur,Photobucket andSnapchat have been used by many millions of people toshare their pictures.
%2c_acompa%25C3%25B1ados_por_Mar%25C3%25ADa_Josefa_Ju%25C3%25A1rez_(1843).jpg)
... But the first person to use this property to produce a photographic image was German physicist Johann Heinrich Schulze.
from Helmut Gernsheim's article, "The 150th Anniversary of Photography," in History of Photography, Vol. I, No. 1, January 1977: ...In 1822, Niépce coated a glass plate... The sunlight passing through... This first permanent example... was destroyed... some years later.
