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500 BC
________ 400 BC
________ 1000 AD An Islamic scholar, Alhazen (Abu Ali al-Hasan Ibn al-Haitham) is credited with describing the principles of the camera obscura in detail. ________ 1267
________ 1490
________ 1558 Italian Giovanni Battista della Porta suggests that the camera obscura can be an aid to rendering an image on to paper. ________ 1550-1575
________ 1614 Italian Angelo Sala observed that silver nitrate turns black when exposed to sunlight. ________ 1676 The use of a reflex mirror with the camera obscura is introduced. ________ 1685 The use of a “telephoto” lens with the camera obscura is introduced. ________ 1725 German Johan Heinrich Schulze made stencil images on bottles containing silver nitrate ________ 1777
________ 1795
________ 1816
________ 1819
________ 1826 Joseph Nicephore Niepce is said to be the first to create a permanent photographic image (using an 8 hour exposure!).
________ 1834
________ 1837
________ 1839 The French Government agreed to pay Daguerre and Joseph Niepce’s son (Isadore Niepce) a life annuity of 4,000 francs in exchange for releasing the patent rights (of their work) to the world in a grand gesture. Daguerre discovered that mercury vapor produced an image on iodized silver plate with relatively brief exposures, then fixing the image in a strong salt solution (known as the “daguerreotype”). The process was announced by Francois Arago at the Academie des Sciences in Paris in 1839 (after Daguerre had earlier patented the process in England in 1838), much to the chagrin and consternation of Henry Fox Talbot.
________ 1844-46 Henry
Fox Talbot patents his own similar talbotype
proprietary process and publishes “The Pencil of Nature” describing
the process along with 24 photographs making it the first photo
illustrated book ________ 1847
Abel
Niepce de Saint Victor
(cousin of J. N. Niepce) invents the glass-plate albumen
process in France, and his technique is quickly appropriated and
patented in England by Talbot. ________ 1850
________ 1872
________ 1890
________ 1924 Leica introduced |
Mo-Tsu ( or Mo Ti ) may be the earliest to
describe a camera obscura in ancient China 
Aristotle describes a camera obscura in ancient
Greece.
The
use of lenses is introduced, and the camera obscura becomes smaller and
movable.
Swede Carl Wilhelm Scheele discovered
that ammonia removed unexposed silver nitrate, leaving darkened metallic
silver residue.
Englishman Thomas Wedgwood (unaware
of Scheele’s work) experimented with transferring an image from a
camera obscura on to paper and leather treated with silver nitrate.
Frenchman Joseph Nicephore Niepce experimented
with light-sensitive varnishes on papers sensitized with silver
chloride.
German-born Englishman Sir John Frederick
William Herschel introduced the “negative” and
“positive” process along with the use of sodium thiosulfate (then
called sodium hyposulfate = “hypo”) as a fixer.
Frenchman Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre communicates
with J. Niepce and they exchange information until Niepce’s death in
1833.
Englishman William Henry Fox Talbot begins
experiments with creating permanent photographic images on paper with
marginal success, until hearing of Daguerre’s innovations in France.
Appropriating Daguerre’s process along with Herschel’s
breakthroughs, Talbot patented the “calotype” (later known as the
“talbotype”) and aggressively asserted his patent rights in England,
effectively stifling competition and experimentation along similar lines
in Great Britain until 1855. Talbot also unsuccessfully disputed
Daguerre’s recognition by the Academie des Sciences in France, only to
have the French government purchase the patent rights from Daguerre then
release the patent without restriction to the world in 1839!
Englishman Frederick Scott Archer refined
the calotype process and introduced the use of iodized collodion on
glass, or collodion “wet plate” process. He died destitute, while
the “wet plate” process went on to successfully dominate photography
for the next 30 years.
American photographer Matthew Brady (a
student of Samuel Morse) publishes “The Gallery of Illustrious
Americans”. Later, the cost of producing his prolific Civil War series
of photographs drove him to bankruptcy.
Swedish-born American Edweard Muybridge was
the first to arrest motion by using a series of static cameras triggered
by a moving object breaking strings that were attached to the shutter
releases (zoopraxiscope). Published “Animal Locomotion” in 1887.
