Turning Point Inventions: The Camera

Before the camera, there was no easy and quick way to record a memorable scene or a person's likeness. Then, in 1827, Joseph Nicéphore Niepce took the world's first photograph. Louis Jacques Mand&233; Daguerre and William Henry Fox Talbot soon developed their own methods for creating photographs, but a good deal of expertise, time, and money were needed to work with the bulky and awkward materials used in early photography. In 1888, George Eastman invented the first Kodak camera with film already loaded into it, making photography widely available to the public. Eastman soon invented roll film that could be removed from the camera by the photographer and replaced with a fresh roll, much as we do with most cameras today. Digital cameras now use computer technology rather than film to capture images, allowing even the amateur to modify and print photographs, and to E-mail them anywhere in the world in an instant. Turning Point Inventions is the first series of books to focus on the important inventions we often take for granted and how they have affected our lives. In lively text and fascinating pictures, these books explore the world before the invention; the life of the inventor and how he or she came upon the discovery; how the world was changed by the invention; and how it may influence our future. A special full-color foldout in each book shows in detail how the invention works.