Timeline of Moving Image
Which inventions and advancements in technology have made it possible for us to have the ability to easily make a video which we can share with millions around the globe and stream on a small computer which can fit into our pockets?
The distant past
Camera Obscura
By creating a small hole in a dark room or box, an upside down image of the world outside is projected onto the opposite side. This is called the camera obscura (Latin for ‘dark chamber’) and the earliest surviving record of it being written about was by Mozi, a Chinese philosopher, between 470 and 390BC.From the 15th century painters have in some cases used the camera obscura to paint very accurately.
1800
First fixed photograph…sort of
It’s thought that people only thought to mix the light sensitivity of certain chemicals with the light capturing camera obscura around the end of the 18th century. Brit Thomas Wedgewood was the first person to fix an image using light sensitive chemicals. However, it eventually fade and the process wasn’t practical.
1826 or 1827
First surviving fixed photograph created
The earliest known surviving photograph taken with a camera was made by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce and is of a window in his estate.
1834
The zoetrope
The first zoetrope invented by William George Horner — he called it the Daedelum. Pierre Desvignes designed another version in 1860 and there have been various designs since. The zoetrope in its various guises shows us that by moving quickly between still images, our eyes can be tricked into thinking there is movement where there is none.
1839
Photography is finally something people can play with
1839 is known as the “birth year of practical photography” with the daguerreotype process, developed by Louis Daguerre, being the first process which fixed an image reliably.
Throughout the late 1830s to the 1850s, various other processes were developed including the calotype negative and salt print processes by Henry Fox Talbort in 1840.
1868
The flip book
In 1868 John Barnes Linnett patented the flip book, calling it the kineograph. Flip books are a great example of how animation works and how our minds can be fooled into thinking that a quick succession of still images are in fact moving.
1882
Chronophotography
The chronophotographic camera — a predecessor to moving film which takes images capturing movement over several frames — is invented by Étienne-Jules Marey. The technique was made famous by Eadward Muybridge who used it to prove that a galloping horse can have all four hooves off the ground at once.
1889
Celluloid film commercially available
Nitrate celluloid film becomes commercially available via Eastman Kodak. This helps with moving image development and experiments, as paper roll film was more prone to breaking.
1889
The first movie camera
Thomas Edison commissions the first working moving image camera, which his assistant William Dickson creates. It’s called the kinetograph.
1900s
Films as entertainment and information
In 1902 Georges Méliès’ “A trip to the moon” is the first science fiction film, and has been homaged many times since, for example in the UK comedy series the Mighty Boosh.
1923
16mm film invented
Eastman Kodak develops 16mm, a smaller and therefore cheaper type of film than 35mm. It has continued to be used to create TV programs until more recently (e.g. Scrubs and One Tree Hill).
1927
Sound!
Film can now accommodate a soundtrack, as a visual soundwave printed along the edge of the film.
