Photography

Photography also aided communication; many American, British, and French scientists contributed to its development, and no one person can be called the inventor of photography. In 1826, a French physicist named Joseph Niepce made the first permanent photograph. Niepce's technique, which he called heliography, involved exposing a metal plate to light for about eight hours. A result, he could only photograph such immovable objects as houses because moving object would form no image.

The French painter Louis J.M Daguerre worked as Niepce's partner for several years. In the 1830's, Daguerre developed an improved type of photograph called a daguerreotype. A daguerreotype took only a few minutes to be exposed. About the same time, the British inventor William Henry Fox Talbot invented a method of photography that used a paper negative instead of a metal plate. Fox Talbot's invention, which he called a talbotype or calotype, was not widely used because it produced less clear pictures than a daguerreotype.
But the idea of using flexible negative became the key to modern photography. With other methods, the photographer used glass or metal plates that had to be changed after each exposure. With Fox Talbot's method, the film could be moved through the camera and used to take a series of pictures.

(For more information see Holography)
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