Today is National Camera Day, so here are 10 facts about cameras:
A camera is essentially a light proof box with a hole on one side (the aperture) which is covered by a shutter until someone takes a photo. On the other side is some kind of material which reacts to Light. This may be photographic film or an electronic sensor.
A camera that takes one picture at a time is called a still camera. A camera that can take pictures which seem to move is called a movie camera.
The ancient forerunner of the camera was the camera obscura. It projects an inverted image (flipped left to right and upside down) of a scene from the other side of a screen or wall through a small aperture onto a surface opposite the opening. People knew about this clever trick as long ago as around 400BC when a Chinese philosopher called Mozi was the first person to write about it.
An early pioneer of the camera as we know it was Thomas Wedgwood. He made use of the fact that Silver salts changed colour when exposed to light.
The first photographic camera developed for commercial manufacture was a daguerreotype camera, built by Alphonse Giroux in 1839.
The digital camera was invented in 1975 by Kodak employee Steve Sasson. His camera weighed around 8 pounds (3.6kg) and took about 20 seconds to record an image. Kodak, however, decided the idea wasn’t worth developing at the time.
Early camera flash bulbs were made from Potassium chloride and Aluminium, a mixture which would produce a bright light if exposed to a spark. It was rather dangerous, though, as a violent explosion could ensue if you got it wrong.
In 1900 the Chicago & Alton Railway used a camera that weighed 900lbs to take just one picture. The picture was of one of its trains. The camera was brought to the location by train and then carried by 15 men into a field. The man who took the picture was George Lawrence and the negative was made of Glass and measured 8 x 4.5 ft. It cost $5,000 (about $161,000 in today’s money). Three prints were sent to the 1900 Paris Exposition, where they won the grand prize for photographic excellence.
There are 12 cameras on the Moon. The astronauts who went there had to be very careful about the weight of the spacecraft for re-entry so when they were done taking pictures, they took out the film to bring back to Earth, but left the cameras behind so they could carry moon rocks.
The Guinness World Record for the largest camera collection is held by Dilish Parekh, a jewel and government worker from Mumbai who owns more than 4,400 cameras. He inherited many of them from his father but has added to the collection, and hopes to one day open a camera museum.
Beta
(Combat Team Series #2)
Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?
Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.
Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream.
Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.
Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.
Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.
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