First Photo Took 8 Hours Now - 20,000 in a Second


By H.C. DAVIS
IN 1830, it required eight hours to take a photograph. The other day, Baron C. Shiba's remarkable camera recorded 20,000 pictures in one second (P.S.M., Nov. '29, p. 31). In this dramatic advance, which has taken place within a single century, a Parisian painter of stage scenery and a magic cupboard in his home workshop laboratory played leading roles.
The painter was Louis Daguerre, who made photography practicable. Before his time, a few indifferent pictures had been made by the painfully slow process of exposing asphalt-covered plates all day and then treating them with solvents.