The greatest invention of all time
What is the greatest invention of all time? There is no right or wrong answer to this question, some might say
the television or the light bulb or the wheel, possibly the Poptart or anesthesia. This is more of an opinion rather
than a singular answer. My opinion, (although other inventions would give this one run for it’s money) would
have to be the Time-Keeper. If you haven’t heard of the Time-Keeper, it does more than just keep time, it can
take you to the Amazon rainforest, into the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong, or into the Great Barrier Reef. Not
only can it take you there, but it can take you back to when you adopted a puppy, or went hot air ballooning
with your crazy hippie aunt. You can get a glimpse into a person’s life using the Time Keeper. You can tell what
they are doing, how they feel, and the atmosphere around them.
This sounds like an amazing invention, right? Even though this invention is so widely known,( you probably even
have it in your own house), you still don’t know what I am talking about. How about I “re-phrase” the
invention’s name. You might know it better by the name Camera. Let this sink in for a moment. Re-read the last
paragraph if needed. All these facts are true. Crazy, right?
The evolution of the camera is most likely only partially known because you had seen photos of cameras from
different eras. That doesn’t make any sense. It made more sense in my head. Imagine this, before I did all this
research, I only really knew what the cameras looked like starting from the 1930’s to present time because I
had seen photos of them. I would not be able to draw you a picture of a camera that was made before the
1930’s without looking at a photo first. I am going to guess that is relevant to quite a few people. So here is a
little history lesson.
Once upon a time, there was a man named Alhazen (Or frequently referred to as“​
Ibn al-Haytham”). He was born
on July 1st, 965 AD ( Same as me!) in Basra, Iraq. He was a great polymath, astronomer ,philosopher and
mathematician. You could say that he was a man of great knowledge. He was also the one who thought up the
idea of the camera. Even though he died before he could put his ideas into action, he told many great
philosophers of his theory. My sources might not be completely accurate but somehow the word got around to
a Gemma Frisius. A dutch ​
physician, mathematician, ​
c​
artographer​
, philosopher, and instrument maker. He
(Gemma) was the first one recorded to use a Camera. The very first camera was called the Camera Obscura.
These were very large cameras (roughly the size of a large garden shed) that you step inside and trace or draw
whatever the Camera Obscura is looking at. Artists and astronomers back in the day might be found using this if
they needed to paint a portrait or chart the stars. Since the idea of translating the images onto paper had not
been thought of, they traced the images instead.
I don’t know exactly how the Camera obscura worked, but it is placed in front of the object of interest and it
shows up on the opposite wall inside the Camera Obscura. It’s pretty cool.
So gradually, the Camera Obscura evolved into a smaller more portable version of itself. We still have the same
Camera Obscura idea, just smaller.
☜ (smaller Camera Obscura)
Next up is the Daguerreotypes. The Daguerreotype cameras were the first cameras to transfer the images taken
onto the paper. The innovator who improved the previous camera was named Louis Daguerre, he invented the
Daguerreotype camera in 1839. How the Daguerreotype camera works is a little different from the Camera
Obscura. The Daguerreotype camera was the first camera ever to find a way to use a chemical process to
transfer the images onto paper by using positives and negatives. I am not going to go very far into the subject,
but basically, negatives (in photography) are​
images, usually on a strip or sheet of transparent plastic film, in
which the lightest areas of the photographed subject appear darkest and the darkest areas appear lightest .
☜​
Image of a negative photo and positive photo .
Next, the first Kodak cameras. The “Brownie” camera. The first Kodak camera was also the first camera to have
film. It was about the size of a tissue box, but it looked like a giant brownie square. Hence the name “Brownie”.
At about $1.00 each, the Kodak business skyrocketed. Kodak brought the “Brownie” camera to the world,
bringing photography to a new height in terms of popularity.
In about forty years after the Kodak had been produced, roughly in the year 1925, give or take a few years, a
new camera was created. A more portable, “new age” camera. The 35mm camera was born. Don’t be fooled by
the name “35mm”. This does not mean that the camera is 35 millimeters tall or wide. This means that the film
used in the camera is 35mm tall. This camera is one of those cameras that might come mind when you say the
word “camera”. It looks like this:
As you might imagine in the 20’s , the cameras might look a bit vintage, but the cameras manufactured then
were made with higher quality craftsmanship. That definitely does not mean higher quality photographs, it just
means that the cameras weren’t made out of plastic. They were made with leather and metal. It is nearing the
time for the quality craftsmanship to fade away. This doesn’t mean that the world is now becoming reduced to
scrappy, cheap, catchpenny work; it means that the world is beginning to start focusing less on the hardware,
transforming the inside, improving the technology, enhancing the software and taking a step into the the new
age.
We are now in the late 1940’s and the world has continued to evolve; growing more and more sophisticated.
Just like the people of the day, the inventions were striving to be the best, most cutting edge they could
possibly be. From that effort, sprouted the idea of the instant image “Polaroid Land camera”. Before the instant
image camera, you had to wait a long time for your photograph to develop. Now with a click of a button, the
photos you take come out the side of the camera and develop in a five to ten minute time span. This idea
revolutionized the world of photography. Later in ten years or so, Polaroid will once again revolutionize the world
of photography by producing a camera that prints color photos. Many updated versions of the Polaroid camera
were made later and were very popular until around the 1980’s. Polaroid was popular, but then a newer, more
contemporary camera started to catch the eye of photographers. The Point and Shoot compact cameras.
The Point and Shoot cameras were made for the mass community who didn’t call themselves professional
photographers, but still wanted to have a camera with them on the go to take photos of everyday life. It was
much harder to take a bulky Polaroid in a taxi along with a suitcase and a backpack, than a compact camera in
your coat pocket and a suitcase and a backpack. The Polaroid sales had began to recede as the Point and Shoot
sales began to escalate. Newer models of the point and shoot camera are still being produced and are selling
across the world.
In the present day, almost 90% of the world’s population has a camera phone. Practically everyone knows what
an Iphone is. Saying that technology has taken over is an understatement. Virtually anyone who reads this can
probably name ten people they know who own a smartphone(s). The world has evolved in such a way that
technology has become a part of our everyday lives. The camera phone’s image has evolved from a pixelated
image to a virtually crystal clear photo in about fifteen years. (The first camera phone was released in
November, 2000.) From the Sharp JSH04 to the Iphone 6, the camera phone has evolved, for lack of a better
word, and still the camera phone is still transforming.
In conclusion, it is an opinion. Not a singular answer to the question, “What is the greatest invention ever?”
My opinion is that the camera is one of the greatest inventions of all time. The keyword being one. There isn't a
singular “Greatest invention” but the camera is without a doubt amazing. Another reason why the camera is
such an amazing invention is how it evolved. It evolved from a large wooden hut to a tiny metal box that can fit
in your pocket. This isn’t a persuasive essay. This is an explanatory essay. I have gotten a lot of weird questions
about why I chose this invention. And I’m just telling you why I think this is such a great invention. So yeah. I
think that cameras are amazing.
The end.