CHAPTER III 



CAMERAS, LENSES, AND SHUTTERS 



IN a letter written to his brother, in 1816, Niepce 

 describes how he secured what was probably 

 the first picture ever made with a camera. He 

 says : " My object glass being broken, and being 

 no longer able to use my camera, I made an 

 artificial eye with Isidore's ring box, a little thing 

 from sixteen to eighteen lines square. ... I 

 placed this little apparatus in my workroom, 

 facing the open window, looking on to the pigeon 

 house. I made the experiment in the way you 

 are acquainted with, and I saw on the white 

 paper the whole of the pigeon house seen from 

 the window." 



This tells, in a few words, the basic principles 

 of a camera; for it is, in fact, nothing but a light- 

 tight box so arranged that, only when the image 

 is to be projected, a few rays may be admitted 

 through one end, and they form the image of 

 whatever object or objects we may be photograph- 

 ing, on the ground glass at the other end. The 

 very name " camera " means only a chamber or 

 compartment. 



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