The first great step in this direction was taken by Fox Talbot in 1841. He found, that if he prepared a sheet of paper with silver iodide and exposed it in the camera, he got only a very faint image, but if, after exposure, he washed over the paper with a solution of silver nitrate and gallic acid, the faint image was built up into a strong picture. And not only was Fox Talbot the first to develop a faint or invisible image; he was also the first to make a negative and use it for printing. [Illustration: THE FIRST KODAK (1888), SHOWING ROLL HOLDER AND ROLL FILM FOR 100 EXPOSURES] [Illustration: THE FIRST DAYLIGHT LOADING METHOD] [Illustration: THE FIRST “FOLDING KODAK” FITTED FOR PLATES OR ROLL FILM] [Illustration: “DOPE” BARREL] In spite of all these advances, photography was almost exclusively a studio proposition, when, in 1880, experiments were begun which were to result in photography that could be universally enjoyed--photography as we know it today. Of course there were amateurs even in those early photographic days, but they were few and far between. There was something about the bulk and weight of the old-time photographic outfit that failed to beget general enthusiasm. [Illustration: RAW STOCK ROLLS, KODAK PARK] [Illustration: ASSEMBLING ROOM, CAMERA WORKS] To lighten the camera burden, and to simplify the various photographic processes, were the problems that confronted the American inventor. The first step toward film photography--and it was film photography that relegated camera bulk to the scrap heap--was a roll film made of coated paper to which a sensitive emulsion was applied, but the real goal was reached when cellulose was substituted as a film base. This made practicable the present flexible, transparent film with its attendant convenience and dependability. The kodak was the natural outcome of the roll film system. The first one appeared in 1888, and its development, which proceeded simultaneously with the film discoveries, soon reached the point where the loading and unloading could be done in daylight. Daylight developing soon followed, and the dark room, as far as the kodaker was concerned, took its proper place as a relic of the dark ages. With 1914 came autographic photography, so that now with a kodak in one pocket and a handful of film in the other, the amateur is equipped for a picture-making tour of the world--not simply a pictorial record, but a written record as well, for autographic photography permits the dating and titling of each negative directly after exposure. Photography, not so many years ago an exclusive pleasure for the few, is now easy fun for millions. [Illustration: FILTER ROOM, KODAK PARK Cellulose Acetate Manufacturing] * * * * * How Deep is the Deepest Part of the Ocean?