1930s

1. Harold Edgerton 2. The Kick - 1934 3. Milk Drop Coronet - 1957

4. Rapatronic Camera 5. Atomic Blast 6. Bullet in Flight

ELECTRONIC FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY - 1931. Harold Edgerton, an American researcher and inventor, made electronic flash photography a reality in 1931 when he invented a stroboscopic light for use in both ultra-high-speed and still photography. The discovery was announced in the May issue of Electrical Engineering. Edgerton was also a pioneer in the use of high-speed electronic flash with this work in the 1940s. Edgerton became the first to illuminate nighttime landscapes and darkened interiors, and his technology was capable of freezing the quickest of actions. In 1968 Edgerton joined with Jacques Cousteau in underwater exploration, producing the first underwater time-lapse photography. The atomic blast photo above was taken using another of Edgerton's inventions, the Rapatronic camera - capable of taking photographs with exposure times of 10 nanoseconds (10 billionths of a second).

http://photography.about.com/library/dop/bldop_hedger.htm

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-edgerhar.html

http://www.nevadasurveyor.com/atomicbomb/

http://www.mocp.org/collections/permanent/edgerton_harold.php

PHILO T. FARNSWORTH TELEVISION - 1932.  A Utah-born Idaho farm boy, Philo T. Farnsworth helped create television as we know it today.  At fourteen, he visualized trapping light in an empty jar and transmitting it one line at a time onto a magnetically deflected beam of electrons.  By the time Farnsworth was 21 he had developed the first all-electronic system of television.    A 1922 Sketch by Farnsworth shown to his high school physics and chemistry teacher illustrated how an image might be electronically transmitted through the air to a receiver by breaking the image up into a number of horizontal slices.  This image process which we now call a raster image occurred to Farnsworth when as a fourteen-year old boy he looked across the rows of a field he was plowing.  In 1934 Farnsworth won a case before the U.S. Supreme Court basically stating that Farnsworth was the inventor of television rather than Vladmir Zworykin who was employed by David Sarnoff of RCA at that time. The attempt by Sarnoff to claim rights to television was similar to the battle with Edwin Armstrong over radio. In both cases Sarnoff was eventually proven wrong in the courts. Besides his contributions to television, Farnsworth patented more than 130 inventions during his lifetime.
 
 

Additional information concerning Philo T, Farnsworth and television can be found at:

http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/farnsworth.html
 

BAIRD SILVATONE DISC TV RECORDING - 1933.  Oldest known consumer recording of a TV broadcast.  A British citizen made a 1933 recording of a BBC transmission onto a Baird 30-line system Silvatone disk (see 1928 - John Logie Baird).  The recording was made at the owner's home in Ealing, England, using domestic equipment connected to a wireless receiver tuned to the BBC's vision (TV) transmission in the Medium Wave band.  The recording included a dancing group called the Paramount Astoria Girls. http://www.tvdawn.com/index.htm
 
 
 
 
 

TV TEST PATTERN - 1934.  Test pattern by the  BBC.  The first ever television test pattern, this very simple pattern was broadcast by the BBC in 1934 using Baird's 30 line TV system.

http://history.sandiego.edu/GEN/recording/television5.html
 
 
  KODAK BANTAM - 1935. Example of an inexpensive pocket-sized bellows camera of the 1930's. For those interested in beginning a camera collection of their own, there are many cameras such as this available in excellent condition at very low prices. The above camera appears to have never been used and was purchased for just $4.99.

FIRST REGULAR U.S. TV BROADCASTS - 1936.  NBC began the first regular telecasts in  the U.S. in 1936. http://www.home.eznet.net/~fshippey/

ARGUS MODEL A - 1936.  The first Argus camera, known as the Model A, was manufactured in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1936. It was a success as the first low-cost, easy-to-use 35mm film camera in the world. Thirty thousand cameras were sold in the first week at $12.50 each.  Worldwide sales of this model continued until 1950. The popularity of the Model A influenced Kodak to switch their film manufacturing from 127 to a 35mm format, which remains the dominant film in use today.  In addition to the brown and gold model shown here, it also came in black and gold and olive drab and gray.
http://www.arguscamera.com
http://www.chicagophotographic.org/articles/argus.htm

EINSTEIN / BUCKY CAMERA DESIGN - 1936. In 1936 Albert Einstein and Gustav Bucky patented a design for a camera with a photo-electric cell to operate a mechanism to reduce the intensity of the light striking the film (copy of patent above). Two mechanisms were described: 1) a shade of varying transparency to be moved in front of the film, and 2) a mechanism to rotate a plate with various sized holes. According to Sean Johnston of the University of Glasgow, the Eumig C-2 marketed in Austria in 1935, was the First to incorporate a photoelectric meter coupled to a lens aperture (above right). A History of Light and Color Measurement, page 229 of HTML version, Sean F. Johnston, University of Glasgow, UK

http://www.hebrewhistory.info/factpapers/fp007_photo.htm

http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~o-pat/english2.htm

The 1936 Berlin Olympic Games were the first to be broadcast by electronic television cameras.
http://share4.esd105.wednet.edu/wachtelg/development.htm
http://www.tvhistory.tv/

TV Camera at Olympics      RCA TV Set Circa 1936       1935 German TV Production Line
                                            Click for Larger View                    Click for Larger View

KODAK SUPER SIX-20 - 1938. The Super Six-20 was the first still camera with autoexposure. It was very expensive for that era and relatively few were sold. Production: 1938-1944, 719 manufactured. 620 roll film. MSRP $225. Information provided by Todd Gustavson, curator, Technology Collection, George Eastman House.
http://www.geh.org/fm/mees/htmlsrc/mE13000623_ful.html#topofimage

Chester F. Carlson and Electrophotography - 1938.  Electrophotography (Xerography) was invented by Chester F. Carlson.  While others sought chemical or photographic solutions to instant copying problems, Carlson turned to electrostatics and in 1938 succeeded in obtaining his first dry-copy, and the first of many patents two years later.  It took presentations to more than 20 companies before Carlson was able to interest the Battelle Development Corporation in his invention in 1944.  In 1947 the Haloid Company, later renamed Xerox Corporation, negotiated commercial rights to his xerographic development.  Eleven years later, and just 10 years before his death in 1968, Xerox introduced its first office copier.
 

On October 22, 1938, Carlson, working with his assistant Otto Kornei, produced the first ever Xerographic image shown on the left.  Additional information concerning Chester Carson and copiers can be found at:
http://www.invent.org/

ARGUS C and C2 - 1938. The Argus C and C2 models were affectionally known as the" brick". Millions were sold thereby contributing to the Argus Model A affect on film sales which resulted in 35mm film camera domination of the consumer market.

http://www.arguscamera.com
http://www.chicagophotographic.org/articles/argus.htm
 

AGFA CLIPPER SPECIAL - 1939. This camera is unusual in that the lens portion slides outward in box-like fashion rather than by way of folding bellows. It was purchased on eBay in like-new condition with original box and manual for $30.

 

TELEVISION AND WORLD'S FAIR - 1939.  Television was broadcast by RCA from the 1939 New York World's Fair.  Visitors during the fair not only were able to see television for the first time, they also brought home wallet cards to prove they'd been "televised."   President Franklin D. Roosevelt, present at the creation of RCA and a frequent speaker on radio, became the first president to be seen on television when the Fair's opening ceremonies were telecast ten days later.

Mirrors Reflect Images to Viewers on TV Sets at '39 World's Fair

Additional information concerning early television can be found at:
http://www.pharis-video.com/p2050.htm
 

  1938 RCA Iconoscope                 RCA TK-10A Television Camera

Additional information and photos concerning early TV cameras can be found at:
http://www.pharis-video.com/p21.htm
http://www.pharis-video.com/p2050.htm

1930s