In 1839 the world heard that it was possible to capture the image by chemical means without the aid of the artist's hand.

This book traces the development of the camera from its origins, through the wet colodion period and the boom years for amateur photography which followed the introduction of fast dry plates in the 1880s, and into the 1890s when roll films and commercial processing made snapshots possible.

The twentieth century brought smaller, even pocketable cameras which led in the 1920s and 1930s to the miniature camera using 35mm film.