The Industrial Base

Abstract

Abstract Images and Enterprise is one of the books in the Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology Series and, as such, is a study of the American photographic industry within the overall field of technology. It covers the period 1839-1925, and deals with technical, business and, to a lesser extent, social aspects. These are traced from the industry's disorganized, diffuse beginnings to the point where the market became dominated by a few highly organized, technologically oriented fmus. When the daguerreotype process was introduced in 1839, its practitioners and even their immediate suppliers were compelled to look to a number of sources for the necessary materials: cabinet makers supplied camera boxes, chemical firms the required elements and compounds, miniature-case makers produced containers for the finished pictures, and the brass industry manufactured the silver-coated copper plates. The need for general supply houses was not immediately perceived. Much had to be imported, and European producers played a big role during the early years in providing lenses, fine chemicals and plates for American users.