Unlocking the Secrets: The Tech of Ancient Civilizations
The most recent photographic trick, a camera launching rockets from above, was mentioned in Svetozor, a Czech-language entertainment magazine, published on February 17, 1911. In 2013, the Oxford Dictionary officially added the word “selfie” as a word, defining it as “a photograph taken by someone, usually with a smartphone or webcam, and uploaded to a social networking site.”
However, the origin of the word dates back to 2002, when an Australian man got drunk on his 21st birthday and posted a photo of his stitched lip with the caption, “Sorry for the focus, it was a selfie.” However, the truth is much older.
The first photo considered a “selfie” goes back to a pharmacist and photographer named Robert Cornelius from Philadelphia.
He brought his camera to the back of his family’s store, opened the lens cap, and then put himself in the frame, sitting still for about a minute. He wrote on the back of the photo, “First photograph ever taken.” Cornelius went on to run a successful photo studio, where he takes pictures.
For the wealthy, but he soon lost interest in photography and turned his attention to growing his family's lighting business. He invented a device called the "sun lamp," which used lard instead of whale oil, making him a wealthy man. He also invented the first kerosene lamp, but was soon outdone by competitors who made cheaper and more efficient versions of his lamp.
Cornelius's 1839 self-portrait was not discovered until 1975 when a librarian stumbled upon it while working at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.