THE STAGE IS SET
The names of two men dominate the early days of microfilming. The credit for making the first microphotograph belongs to John Benjamin Dancer, an English scientist, inventor and optical manufacturer. He was also responsible for performing experiments which made microfilming a practical medium for reproducing manuscripts, printed materials and pictorial records. To the French chemist, portrait photographer and inventor, Rene Dagron, we owe the establishment of microfilming on a commercial scale. Other names appear in the story of microphotography. Many were men of great capabilities and wide renown in other fields, but their talents were not applied in any great degree toward micro-photography. To an extent, current microfilm techniques, equipment and applications trace their ancestry to the work of two pioneers, Dancer and Dagron.