History
The term bulb is a reference to old-style pneumatically actuated shutters; squeezing an air bulb would open the shutter and releasing the bulb would close it. According to the Focal Encyclopedia of Photography:
BULB EXPOSURE (B). Another term for a brief exposure—in which the shutter remains open only so long as the shutter release is held down. The word originated with the early pneumatic shutter release.It is not clear when the term actually originated. It appears that when instantaneous shutters were introduced, they included a B setting so that the familiar bulb behavior could be duplicated with a cable release. This may have been the origin of the term bulb in reference to shutter settings. (See the photo captions.)
Read more about this topic: Bulb (photography)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“A people without history
Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern
Of timeless moments.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“History ... is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.
But what experience and history teach is this—that peoples and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)