The history of the photograph spans back to the late 17th century.  As advancements were made, the concept of the photograph grew from an infantile understanding of photochemical effect to the development of mass-market photography equipment in the early 20th century.  Photography would gain popularity throughout the western world and technology would develop to improve photographic processing.

On this day, January 17th, in 1928, a patent was granted for the first ever fully automatic photographic film processing machine.  Automatic film processing would allow for a faster, less-complicated alternative to traditional film processing.  In decades to come, automatic film processing would play a key role in developing pictures with less effort than ever previously imagined.

Although the original patent was not the exact technology that allows for the “one-hour photos” of today, it can be considered the foundation of current photographic processing.  In its own way, automatic film processing helped usher in an era, where hundreds, if not thousands of photographs are in every household.