In the modern world we are sometimes guilty of thinking we have a monopoly on disruption and the pace of change, but I was struck this week by a line in the excellent Michael Palin book on HMS Erebus.

When the ship set off on a polar expedition in 1839 there was no such thing as photography and yet when they returned to port just 4 years later the daguerreotype camera meant photos were now part of everyday life.

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