Today, the idea of taking a photograph and never seeing the result is hard to understand, as we shoot away with our digital cameras or smartphones, instantly sharing photos we take. But wind the clock back to the time when photography was an analogue process, and the delay between taking the picture and seeing the prints could be many months, even years - long enough to forget. And for one roll of film, at least, the wait has been about 70 years.
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Camera collector William Fagan obtained a number of film cassettes some years ago, when he bought a Leica IIIa.
And although he knew one contained film, he only recently set out to develop it.
They were made, by the Leica Camera company, at a time when film was sold on bulk reels and keen photographers would load their own reusable 35mm cassette.
As it was bulk film, there was no way to identify its speed.
So Mr Fagan had to calculate the development time using best guesses.
But after consulting with experts, he was ready to go ahead.
His plan worked.
old cars
"Normally when I develop a roll of film, I have some idea of what it contains," he says.
"In the darkroom, I could see old cars.
"But it was not until I scanned the images that I had a clear idea about the contents.
"I was not sure which of my old Leica cameras the film cassette had come with.
"But I believed it was from a camera from the mid-1930s.
"The first negative which I scanned was the one showing a mid-1930s BMW convertible with what appear to be Bavarian plates (AB 52 3287), on a snowy mountain pass."
Another frame showed La Veduta hotel, on the Julier Pass, in Switzerland.
And research revealed the car is a BMW 315.