I was just researching one thing when I ran across another (I’m no longer surprised how often this happens), which was this YouTube Video with the title “Oldest Video Ever Recorded — 1874!”

According to this YouTube offering, the oldest photographic video recording of which we still have footage is a film snippet from 1874 showing a passage of Venus across the face of the sun.

It was about this time that I started to think, “What exactly do we mean by video?” According to the Wikipedia, the term “video” refers to an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media.

“Hmmm, this doesn’t sound like 1874 to me,” I thought, but then I performed a Google search asking “What is a video?” The first item returned was a dictionary definition, and the first option under the noun heading was, “The recording, reproducing, or broadcasting of moving visual images.” OK, I can live with that.

This really is worth watching all the way through. Also, the comments are well worth skimming. For example, the presenter in the video says, “The Lumiere brothers’ significance cannot be understated,” to which one of the commenters responded, “Actually, it can be understated very easily, but would be hard to overstate.”

Someone else noted that, “It’s wild to realize that all these people, every single one you see, the adults and the kids, have all passed away…” I must admit that this really does give one pause for thought — it won’t be long before people are saying the same thing about all of the videos we are taking of ourselves.

“All we are is dust in the wind,” as the American progressive rock band, Kansas, sang. On the other hand, as I wrote in an earlier column, “Is Dust in the Wind All We Are?”