The film used by old cameras is known as roll.
Rollo is a concept with a dozen meanings according to the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ). It may be an object that, due to its cylinder shape, can roll . It is also something that is coiled around a cylinder and that, based on its turns, can be deployed .
For example: “Please see if there is a roll of toilet paper in the bathroom cabinet,” “We need a new roll for the cash register,” “In that box I have several rolls of cloth.”
The photographic film used by old cameras is known as film. These cameras needed a roll to capture the images : it was developed and the photos were printed on paper. With the development of digital cameras (which store images in internal memory), film cameras fell into disuse.
The scrolls as manuscripts
The scrolls are also those manuscripts that were folded on themselves. The parchments and papyri of antiquity are called scrolls: to read what is written, it is necessary to extend the sheet.
To make handling the scrolls less complicated and also to store and preserve them more effectively, a cylinder of bone, ivory or wood was attached to the foot of the last sheet, and all the paper was wrapped around it. The normal thing is that the number of sheets on a roll did not exceed 20 and that the writing was carried out on one side only, although there are also examples with text on both sides. The first leaf of a manuscript scroll was called Protókollos , in the Greek language.
It is estimated that the number of scrolls in the Library of Alexandria could have reached 700,000, and many of them were found through excavations in the ruins of Herculaneum , among other sites. As a reference , just one song from the "Odyssey" or the "Iliad" occupied an entire roll of papyrus.
Generally, the distribution of the text of a work required more than one scroll, all of a similar length, paying attention to the division into chapters. The shorter ones, on the other hand, did not need more than one. Regarding the size of the rolls, they tended to be made between 6 and 7 meters , and their diameter once they were completely folded was around 5 centimeters; This made them very easy to transport and use.
A scroll is a manuscript that folds on itself.
The codices
As we know, the scrolls did not persist throughout history; Its decline began to take place in the 3rd century AD. C. , when the codices appeared, whose binding was very similar to that of current books. The codex is a book format and, technically, both terms could be used synonymously; However, the first is preferred to talk about manuscript books from the era before the invention of the printing press , that is, until the end of the Middle Ages.
The codex and the scroll coexisted for some time, until the advantages of the former outweighed and caused the disappearance of the latter: being able to open it anywhere, organizing its contents with page numbers and indexes and marking certain sections with the whitewashing technique, among others.
Other uses of the term roll
In colloquial language, a topic to which reference is made is called a roll. The usual thing is that a cumbersome or tedious matter is called a problem: “You already have me tired with your work nonsense” , “I still haven't defined the topic of my dissertation” , “The whole family fight situation is finished for me” .
Mood, finally, can be the impression or opinion about something: “Your decision to emigrate gives me bad vibes.”