George Eastman introduced photography to the mainstream population by simplifying the development process, first introducing the "dry" process and later marketing stripping film and roll film. He also made photography more accessible to amateurs by making simple and inexpensive cameras. His Kodak box camera was the first to introduce the idea of professional development: after shooting a roll of film, the entire camera would be sent back to the plant for development, which allowed photographers unskilled at development to take pictures. The advent of the one-dollar camera made the Kodak brand ubiquitous; for the first several decades of the century, the Kodak name was synonymous with camera.
Eastman was born on July 12, 1854, in Waterville, New York. Due to his family’s poverty, Eastman quit school at the age of 14 to work as a messenger boy while studying accounting at night. He managed to save $3,000 to fund his experimentation in photography, which he began in 1877 after he read an entry on the process in a British almanac.
Although many photographic processes existed in his day, Eastman realized that a "dry" process would eventually replace the "wet" process (which required immediate exposure and development) on the commercial market. Most importantly, this simplification would start to open up the market to mainstream use of photography. Although dry processes existed before Eastman introduced his, none of them were practical: a colloidan-albumen-plate method required six times the exposure of a wet plate, for example.
In 1879, Eastman was granted patent number 226,503, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Coating Plates," covering his photographic emulsion coating machine. The next year, he rented a loft in Rochester, New York, to mass-produce dry plates, thus launching his business. All the while, he continued to experiment with the photographic process, in search of improvements. In 1884, he patented flexible film, and in 1886, he introduced the Eastman-Walker roller slide. This type of stripping film consisted of a paper base attached to layers of soluble gelatin, collodion, and sensitized gelatin emulsion, which formed negatives that could be cut up and then developed directly onto glass plates coated with glycerine that dissolved under hot water to allow for the stripping of the paper. The image was then ready for printing on a gelatin sheet.
Although this innovation simplified the development process, it did not capture the mainstream market, so Eastman continued to innovate, coming up with the "Detective Camera" in 1888. This camera (subsequently known by its more popular name, the Kodak box camera) came loaded with film enough for 100 exposures and cost $25, which included a shoulder strap and case. When all the exposures were used up, the camera was sent back to the Rochester plant for development and reloading of new film for $10. This model did capture the popular imagination, and it sold more than 100,000 units by 1895.
In 1889, Eastman introduced roll film made from transparent nitrocellulose, otherwise known as celluloid, a flammable film invented by john wesley hyatt in 1868 that was later replaced by nonflammable cellulose acetate. Eastman sold a considerable amount of this film before a patent, first filed in 1887 by Rev. Hannibal Goodwin, was granted in September 1898, only two years before the reverend’s death. A protracted legal battle ensued, pitting the owners of Goodwin’s patent against Eastman’s company, which he had founded in 1892. The suit was settled in March 1914, with Eastman paying $5 million in back royalties to the owners of Goodwin’s patent.
Also in 1892, Eastman introduced spool film that was loadable in daylight, thus avoiding the necessity of transporting a full darkroom to remote locations, which had prevented photographers from taking landscape pictures and other outdoor shots in the past. In 1900, Eastman marketed a pocket-sized camera for one dollar. This inexpensive camera truly introduced photography to the masses, earning Eastman a fortune.
Eastman used his fortune philanthropically, donating more than $100 million to charity by the time he died in 1932. He committed suicide on March 14, 1932, after suffering extensively from personal problems. In his suicide note, he wrote, "My work is done. Why wait?"
