EASTMAN, GEORGE

George Eastman (1854–1932) became fascinated with the hobby of photography in the 1870s, while working for a bank in Rochester, New York. At the time, taking and developing photos was a clumsy, cumbersome, time-consuming business limited to those who had the patience and the ability to deal with the expensive mechanical processes involved. When he failed to receive a promotion he believed he deserved, Eastman, still in his twenties, decided to quit banking and devote himself full-time to his all-consuming hobby.

Working in the kitchen of his widowed mother's boarding house, Eastman investigated the problems presented by photography's heavy plate-glass negatives, which required an immediate dipping in silver nitrate and processing on the spot. He began to experiment with various emulsions used to coat the "wet plates" on which most photographs of the time were taken. In his extensive reading on the subject Eastman came upon a formula for "dry plates" printed in an English almanac. The formula offered the opportunity to reduce the size and weight of the glass plates then in use. By 1880 Eastman had developed a gelatin dry plate that did not need to be immediately processed.

Eastman took out patents in England and the United States on his "method and apparatus for coating plates for use in photography," and he set himself up in business as the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company to manufacture these dry plates. In 1884 he began searching for a way to produce a transparent and flexible film. The first commercial film, which his company began to produce a year later, was cut in narrow strips and wound on a roller device.

In 1888 Eastman introduced the first Kodak camera, a simple, hand-held box loaded with a 100-exposure film. Correctly guessing that "Kodak" would be pronounced the same in every language, Eastman coined the word, which had no meaning. He reportedly chose "Kodak" because the letter "K" was the first letter of his mother's maiden name, Kilbourne, and he thought it was "strong and incisive." To acquire his patent in England, Eastman also needed to use a word not then existent in the English language. Leaving nothing to chance, Eastman also chose Kodak's eyecatching yellow packaging.

From the beginning, Eastman intended the Kodak camera for amateur photographers. It was made to be sent back to the factory for processing after its film was used. At $25 a roll, however, the film itself was too expensive for most U.S. citizens at that time. By 1896 Eastman was producing a smaller version of his original camera, and it sold for a much more affordable $5. Four years later he introduced the first of a long line of Brownie cameras, intended for use by children; the price tag: one dollar.

A brilliant marketer, Eastman promoted his cameras with the slogan, "You press the button, we do the rest," and began to sell cameras to millions worldwide. He adopted the strategy of constantly making improvements on cameras and film. This allowed him to introduce new and improved products well ahead of his competition.

In 1889 Eastman introduced transparent film. That same year, responding to a request by Thomas Edison (1847–1931) to come up with film for Edison's newlyinvented movie camera, Eastman's chemists designed celluloid 33mm film, which remains the world standard today. Eastman incorporated his company in 1892 under the name Eastman Kodak Company.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Eastman began to buy out his competitors whenever possible. By 1927 Eastman Kodak controlled the U.S. market in cameras, plate cameras, printing paper, and motion-picture film. Eastman spent much of his later career embroiled in legal disputes related to his monopolistic activities and his alleged use of other inventors' ideas without proper acknowledgment. Although no longer a monopoly, Eastman Kodak retained its leadership in the photographic industry throughout the twentieth century.

George Eastman recognized early the value of retaining loyal employees. In an era when workers' rights were being defined by growing union activities, Eastman independently created many employee benefit programs. In 1910 he began to establish a profitsharing program for all employees, and in the next decade he offered other progressive employee benefits.

Meanwhile, he had become one of the nation's wealthiest men. In 1905 he built a 50-room mansion in Rochester, New York. It included such amenities as a huge conservatory filled with plants and flowers, in which the lifelong bachelor breakfasted each day to organ music played on a full pipe organ by his private organist.

As the years went on, Eastman became a generous philanthropist, eventually giving away more than $100 million. Although he had left school at age thirteen, his largest gifts were to academic institutions, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Rochester (and its Eastman School of Music) and the predominantly black Tuskegee Institute. In 1932, at age 77, stricken with a crippling spinal disease, Eastman took his own life.

See also: Eastman Kodak

FURTHER READING

Adams, Susan. "As Convenient as a Pencil." Forbes, November 30, 1998.

——. "Photography and Lemon Pie in Rochester." Forbes, November 30, 1998.

Breyer, Elizabeth. George Eastman: A Biography. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, 1996.

Chandler, Alfred D. The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1977.

Collins, Douglas. The Story of Kodak. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1990.

"George Eastman," [cited April 12, 1999] available from the World Wide Web @ www.invent.org/book/book-text/indexbyname.html/.

George Eastman

By mass-producing his inventions, the American inventor and industrialist George Eastman (1854-1932) promoted photography as a popular hobby. He was also a benefactor of educational institutions.

George Eastman was born in Waterville, N.Y., on July 12, 1854, and educated in Rochester public schools. He advanced from messenger to bookkeeper in the Rochester Savings Bank by 1877. Frugal with money—his only extravagance amateur photography—he spent his savings on cameras and supplies and went to Mackinac Island. When photographic chemicals ruined his packed clothes, he became disgusted with the wet-plate process.

In the 1870s American photography was still slow, difficult, and expensive. Equipment included a huge camera, strong tripod, large plateholder, dark tent, chemicals, water container, and heavy glass plates. Eastman experimented with dry-plate techniques. He was the first American to contribute to photographic technology by coating glass plates with gelatin and silver bromide. In 1879 his coating machine was patented in England, in 1880 in America. He sold his English patent and opened a shop to manufacture photographic plates in Rochester. To eliminate glass plates, Eastman coated paper with gelatin and photographic emulsion. The developed film was stripped from the paper to make a negative. This film was rolled on spools. Eastman and William Walker devised a lightweight roll holder to fit any camera.

Amateurs could develop pictures after Eastman substituted transparent film for the paper in 1884. Flexible film was created by Hannibal Goodwin of New York and a young Eastman chemist, Henry Reichenback. The long patent dispute between Goodwin and Eastman was the most important legal controversy in photographic history. A Federal court decision on Aug. 14, 1913, favored Goodwin. Goodwin's heirs and Ansco Company, owners of his patent, received $5,000,000 from Eastman in 1914.

In 1888 Eastman designed a simple camera, the Kodak (Eastman's coined word, without meaning), which was easy to carry and eliminated focusing and lighting. With a 100-exposure roll of celluloid film, it sold for $25.00. After taking the pictures and sending the camera and $10 to the Rochester factory, the photographer received his prints and reloaded camera. Eastman's slogan, "You press the button, we do the rest," was well known.

Anticipating photography's increased popularity, in 1892 Eastman incorporated the Eastman Kodak Company. This was one of the first American firms to mass-produce standardized products and to maintain a chemical laboratory. By 1900 his factories at Rochester and at Harrow, England, employed over 3,000 people and by 1920 more than 15,000. Eastman, at first treasurer and general manager, later became president and finally board chairman.

Daylight-loading film and cameras eliminated returning them to the factory. To Eastman's old slogan was added "or you can do it yourself." A pocket Kodak was marketed in 1897, a folding Kodak in 1898, noncurling film in 1903, and color film in 1928. Eastman film was indispensable to Thomas Edison's motion pictures; Edison's incandescent bulb was used by Eastman and by photographers specializing in "portraits taken by electric light."

Eastman's staff worked on abstract problems of molecular structure and relativity, as well as on photographic improvements. During World War I his laboratory helped make America's chemical industry independent of Germany, and finally the world leader.

Concerned with employee welfare, Eastman was the first American businessman to grant workers dividends and profit sharing. He systematically gave away his huge fortune to the University of Rochester (especially the medical school and Eastman School of Music), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Hampton Institute, Tuskegee Institute, Rochester Dental Dispensary, and European dental clinics.

After a long illness the lonely, retiring bachelor committed suicide on March 14, 1932, in Rochester. He had written to friends, "My work is done. Why wait?"

Further Reading

The best biography of Eastman is Carl W. Ackerman, George Eastman (1930). Robert Taft, Photography and the American Scene: A Social History, 1839-1889 (1938), places Eastman in perspective in the evolution of photography. Mitchell Wilson, American Science and Invention: A Pictorial History (1954), is also helpful. □

George Eastman 1854–1932, American inventor, industrialist, and philanthropist, b. Waterville, N.Y. By mass production of his photographic inventions, Eastman enormously stimulated the development of photography as a popular hobby. He invented a dry-plate process and established (1880) a factory at Rochester, N.Y., for making the plates; he devised a roll film and the Kodak camera (1888) to use it, as well as a process for color photography (1928). The Eastman Kodak Company, founded in 1892, was one of the first firms in America to establish a plant for large-scale production of a standardized product and to maintain a fine chemical laboratory; its progressive welfare program included a profit-sharing plan. Eastman's philanthropies were estimated at over $100 million: the principal recipients were the Univ. of Rochester and the Eastman School of Music, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tuskegee and Hampton institutes, Rochester Dental Dispensary, and dental clinics in several European capitals. In 1932 after a long illness Eastman committed suicide.

Bibliography: See biographies by C. W. Ackerman (1930, repr. 1973) and B. Mitchell (1986).

Eastman, George (b Waterville, NY, 1854; d Rochester, NY, 1932). Amer. industrialist. In 1880 developed process for making dry plates for photocopy and in 1884 founded Eastman Dry Plate and Film Co. In 1892 this became Eastman Kodak Co. Gave more than 75 million dollars to scientific and cultural organizations, founding Eastman Sch. of Mus. of Univ. of Rochester, NY, in 1919.

Eastman, George (1854–1932) US photographic inventor and manufacturer, who created the basic materials for still and motion picture photography. He introduced innovations in photographic technology during the late 1800s and founded the Eastman Kodak Company (1892).