Kodak Magazine; Vol. 17; No. 3; June 1938
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"LOW TIDE/ ' by Ronald E. Karley, of Camera Works. This picture, taken along the Thames, was among 229 hung in the Seventeenth Annual Spring Exhibition of the Kodak Camera Club of Rochester. Further pictures from the exhibition will be found on pages 8 and 9 , and inside the back cover IN THIS ISSUE George Eastman: Portrait of a Pioneer Page 1 The Editor's Page Page 10 From errand boy to photography's knight-erra nt Fifty years after; many- and costly Memorable Meeting at Kodak P age 2 Highlights of Kodak International Exhibit Page 11 A picture of two famous inventors Fresh from its tour of sixteen cities The Oldest Stockholder; Oldest Employee Page 3 Activities Calendar Page 11 They tell of the early Kodak days The dates and the data Panorama Page 4 Out of the Hat Page 12 From our own watchtower Cartoonist; sailoT; old-timer Take a Trip Through Kodak Tracts Page 5 Market Day in Erongaricuaro Page 13 A look at the Company's home-building projects A picture from old M exico Advertising's Part in Kodak Progress Page 6 A Year's Roll of Retired Kodak Employees Page 15 Wheels hum when their products are wanted From Rochester, Chicago, and Los Angele.s Pictures from the Annual Spring Exhibition Page 8 "Along the Potomac" Inside Back Cover ... of the Kodak Camera Club of Rochester In the photograph gallery Copyright , 1938 Kodak C ompa ny Volume 17 JUNE 1938 Numbe r 3 George Eastman: Portrait of a Pioneer How an Errand Boy Became The at the bank went on as usual. His Knisht-Errant of Photosraphy plates were at last a success. He and others were able to make good pic- And Gave the World a Pastime tures on them. He decided to enter upon the manufacture of dry plates THE STORY of the life of George Eastman is the story of photography commercially. as it is known today. With one helper, he started the business in a room over a music store George Eastman was born in at 73 State Street- but a few hundred Waterville, New York, on July 12th, yards from what was to be the site of 1854, the son of George Washington the Kodak Office. He continued his and Maria Kilbourn Eastman. His job in the bank, but night found him father was a pioneer in the business- in his "factory" making emulsion, college fie ld- Eastman's Commercial which was coated on glass by a College was the first training school machine that he invented. The plates in America to introduce actual busi- were excellent; the market became ness transactions in the course of greater than his little concern could study- and the successful establish- supply. ment he founded was continued for Following the manufacture and several years by his brother. success of the dry plate came the The Eastman family moved from making of bromide paper- the kind Waterville to Rochester in 1860, ordinarily used for enlargements. where the father died within a year. ''Eastman's Standard Bromide Paper'' When fourteen, George Eastman left very promptly established itself with school and went to work in the real- the trade. In this product an emulsion estate office of Cornelius Waydell somewhat similar to that used on as errand boy, at $3 a week. His The inventor of the Kodak photographed in plates, but not so fast, was used. duties included sweeping the office, his workshop. An ardent and serious hobby- Why not coat a negative emulsion building a fire in the old-fashioned ist-he always referred to himself as " an on a thin, rollable base and thus stove, and generally getting it ship- amateur photographer"-Mr. Eastman spent remove the need for weighty, break- shape for the day's business. much of his spare time in this room, his darkroom, and his experimental laboratory able plates? The first germ of present- day photography had been born in He Takes Up Photography dark tent with his silver and collodion George Eastman's brain... After about a year in the real- and other paraphernalia. estate office, he transferred to the There were some who before this A Company Under Way insurance firm of Buell and Hayden; had dabbled in amateur photography. During the middle '80's, a young and in 1874 he got a position as George Eastman never dabbled in Rochester company, the Eastman bookkeeper with the Rochester Sav- anything. He began to make a Dry Plate Company (Strong & East- ings Bank. Some years later, while thorough study of photography; he man, Proprietors) was building up a planning a vacation trip, a friend read all the books on the subject that growing trade in photographic plates, suggested to him that he take some were to be had, and he subscribed to papers, and paper negatives. Roll photographs of his outing. the leading photographic publication holders and cameras and their acces- The idea appealed to him. He of the time. sories became part of the line. A knew nothing about photography, but His mother's kitchen became the branch was established in London. he paid a photographer five dollars first Eastman research laboratory. The future looked promising. to initiate him into its mysteries. In it, he delved deeper into the But why a roll holder as an acces- When vacation time came, the ardent mysteries of photography, experi- sory to the camera? Could not the young amateur spent many hours of mented, and planned-and all this whole outfit be self-contained, a each day on Mackinac Island in a at night, in his "leisure" hours. Work compact unit with which anybody Page 2 K 0 D A K attention, and all his zeal would turn Memorable Meeting at Kodak into that new channel. Whatever made photography more useful interested him. He was in- terested, of course, in the millions of miles of motion-picture films that were turned out; in the millions of Kodaks and Brownies that were made; in the development of the whole new idea of home motion pic- tures; the opening of new markets far afield. But he was interested, too, in making half a dozen special plates for a firmament-exploring astronomer or in the production of an unusual chemical for some obscure research worker. New System, New Industry Thus, the youth who zealously undertook to make photography simpler introduced an entire new system and a new industry. From the pots and pans in his mother's kitchen George Eastman and Thomas A . Edison at Mr. Eastman's home on July 30th, 1928, when the - all kept in order, you may be inventor of the motion-picture camera was one of a distinguished group of scientists, inven- assured- came the great company tors, educators, and business leaders which viewed the first showing of Kodacolor. Reali- that he so skilfully guided. More zation of a long-cherished Eastman dream , the Kodacolor process enabled amateur movie-makers to take color pictures. Further research replaced Kodacolor with Kodachrome in 1935, intro- than all that, he made photography duced new thousands of amateurs the world over to the joys of home movies in full natural color of infinite use and pleasure to the world. George Eastman's most outstanding could take pictures? Why not so It was a system that gave the characteristic was--next to honesty simplify photography that picture- amateur the delights of picture-taking - thoroughness. One of his maxims taking could easily become a um- with no annoying details to bother was: "What we do in our working versal pastime? him. The slogan that offered this hours determines what we have; These were the problems that system-"You press the button, we what we do in our play hours de- George Eastman tackled. And in 1888 do the rest"- fiashed round the tennines what we are." the world was in possession of his world, was paraphrased everywhere. It was living up to that ideal that most famous product, the Kodak. He Improved, Invented made him what he was- and made The original model was a little the world a happier place for millions. oblong black box. It made a round George Eastman found photog- picture 2Yz inches in diameter, and raphy a difficult, baffling process- was sold ready loaded for 100 expo- a half century old, but still in its sures. It was fixed focus, and it had swaddling clothes. He made it a no finder-diagonal lines on the top world-wide habit. With his charac- showed the scope of the view. The teristic thoroughness, he improved shutter was set by pulling a string, every part of it he touched. He released by pressing a button. Time invented; he encouraged invention exposures were made with a felt cap among his employees; and he de- over the lens opening. The price, lighted in giving practical application loaded, was $25. to ideas good in themselves, but un- developed, which had been hit upon An Involved Process and then abandoned by others. Thus was picture-taking simplified In the working out of a new idea for the amateur. Picture-making, how- or process, he would give himself ever, was still an involved process. assiduously to it. For weeks, months, And so the development of the nega- he would live and breathe it. Nothing tives and the making of the prints were else would seem for the time being A picture taken with one of the early Kodaks done for him. When the hundredth to matter. Then when the problem at the entrance to the first Eastman building exposure was made, the amateur sent was worked out, when his associates by W.