George Eastman patents the first roll-film camera - September 4th, 1888

On this day in 1888, American entrepreneur George Eastman received a patent for the world's first camera designed to use rolls of film.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class. It's a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show for people who can never know enough about history.
My name is Gay Bluesier, and one of my favorite

(00:21):
things about history is that it gives us a glimpse
of just how novel the technology we take for granted
used to be. Take cameras, for instance. Most of us
today have a high quality one within arm's reach at
any given moment, thanks to our phones. But when cameras
were new, they were complex, bulky, and anything but intuitive.

(00:43):
So today we're going to reflect on just how good
we've got it by looking at the day when cameras
finally started to get a little more user friendly. The
day was Tuesday, September four, eighteen eight. American entrepreneur George Eastman,

(01:05):
founder of the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company, received
a patent for the world's first camera designed to use
rolls of film. Dubbed the Kodak, the box style camera
was much easier to carry and operate compared to other
cameras of the day. This ease of use helped expand
the niche world of photography into a hobby accessible to

(01:28):
almost anyone. Eastman was born on July twelfth, eighteen fifty four,
in Waterville, New York. He grew up poor and dropped
out of high school to support his widowed mother and
two sisters, one of whom was sick with polio. At
age fourteen. Eastman began his career in business as the

(01:48):
office boy for a local insurance company. He then got
a job as a bank clerk, and it was during
this tenure that he first took an interest in photography.
When Eastman was twenty four, he started making plans for
a vacation to Santo Domingo, the capital city of the
Dominican Republic. While prepping for the trip, a colleague at

(02:09):
the bank encouraged Eastman to document his travels. This prompted
him to invest in his own photographic equipment. True to
the era, the camera Eastman bought was as big as
a microwave and required a tripod to operate. At the time,
cameras relied on what's known as wet plate photography. In

(02:31):
this process, the camera's lens used light to capture an
image onto a heavy glass plate inserted in the camera. Then,
in a complicated multi step process, the glass plate would
be coated and dipped in several chemical solutions before being exposed, washed,
and varnished. Once this lengthy process was complete, and only

(02:53):
if done correctly, a visible negative image would appear on
the plate, which could then be used to make a
pay for print or photograph. Needless to say, taking and
developing even a single photo involved a great deal of time, effort,
and technical know how. In fact, when Eastman had gathered
his complete photography kit, which he colorfully described as a

(03:17):
pack horse load, he found that he still needed to
pay five dollars to learn how to use it. In
the end, George Eastman never actually took that vacation to
Santo Domingo, but his foray into photography ignited a new passion.
He continued to work at the bank during the day,
but at night he would experiment in his mother's kitchen,

(03:39):
hoping to find an easier way to take pictures. His
research led him to another existing form of photography, which
involved coading glass plates with a gelatine emulsion that remained
light sensitive even after it dried. This dry plate form
of photography simplified the development process, and after three years

(04:00):
of experimentation, Eastman came up with his own dry plate
formula and entered the photography business full time. As he
worked to keep his young company afloat, Eastman continued searching
for a new exposure method that would do away with
cumbersome glass plates once and for all. He knew that

(04:20):
only then could he achieve his dream to quote make
the camera as convenient as the pencil. His initial approach
was to coat the gelatine emulsion directly onto paper instead
of onto glass plates. That way, the paper could be
wound into a compact roll and loaded into a special
holder attached to the camera. When it became clear the

(04:44):
wet paper was too sticky and fragile to be rolled
up effectively, Eastman switched to film made from cellulose, and
the modern camera was born. The first camera to use
that film was the one Eastman patented in the Kodak Box.
Camera came preloaded with one hundred exposures worth of film

(05:05):
and was ready to use with no adjustments or prior
knowledge needed. Budding photographers could simply ready the shutter by
pulling up on a string, point the camera at a subject,
and then press the shutter release to snap a picture.
This simplicity was the major selling point for the twenty
five dollar Kodak camera, as evidenced by the camera slogan,

(05:28):
you press the button, we do the rest. Once all
one hundred exposures had been used, the entire camera was
sent to Eastman's headquarters in Rochester. There the film was developed,
prints were made, and a new roll of film was installed.
The camera and prince were then returned to the customer,

(05:48):
with the whole service costing around ten dollars. The Kodak
camera was such a success that within a few years
of its debut Eastman renamed his business the Eastman Kodak Company.
As for the word Kodak, which Eastman trademarked on the
same day he patented his camera, it doesn't actually mean anything.

(06:10):
Contrary to popular belief, it was not an existing word
borrowed from a foreign language. According to Eastman, the made
up word was chosen for four reasons. First, it was
short and therefore easy to remember. Second, it was a
distinct enough word that it would be difficult to mispronounce. Third,

(06:30):
it had no associations outside of his specific camera. And fourth,
it both started and ended with the letter K, which
was Eastman's favorite letter. The name proved to be a
good choice, as Kodak went on to become one of
the most recognizable brand names of all time. The Kodak

(06:51):
Company and the medium of film photography in general have
lost some of their prominence since the advent of digital photography,
but without George Eastman and the role film camera, who
knows when or if photography would have ever become the
universal pastime it is today. I'm Gabelusier and hopefully you

(07:13):
now know a little more about history today than you
did yesterday. If you'd like, you can learn more about
history by following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. At
t d I HC podcast and if you have any
comments or suggestions, please send them my way at this
Day at i heeart media dot com. Thanks to Chandler

(07:36):
May's for producing the show, and thank you for listening.
I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another Day
in History class. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
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