ONE MORE THING
The introduction of smaller, more sophisticated cameras and standardized, ready-made supplies simplified photography, but there were still a few hurdles that kept most people away.
For one thing, people still needed a darkroom or at least a dark room, because the gelatin plates had to be loaded into a camera in absolute darkness. The plates were so sensitive that exposing them to even a small amount of light caused them to fog over. And they were still made of glass, which was expensive, fragile, and heavy. Glass plates and plate holders added several pounds to the weight of a camera, which meant that no matter how small the cameras got, photography was still a costly and unwieldy affair.
However, the most daunting problem of all was that most people still had to develop exposures themselves. If you wanted to take a picture, you had to make the picture. And if you weren't willing to do that, you were out of luck. Then in 1880, George Eastman, a bookkeeper at the Rochester Savings Bank in Rochester, New York, decided to go into the gelatin-plate business.
CAMERAMAN
On November 13, 1877, a 23-year-old bank clerk named George Eastman walked into a camera store in Rochester, New York, and paid $49.58 for a camera and some equipment. Eastman bought only the essentials, but in those days "the essentials" included a tripod, glass plates, a plate holder, containers of photographic chemicals, and more than a dozen other items, including a tent to serve as a darkroom.
Eastman took his camera with him on a trip to Mackinac Island in Lake Huron, where he photographed some of the local sights. But as fascinated as he was by photography, he loathed the amount of equipment that was required. "It seemed," he said, "that one ought to be able to carry less than a pack-horse load."
MADE IN ENGLAND
Eastman began to experiment to see if he could simplify the process. He bought a subscription to the British Journal of Photography, and by chance his first issue was the one reporting Charles Harper Bennett's perfection of the gelatin dryplate process. The article prompted him to abandon the collodion "wet process" and start making his own gelatin plates.
"The English article started me in the right direction," he wrote. "At first I wanted to make photography simpler merely for my own convenience, but soon I thought of the possibilities of commercial production."
Like most other commercial plate makers, Eastman started out making them one at a time. He heated chemicals in an old teakettle, poured them over glass plates, then smoothed out the emulsion with a rod. It was a cumbersome, time consuming process, and that made precoated plates expensive. Eventually, Eastman invented a machine to coat gelatin plates automatically, then, in April 1880, started manufacturing them to sell to local photographers and photo supply stores.
ON A ROLL
The Eastman Dry-Plate Company grew rapidly on the strength of gelatin plate sales, but that did not stop Eastman from introducing a product in 1884 that he believed would make glass plates obsolete: it was a roll of photosensitive paper, or
"film," that could be used instead of glass plates. Eastman sold this film in a box that could be attached to existing cameras,in place of the box that held the glass plates.
Using glass plates, photographers could take at most a few shots before having to reload the camera, which usually required a darkroom; with Eastman's roll film there was enough paper for 50. Added bonus: Roll film was not heavy. "It weighs two and three-quarters pounds," Eastman explained. "A corresponding amount of glass plates and holders would weigh fifty pounds."
A TOUGH SELL
Eastman's new film seemed such an obvious improvement over glass plates that he believed it would take the photographic world by storm. He was wrong: Professional photographers had too much money invested in glass-plate technology. Besides, glass plates made negatives as large as 20 by 24 inches, which captured an incredible amount of detail and produced beautiful photographs. Eastman's film could not duplicate the quality.
At first Eastman tried to adjust his product line to accommodate the needs of professional photographers, but he soon realized that this was exactly the opposite of what he should be doing. And that was when he changed photography forever.
"When we started out with our scheme of film photography," he recalled in 1913, "we expected that everybody who used glass plates would take up films, but we found that in order to make a large business we would have to reach the general public."
The introduction of smaller, more sophisticated cameras and standardized, ready-made supplies simplified photography, but there were still a few hurdles that kept most people away.
For one thing, people still needed a darkroom or at least a dark room, because the gelatin plates had to be loaded into a camera in absolute darkness. The plates were so sensitive that exposing them to even a small amount of light caused them to fog over. And they were still made of glass, which was expensive, fragile, and heavy. Glass plates and plate holders added several pounds to the weight of a camera, which meant that no matter how small the cameras got, photography was still a costly and unwieldy affair.
However, the most daunting problem of all was that most people still had to develop exposures themselves. If you wanted to take a picture, you had to make the picture. And if you weren't willing to do that, you were out of luck. Then in 1880, George Eastman, a bookkeeper at the Rochester Savings Bank in Rochester, New York, decided to go into the gelatin-plate business.
CAMERAMAN
On November 13, 1877, a 23-year-old bank clerk named George Eastman walked into a camera store in Rochester, New York, and paid $49.58 for a camera and some equipment. Eastman bought only the essentials, but in those days "the essentials" included a tripod, glass plates, a plate holder, containers of photographic chemicals, and more than a dozen other items, including a tent to serve as a darkroom.
Eastman took his camera with him on a trip to Mackinac Island in Lake Huron, where he photographed some of the local sights. But as fascinated as he was by photography, he loathed the amount of equipment that was required. "It seemed," he said, "that one ought to be able to carry less than a pack-horse load."
MADE IN ENGLAND
Eastman began to experiment to see if he could simplify the process. He bought a subscription to the British Journal of Photography, and by chance his first issue was the one reporting Charles Harper Bennett's perfection of the gelatin dryplate process. The article prompted him to abandon the collodion "wet process" and start making his own gelatin plates.
"The English article started me in the right direction," he wrote. "At first I wanted to make photography simpler merely for my own convenience, but soon I thought of the possibilities of commercial production."
Like most other commercial plate makers, Eastman started out making them one at a time. He heated chemicals in an old teakettle, poured them over glass plates, then smoothed out the emulsion with a rod. It was a cumbersome, time consuming process, and that made precoated plates expensive. Eventually, Eastman invented a machine to coat gelatin plates automatically, then, in April 1880, started manufacturing them to sell to local photographers and photo supply stores.
ON A ROLL
The Eastman Dry-Plate Company grew rapidly on the strength of gelatin plate sales, but that did not stop Eastman from introducing a product in 1884 that he believed would make glass plates obsolete: it was a roll of photosensitive paper, or
"film," that could be used instead of glass plates. Eastman sold this film in a box that could be attached to existing cameras,in place of the box that held the glass plates.
Using glass plates, photographers could take at most a few shots before having to reload the camera, which usually required a darkroom; with Eastman's roll film there was enough paper for 50. Added bonus: Roll film was not heavy. "It weighs two and three-quarters pounds," Eastman explained. "A corresponding amount of glass plates and holders would weigh fifty pounds."
A TOUGH SELL
Eastman's new film seemed such an obvious improvement over glass plates that he believed it would take the photographic world by storm. He was wrong: Professional photographers had too much money invested in glass-plate technology. Besides, glass plates made negatives as large as 20 by 24 inches, which captured an incredible amount of detail and produced beautiful photographs. Eastman's film could not duplicate the quality.
At first Eastman tried to adjust his product line to accommodate the needs of professional photographers, but he soon realized that this was exactly the opposite of what he should be doing. And that was when he changed photography forever.
"When we started out with our scheme of film photography," he recalled in 1913, "we expected that everybody who used glass plates would take up films, but we found that in order to make a large business we would have to reach the general public."
Next; JUST PLAIN FOLKS, PICTURE PERFECT, KODAK MOMENTS
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