George Eastman

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American inventor (1854–1932)

Eastman, who was born in Waterville, New York, began his career in banking and insurance but turned from this to photography. In 1880 he perfected the dry-plate photographic film and began manufacturing this. He produced a transparent roll film in 1884 and in the same year founded the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company. In 1888 he introduced the simple hand-held box camera that made popular photography possible. The Kodak camera with a roll of transparent film was cheap enough for all pockets and could be used by a child. It was followed by the Brownie camera, which cost just one dollar.

Eastman gave away a considerable part of his fortune to educational institutions, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He committed suicide in 1932.

(b Waterville, NY, 12 July 1854; d Rochester, NY, 14 March 1932). American inventor and photographer. He took up photography in 1877, and in 1878, dissatisfied with the cumbersome wet collodion process, he started making the new gelatin dry plates (see PHOTOGRAPHY,

See the Abbreviations for further details.

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.

Eastman, George (1854-1932), American industrialist and photographic innovator. Eastman, born in Waterville, New York, probably inherited his acute business sense from his father, who founded the Eastman Commercial College in 1842. Within a few years of the latter's death, George—still a young teenager—left school and began working his way up through bookkeeping jobs in small businesses and banks in Rochester where the family had moved. He took up photography at the age of 23. Confronted with the laborious complexity of the silver nitrate and wet-plate process, he began a search for simplifying remedies, the intensity of which came to govern his life. Sometimes accused of patent infringement and creating monopolies by buying out innovative competitors, Eastman nonetheless became noted for his fair treatment of employees and, later, his educational philanthropy. Sometimes overlooked was his close association with Thomas Edison and the development of effective motion-picture film. Eastman's greatest legacy, however, rests with his development—in stages—of a simple camera. Beginning in 1888 with the first of several Kodak models, followed by celluloid roll-film in 1889, and finally with the first Brownie in 1900, photography became increasingly accessible to the masses.

— Tim Troy

Bibliography

• Brayer, E., George Eastman: A Biography (1996)

(1854-1932), inventor, manufacturer, and philanthropist. Born at Waterville, New York, Eastman left school at age fourteen to help support his widowed mother and two sisters as an errand boy in a real estate office. He became interested in photography as a youth, and while working as a bookkeeper in a Rochester bank, he perfected a process for making dry plates in his home studio. In 1880, without quitting his job, he established the Eastman Dry Plate Company with partner Henry A. Strong in the loft of a factory building. So rapidly did this business grow that Eastman left the bank to devote himself full-time to the fledgling photography firm in September 1881.

During the next decade, Eastman transformed photography from a laborious and costly art into an easy, inexpensive hobby enjoyed by millions. In 1884, he replaced cumbersome glass plates with a paper-backed roll film which he invented and marketed through the reorganized Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company. Four years later, he introduced the hand-held Kodak; loaded with film sufficient for one hundred photographs, it produced round pictures two and one-half inches in diameter. "You push the button--we do the rest," Eastman advertised. After snapping a hundred pictures, the amateur photographer returned the loaded camera to the factory where the photos were processed and the camera reloaded.

In 1889 Eastman applied for a patent for celluloid film, which provided the foundation for an entirely new and unforeseen industry--moving pictures. Three years later, after developing daylight-loading film, the firm was reorganized as the Eastman Kodak Company; in 1901 it became the Eastman Kodak Company of New Jersey, capitalized at $35 million. To minimize his competition, Eastman bought out many rivals, acquired patent rights from others, and made exclusive contracts with his wholesale and retail dealers. By 1928, the year the company perfected color photography for motion pictures, Eastman Kodak was the largest manufacturer of photographic supplies in the world, producing everything required by amateur, commercial, scientific, and motion picture photographers.

Eastman's phenomenal success was rooted in continuing scientific research, cost-efficient manufacturing methods, and a loyal labor force. He was one of the first American manufacturers to employ full-time research chemists; he pioneered large-scale production at low costs for a world market; and he introduced profit-sharing and stock-option plans for employees. At the time of his death, the company operated manufacturing plants in Rochester, New York, Kingsport, Tennessee, and England, France, Germany, Australia, and Hungary. The main plant at Kodak Park, Rochester, spread over 480 acres and employed nineteen thousand people.

Eastman never married, and his philanthropies, including bequests, totaled more than $75 million. His primary beneficiary was the University of Rochester, to which he contributed $35 million for the Eastman Theater, the School of Music, the School of Medicine and Dentistry, and the College for Women. Lesser sums were donated to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Hampton and Tuskegee institutes. His hobbies included big-game hunting and growing orchids, and he advocated a calendar based on thirteen months of twenty-eight days. Long in poor health, he took his own life at age seventy-seven. The note he left read: "My work is done. Why wait?"

Bibliography:

Carl W. Ackerman, George Eastman (1930).

Author:

Patricia Condon Johnston

See also Photography.

Quotes:

"My work is done why wait."

For other uses, see George Eastman (disambiguation).

George Eastman
Born	July 12, 1854(1854-07-12) Waterville, New York, U.S.
Died	March 14, 1932 (aged 77) Rochester, New York, U.S.
Resting place	Ashes buried at Kodak Park
Nationality	American
Occupation	Businessman, inventor, philanthropist
Known for	Photography pioneer, Founder of Eastman Kodak
Parents	George Eastman (1815-1862) & Maria Kilbourn (1821-1907)

George Eastman (July 12, 1854 – March 14, 1932) founded the Eastman Kodak Company and invented roll film, helping to bring photography to the mainstream. Roll film was also the basis for the invention of motion picture film in 1888 by the world's first filmmaker Louis Le Prince, and a decade later by his followers Léon Bouly, Thomas Edison, the Lumière Brothers and Georges Méliès.

He was an American inventor and philanthropist, who played a leading role in transforming photography from an expensive hobby of a few devotees into a relatively inexpensive and immensely popular pastime.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Later years 3 Legacy 4 See also 5 References 5.1 Books 6 External links 6.1 Patents

Early life

He was born in Waterville, New York, and was self-educated. In 1884, Eastman patented the first film in roll form to prove practicable; in 1888 he perfected the Kodak camera, the first camera designed specifically for roll film. In 1892, he established the Eastman Kodak Company, at Rochester, New York, one of the first firms to mass-produce standardized photography equipment. This company also manufactured the flexible transparent film, devised by Eastman in 1889, which proved vital to the subsequent development of the motion picture industry.

Eastman was associated with the company in an administrative and an executive capacity until his death and contributed much to the development of its notable research facilities. He was also one of the outstanding philanthropists of his time, donating more than $75 million to various projects. Notable among his contributions were a gift to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and endowments for the establishment of the Eastman School of Music in 1918 and a school of medicine and dentistry in 1921 at the University of Rochester. George eastman Was Born In 1854 In Waterville,New York.Died in Rochester,New York

Later years

In 1925, Eastman gave up his daily management of Kodak to become chairman of the board. He thereafter concentrated on philanthropic activities, to which he had already donated substantial sums.For example, he donated funds to establish the Eastman Dental Dispensary, in 1916. He was one of the major philanthropists of his time, ranking only slightly behind Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and a few others, but did not seek publicity for his activities. He concentrated on institution-building and causes that could help people's health. He donated to the University of Rochester, establishing the Eastman School of Music and School of Dentistry; to Tuskegee Institute; and to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), donations that provided the capital to build several of their first buildings at their second campus along the Charles River.

In his final two years, Eastman was in intense pain, caused by a degenerative disorder affecting his spine. He had trouble standing and his walking became a slow shuffle. Today it might be diagnosed as spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal canal caused by calcification in the vertebrae. Eastman grew depressed, as he had seen his mother spend the last two years of her life in a wheelchair from the same condition. On March 14, 1932, Eastman committed suicide with a single gunshot to the heart, leaving a note which read, "My work is done. Why wait?"^[1] His funeral was held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Rochester; he was buried on the grounds of the company he founded at Kodak Park in Rochester, New York. Eastman never married nor had children.

Legacy

A First Day Cover Honoring George Eastman 1954.

During his lifetime, he donated $100 million, mostly to the University of Rochester and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (under the alias "Mr. Smith").^[2] The Rochester Institute of Technology has a building dedicated to Mr. Eastman, in recognition of his support and substantial donations. He endowed the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester.

MIT has a plaque of Eastman (the rubbing of which is traditionally considered by students to bring good luck) in recognition of his donation. Eastman also made substantial gifts to the Tuskegee Institute and the Hampton Institute. Upon his death, his entire estate went to the University of Rochester, where his name can be found on the Eastman Quadrangle of the River Campus. The auditorium at Mississippi State Universities Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering is named for Eastman in recognition of his inspiration to Mr. Swalm. His former home at 900 East Avenue in Rochester, New York was opened as the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in 1949. On the 100th anniversary of his birth in 1854, Eastman was honored with a postage stamp from the United States Post Office.

Eastman had a very astute business sense. He focused his company on making film when competition heated up in the camera industry. By providing quality and affordable film to every camera manufacturer, Kodak managed to turn its competitors into de facto business partners.

In 1926, George Eastman was approached by Lord Riddell, the Chairman of Royal Free Hospital, to fund a dental clinic in London. He agreed to give £800,000 which was matched by £80,000 each from Lord Riddell and Sir Albert Levy, the Royal Free's honorary treasurer.

The Eastman Dental Clinic was opened in November 20, 1931, by the American Ambassador in the presence of Neville Chamberlain. The building, which resembled the Rochester Dispensary, was totally integrated into the Royal Free Hospital and included three wards for oral, ear, nose, and throat and cleft lip and palate surgery and was dedicated to providing dental care for children from the poor districts of central London.^[3]

In a similar manner, Eastman went on to establish dental clinics in Rome, Paris, Brussels and Stockholm.^[4]

See also

• Eastmaninstitutet
• George Eastman House

References

1. ^ [1]The George Eastman House
2. ^ Ford, Carin T. (2004). George Eastman: The Kodak Camera Man. Enslow Publishers, INC.. 

• ^ - History of the Eastman Dental Institute (2007) eastman.ucl.ac.uk
• ^ http://urmc.rochester.edu/dentistry/education/library/history/european-clinics.cfm

Books

• Carl W. Ackerman, George Eastman: Founder of Kodak and the Photography Business (1930), Beard Books, ISBN 1-89312299-9
• Elizabeth Brayer, George Eastman: A Biography (1996), John's Hopkins University Press, ISBN 0-8018-5263-3, University of Rochester Press 2006 reprint: ISBN 1-58046247-2

External links

• George Eastman archive at the University of Rochester
• George Eastman at Find a Grave
• The George Eastman House
• Eastman Dental Institute
• Eastman Institute for Oral Health, Rochester, NY

Patents

{TIFF format images}

• U.S. Patent 226,503 "Method and Apparatus for Coating Plates", filed September 1879, issued April 1880
• U.S. Patent 306,594 "Photographic Film", filed March 1884, issued October, 1884
• U.S. Patent 317,049 "Roll Holder for Photographic Films", filed August 1884, issued May 1885
• U.S. Patent 388,850 "Camera", filed March, 1888, issued September, 1888

Business positions
New office	Treasurer of Eastman Kodak 1884 – 1921	Succeeded by '
Vacant Title last held by Henry A. Strong	President of Eastman Kodak 1921 – April 7, 1925	Succeeded by William G. Stuber
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Raymond Poincaré	Cover of Time Magazine March 31, 1924	Succeeded by George V

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