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.

EASTMAN, GEORGE

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