George Eastman had a lot of hardships throughout his life. His father, George Washington Eastman, moved the family from Waterville, New York, to Rochester to start the Eastman Commercial College (George Eastman). Tragedy struck two years after they moved, Eastman’s father died and the college went bankrupt. This horrible turn of events left George to take care of his mother, Maria Kilbourn, and two sisters (About George Eastman). One of which had polio (Hofkes). At age fourteen, he dropped out of school and got a job at an insurance company; Slowly working his way up the ranks to earn more money, eventually moving companies to the Rochester Savings Banks to be a junior clerk (George Eastman). At the same time, his mother began to take in boarders
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First on the long list of well known cameras by Kodak was named Kodak and it was the first widely available camera to the general public. Selling for only twenty-five dollars may seem like a cheap camera, but in today’s money, that would be about six hundred dollars. (Hofkes). The camera could be purchased with preloaded film for one hundred pictures. After a person took the pictures, he or she would send the camera to Kodak where the photographs were developed, then sent back to the owner with new film in the camera. Eastman sold almost 5000 Kodaks in just six months. Using the Kodak’s success, the slogan of the company became, “ You push the button, we do the rest” (Eastman Kodak Company). Though the Kodak company was well known for it’s cameras, it also produced other things as well. For example, “ ...Eastman perfected the first commercial transparent roll film which made possible Thomas Edison’s motion picture camera in 1891” (Bellis). George’s other inventions included Kodachrome (color film) and the Brownie camera, which targeted kids. It was easy to use and only cost one dollar. Therefore, it was a big hit. Sadly Kodak was found to have infringed on twelve Polaroid Corps patents in 1976. It lost seven of the court patents, but soon bought twenty one other patents pertaining to photography cameras (Bellis). George lost his patent for transparent, flexible film to Hannibal Goodwin (Lindsay). Surprisingly, this series of setback …show more content…
“A focus on the customer, mass production at low cost, worldwide distribution, and extensive advertising” (Hofkes). He loved his customers as much as his company and often showed it by always fixing mistakes that would arise. Even if the accident was not directly his fault. A story of him replacing a huge shipment of dry plates that had gone bad, even though it almost caused him to go bankrupt (Hofkes) goes to show this point. Eastman was also a man of his word. Often times people say that, “in addition to being optimists, inventors have generally found it difficult to keep their personalities in check” (Lindsay). This was not George Eastman. He was said to be a great person and rational in all he did. Arguably, this lead him to be rather distant in his dealings and he would often take a long while to warm up to people. “It took twenty-five years of close collaboration before Eastman and University of Rochester president, Rush Rhees, began to address each other by their first names”
First on the long list of well known cameras by Kodak was named Kodak and it was the first widely available camera to the general public. Selling for only twenty-five dollars may seem like a cheap camera, but in today’s money, that would be about six hundred dollars. (Hofkes). The camera could be purchased with preloaded film for one hundred pictures. After a person took the pictures, he or she would send the camera to Kodak where the photographs were developed, then sent back to the owner with new film in the camera. Eastman sold almost 5000 Kodaks in just six months. Using the Kodak’s success, the slogan of the company became, “ You push the button, we do the rest” (Eastman Kodak Company). Though the Kodak company was well known for it’s cameras, it also produced other things as well. For example, “ ...Eastman perfected the first commercial transparent roll film which made possible Thomas Edison’s motion picture camera in 1891” (Bellis). George’s other inventions included Kodachrome (color film) and the Brownie camera, which targeted kids. It was easy to use and only cost one dollar. Therefore, it was a big hit. Sadly Kodak was found to have infringed on twelve Polaroid Corps patents in 1976. It lost seven of the court patents, but soon bought twenty one other patents pertaining to photography cameras (Bellis). George lost his patent for transparent, flexible film to Hannibal Goodwin (Lindsay). Surprisingly, this series of setback …show more content…
“A focus on the customer, mass production at low cost, worldwide distribution, and extensive advertising” (Hofkes). He loved his customers as much as his company and often showed it by always fixing mistakes that would arise. Even if the accident was not directly his fault. A story of him replacing a huge shipment of dry plates that had gone bad, even though it almost caused him to go bankrupt (Hofkes) goes to show this point. Eastman was also a man of his word. Often times people say that, “in addition to being optimists, inventors have generally found it difficult to keep their personalities in check” (Lindsay). This was not George Eastman. He was said to be a great person and rational in all he did. Arguably, this lead him to be rather distant in his dealings and he would often take a long while to warm up to people. “It took twenty-five years of close collaboration before Eastman and University of Rochester president, Rush Rhees, began to address each other by their first names”