How Did George Eastman Contribute To Photography

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George Eastman experienced many 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, gradually working his way up the ranks to earn more money. Eventually, he moved companies to the Rochester Savings Banks to become a junior clerk (George Eastman). Concurrently, his mother began to take in boarders to supplement the family income (Zinsmeister). …show more content…
George became interested in photography when a coworker suggested he take a camera on a vacation to Santo Domingo in 1877. George never made the trip, but consequently this sparked his interest in photography. “ He would toil at the bank all day, six days a week, then spend his evenings… experimenting tirelessly with various photo emulsions” (Zinsmeister). This accidental discovery of an interest led him to revolutionize the photographic world. George Eastman’s developments and invention in the photographic process, along with his many contributions to educational foundations lead him to be the most influential inventor in the history of photography. When Eastman started to experiment with photography, the wet plate process was the most commonly used method for taking photographs. The first wet plate process was introduced in 1851, while the current wet plate process was invented in 1856 by John Dillwyn Llewelyn and was called the Oxymel process. His process reduced the light sensitivity of the plates (Mike), which made taking pictures easier. The wet plate process included,“ heavy glass plates covered with a mixture of silver and other chemicals” (Eastman Kodak Company). Thus causing the photographer to have to put the chemicals on the plate, take the picture, and develop it all while on site. A process that would involve a darkroom for developing the photos right after they were taken (Mike). A lot of equipment was needed for each photo. George wanted to make taking photographs easier, so he would experiment in his mother’s kitchen all night, struggling to develop an easier way to take pictures. “ He spent three years in his mother’s kitchen experimenting with gelatin emulsions…” (About George Eastman). He would often sleep on the floor in the kitchen, as a result of his exhaustion inhibiting him from going to his room (George Eastman). In those three years, he tested many emulsions for dry plates. Dry plates were easier to use, considering they could be coated and sold to be used at a later date as well as being able to be developed off site. Although Eastman perfected the dry plate process, he did not invent it. The process was invented in Britain by Dr. J.M. Tauperot in 1860 (Eastman Kodak Company), reducing the light sensitivity of the plates by six times. “ A plate would be washed of excess silver… coated with tannic acid and allowed to dry. An additional coating of iodized albumen and another coating of silver nitrate were then allowed to dry” (Mike). George developed a formula of his own and a machine that could mass produce the plates called the “Method and Apparatus for Coating Plates”. He received patent #226,503 in 1879 for his invention (Lemelson). This invention was only one way Eastman changed the world of photography. Eastman wanted to start his own business to help make the camera more widely available to the everyday person. On account of this, he rented a floor in a Rochester business in April of 1880 and created the Eastman Dry Plate Company with his investor Henry Strong (Eastman Kodak Company), later renamed the Eastman Kodak Company in 1892 (About George Eastman). When asked how he came up with the name Kodak, George said: “ The letter ‘k’... seems a strong, incisive sort of letter…” (Bellis), thus he decided the company should start and end with the letter k. Eastman made up the word Kodak from his own thoughts and the newly named company soon

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