George Eastman

Infobox Person
name = George Eastman

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image_size = 200px
caption =
birth_date = Birth date|1854|7|12
birth_place =
death_date = Death date|1932|3|14 (aged 77)
death_place =
resting_place = Ashes Buried at Kodak Park
other_names =
known_for = Photography pioneer, Founder of Eastman Kodak
occupation = Businessman, Inventor, Philanthropist
nationality = American
footnotes =

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 the motion picture film in 1888 by world's first filmmaker, Louis Le Prince, and a decade later by his followers Léon Bouly, Thomas Edison, the Lumière Brothers and Georges Méliès.

Biography

Born in Waterville, New York, he was the third and youngest child of George Washington Eastman and Maria Kilbourn, both from the bordering town of Marshall. His third sister died shortly after her birth. In 1854, his father established the Eastman Commercial College in Rochester. The Eastman family moved to Rochester in 1865. Two years later after his father's death, George Eastman left high school to support his mother and sisters. At age 14 he began working as an office boy. [cite web| url=http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/kodakHistory/eastmanTheMan.shtml| title=George Eastman - The Man: About His Life| work=Kodak: History of Kodak| accessdate=December 7| accessyear=2006]

In 1874, Eastman became intrigued with photography, but found the process awkward. It required coating a glass plate with a liquid emulsion, which had to be quickly used before it dried. After three years of experimentation with British gelatin emulsions, Eastman developed a dry photographic plate, and patented it in both Britain and the US. In 1880 he began a photographic business.

In 1884, Eastman patented a photographic medium that replaced fragile glass plates with a photo-emulsion coated on paper rolls. The invention of roll film greatly sped up the process of recording multiple images. [ [http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/speeches/01-44.htm Kodak film patented] on October 14, 1884]

Kodak camera.Eastman then received a patent in 1888 for a camera designed to use roll film. He coined the marketing phrase, "You press the button, we do the rest." [Men of 1914 citation|E|Eastman, George] The phrase entered the public consciousness. It was even incorporated into a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta ("Utopia, Limited").

The camera owner could send in the camera with a processing fee of $10. The company would develop the film, print 100 pictures, and also send along a new roll of 100-exposures film. [cite web| url=http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/kodakHistory/buildingTheFoundation.shtml| title=Building the Foundation| work=Kodak: History of Kodak| accessdate=December 7| accessyear=2006]

On September 4, 1888 Eastman registered the trademark Kodak. The letter "K" had been a favorite of Eastman's. He said, " [I] t seems a strong, incisive sort of letter". [cite web
title = Kodak Origins
url = http://www.cinematography.net/Pages%20DW/KodakOrigins.htm
accessdate=2007-02-02 ] Eastman and his mother devised the name Kodak with an anagram set. He used three principal concepts to create the name: it must be short, it could not be mispronounced, and it could not resemble anything else or be associated with anything but Kodak. [cite web
title=Rochester's History
url=http://www.vintageviews.org/vv-tl/biographies/biography.html#georgeeastman
work=George Eastman
accessdate=2007-02-02]

By 1896, 100 Kodak cameras had been sold. The first Kodak cost USD $25. In an effort to bring photography to the masses, Eastman introduced the Brownie in 1900 at a price of just $1. It became a great success.

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. 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 which 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 which 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. [ [http://www.nndb.com/people/980/000086722/ - George Eastman Biography] (2006) nnbd.com.] He left a suicide note that read, "To my Friends, My work is done. Why wait?" [ [http://www.corsinet.com/braincandy/dying3.html - Famous Suicide Notes] (2006) corsinet.com.] His funeral was held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Rochester. Eastman, who never married, was buried on the grounds of the company he founded at Kodak Park in Rochester, New York.

Legacy

During his lifetime, he donated $100 million, mostly to the University of Rochester and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (under the alias "Mr. Smith"). [cite book | first = Carin T.| last = Ford | authorlink = Carin T. Ford | year =2004 |title=George Eastman: The Kodak Camera Man | publisher=Enslow Publishers, INC.