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Corporate Gift Ideas Biography

(Source google.com)

The youngest of three children, George Eastman was born to Maria Kilbourn and George Washington Eastman on July 12, 1854 in the village of Waterville, some 20 miles southwest of Utica, in upstate New York. The house on the old Eastman homestead, where his father was born and where George spent his early years, has since been moved to the Genesee Country Museum in Mumford, N.Y., outside of Rochester. When George was five years old, his father moved the family to Rochester. There the elder Eastman devoted his energy to establishing Eastman Commercial College. Then tragedy struck. George's father died, the college failed and the family became financially distressed. George continued school until he was 14. Then, forced by family circumstances, he had to find employment. His first job, as a messenger boy with an insurance firm, paid $3 a week. A year later, he became office boy for another insurance firm. Through his own initiative, he soon took charge of policy filing and even wrote policies. His pay increased to $5 per week. But, even with that increase, his income was not enough to meet family expenses. He studied accounting at home evenings to get a better paying job. In 1874, after five years in the insurance business, he was hired as a junior clerk at the Rochester Savings Bank. His salary tripled -- to more than $15 a week. Trials of an Amateur When Eastman was 24, he made plans for a vacation to Santo Domingo. When a co-worker suggested he make a record of the trip, Eastman bought a photographic outfit with all the paraphernalia of the wet plate days. The camera was as big as a microwave oven and needed a heavy tripod. And he carried a tent so that he could spread photographic emulsion on glass plates before exposing them, and develop the exposed plates before they dried out. There were chemicals, glass tanks, a heavy plate holder, and a jug of water. The complete outfit "was a pack-horse load," as he described it. Learning how to use it to take pictures cost $5. Eastman did not make the Santo Domingo trip. But he did become completely absorbed in photography and sought to simplify the complicated process.  

He read in British magazines that photographers were making their own gelatin emulsions. Plates coated with this emulsion remained sensitive after they were dry and could be exposed at leisure. Using a formula taken from one of these British journals, Eastman began making gelatin emulsions.

He worked at the bank during the day and experimented at home in his mother's kitchen at night. His mother said that some nights Eastman was so tired he couldn't undress, but slept on a blanket on the floor beside the kitchen stove. After three years of photographic experiments, Eastman had a formula that worked. By 1880, he had not only invented a dry plate formula, but had patented a machine for preparing large numbers of the plates. He quickly recognized the possibilities of making dry plates.

In April 1880, Eastman leased the third floor of a building on State Street in Rochester, and began to manufacture dry plates for sale. One of his first purchases was a second-hand engine priced at $125.

"I really needed only a one horse-power," he later recalled. "This was a two horse-power, but I thought perhaps business would grow up to it. It was worth a chance, so I took it."

As his young company grew, it faced total collapse at least once when dry plates in the hands of dealers went bad. Eastman recalled them and replaced them with a good product. "Making good on those plates took our last dollar," he said. "But what we had left was more important -- reputation."

"The idea gradually dawned on me," he later said, "that what we were doing was not merely making dry plates, but that we were starting out to make photography an everyday affair." Or as he described it more succinctly "to make the camera as convenient as the pencil." Eastman's experiments were directed to the use of a lighter and more flexible support than glass. His first approach was to coat the photographic emulsion on paper and then load the paper in a roll holder. The holder was used in view cameras in place of the holders for glass plates. The first film advertisements in 1885 stated that "shortly there will be introdu ced a new sensitive film which it is believed will prove an economical and convenient substitute for glass dry plates both for outdoor and studio work." This system of photography using roll holders was immediately successful. However, paper was not entirely satisfactory as a carrier for the emulsion because the grain of the paper was likely to be reproduced in the photo. Eastman's solution was to coat the paper with a layer of plain, soluble gelatin, and then with a layer of insoluble light-sensitive gelatin. After exposure and development, the gelatin bearing the image was stripped from the paper, transferred to a sheet of clear gelatin, and varnished with collodion -- a cellulose solution that forms a tough, flexible film. As he perfected transparent roll film and the roll holder, Eastman changed the whole direction of his work and established the base on which his success in amateur photography would be built.

He later said: "When we started out with our scheme of film photography, we expected that everybody who used glass plates would take up films. But we found that the number which did so was relatively small. In order to make a large business we would have to reach the general public."

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Corporate Gift Ideas Gifts For Men Girls Boyfriends Valentines Day of The Holy Spirit For Husband For Boys For Boys For Him For Girlfriend For Her

Corporate Gift Ideas Gifts For Men Girls Boyfriends Valentines Day of The Holy Spirit For Husband For Boys For Boys For Him For Girlfriend For Her

Corporate Gift Ideas Gifts For Men Girls Boyfriends Valentines Day of The Holy Spirit For Husband For Boys For Boys For Him For Girlfriend For Her

Corporate Gift Ideas Gifts For Men Girls Boyfriends Valentines Day of The Holy Spirit For Husband For Boys For Boys For Him For Girlfriend For Her

Corporate Gift Ideas Gifts For Men Girls Boyfriends Valentines Day of The Holy Spirit For Husband For Boys For Boys For Him For Girlfriend For Her

Corporate Gift Ideas Gifts For Men Girls Boyfriends Valentines Day of The Holy Spirit For Husband For Boys For Boys For Him For Girlfriend For Her

Corporate Gift Ideas Gifts For Men Girls Boyfriends Valentines Day of The Holy Spirit For Husband For Boys For Boys For Him For Girlfriend For Her

Corporate Gift Ideas Gifts For Men Girls Boyfriends Valentines Day of The Holy Spirit For Husband For Boys For Boys For Him For Girlfriend For Her

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Corporate Gift Ideas Gifts For Men Girls Boyfriends Valentines Day of The Holy Spirit For Husband For Boys For Boys For Him For Girlfriend For Her

Corporate Gift Ideas Gifts For Men Girls Boyfriends Valentines Day of The Holy Spirit For Husband For Boys For Boys For Him For Girlfriend For Her

Corporate Gift Ideas Gifts For Men Girls Boyfriends Valentines Day of The Holy Spirit For Husband For Boys For Boys For Him For Girlfriend For Her

Corporate Gift Ideas Gifts For Men Girls Boyfriends Valentines Day of The Holy Spirit For Husband For Boys For Boys For Him For Girlfriend For Her

Corporate Gift Ideas Gifts For Men Girls Boyfriends Valentines Day of The Holy Spirit For Husband For Boys For Boys For Him For Girlfriend For Her