A Biography on George Eastman
George Eastman was a great inventor. He is known as the “Father of Popular Photography,” bringing photography to the mainstream. If not for him, we would not have film that we use for filming, photography, and even X-rays. He was also a very generous philanthropist, who donated millions to schools, and left behind a great legacy.
George Eastman was born in Waterville Oneida County, New York. He was youngest child of George Washington Eastman and Maria Kilbourne. His father had two businesses. One of which was a nursery in Waterville, where he grew flowers, and trees, the other was a business school located in Rochester, New York. After his father established the Eastman Commercial College, the family relocated to Rochester in 1865. Eastman’s father passed away two years later, leaving his mother with three children to raise on her own, financial problems after the college failed, forced Eastman’s mother to
run a boarding house to earn money. Eastman being the man of the house had to leave school at the age of thirteen, to help earn money. With little education, his first job was working as an office boy, earning only three dollars a week. He later got a job later at the Rochester Savings Bank as a teller, earning up to 15 dollars a week .
At the age of 24, Eastman became fascinated with camera's. After he tried to use a camera to document a trip to Santo Domingo. The camera was the size of a microwave, and very complicated to use. While developing his interest in photography, he learned everything he could about photography. Eastman desired to simplify its complicated process. Using a formula that he found in British journals, Eastman began making gelatin emulsions, this is a photosensitive coating on photographic film, paper, or glass. He worked at
the bank during the day, and experimented with emulsions at night, in his mothers kitchen. "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." ( "Eastman kodak company").
After three years of experimenting with many different formulas, he found one that worked. By 1880 invented a dry plate formula, and patented a machine for preparing large numbers of the plates. In April of the same year, Eastman began to manufacture dry plates for sale. Eastman rented the third floor of a building, on State Street in Rochester, and began his bussiness. Soon after beginning his bussiness, Eastman began to
experiment again. He wanted to use a use a lighter, more flexible support than glass. With this in mind, Eastman coated photographic emulsion on paper and then loaded the paper in a roll holder, creating the roll of film. The invention of roll film, became very successful.
Eastman put great importance on advertisement, he wrote the company slogans himself.Later Eastman came up with a slogan that became a well- known phrase, 'you press the button, we do the rest'. Today the
trademark "Kodak," coined by Eastman himself, is familiar to almost everyone around the world. Eastman explained: "I devised the name
myself. The letter "K" had been a favorite with me -- it seems a strong, incisive sort of letter. It became a question of trying out a great number of combinations of letters that made words starting and ending with 'K.' The word 'Kodak' is the result." (Eastman Kodak Company)
Eastman made a legacy for himself. Besides being a smart business man, he was also a very well known philanthropist. Early on in his business,
Eastman wanted his workers to be treated fairly, and therefore began planning for "dividends on wages" for employees.
Eastman’s' first act, was the distribution of a substantial sum of his own money to each one of his workers in 1899. He later gave one-third of his own holdings of company stock (which was worth 10 million) to his employees in 1919. Still, Eastman felt that it was not enough, he later set up all of his employees with the establishment of retirement annuity, life insurance, and disability benefit plans, leaving them with a secure future.
Eastman also gave to nonprofit institutions when his salary was $60 a week, with a donation of fifty dollars to the young Mechanics Institute of Rochester, which is now known as the Rochester Institute of Technology. Eastman was a big admirer of M.I.T, donating to them a large sum of twenty million dollars. He also donated to dental clinics, later stating: "I get more results for my money than in any other philanthropic scheme. It is a medical fact that children can have a better chance in life with better looks, better health and more vigor if the teeth, nose, throat and mouth are taken proper care of at the crucial time of childhood."(Eastman Kodak Company).Eastman gave donations to a number of organizations. Over his lifetime, Eastman
donated over 100 million dollars.
In the last two years of his life, Eastman suffered from Spinal Stenosis. (Which is a narrowing of the spinal canal). Eastman grew depressed, and at the age of 77, Eastman committed suicide on March 14, 1932 . Leaving behind a note that said: " To my friends, my work is done. Why wait?."(Eastman Kodak Company) He left behind a great legacy, and a company that changed the future. Eastman was an inventor, advertiser, philanthropist,and a great man.
