Toronto. … a comment that may have entered the mind of an 1888 photographer seeing Eastman’s ad for his new camera. Before the Kodak was offered, cameras were mainly large, heavy devices that took only a few shots at most.
The novel camera called the Kodak was light (just over a pound), small, and boasted 100 photos before returning the roll and camera to an Eastman company location. The camera used the new flexible and light roll of stripping film (so called because the clear backing was not optically perfect). At Eastman, the emulsion was stripped from the backing and carefully placed on a long glass top table. Each correctly exposed frame of the processed film was contact printed to make a round print some 2 5/8 inches in diameter glued to a small rectangular card.
The prints and camera, with a fresh 100 exposure roll of film, were mailed back to the owner. A few months later optically clear backing was developed for the roll film making the process even simpler!
The story of Eastman’s early days and the famous KODAK camera are included in a profusely illustrated book by Reese Jenkins called “Images & Enterprise“, first published in 1975 by the Johns Hopkins University Press. Jenkins’ book is well worth reading by any photo historian, photo collector, photographer or businessman. Borrow a copy or buy a used edition or the 1987 reprint (I bought my copy of the original 1975 hard cover in 1977).
Stringing people on indeed – the Kodak in its day was a revolutionary camera! By the way, while we can’t promise you will find one of these rare cameras at our fair – you will certainly find goodies for your collection or user gear (film or digital).