GEORGE EASTMAN

George Eastman's Life: 

He was born on July 12, 1854 in the village of Waterville, New York. He was the youngest of three children of Maria Kilburn and George Washington Eastman. When George the son was 5 years old his father moved the family to Rochester where he worked on establishing Eastman Commercial College. Unfortunately, the college failed due to George’s father death of a brain disorder in 1862, leaving behind a wife, 14 years old son and 2 daughters Ellen Maria and Katie, one whom was severely handicapped. Due to the bad family circumstances George had to drop off school and start working as a messenger boy in one of the insurance firms. A year later he got a job as an office boy in another insurance company. He was getting raises with time and doing well at his work, but it was not enough yet. George studied accounting in the evenings at home to be able to get a better paying job. After 5 years George finally got a job as a clerk in the Rochester Savings Bank and his salary tripled then. George Eastman has been a great example of a self-educated person. At the age of 24 George planned for a trip to San Diego, after a friend’s suggestion of taking photos of the trip, George didn’t go. He was absorbed into photography and thinking of a way to simplify the complicated process of taking photos used to be. 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 for sale to other photographers. 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, 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 died by suicide with a single gunshot to the heart, leaving a note which read, "To my friends: my work is done. Why wait?". His funeral was held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Rochester; he was buried on the grounds of the company he founded at Kodak Park in Rochester, New York.



 

Inventions:

        The camera was as big as a microwave oven and needed a heavy tripod. It needed a tent so that  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. It was a very complicated , expensive and out of reach of all . George Eastman invented a dry-plate photographic system, and later the system of film on rolls of gelatin-coated paper. In 1888 he invented the "snapshot" camera, under the name Kodak. George Eastman was the first to make photography available to everyone and easy enough to be taken anywhere, by his genius invention of the dry, rolled films and the hand-held "snapshot" cameras. His invention changed the world, everyone was having their own cameras an taking their own photos. Beautiful memories and special moments were not lost nor forgotten anymore.

Kodak:

• In 1888 the word Kodak was first Registered as a trademark.
• George Eastman invented the word Kodak which was turned into a world wide trademark.
• The letter K was George's favorite letter so he thought of a word that starts and end with " K "
• He and his mother devised the name with an anagram set.
• George had three concept principals that he followed in creating this word:

1. It should be Short
2. one can't mispronounce it
3. to not resemble or be associated with anything but " Kodak"

• The first model of Kodak camera appeared in 1888.
• in 1892 the Eastman company was renamed " The Eastman Kodak Company" after that the first line of products known as Kodak was in the market.      

Philanthropy:

        after he made a fortune of his company, George wanted to dedicate something to the world and since he came from a family with a history in philanthropy, it was in his blood too.

• He began giving to nonprofit institutions when his salary was $60 a week -- with a donation of $50 to the young and struggling Mechanics Institute of Rochester, now the Rochester Institute of Technology.
• He donated about $20 Million anonymously under the name Mr.Smith to the M.I.T (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). that shows how generous yet Modest he was as man.
• He devised complete plans and financial backing for a $2.5 million dental clinic for Rochester.
• He established and supported the Eastman School of Music, a theatre, and a symphony orchestra. He just loved music and wanted others to enjoy the beauty of it.
• He promoted and brought to fruition a program to develop a medical school and hospital at the University of Rochester in addition to signing away $30 million to the University of Rochester, M.I.T., Hampton and Tuskegee

       Most of his gifts were dedicated for Education as noticed, and that's because he believed in the importance of Education and that the progress of the world depends almost entirely upon it.