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Staff post about: George Eastman Become an Author

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The manifest destiny of the Eastman Kodak Company is to be the largest manufacturer of photographic materials in the world, or go to pot.

The bulk of the paraphernalia worried me: a camera about the size of a soapbox, a tripod, which was strong and heavy enough to support a bungalow, a big plate holder, a dark-tent, a nitrate bath and a container for water.

I could do nothing with my first outfit until after I had paid a professional photographer...five dollars to give me lessons.

Making good on those plates took our last dollar. But what we had left was more important – reputation.

Unless certain disaster strikes, everything is in good shape.

To my friends: my work is done. Why wait?

I will succeed!

We have a young chemist who devotes his time entirely to experiments and we hope he will strike the right emulsion sooner or later. He knows nothing about photography, which is all the better.

A trademark should be short, vigorous, incapable of being misspelled. It must mean nothing. If the name has no dictionary definition, it must be associated only with your product.

I devised the name myself. The letter ‘K’ has 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.

This is not a foreign name or word; it was constructed by me to serve a definite purpose. It has the following merits as a trade-mark word: first it is short; second, it is not capable of mispronunciation; third, it does not resemble anything in the art and cannot be associated with anything in the art.

You press the button, we do the rest.

The idea gradually dawned on me that what we were doing was not merely making dry plates, but that we were starting out to make photography an everyday affair, to make the camera as convenient as the pencil.

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.

We shall have all that we can do to take care of our own finances. It is extremely unlikely that we will be able to lend you any money. I write this to you so that you will not count on it…Yours truly, George Eastman, Treasurer.

What we do during our working hours determines what we have; what we do in our leisure hours determines what we are.

I have always admired the letter K's ability to strike a certain tone in one's ear, that tone of power and strength and resonance.

Well, that's over. Now the one thing to do is forget it.

If a man has wealth, he has to make a choice, because there is the money heaping up. He can keep it together in a bunch, and then leave it for others to administer after he is dead. Or he can get into action and have fun, while he is still alive. I prefer getting into action and adapting it to human needs, and making the plan work.

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