Pressing All the Right Buttons: The Kodak Comeback

During the day, Eastman was a bank worker like any other. But at night, he would rush home to tinker with his new camera. Photography became his obsession as he spent hours pouring over photography manuals and journals, trying to learn everything he could about the art. It was in reading one of those journals that Eastman would stumble across an article that would change his life forever.

Eastman found an article on dry photography plates being used by British photographers, which eliminated the need for extensive preparation before a shot could be taken. Up until then, wet plate cameras were the norm. However, they were time-consuming to set up and the chemicals involved were wet and messy. Dry plate cameras could be pre-coated with chemicals, eliminating that extra step on the consumer’s part. Immediately, Eastman was struck with the promise and potential of dry plate cameras. And, he thought, if British photographers were making them, then he could too.

Eastman began working into the wee hours of the morning to develop his own dry plate. He mixed chemicals, put them onto glass plates, baked them in the oven, and then tested them. He was so dedicated that his mother often found him sleeping on the floor next to his plates in the mornings.

Once Eastman perfected the plates, he began to think seriously about finding a distributor and starting a business. After being denied a promotion at the bank, he quit his job and leased out a floor of an office building to launch his own company. There, he began manufacturing his dry plates for sale.

Business got off to a rocky start when many dealers began to complain of their plates going bad. Eastman made a quick decision to recall all of them and replace them free of charge. “Making good on those plates took our last dollar,” he said. “But what we had left was more important – reputation.”

Eastman was right and soon business was back to normal. By 1880, he had six other employees working for him and was making more than 4,000 plates a year. Eastman might have cornered a market, but soon others were moving in. With increasing competition, Eastman sought to branch out. He began experimenting with new products, including a roll holder and paper film. Despite critical acclaim, they found little commercial success.

Thus far, Eastman’s profits were coming largely from processing the film that was being sent back to him, but he wanted more. He hired John Bausch and Henry Lomb, two German opticians, to build him a small optical lens. He also hired a local carpenter to build a body, and a machinist to create a shutter. By 1888, Eastman was ready to release his first Kodak camera.

Small enough to take anywhere, and loaded with enough film for 100 pictures, the Kodak camera revolutionized the industry. It its first four years, 73,000 were sold, despite the expensive price tag of $25. Consumers would take their pictures and send the entire camera back to Eastman at no cost to them. Eastman would then develop the film and return it with the camera, again fully loaded. It was a smash hit.

Kodak saw continued success until 1893, when a downturn in the economy hit the company hard. To make matters worse, Eastman’s best chemist left to start his own company. But Eastman fought back, hiring a new, award-winning photographer to help him improve his dry plates. William Stuber created the best film to date for Kodak, breathing life back into the company.

From there, Kodak continued to improve its market position with the launch of the Brownie, a children’s camera that cost just one dollar. Kodak also became important in the booming motion picture industry. “Unless certain disaster strikes,” Eastman wrote in a letter to his mother, “everything is in good shape.”

In 1925, Eastman retired from Kodak and chose Stuber as his successor. Meanwhile, Eastman became increasingly incapacitated due to a spinal illness. For a man who never knew rest, being unable to walk proved unbearable. On March 14, 1932, Eastman shot himself in the heart and left a suicide note that read: “To my friends: my work is done. Why wait?”



Pressing All the Right Buttons: The Kodak Comeback

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