Path of Discovery

5^th-4^th Centuries B.C.-Chinese and Greek philosophers describe the basic principles of optics and the camera.

1664-1666-Isaac Newton discovers that white light is composed of different colors.

1794-First Panorama opens, the forerunner of the movie house.

1814-Joseph Nicéphore Niépce achieves first photographic image with camera obscura.

1837-Daguerre's first daguerreotype

1840-First American patent issued in photography to Alexander Wolcott for his camera.

1843-Fist advertisement with a photograph made in Philadelphia.

1859-Panoramic camera patented.

1861-Oliver Wendell Holmes invents stereoscope viewer.

1865-Photographs and photographic negatives are added to protected works under copyright.

1880-Eastman Dry Plate Company founded.

1884-Eastman invents flexible, paper-based photographic film.

1888-Eastman patents Kodak roll-film camera.

1898-Reverend Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film.

1900-First mass-marketed camera-the Browning.

1914-Fist 35mm still camera developed.

1927-General Electric invents the modern flash bulb.

1932-First light meter with photoelectric cell introduced.

1935-Eastman Kodak markets Kodachrome film.

1941-Eastman Kodak introduces Kodacolor negative film.

1942-Chester Carlson receives patent for electric photography (xerography).

1948-Edwin Land markets the Polaroid camera.

1954-Eastman Kodak introduces high speed Tri-X film.

1960-EG&G develops extreme depth underwater camera for U.S. Navy.

1963-Polaroid introduces instant color film.

1968-Photograph of the Earth from the moon.

1973-Polaroid introduces one-step instant photography with the SX-70 camera.

1977-George Eastman and Edwin Land inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

1978-Konica introduces first point-and-shoot, autofocus camera.

1980-Sony demonstrates first consumer camcorder.

1984-Canon demonstrates first electronic still camera.

1985-Pixar introduces digital imaging processor.

1990-Eastman Kodak announces Photo CD as a digital image storage medium.

   On a summer day in 1827, it took eight hours for Joseph Nicéphore Niépce to obtain the first fixed image. About the same time a fellow Frenchman, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre was experimenting to find a way to capture an image, but it would take another dozen years before he was able to reduce the exposure time to less than 30 minutes and keep the image from disappearing. ushering in the age of photography.

    "You press the button, we do the rest" promised George Eastman in 1888 with this advertising slogan for his Kodak camera.

Eastman wanted to simplify photography and make it available to everyone. In 1883, Eastman announced film in rolls. "Kodak" was born in 1888 when the first Kodak camera entered the market. Pre-loaded with enough film for 100 exposures, the camera could easily be carried and handheld for operation. After exposure, the whole camera was returned to the company in Rochester, New York, where the film was developed, prints were made, new film was inserted, and then returned to the customer.

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." -George Eastman

    Eastman was one of the fist American industrialists to employ a full-time research scientist. Together with his associate, Eastman perfected the first commercial transparent roll film which made possible Thomas Edison's motion picture camera in 1891.

   On April 26, 1976, one of the largest patent suits involving photography was filed in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts. Polaroid Corporation, the assignee of numerous patents relating to instant photography, brought an action against Kodak Corporation for infringement of 12 Polaroid patents relating to instant photography. On October 11, 1985, after five years of vigorous pretrial activity and 75 days of trial, seven Polaroid patents were found to be valid and infringed. Kodak was out of the instant picture market leaving customers with useless cameras and no film. Kodak offered camera owners various compensation for their loss.