The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Kodak

KODAK. The Kodak camera is the invention of George Eastman, and the first model appeared in the year 1888. It is now manufactured in a number of sizes and styles, some making use of both cartridge roll film and dry plates. The original Kodak camera took round pictures 2½ inches in diameter, was of the fixed focus type and carried a roll of film sufficient for 100 exposures. Its invention practically marked the advent of amateur photography, as before that time both apparatus and processes were too burdensome to permit of classification in the field of recreation. The roll film used in the first model of the Kodak camera had a paper base but was soon superseded by a film with a cellulose base, a practical, transparent, flexible film. The first films had to be loaded into the camera and unloaded in the dark room, but the film cartridge system with its protecting strip of non-actinic paper made it possible to load and unload the camera in ordinary light. The Kodak Developing Machine and its simplified successor, the Kodak Film Tank, provided the means for daylight development of film, so that now the dark room is not necessary for any of the operations of amateur photography. The earlier types of the Kodak cameras were of the box form and of fixed focus, and as various sizes were added, devices for focusing the lenses were incorporated. The first folding Kodak cameras were introduced early in the nineties; these were equipped with folding bellows which permitted much greater compactness. The first pocket Kodak camera was introduced in 1895. It was of the box form type, slipping easily into an ordinary coat pocket, and producing negatives 1½ x 2 inches. The first folding pocket Kodak camera was introduced in 1897, and at the present time all the Kodak cameras are of the folding type, except one especially designed for taking panoramic pictures, which is of the box type. A recent invention, the Autographic Feature, provides a means for recording data on the margin of the negative itself at the time of exposure. This feature is now supplied on all Kodak cameras with the exception of the one for making panoramic pictures. The Kodak system of photography for the amateur had been so perfected that to-day the amateur has a wide range in optical equipment, and every essential for the producing of a finished photograph may readily be carried in any ordinary Gladstone bag with room to spare.