"...with the assistance of the phonograph, the dialog may be repeated in the very voice of the actors."
Portrait artist turned photographer Charles-Antoine Lumière, was a father of four, in need of extra money to support his family. Lumière believed there was an opportunity in producing a better kind of dry plate and began experimenting with the help of his two sons, Auguste and Louis. Despite working 14-hour days in a makeshift factory, Lumière was unable to make a profit.
Through the 1880s, London was arguably still the world center of both finance and photography. George Eastman used his savings to take a seven-day boat trip to London, meet dry plate makers and lodge a patent for his plate-coating machine. He wrote in his diary:
"...no one will coat plates by hand after he has seen this."
Eastman planned to sell the rights to his UK patent to an established firm but instead, he returned to the US and started the Eastman Film and Dry Plate Company. Elizabeth Brayer wrote in her George Eastman biography:
"Word spread that a superior, relatively streak free product at a reasonable price was on the market."
With success Eastman was able quit his job at the bank and moved closer to his real goal: to bring photography to the masses.
"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."
Despite patent disputes, business problems and technical issues Eastman ensured that photography became an everyday affair and his next work helped usher in the era of filmmaking.
Then two more inventor/entrepreneurs entered the frame.
John Carbutt emigrated to Canada, from England and most likely worked as a photographer for the Grand Trunk Railway. Carbutt eventually moved to, and opened a studio, in Chicago. He produced cartes-de-visite - small portraits used as calling cards in the 19th century.
"He also created nearly 200 stereographic views of Chicago, which, when seen through the proper apparatus, created a three-dimensional image of the pre-fire city."
After a decade of taking photographs across America (above), Carbutt moved to Wayne Junction, Philadelphia and managed the American Photo-Relief Printing Company. Author Peter Palmquist observed:
"This signaled a shift in his interest from studio and landscape photography to printing and experimental photography."
Carbutt then established Keystone Dry-Plate Works in 1878, and created various kinds of self-supporting transparent strips of cellulose nitrate film. He trialed emulsions to coat the strips.
The other inventor was Thomas Henry Blair.
Blair had grown up on a farm in Nova Scotia, Canada and eventually learned the skills of photography. Blair worked as a traveling ferrotype (tintype) photographer.
Blair emigrated to southwestern Massachusetts, at the age of 20, then created an all-in-one system called Blair’s Combination Dark Tent and Camera that dealt with the portability of photography. The package included a camera and a small tent for wet processing plates that folded into a box for traveling. Blair re-named the package the Tourograph:
"Its field of usefulness is intended for landscape work, wherein it certainly has no rival.
It does not necessitate covering the head...in fact, it is as easily and conveniently operated as could possibly be desired."
For the moment, both men focused on their small businesses. In future, Carbutt and Blair contributed to photography's evolution.
Born in Scotland then raised by migrant parents who took a covered wagon to Wisconsin; Peter, John and David Houston grew up in the rural town of Fox Lake.
With an interest in photography, Peter experimented with camera technology. Historians define the young man as a 'dreamer', and did not pursue his ideas commercially:
"...all was finished when he was able to show a complete and accurately functioning model."
In 1881, David Houston convinced his older brother, Peter to file a patent (above) for an invention that allowed the user to take:
“...a number of photographic views successively in a short time.”
The first roll film holder and roll film camera. Historian Ben Nemenoff notes:
“Flexible roll film had not yet been invented, but Houston anticipated that one day it would be.”
The holder consisted of two cylindrical reels, one on each side of the camera between the lens and the back door of the body. The reel on the photographer’s right would be empty; the one on the left would contain a roll of unexposed film.
Most likely unknown to Houston, someone invented flexible roll film - just a few months later.
At the Hyatt’s Celluloid Manufacturing Company in Newark, the long-standing principal chemist made a major discovery. John H. Stevens found that amyl acetate was a suitable solvent for diluting celluloid, which then allowed the stiff material to be made into a clear, flexible film. Stevens called his invention ‘transparent pyroxylin’ but in time it became - motion picture film.
In the years since patenting celluloid, the Hyatts had created equipment that could slice their firm celluloid blocks into thin sheets for sale. It could have easily sliced strips of celluloid for sale but the Hyatts didn't pursue the production of flexible film.
Two French photographers recognized the value of flexible film. François Fortier and M David. In June 1882, the British Journal of Photography shared with readers:
“M David exhibited sheets of celluloid, which he hoped will render service to travelers, and replace the heavy glass they are now obliged to carry about with them when traveling.”
George Eastman still wanted to create a lightweight camera that was small enough to use without a tripod and capable of creating reliable sharp focus photographs. He knew that to achieve this he needed to replace the typical glass plates with a flexible film.
The film that Fortier had spoken about, Stevens had stumbled upon, and Houston had envisioned for a roller camera.
Eastman employed local businessman, William Walker who had previously made a small pocket camera that made single exposures on 2-¾ x 3-¼" dry plates. Eastman worked on the flexible film while Walker worked on the hardware, a roll-holder and machine to apply the emulsion to film stock. After eighteen months of research, they had two products. A 'rollable' paper backed product, American Film (colloquially called 'stripping film' because of the paper backing that was stripped off during processing), and a machine that applied warm gelatin to sheets of paper, enabling the company to mass-produce American Film. Owners of existing cameras could load a strip of American Film, rather than glass plates:
"...and thus take 50 distinct photographs on one spool of paper film...in an hour!."
The process of using Eastman's film was not as simple as its advertising led users to believe. In fact, it was onerous. After exposing an image, the individual images had to be cut to size in a darkroom, developed, fixed, washed, squeegeed and then placed onto glass plates to create a negative for printing. The roll-holder and paper film combination was criticized for being a poor substitute for the quality of glass plates.
“...gray, sickly, looking prints...”