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    Eastman Box Camera

U.S. 388,850, issued September 4, 1888

When George Eastman began experimenting with the technology in the 1870s, just practicing photography required large, heavy equipment, chemicals, processing tanks for preparing and developing the wet emulsion heavy glass photographic plates of the time.  With an eye to simplifying photography for the amateur, Eastman first developed a dry emulsion process for preparing photographic plates in advance of use.

With further experiments to produce a lighter and more flexible support than glass, Eastman developed a form of photographic film.  A layer of paper was rolled with a layer of plain, soluble gelatin, and then with a layer of insoluble light-sensitive gelatin. After exposure and development, the gelatin bearing the image was stripped from the paper, transferred to a sheet of clear gelatin, and varnished with collodion - a cellulose solution that forms a tough, flexible film.

Along with the film, Eastman developed the Kodak box camera for roll film photography.  This simple and lightweight camera, forerunner of the monumentally successful Kodak Brownie camera, made photography accessible for the average person for the first time.