On this day in 1888, George Eastman received a patent for the first roll-film camera – the Kodak

On this day in 1888, George Eastman received a patent for the first roll-film camera – the Kodak. The camera made photography more accessible and was designed with the amateur in mind. The user simply armed the shutter and then pressed a button to release it, taking a picture. 📸 📸 📸

Once the user had used up the 100-exposure roll of film, the entire camera was mailed back to the factory for prints to be developed. More ambitious users could also develop the film themselves, buying extra rolls as needed. 🎞 🎞 🎞

Did you know? “Kodak,” one of those most famous names in photography, doesn’t mean anything. Eastman just liked the sound of it:

“I devised the name myself. 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.’ The word ‘Kodak’ is the result.”

Kodak poster, Claude A. Shepperson, c. 1910s-1921