`What we do during our working hours determines what we have; what we do in our leisure hours determines what we are.` George Eastman
A combination of research, experimentation, and entrepreneurship, George Eastman, born in 1854 in Waterville, New York, revolutionized photography and founded one of the world`s best-known corporations. His hardships and personal struggles in his early life made George strive for financial success and security. George Eastman came from a poor family and dropped out of high school after being deemed `not especially gifted,` but that did not stop him from creating what would become one of the most successful imaging companies in the world. He overcame his beginnings to launch a business that would put the powers of photography into the hands of the average person and change the way the world remembers itself.
In 1877, Eastman began work in photography: his specialty was preparing and applying the complex emulsions (liquid silver-salt coatings) used at that time in developing nearly all-photographic plates. Inspired by an article in a British almanac, Eastman dreamed of creating a `dry plate` developing process: dry film would make the developing process incomparably simpler, and could be contained with many smaller and lighter cameras. Within two years, Eastman had built a `Method and Apparatus for Coating Plates` which made dry film a reality.
Among his other innovations, George Eastman developed and improved film for Edison`s motion-picture camera. Today, Eastman Kodak Corporation continues to make photographic high technology available to the average person. Eastman was great American Philanthropist: through various various programs he had given away over $100 million till his death in 1932.