Timeline Analog 1. John Buck

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      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. СКАЧАТЬ