Iixhixfrial Research 



67 



that lie was on the right track, Eastman (h'cith'd to 

 obtain the services of a trained chemist. lie consulted 

 Professor Samuel Allan Lattimore, head of tlic Depart- 

 ment of Clieniistry at the University of Rochester. 

 Dr. Lattimorc's assistant was an "ingenious, quick 

 witted fellow" named Henry M. Reichenbach, and 

 sometijue in August 1886, Eastman oflered hiju a posi- 

 tion in which he was to "devote his time entirely to 

 experiments." Unlike many employers, Eastman was 

 not imi)atient, and a year later in reporting the residts 

 of the experiments to one of his associates in London 

 he says of his chemist 



He knows nothing about photography ... I told him what 

 was w-anted and that it might take a day, a week, a month or a 

 year to get it, or perhaps longer, but that it was a dead sure 

 thing in the end.'" 



Eastman's confidence m research was justified. 

 After trying one thing after another, Reichenbach 

 eventually found what he sought — the formula for a 

 transparent, flexible fihu, which he patented Decem- 

 ber 10, 1889. Eastman again wrote to his associate 

 in London, this time offering a bit of advice: 



It will not be long before your concern will need a practical 

 chemist. . . . The best way to do is to make application to the 

 Prof, of Chemistry in some good technical school and have 

 him recommend two or three first class boys. You can inter- 

 view them and take your choice — If he is any good he will be 

 the most profitable man you can hire."' 



Research was reducing photography from a compli- 

 cated process requiring study and practice to a few 

 sunple operations which the amateur coidd easily per- 

 form. But there was much to be done, and Eastman 

 sought more chemists. In 1891 he asked Prof. Thomas 

 M. Drown, of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 

 nology, to select a young chemist from the graduating 

 class and to have him devote (dm-ing the remaining 

 months of his training) some attention to photographic 

 chemistry. Upon Reichcnbach's dismissal, Eastman 

 sought recommendations for a young chemist from 

 professors at Johns Hopkins, Columbia, and Cornell. 

 At the same time he employed Dr. Leonard Paget to 

 continue the company's research work in New York 

 City. 



When Eastman built new buildings in 1893 at Kodak 

 Park, he provided space for a new experimental labo- 

 ratoiy, to which he called attention in a Prnapfctiin for 

 Kodak, Limited, as follows: 



Special chemical and mechanical departments with a staff 

 of skilled hands are maintained for experimental purposes in 

 order to keep in advance of all demands for improvements in 

 every branch of photography."" 



In 1910 the laboratory was enlarged, and 2 j-ears later 

 a building at Kodak Park was completely remodelled 

 to provide adequate facilities for all kinds of experi- 

 ments -ciiemical and ])liysical. The company's re- 

 search now included not only problems of immediate 

 interest in the manufacture of photographic supplies, 

 but also (juestions of scientific nature that might have 

 an application in the photograjjliic industry. A man 

 of unusual training and experience was needed to 

 organize and direct the work of the laboratory, and 

 while abroad in 1912, Eastman fovmd such a num in 

 Dr. C. E. Kenneth Mees, one of the managing directors 

 of a snuill firm of j)liotograpiiic maiuifacturers in 

 England. He was a chemist, a physicist, also a 

 practical manufacturer of color-sensitive dry plates 

 and color screens used in photogi-apliy. Alecs came to 

 America and has been in charge of the Eastman lab- 

 oratory ever since. His firm, Wratten & Wain- 

 wright, Ltd., was incorporated in the English company, 

 Kodak Ltd. 



From the early days of the laboratorj^, organic 

 chemicals used in the company's research were pre- 

 pared in the organic chcmistiy laboratory, and a 

 foatiu-e of the laboratory particularly interesting to 

 foreign visitors was the equipment which made it 

 possible to try out new processes on a miniature 

 factory scale."* When the First World War cut off 

 the supply of syntlietic organic chemicals coming from 

 Germanj^, this experience and equipment proved 

 especially valuable to this country. The laboratory 

 soon became the chief soiutc in tlie United States for 

 organic chemicals \ised in research. It can now 

 supply industrial and university laboratories witli 

 more than 3,000 such chemicals.'-" 



Research has led to a tremendous expansion of tlio 

 photographic industry, and, in turn, the expansion of 

 the industry has greatly extended the range of prob- 

 lems with which the research laborat.ory has to deal. 

 Today the work of the Kodak Research Laboratories 

 falls naturally under the three subjects of photography, 

 chemistry, and physics. LTnder those three main 

 divisions, groups in the laboratory are doing funda- 

 mental research as well as development and service 

 work. Some idea of tiie extent and complexity of the 

 company's research can be gained from the folIoM'ing 

 description of the Chemical Division: 



. . . Each of the main divisions of the laboratory is subdi- 

 vided into smaller specialist departments dealing with particular 

 subjects. The chemical Division includes the following lab- 

 oratories: Organic Chemisty, for general organic research, par- 

 ticularly on cellulose and cellulose esters; Photochemistry, for 



II* George Eastman, p. 57. See footnote I i^ 

 "' George Eastman, p. 63. See footnote US. 

 1" George Eastman, p. 146. See footnote 113. 



"• Fleming, A. V. M. Industrial research In the United States of America. Lon- 

 don, H. M. Stationery OfHcc, 1917, p. 7. 



I'o Rochester — the city of varied industries. Induilrial and Engineerivfi Chemislry. 

 (News Ed.). 15, 287 (July 10, 1937); Mees, C. E. K. Manuscript. 



3218.S5 — 41- 



