A Radio Talk by Charles F. Kettering About 70 years ago a young bookkeeper living in Rochester, New York had a great desire to take pictures, but it wasn't so simple then. In the first place photography wasn't a hobby - it was a profession. So this young man, George Eastman, took lessons from a local photographer. He not only had to learn how to handle the camera, but also the more complicated business of developing the plates and printing from them. He couldn't afford a studio and, since he had such a great interest in photography, there was only one thing he could do - take pictures outdoors. But you didn't take just a camera with you in those days; you carried an outfit of which the camera was only a part. Eastman's outfit consisted of a camera the size of a soapbox, a large tripod, a big plate holder, a dark tent, a nitrate bath and a water container. |