People say that the camera can see things which our eyes can never perceive. The picture that we used last week, one captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, is surely one such iconic image. For even if we somehow manage to see what the telescope did, there is no way we can capture those minute details.
But were the quality of the pictures captured as good as what we get today? The answer is certainly no. Advances in technology have brought us to the stage where we can even pinpoint objects in distant galaxies. We will look at one such advancement today, and the side story that goes along with it, which makes it more interesting.
Quest for better technology After enjoying childhood as a popular student, Hannibal Goodwin’s life saw a turn of events. An interest in theology while studying law meant that Goodwin ended up as a rector of St. Paul’s Church in Newark, New Jersey. It was here that Goodwin found the need for altering existing photography techniques.
For two years from then, the clergyman, who was already in his sixties, put his knowledge of chemistry to his experiments and dabbling with celluloid, a synthetic material developed only decades earlier. Using cellulose nitrate, Goodwin was able to produce a flexible film and on May 2, 1887, he filed for his patent, the wording for which was ambiguous.
In 1888, after George Eastman introduced the Kodak camera, he also began searching for the possibilities of producing flexible rolls. He set his young research chemist Henry Reichenbach for the task and the result they arrived at independently was very similar to the one Goodwin had put in place. A taut patent application filed by them in April 1889 resulted in it being awarded by December the same year.
While Goodwin was still going back and forth with his patent request, the new Kodak film was released to the public and tasted immediate commercial success as expected. Goodwin contested the Eastman-Reichenbach patent, but it wasn’t before 1898 that he was granted a patent for his work. Goodwin, however, did not last the turn of the century, as he died on December 31, 1900.
Patent battle His widow sold the company to Anthony & Scovill, who wasted no time in filing a patent infringement suit against Kodak. The formula that Kodak was then using to produce their film was almost indistinguishable from Goodwin’s original work. In 1913, more than a decade later, the case was ruled in favour of Goodwin’s patent.
Kodak paid $5 million, a substantial sum, as compensation, but it was still only a small amount when compared to the profits made from sales of celluloid films in the interim years. Goodwin’s work actually dominated photography for nearly a century, with acetate replacing celluloid being the only major change, till digital cameras made their way. And then, you know, photography was never the same again!
