We’ve come a long way…
September 5th, 2007 by Anderson SchoenrockYesterday marked anniversary of the original patent for the first roll-film camera and the registration of the name “Kodak”. The patent was awarded to George Eastman in 1888.
I was facinated to learn of Eastman’s story and what lead to the patent.
In his early 20s, Eastman was working as a bank clerk and purchased some photographic equipment for a vacation , but never made the vacation. 
He was instantly enamored with photography, though he was less enthusiastic about the cumbersome and limiting nature of wet-plate technology. So he set out to find a better solution. Eastman continued working at the bank while devoting his evenings to experimentation. By 1880 he had devised his own dry-plate formula and went into the photographic business full time. As he ran a young company struggling to survive, Eastman began looking for new exposure methods that could bring photography to the masses. Eastman kept experimenting until he hit on the solution: cellulose. It produced a clean image and was easily spooled onto a film roller, making it compact. As we know now, this was the birth of modern camera film. By 1888, he was ready to patent the first camera using that film.Another bit of interesting trivia is the background of the word Kodak, which has become one of the most recognizable brand names ever, there is no special meaning attached to it. Eastman explained its origin: “I devised the name myself. The letter ‘K’ had been a favorite with me — it seems a strong, incisive sort of letter. It became a question of trying out a great number of combinations of letters that made words starting and ending with ‘K.’ The word ‘Kodak’ is the result.”
Source: kodak.com, Wired.com