October 11, 1881: David Henderson Houston patents roll film for cameras. From Mary Bellis, David H Houston was a Scottish immigrant and inventor who moved near Fargo, Dakota in 1879 to homestead. An avid inventor, Houston patented a disc plow, however, most of his patents were related to photography. In fact, David Houston sold twenty-one patents related to photographic cameras to George Eastman, including a 1879 design for a small portable camera. For that Eastman paid Houston $5,000 dollars upfront and monthly royalties, enough money at that time to make David Houston a wealthy man. George Eastman patented his own camera in 1888 and Kodak maintains that George Eastman made significant refinements to David Houstons design, it should be noted that most inventions are improvements to prior devices, however, buying Houstons patents prevented any issues of patent infringement from occurring. George Eastman and his company Kodak mass marketed the first rolled film camera based in part on the patents of David H Houston.
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 05:31:01 +0000
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