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2/5/1887 - Fun with Acid
The Reverand Hannibal Williston Goodwin is perhaps one of the unlikeliest figures to appear in a history of motion pictures. Goodwin served as a rector for more than twenty years at the House of Prayer at Broad and State Streets in Newark, NJ, where he enlivened the religious talks he gave to children with images on his stereopticon. The only problem he found with this slide-viewer was that the glass slides it used were easily broken.
Goodwin determined to find a better alternative to the slides, and toiled in the attic of the rectory, often emerging with acid burns on his hands and chemical stains on his clothes. His hard work paid off, however when, in 1887, he invented a flexible transparent photographic film made of cellulose nitrate and camphor that could be rolled onto a spool.
Goodwin filed for the patent for his invention on 2nd May 1887, describing it as “… a photographic pellicle and process of producing same… especially in connection with roller cameras.” However, the patent would not be granted until 11 years later.
Goodwin and his supporters suspected ungodly tactics on the part of the Kodak-Eastman organisation, who had applied for similar patents in the name of H.M. Reichenbach two years after Goodwin had made his application. Goodwin believed Kodak-Eastman had used underhand methods to delay the granting of the patent to him. The Patents Office, however, merely stated that Goodwin’s description of his invention, unlike Reichenbach’s, had not been specific enough. [ADD]
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