Outstanding historical perspective
Dear Editor,
I wish to thank Keeble McFarlane for his outstanding historical perspective on George Eastman in his article, “George Eastman’s baby faces its worst Kodak moment”, in the Observer of January 21. I started photography in 1962 with a Brownie and can relate to every aspect of the story.
It sure brings back memories, but more than that it illustrates that inventing technology is not sufficient to control it: one must keep innovating or others will.
This is similar to the quartz watch. It was invented by a Swiss watchmaker but the Swiss watch industry rejected it, saying that it had no jewels or movement. The inventor took his invention to a trade show and sold the rights to Seiko and Texas Instruments. The rest is history.
Kingsley Gilliam
Toronto, Canada
kpgilliam@acn.net
