Wm. H. Walker's 1882 ad shows that he had the same idea as George Eastman: to popularize photography |
In 1880 William Hall Walker founded the photographic camera manufacturing business called Wm. H. Walker & Co. in Rochester, New York. It made several variants of Walker's Pocket Camera, a handsome wooden box camera. In 1882 he joined with W. H. Reid and J. Inglis producing photographic dry plates. In 1883 Walker sold his businesses to W. F. Carlton who renamed the company to Rochester Optical Co.. In the same year Walker joined George Eastman's company. Together they introduced the Eastman-Walker Roll Holder for rollfilm for which they received a patent in 1885. They also got a patent on a new type of rollfilm. These inventions were the first steps of Eastman Kodak's later breakthrough with rollfilm box cameras on the market for popular photography. Walker became a manager of Eastman's English plant.
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photography related industry in Rochester (New York) |
American Camera | Bausch & Lomb | Blair | Century | Crown Optical Co. | Elgeet | Folmer & Schwing | Gassner and Marx | Graflex | Gundlach | Ilex | JML | Kodak | Milburn | Monroe | PMC | Ray | Reichenbach, Morey and Will | Rochester Camera and Supply Co. | Rochester Optical Co. | Seneca | Sunart | Walker | Wollensak |
and in Rochester (Minnesota) |
Conley |
external links |
graflex.org - Rudolf Kingslake's "Optical industry in Rochester (N.Y.)" |
- Walker's patents at google patents
- Walker's Pocket Camera at George Eastman House
- another Walker's Pocket Camera at George Eastman House
- Walkers Compact Camera 1882 Article at Historic Camera