I went to Rochester for a week to act as a lab assistant for Mark Osterman, who wanted to do some basic research into recreating "American film", the original commercial roll film developed by George Eastman. That film was interesting in that it was a normal gelatin emulsion coated on a paper backing. What made it different from later versions of film was that the roll of paper had a base coating of soft non-sensitized gelatin, then a coating of sensitized, hardened silver gelatin. The idea was that if you wanted to print the photos yourself, you could soak the film in warm water, causing the underlying layer to dissolve, and the hardened layer to float free, to be captured on a sheet of glass. Not the most practical process in the world. But it was one of the first, possibly the first commercial roll film made. Came out in 1884 or so for large format cameras, then a smaller version was issued with the "Kodak" in 1887-88, which is the kind we were trying to reproduce. The small camera had a meniscus lens, a very simple shutter ("instantaneous" [about 1/30 maybe] and time exposures only) and a couple apertures. It was loaded with a roll with sufficient capacity to produce 100 photos. The idea was that you'd send it back to Eastman after finishing the roll, they'd develop and print them for you, reload the camera, and send it all back. The paper-based product was replaced by a much more recognizable film based on a nitrocellulose backing within just a few years. The Kodak was immensely popular and the rest is history.
I handled the camera a fair bit of the time, which was mostly just a matter of exposing with the quick lens cap Mark made out of some gaffer's tape and a Leica Elmar lens cap that fit the hole on the Kodak perfectly. The original lens cap was a plug of thick felt with a small handle in the middle, but that was not included with this particular camera.
