Were ou mailing your loaded Brownie back to Kodak?

A friend says that when early Brownies were sold, owner was mailing the camera back to Kodak for processing.

Is this true?

Given the materials of the day, this must have been rough on the box, I would think.

Yes, it’s true. I believe the box camera held a roll of film sufficient for 100 exposures. Kodak’s motto was “You take the picture and we do the rest” or some similar expression. I shall be away from my library for a while, but somebody on APUG will fill in details for dates, etc.

but that was 100+ years ago....

BradS said:

but that was 100 years ago....

Click to expand...

I thought for a minute that the OP when using the word "you" was asking if anyone of us were once doing this. I was tempted to say that I did this until our Prime Minister, Lloyd George made the postage charges to Rochester and back too high for we Brits. I pressed the button and George E did the rest

pentaxuser

The Brownies were always user loaded (unless you had the camera store clerk do it for you). Film was six or eight exposures depending on which model. The 1888 Kodak (not a Brownie) had film for 100 pictures and you sent it back to Rochester for processing and printing. However, Eastman did sell film separately for the Kodak and provided instructions for processing it yourself. Kodak Ltd was in business before 1900.

Some early Kodak photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalmediamuseum/sets/72157606845434332/

i think the address was KODAK Rochester 8 .. or something like that.
it was probably sent back in a wooden box, but to drop it off you had to look like you came out of a manet painting men had to be wearing a bowler hat and women a bustle with a parasol.
from what i remember originally the images were emulsion on paper, and they were floated off onto glass to make the contact prints ( think polaroid emulsion lift )
then george eastman started to commericalize the use of celluloid as a substrait but in the early 1900s the preecher from the mid west who invented roll film sued him for millions (then millions, not now-millions) and won, nearly bankrupting Eastman there was a multi part series that floatedaround a few years ago about the beginnings of KODAK probably made by A+E or the history channel or nova ..
if you can find it its worth the watch...

Rev Goodwin was dead before the lawsuit started. Ansco had acquired the patent rights from his widow and they initiated the lawsuit. The Eastman product was an independent invention and had been awarded a patent of its own. The money awarded to Ansco for patent interference supposedly was 5% of George Eastman's net worth.