In 1880 George Eastman began to manufacture gelatin dry photographic plates in Rochester, New York. Along with W. H. Walker, Eastman invented a holder for a roll of picture-carrying gelatin layer coated paper.

Hannibal Goodwin’s invention of nitrocellulose film base in 1887 was the first transparent, flexible film. The following year, Emile Reynaud developed the first perforated film stock.

Eastman was the first major company, however, to mass-produce these components, when in 1889 Eastman realized that the dry-gelatino-bromide emulsion could be coated onto this clear base, eliminating the paper.