George Eastman was 15 years old. The young George left school early and started working to help support the family. As Eastman began to have success with his photography business, he vowed to repay his mother for the hardships she had endured in raising him. In 1884, Eastman patented the first film in roll form to prove practicable; he had been tinkering at home to develop it. In 1888, he perfected the Kodak Black camera, which was the first camera designed to use roll film. In 1889 he first offered film stock, and by 1896 became the leading supplier of film stock
Instant camera integral instant film, similar to but incompatible with Polaroid's SX-70 film. The film was chemically similar to Polaroid's with the exception that the negative was exposed from the rear and the dye/developers diffused to the front of the photogragh. This alleviated the need for a mirror to reverse the image before it struck the negative. Even so, Polaroid brought a patent-infringement lawsuit against Kodak, and eventually Kodak was forced to stop manufacture of both the camera and film. Kodak was also left to pay a settlement to customers who were left without a way to use their now defunct cameras.