The theatre of science; a volume of progress and achievement in the motion picture industry (1914)

of Science is collodion (nitrocellulose dissolved in ether and alcohol) was an utter failure. In 1887 there appeared on the scene a stalwart, white-haired, erect, unassuming American clergyman, by name Hannibal Goodwin, of the House of Prayer, Newark, N. J., claiming that he had discovered the much-prized secret. He proved it conclusively to Mr. ■Washington Irving Adams, of the Scovill & Adams Company, pioneer manufacturers of photo supplies, and to Dr. Charles Ehrmann, head chemist of the company. Dr. Goodwin's film was not celluloid, neither was it photographic collodion skin; yet it was both, plus something that no one else had ever been able to discover. This fine distinction did not help Dr. Goodwin in the Patent Office, and he did not improve his chances very much either by submitting samples of his product to different photographic manufacturers prior to his claims being allowed by the Patent Office. The Goodwin application encountered untold vicissitudes in the Patent Office, not the least of which was an interference proceedings with Reichenbach, the chemist for the Eastman Kodak Company. The Reichenbach-Eastman application did not reach the Patent Office until long after Goodwin filed his claim. Nevertheless, he was deprived of his patent for eleven x-ears; indeed, to get his patent issued at all, he was forced to appeal to the Examiners-in-Chief, who unanimously decided in favor of the Goodwin application. The United States Circuit Court of Appeals, Judges Lacombe, Coxe and Ward sitting, in its opinion affirming the decree of Judge Hazel for the District Court of the United States, made this sad commentary : "Truly an extraordinary and deplorable condition of affairs! But who was to blame for it — Goodwin, or