Pocket Kodak (1895)

The Pocket Kodak was introduced in July 1895 in a black and a red model. According to the literature a dark green model was produced also, but I have never seen one. In the video you can see the red model. In june 1896 the camera was modified when the sector shutter was replaced with a rotary shutter. The black camera is a 1896 model.
It is a tiny camera that made 12 photos of 1.5 x 2 inches (3,8 x 5 cm) on a daylight loading spool. Although the pictures are very small, the $ 5.00 Pocket Kodak was enormously popular, with 50.000 procuded in 1895, 50.000 in 1896, 25.000 in 1897. From 1898 the numbers were smaller. Alltogether about 147.000 were made.
There may be different reasons why it was such a succesful camera. It is just a cute little thing and in all its simplicity it is one of my favorites. Like the dealers said in 1895: "it sells on sight". Other reasons are its low price and its small size. People really could put it in their pockets or handbags and take pictures of all the things they liked. It also was easy to use: "one button does it" said the ads. Photography became fun and wasn't restricted anymore to gentlemen with tripods and heavy equipment, who very seriously tried to produce works of art. The Pocket Kodak really contributed a lot to make photography popular.
 

Some technical remarks: the Pocket Kodak is one of the first cameras that use frontroll design, daylight filmspools and the red window to see the number on the back of the film. But it is not THE first one. The Boston Bull's-eye was the real first one, and the Kodak Bullet of early 1895 was the first Kodak with all three improvements. See the page about the Boston Bull's-Eye for more explanation.
 

The bigger camera in the video is a Kodak Falcon of 1897. I put it up here so it can be compared with the Pocket Kodaks. See the Falcon video for more information.