Short Stories
of Science and Invention

A Collection of Radio Talks by
Charles F. Kettering

INDEX

Weekly, from September 1942 to July 1945, Charles F. Kettering gave five-minute intermission talks about Science and Invention during the radio broadcasts of the General Motors Symphony of the Air.

Kettering invented the first automobile self-starter, and for 31 years directed a research laboratory for General Motors.

These radio talks are a fascinating legacy from the mind of a prolific inventor. The obvious anachronisms now add a historical perspective of the war-time period in which they were written.

These web pages now preserve some of the most popular stories for a new generation to read The text and art come from a General Motors booklet of selected talks. (Reprint, March 1959)
30.  The Bookkeeper Had a Hobby
A Radio Talk by Charles F. Kettering


     Today it is so easy to take pictures with a camera that you can slip into your pocket, we may not realize it was not always this way.

     About 70 years ago a young bookkeeper living in Rochester, New York had a great desire to take pictures, but it wasn't so simple then. In the first place photography wasn't a hobby - it was a profession.

     So this young man, George Eastman, took lessons from a local photographer. He not only had to learn how to handle the camera, but also the more complicated business of developing the plates and printing from them.

Photggrapher     He couldn't afford a studio and, since he had such a great interest in photography, there was only one thing he could do - take pictures outdoors. But you didn't take just a camera with you in those days; you carried an outfit of which the camera was only a part.

     Eastman's outfit consisted of a camera the size of a soapbox, a large tripod, a big plate holder, a dark tent, a nitrate bath and a water container.

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