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The Reverend Hannibal Goodwin (1822 - 1900) was rector of The House of Prayer, an Episcopal Church, from 1867 - 1887.
While the little gothic building still stands in Newark, NJ, as a historic landmark, the minister has become a footnote in movie history.
Yet his invention, malleable and rollable film made of celluloid, is the single most basic ingredient of the stable film stock in use since the turn of the century.
Goodwin's spiritual motive was one of bringing the Bible to life for school kids the world over.
His stereopticon was only a nuisance, because the glass slides it used broke easily and presented a hazard for his young charges.
While he was not trained as either a chemist or engineer, he somehow managed to dream up 24 inventions, 15 of which were granted patents.
Pure trial and error led to Goodwin's rollable film in particular, and he filed at the US Patent Office during 1887.
The proposal took 11 years to clear, although clearly infringed as early as 1889 by the George Eastman Company.
Although the Reverend had his reservations about using celluloid because it contained camphor, which degraded the silver salts used to produce a negative image, he carried on with his patents fight.
The legal battle lasted from 1902 - 1914.
Unfortunately, just as he planned to go into his own film manufacturing business, he died in a street accident near a construction site.
The Ansco Company took over the manufacturing process instead, and later issued a medal in Goodwin's honor for the National Photography Association Convention during 1909.
They also marketed a line of box and folding still cameras under his name until the 1930s.
-- article by PicPal's J. Kramer