American inventor George Eastman (1854-1932) was instrumental in fostering the growth of amateur photography. He built a factory in Rochester, New York in 1880 and began manufacturing his photographic inventions in large numbers. In 1892, he founded the Eastman Kodak Company, one of the first American companies to mass-produce standardized photographic products for commercial sale. Eastman's most notable inventions include the Kodak camera and roll film (1899) and a color photography process (1928).
In "The Bradys' Snap Shot Clew" (Secret Service, Nov. 16, 1906), the detectives head for the darkroom to develop a photograph as evidence for their case. As Old King Brady holds up the photograph for inspection, a hooded villain enters the darkroom and attempts to destroy it. A similar motif appears in an earlier issue of Secret Service, in which a young woman is stopped just as she is about to destroy the photographic evidence of her criminal activity.