What is Microfilm?
Originally developed in the 1800’s, microfilm did not get put to significant use until the late 1920’s. When it was first developed, banker George McCarthy held the patent for the machine capable of creating microfilm. The microfilm machine created permanent film copies of bank documents by using a special camera, which took pictures of documents with black and white film. The film records, or microfilm, were able to resist deterioration and helped save storage space. The microfilm could be viewed later through a special machine. In 1928, Eastman Kodak purchased the rights to the microfilm machine, which helped catapult it into the business market. In the 1930’s, the New York Times began creating copies of their daily newspapers to store for later use. The paper used by the Times to create these copies, however, deteriorated rapidly. Therefore, the newspaper decided to switch to microfilm. After seeing their success with the process, Harvard University began an extensive microfilm proj
Microfilm is the most established and standardized method of archiving in the United States. Since the 1930s , microfilm has revolutionized the way the world has archived their important documents. Current users of microfilm include: hospitals, doctors offices, legal firms, banks, libraries, museums, government agencies, publishers, etc. and now you! When you archive documents to microfilm you not only have a copy of your important papers, you also have preserved their life for microfilm when processed and stored properly, has a life expectancy up to 500 years!
