When I was in high school, my physics teacher took a two- or three-day digression from the subject book, and went into the subject of photography–chemicals, lighting, etc.
One of the things that he said was that the name “Kodak” came from the sound that the shutter made when it clicked.
Is this true? It’s another one of those “sounds fishy, but could be true,” since I have no idea what the shutters sounded like 100 years ago.
In my experience, most of the “noise” of photography is the mirror swinging out of the way.
Your teacher’s explanation sounds a little like Conan Doyle explaining the source of “Ku Klux Klan” being based on the sound of a gun being cocked.
Everything I’ve read said George Eastman wanted a distinctive trademark and he was fond of the letter K.
When he established his dry plate factory in 1880 he wasn’t really in the business of cameras. He just wanted people with cameras to use his new film.
BTW the sound of the mirror moving out of the way is a sound made by a SLR camera. Those wouldn’t come out until w-a-y after Eastman had estalished his trademark.
Hope this helps.
I was raised in “Kodak-town” (Rochester, NY). I’m with Doug Bowie; George Eastman liked the sound of the “K,” but also he was looking for something distinctive, with no previous meaning, to establish a trademark.