Rochester Optical & Camera Company 1899 - 1903

Formed in 1899, by 5 Rochester based camera manufacturers: the Rochester Camera and Supply Co., Rochester Optical Co., the Ray Camera Company, the Monroe Camera Company and the Western Camera Manufacturing Company of Chicago. The new combined company occupied the R.O.C. building at 45 South Street, Rochester. In spite of this union, their products retained their old names of Poco, Premo, Ray, and Cyclone, and the company was not a success - making of loss of $100,000 a year. In 1903 George Eastman bought the combined assets of the company for only $330,000. Initially the company changed its name back to The Rochester Optical Company before, in 1907, it finally became the Rochester Optical Division of the Eastman Kodak Company,