May, 1926
INDUSTRIAL A S D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
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AMERICAN CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES The Development of the Eastman Kodak Company
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because the grain of the paper was liable t o be reproduced in 0 T H I S K of the bulky “portable outfit” of 1876, consisting the print. of a large View Camera, heavy tripod, equally heavy and This led him t o devise what was known as the “stripping film,” burdensome plates, a dark tent for loading and sensitizing consisting of a temporary paper base coated with soluble gelatin, the plates before exposure, the nitrate bath, and sometimes which in turn was coated with t h e gelatin emulsion. The even the water bath, and then to look a t one of the present-day advantage of this kind of film was t h a t after exposure and dePocket Kodaks is to realize with great vividness the tremendous velopment the films could be laid face down on a sheet of glass, progress t h a t has been made in photography in the last fifty and after softening the gelatin layer the paper support could years. At the time when this “portable outfit” represented a n irre- be stripped from the film negative. This stripping film, which was patented in 1884, came into ducible minimum of equipment for the amateur who wished to general use and was applied to the first take photographs, George Eastman, Kodak, which was marketed in 1888then a bank clerk in Rochester, was a box type camera with two rolls, the conducting experiments in a tiny room supply spool and the wind-up spool. in a downtown office building. His goal The pictures taken were circular, about was a simplified form of photographic 2 1 / 2 inches in diameter. This first film procedure which would enable anyone roll camera was “foolproof” in that i t to take pictures without burdening himleft nothing for the operator to think self with a mass of equipment. At of or do in making exposures, except to t h a t time a new process of making dry point the camera and press the button. plates by precipitating silver bromide in It was this camera which first made the presence of gelatin was coming into photography every man’s pleasure and vogue, and this process attracted his hobby. attention. The dry plates were many This camera was simplicity itself, but times more sensitive than the wet collothere was no general scheme for developdion plates largely in use up to t h a t ing the films and making prints theretime, and had the further advantage from. For this reason the Eastman Dry that they could be kept in a sensitive Plate and Film Company agreed that it condition so that it was no longer neceswould do the developing and printing sary for the photographer to prepare for the amateur and also reload his his own plates just prior to making the camera with a supply of film if he would exposures. send the camera t o the company with Mr. Eastman, therefore, made experithe exposed film in it. That is the ments with a view to devising a procmeaning behind the familiar phrase, ess for manufacturing gelatin dry plates, “You press the button, we do the rest.” and in the spring of 1880 he rented and As hlr. Eastman has said since, “It opened equipped premises for their manufacture. Eastman Kodak Company in 1890 a m a t e u r photography to the whole His first plates were marketed in the world.” Thousands of these Kodaks fall of that year. I n January, 1881, were sold t o people who had never had he formed a partnership with Henry A. any previous interest in photography. Strong, under the name of The Eastman The word “Kodak” was coined by Mr. Eastman as a tradeDry Plate Company, which continued to manufacture plates unmark that has been applied to the cameras and other goods til October, 1884, when i t was succeeded by The Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company. hfr. Eastman was thus one of the manufactured by the Eastman Kodak Company. It has stood the tests of lawsuits throughout the civilized world and is today pioneers in the photographic business, and since 1880 has derecognized as the registered and common-law trade-mark of voted himself t o the business which he created. The practice of photography was very much simplified by the the Eastman Kodak Company. All the Kodak pictures were made on the stripping film, which introduction of the dry plates, but the photographer was still burdened with a heavy camera on a tripod, and with the curn- had to be stripped from its paper base after development and bersome glass plates carried in their holders. I n 1883 or ‘84 fixation, but experiments were continually being carried on for hlr. Eastman conceived the idea of a simplified and popular the production of the ideal film. Combinations of various system of photography, which, in conjunction with William H. solvents and substances in solutions had been applied to paper Walker, was developed as the now well-known film roll system of to give it greater translucency or greater waterproofness in photography. The “film” was of paper coated with a gelatin case a transparent or translucent substitute could not be had. emulsion similar t o t h a t used for dry plates. It was necessary Like many another success the solution was finally obtained to obtain this evenly coated in long continuous strips, and a more or less by accident. To quote from Mr. Eastman: machine for continuously coating photographic paper was inAfter we got started with the stripping film I made many experivented and patented by Mr. Eastman in 1885. This sensitized paper was loaded into a roll holder which could be attached to ments t o produce long sheets of transparent materials, using cellulose nitrate (soluble cotton) which is the chief constituent the back of a camera in the same position as a plate holder. of celluloid. I used the only solvents known in photography It was not entirely satisfactory to Mr. Eastman, however, a t t h a t time, namely, grain alcohol and ether. The mixture
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INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
of these solvents would only dissolve about 10 per cent of its weight,of the cellulose nitrate, and this solution when coated on glass gave too thin a film t o be of any use. I tried building up a thicker film by using successive coatings of this solution (known as “collodion”) and rubber, but I could not get a thick enough film t o be practical. In t h e meantime failing t o succeed in producing this ideal support, I began t o experiment in replacing the sheets of gelatin used for backing the stripping film with a varnish t o overcome the objection of t h e slow drying. One day a young assistant whom I had assigned t o this job came t o me with a bottle of varnish and a glass plate bearing a stripping film negative which had been varnished and partially stripped from the plate. He said t h a t he had found just what we were looking for. I asked him what the varnish was composed of, and he said “wood alcohol and soluble cotton.” It was very thick, like separated honey, and I saw at once that i t was the solution which I had been looking for t o make film base, and imrnediately,,began to devise apparatus for producing film by drying the varnish” on long strips of glass plate.
Vol. 18, No. 5
One of the difficulties with the camera film was that it tended to curl owing t o the contraction of the gelatin in the emulsion, and in 1903 a noncurling film was produced by coating the back of the film with plain gelatin. In 1905 the black paper used for packing the roll film cartridges was replaced by a paper, red on one side and black on the other, so called “duplex” paper. This prevented the possibility of the exposure numbers printed on the paper from off-setting onto the film on prolonged keeping, I n 1913 another change in the cartridge film was made as the result of the purchase of the Autographic patents. The Autographic film whs made by spooling the film, not in the duplex paper, but in a thin and translucent red paper, between which and the film was wound a carbon paper similar t o that used for duplicating on the typewriter. The black material on t h e carbon paper protects the film from light. After exposures are made, the photographer writes on the red paper with a stylus through a n opening in the back of the camera, and pressure of the stylus removes some of the opaque black material of the carbon sheet so that on exposure t o light through the opening the film is fogged along the tracks of the writing and this image develops together with the negative and serves for its identification. In 1902 a daylight developing machine was introduced, and this was later improved in 1904. I n 1905 the company placed on the market a new apparatus for developing films, known as the “tank developer method.” This was a marked improvement over the previous devices. Thus the amateur no longer needed a dark room for the developing of his films, but could develop in the field or in a n ordinary room at home. In 1880, when Mr. Eastman commenced his business, the prints and negatives were made chiefly upon albuminized paper. Mr. Eastman made small quantities of bromide paper by coating a slow plate emulsion upon paper, but he abandoned its production until the invention of a paper-coating machine in 1885 made its manufacture economical. In 1892 a gelatin printingout paper was introduced under the name of “Solio” which had a n instantaneous success. The widespread use of c o l l o d i o n printing-out paper led to the acquisition in 1899 of the American Aristotype Company, and in 1899 Velox paper, invented by Leo H. Baekeland, was purchased from the Nepera Chemical Company. Artura, a paper of the same genera1 type a s Velox, but made especially to meet the demands of the professional photographer, was purchased and transferred t o Kodak Park in
I n 1889 the first transparent film in rolls was marketed. This film was made by spreading a solution of nitrocellulose on a long glass table made up of lengths of plate glass joined together at their ends. After this coating had dried, i t was coated first with a substratum of silicate of soda t o make the emulsion adhere t o it and then with gelatin emulsion (in a dark room), the film thus formed when the emulsion was dry being severed into strips and wound on spools. The solution used in making the base consisted of nitrocellulose dissolved in wood alcohol and higher alcohols. The substratum was changed later, The advantages of this nitrocellulose film over the stripping film were that, as it was transparent and grainless, it could remain as a permanent support for the negative, thus avoiding the paper-stripping operation of the stripping film and also produced better results in printing. It was in the same year that films were first used for motion picture purposes, Mr. Eastman having supplied some to Mr. Edison for his &st successful experiment with his Kinematograph. This was a negative film which proved entirely satisfactory. In 1891 the amateur transparent film was further perfected by making it d a y l i g h t loading. This was accomplished by winding it on a wooden core, inside a lighttight box, and attaching black cloth leaders t o the ends of the film. Later it was wound inside of a protective sheet of black paper with a sufficient overlength of the paper so t h a t the camera could be loaded as it is today, without endangering the sensitive film. In 1895 the first Pocket Kodak was designed by Frank A. Brownell of the 1909. Eastman Kodak Company. In 1902 the company deThe f i r s t l o t of t h e s e termined t o increase the cameras m a nu f a c t u r e d manufacture of its earlier amounted t o 25,000, and in Camera Works, Executive Offices a n d Warehouse of E a s t m a n products, photographic dry 1898 a further improvement Kodak Comp&y Today plates, and the Seed and in cameras was made in Standard dry plate comthat they were made coloanies were Durchased. I n lapsible. The first of these 1904 the Stanley Company was acquired, and in i911 the three was known as the Folding Pocket Kodak. In 1900 the Brownie camera, originally intended for children, was put on the market companies were consolidated in a new plate factory with over five acres of floor space at Kodak Park. a t the price of one dollar. By 1895 the motion picture business had developed t o a point For several years prior to 1909 a ceUulose acetate film was where the need of a special positive film was recognized, and this being developed, and since then has made a firm place for itself in the trade. It is regarded as essential for motion picture was duly developed by the Kodak Company and marketed in that year. projection in schools, churches, and other auditoriums not
equipped with lii~epruoi iiooths, by reason of its very low iir-
Rammahility aud consequent safety. At the prcserrt time the company's production of cellulose acetate film is large and increasing. Owing to its long previous experience, the company
Mr. E ~ s f m a nOriginal '~ Power Plant in 1888
during the war was able to supply very large quantities of cellulose acetate for airplane dope used to stiffen the cloth wings of the pianes. In 1913 the production of panchromatic plates and colored light filters was started, and in 1914 panchromatic motion picture film was placed on the market for the first time. This has met with great success and is used nut only for motion pictures in natural colors, but also to a considerable extent for the ordinary pictures. The company supplied plates especially adapted far X-ray purposes ior the first time in 1914, and thc sale of theesc increased very rapidly owing to the great growth of radiography. In 1918, a special X-ray filin was coated ou both sides with emulsion and marketed under the name of "Dupli-Tized" filrn. The use of this film is now general throughout the world, and the film has almost entirely replaced plates in radiographic work. Film far dental work, especially packed so that it could he used without requiring a darkroom. was placed on the market at an early date. The manufacture of X-ray intensifying screens was commenced in 1923. In I923 a complete system of amateur motion-picture photogrtphy was made available to the public. The apparatus comprised a camera, the Cine-Kodak, a projector, the Kodascopc, with the accessories, while the special film was supplied so packed that it could be loaded into the camera in daylight. This was intended for development by a reversal process which comerts the negative into positive, and thus makes the original film ai-ailable for projection. Owing to the small size of the film and the use of the reversal process, the taking of motion pictures by the general public, a t a practical price, was made possible. In 1925 a hand motion-picture camera, the Cin6Kodak Model R, driven by a spring, was introduced. The expansion of this sytem has been very rapid, and it seems possible that the introduction of amateur cinematography in 1923 will rank with that of portable hand camera photography in 1888. Throughout this development of the business of the company, and indeed of photography itself, the progress which has been realized has been due to the work of technical and scientific men, and each step, both in the development of new processes and in the introduction of improved manufacturing methods, lia'i involved a n immense amount of research and experiment. A laboratory was established in the earliest days. Onc of the
original buildiugs at Kodak Park was designed for use as a chemical laboratory and the direction of the manufacture of the company has always been in the hands of technical men. A t the present time three of the directors have heeu closely associated with Mr. &stman in his technical work from early days. W. G. Stuber, president of the company, joined the company ill 1893 as an experienced emulsion maker, and is still responsible for maintaining the photographic quality oi the sensitized products. F. W. Lovejoy, vice president and general manager, entered the coinpany in 1897 and later became manager of the Kodak Park Works. In 1906 he was appointed general manufacturing nianagcr. J. H. Haste, now manager of the Kodak Park Works, entered the compauy in 1897 and took charge of the chemical plant a t Kodak Park until he succeeded Mr. Lovejoy as manager of the plant. The original laboratory at Kodak Park was soon paralleled by other laboratories working specifically for various divisions of the factory, and it is now a practice for each department to establish a section which can supply it with the scientific information that i t may need for its direct control and operation. A research laboratory was established in 1912 to deal especially with the fundamentals of the science of photography and to carry on pure scientific research along all lines of interest to the company. In addition to its work in photography, the rescarch laboratory has established a department of synthetic chemistry to manufacture and supply the syntlictic organic chemicals required Tor research purposes in the United States, and this department has grown until a t the present time it supplies the greatest part of the chemicals required. C. E. Kenneth Mees has been the director of thc research laboratories since their formation, and has built up a staff of internationally Famous photographic experts on the various aspects of the theory
Secciuri of Power Plant, Kodak Psrk Tada,
of photography. Nearly one hundred and fifty people are employed in the laboratory, a large percentage of whom are highly trained technical or scientific men. The Eastman Kodak Company is thus the example of ail industry created by a technical man and developed largely by technicians and chemists in which the scientific control of the work is fully developed and in which research pushing towards new achievements is "blazing the path."
Chinese Dye Imports Decbe-Imports of aniline dyes into China show a large falling off for the eleven months of 1925. as compared with 1924, according to consular advices to the Department of Commerce from Tientrin, China. This 1 M Y be attrihutahle to the large stocks on hand.
