Kodak reports to laboratories on: a new material for the base of our business . . identifying very meagre samples a push button notetaker (in color)
P(olystyrene) B(ase) The first Kodak film on a base other than cellulose ester is now on regu lar sale. Kodalith Ortho PB Film has a .005" base of extruded polystyrene. This material is optically clear and as free from visible blemishes as cellulose ester film had become about the time of the Harding ad ministration. What justifies using this material is the fact that when a pelloid is coated on one side and a photographic emulsion on the other, and then you expose it and put it through everything film goes through in processing, drying, and storage, you find it is about three times as dimensionally stable as cellulose ester film. Furthermore, what little dimensional change has occurred is the same in all directions. Anybody who has been looking for a high-contrast film that probably wont change dimension by more than 0.02% for a 10% change in relative humidity is invited to purchase a box of Kodalith Ortho PB Film from his Kodak Graphic Arts Dealer.
Infrared beam squeezer
The lens you see here is not glass but silver chloride, which is trans parent all the way out beyond 17μ in the infrared. The speck it mag nifies is typical of specks for which we run infrared absorption spectra in the course of solving our daily little problems. We use such lenses not as magnifiers but to constrict one of the beams in a double-beam infrared spectrophotometer so that all its flux can be put through a 0.75mm χ 3.5mm aperture. This permits the use of a very small sample. Then a second such AgCl lens collimates the beam again. The samples, frequently weighing
50 micrograms or less, are handled by grinding the material to be ex amined with a little potassium bro mide and compressing to a narrow strip. Nothing is dissolved in the process, and there is less chance for reactions and extra absorption that might mask the few micrograms of organic material we seek to identify. KBr puts no dips of its own into the chart. This procedure is much less ex pensive than working out reflecting microscope optics and hitching them to a spectrophotometer. We got into it in identifying spots on film that our testing department won't let us sell. It might interest others who have only very meagre samples to work with, like those who study blood and other life juices. Since most infrared spectroscopists aren't as lucky as we in having a great optical factory in the imme diate family, we thought it would be a friendly deed if we made up a stock of silver chloride lenses for anybody who wants to try out this wrinkle of ours. The price is $102 for a set of Kodak Infrared Microsample Optics, consist ing of an unmounted pair of plano convex AgCl lenses of 24mm diameter and 22mm focal length, coated with a black AgiS smoke that cuts out radia tion below 7μ, plus a similar planeparallel plate for the reference beam. The deal is with Eastman Kodak Com pany, Special Products Sales Division, Rochester 4, N. ¥. Well throw in a set of mounting drawings or give you the name of an infrared equipment manufacturer who supplies the whole assembly ready to slip into his spectrophotometer. We can also supply reprints of our papers on the method.
Close up You are leading a troop of scouts on a hike through the deep woods, and the youngest of them spots a strange reddish blotch on the trunk of an old hemlock. Is it an old paint dab or a new fungal blight? Jot it down on Kodachrome Film for checking. You are investigating erratic be havior of an extrusion press and discover an alarming crack on the hidden side of the base casting. Jot it down on film so that the manu
facturer will know exactly what you are talking about. "Jot it down" brings a wistful lit tle smile to the lips of those who rec ognize in that pat term a wee over simplification of certain problems in lighting, focusing, framing, and camera support that they have en countered in such situations. These skeptics we now confound with this device :
We are not going to suggest that you knock such a simple instrument together yourself because you'd find it takes π times as many hours as you had figured on and then you would discover the first time out that there was an important design point you had overlooked. Instead we suggest a visit to your Kodak dealer for a look at the new Kodak Technical Close-Up Outfit. Heft of it. Note that all you do is put it up to your subject, squeeze, and you get a picture of whatever ear of wheat or lump of carnotite is in the two-sided frame. The light comes from a walnutsized flash bulb inside the bag. Since that close it overwhelms even sun light, exposure, like focus and com position, requires no decision, no onerous cerebration. This always augurs well for the non-professional in photography who nonetheless ap preciates good photographs. To use the outfit at 3 feet or at 15 feet or with black-and-white film demands but one or two procedure changes, unambiguously stated on the flash holder. The outfit includes the excel lent Kodak Pony 828 Camera, the Kodak B-C Flasholder, and several other items better seen than read about. The camera is also yours to use without the hardware, of course. You press the button ; it does the rest. $62.75. Prices quoted include Federal Tax where applicable and are subject to change without notice.
This is one of α series of reports on the many products and services with which the Eastman Kodak Company and
its divisions a r e . . . serving laboratories everywhere V O L U M E 2 7, NO. 2, F E B R U A R Y
1955
Kodak 43 A
