[PRCo] Re: Interesting meeting tonight

[Schneider Fred]

Now if I were there, that is one I would want to attend.
  Those of us who cut our teeth on 4x5 Speed Graphics with film have  
no idea what it was like to carry around 8x10 plate holders filled  
with glass. I remember the revolution that the Milwaukee Journal  
stated in 1953 when one of their cameraman discovered that a 35mm  
reflex camera was perfectly adequate for photo journalism (after all,  
when you are using a 60 dot to the inch screen, the grain of Super XX  
was still far finer than the engraving dot pattern in the  
newspaper).   And now we're into digital and the young kids don't  
even understand film and chemistry.   I feel like Methuselah because  
I know what chemicals actually go into a photographic developer and why.

How late was glass actually used?   Probably right up until polyester  
(Estar in Kodak parlance) film bases were first made.  Armstrong Cork  
Company and Kerr Glass, its local successor, used huge glass plates  
for photo lithography in the Lancaster plant at least into the 1960s  
and probably considerably later as part of the printing process that  
was used to print bottle caps and crowns (those press-on caps for  
beer and soda bottles) on large sheets of steel.   They were printed  
in rows of about a dozen caps or crows on a sheet, and then about a  
dozen rows, and each row had to go through a punch press in perfect  
register so that the ink (or paint) was perfectly centered on the  
finished crown or bottle cap.  It could not be the least bit off  
center.   Because films were not dimensionally stable, glass plates  
were used.   I think that once we got to polyester base supports  
(plastic), then the film did not expand or contract enough in  
processing to through the caps out of register when the finished  
sheet of steel went through the punch presses.

As late as August 1960, when I visited their offices, the Edinburgh  
(Scotland) Evening News was still using glass plates for all  
photograpny.   Their reason?  Archaic as it may sound, they could  
process a plate, wipe it off with a sponge, and put it into an  
enlarger and print it without force drying it.   They were able to  
get a news item into the paper 15 minutes sooner with glass plates  
than if they were using acetate base film stock.

When did glass fall out of general public acceptance?    It happened  
when sodium nitrate film was produced.    The first nitrocelluose  
(sodium nitrocellulose) films appear in 1889 but had pretty much  
replaced glass almost immediately for amateurs simply because it made  
amateur photography possible.   But it did not totally force glass  
out of favor with commercial photographers until the 1920s. That is  
our good fortune because, while the thinner roll films on sodium  
nitrate bases are relatively stable if allowed to have sufficient air  
around them, the thicker sheet films that were used by professionals  
are far less chemically stable.   If stored under pressure in stacks,  
they can decompose and, like the fertilizer tat removed the Federal  
building in Oklahoma City, a good stack of decomposing sheet film can  
leave a nice sized bomb crater.   While we began to replace socium  
nitrate film with safety film (acetate base) about 1933, the  
transformation wasn't complete until the 1950s because the newer film  
was more expensive.  (I've seen a 1951 date but I suspect there was  
still a lot of unprocessed nitrate stock around into the late 1950s.)

The history below that I found on the internet might be of interest.....


1889
George Eastman
Produced the first transparent roll film (nitrocellulose)


1889
Thomas Edition
Slit the 2 3/4 inch Kodak roll film down the middle making it 1 3/8  
inch (35mm) and put transport perforations down each side - to become  
the international standard for motion picture film.


1890
Hurter & Driffield
Devised the first independent system to give emulsions speed numbers,  
this essentially led to the current ISO numbers on film boxes today.



1890's

The first halftone photographic reproductions appeared in daily  
papers, although it took another ten years before the process was  
fully adopted. Halftones were created by using a camera containing a  
ruled glass screen with a grid pattern to break up the image into  
tiny dots of different sizes.



1904
Dr. H. Vogel
Research lead to panchromatic film using sensitising dyes. This type  
of film is sensitive to all visible colours.


1904
Augusta and
Louis Lumiere
Patented "Autochrome" the first additive colour screen film material.


1912
Siegrist and
Fischer
The two German chemists invented the action of colour coupling , so  
dyes required for colour film processing could be created by  
combining appropriate developer oxidation products with colour former  
chemicals. However  the process was not reliable enough to start film  
production.



1924
Oscar Barnack
An employer of E. Leitz designed a camera for use with a microscope  
using motion picture film, this became the first precision 35mm  
camera. It was called the Leica derived from Leitz camera. The  
capabilities of the Leica made a new form of photojournalism  
possible, as typified by the Magnum photographic agency.


1935
Kodak
Mannes and Godowsky helped develop Kodachrome for home movies, the  
following year it was introduced in 35mm format.



1936
Agfa
This German company was the first to sell a film, Agfacolor, with the  
colour formers in the film. Towards the end of the second World War  
their closely guarded secrets were "liberated".


1940s

Large factory size laboratories took over film processing from  
individual chemists. However chemists still continued to sell films.

On Sep 9, 2008, at 12:57 PM, ROBERT R ROCKWELL wrote:

> I just received info that there will be a discussion of "glass  
> plate photography around the turn of the 20th Century". It will be  
> the regular monthly meeting around 7PM of the Mon River Buffs Assoc.
> The museum is on the second floor above the Span/Taylor Pharmacy at  
> the corner of Main and 2nd in Monongahela. All are welcome. If you  
> need more info you can call George Hutchko, 724-258-6231.
>
>
> Robert Rockwell
> w3syt1 at msn.com<mailto:w3syt1 at msn.com>
>