Category: the Lab

Notes: Kodak Research Lab

Posted on Posted in dye transfer, film, morning wood, The Biz, the Lab

change over in 85/86 caused disruption within KRL

John Capstaff at the Kodak Research Laboratory in Rochester from 1914 to 1918.

director of research Kenneth Mees

  • C. E. Kenneth Mees, From Dry Plates to Ektachrome Film; a Story of Photographic Research. (New York: Ziff-Davis Pub. Co., 1961).
  • Mees, From Dry Plates to Ektachrome Film, 293-301.
  • Journey: 75 Years of Kodak Research (Rochester, N.Y.: Eastman Kodak, 1989).
  • Robert L. Shanebrook, Making KODAK Film. The Illustrated Story of State-of-the-Art Photographic Film Manufacturing (Rochester, NY: Robert Shanebrook Photography, 2010).
  •  Carl W. Ackerman, George Eastman (Boston; New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1930); Elizabeth Brayer,
  • George Eastman: A Biography (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996).
  • Douglas Collins, The Story of Kodak (New York: H.N. Abrams, 1990).
  • Reese Jenkins, Images and Enterprise: Technology and the American Photographic Industry, 1839 to 1925 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).
  • Gary Jacobson, “KODAK: Research is in the Driver’s Seat,” Management Review 77, no. 10 (1988): 32- 32; J. D. Ratcliff, “Eastman Kodak’s Research Odyssey: Profitable Sidelines Add to Company’s Earnings from Photographic Products,” Barron’s, June 23, 1941, 3; Martin Sherwood, “Photographic Research in Focus,” New Scientist (February 8, 1973): 301-303.
  • E. Roy Davies, “Reports of Meetings. Scientific and Technical Group’s Second After-Dinner Lecture – 15 February 1962”, The Journal of Photographic Science 10, no. 4 (1962): 252-257.
  • G. B. Harrison, “The Laboratories of Ilford Limited,” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences 220, no. 1143 (December 22, 1953): 9-20.
  • Fritz Wentzel, Memoirs of a Photochemist (Philadelphia: American Museum of Photography, 1960).

Key Mees Books

  • Mees, C. E. Kenneth and John A. Leermakers. The Organization of Industrial Scientific Research. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1950.
  • Mees, C. E. Kenneth and John Randal Baker. The Path of Science. New York: J. Wiley & sons, Inc., 1946.
  • Mees, C. E. Kenneth and Samuel Sheppard. Investigations on the Theory of the Photographic Process. London, New York, Bombay, Calcutta: Longmans, Green and Co, 1907.

Mees Bibliography

  • Mees, C. E. Kenneth. “Amateur Cinematography and the Kodacolor Process.” Journal of the Franklin Institute 207, no. 1 (1929): 1-17.
  • ———. Dr. C.E. Kenneth Mees: An Address to the Senior Staff of the Kodak Research Laboratories, November 9, 1955. Rochester N.Y.: Kodak Research Laboratories, 1956.
  • ———. “Fifty Years of Photographic Research.” Image, the Bulletin of the George Eastman House of Photography 3, no. 8 (1954): 49-54.
  • ———. From Dry Plates to Ektachrome Film; a Story of Photographic Research. New York: Ziff-Davis Pub. Co., 1961.
  • ———. The Fundamentals of Photography. Rochester N.Y.: Eastman Kodak Company, 920.
  • ———. “The Kodak Research Laboratories.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London.Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences 192, no. 1031 (1948): 465-479.
  • ———. “On the Resolving Power of Photographic Plates.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A 83, no. 559 (1909): 10-18.
  • ———. “The Organization of Industrial Scientific Research.” Science 43, no. 1118 (1916): 763-773.
  • ———. The Organization of Industrial Scientific Research. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc, 1920.
  • ———. “A Photographic Research Laboratory.” The Scientific Monthly 5, no. 6 (1917): 481-496.
  • ———. Photography. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937.
  • ———. The Photography of Colored Objects. Rochester N.Y.: Eastman Kodak Company, 1919.
  • ———. The Photography of Coloured Objects. London: Wratten & Wainwright Ltd., 1909.
  • ———. “Planning a Research Laboratory for an Industry.” The Scientific Monthly 7, no. 1 (1918): 54-67.
  • ———. “The Production of Scientific Knowledge.” Science 46, no. 1196 (1917): 519- 528.
  • ———. “The Publication of Papers from Research Institutions.” Science 70, no. 1821 (1929): 502-502.
  • ———. “The Publication of Scientific Research.” Science 46, no. 1184 (1917): 237-238.
  • ———. “Recent Advances in our Knowledge of the Photographic Process.” The Scientific Monthly 55, no. 4 (1942): 293-300.
  • ———. “Research and Business with some Observations on Color Photography.” Vital Speeches of the Day 2, no. 4 (1935): 117-117.
  • ———. “The Science of Photography.” Sigma XI Quarterly 19, no. 1 (1931): 1-19.
  • ———. “Secrecy and Industrial Research.” Nature 170, no. 4336 (1952): 972.
  • ———. “The Supply of Organic Reagents.” Science 48, no. 1230 (1918): 91-92.
  • ———. The Theory of the Photographic Process. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1942.
grain, dev, chemists
haist; cube grain, d-23, etc
henn: tab grain, xtol, etc

Dye Transfer Supplies

Posted on Posted in dye transfer, labnotes, the Lab

Old processes weren’t static — they changed, often rapidly. I say old, but they weren’t old then, they were new; at their early stage. That is the stage when much of the work was being done without big industrial support. It so happens, that is the point we get to after the process has been abandoned by its industrial supporters. We go back to the mechanical age of photography.

The loss of dye transfer matrix film is the obvious gap to cross; however, the bigger loss, partly since it is little discussed, is the mordanted paper. It wasn’t just glossy, it was very smooth gloss with multiple coatings of mordanting. This is the high reflection density giving a Dye Transfer its look of saturation. The dyes were never special, really, not that pure; the yellow being very impure. This, in part, explains the “red” of Eggleston’s prints.

Process is a life-style thing at the beginning, and at the ending. The Cycle of ….

The equipment needed listing from two different issues of the Kodak Dye Transfer guide. These are from the 50s, as the process went from a maybe to the main way of printing from color. Dye Transfer rapidly replaced Carbro, becoming the preferred way for print publishing — advertising, in fact all media.

By the time Dye Transfer entered the 60s, Kodak had already introduced its replacement: Type C, the process now called RA-4, after the chemistry used. Fujifilm and Kodak have color paper for the process. The process of printing color this century doesn’t involve anywhere near the amount of supplies of last century.

These days: No Assembly Required. Unbox. Mix. Print.

Finished Another Jug

Posted on Posted in A Symbol Life, labnotes, the Lab

Joy and a little apprehension — every time I mix another batch of chemicals. It must be done; someday it will be all done. Even if they last, I won’t.

Out with the trash. No need to even save the jug. Shipping liquid is expensive. Powder is so much easier to ship, store, but not easier to mix, so, more chemicals are made as concentrates. Ilford chemistry is easy: dilute 1 to 4 for film; 1 to 9 for paper. For the mathemagicians: mix the film stuff 1 to 1 for paper.

Ilford hypam has been my main BW fixer for about a decade. I only use one of these a year; a decade ago I was using 5 a year. So much for the film revival, if I’m a lead case.