I picked this up almost forty years ago at Reseda (CA) Camera, IIRC. The old man always had a table of odds and ends for sale. Five and a half inches by four and a quarter with an eight loop metal comb on top.
Although useless today, I love going through it. Nostalgia before I was even an adult. I'm thinking early 1950's based on model hair styles.
There are thirteen contact papers alone! Besides there was Opal, Athena, Velox, Azo, Illustrator's Azo, Aristo, and "Ad Type Paper A." Warm tone, cold tone, many different surfaces, SW, DW, sometimes grades 0-5.
In enlarging papers, thirty eight! As with the contact papers, warm and cold tones, many different surfaces, weights, and grades. Paper names include Opal, Platino, Illustrator's Special, Kodabromide, Royal Bromide, Velox Rapid, Resisto Rapid, Translite, and Portrait Proof.
If we add up SW and DW papers, paper surfaces, and the many contrast grades, the number of papers that Kodak produced boggles the imagination. Just in named papers, fifty one! Some papers were available in only one grade, others, as noted, up to six. Times single or double weight. I would guesstimate at least 200, 250 or more items to manufacture and stock. I'm sure many were special order items for camera stores.
In the early 1950's I was a wee lad, my father was a professional photographer, we lived about 35 miles from NYC on Long Island. ("Lawn Guyland," if you speak the native language.) I can remember going into the city with Dad in our green1949 Studebaker Champion with whitewalls to buy paper and chemicals. He was mostly a Kodak guy, but fifty years later I found many prints stashed in blue DuPont paper boxes.
His tiny darkroom was a place of magic for me, young as I was. He would expose an image from the enlarger (using his 4x5 Graphic camera lens,) or contact printer and put the paper into "water," and lo and behold, a picture! Did I say, "Magic?" He also had a few nudes on the wall, including the famous Marilyn Monroe in front of the red velvet curtain from an early Playboy. My introduction to females! There was the huge circular print washer.......we were on septic!.....and the ferrotype thing for glossy prints.
In the early/mid 1980's I decided to started developing and printing my own film and paper. A garage darkroom. When I bought hydroquinone the first time, I was taken back to that darkroom, those long, thin needles in a Kodak jar!
OK, time to get back to Tik Tok......just very much kidding. "Get offa my lawn!" the old man sez.
Although useless today, I love going through it. Nostalgia before I was even an adult. I'm thinking early 1950's based on model hair styles.
There are thirteen contact papers alone! Besides there was Opal, Athena, Velox, Azo, Illustrator's Azo, Aristo, and "Ad Type Paper A." Warm tone, cold tone, many different surfaces, SW, DW, sometimes grades 0-5.
In enlarging papers, thirty eight! As with the contact papers, warm and cold tones, many different surfaces, weights, and grades. Paper names include Opal, Platino, Illustrator's Special, Kodabromide, Royal Bromide, Velox Rapid, Resisto Rapid, Translite, and Portrait Proof.
If we add up SW and DW papers, paper surfaces, and the many contrast grades, the number of papers that Kodak produced boggles the imagination. Just in named papers, fifty one! Some papers were available in only one grade, others, as noted, up to six. Times single or double weight. I would guesstimate at least 200, 250 or more items to manufacture and stock. I'm sure many were special order items for camera stores.
In the early 1950's I was a wee lad, my father was a professional photographer, we lived about 35 miles from NYC on Long Island. ("Lawn Guyland," if you speak the native language.) I can remember going into the city with Dad in our green1949 Studebaker Champion with whitewalls to buy paper and chemicals. He was mostly a Kodak guy, but fifty years later I found many prints stashed in blue DuPont paper boxes.
His tiny darkroom was a place of magic for me, young as I was. He would expose an image from the enlarger (using his 4x5 Graphic camera lens,) or contact printer and put the paper into "water," and lo and behold, a picture! Did I say, "Magic?" He also had a few nudes on the wall, including the famous Marilyn Monroe in front of the red velvet curtain from an early Playboy. My introduction to females! There was the huge circular print washer.......we were on septic!.....and the ferrotype thing for glossy prints.
In the early/mid 1980's I decided to started developing and printing my own film and paper. A garage darkroom. When I bought hydroquinone the first time, I was taken back to that darkroom, those long, thin needles in a Kodak jar!
OK, time to get back to Tik Tok......just very much kidding. "Get offa my lawn!" the old man sez.
