Ektalure

[dwross]

Thank you! I read a great memoir by an old Kodak guy this past winter, about setting up buildings at Kodak Park in the 20s and 30s. I've lost the book to my disorganized bookshelves at the moment, but it will turn up. I believe it had Ekatachrome in the title? Perhaps "From Something to Ektachrome"? I will look this up!
-Bob

Just found the book I mention above on Lightfarm: From Dry Plates to Ektachrome Film, A Story of Photographic Research, C. E. Kenneth Mees, Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, 1961.

Beat me to it!
On that note, I've started adding another Mees book to the Classics Library on TLF, The Photography of Colored Objects. It's the 11th edition and attributed as a generic Kodak publication, but the first many additions were attributed to Mees.

 

[hacked - sepiareverb]

Hah! You showed me to it! That was a terrific read. And you've got a great bibliography there for me to work through. Thank you!
-Bob

 

[Photo Engineer]

Beat me to it!
On that note, I've started adding another Mees book to the Classics Library on TLF, The Photography of Colored Objects. It's the 11th edition and attributed as a generic Kodak publication, but the first many additions were attributed to Mees.

There is an update to this in Evans, Hanson and Brewer on color imaging. These guys discuss everything.

http://camerabooks.com/Products/Pri...s-spc-of-spc-Color-spc--fslsh--spc-Evans.aspx

And, the Mees book is good but very very old fashioned. It has a number of errors. For one humorous example, the "diagram" of the 1st floor of B-59 is not. It is the 5th floor. You see, the first floor has an entrance and this diagram does not show it.

Anyhow, I was unaware of Kit's extensions to the book. He gave me a copy a while back and it did not go into the detail I thought would be of use here, as it was more directed to historians IMHO. Kit is a great guy, but has vanished from our contacts here and has not come to lunch groups at GEH for the last few years.

PE

 

[Photo Engineer]

Ahhh-Opal. I am glad you brought that paper up. Many years ago, I used an Opal paper whose surface was "completely dead". I refer to Opal "V". I used it when someone needed to show pictures to the TV cameras on "live television". How was that surface obtained? In the darkroom you sometimes had to touch the paper with your tongue to find the emulsion side of your paper. With what I now know about cadmium, I would sure find a better way. Most of us in those days never knew what was in the emulsions other than silver (and lots of it)...........Regards!

I have no idea how it was obtained, but often that "dead" look was obtained by addition of methyl methacrylate beads to the surface overcoat. The problem was that they could come out of the gelatin matrix in continuous processes and create a sludge like material on rollers.

PE

 

[Arklatexian]

I have no idea how it was obtained, but often that "dead" look was obtained by addition of methyl methacrylate beads to the surface overcoat. The problem was that they could come out of the gelatin matrix in continuous processes and create a sludge like material on rollers.

PE

Is that why it felt like "sandpaper" at times?.......Thanks...Regards!

 

[Photo Engineer]

Yep!

 

[hacked - sepiareverb]

...http://camerabooks.com/Products/Pri...s-spc-of-spc-Color-spc--fslsh--spc-Evans.aspx...

Thank you for the link, that looks like a dream bookstore to me.

 

[papermaker]

Yes, and it's excellent. Kit Funderburk was a paper engineer at Kodak and wrote a couple of short but fact-filled books. He was an early contributor to The Light Farm, and I haven't been in communication with him for a number of years, so I can't say that the following contact info will help, but give it a try. If you can't get ahold of Kit's books from him personally, you might try George Eastman Museum (formerly G.E. House) or RIT. Anyway, a straight copy/paste from TLF:

Kit Funderburk
We have a rare and valuable opportunity to expand our knowledge of the iconic Kodak papers. Kit Funderburk was a papermaker at Kodak and today is an historian of photographic papers. Kit isn’t an emulsion maker, per se, but he understands the substrates and the essential character they bring to b&w paper. It is his belief that we should be able to get very close to the original papers — closer even than I had dared hope.

Here is Kit’s contribution to us:

“In 2006, I edited/authored a book (spiral bound booklet) titled History of the Paper Mills at Kodak Park which was intended as a memento for Kodak papermakers (the last papermachine was dismantled in 2005). I won’t go into the details but that book led to lots of questions about the history of the fiber based B&W papers so I wrote a second book in 2007 titled A Guide to the Surface Characteristics, Kodak Fiber Based Black and White Papers. I’m strictly a papermaker (retired). The books are about manufacturing paper support and there is nothing about emulsions, emulsion coating, or photo products (subjects I don’t know much about). Both books are available at no charge though I do ask that requesters cover the mailing costs. The mailing cost is $4.60 within most of the US but is as high as $14.00 for some international locations. If you would like a copy or want more info you can contact me at ‘KitFunderburk at gmail dot com’. I'll also be happy to try to answer questions here.”

Denise has just added the second edition of the Guide to Surface Characteristics book to The Light Farm site. The edition is in a pdf file in book format so it can be printed if a hard copy is desired. You can see the EK history on how paper and baryta were made, how the surfaces (texture, gloss) were made, what the EK lettering systems identified (Ektalure G, for example), etc.

Kit