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Where does the X for Kodak films come from?

Helinophoto

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Hi

Saw an interesting discussion at rangefinderforum, where a guy asked what the "X" in films like Plus-X, Tri-X etc comes from and what it actually means.

Was it because "anything with x in it" was cool in the 50's and 60's ?

Does anyone know? (photoengineer/others?)
 
I always thought it meant "Exposure". The more Xes, the faster the exposure.
 
Kodak likes to use X's. Tri-X, Plus X, Microdol X, etc. Normally X means times, but in the Mic X case it meant the very secret ingredient,which appears to be sodium chloride, but no one really knows for sure, at least to my limited understanding. All I know is that Mic X is one of my favorite developers w/ some films, but only when used full strength.

In any case, Kodak seems to have used the X designation for different purposes w/ different films. They're just fond of it I suppose. I like it too. It conjures up the names of old, bad sci fi films from the 50's. There always seemed to be a Planet X floating around somewhere out there in the universe. I found one on youtube that's in Spanish, and must say that El Hombre Del Planeta X sounds much more cool than The Man From Planet X.
 
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Only The Shadow knows!
 
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i figured it was something that meant nothing like the word "KODAK"
although all those X's do have a space race, cold war, space-age -cool thing going on.
kind of like the sputnik chandelier.
 
Never mind the film add.. the magazine was a pleasure to cruise through.
 
paul ron said:
Never mind the film add.. the magazine was a pleasure to cruise through.
Click to expand...

I have to be careful, every time I dig up these magazines I spend the rest of the day looking at how to clean a carburetor and make a hutch for a rabbit...
 
Life's too short to think about such trivia
 
I'm guessing that it was used at times to indicate a new version with higher speed.

At times, not to good effect: Kodachrome-X.
 
benjiboy said:
Life's too short to think about such trivia
Click to expand...
I quite agree, but life's too short to be commenting on other people's "time wasters"... Which is what I just did too!
 
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I find it interesting that Super X is used for motor oil and rifle cartridges...

Maybe Kodak originally planned to call their faster film Super-X but was concerned about trademark infringement.
 
Bill Burk said:
I have to be careful, every time I dig up these magazines I spend the rest of the day looking at how to clean a carburetor and make a hutch for a rabbit...
Click to expand...

i'm currently looking for the gasoline syphoner-er.
but not sure if lungs full of gas fumes beats a mouth full of fuel !
 
I always thought the X, at least in rifle cartridges, was to imply speed: "xpress".
 


The X was used in the name of the new family of B&W Kodak films introduced just before WWII 1938/9 in response to the greatly improved Ilford range that included Pan-F, Fine-grain Panchromatic (FP - FP4 Plus) & Hypersenisitive Panchromatic (HP - HP5 Plus).

Initially the new Kodak X range was Ortho-X, Panatomic-X, Super-XX, and Tri-X and made in the US by Eastman Kodak, and by Kodak Ltd in the UK and Hungary (the plant was nationalised after WWII and became Forte). Tri-X was only available as sheet film. I have the data for all the films in a 1941 Kodak Ltd catalogue.

Microdol-X is the improved version of Microdol so again the X is designating new.

Ian
 
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