VC paper is coated with a mixture of blue-sensitive and orthochromatic emulsions. Orthochromatic emulsions date to the 1870's.
The first patent for VC paper was issued in Germany in the very early 1900's.
Defender introduced Varigam, the first VC paper, in 1939. Defender was later bought out by Dupont who exited the photographic business in the late 60's.
Although the technology is basic it is only recently, with Ilford's MGV papers, that VC papers can match the performance of the graded papers available in the 1960's.
It's a funny rule that once a technology is finally made to work well it is suddenly obsolete. Part of that is tautology: When something becomes obsolete it is no longer developed and so it is, by default, at the pinnacle of its perfection; If something is brought to actual perfection it can no longer be improved on and so it becomes an obsolete dead-end that is superseded by a new technology. Perfection, is in a word, useless. When God finally works something out He gets bored and finds some new toys to play with - just ask the Dinosaurs.
I wonder if MGV is going to be the swan-song for B&W photographic paper. Probably when they introduce it in FB WT.