Would anyone know how old this box of Kodabromide postcard paper is?

[kwmullet]

I inherited this from someone who went digital who inherited it from someone who went digital, etc...

It's curvy but still usable. I'd sure like to be able to say how old it is.

Would anyone know?

 

[kwmullet]

According to (there was a url link here which no longer exists):

Although I can't directly tell the date of manufacture, the date of expiration would seem to be September of 2004, 1996. 1988, 1980, 1972, 1964, 1956, 1948, etc.

Are there any online references to pin this down? It would be helpful to know when Kodabromide was discontinued, or better yet, the date range of manufacture.

-KwM-

 

[papermaker]

According to (there was a url link here which no longer exists):

Although I can't directly tell the date of manufacture, the date of expiration would seem to be September of 2004, 1996. 1988, 1980, 1972, 1964, 1956, 1948, etc.

Are there any online references to pin this down? It would be helpful to know when Kodabromide was discontinued, or better yet, the date range of manufacture.

-KwM-

Kodabromide was discontinued in 1999. As for when it was introduced, it is not in a 1937 list of Kodak papers but is listed in 1940.

 

[Ian Grant]

It was called Kodak Bromide in the 20's & 30's, and in the UK up until at least the 70's, I think that's quite late production looking at the packaging style, typefaces etc, 1990's

I had some 50's/60's Kodak Bromide and it was still very usable, it keeps longer than warmer tone papers.

Ian

 

[papermaker]

Interesting. There may have been a Kodak Bromide named product in the 20s & 30s in the UK but neither it nor Kodabromide are in USA listings for Kodak products based on product lists from 1924, 28,32, 37 (ones I have quick access to). During the 20s and 30s in the USA, there are listings for PMC Bromide, Eastman Bromide, Eastman Portrait Bromide, etc. Was Kodak Bromide like one of more (all?) of those? Was the later named Kodabromide like one of those? I don't know.

There is a point to be made from this. One of the things I learned in researching the history of the Kodak B&W papers is that very little was as precise as it might seem -- things were different but named the same, things were named the same but had different properties. In the 2 editions of the B&W history that I wrote, I had a chapter titled Can a difference be seen? Can a difference be measured? Does it make a difference? I probably should have titled the last part -- When does it make a difference?And the answer to that appears to be based on what the original question is about. If the original question is when did the named product Kodabromide exist then it would seem to be late 30s/1940 to 1999. If the question is how long was there an enlarging paper made by Kodak with the part of the name Bromide (or Bromo or Brom) we can find Kodak Permanent Bromide Paper in 1886. Or maybe the original question was something else.

 

[Ian Grant]

The Eastman name wasn't used at all in the UK, it's Kodak Ltd. Tha main UK Harrow factory was second in size to Rochester and had it's own Research facilities.

UK products wouldn't be identical but rather close, Tri-X varied in speed & behaviour with different dev times depending on whether it was made by Eastman Kodak, Kodak Canada or Kodak UK, and just prior to WWII it was made in Kodak;s Hungarian plant (later to become Forte).

So Eastman Bromide = Kodak Bromide approx. remember both research facilities were run by former Wratten chemists - Mees was Wratten's MD and founded Rochester Research and Harrow.

The Gelatins could vary, they weren't understood fully for years. Kodak in the UK also had an alarming habit of changing the products there was little consistent evolution like Ilford & Agfa, and they had a smaller market share.

In another thread today I mentioned how Kodak had a re-branding spree in the 20's & 30's in the UK adding Kod to Kodesko,

Here a starter Kothena, Kodesko, Kodatone, Kodura, Kodascpe (projector), Kodachrome, Kodatol (DK20), Kodinol (Rodinol type dev), Kodurol (glycine), Then silly names like Dolmi - amidol

They seem to have been dopoped by the late 30's due to confion

Remember as well that Kodak like US companies today bought others for their products, which is why Kodak develoers are illogically spaced and no pattern unlike Ilford & Agfa,

Papers came from Nepera, Cadett & Neal and Wratten & Wainwright of course as well as US acquisitions.

Ian

 

[Martin Reed]

From the relatively fresh looking packaging, & that a 1999 dated PDF is still online...

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/g8/g8.pdf

... it looks to be a fairly late production, without starting to compare typefaces & batch no's in my 'museum' stuff my guess, like Ian is 1990's. And it probably still works ok?