a different kind of rolls

late 1880s ad in the BJA for Eastman Stripping Film

Toronto. We have all seen the famous British Rolls Royce automobiles and the aircraft engines of the same name. But what about rolls of B&W film? Eastman Kodak made many different ones for their cameras (and the films were used by their competitors too).

Eastman began with a ‘negative paper’ ‘film’ for his cameras but printing through paper was too grainy. The earliest ‘flexible’ film roll on a transparent backing had to be stripped off the backing before being contact printed. After a brief period, an optically clean transparent film was invented and the stripping film disappeared forever.

True to Ev’s dictum of reprinting articles of interest to PHSC members, Ev reprinted Reed Berry’s fine article on “Eastman Roll Films”, beginning with the infamous ‘paper negative’ that pre-dated stripping film. Those of us who can even remember B&W roll film are far too young to remember stripping film originally designed just before and used in the famous Kodak camera of 1888. The Kodak came with the famous catch-phrase “You Press the Button and We Do the Rest”. This slogan was logical as Eastman targeted amateur photographers (and they had the facilities and equipment to successfully strip and print the temperamental stripping film back in Rochester).

Mr Berry begins, “This article discusses the black and white roll films made by the Eastman company for use in the Kodaks, Browniesetc., and in roll film holders made by the company. Also, a few films produced for use in non Eastman cameras are identified.

“Color roll films are not considered, nor are films for specialized purposes (such as photographing oscillograph traces). The period covered is from the middle 1880s to about 1935. Much of the information is from Kodak and other camera catalogs. These and other sources are listed in the Bibliography.

“Eastman Negative Paper
The first Eastman roll film was of Eastman negative paper, for use in the Eastman-Walker roll holders. This filmoffered when the Eastman-Walker roll holder came onto the market in 1885consisted of paper coated with a dry plate emulsion, and was color-blind (i.e., sensitive only to the ultraviolet and blue portions of the spectrum).

“Since the paper backing was not transparent, after development the negatives were routinely treated with oil or wax or a trade preparation called Translucine which penetrated the paper and decreased its opacity. This treatment reduced the time required for printing from the paper negatives, but did not reduce the grain in the paper.”

The next part of the article discusses stripping film and the B&W films on optically transparent material. To read the rest of Reed’s article, view the pdf file for 20-2 on the free members-only DVD. No DVD? Become a member – joining is easy! Peek at the MEMBERSHIP sub-menu above (especially the Membership Form) and the article at right (PayPal). Send payment with the form or send the form after using your credit card/PayPal account. Questions? Email Lilianne at member@phsc.ca. For camera and image collectors (and history buffs) membership is rewarding – and also inexpensive.

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