{"id":30546,"date":"2025-01-15T01:03:14","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T05:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/?p=30546"},"modified":"2025-01-13T21:01:20","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T01:01:20","slug":"a-different-kind-of-rolls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/a-different-kind-of-rolls\/","title":{"rendered":"a different kind of rolls"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

late 1880s ad in the BJA for Eastman Stripping Film<\/p><\/div>\n

Toronto<\/strong>. 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).<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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).<\/p>\n

Mr Berry begins, “Thi<\/span>s article discusses the <\/span>bl<\/span>ack and\u00a0<\/span>white roll fi<\/span>lm<\/span>s made <\/span>by <\/span>th<\/span>e Eastm<\/span>an\u00a0<\/span>company for <\/span>use in <\/span>the <\/span>Kodaks, <\/span>Brownies,\u00a0<\/span>etc.<\/span>, <\/span>and <\/span>in <\/span>ro<\/span>ll <\/span>fi<\/span>lm <\/span>holders made by <\/span>the\u00a0<\/span>comp<\/span>any. Al<\/span>so, <\/span>a few fi<\/span>lm<\/span>s produced <\/span>for\u00a0<\/span>use <\/span>in <\/span>n<\/span>on Eastm<\/span>an <\/span>cameras are i<\/span>denti<\/span>fied.<\/p>\n

“Color roll fi<\/span>lm<\/span>s are not <\/span>considered, <\/span>nor <\/span>are\u00a0films for s<\/span>pecializ<\/span>ed <\/span>purpo<\/span>ses <\/span>(such as\u00a0ph<\/span>otographin<\/span>g oscillograph traces)<\/span>. <\/span>The\u00a0<\/span>p<\/span>eri<\/span>od <\/span>covered i<\/span>s from the <\/span>middl<\/span>e 1880s\u00a0<\/span>to <\/span>abou<\/span>t <\/span>1935. Much of <\/span>the information is\u00a0<\/span>from Kodak <\/span>and oth<\/span>er camera cat<\/span>al<\/span>ogs.\u00a0These <\/span>and other sources are li<\/span>sted in <\/span>the\u00a0<\/span>B<\/span>ib<\/span>li<\/span>ogr<\/span>aph<\/span>y.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Eastman Negative Paper
\n<\/span><\/strong>The fir<\/span>s<\/span>t <\/span>Eastman roll fi<\/span>lm <\/span>was of <\/span>Eastman <\/span>negative paper, <\/span>for <\/span>use <\/span>in <\/span>the Eastman-Walker ro<\/span>ll <\/span>holders. This fi<\/span>lm<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>offered wh<\/span>en <\/span>th<\/span>e Eastm<\/span>an-W<\/span>alk<\/span>er roll\u00a0<\/span>holder came onto <\/span>th<\/span>e <\/span>market in <\/span>1885,\u00a0<\/span>consist<\/span>ed of <\/span>paper coated with a dry plate\u00a0<\/span>e<\/span>mulsion, <\/span>and was col<\/span>or-blind (<\/span>i.e., sensiti<\/span>ve onl<\/span>y to <\/span>the <\/span>ultr<\/span>avi<\/span>ol<\/span>et <\/span>and blu<\/span>e <\/span>por<\/span>tions of <\/span>th<\/span>e spectrum). <\/span><\/p>\n

“Since the paper\u00a0backing was not <\/span>transparent<\/span>, <\/span>after\u00a0development the negatives <\/span>were routinely\u00a0<\/span>tr<\/span>eated with oi<\/span>l <\/span>or wax or <\/span>a tr<\/span>ade prepara<\/span>tion ca<\/span>ll<\/span>ed <\/span>Tr<\/span>a<\/span>n<\/span>sl<\/span>u<\/span>c<\/span>in<\/span>e w<\/span>hich p<\/span>enetrated\u00a0the paper and <\/span>decreased it<\/span>s opacity. <\/span>This\u00a0treatment reduced th<\/span>e <\/span>tim<\/span>e required for\u00a0<\/span>printing <\/span>from th<\/span>e paper <\/span>negatives, but did\u00a0<\/span>n<\/span>ot r<\/span>educe th<\/span>e grain in <\/span>th<\/span>e paper.”<\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/a>. For camera and image collectors (and history buffs) membership is rewarding \u2013 and also inexpensive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1944],"tags":[14,21,32,3302],"class_list":["post-30546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","tag-film","tag-kodak","tag-paper","tag-stripping-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30546"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30550,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30546\/revisions\/30550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}