Moving Picture World (Aug 1919)

958 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD August 16, 1919 Three Tons of Silver Used Weekly in Motion Picture Film Manufacture Striking Figures Run Through Story of Development of Substance That Made Possible the Great Screen Productions of Today — Mysteries of Laboratory Uncovered AN outstanding feature in the manufacture of raw motion picture film by the Eastman Kodak Company has been the continued ability to produce film in enormously increasing volumes, to keep pace with the tremendous strides made by the industry as a whole, and at the same time maintain necessary high average quality throughout. Back in the early nineties, when motion picture films was first being produced, the troubles of making large quantities were not so insistent, but the vision of a big, new field of endeavor held by Mr. Eastman and the men who helped him instilled in them, even in those early days, the idea of preparedness, and so their pioneer efforts to be ready ameliorated the task of preparing for the ever-increasing production that was necessary later when the flood of new demands for film began to surge down upon them. Evolution of Motion Picture Film. The idea of film for photographic purposes first occurred to Mr. Eastman in the late eighties, and it was due largely to his early efforts that the film camera became a practicability. The courts, in fact, have ruled that Eastman Film made the complete commercial success of the motion picture camera possible. Like so many epoch-making products, photographic film had to pass through a series of stages to reach its present highquality development. First the film had a backing of paper, and the production of this type of film and the so-called "stripping film," the emulsion of which Main Office of Eastman Kodak. A sixteen-story office building, the highest in Rochester. was so made that when placed in water it could be removed from the paper backing, dried and then transferred to a transparent backing of gelatine, made the first Kodak with the famed slogan, "You Press The Button, We Do The Rest," a possibility. Old School Photographers Amazed. Film with a paper backing was only temporary, however, for the great desideratum was film with a transparent base or support. After months of application, Mr. Eastman and his assistants brought out film with cellulose as a base and then the great series of developments that came as a result of the production of Kodak transparent flexible photographic film in ever-increasing quantities revolutionized the entire photographic industry. Motion picture results especially have been spectacular and have introduced into the realm of photography a new conception of the art brought about by these results that professional photographers with their glass plates had never been able to obtain. Even to this day, professional photographers of the old school gasp at some of the things the motion picture man with film can accomplish. It is in the handling of difficult lighting that film has particularly demonstrated a superiority. The beauty, for instance, of a picture made against the light has long been recognized, but with plates the danger of halation — the reflection of light by the back surface of the glass, thus causing hazy outlines and clogged shadows — has precluded the extensive use of this method of exposure. Portrait Making Revolutionized. It remained for the motion picture photographer to prove that these results could be obtained, with film, however, instead of plates, and it is due largely to the awakening accomplished thereby that so many professional photographers are discarding plates and using film, portrait film to be exact, a product in essential make-up the same as motion picture film. With the continually growing popularity of motion pictures, the demand for Kodak film mounted higher and higher, and one might almost think that the men who hold the destinies of the huge Kodak Park plant, where motion picture film is made, in their hands were often hard put to keep up with this rapidly increasing demand. But they kept their ears close to the ground and tried to sense what the future requirements would be. Vision and Pluck Required. Quality in those early days, as now, was of paramount consideration; but the company went further and made elaborate preparations for the future. Consequently, as the demand for film stock grew, the company was always ready with the goods and prepared to make shipments promptly, without a hitch. It takes a great deal of time, and incidentally a great deal of money, to prepare for the manufacture of photographic film of high average quality in the large quantities necessary for the present-day production, or for that matter, to prepare for such great increases in production as have been necessary in the past. And to keep ahead of the demand and always be ready for big business as the Eastman Company has done requires vision and pluck — the vision to anticipate every demand and the pluck to spend millions of dollars as a toll for preparedness. Over 100 Buildings in Plant. As a result of this continued campaign of preparedness the big plant at Kodak Park has spread and spread until there are now more than one hundred large buildings with an aggregate floor space of eighty acres with other buildings of huge additional floor areas contemplated to take care of continued increases. Kodak Park comprises 225 acres, 18 acres of which are laid out with trees, shrubs, flowers and lawns. Close on to 7,000 men and women find employment in this great photographic establishment, which is the world headquarters for the manufacture of raw cinematograph film, as well as other photographic materials. More than 5,000 persons, in addition, are employed by the Eastman Kodak Company in Ro §lllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!llllll!llll!lllll!lllll!!lin I When a Single Horsepower | | Gave George Eastman Pause I | /^)METHING like forty years ago | a young man answered an adver j | ^—'tisement of a second-hand engine | | for sale. The engine was intelli | | gently examined, and the price, $125, ] | carefully weighed. The engine seemed § I to be worth the money. | With a quizzical smile the young | | man said : "I really need only a one | | horsepower engine. This one is two I | horsepower. But perhaps the busi | | ness will grow up to it. I'll take it." g § That young man was George East j I man. Be has been adding horsepower § 1 ever since, and those who work most j I closely with him agree that it is not j 1 merely in the factories that he has § I increased the horsepower — the years I | seem but to add to his own dynamic | | energy. iiiiiiiiiiiiuiiM