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CHAPTER 3
PROCESSING EQUIPMENT
All modern studio processing is carried out by Trade Laboratories specially equipped to handle very large quantities of film in the shortest possible time. Because of this, and, as we shall see later, in order to maintain consistently high quality results, machines are used in which the film is processed continuously by moving through tanks containing the various solutions and then, finally, through the drying cupboards. Before the output from the studios became large enough to justify this type of equipment, film was processed in unit lengths, that is, a single roll of film was taken from the camera and loaded onto a supporting frame upon which it remained throughout the entire process, only being removed to a drum for the final drying operation. During the early days the length of any film rarely exceeded 400-ft. (121*9 metres) but, even so, such a length required quite a large holder on which it could be mounted with sufficient separation between the convolutions to permit reasonable processing results. Although the early methods have now been discontinued in the Trade Laboratories, they are still used to some extent and have been employed extensively during the War years by Service departments engaged in producing instructional and documentary films. The main reasons for using 'unit' type processing, as against the continuous methods, are that short lengths of film may be developed in relatively simple apparatus which is compact, easily transported and easy to store.
Due to the similarity between some early equipment and modern short length, or 'unit' processing apparatus, it will not be necessary to refer to the history of film processing in order to introduce the more complicated continous machines. This will be done by briefly surveying the modern portable equipment, always remembering that it was from earlier apparatus very similar to this that the trade laboratory machinery was developed.
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