[largeformat] Intro date of Kodak's Series filters

[Richard Knoppow]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Les Newcomer" <LNPhoto at twmi.rr.com>
To: "f32" <largeformat at f32.net>
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 6:47 AM
Subject: [largeformat] Intro date of Kodak's Series filters


> Does anybody have a firm date of when Kodak introduced 
> their Series line of Wratten filters?
>
> The earliest I can find is in the 1940 Graphic Graflex 
> Photography.  Can anybody find an earlier date?
>
   Wratten filters predate the purchase of Wratten & Wratten 
by Kodak c.1912. Wratten was the company in which 
C.E.Kenneth Mees was a partner. Kodak bought out W&W to get 
Mees, who organized and ran the Kodak Research Laboratories 
until his retirement c.1960. Wratten & Wratten, through 
Mees, had a relationship with the predominantly German 
makers of dyestuffs. They had a reputation for superior film 
sensitization using dyes and for the filters.
   In some cases the letter designations for Wratten filters 
come from the names of the dyes used in their composition 
(for instance K series).
   For a long period, decades, Wratten filters were made by 
the small manufacturing division within the Kodak Labs as 
were special purpose plates such as metalographic, 
spectrographic, and astronomical plates. Eventually filter 
production was moved to a regular manufacturing plant. A few 
years ago Kodak sold the Wratten filter operation to Tiffin.
   As was often the case when George Eastman bought a 
company he left is management in charge and used its 
original trade names, hence Wratten filters and some W&W 
plates.

---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk at ix.netcom.com