Thank you for the very concise summary. I think the story of the
cows goes back a long way. C.E.K Mees mentions it in more than one place
in a general way with little detail. Evidently at some point (dates not
given but evidently very early) Kodak began to have failures of film
resulting in their having to replace a lot of film that had been sold.
An intensive investigation showed that the supplier of the gelatin had
changes sources for his original material (bones and hides). It was
found that one group of cows were eating mustard and the other was not.
This was an extremely serious problem for Kodak since a continuing
inability to make reliable film would have put them out of business.
Someone mentioned industrial espionage, I don't know how that was
concluded. It seems to me no stealing of secrets took place nor does it
seem to have been sabotage. I think no one knew that the source of the
gelatin could have such profound effects.
I wonder if Bob Shanebrook knows about when Kodak began to use
purified gelatin and add the necessary trace compounds to it. Emulsion
making seems to have been an area of very great secrecy for obvious
reasons.
On another subject, Bob says Kodak finds film making to be
profitable so I wonder if perhaps they would consider setting up for
printing paper. My guess is that it would not seen in large enough
amounts to be economical for them.
On 8/10/2017 11:50 AM, Robert Shanebrook (Redacted sender
makingkodakfilm for DMARC) wrote:
The actual mechanism wasn't understood until several decades later when Dr. Sheppard demonstrated it.
Today's gels are very clean and the desired materials are added as part of the manufacturing process.
Even then gels have to be carefully managed. In/Making Kodak Film/ I describe how batches are blended to create a huge lot that is used for months or even years. When the lot is running low a process is implemented to crossover from one lot to another. Gel is the most difficult of the components. That was the case in 1888 and still is today.
Please note:
*The imaging ingredients in the B&W films of the 1900 are 90%+ the same as used in today's color films. The differences are purity and manufacturing process plus a few ingredients that make up the other <10%. *
Bob Shanebrook
