Perutz photo works
| Perutz photo works | |
|---|---|
| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | April 13, 1880 |
| resolution | 1964 |
| Seat | Munich |
| Number of employees | 1,820 (1961) |
| Branch | Photo industry |
The Perutz Photo Werke GmbH in Munich, before Otto Perutz dry plate factory GmbH , was a member of the photochemical industry , which from 1880 to first photographic plates and later films produced. In 1964 the company was taken over by Agfa AG.
history
founding
On April 13, 1880, the chemist Otto Perutz (1847–1922) acquired the chemical and pharmaceutical product store Dr. F. Schnitzer & Co. in St.-Anna-Straße 9 in Munich. This is where the photographers (photographers) at the time bought the chemicals from which they poured their wet collodion plates shortly before the photo was taken. The photo materials in the range included glass plates, collodion , Höllenstein , iodine potassium and cyanide .
In addition to selling the chemicals, Perutz started with the production of bromide-silver gelatine drying plates based on the recipe of Johann Baptist Obernetter (1840–1887), who owned a photo studio in Munich, on a small scale . These drying plates were packable, easy to transport and lasted a few days. Hermann Wilhelm Vogel (1834–1898) further developed the silver bromide emulsion. By adding dyes ( azalin , eosin ), he achieved a correct tonal reproduction of the colors in the gray levels of the photo. Among other things, the blue sensitivity has been reduced.
In 1882 the Otto Perutz company started real production of drying plates in Müllerstrasse. The first company name was dry plate factory for photographic purposes . The Vogel Obernetter Silver Eosin Plate represented a step forward: it was not only more convenient to use, but also gave better results. It is considered to be the archetype of orthochromatic (that is: photographic plates that are in the correct color except for red). Due to increasing demand, the small company moved to a larger building at Dachauer Straße 50.
Advances in manufacturing have added weeks, months, and eventually years to the shelf life of dry plates. A shelf life of five years was already achieved in 1897.
In 1888, silver chlorine emulsion plates were produced for the first time , which were suitable for the production of slides (then called lantern pictures).
In 1892 Otto Perutz also supplied flat films on a celluloid basis for the first time in addition to the light-sensitive coated glass plates . George Eastman first used paper as the basis for roll films in 1884 , and Hannibal Goodwin from Newark had made crystal clear foils from celluloid in 1887. Earlier attempts with hardened gelatine foils as a support ( emulsion skins ) had shown the problem that the gelatine in the developing baths became soft and expanded.
Even after the death of Hermann Wilhelm Vogel, the collaboration between research in Berlin and industrial production in Munich continued. The work of Adolf Miethe (1862–1927) and Arthur Traube (1878–1948) at the Chemical Institute of the Technical University of Berlin resulted in two new products in 1900: the Perorto plate , then known as the orthochromatic moment plate, with increased sensitivity, and the Perchromo plate , which after blue, yellow and green also reproduced red in the correct tone. With the addition of quinoline red to the haze-forming azo dye methyl red by Miethe and Traube, the production of the permanent and halo-free Perchromo plate with a previously unattainable red sensitivity to light cherry red was successful. Its further development to Perchromo-B later resulted in an increase in sensitivity for the entire visible red range.
Change of ownership
On June 1, 1897, Fritz Engelhorn, the son of the BASF founder Friedrich Engelhorn , acquired the Otto Perutz company, but kept the company name.
In 1904 Arthur Traube switched from research to practice, moved from Berlin to Munich and became the technical director of Perutz production. At this time the Perorto green seal plate was created , which later led to the final breakthrough of the film instead of the plate as the green seal film .
Ernst von Oven (1872–1941), who joined the company as technical director in 1910, introduced modern manufacturing with precisely controlled manufacturing processes. The first modern test methods go back to him. In order to avoid the harmful effects of inner-city air pollution on product quality, he initiated the relocation of the factory to the Sendlinger Oberfeld outside the city. The new facility at Kistlerhofstrasse 75 started operations in 1919.
Ernst von Oven solved the problem of halos in photography with brown stone , an opaque sub-pour of gelatine that was colored with dark brown manganese dioxide . As a result, light rays were no longer reflected between the emulsion and the substrate. The brown stone was removed from the negative in the fixing bath .
In 1913 the factory began producing perforated cinema films .
For air reconnaissance during the First World War, Perutz developed a special aviator plate with high sensitivity, fine grain and a large contrast range. Its successor, the Tele-Platte , produced high-contrast negatives even with ground haze. The Perutz-Fliegerfilm (produced around 1914) was considered the finest-grained and most sensitive film of its time.
Obersendling film factory
The new factory in Obersendling was supplemented by a film factory in 1922/23, which was the first to produce the Perutz green seal roll film. It quickly became the standard film, especially for landscape photography . For 35mm cameras like the Leica , perforated 35-millimeter films were soon available as so-called daylight panels in a length of 1.65 meters with a loose paper leader, from 1931 with consecutive numbering of the images. However, the Leica required a new film format because the sections of motion picture film that were initially used with their relatively coarse structure were not tailored to the requirements of 35mm photography. Shortly after the release of the Leica, the first Leica film came on the market: the Perutz-Leica special film became known a few years later as the Perutz-Feinkornfilm-Antihalo . The term fine grain was used for the first time with this type designation .
In 1929/30, softer emulsions came onto the market under the name Persenso . In 1933 the red sensitivity was further improved: The rectepan or Perpantic film was the first panchromatic fine-grain film ever. In 1937, a thin-layer fine-grain film ( Pergrano ) came on the market, which, as a special film for sharp negatives, had a higher resolution.
During the Second World War, the Perutz factory was largely destroyed in an air raid on the night of September 6th to 7th, 1943. However, parts of the production facility and scientific documents have been preserved. So aviator film could still be made.
In 1945, Perutz was the only motion picture film manufacturer in the American zone to receive special loans to rebuild raw film production. A year later, motion picture film was again delivered to the Bavaria film studios . In 1949 Perutz built a new administration building. It was the first new industrial building in Munich after the Second World War.
The company expanded in the 1950s, including taking over the CAWO photochemical factory in Schrobenhausen in 1953 . In 1956, Perutz acquired additional properties in Obersendling and began building new buildings. The takeover of the Fota company with experience in the color film business formed the cornerstone for the production of the first Perutz color film in 1957. The slide film Perutz-Color C 18 was presented at the photokina trade fair in 1958 , but was not delivered to retailers until the following year. The film cost DM 13.50 including development. A dedicated development service was set up in the factory for development.
The number of employees rose from 100 to 450 between 1946 and 1954. In 1961, the number of employees rose from 1670 to 1820.
Takeover by Agfa
Sole shareholder Boehringer was looking for a strong partner for Perutz in 1961. After negotiations with various companies, an agreement was reached with Farbenfabriken Bayer : 50% of the shares went immediately to Bayer, another 50% should follow in the course of a European merger of the photo industry. The share capital was increased from 12 to 24 million German marks. Bayer acquired its stake in Perutz through a share swap with Boehringer.
In 1964 the Perutz-Photowerke München-Obersendling merged with Agfa-Gevaert AG , which continued to use the Perutz brand name for its own products.
After the takeover by Agfa, a magnetic tape production facility was set up in Obersendling in 1965. Audio tapes and cassettes were produced there, and from 1968 on, video and computer tapes were also produced in the former raw film factory. Experience with the technology of coating films enabled the construction of new magnetic tape casting machines.
In 1991, Agfa transferred its magnetic tape business to BASF . Its subsidiary BASF Magnetics GmbH took over the factory building in Obersendling. Agfa-Gevaert offered the buildings of the old Perutz plant for sale. In 1997, BASF Magnetics GmbH was sold to the Korean film and fiber manufacturer KOHAP Inc. , who renamed the company Emtec Magnetics and sold it on to a group of investors in 1998.
As the last part of the old Perutz photo works, the film factory was closed in 1994. In the end she had only made up flat films.
Special product areas
In 1896 Perutz produced the first X-plates for X- ray photography. After the First World War, the company researched X-ray photography in a special laboratory. In 1927, X-ray films with higher contrasts, coated on both sides, came onto the market.
In 1932 a range of special plates for reproduction photography appeared , the Perutz graphic plates in four gradations .
Perforated normal cinema films (cine films) with a width of 35 millimeters were produced from 1913. In 1925 the extremely fine-grained and aero- protected special aviator film antihalo was released, and in 1932 the real panchromatic rectepan film , the latter from 1933 also as reverse narrow film in the formats 16 millimeters , 9.5 millimeters and 8 millimeters. In the first ten years after the Second World War, a third of all feature films shot in Germany were made on Perutz cinema, the share in newsreels was 60 percent.
Perutz films achieved great importance in television. As 16 mm black and white reversal films, they were the standard film stock for news films and documentaries from the early 1950s until the introduction of color television in the late 1960s.
The company explained the green color of the film box with the particularly high yellow-green sensitivity of the first panchromatic emulsions. This property was referred to as the green seal in advertising .
literature
Otto Perutz Trockenplattenfabrik GmbH (ed.): Perutz 1880–1955 , Munich 1955, without publisher information (commemorative publication on the 75th anniversary)
Hartmut Thiele: Perutz, a photo work through the ages , Munich 2000, self-published
Individual evidence
- ↑ s. HW Vogel: Photochemistry and description of photographic chemicals , Berlin 1906. (p. 325) online (accessed on September 29, 2017)
- ↑ Notes on new development processes for classic b / w films , 2003, www.spurfoto.de (PDF; 179 kB)
- ↑ Peter Lausch: How to take photographs with the Leica in 1931 , 2004, www.lausch.com