Tttie Kodak Propertie Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library- Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/kodakpropertiesOOeast The Kodak Properties. February, 1906. PUBLISHED FOR THE INFORMATION OF THE KODAK STOCKHOLDERS AND THE DEALERS IN KODAK PRODUCTS, BY THE EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY AT ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, THE KODAK CITY. Camera Works. Main Office. New Office and Shipping Building. EXECUTIVE OFFICES AND CAMERA WORKS, Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, N. Y. THE PHOTOGRAPHIC CENTER THERE is one word common to every tongue. In whatever parts of the earth the English speaking people have pushed their way — there it has been adopted. Where the French explorer has cut a path through the jungle, where the German merchant has opened up trade, where the church has erected a tiny chapel, where the scientist has gone in search of knowledge —there it is spoken. In London, in Paris, in New York, in the heart of Asia and in the wastes of Africa, along the mighty Amazon and in the islands of the south seas, there is one word known to every tongue and dialect— KODAK. You know it at Bar Harbor, at Atlantic City, in Hyde Park and on the Riviera. In its more serious uses it has penetrated the uttermost parts of the earth ; and along with it has gone the fame of all the Kodak products. For a quarter of a century the Kodak Company has been turning out photographic staples. Within itself it has grown mightily; wherever it has added to its strength by the purchase of an outside concern it has been by the purchase of one which was known to the photographic world for the high standard of its products. And so it has come about that Kodak is not only known the world over, but wherever the photographic art is practised it is known with confidence. The extent of the Kodak business to-day is not due to the work of the selling force, not to the advertising, not to the trade policy, but to the fact that in every manufacturing department the controlling idea is: "Make the goods better than anyone else can make them." In the carrying out of this idea, enormous manufacturing properties have been built and acquired in Rochester, in St. Louis, in Jamestown, in Toronto, in Harrow and in Ash- tead. This book shows something of what these plants are. In addition to what the pictures tell, an appreciation of the extent of the Kodak properties may be gained when it is understood that the floor space in the buildings which it owns and occupies is approximately thirty acres. Some idea of the thoroughness of the manufacturing end may be gained from a look into the film plant at Kodak Park just outside the City of Rochester. Kodak film has a transparent base, the principal ingredient of which is raw cotton treated with nitric acid. The principal ingredient in the sensitive emulsion with which it is coated is nitrate of silver. At Kodak Park they not only make the nitric acid with which to treat the raw cotton and render it soluble and with which to turn silver bullion into nitrate of silver, but they go back of that and make the sulphuric acid out of w hich < in combination w ith nitre ) the nitric acid is made. The Park property consists of more than twenty-five acres on which are buildings, mostly fire-proof or of slow burning construction, with a floor area of over ten acres. In thoroughness of equipment these works are no less remarkable than in extent. Mammoth ice machines control the temperature in the various departments; power is distributed from the electric generators and is applied in various parts of the plant through the medium of more than one hundred motors. In nearly every department there is special machinery, designed and built on the premises. Nothing is lacking that can in any way contribute to the economical manufacture of perfect films and plates and papers. The important items of manufacture at Kodak Park in addition to the Kodak films are: Velox paper, Solio paper, the Eastman Bromide papers, and the Standard and Stanley dry plates. In the City of Rochester are four large factories, operated exclusively in the manu- facture of cameras and sundries. Of these, the Kodak Camera Works are the most impor- tant, having a floor area of 143,000 square feet and a working force of over one thousand people. The Rochester Optical Co.'s works, where the Premo Cameras are made, has 51,000 square feet; the Century Camera Co.'s works, where the Century, Graflex and Cirkut cam- eras are manufactured, have a floor area of 48,000 square feet; and the Hawkeye factory, operated by the Blair Camera Company, has approximately 45,000 square feet. The area devoted to the manufacture of cameras alone is therefore more than six and one-half acres. Unquestionably, the smallest of these four camera factories is larger in capacity, more com- plete in equipment and turns out more goods than any camera factory in the world outside of Rochester. The main offices and shipping department and the developing and printing departments are included in the buildings shown in the frontispiece. At the rear of the two-story office is a six-story building, one of the first factories owned by the company. The modern six- story structure shown at the right is already partially occupied, although at this date it is still incomplete. The combined areas of these buildings is 143,560 feet. Including Kodak Park, the floor area of the home factories, offices and shipping depart- ments amounts to more than twenty-three acres, and working in them are about one-half of the Kodak Company's 4,800 employes. As a result of the steady growth of the business covering a period of twenty-five years, there has been an accumulation of something besides perfect facilities and ample capital. One of the valued assets of the company to-day is the experience gained in the manufacture of sensitive photographic goods and the perfect organization of the corps of chemists and expert mechanics. But not only is there constant progress from within. Rochester is to- day the Mecca of the man with a photographic idea. In the Kodak City are the facilities for the development of his idea, the means of making it commercially practical. It is the inventive and progressive as well as the commercial center of the photographic world. Interior of Main Office Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester. One of the Engine Rooms, Kodak Camera Works, Rochester. Tool Room, Kodak Camera Works, Rochester. Lacquer Room, Kodak Camera Works, Rochester. Corner in the Women's Dining Room, Kodak Camera Works, Rochester. Kodak Park Works, Near Rochester, N. Y. A Near View of the Kodak Park Office and one of the Film Buildings. Looking Toward the Boulevard From Kodak Park Office. Rear View of the Acid Plant, Kodak Park Works. The Dope Building, Kodak Park, Where the Materials for the Transparent Film Base are Mixed and Clarified. Making Boxes for Photographic Papers, Kodak Park. Women's Dining Room, Kodak Park. The Men's Dining Room on Lower Floor is Similar to This. Draughting Room, Kodak Park Works. Water Cooler for Refrigerating Machines. Building for Manufacture of Film Spools, Kodak Park Works. Factory Century Camera Co., Rochester, N T . Y Also Occupied in Part by the Folmer & Schwing Mfg. Co. (Graflex Cameras.) Factory, Blair Camera Co., Rochester, N. Y. WHERE QUALITY TELLS IN several cases where photographic manufacturing concerns have been purchased by the Eastman Kodak Company, new quarters have been prepared in Rochester, and in due time the goods have been made there — and more successfully than ever before. There are two notable exceptions to this rule: — The American Aristotype Company of Jamestown, N. Y., and the Seed Dry Plate Company of St. Louis, Mo., two concerns which, on account of the superior quality of their products, are practically above competition, still occupy the factories which they occupied before their purchase. Theirs is an unique position in the photographic field, the Aristo Company as the manufacturers of Collodion papers — a line of manufacturing which it may be said no other concern has ever undertaken with complete success, and the Seed Company as manufacturers of glass plates of an unapproachable standard, hold an undisputed leadership by right of quality. The Jamestown factories have a floor space of 85,000 square feet, and those of the Seed Company 104,000 square feet. A recent development of the business is its rapid growth in Canada, the Canadian Kodak Company now manufacturing plates and papers, and occupying its own buildings having a floor space of 90,000 square feet. In addition to these factory buildings, the Eastman Kodak Company is just completing a factory and warehouse in Chicago. This building is 121 x 178 feet, four stories and base- ment, and is of slow-burning construction with sprinkler equipment. Two new wholesale and retail buildings have just been completed in the Northwest, which are models in the way of buildings for the photographic stock business. One of these, in Minneapolis, occupied by the O. H. Peck Company, is 50 x 160 feet, two stories and basement, and the other, occupied by Zimmerman Bros., St. Paul, is 50 x 80 feet, two stories and basement. In addition to these American properties, ground has recently been purchased on Twenty-third Street, New York, where a large warehouse will be erected without delay. Rear View, American Aristotype Works, Jamestown, N. Y. THE manufacture of Collodion papers is one of the most difficult of photographic processes, at the same time this is the paper which is in almost universal use among por- trait photographers. The Aristo collodion papers have been made with perfect success at Jamestown for sixteen years. Platinum paper of the first quality is also made in these factories. Works of the M. A. Seed Dry Plate Co., St. Louis, Mo. Rear View, Seed Dry Plate Works, St. Louis, Mo. Office. Storage and Shipping Building. Plate, Haper and Film Factory. Canadian Kodak Co., Ltd., Toronto, Can. Roofs of Factory and Wholesale House, Canadian Kodak Co., Ltd., Toronto, Can. Factory, Wholesale and Storage Building, 1 8th St. and Indiana Ave., Chicago, 111. Occupied by Chicago Branch of the Eastman Kodak Co., and by the Factory of Taprell, Loomis & Co., Manufacturers of Photographic Card Mounts. O. H. Peck Company, Minneapolis, Minn., Photographic Stock House. KODAK IN EUROPE ALL of the buildings, with their equipments, shown in the preceding pages are owned in fee simple. Of the properties shown in the pages that follow, the company owns the land and buildings, only in the cases of the factories at Harrow and at Ashtead. The premises occupied as stores and offices are rented in all cases, yet they must neverthe- less prove interesting in that they show the means at the command of the company for distributing its goods in the various parts of the world. At Harrow is a splendidly equipped plant where the manufacture of Solio, Dekko and Bromide papers is carried on, on a large scale. Here, too, are extensive departments for "doing the rest," where the amateur finishing from the company's retail shops in London, fourteen miles away, is taken care of. The total floor area of the Harrow Works is approximately 125,000 square feet. The plant is a model in point of equipment and, as at Kodak Park, much has been done for the comfort of the employes and in making the grounds attractive. Among the best known photographic products in England are the Cadett & Neall Dry Plates, manufactured at the Victoria Works and the Crampshaw Works, Ashtead. These factories have a floor area of only 25,000 square feet, but they are perfect in their appoint- ments and are turning out goods of the first quality. Entrance to Grounds of the Harrow Factory, England, Showing Mess and Recreation Hall. Factories, Harrow, England. Boiler Room, Factory at Harrow Engine Room, Factory at Harrow. In the Developing and Printing Department, Harrow Factory. Chemical Laboratory, Harrow Factory. Letter Press Printing Department at Factory, Harrow. Physical Laboratory, Harrow Factory. Mess and Recreation Room, Harrow Factory. Cadett & Neall, Ltd., Ashtead, Eng. Victoria Works. Cadett & Neall, Ltd., Ashtead, Eng. Crampshaw Works. Board Room, Kodak, Ltd., Clerkenwell Road, London. Reception Room, Clerkenwell Road, London Reception Room, Clerkenwell Road, London Kodak Shop, 1 7 1 - 1 7 3 Regent St., London, W. Interior, Regent Street Shop, London. Kodak Shop, 40 Strand, London, W. C. Interior Kodak Shop, Strand, London. Mezzanine Galleries, Kodak Shop, Strand, London. Interior Kodak Shop, Strand, London. Kodak Shop Interior, Oxford St., London. Kodak Shop Interior, Brompton Road, London. Wholesale and Retail, 72 and 74 Buchanan St., Glasgow. Kodak Shop, Interior, Glasgow. Eastman Kodak Societe Anonyme Frangaise. Kodak Shop. Avenue de lOpera 5, Kodak Shop, Interior, Avenue de l'Opera, Paris. Kodak Shop, Place Vendome 4, Paris. Kodak Shop, Interior, Place Vendome, Paris. — : • ' . ' • * ■ '•' Eastman Kodak Societe Anonyme Francaise— Headquarters, Executive Offices and Wholesale Department, Hue d-Argenteuil 6, Paris. Kodak Gcsellschaft m. b. H., Headquarters. Wholesale and Retail, Friedrichstrasse lb, Berlin. Kodak Shop, Interior, Friedrichstrasse, Berlin. Kodak Shop, Lcipzigerstrasse, 114, Berlin. Kodak Shop, Demonstration Room, Leipzigerstrasse, Berlin. Kodak Shop, Unter den Linden, 16, Berlin. Kodak Ltd., Wholesale and Retail Branch, Graben, 29, Vienna. Societa Kodak, 34 Corso V. Emanuele, Milan. Kodak Shop Interior, Corso V. Emanuele, Milan. Kodak Societa, Wholesale and Retail, 10 Via Vittore Pisani, Mil "If it isnt an Eastman, it isnt a Kodak!"