Production
of photo emulsions is a tricky business; you may have the formula, but the
hardware used (mixers, heaters, glasware etc.) also plays a major role in the
final outcome. So it is a huge endeavour to reproduce (more or less) exactly
the same product-emulsion from the known formula only. The former Hungarian
Forte Polywarmtone paper is thus no exception. Polywarmtone paper used to be a
big favorite among many photographers worldwide; not only due to its pleasant
warm image tone (hence, its name!), but also because it was a wonderful
material to tone and even for lith printing.
Sadly,
as many other photo manufacturers, Forte company closed its doors as well. Its
rapid decline began in the early 2000's, the company faced bankruptcy and the
production line was dismantled. (I could rant about this for hours, but I'll
spare this for another occasion). Anyway, the hardware for making photo emulsions for the new facility owners
proved to have little or no value. Fortunately, this sad story comes to a happy
end. The German company Adox decided to acquire
the hardware used for »cooking« the Polywarmtone emulsion, to repair it, and to
move the whole production line to their facility in Bad Saarow (near Berlin). This effort took some time and costs, due to unexpected problems, but at last,
the »resurrectors« of Polywarmtone finally made it happen! The most interesting
part, to me, is that they made the whole production line about 4 times more
compact (in terms of space required) as it used to be.
Sadly,
as many other photo manufacturers, Forte company closed its doors as well. Its
rapid decline began in the early 2000's, the company faced bankruptcy and the
production line was dismantled. (I could rant about this for hours, but I'll
spare this for another occasion). Anyway, the hardware for making photo emulsions for the new facility owners
proved to have little or no value. Fortunately, this sad story comes to a happy
end. The German company Adox decided to acquire
the hardware used for »cooking« the Polywarmtone emulsion, to repair it, and to
move the whole production line to their facility in Bad Saarow (near Berlin). This effort took some time and costs, due to unexpected problems, but at last,
the »resurrectors« of Polywarmtone finally made it happen! The most interesting
part, to me, is that they made the whole production line about 4 times more
compact (in terms of space required) as it used to be. |
| The "compacted" Polywarmtone emulsion production line. Image retrieved from www.polywarmton.com |
Thus,
the production line was quite easily moved from Hungary to Germany by truck. Adox
started in 2010 to take preproduction orders for the first batch of paper and they
are still open. Now, they are at the last stages before the real production. A
pilot batch has been made. Although it didn't come as it should be, they know
why it didn't! So, keep our fingers crossed, for the first batch of Polywarmtone
to be made soon! Their ongoing activity can be found on this link, where a related blog can be found as well. Hopefully, we'll see soon the Polywarmtone paper reborn, much like the Phoenix is reborn from its own ashes!
p.s.
this is by no means an advertising post, I just wanted to express my sympathy
to Adox' endeavors!
Mitja
I thought we used to be a dying breed... Good news indeed. ADOX has been doing very good in terms of re-opening extinct analog stuff - their own film line is also fairly impressive. CHM400 ranks to the very top of my list.
ReplyDeleteMay their days be blessed (and let us buy the stuff we think it's worth it)!
Margus
Margus, we are not a dying breed, we are the survivors, both the consumers and the manufacturers:) but both of us should realize that this is NOT a typical consumer-producer relationship, it should be more like a symbiosis:) Whilst the (loyal) consumers should realize that only buying film is what keeps production afloat, also the few remaining manufacturers should be aware that their production oligopoly can quickly crash if the film prices will skyrocket! And the silver price cannot be a handy excuse! Mitja
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