Polychrome
GMBH 2 By Mr. Bob Gumbinner
Mr.
Feist was requested to find a place in Germany for Polychrome GMBH to
set up a production line for the presensitized plates. He choose a
suburb of Osterode in the Harz mountains, Freiheit, because it was
only a two hour drive to Berlin and he did not intend to spend more
than a few days a week away from Berlin.
We
had told him we needed a large supply of water. Since there was
reservoir next to Osterode he told us there was plenty of water. We
rented space in a building in Freiheit, Ilford, and sent several of
their technical staff to help me set up the tank line in this space.
What Mr. Feist either didn’t know or didn’t tell us was that the
pipes that led from Osterode to Freiheit were very old and filled
with deposit so the water flowed at a much less rate than we needed.
Therefore, we had to install several large tanks to store water which
we kept running at night and over the weekends. Ilford sent several
of their technical people to help me to organize the operation and
set up the tank line. We hired Mr. Mintel as the plant the plant
chemist. He may have been the only German employee who was an
anti-nazi.