I received a copy of this very detailed and informative book by Bill Streeter
who spent last 4 years writing this outstanding obituary to silver halide
photography's rise and fall in almost 200 years. I lived only a part of the
years but did witness development of many new products described in this book
and lived to see the end of the silver halide photograhy era. Most of the books
on the history of silver halide photography are focuesed on the technology side
of the story but this book also includes business end; the success and failure
of new products, photographic company performance with considerable time stamps,
mergers and aquisitions and so on. If you lived through 20th century just as I
did, I am sure you will find many interesting facts, dates, situations to bring
back your memories in those days. I highly recommend getting a copy from
Amazon.com.
In 1987 Konica acquired Powers Chemco’s U.S. operations but the
Powers family retained ownership of Chemco Europe.
In 1993 Polychrome acquired Chemco Europe out of bankruptcy. In that period
I met Bill and many of his staff
who continued to work in Kodak Polychrome Graphics. Bill left in 1995 to head
Western Lithotech, Mitsubishi Chemical’s U.S. printing plate operations. The
Kodak Polychrome Graphics offices and film coating facilities in the Netherlands
were shut down in 1999
