Behind the scenes at Kodak and Ilford camera factories in the 1930s

The gelatin dry plate process replaced collodion wet plates. While collodion dry plates were available commercially as far back as 1857, they required long exposure times, so wet plates continued to be used for another 20 years.

In 1871, Richard Maddox suggested using gelatin as an emulsion rather than collodion and, following further experiments by John Burgess, Richard Kennett and Charles Harper Bennett, gelatin dry plates began to be sold commercially—first by the Liverpool Dry Plate company in 1874, but others soon followed. These plates were around 60 times more sensitive to light than collodion plates and could be exposed in a fraction of a second.

By 1878, George Eastman had invented a machine to coat dry plates and, with local inventor Henry Strong, set up the Eastman Dry Plate Company in 1881. In 1884, Eastman changed the name to Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company when he began experimenting with paper and film bases. ‘Kodak’ was first registered as a trademark in 1888, and the Eastman Kodak Company or ‘Kodak’ was founded in 1892. The first manufacturing plant outside the US was set up in Harrow in 1891.

In 1879 Alfred Harman also began manufacturing gelatin dry plates at Ilford after abandoning the calotype process he’d been using since 1862. He set up ‘Britannia Works’ in 1891, renaming it ‘The Britannia Works’ in 1898 before finally settling on ‘Ilford, Limited’ in 1902. Production sites were opened in Ilford, Brentford and Mobberley; the latter is still operational today.

The fact that gelatin dry plates could be manufactured in advance in a factory meant that photographers no longer needed to coat the plates themselves or travel with a portable darkroom. This contributed to the democratisation of photography and helped make it a popular pastime for a much wider audience.

This story will take a sneak peek behind the scenes at the Kodak and Ilford factories in the UK from the early 1930s when dry plates, film, paper and cameras were being produced.

Kodak produced a number of different cameras that could be used by amateurs and professionals alike—but their success was in making photography accessible to all.

The first daylight-loading camera was marketed in 1891, allowing photographers to reload film outside the darkroom. The pocket Kodak was introduced in 1895, shortly followed by the folding pocket Kodak in 1898. The latter is considered the ancestor of modern roll-film cameras; it used 120 film, which was the standard size for decades before 35mm film took over in popularity.

Kodak’s famous Brownie cameras were manufactured in the USA from 1900 and introduced in the UK a few years later in 1908. Initially costing just $1, these cameras put the hobby of photography within the financial reach of nearly everybody.

Kodak introduced 16mm motion picture cameras, film and projectors in 1923. These were cheaper than the standard 35mm and immediately popular with amateur movie-makers.

Millions of these cameras were sold over the following decades. By 1932, the factory in Harrow was producing 2.5 million cameras a year.

Kodak’s clever advertising strategy marketed their cameras as a ‘must have’ rather than just a ‘could have’. Cheap, easy-to-use cameras were promoted as essential to capturing significant occasions such as family events and holidays and were largely aimed at women. The phrase ‘Kodak moment’ quickly entered the English lexicon and became synonymous with capturing an important moment.