Film History, Volume 21, pp. 9–46, 2009. Copyright © John Libbey Publishing ISSN: 0892-2160. Printed in United States of America

‘Unnatural Colours’: An introduction to colouring techniques in silent era movies

An introduct ion to colouring techniques in silentera movies

Paul Read

atural colour’ was the term coined in the late oured social drama in 3 parts. Better than ever.’ (The 1900s for genuine colour photography, as advertisement spelled her name Neilsen, incor- ‘Ndistinct from coloured or ‘painted’ mono- rectly!) Tinting and toning, two very different chemical chrome images. Exactly when and where the techniques, were the principles used for all these first use of the term natural colour occurred is not ‘unnatural’ colouring methods. They were frequently clear (it was probably applied by Clerk Maxwell during confused in the minds – and just as often in the eyes his demonstrations in Edinburgh in the 1860s), but it – of even experienced viewers. From about 1929 was widely used by 1900, hence my connotative use onwards, because the technology they used did not of ‘unnatural’. suit the new combined sound-on-film, and despite ‘Natural’, to distinguish a genuine colour proc- many courageous and expensive experiments, the ess from a ‘coloured’ image, crops up again and majority of the world’s cinema audiences saw only again in early technical literature and manuals for black-and-white images on screen. It would be many photographic technicians. Good examples are the years before widely distributed Technicolor and its Kinemacolor programmes, especially where Urban various competitors filtered across the world [Fig. 1]. and Smith state that they ‘take special pride in the Over the last twenty years, I and my colleagues fact…that their invention is based on solid foundation in the Gamma Group (a European interest group of of established scientific truths’ (Madison Square moving film archivists, film laboratory technologists, Garden, Kinemacolor Programme, 11December and members of the FIAF Technical Commission) 1909). A second example, years later, is the ‘Fox have written and published a great deal of technical Nature Color Pictures Instructions for Cameramen’ in information on the origin and practice of tinting and 1929. It is slightly unfortunate that both these sys- toning technology, and the restoration techniques for tems were two-colour (not three-colour) processes. silent era film. It is not my intention to repeat that work In both cases the claimants were perhaps trying to defend their results to their fellow technologists, de- spite the fact that the processes were only approxi- mations to the ideal. Paul Read received his degree in natural sciences from London at the end of the 1950s, and went on to ‘Coloured’ was the term almost universally research motion picture colour film for Kodak Ltd in used to describe the colour images of silent film. In the UK. He subsequently worked with many motion my father’s collection of old newspaper cuttings was picture laboratories around the world, and was director a page to remind him of his favourite film star, Asta of a film laboratory in London in the 1970s. A consultant on cinema film technology and a peripatetic lecturer Nielsen. It describes The Bonds of Marriage (to be on cinema science, he is now increasingly involved shown at the Kursaal in Southend where his family with digital cinema technology, film archives and was staying in November 1913) as ‘A beautiful col- restoration. Correspondence to [email protected]

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Kodak Testing Department theatre at Harrow, an after-thought to follow the screening of a CinemaS- cope print of Ben-Hur. A bit of light relief selected by the projectionist for the benefit of my students! I knew all about tinted film – I had even seen some ‘on the bench’ – but it still came as a shock. By that time I was a Kodak film technologist: I had worked in re- search, I knew the chemistry, I even thought I knew something of cinema history. I was commissioning Eastman Colour laboratories, teaching laboratory staff to control the chemistry and sensitometry of those early tripack colour processes. I was also Fig. 1. Tinted in this article, which should be considered an infor- training young science graduates, newly employed and toned prints mal introduction to those original texts. As additional by Kodak, who were starting their research careers were advertised information I have attempted to place this information in film technology (science graduates know a lot of as ‘coloured’ as into the context of the relationship between the film science, but photographic technology was, and still part of the makers, the associated film laboratories, and the is, a closed book to them!). Even so, I found the attraction. This 1913 provincial manufacturers of film stocks and their technologists unnaturalness of the tinted image, and its cavalier English and researchers. I believe that only one influential disregard for the original scene’s colours, discon- newspaper company, Pathé, combined all three component certing. My first reaction was to search out some advertisement is parts under one integrated corporate structure, op- literature on silent cinema, but the only information probably for an erating as a film manufacturer and supplier, film available to me then was the plain technology of how English release of maker, and film laboratory carrying out post-produc- tinting was done, and not why. I have since discov- Der Totentanz tion processes to produce the final cinema print. In ered that why can still be contentious. (Urban Gad, 1912). 1926 Eastman Kodak bought the Pathé film manu- Film technologists have probably always felt facturing plant at Chalon to create Kodak Pathé, uncomfortable about tinted and toned coloured film. separating this function from the other two compo- In 1918, William van Doren Kelley, the inventor of nents; no similar connection occurred before or several commercial natural colour processes, writing since. in the Transactions of the Society of Motion Picture I spent my school years in Hampstead and my Engineers, complained that he had several times university years in central London, where opportuni- been attracted to a ‘theatre’ where ‘color films’ were ties to visit the cinema were legion. From the age of advertised only to find that the subjects were merely sixteen to twenty-three I spent almost every Friday ‘black and white hand-colored films’. Kelley pro- and Saturday evening in the coffee bar (these were posed that only films ‘photographed so that the the coffee bar years), followed by a one-and- colors are selected entirely by optical and mechani- thru‘penny seat in the cinema (and finally the pub). cal means and reproduced again in a like manner’ And yet, despite all that time in the front row of the be called ‘natural color motion pictures’. ‘Color mo- Everyman near Hampstead Heath tube station, and tion pictures’ he described with his accustomed sar- several cinemas in the Classic chain (notably the casm as ‘films arbitrarily colored with dyes … to suit Baker Street Classic, which specialized in French, the individual taste’. He clearly implied that tinting or Italian, Greek, and very occasionally German ‘art toning was not natural. He was not the first to want to house’ films of the 1930s and 40s – don’t mention distinguish between ‘real’ colour films that repro- the war!) only once did I see a silent film. It was shown duced the original colours in a scene and ‘arbitrarily’ at the Everyman late in the evening (just after René tinted, toned or stencilled black-and-white films. We Clair’s Sous les tois de Paris – with a Tobis Klangfilm still use Kelley’s terms to distinguish between col- sound track), in black-and-white, and played in si- oured films and natural colour films, but it is clear that lence, without any music. It was an eerie experience film technologists throughout the silent period strug- punctuated by the coughs and shuffles of the audi- gled to understand the attraction that coloured films ence. I don’t now remember what it was! had for cinema audiences. As we shall see, some Several years later, about 1964, I watched a manufacturer’s scientifically-trained technical staff screening of a tinted nitrate 1920 travelogue in the did make attempts to come to terms with the con-

FILM HISTORY: Volume 21, Number 1, 2009 – p. 10 An introduction to colouring techniques in silent era movies FILM HISTORY Vol. 21 Issue 1 (2009) 11 cept, while at the same time providing what it was photographic reproduction did not need to record they thought the industry required. and reproduce all the exact wavelengths reflected by After 1930, to the cinema technology commu- the subject; all that was needed was to stimulate the nity just as much as to the cinema-goer, it was as if eye in a similar manner to the original scene, and this ‘coloured films’ never existed. None of the great could be done using just three broad stimuli: red, historic texts that film technologists still refer to for the green and blue. Clerk Maxwell in 1866, Ducos du background to photographic science refer to these Hauron in 1868, and others, described and then techniques (Mees, Cornwell-Clyne, Glafkides, Lobell demonstrated the basic technology of three-colour and Dubois, Hunt, and Evans, Hanson & Brewer) and ‘natural’ photography, and established almost all our if they do, it was as if the chemical processes ap- current concepts years before these were in use for peared just in time to be used for natural colour! The still photography and decades before the first natural best examples of this include metallic toning and colour was shown in the cinema using these con- mordant dye toning, well developed for ‘coloured’ cepts. toning images before 1930, which became the basis Thus, if we need a definition of ‘natural’ colour of all the two-colour film systems developed sub- as we use the term today, it is any colour reproducing sequently, but the origins of these ‘recipes’ were system in which the reproduction attempts to stimu- hardly ever acknowledged. Glafkides, the chemist, is late the human eye in a manner similar to that of the alone in spending a few paragraphs on the science original scene. Photographic colour film, colour tele- of tinting, but this interest is clearly directed at imbibi- vision, digital cameras and digital cinema, graphic tion processes such as Flexichrome and Dye trans- arts printing, indeed almost all optical colour repro- fer, and the later Technicolor processes – silent era duction systems used industrially today fall into this tinting gets little mention. category. (Although it isn’t the only effective process; holography follows a different principle – but that’s Natural versus ‘coloured’ another story!) I like Kelley’s definition (‘films arbitrarily colored by dyes…to suit the individual’), which can be said to In the beginning: making a silent embrace all decisions and actions made by an artist film painting a picture, a film director deciding what col- Filmmaking has followed a number of discrete pro- ours to use, or by the laboratory technician’s bucket duction routes over the years. The silent period in- of dye. The decision can be artistic, pragmatic or cluded several distinct techniques, with some casual. Computer graphics can also be said to fall well-documented local variants and intermediates into this category. and probably many not-so-well known. Initially the Lantern slides were early projected colour im- camera negative was printed without cutting and the ages, and many of the techniques used for colouring resulting positive prints were joined up in a new were initiated by lantern slide makers. But this should edited order to create the print seen in the cinema. not be overemphasized, as man-made organic dyes Thus at almost every scene change there was a did not become available widely until the late nine- splice in the print. This process is known as positive teenth century, immediately before the first coloured cutting (and in some English laboratories positive cinema prints. assembly). Most silent films were not coloured, but many If a print required hand-colouring, this was were – by hand painting and by the stencil colouring carried out either before the separate prints were system. Both techniques used the tint process. Tint- joined or afterwards. Little is known of this, which was ing and hand painting were certainly in use before probably an extinct process by 1910. If a print was to 1900. Toning is a very different process, and al- be tinted or toned this was carried out before the though it had been widely used for paper photo- prints were joined. The process became more indus- graphic prints by 1860, the technique had been more trialized in larger laboratories where multiple col- widely used in the textile industry. oured prints were produced. Separate negative rolls Once silver halide in gelatine emulsions had were assembled for each colour; each roll contained become the basis of photography, several separate negatives from which prints were to be coloured by nineteenth century technical innovations would lead the same colour technique (and were therefore to colour photography. One was the concept that known sometimes as colour reels). Each negative

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and new versions, or the intact remains of old dam- aged prints were cobbled together. Eastman Kodak offered the first specialized duplication process about 1924/5, but until then several low quality meth- ods were used to make duplicate negatives, produc- ing prints of high contrast and low sharpness. Sound technology for the cinema did not in- itially affect the ‘coloured’ film processes until sound- on-film came to dominate. Any film synchronized to an independent sound element, such as a Vitaphone disc, did not interfere with this established produc- tion technique. Sound-on-film (or combined optical sound, as it is known today), had and still has a physical separation of the picture frame and its as- sociated optical sound track by many frames, origi- nally twenty, That requirement swept away the technique of the colour roll followed by positive cut- ting. Only cut negatives allowed the sound track negative – a separate roll of film – to be printed onto the same positive film. The complexity of this sound technology was fundamental; the silent, full frame, somewhat imprecise 20–24 frames per second pro- Fig. 2. To tint or colour roll was then printed and the prints tinted or jection of tinted and toned film was replaced by a 24 tone film, the dry toned in one effect per roll. The resulting coloured fps ‘Academy’ (or near Academy) format, mono- processed print rolls were then broken down into their individual chrome film, with synchronized sound. film scenes were scenes and these were then assembled in order to wound onto a Film colouring techniques in silent frame like this, make a final projection print with all its joins in a lowered into the process that was highly labour intensive and re- cinema dye bath or quired meticulous documentation [Fig. 2]. When I started to teach film history in a British Kine- baths, then During the 1920s (perhaps earlier in some matograph Sound and Television Society course in moved to a brief large newsreel companies such as the independent Film Technology in the early 1980s, I discovered that water wash and Pathé companies in the US and UK that made the tinting and toning were not easily separated con- finally wound off weekly Gazettes) some films were made by a route cepts for my students. I needed to demonstrate the to dry. that involved cutting and joining negatives to ‘match’ difference by using coloured diagrams, as access to a ‘cutting copy’ made during an editing process. This original coloured films in the British National Film ‘cut negative’ was then used to make a print with no Archive was impossible. Later, when teaching film joins between the scenes. This had the advantage of archiving in the 1990s to post-graduate students on reducing the risks of joins breaking in the projector the EU Archimedia programme, access to original and enabled copy negatives to be made (which had film was available in the Royal Belgian Film Archive. no joins) for despatch to other parts of the world for But I found the most effective method was to dem- printing locally. onstrate the process practically in a photographic Originally, scenes were shot several times (or dish, and show the differences on fresh film. To this several cameras shot the same scene) if more than day even experienced archivists have some trouble one good quality negative was required, since good separating tints from tones. Part of the problem is quality duplicate negatives could not be made until conceptual understanding, but many original film the mid 1920s. By then colour rolls were often dupli- elements have faded or have altered dye colours, cated and sent to other laboratories for local prints and nitrate film bases discolour and stain both uni- to be made, tinted and toned, and then joined This formly and unevenly to confuse both the experienced resulted in widely recognized differences between and the beginner. the colours in prints; when prints were damaged new The easiest concept is to understand that the prints were often re-assembled from mixtures of old starting point for tinting and toning, and hand-colour-

FILM HISTORY: Volume 21, Number 1, 2009 – p. 12 An introduction to colouring techniques in silent era movies FILM HISTORY Vol. 21 Issue 1 (2009) 13 ing and stencilling, is a conventional monochrome black and white photographic film image. Tinted film has a scale that runs from the tint colour to black; a toned film scale runs from white to colour. In order to distinguish tinted from toned films the best method is to look at the clear parts – for example, outside or around the perforations – as tinting colours the entire film (including the perforated edge of the film, except in the case of the lacquering method). Toning leaves the non-image areas outside the frame uncoloured, although this is not so well defined with some mor- dant dye toned film, which tends to spread in time or if badly processed.

Tinting Tinting is the process where the film base is uniformly coloured overall one colour. Thus the black-and- white image remains, and is overlaid with one uni- form colour across the entire image. To see a visual lacquer applied by roller, and references to specific Fig. 3. These demonstration of this, look at a black-and-white pho- dyes that would be useful for this process in dye continuous tograph through a coloured gelatine filter; what you manufacturers’ catalogues of the period (notably the processing machines in will see is exactly the same image as a cinema film French dye maker Societé Anonyme des Matieres MGM Laboratories frame where the clear film base has been dyed that Colourant & Produits Chimiques de St. Denis). These in Hollywood are colour. This is a dying process – the dye, a chemical dyes are not always acid dyes [Plate 1]. illustrated in a substance which has that colour, is suffused through 1936 Eastman the nitrate film base and is ‘attached’ without any Hand colouring Kodak alteration to the chemical structure of the plastic Monochrome glass lantern slides were coloured long publication. polymer. This attachment requires a chemical bond before the cinema existed, so the procedure was a Although such machines did in most cases, although in most film tints this a very simple scaling up of the technique. Hand colouring exist in some loose ‘hydrogen bond’ which can to broken and the was both skilled and slow work, and in terms of the large laboratories dye washed out by altering the acidity of the pro- quantity of copies produced probably quite limited. in the 1920s they longed washing. The dyes most commonly used are It seems to have reached a peak in Europe by 1905. were rare until so called ‘acid dyes’ which are dissolved in weak The technique was extremely simple and can be tried after the advent of acid solutions and create this bond to fix the dye in by anyone. All that is needed is a fine paintbrush and combined optical place. a solution of an acid dye made and sold for wool sound. It is possible, but dyeing. The paint is applied to the emulsion side of Tinting, as carried out by film laboratories, is a unrecorded, that simple process. Dissolve an acid dye in some water a black-and-white image, using a light box to illumi- they were used with a small addition of acetic or citric acid to acidify nate the frame. Sometimes a slightly lighter-density for tinting and the solution and soak a print in the solution. Remove print was recommended. toning silent film. after a few minutes, wash the surface dye solution off The dyes that were used for hand colouring The first film that the film, and dry it. The degree of colour will depend were the same or very similar to those used for tinting was recorded to be ‘coloured’ on on the dye concentration in solution, provided the and stencilling. They were translucent inks, paints, or such equipment time of immersion is long enough for maximum dye acid dyes in acidified water, or sometimes a spirit, was the ‘sepia’ penetration. Dyes can be mixtures in order to obtain and were applied by a brush or stippled on with a toning of The the required colour [Fig. 3]. stippling brush onto the emulsion side. The gelatine Good Earth prints A very few tinted films have been discovered of the emulsion absorbs water-based dyes easily. in 1937, the that were lacquered, with a coloured varnish or cel- Opaque dyes were unsuccessful, as they would ap- same colour lulose lacquer running over the picture area in a stripe pear neutral or black on projection. Probably the throughout. between the perforations; these are very rare. The dyes used most were the same aniline dyes used for only sources of information seem to be the Agfa lantern slides, but there is almost no literature on the process manual of about 1925, which describes subject.

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The technique was limited to the capacity of some coloured films have black-and-white intertitles, the colouring artist and was never developed indus- whereas previously the titles were tinted. trially. Furthermore, it was very difficult to apply the It is interesting that manufacturers (especially colour to a regular area of the frame without smear- Kodak) promoted their pre-dyed film stock on the ing, and each frame had a slightly different amount basis of the inconsistency and unevenness of the of dye, covering a slightly different area. In order to tinting process and the technical difficulties that it recognise this technique and separate a hand posed for the laboratories. Some specialists at film brushed film from a stencilled one, it is necessary to laboratories that handle a lot of tinted film originals look at the variations from frame to frame, in particu- (among them Noel Desmet, Cinematheque Royale lar the difference in the spreading of the colour: the de Belgique, and Bob Mabberley, Soho Images) different amount of colour spread in an area, and the report that tinted film base is far less common in lack of clean definition on the edges. This is often archive material than laboratory tinted film, despite best seen as a fluttering of the coloured areas on the the amount apparently sold. Possibly the sale of projected image. It can be difficult to differentiate a dyed film base was more common in the United film that has been coloured by brush from one that States. has been stencilled, and I suspect that many pre- 1910 monochrome films that have just one or two splashes of colour – a flower, a firework, or a dress Toning – may be hand-coloured and not stencilled as often Toning involves the colouring of the black portion of described. the monochrome silver image. The image is no longer black-and-white (i.e. black through shades of grey to white), but is now colour-to- white through Tinted film base various shades of that one colour. This can be ac- At quite an early time, maybe as early as 1915, print complished through one of two very different proc- stock with an already-dyed film base was available, esses: and by the mid 1920s many manufacturers were Metallic toning is not a dyeing process like selling dyed film at the same price as clear film base. tinting. This is a chemical process that replaces the Nine colours were offered Eastman Kodak: red, pink, silver image with a coloured metallic salt produced orange, amber, light amber, yellow, green, blue and in the film during the process. The dye is generated lavender. This didn’t create any printing problems from the silver image together with the ingredients of because the printing light did not pass through the the toning solution. The salts most commonly used raw stock base. were metal ferricyanides, so the silver was first con- The method of identifying this on an original verted to silver ferrocyanide (a process called tinted print is to scratch the emulsion off in an area ‘bleaching’) in one solution, then in a second solution outside the perforations. If the scratch is clear and was replaced by another metal to form, for example, uncoloured the film was tinted in the film laboratory Copper ferrocyanide (which is red), or by Iron to using dye solutions; if the scratch is the same colour produce Ferric ferrocyanide (which is bright blue). as the picture highlights, the film base was dyed Other metals produced other colours. before coating. (This can be confused by some ni- The dye database lists all the metal ferricy- trate film bases that have discoloured and have a anide ‘recipes’ known, but in practice most tones yellow stain.) were either Iron Tone Blue, ferric ferrocyanide (also The only disadvantage to this was that, since called Prussian Blue), or copper ferrocyanide, a credits and intertitles were often shot directly onto red/brown. Uranium was widely recommended but print film and displayed as a negative (that is, white was extremely toxic, and although I have analysed lettering on a black background), to get the writing several likely frames I have never seen a (red) Ura- the right way round on the screen the camera expo- nium tone for certain. Many others, especially vana- sure of titles was usually through the film base, and dium, were very unpredictable in production. Some the film was loaded in the camera back to front. A of the olive green tones created by modifying the tinted base would have increased the exposure so chemistry of Iron Tone Blue technique fade in time to much that only untinted film could be used, which produce unexpected and bizarre polarized images would require tinting after processing. For this reason (once thought to be intentional on the part of the

FILM HISTORY: Volume 21, Number 1, 2009 – p. 14 An introduction to colouring techniques in silent era movies FILM HISTORY Vol. 21 Issue 1 (2009) 15 original laboratory; see Hertogs and de Klerk, Disor- carried out first, as the tinting process was often derly Orders). destroyed by the bleach process used for toning. In most cases the final image was actually a Known as ‘red sails in the sunset’, after the popular mixture of the coloured new metallic salt and some song, the most frequently used double effect was residual silver ferrocyanide. Silver ferrocyanide is Iron Tone Blue and a red (usually Croceine) tint. It visually white by reflected light, but will appear dark was used to great ironic effect for the scene of the by transmitted light, as in film projection. In some torpedoed schooner sinking in the Imperial War Mu- metallic toning processes a third stage was possible. seum’s copy of Der Magische Guertel. The removal of any silver ferrocyanide by a process All these processes were carried out after the called fixing results in a saturated bright clear image, print was processed and before the individual and was particularly recorded in the literature for the scenes were separated from their colour rolls and Iron Tone Blue. How often this tedious three stage assembled to make the final print. It has been esti- process was actually carried out in the silent era is mated and widely reported that by the early 1920s unknown. During the late 1990s analyses were car- perhaps 80 per cent of all prints were ‘arbitrarily ried out at Soho Images in London to qualitatively coloured’ in one form or another, but I have no source define the colourants of film fragments from the for this statement or evidence of its accuracy. 1920s. Just one film example was a bright blue tone By 1927 Eastman Kodak was becoming in- which contained no silver at all, and this was presum- creasingly sophisticated in the recommendations to ably made using this elaborate process. laboratories given in its various printed manuals. This Mordant dye toning is a process where the was particularly the case in providing reliable and silver of the image is converted to a salt of silver (or very practical methods of duplicating negatives, and occasionally another metal) in a bleaching process, in the creation of innumerable double effects that and this salt acts as a mordant. Again, this is usually required the use of their tinted base in conjunction a two stage process. The bleach stage was usually with either a chemical emulsion tint (creating a dou- a solution containing potassium ferricyanide, which ble tint) or a tone creating a tint plus tone effect. The converted the black silver to visually white silver 1927 edition of the manual Tinting and Toning of ferrocyanide. A mordant is a chemical compound Eastman Positive Motion Picture Film demonstrated that a dye compound can attach itself to: wherever these by using the tinted base films and no longer the image silver had been bleached a dye could be showed examples of the chemical tints using dyes. attached. The final image consisted of silver ferrocy- It is difficult to be certain how extensively these dou- anide and its attached dye. The dyes used for this ble effects were actually used, but by this time almost are usually of a type called ‘basic dyes’ and are not any combination was possible through the use of the same as the ‘acid’ tinting dyes. The colours could these techniques. Also, perhaps for the first time, be startlingly bright and saturated. examples of tinted cellulose acetate base films were Just to complicate matters, some film labora- on the market. tories developed unusual hybrids of these two toning processes, some of which are noted in the database. Stencil and printed coloured films In the 1920s a single solution Iron Tone Blue process By 1906, Charles Pathé, owner of Pathé Freres and was developed by Ives of Eastman Kodak, and this a great innovator in the cinematographic industry, quickly became universal (so quickly that there is already employed 200 workers in his colouring studio anecdotal evidence to suggest that it had been in Paris. The method used was that of manual sten- around before Ives published his method). However cilling (called in French ‘pochoir’) developed by Me- the chemicals required were still substantially more lies and Gaumont: for each colour to be painted on expensive than most tinting. the film a positive copy of the same film was stencil- Double effects were also widely used, in which cut by hand, and then the emulsion was washed a tone was combined with a tint, two tones, or even away. For each colour there was, therefore, a corre- two tints. Double tinting and double toning were sponding cut-out mask, or stencil, similar to the unusual (and can probably only be recognized by stencils used for house decoration and ‘silk screen’ destructive qualitative chemical analysis) but toning printing, with the part where that colour should be cut followed by tinting seems to have been routine away. In order to stencil a cinema film a separate throughout the silent era [Plate 2]. The toning was stencil will be needed for each colour on each frame.

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In manual stencilling the worker holds the sten- used for dye tinting. A list of nine colours was re- cil in the left hand exactly superimposed on the film corded in the Pathé literature and these seem to have and, with the right hand, dips a paintbrush into the been in use from early in the century to 1929 (it is colour (usually an acid tint dye, but dyes of all sorts unlikely that the actual dyes remained the same, but were used), partially dries it on a pad, and places it the list was only published once). on the stencil. A light stroke is used to transfer the Stencilling seems not to have been common colour through the cut-out and onto the emulsion in the United States, and its place was taken, in effect, side of the film image. The result was very precise by the Handschiegl process of 1916, also called the (provided the stencil had been cut well), but the Wyckoff Process and the De Mille Process. This colouring process was extremely slow and therefore produced prints of similar appearance and was used expensive. Thus, when Pathé mechanised his pro- to colour some fifteen or twenty films. The process duction and expanded into markets throughout the used conventional lithographic printing to create world, he had to make some compromises in order separate printing plates to make up to three colours to accelerate the process (the Pathé company was for printing onto a conventional black and white print said to colour 300 to 400 copies of each film by 1910). (effectively a three colour graphic arts process). The By 1908 a first version of a mechanical stencilling areas to be coloured were defined by hand for every system, Pathécolor, was in use. The machine for frame. De Mille’s Joan the Woman was an early film cutting the stencils was extremely precise. Each to use this process. Eric von Stroheim’s Greed also frame was projected onto a piece of glass. The used it (as well as printing onto yellow tinted film for outline of the image that was to be cut out was traced some sections). The sources of dye information for on the glass by the operator using a pointer attached the Handschiegl process have always been limited to a pantograph, which guided the device (not unlike to Kelley (1931), and as there appear to be no other a sewing machine with an oscillating needle) which data this secondary source should be accepted with cut the stencil. The resulting stencils, one for each some reserve, especially as he omits listing the blue colour, were a length of film of the same length as or cyan dye. the final print. The emulsion on the stencil film was then washed off. The machine for colouring the posi- Synthetic dyes and their origins tive copies used a sprocket wheel which allowed a No tinting, hand colouring, stencilling, or other col- stencil and a positive copy to be pulled along to- ouring process was possible without the synthetic gether in contact. A velvet ribbon loop, continuously dyes that made up, and still make, colour film im- replenished with dye solution from a tank, acted as ages. Prior to the mid-nineteenth century almost all the brush, transferring the dye through the stencil to dyes were naturally occurring chemical substances, the print. The procedure had to be repeated for each made from minerals dug from the ground, or ex- colour. tracted from plants or animals by crude and ‘rural’ This information is described in the patent chemical processes. literature of the time, which also reports that it was Painters’ pigments were often mineral in origin, possible to stencil a film with up to seven different with names like cinnabar, also called vermillion colours at a time in a single pass through the ma- (crude mercuric sulphide), a native mineral used, as chine. The process was used, with minor differences, was bull’s blood, to colour pink the plaster of the by such other companies as Gaumont in France and Suffolk houses where I lived. Their names signified Ambrosio and Cines in Italy. The system was used both their colour and their origins. Some pigments less after 1915, though it lasted until the end of the were derived from minerals: green pigments from 1920s (Pathé’s colouring studio was closed in 1928). copper salts, and blue from iron salts. Most were It seems that the continuous stencilling machinery insoluble in water and were opaque, not transparent, was considerably more complex than film process- generating their colour by selective reflection – so ing machinery at that time. that when applied to glass (or a photographic film) Pathécolor (later called Pathéchrome), the they obscured the light and were visually black. Pig- trade name given to prints made using mechanised ments used in glass and ceramic glazes were in stencilling, used dyes applied on top of the black- some cases transparent once fired but were imprac- and-white silver image, just like early hand colouring, tical for supports that couldn’t be heated. and some of these dyes were the same as those The dyes used for textiles, wool, cotton, silk,

FILM HISTORY: Volume 21, Number 1, 2009 – p. 16 An introduction to colouring techniques in silent era movies FILM HISTORY Vol. 21 Issue 1 (2009) 17 etc., were mostly derived from plants, and a small in time. The wide use of synthetic dyes also had number were transparent, but these were usually low disastrous consequences in already disadvantaged in saturation (that is, they appeared dull and not tropical countries: Central American and Caribbean bright). Indigo, woad, weld, madder, turmeric and states had depended on their exports of the dyes logwood are derived from plants; cochineal, sepia cochineal, logwood, indigo and others. William Per- and murex from animals; malachite, azurite, cinnabar kin and the German chemists changed all that. and ochre from minerals. Almost all the bright textile Fashion was already dominated by colour and colours were insoluble and opaque. by new colours. My grandmother, a fashion-con- William Henry Perkin (1838–1907) helped to scious London working woman in 1900, had fond change all that. He was one of many enthusiasts memories of her varnished straw hat – a lustrous experimenting with oil, coal, and tar, carbon based shiny purple-black Crystal Violet (it said on the label!) ‘organics’ (substances that included carbon in their cartwheel, which matched her balloon-sleeved, pur- molecular structure) that were mined materials. At ple and white striped blouse. I remember it was still the nearly unbelievable age of eighteen he set out to in its original box on top of the wardrobe in 1955. The ‘make’ quinine (used then for the treatment of ma- dyes initially used for dyeing lantern slides became laria) from a carbon based chemical called allytoluid- the tint dyes. These were the so-called acid dyes, and ine (C10H12N) and accidentally produced the first were used in acid aqueous solution (usually acetic synthetic dye, which he called Mauveine. Manufac- or citric acid). Many were stable and effective on turers now call this Aniline Purple, and the formula of animal products with protein content, and so particu- the strongly purple dye (mixed with other impurities) larly suited to dyeing wool and other animal fibres, as + is C26H23N4 sulphate, although Perkin didn’t know well as photographic emulsions made with gelatine this at the time. (a protein compound). Some dyes were found to At nineteen Perkin set up a factory (later called cause rapid and permanent damage to film emul- Perkin and Sons) on the banks of the canal at Green- sions, resulting in brittleness and peeling of the emul- ford, west London, to produce it. It was later burnt sion. Excessive frothing of the dye solution also down but rebuilt (twice!) and was famous for colour- seems to have been a common problem. ing the water of the nearby Grand Union Canal (the Their toxicity and their use in food had serious source of his water) different colours depending on consequences (eventually affecting their use in pho- the dye he was producing that week! His local pub, tography), and has influenced more recent choices the Black Horse, survives and is now the Glaxo- of dyes for silent era film restoration. Food that in- Smith-Kline headquarters staff local. By 1896, man- cludes proteins is easily dyed by acid dyes, espe- made dyes were being discovered/invented at a cially fruit jellies (Jello, for US readers). Victorian tremendous rate. The early development was in Eng- England specialized in elaborate gelatine-based land, and later Germany, France and then the United desserts made in fanciful moulds and decorated with States developed significant quantities. By 1910 the vast and glorious cream, gum and jelly decorations. US was by far the largest producer; today it is prob- The dyes used in food products were then ably India. virtually uncontrolled. Even today we have a legacy Most of these dyes were originally used for of food dyes being investigated and progressively textile dying, but synthetic dyes eventually found their removed by the FDA in the United States, or H&S way into every product of life. Their chemical struc- legislation in the UK. In Europe the E-number system tures controlled the way they could be used and the was set up to provide some support for dyes that materials they could dye. By the start of the twentieth were considered acceptable in food; today, as time century thousands of apparently different dyes were passes, these too are being re-examined. on the market under thousands of names. Some were inflammable, explosive, toxic or carcinogenic, The Malachite Green Story and some of the intermediate chemicals were equally Malachite (copper carbonate: Cu2CO3) is found as a dangerous (which was why Perkin’s factories were green coloured mined mineral, so striking in colour destroyed). Some turned out to be unstable and that it is used in jewellery. It was widely used a paint faded in sunlight or high temperatures, while some pigment by classical painters. A ‘basic’ dye, Mala- behaved like detergents, frothing profusely in solu- chite Green (also called Aniline Green, Basic Green tion, and the worst of these dropped out of the market 4, Diamond Green B, and many, many other names)

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is the same colour, more or less, made and sold by was originally used for the dye or ink produced by Perkin as Victoria Green. It is used as an antiseptic, the cuttlefish, in Italian sepia, scientific name Sepia a fungicide,abactericide and a bacteriological stain. officinalis. Its ‘ink’, nero di sepia, ejected when dis- At least in Italy, it was used as a mordant dye tone turbed, was widely used as a dark-brown ink and for cinema film. It is still used as a food dye in some paint pigment. When silver sulphide (AgS) came to Asian countries, and to kill bacteria on fish food be used to generate the same image colour in early products. It is toxic and now banned for many appli- photographic paper prints the print was called a cations, except medical ones, by many countries. ‘sepia print’. However, silver sulphide is opaque, and In the 1990s, when restoring Quo Vadis? (the although it makes a good stable brown image on a 1922 reprint version of the original 1912 film), we were paper print it is visually black or blue-black on a foxed by the colouring used for the critical last scene projected film image. Instead, several alternative of the film where Christ is shown on the cross. Tests copper or uranium salt recipes were used under the of various sort suggested it was bad tint, a smudgy same name, sepia, in the 1920s! It did not stop there. dark green, but a colleague trawling recipes from an By the end of the 1920s sepia had changed again, early Italian paper (this print had been made in Italy) to mordant dye tone. Exactly what the sepia tone that came across a Malachite Green recipe as a mordant Nicola Mazzanti refers to in his paper in this issue of tone which we also suspected had not stood the test Film History is a matter of speculation – studio labo- of time and had been abandoned due to the dye ratories often used several different ‘sepias’ depend- being unstable in certain conditions and diffusing ing on the colour they wanted (and probably the cost unevenly across the image to look like a tint. This dye of the chemicals used in the process). In 2001 a was routinely mentioned in many documents, but European Union Research project was also called here was a recipe of the period. We tried it out using SEPIA, Safeguarding European Photographic Im- modern Malachite Green dye and produced the ex- ages for Access. act same colour (as measured by a densitometer) as Gold tone (a blue image on paper, originally in the original nitrate print. This was used in the final produced with gold salts, but made from an unre- restoration, which is held by the film museum in lated synthetic carbon compound) was later called Amsterdam [Plate 3]. cyanotype. Indigo, viridian, ochre, cinnabar, gambo- There was another use for this same dye at ges, malachite, burnt umber and many other names about the same period as its use in Quo Vadis? used for synthetic dyes are equally confusing. By Maurice Edmond Sailland, a famous French food 1920 the dye invention, production and marketing critic, writing as ‘Curnonsky’ in the 1950 Almanach business was vast, worldwide, and risky in many des gourmands, described the ‘saints and martyrs’ ways. The principle problems were toxicity, human that invented new culinary dishes. ‘[M]ore than thirty sensitivity, fire risk, instability, fading and purity – but years ago, a gourmet of this type declared that peas above all the impossibility of comprehending what were a far too banal shade of green and he decided the dye purchased was, chemically, from the name to produce peas that were ‘grass green’. He first under which it was sold. treated them in hydrogen peroxide [a bleach], fol- Across the world, companies created thou- lowed by a strong shot of malachite green with a few sands of new synthetic dyes for over fifty years with flakes of iron. Then satisfied with the result, and made no universal nomenclature system. Making carbon hungry by hours of work, he ate about a pound of this based organic dyes from oil and coal was easy, but, house speciality … . When I went to see him, eight like photography and cookery, it was fundamentally days later in hospital, his condition had slightly im- pragmatic. Many major chemical suppliers sold the proved’ (Translation by Mark Kurlansky). raw basic intermediate chemicals that allowed hun- dreds of small companies to experiment. As each What’s in a Name? gave a fanciful new trade name to their (often rather The history of dyes and pigments has also lead to a impure) version of a dye, new or old, and as the confusion of terminology that continues to this day, impurities varied the colour, the synonyms prolifer- and colours are frequently described using an origi- ated and it became impossible to be certain what a nal pigment name instead of their colour names (or dye was, and therefore whether it was safe and their long and awkward chemical names). Sepia in practical or not. The naming process was often a photography refers to a toning technique. The term continuation of the naming of painters’ pigments and

FILM HISTORY: Volume 21, Number 1, 2009 – p. 18 An introduction to colouring techniques in silent era movies FILM HISTORY Vol. 21 Issue 1 (2009) 19 textile dyes. For example, if the dyes looked like the (where else could it be!), 82 Grattan Road, Bradford. colour of the mineral azurite (for example, a bright It now publishes the 4th online Colour Index blue) then azurite could be used in its name. Exactly (http://www.sdc.org.uk) in collaboration with the how many names existed by the 1920s is not known, American Association of Textile Chemists and Color- nor how many actual dyes existed on the market by ists (http://www.aatcc.org). Dyes are listed in the that time. Colour Index according to the widely accepted Col- As an example, in 1995 I was restoring two our Index Generic Names and Colour Index Consti- silent coloured Hitchcock features (The Pleasure tution Numbers. The 4th Edition covers around Garden [1925] and The Lodger [1927]) at Soho Im- 27,000 individual dye products from across the world ages, using wherever possible the original dyes and that refer to around 13,000 generic names, listing recipes. Where UK Health and Safety law considera- their chemical ‘fingerprint’ and structure, their manu- tions prevented that, I substituted similar colour facturers and suppliers. Another section of the Index dyes. One tint dye we needed was called Direct Blue covers data from past editions and provides a valu- 6B in the literature of the time. Aldrich and Co, a UK able connection into the past. Out of this chaos, since dye maker and supplier, gave us a copy of their 1926, has come some degree of rationality, and dye database of synonyms to advise us what dye to suppliers are able to create impressive databases of order. We found Direct Blue had been known under synonyms that allow them to supply the correct dye 183 synonyms (most coined before 1926) and was if it is ordered under an old, no longer used, name. sold in their current catalogue under the name Chi- However, a restorer who wants to locate a dye used cago Sky Blue. Kodak, in the 1927 edition of their before 1926 may still have some problems. Tinting and Toning manual, recommended its pur- chase from a company in New York which sold the dye as Niagara Sky Blue! The death of coloured film By the early 1920s the yarn and fabric dyeing Coloured films suffered from many restrictions and industry’s frustration was intense, and resulted in irritations to filmmakers, exhibitors, and audiences. what is, to this day, the only attempt to create some The many joins made for a fragile print with a high order and sense. In 1926 it is said that there were well risk of breakage during projection. Tinted films have over 20,000 different dye names on the market, and a lower than normal screen brightness, with between that year the Society of Dyers and Colourists in 25 per cent and 95 per cent (for some dark blue tints) Bradford, England (founded in 1884, and granted a of the projection light absorbed by the dyes. Re- Royal Charter of Incorporation in 1963) set out to cently, however, some of the prints that were pre- standardize and regularize the naming by publishing viously thought to have faded to very pale tints are their Colour Index. Bradford was a centre of the vast now considered to have been only delicately tinted cotton spinning and weaving industry in England, to begin with. Tinted prints can be rather difficult to and the Yorkshire and Lancashire cotton and wool watch, as the eye’s individual colour receptors be- mills were the world’s largest users of dyes at that come fatigued by being exposed to one colour for a time. In an amazing coming together of the world long time, an effect known as general colour fatigue industry, dye manufacturers registered their dyes or general adaptation. In time, sometimes in only a with the Colour Index and were given in exchange a few minutes, the eye accommodates to compensate Colour Index Number. Since then the Colour Index for the dominant colour; if the colour is relatively weak has been the standard registration system for all it is hardly noticed. This was probably recognised by dyes and their chemical composition, and permits a early filmmakers using tinted films: according to Noel manufacturer to call his dye whatever he likes for Desmet, strong colours were often used for long sales purposes, but to describe its chemical struc- scenes, whereas weak colours were sometimes fre- ture (and thus its colour, purity and chemical and quently changed. safety characteristics) under a unique CI reference Optical sound tracks on the same film as the number. The first massive Colour Index tome was image could not utilize some of these dyes without a published in 1926. high amplification of the signal from the sound pho- The Society has become an international pro- tocell, resulting in poor quality due to distortion. fessional society specialising in colour in the broad- Changes in dye densities between the scenes re- est sense, with its headquarters at Perkin House sulted in sudden changes in sound levels. It was

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impossible to join the separate coloured scene prints incongruous) and very realistic double effect, Iron using the old positive cutting process and still retain Tone Blue and a Croceine red tint! the sound picture separation of 20 frames between In the British Film Institute’s print of Hitch- picture and sound required by the now dominant cock’s The Pleasure Garden (1925), all the night RCA Photophone system in the US. Only one colour scenes (which were shot during the day) are a deep, per reel of film was going to be possible. It was plain dark, blue tint, but the remaining colours seem unre- to most manufacturers that coloured films had had lated to the subject or context, and include strong their day greens and yellows; occasionally a scene is printed There had always been cost considerations. in just black-and-white (although that could be a Some dyes were particularly expensive, and two-so- replacement at that time for a damaged scene). lution processes, like mordant dye toning, or three, Hitchcock’s The Lodger, made in 1926 and released like the various double effects, cost more as a serv- early in 1927, shows considerable ingenuity and ice. It seems that the studios paying the bills did exert much more attention to the content. It seems that the some control over the filmmakers to prevent prints whole film was coloured throughout in an attempt to from becoming too costly. Croceine, a red dye, and capture a sort of parallel to reality. A complex double various yellows like Wool Orange, were very cheap effect Iron Blue Tone (Prussian blue) and an amber and commonly used for tinting [Plate 4]. But in Lon- (Quinoline) tint was used for all the exterior night don in 1930 uranium nitrate was £1/10/0 (one guinea) scenes to produce a simulation of a London pea- a gram (and £10.00 a gram in 1995). In 1922/3 souper (the coal fire fuelled smog, or ‘London par- Nordisk told their producers (according to a letter ticular’, as Dickens called them). This eerie effect has held in the Danish Film Institute) that they could only dark blue-green shadows and yellow streetlamps – use one yellow and one blue tint dye, and no tones just like my memories of walking home in the evening (tones were much more expensive). And there is smog of the 1950s before the Clean Air Acts. The anecdotal evidence that some distributors used interiors, largely of lamp-lit rooms at night, were tinted many colours for a few show prints, but the majority by the same yellow alone. A hospital scene (after a of prints had fewer and cheaper colours, or were dramatic attack in the dark blue smog effect had simply black-and-white. caused the audience general colour adaptation) was Some decisions, perhaps in independent a sudden pale pink. Untinted scenes were inter- laboratories, were left to minor individuals. There are spersed like full stops to the story. Some film is numerous anecdotes relating to this, one from the pre-tinted base, and some tinted after development, Kay Laboratories of Red Lion Square, London, which in both cases on Kodak film. The intertitles are on a opened in 1917: the laboratory foreman used up a different stock, Pathé, a fast print stock used as the bucket of dye on a feature because it was left over camera film, or what was then called a ‘process’ film. from last week’s film. This could certainly account for These were all post-tinted in the laboratory to a dense prints of a title that exist today in different archives orange colour carrying the narration in a uniform with apparently unrelated colour schemes. colour format. Sadly, The Lodger is only available on By the end of the 1920s it seems that many DVD in black-and-white [Plate 5]. titles were printed from cut negatives, so that only Blackmail (1929) was to have been coloured, one colour per reel was possible – or only black-and- too (to some extent that is conjecture, but surely, after white. The Lodger, something even more ‘realistic’ was Then there was the likelihood that the simple proposed), but the RCA Photophone combined print lack of realism was becoming unacceptable to the prevented that. The subsequent silent version was audiences. Many filmmakers did appear to use col- never coloured and, as far as I know, was printed ours that at times had some semblance of a link to from a cut negative. the scene, but in other cases they were either tenu- The real end to these processes was the end ous or just occasional. In the print of Der Magische of positive print assembly. For a combined sound- Guertel (c. 1920) in the Imperial War Museum, a film on-picture print the picture negatives must ‘match’ catalogue of how to sink a ship by torpedo, the the optical sound negative, but with a twenty frame colours appear almost randomly selected. But an separation between them. Negative cutting became evening shot of a sailing ship sinking against the the essential post-production technique. Each print evening light is a tasteful (if in the circumstances, roll must be a single filmstrip and the fewer joins the

FILM HISTORY: Volume 21, Number 1, 2009 – p. 20 An introduction to colouring techniques in silent era movies FILM HISTORY Vol. 21 Issue 1 (2009) 21 better – and that does not allow more than one tint prints, and not only describes the colours in dramatic or tone effect per reel. terms but also propounds their potential use. He describes for almost the first time what colours could Loyd Jones, Sonochrome, and a (and in his opinion, should) be used for providing small diversion realism on the one hand and guiding the audience’s Dyed-in-the-mass nitrate and acetate base (which emotions on the other! was widely available by the end of the 1920s from The film stock manufacturers from 1910 on- Eastman Kodak, as well as Agfa) lead to the slightly wards employed specialist chemists, but most of ridiculous but nonetheless fascinating story of Sono- these were faceless experimenters and technical chrome, a pretentiously marketed base-tinted film for report writers who worked their research days out ‘at sound-on-film moving pictures! the bench’, their own (and indeed once my own) Some tones, especially metallic tones, make euphemism for an eight hour day spent in the labo- good optical tracks, and were later used widely for ratory. Most of their research was never published 2-colour systems and even reversal colour film tracks openly due to its potential commercial value. What in the 1970s. But all tint dyes reduced the density was published openly was designed to instruct the difference between the silver track and the adjacent film laboratories and, although rarely before the tinted area, lowering the resulting sound volume and 1930s, the filmmaker and the cinematographer. The requiring more amplification – with some dyes being main sources of real technological information on considerably more dense to the sound pickup wave- any industrial process are patents, which of course lengths than others. This resulted in distortion where must be read with both care and scepticism. Patents the amplification was high, and variations in level were written to protect inventions, but also, more between different degrees of tinting and the different often than is realized, to disguise the reality of a tint dyes, requiring varying amplification to maintain marketable process. At this period the individual constant sound levels in the cinema. chemists at Agfa and Pathé, for example, were gen- For some reason that isn’t clear, at least to me, erally unknown and published little, but several Eastman Kodak did not perceive the market as hav- names do stand out in the English speaking world, ing now finished with tinting, toning and ‘arbitrarily mostly from Eastman Kodak in Rochester. One of coloured’ films when sound arrived, and in 1929 them is Loyd Jones [Fig. 4]. introduced a new range of coloured bases to replace Loyd Jones, however, was not just a ‘rude their tinted film base print film, Eastman Positive mechanical’. He was well known in the Society of Motion Picture Film-coloured base. Called Eastman Motion Picture Engineers in the 1920s (he later Sonochrome Tinted Positive Film, it was designed served as its President), was also President of the especially for RCA Photophone-type combined Optical Society of America, and was a prolific writer sound-on-film feature films. and inventor. He was instrumental in many major Eastman Kodak’s Loyd Jones, in a 1929 paper innovations in the film industry (for more on Loyd to the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, provided Jones see Joshua Yumibe’s article in this issue of a technical statement of how Sonochrome managed Film History). It seems that as a commissioned US to be tinted and yet still permit both reasonable Navy lieutenant he had joined Kodak in Rochester sound quality and, in particular, good sound levels. early in World War I to manage a research group He was writing for the membership of the Society, designing camouflage patterns for warships. In his mostly film laboratory and studio technicians, many obituary he was described as an ‘optical physiolo- of whom were chemists or engineers. Some of the gist’. He was clearly interested in what was to be- previous tint dyes had significant densities in the come known as the ‘psychology of vision’, which was infra-red and reduced the signal to noise ratio of probably at that time controversial (even ever so optical sound tracks, and these were either replaced slightly subversive), in the same way that chaos by other dyes or were made available only as pale theory has been regarded. But by the time I joined versions with lowered effect on sound track quality. Kodak Ltd in 1960 it was becoming mainstream. It Much of the paper describes the dye selection proc- involved, for example, understanding the principles ess used to avoid infrared absorptions and is a of general and local adaptation in human colour written for a scientific audience. At the end he lists vision, recognizing why images looked sharper when the seventeen selected pre-tinted bases for sound the contrast was greater, and the effects that certain

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colours, brightnesses, and im- The Sonochrome colours were described by ages had on our perception Loyd Jones in the following terms: (and even our psychological re- No. 1 Rose Dorée. ‘A deep warm pink.’ action) to them. So Loyd Jones No. 2 Peachblow. ‘A delicate flesh pink.’ cut his teeth on dazzle-patterns No. 3 Afterglow. ‘A soft rich orange colour.’ painted on warships, and No. 4 Firelight. ‘A soft yellow-orange.’ stayed to design workable No. 5 Candleflame. ‘A pastel orange methods of measuring film yellow.’ speed, contrast rules and dupli- No. 6 Sunshine. ‘A clear brilliant yellow.’ cation mathematics, sensi- No. 7 Verdante. ‘A pure green, rather tometric control methods for pastel.’ printing and processing, and No. 8 Aquagreen. ‘A brilliant blue-green.’ exposure determination – all the No. 9 Turquoise. ‘A clear brilliant blue.’ basic technology we need to No. 10 Azure. ‘A strong sky-blue.’ make, shoot, post-produce and No. 11 Nocturne. ‘Deep violet-blue.’ project film that we use today No. 12 Purplehaze. ‘A bluish violet or without a second thought. lavender, rather paste.’ Fig. 4. Dr. C. His paper on Sonochrome looks like the work No. 13 Fleur de lis. ‘A rich royal purple.’ Loyd Jones, of a man who is enjoying writing a technical paper, No. 14 Amaranth. ‘A purple, which has a taken in the early has immense enthusiasm for his company’s prod- redder content than Fleur de lis.’ 1940s when he was President of uct, has played a major part in the Sonochrome No. 15 Caprice. ‘Cool pink.’ the Optical concept, and has been given his head. It seems that No. 16 Inferno. ‘Fiery red tinged with Society of the names given to the tinted base colours and the magenta.’ America. descriptions of their use were also his; his paper to No. 17 Argent. ‘Hueless, a silvery gray.’ the SMPE was given before the first sales to labora- tories, and the advertising posters and pamphlets The normal clear-based Eastman Positive Mo- appear to be later, too. Also, his descriptions are far tion Picture Film was also available, but it was never more detailed and specific, and even more florid, intended that it be cut into tinted film; the ‘hueless’ than any other motion picture sales literature I have Argent was used instead. seen. Colleagues of mine, after reading his Sono- Jones described, in depth, and in much chrome paper for the first time, have said that he greater detail than the subsequent leaflets on Sono- appears to be a film technologist trying to make chrome, the potential value and use of these colours, sense of something that seemed to many of his employing language almost unknown to film tech- colleagues to be illogical, but which he understands nologists (before or since!). It can be seen from his as universal emotional experience and an integral introduction and explanations that he was expecting component of the new ‘psychology of colour’. changes of colour to be used within a reel, for specific scenes, not only for their dramatic effect but to make Colour had not always or even routinely been use of some of the psychology of colour concepts, used as a representation of reality, although there are especially general adaptation. He describes the use clear cut cases where that is the case. But few of the crucial Argent base print film as a means of references in the silent period refer to any principles achieving more or less uniform sound levels when used in selecting colours (some that do exist also intercut with other colours and as a method of en- have Loyd Jones’s name as an author). Previously, hancing the dramatic effect of a coloured tint that Eastman Positive Motion Picture Film-coloured base follows it. The following is from the last section of his had been sold by colour: for example, one was called 1929 SMPE paper: Eastman Positive Motion Picture Film, Red Base. Others were just called, plainly, pink, orange, amber, In the following paragraphs an attempt has light amber, yellow, green, blue and lavender base. been made to give a brief description of the (This lavender base film was a completely different visual and psychological characteristics of the film to the later duplicating positive film nick-named film tints … . Although these characteristics of ‘lavender’ by the industry because of its base colour.) the symbolic and emotional values of these

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colors are necessarily tinged by the author’s Tint No. 2, Peachblow: A delicate flesh pink. own reactions and by results of his own intro- This has a small but definite blue content mak- spective analysis, they are based, in so far as ing it somewhat less warm than Afterglow. It is is possible, upon a careful summary and inte- adapted to the rendition of close-ups where it gration of data derived from the available lit- is desired to do full justice to feminine beauty. erature [although it has to be said that the The hue and saturation are such as to suggest literature he was talking about was principally the glow of life…. his own, or that of other optical physiologists! Tint No. 16, Inferno: Fiery red tinged with ma- PR]. They should therefore represent approxi- genta. Since it is directly suggestive of fire, it is mately the reactions to be expected from the adapted to scenes of burning buildings, glow- average observer. ing furnaces, forest fires etc. By subjective Tint No. 17, Argent: This is a hueless colour, a association indicative of riot, panic, anarchy, silvery gray showing no chromatic charac- mobs, turmoil, strife, war, battle and unre- teristics. It may be regarded as the zero or strained passion. starting point on the scale of saturation or – Loyd A. Jones, ‘Tinted Films for Sound colour strength. It is very necessary as a Positives’, TSMPE (XII, 37) 1929: 199. means of establishing a visual accommoda- tion in terms of which a hue may be appreci- ated by contrast. It may he used to fatigue the In fact, all the Sonochrome colours were rela- eye to the point of monotony after which the tively pastel by comparison with the tints of a few presentation of a hue will have enhanced years earlier. This was principally to ensure no sud- effect. den sound volume changes between colours, as was Tint No. 6, Sunshine: A clear brilliant yellow the use of the Argent base, and it is possible that in approximately complementary to sky-blue, the late 1920s pastel colours may have been more therefore quite closely matching the subjective common anyway. colour of sunlight, when seen in contrast to Sonochrome as a product was a marketing blue sky. The visual transmission is high (83 disaster. Sound-on-film and the twenty frame sepa- per cent); therefore is adapted for use on a ration between image and sound made tinting a scene designed to give the impression of bril- process of the past. Negative cutting was here to liant sunlit conditions and where an interior is stay, and anyway it seemed that arbitrary colours had obviously illuminated by sunlight entering had their day. I have seen no information or descrip- through windows and open doors. This colour tions of Kodak embarrassment other than indirect is definitely warm but not to the same extent as evidence: Sonochrome is extremely rare in archives, Candleflame, Firelight and Afterglow, which and so far I have yet to hear of a single feature printed make with this colour a series increasing pro- on this stock (and there were very few tinted films gressively in warmth. It is mildly stimulating, anyway after its release in 1929). It seems that it may suggesting a mood of lively interest mid atten- not have been marketed in Europe. tion, but not one of’ high excitement or nervous In the Eastman Kodak Motion Picture Labora- tension. tory Manual of 1936 Sonochrome gets a short para- graph mention (large stocks were presumably still Tint No. 5, Candleflame: A pastel orange-yel- unsold!), but I have seen it recorded on several low. It is slightly lower in transmission (75 per websites that Sonochrome was discontinued in cent) than Sunshine, giving a screen more 1970! There may have been some stocks still around orange in hue and in brilliance which definitely until the end of the 1940s, when all nitrate stocks suggests artificial illumination when used on ceased to be available, and perhaps they were used interior scenes…. By objective association for a few trailers or for locally made cinema adver- useful in inducing rather mild mood reactions tisements. But the tinted 16mm titles made by Kodak such as feelings of coziness, comfort, inti- (and some other laboratories) for insertion into ama- macy, well being, peace without opulence, teur films until the early 1950s were acetate, and in etc …. some cases (in the UK for example) were dyed using

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conventional tinting technology – tinting’s last prints produced in the 1850s, these film prints are flowering. identified by being very slightly radioactive. Kodak was still publishing a uranium toning recipe in the Toning combined optical sound films 1950s, but it seems very unlikely that, except for Tinting and toning technologies did not vanish com- MGM, any laboratory had used uranium since the pletely in 1930 – they hung on in isolated technologi- early 1920s. In qualitative analytical tests carried out cal corners and became an integral part of ‘natural’ at Soho Images on ‘sepia’ toned films, no uranium colour processes. A number of titles in black and or sulphides were detected, and most sepias were white (and some colour films in the United States in either copper tones or mordant dye tones. the 1930s) were toned throughout or in part using continuous processing machines. Although very few, the process is worth mentioning from a technical Toning (and tinting) for two-colour viewpoint and as yet another example of the confu- films sion created by the term sepia. Important sources of information on toning for us The Good Earth (1937) is the best docu- today are the various manufacturers‘ manuals pro- mented, due to a paper in the SMPE Transactions by duced during the 1920s. Later publications, such as John Nickolaus, credited on a number of films as Adrian Cornwell-Clyne’s Colour Cinematography ‘laboratory supervisor’ or ‘tinting and toning supervi- (1951), must be used with care, as much of his data sor’, and at this time the manager of MGM’s labora- uses the term ‘toning’ but refers to its use in natural tory. The paper was presented before the release of two- and three-colour processes and not coloured the film, and subsequently the process was termed silent monochrome print film. Beginning in the 1920s, ‘Sepiatone’. This title, and perhaps others later, and continuing until about 1950 (when out-competed made use of uranium tone, a metal tone process by Eastman Color and Technicolor), a generic two- using Ives’s single solution toner (most silent era colour subtractive process developed. Agfa, East- uranium tones were generated using two solutions, man Kodak and DuPont produced pairs of bipack a bleach followed by the toner). The solution was a camera films (which produced two separation nega- mixture of potassium ferricyanide and uranyl nitrate. tives) and duplitized black and white film (i.e. with The silver image in the print emulsion was converted emulsion coated on both sides of the film base). to silver ferrocyanide (which is semi-opaque white During the 1930s, quite sophisticated laboratory ton- but appears a neutral grey to black on projection) ing techniques were used to tone the image on one and uranium ferrocyanide (which is red). The avail- side of the double coated film blue or cyan, and that able papers of the time do not indicate whether the on the other side a red or orange. The mordant dyes silver ferrocyanide was removed by a subsequent and metallic tones used were often mixtures of dyes fixer stage, but probably not (that would create a red to create better primary or complementary colours. tone, and not the red-brown achieved by leaving the This discrete process limiting toning to one side or silver ferrocyanide image in place). The RCA Photo- the other required complex machinery or selective phone-type optical soundtrack was also toned dur- bleaching techniques. Iron Blue Tone (Prussian Blue) ing this process, and it is possible that a metallic was almost universally the blue tone image, and toning process was used instead of a dye toning mordant dyes were used for the orange-red image. process, because the sound quality is relatively un- The most well known example was Cinecolor, affected by most metal tone images . but by the late 1930s and 1940s almost every major John Nickolaus subsequently used this proc- studio or filmmaking centre with its own 35mm film ess, or at least a similar one, on several other films, laboratory in Europe and the United States had its including The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938) and own version of the basic two-colour process. Many the opening scenes of The Wizard of Oz (1939). of these are listed by Cornwell-Clyne, along with lists Uranyl nitrate was one of the most expensive chemi- of the dyes they used and their soundtracks, but in cals used in film processing at that time, but also by the last decade film archives have been discovering far the most toxic. Film laboratory handling systems many more local examples of previously unknown and general cleanliness in that time were sloppy to colour systems based on the same technology. Ex- say the least, and this must have been a very unsafe amples are Cinephotocolour from Barcelona (per process for the operators. Like Uranium toned paper Alfonso del Amo, Filmoteca Espagnola), Dascolour

FILM HISTORY: Volume 21, Number 1, 2009 – p. 24 An introduction to colouring techniques in silent era movies FILM HISTORY Vol. 21 Issue 1 (2009) 25 from Brussels (Noel Desmet), Alfacolour from Lon- Duplication of hand and don (Leonard Evans, Studio Film Laboratories), and stencil-coloured films many more. Many coloured monochrome films were copied al- Because the choices of dyes were limited, and most exclusively, until only a few years ago, by con- because any two-colour process is only an approxi- ventional black-and-white duplication. The colours mation of the original, the two dyes used for these were simply recorded in writing, if at all. Few well systems were never precisely complementary, re- known attempts were made to reproduce the original sulting in a somewhat out-of-balance image, most colours for archival storage or display until the use of tending to be slightly blue or pink. In many processes Eastman Color Internegative Film Type 5251 – espe- (such as Cinecolor) a final yellow or pink tint was cially by the filmmuseum in Amsterdam – in the early applied overall to adjust the colour to a visually 1990s. acceptable balance, ensuring that neutral grey sub- This film stock was originally designed to make jects were visually grey, for example. colour internegative from Ektachrome Commercial, a 16mm reversal film with an overall contrast of 1.0 – Tinting titles and inserts much lower than the 1.5 used for conventional rever- Kodak and Ilford in the UK, and at least one profes- sal films such as Kodachrome and other Ek- sional film laboratory in London, Studio Film Labora- tachromes in which the original camera film was tories, provided amateurs the service of generating projected. Ektachrome Commercial was introduced intertitles on 16mm black-and-white film until about in the 1950s; it was not projected, but always printed 1950. These titles could also be tinted, and this was onto a special Kodachrome print stock to make a carried out by dyeing the print in the classic manner. projection print. Eastman Color Internegative Film According to Leonard Evans, then control technician, was introduced to make colour negative from Ek- later director, of Studio Film Laboratories, London, tachrome Commercial originals that could be printed coloured titles were used for cutting into amateur onto Eastman Color Print film; this permitted blowups silent 16mm Kodachrome, and Kodak was still pub- to 35mm, as well as more economical large print runs lishing instructions for this in 1950. When rebuilding on 16mm Eastman Color Print Film. Using this film the old Studio Film Laboratories to transform it into stock for making a negative from a tinted, toned or Soho Images in 1993, I came across large metal stencilled film was a piece of serendipity: the film was canisters of tint dyes that had originated with this available and was the nearest contrast to the perfect service in the 1940s. requirement. Initially these restorations were highly It seems likely that other countries, particularly acclaimed, and were responsible for the first widely those with 16mm Kodachrome processing plants at shown restorations of tinted and toned films. But at that time, may have supported such a service. There that time there was little to compare them with. In fact, are several accounts of coloured short films made as the contrast is too high and the emulsion colour advertisements for local cinemas which were tinted, sensitivities do not suit the highly saturated acid dyes and once again Studio Film Laboratories in London used for tints and stencils. Within a few years it was made these in 35mm. discovered that using some colour negative camera I have also been told that May and Baker, a stocks was marginally better. This technique may still well known English supplier of photographic chemi- have a role today in restoring stencilled and Hand- cals, supplied a kit of dyes for tinting amateur film schiegl prints where no other analogue film tech- well into the 1950s. This may be a fertile area for more nique exists, or can be afforded, but the resulting research. colour print represents, at best, the colours left in the film today after whatever fading and damage has occurred. Digital methods are far more satisfactory. Restoration of silent era coloured film The term restoration, in this context, involves the production of new ‘coloured’ film prints from tinted, Simulating tinting and toning on toned and stencilled originals or their original nega- colour print film tives, for cinema projection, using current materials ‘Desmetcolor’, devised by Noel Desmet of the Royal and techniques. Belgian Film Archive’s laboratory, has been used

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since the 1970s to restore some of the strong colours similar results. It was tested at Soho Images in the and dramatic effects of early tinted and toned prints, 1990s, but was not used for the reasons above. but wasn’t widely known until the Gamma Group in Europe brought archivists and film laboratory tech- Restoring original tinting or toning nologists together to share their expertise for the first technique on modern print stock time in the early 1990s. It was not always used to Original tint and tone methods have been used sev- match the colours of a particular print (especially if eral times for restoration over the last three decades. fading was suspected), but to provide an extensive The original ‘recipes’ used for colouring prints are palette from which to choose colours in the same way widely available (see the database printed here) and that producers chose the effects they wanted origi- easy to use today with modern film. The principle nally. Many early coloured films were duplicated to weakness is that of all tinted and toned film: the make a normal black-and-white duplicate negative, number of joins at colour changes. and notes kept of the original colour before the Some of the earliest tinted and toned restora- decaying nitrate print was destroyed. Noel Desmet’s tion experiments may have been those carried out by method enables these colours to be put back as tints Harold Brown at the National Film and Television or tones (or as a combination) using the archived Archive in the UK, and by Vladimir Opela at the duplicate negatives as a starting point. The colours Národní Filmový Archiv in Prague. But it seems likely do not always match the originals exactly, because that many experimenters in film archives did a bit of some dyes cannot be matched by modern tripack tinting and toning, even if they didn’t make complete dyes – although if enough trial and error time is spent, restorations of whole titles. The dyes that were used quite close matches are possible. The overall dra- were generally whatever was available at the time, matic effect is probably very close to that of the and were rarely those of the original recipes. In the original. The final print is on a colour print film. 1990s in England two restoration centres set out to There are two printing processes which the make restorations using the original techniques, if restorer can choose. The first prints a black-and- not the original dyes, as far as was possible. white duplicate negative (made from the original At Soho Images I set out to use the original coloured print) directly onto colour print film. This recipes, including the original dyes – or if that wasn’t generates a coloured image, and grading allows the known, to use a known recipe from the period, and restorer to select the colour of the image, producing from the location of the film laboratory the print came an effect similar or identical to a toned silver image. from. About eighteen titles were completed, from Alternatively, the same monochrome negative can short newsreels to eight complete features, most for be printed onto the colour print film and carefully the Nederlands Filmmuseum and the NFTVA in Eng- graded to generate a monochrome neutral grey im- land. Two very interesting discoveries came out of age. Then, before processing the exposed print, the these restorations. One was that the colours, espe- film is run back into the printer for a second pass but cially of tones, were originally very much brighter than without any negative, and the printer lights adjusted we thought they would be, and they have faded over to create a flashed colour over the entire frame area, the years (especially the Iron Tone Blue, which fades in effect a coloured tint. This elegant process, pro- to a dark navy blue from its original bright blue). duced on an additive printer with high speed light Another was that the printed negative was longer valves, is highly flexible and allows changes of tint than the final cut used in the joined final print, as one and tone (and also double effects) to be created with to four frames of print were lost at the beginning and changes between scenes on a single film with no end of each cut scene. We used small 200 foot (60m) joins. roll film tanks for tinting, of the type used for devel- Working independently, Dominic Case in Aus- oping long lengths of aerial film. We used a small tralia used a similar system, but made the mono- continuous black-and-white developing machine to chrome printing negative on a colour negative stock tint an entire print of Blood and Sand (1922) a sand which was then printed onto colour print film. The colour throughout. Much of this information was then process uses more film generations than Desmet- either published or widely passed on to other labo- color, and is significantly more expensive, as it uses ratories and (especially) film archives around the a colour negative stock. It has not been used outside world, and is now widely used for demonstration. Australia, as far as I am aware, but probably has At the British National Film and Television Ar-

FILM HISTORY: Volume 21, Number 1, 2009 – p. 26 An introduction to colouring techniques in silent era movies FILM HISTORY Vol. 21 Issue 1 (2009) 27 chive (now BFI Collections), Joao d’Oliveira tried to the original. However, stains and unevenness various techniques, including a mechanised method caused by storage, fading, and projector lights are of spraying aqueous dye solutions onto the film. But all recorded; many dyes are highly saturated and the NFTVA’s concern with the health and safety as- some are outside range of the recording system. pect of dye toxicity restricted him to the use of ‘safe’ Scanning photographic duplicates made via a colour food dyes, so that his approach was to try to match internegative system never achieves a good match the colours on the old original prints. His most ambi- with the original. The best results have all resulted tious was a tinted and toned restoration of Napoléon from monochrome scans made from the originals. (1927). An interesting set of restorations is (I hope) The term Digital Desmet comes from Thomas to be found somewhere in BFI Collections. A col- Christensen of the Danish Film Institute, who has oured original print of The Lodger (1926) exists, as experimented with digital techniques for tint and tone do three restorations using tinting and toning: one by restorations. The Desmet again refers to the route Harold Brown in, I believe, the early 1980s, one by that uses a monochrome neutral (i.e. black-and- myself and Bob Mabberley at Soho Images, and one white) master version made from either a mono- made by Joao d’Oliveira at NFTVA. chrome negative or a tinted and toned original print, The issue of dye toxicity is the main problem and either adds an overall uniform colour ‘tint’ to the with this technique for restorations in the future, and digital film or replaces the monochrome image by a the anxiety expressed by the NFTVA at Joao’s experi- coloured image scale, a tone. In practice the digital ments is now being extended to include most of the effects workstations or software used to create the food dyes that he used at that time. A widely used tint or tone effect on a monochrome neutral image tint dye was Quinoline Yellow, used by Harold Brown, use very different terminology for their various colour- myself at Soho Images, and by the NFTVA. Also used ing options. Thomas Christensen has generally used as a food dye, it is described in European Union the Discreet Inferno or Flame workstations at Digital terminology as Food Additive E-104. It is also one of Film Lab in Copenhagen for this, but even Photoshop the E-no food additives about which the British Food has the facility to do both on a frame by frame basis Standards Agency has stated ‘The results [of this (provided the operator can interpret the software or research] suggest that consumption of certain mix- hardware manual and find the right tool – the terms tures of artificial food colours and sodium benzoate tint and tone are often used in software menus as preservative are associated with increases in hyper- digital control terms but never mean what they do to active behaviour in children’. Of the five other addi- a photographic technologist!). tives implicated in the same research, three of them were tint or tone dyes. On 10 April 2008 the British The tint and tone formula database Foods Standard Agency called for the European In recent years the use of original dyes and recipes Union to phase out all these dyes (and by implication has provided a set of colour swatches for digital all synthetic food colouring) by 2009. restorations to work toward (just as they became the In film processing laboratories the chemists aims for Desmetcolor ten years ago). The dye data- that are responsible for the production and control of base printed here comprises a list of the dyes and the processing chemistry are used to handling far associated recipes (formulations of the dye solutions worse chemicals, but archives rarely employ or re- and the process conditions) that were published quire these specialists, or the precautions needed, during the silent era, together with some recipes that and will be deterred from future experimentation. In were published subsequently and purport to be origi- consequence it seems that this sort of restoration is nal recipes of the time – for example, the Hand- sadly a thing of the past. schiegl colours given by Kelley in 1931, and the tint dyes for optical sound films found in Ryan. Many Digital restoration and digital apparently detailed manuals have turned out to be Desmet copies or subsequent translations of either the Ko- A tinted or toned original may be scanned to make dak or Agfa manuals, and I have omitted these. an RGB colour file, and this can be colour corrected Since the late 1990s I have distributed various and graded (timed) using a conventional digital col- versions as an Excel file to archives, laboratories, and our controller. The results are rarely satisfactory, as digital post-houses that wished to either carry out the best that can be achieved is a near colour match restorations using original tint and tone techniques,

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or to create swatches of colours for matching by cles in libraries, archives, second hand bookshops Desmetcolor or by Digital Desmet. These dyes can and in one case the back of a dusty cupboard in a be obtained by using the Colour Index to identify the film laboratory, and sending them or copies to me, dye index CI number and a manufacturer. Many dye over the last fifteen years. The most important I need suppliers will find the current alternative just from to thank is Bob Mabberley, of Soho Images, London, being told the original name without being told the CI who discovered most recipes and tested out hun- number, as they all have access to the Colour Index dreds of formulae with modern dyes on a small scale and use their own extensive synonym databases and went on to tint and tone complete features using (synonyms are not listed in this database). The dye these original techniques. Others I need to thank, in can be used to make a colour swatch on film as an no particular order, for scouring their resources, are aim for a restoration. Noel Desmet, of Cinematheque Royale de Belgique, Swatches should be made on clear-based Mark-Paul Meyer and Giovanna Fossati of film- black-and-white print film (such as Eastman Fine museum, Amsterdam, Mario Musumeci of Cineteca Grain Release Positive 5302) with a conventional Nazionale, Rome, Martin Koerber of Stiftung Deut- silver image. Comparative viewing should be carried sche Kinemathek, Berlin, Nicola Mazzanti, then of out on a ‘colour matching illuminator’ mounted in a Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna, Reto Kromer of Reto.ch, rewind table, or (for digital work using a colour grad- Brian Pritchard, David Cleveland and many others I ing monitor display or a digital projection system) on am sure I have missed. a compact Illuminant D colour matching illuminator, easily available from a professional photography Database References and supplier. In a few cases, dye manufacturers can be Bibliography persuaded to provide a dyed item, usually wool, Agfa Kine Handbuch (Agfa, 1927). English, French and cotton or paper, as an example, and these have a German versions exist). value as Desmetcolor or digital reference and should Agfa Positiv-Film/Farbige Unterlage – Positive Film/Tinted be illuminated by Illuminant D. base -Pellicule Positiva /Support Teinté (Berlin, 1926, Soho Images, London, has an extensive library 1929). of tints and tones representing some forty different Anon. ‘The Multi-colour Stencil Process Pathécolor by tint and tone dyes from silent-era England (and a few M Ruot’, Supplement to Kinematograph Weekly (Lon- other European countries), made under different don), 11 December 1924. (Probably the shortest and best description in English). process conditions of dilution, acid content, and time, all using a single standard print image for Bancroft, W.D., A.S. Elsenbart, and G.E. Grant. ‘Rapid testing of dyes and pigments,‘ British Journal of Photog- comparison. This swatch collection has been used raphy,25October1912. for Desmetcolor and digital restorations as well as Bennett, Colin N. The Guide to Kinematography (London: restorations using original tint and tone recipes within E.T. Heron, 1917), 93–98. Soho Images, and has on occasion been loaned out to other laboratories and archives. Blair, George A. ‘Tinting of Motion Picture Film’, TSMPE, No. 10 (1920): 45. This database has been fifteen years in the making, and represents only what has been available British Journal of Photography. British Journal Photo- graphic Almanac (still techniques and lantern slides), to me, or interpretable by me. I owe many colleagues 1949. (Editions almost annually from 1900; 1930–1949 a debt for the discoveries in libraries and archives still have tinting recipes). that they have passed on to me. However, the more Brown, Harold. Methods of Copying Tinted and Toned we look, the more we find, and I expect that there is and Stencil-coloured Films (Brussels: FIAF, 1993). much more in languages I cannot translate, or easily Brown, Harold. ‘Tecniche di colorazione a mano e a have translated. The file version of this database, pochoir,‘ Griffithiana Nos. 29/30 (1987). which is available from me, has some additional Bullock, E.R. ‘Theory of Photographic Dye Mordanting’, information that has been removed to enable this in Abridged Scientific Publications from the Kodak Re- version to be published on paper; I have also added search Laboratories, Vol. VII (Rochester: Eastman Kodak several more references to it since 2005, when it was Co., 1923): 61. last distributed. Cardwell, J.T.‘Light Intensities for Motion Picture Projec- I have to thank many colleagues for their activ- tors’, TSMPE, No 5 (October 1917): 32. ity in discovering texts, books, pamphlets and arti- Case, Dominic. ‘Producing Tints and Tones in Mono-

FILM HISTORY: Volume 21, Number 1, 2009 – p. 28 An introduction to colouring techniques in silent era movies FILM HISTORY Vol. 21 Issue 1 (2009) 29 chrome Films Using Modern Color Techniques’, Fabwerke Hoechst (importers to US). [Sales literature JSMPTE (February 1987). on dyes] (New York, 1932). Cherchi-Usai, Paolo. ‘Le miracle du Chronochrome’, Fossati, Giovanna, ‘When Cinema was Coloured’, in All Cinémathèque (Paris), No. 3 (1993). the Colours of the World, Colours in Early Mass Media 1900–1930 (Reggio, Italy: Gamma Group/Edizioni Di- Clark, A.B. ‘Theory of Photographic Dye Mordanting’, in abasis, 1998). Abridged Scientific Publications from the Kodak Re- search Laboratories, Vol. II (Rochester: Eastman Kodak Fox Studios, Introduction for Cameramen, Fox Nature Co., NY, 1915–16): 61. Color Pictures (1929). Cornwell-Clyne, Adrian. Colour Cinematography (Lon- Friedman, Joseph S., History of Colour Photography don: Chapman and Hall, 1951). (London: Focal Press, 1968; edited reprint of earlier editions with additions by Lloyd E. Varden), esp. chap- Crabtree, J. and C. Ives. ‘Dye Toning with Single Solu- ters 20 and 21. tion’, in Abridged Scientific Publications from the Kodak Gevaert print film tinting and toning examples sheet Research Laboratories, Vol. XII (Rochester: Eastman (Mortsel: Gevaert, c. 1925). (Only one copy known, held Kodak Co., 1928). by Cinemateque Royale de Belgique.) Davies, E. R., ‘Dr. Loyd A. Jones’ (Obituary), Nature 174 Gamma Group (ed.). The Use of New Technologies (21 August 1954): 338–339. Applied to Film Restoration: Technical and Ethical Prob- ‘Dazzle camouflage and Loyd A. Jones’, lems. (Bologna: Gamma, 1997). http://www.bobolinkbooks.com/Camoupedia/Dazzle Glafkides, P. Photographic Chemistry. 2 Vols. (London: Camouflage.html Fountain, 1960). Desmet, Noel and Paul Read. ‘The Desmetcolor method Gregory, Carl Louis. Motion Picture Photography (New for restoring tinted and toned films’, JBKSTS (October York: Falk, 1927), 177–198. 1996). Also in All the Colours of the world, Colours in Early Hertogs, D. and Nico de Klerk (eds). Disorderly Order – Mass Media 1900–1930 (Reggio, Italy: Gamma Colours in Silent Film (Amsterdam: Nederlands Film- Group/Edizioni Diabasis, 1998) and JBSKTS (1999). museum, 1995). Desmet, Noël. ‘Restauration des films teintés et virés’ Hullfish, DavidS.Cyclopediaof MotionPicture Work (New (Brussels: Cinémathèque Royale di Brussels, n. d.). York, 1911), 81–86. Didiér, Louis. Le Film Vierge Pathé. Manuel de Dévelop- Hunt, R.W.G. The Reproduction of Colour. 5th edition. pement et de Tirage (Paris: Pathé-Cinéma, 1926). (London: Fountain, 1995). Didier, Louis and M. Rout. ‘The Pathé Kinematograph Ilford Ltd. Manual of Photography (1942 edition still has Colour Process’, Photographic Journal, Vol. 3 (1925): tint and tone recipes for still and cine.) 21. Ives, F. E. ‘The Mordant Dye Process for Colour Toning’, Eastman Duplicating Film, Its properties and Uses (Roch- British Journal of Photography (1 April 1944). ester: Eastman Kodak Co., 1927). Probably a second Ives, F.E. ‘Color Toning of Cine Films’, TSMPE, No. 14 edition. (As far as is known the only specially designed (May 1922): 160. negative duplication film sold in the silent era, a single Jones, Bernard (ed.). The Cinematograph Book (Lon- film stock used to produce both an ‘interpositive’ and don: Cassell, 1915). the duplicate negative, almost certainly another of Loyd Jones’s products and probably not widely used or avail- Jones, Loyd A., and C.W. Gibbs. ‘The Absorption of Light able.) by Toned and Tinted Motion Picture Film’, TSMPE,No. 12 (May 1921): 85. Eastman Kodak. Motion Picture Laboratory Practice and Characteristics of Eastman Motion Picture Film (Roches- Jones, Loyd A. ‘Tinted Films for Sound Positives’, ter: Eastman Kodak Co., 1936). TSMPE, Vol. XIII, No. 37 (May 1929): 199. Eastman Kodak. Tinting and Toning of Eastman Positive Kelley, William V. D. ‘The Handschiegl and Pathéchrome Motion Picture Film (Rochester: Eastman Kodak Co., Color Processes’, JSMPE, Vol. XVII, No. 2 (Aug edns 1916, 1918, 1922, 1924 and 1927). 1931):230. Kelley, William V. D., ‘Natural Color Cinematography’, Eastman Kodak. ‘Tinting Eastman Fine Grain Release TSMPE, No 7 (Nov 1918): 38–43. Positive Film with Dye Solutions’, Appendix C in A Guide for Processing Black and White Motion Picture Film Konig, E. ‘Dyes in Photography’, British Journal of Pho- (Rochester: Eastman Kodak Co., 1979). tography, 15 July 1910 (trans. from German). Eder, Josef Maria. Rezepte Tabellen und Arbeits Kress, E. Conferences sur la cinematographie (Paris, Vorschrriften fur pphotographie und Reproduktiond- 1929): ch.12. stehnik (Knapp, Germany, 1948), 168–173. Kross, Annike. ‘Die Simulation von Filmfärbungen und

FILM HISTORY: Volume 21, Number 1, 2009 – p. 29 30 FILM HISTORY Vol. 21 Issue 1 (2009) Paul Read

–tonungen nach dem sogenannten Desmet Verfahren’, Picture Film (Butterworth, 2000). (Includes the use of Fachhochshschule für Technik und Wirtschaft, Berlin, toning in 2-colour processes by reference to Dascolour.) 2006. (Unpublished paper. Main text in German but Read, Paul, ‘Tinting and Toning Techniques and their many detailed English texts included in full.) Adaptation for the Restoration of Archive Film’, in All the Lefebre M.F. ‘Warm Tones by Means of Dyes’, British Colours of the World, Colours in Early Mass Media Journal of Photography (11 November 1911, trans. from 1900–1930 (Reggio, Italy: Gamma Group/Edizioni Di- French). abasis, 1998). Lehmann, E. ‘Uber die Kupfertonung photographischer Read, Paul, ‘A Short History of Cinema Film Post-Pro- Silberbilder mit Berucksichtigung ihrer Anfarbbarkeit duction’, in Joachim Polzer (ed.), Zur Geschichte des durch organische Farbstoffe’, Die Kinotechnik,Vol.6, Filmkopierwerks, Weltwunder der Kinematographie 8 No.3/4,1924. (Potsdam: Polzer, 2006), 41–132. Lemaire, L. ‘Dye Toning of Lantern Slides and Other Redi, Riccardo (ed.). ‘Verso il centario: Pathé’ (Rome: Transparencies on Glass’, British Journal of Photography Di Giacomo, 1988). Includes reprint in Italian of Didier 22 December 1911 (trans. from Bull Soc Ind Nord and Rout ‘The Pathé Kinematograph Colour Process.‘ d’l’France). Summary of French paper: includes ‘bichro- Reid, Charles I. ‘Development and Toning of Motion mate toning’, which is not included in the database as Picture Films’, Scientific American Supplement 2150, no example is known. (1917). Dye data used for database. Lescaboura, Austin, C. Behind the Motion Picture Screen [Ruot, M.]. ‘About Pathécolor Films’, Kinematograph (New York: Munn, 1922). Weekly supplement (11 December 1924). Lobel, L. ‘Les nouveaux procédés de virage par mor- Rust, Ernst. Der Praktische Kino-amateur (Stuttgart: dancage’, letters to Bull. Soc. Franc. de Phot., March Franckh’sche Verlaghandlung, 1925), pp. 25, 90–93. 1905. and Serie 3 VIII, March 1921. Ryan, R.T. A History of Motion Picture Colour Technology Mabberley, Bob, Paul Read and S. Snoek. ‘Recording (London: Focal, 1977). and Reproducing the Original Tints and Tones of Quo Saint-Denis. Matières Colorantes et Produits Chimiques Vadis?’, in All the Colours of the World, Colours in Early de Saint-Denis (Saint-Denis, France, 1926). Saint-Denis Mass Media 1900–1930 (Reggio, Italy: Gamma is a manufacturer of dyes at Saint-Denis; this catalogue Group/Edizioni Diabasis, 1998). has lists of dyes for photographic use, see especially Madison Square Garden. Kinemacolor Programme (11 the chapter ‘Nomenclature des colorantes et produits December 1909). chimiques procedes d’applications’. Marette, Jacques. ‘Les procédés, de coloriage Salt, Barry. Film Style andTechnique: History and Analysis mécanique des films’, Bulletin de l’Association Française (London: Starwood, 1988), 79, 101, 128. des Ingenieurs et Techniciens du Cinéma (Paris), No. 7 Seyewetz, A. ‘A survey ofmordant dye processes’, British (1911). Journal of Photography, Vol. 71, No. 3362 (1917). English Mariani, Vittorio. Guido Pratica della Cinematografia (Mi- translation of Die Kinotechnik paper. lano: Ulruco Hoepli [Capitolo XI], 1916). Dye data used Seyewetz, A. ‘Uebersicht uber die Beiz-farbe-verhafen’, for database. Die Kinotechnik,Vol.7,No.17,(1916). Mazzanti, Nicola. ‘The Colours of the Film d’Arte Italiana’ Society of Dyers and Colourists. Colour Index (Bradford: and ‘Do Cowboys Always Cry in Sepia?’ in All the Colours Society of Dyers and Colourists, 1926). Subsequent of the World, Colours in Early Mass Media 1900–1930 editions now online. (Reggio, Italy: Gamma Group/Edizioni Diabasis, 1998). Talbot, F.A.. Practical Cinematography and Its Applica- McDonald, R. (ed.). Colour Physics for Industry (Brad- tions (London: William Heinemann, 1913). ford: Society of Dyers and Colourists, 1908 and 1912). Thomas, D.B. The First Colour Motion Pictures (London: Mees, C.E.K. Theory of the Photographic Process (New HMSO/Science Museum, 1969). York: Macmillan, 3 editions to 1966). von Liesegang, F. Paul. Handbuch der Praktiscen Kine- Pathé Freres. Manuel de Developpement et de Tirage matographie (Leipzig, 1908), 246–248, 288–292; in 1911 (Paris: Pathé-Cinema, 1926). edition see 358–362. Wall, E.J. ‘Warm tones by means of dyes in transparen- Power, H. D’Arcy. ‘Dye Toning of Lantern Slides’, British cies’ (ref. to), British Journal of Photography,11August Journal of Photography (12 January 1912). 1924. Purves, F., ed., Encyclopedia of Photography (London: Wentzel, Ing. Fritz. Ausfuhrliches Handbuch der Pho- Focal Press, 1956). See ‘Toners’, section author L.A tographie, Bandill, Die Fabrikation der photographischen Mannheim. Platten, Filme und Papiere (Knapp, Germany: Agfa-An- Read, Paul and M-P Meyer (eds). Restoration of Motion sco, 1930).

FILM HISTORY: Volume 21, Number 1, 2009 – p. 30 nitouto ocluigtcnqe nsln r movies era silent in techniques colouring to introduction An TINT AND TONE DYES AND FORMULATIONS DATABASE Process type Colour Film makers, English dye or Original dye Other Dye solution No of Mordant Original Additional Reference trade or recipe colourant name name used in dye/colourant concentration solution recommended information “name” if known reference if present in the stages dye supplier, different final film if given

HARDENER SOLUTION – Gelatin hardeners were essential but the only specific solution formulae are rare. Other solutions used chrome alum or potassium alum Hardener Tannin Tannino Aqueous soln 1 Mariani 1916

TINTS – acid dyes used in acid (acetic or citric) solutions. Stencil dyes are listed as Pathechrome Tint Amber Sepia Brown 5.0 g/l 1 National Eastman 1979 36645 Aniline IMHSOY oue2,Nme ,20 .31 p. – 2009 1, Number 21, Volume HISTORY: FILM Tint Amber Teintre No 3 Cocceine orange 70 g/l 1 Com Nat Ma Pathechrome/ Pathé 1926 Col S Denis stencil dye ref Kelley 1931 Tint Amber Teintre No 3 Cocceine orange Orange 70 g/l 1 Com Nat Ma Pathechrome/ Pathé 1926 NEN Crocceine NEN Col S Denis stencil dye ref Kelley 1931 Tint Amber, clair Teintre No 3 clair Cocceine orange Orange 20 g/l 1 Com Nat Ma Pathechrome/ Pathé 1926 NEN Crocceine NEN Col S Denis stencil dye ref Kelley 1931 Tint Amber, dark Flesh Tint 1–5 g/l 1 National Eastman 1979 47679B Aniline Tint Black/ grey Nigrosine Nigrosine 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 (toutes) Col S Denis Tint Blue Aniline Blue R Blue R 1.5g/l 1 I.G Farben also 0.5g/L Agfa 1926 citric acid &1929? Tint Blue Cine Blue Acid Blue GR acid soln 1 Blair 1920 Tint Blue Cine Blue Direct Blue 5B acid soln 1 Blair 1920 Tint Blue Cine Blue Azurol Sky Blue 400g/200l 1 Holiday 1min Eastman1922 Kemp, NY & 1927 Tint Blue Cine Blue Direct Blue 5B 400g/200l 1 Essex Analine 1min Eastman1922 Wks. Boston & 1927 Tint Blue Cine Blue Niagara Sky Blue 400g/200l 1 Nat Aniline 1 min Eastman 1922 & 1927 Tint Blue Anthroquinone 1–5g/l 1 DuPont Eastman 1979 Blue 3G Tint Blue Kino-Blau No dye name 0.2–0.6g/l 1 Fabwerke low conc? Fabwerke given Hoechst Hoechst Tint Blue Cine Blue Naphaline Blue 4oz/50galsUS 1 Hoechst Gregory 1927 Tint Blue Cine Blue Pontamine Sky 4oz/50galsUS 1 DuPont Gregory 1927 Blue 6B (2009) 1 Issue 21 Vol. HISTORY FILM Tint Blue Cine Blue Direct Blue 5B 250gr/200l 1 Essex Analine Essex Aniline Jones & Gibbs Wks.Boston Works Bostn MA 1922 Tint Blue Methylene Blue Bleu methylene no data 1 Tone dyes for Kress 1912 tints! Tint Blue Lyons Blue Blu di Lione 10g/l 1 Mariani 1916 Tint Blue Teintre No 1 Diazol Blue N1 Bleu Diazol N1 50g/l 1 Com Nat Ma Pathechrome/ Pathé 1926 Conc Conc. Col S Denis stencil dye ref Kelley1931 Tint Blue Teintre No 1 Direct Blue 4B Bleu pur direct 50g/l 1 Com Nat Ma Pathechrome/ Pathé 1926 4B Col S Denis stencil dye ref Kelley1931 Tint Blue Cine Blue Direct Blue 6B 2g/l 1 Nat Aniline Ryan 1977 Tint Blue Cine Blue Niagara Sky Blue 2g/l 1 Nat Aniline Ryan 1977 Tint Blue Alizarin Azurol Alizarine azurol 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 SE SE Col S Denis Tint Blue Direct Blue 2B Bleu direct 2B 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 Col S Denis 31 32 Process type Colour Film makers, English dye or Original dye Other Dye solution No of Mordant Original Additional Reference

trade or recipe colourant name name used in dye/colourant concentration solution recommended information (2009) 1 Issue 21 Vol. HISTORY FILM “name” if known reference if present in the stages dye supplier, different final film if given Tint Blue Sky Blue Direct Bleu ciel direct 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 6B 6B Col S Denis Tint Blue Soluble Cotton Bleu soluble 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 Blue 4B pour coton 4B Col S Denis Tint Blue Wool Blue SLV Bleu pour laine 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 SLV Col S Denis Tint Blue, light Film Blue Aniline Blue 120gr/2galsUS 1 Reid 1917 blue Tint Blue, dark Aniline Blue R 180gr/2galsUS 1 Reid 1917 Tint Blue- green/ Cine Blue Green Brilliant Patent 1lb/50galsUS 1 Hoechst Gregory 1927 cyan Blue Tint Blue- green/ Cine Blue Green Pontacyl Brilliant 1lb/50galsUS 1 DuPont Gregory 1927 cyan Blue A Tint Blue- green/ Blue-green Aniline Blue G Blue G 1g/l 1 I.G Farben also 1g/l citric Agfa 1926 IMHSOY oue2,Nme ,20 .32 p. – 2009 1, Number 21, Volume HISTORY: FILM cyan acid &1929? Tint Blue- green/ Acid Green Nd 4g/l 1 Ryan 1977 cyan Tint Blue- green/ Acid Blue 1–5g/l 1 Nat Aniline Eastman 1979 cyan B43270 Tint Blue- green/ Teintre No 5 Acid Green NJ Vert acide NJ 40g/l 1 1 Com Nat Ma Pathechrome/ Pathé 1926 cyan extra extra Col S Denis stencil dye ref Vert-bleu Kelley1931 Tint Blue- green/ Teintre No 5 Sulphur Green Vert sulpho BB 40g/l 1 Com Nat Ma Pathechrome/ Pathé 1926 cyan BB Col S Denis stencil dye ref Vert-bleu Kelley1931 Tint Brown Kino-Braun No dye name 0.2–0.6g/l 1 Fabwerke low conc? Fabwerke given Hoechst Hoechst Tint Brown Acid Brown Brun acide 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 Col S Denis Tint Brown Direct Brown M Brun direct M 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 Col S Denis Tint Green Green Aniline Blue G Blue G AnilineYellow T 0.75 + 1g/l 1 I.G Farben also 1g/l citric Agfa 1926 acid &1929? Tint Green Green Aniline Blue G Blue G AnilineYellow T 0.75 = 1g/l 1 I.G Farben also 0.9g/l citric Agfa 1926 & Aniline Red Z acid &1929? Tint Green Green Aniline Blue Blue ? Aniline Yellow T 1 + 0.5g/l 1 I.G Farben also 1g/l citric Agfa 1926 acid &1929? Tint Green Cine Green Acid Green L acid soln 1 Blair 1920 Tint Green Cine Green Wool Green B acid soln 1 Blair 1920 Tint Green Cine Light Green Napthol Green acid soln 1 Blair 1920 Conc Tint Green Cine Green Acid Green L 800g/200l 1 Nat Aniline 3 mins Eastman 1922 & 1927 Tint Green Cine Green Fast Acid Green 800g/200l 1 Nat Aniline 3 mins Eastman 1922 B & 1927 Tint Green Deep Green 1–5g/l 1 General Eastman 1979 1376-#2conc Dyestuffs Tint Green Kino-Grun No dye name 0.2–0.6g/l 1 Fabwerke low conc? Fabwerke given Hoechst Hoechst Tint Green Cine Green No 1 Acid Green L 400gr/200l 1 Nat Aniline Jones & Gibbs 1922 Tint Green Cine Green No 2 Napthol Green B 400gr/200l 1 White Tar White Tar Jones & Gibbs Conc Aniline Corp NYC 1922 Read Paul Tint Green Brilliant green Vert brilliant no data 1 Tone dyes for Kress 1912 tints! Tint Green Carmine Blue Blu carminio Tartrazina 10g/l & 10g/l 1 Mariani 1916 (Tartrazine) nitouto ocluigtcnqe nsln r movies era silent in techniques colouring to introduction An Process type Colour Film makers, English dye or Original dye Other Dye solution No of Mordant Original Additional Reference trade or recipe colourant name name used in dye/colourant concentration solution recommended information “name” if known reference if present in the stages dye supplier, different final film if given Tint Green Cine green Acid Green 4g/l 1 Nat Aniline Ryan 1977 Tint Green Cine green Fast Acid Green 4g/l 1 Nat Aniline Ryan 1977 B Tint Green Acid Green S Vert acide S 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 Col S Denis Tint Green Acid Vert acide 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 Naphthalene naphtaline J Col S Denis Green J Tint Green Naphthol Green Vert naphtol 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 Col S Denis

IMHSOY oue2,Nme ,20 .33 p. – 2009 1, Number 21, Volume HISTORY: FILM Tint Green Sulphur Green Vert sulfo J80 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 J80 Col S Denis Tint Green, Aniline Blue Aniline Yellow 90gr&120g/2galsU 2Redi1917 true green S Tint Green, pale Cine Light Green Naphthol Green 800g/200l 1 White Tar 3 mins Eastman 1922 Bconc Aniline Corp & 1927 Tint Green, pale Cine Light Green Naphthol Green 400g/200l 1 Nat Aniline Eastman 1927 M Tint Green, pale Cine Light Green Naphthol Green 4g/l 1 White Tar Ryan 1977 Bconc Aniline Corp Tint Green, pale Cine Light Green Naphthol green 4g/l 1 Nat Aniline Ryan 1977 M Tint Green, pale Naphthol Green 5g/l 1 no data Ryan 1977 NB Tint Green, vert Teintre No 6 Naphthol Green Vert naphtol 50g/l 1 Com Nat Ma Pathechrome/ Pathé 1926 lumiere Col S Denis stencil dye ref Kelley1931 Tint Green, vert Teintre No 6 Naphthol Green Vert naphtol 50g/l 1 Com Nat Ma Pathechrome/sten Pathé 1926 lumiere Powder poudre Col S Denis cil dye ref Kelley1931 Tint Grey, black/ Naphthalene Noir naphtaline 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 grey Black Col S Denis Tint Orange Orange Orange G 1.5g/l 1 I.G Farben also 0.7g/L Agfa 1926 citric acid &1929? Tint Orange Cine Orange Wool Orange GG 200g/200l 1 Nat Aniline also 100ml/200l Eastman 1922 Acetic Acid. & 1927 1min Tint Orange Cine Orange Red Lake Scarlet R 400g/200l 1 Nat Aniline 3 mins Eastman 1922 & 1927 Tint Orange Crocein Scarlet 0.5g/l 1 DuPont Eastman 1979 Flesh Tint (2009) 1 Issue 21 Vol. HISTORY FILM Tint Orange Kino-Orange No dye name 0.2–0.6g/l 1 Fabwerke low conc? Fabwerke given Hoechst Hoechst Tint Orange Cine orange Orange G 11oz/50gallsUS 1 DuPont Gregory 1927 Tint Orange Cine orange Wool Orange GG 250gr/200l 1 Nat Aniline Jones & Gibbs 1922 Tint Orange Ponceau Orange Orange ponceau no data 1 Kress 1912 Tint Orange Tartrazine Tartrazina Eosina (Eosine) 10g/l & 0.5g/l 1 Mariani 1916 Tint Orange Aniline Orange 180gr/2galsUS 1 Reid 1917 Tint Orange Cine orange Wool Orange 1g/l 1 Nat Aniline Ryan 1977 C.G. Tint Orange Cine orange red Lake Scarlet R 2g/l 1 Nat Aniline Ryan 1977 Tint Orange Direct Solid Orange direct 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 Orange S solide S Col S Denis Tint Orange Orange 2 et 4 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 Col S Denis 33 34 Process type Colour Film makers, English dye or Original dye Other Dye solution No of Mordant Original Additional Reference

trade or recipe colourant name name used in dye/colourant concentration solution recommended information (2009) 1 Issue 21 Vol. HISTORY FILM “name” if known reference if present in the stages dye supplier, different final film if given Tint Orange Orange special Orange special 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 AP [?] AP Col S Denis Tint Orange Soluble Orange Orange soluble no data 1 Kress 1912 Tint Orange rose Teintre No 9 Ponceau 3RS 70g/l 1 Com Nat Ma Pathechrome/ Pathé 1926 Col S Denis stencil dye ref Kelley1931 Tint Orange rose Teintre No 9 Ponceau NR 70g/l 1 Com Nat Ma Pathechrome/ Pathé 1926 Col S Denis stencil dye ref Kelley1931 Tint Orange, Red-Orange Aniline Red V Red V 0.7g/l 1 I.G Farben also 2g/L citric Agfa 1926 & red- orange acid 1929? Tint Orange/ red Brilliant Croceine Croceine brillante 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Sain-Denis 1926 Col S Denis Tint Orange/ reds Ponceau [toutes Ponceau (toutes) 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 IMHSOY oue2,Nme ,20 .34 p. – 2009 1, Number 21, Volume HISTORY: FILM marques] Col S Denis Tint Orange- Direct Scarlet Ecarlate direct 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 red/ scarlet Solid 4BS solide 4BS Col S Denis Tint Orange- Direct Scarlet Ecarlate direct 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 red/ scarlet Solid 8BS solide 8BS Col S Denis Tint Pink Eosine Eosina 1.5g/l 1 Mariani 1916 Tint Pink Aniline Red V 90gr/2galsUS 1 Reid 1917 Tint Pink, rose Teintre No 7 Acid Amaranth Amaranthe acide 20g/l 1 Com Nat Ma Pathechrome/ Pathé 1926 Col S Denis stencil dye ref Kelley1931 Tint Pink, rose Teintre No 7 Amaranth N Amaranthe N 20g/l 1 Com Nat Ma Pathechrome/ Pathé 1926 Col S Denis stencil dye ref Kelley1931 Tint Red Red Aniline Red R Red R 1.75g/L 1 I.G Farben also 1.3g citric Agfa 1926 acid &1929? Tint Red Red Aniline Red Z Red Z 1.25g/L 1 I.G Farben also 1g/L citric Agfa 1926 acid &1929? Tint Red Cine Red Amaranth acid soln 1 Blair 1920 Tint Red Cine Red Amaranth 1kg/200l 1 Metz 3 mins Eastman 1922 & 1927 Tint Red Cine Red Azo Rubine 400g/200l 1 White Tar 3 mins Eastman 1922 Aniline Corp & 1927 Tint Red Cine Red Amaranth 40-F 1kg/200l 1 White Tar Eastman 1927 Aniline Corp Tint Red Crocein Scarlet 0.1–5.0g/l 1 DuPont Eastman 1979 Extra Tint Red Kino-Red No dye name 0.2–0.6g/l 1 Fabwerke low conc? Fabwerke given Hoechst Hoechst Tint Red Cine Red Chromotrope FB Chromotrop FB 2lbs/50galsUS 1 Hoechst “Fabwerke New York City” Hoechst Co Tint Red Cine Red Pontacyl Ruby G 2lbs/50galsUS 1 DuPont “E I DuPont de New York City” Nemours & Co Tint Red Cine Red Amaranth 250gr/200l 1 Metz H A Metz &Co Jones & Gibbs NY 1922 Tint Red Aniline Red Rosso d’anilina 15g/l 1 Mariani 1916 Tint Red Aniline Red R 220gr/2gals 1 Reid 1917 Tint Red Cine Red Amaranth 40F 5g/l 1 Nat Aniline Ryan 1977 Tint Red Cine Red Azorubine 2g/l 1 White Tar Ryan 1977 Aniline Corp Read Paul Tint Red Direct solid Red Rouge direct 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 F solide F Col S Denis Tint Red Eosine 39573 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 Col S Denis nitouto ocluigtcnqe nsln r movies era silent in techniques colouring to introduction An Process type Colour Film makers, English dye or Original dye Other Dye solution No of Mordant Original Additional Reference trade or recipe colourant name name used in dye/colourant concentration solution recommended information “name” if known reference if present in the stages dye supplier, different final film if given Tint Red, brilliant Aniline Red Z 150gr/2gals 1 Reid 1917 Tint Red, rouge Cerasine 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 bordeaux Col S Denis Tint Red, Fluoresceine 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 ?probably Col S Denis Tint Red, Kino-Karmin No dye name 0.2–0.6 g/l 1 Fabwerke low conc? Fabwerke Carmine given Hoechst Hoechst Tint Red, Rouge Teintre No 4 Ponceau 3RS 200g/l 1 Com Nat Ma Pathechrome/ Pathé 1926 feu Col S Denis stencil dye ref Kelley1931

IMHSOY oue2,Nme ,20 .35 p. – 2009 1, Number 21, Volume HISTORY: FILM Tint Red, Rouge Teintre No 4 Ponceau NR 200g/l 1 Com Nat Ma Pathechrome/ Pathé 1926 feu Col S Denis stencil dye ref Kelley1931 Tint Red, scarlet Cine Scarlet Crocein Scarlet acid soln 1 Blair 1920 MOO Tint Red, scarlet Cine Scarlet Crocein Scarlet 400g/200l 1 Nat Aniline 3 mins Eastman 1922 MOO & 1927 Tint Red, scarlet Cine Scarlet Scarlet G.R. 400g/200l 1 Levinstein Boston Mass Eastman 1922 & 1927 Tint Red, scarlet Cine Scarlet Crocein Scarlet 250gr/200l 1 Nat Aniline Jones & Gibbs MOO 1922 Tint Red, scarlet Cine Scarlet Crocein Scarlet 2g/l 1 Nat Aniline Ryan 1977 MOO Tint Red, Cine Scarlet Scarlet G.R. 2g/l 1 Levinstein Boston Mass Ryan 1977 scarlet Tint Red, scarlet Kino-Feuerrot No dye name 0.2–0.6g/l 1 Fabwerke low conc? Fabwerke given Hoechst Hoechs Tint Red/ brown Roccelline 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 Col S Denis Tint Various Tints 1–24 No dye name mixtures of two various 1 Gregory 1927 given or three dyes Tint Violet Cine Violet Buffalo Fast acid soln 1 Blair 1920 Violet B Tint Violet Cine Violet National Violet 400g/200l 1 Nat Aniline Eastman 1927 2RD Tint Violet Cine Violet Fast Wool Violet 400g/200l 1 Nat Aniline 3 mins Eastman 1922 B & 1927 Tint Violet Pontacyl Violet 0.5–2.5g/l 1 DuPont Eastman 1979 HBL Tint Violet Kino-Violett 0.2–0.6g/l 1 Fabwerke low conc? Fabwerke

No dye name (2009) 1 Issue 21 Vol. HISTORY FILM given Hoechst Hoechst Tint Violet Cine Violet Fast Wool Violet 250gr/200l 1 Nat Aniline Jones & Gibbs B 1922 Tint Violet Methyl Violet Violet de methyle no data 1 Tone dyes for Kress 1912 tints! Tint Violet Methyl Violet Violetto di metile 5g/l 1 Mariani 1916 Tint Violet Cine Violet Fast Wool Violet 2g/l 1 Nat Aniline Ryan 1977 Tint Violet Cine Violet National Violet 2 2g/l 1 Nat Aniline Ryan 1977 RD Tint Violet Acid Violet 5BE Violet acide 5BE 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 Col S Denis Tint Violet Acid Violet Solid Violet acide 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 10B solide 10B Col S Denis Tint Violet Acid Violet Solid Violet acide 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 A2R solide A2R Col S Denis Tint Violet Soluble Silk Blue Bleu soluble 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926

6B pour soie 6B Col S Denis 35 36 Process type Colour Film makers, English dye or Original dye Other Dye solution No of Mordant Original Additional Reference

trade or recipe colourant name name used in dye/colourant concentration solution recommended information (2009) 1 Issue 21 Vol. HISTORY FILM “name” if known reference if present in the stages dye supplier, different final film if given Tint Violet,. Magenta Aniline Blue R Blue R Aniline Red V 1.1 + 0.45g/l 1 I.G Farben also 1.2g/L Agfa 1926 magenta citric acid &1929? Tint Violet, Rhodamine B 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 magenta Col S Denis Tint Violet, Purple Aniline Red V Red V Aniline Blue R 0.6 + 0.3g/l 1 I.G Farben also 1.5g/L Agfa 1926 purple citric acid &1929? Tint Violet, Teintre No 8 Acid Violet 5B Violet acide 5B 10g/l 1 Com Nat Ma Pathechrome/ Pathé 1926 violette extra extra Col S Denis stencil dye ref Kelley1931 Tint Violet, Teintre No 8 Formyl Violet Violet Formyl 10g/l 1 Com Nat Ma Pathechrome/ Pathé 1926 violette NS4B NS4B extra Col S Denis stencil dye ref Kelley1931 Tint Yellow Yellow Aniline yellow T Yellow T 1.75g/L 1 I.G Farben also 1g/L citric Agfa 1926 acid &1929? IMHSOY oue2,Nme ,20 .36 p. – 2009 1, Number 21, Volume HISTORY: FILM Tint Yellow Cine Yellow Quinoline Yellow acid soln 1 Blair 1920 Tint Yellow Cine Yellow Quinolin Yellow 400g/200l 1 Nat Aniline also 100ml/200l Eastman 1922 Acetic Acid. & 1927 1min Tint Yellow Cine Yellow Wool Yellow 400g/200l 1 Nat Aniline also 100ml/200l Eastman 1922 Extra Conc Acetic Acid. & 1927 1min Tint Yellow Deep Yellow 2.5g/l 1 National Eastman 1979 34795 Aniline Tint Yellow Kino-Gelb No dye name 0.2–0.6g/l 1 Fabwerke low conc? Fabwerke given Hoechst Hoechst Tint Yellow Cine Yellow Quinoline Yellow 8oz &2lb/ 1 Hoechst Gregory 1927 50galsUS Tint Yellow Cine Yellow Wool Yellow 250gr/200l 1 Nat Aniline Jones & Gibbs Extra Conc 1922 Tint Yellow Auramine no data 1 Tone dyes for Kress 1912 tints! Tint Yellow Methylene Yellow Jaune methylene no data 1 Tone dyes for Kress 1912 tints! Tint Yellow Tartrazine Tartrazina Eosina (Eosine) 10g/l & 0.2g/l 1 Mariani 1916 Tint Yellow Teintre No 2 Tartrazine extra 50g/l 1 Com Nat Ma Pathechrome/ Pathé 1926 Col S Denis stencil dye ref Kelley1931 Tint Yellow Cine Yellow Quinolin Yellow 2g/l 1 Nat Aniline Ryan 1977 Tint Yellow Cine Yellow Wool Yellow 4g/l 1 Nat Aniline Ryan 1977 extra conc Tint Yellow Acid Yellow S & Jaune acide S 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 SS and SS Col S Denis Tint Yellow Chrysoine 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 Col S Denis Tint Yellow Chrysophenine 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 direct J Col S Denis Tint Yellow Direct Yellow J Jaune direct J 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 Col S Denis Tint Yellow Direct Jaune direct 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 Chloramine chloramine FF Col S Denis Yellow FF Tint Yellow Direct Jaune direct 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926

Chloramine chloramine R Col S Denis Read Paul Yellow R Tint Yellow Direct Golden Jaune d’or direct 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 Yellow 3R 3R Col S Denis Tint Yellow Metanil Yellow Jaune metanile 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 Col S Denis nitouto ocluigtcnqe nsln r movies era silent in techniques colouring to introduction An Process type Colour Film makers, English dye or Original dye Other Dye solution No of Mordant Original Additional Reference trade or recipe colourant name name used in dye/colourant concentration solution recommended information “name” if known reference if present in the stages dye supplier, different final film if given Tint Yellow Naphthol yellow Jaune Naphtol 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 OS OS Col S Denis Tint Yellow Tartrazine 0.2–1 per cent 1 Com Nat Ma Saint-Denis 1926 Col S Denis Tint Yellow, Film Yellow Aniline Yellow 210gr/2galsUS 1 Reid 1917 brilliant Tint Yellow, light Light Yellow 2.5–6.0g/l 1 National Eastman 1979 3479B Aniline + TINTSFORFILMSWITHCOMBINEDOPTICALSOUNDTRACKS–mostreliable dye information comes from years after the silent era IMHSOY oue2,Nme ,20 .37 p. – 2009 1, Number 21, Volume HISTORY: FILM Tint for sound Amber Sepia Brown 5g/l 1 Nat Aniline Ryan 1977 36645 Tint for sound Blue Anthroquinone 1–5g/l 1 Du Pont Ryan 1977 Blue G Tint for sound Cyan Acid Blue 1–5g/l 1 Nat Aniline Ryan 1977 B43270 Tint for sound Dark amber Flesh Tone 1–5g/l 1 Nat Aniline Ryan 1977 4767B Tint for sound Green Deep Green 1–5g/l 1 General Ryan 1977 1376-2 conc Dyestuffs Corp Tint for sound Light yellow Light Yellow 2.5–5g/l 1 Nat Aniline Ryan 1977 3479B Tint for sound Orange Crocein 0.5g/l 1 Nat Aniline Ryan 1977 Scarlet(Flesh) Tint for sound Red Crocein Scarlet 0.1–5g/l 1 Nat Aniline Ryan 1977 Tint for sound Violet Pontacyl Violet 0.5–2.5g/l 1 Du Pont Ryan 1977 HBL Tint for sound Yellow Deep Yellow 2.5–5g/l 1 Nat Aniline Ryan 1977 34795 + HANDSCHEIGL DYES were used in a similar manner to printing inks Handschiegl Red Tint Handschiegl Alizarin Rubinol acid soln Ryan 1977 R Handschiegl Blue, Tint Handschiegl Diazol N1 acid soln 1 Ryan 1977 cyan-blue Handschiegl Red, Tint Handschiegl Pontacyl acid soln Ryan 1977 carmine carmine 2b Handschiegl Red, Tint Handschiegl Pontacyl acid soln Ryan 1977 carmine Carmine 2g (2009) 1 Issue 21 Vol. HISTORY FILM Handschiegl Red Tint Handschiegl Pontacyl Light acid soln Ryan 1977 Red 4bl Handschiegl Yellow Tint Handschiegl Tartrazine acid soln Ryan 1977 Handschiegl Pink Handschiegl Pontacyl Light acid soln Almost any acid Kelley 1931 Red 4BL dye as well Handschiegl Magenta Handschiegl Pontacyl acid soln White Tar Almost any acid Kelley 1931 Carmine 2G Aniline Corp dye as well Handschiegl Red Handschiegl Alizarin Rubinol acid soln Du Pont Almost any acid Kelley 1931 R dye as well + METALLIC TONES Metallic tone Blue Tone H Blue Iron Prussian Blue Silver 1 Eastman 1918 ferrocyanide Metallic tone Blue Iron Blue Tone Prussian Blue Silver 1 Gregory 1927 ferrocyanide 37 38 Process type Colour Film makers, English dye or Original dye Other Dye solution No of Mordant Original Additional Reference

trade or recipe colourant name name used in dye/colourant concentration solution recommended information (2009) 1 Issue 21 Vol. HISTORY FILM “name” if known reference if present in the stages dye supplier, different final film if given Metallic tone Blue Iron Blue Tone Prussian Blue Silver 2 Gregory 1927 ferrocyanide Metallic tone Blue Iron Blue Tone Prussian Blue Silver 1 opaqueFesalt Gregory 1927 ferrocyanide removed Metallic tone Blue Iron Blue Tone Prussian Blue Silver 2 opaqueFesalt Gregory 1927 ferrocyanide removed Metallic tone Blue Prussian Blue 10g/L 1 Liesegang 1908 Metallic tone Blue Virage No 1 Prussian Blue Silver 1 Pathé 1926 ferricyanide Metallic tone Blue black, Sepia Uranium and Iron Silver 1 Gregory 1927 sepia ferrocyanide blue-black Metallic tone Blue black, Sepia Uranium and Silver 1 OpaqueFesalt Gregory 1927 sepia ”"Iron ferrocyanide removed IMHSOY oue2,Nme ,20 .38 p. – 2009 1, Number 21, Volume HISTORY: FILM blue-black Metallic tone Blue, pale Tone I Pale Blue Prussian Blue Silver 1ShortertoneEastman 1918 Iron ferrocyanide than Tone H Metallic tone Blue, Iron Tone Blue Prussian Blue Silver 1 Eastman 1922 prussian ferrocyanide & 1927 Metallic tone Blue- green Bluish green Prussian Blue Silver 2 Ferric oxalate Agfa 1926 ferrocyanide &1929? Metallic tone Brown Tone D Brown Uranium Silver 1 normal print Eastman 1918 ferrocyanide ferrocyanide Metallic tone Brown Virage No 2 Uranium Silver 1 Pathé 1926 ferricyanide ferricyanide Metallic tone Brown, dark Dark brown Uranium Silver 2 Uranium nitrate Agfa 1926 ferrocyanide ferrocyanide &1929? Metallic tone Brown/red Uranium Red Uranium Silver 1 Gregory 1927 ferrocyanide ferrocyanide Metallic tone Brown/red Uranium Red Uranium Silver 1 OpaqueFesalt Gregory 1927 ferrocyanide ferrocyanide removed Metallic tone Brown/red Uranium Red Uranium Silver 1 Gregory 1927 Brown ferrocyanide ferrocyanide Metallic tone Brown/red Uranium Red Uranium Silver 1 OpaqueFesalt Gregory 1927 Brown ferrocyanide ferrocyanide removed Metallic tone Brown/red Copper 50g/L 1 Liesegang 1908 ferrocyanide Metallic tone Browns, Uranium & Iron Uranium&ferric 2 Eastman 1922 various Tone ferrocyanides & 1927 Metallic tone Cyan Cyan-Blue Tone Prussian Blue Silver 1Ryan1977 ferrocyanide Metallic tone Cyan/ Vanadium & Iron Vanadium Silver 1 Gregory 1927 greenish Green-Blue ferrocyanide ferrocyanide blue Metallic tone Cyan/ Vanadium & Iron Vanadium Silver 1 OpaqueFesalt Gregory 1927 greenish Green-Blue ferrocyanide ferrocyanide removed by fixer blue Metallic tone Green Viraggio verde Malachite Green Verde malachite 4g/l 3 Silver iodide Mariani 1916 Metallic tone Green, grass Grass green Prussian blue Silver 2 Iron perchloride Agfa 1926 ferrocyanide &1929? Metallic tone Green, olive Tone G Olive No dye name 1ColourvariesEastman 1918 Green Iron given with print density Metallic tone Green, olive Iron Green Tone Prussian blue Silver 1 Gregory 1927 Read Paul ferrocyanide Metallic tone Green, olive Iron Green Tone Prussian blue Silver 1 OpaqueFesalt Gregory 1927 ferrocyanide removed Metallic tone Green, Olive Vanadium & Iron Vanadium Silver 1 Gregory 1927 Green ferrocyanide ferrocyanide nitouto ocluigtcnqe nsln r movies era silent in techniques colouring to introduction An Process type Colour Film makers, English dye or Original dye Other Dye solution No of Mordant Original Additional Reference trade or recipe colourant name name used in dye/colourant concentration solution recommended information “name” if known reference if present in the stages dye supplier, different final film if given Metallic tone Green, olive Vanadium & Iron Vanadium Silver 1 OpaqueFesalt Gregory 1927 Green ferrocyanide ferrocyanide removed Metallic tone Orange Orange-Red Uranium Silver 1Ryan1977 Tone ferrocyanide ferrocyanide Metallic tone Red Tone A Red Copper Silver 1 Normal print Eastman 1918 ferrocyanide ferrocyanide Metallic tone Red Tone B Red Uranium Silver 1ThinprintEastman1918 ferrocyanide ferrocyanide Metallic tone Red Uranium Tone Uranium 1 Eastman 1922 Ferrocyanide & 1927

IMHSOY oue2,Nme ,20 .39 p. – 2009 1, Number 21, Volume HISTORY: FILM Metallic tone Red Virage No 3 Copper Silver 1 Pathé 1926 ferricyanide ferricyanide Metallic tone Red Red Tone Copper Silver 1Ryan1977 ferrocyanide ferrocyanide Metallic tone Red, Red Copper Red tone Copper Silver 1 Gregory 1927 chalk ferrocyanide ferrocyanide Metallic tone Red, Red Copper Red tone Copper Silver 1 OpaqueFesalt Gregory 1927 chalk ferrocyanide ferrocyanide removed Metallic tone Red/brown Reddish-Brown Copper Silver 2 Copper chloride Agfa 1926 ferricyanide ferrocyanide &1929? Metallic tone Red-brown Tone C Red Uranium Silver 1MediumprintEastman1918 Brown ferrocyanide ferrocyanide Metallic tone Reds to Uranium 10g/L 1 Liesegang 1908 brown ferrocyanide Metallic tone Sepia Viraggio sepia Silver sulphide 2 Mariani 1916 Metallic tone Sepia Virage No 5 Silver sulphide 2 Pathé 1926 Metallic tone Sepia Virage No4 Uranium Ferric ferri 1 Pathé 1926 browns ferricyanide cyanide Metallic tone Sepia Tone F Sulphide Silver sulphide 2 Ryan 1977 (brown to blue-black) Metallic tone Sepia Tone E Sepia Uranium and Iron Silver 1MediumprintEastman1918 (brown to ferrocyanide blue-black) Metallic tone Sepia Tone F Sulphide Silver sulphide 2 Colour varies Eastman 1918 (brown to with print density blue-black) Metallic tone Sepia Sulphide yellow Silver sulphide 1 Gregory 1927 (brown to Brown blue-black) IMHSOYVl 1Ise1(2009) 1 Issue 21 Vol. HISTORY FILM Metallic tone Sepia Sulphide yellow Silver sulphide 1 Opaque Fe salt Gregory 1927 (brown to Brown removed blue-black) Metallic tone Sepia, Sulphide Tone Silver Sulphide 2 Eastman 1922 warm Sepia & 1927 brown to blue-black Metallic tone Sepia, Sepia Silver sulphide 2 Eastman 1922 brown, dark & 1927 Metallic tone Violet Iron & Ammonia Prussian blue Silver 2 Gregory 1927 Violet Tone ferrocyanide Metallic tone Violet Iron & Ammonia Prussian blue Silver 2 OpaqueFesalt Gregory 1927 Violet Tone ferrocyanide removed + MORDANT DYE TONES Mordant dye Blue Capri Blue GON 2 Silver Clark 1916 tone ferrocyanide 39 40 Process type Colour Film makers, English dye or Original dye Other Dye solution No of Mordant Original Additional Reference

trade or recipe colourant name name used in dye/colourant concentration solution recommended information (2009) 1 Issue 21 Vol. HISTORY FILM “name” if known reference if present in the stages dye supplier, different final film if given Mordant dye Blue Methylene Blue 2Silver Clark 1916 tone BB ferrocyanide Mordant dye Blue Mephylene Blue 2g/l 2 Uranium & Nat Aniline & Eastman 1922 tone BB Silver EKCo & 1927 Ferrocyanides Mordant dye Blue Victoria Blue 2g/l 2 Uranium & Nat Aniline & Eastman 1922 tone Silver EKCo & 1927 Ferrocyanides Mordant dye Blue Prussian Blue app10g/l 1 Kress 1912 tone Mordant dye Blue Methylene Blue Methylenblau 2 Copper Lehmann 1924 tone ferrocyanide Mordant dye Blue Chinochrom Metaphenylene Metaphenylenblau Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone Blue 2B 2B ferrocyanide copper & 1925

IMHSOY oue2,Nme ,20 .40 p. – 2009 1, Number 21, Volume HISTORY: FILM ferrocyanide Mordant dye Blue Chinochrom MethyleneBlue Methylenblau Silver&copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Blue Chinochrom Nile Blue 2B Nilblau 2B Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Blue/green- Chinochrom Capri Blue Capriblau Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone blue ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Blue-green Methylene Green Verte methylene 10g/l 2 Silver Com Nat Ma Pathé 1926 tone ferricyanide Col S Denis Mordant dye Blue-green Blue-green for No dye name 6g/l 2 Silver iodide I.G Farben also 0.6g/L Agfa 1926 tone toning given citric acid &1929? Mordant dye Blue-green/gr Chinochrom Methylene green Methylengrun Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone een ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Blue-violet/m Chinochrom Basle Blue Baseler Blau Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone auve ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Brown Bismark Brown No data 2 Silver bleach method Jones & Gibbs tone ferrocyanide? not noted 1922 Mordant dye Brown Molybdenum app10g/l 1 Kress 1912 tone ferrocyanide? Mordant dye Green Green for toning No dye name 7.5g/l 2 Silver iodide I.G Farben also 2g/L citric Agfa 1926 tone given acid &1929? Mordant dye Green Victoria Green 4g/l 1 Silver Nat Aniline Crabtree/Ives tone ferrocyanide 1921 Mordant dye Green Malachite Green 2g/l 2 Uranium & Nat Aniline & Eastman 1922 tone Silver EKCo & 1927 Ferrocyanides Mordant dye Green Victoria Green 2g/l 2 Uranium & Nat Aniline & Eastman 1922 tone Silver EKCo & 1927 Ferrocyanides Mordant dye Green Malachite Green 1gr/4oz 2 Silver also bichromate Ives 1921 tone ferrocyanide &dichromate Mordant dye Green Malachite Green 16gr/gallUS 2 Silver Ives 1922

tone ferrocyanide Read Paul Mordant dye Green Victoria Green 16gr/gallUS 2 Silver Ives 1922 tone ferrocyanide Mordant dye Green Malachite Green No data 2 Silver Jones & Gibbs tone ferrocyanide? 1922 nitouto ocluigtcnqe nsln r movies era silent in techniques colouring to introduction An Process type Colour Film makers, English dye or Original dye Other Dye solution No of Mordant Original Additional Reference trade or recipe colourant name name used in dye/colourant concentration solution recommended information “name” if known reference if present in the stages dye supplier, different final film if given Mordant dye Green Chinochrom Ethyl green Aethylgrun Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Green Chinochrom Malachite Green Malachitgrun Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Green Malachite Green Vert malachite 3g/l 2 Silver Com Nat Ma Pathé 1926 tone j3ES J3ES ferrocyanide Col S Denis Mordant dye Green, pure Blue green Aniline Blue G 700gr/2galsUS 2 Silver iodide Reid 1917 tone toning colour

IMHSOY oue2,Nme ,20 .41 p. – 2009 1, Number 21, Volume HISTORY: FILM Mordant dye Magenta Rhodamine B 4g/l 1 Silver Nat Aniline Crabtree/Ives tone ferrocyanide 1921 Mordant dye Magenta Safranine 6B 2g/l 1 Silver Nat Aniline Crabtree/Ives tone ferrocyanide 1921 Mordant dye Magenta Tannin Heliotrope 2g/l 1 Silver Nat Aniline Crabtree/Ives tone ferrocyanide 1921 Mordant dye Magenta Rhodamine 1gr/4oz 2 Silver also bichromate Ives 1921 tone ferrocyanide &dichromate Mordant dye Magenta Rhodamine 32gr/galUS 2 Silver Ives 1922 tone ferrocyanide Mordant dye Magenta, Tannin Heliotrope 2 Silver Clark 1916 tone blue ferrocyanide purple Mordant dye Magenta/red Fuchsine 2 Silver Clark 1916 tone ferrocyanide Mordant dye Orange Acridine Orange 2 Silver Clark 1916 tone ferrocyanide Mordant dye Orange Chrysoidine 3R 2g/l 1 Silver Nat Aniline Crabtree/Ives tone ferrocyanide 1921 Mordant dye Orange Chrysoidine- 2g/l 1 Silver Nat Aniline Crabtree/Ives tone Ybase ferrocyanide 1921 Mordant dye Orange Tone K Orange Chrysoidine3R 2 Copper tones varying Eastman 1918 tone ferrocyanide with process time Mordant dye Orange Acridine Orange 2g/l 2 Uranium & Nat Aniline & Eastman 1922 tone Silver EKCo & 1927 Ferrocyanides Mordant dye Orange Chrysoidine 3R 2g/l 2 Uranium & Nat Aniline & Eastman 1922 tone Silver EKCo & 1927 Ferrocyanides (2009) 1 Issue 21 Vol. HISTORY FILM Mordant dye Orange Acridine Orange Orange 5g/l 2 Silver Com Nat Ma Pathé 1926 tone d’acridine ferricyanide Col S Denis Mordant dye Orange Chrysoidine JE 3g/l 2 Silver Com Nat Ma Pathé 1926 tone ferricyanide Col S Denis Mordant dye Orange Chinochrom Acridine Orange Acridinorange Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Orange Chinochrom Pyronine Orange Pyronin Orange Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Orange Clematine 5g/l 2 Silver Geigy Pathé 1926 tone ferricyanide Mordant dye Orange- Auramine 64gr/galUS 2 Silver Ives 1922 tone yellow ferrocyanide Mordant dye Pink Pink B 12g/l 1 Silver Nat Aniline Crabtree/Ives tone ferrocyanide 1921 41 42 Process type Colour Film makers, English dye or Original dye Other Dye solution No of Mordant Original Additional Reference

trade or recipe colourant name name used in dye/colourant concentration solution recommended information (2009) 1 Issue 21 Vol. HISTORY FILM “name” if known reference if present in the stages dye supplier, different final film if given Mordant dye Pink National Pink B 2g/l 2 Uranium & Nat Aniline & Eastman 1922 tone Silver EKCo & 1927 Ferrocyanides Mordant dye Red Red for toning No dye name 5g/l 2 Silver iodide I.G Farben also 2g/l citric Agfa 1926 tone given acid &1929? Mordant dye Red Alizarin red 2 Silver Clark 1916 tone ferrocyanide Mordant dye Red Safranine base 1g/l 1 Silver Nat Aniline Crabtree/Ives tone ferrocyanide 1921 Mordant dye Red Tone J Red Safranine A 2 Copper Medium print Eastman 1918 tone ferrocyanide Mordant dye Red Safranine A 2g/l 2 Uranium & Nat Aniline & National Aniline Eastman 1922 tone Silver EKCo &ChemicalCo & 1927 Ferrocyanides NYC IMHSOY oue2,Nme ,20 .42 p. – 2009 1, Number 21, Volume HISTORY: FILM Mordant dye Red Safranine 1gr/4oz 2 Silver also bichromate Ives 1921 tone ferrocyanide &dichromate Mordant dye Red Safranine A No data 2 Silver Jones & Gibbs tone ferrocyanide? 1922 Mordant dye Red Fuchsine Fuchsin 2 Copper Lehmann 1924 tone ferrocyanide Mordant dye Red Safranine Safranin 2 Copper Lehmann 1924 tone ferrocyanide Mordant dye Red Chinochrom Acridine Red 3B Acridinrot 3B Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Red Chinochrom Anisoline Anisolin Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Red Chinochrom Eosine Eosin Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Red Chinochrom Erythrosine Erythrosin Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Red Chinochrom Fuchsine Fuchsin Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Red Chinochrom Fuchsine MLB Fuchsin MLB Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Red Chinochrom Indulin Scarlet Indulinscharlach Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Red Chinochrom Phenosafranine Phenosafranine Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Red Chinochrom Pyronine G Pyronin G Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Red Chinochrom Rhodamine S Rhodamin S Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide alRead Paul Mordant dye Red Chinochrom Toluene red Toluylenrot Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide nitouto ocluigtcnqe nsln r movies era silent in techniques colouring to introduction An Process type Colour Film makers, English dye or Original dye Other Dye solution No of Mordant Original Additional Reference trade or recipe colourant name name used in dye/colourant concentration solution recommended information “name” if known reference if present in the stages dye supplier, different final film if given Mordant dye Red Rhodamine 5g/l 2 Silver Com Nat Ma listed as Pathé 1926 tone ferricyanide Col S Denis magenta elsewhere Mordant dye Red Safranine 5g/l 2 Silver Com Nat Ma Pathé 1926 tone ferricyanide Col S Denis Mordant dye Red, pure Red toning No dye name 615gr/2galsUS 2 Silver iodide altern to copper Reid 1917 tone colour given Mordant dye Red to Uranium app10g/L 1 Kress 1912 tone brown ferrocyanide Mordant dye Red, rouge Copper 100g/l? 1 Silver Kress 1912

IMHSOY oue2,Nme ,20 .43 p. – 2009 1, Number 21, Volume HISTORY: FILM tone pourpre ferrocyanide ferrocyanide Mordant dye Red, rose Rose Bengal 2 Silver Clark 1916 tone ferrocyanide Mordant dye Red? Phenosafranine 1gr/4oz 2 Silver also bichromate Ives 1921 tone ferrocyanide &dichromate Mordant dye Red-magenta Rhodamine Rhodamin 2 Copper “Lehmann tone ferrocyanide Mordant dye Sepia Yellow toning No dye name 440gr/2galsUS 2 Silver iodide altern to sepia & Reid 1917 tone colour given uranium Mordant dye Violet Crystal Violet 2 Silver Clark 1916 tone ferrocyanide Mordant dye Violet Methyl Violet 1g/l 2 Uranium & Nat Aniline & Eastman 1922 tone Silver EKCo & 1927 Ferrocyanides Mordant dye Violet Methyl Violet Methyl-violett 2 Copper Lehmann 1924 tone ferrocyanide Mordant dye Violet Methyl Violet 90 Violet de 5g/l 2 Silver Com Nat Ma Pathé 1926 tone methyle 90 ferricyanide Col S Denis Mordant dye Violet Paris Violet 170 Violet de Paris 5g/l 2 Silver Com Nat Ma Pathé 1926 tone 170 ferricyanide Col S Denis Mordant dye Violet Chinochrom Ethyl Violet Aethyl Violett Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Violet Chinochrom Hoffman’s Violet Hoffman’s Violett Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Violet Chinochrom Methyl Violet Methyl Violett Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Yellow Auramine 3g/l 2 Silver Com Nat Ma Pathé 1926 (2009) 1 Issue 21 Vol. HISTORY FILM tone ferricyanide Col S Denis Mordant dye Yellow Quinoline yellow 2 Silver Clark 1916 tone ferrocyanide Mordant dye Yellow Tartrazine 2 Silver Clark 1916 tone ferrocyanide Mordant dye Yellow Auramine 4g/l 1 Silver Du Pont Crabtree/Ives tone ferrocyanide 1921 Mordant dye Yellow Thioflavine T 2g/l 1 Silver General Crabtree/Ives tone ferrocyanide Dyestuffs Corp 1921 Mordant dye Yellow Auramine 2g/l 2 Uranium & Nat Aniline & Eastman 1922 tone Silver EKCo & 1927 Ferrocyanides Mordant dye Yellow Auramine 2209 2g/l 2 Uranium & Klipstein Nat Eastman 1922 tone Silver Aniline & E K & 1927 Ferrocyanides Co 43 44 Process type Colour Film makers, English dye or Original dye Other Dye solution No of Mordant Original Additional Reference

trade or recipe colourant name name used in dye/colourant concentration solution recommended information (2009) 1 Issue 21 Vol. HISTORY FILM “name” if known reference if present in the stages dye supplier, different final film if given Mordant dye Yellow Phosphine 2g/l 2 Uranium & Nat Aniline & Eastman 1922 tone Silver EKCo & 1927 Ferrocyanides Mordant dye Yellow Auramine 1gr/4oz 2 Silver also bichromate Ives 1921 tone ferrocyanide &dichromate Mordant dye Yellow Chrysoidine 32gr/galUS 2 Silver Ives 1922 tone ferrocyanide Mordant dye Yellow Auramine No data 2 Silver Jones & Gibbs tone ferrocyanide? 1922 Mordant dye Yellow Auramine Auramin 2 Copper Lehmann 1924 tone ferrocyanide Mordant dye Yellow Chinochrom Acridine yellow A Acridingelb A Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone ferrocyanide copper & 1925

IMHSOY oue2,Nme ,20 .44 p. – 2009 1, Number 21, Volume HISTORY: FILM ferrocyanide Mordant dye Yellow Chinochrom Brilliant Brillantphosphin Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone Phosphine 5A 5A ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Yellow Chinochrom Chrysoidine Chrysoidin Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Yellow Chinochrom Quinoline yellow Chinolingelb Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Yellow Chinochrom Thioflavine T Thioflavin T Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Yellow/ Tone K Orange Chrysoidine Y 2 Copper tones varying Eastman 1918 tone orange ferrocyanide with process time Mordant dye Yellow/ Tone L Violet Methyl Violet 2 Copper tones varying Eastman 1918 tone orange ferrocyanide with process time Mordant dye Yellow, Chinochrom Auramine Auramin Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone golden ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Yellow/ Yellow for toning No dye name 4g/l 2 Silver iodide I.G Farben also 6ml/LAcetic Agfa 1926 tone brown given acid &1929? Mordant dye Yellow/ Chinochrom Bismarck Brown Bismarckbraun Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone brown ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Yellow- Chinochrom Phosphine Phoshin Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone brown ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Yellow- Chinochrom Neophosphine Neu-Phosphin Silver & copper 2Silver& Seyewetz 1924 tone brown ferrocyanide copper & 1925 ferrocyanide Mordant dye Yellow- Green toning No dye name 810gr/2galsUS 2 Silver iodide Reid 1917 tone green colour given + MISCELLANEOUS DOUBLE EFFECTS OF COMBINED TONES – Tints and tones were frequently combined as a double effect by following a tone process by a tint Double Blue Double Tone Prussian Blue Safranine A 2 Uranium & Nat Aniline Shadows Eastman 1922 metal/mordant shadows/ silver blue/"half" tones & 1927 Read Paul tone rest orange Ferrocyanides orange Double Blue/brown Viraggio blu Prussian Blue No dye name 1 Mariani 1916 metal/mordant given tone nitouto ocluigtcnqe nsln r movies era silent in techniques colouring to introduction An Process type Colour Film makers, English dye or Original dye Other Dye solution No of Mordant Original Additional Reference trade or recipe colourant name name used in dye/colourant concentration solution recommended information “name” if known reference if present in the stages dye supplier, different final film if given Double Shadows Double Tone Prussian Blue Chrysoidine 3R 2 Uranium & Nat Aniline Shadows Eastman 1922 metal/mordant blue/rest silver blue/"half" tones & 1927 tone pink Ferrocyanides pink Double metallic Blue/ Tone N Violet Prussian Blue Silver 2Copper Tone A then Eastman 1918 tone red-brown ferrocyanide ferrocyanide Tone H Double metallic Green, Olive Green Prussian Blue Uranium 2mixofGrassgrnAgfa 1926 tone olive/brown ferrocyanide &Brown &1929? Double metallic Green/blue Viraggio verde Vanadium Ferric 1 Mariani 1916 tone ferrocyanide ferrocyanide Double metallic Green/vivid Viraggio verde Uranium Ferric 1 “Decolourization” Mariani 1916

IMHSOY oue2,Nme ,20 .45 p. – 2009 1, Number 21, Volume HISTORY: FILM tone blue ferrocyanide ferrocyanide method (i.e. fixed out) Double metallic Sepia/blue Viraggio sepia Uranium Ferric 1 Mariani 1916 tone ferrocyanide ferricyanide Double metallic Sepia/red Viraggio sepia Prussian Blue Copper 2 Mariani 1916 tone ferrocyanide Double mordant Olive green, Viraggio verde Brilliant green Verde brillante Methyl Violet 2g/l & 0.6g/l 4 Silver iodide Mordant fixed out Mariani 1916 dye tone bright/ violet Double mordant Olive green/ Viraggio verde Brilliant green Verde brillante Methyl Violet 2g/l & 0.6g/l 3 Silver iodide Mariani 1916 dye tone violet Double mordant Olive to Ferric Uranium app10g/l 1 Kress 1912 dye tone green/ ferrocyanide ferrocyanide brown Double mordant Pale red/ Tone M Violet Safranin A Chrysodoine 3R 2 Copper TonesA,J,K Eastman1918 dye tone violet ferrocyanide NOTE: The Kelley 1931 dye references were described for Pathechrome, the last name by which the Pathecolor stencil process was known. The nine tint colour names remained the same throughout the entire period of the Pathé stencil process, but it seems that some dyes were changed. Kelley listed thirteen dyes in all. IMHSOYVl 1Ise1(2009) 1 Issue 21 Vol. HISTORY FILM 45 46 FILM HISTORY Vol. 21 Issue 1 (2009) Paul Read

Notes to the Database Glafkides gives dates and references for his dye formu- lae all of which are incorporated into this database. (1) Some manufacturer’s manuals were released in However I have inserted some unique references, es- several versions: F French, E English, G German. pecially Ryan, where they refer to tints for combined (2) In column ‘Other dye/colourant present in the final optical sound film. Ryan was a member of the same film’, Silver ferrocyanide as a residual image may con- research team at Eastman Kodak involved in Sono- tribute additional density. This may be present in all chrome (although I think before his time) and implies metallic toned images. that these were the dyes actually used. He may be the (3) In column ‘Mordant’, it is considered likely that all only potentially accurate source for this information. mordants contribute to the density of dye toned images. (5) Suppliers listed are: Silver salts are semi-opaque and more or less neutral in General Dyestuffs Corp, N.J., USA colour; uranium and copper ferrocyanides are brown or Klipstein & Co New York, N.Y., USA reddish. Eastman Kodak Co, Rochester N.Y., USA (4) The database attempts to list only formulae used I.G. Farben, Germany for silent film prior to 1930. Some detailed references to Com Ma Col S Denis = Matières Colorantes & tinting and toning were written and published after the Produits Chimiques de Saint-Denis, Paris, France techniques for silent film had long ceased. Many of these Levinstein, Boston, Ma., USA contain recipes that differsignificantly from the texts prior National Aniline Co., USA to 1930, and where this occurs I have not included them Essex Analine Wks. Boston, Ma., USA in thedatabase. Agoodexampleis theEderandKrumpel Holiday Kemp, N.Y., USA text published in 1949 in Germany, which has dye Fabwerke Hoechst N.Y., USA formulations that repeat the Agfa recipes, but also sev- Lucius Hoechst N.Y., USA eral that list dyes that were not on the market (or at least J.R. Geigy, Bale, France not recorded in the Colour Index) until well after 1930, and several dye types not invented until the late 1930s.

Abstract: ‘Unnatural Colours’: An introduction to colouring techniques in silent era movies, by Paul Read

‘Natural colour’ was the term coined for genuine colour photography to separate it from colouring or ‘painting’ monochrome images, hence the use of the contrasting term ‘unnatural’. The intention of this paper is to provide a guide to the technical literature on the subject. It reviews where the technologies originated, the principle literature of the time, and later, that describes the ‘recipes’, techniques and chemistry, summarizing the image dyes themselves in a database. Additional content is provided from associated technologies such as the subsequent use of the same techniques for natural colour, analogue coloured film restoration techniques, and an excursion into the technological cul-de-sac of Sonochrome.

Key words: Motion Picture Color Processes, Loyd Jones, Sonochrome, Pathécolor, Eastman Kodak Co., Quo Vadis? (1912)

FILM HISTORY: Volume 21, Number 1, 2009 – p. 46