Overtime: The first color photograph transmitted by wire - 1924

[gordo]

The first color photograph transmitted by wire was of the famed actor Rudolf Valentino starring in the motion picture of "Monsieur Beaucaire"

The original separations were sent from Chicago to New York in 1924 by Dr. Herbert E. Ives of the Bell Telephone Laboratories. The separations were made by Max Hofsetter of Powers Photo Engraving of New York. Powers made a three color reproduction using the lines created by the transmission process to create the halftone screening.

Here is a close up of eye area showing the halftone screening of the three-color reproduction.

Rotating each of the three separations as it was mounted on the transmitter enabled the colors to be screened by the transmission process at the appropriate angle relative to one another.

This photo shows Dr. Ives and the transmitter that was used to send the first color picture in 1924.

 

[chriscozi]

The first color photograph transmitted by wire was of the famed actor Rudolf Valentino starring in the motion picture of "Monsieur Beaucaire"

Wow! Thanks!

 

[chriscozi]

Wow! Thanks!

The technical notes must be interesting. Manual screening was/is an art.
What kind of scanner was used?
And then a filter set-up for the colors?
Was the original a print or negative?

 

[ajr]

Incredible, had no idea that would have been so long ago. To be honest i thought it would have been a nude

 

[bill kahny]

Incredible, had no idea that would have been so long ago. To be honest i thought it would have been a nude

That one was sent on the dark telegraph ....

 

[gordo]

The technical notes must be interesting. Manual screening was/is an art.
What kind of scanner was used?
And then a filter set-up for the colors?
Was the original a print or negative?

The short answer:

The separations were made by Max Hofstetter of the Uvachrome Company in Munich Germany. He was sent to the U.S. when F.T. Powers of the Powers Photoengraving Company of New York purchased the U.S. rights to the Uvachrome process.

Max used the Kromskop camera from Linhof in Germany to create the separations using three color filters - Red, Green, and Blue.
The "scanner" was a machine based on the fact that a photograph, or any other form of picture, consists of minute areas of varying densities. The method adopted was to prepare the photograph in the form of a film transparency and to mount this on a cylindrical frame which in turn was supported on a carriage which was moved by a screw in the axial direction of a cylinder formed by the film. The cylinder was constructed so as to rotate as the carriage was advanced by the screw. A point of light projected upon the film would traverse the entire area of the film in a long spiral as the cylinder turned and the carriage advanced.

Since the picture separations were on a transparent film the amount of light transmitted through any area of the film would depend upon the tonal values and density of the blacks and grays in such area.

By mounting a photo-electric cell on the carriage so that it was inside the film cylinder and directly in line with the light beam it was possible to obtain electrical impulses varying in degree with the tonal variation of the picture transparency. These impulses in turn were amplified and transmitted to a point at which, by means of a converter, the impulses control the intensity of a beam of light falling on a photographic sensitized film in cylindrical form revolving in synchronization with the film at the transmitting station.

 

[chriscozi]

The short answer:

Thanks Gordo!
An early 'type' of drum scanner WITHOUT any of the nice network, storage mediums, or computer assembly.
EVERYTHING was manual. And the MATH to manage the machine adjustments/settings would have been manual as well. And I thought scanner operators of the 1990's had a hard job.
Just WOW.