Summary

16mm motion film thought to be taken by Kodak Australasia Pty Ltd employee and Burnley facility manager, Mr Brian Daniel. It features 7 minutes and 48 seconds of footage of Kodak's Burnley factory on 22 October 1969.

The Burnley building was located at 550-556 Swan Street Burnley and was purchased by Kodak in 1950 from Barnes Honey. Both Kodak's black and white photo finishing laboratory and the Powder and Solution Department (later known as the Photochemical Department) operated out of these premises until1974. Photochemicals were manufactured and packaged on the ground floor. Black and white developing and printing was on the 1st floor, with the basement used for recirculation of developer etc. Pumps in outbuildings and in the basement helped to pump solutions through the system.

This film loosely follows two to three lines of production of photographic chemicals, including the mixing, packing, labelling, and quality control processes at Burnley. Staff are pictured at work on the factory line and in the laboratory, most of them wearing overalls, coverall dresses or lab coats with 'Kodak' embroidered in bright red on the breast pocket.

The Kodak photochemical department was transferred to the Coburg factory in 1974, while the photo finishing department closed down because a black and white processing and developing service was no longer provided by Kodak after Burnley was vacated.

This film was taken several years before the Burnley facility closed down, perhaps as a conscious recording of the facility before life changed for the workers. The Coburg facility was far more modern and safer for workers, so this film captures the 'old way' of working with chemicals at Kodak.

This film complements the Kodak Heritage Collection of products, promotional materials, photographs and working life artefacts collected from Kodak Australasia in 2005, when the Melbourne manufacturing plant at Coburg closed down.

Kodak Australasia Pty Ltd manufactured and distributed a wide range of photographic products to Australasia, such as film, paper, chemicals, cameras and miscellaneous equipment. Its client base included amateur and professional photographers, as well as specialist medical and graphic art professionals who used photography, x-ray and other imaging techniques.

Description of Content

Scenes of Burnley Kodak factory.

Physical Description

cellulose acetate; 16mm motion picture film; colour; release print; silent; 1969 original reel replaced by archival film core and canister

More Information

  • Collection Names

    Kodak Heritage Collection

  • Collecting Areas

    Images & Image Making, Working Life & Trades

  • Acquisition Information

    Donation from Brian Daniel, Peter Daniel, 15 May 2014

  • Organisation Depicted

    Burnley, Kodak (Australasia) Pty. Ltd., 550-556 Swan Street, Burnley, Greater Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 22 Oct 1969
    Date taken from a worksheet visible in the film around 03:41

  • Cinematographer

    Mr Brian Daniel - Kodak (Australasia) Pty. Ltd., Burnley, Greater Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 22 Oct 1969

  • Recording Details

    Amateur Film, 500 feet, Silent

  • Content Summary

    1, 00:00:02 HH:MM:SS, Man pouring large bags of Chrome chemicals into a hopper.,2, 00:00:20 HH:MM:SS, Man in warehouse choosing product from shelves.,3, 00:00:39 HH:MM:SS, Young man sealing box shut with large stapling machine.,4, 00:00:50 HH:MM:SS, Large hoppers and machinery in factory.,5, 00:01:11 HH:MM:SS, Men on factory floor filling plastic bottles with developing chemicals and packing for shipment.,6, 00:01:49 HH:MM:SS, A large mixing tank with exhaust hood over the top.,7, 00:01:54 HH:MM:SS, Man date stamping labels and close up of section of equipment,8, 00:02:07, A man hangs up tools and adjusts his protective gloves.,9, 00:02:10 HH:MM:SS, Man in warehouse picking product,10, 00:02:20 HH:MM:SS, Women packing powdered product from hopper into bags. Staff working on various machines around the floor.,11, 00:02:43 HH:MM:SS, Powdered product being scooped, sifted, weighed and recorded on large computerised scale.,12, 00:05:28 HH:MM:SS, Close up of instructions for Kodak Developer D-76.,13, 00:05:31 HH:MM:SS, Women on factory floor preparing tin cans for filling with powdered photographic product. Camera pans down hopper, where a woman sits at the bottom moving the tins. Other women load small scoops of a different chemical into the cans afterwards, wearing gloves. Thia is because exact measurement was not possible with factory equipment at that time so the product was under-dispensed and workers manually added the remaining weight. The cans are loaded onto a packing conveyor belt, boxed and sealed for shipment.,12, 00:07:47 HH:MM:SS, END OF TAPE A.,1B, 00:00:02 HH:MM:SS, Box of Kodak D-76 Developer Replenisher being sealed on a conveyor belt, with workers in white overalls loading and unloading the boxes, stacking them onto a pallet.,2B, 00:00:23 HH:MM:SS, Series of close ups of research scientist in the control laboratory, on the same floor as the chemical and processing machinery. Scientist is testing a solution's Ph on a Ph meter and at 00:00:45 he writes FIN Ph (Final Ph) of 10.26 on a chart.,3B, 00:00:49 HH:MM:SS, Cross fade to same scientist in lab coat and safety glasses measuring clear solution in a burette.,4B, 00:00:59 HH:MM:SS, Research scientist measuring amber coloured solution using pipette and burette.,5B, 00:01:09 HH:MM:SS, View of chemists in Control Laboratory.,6B, 00:01:12 HH:MM:SS, Scientist using magnetic stirrer to test solutions. Measures Ph and Temperature. At 00:01:54 he records findings on chart.,7B, 00:01:57 HH:MM:SS, Large box of empty, uncapped plastic chemical bottles.,8B, 00:02:05 HH:MM:SS, Worker loading empty bottles onto conveyor belt, with tank of chemical solution - developer replenisher - feeding through tubes to dispensing taps above the conveyor belt. Another worker seated in front of taps.,9B, 00:02:20 HH:MM:SS, Close up of conveyor belt where seated worker puts black caps onto bottles and a mechanical barrier.,10B, 00:02:31 HH:MM:SS, Close up of worker loading bottles in batches of four.,11B, 00:02:50 HH:MM:SS, View of chemical solutions being dispensed into bottles and worker capping bottles. Two bottles have an amber liquid, and a clear liquid - both different types of developer replenisher.,12B, 00:03:28 HH:MM:SS, Bottles being fed from conveyor belt onto capping machine to seal lids. According to former Kodak Managing Director and research scientist, the square bottles were difficult to seal until an aluminium foil seal was introduced.,13B, 00:03:46 HH:MM:SS, Camera pans from bottles being capped to workers in white overalls batching and labelling bottles of the two different Developer Replenishers. Labels are applied by hand from a large roll of sticker labels and dropped into narrow cardboard box with dividers.,14B, 00:04:40 HH:MM:SS, END of TAPE B,Overall film, 07:48 Min:Sec, The film overall shows scenes of Kodak's photo chemical department at work at the company's Burnley factory in 1969.

  • Format

    Motion Film, 16 mm

  • Inscriptions

    Label, handwritten, green ink on yellow paper: 'BURNLEY / SCENES / ~APPROX140M.'

  • Classification

    Manufacturing & industry, Photographic products, Manufacturing plant images

  • Category

    History & Technology

  • Discipline

    Technology

  • Type of item

    Audiovisual

  • Keywords

    Photography, Manufacturing Plants, Factories, Industry, Factory Workers, Photographic Film, Photochemicals, Chemicals, Packaging, Production Lines, Quality Control