research laboratory of the Eastman Kodak Company was established in 1912 to study the problems involved
in the production and use of photographic materials. Photographic research occupies a somewhat unique position in the field of applied science both because photography is so much used in other scientific work that interest in it is very widespread and because the methods of photographic research are so different
so different from those of all other branches of scientific work that it is rare for the professional scientific man to under-
stand themn.
Very little work on the theory of photography has been done
in the universities and there are perhaps three reasons for this: In the first place, information with regard to the theory of photog:raphy is not easy to obtain; there are few books on the subject and these deal generally with only a limited part of the field, and the original papers to which recourse must be had for information are scattered through a wide range of photographic and other journals. In the second place, work on the theory of photography necessarily involves work with photograp:hic materials, and these materials are now made en- tirely by mnanufacturing companies, the methods of manufac- ture not being disclosed, so that the actual nature of the photo- graphic materials themselves is but little understood by the user of them. In the th