“Formed from humble beginnings in 1879, when Alfred Hugh Harman began making Gelatine Dry Plates in the basement of his house in Ilford, UK, the ILFORD name has remained one of the oldest and most established in the photographic industry and Harman's legacy continues in more than just a name.” From Ilford/Harman Technology’s official about us, they were contemporaries of the Eastman Kodak company and seem to be surviving better than the great yellow father in the 21st century.
For more details on the company’s history, check out Ilford’s own official timeline, or better yet here, for an insane amount of detail from some serious photo history scholars and Ilford aficionados. But neither one of these chronologies mentions Ilford’s involvement in holography, which possibly even started with Gabor’s first holograms!
Holographer #1's papers don’t mention much in the way of experimental technique, but Holographer #2, Gordon Rogers, certainly does in his "Experiments in Diffraction Microscopy" of 1950. Rogers mentions using Ilford Maximum Resolution and Ordinary Plates for his experiments, which included making a hologram of the image of a previously recorded hologram, an H2 from an H1 in modern day parlance, a phase hologram, and more.
PUBLICATIONS: (in ascending order)
AUTOMATED HOLOGRAPHIC MASS PRODUCTION, Simon Brown, Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 615, p.46, January, 1986. Mainly about the Applied Holographics Holocopier.
NEW SILVER HALIDE MATERIALS FOR THE MASS PRODUCTION OF HOLOGRAMS, Glenn Wood, Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 615, p.74, January, 1986. Great product description of Holofilm 250 PAR.
SEVEN SINGLE BEAM PROJECTS, Ed Wesly, Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 615, p.50, January, 1986. You can use Ilford products on any of the projects, but the only reason this paper is linked here is that it is in the same SPIE proceedings as the two above!
ILFORD HOLOGRAPHIC FILM TYPE SP672, Ilford Provisional Technical Data Sheet 672/TD1, no date.
ILFORD HOLOGRAPHIC FILM TYPE SP673, Ilford Provisional Technical Data Sheet 673/TD1, no date.
PROCESSING RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ILFORD HOLOGRAPHIC FILM TYPE SP672, Ilford Provisional Data 673/PD1, no date.
BLUE-GREEN SENSITIVE HOLOGRAPHIC FILM, Ilford Leaflet 15717, May, 1986. Describes SP672 in exquisite detail.
RED SENSITIVE HOLOGRAPHIC FILM, Ilford Leaflet 15718, May 1986. Describes SP673 in exquisite detail.
CIBA-GEIGY JOURNAL, January, 1987. At one time, Ciba Geigy, a Swiss pharmaceutical firm, owned Ilford, and even the Cadillac of laser companies. Articles in this issue reveal who was the laser company, details of their holographic products and the HoloCopier machine, a bad comic strip on holography, and an interesting back cover.
BLUE-GREEN SENSITIVE HOLOGRAPHIC FILM, Ilford Leaflet 15717, undated. Evidently later version of the 15717 above.
RED SENSITIVE HOLOGRAPHIC FILM, Ilford Leaflet 15718, undated. Evidently later version of the 15718 , with a typewritten label applied to the cover touting that "the film has been modified to work also with Ne/Ne lasers."
THE SILVER HALIDES - THE WORKHORSE OF THE HOLOGRAPHY BUSINESS, Nick Phillips, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Display Holography, Volume III, Lake Forest College, p.35, 1988. The developers dubbed Nick's #5, #6, and LN-7 for use on Ilford materials in Holographic Formulae on this site are unveiled in this paper, plus plenty of interesting background on AgX material.
ILFORD HOLOGRAPHIC CONSUMABLES WORLD STRATEGY, Glenn Wood, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Display Holography, Volume III, Lake Forest College, p.105, 1988. Addresses the issues of concerned photographers regarding the application of the various Ilford holographic products.
PROGRESS IN HOLOGRAPHIC MATERIALS: SILVER HALIDE FILM AND CHEMISTRY, Glenn Wood, Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 1051, January 1989. Sings the praises of SP 673, SP 672T, SP 695T, and SP 737T, plus the BIPS factor. But doesn't discuss chemistry, even though it is in the title!
THE BIPS FACTOR, Ilford Ltd., no date. An FAQ on Built-In Pre-Swell.
WHAT IS ILFORD SP737T FILM?, Ilford Ltd., no date. A fact sheet on their new red film.
LIMITED ONE YEAR WARRANTY, Ilford Ltd., found in a box of the SP737T film above.
ILFORD HOLOGRAPHY HOTEC, an ad which appeared in holosphere, the advocate of holographic art, science, and technology, sometime in 1989,
NEW RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PROCESSING ILFORD PLATES, Nick Phillips, July, 1989.
BLUE GREEN SENSITIVE HOLOGRAPHIC PLATES, ILFORD SP695T, Ilford Leaflet, found in boxes of plates, has no date, but the transmission and reflection chemistries described above are prescribed.
LIMITED WARRANTY, Ilford Ltd., no date. Found in some boxes of plates destined for the States.
Ilford Leaflet 11023142, A( for August) 89. Found in boxes of SP737T film, this copy reeks of vinegar from the acetate decay of the film stock.
When Harman Technology took charge of Ilford, they decided to get back into the holographic plate business.
HARMAN HOLO FX GREEN SENSITIVE HOLOGRAPHIC PLATES, Ilford Leaflet 1399678, November, 2010
HARMAN HOLO FX RED SENSITIVE HOLOGRAPHIC PLATES, Ilford Leaflet 1399679, November, 2010
PROCESSING RECOMMENDATIONS, Steve LaserSmith by way of Harman Technology, 2010. Gives formula for TJ-1 Developer mentioned in the two above, which turns out to be 50% stronger JD-4 or BBAA. (6 versus 4 grams metol, 40 versus 26 grams ascorbic acid, etc. Or dissolve a JD-4 kit in only 666 mL of H2O.)
SLIDE SHOW:
A selection of Plate Boxes through the ages.