In photography,
ADOX is a trademark with a long history. It was originally a brand name used by the
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
company, Fotowerke Dr. C. Schleussner
GmbHGesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung is a type of legal entityvery common in Germany , Austria , Switzerland, and other Central European countries...
of Frankfurt am Main, the world's first photographic materials manufacturer. The company's founder, Dr. Carl Schleussner, did pioneering work on the wet-
collodion processThe collodion process is an early photographic process, which was replaced at the end of the 19th century with dry plates - glass plates with a photographic emulsion of silver halides suspended in gelatin...
during the early years of photography, and formed his manufacturing company in 1860. Working with the physicist Wilhelm Röntgen, discoverer of
X-rayX-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 10 to 0.01 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays...
s, Dr.
In photography,
ADOX is a trademark with a long history. It was originally a brand name used by the
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
company, Fotowerke Dr. C. Schleussner
GmbHGesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung is a type of legal entityvery common in Germany , Austria , Switzerland, and other Central European countries...
of Frankfurt am Main, the world's first photographic materials manufacturer. The company's founder, Dr. Carl Schleussner, did pioneering work on the wet-
collodion processThe collodion process is an early photographic process, which was replaced at the end of the 19th century with dry plates - glass plates with a photographic emulsion of silver halides suspended in gelatin...
during the early years of photography, and formed his manufacturing company in 1860. Working with the physicist Wilhelm Röntgen, discoverer of
X-rayX-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 10 to 0.01 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays...
s, Dr. Schleussner invented the first X-ray plate.
The Schleussner firm began marketing cameras under the ADOX brand name in the first third of the 20th century and, recognizing the growing importance of the brand, renamed itself "Adox Fotowerke Dr. C. Schleussner GmbH." In 1952 they introduced a line of very sharp
35 mm filmsThe term 135 was introduced by Kodak in 1934 as a designation for cartridge film wide, specifically for still photography. It quickly grew in popularity, surpassing 120 film by the late 1960s to become the most popular photographic film format...
under the ADOX brand.
In 1962, the Schleussner family sold its photographic holdings to
DuPontE. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company , commonly referred to as DuPont or Du Pont, is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. DuPont is currently the world's second largest chemical company in terms of market capitalization and...
, an American company. DuPont became owners of the trademark, and registered it in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
DuPont licensed the Adox film technology, but not the trademark, to Fotokemika, a manufacturer in
YugoslaviaYugoslavia is a term that describes three political entities that existed successively on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe, during most of the 20th century.The first country to be known by this...
, who used the technology for films sold under their
EfkeEfke is the brand name of photographic films, papers, and chemicals manufactured by Fotokemika d.d., a company located in Samobor, Croatia.-Products description:...
trademark. DuPont kept the Adox trademark, transferring it to a subsidiary, Sterling Diagnostic Imaging, for its Adox brand X-ray films. They still apply it to an industrial chemical,
sodium chloriteSodium chlorite is a chemical compound used in the manufacture of paper.-Manufacture:The free acid, chlorous acid, HClO2, is only stable at low concentrations. Since it cannot be concentrated, it is not a commercial product. However, the corresponding sodium salt, sodium chlorite,...
.
In 1999, Sterling was bought by the German company
AgfaAgfa-Gevaert N.V. is a European multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, and distributes analogue and digital products and systems for the making, processing, and reproduction of images...
, and was absorbed into Agfa's Health Sciences unit. In this roundabout way, the Adox photographic trademark once again became German. Agfa did not use the Adox trademark, and the mark was removed from the German Patent Office trademark registry in March, 2003. It was almost immediately revived by companies in
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and FOTOIMPEX in
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
, none of which are related to the original Schleussner firm.
- The text of this article has been adapted with permission from information published at http://www.adox.net/about_adox.htm.