Re: Dr. Rudolf Hell passes away
Re: Dr. Rudolf Hell passes away
- Subject: Re: Dr. Rudolf Hell passes away
- From: "John" <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 08:32:26 -0500
- Organization: Tathwell Printing
John Crosfield
>
on 19/03/2002 01:07, Steve Cheng at email@hidden wrote:
>
>
> Wasn't Dr. Hell the inventor of the electronic analog scanner using
>
> photomultiplier tubes and ocilliscope? eg. Hell 286.
>
> If someone could elaborate on this...
He was... kind of... Although this is from memory... At the same time Dr
Hell was developing his pmt scanner, so was John Crosfield at PDI. Both
devices hit the market within weeks of each other, both patents applied for
at about the same time. Dr Hells original intent was to develop an
electronic device to "etch" gravure cylinders. Law suits flew back and forth
for years and I believe one was awarded a patent for the input technology
and Crosfield awarded the patent for the output technology.
And for the newcomers to the business... the original scanners output to
continuous tone pancromatic file with a xenon tube. The next generation
output screened film using a contact screen right on the scanner. Then came
the lasers, then the ability to intercept the analog signal and view it on a
monitor, then to a remote output device and as we are today (with drum
scanners) into a capture device only. Original costs of these early units
started at $300,000. Operators were required to train at the manufacturer
for a 4 week period. Then 2 weeks onsite with a technician. When they got
good at it, they knew everything there was to know about color theory and
the ability to change color... all without a monitor.
CCD scanners have come a long long way but they can't beat PMT's... at least
not yet. We have both. Although our CCD carries 80% of our workload, our
drum unit is reserved for the high end work.
jr
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