The Keystone Dry Plate and Film Works was founded by

John Carbutt John Carbutt (1832–1905) was a photographic pioneer, stereo card publisher, and photographic entrepreneur. He came to be the first to use celluloid for photographic film and to market dry-plate glass negatives. He was born in Sheffield, Engl ...

in 1879 in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, and its 113 Berkley Street location was constructed in Germantown in 1884. The factory became the location for his pioneering work in new photographic technologies, including improved glass plate photography,

x-ray X-rays (or rarely, ''X-radiation'') are a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. In many languages, it is referred to as Röntgen radiation, after the German scientist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, who discovered it in 1895 and named it ' ...

imaging, the first 35 mm celluloid film, and very early color photography procedures. Carbutt developed the first gelatine-bromide dry plates (1879), the first orthochromatic dry plates (1886) and the first

celluloid Celluloids are a class of materials produced by mixing nitrocellulose and camphor, often with added dyes and other agents. Once much more common for its use as photographic film before the advent of safer methods, celluloid's common contemporar ...

dry plates(1888) in this location. He produced the first 35mm film here and sold it to

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invent ...

. In 1888, he introduced the less than a decade-old

Edison light bulb Edison light bulbs, also known as filament light bulbs and retroactively referred to as antique light bulbs or vintage light bulbs, are either carbon- or early tungsten-filament incandescent light bulbs, or modern bulbs that reproduce their appear ...

to increase productivity in his factory, and in 1896, Carbutt began to manufacture the first x-ray plates for commercial use. In his later years, Carbutt experimented with color photography. John Carbutt died in 1905. In the early 20th century the factory was bought by Defender Photo Supply, based in Rochester, NY, and became known as the Defender Dry Plate Company. From 1912 to 1977 the building was occupied by Moore Push Pin Company; Edwin Moore invented and patented the push pin, and subsequent occupants included a drug rehab facility. The building forms part of a cluster of 19th-century industrial buildings around Wayne Junction rail station. In January 2021, Ken Weinstein, the current owner of the property through Wayne Junction Properties/Philly Office Retail, submitted a financial hardship application to the Philadelphia Historical Commission to permit the building to be demolished.

References

{{coord, 40.023, -75.161, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-PA, display=title Buildings and structures in Philadelphia Germantown, Philadelphia Commercial buildings completed in 1884