Muscogee County GaArchives Photo Place.....Litho-Krome Superstar- J. Tom Morgan ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Christine Thacker http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00033.html#0008100 June 2, 2007, 7:36 pm Source: Sesquicentennal Supplement IV, Ledger-Enquirer Photo can be seen at: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/muscogee/photos/lithokro13410gph.jpg Image file size: 135.9 Kb Litho-Krome Superstar Graphics Industry By Clason Kyle Sesquicentennial Editor Timken, a great name in roller-bearings. Litho-Krome, a great name in photo- lithography. Columbus, a great city of homes. This trinity united to produce a 1974 calendar. The Timken Company paid for it. Local Litho-Krome produced it. And Columbus furnished the houses Which served as the back grounds for the well-fashioned models. Big names such as Timken are nothing new to the people at Litho-Krome. They've been working for the who's-Who of American industry for a number of years. Ever since J. Tom Morgan Jr. gave up being a struggling artist in New York and when "Commercial Printers offered me a job designing labels, I came right home, And I never left again." He didn't have to leave, because he soon invented a better mousetrap - only in this case, it was a superior method of reproducing full color photographs - and the world has been coming to him ever since. The "since" is the year 1949, when Morgan copied Victor Keppler's famous "Wine and Cheese" photo in such a way that the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. has recognized it as the premier example of modern color lithography. Morgan developed a system of color control charts, unique in the industry, that assign mathematical value to over 3,OOO color tonal ranges. He has utilized a reflection densitometer that measures the amount of ink going onto the paper not only in his press room, but on cameras and throughout his shop when tona 'values are significant. Morgan has been termed an unrelenting researcher. "He must have worked on that color system for 15 years." observed one professor at an Eastern university. Morgan has also invented a new technique of printing black and white illustrations by lithography, printing two impressions instead of the usualone. This was in r 1960. The first impression carries the low key tonal values and the second carries the high key. And, recently, he inventd an instrument which he calls a Litho- Krometer. It extends the range and depth of tonal qualities' for color - and sets the rhythm - in the same way as Litho-Krome Black does for black and white. In 1976, Morgan was presented the Robert F. Reed Technology Award of the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation's Society of Fellows. Among his 150 employees and in his plant that now covers an entire block on 13th Street, is Morgan's wife, Marietta. and, two sons, Tommy and Fred. The Penrose Annual said, "While Columbus, Ga., is a small city with little other graphic arts industry, Litho -Krome does printing for some of the country's leading manufacturers. They include Timken, Burton, First Flite, Ben Hogan, Uniroyal, Borden, Martex, Whitman Chocolates, Mrs. Paul's, Sara Lee, Royal Crown Cola, Pet Milk, S. D. Warren Division of Scott Paper Company. Beckett Paper Company, Lenox Chine, Polaroid and Hall Mark Cards." And all this because not only did modest Morgan, in the early 30s, notice that he wasn't "as talented" as other artists in New York, but he observed that "engravers and printers would destroy beautiful artwork and photography with bad reproduction. " Not only did he notice,he did something about it. Special Sesquicentennal Supplement IV Ledger - Enquirer, Sunday, May 7, 1978, S-26 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/muscogee/photos/lithokro13410gph.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 4.1 Kb