U. Ray and Sons

U. Ray and Sons was a privately held printing and publishing firm in Calcutta, India founded by Upendrakishore Ray in 1895. At its inception the firm was named U. Ray after its owner; and Sons was added in 1900 when his son Sukumar Ray joined the firm. The family ownership of the firm collapsed in 1926. The firm was renovated under a new owner in 1929. While in business, it was notable for internationally pioneering work in halftone process work.

U. Ray and Sons was primarily set up as an initiative to remedy the lack of good quality printing of illustrations in Calcutta in spite of the existence of advanced printing presses in the early 1890s. Upendrakishore, a versatile genius, excelling in the fields of children’s literature, music, painting and printing technology could not therefore have first grade illustrations published for his Children’s Ramayan. A lack of skill in graphic arts and photo-processes resulted in ruined print illustrations. ‘At that time, only a few local firms like Thacker and Spincks (of Thacker's Indian Directory) took commercial orders for halftone blocks but they were very costly. Being of an inventive and mechanical turn of mind, Upendrakishore ordered the necessary equipment from A.W. Penrose & Co., of 109 Farringdon Street, London, and began to study the technical nature of the subject. These studies led him to investigate the theoretical basis of the process camera and arrive at conclusions which standardises the hitherto empirical practices at process work.’ ‘A camera and various pieces of half-tone equipment [arrived] from Britain […] bybullock cart; soon after that, they moved out of 13 Cornwallis Street to a house not far away which Upendrakisore had made into a studio. The money for this came from selling most of his share in the zamindari at his ancestral home in Mymensingh to his foster brother Narendrakisore, who was in charge of it following his father Harikisore’s death,’ records Andrew Robinson

Experimentations began immediately and the firm’s reputation was aided by its owners contribution to his chosen field. Starting in 1897, Upendrakishore wrote a number of articles in the best-known British printing journal of the time, Penrose Annual, based on his researches. Their titles, though technical, are self-explanatory: ‘Focussing the Screen’ (1897), ‘The Theory of the Half-Tone Dot’ (1898),‘The Half-Tone Theory Graphically Explained’ (1899), ‘Automatic Adjustment of the Half-Tone Screen’ (1901), ‘Diffraction in Half-Tone’ (1902–3), ‘More About the Half-Tone Theory’ (1903–4), ‘The 60° Cross-Line Screen’ (1905–6), ‘Multiple Stops’ (1911–12). Upendrakishore’s papers about the diaphragm systems, his invention of the sixty-degree screen, his original methods of colour reproduction, his studies in diffraction and his contributions towards standardising half-tone camera work were all intimately connected with the progress of the photographic method of reproducing illustrations. While Siddhartha Ghosh in his essay on Sukumar Ray’s Abol Tabol tells us that Upendrakishore patented a gadget known as the ‘automatic screen adjustment indicator’ which was sold as an optional accessory to the Penrose company’s process camera, Andrew Robinson quotes a Penrose Annual issue in which its London editor explains a lack of articles by Mr. U. Ray as an outcome of ill health and further informs the printing trade that U. Ray had anticipated by some years the important screen just patented by someone in Britain’ and that ‘unable to prove his theory in Calcutta for lack of resources, Upendrakisore had appealed to his colleagues in Britain for help and one of them had plagiarised his ideas.

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