Eugene Pilsworth (1878-1917) – A San Francisco commercial artist. Eugene was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England to John Patrick Pilsworth (1843-1920) a lithographer from Ireland and Odelia Delia Hanley (1847-deceased). His siblings were John C. Patrick Pilsworth (1872-1933), Edward S. Pilsworth (1870-1936) Henry Arthur Pilsworth (1873-1935), Harry Pilsworth (1874-deceased), Delia Francis Pilsworth (1876-1960), Eugene Pilsworth (1878-1917), Cornelius Pilsworth (1879-1881), and Norah Pilsworth (1883-deceased). The family immigrated to the United States in 1890.

In 1911, Eugene’s brother John C. Patrick Pilsworth moved to Portland, Oregon. There John became friends with fellow commercial artists, Charles Merriman Peter (1878–1965), and Edward Arthur Owens (1885–1959). In 1912 the three moved to San Francisco and opened a graphic design studio. Henry Pilsworth and Edward Pilsworth later followed John to California and joined the studio. In 1914, they were joined by Roy Christian Beck (1893–1984), and Jacob Harris Steinman (1881–1933) and began printing posters and advertising by the screenprinting process.

The group of eight foresaw the need for a method for printing larger quantities of destination boards and advertising signs for the newly motorized buses, not only in San Francisco but globally. Thus, they set about creating methods to speed up the process.

Together, they invented the first photoemulsion with potassium, sodium, or ammonium chloride and dichromate, glues, and gelatin compounds that reacted to actinic light. They also invented the film positives that we use today. They also patented a multi-color screen printing from a single screen. Albeit the emulsion and film positives were substantially different than those used today. They named their innovation The Selectasine Method and renamed their company The Selectasine Company.

Lieutenant-Colonel Mark James Mayhew, the owner of Battersley Flour Milling Company of Battersley, UK, obtained the United Kingdom patent rights from Selectasine in 1918 and set up a similarly named company, Selecticin, in London. Largely due to Lt. Col. Mayhew’s efforts, news of the new printing technique spread and it was adopted by a number of companies in the advertising and signwriting trades. Early development was largely hampered by lack of suitable materials and the screen printers had to solve the technical problems that the new technique produced.

Eugene Pilsworth died in 1917 in Oakland, near San Francisco.