[pure-silver] Re: Amidol and oxidization

For some reason, the responses I make are coming through with the message that there are encoding errors and/or attachments are probably corrupt. This has never happened to me before, so I am re-sending with everything but my response deleted. 

Michael A. Smith
I sent this to the Pur-Silver list, but it has not come through--at least not to me.
Ah, misconceptions about Amidol still abound. Frankly, I am astonished, since my writing about this has been out there for 13 years now. With my Amidol formula, Amidol will last all day. All day is 8, 10, 12 hours--however long you can print at one time. There is no fall-off in the activity of it until there is almost none left. Usually, I use it until there is not enough left in the tray to cover the prints. It makes no difference if I am using 1 liter, 3 liters, or 4 liters.
I once knew a fellow at RIT who was considered the best printer at the school. He told me that when he used Amidol he first ran about a dozen sheets through it so it would get "sludgy." 

So, Bogdan, relax about the life of working Amidol solution.
We have even left it in an open tray overnight, after an almost all-day printing session--when there was still some left, and used it the next day. When you do this, it will only last for a half-dozen prints at most, and is not quite as active as when new. it is perfect when, for example, a grade 3 paper is slightly too contrasty. Printing it in the next day's Amidol tones the contrast down about 1/4 to 1/3 grade of paper and makes the print perfect. I always print one of my popular photographs using this "technique," if one can call it a technique.
Also, the Amidol I have was put into the bottles in either 1906 or 1908, I forget which. It is very black (obviously "oxidized." If anyone on this list has seen my prints, or Paula's prints, it will become immediately obvious that there is nothing wrong with the "oxidized" Amidol. 

Michael A. Smith
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