[pure-silver] Re: AW: Re: toxicity
- From: Jean-David Beyer <jeandavid8@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 15 May 2009 07:40:19 -0400
Richard Knoppow wrote:
Its been a very long time since this came up in some list or other but I
believe book above, at least the first edition, was the subject of
serious criticism for being inaccuate and making mountains out of
molehills to say the least. If its what I remember its aimed mostly at
artists who are worried that their paint or othrer material will put them
in an early grave (which is possible but not too likely).
Yes. You just reminded me to write a review of that book for Amazon. The
reviews they have are all quite supportive.
BTW, I am always a bit amused by detective stories that are based on some
photographer having an ample supply of cyanide.
Many years ago, a little after the Jonestown incident, I was at City
Chemical Corp. in New York City to get some photo chemicals. Just for
laughs, I asked what potassium cyanide cost, it it was quite cheap; IIRC
something like $12 for 500 grams. I asked what they would require to sell me
some, and they said I would have to send them a corporate purchase order
from a corporation that they believed had a legitimate use for the stuff, a
letter from the chief of police of my town, and something from some
environmental officer attesting that I had a safe means of disposal for the
remains. I had none of these, and I did not want any anyway, but those days
it was pretty difficult to get that stuff. IIRC, Eastman Organics would sell
that under similarly restrictive conditions. I understand that some
electroplating shops use the stuff. I do not know if it is the only thing
that will work; it is hard to imagine some body shop would have it to
rechrome damaged automobile bumpers.
While there _are_ uses for cyanide in photography about the only places
one used to find it were newspaper printing plants using the old method
of making half-tone plates. Jean-David Beyer is the expert on this
ancient process.
Yes, it was the one hold-out. They thought cyanide fixers would maintain the
dot edges better than thiosulfate fixers. I do not know if it is a hidden
death wish or what. I have had no trouble making half-tone negatives and
positives using ortholith films and ordinary F-6 fixer. In the early days,
there were no lith films, so elaborate intensification and bleaching was
needed to harden the edges of the initial half-tone dots. I imagine litho
film has been available since about the 1920s, and after that cyanide would
no longer be required, if it was even required then.
This is not a new problem. Julia Margaret Cameron, and early photographer
(1815 - 1879) used cyanide for a fixer even though Sir John Herschel pleaded
with her to use thiosulfate instead. (She did not die of cyanide poisoning.)
--
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