[pure-silver] Re: AW: Re: toxicity
- From: <C.Breukel@xxxxxxx>
- To: <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 18 May 2009 10:33:54 +0200
Well, there is still an area were the use of KCN fixer is still very
much alive..the Wet Plate Collodion shooters like me.
I myself never wanted to get involved in using KCN as a fixer, I use
ordinairy Ammoinium thiosulphate fix, but there are still quite a few
practisioners who use KCN. I did not hear stories about difficulties in
obtaining KCN, oddly enough I might add, the stuff aint nice,
espescially if you are so dumb to mix it with the acid developer,
releasing deadly HCN gas..
The reason for KCNB fix (other than historic) is that the resulting
colour of the ambrotype (collodion negative on glass with a black
backing turning it in a positive again) is influenced by the fixer; KCN;
warm creamy, AmmThio: Sepia; SoubiumThio: neutral..
Best,
Cor
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:pure-silver-
> bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jean-David Beyer
> Sent: vrijdag 15 mei 2009 13:40
> To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [pure-silver] Re: AW: Re: toxicity
>
> 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.)
>
>
> --
> .~. Jean-David Beyer Registered Linux User 85642.
> /V\ PGP-Key: 9A2FC99A Registered Machine 241939.
> /( )\ Shrewsbury, New Jersey http://counter.li.org
> ^^-^^ 06:55:01 up 51 days, 13:09, 0 users, load average: 4.06, 3.99,
> 3.99
>
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