Re: Javelle water and gum 1907

[Judy Seigel <jseigel@panix.com>]

On Thu, 20 Dec 2007, Christina Z. Anderson wrote:

> I found another mention of Javelle water in my notes--a blurb about using it 
> on overexposed gum prints at a 2-3% dilution.  It said in there (scientists, 
> have a heyday with this one) that  "apparently it attacks the underlying 
> parts and not the surface of the image if allowed to act too long".
> The use of this as well as chlorine water or "chloride of lime" (what is 
> this??) was suggested by Wharton Simpson in 1868 for CARBON prints. But it 
> also suggests in there to use it "locally" with a brush, which I thought was 
> interesting in this javelle discussion.
> Chris
I did that a couple of years ago when I was doing some tricky 
multi-colored stuff that I couldn't control. Tho I used a tuft of cotton 
on a sharpened applicator stick because I didn't want to damage my Winsor 
Newton sables or other precious brushes.

As I recall (non-archivally) less than 10% solution of commercial chlorox 
had to be further diluted to get it under control.  My SURMISE of the way 
it worked was that it dissolved the gelatin size on the paper, and took 
the emulsion with it, but that could be wrong...

Now I hope this interesting discussion will please stop.  I have GOT to 
answer some serious e-mails & get out of the house & didn't even eat 
breakfast yet...

J.