U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: 3 questions (one of them dumb)

Re: 3 questions (one of them dumb)



A multimeter is one of those doodads that are used to measure various electrical units, resistance, voltage, etc.
You can get one at Radio Shack pretty cheap I think, and it should be touchy enough. You want to set it for resistance (ohms) and stick both probe tips in the water. If it conducts electricity between the probes, it isn't distilled water.
That battery tester is a voltage tester. I don't think it'll do what you want, but any electrician or electrical contractor or electronics hobbyist will have a multimeter.
C-41 is what they would do to your color negs if you took them to the drugstore. I think the C stands for Crap.
Rob


-----Original Message-----
From: Judy Seigel <jseigel@panix.com>
To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca
Sent: Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:07 pm
Subject: Re: 3 questions (one of them dumb)

On Mon, 17 Nov 2008, RHobbs3@aol.com wrote: 
 
> Judy, 
> 1. Distilled water should be non-conductive. Maybe a sensitive electrical 
> multimeter? 
 
> 2. Those black and white dye replacement films like XP2 are marked 
> chromogenic, so I think it just means a regular c-41 type process. 
 
> 3. Glycin is like p-amenophenol (the stuff in Rodinal) and Metol. It's 
> related to glycine. 
> Rob 
 
Rob, your answer #1 to my question about detecting distilled versus tap water is .... tantalizing. I don't feel I've gotten definitive instructions I can actually use, yet, tho yours above is certainly suggestive. (Advice to check for chlorine implies a simpler route, that is, if I knew how to detect chlorine!) 
 
Meanwhile, would it be possible, I wonder, to repeat #1 in English? That is, explain what a "sensitive multimeter " is, and where I might find one. Would it cost more -- or less - than, say, a nuclear reactor, and would I need a course in advanced physics to read the results? Or would it come with instructions in the box ? 
 
On the other hand, would it be so "sensitive" as to detect all over the place, say the gas leak in our cellar, or the lead in our pipes? 
 
Or on the 3rd hand, would the shoemaker aroung the corner who also repairs watches and checks the batteries on some kind of "meter" in fact have a "sensitive multimeter" in hand? 
 
With much gratitude for any/all further info, 
 
Judy 
(who admits that she doesn't have a clue what a "regular C41 process" might be, but believes that, having managed to avoid that knowledge 
these many years, she can take your word for it, with, again, thanks.)