[alt-photo] Re: preserving gum arabic solution

[Don Bryant]

>
I mixed up some gum arabic solution (from silverprint) 70g to 200ml
distilled water and stored it in a clean brown glass bottle. To this I added
5 drops of 10% formalin I bought from ebay. It's been a few weeks and my gum
smells sour and has started to grow mould. Do you have any advice on how to
prevent this? Stronger fomalin/formaldehyde or more drops? Cheers

This is what I used...
>

As suggested to me by Sam Wang, I use a few drops of 100% thymol per liter
of mixed gum. 100% thymol == 50 grams thymol crystal + 50 ml of rubbing
alcohol. Leaves my gum smelling like a fresh Johnson & Johnson Band-Aid. No
mould and no souring in sealed containers.

Don Bryant