[alt-photo] Re: Alt-photo-process-list Digest, Vol 296, Issue 1

[Kenneth Watson]

etienne,

I expect you are aware that Ethyl Ether and Ethyl Alcohol are water
soluble? When you place a poured plate into the silver nitrate bath,
Osmosis moves water into the collodion combining with the ether and
alcohol, bringing the silver nitrate along that combines with bromine
and iodine. From this point on it is more water based chemistry to
develop and diluting / replacing the ether and alcohol that was in the
collodion. The sensitized collodion is essentially a membrane due to
the water soluable chemistry of which it is comprised.

The only time  I even consider how "wet" my poured plate is at the
extremes of temperature. When it is close to freezing and one is
working outside it takes the most of a minute wait between poring and
the placing the plate into the silver bath to prevent lift.  When it
is above 90 degrees F The plate goes into the bath as fast as I can
get it there.

I have never had any issue that I could track to how wet the plate may
be out of the silver bath. Just let it drain a bit and put it in my
holder.