[alt-photo] Re: Are we still a list?

[Richard Knoppow]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "BOB KISS" <bobkiss at caribsurf.com>
To: "'The alternative photographic processes mailing list'" 
<alt-photo-process-list at lists.altphotolist.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2011 9:34 AM
Subject: [alt-photo] Re: Are we still a list?


> No sympathy from me.  My tap water is 80 f year round. 
> That is what ice and
> fridges are for, to lower the temp of processing chems.  I 
> lower everything
> to between 68 and 75 f depending on the process and start 
> with a tray or
> tank of wash water at same temp.  Then I 
> slooooooooooooooooooooooowly raise
> the temp of the water in the tray/tank to 80 f.  As 
> Richard Knoppow will
> testify, modern films won't reticulate or have silver 
> grain clumping if the
> temp is changed slowly enough.  I raise the temp 2 degrees 
> f every minute so
> in about 5 mins and 5 changes of water I have gone from 70 
> f to 80 f.  Then
> I let my filtered tap water do its thing for the rest of 
> the wash cycle.
> CHEERS!
> BOB
     The older books are full of "tropical" formulas, 
designed to keep old style films from swelling too much. 
Probably some would be of value now seeing what is going on 
the mid-west.
     Most modern film is hardened like color film to 
withstand processing at 100F but that is done in automatic 
machines. The times are too short for good control in manual 
processing.
     Cooling solutions with ice baths is one approach, 
provided one has a good supply of ice. Since making ice 
consumes energy it can be expensive.
     Another problem is just that working in a darkroom at 
elevated temperatures is to say the least uncomfortable.
     I have not been paying attention to the humidity levels 
in the heat-wave area but the NWS maps show severe 
thunderstorm warnings in adjacent areas so the RH may be 
pretty high. If so its like living in a steam bath. We get 
very hot weather here fairly often but its usually "desert 
heat" with very low RH. I can take that fairly well if it 
doesn't go on too long. Right now its warm and a bit humid 
but not really hot. Folks in the heat area have my sympathy. 
Its ironic that these are the same areas that usually have 
plentiful snow in the winter.
     BTW, an old trick for getting water cool is to dissolve 
crystalline hypo in it. Crystaline hypo (but not the 
anhydrous kind) has is tremendously endothermic, meaning the 
reaction of solution absorbs a lot of heat. That's why the 
formulas for hypo usually start with very hot water. Where 
ice is not available and hypo plentiful and cheap one can 
make the cooling baths with it.
     I have some idea of what Bob's climate is like since I 
lived in Miami Beach for a year when I was a kid. The winter 
was tolerable but the summer discouraged my parents from 
moving there and I wound up here. I am reminded of a line by 
Fred Allen (look him up) who said "Its so hot I think I will 
take off my skin and sit around in my bones."

--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk at ix.netcom.com