Mike Ware wrote (much deleted)
<<This is the chemical rationale for my Argyrotype process, which has been
in
use now for five years. The reference is:
Mike Ware, 'The Argyrotype Process', British Journal of Photography, vol.
138 (no. 6824), pp. 17-19,(13 June 1991).
I look forward to reading Peter's article: where is it to be published?>>
The question here is IF it is to be published at the moment, although if not
I will make it available myself on WWW. However you will find little or
nothing new in it - and of course it relies heavily on your own published
work to which reference is made.
It does however point out that some of the problems inherent in the
'classic' methods had possibly been avoided by some of the variations
adopted in the early years of the century, the main aim of which was not to
address the problem of fading but to produce results visually
indistinguishable from the platinum process. In this latter aim they were -
on the basis of my limited experimentation - fairly successful.
Of course all silver based processes are inherently lacking in permanence
under normal storage conditions as silver in a finely divided state is
somewhat reactive. Hence various toning processes used for archival
considerations.
I think they may also be/have been commercial considerations which might
have led any print that could possibly be a platinum print to be described
as one.
Peter Marshall
Family Album/Gay Pride - http://www.dragonfire.net/~gallery/index.html
Also on Fixing Shadows: ----------- http://fermi.clas.virginia.edu/~ds8s
Future Press and elsewhere... E-Mail: petermarshall@cix.compulink.co.uk