The original full text is a Word95 document which I will email to anyone on
request to my email address - NOT TO THE LIST PLEASE. There are some minor
alterations to avoid reference to the first part - and also I have deleted the
footnotes in this version.
As this method avoids the use of alkaline solutions it may be less susceptible
to fading than the classic kallitype.
Peter
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SATISTA PROCESS
In 1913 the Platinotype Company patented the Satista process, an attempt to
produce prints resembling platinum but containing a much smaller amount of
platinum together with the less expensive silver. Marketed the following year,
this does not seem to have been particularly successful commercially, but was
apparently still available until the early thirties. Thomson also published
the formula below for those wishing to make similar prints - it differs from
the patented formula in using a silver developer. The original is a cold
black and virtually identical to a pure platinum print made from the same
negative, although the separation of mid-tones is possibly slightly better.
There is no fading visible in this print after over four years (unfortunately
this cannot be said for some of the Kallitypes I made using the borax/Rochelle
salt developer.)
PLATINUM SOLUTION
Potassium chloroplatinite 1.0 g
20% ortho-phosphoric acid 6.5 ml
water to65 ml
[To avoid any chance of expensive mistakes, the formula of the platinum
compound is K2PtCl4 and it is the salt used in traditional platinum printing.]
Given the high cost of platinum compounds you may wish to prepare the diluted
acid solution without platinum and only add the platinum compound as required
for use.
SENSITISER
This sensitiser may also be used for platinum prints - a platinum containing
developer is then required rather than the silver developer given below. It
enables platinum prints to be produced using approximately one half to two
thirds the normal amount of platinum per print
It may also - without the platinum solution - be used for kallitypes.
Ferric oxalate solution(20%)5 ml
water20 ml
ferric ammonium citrate (green)1.0g
potassium oxalate1.0g
platinum solution (see above)0.5 ml
potassium dichromate solution (5%)0.05 to 0.5 ml (alters contrast)
gum arabic0.5 g
Stand for 24 hours before use.
STOCK DEVELOPER SOLUTION
Water 48 ml
silver nitrate4.0 g
citric acid1.0 g
oxalic acid1.0 g
Use 1 + 7
Development should be complete in about a minute but may be continued longer
if needed.
Rinse for a minute or two in clean water (avoid alkaline water - tap water may
need to be made neutral or slightly acid by the addition of a very small pinch
of citric acid.) and then fix in very weak plain hypo (3 to 4 g in a litre).
Wash and dry.
I have also experimented with various other developers containing silver for
both the Kallitype and Satista sensitisers above, including silver ammonium
carbonate and other similar solutions. However, being alkaline, their use is
probably not to be recommended. The buffered ammoniacal silver tartrate
proposed by Dallas Simpson would appear to be a more suitable choice for rod
development. A syringe (without needle) is used to deposit a small amount of
developer along one side of the print, outside of the picture area. A lightly
held glass or acrylic rod is then used to draw this across the print - a
similar technique to the coating of prints using a rod. A suitable rod can be
made from a piece of glass tubing or rod roughly 10 cm longer than the width
of the print, bending it at 90 degrees about 4 cm from each end. The volume of
solution used has to be great enough to avoid any noticeable weakening of
print values due to developer exhaustion as it crosses the print. The syringe
can be used to remove excess solution from the print for re-use with
replenishment if greater economy is desired.
I have also produced gold prints by similar methods, but was unable to get
really satisfactory or reproducible results - the prints tended to a rather
pale lilac.
Although I have carefully checked the details, some errors may have crept in
petermarshall@cix.compulink.co.uk (my own laboratory notes are sometimes very difficult to read for a start!).
If you find any errors or have any comments or suggestions or corrections I
would like to know and would hope that these could also be published here. I
hope that the information here encourages others to experiment with the
Kallitype and helps them to produce the results they want. Sometimes in all
the concentration on details and procedures we can forget that this is what
really matters.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Peter Marshall
On Fixing Shadows, Dragonfire and elsewhere:
http://faraday.clas.virginia.edu/~ds8s/
Family Pictures & Gay Pride: http://www.dragonfire.net/~gallery/
and: http://www.speltlib.demon.co.uk/
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