I accidentally mailed this note while in the process of editing it . . .
jet-lag is my only explanation. What follows is what I meant to send.
Sincerely, Art
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter,
I thought it might be fun to continue some of the pub discussions that took
place during the APIS. I believe we have a standing wager, one of your
prints against one of mine.
As a little background to those not at Bath, I have developed a process I
believe it to be similar to the French Artigue and/or Fresson processes.
In addition, I think that the essence of these processes lie in a mixture
of gum arabic and gelatin. In that Artigue took his secret to the grave
and the Fresson family has succeeded in keeping their process a trade
secret for over 100 years, we are strictly dealing with supposition at this
time.
We will be adding some science to our conjecture. Thanks to Bill Foster,
we now have a large sample of original Fresson paper. Based upon the
visual appearance of this paper, I am making some minor modifications to
my formulations. In brief, I will first increase the pigment loading in
the top pigment coating layer and then modify the gum/gelatin ratio if
this becomes necessary; test results will follow. I'll share any
formulation improvements with anyone interesting in working with the
process for their own person photography.
Back to Fresson; both the formulations and coating application method have
been kept a secret. I believe that the paper sample will unveil a good deal
of new information.
FRESSON FORMULATION: First and foremost, Peter Frederick has taken the
stance that gum arabic is not incorporated into the Fresson coatings. I
believe that the coatings are a mixture of gum and gelatin. Bill Foster,
who has done a good deal of Fresson printing believes my process's grain
pattern matches the Fresson process and that I have the essence of the
process. Peter and I bet one of our own prints against each other as to
the inclusion of gum arabic, I hope to win the wager but analytical lab
testing will decide.
A portion of the paper is being submitted to a friend who has one of the best
analytical labs in North America at his disposal. The exact testing is
yet to be determined as I was quickly corrected when I suggested that a
mass spec should be sufficient. Apparently, the complex molecules of gum
arabic and/or gelatin may require alternative testing to provide positive
identification. In addition, he suggested that an electron microscope
image of a cross section may be useful to look at the layer structure
reported to be very numerous.
As the testing will be a freebee, the results may take several weeks, I'll
post the results.
FRESSON COATING METHOD: In the coarse of a few bitters, Peter put forth
and idea which I now believe to be correct. It was his idea that the
paper may have been coated using a spin coater. A spin coater is nothing
more that a disk that is spinning at a high enough speed such that fluid
fed onto it is atomized as it is thrown from the disk's edge by
centrifugal force. Certainly an engineer like Theodore Fresson could have
designed such a machine in the 1890's.
I'm going to attempt to photograph the paper sample under incident
lighting and will offer up the images as JPEG files. What my eyes see are
a definite pattern on the paper's surface that look like what you would get
from a spin coating application. As soon as the files are available, I'll
put up a post to let anyone interested get the files as an attachment.
Does anyone else out there have any Fresson information that they are
willing to share at this time? For the record, what is at issue here is a
willingness to share information.
Sincerely, Art
Art Chakalis
Columbus, Ohio, USA