Snotty Gum

Richard Sullivan (richsul@roadrunner.com)
Thu, 13 Nov 1997 20:38:00 -0700

<x-rich>Hans,

Send me your address offline. You shouldn't be using formaldehyde. I'll send you a free 500 ml sample of Glyoxal.

Dick Sullivan

8At 12:18 AM 11/14/97 +0100, you wrote:

>Thanks to all who answered our "cry for help" with the snotty gum solution.

>What we now will do is to throw the brown paper bag with the gum lumps away

>even if we are not sure what it really was that went wrong - twice...

>(This was written some days ago but not sent...)

>

>No, We did not throw it away - we made a new solution after 10 days at home

>- a new snotty gum solution! We will keep this solution to see what happens

>- does it rotten or (probably) not, will it be thinner after a while or

>not?

>

>As we still have some formaldehyde at home we will continue to use that. We

>have once felt the smell of rotten gum (we had read in some old book that

>the old masters said that the gum is better the more rotten it is). Don't

>want to feel that smell again.

>

>We do not have glyoxal at home otherwise we could have made a test. Glyoxal

>is very expensive in Sweden - about USD 50 per liter and we chose glyoxal

>for the safety of the students. That's why it was the first time we used

>it.

>

>Thanks again and we are glad that we saved the alt-photo world from

>snoto-rotten-prints....

>

>Hans & Chia

>

>PS The papers we sized with gelatin and hardened with glyoxal worked

>perfectly!!! (but why does the gum/pigment/dichromate emulsion not harden

>when you use very fresh papers? If glyoxal hardens gum...) Perhaps we have

>to buy glyoxal anyway...... and store the gum lumps in a tight glass.

>

>

>

>

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Bostick & Sullivan

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</x-rich>