> Xtol pretty clearly does not contain Hydroquinone. Ascorbic acid is
>itself a reducing agent. I find very little about it in the literature
>available to me. It was apparently used mostly for research work until
>recently. Xtol seems to be Phenidone and Iso-Ascorbic acid. Ilford Ilfosol
>seems to be an MQ developer with Ascorbic acid added. It would be
>interesting to know more about the function of the Acorbic acid in both
>devlopers.
In my library crawling, I found a note in a book by a retired Kodak chemist,
who noted that in the 1940's Kodak was working with an ascorbic acid based
developer. Why did it take 50+ years to bring one to market?
Gordon Cooper
Seattle, WA