Bob_Maxey@mtn.3com.com
Wed, 27 Jan 1999 12:35:52 -0700
Basically, a Morse Contact Printer is a large, heavy, steel and cast iron
cabinet with a row of argon lamps at the bottom, and ledges to hold flashed
opal glass, ground glass and optical plate glass. Mine was made in the
40's or 50's. My 10 inch size weighs about 100 lbs or so.
There is a set of movable arms on a hinged metal support for holding the
negative in place and to mask as required. The top cover contains an
inflatable bladder that can be filled with air to print film negatives or
deflated to print glass plates. It must be deflated so you do not break the
plates.
Mine has a set of rollers to accommodate long rolls of film, up to 9-1/2
and larger widths so it is easy to print long aerial rolls and circuit
film. With the roller assembly and feeder, I could print long aerial
negatives on a continuous basis, by cranking the film/paper through the
printer.
The argon lamps are very fast. For example, I can't print most RC papers
unless I severely restrict the light. A negative that is severely
overexposed take less than a second to print, depending upon the paper
used.
I modified mine by adding individual rheostats to the banks and rows of
switches, so I can fine tune the lighting. Each of the 30 or so switches
can be individually switched on or off, and there is a master switch. By
using diffusion, it is possible to do a pretty good job of dodging and
burning, and with repeatable results
As far as what "A" weight paper is, it was offered by Eastman Kodak, in
several types and in a standard 8-1/2 x 11 size. I am not sure if it is
still available or not. The paper could be folded without cracking the
emulsion. It is about 1/2 the thickness of single weight fiber paper.
Cheers,
RM
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Sat Nov 06 1999 - 10:06:47