Just a guess: From reading some older books around the change over from wet
plate to dry plate/ modern photography ( here goes my memory) the
developers for the early processes are much more active than the more modern
ones. After all there is a lot more silver around, especially on a Dag
plate that IS silver plated. Of course books and memories have made
mistakes in the past, why not try it!
All you need is to silver plate some copper ( get it from the hardware
store, use the Hypo bath as a plating solution)Buy a silver coin for $8.00.
polish the plate
expose to Iodine crystals for a while , then Bromine gas if you can find
it(optional), Expose for 30 Sec and develop.
Not to worry about safe light I think any color to the red side of yellow is
invisible to the process.
Actually there are claims the Dag will develop itself if just placed in
sunlight covered with a red filter over it. I is claimed to take a while
though but, if true, one can watch it develop.
-----Original Message-----
From: Fred P. Arnold [mailto:fparnold@balihai.uchicago.edu]
Sent: Thursday, December 09, 1999 8:32 AM
To: alt-photo-process-l@skyway.usask.ca
Subject: Daguerrotype development
Hello,
Chemical question: The basic dageurrotype process involves making silver
halides on a silver plate, exposing, and then developing with fumes of
mercury, which presumably makes mercury-silver amalgam, fixing, and then
toning.
Why couldn't a standard developer, such as Metol or Pyro, be used instead?
Does it attack the plate, not develop a sufficiently strong image, or is
it just a method that was never employed before daguerrotypes fell from
favor?
-Fred
"No science has ever made Frederick P. Arnold, Jr.
more rapid progress in a A&HPRC, U. of Chicago
shorter time than Chemistry." 5640 S. Ellis Ave
-Martin Heinrich Kloproth, 1791 Chicago, IL 60637
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