From: Craig Koshyk (chiendog@pangea.ca)
Date: 02/12/01-12:22:32 AM Z
Hi All,
I just enjoyed a fabulous diner at a Sri Lanken restaurant this evening. It
reminded me of something I discovered a couple years ago. So Ithought I
would share it with the curry lovers, pt/pd and kallitype printers out
there.
One day, in about 1998, I found myself without any developer for my pt/pd
prints. Usually I use pot ox. and on occasion sodium citrate. Well, the
small amount of pot ox I had on hand was well past its "sell by" date the
last time I made some prints so I disposed of it. I meant to replace it but
forgot. The next time I had a print in the oven as it were, I discovered
that my pot ox bottle was empty.
Well I decided to give the print I was making at the time full exposure and
just see what happened if I developed it the next day. My wife and I then
went out to a new restaurant down the road. About half way through our
delicious curry diner my stomach rumbled something to the effect that I
should have ordered our dishes with "mild" spice instead of "three alarm
fire". I managed to overule the objections and had seconds.
As you can imagine, the first thing I did when I got home was to loosen my
belt a notch or two and reach for an something to calm my stomach. A friend
suggested I try Bromo Seltzer. Since I had never tried it before and am
always on the lookout for nasty side effects I read the ingredient labelling
carefully.
Well it seems as though that the stuff is made from citric acid and sodium
bicarbonate that when combined with water make a lot of bubbles and....
Sodium Citrate!
Well, to make a long story short, some of the stuff went into my gut, the
rest was poured on my now fully exposed print. Five minutes later, my
burning belly was calmed, and I had a beautiful, warm, delicately toned
palladium print!
I have now used Bromo Seltzer and Eno (same church, different pew) to
develop pt/pd prints on a variety of papers. They both work very well
indeed.
But that's not all. I actually managed to stumble upon another developer
thanks to my misadventures with Sri Lanken curry.
Back in the restaurant, at about the time my gut was threatening strike
action, my wife ordered something she thought may contain MSG (monosodium
glutamate). Due to an alergy to the stuff, she asked the waiter to tell the
chef not to put any in the dish.
After my success with Bromo Seltzer/sodium citrate, my spider senses started
tingling with the possiblities of using other household concoctions to
develop prints.
So with a sputter and grunt, the woefully puney part of my brain that houses
knowledge of chemistry kicked in and began a tortuous brainstorm that went
something like this:
"Hmmm, it seems that there are a bunch of devlopers for pt/pd and kallitype
prints that starts with either potassium, sodium or ammonium. The next word
usually ends in "ate". Must be that certain acids, like citric acid or
oxalic acid when combined with sodium, potassium or ammonium, form these
compounds. Well what about glutamic acid with sodium? I'd probably end up
with sodium glutamate. Hey! there is an Asian grocery store down the lane
that sells MSG by the pound. I wonder......"
Yup!
I now have hanging on the wall, next to a Bromo Seltzer-palladium print and
an Eno-platinum print, two kallitypes and three pt/pd prints developed in a
30% solution of "Squid" brand MSG.
So the next time you are out of a pt/pd or kallitype developer check the
medicine cabinet or the spice rack. You may be able to develop that print
afterall.
CK.
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