Re: fresson

[petermarshall@cix.co.uk (Peter Marshall)]

Dick

> This is mostly from memory and conjecture so if anyone knows the 
> correct  version of the last days of carbon tissue I'd love to be 
> enlightened.

You mean the almost last days of the commercial availability of carbon 
tissue? 
http://www.autotype.com/website/WebSite.nsf/produnids/E050F33914EC5A568025
698800736183?OpenDocument&Area=americas 

got me to Autotype Gravure carbon tissue G25, a 'Pigmented gelatine 
coating on photographic grade paper base for the production of gravure 
etch resists. Features high contrast, medium photographic speed and 
excellent adhesion to copper.' Isn't this the interesting brown material 
with which I made my first carbon print years back?
 
While the 'Rocky Mountain Photographer's Forum - Carbon Printing' is a 
great online resource , not only for carbon but also for info on Gelatine 
(and it has a specialist Carbon Printing Discussion List, with archive you 
can d/l.)
http://rmp.opusis.com/carbon/carbon.html 


There are still plenty of people producing carbon prints from homemade 
tissue, as you obviously know:
http://www.bostick-sullivan.com/Technical_papers/carbontis.htm

I used the German tissue when I first tried the process, but couldn't get 
the results that I had seen in the best images from the past. Fortunately 
it wasn't too difficult to make my own, which performed rather better.

There were some very good, clear directions published in a feature in I 
think 'View Camera' from someone who was making contact prints from 8x10. 
They used I think 'Rotring' ink in place of pigment (you had to get the 
right ink as some they made wasn't suitable.) There are more details in 
the account on B&S, but briefly:

It was obviously going to be a messy job, and I waited until my wife was 
away for a few days before taking over the solid table in our living room 
as a suitable working surface. The problem is spreading the hot gelatine 
rapidly and evenly before it sets, and it needs to be a relatively thick 
layer, so you have to build edges around the paper to stop it running off. 

>From memory I had the paper on a large glass sheet, and preheated this 
with hot water, blotting the surface before pouring on the correct 
quantity of hot emulsion. I then ran to the bathroom, where a thick 
rectangular section metal bar was soaking in hot water. It had tape round 
it at the ends to give correct clearance (1.5mm) above the level of the 
glass plate. It was quickly dried and then drawn across the emulsion on 
the sheet to give a correct and consistent level, and the gelatine left 
for a few minutes to set, before being removed and left to dry out 
elsewhere.  The bar was wiped and returned to the hot water, ready for the 
next sheet.

Most of the mess was made in the various experiments before I worked out 
how to do it. The tissue worked great for a few weeks or perhaps a month 
or two, and I suspect the German tissue I bought was well past its best.

Peter Marshall
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