From: Richard Sullivan (richsul@earthlink.net)
Date: 11/08/02-09:22:27 AM Z
I would explore the Stannotype process developed at the very end of the
Woodbury life span. As we can see from the posted thread in the archives,
a print smaller than 4 x 5 used 50 tons of pressure and that may not have
been enough. Even 50 tons translates into 2000 tons for a 16 x 20. You'll
need a press that can squish a greyhound bus to do that!
The Stannotype used tin foil (stannous = tin) This is real tin foil and not
aluminium foil as us old folks continue to misname it. Real tin foil is
hard to find. One source I found was in the hobby area of folks who
reproduce Edison's original sound recordings which used real tin foil. (And
we thought we were retro!)
Instead of pressing down the thick sheet of lead as in the Woodbury, the
Stannotype used thin tin foil which was pressed down under a softish pad
and far less pressure was needed. The relief was then backed up by casting
of plaster behind it to give it support. From all reports at the time it
was just as good at reproducing an image as the Woodbury but since other
reproduction methods came along it and the Wooodbury were quickly abandoned.
The Woodbury's claim to fame was in being able to Make a number of images
for tipping into books. I have several books in my collection with tipped
in Woodburys. The trick was you could make a small 2 x 3 inch portrait cast
it in lead and make say 20 more casts from the same gelatin relief. The 20
lead casts were soldered up and the 20 prints were then pulled by filling
with the colored gelatin and pressing it under a light pressure.
I have seen claims that they don't hold "detail". Bull pucky! This might be
true under microscopic examination and I think a 16 x 20 inch Woodbury
would be spectacular. Pulling an edition once the plate was made would be
fairly easy and you could literally pull an unlimited amount.
--Dick Sullivan
At 09:45 AM 11/8/2002 +0100, you wrote:
>Hi Craig,
>
>Jan van Dijk used to be on this list (Hello Jan are you still there?). He
>teaches and publishes about historical photographic techniques and is an
>expert in photo determination.
>
>There is a 1999 post about their Woodburytpe research in the archives:
>
>/lists/alt-photo-process/1999/alt99a/2462.html
>
>
>Kees
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