Re: Liver of sulfur?

From: Judy Seigel <jseigel@panix.com>
Subject: Re: Liver of sulfur?
Date: Sat, 01 Nov 2003 18:46:39 -0500 (EST)

> No one has mentioned Kodak Polytoner -- which may (or may not) be one of
> the Kodak products now discontinued. But my recollection is that it
> consists of selenium and polysulfide... It did NOT smell, or only very
> slightly, a little went a long way, and different dilutions (all the way
> from 1 to 9 to 1 to 40, or like that) gave different tones -- although
> also different on different papers.

Polytoner is discontinued. It smells just as much as other polysulfide
based toners. As far as I know there is no published formula for
polytoner though there are some toner formulae that claim to yield
similar results.

> Meanwhile, weren't Doug Nashimura's tests on microfilm? At the
> time, I recall some claims or anyway speculation that same would not
> apply to silver gelatin paper-- and my thought is might also
> similarly not apply to silver-iron coated paper.

Their test used microfilm but the chemistry of the reaction is
basically the same with enlarging paper emulsion. (I don't know about
kallitype.) What they did was to point out weakness of untreated
material and selenium treatment and to provide with more reliable
treatment option. This is something users of silver based processes
should not take lightly, if permanence is a concern.

--
Ryuji Suzuki
"Reality has always had too many heads." (Bob Dylan, Cold Irons Bound, 1997)