Re: humidity in your darkroom........

I am interested in this humidity thing also. We have a barometer,
temperature gauge and hygro measurement device in our living room. There,
the humidity is 75%.
Is this just California and our wet weather? Dunno . . seems like we most of
the time have such humidity.
Also, if any of you desire a nice instrument, the below web address has for
about $35 w/shipping a nice digital hygrometer and temperature gauge.
http://www.mydiscountcigar.com/s-263n.html
Best
Jack Fulton

> Christine,
>
> My problem in damp dismal England is the humidity is too high during the
> winter month¹s which caused coating problems with my egg-tempera-print
> process the ambient temperature, also had an effect and after doing a few
> tests.
> I found that a temperature of about 20 degrees Celsius allied to a humidity
> of 50% is about right. a couple of hot air space heaters and a cheapo
> barometer did the trick.
>
> Pete
>
>
>> is really important.
>>
>> I know most of you see this as a conspicuous variable, but for some
>> reason, I had not given it much thought until Mark Nelson stressed its
>> import. So I went to the local smoke shop to purchase a hygrometer for
>> $7.99, the kind that goes in your humidor if you like cigars, and
>> discovered to my dismay that the humidity of my darkromm (aka my
>> bathroom) was a dismal 14%. No wonder my nose hurts. So I got a
>> cheapie humidifier and ran it for an hour before I coated - getting the
>> humidity up to at least 40%. I also used Mark's suggestion of passing
>> the paper over the humidifier immediately before coating. You will not
>> believe the difference in my prints. Rich, rich, smooth, dark blacks,
>> even on unsized Crane's. And NO bronzing! None! My Arrggghhhyrotypes
>> have transformed into argyrotypes, and I think I can make this deadline
>> after all.
>>
>> Of note, I compared several papers - unsized Crane's, sized Crane's.
>> Buxton, and Rives BFK. The unsized Crane's was surprisingly the best,
>> with the sized (by myself) being the worst. Buxton was second, and
>> Rives was third, not so great. The best print so far has been on the
>> unsized Crane's with and extra .5g Sulfamic Acid added to 50 ml of
>> Argyotype sensitizer.
>>
>> It's funny it was such a simple thing. Kinda like when your car dies
>> and you bring it to the shop and ther like, um, you need a new switch
>> so your car knows it's in park, when you thought you needed a whole new
>> starter.
>>
>> So Judy I think you were definitely on the mark when you were discussing
>> the bronzing your students were getting on the VDBs when they blow-dried
>> - I theorize iron-silver processes greatly dislike dry air.
>>
>> Thanks everyone,
>> Christine
>>
>>
>
Received on Mon Jan 12 10:51:47 2004