Re: Got it !! Re: help identifying a book

Yee ha and thanks! This makes sense to me that Gassan wrote it. for one
(you gum printers will like this), he talks about measuring out quantities
in a 1 oz. plastic cup because it is large enough in diameter to minimize
the effect of the meniscus. I don't know about you, but worrying about
being so exact in my measures as to be concerned with a meniscus is a bit
overkill with gum.

For two, in here, he talks about the paper expanding when wet (Rives BFK)
15% of its length! Now here I did a little math, because as I said before,
I would be surprised that a 22x30 sheet does expand 4.5 inches in one
direction, but if I take 15% of the area of the sheet, that would be only an
inch all the way around, so it is possible that paper, especially Rives,
expands this much. But he does mention that bichromate emulsions are
photosensitive when wet, and other good things, and I like his succinct
writing style.

Yes I would like the book; I am much interested in multiple editions of the
same author to see how the process changed thru time. You'll like this
Judy: Paul Anderson in one book talks about having a--what I
calculated--quart and a half of gum solution preserved perfectly for 16
years in one book, and then in another book 4 years later he talks about
having a gum solution 18 years. I wonder, does the guy ever gum print?? Or
did he just mix up oodles at once and had a leftover supply? I went thru a
liter of gum this semester alone! And then he originally says that all
prints can be had in 4-6 coats, and then modifies that to 5-8...this kind of
stuff interests me, why changes might have occurred. Also in when gum went
from "bi" to "di" and other such things.

One more thing about research--there are two books at the Harry Ransom
center I want: Hofmeister wrote a book on gum and so did Puyo. Harry
Ransom Center in Austin will NOT send the books to Clemson for my use
(understandable), nor xerox the books in entirety due to copyright
restrictions. These books are 100 years old--copyright??!!! One is in
French, which I can read; the other is German, which I can't. I can't send
my German translator to Austin for a vacation! I am quite bummed....I wish
there were someone I knew there who was German....
Chris

> Sigh no more, Christina -- but first I must torture you with why I was at
> Strand and its 8 miles of books on a Monday afternoon: The company that
> made the only lowfat cottage cheese edible with summer peaches suddenly
> changed both its package & its product, which is now a sour, salty, runny,
> lumpy mess. I wrote the company an irate letter demanding my $4.09 back,
> but the other brands are nearly as disagreeable, with thickeners and other
> additives, so I thought I'd try making my own.
>
> Sure enough, Strand's mile-high cookbook section had The Natural Food Book
> which not only explains (and illustrates) how cooking kills the vitamins
> and folate in fruit and vegetables, and how many calories you burn when
> you're sleeping, sitting, standing, running, etc., but tells how to make
> your own cottage cheese -- among much else..($7.50)
>
> Naturally it's not possible to leave Strand without a glance at the
> photography shelves, where I managed to resist several Ansel Adams books
> but noticed a spiral back, which is always intriguing -- This turned out
> to be the Handbook for Contemporary Photography by Arnold Gassan SECOND
> EDITION. (Mine was 4th.) Bichromate-Based Images begins p.103, and ends
> with Photogravure p.107, which I recall as the order & pages you cited.
>
> This "2nd edition Revised and Expanded" was published 1971, 3rd printing
> June 1972 "with errata." Published at $4.95, Strand price, $2.50.
>
> Do you want it? (No obligation, I'm happy to keep it.) The last sentence
> in the book, by the way, is "Color gum and silkscreen images can be
> combined with platinum, ferrocyanotype, gravure and conventional silver
> images for other possibilities." (Clearly a man ahead of his time.)
>
> Finally, speaking of gum in early books, you mention Betty Hahn & Bea
> Nettles... I don't believe Bea Nettles did gum, or not until later. Her
> process was Quick Print (or more likely Qwik Print), originally developed
> for proofing color offset, made by a company in Brooklyn called Direct
> Reproduction. When Nettles got divorced from one of the figures in that
> company she changed processes. (Or that's the story I got 3rd or 4th hand.
> No guarantee.)
>
> Now I need to find rennet for my cottage cheese -- we used to buy it as
> Junket, but that's gone the way of the lit-dial electric alarm clock.
>
> sigh,
>
> Judy
>
Received on Tue Jun 8 07:47:41 2004