Re: formulight + hardener on plait glass

From: Alex Swain <fotoobscura@gmail.com>
Subject: formulight + hardener on plait glass
Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 14:01:50 -0400

> I am new to the alt process mailing list but am interested if anyone
> has had experience exposing to clear glass using liquid emulsion.

A few people in this list do that kind of stuff. I do glass for
in-camera use but peole like Kate Mahoney does that for "prints."

Troop recommended alkaline glutaraldehyde hardener in Film Developing
Cookbook. That would work effectively, but for emulsion additive,
glutaraldehyde can be added as a dilute acidic solution and is still
highly effective. (Glutaraldehyde lasts very long in acidic solution
but doesn't last at higher pH.)

> Furthermore I am interested to know if anyone has the specs on the
> formulight hardener and how much *heat* it can tolerate.

I have not tried it, and I don't have information on it. If it doesn't
have warning about its fume, it's probably chrome alum type hardener,
or epoxide, active chloride, and other types of hardener. What is
specified as most preferable hardeners in recent patents are
bis(vinylsulphonylmethyl)ether and s-triazines (particularly
2,4-dichloro-6-hydroxy-s-triazine, which is easy to synthesize in a
couple of hours of work).

> My ultimate
> goal is to blow a pre-exposed piece of plait glass with temperatures
> up to 2000f.

I think dry gelatin will degrade a bit below 200C (can look up what
the literature value is and post later). If you want to seal the image
in glass, you might want to look for histology supplies for making
microscope slides. (but you won't get the fused image, of course.)

--
Ryuji Suzuki
"You have to realize that junk is not the problem in and of itself.
Junk is the symptom, not the problem."
(Bob Dylan 1971; source: No Direction Home by Robert Shelton)