alternative to dichromate sensitizer

Hello all,

One of the things that bothers me most about old photo processes is the
use of dichromate. Toxic, carcinogenic, environmentally harmful. All in
all, not a nice ion to work with.

A few years ago, I looked into the UltraStable color process (Berger,
California, if I remember correctly). They seem to use some organic
sensitizer instead (but still with gelatin emulsions as far as I can
tell). Setting up an UltraStable lab turned out to be too expensive for
me, so further inquiries stopped.

I would very much like to use something safer than dichromate (for
carbon, gum and possibly temperaprint). Does anyone on the list know
what sensitizer is used for the UltraStable process. I can't find
UltraStable on the web, so I have not asked them directly (I don't even
know if they are in business). They may consider it a trade secret, but
I hope not.
Alternatively: Does anyone know suitable candidate sensitizers that
could replace dichromate?

Best regards,

Tom Einar Andersen

Ps. For those who have not seen the UltraStable process, download
Wilhelm's terrific book (for free!) from
www.wilhelm-research.com/book.html. It has a lot of references to the
process.
Received on Tue Jan 18 09:11:52 2005