Re: APIS, hydroquinone hardening

Ryuji Suzuki wrote:
>
> From: MARTINM <martinm@SoftHome.net>
> Subject: Re: APIS, hydroquinone hardening
> Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 19:16:05 +0200
>
> > Nor do I. But explaining what's actually taking place in detail is
> > pretty controversial (to say the least).
>
> Not really. It's just that some people find it exciting when they make
> it mysterious.

If this is referring to me, it's a silly and insulting remark. I of
course do not find it "exciting" to find that the mechanism for the
crosslinking is not well understood. I would like it to be understood,
so I can copy it out and finish my web page on the chemistry of the gum
process. But so far no one here has been able to tell me what the
crosslinking mechanism is, other than quoting Eder 1878, which is way
wrong, or giving me references that don't say what they are purported
to say, or say all different things. So if everyone "knows" what the
mechanism is (I assume what everyone knows is that CrIII "binds" to the
colloid somehow) this knowledge is purely theoretical; the empirical
evidence for it is harder to find.

There are some small missing details but they are not
> practically important nor of great scientific interest.

Of course none of the details, even the larger ones, of the mechanism of
the crosslinking are practically important, since people have been
happily doing carbon prints and gum prints for more than a century
without having a clue what the mechanism is. But, am I the only person
in the world who would like to know, just the same?
Katharine Thayer
Received on Sat Jul 16 09:48:38 2005