Reading Eder

On Tue, 18 Oct 2005, Kai Hamann wrote:

> at the end I found a reference related to the "Handbook" IV/1 in
> "Reilly, James M. The Albumen & Salted Paper Book: The history and
> practice of photographic printing, 1840-1895. Light Impressions
> Corporation. Rochester, 1980" on
> http://albumen.stanford.edu/library/monographs/reilly/app-a.html (where
> the "History" is mentioned too). Cite:
>
>> Josef Maria Eder and Fritz Wentzel, Die photographischen Kopirverfahren
>> mit Silbersalzen (Positiv-Prozess), Wilhelm Knapp, Halle (1928). This
>> book, which is also known as Book IV, Part I of the 3rd edition of J.M.
>> Eder's multivolume Ausfuhrliches Handbuch der Photographie is the most
>> complete technical and historical account of silver printing-out
>> processes ever written. Unfortunately, it has never been translated
>> into English. It and the references cited in it are the source of a
>> great deal of the material in The Albumen and Salted Paper Book.
>> Editions previous to the 1928 edition were authored by Eder alone, but
>> thanks to the efforts of Dr. Fritz Wentzel, the 1928 edition is the
>> largest and most complete. <

Thanks Kai !!! (Also thanks to Richard) ... That clears up a mystery,
which was why all the fuss about Eder -- because, frankly, reading the
"credits" without the weights and measures seemed pointless, also a bore.
Though I suppose if I'd known the REAL thing existed I'd have been even
more frustrated. My German can last for a paragraph or two (with the
dictionary!), not 14 volumes!

(Kai, did you read them in German or Danish???)

On the 3rd hand, having had Clerc and Glafkides in English, now I wonder
about those translations: they seemed OK, but more useful for background
than actual operation -- sort of bare bones. Probably the best sources
were the old Annuals and Formularies and Dictionaries and "amateur"
magazines until about 1920... maybe even 1930. (After that.... Paul
Anderson !!!). On the 4th hand, I also had Stouffer 21-steps and
sensitometer, I suspect more useful than any other endowment, physical or
mental.

Meanwhile, how did Reilly read Eder?

Judy S.
Received on Wed Oct 19 00:00:54 2005