Peter C. Duchochois

“ A simple and expeditious process, yielding intense black impressions on a white ground, is yet to be found for the reproduction of plans, maps, etc., without resorting to a negative cliché or drawing. ”

“ The image appears soon and rapidly becomes vigorous; in half an hour it will be completely developed. When the exposure is sufficient the color is deep sepia, but not so intense if the quantity of citric acid is feeble. No fixing is necessary; it suffices to wash in several changes of waters.”
“The image can be toned with great facility by a weak solution of gold or of platinum chloride, or, better, by a mix­ture of these two salts. If the impressed paper be treated by a very diluted solution of potassium ferrocyanate, one obtains very pretty blue proofs.” ”

“ In a saturated solution of tartaric acid dissolve freshly precipitated ferric oxide, and keep the solution—ferric tartrate—in the dark. To prepare the sensitizing solution, dissolve 20 parts of uranic nitrate and from 1 to 3 parts of tartaric acid in 100 parts of water, and add a small quantity of ferric tartrate, the proportion varying with the tint desired: an excess gives a blue black. With this solution brush the [pg 46] paper over, and, when dry, expose under the negative cliché, then develop with a solution of potassium ferricyanate at 4 per 100 of water. ”

“ Float the paper upon the following solution for three minutes and hang it up to dry:
39 The sensitiveness increases in proportion to the quantity of uranium nitrate. With the above formula the paper can be exposed in the camera, or, for printing, under a negative cliché.
In printing an exposure of five seconds in diffused light gives an image perfectly visible, and a grayish black tone; ten seconds gives a vigorous image almost of a black color; in from fifteen to twenty seconds the image is very strong, with the color of an engraving. In sunshine the action is neces­sarily much more rapid. ”

“ It is no longer an insulated and anomalous affection of certain salts of silver or gold, but one which, doubtless, in a greater or less degree, pervades all nature, and connects itself intimately with the mechanism by which chemical combination and decomposition is operated. ”

“ One should avoid to keep the sensitized tissue in a moist and warm atmosphere, for in less than ten hours it becomes insoluble even in complete darkness. It should neither be kept in the air contaminated with gaseous reductive matters, such as the products of the combustion of coal gas and petroleum, sulphydric or sulphurous emanations from any source, the fumes of turpentine oil, etc., which, by reducing the chromic salt, cause the insolubilization of gelatine, prevent the print to adhere on the support or the clearing of the image, which may even refuse to develop. ”

“ As said above, it is exposed under a positive cliché, plans, designs, etc., drawn on tracing paper or linen. The more transparent the material, the more rapid the chemical changes. During the insolation—and it is very short—the chromic compound is reduced, the parts corresponding to the ground, that is, the transparent parts of the cliché, are discolored, while those under the design remain unaltered; the image being, therefore, faintly visible, and being formed of the chromic mixture, it is developed by the fumes of aniline in a blue black tone. ”

“ If in lieu of albumen paper, one employs paper prepared with a thin coating of gelatine, and dissolves the not acted on gelatine in warm water, a very fine positive image is obtained by means of acidified inks which will fix themselves on the bare paper.
Positive impressions from positive clichés can also be obtained in operating in the following manner: On its removal from the printing frame the proof is washed, sponged between sheets of blotting paper, then covered with not acidi­fied India ink mixed with potassium bichromate, and, when dry, exposed from the verso to the action of light. ”

“ If paper be washed with a solution of ammonio-citrate of iron and dried and then a wash passed over it of the yellow ferro-cyanuret of potassium, there is no immediate formation of true Prussian blue, but the paper rapidly acquires a violet-purple color, which deepens after a few minutes, as it dries, to almost absolute blackness. ”

“ Immerse a sheet of paper in a solution of India rubber, 4:100 of benzole, and let dry, which requires a few minutes. This is the flexible support. Then after exposure, brush over the India rubber solution on the carbon tissue, apply upon it the support when the benzole is evapor­ated, and pass the whole under a rolling press to secure adhe­sion, then develop. To transfer, soak the proof in tepid water, apply it on the material prepared, as it will be explained fur­ther on, and when dry, imbue the support from the back with benzole, to soften the India rubber, and strip. ”

“ A very capital process for many purposes is to float or steep your paper in a mixed solution of bichromate of potash and sulphate of copper. As for E. Hunt's chromotype process,” 2 I have mixed gelatine, or occasionally grape sugar, or both, with the solution, but instead of developing it by a silver solution, as in the chromotype, wash out the salts unacted on by light, and develop by floating on a solution of ferrocyanide of potassium. ”

“ In our practice we have often taken a negative cliché from drawings made in the ordinary manner, without the aid of the camera obscura (which would have been too expensive for drawings of a certain size) , by simply printing a proof by contact on plain or albumenized silvered paper, and fixing, without toning, in a new solution of sodium thiosulphate, then washing as usual. ”

“ The cyanofer preparation is quite sensitive. From half a minute to two minutes exposure, according to the intensity of the light and the thickness of the coating, is sufficient in sunshine to reproduce a drawing made on the ordinary tracing paper. In the shade, by a clear sky, the exposure is about [pg 39] five times longer, and varies from half an hour to an hour and more in cloudy weather, but then the design is seldom perfectly sharp.
The progresses of the impression is followed by opening one side of the printing frame and examining the proof. ”

“ The Negatives.—For the carbon process the negatives should be intenser than those intended for printing out on silver paper. However, good proofs may be obtained from any negatives, so to say, by varying the strength of the bichromate solution, as, also, by using the tissue freshly sensitized for weak negatives, in order to obtain vigor, and for strong negatives, the tissue two or three days after its preparation, [pg 93] when it yields better half tones. Printing dodges are also resorted to. ”

“ As usual, it is advantageous to size the paper with starch.
The ammonio-ferric oxalate is prepared by precipitating ferric chloride or sulphate by aqueous ammonia, then washing the precipitate collected on a filter until the washing water be [pg 116] neutral or does not evolve the smell of ammonia. The precipitate is then placed in an evaporating dish, and by small quantity is added a hot solution of ammonium oxalate until it is nearly (not entirely) dissolved, when the solution is set aside for a few hours, then filtered and evaporated to crystallization. ”

“ As to the theory of this and similar processes, the insolubilization of the bichromate organic substance acted on by light was formerly attributed to the oxidation of the substance by the oxygen evolved during the reduction of the chromic salt into chromic oxide; but from the fact that oxidation generally tends to destroy organic matters, or to increase their solubility, it is more probable that it results from the formation of a peculiar compound of the substance with chromic oxide (J. W. Swan) ”

“ It has been said that before being applied on the support the proof should be immersed in water to soften the tissue. The time which it should be allowed to absorb water has an im­portance which must not be neglected. If it do not remain long enough to be soaked through, small invisible air bubbles are formed on its surface, and interposing themselves between the image and the support, form minute, brilliant, silver-like spots on the finished picture; and, if the temperature of the water is above 20 deg. ”

“ As soon as the liquid is applied, which cannot be in too thin a film, the negative picture vanishes, and by very slow degrees is replaced by a positive one of a violet blue color on a greenish yellow ground, which at a certain moment possesses a high degree of sharpness and singular beauty and delicacy of tint. ”

“ If the paper be dried too rapidly the sensitive compound remains on its surface, and in developing the image does not come out well. If, on the other hand, the drying is too slow, the solution penetrates too much in the paper and the image is wanting of vigor and does not appear very sharp. One cannot depart from this rule that the desiccation from the moment the solution has been applied until the paper is dry should last no more than from twelve to fifteen minutes. ”

“ Carbon transparencies are invaluable for reproducing nega­tives in the original size by the same (carbon) process, or for enlarging by the collodion or gelatine process. For these pur­poses they should be made on the special red tissue manufac­tured by the Autotype Company, of London, Eng. They can, however, be made on the ordinary tissues.
Whatever be the tissue employed, the transparencies for the reproduction of negatives are seldom opaque enough, and should be intensified. ”

“ When the film is set, the plate is immersed in filtered water until greasiness has disappeared, when on its removal from the bichromate bath the tissue is laid, without draining, upon it and pressed into contact with the squeegee to remove the excess of liquid and, with it, the air bubbles interposited. The tissue is then allowed to dry in the air on the collodionized plate in the cold season, or, when the weather is warm and damp, in a box in the bottom of which is placed a quantity of quicklime in earthen dishes. ”

“ The following process, discovered at the same time as the cyanotype, and termed chrysotype, is thus described by Sir John Herschel:
“In order to ascertain whether any portion of the iron in the double ammoniacal salt employed has really undergone deoxidation, I had recourse to a solution of gold, exactly neutralized by carbonate of soda. The proto-salts of iron, as is well known to chemists, precipitate gold in the metallic state. ”

“ To prepare by floating, pour the solution in a shallow tray, which needs not to be more than 20×34 inches, 30 inches being the width of the drawing paper usually employed; then roll the paper and place it on the solution. Now, taking hold of it by two corners, draw it out slowly: the paper will unroll by itself. This operation can be done by diffused daylight, but, of course, the paper should be dried in a dark room. It dries rapidly. Endless rolls are prepared by machinery. To expose, the drawing is placed in the printing frame, face downwards, and the sensitive paper laid over it. ”

“ The platinum paper is at least three times more sensitive than the silver paper used in the printing-out process, under the reductive action of light the yellow color of the prepared paper turns brown and then becomes of a lighter color, nearly orange, so that the darker parts of the image often appears more luminous than the dark half tints. ”

“ There remains but one class of uranic photographs to be described, namely, that obtained when we develop with a salt of silver or gold (or platinum?) . This class may be made to print much more rapidly than our ordinary silver printing process, approaching sometimes more nearly to the calotype development in this respect. ”

“ The general instability of organic combinations might lead us to expect the occurrence of numerous and remarkable cases of this affection among bodies of that class, but among metallic and other elements inorganically arranged, instances enough have already appeared, and more are daily presenting themselves, to justify its extension to all cases in which chemical elements may be supposed combined with a certain degree of laxity, and so to speak in a tottering equilibrium. ”

“ Exposure.—To print, the tissue is laid over the negative, taking care that it covers the safe edge, and a strip of silvered paper placed in the photometer, then both the printing frame and the photometer are exposed to light side by side.
Unless the negative be weak, when more vigor is obtained by exposing in sunshine, the printing should be done in the shade. ”

“ A print is floated on this solution, face downward, for three or four minutes, taking care to agitate the liquid as little as possible; the print is afterwards immersed and another one floated in its place, thus proceeding until all the prints are immersed or the solution can hold no more. A fresh solution is then added to strengthen it: the older the solution the more rapidly and better it works. In this developer copper cyanide is precipitated on the parts acted on by light, and this exactly in the proportion to the luminous action. ”

“ For intense negatives the ammonia should be discarded and replaced by the same quantity of chromic acid.
The time of immersion has also a certain influence on the results. The less the tissue is allowed to absorb the solution the less sensitive it is, but also the more the tendency of the half tints to be washed off during the development. ”