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Develop the Plate
The book gave the following
steps for developing the plate:
- Return to the dark
room with the dark slide still wrapped in the cloth to protect from light.
- Set out three
dishes in the dark room:
- Add half an ounce
of sulphate of iron solution to two ounces of sulphate of iron solution.
This produces a ruby red colour. Add 40 minims of the 1 per cent
solution of bromide of ammonium. This is to be poured into Dish No 1
after the plate has been placed in this dish.
- Pour 3 ounces of
alum solution into Dish No 2
- Pour 3 ounces of
the "fixing" or "hyposulphite" solution into Dish No 3.
- Extinguish the white
light and lower the red light.
- Place the plate
face-up in Dish No 1, and pour the solution prepared above rapidly but
gently over the plate. Continue to rock the dish, and the image
should begin to appear after 10 to 20 seconds.
- If the exposure was
correct, the plate will probably need to remain in the developer for
between 2 and 5 minutes. To discover when the plate has been
sufficiently developed, turn the red light up pretty high, then hold the
plate, for a second only, close to the light. If the densest parts
appear almost but not quite opaque, the plate no further development is
required.
- Rinse the plate
under the tap.
- Lay the plate for
five minutes in the alum solution to harden the gelatine film.
- Rinse thoroughly.
- Place in the fixing
solution. This will cause the whiteness, that can be seen when the
plate is viewed from the back, to gradually vanish. After it has
vanished, continue to fix for a few more minutes.
- Wash thoroughly,
for at least half an hour under running water, or give frequent changes of
water.
- Rear the plate up
on edge to dry. On no account should any heat be used to dry it.
[ABC: Pages 28-32] |
