Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/11/04
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I believe the glass plates Matthew Brady's crew was using for the Civil War work were sometimes developed in a tented, sealed wagon with mercury vapor. That's downright horrifying, when one thinks about it. There's a photograph of Edward Weston made by Ansel Adams or Imogene Cunningham- I don't recall, could be wrong on both counts- where Weston is in a doorway with his hand on the door frame. His nails are black; possibly as a result of repeated exposure to pyrogallic acid. I experimented with it as a developer for sheet films some years ago but it's difficult to work with and very toxic. I couldn't get an unstreaked negative no matter what I did, and placing my hands in the pyro wasn't something I wanted to do. I've never gotten rid of the stuff- don't know how I would. Wendy On Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 10:04 AM, Richard Man <richard.lists at gmail.com>wrote: > Wow, I didn't mean to insult anyone but obviously touched a nerve. > Sorry about that. > > Of course I would be interested in knowing any studies or data that > related to darkroom chemicals and illness. For my parts, while I don't > use gloves all the time, I use a Nova processor so there is minimal > air evaporation of chemical into the air and minimum contact of my > hands and the chemical. > > My throw-away remark about carpel tunnel is simply that moving from > wet darkroom to dry lightroom does not automatically mean it is much > safer. There are risks to everything. Here's one example that may not > be obvious - in the darkroom, most people stand. In front of the > computer, most people sit, and more likely with improper postures, and > so it goes. > > > -- > // richard m: richard @imagecraft.com > // w: http://www.imagecraft.com/pub/Portfolio09/ blog: > http://rfman.wordpress.com > // book: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/745963 > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >