On 01/24/2001 14:27, [EMAIL PROTECTED] opined:
>Photographers in the old days of
>19th century were known to die from too much pyro exposure (say, 40 years
>of the job, daily, without gloves, actually PUTTING HANDS INTO THE STUFF!!!
>Dumb...). I don't think you are gonna die, but maybe develop some
>dermatitis if you bath in the stuff.
When Kennedy was shot (or whenever one of our pilots was killed) the
photographic lab at Naval Air Station Miramar, San Diego, California had
to produce a moderate to humongus number of panchromatic and color 8 x 10
prints in short order. The Kennedy job involved over 24 hours of printing
from 4 x 5 dupe negatives using six enlargers.
We took turns processing these prints, by hand, in 8 inch deep stainless
24 by 28 trays. No gloves. 100 prints at a time. The prints were placed
in the developer face down by one person, one at a time, two per second,
in a slight sliding motion. As soon as the last one went in you'd have a
stack built in the far corner of the tray. The prints were then skewed (a
straight fan) across the tank by rapidly moving them from the bottom of
the stack with your fingers, causing them to scoot across to the front of
the tray. Then again to the back.
When the time was up (8+ minutes with the dilution we were using - and
the industry standard at the time - +68 degrees F.) the prints were taken
out from the bottom of the stack one at a time and thrown into the stop,
where the process was repeated once, then on to the fixer for 15 minutes.
For wash we had two 60 inch diameter, foot deep circular wash trays that
were half in the darkroom, and half in the finishing area. The prints
were fed into that tank where they swirled around for 30 minutes by the
water nozzles that came in from the bottom. The drains were slots in the
circumference a few inches from the top. Water volume was changed out
every 7 minutes, or less. (The water would whirlpool over the sides if
you cranked the flow up all the way!) When one tank got 200 prints in it,
the next two batches went in the second. We then had to wait to soup any
more until the prints were taken out by finishing, though on several
occassions we tried storing the prints from the hypo into 65 gallon
stainless portable chem mix tanks filled by slowly running water.
The chemicals were replaced every hour or so (you could tell by the feel
in the stop and fix) or 1500 prints, even though we had a crude
replenishment system.
Now I figure, the stop bath neutralized the developer, and fix was mostly
washed off in getting the prints into the wash. I usually leaned over
into the wash tank with my arms out and let the water go up over my
biceps. After that, our hands were washed with Neutragena and dried to
get ready for the next batch. Never had a problem. The only thing that
could be remotely connected is that my hands do tend to get dry and if I
don't use a hand cream after a shower or doing the dishes, I will get
hard dry skin on the sides my fingernails that tends to get caught on
clothing and stuff, sometimes (if I pick at it) it will bleed for a bit.
I try to trim the dry skin with a nail clipper to stay ahead of it as it
sticks up. But I think (never asked) that everyone has this problem,
chemicals or not.
I worked in that lab for a year before I went out on the carrier Bon
Homme Richard to Vietnam, then for 6 months more when I got back. Then
college in San Francisco, where I spent a lot of time in my b&w darkroom,
had a night job in a custom color lab, and was partners in a commercial
studio. Got my BFA in Photography in 1970, then ended up in Phoenix,
running a lab out of the bathroom and living room of a motel suite for a
year, shooting Barbizon model wannabees at the rate of 16 a week, and
cranking out their portfolios. Three years off from darkroom work, then
12 years around Washington D.C. working for the man, including several
one year stints in chem mix, also up to my elbows in solutions, breathing
dust from pouring dry chemicals from 40 pound bags and 60 pound fiber
drums into nalgene drums we used to put in the hoist that lifted the
stuff up and dumped their contents into the 2500 and 1500 liter custom
screw pumped tanks. Spent some of that time (1/3) in chem analysis,
testing mixes, films, effluent, water, triple distilling our own water to
use for cooling electronics (H2O does not conduct electricity if pure),
shipping 500 pounds of silver back to Kodak per month, and enjoying life!
Anyone else have similar experiences they can relate?
JoMac, Imagineer with Camera
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