Paper developers of the 1930's and 1940's

Hello all,

 

I was just wandering what some of the paper developers would have been during these times. I had figured dektol for the end of the

40's, and possibly rodinal. A little research, came up with not very much information. Any knowledge is useful. Thanks!

<p>I learned my darkroom techniques from about 1960 by working with older photographers, all of them from the 'old school' of learning - one was in his 90s and even recalled photography in the era when the first dry plates were produced and before Eastman Kodak marketed the first Brownie camera, which would have been in the 1880s or 1890s, wow!</p>

<p>I recall everyone used Kodak D72 (this was the ancestor of Dektol, I believe), Kodak Selektol, or that awful good for nothing Universal developer Kodak used to market in small foil packets in their long gone Tri Chem Packs, the latter ruined many potentially good negatives for me until I did a little reading and realised there wereother developers out there. When EK finally took it off the market, I sighed and thought "good riddance!". Most home darkroom enthusiasts had a Kodak scale and weights and bottles of raw Eastman chemicals and mixed their own for films and papers.</p>

<p>At that time no-one I knew in Canada (well, maybe a few adventurous types in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, who would have bought their supplies in from the USA anyway and not from Kodak Canada) knew was Rodinal was in those days, I believe it is/was a film developer only and no-one I knew ever used it for paper. In my small rural community I was regarded as an adventurer for having mied my own Ansco 130 for papers and two bath developer for films. I found the formulas for these in Kodak and Leica books of the 1940s (see details below). </p>

<p>In the 1930s and 1940s it seems most people were satisfied with contact prints. I recall Kodak marketed a strong developer for its Velox papers named, no surprise here, Kodak Velox Developer. My first prints were made on Velox (this being in 1960) processed in Velox deeloper, which produced unique blacks and, given no dilution, a surprisingly pleasant range of mid tones, altho this may have been more in the paper than the developer.</p>

<p>Kodak Data Guides were published from the mid 1940s - I have a full set dated 1945 (unfortunately not to hand as I am currently overseas) which I believe was the first edition. One of the data guides dealt with Kodak chemicals and would be invaluable as a list of then available print developers. Also the Leica Guides published in th USA by Morgan & Lester from the 1930s, I have two, 1935 and 1943, both with chapters devoted to paper processing and many useful formulas. A lot of information out there if you can locate the books.</p>

<p>I hope other 'old timers' will contribute more information on this topic. I would greatly enjoy reading other posts and revisiting my early years in the darkroom via others' reminiscences.</p>

 

<p>While Rodinal was in fact marketed by the manufacturer very early in the 20th century as an all purpose developer for glass plates, film and paper, the references to using it as a paper developer were dropped in later advertising. While it can be used as a print developer, it's not economical and many other developers are better suited to paper.</p>

<p>Another interesting all purpose developer of the middle 20th century was usually referred to as a "universal" developer. Ilford and other reference manuals contained recipes, most of which contain ingredients that are still available. The application - film or paper - varied only in dilution. While interesting its use seemed confined mainly to traveling photojournalists and a few casual hobbyists who wanted to minimize their materials. Again, there were specialized developers that were better suited to getting the best results from papers. However the currently available Ilford PQ Universal developer is similar to the older formulae and can also be used for some film developing.</p>

<p>Somewhere I read thought I knew that for many years prints were "printed out". That is, exposed long enough to turn black without developing. Then, presumably, fixed as usual. </p>

<p>That might have been earlier, though, but is supposed to be the reason why contact prints were used instead of enlargements. That is, why large negatives, like 116 and 122, were needed. </p>

<p>I once saw a contact printer in a Goodwill store, all wood and with four 150W bulbs in it. I didn't buy it, though it probably belongs in a museum. The Velox I remember was fine with a 10W bulb, as my first contact printer had.</p>

Amidol was a popular developing agent for paper developers in times past.

<p><strong>Glen</strong>, "printing-out paper" did indeed form an image without developer; I got hold of some a few years ago (I don't know if anyone makes it now). It took something like 45 minutes in sunlight to get a decent density, then a water wash, and fixer. I understand they were used without being fixed as proof prints; the customers could choose the ones they wanted, but since the images would eventually be lost the photographer would still get an order for the real thing. The contact printer with an incandescent bulb (I've seen them around also) really couldn't be used for printing-out paper, since it wasn't bright enough and the color was too red, but of course was much cheaper and easier to handle than an enlarger.</p>

<p>Not much change in paper developers between now and the 1930’s. <br>

With only a few exceptions:</p>

<ol>

<li>

<p>The solvent for the chemicals is water</p>

</li>

<li>

<p>Developing agent – a reducing agent, able to reduce silver halogens (Swedish for salt maker) to their two component parts. Most these are cousins of benzene initially derived from coal. These have an affinity for oxygen and are able to liberate metals from their salts.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p>Preservative – The developer will readily oxidize and revert to coal tar. Sodium sulfite retards aerial oxidation and reacts to clear staining agents that form when the developing agent oxidizes.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p>Activator – Development mostly takes place in an alkaline environment. The more alkalinity, the more vigorous the developing. The pH of the solution is set by the activator. Activators are borax, sodium carbonate and sodium hydroxide.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p>Restrainer – developers must differentiate between exposed and unexposed salts of silver. Potassium bromide is typically used.</p>

</li>

</ol>

<p>The most common paper developer contains two developing agents. Metol blended with hydroquinone has the nickname MQ. Both together make a visceral developer well suited for photo paper. The combination goes back 100 years. metol gives detail while hydroquinone gives the density. <br>

<br>

The MQ developer has been around for over 100 years and was packaged and sold under a variety of names. Each might be slightly different in formula however the differences are insignificant. We are taking, Defender Artura, GAF -125, GAF-130, Gevert GD-4, Kodak D-72. Ilford ID-36, and many others.</p>

One of the prizes in a box of Cheerios cereal back in the 1950s was a small square of printing out paper. We kids could place a negative on that and put it in the sun for a while and lo and behold we got a nice contact print. Since everyone used 120 or 620 film back then that size was good enough for contacts. I don't think they told us how to fix it so we just had to keep the print out of the light as much as possible.

<p>I have a circa 1955 copy of the Leica Manual. Besides information on Leicas of that era, it has a chapter or two on darkroom work with not only names but formulas for a number of developers that were used back then. Grab a copy of that and you'll find all the info you could want. Don't know if Kodak was putting out the Darkroom Dataguide that far back but it would also have a ton of information.</p>

Thanks for all the replies. I'll check out velox developer. does anyone happen to know what it's D-insert numbers, name

is? I was just wandering about developers from this era, as I would like to try some. Does anyone happen to have the

name of any of these developers used in the 30's, early 40's by printers, pro's, and at home printers? I know there has

to be a lot of developers out there, as I know there was quite a bit of enlarging going on during those times, not just POP

prints. Does anyone have any pdf's from kodak, or other film/developer/paper manufacturers that have developers, and

formulas in it from those time periods?

 

Also, aren't POP prints hard to save? Don't you have to overexpose, and fix?

<p>Then contact printer I used to have had a 10 watt bulb, and was find for Velox. <br>

I don't know which papers needed 600W to expose.</p>

<p>The story I knew about POP might have been earlier. </p>

<p><strong>Gustave,</strong> you did have to "overexpose" POP in two senses: forty-five minutes in sunlight is far more than normal paper needs; and you had to let it get a bit denser than you actually wanted, since it would fade somewhat in the fixer. You did have to fix it, since otherwise any further exposure would darken it more. Like almost all paper, it was only sensitive to blue and ultraviolet light, so if you only looked at it by candlelight I suppose you could keep it for a while unfixed. The main reason for using it rather than the much more convenient developing-out papers was a sort of self-screening feature: since dark areas got dark immediately, they would shield themselves from further sunlight to a degree, and you could hold detail in shadows even with a contrasty negative. I found this to be true, but since I wasn't printing in a normal darkroom at the time, I can't say how big the effect was.</p>

<p>Gustave, I purchased a charming little book on eBay entitled <em>Darkroom Handbook and Formulary</em> by Morris Germain, published in 1940. It contains formulas for all of the major developers of the time. I have four PDFs to send you of the paper developers. If you send me your email address, I'll be happy to forward them on to you.</p>