SECRETARY'S NOTES
These notes are written just before Christmas so I have you all very much in mind. We have had a fair covering of snow, but it has gone before photos could be taken. I hear many saying "You`re lucky" and I must say I agree with them.
Film supplies are now back to normal and I have good stocks of Konica plus some 3M Scotch 100 iso. Chemical stocks are good - but there is one chemical it would be better if you could get from your local chemist - Ammonia 30%. It is rather unpleasant to dispense and cannot be sent through the post in glass bottles for fear of breakages. Mine comes from the local chemist at £1.99 for 500ml. He has to get it on special order and I am sure your chemist would do the same. Talking of ml. brings me to another point. It is quite correct that they are different from cc`s. but the difference is minute and will not cause any serious problem.
In the last Newsletter Brian Asquith of Area 11 asked if rounding up quantities of chemicals really mattered. It is a matter of common sense really. Photographic chemists spend years working out exactly how much of a substance is needed to produce ideal results. The amount may be in fairly round figures when compounded for 1 Litre. The problem of small quantities lay in splitting up the Litre into odd amounts to fill our developing tans, i.e. 300ml. Further problems crop up when some of the chemicals used in the professional formula are 1n 80% liquid form and we only posses the powder type of chemical. The late Brian Wheatcroft and recently Lawrence Edwards did a terrific job in working out the amounts of each chemical needed to give 1 Litre of a number of solutions which if used in those amounts will give optimum results to all E6 compatible films
If one rounds up you will get something near to a decent process, but unless the rounding up is the same every time you will get slight casts of a different nature.
Good beam balances have sliders on the beam which enable you to weigh down to as little as 0.01 gm. It is easy to weigh 1.75gm as it is to weigh 10gms. The same can be said of liquids if you have a good set of piets. Mine will dispense as little as 0.01ml. With a 2 ml syringe you can get down to 0.05ml.
The letter balance type scale which only weigh down to 1 gm are of little use for the sophisticated E6 formula. They could probably work on the old Moorhouse type brew.
If you are getting results that satisfy you - fine. If you hanker after perfection and many of us are like that, you need to be exact.Ron.