THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS, Vol. IV., No. 105, September 7, 1860
In a recent interview with M. LIESEGANG, editor of the Photographic Journal, he handed. us a specimen. of a paper for photographs prepared with arrowroot instead of albumen. The surface is exquisitely fine and delicate, but without any of the glaze of albumen, which in the estimation of many persons of taste, gives such an effect of vulgarity to albumenized prints. The tone of a specimen we examined was highly satisfactory. We understand from M. LIESEGANG that this paper has been extensively used amongst photographers in Germany for some time past.
The method of preparation is as follows:--
"Dissolve 5 grammes of chloride of sodium, 0.05 grammes of citric acid, in 120 grammes of distilled water. Filter it when necessary, and pour the solution into a perfectly dean china evaporating dish. Then add to it 4 grammes of clean arrowroot meal, and heat it over a spirit lamp till it boils, stirring it all the while with a glass rod."
The paper should be of medium thickness, and as fine in texture as possible: M. LIESEGANG prefers the German positive papers. To apply the solution "fasten firmly with small hails at the four corners, as many sheets of paper as you wish to prepare, to a smoothly planed board, keeping carefully uppermost the side which has a fine even surface, (called the felt side). When the arrowroot solution is cold, care-fully remove the film. formed upon the surface, for this would easily make the preparation uneven. With a very clean damp sponge, take up a little arrowroot and spread it over the uppermost sheet of paper in even stripes over its length and breadth. It should only be touched lightly so as not to make the paper rough. Then efface the stripes by soft touches with a second very clean sponge. Afterwards remove the paper from the board, hang it up on a line to dry, and treat the remaining sheets in the same manner.
The quantity - given . in the above formula is sufficient for about 12 sheets of 18 X 22 inches.
"The paper prepared may be kept for a long while. The citric acid serves to make the tone of the middle tints rosy and to keep the whites clear. Succinic acid and tartaric acid should not be used, because they make the paper easily turn yellow in the gold bath."
A sixty-grain nitrate of silver bath is to be used, and the printing conducted in all respects as for albumenized paper, With the exception that the sel d'or toning bath is recommended. We see no reason why the alkaline gold toning bath should not be used, although M. LIESEGANG expresses an Opinion that it is not suitable.
We hope shortly to experiment in this direction, and report the results, as from the excellent colour and surface of the sample of paper before us. in which there appears an almost entire absence of texture, we anticipate that, for portraiture especially, this paper will give the most satisfactory results.