Liquid-gate printing

I promised Bob I would look for a decent description of liquid-gate
printing, but it seems that my personal library has been weeded of
reminders of aspects of past lives rather more thoroughly than I'd
thought and this is all I could dig up.

>From Lenny Lipton's _Independent Filmmaking_ [Straight Arrow Books:  San
Francisco, 1972]:

    A Technique that accomplishes much the same kind of restoration [as
    silicone coating] can be performed during printing, usually optical
    printing.... The rejuvenation process is called wet printing or
    liquid-gate printing because the film, as it passes through the
    glass-enclosed printer gate, is immersed in a liquid bath.  The
    liquid fills in the abrasions, and to some extent suppresses the
    grain pattern of the film. There is some controversy about the
    effectiveness of this procedure to suppress grain.  It seems
    reasonable, though, to expect that the surface grain at least will
    be diminished.

    Liquid-gate printing is useful no only for the restoration of
    damaged film, but also for maintaining the highest possible quality
    in undamaged film, especially in the preparation of printing masters
    and enlargements from the 8mm formats to 16mm or 16mm to 35mm.

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                   Conservation DistList Instance 5:2
                  Distributed: Saturday, May 25, 1991
                        Message Id: cdl-5-2-004
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