Washing Bromide Enlargements
The Cork Clips Hold the Bromide Print in the Water in a Vertical Position
The Cork Clips Hold the Bromide Print in the Water in a Vertical Position
The difficulty of washing bromide enlargements of the larger sizes has always made the amateur hesitate to undertake much of this kind of work. The developing and fixing can be done with comparative ease, because of the facility with which the print can be kept moving in a tray that is smaller in size than the print itself, but washing is such a long process that one’s patience is exhausted before the hypo is completely eliminated. Continuous handling of a print for 30 minutes is tedious work. This objection can be overcome in the simplest and most efficacious manner, as follows:
Procure some large corks of the best quality and in each cut a groove completely around it, near one end, to serve as a retainer for a rubber band; then cut the cork lengthwise through the center, and cut a wedge-shaped piece from the center toward the end opposite the one where the groove was cut for the rubber band. After placing a band in the groove of the proper size the combination will work similarly to an old-fashioned spring clothespin.
If two of these are snapped on the edge of a bromide print, this can be dropped into a bathtub or laundry tub for washing. The corks will cause the print to float vertically in the running water. By this means a number of prints can be washed at a time without any danger of their sticking together or becoming wrinkled or cracked in the bath.—Contributed by T. B. Lambert, Chicago.