Several Years ago I was teaching a workshop for the Photographers Formulary in Condon, Montana - good folks, BTW - and there was a guy in the workshop that was using an antique process, and I don't recall which one. Not wet plate, may have been silver collodion, but I don't remember for positive. I remember his negatives would be bullet proof for most silver processes. Interesting. There was a guy from Santa Fe, NM that used to do dye transfers for Eliot Porter that gave a demonstration once for our photographers group involving cooking mercury over a burner. He wore a re-breather and we stayed WAY back.
Completely away from the Daguerrotype process. There are mines down in Big Bend where they used to extract mercury from cinnabar ore. It is said that it wasn't uncommon for miners in the mines to have full jaw bones that were gone, as well as mental issues. That is some nasty stuff. Ironic, though true. When I was a child the dentist where I got my teeth worked on, in Northern Nebraska, one time gave me a vial of mercury if I promised him I would sit still in the chair. He did, and I remember playing with it on the family dining room table. I don't think anyone realized how very nasty the stuff was. That was probably in 1954 or 55.
Wet Plate? Wow, and I thought my process was antique!
Several Years ago I was teaching a workshop for the Photographers Formulary in Condon, Montana - good folks, BTW - and there was a guy in the workshop that was using an antique process, and I don't recall which one. Not wet plate, may have been silver collodion, but I don't remember for positive. I remember his negatives would be bullet proof for most silver processes. Interesting. There was a guy from Santa Fe, NM that used to do dye transfers for Eliot Porter that gave a demonstration once for our photographers group involving cooking mercury over a burner. He wore a re-breather and we stayed WAY back.
Completely away from the Daguerrotype process. There are mines down in Big Bend where they used to extract mercury from cinnabar ore. It is said that it wasn't uncommon for miners in the mines to have full jaw bones that were gone, as well as mental issues. That is some nasty stuff. Ironic, though true. When I was a child the dentist where I got my teeth worked on, in Northern Nebraska, one time gave me a vial of mercury if I promised him I would sit still in the chair. He did, and I remember playing with it on the family dining room table. I don't think anyone realized how very nasty the stuff was. That was probably in 1954 or 55.