Bromoil printing and bromoil transfer

by Emil Mayer

This complete removal of the ink with benzol may also be repeatedly effected. Beginners can, therefore, use any prepared print several times for experiments. But experts should not think of washing an unsatisfactory print with benzol. Those who possess a transfer machine can remove the film of ink mechanically in the simplest way by transfer.

If it is desired to remove the ink from very small portions of the print, this is most easily effected by repeated use of art-gum, which should be sharpened to a point. After every application of the art-gum, a fresh surface of the gum must be used, so that the ink is not again transferred to the picture. It should be noted, however, that repeated use of the gum on the same spot may cause blisters.

Failures.—To assist the beginner, some possible failures will be here described.

It may happen that during the inking the print becomes covered with fibers and small hairs of the most different shapes. This phenomenon may sometimes become so troublesome that a successful print appears problematical. It is frequently incorrectly assumed that these impurities are caused entirely by the brush. Hairs that have fallen from the brush are always recognizable as such, for they are straight, relatively thick, lie entirely on the surface of the film, and can be easily removed. When there is an excessive appearance of fibers, they are due to the use of an unsuitable cloth for drying. The fibers are of the most different shapes, from dots to recurved and entangled lines.

From the fact that they always appear most strongly and frequently during the inking up, it is frequently erroneously assumed that they are caused by the brush used for the inking, or that dust is deposited from the air; this is not so. A dirty brush may be to blame; mostly, however, they are fibers of very different shapes, which are brought on to the damp and somewhat tacky gelatine film by the pressure of an unsuitable cloth, which is not free from lint, and they are held fast by the gelatine and torn from the cloth as this is lifted. At first these thin and almost transparent fibers are not visible. But they take the ink, and thus it happens that they seem to appear in ever increasing numbers during the inking. If individual fibers (which may come from an otherwise suitable cloth), or brush hairs that have fallen out, have to be removed, this is readily effected by art-gum, worked to a point with the fingers. With such a point long fibers can be very easily lifted from the film, while the tiny cloth fibers cling very firmly to the film. A small white spot, where the gum point has touched, remains, as this removed the ink also from the gelatine. Such points can be completely closed up by repeatedly going over them with the brush.

Single hairs or fibers lying on the surface may be allowed to remain, when they occur in places where for any reason one must not destroy the ink film; they can be very easily removed from the film with a sharp instrument in the after treatment of the finished print; usually they leave scarcely any mark.

If, on the other hand, the fibers have appeared in large numbers, the print should be immersed in water and one should try to remove them by gentle friction with the tip of the finger, which is generally successful, even if the film of ink is also removed at the same time. If, however, the fibers adhere so firmly that they cannot be removed in this way, which is particularly likely to happen in the shadows, the whole coating of ink must be removed in the manner outlined in the previous section, [page 73].

The only safeguard against the appearance of this difficulty is the use of a material as free from lint as possible for drying the film.

It may happen that the print takes the first hard ink instantly and very readily, but that even with long hopping clearness of the details is not obtained; the picture indeed shows up well, but remains muddy, as even the high lights retain the ink and become darker with further application of the ink. Then, as a rule, the requisite relief has not yet been attained, and the print must be placed in warmer water. If all the instructions for the development of the bromide print, the bleaching and the swelling have been adhered to, and success is still wanting, then the fault lies in the paper, which was hardened too much in manufacture. The bromoil process is based on the fact that the shadows are tanned more than the high lights, and that then the tanned places take up more ink than the untanned. If the whole film was completely hardened from the start, there cannot be more tanning added by the bleaching, and the ink will take everywhere, in the lights and in the shadows.