Zinc Process Recording

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donniej
Victor III
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Joined: Thu May 26, 2016 3:46 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA

Zinc Process Recording

Post by donniej »

I've acquired Berliner's instruction manual for recording and am almost ready to prepare the chemistry. The accomplishment so far has been making a pure zinc disc from bullion. I melted down 1-½, five pound ingots and made a ½" thick, 8" disc. It then took me ~16 hours to mill out all the major imperfections in the casting. Now I'm polishing it and hopefully tomorrow will be able to record.

The notes on how to prepare the wax covering are pretty clear, XXX grams of beeswax is dissolved in YYY ml of cold ether and the layer that rises to the top is the wax covering. What's not clear is the acid solution used. I've read that hydrochloric, chromic, sulfuric were each used, as well as a mixture of dilute sulfuric and potassium dichromate. The earliest documents list the solution for chromic acid and ARSC has an article on H2SO4 & potassium dichromate being the last solution used, but no formula.

If anyone has any conclusive documentation, please let me know. Otherwise I'll just give it my best guess.

Thank you.

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Governor Flyball
Victor II
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Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Re: Zinc Process Recording

Post by Governor Flyball »

Interesting topic. I you have found the basic formula for recording. The processing is filled with many variables and I would imagine actual trial and error experimentation is the route you must take.

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