Dev Crisis in the Scottish Highlands

On the 15th I received a pannicy email from James Millar. James was working in the Scottish Highlands had run out of developer and asked if I could get some to him. At that time I was away. As James says on his blog 'you can't just pop down to the shops for positive wet plate developer and even if you were in central London'. Well, actually you can, James. I devised a recipe using easy to find items from local shops. The recipe is:

Ingredients for a 1000ml

45 ml Meths

700ml Distilled Vinegar

200ml De-ionised water

36 grams of Sulphate of Iron or Ferrous Sulphate

Method

Dissolve the Sulphate of Iron in the de-ionised water, this takes a fair bit of stirring and am told it dissolves more easily when heated, but I didn't have that option and it dissolved after a while.

Then add the vinegar and the meths and mix.

James says on his blog 'It smells really bad and I would suggest wearing a mask. Then finally, filter, filter and filter more. It takes ages and ages and a lot of filter paper but eventually it does filter clear. Then it's ready to use. I'll find out tomorrow if it works..

..tried a few plates on some mates who were visiting and bloomin' eck, the Heath Robinson, Kitchen Formula works! Epic. Going to name this dev 'John's Special Brew'.Method courtesy of John Brewer. Thanks John.'

You're welcome James!

James’ blog is https://jamesmillar.exposure.co/a-month-of-tintypes