Amidol asprin?

Christopher Nisperos · Aug 10, 2016

I didn't know exactly where to post this, here's a pharmaceutical product with a name we all know... I thought it would amuse you:

. . . as well as a Yamaha scooter called a "T-Max":

. . . and old-timers might remember the Kodak instant color printing process they dubbed, "DuraFlex"? Here's another version:

DREW WILEY · Aug 10, 2016

The primary application of amidol is in fact pharmaceutical. The chem outfit which primarily distributed it around here, which is the world epicenter
of Pharmaceutical and Biotech R&D (including a giant Bayer plant within sight of my office here), actually told me that it requires a higher grade of
purity amidol for photo use than for medicine.

Photo Engineer · Aug 10, 2016

Amidol is NOT aspirin though. Amidol is related to Tylenol.

And yes, I have said it many times.... Photo Grade is generally higher quality than both Food Grade and Pharmaceutical Grade.

PE

Gerald C Koch · Aug 10, 2016

I am reminded of the APUG member who spotted a pound bottle of glycine in a health food store. He also found out that it would not develop film. The developing agent and the amino acid are somewhat related but not the same.

There are some interesting things on store shelves. The skin remedy for dogs Sulfodene liquid (not the shampoo) contains 2-mercaptobenzothiazole as the active ingredient. A drop placed on the emulsion side of a piece of film will dissolve all the silver halide under it in a matter of a few seconds. Being a mercaptan it is a powerful silver halide solvent. It could be used as a more expensive film fixer or monobath ingredient. For those interested in tinkering check the label. The manufacturer has changed and the product might be reformulated.

Photo Engineer · Aug 10, 2016

And the TETRAZOLE (phenyl mercapto tetrazole or PMT) is an antifoggant. It is also a key ingredient in the 24,000 speed film that raised quite a furor here on APUG a few years ago.

PE

RauschenOderKorn · Aug 11, 2016

Gerald C Koch said:
I am reminded of the APUG member who spotted a pound bottle of glycine in a health food store. He also found out that it would not develop film. The developing agent and the amino acid are somewhat related but not the same

Actually I committed the same blunder. In German, the name "Glycin" is not unambiguous as the amino-acid is called "Glycin" and there is "Photo-Glycin". The Photo-Glycin has been the only application for more than half a century, so this has created some confusing, when body builders started eating Glycin (the amino acid).

Christopher Nisperos · Aug 13, 2016

DREW WILEY said:
The primary application of amidol is in fact pharmaceutical. The chem outfit which primarily distributed it around here, which is the world epicenter
of Pharmaceutical and Biotech R&D (including a giant Bayer plant within sight of my office here), actually told me that it requires a higher grade of
purity amidol for photo use than for medicine.

Interesting. Do you remember the original pharmaceutical use of amidol? Was it like Tylenol, as Ron points out?

Gerald C Koch · Aug 13, 2016

Christopher Nisperos said:
Interesting. Do you remember the original pharmaceutical use of amidol? Was it like Tylenol, as Ron points out?

http://thedu.in/compare_prices/4495-amidol-500-mg-paracetamol-tablet

Gerald C Koch · Aug 13, 2016

This thread points out the problem when chemicals are referred to by common or trade names. In the early days of photography the developing agents like metol were protected by patent. Therefor you could not sell a developer containing metol without paying a royalty. Thus many manufacturers sought chemicals that acted as developing agents. Hence things like Eikonogen (the sodium salt of 1-Amino-2-naphthol-6-sulfonic acid) were patented and sold. Both Amidol and Glycin were originally trade names. As the patents expired the developing agents came into common use but were still referred to by most people by their trade names.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/eikonogen-a-new-universal-developer/

Photo Engineer · Aug 13, 2016

And as we now know, Eikonogen and quite a few others were a "flash in the pan" to be very photographic about it.

PE

removed account4 · Aug 13, 2016

i wouldnt' use azo maximum strength for prints either !

Gerald C Koch · Aug 13, 2016

Many of the early developers were made by pharmaceutical companies such as Bayer and Burroughs-Wellcome.

Photo Engineer · Aug 13, 2016

And Kodak had its own plant in Longview Texas.

PE

DREW WILEY · Aug 15, 2016

Sadly our local chem house closed their doors a few years ago. It wasn't due to a lack of business. They had quite a following in biotech, pharmaceutical and cosmetics manufacturing, darkroom enthusiasts, metal plating, etc. But when the original owners retired, and two of their
staff bought the business, they both happened to have recent phD's in the seemingly esoteric field of gallium research. All of a sudden that became a very hot topic in chip manufacture, and they both found it impossible to pass up the personal financial incentive across the Bay in Silicon Valley.
So I've got nobody to ask about amidol in medicine, other than doing web searches myself. But my own concern is simply the quality of amidol.
Theirs was made by Spectrum Chemical and superb. Some of the Chinese made stuff showing up in photo supply houses over the past decade has been awful, imparting an orange stain to the paper which is hard to wash out. I did get some excellent Euro amidol from Artcraft in NYC a year ago.

Lachlan Young · Aug 15, 2016

DREW WILEY said:
I did get some excellent Euro amidol from Artcraft in NYC a year ago.

Has anyone ever worked out who the manufacturer in Europe is? I recall some references to 'English' Amidol but never anything more specific.

DREW WILEY · Aug 15, 2016

I'd contact Spectrum. They're international. But relative to medical uses, I could probably just look em up in my wife's library at home, since she has a prescription license.

Photo Engineer · Aug 15, 2016

I have to clarify that tylenol is related to p-amino phenol and amidol is similar to it but has 2 amino groups.

So, every time you take a tylenol you have a developing agent in your stomach by the time it converts to the tylenol form while amidol gives you headaches when you try to get it or use it.

PE

AgX · Aug 15, 2016

RauschenOderKorn said:
Actually I committed the same blunder. In German, the name "Glycin" is not unambiguous as the amino-acid is called "Glycin" and there is "Photo-Glycin". The Photo-Glycin has been the only application for more than half a century, so this has created some confusing, when body builders started eating Glycin (the amino acid).

And there also is "Glycerin" (engl. "Glycerol")

Photo Engineer · Aug 15, 2016

In English, the amino acid is Glycine.

AgX · Aug 16, 2016

I know, I was refering to that alcohol. Just because of its similar name, does not belong in this thread...

pdeeh · Aug 16, 2016

Photo Engineer said:
So, every time you take a tylenol you have a developing agent in your stomach by the time it converts to the tylenol form while amidol gives you headaches when you try to get it or use it.

this should be quoted in every thread about Amidol

Arklatexian · Aug 16, 2016

Photo Engineer said:
And Kodak had its own plant in Longview Texas.

PE

And that plant, in Longview, TX, is on a small lake which at night once made a nice reflecting pool for the lights and steam of the plant and photographic clubs and societies would maKe field trips there with the permission of Eastman, mostly in the wintertime. Been there, done that. For years now, trees have grown up around the lake ruining the effect. It has always been to my knowledge, a plant making "organic" chemicals.....Regards!

Gerald C Koch · Aug 16, 2016

For many years Kodak manufactured a variety of chemicals not just those for photography and sold them under the Eastman name. Now Eastman Chemicals has been spun off as a separate company headquartered in Tennessee.

DREW WILEY · Aug 16, 2016

I'm not sure that glycine remark is correct when it comes to photographers, Ron. We apparently don't have ACTG-based DNA, but ADTG (amidol, dektol, thiosulphate, and glycin). But digital printers have DNA composed of HFCS (high fructose corn syrup). Not all mutations are beneficial.

Amidol asprin?

Attachments

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency