Doing a MacGyver

[Photo Engineer]

Sea water will not fix film in any way whatsoever. Household ammonia can partially fix film, but is very very slow IIRC.

Pool Chlorine eliminator which contains Sodium Thiosulfate will work, but is hard to get. Ammonium Hypo used as fertilizer, is a very good fixer if pure enough.

PE

 

[bobwysiwyg]

While slower, sodium thiosulfate is found at pool supply stores and was the original fixer. I use it to fix my film that I develop at home with Caffenol C.

So yes, under the right conditions you can develop film with nothing but what you have at home.

Michael

Assuming one has a pool.

 

[neelin]

Do you know how much dilution it takes to make a reasonable fixer in practice?
-NT

I've been using 80ml of this + 6g Sodium Sulfite and water to make 500ml. It clears a Scopix (t-grain) leader in less than a minute, and something like Tri-X in about 1.5 minutes. I don't really count rolls, but it lasts.

Perhaps someone could comment about adding Sodium Sulfite directly to my concentrated 2.5USG of AT for better keeping prior to making up working dilution. It currently weighs 11.04#/USG. At 80ml/500ml working dilution, it's going to be around here for a while.

 

[Anon Ymous]

Well, I finally did some rough calculations with data gathered from their pdf (see page 30). So, they say that...

15fl.oz. of their fertiliser has 0.16lb N and 0.34lb S.

Now let's make it a bit more reasonable (metric)

100ml of their fertiliser has 16.34g N and 34.72g S

1 mol of ammonium thiosulfate is 148,2g, of which 28 is N and 64 S. This means 19% N and 43% S.

Based on N content, the fertiliser is 86% ammonium thiosulfate solution.
Based on S content, the fertiliser is 80,7% ammonium thiosulfate solution.
Let's say it's 80%, so you need 150ml to get 120g of ammonium thiosulfate, very close to what neelin says!

 

[ricksplace]

Actually, seawater was used by the navy as a fixer REMOVER. I have a navy issue training manual for the graflex camera. In this book, the author recommends using seawater as "hypo eliminator", then wash in fresh water.

Don't forget Tylenol. A few ground up Tylenol tablets, some Vitamin C, some washing soda and a bunch of water can make a decent developer. The Vitamin C takes the place of both hydroquinone and sulfite but without appreciable solvent action. Use a coffee filter to remove the insoluble stuff. I seem to remember that saturated table salt solution was a fixing agent.

 

[Mike1234]

I sent a link to another site describing the coffee/C processing technique and he was impressed/amused. Thanks for the BOOST!!

 

[removed account4]

I bought a small bottle of solution from a pool store labeled as "Thiosulfate". It would not clear film, even at full strength. I also tried sea water and water with very large amounts of salt dissolved in it to no avail.

the sea water would have been the equiv of perma wash which
is like sea water/ sodium sulfite kinda sorta ...

 

[gainer]

The water of the oceans is far from saturated with salt. The CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics shows silver chloride and silver bromide as soluble in sodium chloride solution.

 

[Philippe-Georges]

I have read somewhere (I do no more recall where) that urine, particularly from horses, was used by the resistance during WWII as a fixing agent. I do not know if this is a myth or not, and I never tested it…

Philippe

 

[removed account4]

Don't forget Tylenol. A few ground up Tylenol tablets, some Vitamin C, some washing soda and a bunch of water can make a decent developer. The Vitamin C takes the place of both hydroquinone and sulfite but without appreciable solvent action. Use a coffee filter to remove the insoluble stuff. I seem to remember that saturated table salt solution was a fixing agent.

i think you are right, a super saturated table salt solution can be used as a fixing agent.
it can be used to get all the silver out of a fixing bath ( or at least to 18 ppm )
by converting it to silver chloride ( white precipitate like hypo check does )
so it doesn't seem that much of a stretch it will also fix film.

i am looking forward to being hold up in a motel in the middle of no where
with just instant coffee, vitamin c, tylenol, table salt and tap water.

 

[removed account4]

Actually, seawater was used by the navy as a fixer REMOVER. I have a navy issue training manual for the graflex camera. In this book, the author recommends using seawater as "hypo eliminator", then wash in fresh water.

sea water is about 10% salt ..
it has selenium, sulfites and other stuff too ...

 

[Photo Engineer]

John;

Table salt or Sodium Chloride has some Silver halide solvent capabilties, but will NOT fix AgBr or AgI out of film. Sorry. It might remove a little Silver halide from paper.

PE

 

[McFortner]

Assuming one has a pool.

Well, as Adam and Jamie would say, this myth is "Plausible". Grant and Kari vote for "Verified". Buster, of course, has no opinion.

Michael

 

[Anon Ymous]

Can NaCl precipitate AgCl from fixer? I didn't notice anything when I tried it. Would KCl do the trick?

 

[removed account4]

Can NaCl precipitate AgCl from fixer? I didn't notice anything when I tried it. Would KCl do the trick?

has to be super saturated,
and it will work ... but then again YMMV

not sure about KCl, maybe ... im not a chemist and i don't play one on tv ..
wish i could be more help

 

[Photo Engineer]

Can NaCl precipitate AgCl from fixer? I didn't notice anything when I tried it. Would KCl do the trick?

Neither could probably ppt Silver Chloride from fixer, but Bromide or Iodide salts would.

PE

 

[Anon Ymous]

has to be super saturated,
and it will work ... but then again YMMV

not sure about KCl, maybe ... im not a chemist and i don't play one on tv ..
wish i could be more help

It was super saturated, but it didn't happen. I'm not a chemist either.

 

[Allen Friday]

Pyro anyone. There was an article in Phototechniques around five years ago about using green tea as a source for pyro developer in the kitchen. I don't remember any details other than I tried it and it worked to get an image on film. It was a fun experiment, but nothing I wanted to pursue.

 

[removed account4]

It was super saturated, but it didn't happen. I'm not a chemist either.

did you fill a container about half way with salt then keep adding water
and heat the water to get more salt to go into solution ..
and there is a salt sediment on the bottom ?

i'll have to tell the chemist that told me !
he has a degree

 

[Anon Ymous]

did you fill a container about half way with salt then keep adding water
and heat the water to get more salt to go into solution ..
and there is a salt sediment on the bottom ?

i'll have to tell the chemist that told me !
he has a degree

I used water at about 20C and kept adding salt, until it wouldn't dissolve. I started with about 500ml of water and had to use a large amount of salt. In the end, I had the solution, which should be about 35% w/v. I tried to precipitate AgCl out of spent fixer, but I got nothing. A single drop of 5% KI solution proved that there was a considerable amount of silver there.

 

[KenR]

Didn't William Henry Fox-Talbot use a saturated salt solution as his "fixer?" I believe that Sir William Hershel told him to try sodium hypochloride instead, as it would be stronger and more complete in its fixing action. (If I remember my history of photography course correctly.)

 

[Photo Engineer]

Didn't William Henry Fox-Talbot use a saturated salt solution as his "fixer?" I believe that Sir William Hershel told him to try sodium hypochloride instead, as it would be stronger and more complete in its fixing action. (If I remember my history of photography course correctly.)

This is a correct story but the chemical is Sodium HypoSulfite or Sodium Thiosulfate or common Hypo. All 3 are the same compound.

PE

 

[removed account4]

sodium hypochlorite ( l'eau de javel ) is a weak form of household bleach made from passing chlorine gas through sodium carbonate ...

 

[Photo Engineer]

And, it dissolves gelatin, but not silver.

Well, the film will be clear!

PE

 

[ic-racer]

Growing up near the Cuyahoga river (Cleveland, USA) in the 70s I recall a newspaper report of a man developing film with water from the river (this same river also caught on fire in the 70s). A few years ago I spend a few hours searching the internet for confirmation of that story but could never find it.