Just finished reading a biography of Chester Carlson, the inventor of Xerography, also known as Electro-photography (and not to be confused with Kurlian Photography).
I was curious whether anyone else has considered recreating his early experiments, to wit:
His initial experiments, done at home, involved a sulfur-coated zinc plate, electrostatically charged using a fur mitten. It was then exposed to a light pattern, then a special powder was sprinkled onto the plate, and the excess blown off. The remaining powder adhered to the plate in the negative pattern of the light image previously exposed to the plate (the sulfur layer acted to be slightly conductive upon exposure to light, discharging the electrostatic field only where light struck the plate). Since his powder did not have the properties of modern-day Xerox toner, he transfered the image to a sheet of wax paper by pressure, then heated the wax paper over a hot plate to fuse the image.
Later experiments, leading to the "Ox box" manual Xerographic machine in the early 1950's by Haloid (the forerunner of Xerox Inc.), used amorphous selenium coated plates, which are much more light sensitive than sulfur is.
Does anyone have any practical ideas on how to proceed with a home/darkroom recreation of this experiment? Obviously, it's fairly easy to get bottles of toner. Haloid's later experiments used a magnetic brush, composed of a mixture of iron filings with toner on a magnetic wand, to swipe across the charged plate; the toner stuck to the image charge on the plate, while the iron filing adhered to the magnet. This should be fairly easy to make.
As I see it, the hard part is getting the selenium plate. Charging the plate could be via a small electrostatic generator, if rubbing fur by hand is insufficient.
What I would like to see is an in-camera method of exposing the charged plate via a LF lens, then process the toner image onto fine art paper.
Any suggestions are welcome (other than ... 'just use a copier'...).
Joe
I was curious whether anyone else has considered recreating his early experiments, to wit:
His initial experiments, done at home, involved a sulfur-coated zinc plate, electrostatically charged using a fur mitten. It was then exposed to a light pattern, then a special powder was sprinkled onto the plate, and the excess blown off. The remaining powder adhered to the plate in the negative pattern of the light image previously exposed to the plate (the sulfur layer acted to be slightly conductive upon exposure to light, discharging the electrostatic field only where light struck the plate). Since his powder did not have the properties of modern-day Xerox toner, he transfered the image to a sheet of wax paper by pressure, then heated the wax paper over a hot plate to fuse the image.
Later experiments, leading to the "Ox box" manual Xerographic machine in the early 1950's by Haloid (the forerunner of Xerox Inc.), used amorphous selenium coated plates, which are much more light sensitive than sulfur is.
Does anyone have any practical ideas on how to proceed with a home/darkroom recreation of this experiment? Obviously, it's fairly easy to get bottles of toner. Haloid's later experiments used a magnetic brush, composed of a mixture of iron filings with toner on a magnetic wand, to swipe across the charged plate; the toner stuck to the image charge on the plate, while the iron filing adhered to the magnet. This should be fairly easy to make.
As I see it, the hard part is getting the selenium plate. Charging the plate could be via a small electrostatic generator, if rubbing fur by hand is insufficient.
What I would like to see is an in-camera method of exposing the charged plate via a LF lens, then process the toner image onto fine art paper.
Any suggestions are welcome (other than ... 'just use a copier'...).
Joe
.
