Kalogen formula ?

I have seen references to "Kalogen" on APUG and would be interested to read a little more.

It is cited in a few threads as being posted by Gerald Koch in the "formulas" section of APUG, but whichever way I search for it in "Articles"I can't find it.

(I have found Anderson's notes at GEH website, by the way)

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

A few years ago some of the Formulae were lost in a Forum software upgrade unfortunately.

Ian

thank you Ian that probably explains it.
Rick yes that's the original I referred to. should have posted the link myself to help others

I copied this information from somewhere -- probably APUG -- back in 2005. The amounts aren't exactly as noted above, however.

"With Rodinal soon to be unavailable I thought the following formula might be of interest.

A developer called Kalogen was first marketed in 1917 by Paul L. Anderson. For years, photographers had favored a German developer called Rodinal. With the outbreak of World War I, Rodinal was no longer available. Anderson created Kalogen to remedy this situation. The formula appeared in his book
"The Technique of Pictorial Photography", J. B. Lippincott, 1939.

Distilled water (50°C) .................. 750 ml
Metol ....................................... 13.5 g
Sodium sulfite (anhy) ................... 180 g
Hydroquinone ............................. 53.0 g
Sodium hydroxide ........................ 35.0 g
Potassium bromide ....................... 5.0 g
Benzotriazole, 1% ........................ 80.0 ml
Distilled water to make ................. 1.0 l

Method of Preparation

Weight out the Metol and sulfite. Dissolve a pinch of the sulfite in the water before adding the Metol. Dissolve the other ingredients in the order given. A precipitate will form upon the addition of the hydroquinone which will dissolve upon the addition of the sodium hydroxide.

Transfer the solution to a 1 liter glass bottle, stopper and allow it to stand for 2 to 3 days. A small amount of impurities will precipitate out and the solution will become lighter in color. Filter the solution and transfer it to several small (2 to 4 ounce) glass bottles and label. When prepared correctly the solution will be a clear pinkish tan color.

When stored in nearly full and tightly capped small bottles, the stock solution will keep for months at room temperature. Should any crystals form due to storage at low temperature, they may be redissolved by warming and shaking the bottle.

The concentrate is diluted 1:30 to 1:60 for films. For 1:60 the average development time is 5 min @ 22C. Kalogen also makes an excellent paper developer when diluted 1:12 to 1:15 producing results similar to D-72. Develop 2 to 2-1/2 min @ 22C. The formula was published by Walter C Snyder, Dignan Newsletter, August 1973, pp 13-14.

Walter Snyder in the Dignan Newsletter article said that the original formula called for 9 grams of potassium bromide. He reduced the amount and added the benzotriazole. He made other changes to the original formula changing the Metol/hydroquinone ratio from 1:2 to 1:4. I have the feeling that he never adjusted the sodium hydroxide amount which may explain why there is an excess. I calculate 26 grams for 98% purity sodium hydroxide as enough to just create the phenolates."

It's interesting that it was created because Rodinal wasn't available. At that time there were alternatives to Rodinal available in the UK, Ilford had introduced their high concentrate p-Aminophenlol developer Certinal in 1907/8 and Mees and Shepperd had worked on similar developer and published their research around the same time, at Wratten & Wainwright before they joined Kodak.

It was some years before Kodak introduced their own version of Rodinal - Kodinol - and even then it wasn't made or sold in the US.

Ian

This is the original version, I've seen other similar MQ concentrated developer formulae.

Kalogen

Water distilled 1000.0 cc.
Claritol 26.3 grams
Sodium sulfite anhydrous 180.0 grams
Hydroquinone 52.5 grams
Potassium bromide 8.8 grams

When the above are mixed, a thick white precipitate results. Add

Sodium hydroxide 35.1 grams

When the sodium hydroxide is dissolved, a clear solution results. Bottle and allow to stand for 24 hours, then filter through paper and store in small bottles with rubber stoppers. Keeps in perfect condition for a very long time.

Dilute with water, 1:40 for tank development of plates and films, 1:10 or 1:15 for papers.
If allowed to stand in a cold pl ace there may be a precipitation of crystals. This does no her-., and crystals may be re-dissolved by warming and shaking the bottle.

Elon or metol may be used instead of Claritol, in which case only 13.15 grams should be used.

The post by Trask is my post from a few years ago. The formula was modified slightly when it appeared in the Dignan Newsletter. Kalogen was manufactured commercially during the war. With the return of Rodinal production ceased.

Thanks Trask for posting those details, and Gerald for confirmation

FYI and I know this is an old thread..... Gerry posted an optimized formula that adjusted for chemical reactions and the like.

Kalogen

Distilled water 750ml
Metol 12.5g
Sodium Sulfite 150g
Potassium Bromide 7.5g
Benzotriazole, %1 50ml
Hydroquineone 45g
Sodium Hydroxide 22.5
Distilled water to make 1l


I can attest that it works wonderfully.

mrred said:

I can attest that it works wonderfully.

Click to expand...

Glad that you find the developer useful. I might add that I use it at 1+99 for slow films and 1+49 for medium to fast speed film and 1+11 to 1+15 for papers.

Example times

Ilford Pan F+ EI = 64 1+99 13 m @20C
Eastman 5222 EI = 400 1+49 11 m @20C

Now at 8 1/2 years for full PET bottle without any sign of decomposition.

Does anyone know what Claritol was, (the original developing agent in Kalogen) ?

Ian

mrred said:

FYI and I know this is an old thread..... Gerry posted an optimized formula that adjusted for chemical reactions and the like.

Kalogen

Distilled water 750ml
Metol 12.5g
Sodium Sulfite 150g
Potassium Bromide 7.5g
Benzotriazole, %1 50ml
Hydroquineone 45g
Sodium Hydroxide 22.5
Distilled water to make 1l


I can attest that it works wonderfully.

Click to expand...

Thanks for reporting your success with Kalogen. I'm curious -- did you mix the chemicals in that order? I was struck by the fact that the HQ is being added after the KBr and Benzotriazole; I'm used to seeing the HQ higher up the list of chemicals, nearer the Metol.

Trask said:

Thanks for reporting your success with Kalogen. I'm curious -- did you mix the chemicals in that order? I was struck by the fact that the HQ is being added after the KBr and Benzotriazole; I'm used to seeing the HQ higher up the list of chemicals, nearer the Metol.

Click to expand...

The hydroquinone should be added after the Metol and before the hydroxide. Other than that the actual order of its addition is not important.

Ian Grant said:

Does anyone know what Claritol was, (the original developing agent in Kalogen) ?

Ian

Click to expand...

I did a search on the web a couple of years ago and could find no other reference to it. The actual set of practical developing agents is rather small. At the time Andersen was working it was common for manufactures of developing agents to assign their own names. Hence the many names for Metol (Elon, Pictol, Graphol, ...). Either this was the case or it was a minor modification of some other developing agent. For example N-ethylaminophenol instead of N-methylaminophenol.

Trask said:

Thanks for reporting your success with Kalogen. I'm curious -- did you mix the chemicals in that order? I was struck by the fact that the HQ is being added after the KBr and Benzotriazole; I'm used to seeing the HQ higher up the list of chemicals, nearer the Metol.

Click to expand...

Yes. It's interesting to watch how much the formula is based on chemical reaction, as opposed to just a bunch of ingredients thrown in.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Gerald C Koch said:

Benzotrizole was added to insure a neutral black tone with the papers that I use. This is sometimes necessary even with D-72 since MQ developers sometimes produce an olive tone with some papers. However, I have used this developer for several years both for film and paper.

Click to expand...

Jerry, Ian, mrred and others who are familiar with this developer: if one were to use Kalogen only as a film developer, is Benzotriazole still a necessary ingredient or can it be omitted? If it can be omitted, are there any changes to be made to the weights of rest of the ingredients?

[I guess this is perhaps a more appropriate thread than the original thread I had posted this question.]

I never do. I bump the bromide up to about 9 (Using the Gerry balanced version I posted).

It looks like this when mixed, just after you add the hydroxide to trigger the reaction.

The mixture has to sit for about a week to finish the reaction. Then filter using a paper coffee filter into a golden brown syrop. It will have about 6x the strength of rodinal.

Broken immage...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/peterbcarter/33875791150/in/album-72157644217980207/

mrred said:

I never do. I bump the bromide up to about 9 (Using the Gerry balanced version I posted).

Click to expand...

This is very useful. Thanks so much Peter!

No problem.

Ian Grant said:

It's interesting that it was created because Rodinal wasn't available. At that time there were alternatives to Rodinal available in the UK, Ilford had introduced their high concentrate p-Aminophenlol developer Certinal in 1907/8 and Mees and Shepperd had worked on similar developer and published their research around the same time, at Wratten & Wainwright before they joined Kodak.

It was some years before Kodak introduced their own version of Rodinal - Kodinol - and even then it wasn't made or sold in the US.

Ian

Click to expand...

Hello ,, I know that this topic is old ,,
But I prepared this formula ,, (the unmodified formula) ,, but I tried to add (benzotriazole) after dissolving one gram in 100 ml of water, but it was not completely bleached and I added this solution to (Kalogen), but the solutions did not accept this element ,, And I stored the solution in a dark colored glass bottle for a week,
After a week, I found that there was a thick, dark brown layer on top of the bottle, and what appeared to be a (benzotriazole) precipitate that refused to dissolve.
- I filtered the solution. And it became a homogeneous solution.
However, are there any obstacles that can occur because (benzotriazole) fails to dissolve?

mohmad khatab said:

Hello ,, I know that this topic is old ,,
But I prepared this formula ,, (the unmodified formula) ,, but I tried to add (benzotriazole) after dissolving one gram in 100 ml of water, but it was not completely bleached and I added this solution to (Kalogen), but the solutions did not accept this element ,, And I stored the solution in a dark colored glass bottle for a week,
After a week, I found that there was a thick, dark brown layer on top of the bottle, and what appeared to be a (benzotriazole) precipitate that refused to dissolve.
- I filtered the solution. And it became a homogeneous solution.
However, are there any obstacles that can occur because (benzotriazole) fails to dissolve?

Click to expand...

If you are going to use this developer only for film and not paper, you don't need to use Benzotriazole. You can replace it with Potassium Bromide as explained by @mrred earlier in this thread.

Raghu Kuvempunagar said:

If you are going to use this developer only for film and not paper, you don't need to use Benzotriazole. You can replace it with Potassium Bromide as explained by @mrred earlier in this thread.

Click to expand...

Yes, I will do that next time.
But I read a post by a colleague in this topic that says that this developer is suitable for paper as well, and he said that in this case it must be diluted in a ratio of 1:15.
I sent some of this developer to a photographer in Tunisia and I was told that he succeeded in using it with printing.