JG Motamedi
Member
...I think it would be fairly simple to make a development box that retains all the vapor (I'd put the plate in a sealed box and use a vacum to vaporize the mercury, then pressurize to condense the vapors again, probably won't work, but that's my idea)
AKA cold mercury developing, there was an article by John Hurlock in the Daguerreian Annual describing its use.
It does work as well as heat, although in my experiments it is a bit slower. I suppose if you can get the vacuum high (low?) enough it should be able to develop the Daguerreotype plate as quickly as hot mercury.
In my use (a bell jar) the vacuum process didn't solve any of the toxicity issues, since after removing the vacuum the mercury is (probaby) spread all over the bottom and perhaps sides of the jar. I suppose you could rub it down with sulfur, but you might as well just buy or build a fume hood and do it right.