Maxim Muir's blue black developer

[Tony Lakin]

Hi
I have just spent my evening trying to mix up a litre of this dev using the formula in Anchell's Darkroom Cookbook the sulfite dissolved after some time I then added the other chemicals in order but nothing seemed to dissolve properly and I ended up with a jug of sludge, when I first saw the formula in the book I thought the quantities of chemicals seemed rather high for 1 litre of solution, the formula from the book is :-

Water @ 52 deg. cent. 750ml
Sodium Sulfite anhydrous 180 grams
Hydroquinone 53 grams
Phenidone 2.2 grams
Benzotriazole 1.5 grams

Allow solution to cool to about 24 deg. Cent. before adding 35 grams of Sodium Hydroxide.

I did not get to adding the Sodium Hydroxide as the solution was alredy grossly over saturated.

Has any one else mixed this formula, is there a misprint in the book or am I being stupid ( I am quite used to making up various solutions from raw chemicals )

Any help much appreciated

[Merg Ross]

Hi Tony-

That does sound like a lot of Sodium sulfite for a liter, about 12 tablespoons by my calculation. I note from the formula that a white percipitate will form and almost clear upon addition of the Sodium hydroxide. Perhaps you should have continued with the Sodium Hydroxide and additional water.

[D. Bryant]

Hi
I have just spent my evening trying to mix up a litre of this dev using the formula in Anchell's Darkroom Cookbook the sulfite dissolved after some time I then added the other chemicals in order but nothing seemed to dissolve properly and I ended up with a jug of sludge, when I first saw the formula in the book I thought the quantities of chemicals seemed rather high for 1 litre of solution, the formula from the book is :-

Water @ 52 deg. cent. 750ml
Sodium Sulfite anhydrous 180 grams
Hydroquinone 53 grams
Phenidone 2.2 grams
Benzotriazole 1.5 grams

Allow solution to cool to about 24 deg. Cent. before adding 35 grams of Sodium Hydroxide.

I did not get to adding the Sodium Hydroxide as the solution was alredy grossly over saturated.

Has any one else mixed this formula, is there a misprint in the book or am I being stupid ( I am quite used to making up various solutions from raw chemicals )

Any help much appreciated

I have used the MM blue black formula using Muir's formula writen by him, but it's been a very very long time back so I can't answer your questions about the above formula.

But I can tell you I wasn't very impressed with the way the blue blacks looked. I tried the developer once but never again.

Don Bryant

[Tony Lakin]

Hi Tony-

That does sound like a lot of Sodium sulfite for a liter, about 12 tablespoons by my calculation. I note from the formula that a white percipitate will form and almost clear upon addition of the Sodium hydroxide. Perhaps you should have continued with the Sodium Hydroxide and additional water.

Hi Merg
Thanks for you answer I knew about the precipitate but this was much more than that, it took ages to dissolve all the Sulphite and I am almost certain that the solution must have been just about fully saturated at that point, maybe someone else will know if the 180 grams is correct or not or maybe that there is some other problem.
Thanks again
Regards
Tony

[Payral]

I don't know that formula but two things:
- are you sure sodium sulfite you have is the anhydre version, if it's the crystal one you should divide pat two the weight.
- did you use distilled water for your formula, sodium sulfite is often very sensitive with water purity. I never succeed to get a very good dissolution with tap water, in any quantity.
Hope it will help.

[Tony Lakin]

I don't know that formula but two things:
- are you sure sodium sulfite you have is the anhydre version, if it's the crystal one you should divide pat two the weight.
- did you use distilled water for your formula, sodium sulfite is often very sensitive with water purity. I never succeed to get a very good dissolution with tap water, in any quantity.
Hope it will help.

Hi
Thank you for your response, the sodium sulphite I used is definately anhydrous and although I used tap water it is very pure in my area and I have never haed a problem before.

[Ole Tjugen]

If your sulfite had been crystal, you should have doubled the weight, not halved it. So it isn't that.

But yes, the solution at this point will be supersaturated. With the addition of sodium hydroxide the increased pH will increase the solubility, so almost everything will dissolve. Then when topping up to the final volume the rest should dissolve.

Manx tap water should be good enough, unless the water works have added too much calcium carbonate for some reason (it happens here too, occasionally). I've turned to using bottled drinking water for making stock solutions - Olden water is very pure, very consistent, and very much cheaper than distilled water (at least here).

[Tony Lakin]

If your sulfite had been crystal, you should have doubled the weight, not halved it. So it isn't that.

But yes, the solution at this point will be supersaturated. With the addition of sodium hydroxide the increased pH will increase the solubility, so almost everything will dissolve. Then when topping up to the final volume the rest should dissolve.

Manx tap water should be good enough, unless the water works have added too much calcium carbonate for some reason (it happens here too, occasionally). I've turned to using bottled drinking water for making stock solutions - Olden water is very pure, very consistent, and very much cheaper than distilled water (at least here).

Ole
Thanks for your reply, I am sure it isn't the tap water that is the problem,as,I have never had a problem in over 40 years but your idea of using bottled drinking water is an excellent one and I will certainly use it in future, it is a problem getting distilled water here and it is expensive
After dissolving the anhydrous sodium sulphite with difficulty the solution is supersaturated as you say, disolving the hydroquinone is impossible I just end up with something like tho consistency of porridge not just precipitation and I am guessing that finally adding the sodium hydroxide would not have that dramatic of an effect.

Regards
Tony

P.S. Living in Norway could you not melt some snow to obtain distilled water?

[Ole Tjugen]

"Melting snow" is in a way what I do, except that I use snow that fell before the industrial revolution: "Olden" is glacial meltwater, from the bottom of a glacier, filtered through a kilometer or so of fractured rock.

Adding sodium hydroxide does have a dramatic effect on the solubility of hydrouinone.