Printer's Ink and Photographic Plates

Abstract

IN a paper on the action exerted by certain metals and other substances on a photographic plate, by Dr. W. J. Russell (Proc. R.S., vol. lxi. p. 424), the author mentions that the Westminster Gazette is printed with an ink which readily acts on a photographic plate. The printed paper in some experiments is placed in contact with the photographic plate, in the dark, and after being left in contact for some time, in the dark, the plate is developed, and the printed letters come out clearly. Dr. Russell mentions the names of several periodicals the print of which acts on a sensitive plate. To these the following example of the same phenomenon may be added: a photographic plate wrapped up in an advertisement sheet of Modern Society on development showed the printed characters very clearly, the words reading from left to right, not being reversed, so that the action must have taken place through the thickness of the paper. This sample of the action of printer's ink on a photographic, plate (the property of Mr. W. B. Croft) has been in the excellent physical laboratory museum at Winchester since 1892. The print is good and clear, and probably one of the earliest observed instances of the action of printer's ink on a photographic plate in the dark, in which the physical conditions were known and recorded.