Toning Velox

I have always wanted to know the 'new colour process' that Verrill developed early in his life. Here it is reproduced some 111 years later!

Toning Velox and Bromide Papers During Development.

From The Camera, ‘An Illustrated Magazine Devoted to the Advancement of the Amateur Photographer’ May 1901.

Digital capture by Doug Frizzle July 2011.

Notes also say ‘* Reprinted by request from the February, 1900, Camera.’

With many amateurs the great objection to Velox and other develop­ing papers has always been the great rapidity with which they develop with consequent loss of control and liability to under or over-expose when printing—a few seconds variation frequently ruining prints. Combined with the difficulty or impossibility of obtaining any but black tones, unless the all too common sickly greenish color caused by an excess of bromide can be considered a tone. These troubles have been partially overcome with Carbutt's "Vinco" paper, but even this has but a small range of tone. About two years ago I accidentally discovered that Velox and nearly all the other bromide of silver papers could be toned during development, and also the developer used in obtaining these tones (which ranged from warm black through sepia to terra cotta and orange red), retarded the development, giving great latitude in both developing and exposing. The process is extremely simple and as far as I know has never been published. The tones obtained are permanent, and prints which have been constantly exposed to sunlight for nearly a year show no signs of fading or change. The developer is in three solutions as follows:

With a medium negative, 12 inches from a Rochester kerosene lamp, the exposure and developer should be about as follows: (For the various tones, although as will be seen, a variation of from ½ to 5 minutes in exposure will cause but slight difference in results.)

As a rule, the longer the exposure and the slower the development, the more reddish the tone, but a great variation in exposure will give quite different shades with the same developer. Even the bistre and olive tones develop slowly, and what is of greater importance will not over-develop. After a print has fully developed it seems no amount of soaking in developer will change it and the whites remain clear. To some, perhaps, the excessive length of exposure may seem a drawback, but if Welsbach or electric light is used this can be greatly reduced, and in either case the time spent in exposing is well repaid by the wonderful control in developing and tones secured, some of them, when on glossy Velox, resemble pure gold tones on P. O. P. This process can also be used on lantern slides by contact printing, although the density obtained is not very satisfactory unless rather longer exposure is given than for paper. Numerous tones besides those given can be secured by vary­ing length of exposure and proportion of developer, and experiments in this line are very interesting.—A. Hyatt Verrill.