Hubl's Glycin Paste

[semeuse]

a glycin developer, excellent for stand development, popular from the early 20th century (reference Cassell's Cyclopedia of Photography and Anchell & Troop)

hot water (125F / 52C) 500ml
sodium sulfite 165g
glycin 135g

mix well - takes some time to get all the glycin to dissolve
then add

potassium carbonate, crystaline 625g
water to 1000ml

This makes a thick, creamy stock solution with great shelf life (I have used year old stock with no problems). When diluting for use, I have found that I must use distilled water or else I end up with a cloudy solution that gives uneven results (I assume there is something in my tap water that reacts with the chemistry). Distilled water gives a clear pinkish solution (kind of looks like gasoline) that is a wonderful stand developer.

Suggested starting points for use:
diluted 1:30 for 10 minutes with minimal agitation for Efke PM50

I particularly like this for roll films:
diluted 1:55 for 45 minutes, agitate for first minute, then leave it alone; after 45' a 30 second water rinse, then fix.

[semeuse]

as Juan pointed out, the glycin in solution has a very long shelf life - I have used both Hubl's and Ansco 130 with no problems after a year.
I would suggest a starting point for FP4 similar to what I've done with the Efke films - say 1:50 for 40 minutes

[seawolf66]

semeuse and others I Thank you for your time and Information on this adventure! I have been told that your development
time and your dilution ratio can help you get better and even developement of your Negatives, Even at my old age I am still learning stuff: Lauren

[pavelt2tk0]

Hi guys,

I'm making and using this developer. I also running on line store with photographic chemistry and many of our customers are using this.

I personally use this with agitation, and never tried for stand development. My dilutions are 1+60 and average development times with agitation about 20 mins.

The developer is very long lasting - stock solution is similar to Rodinal in terms of shelf life, and this is basically a good reason to make it - glycin itself will detariorate much much faster.

If somebody goes to make it, do it in a quantity minimum 300ml of stock. You are free to use anhy carbonate, and be sure to take half of the sulfite amount, because the amount in the recipe is given for hydrate.
The preparation is the following:

1. Heat up distilled water with sulfite up to 95-98C. Try to dissolve it completely.
2. Then put glycin into this hot solution, stirr well for a minute or so - glycin will go into this solution very well and completely. At this point you should have very heave cream like solution.
3. Heat up to 95-98C again.
4. Then add very small amount of potassium carbonate ad stirr it - be carefull carbon dioxide will form and you will have a lot of foam.... so stirr it fast and prevent it from going out of the glass. Then add another small mount of carbonate and repeat he procedure until carbonate will not cause foam (it will happen after ~10% of carbonate added).
Then put the rest of carbonate and stirr until it dissolve. The solution will become "more liquid".

Let it cool.
Shake very well and long before use.

You may use very old stock of glycin (take it 5-10% more if it dark in color) - this will not stain the film emulsion. Or even it does - it is ok.

The developer is usefull for paper also(at 1+10), but you need to have fresh glycin because of staining of brown one.

To my mind this is one of the best tonality developer, but it give it most in the midtones, but not in shadows and highlights.

[seawolf66]

# 4 learnt the hard way [ Foam all over the top Like a foam Soda ! ] LOL! Did not use distilled water will it still work ?

[semeuse]

It should still work fine - if you find lots of streaking, you may want to consider the distilled water

[pavelt2tk0]

Yes, point #4 is a hard stuff - that is why it was written to add very small amounts Non-distilled water should work, however, it influences pH, so the next batch you do may have slightly different developing times. Be sure to shake it for a couple of minutes very well before you dilute the developer. All the concentrate mass must be homogenius before use.

[df cardwell]

Hubl's is one of those artifacts from LONG LONG AGO that can be amended for the images we make today, There isn't any reason to mix a paste, unless you are traveling through 1905 Europe and want to develop film in your rail car or hotel and don't want to mix a developer at room temperature from powder. By the '20s, folks were generally using the same proportions but making a more wieldy solution. There were slight variations in proportion, and Sodium Carbonate was substituted readily.

A common version from the late 1930's was usually called 'Glycin-Carbonate for Slow Tank Development"
This version from Ed. Lowe, 1939

Sulfite 15 grams
Glycin 60 grams
Sod. Carb. anhy 15
Water, to 2 liters

Dilute 1 to 10.

Another formula from the same time that Lowe mentions is by LM Condax, for color sep negs.

Water 1 liter
Sulfite 50 grams
Glycin 9 grams
Kodalk 40 grams.

Then, there is the ultimate glycin developer, Crawley's FX-2.

But these, and several more, all cousins of the old Hubl paste.

[hawkwind]

a glycin developer, excellent for stand development, popular from the early 20th century (reference Cassell's Cyclopedia of Photography and Anchell & Troop)

hot water (125F / 52C) 500ml
sodium sulfite 165g
glycin 135g

mix well - takes some time to get all the glycin to dissolve
then add

potassium carbonate, crystaline 625g
water to 1000ml

I'll give this a try. I'm tired of throwing away old, brown glycin. I use it for ansco 130, which requires 11g, but the smallest amount available from photographer's Formulary is 10g. The next up is 100g, and with the long life of 130 I usually end up pitching some.

--Gary

[df cardwell]

If a paper developer calls for 11 grams, and you only have 10, what do you think will happen if you only use 10 ? IT IS THE SAME FORMULA. You'll never see the difference.

[Photo Engineer]

I put my glycin in a black plastic bag, seal it, and put it in my darkroom (chemical) refrigerator. That helps a lot!

PE