Microwaving prints!

[fschifano]

lay the prints out between pages of phone books for a couple of minutes -- the paper absorbs the water quickly and doesn't do anything to the prints!

A good use for recycled phone books, also!

You're right you know. Get all the excess water out of the print, then use a hair dryer. Easy!

[PeterB]

Thinking back on this last evening, I seem to remember a demonstration of microwaving a step wedge of a B&W material and showing a thickness difference and an imagewise change in tone as a function of step. It was as if the image swelled as a function of the amount of silver and changed in tone quality. That is why I relate, in my mind, the effect of microwave on silver, but perhaps it is due to another effect.
...
If it were due to water alone, I would expect this effect to be an even distribution, but I am pretty clear in my memory that the effect was imagewise and the comments here seem to indicate some weak correllation as well with an imagewise change. Any thoughts?

PE, the only explanation I can give is that there are some chemicals containing polar molecules which remain around the silver after development. As per my previous post, polar molecules do heat up in a microwave and this possibly causes the paper/emulsion to swell. Not being a chemist I haven't really taken a big interest (yet) in all the possible chemicals and reactions that go on in the paper which could contribute to concentrations of a particular substance (besides silver metal) forming around the image. Maybe there is no such thing, in which case I have no explanation for what you remember.

regards
Peter