{"id":32274,"date":"2025-09-04T01:03:46","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T05:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/?p=32274"},"modified":"2025-09-03T00:12:59","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T04:12:59","slug":"polishing-the-image","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/polishing-the-image\/","title":{"rendered":"polishing the image"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

1894 ad for an Acme Burnisher<\/p><\/div>\n

Toronto<\/strong>. last century, after prints were developed, a special chrome sheet and heated press was used to add a glossy finish to the print. Without this process, paper-based prints would have a matt finish and somewhat lower contrast.<\/p>\n

Late in the 19th century when Albumen CDVs and other size cards became common, a special device (looking like part of a washing machine) called a burnisher flattened the print and card while giving the front surface of the albumen print a glossy finish.<\/p>\n

In issue 25-2, editor Bob Lansdale writes a lengthy article about the various burnishers of albumen prints. He begins, “I haven\u2019t heard anyone mention they were a proud owner of such a piece of equipment so this article is presented with the hope that some member may recognize a Burnisher and reclaim it for photographic history.<\/p>\n

“Looking much like a clothes mangle\u00a0with a pair of metal rollers to squeeze\u00a0unknown objects or materials, collectors\u00a0may have unknowingly passed these\u00a0machines by as being non-photographic.<\/p>\n

“With the arrival of the albumen photograph mounted to card there arose a need\u00a0to roll the final carte-de-visite and cabinet\u00a0card to achieve a flattened and finished\u00a0state. Albumen paper normally came with\u00a0an egg-shell finish but as styles advanced, a preference for glossy (enamelled) surfaces required that the face of the print be\u00a0pressed (while in motion) to the hardsteel surface of a heated roller in order to\u00a0give a sheen to the surface. It also gave\u00a0crisper blacks.<\/p>\n

“Heat was introduced by a burner set\u00a0below the rollers. Improvements saw a\u00a0chimney-like flue added to spread the\u00a0heated air to the length of the roller.\u00a0External heating was liable to cause problems by leaving moisture on the surface\u00a0of the roller, causing sticking.<\/p>\n

“An alternative solution was to introduce a burning\u00a0gas jet into the interior of the vital roller.\u00a0This machine was the precursor of more\u00a0modern equipment, the Pako Rotary\u00a0<\/i>Dryer<\/i>, where wet prints were fed to the\u00a0surface of a large chromium plated drum,\u00a0heated from within.<\/p>\n

“Adhering to the shiny\u00a0surface for one revolution of the drum\u00a0allowed the inside heater to dry the print\u00a0with a gloss. The introduction of present\u00a0day resin-coated plastic papers made such\u00a0machines redundant as some of these\u00a0papers have a built-in high-gloss surface.”<\/p>\n

All of Bob’s fully illustrated article on these old darkroom devices can be viewed in the issue 25-2 pdf file on the free members-only DVD\/thumb drive. See Membership above or at right to join. Any questions on membership? Just write Mme Lilianne at member@phsc.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Visit our 2025 events to add to your collection -you may even spot an old burnisher … The next event is our famous fall fair on October 19th 2025. See PHSC News 25-7<\/a> for details. A post will go up on this site later this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto. last century, after prints were developed, a special chrome sheet and heated press was used to add a glossy finish to the print. Without this process, paper-based prints would have a matt finish and somewhat lower contrast. Late in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1944],"tags":[4793,286,14,32,316],"class_list":["post-32274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","tag-burnish-cdvs","tag-darkroom","tag-film","tag-paper","tag-prints"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32274"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32280,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32274\/revisions\/32280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}