Stearman Press 5x4 tank.

[David M]

Yes, I’ve seen those old engravings. I can’t think why anyone would want to return to those methods, unless it was for historical re-enactment or intellectual curiosity. It’s why developing tanks were invented. e don’t hanker after turning down the fishtail gas-jet to make a safelight and turning it up again for inspection.
I seem to recall that the approved agitation method was to hold each end of the film with your hands in the air, to form a U-shape, then raise and lower the hands alternately to pass the film through the liquid in the tray. They were heroes in those days.

 

[bandeau_rouge]

Yes, I’ve seen those old engravings. I can’t think why anyone would want to return to those methods, unless it was for historical re-enactment or intellectual curiosity. It’s why developing tanks were invented. e don’t hanker after turning down the fishtail gas-jet to make a safelight and turning it up again for inspection.
I seem to recall that the approved agitation method was to hold each end of the film with your hands in the air, to form a U-shape, then raise and lower the hands alternately to pass the film through the liquid in the tray. They were heroes in those days.

Yet there are forums, and "internet magazines" where they make people out to be heroes for being able to take the lens cap off. Times change..

But those chemical containers were fun.

 

[David M]

Well, the standard method in photography today is to take out mobile phone (Cell phone in the USA as a reminder to politicians), point and click. Recording the Crimean War with wet-plate seems more heroic to me. So does photographing Scott’s final trip to the South Pole where the ice had to be scraped off the darkroom hut’s walls when it reached six inches thick.
Many people do not know how to remove a lens-cap properly.

 

[Hendo'svan]

I used my Stearman tonight and it only took around 15 seconds to fill and screw on the caps. I also start the timer as soon as the caps are on and I start emptying the tank 15 seconds before the end of the development time.