Re: fluorescents

[Ken Sinclair <photo1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Stan,
I have worked in numerous darkrooms over the past 40 years. Of three that I
"remember", we had trouble... and it was a "brand-new" facility. The
architects were notified at the time we were into the floor-plan planning
stage, outlets, switches etc and even had a hard time convincing them that
the white light switch was to be installed at between 5 and 6 feet from the
floor. The studio area was to be well lit with 16 banks of 4 tube units
with Duro-Test tubes only... management and the architects had a S**T-fit
(who were we to tell them how to design?!!!!) in the end we got out needed
lighting in the studio but the 2 banks of 4 tube units (cheaper cool white
this time) in the darkroom. Two tungsten units  were "not allowed"
according to standard foot-candle lighting needs at bench working height
(this was a Fed Govt. building) we
survived less than a week with "their" lighting design. After the
management team was notified that sheets of film that had been used to
record an "unrepeatable" experiment results, had all been fogged, most
beyond recovery, by the "afterglow" during loading.
I have heard of two or three "others" who have experienced similar
findings. One friend has tubes with "safelight" sleeves and he has had no
fogging at anytime since that unit was installed... I have to assume that
the sleeve is absorbing any UV.

 >I heard that about "glowing" fluorescents, but I went ahead and
>installed two 8' white tubes on my darkroom ceiling. That was 25  years
>ago; no fog yet on any emulsion. My safelights are red-sleeved 4'
>fluorescents, and they also work well.

>The only time I had problems was with a red LED digital clock that I
>thought would be "safe". Despite the fact that it looked dim, it fogged
>everything!

The other problem I had was remebering to turn my radio on its "face" such
that the red "time" numbers were hidden.. that one burned me a couple of
times until I figured out the cause. The Gray-lab timer was always "turned
away" during film loading.

I guess you have been "lucky"     8-)

Ken

[||/\/\/\/\/\/\||      Ken Sinclair RBP,FBPA
[||                            ||-|   Applied Photographic Services
[||                            ||  |  Lethbridge,
[||                            ||  |  Alberta, Canada,
[||                            ||-|   (403) 381-1654.
[||\/\/\/\/\/\/||      photo1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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|__________________ |
                O


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