25. Gilding Solution
Description
This section is from the American Hand Book of the Daguerreotype, by Samuel D. Humphrey. Published S. D. Humphrey, 37 Lispenard Street 1858.
25. Gilding Solution
To one pint of pure rain or distilled water add fifteen grains of pure chloride of gold, and to another pint add sixty grains of hyposulphite of soda. When dissolved, pour the gold solution into the hyposulphite by small quantities, shaking well after each addition. The soda solution must not be poured into the gold, as the gold would be immediately decomposed, and the solution turn black, and be unfit for use.
Some operators add muriate of potash and other substances, but these do not possess any advantage except in cases where it is necessary to bleach the solarized portions of the impression, and when such is the case, chloride of sodium (common salt) is probably as effective and is the most convenient. Add about a teaspoonful to two ounces of the gilding.
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