Cat pee negatives

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Chuck_P

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Just by way of update, I have not received the negatives yet. They guy is a young farmer and he's busy with preparing his tobacco crop for market, but it shouldn't be too long and I'll post how things turn out. Anyway, the thread has taken an interesting turn for sure, and that's cool. I never would've thought that pee would have ever purposely made its way onto a piece of photographic medium......for any reason!
 

Donald Qualls

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koraks said:
A little further back in time, it was commonly used as a laundry detergent for Roman togas.
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Also as a mordant (fixative) for fabric dyes. Urine from cattle was boiled down to a paste and used as a wound cleaner. And of course the discovery of elemental phosphorus came from boiling down human urine and finding that at some point the solution glowed in the dark.
 

Donald Qualls

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koraks said:
No mushrooms involved, at all!?
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Not that I recall, but you never know what people were eating (or inhaling) back in the 14th to 17th centuries...
 
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Chuck_P

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Here's a few of the black and white frames, the film and images are both early 90's TMY.............in the scanned proofs below you can see the black blobs on some frames where the cat urine has eaten away the emulsion, most of the negatives among the lot are salvageable. There's also a few color strips, some Fuji and some Kodak CA 100. Where the urine was on black and white emulsion there was simply no emulsion to be seen. Some color emulsion where urine seemed to be floated off the film base when I put it in the warm water bath, where there was no urine, all good. Some permanent light staining could be seen on some black and white frames but, there, the emulsion seems to have been minimally or not affected. I'm sure there was some staining on the color too but I couldn't tell. One final note.........they certainly smell better, it was aweful at first.





 
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koraks

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The piss frames actually look kind of interesting. Might warrant an artistic exploration.
Anyway, I'm happy to see that you're able to salvage most images alright!
 

Donald Qualls

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The lost/floated off emulsion is probably due to formation of ammonia as bacteria work on the urine. You'll smell this in a cat's litter box that's overdue for cleaning; it happens in just a few days (can happen faster if the stuff stays wet; baby diapers can get it before you get them changed if you're not prompt about it).
 

Truzi

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Great to hear - and it seems you didn't have to involve any extreme measures either.
 

loccdor

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Those are some great old images.

I know that bird poop (which is mostly made up of uric acid) can damage car paint, because of the acidity. If something as strong as a car finish is vulnerable, it makes sense what it did to your film.

Urine works as a nitrogen rich fertilizer for garden or grass, but you have to dilute it with water or it results in those burnt spots you see in yards with dogs. Miracle Grow has urea, though they make it in labs rather than collect it. It's made from combining ammonia and carbon dioxide.
 
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