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nov1804 from Lloyd Erlick,

You can use Lox on your prints but they will attract
cats.

--le

Pilot lights can be _very_ bright if they go to a
full burn. I'd say fog. I'd move the water heater
frame around it.

It's not cheap if you have to order glacial acetic acid,
which is what a lot of us prefer and then dilute to 1-2%
stop bath. Hazardous shipping charges apply.

White distilled Vinegar = a 5% solution of glacial acetic
acid. Odor is the same.

nov1904 from Lloyd Erlick,

'Kosher salt' is a term invented by people like my
grandmother, whose English was limited but who knew
what they meant. Meat has to be put through a certain
procedure before being consumed, in order to be
considered Kosher (literally, 'clean', fit for human
consumption). Part of the procedure is rubbing the meat
with what my ancestors came to call Kosher salt. The
term was not meant to denote salt that is Kosher, but
salt that is used to render meat Kosher. Kosherizing
salt, as I used to joke with my mother. It was (and is)
sold in grocery stores and supermarkets in small
containers, often marked (you guessed it) Kosher salt.

Darkroom workers might be more familiar with the actual
scientific name for Kosher salt, which is citric acid.
I don't think my grandmother's vocabulary included
either 'citric' or 'acid'.

I wouldn't buy citric acid in this form for two
reasons: first, it is vastly overpriced in small
containers (I bought some for C$3.00 a kilogram, so
it's cheap, but I had to buy 25 kg to get that price),
and second, some brands of something as amorphously
termed as 'Kosher salt' might indeed turn out to be
salt (sodium chloride) that is considered Kosher.

Getting rid of odor in my darkroom has been a very
important activity for me.

At first I deleted acetic acid stop bath, because
citric acid makes an absolutely odorless solution. That
alone justifies its place in the darkroom, as far as
I'm concerned. I still like vinegar on my French fries,
but it's been many years since I liked that odor in my
darkroom. Over the long term I found several odors that
became abhorrent. Acetic acid is one, but sulfur
dioxide is by far my most detested (I'm sure sulfur
dioxide is the gas most people call 'fumes' in the
darkroom). Sulfur dioxide is generated by combining
sulfite and acid; I used to dribble both into my sink
practically under my nose, which sulfur dioxide bites.
So no more acid of any kind, no more smell.

Anything in the darkroom that I don't like is nothing
but an impediment to getting in there and doing my
work. Smell is a fatiguing factor, in my opinion.

In addition, if we want traditional darkroom activity
to survive, the next generation should get a good
impression when they visit someone's darkroom. If I
show some kids my darkroom when they come by with their
mothers for a portrait, I don't want Mom's nose getting
bitten by 'fumes'. Those kids probably wouldn't become
darkroomies.

regards,
--le