The Study of Two Humidification and Flattening Methods for Albumen Prints to Determine their Impact on the Evolution of the Cracks in the Albumen Layer.

The article examines the impact of two humidification and flattening methods for albumen prints on the surface characteristics of the albumen. The two methods include a Gore-Tex® sandwich and the use of a humidity chamber. For humidification process, variables include the length of time and levels of relative humidity and the parameters measured include the changes in number and/or size of the cracks. It was found that a 10-minute exposure to the Gore-Tex® sandwich method resulted to a significant change to the cracks. Meanwhile, in humidity chamber, there is no change in cracks even after 24 hours. After evaluating several flattening methods after humidification, it was found that the "hard-soft sandwich" developed by Homburger and Korbel is the most effective.