Over the last year I have developed a mercury pot design to be available commercially and images of it can be seen in the updated gallery for mercury pots by CasedImage.com.
It took 4 prototypes and a lot of effort to get on top of the issues of electrical heat engineering and the thermodynamics of a large steel pot with a small amount of mercury in it. It did jump in at the deep end in designing it to take a maximum format of 8×10 inches, but I wanted a piece of professional equipment that would sustain some of the large of amount of investment required. It allows space for two half plates to be developed at the same time as well as catering for whole plate, which was my own personal preference also. It has a electrical heating system that has a digital controller which uses logarithms to manage a stable temperature. Despite this, another main feature that I sort in the design is that it has a telescoping stand (while keeping the overall footprint very compact) for use with heating by alcohol lamp. Most would use the electrical heating option but I wanted the pot to be able to be used in those rare occasions, in the outdoors/where there is no electrical supply. For those occasions it has a battery powered temperature display, which uses the same temperate sensor as the electrical heat system. It has a double darklside/airlock entry to the interior, made of stainless steel stopped slides and cnc machined Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE). It also has clear acrylic walls to impede the airflow in a fume hood from cooling the heat elements and making their task more difficult.

Three new galleries have been added to the tech galleries workshops, cameras and fuming boxes by Brenton West.

Beniamino has three new additions to his gallery. There are also pictures of his fuming boxes, which are viewable here. They are handmade using wood with a shellac finish.

An orignial innovation to housing daguerriean plate packages can be seen in the new technology gallery for “New Alchemy” cases. One of the rails has a detachable section for inserting the plate package and it is held in place by rare earth magnets, as is the closure of the case. These are brainchild of Daniel Kuczynski and he writes;

“I am introducing a line of Contemporary Daguerreotype cases for my own work as well as a limited number for sale. They are masterfully crafted out of the finest woods. All have solid Ebony rails which retain the image package with a hidden rail and 2 rare earth magnets. The cases come in Spalted Maple, Book-matched Koa and Macassar Ebony. I have quarter plate ($300.00) and 4X5 available ($325.00) each.”

A gallery has been added to the technology galleries showcasing the hybrid design of Ty Guillory’s fuming boxes. Utilizing the screw down of the traditional American design and the compact nature of the European style, Ty’s boxes will fit neatly into your fume hood while offering a good seal on the halogen’s chamber.

A new gallery has been added to the technology galleries showing the modern take on the 19th century strike through design by maker Eugene Galasso.

A new gallery has been added to the technology glaeries showing the camera of Walter Johnson. Walter also sent in a for shooting with daguerreotype plates, which has been added to the general writing section of the resources pages.

New to the technology galleries is a section to document workshops given by practitioners. First gallery added is Jerry Spagnoli’s recent offering through f295.

The whole, half and quarter plate cameras of the Century Darkroom have been added to the technology galleries, thanks to Mike for the insight into his studio.