Application of two-bath development processing to transmission electron films and plates

In particular areas of materials research transmission electron microscopy has traditionally been plagued by the seemingly inherent problems of excessive photographic contrast and high densities. This need not always be the case. This article will suggest that the use of a development process in which the developing agent and its accelerator are split into two baths can accomplish the desirable effects of compressing the contrast range of the negative and limiting excessive density without loss of recorded detail. The developer used in the study is a commercially available formula called Diafine. Two-bath developers can be formulated by individuals. At the time of writing, Diafine was the only off-the-shelf split developer known to the author.