Yes, Jorge, in retrospect it is. At the time it was just another of a string of NUTS things I did with cameras after too many years inhaling Dektol fumes. It was a lot of work, and very rewarding because it was such a challenge.(posted 8329 days ago)Ed: It seems like you have it. Whispers from the deep reaches of my recolection, recall Germain coming up in one of the many discussions of the topic, but memory also says that there were more components in the Harvey formula. Buffering agent and/or a preservative and such, but the qualtities were infentesimal. Some of the discussion lent toward them being bogus components that did nothing of value but were there to obfuscate and confuse the curious. Chemical straw men. None of us had any interest in making it ourselves, but what was in it was a constant question. The differances in performance in small tanks and the way agitation changed the result always led to the question as to why. (when there was time to think of such otherwise unimportant things. We knew how to use it right)
Guessing from the formuli you supplied the anomolies in performance we noted were the product of the Metol (Elon) being thrown out of balance with the relatively low activity Paraphenylene Diamine and Glycin components, in small chemical to film surface area ratios and as agitation frequency was increased. What ever it was, it was very usefull, when you got the hang of it. Bewildering, if you were a noephyte.
I started at this stuff when very young and remember Defender 5-D. what It did to contrasty thick Ortho sheet film (which I developed by inspection in the stuff) had simularities to what 777 did to FP-3 and HP-4, as well as the Dupont and Ansco/GAF films that were still being made.
I was such a stickler on this stuff that I tested emulsion batches in my soup before I commited to use them. This resulted, on one occasion , in me missing a shoot. All my stuff was confiscated by British Customs when I appeared from NY with 1000 rolls and 500 sheets of Ilford film at London Airport. They said nobody would logically do that and I had to be smuggling something. 5 days later after many discussions and calls to the Time-Life photolab and Ilford, I got my clothes, cameras, lights and film, back with appologies.