Unseen Warning
Iodine bottle.
In Victorian times, when chemicals started being sold in quantity to the populace, it was common practice to have bottles made with some sort of tactile warning of the poisonous contents to help people with sight difficulties. Typically the bottles would have ridges or an embossed hatch on the glass.
The practice is far less common now with the advent of plastic safety containers and a wider (though declining) Braille literacy. Currently in the UK, for example, all medicines have their names embossed on the packaging using Braille.
For the Macro Mondays Poisonous theme this I thought it would be fun to concentrate on this unseen bottle language.
This image is of a Tincture of Iodine bottle purchased from Boots Chemists of Nottingham in the 1960s. The bottle, sadly, is almost empty. It’s difficult to buy Iodine in its yellow form these days because of its propensity to stain things.
Iodine is used externally as an antiseptic (rather like Mercurochrome in the States when I was a kid - can you still get that I wonder?). Being a halogen, it is a strong oxidant. Iodine is also essential for the body (it is stored in the Thyroid glands) but when ingested in any quantity it is toxic.
I particularly wanted to show the wonderful dense brown colour of the chemical along with the ridges on the glass sides of the bottle. The image shows about an inch of the bottle.
Iodine is useful when you apply it to an injury caused by splinters. The wood absorbs the colour easily so you can see them readily.
It also looks great when applied to a damaged finger. The finger is stained a rich yellow/brown and looks as if it has already died a decidedly horrible death. This is is sure to elicit sympathy well in excess of the needs of the injury… well that’s my theory anyway.
Thank you for taking time to look. I hope you enjoy the image.
[Handheld in bright sunlight. Basic processing in LR. A bit of fluff removal in Affinity Photo along with enriching the colour; a slight dark vignette and crop to strengthen the composition; bold sharpening in Topaz Detail to emphasize the bits in the liquid and the ridge texture.]
Unseen Warning
Iodine bottle.
In Victorian times, when chemicals started being sold in quantity to the populace, it was common practice to have bottles made with some sort of tactile warning of the poisonous contents to help people with sight difficulties. Typically the bottles would have ridges or an embossed hatch on the glass.
The practice is far less common now with the advent of plastic safety containers and a wider (though declining) Braille literacy. Currently in the UK, for example, all medicines have their names embossed on the packaging using Braille.
For the Macro Mondays Poisonous theme this I thought it would be fun to concentrate on this unseen bottle language.
This image is of a Tincture of Iodine bottle purchased from Boots Chemists of Nottingham in the 1960s. The bottle, sadly, is almost empty. It’s difficult to buy Iodine in its yellow form these days because of its propensity to stain things.
Iodine is used externally as an antiseptic (rather like Mercurochrome in the States when I was a kid - can you still get that I wonder?). Being a halogen, it is a strong oxidant. Iodine is also essential for the body (it is stored in the Thyroid glands) but when ingested in any quantity it is toxic.
I particularly wanted to show the wonderful dense brown colour of the chemical along with the ridges on the glass sides of the bottle. The image shows about an inch of the bottle.
Iodine is useful when you apply it to an injury caused by splinters. The wood absorbs the colour easily so you can see them readily.
It also looks great when applied to a damaged finger. The finger is stained a rich yellow/brown and looks as if it has already died a decidedly horrible death. This is is sure to elicit sympathy well in excess of the needs of the injury… well that’s my theory anyway.
Thank you for taking time to look. I hope you enjoy the image.
[Handheld in bright sunlight. Basic processing in LR. A bit of fluff removal in Affinity Photo along with enriching the colour; a slight dark vignette and crop to strengthen the composition; bold sharpening in Topaz Detail to emphasize the bits in the liquid and the ridge texture.]