> > What is the Collodion Wet Plate Process if it is not too much trouble
> > to explain? thanks - John
>
> Invented in 1850, collodion is a medium for holding the silver nitrate to a
> glass negative. The plate has to be still wet for the photo process to
> work. Tintypes and ambrotypes were made using the 'Wet Plate" process.
The 1911 Cassell's Encyclopedia of Photography (1978 reprint, Arno Press)
has several pages on collodion, including formulas. It says F. Scott
Archer made the first collodion negatives in 1848 & published the formula
in 1851 -- whereupon collodion displaced daguerrotype & calotype, becoming
main form of photography til 1881. I go into this because there's another
point, not mentioned here, but in most histories, which never fails to
give a pang. The stock phrase summarizing life of F. Scott Archer (as so
many of photography's pioneers): "Died in poverty." Definitely pre-Bill
Gates.
Cheers,
Judy