The Development of Photography - Part 3



In the March issue of Chemist1850, a wet-plate process was announces by an English man called Frederick Archer.  This process required the following steps:
Iodine compounds were used to sensitize a clear viscous liquid called collodion.
This liquid is then poured over a glass plate
The plate is immerged into a silver nitrate bath
While wet, the plate is placed in a camera to be exposed and developed immediately afterwards.
All of the above preparation steps took place by candlelight in a darkroom. Many photographers adopted this method as it enabled much shorter exposure times than daguerreotypes and calotypes; which were ultimately replaced by the mid 1850s.

The necessity to prepare a wet plate immediately before making the exposure, and developing it directly afterwards, placed serious limitations on the scope of photography. In response to this problem gelatin-emulsion dry plates were being commercially manufactures by several firms in 1877. This completely replaced wet plates by 1880.

George Eastman, an American dry-plate manufacturer, put the power of photography into the amateur hands of the public when he launched the Kodak camera in 1888. The invention was unprecedented.  Everyone now had the privilege to be able to create images and keep graphic record of their own lives and experiences.  


Invented by George Eastman, the first Kodak camera came loaded and cost only five dollars in 1889

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