Production of Glass

 The introduction of glass plates into photography occured in 1851.  Fredrick Scott Arche, an English sculptor, created a method of sensitizing glass plates with silver salts by the use of collodion (1).  Before glass plates were used there was the caoltype negative which was imperfect.  Glass seemed like a good alternative for the light-sensitive material.
   The problem presented with glass plates was finding a substance to attach silver salts to the glass.  It was attempted with slime and even egg whites (which had some success).  The first glass plates or albumen plates were invented by Claude Felix Abel Niepce de St. Victor in 1847.  They gave excellent negatives, of a brilliance and fineness of detail approaching that of the daguerreotype (2).  Despite the fact that they could be sensitized a long time in advance of exposure the albumen plates had low sensitivity.  These plates never became very popular but, stunning photographs were taken with them.Henri Plaut and Francois Renard took a series of views in 1852.
  Shortly after Archer added potassium iodide to collodion and coated a glass plate with it.  In an area of little light, he dipped the plate in a solution of silver nitrate.  When the silver ions and iodine ions combined they formedsilver iodide within the collodion.  While still wet, he exposed the plate in the camera.  Then, he developed it in pyrogaliic acid, fixed in hypo, washed, and dried.  This process had to be done quickly.  This way the collodion wouldn't dry and become impervious to the processing solutions.
   This plate was known as the collodion plate or "wet plate."  It completely replaced the daguerreotype and calotype processes.  In addition, it reigned supreme in the photographic world until 1880 (3).

(1) (3) Newhall, B. (1982). The History of Photography (S. Weiley, Ed.). New York: The 

     

Museum of Modern Art.

(2) "The Development of Photography." The Cambridge Dictionary of Scientists. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002. Credo Reference. 1 Jan. 2001. Web. 24 Feb. 2011. <http://ezproxy.stevenson.edu:2100/entry/dicscientist/the_development_of_photography>.