ABSTRACT
The 1840s saw two cornerstones of modernity, capitalism and science, integrated with early photographic practice, as inventors searched for a lowcost, easy-to-use process that would combine the detail of the daguerreotype with the reproducibility of the calotype. Activity centered on making glass negatives, which were an ideal emulsion support base, cheaper than a silvered plate, and free from the drawbacks of the paper negative process. The chief obstacle in devising an efficient glass-backed process was finding a way to keep the silver salts from dissolving or floating off the glass during processing. In 1847 Claude Félix Abel Niépce de SaintVictor (1805-1870), a cousin of Nicéphore Niépce, discovered that albumen (egg white) provided an excellent binder for silver salts on glass plates. While this breakthrough blended the preferred attributes of the daguerreotype and the calotype, the process’s 5-minute minimum sunlight exposure time was only conducive to depicting still subjects matter such as architecture.
