Trotter Photo

Like the daguerreotype, tintypes employed thin metallic plates coated with photosensitive chemical compounds. The course of, patented in 1856 by the American scientist Hamilton Smith, used iron instead of copper to yield a optimistic image. But each processes had to be developed shortly before the emulsion dried. In the field, this meant carrying alongside a portable darkroom stuffed with toxic chemicals in fragile glass bottles. Photography was not for the faint of heart or those who traveled frivolously. The first “cameras” have been used to not create images but to study optics.