Gelatin silver-bromide dry plate
Placa seca de gelatina-bromuro de plata
- Date
- 1871 · confidence high
- Place
- Southampton, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Richard Leach Maddox (idea, 1871); Charles Bennett (ripening, 1878)
- Field
- Communication
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A glass plate with a gelatin and silver-bromide emulsion that keeps dry and is highly light-sensitive, allowing snapshots. It replaced wet collodion and paved the way for film.
Maddox published the gelatin idea in 1871; the practical plate came with Bennett (1878) and heat ripening. Maddox then lived in Southampton, an approximate place.
What it led to
- instantaneous and amateur photography
- the plate industry of Lumière and Eastman
- roll film