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Tintype
First, see Ambrotype. The tintype, also known as a ferrotype, is a variation on this, but produced on sheets of enamelled tinplate instead of glass. It was introduced by Adolphe Alexandre Martin in 1853, and became instantly popular, particularly in the United States, though it was also widely used by street photographers in this country.
That this process appealed to street photographers was not surprising:
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the process was simple enough to enable one to set up business without much capital.
It was much faster than other processes of the time: first, the base did not need drying, and secondly, no negative was needed, so it was a one-stage process.
Cheap to produce, a typical price for a tintype was 6d (2 1/2p) and 1 shilling (5p).
being more robust than ambrotypes it could be carried about, sent in the post, or mounted in an album.
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The print would come out laterally reversed (as one sees oneself in a mirror); either people did not worry about this, or just possibly they did not discover it until after the photographer had disappeared!
(from: A History of Photography, by Dr. Dr. Robert Leggat FRPS)
"Melainotype" was the original name for the tintype process. The earliest tintypes carry a platemark reading "Melainotype Plate/For Neffs Patent 19 Feb 56". The curious wording is due to the fact that the makers of the plates, Peter Neff Jr. and his father, William Neff, were not the patentees; they purchased the patent from the inventor, Prof Hamilton L. Smith.
There were several variant spellings. One of the Neffs' early competitors sold a product called "ferrotype" plates, and that name was popular.
(Wm. B. Becker)
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