Quote:
Originally Posted by SetBuilder
Were they really easier and more economical? I have my doubts.
Goodwin was based in New York. They could have easily sent an employee or two to retrieve a wagon load of ocean water every week, which would have been basically free.
|
I have to wonder. You came on like an expert, then I do minimal research and I find things like this:
The salt print was the dominant paper-based photographic process for producing positive prints during the period from 1839 through approximately 1860.
He made what he called "sensitive paper" for "photogenic drawing" by wetting a sheet of writing paper with a weak solution of ordinary table salt (sodium chloride), blotting and drying it, then brushing one side with a strong solution of silver nitrate.
So it was obsolete by the time the cards in question were produced AND it was nowhere near the, grab some ocean water and you're good to go process that you seem to think it was, but rather a measured solution of salt water. While that may be inexpensive it's not brainless.