the.com/collodion
the goo that bandaged wounds, captured ghosts, and made early photography reek of ether.
means Collodion is a syrupy solution of nitrocellulose dissolved in ether and alcohol, which dries into a tough, transparent film — used to seal wounds, coat photographic plates, and bind things together.
from From the Greek 'kolla,' meaning glue (the same root that sticks inside 'collage' and 'protocol'), via 'kollodes,' meaning glue-like or gluey. A 19th-century chemist's coinage for the new gummy substance, naming it for exactly what it does: it sticks.
- chemistry
- Nitrocellulose dissolved in ether and alcohol.
- photo era
- Powered wet-plate portraits from the 1850s onward.
- deadline pressure
- Plates had to be exposed while still wet.
- first aid
- Sold as liquid skin to seal cuts.
- explosive cousin
- Nitrocellulose is the basis of guncotton.
frederick scott archer process — invented wet collodion photography in 1851, revolutionizing early photography
american civil war photographs — mathew brady and timothy o'sullivan documented 1861-1865 battles using collodion plates