Early photography lacked the convenience of the stable roll film we all know, and instead relied on a set of processes which the photographer would have to master from film to final print. Photographic chemicals could be flammable or even deadly, and results took a huge amount of work.
The daguerreotype process of using mercury to develop pictures on polished metal, and the wet-collodion plate with its nitrocellulose solution are well-known, but as conservators at the British National Archives found out, there was another process that’s much rarer. The Pannotype uses a collodion emulsion, but instead of the glass plate used by the wet-plate process it uses a fabric backing.
We know so much about the other processes because they were subject to patents, but pannotype never had a patent due to a disagreement. Thus when the conservators encountered some pannotypes in varying states of preservation, they needed to apply modern analytical techniques to understand the chemistry and select the best methods of stabilization. The linked article details those analyses, and provides them with some pointers towards conserving their collection. We look forward to someone making pannotype prints here in 2025, after all it’s not the first recreation of early photography we’ve seen.
The cited article is disappointing, giving no clue as to the actual photosensitive chemicals and the process. A little internet searching shows that some historical data is available; that the process involved transferring the physical image from an existing ambrotype.
It is importantto note that all material in the universe is photo reactive, so the number of candidates to use in a photographic process is vast.
This also applies to photovoltaics, and closely related is that everything
in the universe will hold a charge, and so the number of potential battery materials and electrolights is also vast.Same with magnetism.
And further related would be possible configurations for digital light and energy sensors and projectors, and memory devices.
So even though things seem very advanced today, there is still a high certainty that there are much better candidates for the tech devices that have become central to modern society.
That all?