Pop Haydn

Collodion Wet Plate by Allan Barnes

My real name is Whit Haydn--Whit is short for Whitney--but nowadays most everybody calls me Pop.

I was born in Clarkesville, Tennessee in 1839, the son of an Episcopal minister. I grew up in Greenville, North Carolina. My college and graduate work was in Virginia, where my family is from originally.

Since leaving Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria due to an unfortunate incident, I have traveled the world, first as a merchant seaman on the ship Liberty, and later as a vaudevillian, medicine show proprietor and impresario. I am a magician, dancer, musician, Shakespearean actor, and comedian.

I have always been a dabbler in physics, organic chemistry and medicine. I have created a number of useful and interesting electrical and magnetic inventions, am a profound student of the neglected fields of radio magnetism and radiating electricity, as well as the developer of the wonderful patent medicines for which I am best known.

Surely you have heard of some of my miraculous medications--they are sold at all the finest medical dispensaries in the world.

I created the well known Spicewood curative--beloved by parents everywhere--Pop Haydn's Sap Rising Spring Tonic. This tonic eliminates poisons from the blood and tissues, purifying the system of any leftover infelicities of winter, and completely rehabilitating the body for the coming year.

I am also the creator of the very popular Pop Haydn's Wonder Elixer. The Wonder Elixer increases "vigor" even in the oldest men, rejuvenates relationships and restores the "glow of youth"--I call it my Youth-enizer...

My most exciting discovery has been the electrical oil known as Pop Haydn's Amazing Miracle Oil--a product so well-loved by the public that further comment is by now unnecessary.

Pop Hayen's Post-Modern Medicine Show and Old Time Internet Hour and the various artistes who comprise the show. This show features the best of Vaudeville, Variety, Burlesque and Old Time Music.

With Professor Dave Bourne and the Medicine Show Band, Electra the Amazing Electric Lady, Harry Houdini, Little Egypt, and many other fine acts, the show is meant to be a comforting yet exciting retreat for 19th Century-Americans, as well as a revelation of what real show-biz and decent music is all about for the 21st-ers.

Wet Plate Collodian Tin Type by Allan Barnes

Wet Plate Collodian Tin Type by Allan Barnes

Wet Plate Collodian Tin Type by Allan Barnes

With Teleportation Device

Collodian Tin Type by Allan J. Barnes

Pop with Linking Rings

Photo by Allan J. Barnes (Collodian Wet Plate)

Pop Pensive

Photo by Allan J. Barnes (Collodian Wet Plate)

The Amazing Miracle Oil

Wet Plate Collodian Tin Type by Allan J. Barnes

Collodian Tin Type by Allan J. Barnes

Making Medicine

by Allan Barnes photographer

Wet-plate Collodian Tin Type by Allan J. Barnes.

Wet-plate Collodian Tin Type by Allan J. Barnes.

Photographic Images by Allan Barnes ©2009 All rights reserved.

Image use courtesy of Pop Haydn

"Wet-Plate" Collodian Photograph

In efforts to advance photography in the mid-19th century, Fredrick Scott Archer, an English sculptor and photographer, experimented with collodion in the hope of producing a photographic negative on ordinary glass plates.

Collodion, a thick and syrupy liquid, is made by dissolving nitrated cotton in a mixture of alcohol and ether. It was widely used by surgeons as a liquid bandage owing to its strength and adhesion.

In 1851, Archer used collodion to hold light-sensitive salts to his glass plates. Once the salts, such as potassium iodide, were in the mixture of collodion, the viscous liquid was poured onto the plate. Allowing the alcohol and ether to evaporate, a thin film containing the necessary iodides was left on the plate. Ready for sensitizing, the plate was placed in a bath of silver nitrate. This formed a light sensitive compound of silver iodide on the surface of the plate.

Once sensitized, the plate was exposed in the camera before the collodion began to set and dry. If the plate dried before development,it i would have had practically no sensitivity and would be therefore useless. For this reason alone, the process Archer invented became known as "Wet Plate" collodion process.

After exposure in the camera, the plate was quickly returned to the darkroom. Using an acidic solution of ferrous sulfate, the plate was developed, then rinsed and fixed in a mild solution of potassium cyanide, or hypo.

The wet plate photographers could now produce multiple images from a single negative or offer a collodion positive, such as the ambrotype or ferrotype, with speed and consistency. Not until the 1880's and the introduction of gelatin dry plates did wet plate photography command any less attention from the photographic world!

 

"The Ambrotype" 1852-1865
 

The ambrotype, made by the wet plate collodion process, is simply an underexposed glass plate negative. When placed against a dark background, it appears as a positive image.

The ambrotype plate is either backed with dark material or the plate itself is made of darkly colored glass, giving a dark background. The image is reversed, left to right.

It can be used only one time. Unlike albumin paper prints taken from dense glass negatives, the ambrotype requires additional sittings for duplicate copies.

Ambrotypes were often varnished to help protect the image surface and were always sold in cases or frames. Thus, the ambrotype is extremely durable and has withstood well the test of time.

"The Ferrotype 1856-1900"
 

The ferrotype, also called the melainotype or tintype, was America's first major contribution to the art of photography. It superceded the ambrotype by the end of the Civil War and went on to become 19th-Century America's favorite quick picture.

It was made the same way as the ambrotype, except that a thin piece of black enameled, or japanned, iron was used in place of glass. Like the ambrotype, the image is reversed.

Ferrotypes were made from thumbnail size to as large as 11" x 14". With the introduction of multi-lensed cameras with sliding backs in the early 1860's, the more typical small sizes were made in volume. These were usually mounted in card mounts of the then popular cart-de-viste size. Made on a metal plate and with a varnished surface, ferrotypes have proven very durable.

Wet collodion - Getty Museum - Video showing the process completely through the making of a print on albumen paper.

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