dry plate

American  

noun

1. a glass photographic plate coated with a sensitive emulsion of silver bromide and silver iodide in gelatin.

2. Metallurgy. tin plate having patches of dull finish.

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Etymology

Origin of dry plate

First recorded in 1855–60

Example Sentences

Oxymel produced a dry plate that could be kept for days.

From New York Times • Feb. 6, 2014

“You’ll have a new barn in no time,” I said, wiping an already dry plate with a towel.

From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson

The camera consists of a circular brass box, 5� inches in diameter and 1� inches deep, containing a circular vulcanite shutter with two apertures, behind which is placed a circular dry plate.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 561, October 2, 1886 by Various

Our photographic outfit was extremely bulky and heavy, for the dry plate had not been invented.

From A Canyon Voyage The Narrative of the Second Powell Expedition down the Green-Colorado River from Wyoming, and the Explorations on Land, in the Years 1871 and 1872 by Dellenbaugh, Frederick Samuel

So a supersensitive dry plate will often record many thousand stars in a region where the naked eye can see but one.

From Astronomy: The Science of the Heavenly Bodies by Todd, David Peck