Tintype

    Tintype: a cheaper way to print photographs, 
               by developing them on a sheet of tin or iron
     -gives the photo a cheaper, lower-quality look to it
         also called ferrotype or stannotype

           "Not on Your Tintype"
    an expression used in the early 1900's
    meaning; No way! ; Not a chance! 

           In  Music Man, a musical set in 1912, the expression is used 
   It is a line of Charlie Cowell- a traveling salesman who sells anvils
   Used when he is stating-to Marian Paroo- that he doesn't trust her, 
   and would rather go tell someone else to spread the word and miss his train,
    than leave word with her

Tintypes are frequently reverse images. If you're trying to ID a tintype that you know is a family member, try taking it into Photoshop, reversing it, and lining it up with possible target ancestor photos to see if you find a match.

Tintype, also melainotype and ferrotype, is a photograph made by creating a direct positive on a sheet of iron metal that is blackened by painting, lacquering or enamelling and is used as a support for a collodion photographic emulsion.

Photographers usually worked outside at fairs, carnivals etc. and as the support of the tintype (there is no actual tin used) is resilient and does not need drying, photographs can be produced only a few minutes after the picture is taken.

An ambrotype uses the same process and methods on a sheet of glass that is mounted in a case with a black backing so the underexposed negative image appears as a positive. Tintypes did not need mounting in a case and were not as delicate as photographs that used glass for the support.

The process is very similar to wet plate photography, where silver halide crystals (silver bromide, silver chloride and silver iodide) are suspended in a collodion emulsion that is chemically reduced to crystals of metallic silver that vary in density in accordance with variations in the intensity and duration of light impinging on the emulsion.

In a tintype, a very underexposed negative image is produced on a thin iron plate, lacquered or otherwise darkened, and coated with a collodion photographic emulsion. Since in a negative image the darker portions of the subject appear lighter, or in this case more transparent, the dark background gives the resulting image the appearance of a positive. The ability to employ underexposed images allows effective film speed to be increased, permitting shorter exposure time, a great advantage in portraiture.

One unique piece of equipment was a twelve-lens camera that could take a dozen 3/4" x 1" "gem-sized" portraits in one exposure. Portrait sizes ranged from gem-sized to 11" x 14". From about 1865 to 1910 the most popular size, called "Bon-ton", ranged from 2-3/8" x 3-1/2" to 4" x 5-3/4".

For more information, refer to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tintype