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Albumen prints: The first paper prints (salted paper prints)
were made from paper floated on a solution of sodium chloride
(table salt) and sensitized with silver nitrate. Because the
image on such papers was formed on the fibres below the paper's
surface, it did not have the clarity of a daguerreotype.
Treating the surface of the paper with an albumen mixture made
from egg white prevented the silver salts from sinking into the
paper, increased the reflectivity of the paper and made the
print appear to have greater definition. These papers were used
from the mid-1850s until the 1890s. At the height of their use,
so much albumen paper was being prepa