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How did Richard Leach Maddox’s gelatin emulsion lead to dry photographic plates?

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Alfred Stieglitz: Child with Striped Dress (Younger Raab Child) — History of photography *Child with Striped Dress (Younger Raab Child)*, autochrome photograph by Alfred Stieglitz, 1907; in the Art Institute of Chicago.

In 1871, English physician Richard Leach Maddox revolutionized photography by suggesting that silver bromide be suspended in a gelatin emulsion. This innovation provided a dry alternative to the cumbersome wet collodion process, which required photographers to prepare and develop plates immediately on-site, necessitating a portable darkroom.123

By using gelatin as a dispersing vehicle for light-sensitive silver salts, the plates could be coated, dried, and stored for long periods before and after exposure. This development led to the introduction of factory-produced dry plates by 1878. These plates were significantly more sensitive than their predecessors, allowing for faster exposure times that freed cameras from tripods and paved the way for the modern era of photography, including the rise of hand-held cameras and amateur snapshots.231