Plural of electrotype; metal plates or copies made through electroplating, used in printing to reproduce text and images.
From electro- + type, literally 'electric type.' The term emerged in the 1840s as electroplating technology was adapted for printing purposes, replacing hand-engraved plates.
Electrotypes were the printing industry's first 'copy machines'—newspapers could make perfect metal duplicates of pages and ship them across the country, enabling synchronized publication of the same issue in different cities.
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