Many years ago I came into possession of two half plate glass negatives which I recently resurrected from a bottom draw in the garage and scanned. The scenes appear to be of Burra in South Australia, taken over 100 years ago.
A ‘half plate’ measures 4.75 x 6.5 inches or 12 x 16.5 cm. These negatives were created using the “dry plate”, or gelatin emulsion process, invented in 1871 by Richard Maddox, an English physician. Dry plate, because it superseded the cumbersome ‘wet plate’ collodion process invented 20 years earlier. In simple terms, a solution of silver halides is mixed with gelatin, heated, and poured onto a sheet of clear glass under a red safelight. When the gelatin dries and hardens, a milky white, light sensitive surface is ready to load into a dark slide. The plate can then be exposed to light in a camera and is sensitive primarily to blue and UV light. Exposure time in bright sunlight is usually around 1 second. This was the precursor invention which led to gelatin emulsion being attached to acetate and later PET, forming the roll films which were in common use for over 100 years. Glass plates continued to be used well into the 20th century and there is renewed interest in this and other so-called alternative processes.
Details in the negatives led me to do some research on the companies and locations captured. The hotel was Lord’s Hotel in Burra, South Australia, and exists today as the Burra Hotel. The horse-drawn cab was owned by T.P. Halls and regularly collected passengers from the Broken Hill train in Burra and ferried them around town. A letter to the editor in 1912 by Hall defended his cab prices after complaints from passengers got back to him. In 1915 he advertised for the sale of his business in a Broken Hill newspaper.
The Eyes and Crowle Garage may also have been in Burra as the company had workshops in several towns around Adelaide in addition to its city location. It was a substantial automobile and motorcycle company for about 20 years.
Trove was valuable as a source of information about the two advertising signs hanging from the hotel railing, one for an optometrist and another for a dentist. Laubmann and Pank still exists today as an optician’s business in Adelaide.
H.W.A. Barratt seems to have had a chequered history as a dentist early in his career. He once appeared before a magistrate in 1915 as a complaint was made against him for calling himself a ‘specialist’ when his only qualification was as a labourer! He enlisted in 1918 just as WWI was ending and he is last mentioned in Trove in 1947, advertising himself as a Dental Surgeon, so presumably he picked up some recognised qualifications in time.
I recently decided to make my own quarter plate glass negatives for use in an old camera a friend acquired. It certainly highlights the modern wonders of smartphone photography technology in comparison. Practitioners of techniques involving application of liquid emulsion to plates of glass or metal talk about achieving a “good pour”. This means a consistent, even coating across the whole plate with no gaps or bubbles. On my first attempt with 4 glass plates I may have achieved one good pour, but the proof will emerge after the exposure and development. As for my glass cutting skills, the less said, the better.
It is a lot of fun replicating these past photographic practices but I suspect I am a mere dilettante and ultimately a good pour of shiraz will be all I can master.
Update: I exposed and developed my plates and achieved some acceptable outcomes. Additional images added.
