The ferrotype and how to make it - The Grian Press

154 THE FERROTYPE.
the figure in the same manner as the reflection
of the form or face in a mirror, which, as every
body knows, makes the right side to ap}3ear as
the left, and vice versa, giving the parting of the
hair on the wrong side, etc., etc. In considering
as to the best method of overcoming this defect,
it occurred to me that there was but one way in
which it could be done, viz., by reflection. A
suitable reflector must be placed in front of the
lens, and, in practice, pictures must be made from
the image of the object, and not from the object
itself, for this reason. As the picture, of the
sitter, as now taken, is transposed in the camera,
this transposition can only be overcome by trans-
posing again ;
and as we can not effect two trans-
positions within the camera, we must effect one
between the sitter and the camera lens. This can
only be done by means of a reflector. At this
time I commenced to experiment with various
reflectors. 1 remembered to have heard or read
a description of an apparatus that had been used
during the earlier days of Daguerreotypes, by
which this effect was produced, but with what
degree of success I never could learn ; but reason-
ing from tlie fact that I had never seen one used,
and that I had never heard of such instruments
being off*ered for sale, I concluded that it could
not have been of a practical nature. However, I
began to make inquiries among the stock dealers
about such an instrument, and, after considerable
trouble and persistence, I did find one which had