The ferrotype and how to make it - The Grian Press

156 THE FERROTYPE. ^
At last, placing my glass where there happened
to be a stronger light reflected from its surface,
I found, in a double reflection, the cause of all
my troubles. The glass of the mirror and also
of the small reflector being of very thick plate,
it gave a reflection from both surfaces—from the
front surface of the glass and from the silvered
back surface. Of course, the reflection from the
front or outer surface was faint, and only per-
ceptible in the double outlines; yet, by no means
at my command, could I remove or prevent it
in consequence, I was forced to give up the mir-
ror and glass reflector. My attention was next
turned to a finely-polished metallic reflecting
surface, but with no better success— in conse-
quence, I think, of the difficulty, if not the im-
possibility, of securing a perfectly plain surface
by which I mean a surface so perfectly even and
level as to reflect all rays of light in a direction
exactly parallel. It will very easily be seen that
any inequality, however small, in the reflecting
surface, would destroy the image: and this I
found impossible to overcome : and although I
had been very sanguine when I first attempted
the metallic reflector, I was forced to give it up
as unsuitable or unfit for the purpose.
The image reflected by one of these instruments
would often be so blurred as to be undistinguish-
able ; again, parts of the image would be perfect,
but not all. This resulted, I found, from the
inequalities of the metallic surface—such inequal-
: