The ferrotype and how to make it - The Grian Press

THE FERROTYPE. 23
as a vehicle for a picture, which, however little
it may have cost originally, there are so many
contingencies under which its value to the owner
might become incalculable, not in money or other
earthly dross, but as the last memento of one, in
whose existence might have centered the hopes
and aspirations of many tender hearts, and upon
whom may have been lavished the holiest and
tenderest feelings of our nature.
Again, glass, besides being brittle in its nature,
is heavy and bulky, and, in consequence, was
not suitable for other than small miniatures,
such as were destined to be put in small cases or
frames, to be carried on the person or to lie on
the parlor table or mantel-piece. How many a
happy home there is, upon whose table may be
found these tokens of friendship or love, and
how much better would it be if those Ambrotypes
could be transformed into the imperishable Ferro-
type, and placed in the elegant parlor picture
album, thus placing them almost above the power
of accident or the possibility of loss.
Many of the readers of these pages, who, like
the writer, made Ambrotypes on white and after-
ward on colored glass, will recollect how rapidly
the glass plate gave way before the advancing
popularity of the Ferrotype, which, in a short
time, entirely superseded its older rival, and at
this present time bids fair to excel every other
branch of the art in the amount and magnitude
of the interests involved in its j)roduction.