A ferrotype plate electric heater to speed drying and allow glossy prints to be made (pre colour computers and ink jets)
Toronto. Do you remember glass plates and film? These negative materials were contact printed or an enlarger was used to create the inverted paper print we used to see in grannie’s album or perhaps our own album or ‘box of photos’.
An important aspect of using a paper based material in liquids was to dry the prints before storing them for future viewing. You could simply lay them on a clean surface to dry such as a counter or stacked open shelves . Special blotters could be used to remove the majority of the water before air drying.
Serious amateurs and professional services used electric heat and special iron plates chrome plated on one side. Prints were placed on the chrome surface face up. A special photographic paper with a thicker surface (glossy paper) was placed face down on the chrome surface and with care the recognizable glossy print resulted.
The heater shown at left is courtesy of Paul McGowan’s article Ferrotypes on his psaudio website. Paul wrote the article back on February 16, 2021.
Today, we use ink-jet printers and special digital photo paper either matt or glossy and print photo files to the printer via a computer. No mess, no delay and if your printer and computer are correctly matched, you have a paper print that is a close resemblance lance to the brightness and colour on your monitor.
Of course most people and most photographs remain electronic files viewed on the computer or smart phone. The very special few photographs can be printed to eliminate a future need to have the correct technology …
Anyone using film today should consider ferrotype plates and a heater. Meantime you are all welcome at our 2025 events (under PHSC EVENTS at right). See what fits your collection – there might even be a ferrotype plate and heater to dry your photos!
