Early Photography

These were single slides with a door at the back to load the plate and a draw-slide to expose the plate. Two draw-slides were fitted for use with single-lens stereo cameras to expose each half of the plate in turn.

Normally the slide had corner pieces of silver wire on which the plate rested. Reducing frames were used for smaller plate sizes and to switch between portrait and landscape format, these were also fitted with corner pieces. A trough was often present at the bottom of the slide into which any excess liquid on the plate could drain.