This section is from the book "Photographics: A Series Of Lessons", by Edward L. Wilson. Also available from Amazon: Wilson's Photographics: A Series Of Lessons/a>.
Collodionizing. "With a stock of albumenized plates before us, we now proceed to make some negatives. In a collodion pourer at our right hand is our collodion. We seize the glass plate between the thumb and fingers of the left hand, at the left lower corner, raising it sufficiently to permit the eye to scan its whole surface, holding it perfectly level. Keep the breath from the plate and gently, with the mouth of the pourer close to the plate, pour out upon it a small oval puddle of collodion, sufficient to cover, say, two-thirds of the glass surface. Now rock gently so as to cover it wholly while flowing towards the right lower corner, whence return the surplus to your pourer. As soon as the surface or film is dried so as to be barely tacky to the finger, place the plate upon the dipper, still holding it in a horizontal position, that the film may be dried evenly before it enters the bath solution.
 
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