Post AsZCyrQTEGajnPI5S4 by fembot@mstdn.social
(DIR) More posts by fembot@mstdn.social
(DIR) Post #AsZ0Jo5zVWZ690MxWa by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-30T00:34:38Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
I have never been able to verify this. In Pittsburgh I did a lot of "urban exploration" -- old factories, places down town. This old guy took us on a tour of his favorite spots. A brick factory with huge windows. "They so many photos during the civil war. Sometimes identify the dead. After the war no one wanted to keep those photos. So they recycled the glass plates into windows like these."You didn't look out of those windows, they looked into you.
(DIR) Post #AsZ0OONAZX3PoWagjI by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-30T00:35:27Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
I now wonder if this was true, or just a ghost story. Whenever I see old glass panes of a "certain size" I think about this.
(DIR) Post #AsZ0lma4jUwTYRmT9k by SKleefeld@mastodon.social
2025-03-30T00:39:40Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird Oooo, no idea if that is true or not, but somebody totally should write that into a novel!
(DIR) Post #AsZ19c3DXCrPqXm68e by magicalthinking@noauthority.social
2025-03-30T00:44:03Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird They may have used old photograph plates for windows, but I doubt the emulsion was still on them.
(DIR) Post #AsZ1MEMkuD8k9avkA4 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-30T00:46:18Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@magicalthinking They were clear, the reclaimed the silver.
(DIR) Post #AsZ3uZb2g4epkk7Gs4 by paulc@mstdn.social
2025-03-30T01:14:45Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird I have no idea but I’ll say maybe because of all of the old films that were destroyed so the film stock could be recycled into other things such as high heels for shoes. So many silent movies lost this way.
(DIR) Post #AsZ44gP0EEZzkyJ0ee by Laplantgenetics@spore.social
2025-03-30T01:16:37Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@futurebird They were mostly recycled for greenhouses, but apparently some have survived.https://southstreetseaportmuseum.org/hidden-gems-glass-plate-negatives/
(DIR) Post #AsZ5u8tMAGL6q2bZWy by robertadtaylor@ohai.social
2025-03-30T01:37:06Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird pretty sure Ken Burns used similarly found glass plates for his Civil War PBS series. I think I watched it on one of the special features on the DVD set.
(DIR) Post #AsZ72lfxwyYNOb1D7I by fembot@mstdn.social
2025-03-30T01:49:50Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird I've seen references to the use of civil war glass plate negatives used to build greenhouses. Evocative, for sure. Ken Burns even mentions it in his c.w. series, presumably gleaned from original source material that was unsupported. Alas, it's apparently a myth and has been roundly debunked since then.
(DIR) Post #AsZ764MYvdq8DmW6pk by fembot@mstdn.social
2025-03-30T01:50:30Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird I've seen references to the use of civil war glass-plate negatives used to build greenhouses. Evocative, for sure. Ken Burns even mentions it in his c.w. series, presumably gleaned from original source material that was unsupported. Alas, it's apparently a myth and has been roundly debunked since then.
(DIR) Post #AsZ78hYECP1ULAEE9A by fembot@mstdn.social
2025-03-30T01:50:59Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird I've seen references to the use of civil war glass-plate negatives to build greenhouses. Evocative, for sure. Ken Burns even mentions it in his c.w. series, presumably gleaned from original source material that was unsupported. Alas, it's apparently a myth and has been roundly debunked since then.
(DIR) Post #AsZ7gzgvGDD4RmeBrU by fembot@mstdn.social
2025-03-30T01:57:12Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird I've seen references to the use of civil war glass-plate negatives to build greenhouses. Evocative, for sure. Ken Burns even mentions it in his c.w. series, presumably gleaned from unsupported claims in original source material. Alas, it's apparently a myth and has been roundly debunked since then.
(DIR) Post #AsZBgAVRxssbW48v7g by bucknam@mastodon.social
2025-03-30T02:12:43Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@fembot @futurebird as someone who has studied 19th century photographic history and practice, the emulsion carrying the images wouldn’t hold up to much of the abuse — such as scrubbing/washing, etc. — that greenhouse glass would have to endure. It also wasn’t the thicker glass that you’d probably glaze a greenhouse with, and are hence fragile. Potentially, you could scrape off the silver/collodion emulsion and use it as just glass, I suppose, but no “ghostly images” would remain.
(DIR) Post #AsZBgB37wfonCVtocC by fembot@mstdn.social
2025-03-30T02:37:33Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@bucknam One source of the myth actually mentions that the civil war imagery on the glass was faded from view except for sections that were permanently in the shade out of direct sunlight. Seems to have been lore passed down by word of mouth for many decades.@futurebird
(DIR) Post #AsZBgFS5ZoA6r5bo4u by bucknam@mastodon.social
2025-03-30T02:17:51Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@fembot @futurebird for any pedants out there: (there is also dry gelatin process, which is more durable, and came out in the 1870s, but I think the general arguements against the myth remain)
(DIR) Post #AsZCyrQTEGajnPI5S4 by fembot@mstdn.social
2025-03-30T02:56:29Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird fwiw I think it's possible there could have been some old photographic plates used in the window of the Pittsburgh factory. Almost assuredly not from the civil war, but maybe from a later period. I mean, it's possible. And easy enough to imagine your guide had heard all the stories from the early industrial era, so why not.
(DIR) Post #AsZbOFc6po2sx6NHSi by llewelly@sauropods.win
2025-03-30T07:30:00Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird I've heard stories like this. To me, it seems like a great story idea that was originally invented for fiction, especially a ghost story or other horror fiction. In fiction the author could either write to an audience that wouldn't know the practical problems with such "recycling", or invent some fictional reasons for doing it anyway. But I don't think there's any example of it happening in real life.
(DIR) Post #AsZxLwIhrnNnSzbNqa by llewelly@sauropods.win
2025-03-30T11:33:31Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@futurebird I keep thinking about a revision of this idea involving a mad inventor devising a glass plate based slide projector, invented with 1880s technology. It's meant as a public entertainment device, and as a theatre aid for stage plays, but after filling warehouses with glass plate slides, the business fails catastrophically, and there are all manner of disturbing rumors.
(DIR) Post #AsZzlCiu92u5Y31ySW by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-30T12:03:04Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@patrickhadfield This. Is. So. Metal. Thank you for telling me about this, it's going in the brain blender, who knows what will come out.
(DIR) Post #Asa06TeaOSAy8c9eLo by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-30T12:06:55Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@patrickhadfield gives a whole new meaning to "my body is a palimpsest"
(DIR) Post #AsaD2h2jy5LtuWyjj6 by chrisamaphone@hci.social
2025-03-30T14:31:52Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird (I did some urban exploring when I lived there too! great memories; just incredible things to see.)