Glass plate negatives

The University Archives has recently acquired a collection of
approximately 50 glass plate negatives dating 1910-12.  I have a
couple of questions regarding these:

    1.  does anyone have a "tried and true" way of identifying
        whether they are wet or dry plates?

    2.  how do I go about reproducing them for reference/backup
        purposes (I'm not a photographics expert so please keep it
        simple)?

    3.  what sort of cleaning should be done to the plates prior to
        reproducing (e.g. distilled water on non-emulsion side
        only?)? Hope you can help.

Monique L. Jose
University Archivist
Edith Cowan University
Fax: +61 9 273 8661
Pearson St. Churchlands
Western Australia 6018
+61 9 273 8640

                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 9:45
                 Distributed: Friday, December 1, 1995
                        Message Id: cdl-9-45-020
                                  ***