"Martin Brown" wrote in message
...
Glass plates are much more stable and pose no threat at all (apart from
sharp edges and breaking if you drop them).

Handy tip: if you scan any glass negatives on a flat-bed scanner, always put
a sheet of (disposable) transparent plastic between the neg and the scanner
glass. I got a nasty scratch on my scanner glass when I forgot to do that.
And be *very* careful of the emulsion which has a tendency to flake off. My
mum was loaned some glass negatives which date from the early 1900s
(probably before WWI) and one of them was very dodgy: I decided to
photograph that one with a camera, looking at a plain white background,
because I didn't trust it on the scanner.