QUARTER PLATE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Quarter plate

... certain to be useless. Among dozens of them it is hard to find three that fulfil the conditions of similarity of aspect and of shade. The negatives have to be made on purpose. I use a repeating back and a quarter plate, and get two good-sized heads on each plate, and of a scale that never gives less than four-tenths of an inch between the pupils of the eyes and the mouth. It is only the head that can be used, as more distant parts, even ...

— Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development • Francis Galton