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indeed to be endless; but a mere statement of even the more
interesting of these would lead us beyond our limits, and
descriptions of the details of manipulation are out of our province
altogether. But a few of the more recent applications and
developments of the art scarcely or not at all alluded to in the
foregoing pages should receive some attention.
The extraordinary sensitiveness of the gelatine-bromide film which
makes it possible to impress on it a photographic image in the
merest fraction of a second of time, enables us to take pictures of
objects in rapid motion. Express trains at their highest speed have
been successfully photographed, and so has almost every moving
object in nature. The photographs that have been taken of men, of
birds, horses, and other animals in every phase of their most rapid
actions, have solved many disputed and perplexing problems as to
the nature of their movements, and sometimes the solutions have
been of a very unexpected kind. Taking a photographic “shot” at a
bird has become almost more than a figure of speech; for there are
contrivances by which a bird on the wing may be aimed at with the
lens, and hit off on the sensitive plate with a certainty surpassing
that of the fowling-piece. There are also photographic repeaters by
which six or more successive photographs of the bird, etc., can be
taken in a single second. Mr. Muybridge has published a number of
such photographs of the horse, and by projection of the different
images on a screen from a magic lantern, in rapid succession, he has
been able to reproduce the visual appearance of horses trotting,
leaping, galloping, etc., on the principle of the zoetrope (page 399).
Photography has afforded wonderfully delicate observations in many
departments of science, by recording phenomena too rapid for the
eye to seize, or too recondite for direct perception. A few examples
may be mentioned. First, the advantage of photographing the lines
of spectra, such as those described in our article on the
spectroscope, will at once suggest themselves, and accordingly this
method of recording spectra has been largely used, and in the hands
of Mr. Lockyer, Dr. Draper, and others has been successfully applied
to the study of the solar and stellar spectra. But more than this, it is
the sensitive photographic plate that has enabled us to explore the
region of the solar spectrum lying far beyond its visible limits in the
red and in the violet rays. The ultra-violet portion of the spectrum is
shown photographically to be occupied by multitudes of the thin
insensitive spaces—breaks in the continuity of the active rays—which
are impressed on the photographic print as black lines, similar in
every respect to the lines mapped out in the visible spectrum by
Fraunhofer. It is known by these that the ultra-violet spectrum,
produced by glass prisms, extends to a distance beyond the last
visible rays of nearly double the space occupied by the colour
spectrum. The principal lines, or rather the greater groups of lines in
the invisible spectrum, are distinguished by the capital letters of the
alphabet, in continuation of Fraunhofer’s method, beginning from H
and nearly exhausting the letters of the alphabet to designate them.
These are photographed in the dark; for all the solar beams that are
allowed to enter the stereoscope are first passed through blue glass
of such a depth that every kind of emanation capable of affecting
the human eye is intercepted.
Another extremely interesting example of the application of the art
to scientific research is celestial photography. An image of the sun
may be impressed on a sensitive plate in an ordinary camera, in an
amazingly short space of time, but such image is much too small to
show any of the markings on the disc of our luminary, even when
the image is magnified, for its diameter is only about ⅒ th of an
inch for each 12 inches of the focal length of the lens. In order to
obtain an image of 4 inches diameter, a lens of 40 feet focal length
must therefore be used. The first attempts in solar photography
appear to have been made in France, in 1845, and the solar
prominences were daguerrotyped in 1851; but it was not until 1860,
that Mr. De La Rue succeeded in obtaining some beautiful negatives
of the phenomena presented in an eclipse of the sun, and was thus
enabled to determine a great astronomical problem, by showing that
the red flames, or prominences, really belonged to the sun itself. At
the present time, photographs of parts of the sun’s disc are regularly
taken at Kew, and other observatories, without the very long and
heavy telescopes, which introduced many mechanical difficulties into
the operation; for, by means of Foucault’s siderostat, the great lens
and the photographic apparatus can be used in one fixed position.
The siderostat is an instrument on which a flat mirror, made of glass
worked to a perfect plane and silvered externally, is caused by
clockwork to follow the motion of the sun, so that the reflected
beams can be projected in any required direction unchangeably, and,
therefore the image of the sun (or other heavenly bodies) viewed in
the mirror, is absolutely stationary. The lens, carried in a short tube,
has its axis directed to this image, just as it would be pointed at the
luminary itself. In solar photography, the exposure is made through
a very narrow slit in an opaque screen, which is caused to move
rapidly in front of the image. Very fair photographic images of the
sun, of several inches diameter, can, however, be obtained with an
ordinary telescope of five feet or so focal length, by substituting a
small photographic lens and camera in the eye-piece, and by
enlarging the image in printing.
As early as 1840, Dr. Draper succeeded in daguerrotyping the moon,
but it was not until 1851, that lunar photographs, obtained by
Professor Bond, another American astronomer, were first exhibited in
England. Many other distinguished experimenters have since
successfully turned their attention to this subject, such as Dancer, of
Manchester, Secchi, Crookes, Huggins, Phillips, and De La Rue. The
latter, and also Mr. Fry, by photographing the moon, at different
periods of her libration, have obtained very beautiful and interesting
stereoscopic prints of our satellite, in which she presents to the eye
the roundness and solidity of a cannon ball. Mr. Rutherford, in
America, had an object glass of 11¼ inches diameter, made
expressly with correction for the chemical rays, and with this
instrument he has produced some of the finest photographs of the
moon that have yet been taken. Reflecting telescopes, which have
the advantage of uniting all the rays in one focus, have been used
with excellent results, and it is said that some taken with the great
reflector at Melbourne, where also the atmospheric conditions are
very favourable, are almost perfect.
Excellent photographs of the planets have also been taken by Mr.
Common and others; but they are of course small, and have
contributed so far, much less to our astronomical knowledge than
those already mentioned. Very different are the results obtained in
what, a short time ago, appeared a less promising field. The image
of a so-called fixed star, in even the most powerful telescopes,
presents itself as a mere luminous point, and this is the case
whether the star is one of the brightest or one of the least
conspicuous. The telescopic appearance is simply a more or less
brilliant point. The various degrees of brightness which distinguish
one star from another (stella enim a stellâ differt in claritate), and
which the unassisted eye attributes to difference of size, led, long
before the invention of telescopes, to a classification of them
accordingly. The brightest stars are said to be of the 1st
“magnitude,” those of the next inferior degree of brilliancy, of the
2nd “magnitude,” and so on, down to the 6th, which includes the
faintest star discernible by an acute eye under favourable
circumstances. But stars too faint to be thus seen came into view in
the field of the telescope, and therefore those of the 7th magnitude,
and beyond, are termed telescopic stars, and each additional power
given to the instrument brings others in view that previously were
invisible. The classification has been carried down to the 18th or
20th magnitude, which expresses the limit of visibility with the most
powerful telescopes yet constructed. In the methods hitherto
employed for this classification, there is necessarily much that is
arbitrary and vague, and it is quite common to find a different
magnitude assigned to the same star by different authorities. Now
the photographic plate enables the astronomer to determine the
relative brightness of stars quite definitely. Everyone knows that the
time required to impress an image on the sensitive plate is longer, as
that image is less luminous. Hence, by finding the time required for
the images of different stars to be impressed, we have a measure of
their relative luminosities. Suppose the image of a group of stars is
allowed to act on a plate for, say, 5 seconds, we should find only the
brightest stars represented. If a second plate have double the
exposure given, it would be impressed by the images of not only the
brightest stars of the group, but also by those of the next degree of
brilliancy; and a third plate exposed for 20 seconds would show
more stars than the two former exposures. So that plate after plate
might be exposed under the same group for successively longer and
longer intervals indefinitely. Exposures extending over hours have
been made, notably by Mr. Common in England, and by Mr. Gill at
the Cape of Good Hope, showing not only how magnitude may be
determined to any extent, and the heavens most accurately mapped
out, but with this very remarkable result:—thousands of stars,
invisible even in the most powerful telescopes, are portrayed in the
photographs. Let us consider for a moment the significance of this
fact with regard to the new space-exploring powers it has placed in
the hands of science. The number of stars visible to the unassisted
eye in the whole expanse of the heavens has been variously
estimated, but the figures usually given lie between 3,000 and
4,000, and the highest estimate for the most acute eyesight, under
the most favourable atmospheric conditions, places the limit at
5,000. The brightest star in the heavens is Sirius, and Sir. J. Herschel
ascertained that its light is about 324, that of an average star of the
6th magnitude. Taking the average luminosities of stars of the first
six magnitudes, Sir W. Herschel, from his own observations,
represents their relative brightness by the following figures: 100; 25;
12; 6; 2; 1. The different degrees of brightness seen is, probably,
due to the following three causes, combined in various proportions:
(1) the different sizes of these luminaries themselves; (2) differences
in their intrinsic luminosity; and, (3) differences in their distances
from us. And it is also extremely probable that the last is generally
by far the largest factor of the three. It has been found by
photometrical experiments, that the light we receive from the sun is
20,000,000,000 (twenty thousand million) times more than that of
Sirius. If we suppose Sirius to be in reality only as large and as
bright as our sun, it follows that its distance from us must be no less
than 13,433,000,000,000 miles. The distance of stars of the 16th
magnitude has been estimated to be such that their light—travelling
at the rate of 185,000 miles per second—takes between five and six
thousand years to reach us. For a long time no sensible parallax
could be discovered in any of the fixed stars; that is, no change in
their positions was discernible when viewed from points 183,000,000
miles apart, namely from the extremities of a diameter of the earth’s
orbit. In other words, if we suppose the line of the length just
mentioned to form the base of a triangle, having a star at its vertex,
the angle formed by the sides is so small that the most refined
instruments failed to measure it. In recent times, however, the
parallax of a few stars—about a dozen or so—has been detected and
approximately measured. The greatest observed parallax belongs to
in α the constellation of the Centaur, a star of the first magnitude,
30° from the south pole of the heavens, and of this the parallax
amounts to but a little more than nine-tenths of a second of angular
measurement, corresponding with a distance of nearly
20,000,000,000,000 miles, a space which takes light 3½ years to
pass over. This star is, therefore, believed to be the nearest of any to
our system. The smallest parallax that has been measured in any of
these few stars is a fraction of a second of angle corresponding with
a distance twenty times greater than the other, and requiring
seventy years for light to traverse it. Now, as the photographic plate
shows us stars of magnitudes indefinitely smaller even than the
telescopic sixteenth, we cannot but marvel at the manner in which
the light travelling from these suns in the immeasurable depths of
space, and taking untold thousands (nay, millions, it may be) of
years in its journey is yet able so to agitate the atoms of our silver
compounds that images of things that will themselves, probably,
never be seen by mortal eyes are presented to our view. A
circumstance requiring explanation will occur to the reader’s mind in
connection with stellar photography; and that is, how does it happen
that, if the image of a star is a mere point, it nevertheless impresses
the plate as a visible dot? It is probably because the point is a centre
whence the photographic influence radiates laterally on the plate to
a small but yet sensible distance.
Among the cosmic objects presented to our observation there are
none more fully charged with interest and instruction than the
Nebulæ. These are faintly luminous patches, in some few cases
visible to the naked eye, but for the most part telescopic. The milky
way, which extends round the celestial sphere, is a very conspicuous
phenomenon of the same kind. A few other hazy, cloudlike patches
are seen in various parts of the heavens, visible on a clear moonless
night when the eye is directed towards the proper quarter. The well
known group of the Pleiades sometimes presents this appearance,
but most persons are able by the unassisted vision to discern in it a
group of six stars at least, and an opera-glass or ordinary hand
telescope easily resolves the object into a cluster of 20 or 30 distinct
stars. Telescopes of higher powers bring more stars into view, and
as many as 118 have been counted in the group. There are several
other groups of this kind perceptible to the naked eyes merely as
diffused patches of light, but resolvable by the telescope into thickly
clustered groups of minute stars; but in many of the resolvable
nebulæ the separate stars appear spread on a back-ground of
diffused luminosity. Again, there are other nebulæ which telescopes
of the highest powers we possess fail to resolve at all. Not only has
the photographic method shown stellar components of some of
these last, but it has depicted the form of nebulæ never seen at all,
and whose existence was previously unknown and unsuspected. For
example, the photograph has revealed the existence of a back-
ground of nebulous patches to the stars of the Pleiades—a thing that
had never before been suspected, although the group has been
repeatedly observed by the most powerful telescopes. Those who
are at all acquainted with astronomy, will understand the significance
of this discovery for the science. The results already obtained afford
a marvellous support to the famous speculation known as the
nebular hypothesis. And as the forms of these objects are accurately
shown for us by their own light, changes in their appearance may
thus be detected as time goes on which may serve to lift the above
named theory into the region of demonstrated truth. The nebulæ
which neither telescope nor camera can resolve are such as the
spectroscope proves to be masses of glowing gas or vapour.
It has been already mentioned that the light from these
immeasurably distant stars and nebulæ is so faint that the most
sensitive photographic plates have to be exposed for hours. This
would be a matter of no difficulty if the clockwork mechanism by
which the apparatus is made to follow the apparent motion of the
heavens could be constructed with absolute perfection. But as this is
not obtainable, even with the most careful workmanship, and the
smallest jar or irregularity would distort and confuse the images, this
source of disturbance is eliminated in the following manner:
attached to the photographing apparatus and driven with it is a
telescope, provided with cross wires, and through this an observer
views some star during the whole period of the exposure, his
business being to keep the image of the star accurately on the cross
wire, which he is enabled to do by having the means of slightly
modifying the movement of the clockwork. In the Paris Exhibition of
1889 were shown many very fine large photographic prints of
nebulæ (notably of great nebula in Orion), which have recently been
obtained in this manner, and those nebulæ that had been
photographically resolved had the stellar components marked with
wonderful distinctness. Comets and meteorites have been
photographed, and even the aurora borealis and the lightning’s path
have been brought within the camera’s ken.
Space would fail us to describe the many applications now found for
photography in microscopy, in medicine and surgery, in
anthropology, in commerce, and in the arts. It is obvious also from
the improvements that are continually made, that many of these
applications have not yet received their full developments.
Photography has been enlisted into the service of the army and
navy, and regular courses of instruction in the art are given in their
training schools. A well equipped photographic waggon now
accompanies every army corps, and in almost every ship of war,
some proficient operator is to be found. By an ingenious combination
of photography, aerostatics and electricity, it is possible to obtain
with perfect safety accurate information of the disposition of an
enemy’s forces and fortifications. A small captive balloon is sent up,
to which is attached a camera. At a height of a few hundred yards,
the balloon is practically safe from any projectiles, and in its cable
are interwoven two electric wires by which currents are conveyed to
electro-magnets, which produce all the movements required for any
number of exposures. Jurisprudence has found its account in
recognizing the art, for the photograph is received in evidence for
proving identity, etc. The administration of the criminal law takes
advantage of the art to secure the likeness of prisoners for future
identification, and the modern instantaneous process renders
unnecessary the subjects’ concurrence with the operation. Again, if
the “hue and cry” has to be raised for an individual “wanted” for any
offence, and a photographic likeness of him is procurable, thousands
of copies can be made of it in a few hours, by night as easily as by
day, and distributed to every police station in the whole country.
Modern processes now enable us to obtain prints from negatives in
as many seconds as a few years ago hours were required, and this
by artificial light. A process of printing lately introduced and yielding
artistic results which deserve to find more general favour, is that
called the platinotype. Instead of the ordinary print produced on
lightly glazed paper by the reduction of silver compounds, and of
questionable permanency, the image is formed in the paper by
metallic platinum, the most changeless of all possible substances
under ordinary influences. The pictures are of a rich velvety black,
with soft gradations, and the surface is without glaze or glare. The
print has, in fact, the appearance and all the best qualities of the
most highly finished mezzotint engraving, combined with the minute
fidelity characteristic of the photograph. The problem of producing a
photograph in colours, permanently showing nature’s tints in all their
gradations, has still a great fascination for some experimenters, and
startling announcements are made from time to time of some
discovery in this direction. It does not appear, however, that any
success has really been arrived at, beyond the results long ago
obtained by Becquerel as described on page 614; and, indeed, as
our knowledge of the science of the subject increases, the less likely
does the possibility of photographing colours appear. It is, however,
never safe to lay down the limits of discovery in science.[14] Note that
precisely in the matter of rendering colour even in its due gradation
of tone or luminous intensity, the photograph is quite untruthful.
Everybody has noticed how unnaturally dark and heavy the foliage
of trees appears in the prints; if we suppose a lady in a blue dress,
with yellow trimmings, to sit for her portrait, the photograph will
show her in a white dress with black trimmings; a sitter with light
yellow or auburn hair will appear of quite a dark complexion; if you
photograph a lemon and a plum together, the latter will probably
come out lighter than the former; or if a daffodil be the subject, the
flower will be drawn in tones much darker than the leaves. This
incorrectness of tone relations can, however, be greatly lessened by
the device of reducing the quantity of the blue rays, by interposing a
piece of optically plane yellow-tinted glass, by using the sensitive
plates tinted with certain coal-tar dyes, which are now prepared and
sold under the name of “ortho-chromatic plates,” or by both
methods combined.

14. See page 630.

If any illustration were needed of the great popularity now attained
by the practice of photography, reference might be made to the
large number of periodicals devoted to the subject, and appearing
weekly, fortnightly, quarterly or annually, in every civilised country,
and also to the multitudes of societies that have been formed for the
promotion of the art. In Great Britain alone there are now at least
150 such societies in active operation, and they are correspondingly
numerous elsewhere. If, when we consider all that has been
accomplished up to the present time, with the jubilee year of
photography scarcely passed, and observe the increasing numbers
of its cultivators guided by the explanations of its phenomena that
science is beginning to furnish, we can expect a corresponding
progress in the next fifty years, then the centenary may be reached
with a roll of achievements that could we know them now we should
think marvellous.
As already remarked elsewhere, the practical side of photography
has outstripped the theoretical one, for so far its progress has been
much less indebted for processes and technic to the direct guidance
of science than almost any other of our Nineteenth Century
acquisitions, such as telegraphy, electric lighting, etc. The materials
employed, and the mode of manipulation, have certainly not been
deduced from previous knowledge of the nature of light or from the
laws of chemistry, although when, by repeated trials and happy
guesses, the right direction had been found, the field into which it
led could be more easily explored under the direction of chemistry
and physics. But even yet the fundamental principle, or the precise
nature of the action of light on certain compounds, has not been
definitely made out, and although some theories on the subject have
been proposed, no one has been generally accepted as an adequate
explanation of the known facts, and still less have any quantitative
relations been established for these actions. The photographer
cannot compose a formula for the composition of his emulsions and
developers from assured data like those that enable the chemist to
weigh out with accuracy the constituents that go to produce a
required compound.
The attainment of permanency in its products, which, by several
processes, photography can now boast of, is one of its triumphs, and
will tend greatly to enlarge the sphere of its utility. For example, we
have a public institution, known as the National Portrait Gallery, in
which it is sought to gather together and preserve the likenesses of
the most eminent Englishmen, and presentments of such of far less
fidelity than photographic portraits are eagerly sought after. It has
been suggested that something like a National Gallery of permanent
photographic portraits of the chief men of their time would be a
fitting and acceptable legacy to the public of the future. This idea
has much to recommend it, particularly as authentic likenesses
would thus be secured for the nation beyond the chance of loss.
Photography has been applied in preparing blocks in relief for
printing along with letterpress in the same way as woodcut blocks.
The process has the great advantage of producing in a wonderfully
short time a perfect facsimile of the artist’s drawing without the
intervention of any engraver. A plate of zinc, brass, or copper, coated
with a dried film of bichromated albumen, is exposed to light under
the transparent negative of a drawing in pure line, that is, one
having in it only lines of uniform colour throughout. The parts of the
film reached by the light, which correspond with the lines of the
original design, are rendered insoluble, while the rest can readily be
removed by water. These unprotected parts have then to be
removed by the action of acids, but these are used alternately with
the application to the plate of certain compositions, the purpose of
which is to prevent lateral erosion of the lines in relief before the
requisite depth of the metal has been removed. Fig. 147f is the
reproduction of a pen-and-ink sketch by this or some similar
process. But nature and the ordinary photograph show us graduated
tones which ordinary printers’ ink cannot really reproduce, inasmuch
as it is incapable of gradation, and can give the effect of gradation
only by such devices as are mentioned on page 642 (last sentence).
Now, the photograph cannot yield a printing-block until its
continuous tones are broken up into lines or dots. Not a few
methods of doing this have been contrived, but that which is by far
the most commonly used, and is most successfully practised on the
commercial scale, is simple in principle, although in actual working it
calls for much experience and skill. The negative is taken upon a wet
collodion plate, in front of which, within the camera, and at a very
1
short distance (say 30 th inch) from the film, is a transparent screen,
bearing two sets of parallel opaque lines at right angles to each
other. These lines are mechanically ruled with the utmost regularity,
and are separated by only very small intervals. There may be from
80 to 200 of them in the space of one inch, according to the class of
work required. The effect of this is that the light reaches the
photographic film through a series of minute transparent squares,
1 1
the sides of which may be only from the 140 th to the 400 th of an inch
in length. Now it is found that the brighter lights from the original
positive, after passing these small apertures, spread so as to more
or less cover the opposite parts of the negative, while the feebler
lights, from the shades of the original, impress the plate to a less
degree, the developed image in these showing, perhaps, merely a
small dot or, in the very darkest parts, a blank. In this way, then,
may the photographic negative be obtained with a granulated
texture following in graduation the tones of the original. After this,
the rest is easy, for the process of exposing a metal plate, coated
with a sensitive film under the negative, and of etching it with acids,
etc., is essentially the same as in the foregoing. Such is the half-tone
process, which is now so largely superseding wood and other
engraving. It is unnecessary to describe technical details here, such
as the employment of bitumen of Judæa as the coating for the metal
plate, or how the image must be reflected into the lens from a
mirror to avoid a reversal in the final print, etc. There are endless
modifications of the processes briefly mentioned above, and some of
these are guarded as valuable trade secrets. Several of the
illustrations in this work are prepared by the half-tone process, of
which plates I., IV., V., etc., are examples, and they should be
examined with a strong lens, in order that the different rendering of
the light and the dark parts may be compared.
 PHOTOGRAPHY IN COLOURS.

I t is the statement as to the futility of assigning limits to scientific

discovery that has been justified by facts. The preceding edition
of this work was not long in the hands of its readers before the
solution of the problem of photography in colours was announced
from Paris, where, at the close of 1890, the physicist M. Lippmann
had succeeded in photographing the solar spectrum in its natural
colours, and at the beginning of 1891, he was able to exhibit at the
Academy of Science untouched photographs of a stained glass
window in three colours, of a dish of oranges and red flowers, and of
a gorgeously coloured parrot, all in their natural tints. The method
employed had no apparent relation to that of Becquerel, but was of
the simplest, and, moreover, one which any reader who has followed
the first few pages of our section on the “Causes of Light and
Colours” will have little difficulty in completely understanding, if he
has devoted a little attention to Fresnel’s interference experiment. M.
Lippmann took a photographic plate, coated to a greater depth than
usual with a gelatine film containing the sensitive salts of silver, and
in the camera this plate was exposed with the glass towards the
lens, while at the other side of the film was a metallic reflecting
surface, namely, quicksilver. Supposing a ray of red light to enter the
glass and traverse the film, it would be reflected from the metallic
surface, and would meet the direct ray within the substance of the
film, with a difference of length of path that would produce the
interferences already described, and so give rise to alternate lines or
bands of darkness and brightness. It would, of course, be in the
lines of maximum brightness that the silver would be first deposited
by the photographic action, and these microscopically fine lines or
striæ of silver would give back, from ordinary light, a colour
corresponding to the waves of red light that produced them.
Similarly with the other colours. Anyone may observe the production
of colour from ordinary white light in the iridescent tints of mother-
of-pearl, where the effects are due to the varying distances of fine
edges of the layers of the substance. If an impression is taken from
a piece of mother-of-pearl by solid paraffin, or by white wax, or even
by common red sealing-wax, the colours will seem to be adhering to
the impression, but the operation may be repeated times without
number. It is the distance apart of the lines or striæ that
determinates the colour, and this is always some definite multiple of
the wave lengths, given on p. 411, for the various colours. M.
Lippmann’s products are true colour photographs, and they form a
new and elegant experimental demonstration of the doctrine of
luminiferous undulations.
The colour effects of nature have also been reproduced by taking
photographs of the same scene through coloured glass. Thus a
screen of yellow glass will intercept the blue and the red rays, and
the sensitive film will be impressed with images of objects containing
yellow rays only, and that in proportion to the quantity of these rays
that enter into any given tint. Similarly with images taken through
red and blue glasses. The positives from these partial images being
projected by three optical lanterns on the same space on a screen,
and each being coloured by passing through tinted glasses like the
original, the superposed images thus combined give a very lively
impression of the natural colours in all their gradations.
Among the many processes for reproducing photographs by non-
photographic processes, some have been more or less successfully
combined with colour printing. Some of these productions are very
effective, and are more attractive to many persons than the
monochromatic tints of ordinary photographs.
Fig. 312.—Portrait of Aloysius
Senefelder.
 PRINTING PROCESSES.

A s it is beyond contradiction that printing is one of those

inventions which have most influenced the progress of mankind,
so it will be admitted that certain modern processes, by greatly
facilitating the operations, and vastly extending the resources, of the
art, possess an interest and importance surpassed by few of the
subjects we have discussed. In a former article the reader has been
made acquainted with the steam printing-press and other
applications of machinery by which the impressions of a form of
type, or of a pattern, can be rapidly multiplied. Here we have to
describe some ingenious methods of preparing the forms or originals
for letterpress and other printing, and certain beautiful processes for
multiplying drawings, engravings, and pictures.
 STEREOTYPING.

T his term is applied to the process of obtaining the impression of

a form of movable types, or of a woodcut, on a plate of metal
which can be printed from. These plates, after the required number
of copies have been printed, can be stored away; and they are ready
for use whenever another issue of the work is required. When the
pages that are to be stereotyped have been set up in ordinary type,
there are several methods by which the stereotype plates may be
obtained from them; or rather, there are several materials used to
form the matrix or mould in which the metal is cast. When plaster of
Paris is used, the form is first slightly oiled, to prevent adhesion of
the plaster; a thin mixture of plaster and water is then poured upon
the form, which is surrounded by a raised rim, to retain the plaster.
The thin plaster is carefully led into all the recesses of the type, and
then some thicker material is poured on. The plaster soon sets, and
is lifted off the type, and, after drying, is ready to receive the molten
metal of which the stereotype plate is formed. This metal is an easily
fusible alloy of lead, antimony, and other metals, which takes the
form of the mould with great accuracy, and is, when solid,
sufficiently hard to print from.
 Fig. 313.—Press for Stereotyping by Clay
Process.

Another plan is to make use of prepared clay, spread upon an iron

plate, for the formation of the mould. The face of the type is
brushed with benzine, the plate with the clay is laid upon it, and
pressure is applied. The whole is then dried in a slow oven, and the
clay, when detached from the type, is ready to form the mould. The
advantages of the clay process are that the type does not require to
be afterwards cleaned from oil, and that the material does not fill up
the deeper spaces of the form, so that a thinner stratum of metal
suffices to form the stereotype plate.
A third mode of obtaining the mould has been already mentioned in
connection with the Walter Printing Press (page 313), in the working
of which the papier maché process is ingeniously made to supply the
curved stereotype plates for the cylinders. This process is also
largely used for other newspaper presses, and sometimes for
bookwork, as it forms an invaluable means of expeditiously obtaining
a number of stereotype plates from the movable types. This
production of a number of similar forms makes it possible to strike
off a very large number of copies in a short time, for many presses
can be employed simultaneously. For the paper process a number of
sheets of tissue-paper are pasted together, and the moist paper is
laid upon the form; then the operator, by light strokes of a brush,
beats down the paper into the hollows of the type, beginning at the
centre of the page, and going towards the margins. A sheet of stout
unsized paper, called “plate paper,” constitutes the upper layer; and
when the whole has been well beaten down upon the type, pressure
is applied by means of a screw acting upon a plate of iron covering
the whole. In this condition a gentle heat, produced by steam, is
made to completely dry and harden the paper matrix, which is very
soon fit to be used for casting the metal. The apparatus for this
purpose consists of a hollow iron table, within which steam is made
to circulate. On this the form is placed, and the platen is pressed
down upon it by means of a screw. In many cases the platen also is
heated by steam, to accelerate still further the drying of the matrix,
which is effected in about four or five minutes. One paper matrix, by
careful use, will serve for the production of a series of casts without
receiving any damage from the molten metal, as this is fusible at a
low temperature.
The mould for casting flat stereotype plates from the paper matrix is
made of iron, and has parallel surfaces, which admit of being so
adjusted that the thickness required in the plates may be obtained
very nearly. The paper matrix is laid on the horizontal iron bed of the
mould; gauge-bars are adjusted, which retain it in its position; and
then the second plate is folded down—the distance between that
and the paper being determined by the gauge-bars. The cover is
secured by clamping-screws, and then the mould is turned upright to
receive the metal, which is removed, when solid, after the mould has
been turned back into its horizontal position.
However the stereotype plates have been produced, it is necessary
accurately to adjust their thickness by planing off some of the
material from the back. The edges have also to be cut and trimmed
to the exact dimensions required by the press. Various machines
have been devised for effecting all these operations with accuracy
and dispatch. The plates are afterwards mounted on wooden or
metal blocks to bring them to the height of ordinary type.
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