etching, by which the parts intended to receive the printing ink, and
already protected by an acid-resisting grease, will be left above the
unprotected surface. The acid and gum mixture varies in accordance
with the quality of the work and the character of the stone. A
patiently executed specimen will, for instance, stand more etching
than a hastily drawn one; while a grey stone will require more of the
nitric acid than a yellow one. This is one of the most important tasks
that a lithographer has to perform. A proportion of 1.5 parts of acid
to 100 parts of a strong solution of gum arabic will be found to be
approximately what is required, but the exact proportion must be
settled by experience, a safe course being to watch the action that
occurs when a small quantity is placed on the unused margin of the
stone. Many put the etching mixture on with a flat camel-hair brush,
which should be of good width to avoid streaks. The present writer's
own preference is to pour the mixture on to the stone when it is in a
slanting position; or it is perhaps better to have an etching trough,
a strong box lined with pitch, with bearers at the bottom to prevent
the stone coming in contact with it, and a hole through which the
diluted acid may pass away for subsequent use. The etching is then
done with acid and water poured over the stone while in a sloping
position, and the subsequent pouring of a solution of gum arabic
completes the preparation. The late Mr William Simpson, whose Crimean
lithographs are well known, once stated at the Society of Arts that in
his opinion Mr Louis Haghe's reproduction of David Robert's great
picture of "The Taking of Jerusalem" was the most important piece of
chalk lithography ever executed, and that he well remembered that it
took two years to execute it, and that all the combined talent of
Messrs Day & Haghe's establishment was utilized in its etching. He
stated that, notwithstanding every precaution, it was under-etched,
and that after half a dozen impressions the great beauty and
brilliancy of the work had departed. This incident indicates
sufficiently the serious nature of this part of the lithographer's
work.
If the chalk drawing has to have tints, it will be necessary to make
as many dusted offsetts as there are colours to be used; in this class
of work there are generally only two,--one warm or sandy shade and the
other a quiet blue--and these, with the black and the neutral colour
secured by the superposition of the two shades, give an excellent
result, of which Haghe's sketches in Belgium may be taken as a leading
example.
In making such subjects suitable for present-day printing in the
machine, the paper will require to be of a good "rag" quality, free
from size and damped before printing. To secure accuracy of register
the paper must be kept in a damp cloth to prevent the edges drying,
and other machines should be kept available for each of the tints so
that all work printed in black in the morning may be completed the
same night. In this way large editions might be printed of either
original or retransferred work at prices rendering the prints suitable
for high-class magazines.
_Preparing a Chromo Lithograph._--For this purpose the proceedings
will be much the same as those suggested for the black and tint work,
but the preliminary tracing will be done in lithographic ink on
tracing transfer paper or scratched on gelatine, the lines being
subsequently filled in with transfer ink, and will be used as a "key,"
a guide stone that will not be printed; and the number of stones
necessary will probably be much more numerous. The initial point will
be to consider if the work is to have the edition printed from it, or
whether it has to be transferred after proving and before printing;
generally speaking, large subjects such as diagrams or posters will be
worked direct, while Christmas cards, postcards, handbills or labels,
will be repeated many times on larger stones. For the former class a
much wider range of methods is possible, but many of these are
difficult to transfer, and the deterioration that arises makes it
desirable to limit their use when transferring is contemplated.
Therefore, chalk-rubbed tints, varnish tints, stumping, wash, air
brush, are the methods for original work, while work that has to be
transferred is limited to ink work in line or stipple on a polished
stone with the aid of "mediums" as before described, and ink
"spluttered" on to the stone from a tooth brush. It should be
mentioned that work done on grained paper is more suitable for
retransfer than ordinary chalk work, and so is often very useful when
a chalk effect is desired from a polished stone. In proving, opaque
colours will be got on first, and it will often be found a good plan
to put the black on early, for it gives a good idea of how the work is
proceeding, and the strength of the touches (for the black should
generally be used sparingly) is often pleasantly softened by the
semi-opaque colours which should come on next. It is desirable to pull
impressions of each colour on thoroughly white paper, and beyond this
in important work there should be a progressive colour pattern that
will show how the work looked when two, three or more colours were on,
for this may at the finish be invaluable to show where error has crept
in, and is in any event an immense aid to the machine minder.
In regard to paper, a description made of rag or rag and esparto is
most desirable for all work on grained stones, but for work in ink and
consequently from polished stone a good coated paper with sufficient
"size" in it is frequently desirable; this paper is generally called
"chromo" paper.
There is at the present time very little encouragement for the high
class of chromo-lithography that was so much in evidence from 1855 to
1875, but there is little doubt that the work could be done equally
well by the present-day craftsmen if the demand revived. Belonging to
the period mentioned, distinguished examples of chromo-lithography are
"Blue Lights," after Turner, by Carrick; "Spanish Peasants" and the
Lumley portrait of Shakespeare, by Risdon; "Queen Victoria receiving
the Guards," by W. Bunney, after John Gilbert; and the series of
chromos after John Leech, produced under the general direction of
Vincent Brooks. A small proportion only of the Arundel Society's
prints were executed in England, but many reproductions of
water-colours after Birket Foster, Richardson, Wainwright and others
were executed by Samuel Hodson, James Lewis and others. Perhaps the
most consistently good work of modern times has been the reproduction
of Pellegrini's and Leslie Ward's drawings for _Vanity Fair_, which
from 1870 to 1906 were with very few exceptions executed by the firm
of Vincent Brooks, Day & Son.
_Transfers._--A very large proportion of work is got on to the stone
by transfer, and there is no more important part of the business
perhaps at the present time. When there is so much original
lithography done on grained paper by artists of eminence, the
transferring of grained paper drawings is the most important. The
stone most desirable for this purpose will be neither a grey nor a
light yellow, but one that stands mid-way between the two; it should
be very carefully polished so as to be quite free from scratches, and
brought to blood-heat by being gradually heated in an iron cupboard
prepared with the necessary apparatus. The methods that sometimes
prevail of pouring boiling water over the stone, heating with the
flame of an ordinary plumber's lamp, or even heating the surface in
front of a fire, are ineffective substitutes, for the surface may thus
become unduly hot and spread the work, and there is no increased
tendency for the chalk to enter into the stone and thus give the work
a long life. If there are no colours or registration troubles to be
considered, it is well to place the transfer in a damping book till
the composition adheres firmly to the finger, before placing it on the
stone; it should then be pulled through twice, after which it should
be damped on the back and pulled through several times; after this has
again been well damped the paper will be found to peel easily off the
stone, leaving the work and nearly all the composition attached; the
latter should then be very gently washed away.
In cases where the work for some reason must not stretch, such as the
hills on a map, it will be necessary to keep the transfer dry and put
it on a wet stone, but a piece of the margin of the paper should be
tested to see that it is of a class that will adhere to the stone the
first time it is pulled through. Unless the adhesion is very complete
it may not be safe to pull it through more than once. For a small
number of copies a very moderate "etch" is desirable, but for a long
run, where the object is to secure a good edition rather than a few
good proofs, the Eberle system may be adopted. This method consists in
protecting the work with finely powdered resin and then applying the
flame of an ordinary plumber's lamp; this will melt the protecting
medium round the base of each grain of work and allow of a very
vigorous "etch" being applied. As before stated it is not unusual to
secure 2000 to 3000 good copies in the machine after this treatment;
but the rollers, the ink and the superintendence must be of the best.
When the artist who is not a professed lithographer desires to make
tints to his work, a reversed offset on grained paper should be made
for each colour; this is done by pulling an impression in the usual
way on a hard piece of paper, and while it is yet wet this should be
faced with a piece of grained paper and pulled through again, when the
grained paper will be found to have received the greater portion of
the ink; this should be immediately dusted with offset powder of a red
shade to prevent the grease passing into the paper, and the drawing of
the tints should then be proceeded with in the usual way. Another
method of transfer work is to pull impressions from copper or steel
plates in transfer ink; it is in such way that simple etchings like
those of Cruikshank, Phiz and others are produced, and nearly all
commercial work such as maps, bill heads, &c., are prepared in the
same manner.
Beyond this, much work is done in lithographic ink on what is called
writing transfer paper, such as circulars, law writing for abstracts,
specifications and plans.
_Machinery._--The chief items are the hand presses and the machines,
whether flat bed or rotary, the principal places of manufacture being
Leeds, Otley and Edinburgh. Stimulated by American competition, the
standard of excellence in the United Kingdom has been very
considerably raised of late years. The rotary machines have only been
possible since the more frequent use of aluminium and zinc, but these
materials are more suitable to receive transfer than for the general
use of an office, the chief reason being that corrections on stone are
more easily accomplished and more lasting when done. Preliminary work
is therefore frequently done on the stone and transferred to plates
for the machine.
The question is very frequently asked as to how the necessary
registration of the colours is secured; it may be stated for the
benefit of the amateur that in hand printing this is generally done by
pricking with a pair of needles through printed marks present on each
stone; but in the machine this has been done in different ways,
although in quite early days "pointing" or "needling" was done even on
the machine. On modern machines this registration depends on the
accurate cutting of the edge of the paper, of which at least one
corner must be an absolute right angle. The paper is then laid on a
sloping board in such a way that the longest of the two true edges
gravitates into the gripper of the machine, the stops of which move
slightly forward as the gripper closes; simultaneously what is called
the "side lay" moves forward automatically to a given extent, and in
this way at the critical moment the sheet is always in the same
position in regard to the stone, which has already been firmly secured
in the bed of the machine.
Quite recently a new method has come into use that is probably
destined to be a great aid to the craft in its competition with other
methods. This is known as offset printing; it is more a matter of
evolution than invention, and proceeds from the method adopted in
tin-plate decoration so much used for box-making and lasting forms of
advertisement. It consists in bringing a sheet of rubber into contact
with the charged stone and then setting-off the impression so obtained
upon card, paper, pegamoid, cloth or other material, the elasticity of
the rubber making it possible to print upon rough surfaces that have
been previously unsuited to lithographic printing. Both flat bed and
rotary machines are available for this system, the latter being
restricted to zinc or aluminium plates, but giving a high speed, while
the former can use both stones and metal plates and may be more
effective for the highest grade of colour work; by both classes of
machines the finest engraved note headings can be printed on rough
paper, and colour work that has for so long been confined to coated or
burnished papers will be available on surfaces such as the artists
themselves use.
The following treatises may be referred to with advantage by those in
search of more detailed information: _A Complete Course of
Lithography_, by Alois Senefelder (R. Ackermann, London, 1819); _The
Grammar of Lithography_, by W. D. Richmond (13th edition, E. Menken,
London); _Handbook of Lithography_, by David Cumming (London, A. & C.
Black). The first of these will only be found in libraries of
importance; the others are present-day text-books. (F. V. B.)
LITHOSPHERE (Gr. [Greek: lithos], a stone, and [Greek: sphaira], a
sphere), the crust of the earth surrounding the earth's nucleus. The
superficial soil, a layer of loose earthy material from a few feet to a
few hundreds of feet in thickness, lies upon a zone of hard rock many
thousands of feet in thickness but varying in character, and composed
mainly of sandstones, shales, clays, limestones and metamorphic rocks.
These two layers form the lithosphere. All the tectonic movements of the
solid nucleus produce changes in the mobile lithosphere. Volcanic and
seismic activity is manifested, mountains are folded, levels change,
fresh surfaces are exposed to denudation, erosion and deposition. The
crust is thus subject to constant change while retaining its more or
less permanent character.
LITHUANIANS and LETTS, two kindred peoples of Indo-European origin,
which inhabit several western provinces of Russia and the north-eastern
parts of Poland and Prussia, on the shores of the Baltic Sea, and in the
basins of the Niemen and of the Duna. Large colonies of Lithuanian and
Lettic emigrants have been established in the United States. The two
races number about 3,500,000, of whom 1,300,000 are Letts. Little is
known about their origin, and nothing about the time of their appearance
in the country they now inhabit. Ptolemy mentions (iii. 5) two clans,
the Galindae and Sudeni, who probably belonged to the western
subdivision of this racial group, the Borussians. In the 10th century
the Lithuanians were already known under the name of Litva, and,
together with two other branches of the same stem--the Borussians and
the Letts--they occupied the south-eastern coast of the Baltic Sea from
the Vistula to the Duna, extending north-east towards the Lakes
Vierzi-järvi and Peipus, south-east to the watershed between the
affluents of the Baltic and those of the Black Sea, and south to the
middle course of the Vistula (Brest Litovsk)--a tract bounded by Finnish
tribes in the north, and by Slavs elsewhere.
Inhabiting a forested, marshy country the Lithuanians have been able to
maintain their national character, notwithstanding the vicissitudes of
their history. Their chief priest, _Krive-Kriveyto_ (the judge of the
judges), under whom were seventeen classes of priests and elders,
worshipped in the forests; the Waidelots brought their offerings to the
divinities at the foot of oaks; even now, the veneration of great oaks
is a widely spread custom in the villages of the Lithuanians, and even
of the Letts.
Even in the 10th century the Lithuanian stem was divided into three main
branches:--the _Borussians_ or _Prussians_; the _Letts_ (who call
themselves _Latvis_, whilst the name under which they are known in
Russian chronicles, _Letygola_, is an abbreviation of _Latvin-galas_,
"the confines of Lithuania"); and the _Lithuanians_, or rather
_Lituanians_, _Litva_ or _Letuvininkaï_,--these last being subdivided
into Lithuanians proper, and _Zhmud'_ (_Zmudz_, _Samogitians_ or
_Zemailey_), the "Lowlanders." To these main branches must be added the
_Yatvyags_, or _Yadzvings_, a warlike, black-haired people who inhabited
the forests at the upper tributaries of the Niemen and Bug, and the
survivors of whom are easily distinguishable as a mixture with
White-Russians and Mazurs in some parts of Grodno, Plotsk, Lomza and
Warsaw. Nestor's chronicle distinguishes also the _Zhemgala_, who later
became known under the name of _Semigallia_, and in the 10th century
inhabited the left bank of the Duna. Several authors consider also as
Lithuanians the _Kors_ of Russian chronicles, or _Courons_ of Western
authors, who inhabited the peninsula of Courland, and the _Golad_, a
clan settled on the banks of the Porotva, tributary of the Moskva river,
which seems to have been thrown far from the main stem during its
migration to the north. The _Krivichi_, who inhabited what is now the
government of Smolensk, seem to belong to the same stem. Their name
recalls the Krive-Kriveyto, and their ethnological features recall the
Lithuanians; but they are now as much Slavonic as Lithuanian.
All these peoples are only ethnographical subdivisions, and each of them
was subdivided into numerous independent clans and villages, separated
from one another by forests and marshes; they had no towns or fortified
places. The Lithuanian territory thus lay open to foreign invasions, and
the Russians as well as the German crusaders availed themselves of the
opportunity. The Borussians soon fell under the dominion of Germans, and
ceased to constitute a separate nationality, leaving only their name to
the state which later became Prussia. The Letts were driven farther to
the north, mixing there with Livs and Ehsts, and fell under the dominion
of the Livonian order. Only the Lithuanians proper, together with
Samogitians, succeeded in forming an independent state. The early
history of this state is imperfectly known. During the continuous petty
war carried on against Slavonic invasions, the military chief of one of
the clans, Ryngold, acquired, in the first half of the 13th century, a
certain preponderance over other clans of Lithuania and Black Russia
(Yatvyags), as well as over the republics of Red Russia. At this time,
the invasions of the Livonian order becoming more frequent, and always
extending southward, there was a general feeling of the necessity of
some organization to resist them, and Ryngold's son, Mendowg, availed
himself of this opportunity to pursue the policy of his father. He made
different concessions to the order, ceded to it several parts of
Lithuania, and even agreed to be baptized, in 1250, at Novograd Litovsk,
receiving in exchange a crown from Innocent IV., with which he was
crowned king of Lithuanians. He also ceded the whole of Lithuania to the
order in case he should die without leaving offspring. But he had
accepted Christianity only to increase his influence among other clans;
and, as soon as he had consolidated a union between Lithuanians,
Samogitians and Cours, he relapsed, proclaiming, in 1260, a general
uprising of the Lithuanian people against the Livonian order. The yoke
was shaken off, but internal wars followed, and three years later
Mendowg was killed. About the end of the 13th century a new dynasty of
rulers of Lithuania was founded by Lutuwer, whose second son, Gedymin
(1316-1341), with the aid of fresh forces he organized through his
relations with Red Russia, established something like regular
government; he at the same time extended his dominions over Russian
countries--over Black Russia (Novogrodok, Zditov, Grodno, Slonim and
Volkovysk) and the principalities of Polotsk, Tourovsk, Pinsk, Vitebsk
and Volhynia. He named himself _Rex Lethowinorum et multorum
Ruthenorum_. In 1325 he concluded a treaty with Poland against the
Livonian order, which treaty was the first step towards the union of
both countries realized two centuries later. The seven sons of Gedymin
considered themselves as quite independent; but two of them, Olgierd and
Keistut, soon became the more powerful. They represented two different
tendencies which existed at that time in Lithuania. Olgierd, whose
family relations attracted him towards the south, was the advocate of
union with Russia; rather politician than warrior, he increased his
influence by diplomacy and by organization. His wife and sons being
Christians, he also soon agreed to be baptized in the Greek Church.
Keistut represented the revival of the Lithuanian nationality.
Continually engaged in wars with Livonia, and remaining true to the
national religion, he became the national legendary hero. In 1345 both
brothers agreed to re-establish the great principality of Lithuania,
and, after having taken Vilna, the old sanctuary of the country, all the
brothers recognized the supremacy of Olgierd. His son, Jagiello, who
married the queen of Poland, Yadviga, after having been baptized in the
Latin Church, was crowned, on the 14th of February 1386, king of Poland.
At the beginning of the 15th century Lithuania extended her dominions as
far east as Vyazma on the banks of the Moskva river, the present
government of Kaluga, and Poutivl, and south-east as far as Poltava, the
shores of the Sea of Azov, and Haji-bey (Odessa), thus including Kiev
and Lutsk. The union with Poland remained, however, but nominal until
1569, when Sigismund Augustus was king of Poland. In the 16th century
Lithuania did not extend its power so far east and south-east as two
centuries before, but it constituted a compact state, including Polotsk,
Moghilev, Minsk, Grodno, Kovno, Vilna, Brest, and reaching as far
south-east as Chernigov. From the union with Poland, the history of
Lithuania becomes a part of Poland's history, Lithuanians and
White-Russians partaking of the fate of the Polish kingdom (see POLAND:
_History_). After its three partitions, they fell under the dominion of
the Russian empire. In 1792 Russia took the provinces of Moghilev and
Polotsk, and in 1793 those of Vilna, Troki, Novgorod-Syeversk, Brest and
Vitebsk. In 1797 all these provinces were united together, constituting
the "Lithuanian government" (Litovskaya Gubernia). But the name of
Lithuanian provinces was usually given only to the governments of Vilna
and Kovno, and, though Nicholas I. prohibited the use of this name, it
is still used, even in official documents. In Russia, all the
White-Russian population of the former Polish Lithuania are usually
considered as Lithuanians, the name of Zhmud being restricted to
Lithuanians proper.
The ethnographical limits of the Lithuanians are undefined, and their
number is variously estimated. The Letts occupy a part of the Courland
peninsula of Livonia and of Vitebsk, a few other settlements being
spread also in the governments of Kovno, St Petersburg and Moghilev. The
Lithuanians proper inhabit the governments of Kovno, Vilna, Suvalki and
Grodno; while the Samogitians or Zhmud inhabit the governments of Kovno
and Suvalki. To these must be added about 200,000 Borussians, the whole
number of Lithuanians and Letts in Russia being, according to the census
of 1897, 3,094,469. They are slowly extending towards the south,
especially the Letts; numerous emigrants have penetrated into Slavonic
lands as far as the government of Voronezh.
The Lithuanians are well built; the face is mostly elongated, the
features fine; the very fair hair, blue eyes and delicate skin
distinguish them from Poles and Russians. Their dress is usually plain
in comparison with that of Poles, and the predominance in it of
greyish colours has been frequently noticed. Their chief occupation is
agriculture. The trades in towns are generally carried on by men of
other races--mostly by Germans, Jews or Poles. The only exception is
afforded to some extent by the Letts. The Samogitians are good
hunters, and all Lithuanians are given to apiculture and cattle
breeding. But the Lithuanians, as well in the Baltic provinces as in
the central ones, were not until the most recent time proprietors of
the soil they tilled. They have given a few families to the Russian
nobility, but the great mass of the people became serfs of foreign
landowners, German and Polish, who reduced them to the greatest
misery. Since the Polish insurrection of 1863, the Russian government
has given to the Lithuanians the land of the Polish proprietors on
much easier terms than in central Russia; but the allotments of soil
and the redemption taxes are very unequally distributed; and a not
insignificant number of peasants (the _chinsheviki_) were even
deprived of the land they had for centuries considered their own. The
Letts remain in the same state as before, and are restrained from
emigrating _en masse_ only by coercive measures.