lifted off and the stone permitted to dry for a minute. It is better if
one can wait longer. Then put it into the etching-trough, and pour over
it, quickly and only once, a clean but weak solution of one hundred
parts of water to one part of aquafortis. It is necessary to be skillful
enough to cover the whole surface with one application. Then the stone
is washed by pouring pure water over it, and, if time permits, set aside
to dry. If time is limited, the gum solution to prepare the stone can be
put on at once. Now the transfer is on the stone, properly etched and
prepared. To make clean impressions, however, the printing-color must
first be rubbed on, then the stone must be inked-in with acid-proof
color and after that undergo another etching, a trifle stronger.
To rub on the printing-color, rub a little acid-proof color into a piece
of clean linen or cotton, so that it is well permeated but not thickly
covered. Rub this rag gently to and fro over the transfer while the gum
is still on it, till every part of the design is nicely inked. This
rubbing-in of color is an important part of many of the processes that
will be described later.
Now clean the stone well with water, ink-in with acid-proof ink, and
etch it again as has been described several times. Then it is ready for
printing. The last etching is not necessary if only a few impressions
are desired.
Transfer is applicable not only for pen designs but also for crayon. The
crayon used for the purpose should be softened a little with tallow, or,
if the harder crayon is used, the stone should be warmed when making the
transfer. But it must not be inked-in or have color rubbed on, until it
is quite cold again. For crayon transfer the paper used generally is
fine drawing-paper. It must be wetted with somewhat stronger aquafortis
that it may release the crayon more readily. The rest of the process is
the same.
Besides these two methods, the transfer process can be used for all
products of the book-printer's art, type as well as wood-cut. A freshly
printed sheet can be transferred directly to a stone, especially if the
printer has used our before-mentioned acid-proof ink instead of his
ordinary printer's ink. To get a perfectly clear transfer it is
necessary merely to see that the printer does not use too much overlay,
which would stamp the type too deeply into the paper; and that before
trying to transfer the printed sheet to the stone it is subjected to
gentle pressure in the press to free it from all inequalities. To do
this without at the same time risking any loss of ink which might
subsequently weaken the transfer, the sheet is well wetted, laid on a
clean, wet stone that has been prepared so that it will not have any
inclination to take color, and subjected to a very slight pressure, the
press being used with almost no tension. This makes the printed sheet
beautifully even. Then if it is transferred to a stone properly prepared
as described before, the transfer will be perfect.
Even old book pages can be freshened up and transferred. I have spoken
already of those that are on unsized paper. With prints on sized paper
the method is as follows:--
Make a paint-like mixture of fine chalk and starch paste. Thin it down
with water and paint the sheet. Dip a bit of linen rag into a thin color
made of thin varnish and tallow tinted with vermilion. Touch-up the wet
paper with the rag till every bit of type has taken red color. Pour
clean water over it and touch-up the paper everywhere with a ball of
fine cloth stuffed with horsehair. This will remove all surplus color.
Continue this till the type matter is only faintly red. Then the paper
must be washed very thoroughly with many pourings of water and laid
between waste paper sheets to remove all surplus moisture. The transfer
and so on must be done then as in the other cases.
Good transfers can be made also from a copper-plate engraving if the
copper-plate impression is made with our acid-proof ink. The ordinary
copper-plate ink is not so good. It will be self-evident that designs on
stone can be transferred and reproduced the same way.
The tracing process has the property in common with the transfer process
that it transmits only a small amount of fattiness to the stone and
requires subsequent rubbing-in of color to give it strength.
Coat a piece of thin and clean vellum paper with tallow and lampblack
and wipe it off again as neatly as possible, so that there remains only
a thin film, which will not smut the stone when laid face down, unless
pressure is exerted. Now draw on this with a clean English lead pencil
that contains no sand, or with a composition of lead, zinc, and bismuth,
and the pressure will force the design on the stone and transfer its
fat, which then penetrates the stone and will give impressions. In
preparing a stone thus made, greater care in etching is necessary than
even in the transfer process. Very weak aquafortis solution must be
used.
The process is something between pen and crayon work. It is quite
applicable for sketches and pictures that are to be illuminated.
IV
CONCERNING THE WOOD-CUT STYLE
For this purpose, the stone is coated completely with chemical ink on
the places where this style is to be used. As soon as it is dry, the
lights are drawn into it with a steel engraving-needle that is ground to
a sharp or broad point according to requirement. Those parts that are to
be very white, with fine lines and specks, are best drawn in with the
pen. Thus the wood-cut style differs from the ordinary pen design
chiefly in character and in the treatment of the darker parts. Its
practice is much easier on the stone than on wood, and it can be
combined with crayon work. Etching, preparation, and printing are the
same as with other styles.
V
TWO KINDS OF TOUCHE DRAWING
One of these resembles the wood-cut style in method but in effect
approaches copper-plate work. The stone is grained as for crayon,
etched, prepared with gum, cleansed with water, coated well with
soap-water, wiped, dried, and finally coated with a thin, colored
covering of fat, by either coating with acid-proof ink or with hard
chemical ink.
This first etching and preparation are required to prevent the fat to be
applied afterward from penetrating too deeply into the stone, so that it
may adhere only to the surface.
Now the design is made on it with a steel scraper. The manipulation is
like that for making tint plates. It demands greater care, however, and
better etching.
The completed design is etched (phosphoric acid being best) and coated
with gum. A few drops of oil of turpentine are poured on and all the
color is wiped away with a woolen rag, but without any rough rubbing.
Then the plate can be inked-in with fairly firm acid-proof ink.
The second method would excel crayon work if it were perfected. I have
advanced pretty far with it. It is an imitation of the ordinary wash
drawing which is done with a brush and dissolved Chinese ink on paper.
The stone, which must be very clean and free from all fat, is grained,
coated with soap-water, cleaned with oil of turpentine, and dried. Then
a hard chemical ink, which may contain a little more soap than usual, or
the ink described for brush work, is dissolved in pure rain water and
used on the stone with a brush just as it would be used on paper.
When the design is finished and very well dried, the entire surface of
the stone is rubbed gently with a fine cloth, in order to perforate the
color with tiny holes everywhere. As it will perforate more readily in
the parts where the ink has been laid on thinly, the succeeding
aquafortis will eat through there more easily, and thus the etching will
correspond nicely with the tones of the design. It is necessary,
however, to know the strength of the acid and the resisting power of the
ink very accurately. It is well to experiment and write down the best
proportions. In any case, the etching fluid must not be too strong and
the etching must not be done by pouring or brushing, but in the copper
etcher's manner, by framing the stone with wax so that the fluid will
lie on the stone. As soon as the resulting bubbles reach the magnitude
of a pin's head, the fluid is poured off instantly and then poured on
again till the bubbles reappear. How long this must be continued depends
on the strength of the ink.
It is understood, of course, that the etched stone must then be coated
with gum.
VI
THE SPATTER METHOD
This speedy and easily executed style surely will come into wide use
soon. It is done as follows:--
The outlines of a design are laid on a stone prepared for pen work, by
tracing. Then they are traced again, say four times, on sheets of paper.
On each sheet everything that falls into the category of one of the four
chief tones is cut out with a sharp penknife so that the four sheets are
like the stencils of card painters. Now the chief lines of the design
are made on the stone with chemical ink, using either brush or pen. Lay
one of the stencils on it exactly, weight it that it may not move, and
perform the operation of spattering.
This is done by dipping a small brush, such as a clean toothbrush, into
chemical ink and scraping it with a knife so that the ink is spattered
over the stone. Care must be exercised not to have too much ink in the
brush, for fear of blots or over-large spattering. After practice it
will be possible to produce such fine and uniform dots as cannot
possibly be produced by the pen. After the desired grade of shading has
been achieved, the stone is permitted to dry. Then the second stencil is
laid on and the operation repeated till all have been used. If enough
stencils are made, the whole design can be made by spattering. It is not
necessary, however, to make many, as the design has to be finished up by
hand afterward anyway.
This finishing-up is done first with the engraving-needle, which opens
and decreases all dots that are too large, and then with the pen, which
brings out the true proportions of the various tones.
VII
TOUCHE WITH SEVERAL PLATES
This really is only a process of using many tint plates. It makes
splendid effects possible, equal to any produced by an artist with
Chinese ink, and deserves the attention of all artists, especially as it
is the easiest and quickest of all methods, even though it is a little
circumstantial in the printing.
Draw the outlines of a design on the stone in chemical ink with pen or
brush, and then make four, five, or six transfers on stone plates
prepared for pen work. Register marks must be on the design. Now draw-in
the darkest parts on the first plate, the less dark ones on the second,
the lighter ones on the third, and so on till the whole design is
finished. The work is best done with a brush. One or more of the stones
may be designed with crayon; but the number of stones designed with ink
must be greater, in order to make the grain of the crayon designs
unnoticeable.
The etching is done as in pen work. For each stone the printing-color is
chosen according to the tone of its design. Of course particular
accuracy is vital; but the artist should not permit the apparent
difficulties to frighten him, as he will see very soon after trial that
no other method produces such beautiful results.
VIII
COLOR-PRINTING WITH MANY PLATES
This method, in which the various colors are drawn on several stones,
either with pen or crayon, resembles the one just described.
According to treatment the impressions will resemble a painting, a
copper-plate engraving in color, or an illuminated copper-plate
engraving, if the color stones are used merely to lay colors over a
design already printed in its entirety in black.
The whole process is so like the preceding one that I need merely
recount the colors that I have found serviceable for the purpose.
RED. Vermilion, red lake of cochineal, fine madder lake, and finally
carmine if it is mixed first with Venetian turpentine before being
combined with varnish, as otherwise it inclines to separate from the
varnish and unite with water, staining the whole printing-paper red.
BLUE. Berlin blue and mineral blue. Use only a small amount, sufficient
for a few hours. These colors dry quickly, and, besides, make the
varnish too tough, so that they must be thinned down from time to time
with a little linseed oil. Fine indigo is very good, also a blue lake
that is made of logwood and verdigris. This latter is not durable in
sunlight.
I have had no success as yet with green or yellow.
Verdigris is difficult to manipulate because it smuts the stone easily
and does not tolerate many mixtures. Schweinfurther green, one of the
new colors, is much better in all respects, but not dark enough.
Mixtures of yellow lake with indigo or mineral blue are not very
durable. Golden yellow ochre with mineral blue or indigo does not
produce a pretty green, and King's yellow mixed with blue is handsome
but not durable. Neapolitan yellow and the newer chrome yellow with blue
produce a green that is not dark enough.
I have obtained the handsomest and darkest green by printing the design
blue first and then printing over it a yellow plate, so that the yellow
lay over the blue. By using Berlin blue and fine ochre a fairly handsome
color is produced. On account of its loss of color in water, ochre
cannot be used unless Venetian turpentine is first mixed with the
varnish.
A handsome and at the same time dark yellow is equally hard to obtain.
Till a good color is invented, we must content ourselves with ochre,
Terra de Sienna, Neapolitan yellow, mineral yellow or chrome.
This printing with various colors is a process for which the stone is
superior; and it is susceptible of such perfection that in future true
paintings will be produced by its means. My experience convinces me of
this.
IX
GOLD AND SILVER PRINTING
This process is useful for decoration.
Those parts of the design that are to appear in gold or silver are drawn
with chemical ink on a stone prepared for pen work. After the drawing is
dry, it is etched and prepared in the usual way. The printing is done
with a silver gray color of firm varnish, fine crayon and a very little
lampblack. The paper must be entirely dry and very smooth. Soon after
the impression has been made, the printed parts are covered with silver
or gold leaf such as is used by gilders. It is pressed on slightly with
cotton, that it may adhere, and then a sheet of paper is laid over it.
Then the second impression is made, treated the same way, and so on.
No more impressions must be made than one can cover with silver or gold
in two hours. If the ink is on the paper too long, it will draw in and
not take the metal well. After gilding or silvering, the sheets must lie
for some hours or till the next day, that the ink may take perfect hold
of the paper, so that, in the succeeding pressing, it will not penetrate
the metal and make it look sooty. The pressing is done by laying six or
eight impressions on a clean stone under the press and passing them
through as for printing, with the proper tension. This tension must be
adjusted according to the firmness of the printing-color; therefore it
is best to make test with one sheet. Then, if the metal does not adhere
sufficiently, the pressure can be increased.
In the end all surplus gold or silver is removed by gentle wiping with
clean cotton. This is easy, as it will have fastened itself only to the
printed parts. If the impressions can be set aside for some days without
being wiped, it is better, and there is not so much danger of injuring
the brilliancy of the metal.
If gold and silver are to be printed on designs where there is other
color also, or where there is black, the print on which the metal is to
be applied must always be made first. Only when the sheets have been
gilded or silvered, pressed, wiped, and cleaned, is the black design to
be printed on from the next plate. That all this must be done with the
register marks previously described is, of course, self-evident.
So I close my description of the Relief method; and I hope that I have
made it all so clear that good results will come to all who follow my
directions.
CHAPTER II
INTAGLIO METHOD
This differs from the other in that the fat, which is to attract the
printing-color, is under the surface of the stone, the design having
been either engraved-in or etched, and then filled with fat.
Like the preceding method, it has several branches. The best are
these:--
I
THE LINE ENGRAVED STYLE
This is one of the most useful branches of lithography, and if the
artist has attained enough skill and the printer knows his trade, it
approaches very near to the handsomest copper plates, and at the same
time is about three times easier and quicker than work on copper. It is
splendidly adapted for writings and charts.
Choose a hard, uniform stone of the best kind. Grind it as finely as
possible. Etch with aquafortis and prepare with gum. This, at least, was
my early method, and it has remained in use in all printeries. Later,
however, I discovered that it is almost better to coat the stone with
gum without previous etching, because it can be more easily worked then.
Only in that case it must be perfectly clean and contain no concealed
fattiness. Immediately after the stone has been coated with gum (not
some hours later, as many do) the gum must be removed with water, that
it may not penetrate too deeply and thus cause a condition which will
prevent the finest lines from taking on color subsequently.
Then coat the plate with a tint made of gum solution and lampblack or
red chalk. Use a soft brush to make the coating very thin and uniform.
It has the double purpose, first, of giving the stone a color so that
the engraver can see his work, and of covering the prepared surface of
the stone with a protective coat that later will admit the fatty
printing-color only where it has been pierced by the engraving-tool. It
is evident that this latter property is increased according to the
amount of gum in it, yet only little gum must be used in it, the
permissible amount being only just enough to insure that the coating
shall not be easily wiped away during the work of engraving.
The stone must be absolutely dry before any work is done on it. Then the
design is traced on it, or drafted directly on it with lead. Transfer by
printing from paper is not advisable, because the resulting fattiness of
the design makes the graver slip.
For the actual work of engraving there is no counsel to be given except
to choose good and sharp needles of the very best steel, hard enough to
cut glass; and that all lines must be graved clean. There must be no
excessive pressure, and in wide strokes there must be no excessive
depths. In making very fine lines the stone should merely be touched by
the tool. If they appear white, and a little fine dust is observed, one
may be certain that they will appear properly in the printing. Broad
lines often can be made with one stroke of a flat needle, but generally
they are made by continued, gradual scraping. If the stone is to be only
lightly wiped during printing, the broad lines must not be deeper than
strictly necessary to make them clear, as otherwise they will squash. In
true art works, however, which are to be printed with firm color and
under more powerful rubbing and wiping, the depths of all lines must be
considered carefully, as they will print darker or lighter according to
depth.
Of all things the worker must take heed against touching the stone with
dirty or greasy hands, for a plate thus blemished is not only difficult
to engrave, but the grease finally may penetrate through the slightly
gummed coating and enter the stone, making much consequent trouble when
the printing begins.
It is more harmful still to wet the stone in any way, because then the
coating gum will dissolve, penetrate into the engraved lines and give
them a preparation, so that they cannot take color afterward. Therefore,
especially in winter, a very cold stone must be warmed before working on
it with the design, as otherwise the moisture in the room will
precipitate itself on the stone. Even the perspiration of the hands or
the moisture of the breath may cause damage. Therefore a good but
careful warming is very advisable.
If a plate has become moistened, as, for instance, from a breath, it
must be permitted to dry before doing any further work on it, and
especially it must not be wiped.
The dust resulting from the engraving is to be removed either with a
soft brush or by blowing it away.
Faulty lines that are noticed during the engraving may be scraped flat
very carefully so that no furrows are made, or they may be rubbed off
with fine pumice, after which those places must be prepared again, and
coated with gum applied with a small brush. Then the corrections can be
made. If only tiny places are faulty, they need merely be coated with a
mixture of weak phosphoric acid, gum, and lampblack or red chalk. This
prepares them. Thus they will not take color during the print, and so
are practically removed.
When the design is finished, the stone must be very dry that it may take
color well. But it must not be warmed, as this would incline it to take
smut. A color consisting of thin varnish, a little tallow, and lampblack
is now rubbed swiftly into all the depressions, and immediately wiped
away again with a woolen rag wetted with gum solution. This removes the
original red or black coating also.
Thus the hitherto colored stone becomes perfectly white, while the
engraved design, which has appeared white, is now black. The first
impression that the eye will gain will be that now the design appears
much finer than it did before. That is because every white line on a
dark background looks wider than a black line of the same thickness on a
white background. Therefore, while engraving, the artist should aim to
make his lines a trifle bigger than his eye would suggest.
In printing the stone the usual precautions required in every form of
lithographic printing must be observed. Beyond that, the matter of chief
importance is the proper composition of the printing-color.
Stone plates made in this way can be inked-in (1) by rubbing-in the
color and light wiping, and (2) by harder wiping, and (3) by the
ink-roller.
For the first method, a color can be made of thin varnish and burned
lampblack, the latter being present in fairly large quantity but very
finely rubbed-down. Into this color is mixed a quantity, equivalent to
one half the mass, of gum solution that is almost as thick as the color
itself. Everything must be mixed perfectly. If the solution is too
watery, it is not easy to mix it.
Three clean rags of cotton or linen are needed for inking. The first is
used to wet the stone and to clean it again in the end. The second is
colored with a small quantity of printing-color and rubbed in by
thorough wiping to and fro. The third rag is used to clean away any
surplus that may adhere. Then the first clean rag is used to cleanse the
stone thoroughly.
All three rags must be wetted with gum solution, and the first and third
must be washed several times during the day.
The stone plate is harder to clean at first than after some fifty
impressions have been made. Often there will remain little specks of
color on the prepared places, which are easy enough to wipe away but are
inclined to reappear. To remedy this it may be necessary to use more
clean rags in the beginning or more gum solution. If the stone has been
polished very well in grinding, this trouble will not be very noticeable
if at all. Under any circumstances, it will disappear gradually during
the printing, so that at last it will be possible to clean the surface
with the very same rag that lays the color on and is permeated with ink.
In the second method, the wiping is harder in order to take more color
away from the shallower lines, so that they will be pale compared with
the deep ones which then will appear very black and strong.
If the full beauty of a well-made copper plate is to be equaled, care
must be taken, as said before, to achieve the proper depth of
engraving, and the stone must be wiped harder. Otherwise the method is
the same, except that beautiful, shining impressions often can be made
by using a firm color, if the stone can bear the necessary tension.
The inking-in with the ink-roller is like the same process in other
methods, except that the color must be softer and the roller well filled
with it. It is necessary, also, to learn by practice how to work the
color into all the deep lines.
The impression must be made immediately after inking, as otherwise the
color will sink too deeply into the stone and not give a strong
impression without renewed inking.
The paper must be wetted a little more than in the other method.
The tension of the press is according to the size of the plates, but on
the whole must be two or three times greater than for the other methods.
More pressure still may be needed for very fine work, as the finer lines
often are harder to print than the coarse ones.
As soon as the first clean proof is pulled, it must be examined for
errors or faults in the design. If there are any, the stone is removed
from the press after being delicately coated with gum, and the
correction is made as follows: Before anything else, all such faults as
are to be removed entirely are either scraped away with a very sharp
knife or rubbed away with a very fine stone. The manipulation must be
very delicate to avoid grooves and furrows or sharp edges that afterward
will hold dirt. Then the parts thus corrected are coated with a mixture
of about six parts water, two parts gum, and one part aquafortis to
prepare them anew.
If anything new is to be added to the design or drawn in place of an
error, the stone is washed with water throughout, or, if the correction
is to be made only in a very small part, washed at the desired place.
Then it is coated with the red chalk as described in the beginning, but
so thinly that the design can be seen plainly through the red coat. Now
all that is desired can be engraved, filled again with the rubbing-in
color, and turned over to the printer, who cleanses it with gum water
and proceeds to print.
Only a few more useful suggestions:--
(1) It happens often that after the first rubbing-in of fat color and
the succeeding cleansing with water, the stone gets a "tone" over its
whole surface; that is, it takes color at least partly, and thus seems
to have lost its original preparation. This may be due to the fact that
not enough gum has been used in the original coating, or that the
rubbing-in was rough enough to injure the protective coating, or that
the rubbing-in-color was left on too long before being washed away with
gum solution.
A similar fault may develop with the second rubbing-in, after
corrections, and from the following causes: Poor color containing sand;
too much pressure with the greasy rags; the use of rags not sufficiently
cleansed of any soap used in washing them; rubbing-in of color with too
dry a color rag; in brief, from anything that may destroy the stone's
preparation wholly or in part.
Sometimes this defect may be remedied by mixing more gum into the
printing-color and into the water with which the cleaning-rags are
wetted. A firmer color may aid, if it is rubbed away by fairly strong
pressure of the rag as soon as it has adhered. This operates as a remedy
because the firm color takes hold of the dirt that has set itself into
the pores of the stones, and when it is removed, takes the dirt with it.
If none of these have results, there is nothing left except to grind off
the plate very slightly and carefully with an exceedingly fine stone and
gum solution. In the case of very delicate designs, this is not
applicable, because the finest lines have practically no depth.
Therefore they must be washed instead, a rag being dipped into weak
aquafortis or very much diluted phosphoric acid, and passed carefully
over the stone till the dirt disappears. It is well to mix in a little
gum, and also to rub acid-proof ink into the stone first, that the
etching fluid may not attack the design too much.
After this cleansing the tone will disappear, but another fault often
appears in place of it. The color, after rubbing-in, will not permit
itself to be wiped away readily, because the etching has caused some
roughnesses to which the color adheres in the form of little specks. A
number of clean rags with gum solution must then be used, or the stone
should be lightly rolled a few times with the ink-roller after being
rubbed-in. The roller will take the specks. Indeed, the fault hardly
ever appears if the inking-in is done with the roller, as suggested in
the remarks about the third form of inking-in.
As soon as some few impressions have been made, the roughness of the
plate disappears gradually and it can be wiped off without leaving
specks behind. Gentle rubbing with pumice finely powdered and mixed with
gum solution will remove the defect in the very beginning, but care is
needed lest the design be injured.
(2) A line that has so little depth that it is almost level with the
surface of the stone can be made as black as a deeply engraved one by
continued rubbing with the color rag. In using a firmer color the lines,
especially the wider ones, can be so overloaded after a while that the
ink will squash under the press. This surplus can be removed again by
the use of the ink-roller, but it is merely adding unnecessary work, as
proper practice in inking-in and the use of exactly the right
consistency of color will prevent the trouble.
(3) The best way to ink-in an intaglio design is to rub it in at first
with a somewhat firm color that however, contains enough gum, then to
wipe it a bit, and after that to rub gently to and fro over the stone
under gentle pressure, with a rag containing a less heavy color. A
firmer color does not adhere well to the more delicate lines, or, at
least, is hard to print; but by applying it first, the printing of the
wider and deeper lines is facilitated, while the succeeding rubbing with
softer color brings out the perfection of the finer lines.
The second rag with the lighter color must not be filled with it in
mass, but should merely be made sooty with it, so to speak. Otherwise
the lighter color would penetrate the deeper lines also and mix there
with the heavier color.
In the end the stone must be wiped again with an entirely clean rag, as
will be understood, of course, and thoroughly cleansed of all the
color.
II
THE ETCHED METHOD
In this the design is not engraved into the stone by pressure of the
hand, but with aquafortis or other acid, and only so much pressure is
exerted in making the design as is required to cut through the thin
coating of varnish with which the stone is covered. Therefore this
method permits great freedom of action and is applicable especially for
landscape work and for drawings in Rembrandt's style. In treatment as in
effect it resembles copper plate, and has its own advantage in that the
lines may be strengthened gradually by stronger pressure on the
engraving-needle. They may even be engraved a little into the stone so
that afterward the lines will become stronger under etching. This cannot
be done with copper at all or only with great difficulty.
These considerations and the quicker printing permitted by it recommend
the method to artists. In other respects it is not different from
working on copper. But it is necessary that a good lithographer should
be a master of this form of stone work, as it may be used for excellent
work, not only by itself but in combination with the other methods.
The stone must be ground as smoothly as possible, then treated with
aquafortis and coated with gum, so that its surface thus is completely
prepared. The aquafortis may be as strong as that used for etching pen
work. It suffices, also, to wipe the plate merely with a sponge dipped
in stronger aquafortis, the chief point being that no roughnesses shall
be caused by uneven etching.
A few minutes after this first operation is finished, the stone is
rinsed with water, dried and coated with etching-ground. This can be
best done as follows:--
(1) Warm the stone till an ordinary copper etcher's etching-ground will
become so fluid on it that it can be worked with a leather ball like a
varnish, and can be spread very thin and very evenly. Great care must be
exercised lest uneven warming crack the stone. If one can put it into a
nearby baker's oven, it will obviate the necessity for an especial
apparatus, which otherwise is demanded.
After coating the stone with the etching-ground, it is reversed while
still warm, and blackened by applying the flame of a tallow or wax
candle, as the copper-plate etchers do with their plates. Then the stone
is set aside to cool, with great precautions against dust. After it is
cool, dust will not harm it, and it can be kept indefinitely before use,
so long as the coating is protected against injury.
(2) The method given is the best; but if the warming of the stone
is difficult, there is a method applicable to cold stones. The
etching-ground is dissolved in oil of turpentine and laid on the stone
with a clean ball. A stone so treated must be put away for at least a
day in a place safe from dust that the oil of turpentine may evaporate.
To tint this etching-ground, it may be blackened by smoking with a
candle, as in the first case; or color, such as lampblack or vermilion,
may be mixed-in before it is applied. If one wishes to be very certain
that the stone will bear the etching well, it may be coated, very thinly
indeed, with a solution of very firm chemical ink after applying the
etching-ground.
The design is traced through this coating to the stone. It may be
transferred, also, but in that case, as soon as the transfer is on
the stone, it must be coated thinly once more with a solution of
chemical ink that does not, however, contain any lampblack or other
coloring-matter, but is transparent. This is necessary to fill out
any little holes and other injuries that may have been caused by the
pressure during transfer or by the inequalities in the transfer paper.
The designing with the needle is done as in the engraved manner, except
that the design is merely cut into the coating.
When the design is complete, the stone is laid into the etching-trough
and diluted aquafortis, muriatic acid, or strong wine vinegar is poured
over it repeatedly, according to the depth that the lines are to have.
If it is desired to etch so as to produce various tones,--some strong
and some delicate,--after the manner of the copper-plate etchers, the
pouring of acid should cease as soon as the very finest lines of the
design have been etched sufficiently. Wash away every bit of acid with
clean water and let it dry. Then, with a small brush and chemical ink,
coat all parts that are not to be etched further. It is well if the
chemical ink used for this purpose contains a little more soap than
usual, so that it can penetrate well into all the depressions and leave
no little holes. The coating must be done very cautiously, and it is
better to paint on too much ink rather than too little, as the design
will appear very dirty if etching fluid should penetrate here or there
through the coated portions.
When the ink is dry, etching is resumed till the second tones have been
etched as far as desired. Then the procedure is repeated, these second
tones being coated. Thus one continues till all gradations of shading
have been reached.
When the stone is fully etched, clean water is poured over it, and then
all the parts that have not been coated with chemical ink are treated to
a covering. The object of the previous coatings was to prevent access of
acid to the parts; but at the same time the ink prepared the parts.
Therefore the remaining portions of the design also must be sated with
ink before the stone is inked-in for printing.
Let the stone dry and then pour on it as much oil of turpentine as may
be necessary to dissolve this whole ground coating, which then is wiped
off with a woolen rag wet with gum solution. Then the stone maybe
inked-in and printed.
If an error is observed before etching begins, the first question is if
the defect is deeply engraved in the stone or if it has been drawn
merely through the ground coating without affecting the stone itself
materially. In the latter case it is necessary merely to cover the
defective place with chemical ink and draw into it the correction. If
the error has been graved deeply into the stone, it must be covered for
the time being, but nothing new can be drawn there. To do this, one must
wait till the plate has been etched and rubbed-in with color. Then the
incorrect part is scraped or ground off as evenly as possible, the place
prepared anew with aquafortis and gum, and the correction made with the
steel needle.
An intaglio design often is greatly beautified by being printed with a
tint plate like a crayon design. It can be done with a second stone, but
it can be obtained also with the one plate that has the design on it.
Wash the designed stone with clean water and then paint a thick coat of
chemical ink containing more soap than usual over the whole stone or
over only such parts as one desires to improve by adding a tone. If
lights are to be worked into this tone, it can be done, after inking-in,
with a small brush dipped into weak aquafortis.
In printing a stone thus toned, it must be rubbed-in thoroughly with the
black color and then cleaned as well as possible. The tint that shows on
the surface then is usually too dark, and the firmer the color the
darker it is. Then a second rag must be used with a much softer color,
which may even be thinned-down with plain oil or butter. It may also
contain another coloring substance. Rub this rag very gently to and fro
without much pressure till it is apparent that the dark tone has been
replaced by a light one. Then the stone is ready for printing.
Stones to be treated to a tint in this manner must be etched somewhat
deeper than others, because the lines do not appear so dark against a
tone.
In all intaglio methods there is the advantage that parts that turn out
too dark can be modified by fine scraping or grinding. The stone merely
must be rubbed with acid-proof ink beforehand, that the necessary
preparation of the corrected places with aquafortis or phosphoric acid
and gum may not attack the rest of the design. Those who attain skill in
scraping or grinding with a small piece of black slate can make the
softest gradations of shade in uniformly etched designs, and more easily
and quickly than by drawing or coating and etching. If the stone has
been rubbed-in with color for the first time only a short time
previously, the ground or scraped surfaces do not even need to be
etched. It is sufficient to wash them with a rag wetted in gum solution,
because the color will not have penetrated the stone so deeply that it
is likely to reappear.
III
DESIGN WITH PREPARING INK, COMBINED WITH SPATTERED AQUATINT
If a little dissolved gum is painted on a clean stone that then is inked
over its whole surface with printing-ink, none will adhere where the gum
is. In other words, the stone will have been prepared there. If the gum
is permitted to dry before the ink is applied, those parts will become
black, too; but as soon as a few drops of water are poured on and the
ink-roller passes over the stone, all the gummed parts will show up
white at once. This led me to make a color mixed with gum, with which
one can design on stone and that would have the property of preparing it
so that, on printing, the design or inscription will print white.
Some drops of gum arabic dissolved in water are mixed with an equal
amount of lampblack and rubbed very fine. This makes an ink similar to
Chinese ink, and keeps well when dried. It is rubbed down in a saucer
with a little water and then is ready for use.
It can be used on a clean stone, but is likely to flow, for which reason
the stone must be painted with a little weak aquafortis mixed with a
little nutgall, and then well cleaned again. Still better is it to paint
a clean stone some days before with oil of turpentine which is cleaned
off again immediately. In that case, however, it is well to mix a little
phosphoric acid into the drawing-ink, that the designed parts will be
prepared the more surely.
When the design is dry, the whole stone is inked with printing-color,
care being taken that not a drop of water touches it before it is
perfectly black. Then a little water is poured on, after which there
must be a little more rolling with the ink-roller till all the design
that is drawn with the preparing-ink is very white and clean. Now the
stone can be used for printing, being used in the manner used for pen
work. To make the design more durable, that it may not in time thicken
in its finer parts, the stone may be well inked-in with acid-proof ink
and after a few hours, during which it draws together well, the drawing
is etched in intaglio with aquafortis. Then it is coated with gum and
the printing is not likely to damage the design.
Here we have an intaglio design which is prepared and prints white.
The case may be reversed, and the black plate may be made white again
while the design will print black. This is because a stone treated with
preparing-ink gives almost the same result, once it is grounded with
acid-proof ink and etched as if the design had been engraved into
etching-ground. The etched lines need simply be filled with chemical ink
as in engraved work, to make them take color instead of coating them
with gum. Then there remains only the obstacle that the stone is not
prepared over its whole surface and takes color everywhere. However, it
is not difficult to clean the plate and prepare it perfectly, especially
if the stone is finely polished. It must be rubbed well with color, and
wiped clean at once without rubbing too much of it away from the etched
design. To make the color easier to wipe out, Frankfurter black and
tallow may be mixed in it. Then the rag that has been used for inking-in
is dipped into a mixture of twenty parts water, two parts gum, and one
part aquafortis, or better still, phosphoric acid, and rubbed back and
forth. The rag must not be too dirty and heavy with color, but it must
contain some so that the delicate parts of the design shall not be wiped
out and thus rendered susceptible to the acid. The next thing is to try
with the finger to see whether the color on top can be easily rubbed
away or not. In the latter case the wiping must be repeated till the
cleansing mixture has so far prepared the surface that the wet hand or a
wet piece of leather can cleanse it perfectly and free it from the dark
tone. Now the stone is inked-in with firmer color (acid-proof ink is
best). This is wiped off again thoroughly. Very weak aquafortis (or
phosphoric acid if it has been used for the work) is then poured over it
a few times, and this generally prepares it so well that it can be inked
and cleaned easily during the printing.
This method is useful for many kinds of art, and it must not be imagined
that it is superfluous because the other ways are quicker.
The engraving-needle is very good for drawing the finer parts of the
design through the etching-ground, but the coarser ones cause much
trouble, while with the pen, these are the very ones that are easiest to
produce. By using this method, both advantages can be combined and only
that is drawn with the pen which is most readily produced that way.
Thus the whole design, with the exception of the finest parts, is drawn
on the white plate with the black preparing ink touche. Then, when it
has been covered with acid-proof ink and made white, the finer parts are
worked-in with the needle. Or they may be left till the end, when they
are engraved-in.
For grounding or blackening the plate, one may use a substitute for the
acid-proof ink if the ground is to be firmer. Use the etching-ground
(mentioned several times before) of wax, mastic, pitch, and resin,
dissolved in oil of turpentine and mixed with fine lampblack. It will
then be susceptible of being laid beautifully uniform on the stone with
the ink-roller like printing-ink.
The spattered aquatint method resembles this.
The outlines of the design are engraved or etched into the stone very
delicately. After rubbing-in with black printing-ink and cleaning again
thoroughly, it is rinsed with a great deal of clean water to take away
every trace of gum. When it is dry a small brush is dipped into the
preparing-ink, and the stone is spattered as described in the article on
spatter-work. After drying, the dots that are too large are treated with
the needle, and missing ones are drawn in with the pen. Now apply the
roller with the dissolved etching-ground, that must, however, have only
enough color so that the outlines of the design can show through it.
Then the spattered work is brought out by rolling with water. Now coat
the lighter parts of the design and etch. Coat again and etch again, in
short do as already described for the method of successive etching till
the required gradations of shade have been attained. Then proceed as
usual with the inking-in and printing.
IV
AQUATINT IN COPPER-PLATE STYLES AND WITH ETCHING-GROUND
Any one who has the necessary appliances of the copper-plate worker for
making the aquatint ground used by them, and who has the necessary
skill, can do so, although the stone is endangered by the heat, and the
process is not advisable. The stone is dusted with fine resin. A flame
of spirits is applied below until the stone is so hot that the resin
melts and forms the ground.
Better is that copper-plate method in which the resin is dissolved in
highly rectified spirits of wine and poured quickly over the whole
stone. By breathing on this, the resin is made to separate from the
spirits and form tiny pellets, which thus make the required aquatint
ground.
Both methods are better for very coarse work than for fine designs.
Etching-ground, dissolved in oil of turpentine, or consisting simply of
tallow and put on the stone very uniformly with a cotton ball, is much
better, and produces an effect similar to wash drawing. However, it is
better suited to the lighter parts of a design, because it will bear
long and powerful etching only if one hits exactly the proper
proportions between ground and etching fluid. Therefore, it is well,
after the first tones have been etched and printed, to spatter
cautiously with chemical ink all those parts that are to be darker than
half-tones. Thus these dots will prepare the design so well at those
places that they can withstand the most powerful etching.
V
AQUATINT THROUGH CRAYON GROUND
This is a sort of middle process between aquatint and the scraped style.
It has the advantage of great speediness.
A stone that has been grained for crayon work is coated with the black
or red gum ground described for the engraved method, but without
previous etching, which would not do harm but is unnecessary. The
outlines are drawn in with the needle very lightly, because they are to
serve only to make the design visible. Those lines, however, that are
not to disappear in the aquatint tone, but are to show plainly, must be
cut as deeply as necessary for greater or lesser blackness. Then the
stone is rubbed with color and washed with water as in the engraved
method.
When it is entirely clean and dry, all the design will be black and the
stone white. The design must be examined carefully, and the various
gradations of shading should be separated in the mind into about eight
leading classes, of which four are numbered upwards to the lightest
parts, and four numbered downwards to the darkest. Everything in the
category of the four dark parts now is worked strongly with chemical
crayon. The purpose is to mass a number of evenly separated points over
these parts of the design that shall withstand the etching fluid like an
aquatint ground, between which the etching fluid may eat the stone and
thus form a coarser grain than could be attained merely by rough
grinding.
Then the four lighter parts must be coated with chemical ink. The very
lightest parts, and all that is to remain white, must be left white on
the plate and neither touched with crayon or ink.
Then the stone is etched for the first time. Following this pour clean
water over it and let it dry. Then of the four dark parts the lightest
are coated with chemical ink, and when it is dry the etching fluid is
applied again. After washing and drying, the next lighter portions of
the dark sections are coated, and so on till at last the very darkest
shadows have been coated. Then a clean brush is dipped into gum solution
and everything that should remain white is painted.
If a little oil of turpentine is now poured on the stone, and the crayon
and chemical ink are dissolved and wiped off, the stone can be inked
with soft inking-color and wiped again with a woolen rag. Then the
design will look as if a black veil were over it, because the lightest
parts of it and the half-shadows are not worked out at all. Wet a rag
with gum solution and a little phosphoric acid, and hold it in one hand
while with a fine scraper you scrape in the lights according to their
gradation or grind them in with a fine stone, for instance, a slate
pencil. As you scrape wipe over the design with the wet rag; and you
will see exactly what you are doing as the various gradations will
appear bit by bit. The printing in this as in other aquatint methods is
done with soft and thin printing-color, and the paper may be more
dampened than in other forms of lithography. The press needs
considerable tension and the stones must be thick.
VI
INTAGLIO CRAYON AND TRACED DESIGNS
The difficulty of getting impressions from crayon that shall not differ
from the original design on the stone led me to consider the use of the
grained style of the copper-plate engravers. A crayon-like design in
intaglio would have a greater strength in the dark parts and greater
delicacy in the lighter; be more durable and more easily corrected. I
saw at once that if I could attain some perfection, it would mean a
great step forward in color printing, also. Thus there were originated
the following two processes, which no doubt will in time interest
artists to a high degree.
A stone grained for crayon work is prepared with aquafortis and gum.
Then it is cleansed with water and covered with etching-ground when dry,
as is prescribed for the etched process. The ground must be laid on so
thinly and evenly that the design can be put in easily and that it still
will resist the etching.
When the stone is cold and the outlines of the design have been traced
on it, a scraper of the best steel is used to scrape in the lights and
shadows. The scraper touches only the most elevated points of the
grained surface at first, and produces larger points only after
continued work, just as chemical crayon does. When the whole stone is
finished, it is etched as in the etched process and then cleansed and
printed in the same way.
If the stone is etched a little more strongly in all its gradations, it
can afterward be ground down gently with very soft pumice, or, better
still, with black slate and a gum solution, once it has been rubbed-in
with color. This destroys all roughnesses that may remain from the first
manipulations. Parts that have turned out too dark can be lightened by
this polishing, and the over-light ones can be improved with the needle.
The designs made in this manner possess more delicacy as well as more
strength than the ordinary crayon designs, and there remains to be
desired only that they might have the advantage of the latter of being
worked black on white, as it is so much easier for the artist to judge
his work on the stone.
Of trials made in this direction, the two following ones met my views
the best.
One way is to grind the stone rough, pour diluted aquafortis and nutgall
over it, clean it with water and dry it. Then the design is drawn on it
with a black chalk made of oil of vitriol, tartar, and lampblack. The
further treatment is the same as that in the case of designs done with
preparing-ink.
I have not been able to give enough time to this process to invent
a preparing-crayon that shall be very hard without losing its
preparing-property. However, the compound mentioned will produce a
crayon with which one can work well after a few days. It has the
advantage that it may be rubbed on a shading-stump made of rolled paper,
which will prove excellent for working the finest shadings into the
plate.
The other way is as follows: A colorless chemical ink is made of one
part wax, two parts tallow, and one part soap. This I dissolved in water
and with it I coated the stone, which had been ground rough and prepared
with phosphoric acid, nutgall, and gum, and then washed with water. The
coating was applied very lightly, but enough so that it could bear the
succeeding etching.
As soon as it was dry, I drew the design on it with a black crayon made
of tartar, gum, a little sugar, and a good amount of lampblack, or I
used the ordinary black Paris crayon or a fine English lead pencil. Then
the design was etched, after which alum water was poured over it, and it
was set aside to dry.
As soon as it was absolutely dry, I coated it with fatty color, and then
cleaned the stone with oil of turpentine and gum solution. If I wanted
an exceedingly smooth surface, I ground the stone gently; but then the
design had to be etched deeply.
The good results of these two experiments led me to the following
process: By following my instructions exactly the worker can produce
striking imitations of wash as well as crayon drawings, and at the same
time unite the greatest possible ease of drawing as well as certainty of
good impressions, so that this process really deserves to be called one
of the very best of all printing-methods.
The outlines of the drawing must be drawn on the finest and thinnest
paper that can be obtained. Then a very finely polished stone is
prepared with aquafortis and gum, or, better still, with phosphoric
acid, nutgall, and gum, cleansed with water and dried. Then it is coated
very thinly with tallow, which is patted with a very clean leather ball
or with the hand, so that it shall be very uniformly laid over the
stone. Everything depends on the thinness and uniformity of this tallow
coating. Then the stone must be smoked with a wax torch or a tallow
candle. The durability of the ground depends on this smoking, as without
it a very thin coating of tallow would be penetrated by the acid.
Now the stone is ready for the design. It must not be touched by so much
as a finger. The designed paper is pasted to the stone at the ends,
without pulling, as the least motion would injure the stone's surface.
The arrangement of elevated supports for the hand (previously described)
is needed for the succeeding work. The drawing is then done on the paper
with Paris chalk, delicate Spanish chalk, an English lead pencil, or
with a small piece of lead. All that is drawn on the paper will impress
itself on the stone underneath and remove the ground at those places,
thus opening the surface for etching.
When the drawing is finished, it is etched and covered as with the
etched process, and afterward is printed as in that process.
When sufficient practice has made one a master of this style, it will be
amazing what great perfection, what miniature-like delicacy, and also
what strength can be obtained by proper etching.
Besides, this latter process is applicable in combination with the
etched process.
VII
TOUCHE DRAWING WITH ETCHING INK
This method is very useful for filling-out etched or engraved designs,
also for correcting and completing the various aquatint processes.
Dip a little brush into lemon juice mixed with a little lampblack and
draw the design on the finely polished and prepared stone. The acid
will eat little holes into it, which will take color if the lemon juice
is washed away as soon as it has completed its etching, and the etched
part has been dried and rubbed-in with fat color. To produce darker
shadings it can be laid on the same place twice, and for lighter
shadings the acid either is washed away sooner or diluted with water.
I do not doubt that a skillful chemist could invent an etching ink which
would be even more perfect, and then a drawing could be washed on the
stone as easily as on paper, which would mean immense advance for the
art.
CHAPTER III
MIXED METHODS
Stone-printing has the unique property, owned by no other process, that
it is possible to print relief and intaglio simultaneously. This
property makes possible so many combinations of the two processes that a
book might be filled with their description. I assume, however, that the
reader will have understood the entire science of the new art from what
I have said, and that his own reflection will tell him what methods to
use or to combine for each of his purposes. I limit myself, therefore,
to a few leading methods, thus giving some fundamental idea of the
manipulations.
I
PEN DESIGN COMBINED WITH ENGRAVING
This can be utilized in two ways:--
When the pen drawing is finished and etched, the stone may be coated
with red gum covering and the needle used to draw-in the finest lines.
The printing is the same as with pen work. The second way is to make the
engraved or etched part of the design first, and after the stone has
been rubbed-in with acid-proof ink, cleansed and dried, to draw-in the
rest with the pen and chemical ink. As soon as the design is properly
dried, it is etched a little and prepared, and otherwise handled like an
ordinary pen drawing.
Both ways carry the advantage that the pen can be used for those parts
best done with the pen, and the engraving-tool for those parts best done
with it. The latter is especially excellent for very fine and elegant
script, such as title-pages, the finest strokes being made first with
the needle and the broader ones with the pen.
II
INTAGLIO DESIGN WITH RELIEF TINT
This has been described thoroughly in our chapter on etched work.
III
INTAGLIO AND RELIEF WITH SEVERAL PLATES
As already shown, intaglio and relief can be printed on one stone.
Therefore it is evident that the two methods can be utilized still
better for several plates, for instance, printing on an etched design
with one or more plates that are tinted in relief, or by printing over a
crayon or pen design in relief a tone plate in aquatint in intaglio.
How to do this has been explained in the descriptions of relief and
intaglio methods.
IV
TRANSFORMING RELIEF INTO INTAGLIO AND VICE VERSA
This is, so to speak, the test of a good lithographer, as it is the most
difficult of all methods, and demands exact knowledge of all
manipulations. I will try to explain it with a few examples.
EXAMPLE I
_To etch a transfer into intaglio_
Prepare a finely ground plate with phosphoric acid and gum, wash very
well with water, and let it dry. Now transfer to it a design made with
soft ink or crayon, or a fresh copper-plate impression. Let the stone
rest for a few hours, that the fatty colors may take hold well. Coat it
with clean gum water, and with a rag dipped into acid-proof ink try to
rub about as much color on the design as appears to be required to make
it withstand some etching. This etching is done with pure aquafortis
which in addition has a little alum mixed with it. Etch only enough to
eat away the uppermost parts of the prepared surface that have not been
permeated with fat. Pour clean water over the whole stone and coat it
with strong soap-water that is permitted to dry on it. Finally, clean
away the soap with oil of turpentine. Ink-in with acid-proof color which
will color the whole stone. Now as soon as it is wiped gently with a rag
dipped in gum solution and weak phosphoric acid, the whole design will
appear in white as if it had been made with preparing-ink. If the stone
is inked now with acid-proof ink and treated exactly as instructed in
the article on the use of preparing-ink, the design that was in relief
originally will be found in intaglio.
This process is capable of great perfection and can produce true
masterpieces especially if the stone is treated finally with the
engraving tool.
EXAMPLE II
_To etch into intaglio a design made with chemical fatty ink or crayon_
Etch and prepare the clean stone with phosphoric acid and gum. Then put
on the design with ink or crayon, and perform the succeeding etching and
other manipulations exactly as in the preceding case.
EXAMPLE III
_To etch into intaglio any design etched into relief_
In the two examples given, the plate is etched with phosphoric acid
before transfers or designs are made on it. As the weak etching with
aquafortis and alum does not penetrate the places where there is fat,
these retain their phosphorus-preparation, and thus are not so readily
destroyed by the succeeding application of soap, whereas the etched
parts immediately drink in the fat as soon as the soap touches them.
In stones designed in the ordinary way, where the design does not lie on
the prepared surface, but has really penetrated well into the stone, the
transforming is somewhat more difficult, but can always be done after
practice by using the following means:--
Wash the stone with water and then coat chemical ink or strong
soap-water over it and let it dry. Then clean the stone with oil of
turpentine and ink-in well with acid-proof color. Dip a linen rag into
gum water and phosphoric acid and endeavor to wipe away the color from
the relief design. After wiping to and fro quickly a few times, try with
the finger if the design will not whiten, or if the wiping with the acid
must be continued. Care must be taken not to injure the ground through
too much pressure. When the design gets pretty white, ink the stone with
firm acid-proof ink, and then treat as in the preceding cases.
In this way designs in relief that have not turned out as desired can be
changed into intaglio, and then, by the use of successive coatings and
etchings, as described before, improved by making gradations of tones.
But it requires great skill, lacking which one may destroy his plates
utterly.
EXAMPLE IV
_To change an intaglio design into relief for easier printing_
Many kinds of scripts and designs are easier to engrave with a needle
than to do in relief with a pen; or one may have workmen who can use the
engraving tool better than the pen, as the use of the latter requires
more industry and skill than the use of the etching- or
engraving-needle.
If one wishes to transform such a design into one in relief, because
then it can be printed more quickly and easily and also will give more
impressions, the following method will prove useful:--
Ink the stone with good acid-proof ink, and after a few hours etch it
like a pen design till it is apparent that the design is showing up. Let
it rest again a few hours after etching and become quite dry. Then coat
with gum. Otherwise treat it for printing like an ordinary pen design.
* * * * *
Now I believe that I have described faithfully and as clearly as I can
all the lithographic methods to which unceasing research and endless
experimentation have led me. In the following Appendix I merely make a
few useful remarks, which do not pertain exclusively to lithography, yet
are intimately connected with it and surely will not be unwelcome to art
lovers.
[Illustration]
APPENDIX
I
PRINTING WITH WATER AND OIL COLORS SIMULTANEOUSLY
When a plate, whether intaglio or relief, has been inked-in with oil
color, it may be coated with one water color, or it may be illuminated
with several, and then printed-off in one impression. Two parts of gum
and one part of sugar are used for this. They can be dissolved with any
water color. Care need be taken merely that the colors are well dried
before the impression is made.
If, however, it is desired that the colors have shades so that the
impressions may resemble English or French colored copper-plate prints,
the process is as follows:--
Etch all shades of the color pretty deeply in any of the stippled or
aquatint styles. After this, coat the stone with gum solution, that it
shall take no color in these depressions. Clean off the chemical ink or
the ground with oil of turpentine, and prepare the whole plate if it has
not been prepared already on its surface. Then coat it with red gum
surface, and into this inscribe all those lines that are to remain
black. Then the color is rubbed-in and the stone cleansed so that it
will be white everywhere except in the engraved parts. When it is
inked-in now, it can take color there only, and the other depressions
(namely the various shades of the color) will remain white because they
have been prepared. Now it is necessary only to coat each part with the
desired water color and it will be denser, and therefore darker,
wherever there are more and greater depressions.
II
SIMULTANEOUS CHEMICAL AND MECHANICAL PRINTING
When a pen drawing is so constituted that the various lines are close
together and there is no white space on it that is greater than at most
one half inch in diameter, it will permit printing in a purely
mechanical way without being prepared. It need merely be etched into
all the relief possible without under-eating the lines. All that is
needed then is a color-board or a so-called dauber, made as follows:--
A thin board of soft wood, about eight inches long and six inches wide,
is planed down till it is not more than one line in thickness. Glue on
it a piece of fine cloth or felt almost as large as it. Over this glue
another board, of the same area as the first, but one quarter inch
thick. It must be very well-dried wood, and must be made very true with
the plane, or better still, by rubbing on a perfectly level stone with
sand. This latter board is provided with a handle; and when all is dry
this dauber is ground off true again with fine sand and oil on a stone.
Lay the printing-color on this utensil very gently and uniformly with a
leather ball. Tap and pat the stone, which has first been cleaned with
oil of turpentine over its whole surface, very carefully with the
appliance, holding it as horizontal as possible and taking great pains
to distribute the color evenly.
As compared with chemical printing, this process in itself has no
advantages, but can be united with it and thus used to print three
colors from one plate. This is shown by the following
EXAMPLE
Suppose that a design shall be colored black, blue, and red, and that
all these colors shall be put simultaneously on one plate. Take a stone
made ready for pen work, and prepare it first of all with phosphoric
acid, nutgall, and gum, then wash it with water, and let it dry. Now
draw-in all that is to be red with chemical ink, that must, however,
contain only just enough soap to permit its solution. When this drawing
is dry, etch it into pretty high relief, the higher the better. After
this prepare the stone with gum, wash it, and let it dry again. Then
coat it with etching-ground that has been dissolved in oil of
turpentine, and draw-in all that is to be black, between and over the
high etched parts. Then etch this design pretty powerfully into
intaglio, after which wash with water, rinse with alum solution, and
dry. When the plate is thoroughly dry, rub-in printing-color, and clean
with a woolen rag dipped into gum solution and oil of turpentine. Then
it will become white everywhere except in the deep lines where it will
have taken color. After cleansing again with water and drying, draw-in
all parts that are to be blue, using a chemical ink that contains a
great deal of soap. Let this dry well, and cleanse the plate with gum
and oil of turpentine again. Then it is ready for inking-in.
To lay on the color, proceed as follows:--
First the black is rubbed-in, as prescribed in the article on the
intaglio style. In the very deep parts the stone will get very black. In
the parts last drawn, that are level with the surface, it will be only
gray, if the color permits ready wiping, which can be facilitated by the
use of gum and a woolen rag. Then the tone remaining on the level parts
drawn with the chemical ink will be so pale that it will not affect the
blue color. Now wipe a rag dipped in blue color gently to and fro till
everything that is to be blue has taken the color well. Then take the
dauber which has been filled with red color, and pat the stone, which
should be dry by that time. Then the parts of the design in high relief
will take the red color, and thus an impression can be made with the
three colors at once. Each inking-in must be done the same way.
III
USE OF THE STONE FOR COTTON-PRINTING THROUGH WIPING. A UNIQUE PRINTING
PROCESS
Etched copper plates have been used for some considerable time for
cotton-printing, and as the ordinary oil colors were not suitable for
this, while the suitable colors were too fluid, so that they were always
wiped out of the engravings, another method was devised. The plate was
covered with color and then a kind of straight edge was scraped across
it, which removed all color from the surface, leaving it only in the
depressions.
This same sort of wiping is applicable to stone, and it is necessary
merely to see that the stone is very even and highly polished. The color
must be one that permits itself to be wiped off clean, and the wiper
must be very uniform and sharp.
Starch-paste or gum with some caustic material is easily scraped off.
IV
COLOR PRINT WITH WIPING
This process is also useful for printing papers such as cotton papers,
tapestry, etc. Almost all intaglio designs permit good printing in this
way, if a handsome color is used.
Fresh cheese, or drops of congealed milk, mixed with soap, potash,
linseed oil varnish, and the desired tint, make an excellent
composition, with which all intaglio designs, even aquatints, can be
printed handsomely if the plate is very smooth.
If the design is made well, the various colors can be laid on quite
roughly, care being taken merely that each color shall be laid only
where it is desired. Then the stone should be permitted to dry, after
which all the surplus colors can be scraped away with one manipulation,
without danger that one will mix with the other in the design.
V
OIL-PAINTING PRINT THROUGH TRANSFER
Colored impressions resembling oil paintings can be made by printing
with colors and several plates on paper grounded with oil color. But
perfect oil paintings are produced only as follows:--
Make a considerable quantity of special paper by coating unsized paper
thinly with starch-paste or glue. On this make the separate impressions
from each color plate. If the painting itself is to be produced from
these separate parts, take a canvas that has been prepared for oil
painting and lay on it a wetted impression of one of the colors, let us
say, red. Print this off under light tension of the press, and when the
paper is pulled away, it will be seen that the color has been
transferred to the canvas. Then a wet impression of another color is
laid carefully in place so that it will register exactly, and the
process is repeated, till all the colors have been transferred to the
canvas.
The transferring can be done with the hand or with any other method, as
no great power is needed, since the color transfers itself readily.
VI
STONE-PAPER
This is the name already generally adopted for a substitute invented by
me for the Solenhofen stones.
I had been trying for a long time to invent some stone-like mixture that
would be equally suitable for printing. The ordinary parchment of the
writing-tablets would do if its surface were not soluble in water. I
made considerable progress with a composition of lime and freshly
congealed milk after the mixture had aged enough so that the lime could
sate itself with oxygen. Then I made a composition of chalk, gypsum, and
glue, which I dipped into a solution of nutgall and alum, and I was able
to use this for coarser work, at least, if not too many impressions were
required.
I did not get a wholly satisfactory idea, however, until I observed that
fat spots that were caused on a stone by oil, and also designs that had
been transferred to the stone with mere oil color, refused to take color
after a few weeks if they were prepared in only the slightest degree.
I reasoned from this that oil suffered a change from exposure to air,
and by combining itself presumably with oxygen acquired a more earthy
character. This deduction may be correct or not; but it led me to
experiment with oil as a binder for various earthy substances, because I
reasoned that such a composition would be insoluble in water. The only
question, then, would be if despite the intermixed oil it would permit
itself to be prepared, that is, if it could be made resistant to other
fats.
The result justified my hopes so thoroughly that I am convinced now that
with various compositions of clay, chalk, linseed oil, and metallic
oxides a stone-like mass can be made that is excellent for coating
paper, linen, wood, metal, etc., and thus for making plates that not
only replace the stone for printing, but in many cases are far superior
to it.
I shall give the world a book soon about these fortunate attempts of
mine, and thus perhaps give expert chemists an opportunity to perfect my
invention still more.
VII
CHEMICAL PRINT ON METAL PLATES
All metals have great inclination for fats; but if they are quite clean,
being ground with pumice, for instance, or rubbed-down with chalk, they
can be prepared like a stone, that is, they acquire the property of
resisting oil color, thus becoming available for chemical printing.
Iron and zinc can be prepared like the stone with aquafortis and gum.
To prepare zinc and lead, aquafortis with nutgall and gum will serve,
but a slight admixture of blue vitriol will make still a better
preparation, and this in a degree that improves according to the amount
of copper that the surface acquires from the coating. The most durable
preparation for lead and zinc is a mixture of aquafortis, gum, and
nitrate of copper.
Brass and copper are best prepared with aquafortis, gum, and nitrate of
lime, all mixed in proper proportions.
Lime and gum are a good preparation for all metals; also potash with
salt and gum.
This alkaline preparation, however, is applicable only for the intaglio
style. For the relief style, the acids are better.
Recently I have applied chemical printing from metal plates to a new
form of copying-machines, with which everything written or drawn with
chemical ink or crayon on paper can be transferred in a few moments and
manifolded several hundred times. His Royal Majesty of Bavaria has had
the supreme condescension to grant me a six years' patent on this
invention.
Until now I have not been able to give this matter the necessary
attention because the work of publishing this book hindered me; but now
I shall make such a stock of these simple, convenient, and so widely
useful hand-presses that it will be worth while to open a subscription,
which would enable me to sell them for a low price. This would please me
best, as my highest reward would be the general use of my inventions, to
fulfill which desire I have taken the utmost pains in this work.
In the last parts of the book I have gone less into details, merely
because I assume that those who have mastered the first parts of this
work will not need many words to understand the rest.
If the demand for this perhaps prematurely announced book had not become
so vehement lately that I could not possibly delay its publication any
longer, I should have tried to produce sample illustrations that combine
inner art value with good printing. As it is, I postpone this for a
supplementary volume soon to appear, in which I shall occupy myself
mainly with processes and methods not yet generally known, representing
each by means of a true work of art. With which I now end my text-book,
with the hearty wish that it will find many friends and create many good
lithographers. This may God grant!
The Riverside Press
PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON & CO.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
U.S.A.
* * * * *
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
Punctuation and spelling standardized.
Inconsistent hyphenation retained.
This book has no Table of Contents for Section I.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Invention of Lithography, by Alois Senefelder