124 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



SOAP AS A MEANS OF ART. 



Dr. Ferguson Branson, of Sheffield, 'writing in the Journal of the So- 

 ciety of Arts, says : " Several years ago, I was endeavoring to find an 

 easy substitute for wood engraving, or rather to find out a substance more 

 readily cut than wood, and yet sufficiently firm to allow of a cast being 

 taken from the surface when the design was finished, to be reproduced in 

 type-metal, or by the electrotype process. After t trying various substances, 

 I at last hit upon one which, at first, promised success, viz. : the very 

 common substance called soap ; but I found that much more skill than I 

 possessed was required to exit the fine lines for surface printing. A very 

 little experience with the material convinced me, that, though it might 

 not supply the place of wood for surface printing, it contained within 

 itself the capability of being extensively applied to various useful and 

 artistic processes in a manner hitherto unknown. Dye- sinking is a tedious 

 process, and no method of dye-sinking that I am aware of admits of free- 

 dom of handling. A drawing may be executed with a hard point, on a 

 smooth piece of soap, almost as readily, as freely, and in as short a time 

 as an ordinary drawing with a lead pencil. Every touch thus produced 

 is clear, sharp, and well defined. When the drawing is finished, a cast 

 may be taken from the surface in plaster, or, better still, by pressing the 

 soap firmly into heated gutta percha. In gutta perch a, several impressions 

 may be taken without injuring the soap, so as to admit of ' proofs ' being 

 taken and corrections made a very valuable and practical good quality in 

 soap. It will even bear being pressed into melted sealing-wax without 

 injury. I have never tried a sulphur mould, but I imagine an impression 

 from the soap could easily be taken by that method." Dr. Branson has 

 also employed beeswax, white wax, sealing wax, lacs, as well as other 

 plastic bodies ; and in some of these cases, a heated steel knitting needle, 

 or point, was substituted for the ivory knitting needle. He has sent sev- 

 eral specimens to the Society of Arts, which show that, from the gutta 

 percha or plastic cast, a cast in brass may be obtained, with the impression 

 either sunk or in relief. 



THE NEW PROCESS OF PRINTING FROM NATURE. 



The Director of the Imperial Printing Office of Vienna has invented, 

 and broiight into successful working, a means of producing embossed fac- 

 similes of objects, which it is attempted to make subservient to the pur- 

 poses of natural history illustration. Substantially the same invention 

 has also been made and patented in England, (See Annual Scientific Dis- 

 covery, 18-51, pp. 95-97,) and introduced into practical working, by 

 Bradbury & Evans, of Manchester. More importance has, however, been 

 attached to this invention than it is fairly entitled to ; but, so far as 

 regards its economy and usefulness, in such cases as the production of 



