110 Mr. Henry Bradbury [May 11, 



in the result produced, — which consisted in fixing an impression of 

 the prepared plant in a plate of metal by pressure. 



It appears, on the authority of Professor Thiele, that Peter Kyhl, 

 a Danish goldsmith and engraver, established at Copenhagen, 

 applied himself for a length of time to the ornamentation of articles 

 in silver ware, and the means he adopted were, taking copies of flat 

 objects of nature and art in plates of metal by means of two steel 

 rollers. 



Various productions in silver of this process were exposed in the 

 Exhibition of Industry held at Charlottenburgh, in May 1833. In 

 a manuscript, written by this Danish goldsmith, entitled The De- 

 scription {with forty -six plates) of the Method to Copy Flat Objects 

 of Nature and Art, dated 1st May, 1833, is suggested the idea of 

 applying this invention to the advancement of science in general. 

 The plates accompanying this description represented printed copies 

 of leaves, of linen and woven stuffs, of laces, of feathers of birds, 

 scales of fishes, and even of serpent-skins. 



The manuscript contains ample and clear instructions to carry 

 out the method, and a few extracts, in his own words, of the leading 

 features will be perhaps interesting. He thus writes : — 



" As a correct copy of the productions of Nature and Art must 

 be of great importance, I am delighted to have the honour of sub- 

 mitting to the friends of Art and Science a method I have disco- 

 vered, by which copies of most objects can be taken, impressed into 

 metal plates, and which enables the naturalist and botanist to get 

 representations of leaves, feathers, scales, &c., in a quick and easy 

 way ; and these copies will give all the natural lineaments, with 

 their most raised or sunken veins and fibres ; moreover, the artist 

 can, by means of this invention, make use of Nature's real pecu- 

 liarities for ornamental compositions and productions ; and the 

 merchant can get patterns of delicately woven or figured stuffs, 

 laces, tickens, ribbon, linen, and so forth. 



" To fix an impression into a plate of copper, zinc, tin, or lead, 

 properly prepared for the purpose, a rolling machine with two 

 polished cylinders of steel is required ; if a leaf quite dried and 

 prepared, is placed between a polished steel plate half an inch 

 thick and a thoroughly heated lead plate with a fine surface, and 

 these two plates with the leaf between be run speedily between the 

 cylinders, the leaf will by the pressure yield its form on the softer 

 lead plate, precisely as it is shaped, with all its natural raised and 

 sunken parts. 



" I tried many ways to fix the leaf on the plate by some glutinous 

 matter, but it filled the delicate pores and deep parts so much as to 

 render the copies very indistinct.* 



" The printing itself of the leaf into the metal requires much 



* Mr. Bradbury stated that he had himself tried this method without 

 success. 



