112 Mr. Henry Bradbury [May 11, 



so favourable to adding density or body of colour, without obliterating 

 the tender veins and fibres. Peter Kyhl died in the same year that 

 he made known his invention. At his death, his manuscripts and 

 drawings were deposited in the archives of the Imperial Academy 

 of Copenhagen, where they remained for upwards of twenty years : 

 and it is a remarkable fact, that, shortly after his death, was dis- 

 covered the only thing wanting to render the process, as explained by 

 him, at once available for practical purposes. Had Kyhl lived to pro- 

 secute his experiments, he might have accomplished more than he did 

 without requiring the aid of other means.* It was he who discovered 

 how to take impressions in metal plates, by using steel-rollers. 



This is the first element in the process of Nature-Printing. It 

 fell to Dr. Ferguson Branson, of Sheffield, to suggest the second, 

 and the most important. 



During the next twenty years Nature- Printing was but indiffer- 

 ently prosecuted by various persons for various purposes. Mr. 

 Taylor, of Nottingham, as far back as 1842, printed lace, &c,, 

 specimens of which were exhibited at the Great Exhibition ; and 

 Mr. Twining, of Nottingham, in 1847, printed ferns, grasses, and 

 plants, which were exhibited by the Botanical Society of London. 

 He adopted the same plans as those used by Kniphof and Hoppe. 



In 1847, also, Dr. Ferguson Branson commenced a series of 

 experiments, an interesting paper upon which was read before the 

 Society of Arts in 1851, and therein for the first time was suggested 

 the application of that second and most important element in 

 Nature-Printing which is now its essential feature — the application 

 of the Electrotype. 



" I beg leave," says he, " to bring before the notice of the Society 

 of Arts a new method of engraving plates for printing ferns, leaves, 

 seaweeds, and other flat plants Having taken in gutta- 

 percha some impressions of ferns, the singularly beautiful manner 

 in which the exact character of the plant was transferred to the gum 

 suggested to me the possibility of printing from the gutta-percha 

 itself, so as to produce on paper a facsimile of the plant. That 

 experiment partially succeeded, and curiously tested the elasticity of 

 the substance ; for the impression remained uninjured, after being 

 subjected to the great pressure of a copper-plate roller. I say that 

 it -partially succeeded ; for the printer found it utterly impossible 

 so thoroughly to cleanse the ink from the margin around the im- 

 pression, as not when printed to leave a dirty stain on the paper. 

 The impressions thus produced were very accurate ; but the process 

 was valueless as regards multiplication of the prints.*' 



It then occurred to Dr. Branson that an electrotype copy would 

 obviate the difficulty. 



* Kyhl, as it was, had had his attention directed, and had made experi- 

 ments to overcome this one remaining difficulty. His manuscript also contains 

 many interesting and practical remarks upon other processes than simply 

 Nature-Printing. 



