272 Mr. Henry Bradbury [May 9, 



is supposed to be able to copy Bank Notes. Tbe process certainly 

 has great claims to utility, if confined to its legitimate sphere ; for 

 instance, when within the short space of ten days, 200 sets of 

 fac-similes of the great Austrian Map of Russia and Turkey, for 

 the use of the generals and officers of our armies in the East, were 

 reproduced from 21 original copper-plate engravings, printed in 

 "Vienna in 1829. The difference however between the nature of the 

 engraving that characterises a map, and that which characterises (or 

 which ought to characterise) a Bank Note, should be considered. 

 The work in the one (the Note), whether it be complex or simple, 

 ought to be sharp and clear, whereas in the case of the Map (and 

 especially in the use for which it was required in the instance 

 specified) it mattered little whether the lines transferred possessed 

 great nicety of sharpness or not. The operation of effecting a 

 transfer requires immense pressure, producing a flattening or spread- 

 ing of the lines. In copper-plate printing, the ink lies upon the 

 surface of the paper, not a transparent film as in surface-printing, 

 but as a body ; the body naturally having a greater tendency to 

 spread, the film a less. Therefore the best and simplest way to 

 meet the supposed danger of the Anastatic is to adopt copper- 

 plate and very fine work — as surface-printing with open-work only 

 favours the transfer. 



If the Anastatic process thus lays claim to the ingenuity of an 

 exhausted art, Photography appears as an infant science. When 

 Photography made its first appearance, experiments were insti- 

 tuted in order to ascertain how far it might be made subservient to 

 forgery. Copies of Bank Notes were certainly produced by one 

 or other of the branches of this art — but not to an extent to be 

 considered dangerous. The copies were imperfect — there was a 

 loss of sharpness ; an absence of reality ; a want of printed effect. 

 The colour, too, instead of being black as in printing, was a sort of 

 brown sepia. Another failure was in the representation of the 

 water-mark, which appeared indeed as if it were really existing, but 

 it was found impossible to give the peculiar effect of the water-mark 

 produced by reflection and transmission. Up to this point then 

 there was little to fear. Since that time Photography has made 

 great advances ; and there exists a process which is capable of 

 producing a more serious result than that previously obtained ; 

 namely, a printing-plate. 



In cases where the engraving on a Note by reason of coarseness 

 of character (such being exemplified more in letter-press than in 

 copper-plate) is exposed to the reproductive powers of the Anastatic 

 or the Photographic processes, and such mode of engraving (viz., the 

 letter-press) must be from economical or other motives followed, then 

 the antidote (at least, that in common use) consists in the adoption 

 of printing in different colours. For instance : — Suppose some 

 words or design elaborately engraved to be first printed in red on 



