132 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 250. 



«r the compass ; that the land vronld be equally seen in 

 its whole extent, and all that I should lose would be a 

 greater command of the sea ; and that I might form a 

 tolerable idea of the crater of ^tna from that of Ve- 

 suvius, with which I was well acquainted. I paid a just 

 deference to his opinion," &c. — Travels, vol. iv. p. 140. 



This passage would seem to prove tbat if Bry- 

 done ascended the mountain, he might have 

 written his glowing description without reaching 

 the top, where, however, he explicitly narrates 

 that he arrived, " in full time to see the most 

 wonderful and most sublime sight in nature." 



Brydone states that he met with the accident, 

 a sprain, alluded to by Recupero, in descending 

 the mountain, not in ascending it- Recupero, it 

 will be noticed, only says that Brydone deceived 

 him in representing that he ascended to the crater, 

 and says nothing about the summit of the moun- 

 tain, which Brydone might have visited, granting 

 all that Recupero asserts on his bare affirmation. 

 Brydone's errors, in " sacrificing truth to piquancy 

 in his narrations," have not led so eminent a judge 

 as Spallanzani, who freely censures these errors, to 

 question the truth of his ascent. Lord Monson's 

 testimony also will add to the weight of evidence 

 in favour of Brydone's general accuracy, so far as 

 his lordship's not observing " a series of errors in 

 the account while reading him on the spot " ex- 

 tends. On the whole, perhaps, it will be thought 

 by candid judges that Brydone's severest critics, 

 who are chiefly foi'eign writers, indignant at being 

 misled by him on some minor points, have been 

 guilty of injustice in stigmatising the entire ac- 

 count of his ascent as an ingenious romance. 



John Macba.t. 



PHOTOGRAPHIC COEEESPONDEWCB. 



Photography applied to Engraving on Wood. — The cur- 

 rent number of the Art Journal contains a proof that the 

 important question, Can photographs be produced on the 

 wood block so as to be used by the engraver? has at 

 length been solved in the affirmative. The engraving of 

 the moon there given is most satisfactory ; and we think 

 our readers will be obliged to us for transferring to our 

 columns the following letter from the Rev. St. Vincent 

 Beechey, by whom this good service has been accom- 

 plished. We hope Mr. Beechey will soon make known the 

 means employed by him. 



« Sir, 

 "Enclosed T send you, I believe to be, the first fair 

 specimen of a woodcut engraving, executed by Mr. Ro- 

 bert Langton, of Cross Street, Manchester, upon a block 

 on to which I have succeeded in transferring it in a con- 

 dition exactly suited for the graver. It is a photographic 

 copy of the celebrated map of the moon delineated by 

 James Nasmyth, Esq., of Patricroft, on a scale of four 

 feet diameter, which is certainly by far the most accurate 

 in detail and execution that has yet been laid down ; the 

 result of years of observation and most accurate micro- 

 metric measurement. The scale to which this map is 

 reduced on the block of course rendered it impossible to 

 engrave all these minutiae ; but by this process the exact 

 position of all the principal mountains and ridges has 



been preserved, and much detail introduced, which it 

 would have required days, and a very clever draughts- 

 man, to have reduced and laid down to scale. The pho- 

 tograph was impressed upon the plain surface of the 

 wood without any ground black or white, duly reversed, 

 and requiring no other treatment than if it had been 

 drawn, except that here and there a crater, &c., had to be 

 made a little more distinct, def)ending merely upon the 

 imperfection of the photograph. 



" To some of your readers it will doubtless appear a 

 very simple thing to photograph on wood, — ' Why not on 

 wood as well as on paper or on glass? ' I will therefore 

 take the liberty of setting before them the difficulties 

 which have to be overcome in this process, and which I 

 am sure you, Sir, will duly appreciate. 



"I am indebted to Mr. Langton, both for the first 

 instigation and for the necessary instructions which 

 enabled me to prosecute this research. Without the 

 former I should never have undertaken it, and without 

 the latter I should have burrowed in the dark. We were 

 both perfectly aware that certain rude attempts had been 

 made and published ; but it was evident from the specimens 

 that they were of the roughest possible description, and 

 quite unadapted to the purposes of Art-design. In order 

 to impress a photographic image on wood for the purpose 

 of engraving, the following difficulties have to be over- 

 come : — 



" 1. The block must not be wetted, or it will cast, and 

 the grain will open. 



" 2. No material must be laid on the surface which will 

 sink into the block and stain even the hundredth part of 

 an inch below the surface, or else the engraver cannot see 

 his cuts to any delicacy of detail. 



" 3. Neither albumen, nor pitch, nor any brittle material 

 can be allowed upon the block, or else of course it will 

 chip in the cross-lines, or those close beside each other. 



" 4. Whatever ground of any description is made use of 

 must be so impalpably thin as to be really tantamount to 

 the surftice of the block itself, or else it cannot be equally 

 cut through to any degree of certainty. 



" 5. The block should be so prepared for the purpose of 

 the photographer, that his collodion or other preparation 

 may freely flow over it without sinking in, and that it 

 may be easily cleared off in case of any failure in a first 

 attempt, in order that another photograph may be put 

 upon the same block without fresh dressing. 



" 6. The photograph must be either a positive upon a 

 white ground (or, as in the present instance, the unaltered 

 wood itself), or a negative upon a blackened surface. 



" I need scarcely say that several attempts were made 

 before all these difficulties were surmounted ; but 1 be- 

 lieve the present process will be found as eflfective as it is 

 simple. My very first attempt succeeded in impressing 

 my church on a black ground, and we both thought that 

 ground would have been of a nature to allow of easy en- 

 graving ; but Mr. Langton found, that though not more 

 than one hundredth part of an inch thick, and not brittle, 

 no degree of excellence could be obtained in its execution. 

 I shall yet endeavour to pei'fect this latter process, as it 

 may sometimes be more convenient than the white 

 ground. In the meanwhile, should you think this com- 

 munication worth inserting in your valuable journal, the 

 block shall be immediately sent up to your office. For 

 any farther information I must refer your readers to Mr. 

 Langton, Engraver, Cross Street, Manchester, with whose 

 skill and ingenuity I believe you are already acquainted. 

 I remain, dear Sir, 



Faithfullj'' yours, 



St. Vincent Beechey. 



Worsley Parsonage, June 19, 1854. 



"P. S. — I should much like to be able to whiten the 



