NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 1-!'J 



dark, and he paints in the lights, heightening his color where the}* arc high- 

 est, and leaving it blank where they are low. The first and most obvious 

 application of this method is to the copying of paintings and engravings. A 

 sheet of glass can be laid over the work to be copied, and thus every line 

 and boundary of shadow can be accurately traced, and the very handling 

 and manner of the original imitated, until the copyist's work begins to con- 

 ceal what is beneath. The glass can then be removed, the black paper laid 

 behind the glass, and the work proceeded with in the ordinary way. When 

 it is complete, or, if desired, at any stage of the proceedings, an endless 

 number of photographic proofs can be taken. Engravings and lithographic 

 stones wear out, but there is literally no end to the fac-similts that may be 

 taken of an oil painting on glass. When the number of good copyists who 

 can be found of works in oil is considered, and that their work is so much 

 more rapid than that of an engraver, the cost of production being conse- 

 quently less, it really seems as though the engraver's art, except in its 

 very highest efforts, must be to a great extent superseded by this method. 

 Another application of the Elliotype process is the painting of subjects from 

 nature. The artist who paints upon glass instead of canvas, not only pre- 

 pares a work which may be multiplied indefinitely in the way we have 

 described, but which also remains a finished work of art, distinguishable 

 only, as we are told, by practised eyes from an ordinary drawing or painting 

 on paper or canvas. It will be remarked at once that no colors can be em- 

 ployed except black and white. This is undoubtedly the case, so far as 

 painting for the copying sake is concerned; but, after that is done with, it 

 appears to be quite possible to paint in colors upon the reverse or back of 

 the glass, so as to give the effect of a finished painting when hung in a room. 

 It remains only to add, that the inventor and patentee of this ingenious 

 process, from whom it takes its name, is Mr. Robinson Elliott, an artist 

 who has himself practised the method to a considerable extent, and with a 

 su< cess that is very remarkable, even at this, which he considers an earl}", 

 stage of the discovery. The roundness and accuracy of outline, and the 

 depth and transparency of the shadows, ai*e remarkably conspicuous, whilst 

 it is in bringing out the high lights that the skill of the artist is chiefly exer- 

 cised. The adaptability of the method to subjects requiring a multiplicity 

 of minute and sharply-defined detail has not yet been so well established as 

 to others where the forms are simple, and the effect of the picture depends 

 mainly upon its light and shade. That this process will recommend itself at 

 once and extensively to original painters, for the sake of imparting to their 

 pictures the capability of being reproduced in a cheap, rapid, and direct 

 manner, can hardly, perhaps be expected; but that it will be resorted to for 

 the purpose of reproduction, we cannot doubt, particularly when the results 

 are so satisfactory in themselves, and so flattering to the hand and pencil of 

 the painter. London Literary Gazette. 



PHOTOGLYPHIC ENGRAVING. 



The following is a summary of Mr. Fox Tablet's recently patented inven- 

 tion of photographic etching, which he terms " Photoglyphic Engraving." 



Mr. Talbot uses the steel, copper, or zinc plates, ordinarily employed by 

 engravers. The plate to be operated on is covered with a thin film of a 

 solution of the common gelatine of the shops (in the proportion of a 

 quarter of an ounce of gelatine to eight or ten ounces of water), to which 

 has been added about an ounce of a saturated solution of bichromate of 



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