184 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



ductions have been feared. In regard to Bank of England notes, a 

 great safeguard has been believed to exist in the inimitable character 

 of the paper, in quality, design of water-mark, etc. But since the 

 robbery of bank note paper this reliance has vanished into thin air, 

 as the genuine paper manufactured for the bank authorities is now 

 actually in circulation as the basis of the forgery. The bank author- 

 ities themselves rely upon the simplicity of the design and characters 

 upon their notes, and upon the mode of printing adopted, as their 

 surest protection against imitation. Others maintain that complexity 

 of design, produced by artists of the first ability, is the truest source 

 of safety, arguing that, notwithstanding the skill and enterprise which 

 have, unfortunately, been engaged in the nefarious profession of the 

 forger, it must always happen that genuine art will be in advance of 

 the spurious or counterfeit art. It is further argued that the number of 

 persons who would be able, with any chance of success, to imitate the 

 designs of genius, must necessarily be very few, and " these," as it is 

 argued by an old writer on the subject, " by the legitimate use of 

 their talents, can acquire competence ; they, therefore, are not likely 

 to employ their time, or risk their lives, in felonious imitations. Nay, 

 if, in the perversity of the human mind, a first-rate artist were in- 

 clined to turn forger, he could not then do it successfully, because, 

 even in the very first rank of historical engravers, one cannot imitate 

 the engraving of another in a work of importance without the differ- 

 ence of manner being visible." 



Adopting these and similar arguments, the bank authorities have 

 held, we believe, that their position was impregnable, and that the 

 precautions against forgeries of their notes were as complete as it was 

 in the nature of things, or at least in the present state of science, pos- 

 sible to make them. Moreover, they may, and we believe do, argue, 

 no forgery has ever yet been executed which they could not them- 

 selves detect ; and as they could only become losers by counterfeits 

 produced with such skill as to deceive their own tellers, and induce 

 them, without question, to convert them into specie, they were not 

 called upon to entertain further anxiety upon the subject. They 

 believe that their own safety from deception is absolute, and that, for 

 the public safety, they have done sufficient, or, at least, all that was 

 possible ; and there the matter must rest. 



But the imitation produced by photography is absolute in all its 

 parts. The most complex design of the most skilful artist is as easily 

 produced as the most simple common-place production of the greatest 

 bungler. The secret marks, however unobtrusive ; the signature, no 

 matter how marked its individuality or character, are all unerringly 

 produced by the lens and camera, in the negative image. The ordinary 

 silver print from such a negative, it is true, whilst it might deceive 

 some persons if well executed, would speedily be detected on careful 

 examination. It is for this reason, we doubt not, that the subject has 

 received comparatively little attention, and excited no apprehension 

 hitherto. But this is not the real danger. It is from the processes 

 of photo-lithography, photo-glyphography, and similar processes, by 

 which photographic impressions can be produced in printer's ink, in 

 the very material, and of the exact tint, of the original, that the 

 danger is to be apprehended; and that danger threatens the bank 



