PRINTING, PROGRESS OF, IN RECENT YEARS. 



571 



trations for printing up to 1875, when photoen- 

 graving began to supersede it. The woodcuts of 

 the latter half of the nineteenth century were 

 often made with great artistic skill, although the 

 highest class of engraving betore 1875 was gen- 

 erally done on steel at great cost. The modern 

 photomechanical processes of engraving produce 

 results that are both better and cheaper than the 

 hand-work on wood and steel, and have not only 

 replaced them, but have caused probably hundreds 

 of times as many illustrations to be produced now 

 as were made fifty years ago. The great mass 

 of illustrations used to-day are made by the half- 

 tone process, or by zinc etching. In zinc etching 

 the drawing is transferred by photography to a 

 .zinc plate, which is powdered and then etched 

 with acid, to secure the relief necessary for print- 

 ing. In producing half-tone work, an India-ink- 

 brush sketch, called a " wash-drawing," is photo- 

 graphed, or a photograph is taken direct from 

 nature, on a gelatin film containing a bichromate. 

 Since gelatin is made insoluble and becomes hard- 

 ened by the action of light, the portions of the 

 lilm that are kept dark in the printing-frame may 

 be swelled by water, while the remainder is un- 

 swelled. Thus a surface may be produced that 

 is irregular in height according to its lights and 

 shadows. In commercial use the process is to 

 expose a negative to the picture to be copied 

 through an interposed, finely ruled glass screen, 

 and then develop the negative. A prepared metal 

 plate is exposed so that the light passes through 

 the negative, after which the exposed metal plate 

 is etched and becomes a printing-plate made up of 

 a series of minute dots that vary in strength ac- 

 cording to the lights and shades, giving an artistic 

 picture in a form best calculated for reproduction 

 on a printing-press. Though made mechanically, 

 the half-tone requires much judgment in handling 

 to secure the best results, and it is much improved 

 by hand-work in cutting out the high lights of an 

 engraving by rendering the vignetting more deli- 

 cate, etc. 



The half-tone has reached its highest perfection 

 in what is known as the three-color process of il- 

 lustration. This consists in taking three photo- 

 graphs of a subject, and making from each a half- 

 tone printing-plate. One photograph is taken as 

 far as possible in yellow light,, another in blue 

 light, and the third in red light. The plates so 

 obtained are printed one at a time, each in its 

 appropriate color, and superposed, the resultant 

 picture possessing theoretically all the colors of 

 nature. Though there are many mechanical dif- 

 ficulties in the way of carrying out this method 

 of color printing, and though its results are not 

 quite true to nature, yet the process is a pro- 

 nounced success, and is coming into larger use 

 every day. The best results have been obtained 

 by manufacturing a fourth plate to be printed 

 in photo- brown, and that serves to outline and 

 emphasize the picture where it can be helped in 

 this manner. 



Stereotyping- and Electrotyping-. Stereo- 

 typing is the reproduction of type-forms or en- 

 gravings, etc., in a metal alloy that is principally 

 composed of lead. The art originated some time 

 during the eighteenth century, but was not com- 

 monly practised until 1812. For many years it 

 was the best commercial method of duplicating 

 forms for printing, but within recent years it has 

 been superseded to a great degree in the book, 

 magazine, and job-printing field by electro typing, 

 which secures better results at a slightly increased 

 cost. In newspaper work stereotyping has come 

 into greatly increased use since the introduction 

 of rotary presses. These use curved stereotype 



whieli ean be 

 iper-> ot great 

 '.1 as 

 ipli- 



plates made by the paper pro 



produced very rapidly. In ne< 



circulation, in order to gel. ;i n i-^ue ;i!l 



promptly as possible, the t,yp< 



cated by stereotyping three; or lour or 



or ten times, and placing the plate- o 



fast presses. In this way it is po^ihh 



of the larger newspaper plants, to deli 



to 1,000,000 completed newspapers wit. Inn ;m hour 



after the last line of the last page is in type. 



Electrotyping is a process of reproducing type 

 or other incised printing surtace by taking an 

 impression in wax, and placing this wax mold, 

 covered with black lead, in a solution of copper, 

 and depositing thereon by electrodeposition a 

 film or shell of copper that is a duplicate of the 

 original form. This thin shell is backed with an 

 alloy that is mostly lead, and may then be 

 mounted for printing. The process is generally 

 used for reproducing pages of books, magazines, 

 etc., of which further editions may be required, 

 and for which the type could not be kept stand- 

 ing; also for the duplication of half-tones and 

 other plates used for illustrations. It has been 

 brought to a high degree of perfection, the great- 

 est improvement in recent years being the stimula- 

 tion of the electrodeposition by the use of a dyna- 

 mo. By means of this, plates can be made in an 

 hour, a great advantage in the case of publica- 

 tions desiring to include late news. 



Books and Periodicals Devoted to Printing. 

 The literature of printing includes several thou- 

 sand volumes, the finest collection in America 

 being that of the Typothetae Library in New York. 

 In England the best collection of rare works 

 bearing on typography is said to be the John 

 Rylands Library, in Manchester. As a rule, the 

 books pertaining to the printer's craft have been 

 issued more for love of the art than for profit, 

 and only a few have had extensive circulation. 

 Probably the three most successful books issued 

 to the trade in America during the past genera- 

 tion were De Vinne's Price List, MacKellar's 

 American Printer, and Harpel's Typograph. In 

 the year 1900 Paul Nathan issued a book from 

 the Lotus Press, entitled How to Make Money in 

 the Printing Business. This deals entirely with 

 the business side of printing, and contains much 

 common-sense advice as to the methods to be pur- 

 sued to insure success. Among other recent books 

 are Theo. L. De Vinne's Printing Types, and Cor- 

 rect Composition, F. Horace Teall's Proof-Read- 

 ing, C. S. Partridge's Electrotyping, Ernest 

 Knaufft's Drawing for Printers, and Edward S. 

 Ralph's Job Composition. The Inland Printer 

 has also issued several brochures by Charles H. 

 Cochrane. 



In England the second and third sections of 

 John Southward's Modern Printing appeared re- 

 cently, and also a catalogue of the William Blades 

 collection, being a bibliography of what William 

 Blades, a once famous English printer, consid- 

 ered the best books on the history of printing; 

 also a brochure on Printing Machinery by Wil- 

 liam Powrie. 



The first periodical published solely in the in- 

 terest of the printer's art, so far as the writer can 

 learn, was the German publication Journal fiir 

 Buchdruckerkunst, by Dr. Johann H. Meyer, be- 

 gun in 1834, and continued a great many years. 

 New York had a similar publication as early as 

 1858 The Printer, published by John Greason. 

 Since that date perhaps fifty papers have existed 

 for various periods and catered to the trade in 

 the United States. The most important of these 

 dead and gone periodicals was Ro well's American 

 Newspaper Reporter, which began in 1867, and 



