254 ILLUSTRATIVE PROCESS-WORK 



America. The earliest and best known of these is the Rookwood Pottery in Cincinnati 

 (see E. B. vi, 373). The Grueby Pottery (South Boston) produced most excellent 

 designs. The Dedham, Massachusetts, tableware enjoys a deserved reputation. 



Besides the actual achievements of the arts and crafts movement, it has exerted 

 an influence upon the thought of the time which it is difficult to estimate. Manufac- 

 turers, from direct copying, have come to reconstruct and improve their whole manu- 

 factured output. Simplicity has been the watchword in house furnishing, to its great 

 improvement. Education, in introducing manual training in the schools, has appre- 

 hended the lessons inherent in relating head and hand, and in the new consideration 

 of educational methods all these lessons will not be forgotten. (MIRA BURR EDSON.) 



ILLUSTRATIVE PROCESS-WORK 1 



The development of the methods of manufacture of the process block has been very 

 rapid. Some twenty years have turned a mere experimental effort into a vast business 

 which has revolutionised the publication of illustrated works of all kinds. Progress 

 at this rate of development was bound to slacken, and at the present moment, owing to 

 causes we need not go into, stagnation has taken the place of development. It seems 

 to be assumed that the process block, as we know it, has arrived at a state of perfection, 

 and such improvements as have been introduced have mainly had for their object the 

 cheapening of production by simplifying and speeding up the methods of working. 



The introduction of panchromatic plates, sensitised to a greater range of spectrum 

 colours, has done away with the old tedious system of indirect three-colour negatives, 

 which required nine operations against three by the direct process. These plates have 

 improved results as well as shortened the time of working. 



Collodion emulsions have been specially sensitised and speeded up for direct three-col- 

 our work, but much has yet to be done in improving colour sensitiveness both in emulsions 

 and dry plates. Especially in the matter of green tones, which are yet so imperfectly 

 reproduced photographically, that in order to maintain a true balance, much handwork 

 in the shape of fine etching is required. 



The Acid Blast Machine for etching has come very much to the front; the intro- 

 duction of the Levy machine, named after its American inventor, has shown that 

 better results can be obtained in much shorter time than by the old rocking bath, and 

 it is being largely adopted. For both blast etching and the ordinary rocking acid bath 

 the old method of employing successive rollings up of the metal plate with fatty ink, 

 to form a protective resist, has been superseded by powdering the first ink coating with 

 " Dragons Blood " and heating the plate until the powdered gum melts into and with 

 the ink, thus forming a homogeneous resist which reduces the time required for etching 

 and produces sharper and deeper results. 



The use of the Lumiere Autochrome plates for three-colour work is also a great 

 advance. Many subjects, especially such as are liable to movement growing flowers 

 out of doors for example were impossible so long as the necessity for making three 

 separate negatives existed. The Lumiere plate gives a record of the whole scheme of 

 colour, and the record is so good that it can be used as the original from which the 

 necessary three negatives can be made. 



Beyond these matters the most important developments have resulted from experi- 

 ments upon printing papers, the aim of which has been to find a method for the printing 

 of process blocks upon ordinary paper. 



The great drawback to the use of the process block has been the necessity for printing 

 it on a special paper with a prepared surface, a surface coated with a preparation of white 

 clay. This surface, while giving the best result as regards the printing, has rendered 

 the paper inconveniently heavy, liable to cracking and breaking, and is costly to produce. 

 Continued efforts have been made to find a paper which should be free from these draw- 

 backs, but the object seems to have been accomplished not by the invention of a new 

 paper, but by the introduction of a new machine, and a new method of printing. 



'See E. B, xxii, 408 et seq. 



