CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



handle (h) or wheel, brought upon the metallic 

 moving roller, and under the scraper. The handle 

 of the lever-power (/) is put down, bringing the 



Fig. 9. 



scraper firmly down on the top of the tympan, the 

 handle (K) is turned round, and the stone is gradu- 

 ally moved through its whole length ; the handle 

 of the lever-power (/) is raised again, and the 

 table upon which the stone rests is returned to its 

 former place. 



The first self-acting lithographic machine 

 (called simply a machine to distinguish it from 

 the ordinary hand-press) that was made and 

 introduced into this country was that of Sichel 

 of Berlin and Vienna, patented in Britain some 

 years ago ; it was considered at the time a 

 triumph of ingenuity ; but it did not benefit lith- 

 ography, as was at first anticipated, from the 

 fact, that the principle upon which it was con- 

 structed (that of the scraper process) was found 

 to produce too much friction, rendering speed 

 dangerous, and work difficult to keep on the 

 stone. It was not till about the year 1860 that 

 the lithographic machine, as at present in use, 

 was first introduced into Britain from France, 

 and became a necessary adjunct to all large 

 establishments, its use being found of as great 

 benefit to lithography as the steam printing- 

 machine has been to letter-press printing. 



As all such machines are made upon what may 

 be termed more or less the French model, which is 

 somewhat an adaptation of the letter-press single- 

 cylinder machine, we here give a description of 

 one of the most recent makes. 



The lithographic machine resembles the ordinary 

 single-cylinder letter-press machine in that the 

 cylinder produces the impression from the stone, 

 thereby doing away with the friction attending 

 the hand-press. The stone is fixed in a movable 

 bed, which can be raised or lowered according to 

 the thickness. The sheet when placed on the 

 feed-board on the top of the cylinder, is thrown 

 into register by a simple contrivance, worked by a 

 camb and spring ; at the same time, the gripper 

 opens, and, by special action in the mouth, it 

 throws up the sheet at the same time that it takes 

 it, which, with the somewhat similar action on 

 the feed-board, insures the sheet always going 

 properly to the stone. A side-brake is arranged, 

 whereby the cylinder is steadied while passing 

 over the stone. Behind the cylinder are the 

 damping-rollers, which are covered with some 

 soft absorbent fabric. The ink is supplied from a 



768 



duct, as in letter-press, is thence transferred to the 

 inking-table by distributors, and then to the inlting- 

 rollers, which are covered with the finest French 

 leather. The stone first travels past the damping- 

 rollers to the inking-rollers, and returns again 

 past the inkers to receive the paper with the pres- 

 sure, the whole being worked by what is termed 

 the crank-action. A variety of patents have from 

 time to time been taken out in connection with 

 steam lithographic machinery ; but none have 

 proved better than that described. 



The weak point of the machine is that it can- 

 not print satisfactorily from a grained stone on 

 account of the rigidity of the rolling apparatus. 

 This at first rendered it quite unsuitable for print- 

 ing chalk-drawings, which could only be executed 

 on grained stones, and consequently diminished 

 its usefulness in a great measure. The invention 

 of the grained-paper process (by means of which,, 

 as already described, chalk-drawing can be trans- 

 ferred to, and printed from a flat stone) has 

 entirely removed this difficulty, and opened up- 

 every kind of lithographic work for the machine. 



Lithography has benefited so much by the 

 introduction of machine-printing, that new fields- 

 of enterprise are opening up for it. An illustrated 

 paper is printed, entitled the Canadian Illus- 

 trated News, in which not only the illustra- 

 tions are lithographed, but the letter-press trans- 

 ferred to the stone, and printed as well. In New 

 York also is published a paper, called the Daily 

 Graphic, illustrated, produced entirely by lithog- 

 raphy ; and recently an attempt has been made, 

 and we believe with some success, to print from 

 the lithographic stone fixed colours on calico. 



Zincography. The invention of this process is 

 due to the late Mr Eberhard of Bavaria. It is 

 merely an application of lithography to zinc plates, 

 with some necessary modification of the etching 

 and printing, but is not so certain in its action. 

 Its only advantage is in connection with very large 

 subjects, as the zinc is more portable and less 

 liable to breakage than stone. 



Photo-lithography is very well adapted for re- 

 producing, on any scale, architectural and engin- 

 eering drawings, &c. where these are executed in 

 lines; hitherto, the process has not been so far 

 perfected as to reproduce a flat tint An account 

 of the process will be found in the following 

 number (p. 783). 



A very ingenious process has recently been 

 invented for printing several colours by one im- 

 pression. It seems to be adapted principally for 

 printing the tints on maps. The different parts 

 are carefully cut out from blocks of solid ink 

 of the required colour, and of equal thickness. 

 These are put together on a press special!} 

 adapted for the purpose, and printed on paper 

 slightly damped with turpentine, without any 

 further inking. The outlines, &c. are then 

 printed from the ordinary lithographic stone in 

 the usual way. 



Since its discovery by Senefelder, the art of 

 lithography has made an immense stride, and we 

 think we are within the mark when we say that, 

 compared with many of its sister industries, it 

 has not only kept pace with, but considerably 

 distanced them. The rapidity of its growth, and 

 the prominence it has attained as one of the most 

 important branches of industry in this country, is 

 particularly striking. 



