E . 
@n steel, 
engraving. 
Mezzotinto © 
“ENGRAVING. | 
Engraving. cuted their-discovery as far as it is obviously suscepti- 
ble, yet what they 1 have produced shews that it is ca- 
le of much variety of application. The speci 
ae mostly i laitecis aa sen HY te ties: 
which are executed with minute parallel lines, have all 
delica¢y and smoothness of aquatinta ; the water 
i ectly liquid and bg or cid ag 
Shobacter of ths Yorke and other objects in the fore- 
the specimens will shortly publish. 
ee i ipally cut- 
i and for 
peti pete! tring 
vice of the es is performed in relievo, i 
to a model in wax; tea when finished, it receives a 
high temper, in order to stand the blows of the hammer 
in ing the matrix. The steel of the matrix is made 
hot to soften it, that it may more easily take the im- 
pression of the punch ; and when struck, is touched up 
there any deficiencies, by means of ing 
@ The ings of the , en= 
ring aid ite 
well tempered, and very sharp. 
Etching on steel is ‘ormed by drawing the de- 
ign with i vet, a 
in 
glazier’s putty, or the bordering 
a 
It may then be poured off, and the black clean~ 
y with a little turpentine 
‘instrument, and mo- 
ing needle, The lightest are then scraped to the 
an Seunnia; sok Reruabbotesione sis seo. 
in the same manner, by scraping them, so as to 
P 
2 a or less portion of the ground, according 
ving on stone, is a method of imitating pen 
and ink drawings, for which the inventor some years 
ago obtained a patent. It is performed on a slab of 
marb in pa gi lane pr The design and 
effect is made out, with a pen di in a solution of 
lac, the of pure soda, with a little soap, and co- 
black. 
] ing has been on the stone for three or 
four days, or when the ink is 
i In this state it is 
erfectly dry, it is soaked 
ater. 
from the balls, and the ink will adhere to the design 
and not 
bed with printer’s ink 
the way as letter- ting, b 
putting a sheet of dex paper over it, dal atic ok tt 
to the action of the printing-press. 
Another method of 
.* 
on stone 
ue In 
in 1801; and, in 1803, a 
of Austria. He ac- 
inting-houses at Munich 
ion, similar establish- 
ments were formed in France and Italy: but it is at 
Munich that the art has been brought to the greatest 
i It has been found well adapted for imita- 
tion of wood-cuts, drawings, music, all kinds of wri- 
ting, and geographical maps. 
55 
The metliod’ is ‘to také a calcareous stone or slab of Engraving. 
marble, with a good polish, of from two to three inches 
thick, and of a size ioned to that of the work to 
be executed on it. The design, notes, or letters, are 
marked out with a solution of gum lac and’ potash, 
coloured with lamp black. When they are dry, the 
stone is covered with aquafortis; and the acid attack- 
ing all parts of the stone except those which have been 
impregnated with the resinous ink, the drawing re< 
mains untouched, and appears like the block of a wood< 
cut. When the acid has corroded toa sufficient depth, 
the slab is washed with clean water, and, while wet, 
printing ink is applied to it with balls in the usual way, 
and put through the ro) press. At each proof, the 
2k must be washed — _—— sare method, roe 
expedition, cheapness, urability, greatly the » 
advantage over the usual processes, particularly for 
music ; and it is said, that, at the stone printing office 
at Vienna, thirty thousand impressions were taken off 
the same slab, and the last impressions were nearly-as- 
good as the first. 
Etching on glass is performed by laying ona acta ae on 
and making 
isting of a thin coat of /bees-wax, 
the design with an etching needle. It is then covered 
with sulphuric acid, and sprinkled over with pounded 
Derbyshire spar (fluor spat). It must be taken off af. 
ter four or five hours ; rae. when oer roby 
turpentine, the etchin, appear, leaving w 
been covered with te hee Sartachen, y this me« 
thod, glass vessels are graduated, or ornamented. 
This process is sometimes reversed, by putting on 
the design or ornament with a solution of bees-wax in 
mtine, and ing the ground to the action of 
the acid, which, win sufficiently corroded, will leave 
the ornament untouched, and the ground deprived of 
part of its polish and transparency, It is to be obser« 
ved, that the po pe acid does not immediately act on 
the glass, but only by expelling one of the constituent 
parts of the spar, a fluoric acid, )’so that the effect of 
the corrosion will be according to the quantity of the 
fluoric acid evolved, acting on the glass; and as it posses« 
ses much greater activity in the gaseous state than when 
combined with water, the operation will be performed 
more expeditiously by exposing the plate to the action 
of the gas as it evolves, properly secured to prevent its 
escape ; and in this way, several plates may be bit at. 
orice. 
Seal-en, 
It was performed on_ all sorts. of precious stones, but 
onyx was the most commonly used for this purpose. 
The operation Bb hey by inserting the tools into 
the axis of a 1 iron whéel, whichis attached to an 
apparatus like a turner’s lathe, and kept in motion by the - 
foot. The tools are tightened bya screw, and the stone 
to be engraved is applied by the hand to the tool as it re - 
volves, and is shifted and conducted as required.’ The 
tools are generally of iron, and sometimes of brass ; 
their forms are various, generally resembling chisels 
and gouges: some have small round heads like buttons, 
others flat, &c.; and when the stone has been engra« 
ved, it is polished on wheels of hair brushes and tripoli. 
See Strutt’s Dictionary of Engravers; Bryan’s Dic- 
tionary of Painters, Engravers, Be. ; Landseer on En« 
aving ; Heineken Idée Generale d’une Collection com~ 
plette d’Estampes ; Vasari Vite de’ Pittori ; Orlandi, , 
Abecedario Pittorio ; Christ. Dictionnaire des Mono«: 
ammes; Papillon Histoire de la Gravure en Bois; 
elibien Principes de l Architecture et des autres Arts 
qui en dependent. (P. G.) 
ving, which is performed both in cameo Seal en-” 
and intaglio, was an art much practised by the ancients, 8*¥"& ~ 
