ETCHING 



2987 



ETHANE 



more between 1515 and 1518, but 

 no practitioner has ever equalled 

 the wonderful productions of Rem- 



Etching. The Pool, London, a typical etching by J. M. Whistler, dated 1859 



temples. Trade consists largely in 

 ghi, gram, cotton, and oilseeds. 

 Pop. of dist., 760,121, 90 p.c. 

 Hindus; of town, 45,350, 60 p.c. 

 Hindus, 30 p.c. Mahomedans. 



Etching (Ger. atzen, to corrode). 

 Method of engraving on metal 

 either by biting with an acid a 

 design drawn through a ground 

 specially laid on the metal, or by 

 drawing with a needle directly on 

 the metal. Though several metals, 

 such as iron, zinc, and pewter, have 

 been employed, copper is almost 

 universally used. 



In etching by acid, the plate is 

 covered with a coating of wax or 

 other resinous substance, and to this 

 ground are transferred the details 

 of a drawing by laying upon it the 

 paper upon which the design has 

 already been made in black pencil 

 or red chalk and passing it through 

 a hand press. The drawing is 

 then traced with a steel needle 

 through the wax down and into the 

 copper, and when it is finished the 

 plate is submitted to the action of 

 nitric or other acid. The parts 

 that are to come light and sketchy 

 are exposed for a certain time to the 

 mordant and then " stopped out " 

 with a suitable varnish to prevent 

 further action of the acid in these 

 passages ; the parts which con- 

 tain more work and are to be darker 

 are exposed for a further period, 

 and when sufficiently eaten are, 

 in turn, stopped out ; the parts 

 which contain the heavy shadows 

 and blacks are then exposed long 

 enough to complete the erosion. 

 The duration of the bath will 

 depend upon the amount and 

 elaborateness of the drawing. 



In the dry-point method of 

 etching, the artist draws his sub- 

 ject with a hard, sharp steel point 

 upon a perfectly clean,unscratched, 

 flawless copper plate. Dry point 

 was also employed to some extent 

 to define the general features of a 



brandt (1606-69). Modern etchers 

 like Sir Seymour Haden (1818- 

 1911), James McNeill Whistler 

 (1834-1903), David Young Came- 

 ron, William Strang, Joseph Pen- 

 nell, Muirhead Bone, and many 

 Continental artists, carry on the 

 best traditions of the art. See 

 Short History of Engraving and 

 Etching, A. M. Hind, 2nd ed. 

 1911 ; Modern Etchings and their 

 Collectors, T. Simpson, 1919. 



Eteocles (Gr., of true renown). 

 In Greek legend, son of Oedipus, 

 king of Thebes. See Oedipus ; 

 Polynices. Pron. Eti-o-kleez. 



Etesian Winds (Gr. etesios, 

 yearly). Prevailing northerly winds 

 blowing in summer in the Mediter- 

 ranean region. They blow very 

 C u .LOUO strongly up the Nile valley, and are 

 of great value to the dahabiyehs, as 



drawing that was to be finally they help them to ascend the river 



treated by the method of line en- against the current. See Wind. 



graving, and, on the other hand, the 



graver was occasionally borrowed 



to open up work or strengthen an 



effect which the unaided needle 



could not satisfactorily accom- 

 plish. Etching dates from the 



time of Albert Diirer (1471-1528), 



who dry-pointed two or three 



plates in 1512 and etched a few 



Ethane OB ETHYL HYDRIDE 

 (C 2 H 6 ). Gas discovered in 1848 by 

 Frank! and and Kolbe. It occurs 



in the gases evolved from oil wells, 

 but can be made artificially. 

 Kolbe obtained it by the electro- 

 lysis of potassium acetate and 

 Frankland by allowing zinc ethyl 

 to drop into iced water. Ethane is 

 a colourless and odourless gas 

 which burns with a faintly lumin- 

 ous flame. 



Rembrandt with the Sabre, an etching by Rembrandt, dated 1634. 

 Only lour first impressions of this exist, one being sold in 1893 for 2,000 



