104 TEAR-BOOK OF FACTS. 



being prevented from unrolling too fast by a break and weighted 

 lever, and it is drawn forward by two feeding rollers covered with 

 cloth. The paper is then cut transversely by a pair of automatic 

 scissors, and passed to the printing cylinder. To cut the paper into 

 two or more sheets longitudinally after being printed, it passes be- 

 tween pairs of revolving circular cutters. The damping apparatus 

 consists, principally, of two hollow perforated metal rollers contain- 

 ing w T ater, and covered with cloth or flannel, round which the end- 

 less paj^er passes in its progress from one roller on to another. 



NEW PRINTING MACHINE. 



At Vienna, a printing machine has been brought out, dispensing 

 with the use of all other assistance save that of mechanical apparatus. 

 No persons are required to feed it with paper, or to remove the 

 printed sheets, both processes being accomplished through the in- 

 strumentality of the machine itself. The paper for this purpose is 

 supplied in rolls many hundred yards in length. The machine first 

 cuts a sheet off the requisite size, then prints, and finally throws it 

 off — a newspaper ready for the reader. All that manual labour is 

 required to do is to bring forward fresh rolls, and to take away the 

 printed sheets. 



PROCESS FOR ENLARGING AND REDUCING ENGRAVINGS. 



The Editor of the Builder thus describes a very simple and inge- 

 nious Process for the Enlargement and Reduction of Prints, at the 

 Electro- printing Block Company's premises, in Burleigh-street, 

 Strand : — "A sheet of vulcanized rubber, prepared in some special 

 way, it was said, and coated with an elastic composition on which 

 had been printed a copy of an engraving, was fixed to an iron frame- 

 work with hooks and rings attached to small iron bars, crossing so 

 as to form a square ; and by means of screws the rubber sheet was 

 stretched, according to a graduated scale, until the inked impression 

 had attained certain increased dimensions. The whole being fixed, 

 was then taken to a lithographic press, and the rubber laid with tho 

 inked side on a clean lithographic stone, and passed repeatedly 

 through the press. The inked impression was thus completely trans- 

 ferred to the .stone, and from that in a few minutes an impression of 

 the enlarged engraving was worked off. This impression wo examined 

 with a magnifying-glass, comparing it also with an unenlarged copy, 

 and certainly it displayed not the least rottenness or comparative 

 imperfection, but was, on the contrary, quite as good as the unen- 

 forced one in every way : nor did it seem to be anywise distorted, 

 although it does seem clear that minute differences in the amounl of 

 the stretching, from the central point of rest outwards toward 

 squared circumference, must exist, and must benoe prodnoe minute, 

 though it would appear inappreciable, distortion in the enlarged im- 

 pressions taken by such means. However this may be, a pair of 

 compasses Beemed to show that round the circumference at lea t ,.f 

 tho rubber, whic li WSJ marked with equidistant lines, the cnl 

 ment was equable in all its parts. Moreover, the sheet of rubber 



