118 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



Of the general character of the photo-inechanical work in this collection, it may be 

 said that photolithography is more fully represented than any other of the photo- 

 processes classed with it, and that most of the specimens of all kinds will be found 

 to belong to a period extending from 1852 to about 1872. Photolithography predom- 

 inates for the reason that there was much more of it done in the years indicated than 

 of intaglio or relief work, the two latter not having reached a condition of commer- 

 cial importance till after 1872. 



In this letter it would be unwise to attempt a full citation of the processes repre- 

 sented, experimental and practical, in the collection I have, made, but a few of the 

 names of leading inventors and process-workers may be given with advantage, as 

 follows : 



Lemercier, Barreswill, Lerebours and Davanne, 1852; Macpherson (?), 1852; Fox 

 Talbot, 1853; PaulPretsch, 1854; Poitevin, 1855; Cutting & Bradford, 1858; Pouncy, 

 1858; Asser, 1859; Osborne, 1859; Lemercier, 1859; Col. James, IStiO; Turner, 1861; 

 Burchard, 1862; Rehu, 1862; Pouncy, 1863; Ramage, 1863; Toovey, 1863; Osborne, 

 1863; Korn, 1863; Mandel, 1863; Swan, 1864; Dallas, 1864 ; Eglofifstein, 1865; Leggo, 

 1865; Osborne, 1866; Willis, 1866; Korn, 1866; Henry, 1867; Woodbury, 1868; Eid- 

 litz, 1868; Rehn, 1870; Bierstadt, 1871; Edwards, 1872; Wenderoth, 1872; Leggo, 

 1873; Bien, 1874; Moss, ISsO; Roche, 1881; Ives, 1881; Meisenbach, 1883; Sprague, 

 1884, and many others of lesser note. 



In this citation of persons who have played a part in the development of photo- 

 mechanical processes several names appear more than once ; that being done to indi- 

 cate that at different epochs their influence has been felt in the progress of those arts. 

 The above names, moreover, comprise most of those represented in the collection, but 

 not all those who did important and progressive work ; as, for instance, Tessi6 du 

 Motay and Marechal, and some of their followers ; also, some of the more recent opera- 

 tors in intaglio and in relief. I should also add, that some of the inventions named 

 have been more closely connected with carbon printing than with those applica- 

 tions of photography having for their final object the production of impressions from 

 a printing press. This is not easily avoided, because of the close relation which 

 exists between processes belonging to either class, from a chemical point of view. In 

 this connection I will also state, that my specimens of carbon photography have not 

 been included with the photo-mechanical work already sent you, but they are at your 

 disposal whenever you are ready to receive them. 



The following very concise and meager statement of my own immediate connection 

 with photo-mechanical work may have some value, and I append it in lieu, for the 

 present, of something more explicit which doubtless ought to be written. 



lu Melbourne, Victoria, in the winter months (May, June, and July) of 1859, being 

 then an assistant in the magnetic observatory, I was detailed to make certain photo- 

 graphic experiments for the surveyor-general of the colony, Mr. Ligar. His strong 

 deter.nination was to engrave all the published maps, for the sale of laud and other 

 purposes, on steel by the help of photography. My efforts for him (following Fox 

 Talbot) did not give results of any value. On the 19th of August of that year, despite 

 Mr. Ligar's objection to stone as a crude material, I invented the photolithographic 

 process, which since then has been known by my name. On the 1st of September, 

 1859, application was made for a patent, which was granted in due course; and on 

 the 5th of November following the first photolithographic map for public sale Avas 

 published by the department of lands and survey. From that time to the present my 

 process has been used in Victoria without intermission for all the work which could 

 possibly be brought within its scope, the maps so produced amounting to many thou- 

 sands. On the 29th of November, 1859, I read a paper discussing specifically what I 

 had done at a meeting of the Philosophical Society of Victoria, which was published 

 in its transactions. In 1862, with leave of absence for twelve mouths, I retui-ned to 

 Great Britain to visit the Exhibition of that year in London. Then, having resigned 

 my position in the Victorian civil service, I went in 1863 to Germany to study litho- 



