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SCIEN 



[Em erf d al the Posi -Office of New York, N.Y., as Second-Class Matter 



A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



Skvkn'ih Vkar. 

 Vol. XIII. No. 325. 



NEW YORK. Apuil 26, i5 



Single Copies, Ten Cent i. 

 $3.50 Per Year, in Advance. 



COMPOSITE PORTRAITS OF WASHINGTON. 



The statement that one of the chief applications of composite 

 photography will be in the direction of producing more reliable 

 portraits of representative men by combining the testimonials of 

 individual artists, will probably be accepted by all who have fol- 

 lowed the short but interesting career of this new invention. The 

 suggestion that by 

 combining the indi- 

 vidual conceptions 

 of several artists, 

 one would obtain a 

 more reliable por- 

 trait than any of 

 the components, 

 was near at hand. 

 The first such ap- 

 plication was made 

 by Mr. Francis 

 Gallon, who made a 

 composite of six 

 medallion heads of 

 Alexander the 

 Great, and natu- 

 rally claimed for 

 the composite the 

 combined authority 

 of all the artists ; 

 for it is evident, 

 that, while eacti 

 artist will very like- 

 ly express the gen- 

 eral features of 

 his subject, some 

 peculiar idiosyn- 

 crasies of his own 

 are apt to creep 

 in. The compos- 

 ite sifts out all 

 these common 

 traits, and pre- 

 sents them strong 

 and clear, while 

 it reduces each 

 artist's peculiarity 

 to a scarcely per- 

 ceptible shadow. 



In this way we 

 have recently 

 come into posses- 

 sion of a new 

 Shakspeare, for 

 which we have to 

 thank Mr. Walter 



Rogers Furness. In the case of Shakspeare the diversity amongst 

 the several originals is strikingly evident, and thus a composite was 

 needed to give a characteristic individual, natural face. This sug- 

 gested to Mr. W. C. Taylor the application of the same process to 

 Washington's portraits. He has grouped the several portraits into 



three groups, owing to the differences of position of the portraits ; 

 and the accuracy of the work is well shown by the fact that the 

 agreement amongst the resulting three composites is very close, 

 while the originals show every shade of individual differences. 

 These portraits were first published in Xhe. Jountal of Ike Fratikltn 

 Institute, and are given on a new and enlarged plate in this num- 

 ber. The lower 

 right-hand compos- 

 ite has seemed to 

 many the happiest 

 result, and seems 

 likely to serve as 

 the model for fu- 

 ture portraits of 

 Washington. 



The Paper 

 Makers Circular 

 (England) says 

 that the new epoch 

 on which we are 

 entering will surely 

 be known as " the 

 age of pulp." Be- 

 )ond esparto grass, 

 straw, and wood, 

 few fibrous sub- 

 stances have as yet 

 practically taken 

 the place once oc- 

 cupied exclusively 

 by rags; but, if 

 we should ever ex- 

 haust the sources 

 from which we 

 now obtain our 

 supplies, there 

 will assuredly be 

 no lack of substi- 

 tutes. East Indian 

 ramie, pine-apple 

 fibres, bamboo, 

 bagasse (the ref- 

 use matter from 

 sugar-canes), 

 peat, bracken or 

 common fern, 

 flags, rushes, sea- 

 weed, tan, and 

 hop-stalks, have 

 all been proved 

 capable of yield- 

 ing pulp. In Scot- 

 land hollyhock-stems have been made into paper ; in Ireland the 

 mallow, red clover, hop-vine, and yellow water-iris have been put 

 to the same use ; in Demerara good paper has been made from 

 the plantain ; in France a patent has been granted for making paper 

 out of leaves, which have been reduced to pulp. 



