168 MR. J. C. DYER ON THE ORIGIN OF 



of their plans for effecting the same process, nor any an- 

 nouncement of such, had ever come before the public until 

 after those of Perkins had begun to bear fruit ? 



At this distance of time it were bootless to dwell on 

 those adverse claims that served to impede the labours of 

 Mr. Perkins in his untiring efforts to prove the value of 

 his new system for making and perpetuating exact copies 

 of beautiful designs for printing on bank notes, or for 

 illustrating books. 



Besides the printing on paper, as above described, Mr. 

 Perkins's system for transferring designs and patterns has 

 been very extensively applied (since he led the way in 1809) 

 to calico-printing, and other ornamental fabrics, wherein 

 his processes were directly copied by parties to whom he 

 had minutely explained them in London. I had witnessed 

 these communications, and warned Mr. Perkins of the 

 danger of making them so loosely, but without effect. It 

 seems " not worth while " to dwell on these cases now, or 

 to name the parties so acting at that time. 



In later years we have seen the transferring process em- 

 ployed to a vast extent in many other departments of the 

 graphic art, such as post-office and receipt stamps and other 

 prints, required in greater numbers than could be taken 

 from other than steel plates or stamps. 



"When any important discoveries in physical science are 

 made they never die, whatever may chance to their authors. 

 The new facts, when placed before the public, go forth like 

 seeds cast upon fertile soil, yielding the fruits of continual 

 progress (in the arts of civil society) among the families of 

 men who seek improvement. It seems only just, then, 

 that each generation should transmit to the next some re- 

 cord of the names of those contemporaries to whose genius 

 and talents the nations are indebted for such useful dis- 

 coveries. Wherefore, in addition to the four distinguished 



