27 



from one-hali to two to three times, i. e., the areas of the pub- 

 Ushed illustrations are from one-fourth to one-ninth that of the 

 original drawings. 



it seems doubtful whether artists 'have yet fully appreciated 

 the advance that has been made in the art of etching on metal, 

 and also doubtful whether we are not laboring too much 

 under the influence of the former styles of reproduction. 

 Without intending any disparagement to the high class illus- 

 tration work of the past, I venture to call attention to the 

 probable gain to be obtained by taking greater advantage 

 of the perfection of modern etching processes. The best 

 etchers, supplemented by the best printers, are now able 

 to produce on good book paper well-defined lines as narrow 

 as one four-hundredth of an inch. This is far beyond the 

 power of any artist's pen 'f the work he does is to come within 

 commercial Hmits. While What is here said refers more particu- 

 larly to scientific illustrations, it is believed it is not without its 

 application throughout the range of black and white line work 

 subject to reproduction by means of photography and etching. 

 Speaking from the scientific point of view, many of the illustra- 

 tions required are of objects far beyond t'he readh of unaided 

 vision, to say nothing of the capacity of the artist, and we always 

 resort to magnification in order to avoid this difficulty. Natural 

 size illustrations are the best; reductions and enlargements are 

 resorted to as a compromise with our methods of reproduction 

 and publication. Any hint that will lead us to bring our illustra- 

 tions nearer the truth and more nearly. to the natural size should, 

 therefore, be of value. Now, it is found that if original drawings 

 are made on a large scale by means of various mechanical meth- 

 ods, some of which are described in the course of these pages, 

 justness of proportion and accuracy in the formation of the lines 

 are much increased. By taking advantage of high class modern 

 etching it is possible to reduce these large original drawings 

 and retain in the resulting comparatively small and therefore 

 also comoaratively inexpensive illustrations, all that justness of 

 proportion and accuracy of line that is displayed in the large 

 original. So far as the writer has exploited the matter, he be- 

 lieves that reductions to one-tenth and even one-twentieth linear 

 are feasible, i. e., the blocks for publication will have only i-iooth 

 to I -400th the area of the original drawing. 



What has hitherto been said introduces no practical difficulty. 

 The modern mechanical processes will meet all the requirement* 

 that have been mentioned. There is however a rather serious 

 difficulty connected with.' producing the original drawings. It is 

 very difficult for an artist who has formed a style that meets the 

 needs of former requirements to so alter it as to meet the exi- 



