168 THE FINE ARTS. 
over with a coating-varnish composed of tallow, yellow wax, and sweet oil, 
or of etching-ground dissolved in oil of lavender. When this is dry, the 
etching-liquor is poured on, is left about a minute to act, and is then poured 
off again ; the plate is then washed and dried quickly either in the open air 
or by blowing it with a bellows. Those parts which are to be the highest 
are then covered or stopped out, as it is called, with coating varnish ; and 
as soon as it is sufficiently dried, the etching-liquor is poured on again, left 
a minute to act, and again poured off. This process is repeated for each 
degree of shade, and the deepest is usually attained by allowing the acid to 
act from seven to nine minutes; accordingly there will be from seven to 
nine shades in the whole plate. When the biting in is finished, fe plate is 
dried and the etching-ground removed ; and if the work has been carefully 
performed, the strokes will appear as if engraved. The work is accomplished 
far more expeditiously than with the graver, but not with the same sharp- 
ness and purity. Etching on soft ground (jig. 1) is a very easy kind of 
etching. The ground used in the process is so soft, that the lightest stroke 
removes it. If we lay upon the plate so grounded a sheet of rough but 
very thin paper, and draw upon it with a hard lead-pencil, the etching- 
ground under the lines will adhere to the rough paper and separate from the 
plate. When the paper is removed, the drawing appears as if sketched 
with chalk, the plate showing bare through, and can then be etched in the 
usual manner. 
In order to give the etched plate a more elegant finish, it is re-engraved 
with the graver in the fourth manner of engraving; and by means of this 
combination of the three first methods of engraving most of our present 
copper-plates are executed. 
In the fifth mode of engraving the goldsmith’s punch is made use of, and 
by means of it dots are struck in the plate, which in the shaded parts are 
either placed thicker together or made larger, and sometimes both methods 
are resorted to. The punch usually has two and often three or more points. 
It is struck with a small hammer. Work executed in this manner presents 
great softness in the transitions, and chalk drawings are imitated by means 
of it; butit is altogether destitute of sharpness and force, on which account 
itis often employed for the flesh-tints alone, while the remainder is executed 
with the graver or the needle in the line manner. 
The sath mode of engraving is that of mezzotint. It is the opposite of 
the former modes, as it proceeds by converting dark into light. The 
polished plate is first roughened, so that if inked and printed it would pre- 
sent one mass of black. This grounding or roughening is performed by means 
of the rocking-tool or cradle (pl. 22, jig. 17), a toothed instrument of steel, 
which is worked accross the plate with a pretty strong pressure in all direc- 
tions in the manner of the lines drawn in jig. 33; others use the roulette 
( fig. 18) or the scratcher ( fig. 19), which they apply in the same manner as 
the cradle. According as the teeth of the implement stand closer or wider 
apart, the grounding will be fine or coarse. The plate is next covered with 
etching-ground, the design transferred to it, and the outlines bitten in; after 
which the plate is again thoroughly cleaned. Then with the scraper the 
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